Welcome to Friday's Morning Show podcast, because you deserve a better morning. You know, we do this thing called hope for humanity every single day. And the reason we do it after the core four is because sometimes the news can be depressing. Yeah, it's not fun. So we like to remind everyone that there's good things going on in the world. But as I look at the things that we're going to talk about today, Carlinery, this Friday morning, I actually see a couple different hopes for humanity that can make people smile and give you some hope. Look at that. And I'll make you smile on what's trending with a little not so safe for work item. Well, it's safe to listen to. Yeah, it's just not something I would put on my desk. Oh, okay. Well, that makes sense. And for those of you here in the Seattle area, we are going to be hosting,

Carla Marie and I are both the in-game hosts at the University of Washington game tomorrow. Crazy. As they take on Michigan State. So if you're going to the game, take pictures of us on the field and tag us or try to say hi to us some way, because that'll be fun. And today, to celebrate, we're actually going to have two former University of Washington

football players go head to head in two second tunes.

So welcome to the morning show podcast. My name is Anthony.

I'm Carla Marie. And today is Friday. September 16th, 2022.

The core four. The four headlines you need to know. House Democrats have proposed a new bill, which is being called a compliment to the Biden administration's decision to forgive millions of dollars in student loan debt. The Loan Act is being touted as a way to tackle the root of the student loan problem by increasing federal student aid and lowering interest

rates on loans. Essentially, making federal loans easier to get, so less people rely on private

student loans and making those loans easier to pay off. One of the other goals of the proposal

is to update Pell grants by doubling the maximum amount offered so they keep up with

the rising cost of college. Back in 1970, when the Pell program started, a Pell Grant would cover about

80% of a student's cost for attending a public university. Today, a Pell Grant covers about 25% of

those costs. And in regards to interest rates, the proposal caps all federal student loan interest rates

at 5%.

Today, depending on the loan, interest rates can be as high as 10.5%.

The new legislation has a slim chance of passing in the House where Democrats have a larger

majority, but will most likely fail once it gets to the Senate, where it would have to get

at least some Republican support to have any hope.

There's an update on the freight rail worker strike I told you about yesterday. At the moment,

a strike has been avoided. President Biden announced a tentative deal, but members of the

nation's two largest freight rail unions will need to vote to approve.

The agreement would increase worker wages by a total of 24% over five years, and that's stretching back to 2020,

so they'd get retroactive payments of about $11,000 per worker, and union workers won the right to take unpaid time off to attend medical

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