Lisa Marie Presley, Robbie Knievel, and Jeff Beck, and so it goes.
"A massive storm system whipping up severe winds and spawning tornadoes cut a path across the U.S. South, killing at least seven people in Georgia and Alabama, where a twister damaged buildings and tossed cars in the streets of historic downtown Selma."
"Amid the frenzy leading up to Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing, social media users are once again circulating claims that the lion’s share of such a jackpot will ultimately end up in the federal government’s coffers in the form of tax revenue." If you win the jackpot and take the winnings as a lump sum, you'll probably end up paying about 50% in taxes (federal, state, and local). There are, however, ways to protect that money and pay less. Which is why they will tell you to consult with a tax attorney before claiming the prize.
"Decades of research by scientists at Exxon accurately predicted how much global warming would occur from burning fossil fuels, according to a new study in the journal Science… The findings clash with an enormously successful campaign that Exxon spearheaded and funded for more than 30 years that cast doubt on human-driven climate change and the science underpinning it." In case you're wondering who is to blame for the climate crisis.
"Although the cause of PETM has been debated since it was discovered in the 1990s, more and more evidence has accumulated that points to massive quantities of CO2 and methane emitted due to volcanic activity in the North Atlantic as the primary cause… But there’s a problem with that explanation. The jump in temperatures at the start of the PETM took between 3,000 and 10,000 years, whereas the igneous activity lasted far longer, from about 63 to 54 million years ago."
"This year has a lot of celestial wonder in store, from stunning meteor showers to a super blue moon and a ring of fire eclipse."
"NASA's Webb telescope has discovered an exoplanet… for the first time… The planet, called LHS 475 b, is nearly the same size as Earth, having 99% of our planet's diameter, scientists said. However, it is several hundred degrees hotter than Earth and completes its orbit around its star in two days."
"Molly Sampson's favorite Christmas present was the one she went out and got for herself that morning: a 5-inch-long Otodus megalodon tooth from a shark that lived millions of years ago… The 9-year-old Maryland girl and her older sister, Natalie, had asked for and received insulated waders and fossil sifters so they could go shark tooth hunting further out in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay near the Calvert Cliffs, recalls Molly's mother, Alicia Sampson."
"California on Thursday announced it will sue the companies that make and promote most of the nation’s insulin, accusing them of scheming to illegally increase the price of the drug and demanding they return millions of dollars to some diabetics who state officials say were overcharged for the medicine they must have to survive."
"Moderna is considering raising the price of its COVID-19 vaccine by over 400 percent—from $26 per dose to between $110 and $130 per dose—according to a report by The Wall Street Journal."
"To accelerate the global move toward sustainable vehicles, Toyota is suggesting simply replacing the inner workings of vehicles already on the roads with cleaner technology like fuel cells and electric motors." Yes, but who is going to pay for that.
"The head of the National Transportation Safety Board expressed concern Wednesday about the safety risks that heavy electric vehicles pose if they collide with lighter vehicles." I expect this to be a new talking point of the right, when the real problem is how large vehicles (trucks and SUVs) have become lately and that they (and even some smaller vehicles) have reduced visibility to the road around them.
"Rising U.S. consumer prices moderated again last month, bolstering hopes that inflation’s grip on the economy will continue to ease this year and possibly require less drastic action by the Federal Reserve to control it."
"Reach said it installed employee-tracking software called TimeCamp on Besse’s work laptop after it found her assigned files were over budget and behind schedule, a strategy companies are increasingly taking in the era of remote work."
"(Tesla) dropped prices nearly 20% in the United States on some versions of the Model Y SUV, its top seller. That cut will make more versions of the Model Y eligible for a $7,500 electric-vehicle tax credit that will be available through March. It also reduced the base price of the Model 3, its least expensive model, by about 6%."
"A Syracuse University analysis did find that the IRS audits certain low-income wage earners more than five times more than other groups, in part because budget cuts have caused the agency to rely more on automated 'correspondence audits.' But the agency’s new infusion of funding will not fund 87,000 employees at once, nor will it fund only auditors. A new tax policy requires mobile payment apps and users to report information about commercial transactions above $600 to the IRS, but it won’t add an additional tax or apply to personal transactions." Why does the IRS audit the poor more? Because the Congress, when it was last under GOP control, directed them to do so.
"The Supreme Court on Tuesday debated the limits of the pressure unions can exert during a strike in a case about cement truck drivers who walked off the job with the trucks full of wet concrete." There seems to be a lot of concerns about the actions of the truck drivers who returned the trucks to the cement plant and left the barrels rolling and very little concern over the plant that knew the strike was coming but sent the trucks out full anyway.
"As Russian troops wage a ferocious house-to-house fight for control of strongholds in eastern Ukraine, a parallel battle is unfolding in the top echelons of military power in Moscow, with President Vladimir Putin reshuffling his top generals while rival camps try to win his favor." It seems Russia needs to relearn why you don't hire mercenaries.
"In an interview with NPR on Dec. 15, Netanyahu said he would control the far-right members of his coalition and that he'd be making the key decisions, saying, 'They are joining me. I'm not joining them.' But Pfeffer says that Netanyahu's disinterest in social policy opens the door for the ultra-Orthodox and ultra-right fundamentalists in the Knesset, Israel's parliament… One issue at the forefront is the definition of who is Jewish." Remember the conservative game is about excluding people.
"McCarthy said he told President Biden during a recent conversation that he'd like to sit down soon to address the concern, suggesting a cap on spending in exchange for temporarily raising the debt ceiling could be the way to go." My money is on a government shut down.
"Newly elected state Sen. Chris Trakel (R-Caldwell) 'displayed deplorable, belligerent behavior' when he berated Caldwell school board members Monday night at a meeting over a proposal to allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms according to their gender identity and to permit LGBTQ students to participate in overnight trips…" It's going to be one of those summers again.
"Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to investigate the presence of classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at an unsecured office in Washington dating from his time as vice president."
"The Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million – the maximum possible penalty – by a New York judge Friday for running a decade-long tax fraud scheme, a symbolic moment because it is the only judgment for a criminal conviction that has come close to former President Donald Trump."
"Steve Bannon’s lawyers want out of his border-wall fraud case, telling a judge Thursday that he is unwilling to speak with them directly and that they have 'irreconcilable' differences about how to proceed."
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