Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with kidnap and murder in her death. The Metropolitan Police say he joined the force in 2018; for the past year, his main job was patrolling diplomatic premises, mainly embassies. He previously held posts at Downing Street and the Palace of Westminster.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said Sunday that polling data showing Trump voters would not get the COVID-19 vaccine was “disturbing.”
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Fauci said he hoped that Trump would speak out and encourage his supporters to get the COVID-19 vaccine after all former living presidents, except for Trump, appeared last week in a PSA from the nonprofit Ad Council urging Americans to get the vaccination.
The Ad Council said the commercial was filmed during Biden’s inauguration, which Trump did not attend. Portions of the PSA featuring former President Jimmy Carter, who was unable to attend the inauguration, were filmed separately, according to Deadline.
“I hope he does because the numbers that you gave are so disturbing, how such a large proportion of a certain group of people would not want to make — would not want to get vaccinated merely because of political consideration,” Fauci told “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd. “It makes absolutely no sense.”
Fauci made the comments after presented with data from a poll NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey published last week that found that vaccine hesitancy existed strongly among political lines. Nearly half of Republican men who were surveyed said they didn’t plan to get the vaccine as opposed to 6% of Democratic men who said they wouldn’t get the vaccine.
Among Trump voters, 47% of respondents said they didn’t plan to get the shot, while just 10% of people who supported Biden in the 2020 election said they wouldn’t get vaccinated for COVID-19, according to the poll.
“I wasn’t president, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!” Trump said in a statement.
Fauci said Sunday that it was imperative to remove politics from public health. Issues from the vaccine to the wearing of face masks have over the past year served as major dividers between politicians and their followers on the right and left.
“We’ve got to dissociate political persuasion from what’s common sense, no-brainer public health things,” he continued. “The history of vaccinology has rescued us from smallpox, from polio, from measles, from all of the other diseases. What is the problem here?”
Fauci said at this point last year he knew the pandemic was going to be “bad” but said he was unaware of just how bad it would be.
“Not only suffering health-wise and deaths and loss of loved ones, but what, what it has done to society, to the economy, and how it has kind of deepened some of the divisiveness that we’ve had in our, in our country to begin with. It’s just made it even more intense,” he said. “It’s just been a bad time all around.”
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DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – Duke University issued a quarantine order for all of its undergraduates effective Saturday night due to a coronavirus outbreak caused by students who attended recruitment parties, the school said.
The university said in a statement that all undergraduate students will be forced to stay-in-place until at least March 21. Suspension or dismissal from the school are potential punishments for “flagrant or repeat violators.”
Over the past week, the school has reported more than 180 positive coronavirus cases among students. There are an additional 200 students who may have been exposed and have been ordered to quarantine.
The third stimulus check is already hitting some bank accounts, just one day after President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Act into law. But while some households will see the funds within the next few days, others may be in for a longer wait.
About 85% of people will receive one of the $1,400 checks, Mr. Biden said on Friday. But it’s likely that some of the issues that stymied delivery for some people in the previous two rounds could cause a repeat situation. For instance, some people who didn’t have a bank account on file with the IRS during the previous two rounds of checks had to wait several weeks for debit cards or paper checks to reach their homes.
It’s most likely that people who have filed their 2020 or 2019 tax returns and have a bank account on file with the tax agency will quickly receive their stimulus checks through direct deposit, based on the prior payment rollouts. That’s because the IRS prioritizes getting the stimulus money out quickly to those that it knows it can reach — and it’s a massive effort, given that the tax agency has $422 billion in funds to distribute to more than 100 million taxpayers.
“You don’t need to do anything to get your stimulus check,” a TurboTax spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch in an email. “The IRS will determine eligibility based on your last tax return (either 2019 or 2020) and will likely send your payment to the bank account where your tax refund was deposited.”
The TurboTax spokesperson added, “If you haven’t filed your 2020 return yet, you can do that now to give your most recent information to the IRS, including bank account or address information to help ensure your stimulus check goes to the right place.”
One financial institution told CBS MoneyWatch it began receiving payments from the IRS for its customers starting around 11 a.m. ET on Friday. The bank, Current, said customers were receiving their stimulus payments faster because some had updated their bank account information with the IRS when they filed their 2020 tax returns — and added that some accounts had received stimulus payments as high as $9,800.
