Virginia Governor’s Race Deadlocked, Poll Shows, as Sinking Biden Stumps for McAuliffe – Newsweek
Virginia Governor’s Race Deadlocked, Poll Shows, as Sinking Biden Stumps for McAuliffe – Newsweek

President Joe Biden campaigned for Democrat Terry McAuliffe one week ahead of Virginia’s gubernatorial election as a new poll shows a deadlock in the race.

According to a Suffolk University poll of likely Virginia voters, McAuliffe narrowly leads with 46 percent over Republican Glenn Youngkin by less than one point, or within the poll’s statistical margin of error. Biden hoped to boost the former governor’s campaign on Tuesday evening despite his own declining approval rating.

“You don’t have to wonder what kind of governor Terry will be because you know what a great governor he was,” Biden said. “Wasn’t just because of what he promised, it’s what he delivered.”

The president continued that during McAuliffe’s time in office, from 2014 to 2018, he improved the state’s economy, created jobs, invested in education, supported the veterans community and enacted gun safety measures.

President Joe Biden’s endorsement of Terry McAuliffe comes as the president faces criticism for his handling of the economy, immigration, infrastructure and climate change—which have been cited as the likely reasons he’s losing popularity. Above, Biden appears on the stump with McAuliffe at Virginia Highlands Park on October 26, 2021, in Arlington, Virginia.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

During Biden’s endorsement of McAuliffe, he also took aim at former President Donald Trump and told voters that a Republican victory could undermine democracy.

“Terry’s opponent not only embraces someone with such a lack of character, he endorses Donald Trump’s bad ideas and bad record,” the president said.

In the same Suffolk University survey, 52 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Biden and 66 percent said they felt the nation was headed in the same direction.

As of Monday, Biden had an approval rating of 43.5 percent and a disapproval rating of 50.6 percent, according to a poll of polls created by data website FiveThirtyEight.

Just days before that, on Friday, the Democrat’s approval rating sunk to a new low of 43.4 percent, and his disapproval rating reached 50.7 percent.

Biden’s approval rating was closer to 53 percent and his disapproval rating was 36 percent when he first took office, according to the website.

Virginia’s gubernatorial election, which is taking place in an off-year, may provide insight into how next year’s midterms will shape up. A few key issues have primarily been defining the governor’s race ahead of Election Day.

Forty percent of Virginia voters surveyed said the economy or jobs was the most important issue impacting the governor’s race while 23 percent said education and 17 percent said health care, according to the poll.

McAuliffe led Youngkin 80 to 13 percent among those concerned about healthcare but trailed by 13 points for those most concerned about the economy.

Newsweek reached out to McAuliffe for comment.

Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/virginia-governors-race-deadlocked-poll-shows-sinking-biden-stumps-mcauliffe-1642916

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Scoop: Manchin waffles on billionaire tax – Axios
Scoop: Manchin waffles on billionaire tax – Axios

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is telling colleagues he has deep concerns about a proposed “billionaire tax” but is waiting for more details before making a final decision, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Why it matters: The senator’s doubts reveal an uncomfortable truth for the White House and congressional leaders as they race to finish — and pay for — their nearly $2 trillion social spending and climate package: A tax solution designed to satisfy Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) isn’t necessarily acceptable to Manchin.

  • The billionaire tax gained currency over the weekend because Sinema, a fellow moderate and key negotiator, signaled her opposition to corporate, personal and capital gains tax hikes. Manchin’s potential opposition to the billionaire-tax proposal would blow a $200 billion to $250 billion hole in the Democrats’ plans for new revenues.
  • Manchin has long had concerns about “mark-to-market” proposals, which try to assess — and then tax — the appreciation of an asset before it’s been sold. That would be the underpinning of the billionaire tax.
  • On Tuesday, Manchin noncommittally told reporters: “I haven’t seen the text on it.”

Driving the news: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, planned to release the details of his tax on unrealized gains for billionaires Tuesday evening, with senators and key House lawmakers eager to see actual legislation.

  • “These are complicated ideas and the devil’s in the details,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told Axios.
  • Asked by Axios’ Alayna Treene if he was skeptical about the proposal, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said, “Oh of course. I think that — you know, I mean, I got to look at it.”
  • Some House Democrats, including House Way and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), have expressed misgivings about the proposal but haven’t formally announced their opposition.

The big picture: Senate leaders unveiled a separate plan to impose a 15% minimum book tax on corporations with more than $1 billion in profits.

  • Previously estimates have put the potential revenue for that provision at $150 billion over 10 years, but Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) suggested Tuesday it could raise between $300 billion and $400 billion.
  • Sinema proclaimed her support on Twitter, and Manchin told reporters earlier Tuesday he’s comfortable with the plan.

Between the lines: Even with the 15% minimum tax, Democrats are running out of potential revenue sources to pay for their proposed new spending.

  • That could force them to shrink the overall size of the package and discard some progressive priorities, including paid family leave or a Medicare expansion.
  • On Tuesday, Manchin all but killed a proposal to require banks to share more information about customers’ accounts with the IRS to help the agency find tax cheats — depriving negotiators of an estimated $200 billion in additional revenues.
  • “I think that one’s going to be gone,” Manchin said at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Washington.

Source Article from https://www.axios.com/manchin-billionaires-tax-6dd769da-3eb4-4551-b5ad-0e96eb3e792c.html

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How hospitals inflate bills for healthy births by labeling them ’emergencies’ : Shots – Health News – NPR
How hospitals inflate bills for healthy births by labeling them ’emergencies’ : Shots – Health News – NPR

When Caitlin Wells Salerno and Jon Salerno’s first son, Hank, was born, his delivery cost the family only $30. Gus’ bill came in at more than $16,000, all told — including the $2,755 ER charge. The family was responsible for about $3,600 of the total.

Rae Ellen Bichell/KHN


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Rae Ellen Bichell/KHN

When Caitlin Wells Salerno and Jon Salerno’s first son, Hank, was born, his delivery cost the family only $30. Gus’ bill came in at more than $16,000, all told — including the $2,755 ER charge. The family was responsible for about $3,600 of the total.

Rae Ellen Bichell/KHN

As a conservation biologist, Caitlin Wells Salerno knows that some mammals — like the golden-mantled ground squirrels she studies in the Rocky Mountains — invest an insane amount of resources in their young. That didn’t prepare her for the resources she would owe after the birth of her second son.

Wells Salerno went into labor on the eve of her due date, in the early weeks of coronavirus lockdowns in April 2020. She and her husband, Jon Salerno, were instructed to go through the emergency room doors at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo., because it was the only entrance open.

Despite the weird vibe of the pandemic era — the emptiness, the quiet — everything went smoothly. Wells Salerno felt well enough to decline the help of a nurse who offered to wheel her to the labor and delivery department. She even took a selfie, smiling, as she entered the delivery room.

“I was just thrilled that he was here and it was on his due date, so we didn’t have to have an induction,” she says. “I was doing great.”

Gus was born a healthy 10 pounds after about nine hours of labor, and the family went home the next morning.

Wells Salerno expected the bill for Gus’ birth to be heftier than the $30 she’d been billed four years earlier for the delivery of her first child, Hank. She’d been a postdoctoral fellow in California, with top-notch insurance when Hank was born. They were braced to pay more for Gus’s delivery — but how much more?

Then the bill came.

The Patient: Caitlin Wells Salerno, a conservation biologist at Colorado State University and a principal investigator at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. She is insured by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield through her job.

Medical Service: A routine vaginal delivery of a full-term infant.

Total Bill: $16,221.26. The Anthem BCBS negotiated rate was $14,550. Insurance paid $10,940.91 and the family paid the remaining $3,609.09 to the hospital.

Service Provider: Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo., operated by UCHealth, a nonprofit health system.

What Gives: In a system that has evolved to bill for anything and everything, a quick exam to evaluate labor in a small triage room can generate substantial charges.

The total bill was huge, but what really made Wells Salerno’s eyes pop was the whopping $2,755 charge for “Level 5” emergency services included in that total. It didn’t make any sense.

Emergency room visits are coded from Level 1 to Level 5, with each higher level garnering more generous reimbursement, in theory commensurate with the work required. Dr. Renee Hsia, a professor of emergency medicine and health policy at the University of California, San Francisco and a practicing ER doctor, says Level 5 charges are supposed to be reserved for serious cases — “a severe threat to life, or very complicated, resource-intense cases” — not for patients who can walk through a hospital on their own.

