| | | | President Trump pulled the wraps off his long-awaited tax overhaul plan. It's a mix of massive tax cuts and a serious simplification of the tax code that he called a "once-in-a-generation opportunity." So, what's in it? It would collapse the number of personal income tax brackets from seven to three. It would double the standard deduction for married and single filers. And it would slash the corporate tax rate to 20% and dump the estate tax.
Now comes the hard part: getting this thing through Congress. Republicans know it will be a heavy lift, and Dems are billing it as a giveaway to Trump's rich friends. The ambitious effort also comes on the heels of the Senate's latest failure to repeal and replace Obamacare (though Trump now says he may take on the issue by executive order), as well as controversies over wealthy Trump Cabinet members living high on the taxpayer dime. | | The effort to get aid to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico is being stymied by an almost 100-year-old law. The Jones Act requires all goods ferried between US ports to be carried on ships built, owned and operated by Americans. But now, it's making it really expensive to ship stuff from the mainland to the island territory. There have been calls to suspend the act so aid can get to Puerto Rico faster, but so far, the President has only said he's thinking about waiving the rule, which was suspended after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
A week after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans are still desperate for help, and experts say a medical crisis is looming. Relatives here on the mainland are still trying to learn the fate of their loved ones, and a volunteer network of ham radio operators is making critical communications on the island possible. Celebrities, including the rapper Pitbull and Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, are pitching in to help, and Trump's inaugural committee has donated $3 million to relief efforts. Here's how you can support survivors, too. | | At least one of the Facebook ads bought by Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign referenced Black Lives Matter and was specifically targeted to reach audiences in Ferguson, Missouri, and in Baltimore, sources with knowledge of the ads told CNN.
Ferguson and Baltimore had gained widespread attention for the large and violent protests over police shootings of black men. The decision to target the ad in those two cities offers the first look at how accounts linked to the Russian government-affiliated troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency used geographically targeted advertising to sow political chaos in the United States, the sources said. | | | To say Equifax hasn't handled its massive data breach very well is being generous. First, the credit-reporting agency didn't immediately inform the world that the personal information of as many as 143 million people had been compromised. Then, it took flak for charging fees to folks who wanted to protect themselves by initiating a credit freeze. But now, Equifax may finally be doing something right: It will soon offer a program that'll let consumers lock and unlock their credit files for free -- for life. | | | Hugh Hefner, the Playboy founder who built an empire on magazine centerfolds and sexual fantasies, has died at age 91. Hefner started Playboy in the '50s, and its success helped spur the sexual revolution. During its heyday in the 1970s, the Playboy empire included TV shows, clubs (with waitresses in those iconic bunny ears) and a jazz festival. Hef, as he liked to be called, also had critics, who dismissed him as a relic of a more sexist era. Still, tributes have poured in, including from Gene Simmons of Kiss and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. | | | People are talking about these. Read up. Join in. | | A really great deal
Trips to big-box retailers always end up with you picking up something you hadn't planned to, like a newborn baby. | | Face time
Jane Fonda, and pretty much all of social media, made this face when Megyn Kelly, on her new show, asked the Hollywood legend about plastic surgery. | | Face time, part 2
Sorry, kids, you may be all hype about the iPhone X and its Face ID tech, but sadly, it doesn't really work on your cute little baby faces. | | Sole of the city
Oh, it's just another walking tour of NYC. But it's led by Sarah Jessica Parker, so of course, it involves shoes. | | Three strikes
Three big scandals may be one too many for legendary basketball coach Rick Pitino, who's effectively been dumped by Louisville amid an FBI probe. | | "I don't know what my future holds for me."
Golfer Tiger Woods, who is still rehabbing after back surgery, says it's possible he may never return to the links. | | | 45,000
The maximum number of refugees who'd be allowed to resettle in the United States in the coming year under a new Trump administration plan. It's fewer than half the number President Barack Obama had proposed for this fiscal year. | | | | | | | |
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