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NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) —
President Barack Obama on Friday proposed to bring the cost of two years of community college "down to zero" for all Americans, an ambitious nationwide plan based on a popular Tennessee program signed into law by that state's Republican governor.
However, the idea and its $60 billion federal price tag over 10 years would have to make the grade with a Republican Congress that is showing little appetite for big new spending programs. Obama, who plans to push the issue in his Jan. 20 State of the Union address, argued that providing educational opportunity and creating a more skilled U.S. workforce shouldn't be a partisan issue.
"Community college should be free for those willing to work for it because, in America, a quality education should not be a privilege that is reserved for a few," he said in a speech at Pellissippi State Community College. He said a high school diploma is no longer enough for American workers to compete in the global economy and that a college degree is "the surest ticket to the middle class."
The White House estimated that 9 million students could eventually participate and save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year if they attend fulltime. Students would qualify if they attend at least halftime, maintain a 2.5 grade point average and make progress toward completing a degree or certificate program. Participating schools would have to meet certain academic requirements.
LORI HINNANT, Associated Press
SAMUEL PETREQUIN, Associated Press
PARIS (AP) —
With explosions and gunfire, security forces on Friday ended a three-day terror spree around Paris, killing the two al-Qaida-linked brothers who staged a murderous rampage at a satirical newspaper and an associate who seized a kosher supermarket to try to help them escape.
The worst terrorist attacks France has seen in decades left at least 20 people dead, including the three gunmen. The fate of a fourth suspect — a female accomplice of the market attacker — remained unclear.
At least seven people were killed Friday — the three terrorists and at least four hostages — a policewoman was killed Thursday and 12 people were massacred in the Paris newspaper attack Wednesday. Sixteen hostages were freed Friday, one from the printing plant where the two brothers were holed up and 15 others from the Paris grocery store.
Paris shut down a famed Jewish neighborhood amid fears that a wider terror cell might launch further attacks.
French President Francois Hollande urged his nation to remain united and alert. Calling the grocery attack "a terrifying anti-Semitic act," he said the terrorists were "fanatics who have nothing to do with the Islamic religion."
"The threats facing France are not finished," he said. "We must be vigilant."
JASON DEAREN, Associated Press
WHITE SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) —
A 15-year-old girl who fatally shot her 16-year-old brother suffered years of abuse, including being locked in a room for weeks at a time with only a blanket and a bucket to use the bathroom, according to police reports and interviews.
The shooting at a small white house off a dirt road in rural north Florida happened Monday while the children's parents were away for work. The father, a truck driver, and his wife, who often goes with him, left the 16-year-old boy to watch over the 15-year-old, her 11-year-old sister and their 3-year-old sister, police said. The parents left Sunday and were due back Tuesday.
Sometime Monday, the 15-year-old girl was locked in her room by her brother, police said. After the boy fell asleep, she talked her 11-year-old sister into unlocking her door.
The older girl knew her parents kept a pistol in their room, but they had locked their door. So the girl went outside and used a knife to remove an air conditioner from her parents' bedroom window. She climbed in while her 11-year-old sister kept watch and grabbed the gun out of a pink bag and loaded it, police said.
The girl went back inside the house, telling her young sisters to get in the closet, she told police. She turned her head and fired at her sleeping brother in the living room, and he screamed "Help! Help!"