Tag: poverty

Rep. Maxine Waters warns reporter over LA homeless story: ‘You’ll hurt yourself’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) tried to stop the publication of a news story about Los Angeles’ homeless crisis this week, reportedly telling a Los Angeles Times scribe: “You’ll hurt yourself and the community trying to put this together.”

The Wednesday story by investigative reporter Connor Sheets detailed a March 25 incident in South Los Angeles, where hundreds of homeless people tried to obtain Section 8 housing vouchers after being misled by social media rumors.

The would-be applicants crashed an event held by nonprofit advocacy group Fathers and Mothers Who Care, which had been meant to help the unhoused obtain emergency shelter. 

The confusion reportedly overwhelmed the non-profit as well as Los Angeles Housing Services Authority (LAHSA) workers who told the unexpected arrivals that they would only be able to provide their information and enter an emergency housing database.

At one point, Waters told the crowd: “I want everybody to go home,” triggering an angry response.

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Have the Children Been Poisoned?

Increased exposure to toxic substances due to an overuse of ineffective measures like mask mandates, frequent use of hand sanitizers, disinfectant sprays, and frequent testing during the pandemic will have a short- and long-term impact on children’s health and future generations.

Moreover, ineffective lockdowns increased the number of children relying on food bank packages which cannot fulfill the daily nutrition needed during growth and development, worsening the threat for poor health during aging.

An overall dis-regulation of the immune system might occur with consequences ranging from autoimmune disorders to cancer. It is most likely that the most affected population will be the poor, immunocompromised, and disabled children. To prevent any further damage measures should be stopped while urgent analysis on poisoning and possible ways to repair the immune system is needed.

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5 Stories Ignored by Mainstream Media While They Focus Solely on Ukraine

As we have been reporting for the last three weeks, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is horrific. Russian president Vladimir Putin is a thug who is committing war crimes and who is killing innocent Ukrainians while endangering the people of Russia — all the while threatening nuclear war. While this war is not near American soil, because of the United States’ involvement in NATO and its relationship with Ukraine, it most certainly affects all Americans.

US sanctions on Russia have helped to drive oil prices up nearly 50 percent since this conflict began, which is undoubtedly going to drive up the cost of literally everything else.

These things most assuredly affect the lives of millions of Americans and this war deserves coverage in the media. That being said, given the track record of US media, and their tendency to deceive the American public to get them to accept wars for profit, we shouldn’t be so quick to let down our guard and unquestioningly absorb the constant barrage of information coming from them.

If the mainstream media was so concerned about wars and illegal invasions why don’t they ever report on the genocide in Yemen which is being aided by the United States or any of the other places the US has invaded over the years? The corporate press is actively avoiding these conflicts while conveniently using the Ukraine crisis as a means of ignoring other very important stories that also affect your life.

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Nearly Half Of IRS Audits Target Poorest Taxpayers, Report Finds

Nearly half of all IRS audits in 2021 targeted the nation’s poorest taxpayers, according to a new study.

A report released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) on Tuesday said that about 307,000 of the nearly 660,000 audits conducted by the IRS in 2021 were among taxpayers who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit intended for those making the lowest incomes in the nation, those earning less than $25,000 in total gross receipts.

The poorest families in the study were audited at five times the rate of other Americans.

“Even taxpayers with total positive income from $200,000 to $1,000,000 had only 1/3 the odds of audit compared with these lowest-income wage earners: 4.5 out of every 1,000 compared to 13.0 out of every 1,000 of lowest-income earners,” the study noted.

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Wealth of 10 richest men ‘doubled in pandemic’

The pandemic has made the world’s wealthiest richer but led to more people living in poverty, according to the charity Oxfam.

Lower incomes for the world’s poorest contributed to the death of 21,000 people each day, its report claims.

But the world’s 10 richest men have more than doubled their collective fortunes since March 2020, Oxfam said.

Oxfam typically releases a report on global inequality at the start of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

That event usually sees thousands of corporate and political leaders, celebrities, campaigners, economists and journalists gather in the Swiss ski resort for panel discussions, drinks parties and schmoozing.

However for the second year running, the meeting (scheduled for this week) will be online-only after the emergence of the Omicron variant derailed plans to return to an in-person event.

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