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A screenshot of today’s emergency alert test. The tone sounded at 8:18 a.m. Hawaii time. The subject read: “Presidential Alert” and text read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
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At 8:18 a.m. (Hawaii time) Wednesday, cellphones across the United States sounded the unsettling ring of an emergency presidential alert, marking the first nationwide test of a wireless system that issues warnings about urgent threats, such as natural disaster. There’s little doubt that the test momentarily rattled many residents here, given that shortly after 8 a.m. on Jan. 13 phones lit up with a false alert about inbound ballistic missiles.
Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz issued a statement on Wednesday noting that in the case of an actual threat, the new notification would be activated by FEMA. Not the president. He added: “There are lots of things to worry about right now, but this test is not one of them.” Whew.
Keeping that college debt low
About 2 in 3 college seniors who graduated from four-year public and private nonprofit U.S. colleges in 2017 had student loan debt, according to the latest report by The Institute for College Access and Success. The average tab: $28,650.
It’s heartening to see that Hawaii ranked among the lowest states for the amount of debt students carried (No. 8), and the percentage of students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree with debt (No. 7). The University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus conferred the state’s highest count of bachelor degrees in 2017 (1,345). Some 45 percent of those grads finished their studies with debt. The in-the-hole average: $24,233.