Monday Open Line


Weekly Address: Helping our Veterans and Servicemembers Make Informed Decisions about Higher Education.  President Obama discusses a new Executive Order designed to crack down on the bad actors who prey on our veterans and service members considering higher education

West Wing Week: “Don’t Double My Rate”

This week, the President hosted the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride, visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and traveled to North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa to launch a sustained effort to get Congress to prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling on July 1st.


The world recently noted the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  But last week was also the anniversary of America’s worst waterborne disaster in 1865 — one which had greater loss of life.  And it happened hundreds of miles inland.  Moving up the flooded Mississippi River near Memphis at night, the wooden steamboat Sultana’s boilers suddenly exploded, and the boat burned and sank.  It was badly overloaded with more than 2,000 passengers; up to 1,700 of them died.  With President Lincoln’s recent assassination, and the Civil War winding down, the disaster created little notice and is now almost forgotten.  Today, Mississippi River boats carry few passengers, but each year move 622 million tons of cargo along the river.  Profile America is completing its 15th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.


Discuss and more on today’s Open Lines!