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Taxpayers getting an education? Obama student loan forgiveness program swells by $22B

The cost of President Obama's student loan forgiveness program has ballooned by nearly $22 billion over initial projections, raising alarm among budget hawks -- even as the government promises taxpayers eventually will come out ahead. 
The figure was included in Obama's recently released budget proposal. 
In budget-speak, the Department of Education summary said: "The 2015 amount includes a net upward reestimate of $21.8 billion, primarily related to revised interest rates and increased participation in income-driven repayment plans." 
In other words, swelling enrollment due to looser loan rules is driving up costs -- a lot. 
Critics point to recent changes in the program. Among them was the PAYE, or Pay As You Earn, program allowing students to cap loan payments at 10 percent of their incomes. It was the result of legislation Congress passed and Obama signed in 2010. The law also allows for loan forgiveness after 20 years of payments, and after 10 years for those in "public service" -- a broad category that includes government and nonprofit workers. 
"They didn't account for the market risk in making these loans," said Romina Boccia, a budget fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. 
In 2013, 124,000 people enrolled in the PAYE plan. A year later, Obama directed the secretary of education to propose regulations to potentially cap loans for another 5 million people. The loan program changes and expansions tacked on the extra $22 billion to the price tag. 
The number pales in comparison to total student debt. All told, Americans have $1.13 trillion in student loans outstanding, according to the most recent data from The Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 
A White House Office of Management and Budget official told FoxNews.com that "revisions are not uncommon." The office countered claims that there is a "shortfall," as some other media outlets have reported. Essentially, the program expanded and the budget office accounted for that expansion over the entire life of the program. 
The official touted benefits to taxpayers, claiming the changes help students avoid default and even strengthen the economy. 
OMB and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office maintain that the federal government will make money over the life of the loans. That's because, they say, even after accounting for anticipated defaults, the government borrows money at a much cheaper rate than the interest it charges to borrowers of student loans. 
Others aren't so confident taxpayers will come out ahead. 
It's "hard to see how this is going to come out as a net positive as the administration predicts," said Steve Ellis, with Taxpayers for Common Sense. 
The budget watchdog group has welcomed past reforms the government has made regarding student loans, but is watching this situation closely to see whether it is a one-time budget hit, as the OMB contends, or an ongoing problem. 
Ellis wants to make sure the loan forgiveness program meets Americans' priorities. 
"Is it too generous?" Ellis asks. "Is it hitting the right people?" 
Boccia contends the government should view risk the way private lenders would, something known as Fair Value Accounting. 
The government doesn't use Fair Value Accounting, but rather follows the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, or FCRA, when making projections. It has found those numbers more accurate, because unlike a bank, the federal government doesn't need to turn a profit and is better able to diversify. 
Lindsey Burke, an education fellow at the Heritage Foundation, sees a problem. 
"Somebody pays for that loan forgiveness," Burke said. "And that is the three-quarters of Americans who don't have bachelor's degrees themselves." 
The subsidies also may be driving up the cost of education, a concept known as The Bennett Hypothesis (after President Reagan's Education Secretary William Bennett), which Burke believes drives "the vicious lending and spending cycle." It's evident that education costs have risen, but studies on the effects of subsidies are tougher to tease out. 
The Obama administration has promised it is working on slowing the soaring costs, for instance, by showing prospective borrowers what they're getting for their money.

'Tragedy': Hunter accidentally killed famed 'Grand Canyon' gray wolf

Hundred of miles from its Wyoming home, "914F" wandered to the rocky North Rim of the Grand Canyon last fall—the first gray wolf spotted there in 70 years, the Arizona Republic notes—before heading into Utah, likely searching for food or a mate.
But in December, the wolf's journey came to an end after a hunter there mistook her for a coyote and shot her dead, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Using DNA testing, the US Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed the 3-year-old collared animal was the same one seen at the Grand Canyon, the Republic notes.
"It is nothing short of a tragedy that this wolf's journey across the west was cut short," Eva Sargent, a director for Defenders of Wildlife, tells the Chronicle.
"This brave and ambitious female gray wolf … had already become a symbol of what gray wolf recovery should look like: animals naturally dispersing to find suitable habitat." Gray wolves weren't always isolated to certain parts of the country: All of North America used to be their home, Defenders of Wildlife notes, but they were killed off throughout much the US in the 1930s.
What's worrying some animal advocates is that the federal government is considering removing endangered-species status from gray wolves in all regions: When they were delisted from the Northern Rockies, mass killings of the creatures took place in multiple states, including Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
"Sadly, with the US Fish and Wildlife Service preparing to remove all protections for gray wolves, except for Mexican gray wolves, in the near future, it will become harder and harder for wolves to travel safely, and less … likely that we will hear their howls echo through places like the Grand Canyon," Sargent tells the Chronicle.