So, why did Wells Salerno’s bill include a “Level 5” charge? Was it for checking in at the ER desk, as she’d been instructed to do? She recalls merely going through security in the ER on her way to labor and delivery, but she seemed to have been charged as though she’d received care there — like a patient with a heart attack or someone fresh from a car wreck. That ER charge was the biggest item on the bill, other than the charge for the delivery itself.

Over the past 20 years, hospitals and doctors have learned there’s great profit in upcoding visits. After all, the insurer isn’t in the exam room to know what transpired. An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity found that between 2001 and 2008 the number of Level 4 and 5 visits for patients who were sent home from the ER nearly doubled to almost 50% of visits. In Colorado, the Center for Improving Value in Health Care looked at emergency visit billing from 2009 to 2016 and found that the percentage of emergency visits coded as Level 5 steadily grew from 23% to 34% for patients who have commercial insurance.

After repeated calls in which she questioned the line item on her bill, Wells Salerno eventually got a voicemail from the billing department, which she shared with us. The person who left the voicemail explained that “the emergency room charge is actually the OB triage little area — before they take you to the labor and delivery room.”

A customer service representative later explained the charge was for services given there when a nurse placed an IV for antibiotics, and her doctor checked her dilation and confirmed her water had broken — although none of that was actually performed in the Emergency Department. And those services, performed before every delivery, are traditionally not billed separately — and are routine, not emergency, procedures.

Caitlin Wells Salerno was in good enough shape during labor with baby Gus to snap this selfie with husband Jon as she walked to the delivery room. So when the hospital bill included a charge for emergency services, the couple thought it had to be a mistake.

Caitlin Wells Salerno


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Caitlin Wells Salerno

Caitlin Wells Salerno was in good enough shape during labor with baby Gus to snap this selfie with husband Jon as she walked to the delivery room. So when the hospital bill included a charge for emergency services, the couple thought it had to be a mistake.

Caitlin Wells Salerno

Some hospitals provide that package of services via an “obstetrical emergency department.” OB-EDs are licensed under the main Emergency Department and typically see patients who are pregnant, for anything from unexplained bleeding to full-term birth. They bill like an ER, even if they aren’t physically located anywhere near the ER.

TeamHealth — a health care staffing company owned by the investment company Blackstone, and known for marking up ER bills to boost profit — essentially says an OB-ED can be as simple as a rebranded obstetrical triage area. In a white paper, the company says an OB-ED is an “entrepreneurial approach to strengthening hospital finances,” because with “little to no structural investment” it allows hospitals to “collect facility charges that are otherwise lost in the obstetrical triage setting.”

The OB Hospitalist Group, which is owned by a private equity company, markets a tool to help OB-EDs calculate levels of emergency care. In a case study, OB Hospitalist Group reported that hospitals “leave a lot of money on the table” by billing OB-ED visits as Level 1 and 2 emergencies when they could be considered Level 4 emergencies.

An Arizona facility said its revenue increased $365,000 per quarter after turning their obstetric triage area into an OB-ED. Poudre Valley Hospital’s website doesn’t list “OB-ED” as part of the facility’s offerings, though UCHealth documents do reference OB-ED beds in other facilities.

KHN spoke with four other women who, after giving birth at Poudre Valley in 2020 and 2021, received ER charges on their bills after healthy births. They had no clue they had received emergency services. One wrote a warning note on Facebook to other moms in the area after getting a whopping charge – for the 10 minutes she spent in the triage room, while fully dilated and in active labor.

In Wells Salerno’s case, UCHealth and her insurer have an agreement that Anthem BCBS pays a lump sum for vaginal delivery, rather than paying for line items individually. “Being seen there in OB-ED did not impact this bill whatsoever,” says Dan Weaver, a spokesperson with UCHealth.

But in one of the other moms’ cases, it did make a difference: The hospital received $1,500 from the insurer for that charge, and the mom was on the hook for an additional $375 for coinsurance.

Ge Bai, a professor of accounting and health policy at Johns Hopkins University, says it’s a “questionable” billing practice, and one that can matter to those who don’t have the same kind of insurance as Wells Salerno — and to those who have no insurance at all.

Dr. Mark Simon, chief medical officer with OB Hospitalist Group, says OB-EDs can help women avoid being admitted to the hospital too early in labor, ensuring timelier, more appropriate care.

UCHealth’s Weaver says such departments can also help pregnant patients with actual emergencies like preterm labor, preeclampsia or vaginal bleeding get quick care from specialists available 24/7 — often without having to be admitted to the hospital. But at hospitals like Poudre Valley, healthy women having healthy births also get routine “OB-ED” treatment, without their knowledge.

Weaver says the only time someone in labor would not go through the OB-ED — and therefore the only time they would not receive the emergency charge — is if they have a scheduled induction or cesarean section or are directly admitted from a provider’s office.

Hsia, the UCSF researcher and ER doctor, is unconvinced by Weaver’s arguments that these sorts of charges benefit patients: “If they’re actually going to charge a special fee that you didn’t get directly admitted from your physician, that’s absolutely ridiculous,” Hsia says.

Wells Salerno’s “OB-ED” exam was performed by her clinician, but the OB-ED charge still showed up on her bill.

Resolution: Wells Salerno eventually threw in the towel and paid the bill.

“I was at a very vulnerable time during pregnancy and immediately postpartum,” she says. “I just felt like I had kind of been taken advantage of financially at a time when I couldn’t muster the energy to fight back.”

The fact that two healthy brothers could come into the world with such different overall price tags isn’t surprising to Dr. Michelle Moniz. “There is no clinical reason that we have this level of variation,” says Moniz, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan and its Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. Her research shows that people with private insurance pay anywhere from nothing to $10,000 for childbirth.

“You don’t get what you pay for,” says Wells Salerno, who maintains that — despite the price difference in the cost of their deliveries — both of her children are equally “awesome.”

The family expected the bill for Gus’ birth in April 2020 to be heftier than the $30 they were billed four years earlier for the delivery of his older brother, Hank. They had better insurance back then. But the whopping $2,755 charge for high-level emergency services for a routine delivery seemed outrageous to them.

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Rae Ellen Bichell/KHN

The Takeaway: Anything in our health system labeled as an emergency room service likely comes with a big additional charge.

Data from the Colorado Division of Insurance shows that Poudre Valley typically received about $12,000 for similar births in 2020 — about 43% more than the typical Colorado hospital. So the more than $14,000 Wells Salerno and her insurer paid is very high.

Expectant parents should be aware that OB-EDs are a relatively new feature at some hospitals. Ask whether your hospital has that kind of charge and how it will affect your bill. Ahead of time, ask both the hospital and your insurer how much the birth is expected to cost. In Colorado, the Center for Improving Value in Health Care offers a price comparison tool for common medical procedures, including vaginal delivery.

If you do require a genuine ER encounter, look at your bill to see how it was coded, Levels 1 to 5 — and protest if your visit was misrepresented. Ask, “Has this bill been upcoded?” You are the only one who knows how much time you spent with a medical provider and how much care was given and where. Here’s a chart that will help with the proper definition of each level.

Know that victory is possible. At least one mom won the battle and got the emergency charge removed from her Poudre Valley Hospital birth bill. To make that happen she had to put in hours on the phone with UCHealth, have a lot of confidence and had to emphasize to everyone she spoke with that an emergency charge for a routine delivery just didn’t — and doesn’t — make sense.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by NPR and Kaiser Health News that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/10/27/1049138668/childbirth-how-hospitals-inflate-bills

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Senate Democrats unveil corporate tax for Biden agenda – Reuters
Senate Democrats unveil corporate tax for Biden agenda – Reuters

Oct 26 (Reuters) – Leading Democratic senators unveiled legislation on Tuesday to impose a 15% minimum tax on the most profitable U.S. corporations, saying the levy would help finance President Joe Biden’s social policy and climate change plans.

The proposal, part of a two-pronged legislative strategy to curtail tax avoidance by corporations and the wealthy, was put forward by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, both Democrats, along with Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

The corporate minimum tax targets public and privately owned companies that post more than $1 billion in annual profits over a three-year period.

The lawmakers said it would dovetail with the global corporate minimum tax agreed by 136 countries, which is aimed at corporations that pay little or no tax by gaming the international tax system.

“What we have put together is built around the proposition that corporations ought to pay their fair share and profitable corporations should never pay zero tax,” Wyden told reporters.

The corporate tax would apply to around 200 companies and raise hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade, the lawmakers said.

