Sasha Chavkin

Education Department Adopts Crucial Reform For Disabled Borrowers

This story was co-published with The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Education Department enacted a crucial reform on behalf of borrowers who become disabled, issuing new rules earlier this month that make it easier for these borrowers to get their federal student loans forgiven. The rules, which the department has not publicly announced, for the first […]

Sasha Chavkin
By Sasha Chavkin
In a Nov. 7, 2006 file photo Jennifer Gratz, the executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, is seen during a Proposal 2 watch party in East Lansing, Mich., when Michigan's ban on affirmative action passesd. (AP Photo/Free Press, Kathleen Galligan/file)

This story was co-published with The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Education Department enacted a crucial reform on behalf of borrowers who become disabled, issuing new rules earlier this month that make it easier for these borrowers to get their federal student loans forgiven. The rules, which the department has not publicly

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How New York Immigration Courts Are Upending A Federal Crackdown

From behind the bench of her small courtroom on lower Broadway, Judge Terry Bain began to read. In the second row of the gallery a young Chinese man in a white button-down shirt watched her carefully, his expression blank. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) had targeted him for deportation after he was […]

Sasha Chavkin
By Sasha Chavkin
immigration

From behind the bench of her small courtroom on lower Broadway, Judge Terry Bain began to read. In the second row of the gallery a young Chinese man in a white button-down shirt watched her carefully, his expression blank. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) had targeted him for deportation after he was caught in the United

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Applicants For Marriage Licenses Find Identity Thieves Arrived At The Altar First

On a sunny spring day almost 15 years ago, Stephanie Diaz and her fiancé decided it was time to get married. They drove from the Bronx to the New York City clerk’s office, a high-ceilinged marble hall in downtown Manhattan, to get a license to wed. But when the couple handed in their application, they were […]

Sasha Chavkin
By Sasha Chavkin

On a sunny spring day almost 15 years ago, Stephanie Diaz and her fiancé decided it was time to get married. They drove from the Bronx to the New York City clerk’s office, a high-ceilinged marble hall in downtown Manhattan, to get a license to wed. But when the couple handed in their application, they were met with a rude surprise. The clerk

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Education Department Revamps Broken Disability Review Program

The Education Department proposed new rules on Tuesday to revamp its troubled program for forgiving the federal student loans of borrowers who become disabled. The new regulations came after an investigation last year by ProPublica found that the department’s dysfunctional system for evaluating disability was keeping many genuinely disabled borrowers buried in student debt. Under […]

Sasha Chavkin
By Sasha Chavkin
college student

The Education Department proposed new rules on Tuesday to revamp its troubled program for forgiving the federal student loans of borrowers who become disabled. The new regulations came after an investigation last year by ProPublica found that the department's dysfunctional system for evaluating disability was keeping many genuinely disabled

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City Reservoirs And Lakes Turn Bright Colors From Aquatic Blooms

Joggers at Central Park’s reservoir this week stopped in their tracks to puzzle over the strange sheen of the usually dark-blue water, whose striking shades of turquoise and green suggest the Caribbean more than Manhattan. Other iconic bodies of water have undergone a similar transformation. The Harlem Meer, northeast of the reservoir, and Prospect Park […]

Sasha Chavkin
By Sasha Chavkin
New York City's reservoir in Central Park, New York. (Photo by Matt Kieffer via Flikr)

Joggers at Central Park’s reservoir this week stopped in their tracks to puzzle over the strange sheen of the usually dark-blue water, whose striking shades of turquoise and green suggest the Caribbean more than Manhattan. Other iconic bodies of water have undergone a similar transformation. The Harlem Meer, northeast of the reservoir, and

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