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For one Tennessee Spanish teacher, what began as free money for qualified students on the path to a career in education has turned into a two-year nightmare.¡°It has been wearing on me emotionally and mentally,¡± Kaitlyn McCollum said. In 2009, as a senior in high school, McCollum applied for and received the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant Program, also known as the TEACH grant. It paid for her undergraduate college.In exchange, McCollum agreed to teach a high-need subject for four years at a low income school, which she's been doing since graduating from Middle Tennessee State University in 2013. ¡°The very basis of the TEACH grant is to promote teachers joining the field,¡± McCollum said. However, in 2016 that free money disappeared.¡°It was a huge slap in the face, huge slap in the face,¡± she said.  McCollum sent paperwork to Fedloan, the company that oversees the grant, on July 29, 2016. The deadline was July 31. She admits the paperwork might've gotten there a day or two late, but the next letter she received in August wasn't what she expected.¡°In a one line, very cold sentence, says ¡®your grants have now been converted to loans, period,¡¯¡± McCollum said. She now owes the ,000 she was given in grant money plus the accrued interest. ¡°It was this instant overnight debt of ,000,¡± she said. McCollum immediately appealed, but was denied. She's contacted state leaders in Tennessee and spent the last two years going back and forth with Fedloan about the paperwork issue. She said they're missing the bigger picture.¡°If I¡¯m saddled with ,000 plus accruing more interest, am I going to stay in education? Maybe not,¡± McCollum said. McCollum has learned since 2016 that thousands of teachers across the country are in the same boat. While the Attorney General's Office in Massachusetts has opened a case, she hopes her story will be seen and heard by the right people here in Tennessee.  2069

Former national security adviser to President Donald Trump Michael Flynn has asked a federal judge to spare him from prison time, according to his defense team's memo before his sentencing.He said his cooperation with Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation "was not grudging or delayed.""Rather, it preceded his guilty plea or any threatened indictment and began very shortly after he was first contacted for assistance by the Special Counsel's Office," his team wrote.He is asking for no jail time and has offered to do 200 hours of community service. 568

For months, President Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked the Russia probe, and his missive Wednesday saying Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop the investigation reignited the question of whether Trump's actions would constitute obstruction of justice.Soon after becoming President, Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to Comey. Trump later fired Comey, and said Russia had been on his mind when he made the decision. After special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 US election, Trump apparently considered firing Mueller.Now as Mueller's first trial is underway, of the President's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump has ramped up calls to end the whole probe. "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump tweeted.As Mueller has been investigating Russian interference and any links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, his team is also exploring whether Trump has attempted to obstruct the investigation.Yet prosecutors say obstruction is not a clear-cut matter and corrupt "intent" would have to be proved. And ultimately, Trump's actions might not be tested in a court of law but rather in the chambers of Congress. The traditional venue for action against presidential wrongdoing is the impeachment process, where it would fall to the House and Senate to determine whether Trump's actions warrant punishment.Trump's tweets prompted an immediate response from Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who said on Twitter that the demand from the President "is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight" and added, "America must never accept it."Sessions last year recused himself from the investigation related to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. (Sessions had earlier failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation hearing contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington.) Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel to look into the Russian interference and any Trump campaign officials' involvement.Trump has repeatedly denied any connections and has also said there has not been any obstruction. As Manafort's trial began this week, the President repeated his "there was no collusion" mantra. Earlier this week Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on CNN that Trump would not be found "colluding" with the Russians.Yet as much as the word "collusion" has been invoked to describe possible complicity between Trump associates and Russian operatives, there is no federal crime of "collusion" in this kind of investigation.The crimes that might be charged would be conspiracy, making false statements, destruction of evidence or obstruction of justice.That last offense covers any attempt by someone to "influence, obstruct, or impede" the "due administration of justice." The key question in a criminal case is whether the individual acted with a corrupt intent.Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Renato Mariotti suggested that special counsel investigators may view Trump's directive to Sessions as evidence of such corrupt intent."They think this is more evidence of corrupt intent. I think that the Mueller team is adding more tabs to their exhibit binder," Mariotti told CNN's Kate Bolduan on "At This Hour" in response to a question about what Mueller's team might think about the latest tweets. He added that "what these tweets are are presidential statements."Mariotti cautioned that he did not think the tweet would be used by Mueller as the specific basis for an "obstructive act," but said that "today's tweet is a very, very strong indicator that the President is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that he and his friends are protected from the investigation."Giuliani attempted to downplay the President's tweet on Wednesday by saying it was not a presidential order."The President was expressing his opinion on his favored medium for asserting his First Amendment right of free speech," Giuliani told CNN's Dana Bash. "He said 'should', not 'must', and no presidential order was issued or will be."White House press secretary Sarah Sanders echoed that interpretation, telling reporters that Trump "wants to see it come to an end, as he has stated many times, and we look forward to that happening." She added, "The President is not obstructing. He's fighting back." 4666

