Tag: taxes

Trump announces $10B U.S. investment in Board of Peace to rebuild Gaza

President Donald Trump said the United States will contribute $10 billion to the Board of Peace — an international organization he launched in January to help rebuild the Gaza Strip and secure peace in other conflict zones.

At the board’s first meeting in Washington on Thursday, he said other member countries will contribute billions more and send soldiers for Palestinian security.

“The Board of Peace is showing how a better future can be built starting right here,” Trump said at the meeting attended by 17 world leaders who are part of the board, as well as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.  

“We will help Gaza,” Trump said. “We will straighten it out. We will make it successful. We will make it peaceful. And we will do that in other spots. The Board of Peace is going to lead the way in Gaza.”

In addition to the U.S., seven other countries, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, have contributed more than $7 billion to help the Gaza relief effort, Trump announced. The United Nations Office of Humanitarian Assistance is raising $2 billion to support Gaza, and FIFA plans to raise $75 million and to bring World Cup soccer stars to the war-torn territory, he said.

An estimated $70 billion is reportedly needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war with Israel.

Approved by the United Nations Security Council last year, the Board of Peace was initiated as part of Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the conflict in Gaza, starting with a ceasefire that began in October. The second stage of the plan, focused on demilitarization and reconstruction, was announced in January.

During Thursday’s meeting, Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Morocco committed to creating an armed International Stabilization Force to keep security and ensure the disarming of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel and a cornerstone of the ceasefire deal. Egypt and Jordan committed to training a police force, U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, commander of the Gaza International Stabilization Force, said Thursday.

Jeffers said a team of U.S. military experts is already on the ground in Gaza preparing the infrastructure for ISF headquarters to oversee five sectors in Gaza, each of which will receive a brigade of troops. The long-term goal is to have 12,000 police and 20,000 ISF soldiers, he said, starting with Rafah — the border crossing at the southern end of the 140-square-mile coastal territory.

“This is a vision of Gaza as part of the Middle East at peace,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at the meeting.

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Vermont Senate Committee Approves Bill to Cut Marijuana Tax, Double Purchase Limits and Allow Events and Deliveries

A Vermont Senate committee has unanimously approved a bill that would make changes to the state’s marijuana laws, including reducing the excise tax, expanding possession and purchase limits, and allowing cannabis events and deliveries.

The Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs voted 5 to 0 to send Senate Bill 278 to the full Senate after adopting a revised version of the proposal. The bill was originally filed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers as a measure to expand marijuana sales and make Vermont’s regulated market more competitive.

Under the amended version, the bill would cut Vermont’s marijuana excise tax from 14% to 10%. It would also double the retail transaction and personal possession limits, allowing adults 21 and older to buy and possess up to two ounces of marijuana or its equivalent in a single sale. It would also increase the legal possession limit for cannabis concentrates from 5 grams to 10 grams.

Another notable change in the amended bill is a higher THC cap for cannabis products. The proposal would increase the limit for a single package from 100 milligrams to 200 milligrams of THC.

The measure would also create new event and delivery permits, though in a more limited way than the original version may have suggested (the committee amended the bill before giving it approval). The Cannabis Control Board would be allowed to issue up to 10 public event permits and 10 private event permits per year, with each permit valid for a single event lasting no more than 24 hours. The bill would also authorize up to 15 delivery permits annually for tier 1 cultivators and tier 1 manufacturers. Both the event and delivery permit sections would be repealed on July 1, 2028, making them temporary pilot-style programs unless lawmakers act again.

The amended bill would also prevent municipalities from using ordinances or bylaws to completely prohibit cannabis establishments, although it does not appear to include the earlier concept of requiring local votes in municipalities that have not yet considered whether to allow retailers.

If approved by the full Senate and later enacted into law, most of the bill’s provisions would take effect July 1, 2026.

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The Pacific Northwest’s Anti-Democracy Progressives

Seattle, which is home to Amazon and Microsoft, currently employs some 193,000 well-compensated Washingtonians working in the tech sector. One major reason that Seattle emerged as the first big tech hub outside of California is obvious: It is the only West Coast state with no state income tax. Its state constitution forbids an income tax. High wage workers and entrepreneurs seeking a piece of the relatively laid back, outdoors-focused Pacific Northwest lifestyle can move to Washington without taking a state-mandated pay cut.

For the progressive Democrats who dominate state politics in the Pacific Northwest, money in the pockets of anyone other than the government and its political allies is wasted. To grab more of it, legislative Democrats in Washington are pushing through an income tax in the guise of a “millionaire’s tax” that would levy a 9.9% tax on incomes over $1 million. Just yesterday, as the “millionaire’s tax” neared the finish line in the Washington legislature, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced he and his wife have relocated from Seattle, where they lived for 47 years, to Miami. Florida has neither a state income tax nor a state income tax masquerading as a “millionaire’s tax.”

