News briefs

Tax time

Forgot to file your taxes? Today is the last day to turn them in or file for an extension. Extensions to file by Oct. 15 can be requested through the end of today, though this does not extend the deadline for payment of a tax bill.

If taxes aren’t filed by today’s deadline, the taxpayer will be charged a late fee. If taxpayers do not file their taxes for consecutive years, they could eventually lose out on credit exemptions or deductions and could face more drastic penalties.

The deadline is traditionally set for April 15, but was extended this year because that day fell on a weekend and Monday, April 16 was Emancipation Day, a holiday recognized in the District of Columbia.

Tax returns are filed with a 1040 form that can be downloaded from the Internal Revenue Service’s website (www.irs.gov) and anyone filing with no dependents can file their returns electronically for free through the same website.

-Robert Seitzinger

PSU frats hold teeter-totter-thon fundraiser

Starting at 12 p.m. today, members of the Kappa Sigma and the Phi Delta Theta fraternities will be raising money for the local Portland Boys and Girls Club six feet in the air.

The fraternities have built a giant 16-foot teeter-totter and plan to garner the support of local businesses by riding it up and down for 48 hours straight. Members from the fraternity built the teeter-totter last week and said it lifts its riders over six feet off of the ground.

The fundraiser helps the fraternity meet required community service hours. Students from the Boys and Girls Club will visit and ride the teeter-totter on Wednesday, under the supervision of members from the fraternities.

The marathon will last from 12 p.m. today until 12 p.m. on Thursday.

-David Holley

Tango club at PSU

A new Argentine Tango club has started for students and people interested in getting into the local tango community. The club holds lessons for beginners as well as intermediate lessons and practice sessions designed to familiarize students with tango Tuesday nights in Room 207 of the Peter Stott Center. The cost is $2 for PSU and PCC students, faculty and staff, $7 for community members.

Originating out of practices organized by the dance club in 2006, the tango club formed to acquaint tango dancers and PSU students into a broader tango community offered in Portland. Joe Leonardo, a dance instructor who has taught with dance faculty at Portland State, teaches workshops.

As a gateway into a larger community, part of the club’s goal is to expand the local tango community by dancing in nightly milongas sessions, dances held simply for pleasure, all over the city.

More information on the tango club or community events can be found on the club’s website, tango.groups.pdx.edu.

-Steve Haske

Private investors to buy loan company

A group of investors announced plans Monday to buy Sallie Mae, taking the nation’s largest student lender private in a $25 billion deal that comes as some regulators call for tougher standards and lower federal subsidies for the $85 billion college loan industry.

Private-equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. and three other investors will pay $60 per share for the Reston, Va.-based SLM Corp., commonly referred to as Sallie Mae. The sale price represents a nearly 50 percent premium for Sallie Mae’s previously sagging stock before takeover rumors emerged late last week.

SLM shares traded up more than 17 percent on the New York Stock Exchange after the buyout was announced Monday.

J.C. Flowers and private-equity firm Friedman Fleischer & Lowe will invest $4.4 billion and own 50.2 percent of the company. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase each will invest $2.2 billion and each will own 24.9 percent. The buyers will also provide Sallie Mae with $200 billion in backup financing.

John Oros, a managing director at J.C. Flowers, said the firm was drawn by Sallie Mae’s stock price, which had fallen to around $40 per share before takeover talks began. The investors also weren’t deterred by the brewing troubles for lenders and the prospect of a clampdown on the industry by lawmakers.

-Stephen Manning, Associate Press