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IRS aims to go paperless by 2025

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

Most taxpayers will be able to digitally submit a slew of tax documents and other communications to the IRS next filing season as the agency aims to go completely paperless by 2025.The effort to reduce the exorbitant load of paperwork that has plagued the agency — dubbed the “paperless processing initiative” — was announced Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel.The effort is being financed through an $80 billion infusion of cash for the IRS over 10 years under the Inflation Reduction Act passed into law last August, although some of that money already is being cut back.“Thanks to the IRA, we are in the process of transforming the IRS into a digital-first agency,” Yellen said during a visit to an IRS paper processing facility in McLean, Virginia.“By the next filing season,” she said, “taxpayers will be able to digitally submit all correspondence, non-tax forms, and notice responses to the IRS.”&...

Judge agrees to let lawyers for football player Araiza to ask rape accuser about her sexual history

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Lawyers for former San Diego State punter Matt Araiza will be allowed to ask about the sexual history of the woman who accused him and other men of raping her at a house party near San Diego State University, a judge ruled this week. Superior Court Judge Matthew Braner said Monday he will allow deposition questioning in the woman’s civil suit to focus on the year before the alleged assault in October 2021. He also ordered that most of the questions be phrased to elicit a “yes” or “no” response, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Wednesday. The accuser's credibility "will be a central issue in this case,” the judge wrote, and so Araiza should be permitted to ask the woman about her public statements regarding her age and number of sexual partners.The woman is suing Araiza and four other former Aztec football players. The lawsuit alleges Araiza had sex with her in a side yard of the house then brought her into a bedroom where she said men took turns raping her. The ...

Family of a Black man killed during a Minnesota traffic stop asks the governor to fire troopers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Racial justice groups and relatives of a Black man shot and killed this week by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper demanded Wednesday that the governor fire three officers who were involved in stopping the man on a Minneapolis freeway.The groups and relatives of 33-year-old Ricky Cobb II made the demands at a news conference outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, two days after Cobb was killed during a traffic stop.Troopers had pulled over Cobb, who was Black, for a traffic stop early Monday on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. According to the head of the Minnesota State Patrol, after stopping the car the troopers tried to take Cobbs into custody for allegedly violating a restraining order before fatally shooting him as he began driving away. Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, The Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, and Cobb’s relatives gathered at the government center to demand that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz fire the state t...

Federal appeals court upholds ruling giving Indiana transgender students key bathroom access

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that transgender students in Indiana must have access to the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities.The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling Tuesday upheld a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana last year ordering the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville and the Vigo County Schools to give the transgender students such access.Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, issued a statement welcoming the appeals court ruling.“Students who are denied access to the appropriate facilities are caused both serious emotional and physical harm as they are denied recognition of who they are. They will often avoid using the restroom altogether while in school,” Falk said. “Schools should be a safe place for kids and the refusal to allow a student to use the correct facilities can be extremely damaging.”M...

Grand Canyon West in northern Arizona reopens attractions a day after fatal tour bus rollover

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. (AP) — Grand Canyon West and its Skywalk attraction and helicopter tours was back in business Wednesday, a day after one person was killed and at least eight others hospitalized after a tour bus rollover in northern Arizona.Hualapai tribal officials said a private tour operator and a visitor’s personal vehicle collided near the Grand Canyon West parking lot at around 10 a.m. Tuesday within the resort’s Corp Circle in Terminal 1.They haven’t released any other information, citing their ongoing investigation.Cheyanne Majenty, who is with Hualapai Emergency Operations, said the resort was open and fully operational Wednesday after being closed following Tuesday’s fatal rollover.John MacDonald, a spokesman for the tribe, said the person who died was a woman but he didn’t have her name, age or hometown yet.Eight of the 57 people aboard the bus were flown to a Las Vegas hospital and reported to be in fair condition Tuesday night. However, MacDonald didn’t have any...

