Business in brief: Some limits rise for student loans
College students will be able to borrow more from Uncle Sam and pay less in fees to lenders under a federal law that takes effect this week.
It will be the first time that the annual limits on federal Stafford Loans have increased since 1992. Over the same time period, tuition rates have more than doubled.
The change provides an additional $875 a year for freshmen and $1,000 a year for sophomores. The $5,500 loan limits for juniors and seniors remain unchanged, but graduate and professional students will see their loan limits increase by $2,000.
But the new loan limits come with a catch, according to Ball State University’s Tom Taylor, vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications.
The government is not giving students more aid overall, but instead reallocating money a student may need if he or she attends a fifth year of college, Taylor said.
New York
Man charged under piracy law
A moviegoer caught secretly recording the sci-fi blockbuster “Transformers” has been charged with unauthorized use of a video camera in a theater in the first arrest under a new New York City law that stiffened penalties for pirating films.
A criminal complaint accuses Kalidou Diallo of slipping a video recorder, video player and remote control into a sneak preview of the film at a Bronx theater Monday night.
“This is the first time someone has been arrested and charged with the new illegal camcording law,” City Hall spokesman Jason Post said Thursday.
In May, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed legislation that upgraded film piracy from a violation with a $250 fine to a misdemeanor that carries up to six months in jail and penalties of up to $5,000.
The Motion Picture Association of America says more than 40 percent of bootlegged films are secretly videotaped in New York City theaters. The copies typically are sold for mass reproduction or posted on the Internet, sometimes just hours after the movie has opened.
Pirated movies cost major U.S. film studios more than $6 billion in 2005, according to the trade association. A study by the group showed that the New York movie industry loses an estimated $1.5 billion a year because of piracy.
Washington
GAO: Cheese prices vulnerable
Thin trading on the spot cheese market makes it ripe for manipulation, and that could affect the price of milk and other dairy products, the investigative arm of Congress said Thursday.
The warning from the Government Accountability Office comes as block cheddar cheese reached $1.95 a pound Thursday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, up 67 percent from $1.17 a pound a year ago. Industry observers attribute the price surge to strong demand and higher milk prices.
Because cheddar is the benchmark for mozzarella and other cheeses, some big pizza chains, including Yum Brands Inc.’s Pizza Hut and Papa John’s International Inc., already have responded by raising their prices.