The constitutionality of the bill rests on progressives’ expectation that the Washington Supreme Court will completely abandon decades of precedent deeming income taxes unconstitutional. The expectation may not be unfounded: Five of nine justices were appointed by Democratic governors. Democrats also voted down an amendment to forbid applying an income tax to lower income levels, signaling the “millionaire’s tax” is likely to become a “thousandaire’s tax” if Democrats get their way.

What makes this proposed tax truly egregious, however, is its attempt to stop voters from having any say in it. The Democrats’ tax bill includes a necessity clause that precludes a voter referendum that could overturn the new income tax. So long as the majority-progressive-appointed state Supreme Court goes along, progressives will have upended 90 years of constitutionally prohibited income taxes while shielding it from a vote of the people.

Additionally, Washington progressives have taken a brazen step to undermine local governance in the state. The state house just passed a bill giving unelected bureaucrats appointed by the governor the power to remove any elected sheriff in the state based on vague guidelines, overriding local voters’ ability to select their own law enforcement. The move is an effort to exert progressive control of sheriffs in rural parts of the state who have questioned unpopular and difficult-to-enforce laws, such as COVID restrictions and gun regulations.

Not to be outdone by its neighbor to the north, Oregon’s progressive governance is also thumbing its nose at the will of the voters. The Beaver State, which has made itself into an economic backwater, has long levied high state income taxes, driving businesses and people who earn money for a living out of state. (The state’s second largest business, the $12 billion Dutch Brothers coffee chain, left the state last year, taking its corporate tax revenue with it.) The state’s economy, always tenuous, is now crumbling. Oregon’s unemployment rate of 5.2% is third worst in the nation, better than only California (5.5%) and New Jersey (5.4%). Layoffs since the beginning of 2025 are comparable to job losses during the Great Recession.

Oregon progressives charge forward undaunted. The Democratic legislative supermajority voted in February to disconnect Oregon’s tax code from the federal code so the state can continue to tax job-creating business investment at the higher rate eschewed by D.C. Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill. The disconnect will not help attract the investors needed to stabilize Portland’s cratering downtown real estate market, where values, when buyers can be found, are a fraction of what they were five years ago. Investors recently rated Portland as the worst place in the country to invest in real estate other than Hartford, Connecticut. 

Punitive rates of income taxation are not enough for Oregon Democrats. For the past year, they’ve tried to muscle through the largest tax increase in state history. It is a deeply unpopular package consisting of fuel tax increases to pay for more unionized transportation workers and a doubling of the state payroll tax to fund public transportation – even though the state is shedding jobs at an historic rate and such a massive payroll tax will only make things worse.

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‘Where’s the Money?’: California Librarian Questioned on Missing $650,000 Linked to Dolly Parton Initiative

California’s top librarian is accused of failing to produce $650,000 in missing funds linked to a literacy program started by country music star Dolly Parton in east Tennessee in 1995.

State legislators recently pelted Greg Lucas, the leader of the California State Library, with questions about the funds during a budget hearing on education, the New York Post reported on Friday.

The issue is connected to a foundation started by Parton called Imagination Library, which delivers free books to children. The program was set to be statewide in California in 2023, according to WJHL.

The outlet noted Parton created her library in 1995 to provide free books in her home county in east Tennessee.

During the hearing, state Sen. Shannon Grove (R) told Lucas he did not have documentation to show where the money went.

She then asked point blank, “Where’s the money?”

Lucas was appointed to lead the state library in 2014 by former Gov. Jerry Brown, ABC 10 reported.

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Mamdani Proposes Massive Estate Tax Exemption Cut From $7M To $750K, Among Other Tax Increases

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is urging Albany to consider a sweeping overhaul of New York’s estate tax, proposing to sharply lower the exemption threshold and dramatically increase the top rate on large inheritances. His plan would cut the exemption from more than $7 million to $750,000 while boosting the highest tax rate from 16 percent to 50 percent, Bloomberg reported. 

The idea was included in a policy memo his administration recently shared with state lawmakers as they negotiate the state budget, according to NY Focus.

The estate tax proposal is one of several revenue measures Mamdani’s office has floated as the city prepares for a significant budget gap. New York City is projecting a $5.4 billion deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and the mayor is asking state officials to help identify new sources of funding to help close the shortfall.

Among the other proposals is a narrower package of business tax increases aimed specifically at companies operating in the city. The administration estimates those changes could generate about $1.75 billion annually. Under the plan, the city’s corporate tax rate would rise to 10.8 percent for financial firms and to 10.62 percent for other corporations, while the tax on large unincorporated businesses would increase modestly for firms earning more than $5 million.

Mamdani is also proposing to scale back the Pass-Through Entity Tax credit, which currently allows certain business owners to use company tax payments to fully offset what they owe in personal income taxes. Limiting that credit to 75 percent of its value would produce roughly $700 million a year, according to city estimates. The mayor continues to advocate for raising the local income tax rate on residents earning more than $1 million annually, a measure projected to bring in about $3 billion each year.