Even while some payments are landing just one day after the bill was signed, the IRS has until the end of 2021 to distribute the checks, according to the legislation.
Here’s what could hold up some people from receiving their money, or receiving the incorrect amount.
You haven’t filed your 2019 or 2020 tax returns
Many people probably haven’t filed their 2020 tax returns yet, given that the deadline for getting in your tax forms is April 15. In that case, there’s no reason to worry — the IRS will use your 2019 tax return to determine how much you should receive.
But this becomes trickier for people who aren’t required to file tax returns, such as those with no or very little earnings, which can be the case for some people on Social Security.
That became an issue with the first round of stimulus checks, especially since many of these people were in deepest need of the first round’s $1,200 payments — and it wasn’t an insignificant number. The IRS said it distributed more than 22 million stimulus payments last year that weren’t based on filed tax returns.
Because of that issue, the IRS last year created a website specifically for non-filers, where they could provide their bank account information or addresses to the agency, as well as provide their number of dependents, who were each eligible for $500 in stimulus aid at the time.
But the non-filers website has been closed since late last year, and IRS and Treasury officials said on a Friday conference call with reporters that they are urging non-filers to file a 2020 tax return to ensure they get all the payments and tax credits they are owed.
You filed a paper return
The IRS warned earlier this year that people who file paper tax returns could face delays. That’s because the IRS is still dealing with a logjam of tax returns filed in 2019 — and it’s likely that 2020 returns filed on paper will also face processing delays.
The tax agency’s backlog is partially due to the pandemic, which prompted the IRS to shift its workers to remote work. When that happened, it stored paper tax returns in trailers until it could get to them. At the end of January, it still had 6.7 million returns awaiting processing.
People should file an electronic return in 2020 to ensure faster processing of their taxes, as well as their refunds and stimulus payments, IRS and Treasury officials said on Friday.
You moved or changed your bank account
This could be a worry for people who received a mailed check or pre-paid debit card but recently moved, as well as people who changed their bank accounts.
The IRS said it will open up its “Get My Payment” tool on IRS.gov next week. The site will inform people about the status of their payment, but won’t allow them to update their bank account information, Treasury and IRS officials said on Friday. However, the officials added that the agencies have been working on checking whether the bank account information they have is correct for consumers.
The downside: If a check is issued to a closed or incorrect account, the IRS will need to reissue the payment in a check and mail it to your house. That could add to your wait.
You have new or older dependents
Some people may get their checks quickly, but find that the amounts are incorrect — that could most likely be due to their dependents.
The third stimulus check entitles dependents to receive $1,400 each, but the IRS might not be aware of your children in some cases. For instance, if you had a baby in 2020 but haven’t yet filed your tax return, the IRS will rely on your 2019 tax return to determine how much you are owed, which won’t show the new child because they hadn’t yet been born.
For instance, a couple with a baby born in 2020 should receive $4,200, but if the IRS doesn’t have their 2020 tax return, it will issue a payment of $2,800 for the two adults in the family. But IRS and Treasury officials said on Friday that families in this situation can be assured they will eventually get the additional $1,400 for their baby.
When they file their 2020 tax return, the IRS will check if they are owed more, such as in the case of a baby born last year. If that happens, the IRS will automatically issue the additional $1,400 check to the family, officials said.
Similar issues could occur for people who normally don’t file tax returns and who used the non-filers tool to report their dependents last year. Because the first two rounds of checks excluded dependents above the age of 17, the IRS didn’t count older teens and adult dependents on the non-filer tool.
People who typically don’t file taxes are urged to file a 2020 return this year, Treasury and IRS officials said. That would help the IRS identify whether they have dependents who qualify for the third stimulus check. It would also potentially unlock other tax benefits that those households otherwise might not have claimed, such as the Child Tax Credit or Earned Income Tax Credit, both of which were expanded in the American Rescue Plan.
