Continuing a decades-long effort to change the nation’s bankruptcy system, Sen. Elizabeth Warren plans to propose legislation on Wednesday aimed at making the process less costly and complicated for the hundreds of thousands of individuals who seek court-sanctioned relief from debt each year. 

“People typically file for bankruptcy for one of three reasons: a job loss, a medical problem or a family breakup — and when they do, they’re faced with an expensive and complicated system,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement in reintroducing the bill, known as the “Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act.” 

“My bill would simplify and modernize the consumer bankruptcy system to make it easier and less expensive for people to get relief,” Warren added.  

Bankruptcies rising

The measure comes as personal bankruptcies compared this year with 2023 levels. More than 400,000 Americans have filed for bankruptcy in 2024, although that figure is far below their pre-pandemic average of about 750,000 personal bankruptcy filings a year. 

Warren said her bill would help families “avoid eviction, keep homes and cars and discharge local government fines.” It would also create a repayment plan for unsecured debt, including student loans, as well as eliminate a restriction that bars people from shedding private and public student debt in bankruptcy, like other types of consumer loans. 

Rep. Nadler, a New York Democrat, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, are co-leading a House version of the bill, while Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse will cosponsor the measure in the Senate. The bill has been endorsed by a wide range of groups including the AFL-CIO, a labor union, and consumer advocacy groups Public Citizen and National Consumer Law Center.

“Big corporate debtors continue to reap the rewards of our broken bankruptcy system while everyday Rhode Islanders facing financial hardship struggle to obtain basic relief. I’m pleased to support this bill that makes the consumer bankruptcy system fairer and easier to access for those facing crushing personal debt,” Whitehouse said in a statement.

Among other things, Warren’s proposal would provide two routes for individuals to file for bankruptcy:

• No-payment discharge. For low-income filers, this option would wipe out unsecured debt other than child support or debts incurred by fraud.
• Debt-specific plans. This would let individuals resolve debts specific to their financial situation, pausing debt collection efforts  paused while filer remains current on loans.

The change would be a welcome one, according to advocates, who say the current bankruptcy rules can steer people in the wrong direction.  

It costs about $1,500 to file Chapter 7, and most attorneys require that their fees be paid upfront. Chapter 7 is a liquidation bankruptcy, where the filer’s nonexempt property and assets — possessions not protected by bankruptcy — are turned over to a trustee, and debt is discharged in three to six months. 

With a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, payments can be spread out, but the overall costs for filers is significantly higher, running an average of $4,500. Only about a third of people who file Chapter 13 make it to the end and have their debts discharged, research shows. 

Five family members including three children were found dead in a home in Utah on Tuesday, and another, age 17, was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound, police said.

The dead were two adults, an 11-year-old boy, and two girls ages 9 and 2, according to Roxeanne Vainuku, a spokesperson for the West Valley City Police Department. It was not immediately clear how they died.

They were found in the house in West Valley City, about 9 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The teen was discovered in the garage.

“Absolutely horrific. This is something that certainly will weigh heavily on investigators in this case,” Vainuku said at a nighttime news conference.

Authorities do not believe there is a suspect on the loose, and the shooting is something that was “isolated to this home,” she added

Because the 17-year-old “is injured and he’s in the hospital, there are some challenges in communicating with him and finding out more information,” Vainuku said.

“In any case where people have died, loved ones have been lost, we want to make sure that we do the most absolute thorough job possible so that we can bring justice to the victims,” Vainuku said, according to CBS affiliate KUTV.

A relative alerted police Monday after unsuccessfully trying to reach the 38-year-old woman who lived in the home, authorities said. Officers went to the house, but no one answered.

They came back on Tuesday afternoon after the same relative reported finding the 17-year-old in the garage.

Police are investigating inside the home and have also been talking with neighbors and looking for evidence from things like doorbell cameras, Vainuku said.

“Officers also have canvassed the neighborhood gathering information and any video evidence,” police said in a statement.

CBS affiliate KUTV reported that some neighbors said the family had been living in that house for three or four years.

World coal use is set to reach an all-time high in 2024, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday, in a year all but certain to be the hottest in recorded history.

Despite calls to halt humanity’s burning of the filthiest fossil fuel driving climate change, the energy watchdog expects global demand for coal to hit record highs for the third year in a row.

Scientists have warned that planet-warming greenhouse gases will have to be drastically slashed to limit global heating to avoid catastrophic impacts on the Earth and humanity.

Earlier in December, the European Union’s climate monitor Copernicus said 2024 was “effectively certain” to be the hottest on record — eclipsing the mark set just last year.

Published on Wednesday, the IEA’s “Coal 2024” report does, however, predict the world will hit peak coal use in 2027 after topping 8.77 billion tons this year.

But that would be dependent on China, which for the past quarter-century has consumed 30 percent more coal than the rest of the world’s countries combined, the IEA said.

China’s demand for electricity was the most significant driving force behind the increase, with more than a third of coal burnt worldwide carbonized in that country’s power plants.

Though Beijing has sought to diversify its electricity sources, including a massive expansion of solar and wind power, the IEA said China’s coal demand in 2024 will still hit 4.9 billion tones — itself another record.

Increasing coal demand in China, as well as in emerging economies such as India and Indonesia, made up for a continued decline in advanced economies.

However that decline has slowed in the European Union and the United States. Coal use there is set to decline by 12 and five percent respectively, compared with 23 and 17 percent in 2023.

With the imminent return to the White House of Donald Trump — who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” — many scientists fear that a second Trump presidency would water down the climate commitments of the world’s largest economy.

Coal mining also hit unprecedented levels by topping nine billion tons in output for the first time, the IEA said, with top producers China, India and Indonesia all posting new production records.

The energy watchdog warned that the explosion in power-hungry data centers powering the emergence of artificial intelligence was likewise likely to drive up demand for power generation, with that trend underpinning electricity demand in coal-guzzling China.

The 2024 report reverses the IEA’s prediction last year that coal use would begin declining after peaking in 2023.

At the annual U.N. climate change forum in Dubai last year, nations vowed to transition away from fossil fuels.

But its follow-up this year ended in acrimony, with experts warning that the failure to double down on that landmark pledge at COP29 in Azerbaijan risked jeopardizing efforts to fight climate change.

Set up in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, the IEA presents itself as “the world’s leading energy authority.”