Wyden said he will also unveil a new “billionaires tax” that would impose a levy on individuals with unrealized assets worth more than $1 billion and a three consecutive years of annual income of $100 million.

The White House signaled support for the legislation, saying Biden would continue to fight to include it in his “Build Back Better” bill. The three lawmakers also predicted widespread backing from the 50-member Senate Democratic caucus, including moderate Senator Joe Manchin.

But the strategy, particularly the more unconventional billionaires tax, could face pushback from Democrats in the House of Representatives, who favor more straightforward hikes in tax rates for corporations and wealthy individuals to pay for Biden’s plan.

Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a moderate who had opposed raising the corporate tax rate, said the proposal unveiled on Tuesday represented a “common sense” step toward ensuring that highly profitable companies pay what she called a “reasonable minimum corporate tax” on their profits.

Democrats had shifted their plans on taxation in the face of Sinema’s opposition to raising the corporate tax rate and the top personal income tax rate to pay for the hefty spending plan, which is a pillar of Biden’s domestic agenda.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/details-emerge-corporate-minimum-tax-plan-us-senate-democrats-cnbc-2021-10-26/

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Men shot by Rittenhouse can’t be called ‘victims’ during trial, but ‘rioters,’ ‘looters’ are OK, judge rules – NBC News
Men shot by Rittenhouse can’t be called ‘victims’ during trial, but ‘rioters,’ ‘looters’ are OK, judge rules – NBC News
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Biden lays into Trump while campaigning for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia – POLITICO
Biden lays into Trump while campaigning for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia – POLITICO

“You don’t have to wonder what kind of governor Terry will be because you know what a great governor he was,” Biden said. “It wasn’t just because of what he promised. It’s what he delivered.”

Biden’s speech then turned into a wide-ranging rebuke of the Republican candidate, Glenn Youngkin, and, ultimately, a rebuke of Donald Trump.

“But how well do you know Terry’s opponent?” Biden said. “Remember this: I ran against Donald Trump. And Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump.”

Biden dug in, telling the crowd that Youngkin wouldn’t “allow” Trump to campaign for him.

“What’s he hiding? Is he embarrassed?” the president said, amplifying his voice.

Biden’s rant hit Trump on everything from his claims of election fraud, the pandemic and the Jan. 6 insurrection, to the former president’s recent attacks on former Secretary of State Colin Powell following his death. He lambasted Youngkin, who has recently tried to distance himself from the former president, for standing by Trump.

One of Biden’s sharpest attacks against Youngkin came toward the end of his speech, when he said extremism could come in many forms. The president said it could arrive in a mob-driven assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Then again, Biden added of Youngkin, “it can come in a smile and a fleece vest.”

Biden said next to nothing about the negotiations on his signature social welfare and infrastructure legislation happening just across the Potomac, instead diving into issues that have defined the governor’s race in the closing days. Before he took the stage, McAuliffe aides passed out books by the late Toni Morrison, after Youngkin in an ad this week featured a woman who had tried to have Morrison’s novel “Beloved” — which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 — banned in public schools. Later, Biden noted that his wife, first lady Jill Biden, had traveled to Princeton University to interview the author, dismissing Youngkin as a know-nothing.

McAuliffe didn’t shy away from amplifying this message when he addressed the crowd ahead of Biden.

“Glenn Youngkin is promoting banning books by one of America’s most prominent Black authors,” McAuliffe said, before adding that it “bothers” him that Youngkin uses education to divide the state.

Youngkin’s zeroing in on education could in part explain the tightening race, the second-most-important topic to Virginians as they decide whom to vote for on Nov. 2, following jobs and the economy. Just last week, a poll from Monmouth University showed the candidates deadlocked, with both at 46 percent support among registered voters.

The president’s quick stop in Arlington also comes as he faces alarming poll numbers in Virginia and nationwide, with a recent Monmouth poll putting him at a 43 percent job approval rating. (He still had high support among Democrats, with 84 percent approval and plus-10 favorability in Northern Virginia.)

Virginia isn’t a loss Democrats want to explain. With the face-off between McAuliffe and Youngkin just days away, the president and the party are leaning into these early elections as a referendum on the presidency and a glimpse into challenging congressional races in 2022.

Over the weekend, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, and other party officials touted Democratic investments in Virginia, as well as visits from Biden, the first lady and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re all in,” Harrison said at a Richmond rally for McAuliffe over the weekend. “Virginia is very important; we want to make sure that we turn the vote out.”

Biden’s out-front approach is a break from Barack Obama, whose team distanced the former president from the Democratic gubernatorial campaigns in 2009 and 2013. Biden’s move could backfire if Youngkin succeeds, giving Republicans more fuel to criticize the White House in upcoming elections.

Virginia’s off-year elections don’t always predict the future. McAuliffe, for example, won in 2013, defying the state’s tendency of electing a governor from the party that isn’t in the White House. Still, Biden projected a sense of urgency on Tuesday night as he talked about the importance of the gubernatorial election for Virginia, and the rest of the country.

“Virginia, show up,” the president said. “Show up like you did for Barack and me. Show up like you did for me and Kamala. Show up for a proven leader like Terry McAuliffe. Show up for democracy. For Virginia. For the United States of America.”

Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/26/biden-trump-campaigning-mcauliffe-virginia-517292

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Brazilian commission votes in favor of recommending criminal charges against Bolsonaro – CNN
Brazilian commission votes in favor of recommending criminal charges against Bolsonaro – CNN

By Rodrigo Pedroso

Updated 4:54 AM ET, Wed October 27, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/26/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-covid-cpi-vote-intl-latam/index.html

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Corporate minimum tax proposal unveiled by key Senate Democrats as Biden social bill comes together – CNBC
Corporate minimum tax proposal unveiled by key Senate Democrats as Biden social bill comes together – CNBC

WASHINGTON — New details of a Democratic plan to enact a 15% minimum corporate tax on declared income of large corporations were released Tuesday by three senators, Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Angus King, I-Maine, and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

The senators will propose the tax be included as a source of revenue to help fund the massive “Build Back Better” bill that Democrats are currently negotiating.

Shortly after the plan was released a key senator in those negotiations, Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, announced that she would support the corporate minimum tax, giving the proposal a major boost.

According to a release from the senators, the corporate minimum tax would: 

  • Apply only to companies that publicly report more than $1 billion in profits annually for a three year time period.
  • Create an across-the-board 15% minimum tax on those profits.
  • Preserve “the value of business credits – including R&D, clean energy, and housing tax credits – and include some flexibilities for companies to carry forward losses, utilize foreign tax credits, and claim a minimum tax credit against regular tax in future years.”

The tax proposal gained new focus this week after Sinema announced that she would not support raising the current corporate tax rate, which had been Democrats’ original plan to raise revenue for their social spending plan.

The tax would likely apply to about 200 American corporations, the senators said.

The Democrats did not say which business credits within the tax code would be preserved. The details of those credits would likely make a huge difference to the corporations that face the prospect of owing the tax.

According to legislative language released by Warren’s office, the Treasury Department would be tasked with determining which corporations would be subject to the tax and the finer details of its imposition.

“The most profitable corporations in the country are often the worst offenders when it comes to paying their fair share. Year after year they report record profits to shareholders and pay little to no taxes. Our proposal would tackle the most egregious corporate tax dodging by ensuring the biggest companies pay a minimum tax,” Wyden said in a statement.

They specifically referenced Amazon, which they said reported $45 billion in profits over the past three years, yet paid an “effective tax rate of just 4.3% – well below the 21% corporate tax rate.”

The proposal has yet to get a formal stamp of approval from House and Senate leaders. But Warren said she and her colleagues have “engaged extensively” with the Senate Finance Committee, the White House and the Treasury Department to develop this updated proposal for inclusion in the Build Back Better bill.

The current proposal is similar to one pitched by President Joe Biden earlier this year as part of the White House’s broader “Made In America” tax agenda.

In March, the administration called for a 15% minimum tax on the income corporations use to report their profits to investors, known as “book” income.

The White House said at the time that such a provision would “apply only to the very largest corporations” and ensure big companies can’t “exploit loops in the tax code to get by without paying U.S. corporate taxes.”

The Biden proposal differed from the current Senate proposal in a few respects. One is that the Biden plan put the income threshold at $2 billion, not $1 billion. So the Senate proposal would apply to more companies.

Biden’s plan also did not contain a three-year rule, where the tax only applies to companies that make $1 billion or more in income for three consecutive years.

To read the legislative language, click here.