You lost income in 2020 but not yet filed a return
Some people could also receive less than they are entitled to if their income dropped in 2020 but they haven’t yet filed their 2020 tax returns. This could happen for a single person who earned $90,000 in 2019, which is above the cutoff of $80,000 to receive a payment, but lost their job in 2020 and only earned $45,000 last year as a result.
If that person hasn’t filed their 2020 return yet, they won’t receive a stimulus payment because the IRS will base its calculation on their 2019 return, which showed they aren’t eligible. But as soon as they file their 2020 tax return with the lower income, the IRS will issue stimulus payment to them, IRS and Treasury officials said.
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Major cities on the West Coast were among those seeing riots and protests Saturday night as demonstrators marked the one-year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death in a police raid in Louisville, Kentucky.
Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland all saw clashes between crowds and police, with numerous arrests reported.
In Los Angeles, some demonstrators smashed store windows and threw rocks at police officers in Hollywood.
Social media videos showed police officers in riot gear near the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street near the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One social media video showed a protester jumping on a police cruiser as it sped away.
At least one officer was injured in the clashes, police said, according to an on-air report from KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. The officer’s condition was not reported.
Bed Bath and Beyond, a CVS pharmacy and an Asian restaurant were among the businesses vandalized by rioters, according to KNBC and social media videos.
Police did not immediately report if any protesters have been arrested.
Earlier, hundreds of protesters had marched and celebrated Taylor’s life peacefully in Hollywood and other parts of the city.
Seattle
In Seattle, videos posted to social media early Sunday showed police moving aggressively against demonstrators.
In one video, police on bicycles are seen making arrests, while another video showed police in a van as they followed a group of marchers.
Earlier, a violent clash broke out as police used pepper spray while moving in against a crowd.
A downtown Starbucks shop was seen with smashed windows and spray-painted messages on the outside.
Police were also monitoring a group that they believed had been dragging construction signs and other items into the street in an apparent bid to block vehicles.
The Seattle Police Department tweets about 4 a.m. Saturday ET that they had made 13 arrests.
Portland
In Portland, a federal courthouse in the downtown area appeared to be the main staging area for another faceoff with authorities.
Just one night earlier, police had made 13 arrests and “kettled” about 100 demonstrators before allowing them to leave one by one, according to reports.
Last week’s protests outside the courthouse came soon after authorities removed a barrier that had been in place outside the building.
On Saturday night and into Sunday morning, new messages were seen spray-painted outside the courthouse, including, “Police are murderers.”
Taylor, who was Black, was killed on March 13, 2020, when a group of Louisville Metro Police Department officers entered her apartment on a no-knock raid.
Taylor’s boyfriend fired at the officers, thinking they were burglars, he later told police, and the officers fired back. Taylor was shot and killed by officers in the crossfire.
The officers later said they had announced their presence in the apartment. No drugs were found inside.
Taylor’s family and their supporters have been seeking the prosecution of city police officers who participated in the raid that led to Taylor’s death. Three police officers have been fired and one detective was charged for allegedly shooting into adjacent apartments during the raid but none has been charged in connection with Taylor’s death.
Authorities in Kentucky stress that their investigation is continuing.
There were also protests and celebrations of her life in Louisville Saturday.
“Eyes are on Louisville, Kentucky, today so let’s show America what community looks like,” Taylor’s aunt, Bianca Austin, told a group in the city Saturday, KABC-TV in Los Angeles reported.
Instead, he said in an interview, the agents asked for march routes and other plans in order to separate the Proud Boys from counterprotesters. Other times, he said, agents warned that they had picked up potential threats from the left against him or his associates.
But before the Jan. 6 event, no one contacted the leaders of the Proud Boys, Mr. Tarrio said, even though their gatherings at previous Trump rallies in Washington had been marred by serious violence.
“They did not reach out to us,” he said.
‘Disavow, Disavow, Disavow’
In summer 2017, neo-Nazis, Klansmen and other white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, Va., to announce their resurgence at the “Unite the Right” rally. Its organizer, Jason Kessler, was a member of the Proud Boys.
The group had been founded a year earlier by Gavin McInnes, now 50, the co-creator of the media outlet Vice. (The company has long since severed all ties.) He was a Canadian turned New Yorker with a record of statements attacking feminists and Muslims, and he often expressed a half-ironic appetite for mayhem. “Can you call for violence generally?” he once asked in an online video. “’Cause I am.”
