Saturday, April 25, 2020
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Tags: maga , trump , kool-aid , disinfectant , covid19 , Image
Friday, April 24, 2020
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
Last week, a group of angry and desperate Citi Tax Financial customers gathered outside the company’s storefront in Augusta, Georgia. Millions of Americans had received a big deposit from the IRS in their bank accounts, but they had not. The IRS website told them their coronavirus stimulus checks were deposited in an account they didn’t recognize.
With an officer from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office beside him and another officer shouting for people to be quiet, the tax preparation company’s owner told the crowd of about 60, only a few of whom wore masks, that he didn’t have their money.
Because of the baroque machinery that runs the tax preparation industry, the IRS had sent the money to a bank Citi Tax works with but the customers had not heard of. That bank sent the payments back to the IRS.
Citi Tax’s clients — just like some clients of big tax brands such as H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt and TurboTax — didn’t get their money for the very reason Congress wanted to get money to them quickly in the first place: They are poor. The Georgia customers, almost all black women, are among the likely millions of Americans who are having trouble getting the stimulus funds they are owed. The IRS’ difficulty in swiftly getting payments to Americans has a basic, root cause: There are multiple private actors sitting between the IRS and tax filers.
Last week, a group of angry and desperate Citi Tax Financial customers gathered outside the company’s storefront in Augusta, Georgia. Millions of Americans had received a big deposit from the IRS in their bank accounts, but they had not. The IRS website told them their coronavirus stimulus checks were deposited in an account they didn’t recognize.
With an officer from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office beside him and another officer shouting for people to be quiet, the tax preparation company’s owner told the crowd of about 60, only a few of whom wore masks, that he didn’t have their money.
Because of the baroque machinery that runs the tax preparation industry, the IRS had sent the money to a bank Citi Tax works with but the customers had not heard of. That bank sent the payments back to the IRS.
Citi Tax’s clients — just like some clients of big tax brands such as H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt and TurboTax — didn’t get their money for the very reason Congress wanted to get money to them quickly in the first place: They are poor. The Georgia customers, almost all black women, are among the likely millions of Americans who are having trouble getting the stimulus funds they are owed. The IRS’ difficulty in swiftly getting payments to Americans has a basic, root cause: There are multiple private actors sitting between the IRS and tax filers.
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Thursday, April 23, 2020
Pima County
Actions by the Board of Supervisors as well as Gov. Doug Ducey have closed “non-essential” businesses such as bars, retail shops, beauty salons and tattoo parlors to temporarily close in an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has overwhelmed hospitals in cities where it has spread rapidly. Pima County has nearly 1,000 confirmed cases, though health officials say that the lack of testing means there are more cases that haven’t been reported.
Among the candidates in District 1, which includes Oro Valley and Marana, candidate Rex Scott, a Democrat who worked as a public school educator and principal of Tortolita Middle School, said the federal and state governments’ inadequate responses to the virus have left county governments and local municipalities “struggling to fill a leadership void.”
He applauds the county’s decision to put Health Department officials at the forefront of their public information campaign. Department Director Dr. Bob England has broadcast daily updates, information and perspective about COVID-19 on the county’s Facebook page, and Deputy County Administrator Dr. Francisco Garcia has taken a leading role in answering questions about the situation during board meetings.
Chamber of Commerce leaders in Pima County are urging business owners who haven't filed a Paycheck Protection Program loan application with a financial institution to do so immediately ahead of the House of Representatives expected approval of $310 billion in additional funding Thursday.
"In light of the potential news that an additional $310 billion will be released for the PPP, small businesses should apply now so they are already in the system when the new funds are released," said President and CEO of the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce Amber Smith.
The Small Business Administration said loans would be approved in the order in which they are recieved.
"Right now, the SBA is not accepting any new applications," said Jordan Ripley, public information officer for the U.S. Small Business Administration Arizona District Office. "However, some lenders are accepting new applications in order to have their queue lined up if additional funding was appropriated for the program."
While Ripley is unsure if the SBA will begin accepting applications anytime soon, she did say for those who have already applied to contact their financial lender about the status of their current application.
District Director for Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona's 2nd Congressional District Ron Barber said another recovery bill is being discussed as the house is poised to vote on the current $480 billion Thursday. Kirkpatrick is on the House Committee of Appropriations which allocates federal funding.
"In light of the potential news that an additional $310 billion will be released for the PPP, small businesses should apply now so they are already in the system when the new funds are released," said President and CEO of the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce Amber Smith.
The Small Business Administration said loans would be approved in the order in which they are recieved.
"Right now, the SBA is not accepting any new applications," said Jordan Ripley, public information officer for the U.S. Small Business Administration Arizona District Office. "However, some lenders are accepting new applications in order to have their queue lined up if additional funding was appropriated for the program."
While Ripley is unsure if the SBA will begin accepting applications anytime soon, she did say for those who have already applied to contact their financial lender about the status of their current application.
