Author: chicagoinquirer

by Jay Cohen CHICAGO  — Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields got a closer look at NASCAR on Sunday when he served as the grand marshal for the Cup Series’ first street course race. He was impressed. “It’s fun,” he said. “This is my first kind of interaction with it, and you know, my time here, I really enjoyed it. It’s fun, and I think as time goes on, I mean I know it’s already a big sport, but I think it’s going to continue to grow, for sure.” Fields got a chance to practice his command for drivers to start…

by Agency reports CHICAGO — Heavy rains flooded Chicago streets Sunday, trapping cars and forcing NASCAR officials to cancel the last half of an Xfinity Series race set to run through the city’s downtown. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for multiple counties in the Chicago area, saying up to 6 inches of rain had already fallen in suburban Cicero and Berwyn by midday. The NWS website warned the flooding could be “life-threatening” through 3 p.m., with numerous impassable roads, overflowing creeks and streams and flooded basements. The Illinois State Police said parts of Interstate 55 and Interstate 290…

by Will Weissert and Collin Long WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden vowed Friday to push ahead with a new plan providing student loan relief for millions of borrowers, while blaming Republican “hypocrisy” for triggering the day’s Supreme Court decision that wiped out his original effort. Biden said his administration had already begun the process of working under the authority of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which he called “the best path that remains to provide as many borrowers as possible with debt relief.” In the meantime, since student loan-payment requirements are to resume in the fall, the White House is creating an “on ramp” to…

by Sharon Lure and Annie Ma Whitney Jean Alim, a 27-year-old educator in Chicago, dreamed of buying a house sooner with the room in her budget from President Joe Biden’s student loan cancellation plan. It would have cut in half the $40,000 she owes on loans taken out for college and a master’s degree. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the forgiveness plan, dashing the hopes of Alim and millions of other borrowers who were expecting their student debt would be reduced or wiped out entirely. “Literally this morning, I felt like: ‘Damn, I just lost $20,000,’” said Alim,…

by Mark Sherman WASHINGTON  — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Friday effectively killed President Joe Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans. “This fight is not over,” he said. The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, said the Biden administration overstepped its authority with the plan, and it leaves borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume in the fall. Biden was to announce a new set of actions to protect student loan borrowers later Friday, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly beforehand and…

by Teresa M. Walker NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The NFL suspended three players indefinitely Thursday for violating the league’s gambling policyand a fourth was sidelined for six games. Isaiah Rodgers and Rashod Berry of the Indianapolis Colts along with free agent Demetrius Taylor received indefinite suspensions through at least this season for betting on NFL games in 2022. They won’t be able to seek reinstatement until the 2023 season ends. Tennessee Titans right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere was suspended for the first six games of the 2023 season for betting on non-NFL sports at the team’s facility. He is eligible to participate…

by Mark Sherman WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies. The court’s conservative majority overturned admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively. Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that…

by Jill Lawless LONDON  — A British court ruled Thursday that a government plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda is unlawful, delivering a blow to the Conservative administration’s pledge to stop migrants making risky journeys across the English Channel In a split two-to-one ruling, three Court of Appeal judges said Rwanda could not be considered a “safe third country” where migrants could be sent. But the judges said that a policy of deporting asylum seekers to another country was not in itself illegal. The government is likely to challenge the ruling at the U.K. Supreme Court.…

by Andrew MacAskill, Sam Tobin and Michael Holden LONDON -British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to stop asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the Channel suffered a major setback on Thursday when the Court of Appeal ruled that his plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. Under an initial 140 million pound ($177 million) deal struck last year, Britain planned to send tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrive on its shores a distance of more than 4,000 miles (6,400 km) to the East African country. Critics say the policy is inhumane…

by Maytaal Angel and Marcelo Teixeira NEW YORK  –     Cocoa prices surged to the highest in 46 years on the Intercontinental Exchange in London on Wednesday as bad weather in West Africa threatened production prospects for the main suppliers of the primary raw material used to make chocolate. The benchmark September contract for cocoa in London gained more than 2% on Wednesday to 2,590 pounds per metric ton. The session high was the highest price since 1977 at 2,594 pounds. Prices are rising in reaction to a tight market for cocoa beans, which are mainly…