The Proud Boys had been volunteering as body guards for right-wing firebrands like Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos and frequently clashed with left-wing crowds, especially at college campuses. Proud Boys “free speech” rallies in bastions of the left like Seattle, Portland or Berkeley, Calif., routinely ended in street fights.
Yet Mr. McInnes shunned the Unite the Right gathering, saying in an online video: “Disavow, disavow, disavow.”By his account, the Proud Boys were not white supremacists but merely “Western chauvinists.” That stance helped the Proud Boys evade scrutiny from federal law enforcement.
CHICAGO — At least 15 people were shot at a party Sunday morning in Chicago’s Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, leaving at least two people dead according to police.
Assistant Deputy Chief Paramedic Greg Stinnett said at least 15 people were shot inside a business in the 6700 block of South Chicago Avenue at approximately 4:40 a.m. Sunday morning.
Stinnett added that the total number of people shot in the incident is expected to grow as more potential victims arrive at hospitals. Two victims were pronounced dead on arrival according to police.
Police said as of now, the ages of the victims range from 20 to 44 years old.
According to Chicago Fire officials, seven victims were transported by CFD in condition ranging from serious to critical, with victims appearing to be both adult men and women.
At the top of the list is making permanent the expanded child tax credit, a move supporters believe could generate bipartisan backing and which analysts say would cut child poverty nearly in half. But some lawmakers and outside experts expect Democrats will also fight to keep the expansions of the earned income tax credit and a second program for child and dependent care, while further extensions of food assistance and boosted unemployment benefits are also likely.
“Getting something out of the [tax] code is often harder than getting something into the code,” House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.)said. “What we did is unlikely to go away.”
The approach suggests that Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan — as historic in size and scope as it is — could represent just the first step in a potentially significant expansion of the welfare state and a major shift toward enlarging the government’s role in helping the poorest Americans.
And that, in turn, could represent a major breakthrough for progressive leaders who have been pushing for more generous benefits for years.
“We have been focused on these issues a very long time, but the moment has met us,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who first introduced legislation to make the child tax credit permanent 18 years ago this week. “We are ready to move forward with a number of the areas that have not in the past been able to get that traction, that universal support.”
Biden said Friday that the bill “changes the paradigm” by moving away from the theory of trickle-down economics and instead putting working people first — the first time that has happened, he said, since Lyndon Johnson was president in the 1960s.
“It’s time that we build an economy that grows from the bottom up,” he said, “and the middle out.”
Cementing these priorities won’t be easy, however, as Republicans slam Biden’s relief bill as a bloated progressive wishlist and sound the alarm about soaring levels of deficit spending. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for deficit reduction, estimates that the $1.9 trillion plan could more than double in cost once various programs are made permanent or extended beyond their current expiration dates.
Beyond cost, other GOP lawmakers are raising concerns about extending programs that were passed as temporary measures under the guise of coronavirus relief when they have little to do with the pandemic.
“We need to see it through that lens,” said one policy adviser to Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who has been supportive of the child tax credit in the past. “Is it Covid relief, or is it just another Democrat priority?”
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said it’s clear Democrats are “eager to create bigger and larger” entitlement programs — the child tax credit but also family medical leave and a permanent role for the federal government in unemployment benefits. But he warned that sending checks to families would do little to fix the systemic issues that caused their hardship in the first place.
“Their tactic of merely spending more — which effectively lost the war on poverty — instead of addressing the underlying symptoms that caused that poverty, I think that will fail,” he said.
Brady said the inclusion of such generous benefits on a temporary basis through the rescue plan does not automatically mean they will be here to stay. But historically, it has been difficult if not impossible for politicians to undo tax cuts or tax credit expansions once they have been enacted. And Republicans have had more trouble making arguments against the deficit since they passed sweeping tax cuts under then-President Donald Trump in 2017, a plan that also cost more than $2 trillion, said Brian Riedl, a former longtime Republican economic aide.
“The prospect of a benefit cliff that will sock the middle class is way too unpopular for politicians to even contemplate,” said Riedl, who now works as an economic policy and tax expert with the right-leaning Manhattan Institute.