District Director for Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona's 2nd Congressional District Ron Barber said another recovery bill is being discussed as the house is poised to vote on the current $480 billion Thursday. Kirkpatrick is on the House Committee of Appropriations which allocates federal funding.
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Tags: trump , maga , covid19 , massage , georgia , comic , politics , Image
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Tucson's favorite Chanteuse Marianne Dissard is back with a stunning cover of Phil Ochs's late-60s protest song, The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns, repurposed to protest the recent firing of USS Theodore Roosevelt Capt. Brett Crozier.
Crozier was relieved from duty for sending a letter to other naval personnel stating "sailors would needlessly die" if the Navy continued its slow response to COVID-19 on his ship and others. The letter was later leaked to the San Franciso Chronicle.
Ochs wrote the song in protest of the 99 crewmen who lost their lives when the USS Scorpion Submarine sunk in 1968. Despite numerous know issues with the sub, the USS Scorpion- nicknamed the Scrapiron by its crew - was sent into service due to the pressures of the Cold War.
Dissard, along with Thøger Lund, Vicki Brown, and Marco Rosano in Tucson, Arizona, and Raphael Mann in Ramsgate, England recorded this gritty, yet beautiful version from their respective homes at the start of the COVID-19 shut-down in late March. Waterworks Studio Owner Jim Waters mixed the recording.
There's a pay-what-you-want download option for the song on Dissard's Bandcamp profile.
If you want to donate toward Dissard's recording costs, click here.
Tags: covid19 , phil ochs , marianne dissard , music , uss theodore roosevelt , brett crozier , protest , song , Image
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Tags: claytoonz , maga , hamberders , ppp , ruth's chris , loans , covid19 , Image
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
Private equity-backed medical staffing companies that have cut doctors’ pay are continuing to spend millions on political ads, according to Federal Communications Commission disclosures.
The ads amount to $2.2 million since Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31. About $1.2 million has been spent since President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration on March 13, the disclosures show.
The companies behind the ads, TeamHealth and Envision Healthcare, are among the staffing firms that have cut pay and benefits for emergency room doctors and other medical workers. The companies say the cuts are needed to cope with falling income because non-coronavirus patients are avoiding hospitals. Executives at TeamHealth and Envision also took pay cuts.
“Our attention will be focused on our clinicians so they can provide care for patients who need it,” Envision CEO Jim Rechtin said in a statement this month.
But Envision and TeamHealth have continued to pour money into a joint political ad campaign. Their TV and radio spots are aimed at pressuring lawmakers working to address “surprise billing,” where patients get stuck with huge medical costs from out-of-network providers they had no say in choosing. The ads oppose capping out-of-network costs based on median prices in the area.
Private equity-backed medical staffing companies that have cut doctors’ pay are continuing to spend millions on political ads, according to Federal Communications Commission disclosures.
The ads amount to $2.2 million since Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31. About $1.2 million has been spent since President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration on March 13, the disclosures show.
The companies behind the ads, TeamHealth and Envision Healthcare, are among the staffing firms that have cut pay and benefits for emergency room doctors and other medical workers. The companies say the cuts are needed to cope with falling income because non-coronavirus patients are avoiding hospitals. Executives at TeamHealth and Envision also took pay cuts.
“Our attention will be focused on our clinicians so they can provide care for patients who need it,” Envision CEO Jim Rechtin said in a statement this month.
But Envision and TeamHealth have continued to pour money into a joint political ad campaign. Their TV and radio spots are aimed at pressuring lawmakers working to address “surprise billing,” where patients get stuck with huge medical costs from out-of-network providers they had no say in choosing. The ads oppose capping out-of-network costs based on median prices in the area.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
When undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors applied for deportation protections and work permits, the forms included a promise: The information would not be shared with immigration enforcement agents.
The pledge was first made by the Obama administration, when it created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, eight years ago. It continued under President Donald Trump. Even after Trump announced that he was ending DACA, his administration assured immigrants that the information on their applications generally wouldn’t be sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
But internal administration emails obtained under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Make the Road New York, and shared with ProPublica, show that those assurances — given to Congress under oath and in lawsuits over the program — were incomplete or misleading.
The Trump administration left out the fact that immigration enforcement agencies already had access to databases containing detailed information, such as home addresses, about DACA recipients and millions of other immigrants.
When undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors applied for deportation protections and work permits, the forms included a promise: The information would not be shared with immigration enforcement agents.
The pledge was first made by the Obama administration, when it created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, eight years ago. It continued under President Donald Trump. Even after Trump announced that he was ending DACA, his administration assured immigrants that the information on their applications generally wouldn’t be sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
But internal administration emails obtained under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Make the Road New York, and shared with ProPublica, show that those assurances — given to Congress under oath and in lawsuits over the program — were incomplete or misleading.
The Trump administration left out the fact that immigration enforcement agencies already had access to databases containing detailed information, such as home addresses, about DACA recipients and millions of other immigrants.
