HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Sometimes grad school flunks the cost-benefit test.

You know the $1 trillion in student loan borrowing that is of concern to many of us? About 40 percent comes from loans to finance graduate and professional degrees, according to the report.

In looking at data from the Department of Education, Delisle found that the median level of indebtedness for a borrower with a master of arts was $59,000 in 2012, up from $38,000 in 2004. And that’s after adjusting for inflation. There were similar trends for other master’s degrees, such as in science or education. . . .

There are plenty of studies that show that people with advanced degrees have higher earning potential. But lost in this optimistic message are the people who get a degree and the debt but not a significant pay increase. Or the debt takes up such a high percentage of any net salary bumps that it is years before the degree-holder sees a return.

Here’s a key observation from Delisle’s report: Students pursuing a master’s or professional degree already have an undergraduate degree, and therefore they “should be far more informed consumers.”

Yet often they are not.

Yes, if they were, they higher education bubble would be bursting a lot faster.

ROLL CALL: Liberal Groups Want Longer Lame Duck to Confirm Nominees. “A coalition of largely liberal organizations has written a letter asking the Senate to extend the lame duck to allow as many of President Barack Obama’s nominees to win confirmation before Republicans take control of the chamber. The 33 signatories of the new letter include the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Communications Workers of America, the NAACP, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen.”

THAT DEPENDS ON HOW THOROUGHLY THEY’VE VACUUMED THE FILES: Will ‘Lost’ IRS Emails Reveal A Corrupt White House?

ELIANA JOHNSON: Ben Carson Staffs Up: His confidantes lay the groundwork for a presidential bid.

WITH THE ELECTIONS OVER, THEY CAN FINALLY TAKE A BOLD STAND: House Passes Bill To End Benefits For Nazis.

STEPHEN GREEN: “Whatever the Democrats’ history might have been, they are now fully the party of welfare dependency for the shiftless and crony capitalist dependency for the connected. That’s not a majority coalition — if the GOP is smart with its wedge issues, and cuts out the ridiculous and self-defeating Shutdown Theater.”

BYRON YORK: Obama’s Dangerous Legacy For The Democrats. “The Obama damage is two-fold. First, his success relied on a coalition that likely will not survive, or at least survive at full strength, without Obama himself on the ticket. Secondly, Obama drove a significant portion of white voters away from the Democratic Party. Put those two things together — smaller Obama coalition and more alienated whites — and the result could be huge trouble for whoever the Democratic presidential nominee is in 2016.”

THE PRESS HAS GONE CRAZY OVER A GOP AIDE WHO CHIDED THE OBAMA DAUGHTERS, BUT I’LL BET THEY PAY A LOT LESS ATTENTION TO THIS: Former Democratic congressional aide pleads guilty to sexual assault.

Donny Ray Williams Jr., 37, who served as a staff director for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee, pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual abuse, two misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse and one count of misdemeanor threats.

Prosecutors say that on July 22, 2010, Williams invited a female congressional colleague to his Capitol Hill apartment and promised to introduce her to Senate employees. At the house, prosecutors said, Williams spiked a drink with Ambien. The woman, according to court documents, fell into a “deep sleep,” at which point Williams raped her.

A month later, prosecutors said, Williams invited another woman to his home and gave her alcoholic beverages. They said he had sexual contact with her when she was too intoxicated to give her consent.

Williams had been indicted on 10 counts, but prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining charges. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said they would seek a suspended prison term and five years of supervised probation. Williams also would have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Will the Washington Post send someone to look into his college records?

MARC THIESSEN: How To Push Back On Obama’s Executive Amnesty.

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TEACH WOMEN MEN NOT TO LIE ABOUT RAPE! Student Fakes a Rape Threat to Advance Diversity Initiatives: The truth about the threat was revealed in a federal investigation.

A federal investigation revealed that a racist rape threat against a University of Chicago student activist was actually fake, written by the student’s friend to gain support for their cultural-sensitivity initiatives.

Freshman Derek Caquelin posted a threat against junior Vincente Perez on his own Facebook wall on November 18 — and then claimed a racist hacker must have done it. . . .

Perez had co-written a petition earlier in November demanding that the university address cultural-sensitivity issues after he saw students wearing Mexican Halloween costumes that had offended him. The petition’s demands included “a mandatory cross-cultural competency program” and faculty “diversification.”

Caquelin’s Facebook page makes it obvious that he is an activist for the same campus initiatives and causes as Perez. In fact, he often directly shares Perez’s own posts on cultural diversity issues.

The media spoke highly of Perez when the rape threat came out.

Of course they did. So what’s the punishment for doing something that made many other students feel unsafe?

MINIMAL FOX: Is Tara Reid Wasting Away?

Don’t get sunstroke in that bikini.

UPDATE: Yeah, this whole post is just an excuse for Anders Trentemøller references.