“The proper way to think of this bill,” he said, “is as much of a down payment on a wishlist of progressive goals that are going to be extended well beyond the pandemic and the recession.”
The child tax credit, which was expanded under the new lawfrom $2,000 to a maximum of $3,600 per kid for one year, is poised to be the first temporary change that could soon become permanent, partly because Biden himself has expressed support for doing so.
On a call with House Democrats where the president endorsed the permanent extension, he also said his recommendation for getting it done was to “Listen to Rosa” DeLauro, according to three people who listened to or were briefed on the call.
Backers of the child tax credit, which was also made available under the relief plan to millions of low and no-income families, say there’s momentum in both the House and Senate behind making it permanent. They are exploring whether Biden’s second stimulus package — another multitrillion dollar plan that Democrats are hoping to release by late May — could be a vehicle for that move.
Barring progress there, Democrats could push for standalone legislation — which DeLauro introduced again last month with Reps. Suzan DelBene of Washington and Ritchie Torres of New York — or work it into a tax package passed before the end of the year.
“It’s fair to say the child tax credit was the most consequential but the least controversial provision of the American Rescue Plan,” Torres said. “So there’s reason for hope.”
Expanding it is also an idea that has in the past garnered support on both sides of the aisle — Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah last month introduced his own proposal on how to do so. And it’s an area where Democrats see a real opportunity to make a lasting change, given how difficult it would be not to extend the benefit once families grow to depend on regular payments straight to their bank accounts.
Democrats and advocates also argue that the plan will pay for itself given how much the U.S. already spends trying to combat child poverty each year. And they are focused on moving quickly to lock in programs that they have championed for years.
“Policies like this were good ideas before the pandemic, [and] even more important during the pandemic,” DelBene said. “And it’s incredibly important that we continue this effort in the long term because of the impact we can have.”
President Biden signs the American Rescue Plan on March 11 in the Oval Office. The $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill includes $1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden signs the American Rescue Plan on March 11 in the Oval Office. The $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill includes $1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
When Mike Phelps moved from Detroit to western Kentucky in 2019, he brought his small business, GenDrop, with him.
GenDrop rents out generator power for concerts and music festivals. Phelps had already powered nearly 100 special events throughout Michigan, and he hoped to do the same in his new state. But when the pandemic hit, and shows were canceled all over the world, Phelps began bleeding money.
“Emails started coming in one after the other about canceling previously confirmed 2020 summer and fall dates,” Phelps told NPR. “I realized quite quickly that the entertainment industry was in major trouble.”
Phelps got a loan from the Small Business Administration, but it was far too small to make a difference. Now he plans to use his $1,400 stimulus check to help keep GenDrop afloat until business picks up. His wife Ashley, a registered nurse “who is singlehandedly carrying our household,” will use her check to pay off credit card debt.
“It’s unfortunate, but you know you’re in trouble when you’re looking in your closet and see paper towels you bought on your credit card,” Phelps said. “We will be paying interest for those paper towels long after they’ve been thrown away.”
Phelps is from one of the 80 to 90% of households expected to receive a stimulus payment from the government. And to the delight of many, that money is coming sooner than anticipated.
Since only a day after President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill, people around the country have reported seeing deposits pending in their bank accounts. That money is expected to be made available as soon as Wednesday.
My God… the stimulus money is pending in my bank account right now.
Most individuals can expect to receive up to $1,400, couples up to $2,800, and those with children and adult dependents can expect $1,400 for each one.
Payments start tapering off for individuals making $75,000 per year, or married couples making $150,000. And unlike the earlier stimulus checks, the maximum cutoff is lower: Individuals no longer qualify once they make $80,000 a year ($160,000 for couples).
According to the U.S. Treasury, payments to eligible Americans will continue through the next several weeks on a rolling basis. Most people who are eligible will automatically receive those payments — no action required. The IRS says it will automatically calculate the amount that people receive, based on their latest processed tax return.
There are as many plans for the $1,400 stimulus checks as there are people who will receive them. For Cailin Rawlins, the money can’t come soon enough. She and her fiancé had made plans to move into a new place in late March — and then calamity struck.
