New York just OK’d tuition-free college for middle class

Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced the tuition-free plan in January. Lawmakers agreed to include it in the state budget, which was approved by the Assembly on Saturday and by the Senate late Sunday night. The governor is expected to sign the budget bills.

Tuition will be free for residents who earn up to a specific income cap, which will be phased in over the first three years.

Starting this fall, undergraduate students who attend a State University of New York or City University of New York school will be eligible for the Excelsior Scholarship if their families earn no more than $100,000 a year. The income cap will lift to $110,000 next year and will reach $125,000 in 2019.

Our take: Move out of New York as quickly as you can – the freebies they’re giving out are going to sink the ship.

Read more about New York’s tuition-free plan at CNN Money

United Airlines had a right to remove that flier. But should it have?

But the video has made headlines across the country, giving United an unwanted public relations black eye, just two weeks after it was exposed to criticism for denying boarding to two girls traveling on a guest pass because they were wearing leggings. Making it worse was that the passenger in this case had already boarded the flight.

“Once you’re offloading passengers who’ve already boarded so that you can get employees on the flight, you’d think they’d do just about anything to avoid that,” said Seth Kaplan, editor of the Airline Weekly trade publication.

Others echoed the sentiment that United probably could’ve handled the situation better.

“I’ve seen a lot in my 40 years covering and working for the airline industry, but this is historically bad public relations,” says George Hobica, president of Airfarewatchdog. “The burning question is why did they wait until everyone was seated before realizing they needed to move employees?”

Our take: The market for being bumped Sunday in Chicago was more than $800.  United could have saved themselves a lot of hassle and bad PR by handling this differently.

Read more about passenger rights at USAToday.com

Tension high over Syria, N. Korea making threats. Click the following headlines for more:

Tillerson Arrives in Moscow as Tensions Rise Over Syria