The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus pictured on Monday.
Credit: Kristen Norman for ProPublica Illinois

Dozens of suburban Chicago families, perhaps many more, have been exploiting a legal loophole to win their children need-based college financial aid and scholarships they would not otherwise receive, court records and interviews show.

Coming months after the national “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, this tactic also appears to involve families attempting to gain an advantage in an increasingly competitive and expensive college admissions system.

Parents are giving up legal guardianship of their children during their junior or senior year in high school to someone else — a friend, aunt, cousin or grandparent. The guardianship status then allows the students to declare themselves financially independent of their families so they can qualify for federal, state and university aid, a ProPublica Illinois investigation found.

“It’s a scam,” said Andy Borst, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Wealthy families are manipulating the financial aid process to be eligible […]

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Washington Drivers License with new gender identity options

Elayne Wylie, co-executive director of Gender Justice League, said this is a step in the right direction.

“It’s imperative of our government to include as many people as possible so that people actually feel like they’re part of society, and that they’re seen and heard,” Wylie said.

When Teresa Berntsen was named director of the Washington State Department of Licensing a year ago, people asked her about the issue. She heard from people who were frustrated that the agency didn’t offer a nonbinary option. People who visited DOL with birth certificates that listed their gender as X had to be turned away.

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Bishop Neophytos Masouras

Greek Orthodox bishop upset many people around the world recently when he declared the reason men are gay is because their parents engaged in a specific sex act – and the mother enjoyed it. He’s now back, not only defending his claim, but doubling down.

Bishop Neophytos Masouras called that act “abnormal,” and named it. “It happens during the parent’s intercourse or pregnancy. It follows an abnormal sexual act between the parents. To be more clear, anal sex,” the Bishop said.

A man and his daughter in El Salvador carrying water back to their home.
Credit: Juan Carlos/The Guardian

Just after 6am, Victor Funez fills a three-gallon plastic pitcher with water from a tap in the cemetery, balances it on his head and trudges home, where his wife waits to soak maize kernels so she can make tortillas for breakfast.

Funez, 38, stops briefly to help his daughter with some homework before heading back to the cemetery with the pink urn. This load fills large plastic milk and juice bottles used for drinking throughout the day.

The tap is the family’s only source of water, so Funez makes the journey along the dusty dirt road 15 to 20 times each day.

“My husband’s job is to fetch the water so I can do the housework. It’s like this every day, all day,” said Bianca Lopez, 46. “We can live without electricity – we have candles and lamps – but water, that’s essential.”

La Estación is a makeshift community of 59 households along disused railway […]

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