Society/Community
More Republican States Cut $300 Benefits, as Jobless Claims Fall
More than three-quarters of Republican-led states plan to end an extra $300-a-week in federal jobless benefits early, as unemployment claims reached a new pandemic low, likely triggering a decrease in the number of benefits recipients this summer. The development came as initial unemployment claims through regular state programs dropped to 444,000 last week, the lowest …
U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to Another Pandemic Low
Jobless claims declined to a new pandemic low last week, in a sign hiring is primed to strengthen as workers return to the labor market. Unemployment claims fell to 473,000 last week from a revised 507,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims are now at the lowest level since mid-March 2020, when …
An Unexpected Unemployment Tax Break: What to Know
In the massive stimulus package enacted earlier this month, lawmakers inserted a last-minute exemption for many taxpayers with up to $10,200 of unemployment payments for 2020. Normally this income is fully taxable on federal returns, so the change could save many filers $1,000 or more. The brain twister, for the agency and affected taxpayers, is …
House Passes Gun-Control Measure Expanding Background Checks on Sales
WASHINGTON—The House passed the first of a pair of gun-control bills, a priority for Democratic leaders impatient over years of little success on the issue amid broad Republican opposition. The vote was 227 to 203 on a measure to expand background checks to nearly all gun sales. Eight Republicans supported the bill, while one Democrat …
Investors Battle Fidelity in Court Over Tax-Break Deal
In the final days of 2017, Malcolm and Emily Fairbairn thought they had everything ready to cushion the income-tax hit from more than $200 million in hedge-fund income. They prepared a large charitable donation, using their relationship with Fidelity Investments and a booming energy stock to maximize their tax deduction. It didn’t go as they …
Covid-19’s Global Divide: As West Reels, Asia Keeps Virus at Bay
While a surge in coronavirus infections is forcing U.S. states and European countries to shut down bars, open field hospitals and limit social gatherings to small groups of people, such measures are becoming distant memories in much of Asia. For months now, life across Asia, where the virus first emerged, has mostly returned to normal. …
Venezuela’s Food Chain Is Breaking, and Millions Go Hungry
Ana Nuñez, a 62-year-old retired municipal worker in western Venezuela, says her meals often consist of just a few corn-flour pancakes, known as arepas. Even when she has money to buy groceries in the city of Maracaibo’s teeming flea market, she said that “instead of quality food they sell garbage, like animal hides and rotten …
White House officials suggest breaking new coronavirus relief package into smaller pieces
White House officials on Sunday again suggested the best way to proceed with coronavirus relief is to split the Democratic $3.4 billion plan into pieces and pass some measures quickly while debate lingers on other items. In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said he thought Congress …
Republicans Could Lead on Mental Health Treatment
A homeless man holds a sign asking for money by an entrance to a subway station in New York, Oct. 9, 2015. Photo: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press Tucked away in the gun law President Biden just signed is a provision increasing funding for preventive outpatient treatment for mental illness. This is an important step toward solving …