Pledge to plant 2 billion trees lofty but attainable, Natural Resources minister says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

SURREY, B.C. — Canada’s plan to plant two billion trees by 2030 is ahead of schedule, but mitigating the effects of climate change is as important as adapting to them, says Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. The minister was in Surrey, B.C., Wednesday to tout the federal government’s pledge to plant two billion trees, saying the plan is on track and even exceeding its targets. “We are focusing a good chunk of this program increasingly on the reforestation of areas burned by forests, but as I say, the challenge of climate change, we’ve talked a lot about the need for us to reduce carbon emissions to actually ensure that we’re not making the problem worse,” Wilkinson said. “The reality is that we are going to actually have to focus far more on adaptation.”Wilkinson said in the first two years of the Trudeau government’s tree-planting pledge, 110 million trees have been planted, exceeding early targets of 90 million tree...

Ohio utility that paid federal penalty says it’s now being investigated by a state commission

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio-based utility company says it’s being investigated by a state office focused on organized crime in connection with payments the company made to the state’s former House speaker and a top utility regulator, a news outlet reported Wednesday.FirstEnergy said in a financial report filed Monday that it had received a subpoena on June 29 from the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, Cleveland.com reported. The commission is a division of the state attorney general’s office. The payments were the focus of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement between the Akron-based firm and federal authorities in which the company agreed to pay a $230 million penalty and cooperate with investigators. The company said in its filing Monday that it had been unaware of the state investigation.In the federal agreement, FirstEnergy acknowledged having bankrolled former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder’s political ascendance in exchange for nuclear p...

What we know about the four firefighters killed in July in Canada

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

It has been one of the deadliest years in recent memory for firefighters battling blazes in Canada. Here is what we know about the four firefighters killed while on duty in Canada in July.— Devyn Gale, 19Gale died July 13 while fighting a wildfire near Revelstoke, B.C. Police say the young firefighter was clearing brush in a remote area near a wildfire when her team found her pinned under a fallen tree.Gale, who died after being airlifted to hospital, was a former member of the B.C. gymnastics team and a star pupil at her high school. Her family said Gale was considerate, hardworking, and did everything out of kindness. —Adam Yeadon, 25Yeadon died July 15 while fighting a wildfire near his home in Fort Liard, N.W.T., a hamlet north of the British Columbia border. Family have indicated Yeadon was injured by a tree.Yeadon’s father said the young man loved his job as a woodland firefighter and had been doing it for several years. He is described as “brave, kind ...

2 Alabama inmates killed while working on road crew for state

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

HAMILTON, Ala. (AP) — Two Alabama inmates on a work crew were killed Wednesday after being struck by a car while picking up trash on the side of a highway, prison officials said. Ronnie Steven Cornelius, 30, and Colt Eugene Morris, 40, were hit by a vehicle while working on a Alabama Department of Transportation road crew in Marion County, the prison system said in a news release. The accident occurred on Highway 278. “ADOC would like to express its deepest condolences to the families of these two men who were killed in this tragic accident,” Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said. The two men were housed at a community correctional facility in Hamilton. The facility had an 11-man road crew picking up trash along the highway when the accident occurred, the prison system said. The Alabama Department of Corrections did not release additional information about the accident other than to say the men were wearing reflective vests and “safety policies were being followed when the crash o...

Family, friends mourn B.C. firefighter Zac Muise killed while fighting wildfire

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:17:59 GMT

VANCOUVER — Family, friends and colleagues are mourning the young firefighter killed in northeastern British Columbia, the fourth fatality in one of the deadliest fire seasons in recent memory.The family of 25-year-old Zak Muise has launched a memorial fundraiser in his name, saying in a statement that he was “loved by many” and that family members ask for privacy during this difficult time.Police say Muise was killed on July 28 in a remote area about 150 kilometres north of Fort St. John when his heavy-duty ATV rolled over a steep drop on a gravel road.Muise’s death is the fourth on the Canadian fire line in July, and the second in British Columbia. Cliff Chapman, operations director at the BC Wildfire Service, says he has never in his 21-year-career at the agency felt the heaviness he and other firefighters are feeling.Chapman says firefighters need continued support from people around the province and across Canada, since crews are “leaving their families&...