“I lost my job due to health reasons last month,” she told NPR. “The timing of this check is life-changing for us.” The money will go toward their car payment, groceries, and renting a moving truck.
Chelsea Powell from New Jersey plans to pay off a collections account on her credit report, and replace her 9-year-old laptop with something a bit more modern. She’s still employed full time, but when the pandemic hit and hurt restaurants and bars, she lost her second job as a bartender.
“At times I’ve wished that I lived in Canada or somewhere else providing better support to its citizens, but I’m still thankful to live in the USA,” she said.
Payments will go out in batches. The first batch will go to taxpayers who provided direct deposit information on their 2019 or 2020 tax returns. That will be followed by a second batch to taxpayers for whom the IRS already has payment info. For them, the payments could come in the form of checks or prepaid debit cards in the mail.
People who receive Social Security or other federal benefits will receive the payment in the same way as their regular benefits. The IRS has not yet announced a payment date for this group, but says it will do so shortly.
The Treasury says it will provide more information in the coming days for people who don’t have a bank account, or whose address has recently changed. People will soon be able to check the status of their stimulus check at the IRS website.
For Phelps of GenDrop, the deposit is already “pending” in his bank account, and should be available within days. “Honestly it is a glass of water being thrown on an erupting volcano for us,” he said. “But we are glad to be able to pour any water on it whatsoever.”
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The Duchess of Cambridge made an unannounced visit in south London Saturday, to the memorial held for Sarah Everard, a 33-year old woman whose remains were discovered Friday.
Everard went missing after leaving a friend’s apartment around 9 p.m on March 3. She is believed to have been abducted and killed by a police officer who was charged Friday.
Kate Middleton, 39, visited the memorial set up for Everard in Clapham Common, a neighborhood near her home in Brixton, and where she was last spotted before her disappearance.
“She wanted to pay her respects to Sarah and her family,” a royal source told PEOPLE. “She remembers what it felt like to walk around London at night.”
Middleton stopped in front of the memorial with other women paying tribute to Everard, whose case has captured international attention.
The murder of the 33-year old has forced many to take to social media to question why women continue to be threatened by predators, and share personal stories of attacks or their communal fears of violence when walking home at night.
“When she went missing, any woman who has ever walked home alone at night felt that grim, instinctive sense of recognition,” columnist Gaby Hinsliff wrote in The Guardian. “Footsteps on a dark street. Keys gripped between your fingers. There but for the grace of God.”
Constable Wayne Couzens, 48, a member of the London police’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder.
He was set to appear in court Saturday.
Organizers planned a vigil in Everard’s memory Saturday, but due to coronavirus restrictions the ceremony was not permitted to be carried out.
“No woman in London should be unsafe on London’s streets and I understand the strength of feeling that has grown following Sarah’s disappearance,” Metropolitan Police Commander Catherine Roper said in a statement Friday. “As a woman and a police officer, I want nothing more than for women to feel safe and protected by the police.”
“But we need to be clear. Our city is still in a battle with Covid-19 with people continuing to be infected and sadly losing their lives. Only a few weeks ago our NHS was at breaking point, we cannot risk undoing all the hard work to reduce the infection rate,” she added.
The agency had said Friday the tool was expected to be available on Monday.
The third round of Economic Impact Payments will be based on a taxpayer’s latest processed tax return from either 2020 or 2019. That includes anyone who used the IRS non-filers tool last year, or submitted a special simplified tax return.
For those who received the first two stimulus checks but didn’t receive a payment via direct deposit, they will receive a check or a prepaid debit card.
Social Security and other federal beneficiaries will generally receive this third payment the same way as their regular benefits, the IRS said. A payment date for this group is expected to be announced soon.
The payments would amount to $1,400 for a single person or $2,800 for a married couple filing jointly, plus an additional $1,400 for each dependent child. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full payments, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000. Payments would decline for incomes above those thresholds, phasing out above $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.
How to use IRS ‘Get My Payment’
The IRS also updated frequently asked questions Saturday on how to use the “Get My Payment” tool, which requires users to enter their full Social Security number or tax ID number, date of birth, street address and ZIP code.
