Turkish police detain over 50 people in crackdown on Istanbul Pride march
A heavy police presence in hot spots around the city prevented significant gathering, and the organization had to change the gathering location multiple times.
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Winnipeg Free Press
25 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump keeps saying the GOP mega bill will eliminate taxes on Social Security. It does not
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump keeps saying that Republicans' mega tax and spending cut legislation will eliminate taxes on federal Social Security benefits. It does not. At best, Trump's 'no tax on Social Security' claim exaggerates the benefits to seniors if either the House or Senate-passed proposals is signed into law. Here's a look at Trump's recent statements, and what the proposals would — or would not — do. What Trump has said Trump repeatedly told voters during his 2024 campaign that he would eliminate taxes on Social Security. As his massive legislative package has moved through Congress, the Republican president has claimed that's what the bill would do. Trump said on a recent appearance on Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' that the bill includes 'no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime.' A temporary tax deduction But instead of eliminating the tax, the Senate and House have each passed their own versions of a temporary tax deduction for seniors aged 65 and over, which applies to all income — not just Social Security. And it turns out not all Social Security beneficiaries will be able to claim the deduction. Those who won't be able to do so include the lowest-income seniors who already don't pay taxes on Social Security, those who choose to claim their benefits before they reach age 65 and those above a defined income threshold. The Senate proposal includes a temporary $6,000 deduction for seniors over the age of 65, contrasted with the House proposal, which includes a temporary deduction of $4,000. The Senate proposal approved Tuesday would eliminate Social Security tax liability for seniors with adjusted gross incomes of $75,000 or less or $150,000 if filing as a married couple. If passed into law, the tax deduction would last four years, from 2025 to 2029. The deductions phase out as income increases. White House touts impact Touting a new Council of Economic Advisers analysis, the White House said Tuesday that '88% of all seniors who receive Social Security — will pay NO TAX on their Social Security benefits,' going on to say that the Senate proposal's $6,000 senior deduction 'is estimated to benefit 33.9 million seniors, including seniors not claiming Social Security. The deduction yields an average increase in after-tax income of $670 per senior who benefits from it.' Garrett Watson, director of policy analysis at the Tax Foundation think tank, said conflating the tax deduction with a claim that there will be no tax on Social Security could end up confusing and angering a lot of seniors who will expect to not pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. 'While the deduction does provide some relief for seniors, it's far from completely repealing the tax on their benefits,' Watson said. Economic effect Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. The cost of actually eliminating the tax on Social Security would have massive impacts on the economy. University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates that eliminating income taxes on Social Security benefits 'would reduce revenues by $1.5 trillion over 10 years and increase federal debt by 7 percent by 2054″ and speed up the projected depletion date of the Social Security Trust Fund from 2034 to 2032. Discussions over taxes on Social Security are just part of the overall bill, which is estimated in its Senate version to increase federal deficits over the next 10 years by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Administration officials have said the cost of the tax bill would be offset by tariff income. Recently, the CBO separately estimated that Trump's sweeping tariff plan would cut deficits by $2.8 trillion over a 10-year period while shrinking the economy, raising the inflation rate and reducing the purchasing power of households overall.
Winnipeg Free Press
25 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Bryan Kohberger is due to appear in court to plead guilty in University of Idaho stabbings
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — More than two years after the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students shocked the rural community of Moscow, Idaho, the former criminal justice doctoral student charged in the murders is expected in court Wednesday to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Bryan Kohberger agreed to the plea deal in the past few days, just weeks before his trial was to begin, after his attorneys tried but failed to have execution stricken as a possible punishment. The deal drew mixed reactions from the victims' families, ranging from support to outrage that Kohberger would live. 'Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world,' Aubrie Goncalves, the 18-year-old sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, wrote in a Facebook post. 'Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims' pasts.' The small farming community of Moscow, in the northern Idaho panhandle, had not had a homicide in about five years when Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead at a rental home near campus on Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies showed the four victims were all likely asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. The killings prompted a massive hunt for the perpetrator. That included an elaborate effort to track down a white sedan that was seen on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home, using genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect, and using cellphone data to pinpoint his movements the night of the killings. At the time, Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) west of the University of Idaho. He was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene. Online shopping records showed that Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier — as well as a sheath like the one found at the scene. No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home. Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video show that Kohberger visited the victims' neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings. Kohberger is due to appear at 11 a.m. MDT Wednesday before Idaho Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler in Boise, where the case was moved due to pretrial publicity in northern Idaho. Hippler must approve the plea deal. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected, he would likely be sentenced in July. While the Goncalves family opposed the agreement and said they would seek to stop it, they also argued that any such deal should require Kohberger to make a full confession, detail the facts of what happened and provide the location of the murder weapon. 'We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,' they wrote in a Facebook post. The family of Chapin — one of three triplets who attended the university together — supports the deal, their spokesperson, Christina Teves, said Tuesday. Attorney Leander James, who represents Mogen's mother and stepfather, declined to give their views but said he would deliver a statement on their behalf after Wednesday's hearing. Mogen's father, Ben Mogen, told CBS News he was relieved by the agreement. 'We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don't want to have to be at, that we shouldn't have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person,' he said. 'We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.' ___ Johnson reported from Seattle.