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LA awards $106M to nonprofit whose lawyers hinder city’s ability to clean up streets — and bill $1,025 an hour

Los Angeles just cut a whopping $106.6 million taxpayer check to a nonprofit law firm whose lawyers have spent years hindering the city’s ability to dismantle homeless camps and clean up city streets — with one attorney billing as much as $1,025 an hour for work tied to its activism.

The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) was awarded the largest share of an eye-popping $177 million tenant rights funding package approved at City Hall this week, despite opposition from the City Attorney.

Under the deal, Los Angeles will funnel $106,572,543.69 over the next three years to LAFLA for eviction defense services, even as attorneys connected to the organization have repeatedly filed lawsuits that blocked the city from enforcing municipal codes aimed at keeping sidewalks clear of encampments and neighborhoods safe.

But the money flowing to the group is far larger than that. City records show the Stay Housed LA eviction defense program, a city initiative administered by LAFLA through a network of partner organizations, had already grown to a maximum contract value of about $90.8 million through a series of amendments approved by the City Council.

Put together, the contracts push the pipeline of taxpayer funding tied to the nonprofit to about $197 million. That number jumps off the page when compared to the organization’s own finances.

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Exposed: Ilhan Omar’s Ties to Sister’s Minneapolis Health Clinic, Somali Health Company, and Alleged Brother-Husband

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) web of shady family ties goes even deeper than her alleged marriage to her brother — reportedly using her political offices to secure millions of dollars for a Minneapolis health clinic operated by her sister, who is married to a top Somali government official.

Omar’s elder sister, Sahra Noor, states on her LinkedIn profile that she was the CEO of People’s Center Clinics & Services from July 2014 to April 2018. In January 2017, Omar began her two-year term as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. 

People’s Center is in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside, nicknamed “Little Mogadishu” for its high Somali migrant population, many of whom do not speak English.

The 2017 capital budget approved by the state legislature included $2.2 million for the clinic, which operates as a nonprofit that has received $33 million in Health and Human Services (HHS) grants since 2002. 

While People’s Center has an active contract pharmacy agreement for HHS’s 340B Drug Pricing Program with “Degdeg’s Carepoint Pharmacy,” signed by Noor in 2015, the pharmacy lost its license in 2017 and is listed as “permanently closed” on Google Maps. 

Omar boasted about getting the $2.2 million for the clinic that was being run by her sister at the time, celebrating the renovations it completed in 2022 along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), state Sen. Omar Fateh (D-MN), and other Democrats.

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Husband behind $14M COVID loan scam bought mansion for another wife he had in the Middle East

An Illinois tax preparer who helped run a “staggering” $14 million COVID scam used the money to build a mansion for a wife and kids he had in the Palestinian territories — infuriating his other wife in Illinois.

Sharhabeel Shreiteh, 46, received around $740,000 in kickbacks as he helped more than 1,000 people get phony Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in what he admitted to one sidekick was likely the “most stupid fraud in history.”

Shreiteh used his own ill-gotten gains to build a home and a luxury Mercedes car for his wife and their three kids in Palestine — sending his American-based wife of nearly 18 years into a jealous rage, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“You suck!” Hania Atiq Shreiteh, his 52-year-old wife in America, texted him in July 2021 about the money he was sending to his family in his native Palestine.

“I bust my a– for 13 years and don’t have like she gets without working for it!!!” she wrote, according to messages in court filings.

“You gave her kids, a villa, now fancy cars??!! … I’m so sick and tired of being lied to by you.”

Shreiteh and Hania were married in 2008 and have a daughter in suburban Chicago. It was not clear when he married the other woman in Palestine, with whom he has three children and talked to every day, nor if they are still married.

However, Hania’s anger appeared to have subsided by the time the taxpayer pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday.

“Having a second family aligns with his religious beliefs and was approved by his wife,” a court memo seeking a lighter sentence claimed. “He hopes that once the situation in the Middle East stabilizes, his other family can visit him here.”

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Over 60% on Welfare: Sanctuary States Quietly Turn Illegal Aliens Into a Permanent Dependent Class

Jessica Vaughan, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said policies adopted by sanctuary states can attract illegal immigration and place financial burdens on taxpayers through expanded access to public assistance programs.

Vaughan discussed how certain state policies provide benefits to individuals living in the country illegally, arguing that these programs increase government spending and encourage illegal settlement in those states.

“Sanctuary states typically have other policies that attract illegal settlement and thus burden taxpayers with support of illegal immigrants,” Vaughan said.

She said that beyond providing emergency medical care and public education, some sanctuary states extend additional benefits funded by taxpayers.

“Besides funding emergency health care and schooling for all, a number of sanctuary states go farther and choose to provide Medicaid, subsidized health insurance, nutrition assistance, housing and much more,” Vaughan said.

According to Vaughan, those programs are used frequently by households headed by individuals living in the country illegally.

“Illegal immigrants use these welfare programs in large numbers,” Vaughan said.

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