Dems urge Oregon governor to resign, top official reveals ‘strange’ behavior

Embattled Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber faced stiff pressure from top-ranking fellow Democrats to resign on Thursday, shortly after the state's No. 2 official issued a statement describing the governor's recent behavior as "strange" and contradictory. 
The latest calls to resign -- in the wake of influence-peddling allegations involving his fiancee Cylvia Hayes, a green-energy consultant -- came from the upper echelons of Oregon's government. Senate President Peter Courtney told reporters Thursday afternoon that he and House Speaker Tina Kotek have asked for Kitzhaber to step down. 
"I finally said, `This has got to stop,"' Courtney said after he and Kotek met with the governor. "I don't know what else to do right now. It seems to be escalating. It seems to be getting worse and worse." 
His remarks came after Secretary of State Kate Brown, who would be in line to succeed Kitzhaber should he step down, issued a statement calling this a "bizarre and unprecedented situation." 
Brown had been summoned back to Oregon by the governor on Wednesday while she was attending a conference in Washington. Her abrupt return to Oregon fueled speculation that the governor was planning to resign. 
Sources told The Associated Press that, in fact, he had decided to step down amid the ethics controversy involving his fiancée but changed his mind while Brown was en route back to Oregon. 
In her statement, Brown described how Kitzhaber gave her conflicting messages. 
She said she first heard from the governor late Tuesday afternoon. "He asked me to come back to Oregon as soon as possible to speak with him in person and alone," Brown said. 
But when she arrived for the meeting with the governor on Wednesday, Brown said, "He asked me why I came back early from Washington, D.C., which I found strange." 
According to Brown, he also sent conflicting signals about his future plans when she asked what he wanted to talk about. 
"The Governor told me he was not resigning, after which, he began a discussion about transition," she said, adding that she told the governor she would be ready "should he resign." 
Pressure to do so grew significantly on Thursday. The state treasurer also joined in the call for Kitzhaber to step down. "Unfortunately, the current situation has become untenable, and I cannot imagine any scenario by which things improve," said Treasurer Ted Wheeler, another Democrat. "Oregon deserves a governor who is fully focused on the duties of state." 
Until Thursday's statement, Brown also had avoided weighing in on the controversy surrounding Kitzhaber. Her move further isolates him from other senior Democrats, none of whom have come to his aid. 
It's not clear why Kitzhaber, a four-term governor who handily won re-election in November, decided he would stay put despite the mounting criticism. He issued a vague statement on Wednesday explaining he was not resigning. 
"I was elected to do a job for the people of this great state, and I intend to continue to do so," Kitzhaber said, repeating a refrain he's uttered at least twice in the past two weeks. 
Newspaper editorial boards and Republicans have called on him to leave office over allegations involving his fiancee, who has been under increasing scrutiny since October, when a series of reports chronicled her work for organizations with an interest in Oregon public policy. That work came about when she was serving as an unpaid adviser in the governor's office. 
Amid the attention, Hayes revealed that she accepted about $5,000 to illegally marry an immigrant seeking immigration benefits in the 1990s. Later, she acknowledged purchasing a remote property with the intent to illegally grow marijuana. 
Kitzhaber has denied any wrongdoing, saying he and Hayes took steps to avoid conflicts of interest. Though questions about Hayes have swirled for months, the pressure on Kitzhaber intensified in recent weeks after newspapers raised questions about whether Hayes reported all her income to on her tax returns. 
In early February, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said she was launching a criminal investigation. 
A fiercely private person, Kitzhaber has been forced to answer embarrassing and personal questions about his relationship. In response to questions at a news conference last month, Kitzhaber told reporters that he's in love with Hayes, but he's not blinded by it.

US reportedly increases secret raids against Afghanistan insurgents

U.S. Special Forces soldiers and their Afghan allies have undertaken an increasing number of night raids targeting Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, despite Washington formally declaring an end to combat operations late last year, according to a published report. 
The New York Times reports that the increased raids are partially the result of intelligence seized in October of last year, when U.S. and Afghan commandos came upon a laptop computer with files detailing terror operations in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Military officials tell the paper that the information in the files could be as significant as what was found on a computer in Usama bin Laden's Pakistan compound after the terror leader was killed by Navy SEALs in 2011. 
The officials also said that another factor playing the role in the increased raids were loosened restrictions on nighttime operations put in place by the new Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani. Ghani has previously called for a slower withdrawal of U.S. troops from his country. Current plans call for the U.S. to go from about 10,800 troops there now to 5,500 by the end of this year.
The U.S. and its NATO allies formally announced the end of their combat mission in Afghanistan in December and trumpeted the withdrawal of most combat troops. However, under the terms of a security agreement with the Afghan government, just over 13,000 troops, most of them American, were to stay on in an advisory role. 
However, American and Afghan officials tell The Times that U.S. troops are taking a lead role in the latest counterterror raids, and not merely going along as advisers. The raids are also unusual in that they are coming during the winter, which is traditionally the season where the fighting is lightest. 
"It’s all in the shadows now," said a former Afghan security official told the paper. "The official war for the Americans — the part of the war that you could go see — that’s over. It’s only the secret war that’s still going. But it’s going hard."
News of the increased raids comes one day after the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he wants greater flexibility in in how quickly he pulls troops out of Afghanistan and where he can position them around the country in the coming months.
Gen. John Campbell said that by keeping more than 5,500 troops in Afghanistan through the end of the year, Campbell would be able to maintain forces in other locations around the country, both training the Afghan forces and providing support for more counterterrorism missions.
"I'm particularly concerned about the summer of 2015," Campbell said. "The Afghans — this is the very first fighting season completely on their own."