Clarification: This story has been updated to better reflect the role of the Treasury Department in implementing the prospective tax.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/26/corporate-minimum-tax-proposal-unveiled-by-key-senate-democrats.html

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Manchin Is in the Middle, With Biden’s Agenda in the Balance – The New York Times
Manchin Is in the Middle, With Biden’s Agenda in the Balance – The New York Times

Mr. Manchin, whose demand that the overall package not exceed $1.5 trillion has driven a frenzied effort to cut the cost of the bill, has maintained that he is keeping an open mind out of fairness to Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders.

But he has proved unyielding on many of progressives’ most cherished priorities, such as Mr. Sanders’s drive to add vision, hearing and dental benefits to Medicare.

“Bernie and I have met the last three days for at least an hour a day, getting to know each other differently than we ever did before,” Mr. Manchin said he had told Mr. Biden on Sunday. “He has my respect. I know who he is, and where he’s coming from. I just respectfully disagree.”

That resistance has not stopped Democrats from trying to sway him. These days, Mr. Manchin can usually be found huddled with colleagues who are seeking his support — or to change his mind — on a component of the social policy bill. On Monday evening, it was Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, along with Senators Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Ron Wyden of Oregon and other climate hawks seeking to salvage a fee on methane emissions and other spending to which Mr. Manchin had objected.

Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he had sought a meeting with Mr. Manchin to discuss how to increase taxes to pay for the plan. He reminded reporters that the two had worked together on pension legislation.

After his breakfast with Mr. Biden and Mr. Schumer, Mr. Manchin fielded a call from Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat, who urged him to support a proposal to cover the cost of expanding Medicaid in states that had not done so under the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Manchin has said it would be unfair for the federal government to cover those costs for some states, when others like West Virginia have expanded their Medicaid programs and received only a 90 percent subsidy.

Democrats have good reason to court Mr. Manchin’s support. They remember how difficult it was to win his vote on the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid plan enacted this year, including his last-minute effort to slash the size of the unemployment benefits included in the measure. (While Mr. Manchin ultimately voted yes after winning the concessions he sought, the grueling negotiations led to the longest open Senate vote in modern history.)

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/us/politics/joe-manchin-biden.html

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4 takeaways from the Senate child safety hearing with YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok – NPR
4 takeaways from the Senate child safety hearing with YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok – NPR

Jennifer Stout , left, vice president of global public policy at Snapchat parent Snap Inc., and Michael Beckerman, vice president and head of public policy at TikTok, testify before a Senate panel on Tuesday.

Samuel Corum/Getty Images


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Jennifer Stout , left, vice president of global public policy at Snapchat parent Snap Inc., and Michael Beckerman, vice president and head of public policy at TikTok, testify before a Senate panel on Tuesday.

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Lawmakers in the Senate hammered representatives from Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube on Tuesday, in a combative hearing about whether the tech giants do enough to keep children safe online.

It marked the first time Snapchat and TikTok have landed in the hot seat in Washington, D.C., and for nearly four hours lawmakers pressed the officials about how the apps have been misused to promote bullying, worsen eating disorders and help teens buy dangerous drugs or engage in reckless behavior.

The hearing was convened by the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety and data security — the same panel that brought Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen to testify earlier this month about the thousands of pages of internal company documents she has shared with Congress, regulators and the press. Haugen says the documents show how the social network places profits over public safety.

Haugen’s disclosures about Facebook underscored the potential harms of the platform: its ability to amplify misinformation and how Facebook’s own research showed that Instagram can worsen mental health and body-image issues for young people.

Given how enormously popular Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube are with teens, lawmakers expressed deep worry about the platforms having the ability to hurt users’ self-image and contribute to other mental health issues.

In his opening remarks, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said social media firms claiming they are distinct from Facebook is not going to cut it.

“Being different from Facebook is not a defense,” said Blumenthal, who leads the subcommittee. “That bar is in the gutter. It’s not a defense to say that you are different.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., offered an even blunter assessment.

“The problem is clear: Big Tech preys on children and teens to make more money,” Markey said. “Now is the time for the legislative solutions to these problems.”

Here are four takeaways from the hearing.

Lawmakers say that until incentives change, social media will be a ‘race to the bottom’

For the youngest users, Blumenthal said, social media companies have a perverse incentive to keep eyeballs glued on their apps, regardless of what kind of content is eventually served up.

“What we want is not a race to the bottom, but a race to the top,” Blumenthal said.

For teens and other young people using social media, being optimized for engagement can make social media apps addicting and lead users to content that is not age appropriate or is harmful, the lawmakers said.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., asked the company officials if platforms are designed to keep people engaged as long as possible.

Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president and head of public policy, was evasive, saying the viral video app sees itself as a form of entertainment, no different than television or movies. Still, the app has a responsibility to give parents time management and “take a break” tools, he said.

For TikTok, Beckerman said, “overall engagement” is more important than how much time is spent on the app.

Jennifer Stout, the vice president of global public policy at Snapchat parent Snap Inc., said time on the app is “one of many metrics” the company studies.

And Leslie Miller, YouTube’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, like the other officials, would not directly answer the question of whether the video-streaming service defines success by how long people spend watching videos.

“We do look at, for example, if a video was watched through its entirety,” Miller said. “We look at those data points.”

Snapchat says it will continue to fight abuse of its app, including cracking down on drug dealers

Stout told lawmakers that Snapchat is “an antidote to social media,” highlighting how “very little” of its content is sorted by algorithms.

“Snapchat’s architecture was intentionally designed to empower people to express a full range of experiences and emotions with their real friends, not just the pretty and perfect moments,” Stout said.

But lawmakers zeroed in on the ways in which Snapchat has led to harm.

One feature that drew particular attention from lawmakers was Snapchat’s now-disabled “speed filter,” which critics say encouraged teens to drive at excessive speeds. The feature has been connected to a number of deadly or near-fatal car crashes. The company’s decision to eliminate the feature in June was first reported by NPR.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., noted other cases where young people obtained drugs through Snapchat, including one young man who died after purchasing the painkiller Percocet laced with fentanyl on the app.

Snap has stepped up detection measures to root out drug dealers from the platform and launched an education campaign to steer users away from those peddling drugs on the app.

“We are absolutely determined to remove drug dealers from Snapchat,” Stout said.

Officials from all three companies were asked about instances where the platforms were found to have fed young users material about sex, self-harm or content that worsens body-image issues.

In response, the officials evaded responding to particular examples and instead stated generally that such content would violate its rules and be removed.

“We prohibit content that promotes or glorifies such things as eating disorders, but we also realize that users come and share their stories about these experiences,” said Miller.

At YouTube, Miller said, experts help develop content moderation policies. More than 90% of content that violates its community guidelines is detected through its artificial intelligence, according to Miller.

TikTok’s ties to China were in the spotlight

TikTok, which has more than 1 billion monthly active users around the globe, was grilled about an issue that first landed it in hot water during the Trump administration: its ties to China.

TikTok is a U.S. business that is a subsidiary of ByteDance, a Beijing-based tech giant.

Officials at TikTok have long said that Americans’ data is primarily stored in the U.S. and safeguarded from the Chinese authorities.

Lawmakers, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questioned those safeguards, and pushed Beckerman on whether U.S. user data is shared with ByteDance, accusing TikTok of being cozy with Chinese authorities.

Cruz asked Beckerman whether TikTok’s privacy policy permits ByteDance unfettered access to Americans’ personal information.

Beckerman did not directly answer the question, pointing out that TikTok does not exist in China. The app’s Chinese counterpart is known as Douyin.

“That does not give this committee any confidence that TikTok is doing anything other than participating in Chinese propaganda and espionage on American children,” said Cruz.

“That is not accurate,” Beckerman shot back.

China-based ByteDance engineers do have access to U.S. user data, but can only gain such access with permission from an American security team, a top TikTok security official said last year in a sworn statement as part of the company’s legal battle with the Trump administration.

“We do not share information with the Chinese government,” Beckerman told Senators on Tuesday.

The companies refused to commit on legislative proposals

Even though there is bipartisan support in Washington to regulate the tech industry, Democrats and Republicans differ in diagnosing the problem, and sometimes have opposing solutions.

Nonetheless, senators discussed a range of legislative proposals, like an update to a law known as Section 230 that provides a legal shield to the industry.

In addition, bills that would protect the online privacy rights of children, ban ads targeting young users and eliminate core features of social media, including “like” buttons, autoplay and push alerts were also put to company officials.

Most of the time, however, lawmakers could not pin down the positions of the tech company representatives on various proposals.