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TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Ex-Phoenix teacher pleads guilty to sexual conduct with student. “A former physical-education teacher in the Phoenix Elementary School District pleaded guilty Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court to a series of sex charges for engaging in sexual conduct with a 12-year-old former student. Nicole Wooten, 38, pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with a minor, attempted child molestation and attempted sexual conduct with a minor for the crimes that took place with the eighth-grade student from 2005 to 2006, according to court documents.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Most College Students Don’t Earn a Degree in 4 Years, Study Finds.

The vast majority of students at American public colleges do not graduate on time, according to a new report from Complete College America, a nonprofit group based in Indianapolis.

“Students and parents know that time is money,” said the report, called “Four-Year Myth.” “The reality is that our system of higher education costs too much, takes too long and graduates too few.”

At most public universities, only 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, the report found. Even at state flagship universities — selective, research-intensive institutions — only 36 percent of full-time students complete their bachelor’s degree on time. . . .

The lengthy time to graduate has become so much the status quo that education policy experts now routinely use benchmarks of six years to earn a bachelor’s degree and three years for an associate degree.

“Using these metrics may improve the numbers, but it is costing students and their parents billions of extra dollars — $15,933 more in cost of attendance for every extra year of a public two-year college and $22,826 for every extra year at a public four-year college,” the report said. “Hands down, our best strategy to make college more affordable and a sure way to boost graduation rates over all is to ensure that many more students graduate on time.”

If it were a priority to colleges, they’d do things differently.

J.D. TUCCILLE: The Ghetto Archipelago.

WASHINGTON POST: Rolling Stone whiffs in reporting on alleged rape. “This lapse is inexcusable: Even if the accused aren’t named in the story, Erdely herself acknowledges that ‘people seem to know who these people are.’ If they were being cited in the story for mere drunkenness, boorish frat-boy behavior or similar collegiate misdemeanors, then there’d be no harm in failing to secure their input. The charge in this piece, however, is gang rape, and so requires every possible step to reach out and interview them, including e-mails, phone calls, certified letters, FedEx letters, UPS letters and, if all of that fails, a knock on the door. No effort short of all that qualifies as journalism.”

Funny, the Rolling Stone fact-checkers in Almost Famous seemed super-rigorous. Of course, that was for a story that made rock stars look bad. . . .

Related: Thoughts from K.C. Johnson, who has some experience with such things.

ST. LOUIS: Bosnian Community Sees Hammer Murder As Hate Crime.

Insistence by St. Louis officials that the beating death of a Bosnian man was not a hate crime is being met with skepticism and anger, according to leaders of the city’s 70,000-strong Bosnian community, and the victim’s brother is calling on authorities to “investigate every possible motive.”

Zemir Begic, a 32-year-old man who emigrated from war-torn Bosnia almost two decades ago in search of a better life, was bludgeoned to death Sunday, allegedly by a group of hammer-wielding teenagers, one of whom has been charged as an adult. Begic was driving with his fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic, and a male passenger at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday in St. Louis when five teenagers began pounding his vehicle with a hammer, according to police. When Begic confronted them, he was struck in the mouth, face, head and body with hammers and died at a nearby hospital. . . .

The St. Louis Police Department is now working in conjunction with the city prosecutor to determine a motive. Authorities told FoxNews.com there is no evidence at this time suggesting the murder was racially motivated.

But a string of previous crimes involving poor minorities and Bosnians in a tough area on the southwest side of the city has many in the Bosnian community questioning whether Begic’s death was racially motivated.

“Bosnians right now have an impression that this was a hate crime,” said Bosnian Chamber of Commerce president Sadik Kukic, who met Monday with the city’s mayor and police chief to discuss the murder. . . .

According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, Begic and his fiancee were walking to their car when they heard a group, including at least of the defendants, yelling. As Begic drove away, one of the teenagers, “jumped on the back of his car and began hitting it,” the complaint said. Unsure of what was happening, Begic stepped out of his vehicle and was approached by the individuals, one of whom “taunted” him and “challenged him to a fight,” according to the document. Begic was then allegedly assaulted by four men and struck with a hammer and fell to the ground. Three others continue to beat him before the group fled on foot, police said.

Robert Joseph Mitchell, 17, has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in early morning attack. Two others, ages 15 and 16, are in custody, and a fourth suspect remains at large, according to police.

Kukic said hundreds of protesters rallied the past two nights in the Little Bosnia neighborhood in response to Begic’s killing, with many chanting “Bosnian lives matter” — an echo of the “Black lives matter” chant heard in Ferguson after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer.

They’re immigrants, so they don’t understand that only some people can march like that.

Plus, this sad statement: “We came to America thinking it was going to be a better life. Our family and friends were being killed over there.”

WHY YOUNG ENGINEERS are missing out.

JUSTICE: Connecticut Court Ignores First Amendment, Blocks Paper From Publishing Article Based On Public Court Document.

JESSE WALKER: The Oath Keepers In Ferguson: Three Updates.

TOM MAGUIRE HAS further doubts about that UVA gang-rape story.

THE ST. LOUIS TEA PARTY moves to help Ferguson merchants.

HYPOCRISY: Four Members of Congress Put Their Hands Up in Solidarity With Ferguson Protesters, None Voted to Limit Police Militarization.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: 3-D-Printing Bio-Electronic Parts.