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Economy

Texas Reopening Businesses Offering ‘Retail-to-go’

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greg abbott

The State of Texas is slowly reopening its economy this week while implementing the Trump administration’s phased guidelines.

On Friday, stores began opening with what the State’s Governor Greg Abbott calls “Retail-to-go”, meaning that stores can open if they deliver products to customers’ homes or to their cars with curbside pick-up.

To reduce person-to-person contact, all payments must be completed over the phone, and items must be placed in the back seats and trunks of cars, according to the plan.

“Because we’ve seen that this model works while also containing COVID-19, we believe that all stores in Texas to be able to operate retail to go,” Gov. Abbott said.

The executive order requires employees and business owners to increase cleaning measures and practice good hygiene.

Texas is home to the country’s fourth-largest city, Houston, which for several days this week saw no new coronavirus deaths, according to reports.

According to the State’s Health Department, there are currently 21,944 patients infected with the virus and 561 have died.

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Economy

White House announced $6 billion student loan forgiveness for 78,000 public service workers

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United States Congress

The White House recently announced a $6 billion loan forgiveness program. Nurses, teachers and firefighters are among the 78,000 public service workers who will qualify. Fox Business reports:

Due to fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, workers that never received forgiveness are now having their debts partially forgiven or canceled. Only about 7,000 public service borrowers received forgiveness prior to the Biden Administration, now that total hovers closer to 870,000, the announcement said.

“Today’s announcement comes on top of the significant progress we’ve achieved for students and student loan borrowers in the past few years,” the announcement stated. “This includes: providing the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; fixing Income-Driven Repayment plans so borrowers in repayment for years get the relief they earned; and creating the most generous Income-Driven Repayment plan in history – the SAVE plan.”

However, there is concern over fairness that older generations are still paying off student loans and could risk losing Social Security. A group of representatives wrote a letter to Congress, hoping to address the issue of seniors still paying down student loans. Currently, under the Treasury Offset Program (TOP), the government can collect funds, such as tax refunds and Social Security, to pay outstanding student loan balances, reports Fox Business.

“Under the TOP, the federal government can withhold up to 15 percent of monthly Social Security or disability benefits for defaulted student loans,” the lawmakers explained in their letter.

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