Tag: taxes

Families of Parkland Victims Awarded $127.5 Million for School Massacre Due to FBI Dishonesty and Negligence

The federal government awarded $127.5 million to 16 families impacted by the Parkland High School mass shooting in 2018.

The deadly shooting took place back on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Psychotic killer Nikolas Cruz opened fire, killing 17 people and wounding at least 17 more.

The families accused the FBI of negligence in their lawsuit.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported — The FBI admitted they did not follow protocol in investigating the violent threats posted online by Nikolas Cruz.

On Jan. 5, 2018, a person close to Florida school shooting suspect contacted the FBI tipline and provided info on the suspect’s “gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.”

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How Much Are Taxpayers Paying Climate Czar John Kerry? He Won’t Say, But One GOP Senator Is Demanding Answers.

John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s White House climate czar, flies around the globe in a gas-guzzling jet warning refugees that the worst is yet to come if the world does not stop emitting carbon dioxide into the air. It is unclear how much he is paid or who is on his office’s staff — which is odd, because the United States taxpayer is footing the bill for his travel and salary. After the Boston Herald was told by the government to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to find out that information, Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is demanding answers.

On Thursday, Boston radio legend Howie Carr interviewed Sullivan on his daily radio show. Carr informed the senator that Kerry’s office told the Herald — where Carr also writes a column — that they would have to submit a FOIA request and could expect to hear back by 2024 to find out how much money Kerry is taking in from government coffers.

“What? … That should be public. My salary is online,” Sullivan responded. “The Secretary of State’s is online, and the president is, too.”

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NIH spends $14 million to study reproductive effects of marijuana on macaques

This week’s Golden Horseshoe is awarded to the National Institutes of Health for a $14 million experiment last year on monkeys that included feeding them marijuana edibles and then monitoring the effects, according to the watchdog group Open The Books.

The primate marijuana experiment had two parts, according to an investigation by the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP).

In the first part, female macaques were served THC edibles daily for up to four months. They were then observed to see if any changes occurred in their menstrual cycles. 

In part two, male macaques were fed the edibles for up to seven months and then observed to see if any fertility changes occurred.

NIH awarded the two grants for the experiments. A $13.1 million grant was awarded to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), and $1.1 million was awarded to the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“The White Coat Waste Project was only able to find the enormous price tag of this project by filing a complaint with the NIH,” wrote Open The Books CEO and founder Andrew Andrzejewski. “Federal law known as the Stevens Amendment requires labs to say what percent of the costs of the experiment come from taxpayer money, the dollar amount of taxpayer funds used, and the percent and amount of funding by non-governmental sources. The Oregon Health and Science University disclosed none of these figures in its reports announcing the research results.”

Andrzejewski also pointed out that since recreational marijuana is legal in Oregon, experiments could have been conducted on humans.

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About 4,000 earmarks worth up to $10 billion slipped into $1.5T spending bill

There were about 4,000 earmarks worth between $8-$10 billion slipped inside the $1.5 trillion spending bill Congress passed, according to Republican lawmakers. 

Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun’s office compiled a 367-page document detailing the earmarks that were tucked into the bill that passed on Thursday night less than 48 hours after it was released publicly. 

Among the projects on the list, there were 142 earmarks linked to Senate Majority Leader Schumer, Braun said.

On Twitter, Braun highlighted the earmark requested by New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman totaling $496,000 for “Promoting Health Equity and Affordable Swim Access through Yonkers YMCA Pool Improvements.”

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted on social media about winning millions of dollars for community projects in her district, including housing access and workforce development programs. The title of her post was, “Rep. AOC just won millions for community projects in NY-14.”

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A 93-Year-Old Woman Couldn’t Pay Her $2,300 Tax Bill. The Government Sold Her Home and Kept the Money.

Whether or not Geraldine Tyler will live to see the resolution of her case remains unclear.

The 93-year-old left her Minneapolis condominium in 2010 after a nearby shooting and a disturbing encounter left her uneasy. But she was unable to finance both her new apartment and the property tax on her erstwhile condo, accruing $2,300 in debt.

Over the course of the next five years, the government raised that debt by over 550 percent, tacking on almost $13,000 in additional penalties, fines, and interest. And when Tyler couldn’t pay that, it seized her property, sold it for $40,000—and kept the profit.

Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that was OK.

“Tyler does not argue that the county lacked lawful authority to foreclose on her condominium to satisfy her delinquent tax debt,” wrote Judge Steven Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. “Rather, Tyler argues that the county’s retention of the surplus equity—the amount that exceeded her $15,000 tax debt—is an unconstitutional taking.”

Put more plainly, Tyler is not contesting that she failed to pay her property taxes, nor is she trying to evade responsibility for doing so. Her suit doesn’t seek the full $40,000 value of the condo but rather the excess proceeds that the government made from the sale of her property.

The court’s conclusion: She has no right to that cash.

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