After the officials refused to offer clear answers on whether they supported a law that would regulate how tech companies can collect personal data from teenagers, Markey became frustrated.

“This is just what drives us crazy, ‘We want to talk, want to talk, want to talk.’ This bill’s been out there for years, and you still don’t have a view on it,” Markey said.

Blumenthal, too, grew impatient with the answers from the company representatives on specific pieces of legislation that would impose greater restrictions on the tech industry.

Markey said it wasn’t enough to simply support the goals of the legislation, as the officials said that they did. “That’s meaningless if you don’t support the legislation,” he said.

Editor’s Note: Google, which owns YouTube, is among NPR’s recent financial supporters.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/10/26/1049267501/snapchat-tiktok-youtube-congress-child-safety-hearing

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Kyle Rittenhouse judge says men shot by teen can be called ‘rioters’ and ‘looters’ – but not ‘victims’ – New York Post
Kyle Rittenhouse judge says men shot by teen can be called ‘rioters’ and ‘looters’ – but not ‘victims’ – New York Post

Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal team can brand the men shot by the teen in Kenosha, Wis., as “rioters” and “looters” when his murder trial starts next week — but prosecutors can’t call them “victims,” the judge has ruled.

In a pre-trial hearing Monday, Wisconsin Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder overturned a motion to bar the teen’s attorneys from using such terms while trying to prove his triple shooting in August last year was justified self-defense.

If prosecutors can try to portray Rittenhouse as “a cold-blooded killer,” then his defense should be free to “call someone a rioter,” the judge said, according to a Kenosha News court report.

Still, he cautioned the defense team against using pejorative terms during opening statements, saying they should be reserved for closing arguments — and only if they can produce evidence justifying the terms.

Circuit Court Judge Bruce E. Schroeder listens during the pretrial hearing of Kyle Rittenhouse on Oct. 25.
Mark Hertzberg/Pool Photo via AP

“He can demonize them if he wants, if he thinks it will win points with the jury,” Schroeder said of protesters Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, who were both killed, and Gaige Grosskreutz, who was injured.

The defense has already made clear that it intends to argue that Rosenbaum — the first of the three to be shot — posed a danger, claiming he threatened to kill people and was seen starting fires.

“The behavior of many people there was lawless,” defense attorney Mark Richards told the court, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Mr. Rosenbaum was at the top of that list.”

Kyle Rittenhouse appears at a pretrial hearing in Kenosha Circuit Court, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021, in advance of his trial, which is scheduled to begin Nov. 1.
Mark Hertzberg/Pool Photo via AP

Another member of the defense team, Corey Chirafisi, stressed that “if Rosenbaum is the aggressor, it goes directly to the issue of whether the jury would believe [Rittenhouse’s] actions were reasonable.”

Despite allowing the trio to be painted in a negative light, the judge stuck by his earlier ruling barring prosecutors from calling the trio “victims.”

“The word ‘victim’ is a loaded, loaded word,” Schroeder told the court, according to the Tribune.

Kyle Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people during the Black Lives Matter protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Adam Rogan/The Journal Times via AP, File

Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, was just 17 when he opened fire during fiery Black Lives Matter riots in the city following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

He has admitted being the gunman caught in now-viral videos and photos from the night, but has always insisted it was self-defense.

His trial on a slew of charges — including first-degree homicide and reckless homicide — is scheduled to start Monday.

With Post wires

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/10/26/kyle-rittenhouse-judge-says-men-he-shot-can-be-called-rioters-and-looters/

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What we know about Kyrsten Sinema’s positions in spending talks – NPR
What we know about Kyrsten Sinema’s positions in spending talks – NPR

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., arrives at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 5. Her opposition to Democrats’ proposed spending package is forcing changes, but her specific positions have been hard to pin down.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images


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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., arrives at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 5. Her opposition to Democrats’ proposed spending package is forcing changes, but her specific positions have been hard to pin down.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

If we knew the answer to what Sen. Kyrsten Sinema wants, a whole lot of things could be figured out.

When it comes to the delicate negotiations about trillions of dollars in spending that could reshape the social safety net for years to come, the Arizona Democrat seems to hold the key.

While Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has gained a lot of attention for his demands, threats and possible concessions, that’s largely because he has been available for the attention. He has written op-eds, has been on Sunday shows and even had breakfast with President Biden this weekend in Wilmington, Del.

Sinema, whom Biden calls “smart as the devil,” has been more of a riddle.

“Sen. Sinema does not negotiate policy details through the press,” Sinema spokesman John LaBombard said in a statement. He has also said, “She would not be involved in these negotiations for months if she wasn’t trying to get to a deal.”

So what does Sinema want? We don’t know everything, but we do know some of what she’s for — and against. A lot of it came from Biden himself last week in a CNN town hall, where he was unusually specific for a president involved in congressional negotiations.

Here’s some of what we know about Sinema’s position:

What she’s for

Medicare vouchers to cover hearing. “The hearing is a very important thing because as Kyrsten Sinema, who supports this, points out, hearing is directly related to dementia,” Biden said in the town hall. “When you can’t hear, you have a problem. And it impacts on dementia.”

Environmental policies in the plan. “She’s very supportive of the environmental agenda in my legislation, very supportive,” Biden said.

With the West facing historic droughts, Sinema herself told The Arizona Republic in September: “We know that a changing climate costs Arizonans. And right now, we have the opportunity to pass smart policies to address it — looking forward to that.”

(Of course, this is where the legislation runs into problems with Manchin, whose state is reliant on the coal industry.)

“Family care.” “She’s supportive of all — almost all of the things I mentioned relating to everything from family care to all — to all those issues,” Biden said at the town hall. Biden’s plan proposes paid family leave for 12 weeks, though that has been whittled down to four because of Manchin’s opposition.

What she’s against

The price tag. Back in July, Sinema released a rare statement on the negotiations, saying she was against the $3.5 trillion initial cost: “While I will support beginning this process, I do not support a bill that costs $3.5 trillion — and in the coming months, I will work in good faith to develop this legislation with my colleagues and the administration to strengthen Arizona’s economy and help Arizona’s everyday families get ahead.”

The bill has since reportedly been dramatically reduced to less than $2 trillion.

Tax hikes for corporations and income tax increases for the wealthy. “Where she’s not supportive is, she says she will not raise a single penny in taxes on the corporate side and/or on wealthy people, period,” Biden said. “And so that’s where it sort of breaks down. And there’s a few other issues it breaks down on.”

Biden seemed to suggest, though, that this was still under negotiation: “I’m willing to make sure that we pay for everything without anyone making less than $400,000 paying a single cent more in taxes. That’s my objective.”

The confusing part of Sinema’s opposition here, however, for Democrats is that she opposed the cuts to the Trump-era corporate tax rate.

“It makes you wonder: What are the special interests that are driving that decision?” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has said. “It’s obviously not conviction, because she voted against the tax cuts in the first place.”

The White House later clarified that Sinema could be in favor of raising revenue in other kinds of ways: “The President was referring to the challenge of having the votes to move forward on raising the corporate rate, not to the ability to raise revenue through a range of other tax fairness proposals, which Senator Sinema supports.”

Could that mean a “wealth tax” is in the offing? Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has apparently been talking to Sinema about that possibility. But it’s not something Democrats even have all the details worked out on about how to make that feasible.

On Tuesday evening, Sinema announced she’s in favor of a corporate minimum tax, which would target companies that avoid paying the corporate tax rate.

Free community college. “So far, Mr. Manchin and one other person has indicated that they will not support free community college,” Biden said as to why that campaign promise is unlikely to be in the final package. Sinema is presumed to be the “other person.”

Covering dental and vision under Medicare. One element that members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, especially Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have pushed for is Medicare to cover hearing, dental and vision. Biden said hearing appears to be an easier item because it’s “cheaper,” but there’s no consensus on paying for glasses and dental, which is the “most expensive” of the three. Manchin, he said, is opposed to covering those things because he’s concerned about the solvency of Medicare and isn’t interested in Medicare reform right now, Biden said.

Sinema’s specific reasoning was … less clear.

Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Biden is seeking an overhaul to how drug prices are negotiated in the Medicare program. We don’t know specifically why Sinema is opposed to it, but progressives have pointed out that Sinema is a “pharma favorite” who has received hefty donations from the industry.

This is an area where it’s not because of “Sinemanchin” that this provision is in jeopardy. Manchin is actually in favor of this. But other Democrats high on the list of recipients from the pharmaceutical industry, like Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., are opposed.

