Tax bill clears Senate in big boost for Trump, GOP
WASHINGTON — Republicans muscled the largest tax overhaul in 30 years through the Senate early Saturday, taking a big step toward giving President Donald Trump his first major legislative triumph after months of false starts and frustration on other fronts.
“Just what the country needs to get growing again,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in an interview after a final burst of negotiation closed in on a nearly $1.5 trillion package that impacts the breadth of American society.
He shrugged off polls finding scant public enthusiasm for the measure, saying the legislation would prove its worth. “Big bills are rarely popular,” he said. “You remember how unpopular ‘Obamacare’ was when it passed?”
Smoked pot and want to enlist? Army issuing more waivers
WASHINGTON — Smoked pot? Want to go to war?
No problem.
As more states lessen or eliminate marijuana penalties, the Army is granting hundreds of waivers to enlist people who used the drug in their youth — as long as they realize they can’t do so again in the military.
The number of waivers granted by the active-duty Army for marijuana use jumped to more than 500 this year from 191 in 2016. Three years ago, no such waivers were granted. The big increase is just one way officials are dealing with orders to expand the Army’s size.
“Provided they understand that they cannot do that when they serve in the military, I will waive that all day long,” said Maj. Gen. Jeff Snow, head of the Army’s recruiting command.
From Wire Sources
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McConnell: Tax bill won’t add to nation’s debt woes
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Fresh off his biggest legislative victory of the Trump era, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday disputed projections that the Senate’s tax bill would add to the nation’s debt woes.
Back home in Kentucky just hours after the Senate narrowly pushed through the nearly $1.5 trillion tax bill, McConnell predicted that the boldest rewrite of the nation’s tax system in decades would generate more than enough economic growth to prevent the burgeoning deficits being forecast.
“I not only don’t think it will increase the deficit, I think it will be beyond revenue neutral,” he told reporters. “In other words, I think it will produce more than enough to fill that gap.”
Over the next decade, Republicans’ tax plan is projected to add at least $1 trillion to the national debt. That would be on top of an additional $10 trillion in deficits over the same period already being forecast by the Congressional Budget Office.
“I’m not one of the total supplier siders who just believes that if you cut taxes, no matter what amount, you turn out ahead,” McConnell said. “I still believe in revenue neutrality for tax reform, and I believe this is a revenue neutral tax reform bill.”
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Victims of harassment, assault triggered by recent events
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Noelle Rose Andressen was raped by her grandfather as a toddler. As an adult, she thought she’d successfully dealt with the trauma, having gone through years of therapy. A professional dancer, she even choreographed a performance about sexual abuse to process her feelings.
But when sexual assault and harassment allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein exploded in October, followed by the barrage of claims against powerful men, Andressen became overwhelmed. The old feelings of fear, shame and anger resurfaced — especially when she watched news or read the endless stories posted on social media.
“I had to deactivate my personal Facebook account for a little while,” said Andressen, who splits her time between New York and Los Angeles. “I love everybody but I need my space. I know how much I can take, and I try to keep myself in a protective bubble.”
Since the Weinstein allegations, dozens of men have been publicly accused of sexual abuse and harassment. For women who have been raped, abused and harassed, each day is a fresh hell, as unnerving headlines and stories seep into daily life. Memories of past abuse, previous encounters with inappropriate co-workers, even lingering doubts as to how long-ago personal situations were handled have left women feeling raw, vulnerable and on edge.
“Retraumatizing is kind of the only word that really fits,” said Samantha Field, a 30-year-old writer who has been assaulted by five different men. “It’s difficult watching all of this.”
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Man charged with hiding death of missing N Carolina girl
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Authorities in North Carolina have arrested a man in connection with the disappearance of a young girl and said they are determined to find the child’s body.
Earl Kimrey of Jacksonville was arrested late Friday and was being held at the Onslow County Detention Center on a $1 million bond in the disappearance of 3-year-old Mariah Woods, deputies said.
Investigators think the girl is dead, but they have not found her body, the sheriff’s office said in a statement that did not say how authorities think the girl was killed.
“The searches will now shift to a recovery process,” deputies said of the more than 700 volunteers that poured into the county along the North Carolina coast about 120 miles (193 kilometers) southeast of Raleigh, searching woods, outbuildings and anyplace else for the girl.
Kimrey removed the girl’s body from the place where she died and knew her death was not natural, according to arrest warrants. Deputies did not release any details on how she may have died.
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How the Kate Steinle case became an immigration flashpoint
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A jury’s decision to acquit a Mexican man in the 2015 slaying of Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier has reignited the furor of critics who in the two years since have pointed to Steinle’s death as evidence of the need for tougher immigration policies.
President Donald Trump on Friday called the verdict “a travesty of justice” and renewed his push for a wall on the border with Mexico. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanded cities like San Francisco scrap immigration policies that limit cooperation with federal deportation efforts.
Here’s a closer look at how the case unfolded and why it got embroiled in the intense national debate about immigration:
THE SLAYING:
Steinle, 32, a medical device saleswoman, was shot while walking on a popular waterfront area in the city on the evening of July 1, 2015 with her father and a family friend who were visiting. Her father, Jim Steinle, testified that his daughter collapsed in his arms, saying, “Help me dad.” He rolled her on her side and discovered a bullet hole. She was later declared dead at a hospital.
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The godfather of comedy looks back on a lifetime of laughs
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The godfather of comedy has a few secrets to share: First, he never intended to become the godfather of comedy, never had any idea how to accomplish the feat and, a half-century later, isn’t quite sure how he did it.
When Budd Friedman opened a dingy brick-walled nightclub called The Improvisation on the edge of New York’s theatre district in 1963, there were no other major comedy clubs to speak of in the U.S. Stand-up comics were generally relegated to playing small coffeehouses, telling mother-in-law jokes at summer resorts or keeping audiences entertained between strip shows.
There are comedy clubs across the country now, and in Friedman’s just-published memoir, “The Improv: An Oral History of the Comedy Club That Revolutionized Stand-Up,” generations of comedians from Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon give the author the lion’s share of the credit.
“Budd Friedman is one of the greatest influences in comedy ever. Bar none. He changed pop culture forever,” Fallon says in the book co-authored by Friedman and veteran entertainment journalist Tripp Whetsell.
To hear Friedman tell it, changing comedy’s direction was about the last thing the former ad man set out to do.
