LANSING, Mich - Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cancelled a tax cut based on a questionable reading of a tax cut law. But legislators seem confident in her legal interpretation. Instead of waiting to spend money they might not be entitled to, they are already planning to spend every dollar available to them.
To make the 2015 fuel and vehicle registration tax hikes more palatable, legislators promised to lower the income tax rate in the future, provided that revenue had grown. When it was time to check whether people were due for a tax cut, revenue had grown. According to the formula legislators put in law, revenue increased enough to require the income tax rate to drop from 4.25% to 4.05% in 2023. Click here to read more.
BOISE, ID - BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) — A public library in Boise is transitioning to an "adult only" library.
The Donnelly Public Library shared on its Facebook account that the change is due to the passage of HB710, legislation referred to as the "library porn" bill that enables anyone to sue the library if children are exposed to inappropriate or adult material. Donnelly Public Library says that due to its small size and the "ambiguous" language of the bill, the change is the only way they can assure compliance with the law, which goes into effect on July 1. Click here to read more.
KANSAS CITY, KS - Over the weekend, Rich Lowry made a solid case that Harrison’s Butker’s now-infamous address to the graduates of Benedictine College was not, in fact, worthy of the controversy into which it has subsequently been bent. I agree with this contention, just as I agree with Samantha Lehman’s observation that, while the speech has by now been heard by anyone who wished to hear it, its intended audience was not the world and his dog, but the students to whom it was given. As is my wont, however, I’d like to step back from these details for a moment and make a more foundational inquiry of Butker’s detractors: What if, instead of having expressed a perfectly acceptable view in front of a narrow audience, Butker had ranged way out of the mainstream on a national television show? Then what? Click here to read more.
WASHINGTON D.C. - Google has taken the bizarre step of paying the US government’s proposed damages in full as it seeks to avoid a risky jury trial in the Justice Department’s case targeting its alleged monopoly over the digital advertising market.
In a little-noticed court filing last week, Google revealed it cut a cashier’s check for a redacted amount of money — believed to be a paltry sum of less than $3 million — that the company claimed covered “full monetary damages” sought by the DOJ.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the DOJ’s legal team had accepted the check.
The DOJ had filed for monetary damages on behalf of government entities, such as the US army, that have purportedly overpaid for online ads due to Google’s harmful business practices. Click here to read more.
COLUMBUS, OH - A Cleveland man is being hailed as a hero for his determination to rescue an infant trapped in a burning house.
John Stickovich was on his way to work when the 62-year-old saw a house consumed in fire and smoke, but no fire engines had yet arrived.
In front of the house, Stickovich saw who he assumed was the occupant looking on despondently.
“The mother was sitting on the… lawn with her one baby and I asked her if she was all right and she said, ‘My baby is still in the house,’ and I was thinking to myself, ‘Oh my God, I have to save the baby.’ That’s how it was going to be,” Stickovich told Nexstar’s WJW. Click here to read more.