Being in the pocket of a particular industry is a charge often lobbed at various members. It can be difficult to prove whether that’s a deciding factor for a particular member.

Political prospects

Sinema, the once left-wing environmental activist and former local Green Party spokeswoman with an offbeat style, began her political career in the Arizona State Legislature.

She won election to the Arizona House in 2004, then the Arizona Senate in 2010, before running and winning a U.S. congressional seat in 2012. She became a U.S. senator in 2019 after winning a close and contentious election to fill the seat previously held by Republican Jeff Flake, who retired.

Despite Sinema’s more progressive beginnings, Arizona is far from a liberal bastion. She has built a brand around independence instead, trying to thread a needle to the Senate. Many of her ads during her Senate run included the word “independent.”

The closeness of Arizona was underscored by the 2020 presidential election. The state was decided in favor of Biden by slightly more than 10,000 votes, or 0.3 percentage points. It was the first time Arizona went to a Democrat in a presidential election in 25 years. (And there was a significant third-party candidate on the ballot.)

But anger toward Sinema from the left has boiled over.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., has said he feels as if Democrats are living under the “tyranny of Kyrsten Sinema” and has accused her of “erraticism.”

Some on her veterans advisory committee have resigned over her role in the talks, calling her one of the “principal obstacles to progress, answering to big donors rather than your own people.”

The left has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to pressure Sinema to side with Biden and other Democrats over the legislation.

Some progressives are trying to recruit other Democrats to primary her. A group of wealthy progressive donors launched a political action committee that’s running ads to try to drum up interest in the idea. At least one House Democratic colleague has not ruled it out.

And her approval ratings among Democrats in Arizona have tumbled.

Sinema has not been cowed by the pressure. She has about $4.5 million of cash on hand, as of her latest Federal Election Commission filings, and isn’t up for reelection until 2024.

Her fellow U.S. senator, Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., has defended her, particularly for her role in the negotiations to get approval from Republican senators for the traditional infrastructure bill that is supposed to be a package deal with this social safety net plan.

“I don’t think we would have gotten that across the finish line without all of her hard work,” Kelly said last Wednesday. “I think without her it wouldn’t have happened, so she deserves a ton of credit for that.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said late last week that 90% of the legislation is written. Biden would like at least a framework hammered out before he heads to Europe for important conferences, including one on climate change.

“There’s not that much more time,” Pelosi said Tuesday. “We have to have decisions largely today, a little bit into tomorrow, so we can proceed.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/10/26/1049341036/kyrsten-sinema-positions-spending-negotiations-congress

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Biden nominates first female FCC chair – CNN
Biden nominates first female FCC chair – CNN

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN

Updated 2:46 PM ET, Tue October 26, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/26/politics/jessica-rosenworcel-nomination-fcc/index.html

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North Port police admit mistake in surveilling Brian Laundrie before his disappearance – FOX 13 Tampa Bay
North Port police admit mistake in surveilling Brian Laundrie before his disappearance – FOX 13 Tampa Bay

North Port police admit they confused Brian Laundrie with his mother

Kimberly Kuizon reports

NORTH PORT, Fla. – After Gabby Petito was reported missing, North Port police thought they had a close eye on Brian Laundrie, but now they have realized they had a case of mistaken identity as they were monitoring him – and they blame his family, at least in part.

North Port police say they mistook Brian’s mom for him the week he went missing, which is why they say he was able to disappear without detection. Police admitted the error to WINK-TV on Monday.

According to a North Port police spokesman, detectives had set up cameras around the Laundries’ home in North Port to monitor Brian’s movement after Gabby’s family reported her missing. On Sept. 13, detectives saw Brian leave home in his Mustang. Then, they saw the car return two days later.

The driver was wearing a hat, officials noted.

“I believe it was his mom who was wearing a baseball cap,” Josh Taylor, the police spokesperson, explained to WINK. “They had returned from the park with that Mustang. So, who does that? Right? Like, if you think your son’s missing since Tuesday, you’re going to bring his car back to the home.”

“So, it didn’t make sense that anyone would do that if he wasn’t there,” Taylor added. “The individual getting out with a baseball cap, we thought, was Brian.”

Attorney: Brian Laundrie’s parents at site where remains were found

“Chris and Roberta Laundrie were at the reserve earlier today when human remains and some of Brian’s possessions were located in an area where they had initially advised law enforcement that Brian may be. Chris and Roberta will wait for the forensic identification of the human remains before making any additional comments,” the statement from attorney Steven Bertolino said.

RELATED: Brian Laundrie found: Parents may have just missed discovering son themselves

North Port police said Brian looks very much like his mother, Roberta.

“They’re kind of built similarly,” Taylor said to WINK. 

Two more days went by after the mistaken sighting. In a press conference on Thursday, Sept. 16 of that week, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said they knew Brian’s whereabouts.

“Two people went on a trip, and one person returned,” Garrison said. “That person who returned isn’t providing information.”

Then, the next day, the Laundries reported Brian missing, saying that they’d found his Mustang abandoned at the Carlton Reserve on Wednesday and had driven it home themselves. 

While thousands of man-hours were spent searching the preserve for Brian in the weeks that followed, police don’t believe their mistake would have prevented that search or changed the ultimate outcome.

“This misidentification did not have a big impact on costs and the investigation. Other than confusion, it likely changed nothing,” Taylor told FOX 13. “There is a very good possibility that Brian was already deceased. He still needed to be found.”

Echoing Chief Garrison’s comments from Sept. 16, Taylor on Tuesday pointed a finger at the Laundrie family for their reported silence.

“We just wanted people to better understand why we thought we knew Brian was in his home,” Taylor continued. “It was a direct result of a lack of cooperation from the family early on this investigation.”

Inconclusive results in Brian Laundrie autopsy

With the manhunt now over and the autopsy inconclusive, the remains will be sent to an anthropologist for further testing. FOX 13’s Jennifer Holton spoke with USF Forensic Anthropologist to find out what an expert will look for.

Ultimately, Brian’s skeletal remains were discovered last week in a part of the park that detectives say had been flooded during the search and difficult to navigate for weeks.

Chris and Roberta Laundrie visited the park on the day when Brian’s remains and items belonging to him were found. Using dental records, the FBI positively identified the remains as Laundrie’s the next day.

The family’s attorney later released a statement that seemingly deflected blame back towards law enforcement.

“I concur with Mr. Taylor that Brian may have already been deceased when NPPD realized that they ‘lost track’ of him. However you can’t blame the family because the police didn’t know enough to follow someone they were obviously surveilling,” Steven Bertolino told FOX 13. “This is a tragedy for two families and any mistakes made by anyone or any entity involved should be acknowledged and used to train or educate others so the mistakes are not repeated.”

MORE COVERAGE:

Source Article from https://www.fox13news.com/news/north-port-police-admit-mistake-in-surveilling-brian-laundrie-before-his-disappearance-report

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FDA panel recommends Pfizer’s low-dose Covid vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 – CNBC
FDA panel recommends Pfizer’s low-dose Covid vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 – CNBC

A key Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Tuesday recommended a lower dose of Pfizer and BioNTech‘s Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, a critical step in getting some 28 million more kids in the U.S. protected against the virus as the delta variant spreads.

The endorsement by the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will now be considered by the FDA, which could issue a final decision within days. The vote was nearly unanimous with 17 backing it and one abstention.

The agency doesn’t always follow the advice of its independent committee, but it often does. Next week, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory group is expected to make its own recommendation. If it issues an endorsement and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signs off, shots for young kids could begin immediately.

The Biden administration said it plans to distribute the doses as soon as it’s authorized by the FDA and CDC, which is expected to come early next month. The administration said it’s procured enough vaccine to inoculate all 28 million 5- to 11-year-olds in the U.S., and will distribute it in smaller dosing and with smaller needles to make it easier for pediatricians and pharmacists to administer to kids.

Many parents say they are anxiously awaiting the vaccine’s authorization with schools now open across the U.S. and the delta variant driving a surge in children’s cases.

Children ages 5 to 11 account for roughly 9% of all reported Covid cases in the U.S., according to data presented to the committee by the FDA on Tuesday. The number of new Covid cases in kids remains exceptionally high, with more than 1.1 million child cases added over the past six weeks, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Still, some parents and advocacy groups argue Covid vaccinations for children are unnecessary as studies show kids are less likely to experience symptoms from the disease even though they get infected at similar rates as adults.

