Top Democrats and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday released a $78 billion compromise they have reached to expand the child tax credit and restore three popular expired business tax breaks‚ but the package faces a challenging road to enactment in an election year. The plan includes $33 billion to partly extend a major expansion of the child tax credit that was initially beefed up for one year as part of the sweeping 2021 pandemic aid law‚ and another $33 billion to...

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill struck a $70 billion bipartisan deal Tuesday to boost child tax credits and cut taxes for corporations‚ marking a rare agreement across party lines on contentious policy issues in an election year. The legislation will be retroactive‚ covering three calendar years — 2023 through 2025 — and primarily benefit lower-income families who currently earn too little to claim full credits‚ and those with multiple children. Most families currently receive the maximum $2‚...

Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith unveiled a roughly $78 billion tax deal Tuesday that would revive a trio of business tax credits‚ expand the child tax credit and boost low-income housing.  Wyden‚ D-Ore.‚ and Smith‚ R-Mo.‚ aim to pass the tax package before Jan. 29 to avoid disruptions to filing season. The two will need to shore up support amid criticism of the deal from the right and left and find a legislative vehicle for the measure...

Far from the palm trees of Miami or Austin’s taco trucks‚ Catalin Voss has headquartered his literacy start-up between a cannabis club and pawn shop in the heart of the Mission District. Voss rents a nondescript office building in one of San Francisco’s most vibrant neighborhoods as a home base for Ello‚ a company he co-founded in 2020 that uses speech recognition technology‚ powered by artificial intelligence‚ to help struggling students develop their reading skills. The office is...

A complaint against Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson over her financial disclosures is being reviewed by the Committee on Financial Disclosures in the Judicial Conference‚ the Washington Examiner reported. Last month‚ the Center for Renewing America‚ a conservative policy group‚ filed an ethics complaint against Jackson with the Judicial Conference‚ the organization that oversees federal courts‚ that claims the justice "willfully failed to disclose" information about...

On June 8‚ 2023‚ Lindsay Yeager of Cortez‚ Colorado‚ woke up to a barrage of text messages‚ asking if she had heard about the local birth center closing. Yeager immediately sprang into action. By that evening‚ protesters gathered across the street from the city’s hospital with placards and a purpose: keeping the birthing center open. The strategy worked‚ at least for the time being. About 10 days later‚ on the eve of another planned protest‚ Southwest Health System‚ which operates Southwest...

The Texas power grid operator asked residents to conserve power a second time this week as a blast of cold weather plummeted temperatures well below freezing for much of the state. This new conservation request was from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Tuesday‚ when the sun was fully up. Solar power is expected to boost the power supply. Several school districts across Texas including Dallas‚ Fort Worth as well as Aldine and Katy in the Houston area‚ closed on...

US Navy SEALs seized Iranian missile parts and other weapons from a ship headed for Yemen’s Houthi rebels last week that provide a clear “example of how Iran actively sows instability throughout the region‚” officials said. The Jan. 11 raid was the latest seizure by the US and its allies of weapons bound for the rebels‚ who continue to attack commercial vessels in the Red Sea in response to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. US Central Command’s Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla said two missing...

When Los Angeles officials were looking to set up a new homeless shelter where residents could have their own space‚ they decided speed was the priority. For that reason‚ they declined to build the typical tiny home village in favor of an easier-to-assemble "safe sleeping" tent encampment. At a price of $44‚000 per tent‚ one would hope the site went up pretty fast. All told‚ Los Angeles' East Hollywood encampment‚ complete with showers‚ fencing‚ and staff facilities‚ cost $4...

A federal jury of nine New Yorkers was selected Tuesday in the second defamation trial over statements Donald Trump made about advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.  The trial will determine how much money in damages Trump will have to pay Carroll for statements he made in 2019 that a judge determined were defamatory.  No alternates were selected for the panel.  The jurors will remain anonymous throughout the trial and will be shuttled to and...