Winnipeg Free Press
25 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
MS-13 leader to be sentenced in racketeering case involving 8 murders
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — The leader of an MS-13 clique in the suburbs of New York City faces sentencing Wednesday in a federal racketeering case involving eight murders, including the 2016 killings of two high school girls that focused the nation's attention on the violent Central American street gang. Alexi Saenz pleaded guilty last year for his role in ordering and approving the killings as well as other crimes during a rash of bloody violence that prompted President Donald Trump to make several visits to Long Island and call for the death penalty for Saenz and other gang members during his first term in the White House. Saenz's lawyers are seeking a sentence of 45 years behind bars, but prosecutors want the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 70 years. Prosecutors, who previously withdrew their intent to seek the death penalty, say Saenz deserves to live out his days in prison for his 'senseless' and 'sadistic' crimes. 'The eight victims who lost their lives did nothing to deserve what the MS-13 did to them,' they wrote in legal filings ahead of Wednesday's hearing. 'The defendant and the others killed them in service of the gang without remorse or any regard for them as human beings.' But Saenz's lawyers have argued for leniency, saying in their own legal filings that the now-30-year-old is remorseful and 'on a journey of redemption' while incarcerated. 'With the passage of time and much reflection, it is hard for Mr. Saenz to reconcile the person he is today with the person he was when he committed the crimes,' their sentencing memo reads. 'He is profoundly sorry, and although he knows the families may not accept his apology, it is sincere, and he accepts full responsibility for his participation in these crimes.' Saenz's lawyers also say he suffers from intellectual disabilities and lasting trauma from an abusive father and difficult upbringing in El Salvador. They say Saenz was recruited and unwittingly 'groomed' into MS-13 because he was an 'easily influenced' and 'gullible' high school student on Long Island. Prosecutors, however, counter that Saenz has remained 'firmly entrenched' in MS-13 while in a federal lockup in Brooklyn for the past eight years. They cited photos of him posing with other gang members behind bars and displaying gang signs and gang paraphernalia. They also say Saenz has been disciplined for assaulting other inmates, refusing staff orders and possessing sharpened metal shanks, cellphones and other contraband. 'Indeed, the same pattern of violence and mayhem that has marked his life on the street has not waned with the passage of time,' prosecutors wrote. Saenz, also known as 'Blasty' and 'Big Homie,' was the leader of an MS-13 clique operating in Brentwood and Central Islip known as Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside. He admitted last July that he'd authorized the eight killings and three other attempted killings of perceived rivals and others that had disrespected or feuded with the clique. Saenz also admitted to arson, firearms offenses and drug trafficking — the proceeds of which went toward buying firearms, more drugs and providing contributions to the wider MS-13 gang. Among the killings Saenz oversaw were the deaths of Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, lifelong friends and classmates at Brentwood High School who were slain with a machete and a baseball bat. Other victims included Javier Castillo, 15, of Central Islip, who was befriended by gang members only to be cut down with a machete in an isolated marsh. Another victim, Oscar Acosta, 19, was found dead in a wooded area near railroad tracks nearly five months after he left his Brentwood home to play soccer. MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is a transnational criminal organization believed to have been founded as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by people fleeing civil war in El Salvador. ___ Follow Philip Marcelo at