For anyone who used to play with slot cars as a child, Sweden's new electrified road might bring back some memories.In the first of its kind, the Scandinavian country is trialling the world's first public road which allows electric vehicles to recharge while driving. Similar to a slot-car track, vehicles are able to connect to an electric rail that's embedded into the road.Sweden has a goal of achieving a completely fossil fuel free vehicle fleet by 2030, so this electrified road is part of several projects the Swedish Transport Administration has created to develop and test technologies that may be able to help the country reach its target.In this particular project, 'eRoadArlanda', electricity is transferred via a movable arm that attaches to the tracks built into the middle of the road. While the system is designed with the capacity to feed heavier vehicles such as trucks, it's also developed to work for cars and buses.When vehicles approach the track, a sensor from the car or truck detects the electrified rail and the movable arm lowers from underneath the vehicle and inserts into the rail. The arm has been designed to be flexible, providing the car, or truck, the freedom to move around the road without disconnecting."One of the most important issues of our time is the question of how to make fossil-free road transportation a reality," Hans S?ll, chairman of the eRoadArlanda says."We now have a solution that will make this possible, which is amazing. Sweden is at the cutting edge of this technology, which we now hope to introduce in other areas of the country and the world."The track stretches along two kilometers (1.2 miles) and has been installed on public road "893" just 30 minutes outside of Stockholm.The eRoad has many advantages, S?ll says. If implemented it will mean electric vehicle batteries can be smaller -- and therefore lighter -- because they won't need to retain as much charge, the vehicles will then be cheaper to manufacture and will ultimately be more sustainable.For a heavy truck to be 100% electric, he explains, it would need a battery that weighs 40 tonnes. But if technology like the eRoad was readily available, the truck's battery would be able to weigh as little as 600 kilograms.It would also fix a wider issue that many electric vehicle owners face: The worry and inconvenience of keeping vehicles charged."Today you're not 100% sure how far you can go with your battery but if you have a combination of electric roads you will feel a little bit more confident that you'll get where you want to go," S?ll says.The technology is also safe and adverse weather such as rain, snow and ice should not cause any major issues thanks to draining and usual maintenance. The electricity also isn't a risk to humans or animals."There's no electricity at the surface and the rail is only electrified if an actual authorized vehicle is passing, so if you don't have an electric vehicle that's authorized to use the electricity, the electricity will not be turned on at all -- it will not be on 24/7."There will also be plenty of signage around the area indicating the road is electrified and the system is equipped with safety circuits.S?ll says while the new project cost €6.4 million (.7 million) to develop, if it were more widely implemented across the country it would eventually work out less than €1 million (.2 million) per kilometer to build.That is, if the government decides to implement it nationally."The Government wants to test one or two additional technologies ... that will then be evaluated in two years or so, (and) after that they will pick out one of those technologies (that have been tested) to build a longer pilot stretch that will be between 20 and 40 kilometers," he says.For now, the eRoad will be used and trialled for two years by a truck carrying freight in order to determine how well the innovation works under various weather conditions and in conjunction with normal road traffic.The-CNN-Wire 3992

Friday marks the final day of increased unemployment benefits passed under the CARES Act ¡ª and while millions of Americans are seeking unemployment insurance each week, it will likely be several weeks before lawmakers agree on a replacement.Republicans and Democrats remain far apart in negotiations to extend benefits, despite President Donald Trump's offer on Thursday to sign a short-term extension of the 0 unemployment benefits.¡°We want a temporary extension of enhanced unemployment benefits,¡± Trump said at the White House. ¡°This will provide a critical bridge for Americans who lost their jobs to the pandemic through no fault of their own.¡±However, Democrats rejected Trump's proposal, instead opting to try and pass a more comprehensive bill that would include more stimulus.Earlier this week, Republicans ¡ª who are currently broken into groups of more moderate members and deficit hawks ¡ª proposed a trillion stimulus plan that would keep increased benefits, but cut them by more than half to 0 a week. The benefits would only last for a few months before states would be required to set up their own unemployment programs.Democrats, on the other hand, favor a trillion stimulus plan, which passed through the House in May. The bill would keep 0 a week unemployment benefits through the end of the year and extend them to gig workers and self-employed people who are out of work.Republicans claim the unemployment benefits incentivize people not to work. Democrats argue that the government must subsidize those at-risk people who feel they cannot work for fear of contracting the virus. 1621

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