Some committee members said Tuesday that vaccinating younger groups would help the U.S. move toward Covid’s “endemic” phase, where the virus is still circulating but at lower levels than it is now. Others noted there are still unknowns, like the rate of myocarditis in young kids, but still emphasized the benefits of the shots outweighed the risks. One member wondered whether they should issue a recommendation only for at-risk children.

“We don’t want children to be dying from Covid, even if it is far fewer children than adults and we don’t want them in the ICU,” member Dr. Amanda Cohn said before the vote.

Prior to the vote, Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, asked committee members to keep today’s debate “civil,” saying there were strong feelings on both sides.

“To be clear, today’s discussion is going to be about the scientific data that are presented, and it’s not about vaccine mandates which are left to other entities outside of FDA,” Marks said at the top of the meeting. “I ask that we keep our discourse today civil and focus on the science related to this issues so that we can get through a productive discussion.”

Pfizer asked the FDA to authorize its vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 on Oct. 7. The company published data that showed a two-dose regimen of 10 micrograms — a third of the dosage used for teens and adults – is safe and generates a strong immune response in a clinical trial of young children. It said the shots were well tolerated and produced an immune response and side effects comparable with those seen in a study of people ages 16 to 25.

Dr. Doran Fink, a deputy director of the FDA’s division of vaccines, said Tuesday a “small army” of FDA staff worked around the clock over the last month to ensure the data on kids they were presenting today was as accurate as possible.

The staff of the FDA published an analysis late Friday, saying a smaller dosage of the Pfizer vaccine appears to be safe and highly effective in young kids. They noted the increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis but said the benefits of the shots, including preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death, would generally outweigh the risk of the rare inflammatory heart conditions.

There have been 1,640 cases of myocarditis reported in people under 30 who received Pfizer or Moderna’s Covid vaccines as of Oct. 6, Dr. Mathew Oster, a CDC official, told the FDA’s vaccine committee. Just 877 met the CDC’s case definition for myocarditis. He added the agency hasn’t seen increased rates of the condition among children ages 12 to 17.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/26/fda-panel-recommends-pfizers-low-dose-covid-vaccine-for-kids-ages-5-to-11.html

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Ron Wyden takes a buzzer-beating shot at billionaires – POLITICO
Ron Wyden takes a buzzer-beating shot at billionaires – POLITICO

“I know about as much about it as you’ve said just now. I certainly would be open to taking a look at it and see if it’s fair,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) when asked about the proposed billionaire tax. “My concern is that … we’re probably looking at things that are far more painful because of things that have been taken off the table.”

The lanky and affable Wyden is hoping to quell that type of talk by Wednesday, when he’s planning to release the text of his proposal to a divided Democratic Party exhausted by a string of blown deadlines for a deal. Even then, the House is likely to stand behind its financing package that got committee approval nearly two months ago. It’s a burgeoning standoff that threatens to hold up progress on finalizing President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda this week.

For the moment, Democratic aides described lawmakers as anxious to see Wyden’s final product after more than two years of talk. Wyden said Tuesday that he’s spoken with Sinema about his plan and seemed unbothered by the arrows he’s taking from Neal and other Ways and Means members. As Wyden sees it, House colleagues have talked a good game about taxing the wealthy but only his idea would get at the assets of billionaires who don’t pay income taxes.

Billionaires “don’t take a wage. When the House talks about various approaches to raise taxes on adjusted gross income or something of that nature, the fact is that unless you try an approach like ours, you’re not going to get billionaires paying taxes,” Wyden said.

Wyden is a unique fixture of Congress, youthful enough to get away with wearing “Rip City” hats to Senate votes to celebrate his beloved Portland Trail Blazers. He’s a House veteran himself, serving across the Capitol from 1981 until 1996 before winning an Oregon Senate seat.

And despite his upbeat air, he’s no stranger to battles with his own party. In 2014 he struggled to pass plans to fund transportation and fix Medicare doctors’ payments, then a year later cut a trade deal over the objections of progressives, including then-Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

After six years in the minority, the Finance chair is now under pressure to put up a tax proposal that targets the wealthy but doesn’t cross Sinema’s red lines. And it might satisfy Sinema because it targets fewer of her constituents for tax increases than a straight-up higher income tax rate.

There’s a lot riding on his work: If his proposal to tax billionaires’ unrealized assets falls through, Democrats may end months of talks on social spending with no significant reforms to target the wealthy through the tax code.

That would prove a significant letdown for a party that’s built its platform around soaking the rich for years, even more so after former President Donald Trump cut taxes in 2017. Since that time, Wyden’s been on the leading edge of the billionaire tax, also called mark-to-market for the way it values assets that have not been sold.

Even if Wyden’s plan is enacted, it will almost certainly face legal challenges; Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) argued “It’s probably unconstitutional.” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) acknowledged the circumstances impose “more pressure to get this one right.”

“Obviously, the areas have been narrowed to make it challenging for the Finance Committee to draft effective statutes. Dealing with mark-to-market issues is a tough drafting assignment under any circumstance. But Sen. Wyden has been working on this for a long time,” Cardin said.

That’s little consolation to House members who assembled a $3.5 trillion financing package in September for the party’s social spending and climate ambitions. Neal has repeatedly raised concerns about not seeing language from Wyden and said Tuesday that paying for the bill “looks harder to me every day without the Ways and Means package.”

Without legislative language for Wyden’s plan, negotiators cannot get an official score to know how much money the provision would raise — a key roadblock to securing a deal under the current time constraints, according to House Democrats. Senate Democrats believe Wyden’s tax will raise several hundred billion dollars.

Privately, Neal and other House Democrats are fuming about the latest turn in the negotiations.

The two tax chairs have never had a close working relationship, with Neal mostly taking an indifferent posture toward his former House colleague, according to several Democrats. But in recent days Neal has grown furious as his panel’s work gets tossed aside for an idea that he and other Democrats see as complicated and undeveloped.

“We have to be polite to our Senate friends, but I think we feel that we’re way ahead of the Senate in terms of having thought through all the revenue measures,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).

Likewise, Senate Democrats say House members don’t understand the math senators face. If Sinema won’t raise rates, they say Wyden has to do something to maneuver around her position and still deliver on the party’s promises.

“We just need to find pay-fors you can get 50 Democrats to agree on,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) raised concerns about the proposal at Democrats’ lunch on Tuesday, according to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who recalled that Warner told colleagues: “We need to understand the numbers better.”

Tensions between the House and Senate are nothing new, but the party finds itself in a singular pressure cooker this week. Biden is heading overseas, two gubernatorial contests loom next week and the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill has been stuck in the House for nearly three months.

A quick deal could change all that, but there’s no guarantee Wyden’s proposal is going to work for everyone or move quickly. To many Democratic lawmakers, taxing unrealized assets of a specific class of wealthy people is a new concept that deserves scrutiny.

“There’s a bunch of work that has to take place in fairly short order, and I think it’s totally appropriate that senators should want to kick the tires,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “The House has an important role, looking over our shoulder if they’re going to be asked to vote on it.”

Wyden said no senators have objected to targeting billionaires thus far and Kaine said he hasn’t heard “any griping” about the specific proposal. Cardin said if a deal on Biden’s social spending plan is reached this week, “I think it will be in there.”

For Wyden, that would be a huge victory given the scrutiny he’s received this week. And for his party, including the tax would finally follow through on an unfulfilled process to target the wealthy more specifically.

“More and more senators heard that the billionaires made something like $2 trillion during the pandemic,” Wyden said. “You’ve got to get at the core issue of billionaires.”

Bernie Becker contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/26/wyden-faces-trial-by-fire-on-billionaire-tax-517210

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Loudoun County students plan walkout after sexual assault by boy in girls’ bathroom – Fox News
Loudoun County students plan walkout after sexual assault by boy in girls’ bathroom – Fox News
Video

Loudoun County students walk out of class in protest after sex assault

School system’s handling of assault cases sparks outrage

Students in Loudoun County, Virginia, staged a walkout in protest of recent sexual assault cases at the public school system and to show solidarity with victims of such abuses. 

“Students who choose to participate will not be penalized for their participation; however, we do ask that students who participate do so peacefully, without signage, and in accordance with the Students Rights and Responsibilities we all reviewed and signed at the beginning of the year,” said Michelle Luttrell, the principal at Loudoun County High School, according to WUSA.

Students at Stone Bridge, Broad Run, Riverside and other schools are planned to participate in the walkout on Tuesday. They planned to leave class for 10 minutes in protest, and organizers asked students and teachers to wear white and make protest signs, WUSA reported.  

