| Contractor loses La. scholarship account data dating back to 1998
BATON ROUGE, La. -- A Boston-based contractor hired to store and safeguard state scholarship and college savings account data lost most of those records _ including bank account numbers and student and parent Social Security numbers _ during a move, officials say. "We certainly don't want to create any panic. But people should be aware and take the necessary steps," said Melanie Amrhein, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance. "This is backup data off of a mainframe that contains sensitive personal information." Special equipment and software and "sophisticated computer skills" would be needed to get the compressed records from the TOPS scholarship program, START Saving Program, and Free Application for Federal Student Aid, according to a notice posted on the Internet.
UT Holds Public Forums On Tuition Hike
As the University of Texas considers raising tuition once again, education leaders from around the state are meeting to talk solutions for higher education. Those meetings are happening at the Frank Erwin Center to help increase college enrollment around the state significantly. The goal is to increase enrollment across the state by 30 percent from 2005 to 2010. While it is an achievable goal, still, university systems across the state feel they have to increase tuition to stay competitive, so while more students want to go to college, making it affordable is another challenge. Financial challenges, like getting students to apply through Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is just one of the many roadblocks to work through.
IT'S A CHORE: But farmers have to fill out forms or possibly face ...
Last year, Tom Dancer farmed approximately 500 acres, all but a few rented, in Freehold, Manalapan and Millstone townships, growing field corn, soybeans, rye straw and wheat.
That quick profile of Dancer, a 49-year-old lifelong farmer who lives in Millstone, is the kind of information the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks in its five-year census of farmers in the 50 states and Puerto Rico.
The census is important in drawing up farming legislation, determining how federal agriculture money is distributed and positioning farming support services, according to state Secretary of Agriculture Charles M. Kuperus and Troy Joshua, director of New Jersey farming statistics for the USDA.
Also, the census will provide financial figures for a state industry that is under-recognized in terms of dollars, said Peter J.
Chamber honors Vectren executive
As regards to my heating and cooling, I have never had it so good as I do now. 8 Years ago I returned to Indiana and the SIGECO/Vectren system after 38 years in Kentucky. Local folks that complain so much simply do not know how the rest of the (utility systems) world works. Thanks for good, dependable and reasonable priced gas and electric. Note this; I have never and do not now have any relationship with Vectren. hmorgan .
Governor proposes lean operating budget
After a bruising special session to address Maryland's chronic deficits, Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed one of the leanest state budgets in the past two decades, relying on cuts in open space and road maintenance and a slowdown in an education spending initiative to place the state on sound financial footing.
The governor proposed a 4 percent increase in the state's operating budget - the lowest in five years and one of the lowest in the past 25 years. A 7.5 percent increase was approved by the General Assembly last year.
O'Malley, a Democrat in his second year in office, has been working to put his stamp on the state's government but has been constrained by a structural budget deficit, projected at $1.7 billion for the fiscal year that begins in July.
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LCC registration system produces more headaches for students, staff
Midway through the first week of classes at Lansing Community College, Reba Milow still was trying to register. The school's online registration system hadn't been working, and the East Lansing 18-year-old, who had come to campus to get her schedule worked out with an actual person, was frustrated. "I cannot drop classes. I cannot register for classes," she said. "The furthest I can go is to log into my account, but, as far as registration or anything like that, it won't even open up." .
Insure Missouri to start in March
Many Missourians who lost Medicaid coverage since 2005 and thousands more working poor without health insurance can begin enrolling in February for the new state plan, Insure Missouri. Benefits are expected to begin in March. Under the first phase of a plan Gov. Matt Blunt discussed Thursday in Springfield, some 54,500 working parents and caregivers with children in the home with incomes of up to $20,650 for a four-person family will be eligible to enroll. .
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