Student Financial Aid News
+ Americans are increasingly reaching for plastic when making small purchases at convenience stores, coffee shops, and subway stations, according to a survey released yesterday.
+ The survey — conducted jointly by market researcher Ipsos Insight and small payments tech firm Peppercoin Inc. — found that more than 67 million Americans have paid for purchases of less than $5 using a credit or debit card during the past 30 days.
+ Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a Dallas-based student loan processor, forced its chief executive and finance chief to resign …

Congratulations to CC Chapman for 200 episodes of Accident Hash!
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John J. Penn, 91, devoted husband, father, grandfather and brother, passed away peacefully in the presence of his family on November 27, 2006, in Burlington, VT. Formerly of Darien, CT, John was a resident of South Burlington, VT.
He was born in Lamar, Missouri on October 22, 1915 to Henry Penn and Ettie (Brandt) Penn. He grew up in Chicago, and graduated from the Armour Institute, now the Illinois Institute of Technology, in 1937, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After initially working for the Crane Company, he joined what was …

Have you heard about PodCamp Nano? Neither had I until the ride home yesterday, staring at my iPod while stuck in traffic. That 60 GB 5G iPod sure is nice, but sometimes you want something smaller and lighter for running or whatever.
I think the same is true for conferences, so I’m tossing an idea out here. PodCamp Nano, with the 2-2-2 rule.
+ 2 hours
+ 2 sessions
+ 2 drinks
and you’re done. Essentially a meetup, but with defined sessions like a full-size PodCamp. Because it’s a small and light affair, you won’t …

Student Financial Aid News
+ Boston-based student lender First Marblehead Corp. disclosed that will receive $89 million of “upfront structural advisory fees,” as part of a $1.025 billion securitization of private loans.
+ About 93% of the loans to be securitized were be made directly to consumers; the remaining portion were originated through schools. First Marblehead [ticker: FMB”>MP3 file has a market capitalization of about $897 million.
+ Disclosure: First Marblehead powers our Act Education Loans at ActEducationLoans.com and private student loans at privatestudentloans.com
+ ASU is opening wide its doors to low-income Arizonans, …

Student Financial Aid News
+ Student lender Nelnet Inc. has approved a bonus plan for its top two executives that will pay them $500,000 each for every $1 per share the company earns in 2007, according to SEC filings last week.
+ Investors were uneasy after news that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, suffered a 0.1 percent drop in same-store sales, those from stores open at least a year. Same-store sales are the industry standard for assessing a retailer’s strength, and while retail sales overall were strong last weekend, Wal-Mart’s deficit raised …

If you’re a Wordpress user and you love Peter Harkin’s Sociable plugin, and you love Facebook too, you’ll love Sociable 1.2 with Facebook support. Sociable will add the official Facebook chicklet and URL support to the control panel so you can have Facebook goodness on every Wordpress post. Enjoy!
Note: officially, this qualifies as a fork of Sociable.
Download it here: Sociable 1.2 Facebook ZIP file
p.s. if you use it and like it, please toss a link back to my site. Thanks!

The Third Edition of our free Scholarship Search Secrets eBook is now available, completely and totally free of charge. It’s 19 pages on how to use Google, RSS, and other Internet tools to locate scholarships, grants, and other ways of paying for college.
You can get it here:
http://www.StudentScholarshipSearch.com/Scholarships.pdf
If you like it, if it’s useful, please give me feedback by emailing me at financialaidpodcast at gmail dot com or leaving me a voicemail at 206-350-1208. Even better, if it’s REALLY good, please tell a friend or two about it and my podcast!
Update: …

Student Financial Aid News
+ Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano says she did not know that some of her closest political allies headed the Arizona Higher Education Loan Authority when she granted it the power to oversee state-authorized student loans two years ago.
+ Napolitano said she was also unaware they ran the agency four months later when she vetoed a bill that would have allowed competition from other local authorities.
+ Brown and Wesleyan are in a spam war
+ The financial companies that manage state college-savings plans for families are reducing their fees, …

Student Financial Aid News+ A few tips on Black Friday.
+ Find out if that deal is really a deal – use SMS and your cell phone!
+ FruCall: http://www.frucall.com/
+ TicTap: http://www.tictap.com/
+ MobSaver: http://www.mobsaver.com/
+ Find coupons for online shopping!
+ http://www.retailmenot.com/
+ The Consumerist lists top bargains!
+ http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/exclusive/best-black-friday-deals-215004.php
Scholarship Update
Matthew Ebel calls in with a question about the Workforce Investment Act.
+ The Workforce Investment Act isn’t one grant but a large series of programs.
+ Directory of programs
+ Most WIA programs are focused on employers, not necessarily employees
+ Most colleges, especially community colleges, have a vital …