Approximately 75 students briefly walked out at Broad Run High School. The mass, widespread walkouts across the county did not come to fruition. The Broad Run walkout came hours ahead of what is expected to be a contentious Loudoun County School Board meeting, Fox News learned. 

A judge found a boy guilty on Monday of sexually assaulting a girl in the girls’ bathroom last spring at Stone Bridge High School. The boy was reportedly wearing a skirt during the incident. 

LOUDOUN COUNTY DAD WHO SAYS DAUGHTER WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN SCHOOL PURSUES SUIT AGAINST DISTRICT

The girl’s father, Scott Smith, said he plans to file a lawsuit against the school system over the matter. 

Scott Smith 
(Fox news)

Smith gained national attention when he was arrested at a school board meeting on June 22 in a scene that was recorded and spread on social media. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in August after his arrest. 

“We are relieved that justice was served today for the Smith’s daughter. This horrible incident has deeply affected the Smith family, and they are grateful for today’s outcome,” the law firm representing the family said in a statement after the judge’s ruling. 

LOUDOUN EMAIL REVEALS SUPERINTENDENT NOTIFIED SCHOOL BOARD ON DAY OF ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT

A second charge against the boy is still pending. He is also accused of forcing a female classmate into an empty room at Broad Run High School and groping her. 

Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler acknowledged on Oct. 15 that current policies are not adequate in addressing sexual assault cases following the incidents. 

LOUDOUN COUNTY FATHER ARRESTED AT SCHOOL BOARD EVENT SAYS SCHOOL TRIED TO COVER UP DAUGHTER’S BATHROOM ASSAULT

“I want to acknowledge that our processes and procedures were not adequate to respond to these recent events,” Ziegler said. “It has become clear that our administrative procedures have not kept pace with the growth we have seen in our county.”

Amy Jahr sings “The Star Spangled Banner” after a Loudoun County School Board meeting was halted by the school board because the crowd refused to quiet down, in Ashburn, Virginia, June 22, 2021. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
(Reuters)

An email from May 28 and revealed this month shows ​​Ziegler telling the school board about the sexual assault allegation that took place in the bathroom at Stone Bridge. At the June school board meeting where Smith was arrested, however, Ziegler declared that “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist,” and that to his knowledge, “we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms.” 

YOUNGKIN DEMANDS RESIGNATIONS FROM LOUDOUN COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD IN WAKE OF BOMBSHELL EMAIL

He later apologized for the system not providing a safe environment for students. 

“First, let me say to the families and students involved — my heart aches for you and I am sorry that we failed to provide the safe, welcoming, and affirming environment that we aspire to provide,” he said.

The email revelation has since sparked calls for Ziegler and the school board to step down, including from Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin. 

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“It’s outrageous,” Youngkin told Fox News on Saturday. He said the email “simply confirms what we know, which is we had administrators at a school board who have been covering this up. I mean, they tried to hide it from parents, they’ve hidden it from the public, and they actually endangered students by moving this young man – who in fact was being prosecuted for a sexual assault in another school – and enabled it to happen again.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/loudoun-county-students-plan-walkout-protest-sexual-assault

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Key House Democrat skeptical of billionaire tax, calls it ‘challenging’ to implement – Fox Business
Key House Democrat skeptical of billionaire tax, calls it ‘challenging’ to implement – Fox Business
video

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban: ‘I don’t have a problem paying more taxes’

Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks in a wide-ranging interview on ‘Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast,’ explains markets, crypto investing, the potential for increased taxes and how the Biden administration is handling the U.S. economy.

A top House Democrat threw doubt on a new Senate plan to tax the unrealized capital gains of billionaires and other ultrahigh earners, arguing the proposal may be too complicated to implement. 

The proposal, which Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is slated to unveil later this week, would set the so-called billionaires’ income tax at $1 billion income, or three consecutive years of $100 million or more in income. Democrats hope to generate at least $200 billion in new revenue over the next decade from the tax, which would include stocks as well as other assets like real estate, bonds and art. Individuals could claim deductions for annual losses in the value of their assets.

But Rep. Richard Neal, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said Monday that he told Wyden during a discussion that the administration of the senator’s proposed billionaire’s tax is “a bit more challenging.”

PELOSI PROMISES DEMS WILL PASS SPENDING BILL ‘SOON’ AMID INTERNAL FIGHTING

Neal, D-Mass., suggested the House’s tax-increase bill – which reversed the bulk of Republicans’ 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – was more straightforward and easier to adopt. 

Under that measure, the top individual income tax rate would rise to 39.6% from 37% for married couples who report taxable income of more than $450,000 and for individuals who report more than $400,000. The corporate tax rate would increase to 26.5% from 21% for businesses earning more than $5 million in income. The bill also included a 3% surcharge on individual income above 5% and increased the top tax rate for capital gains – the proceeds from selling an asset – to 25%, up from 20%.

Although the House proposal was closer in line with President Biden’s initial tax strategy to fund his signature economy spending plan, Democrats had to rethink their various revenue raisers after one key Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., objected to higher taxes for well-off corporations and rich Americans. With the slimmest possible Senate majority, Democrats had no votes to spare. 

In this Sept. 9, 2021, file photo, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., presides over a markup hearing to craft the Democrats’ Build Back Better Act, massive legislation that is a cornerstone of President Biden’s domestic ag (AP / AP Newsroom)

Still, despite Synema’s rejections, Neal hinted the House measure was not fully off the table.

“Our plan looks better every day,” he told reporters.

With Neal’s pushback, it’s unclear whether the billionaire tax, which would be the first of its size and scope in an advanced economy, will be backed by every Senate Democrat and nearly every House Democrat — the required threshold for its passage

Democrats say the tax would affect roughly 700 taxpayers, or about 0.0002% of the richest Americans. 

“Raising the rate is not going to cause Jeff Bezos to pay a penny more,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told MSNBC on Sunday. Warren has pushed for a tax on the wealthiest Americans for years, rolling out a far more expansive plan during her 2020 presidential campaign. “What we need is a tax that focuses on the wealth of the richest Americans.”

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Critics, including Republicans and tax groups such as the National Taxpayers Union, have slammed a tax on billionaires’ unrealized capital gains, arguing it would add more bureaucracy to the already bloated tax system and hurt business investors.

Democratic leaders have set an Oct. 31 deadline to reach an agreement on the spending plan and a separate $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal. Although it’s unclear what the final tax and spending proposal may look like, it’s expected to be significantly smaller than the original one floated by the White House. Biden has discussed a topline figure with Democrats that would be somewhere between $1.7 trillion and $1.9 trillion.

Democrats have just a few legislative weeks to negotiate and pass a spending bill in both chambers in addition to the infrastructure bill that Biden views as critical to his campaign pledge to work across the aisle. But the party will also be juggling the threat of two impending crises: a government shutdown and debt default. 

“We need to get this done,” Biden said Monday during remarks at a New Jersey transit center.

Source Article from https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/richard-neal-skeptical-billionaire-tax

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The world promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions. These countries aren’t meeting their targets. – CNN
The world promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions. These countries aren’t meeting their targets. – CNN

By John Keefe and Rachel Ramirez, CNN

Updated 9:50 AM ET, Tue October 26, 2021

(CNN)Nearly 200 countries have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst consequences of the climate crisis, but there is still a huge gap between what’s been promised and what scientists say is needed, according to a report by the UN Environment Programme.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/26/world/un-greenhouse-gas-emissions-gap-report-climate/index.html

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    Additional Medicare, Medicaid benefits may be whittled or cut as Democrats woo moderates – The Washington Post
    Additional Medicare, Medicaid benefits may be whittled or cut as Democrats woo moderates – The Washington Post

    The last-minute negotiations over the package’s health provisions have pitted some of the party’s most powerful wings against each other. The Medicare benefits expansion, which was originally forecast to cost more than $350 billion and has been championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his allies who favor single-payer health care, is opposed by Manchin, who says the measure is too costly. A compromise President Biden floated to distribute vouchers to Medicare beneficiaries also has been panned by an array of lawmakers, ranging from Manchin to liberal stalwart Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), even as other members retrench to fight for their priorities.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/10/26/biden-reconciliation-medicare-medicaid-congress/

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    Nor’easter spurs rescues in New Jersey as areas brace for hurricane-force wind gusts – NBC News
    Nor’easter spurs rescues in New Jersey as areas brace for hurricane-force wind gusts – NBC News
    6 views no comments