But before you start entering your information hourly, the IRS says the tool “updates once per day, usually overnight” and that people should “not call the IRS. Our phone assistors don’t have information beyond what’s available on IRS.gov.”
The tool will show the status of when a payment has been issued and the payment date for direct deposit or mail, according to the frequently asked questions. Some will get a message that says “Payment Status Not Available.”
“If you get this message, either we have not yet processed your payment, or you are not eligible for a payment,” the IRS said. “We will continue to send the 2021 Economic Impact Payment to eligible individuals throughout 2021,” the IRS said.
And others will get a “Need More Information” message when using the tool if the payment was returned to the IRS because the post office was unable to deliver it for another reason.
If your address has changed the IRS says the easiest way to update is to “file your 2020 tax return with your current address, if you haven’t already done so. Once we receive your current address, we will reissue your payment.”
In the coming weeks, more batches of payments will be sent via direct deposit and through the mail as a check or debit card, according to the agency. Some people may see the direct deposit payments as “pending” or as provisional payments in their accounts before the official payment date of March 17, the IRS added.
Contributing: Jessica Menton, USA TODAY
Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko
Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department and the officers involved in the deadly shooting.
The suit, filed together by multiple law firms Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, accused the LMPD of violating his constitutional rights.
The lawsuit said LMPD’s actions in the raid violated Walker’s Fourth Amendment rights, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
“This is a very important lawsuit to vindicate Kenneth Walker’s constitutional rights under the U.S. Constitution,” Cliff Sloan, a Georgetown University Law Center professor representing Walker in the suit, told ABC News. “We are seeking to ensure that there is justice and accountability for the tragic and unjustified police assault on Kenneth Walker and killing of Breonna Taylor.”
On March 13, 2020, plainclothes LMPD officers Myles Cosgrove, Brett Hankison and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, executed a no-knock warrant at the apartment where Taylor and Walker were living in Louisville, Kentucky. The officers contended that Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was shipping drugs to the address.
The officers broke through the door as the couple was sleeping. Walker, a licensed gun holder, said he thought someone was breaking in and fired a single shot that hit Mattingly in the leg. The officers returned with a fusillade of bullets that struck and killed Taylor, a 26-year-old medical worker.
The complaint names the Louisville and Jefferson County Metro government and officers Hankison, Cosgrove and Mattingly.
The complaint further accused the LMPD of “tacitly approving excessive use of force” in failing to “adequately train its officers in using reasonable (and not excessive) force.”
“Although Mr. Walker had committed no crime, officers on the scene took him into custody. Defendant Hankison told Mr. Walker that he was ‘going to jail for the rest of [his] life,'” the complaint, obtained by ABC News, stated.
The raid led Walker to suffer “mental anguish, emotional distress, trauma, humiliation, embarrassment, and reputational harm,” the suit said. Walker is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
The LMPD told ABC News the department does not comment on pending litigation but the department has defended the officers saying they knocked and announced themselves at Taylor’s door in the incident. Walker said he heard banging at the door but when he asked who it was, they did not hear the police respond, per the lawsuit.
In September, Mattingly defended his actions in an e-mail to more than 1,000 of his colleagues saying, “I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night. It’s sad how the good guys are demonized, and the criminals are canonized.”
In an exclusive interview with ABC News and Louisville’s Courier Journal in October, Mattingly offered empathy for Taylor’s death, saying, “It was tragic. It’s horrible.” When asked what he would do differently he said he would’ve stormed Taylor’s residence without giving her time to answer, claiming the shooting wouldn’t have happened if that were the case.
Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer in the raid. He said he fired in self-defense. The charge was dropped this week.
Last year, Walker filed an ongoing state court lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court against the city and the LMPD.
That suit claimed Walker should be exempt from criminal prosecution under Kentucky’s “Stand Your Ground” law which “protects all Kentuckians who seek to protect themselves or loved ones in self-defense,” according to the suit.
Taylor’s death sparked national protests decrying racism and police brutality. To this day, none of the officers involved in the raid have been charged in her death.
“I knew those are people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t concerned,” Johnson told “The Joe Pags Show,” according to a clip of the interview posted Friday by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic group, which blasted Johnson for his “blatant racism.”
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