National News - Page 128

States are so flush with funds, many are cutting taxes

By Tami Luhby While states feared the coronavirus pandemic would wreak havoc on their budgets and force them to slash services, it turns out that many are doing far better than they predicted. So instead of cutting spending in the wake of the pandemic, many states are cutting taxes. Nine states have passed legislation to reduce individual or corporate income tax rates that is awaiting governors’ signatures or has been enacted, according to Katherine Loughead, senior policy analyst at the right-leaning Tax Foundation. In some, the reductions are retroactive to January 1, but in others, the cuts don’t take effect until next

White House says more than half of its staffers are women

By Kate Sullivan and Phil Mattingly Women make up approximately 60% of the staff at the White House and 56% of senior staff, the White House said Thursday ahead of releasing its annual report to Congress on personnel. The White House touted the diversity of its administration and said the staff makeup shows President Joe Biden has kept his promise of building an administration that looks like America. Approximately 36% of White House senior staff and about 44% of Biden appointees at the White House are part of racially and/or ethnically diverse communities, the White House said. The White House’s annual report

26th amendment, granting 18-year-olds the right to vote, marks its 50th anniversary

By Rachel Janfaza Nicolette Carrion did a little dance when she cast her first ballot ever in last year’s election. “Now that I’m 18, I’m able to invest in my future in being able to vote, in a way I wasn’t able to before,” she said. Carrion’s right to vote at age 18 comes because of the 26th amendment, which marks its 50th anniversary on Thursday. “The 26th amendment is part of our country’s journey to expand and actually make our democracy more inclusive,” said Mike Burns, national director of the Campus Vote Project, an organization that works to remove

Takeaways from the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg indictment

By Erica Orden On Thursday, New York prosecutors charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, with running a 15-year alleged tax scheme designed “to compensate Weisselberg and other Trump Organization executives in a manner that was ‘off the books.” It is the first criminal case against former President Donald Trump’s company, one he has derided as a political prosecution. Here’s what you need to know from the indictment:   The charges   The crux of the alleged scheme is that the company gave fringe benefits, or perks, to executives including Weisselberg as part of their income, but didn’t

Summer school is getting beefed up after remote learning. But some programs struggled to get teachers

By Jason Hanna Dan Gannon wouldn’t mind a full summer break. The Bronx high school history teacher is as drained as anyone by teaching remotely during the pandemic. He sympathizes with any educator taking the summer off. Many worked more hours than usual to adapt lessons and relearn how to instruct — and carried the weight of their students’ struggles with pandemic stress and isolation. But Gannon will keep working. He’s helping lead his school’s “summer bridge” program, which in normal years brings in rising freshmen for a few days in July to orient them to the school’s policies and culture. This July,

Dissents from the bench: A Supreme Court tradition missing during Covid

By Joan Biskupic The Covid pandemic deprived the Supreme Court of its courtroom for oral arguments, its intimate conference room for deliberations and, as is evident these days, the bench where dissenting justices can vent. At the end of each Supreme Court session, individual justices on the losing side of a case often find that a written dissent is not enough. They feel compelled to read excerpts from the tall mahogany bench and rhetorically grab courtroom spectators by the collar to convince them of the majority’s wrongheadedness. History unfolds on these occasions, as when Justice Sonia Sotomayor gave voice to her experience

Bill Cosby is a free man after Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturns sex assault conviction

By Ray Sanchez, Sonia Moghe and Kristina Sgueglia Bill Cosby was released from prison Wednesday after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction, saying the disgraced actor’s due process rights were violated. The stunning decision in the case of the man once known as “America’s Dad” reverses the first high-profile celebrity criminal trial of the #MeToo era. The panel of Pennsylvania State Supreme Court judges said in their opinion that a former Montgomery County district attorney’s decision to not prosecute Cosby in 2005 in return for his deposition in a civil case was ultimately used against him at trial.

Rise of Delta variant brings mask question back, even for the vaccinated

By Maggie Fox Nearly all the staff at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are vaccinated against Covid-19. Yet they are all still wearing masks to work. These researchers, who are among the most well-versed in the tricks of the coronavirus, aren’t taking any chances. They’re advising the rest of the country and the world to be similarly careful as strains like the Delta variant arise and spread. “We still have a masking policy here, particularly in group situations,” Andrew Pekosz, a professor of immunology at Johns Hopkins who is studying the coronavirus, told CNN. “This pandemic isn’t over

House votes to create select committee to investigate January 6 insurrection

By Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju, Ryan Nobles and Annie Grayer The House voted Wednesday to create a new select committee that will investigate the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol, in a vote falling mostly along party lines that signals the political fight to come over the panel’s examination of the insurrection. The House voted 222-190 to formally create the select panel. Just two Republicans joined with Democrats to support its formation — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Ahead of the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the floor that she was “heartbroken” Congress could

Bill for gender, racial representation signed into law

By Rob Polansky A multifaceted bill that encourages equitable gender and racial government representation, as well as helps parents running for office, has been signed into law. Gov. Ned Lamont signed the legislation on Tuesday. First, the bill promotes greater gender and racial diversity of appointments on state boards and commissions. It creates a statutory requirement for appointing authorities to consider recommendations from organizations that represent the interest of gender and racial diversity when seeking people to serve on state boards and commissions. It also codifies a transparent process for people to express interest in serving on boards and commissions

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