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News/Politics 2-12-15

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Well at least they apologized for taking their money for no legitimate reason…. 🙄

From USNews  “Pressured by Congress, the IRS said Wednesday it is changing its policies and apologizing for seizing banks accounts from otherwise law-abiding business owners simply because they structured bank transactions to avoid federal reporting requirements.

Their alleged crime: routinely making bank deposits of less than $10,000. That allowed the business owners to avoid reporting requirements designed to catch drug dealers and money launderers.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress that the IRS is changing policies to prevent the seizures, as long as the money came from legal means.

 “To anyone who is not treated fairly under the code, I apologize,” Koskinen told the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. “Taxpayers have to be comfortable that they will be treated fairly.”

By law, bank transactions above $10,000 must be reported to the IRS. It’s a felony, called “structuring,” to manage transactions to avoid the reporting requirement, even if the money is legally earned. In some cases, the IRS seized and held bank accounts for years without bringing charges.”

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2. And just what kind of online political speech would they like to regulate? You already know the answer.

From CNSNews  “The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is holding a hearing today to receive public feedback on whether it should create new rules regulating political speech, including political speech on the Internet that one commissioner warned could affect blogs, YouTube videos and even websites like the Drudge Report.

The hearing is a response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in McCutcheon v. FEC last year, which struck down the FEC’s previous cap on aggregate campaign contributions from a single donor in an election cycle.”

“This time around, organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have warned that some Democrats on the commission would like to impose much more burdensome regulations that could serve as the equivalent of spending caps in restricting political speech.”

“The commission has seen proposals to regulate even issue advocacy referencing federal candidates that is disseminated on the Internet,” Goodman told CNSNews.com.

“That could reach YouTube videos, blogs, and websites like [the] Drudge Report,” he warned.”

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3. Here comes Amnesty 2.0.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “The government expects so many applications for President Obama’s new deportation amnesty that it’s seeking a contractor just to open the new mail and enter the forms into the system, with plans to operate two shifts from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every workday to keep up with the anticipated workload.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency charged with approving the applications, expects more than 800,000 applications in just the first two and a half months, or a 70 percent surge compared to last year’s total intake for the entire agency. Over the first 18 or so months, the agency will process more than 4 million pieces of mail related to the larger part of the new amnesty, according to contracting documents.

All applications must be opened in the presence of two workers, one with “secret” security clearance, in order to maintain integrity of the applications, and mail may need to be X-rayed for security reasons, the documents show.”

“But one former USCIS executive testified to Congress last week that the agency is going to be overwhelmed by the volume of applications and the truncated approval process.

“It’s going to be hard to tell how much fraud there is,” said Luke Bellocchi, a former deputy ombudsman for USCIS, as he testified to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week.”

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4. Don’t you hate it when cheating adults ruin it for the kids?

From MSNNews  “A Little League team that captured the attention of the nation and the hearts of its hometown was stripped of its national title Wednesday after an investigation revealed that team officials had falsified boundaries so they could add ineligible players to the roster.

Only last summer, the all-black Jackie Robinson West team was the toast of Chicago and was honored with trips to San Francisco and to the White House.

But the sport’s governing body, Little League International, announced that team officials had changed the boundaries that determine where players must live. And after learning that their scheme had been exposed, they scrambled to convince surrounding leagues to go along with what they had done.

“This is so heartbreaking,” said Stephen D. Keener, the Little League International president and CEO. “It is a sad day for a bunch of kids who we have come to really like … who did nothing wrong.” But “we cannot tolerate the actions of some of the adults involved here.”

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4 thoughts on “News/Politics 2-12-15”

  1. I saw on Television yesterday about the government planning to regulate the internet.
    This can’t be good.
    It may look good at the beginning, but it ain’t good.
    Regulators regulate. That’s what they do.
    There is no end to it, or they would be out of a job.
    Regulators regulate. Remember that.
    That is why we have ethanol. That is why we have little cars. That is why the Lions Club can’t have the blind ducky race. That is why they are closing coal mines.
    Surety, someone will come up with a good regulation.
    Something wonderful the government has done.
    But the total result of government regulation is bad.
    There ain’t nothing broke. Don’t fix it.

    Liked by 3 people

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  3. “Only last summer, the all-black Jackie Robinson West team was the toast of Chicago and was honored with trips to San Francisco and to the White House.

    How heartbreaking. I hope they’ll get over it.

    Like

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