Deducting A CEO’s Jet, But Not A Cop’s Uniform

What the Republicans’ Tax Bill Really Means for People Like Us

By David Cay Johnston, DCReport Editor-in-Chief

Donald Trump often declares his support, even love, for police, firefighters and other first responders. 

That isn’t stopping him, however, from nicking their wallets in the new tax law.

Buried in the hastily drafted tax bill’s more than 500 pages are provisions eliminating “miscellaneous” deductions taken by almost 28 million taxpayers in 2015. 

Those are costs you bore to support your job or an investment you own or to pay a professional to prepare your income tax return.

This year cops and other first responders can write off the costs of buying uniforms and dry cleaning them. 

But in 2018, cops who buy their uniforms or are required to buy their own guns and ammunition will no longer be able to deduct those costs as reasonable and necessary expenses to support their earning a paycheck, thanks to Trump and Congressional Republicans.

But that’s not all. Cops and anyone else who belongs to a union will no longer be allowed to deduct their union dues. People who must bear travel costs without reimbursement from their employers will just have to suck it up starting in January.

The new law takes special aim at teachers who seek advanced degrees, which typically qualifies them for more pay. Tuition, books and related costs of getting advanced degrees will not be deductible after the end of this year.

Priorities, Part 2,159

At the Mystic Aquarium

Check out the events Mystic Aquarium has planned for you!  |  View in browser

Family Game Days

Saturdays in January Explore all of your favorite exhibits while you compete against family and friends with supersized games and activities. Game On

Trainer Days

Sundays in January From food prep to hands-on enrichment opportunities and even routine medical exams, our trainers do it all! Meet Our Trainers

Pancakes with Penguins

January 13  |  8:00 - 9:30am Join us for a delicious breakfast buffet and meet an African penguin. Make your reservation today! Save Me a Stack

Family Overnight

January 14  |  7:00pm - 8:30am Pack your overnight bag for unique Aquarium adventures then fall asleep next to your favorite indoor exhibit. Pack Your Bags

Seal Splash

February 17 |  11:00am - 12:30pm Brave the cold water or compete in a fundraising feud with friends to help raise funds for the Animal Rescue Program. Take the Plunge

MYSTIC AQUARIUM 55 Coogan Blvd  |  Mystic, CT 06355  |  860.572.5955

Small amounts of air pollution linked to more death for senior citizens

'Safe'levels?

Brian Bienkowski for Environmental Health News

Elderly people have a higher risk of dying after short-term exposure to particulate air pollution and ozone, according to a new study from Harvard.

The levels of pollution linked to premature deaths were below current U.S. health standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency—and the impacts were disproportionately worse for the poor, women and black people.

The study is the "most comprehensive study of short-term exposure to pollution and mortality to date," said senior author of the study, Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics and co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative.

"We wanted to know if air pollution at levels well below safety standards set by the EPA is possibly increasing mortality," she said. "The answer is yes."

Super fruit indeed

Berry gives boost to cervical cancer therapy

University of Missouri-Columbia

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 12,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. 

One of the most common treatments for cervical cancer is radiation. While radiation therapy destroys cancer cells, it also destroys nearby healthy cells. 

University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers studied in vitro human cancer cells to show that combining blueberry extract with radiation can increase the treatment's effectiveness.

"Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays and other particles such as gamma rays to destroy cancer cells," said Yujiang Fang, M.D., Ph.D., a visiting professor at the MU School of Medicine and lead author of the study. 

The Very Best Liar

Trump averages 5.6 lies per day

"It's scary to have a president who lies so brazenly and who seems out-of-touch with fundamental reality."

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams

"All governments lie," as the saying goes, but Donald Trump appears to have taken presidential lying to new heights during just his first year in the White House.

According to an ongoing analysis by the Washington Post that has tracked Trump's formal speeches, Twitter tirades, and impromptu remarks to the press, the president made 1,950 false or misleading statements during his first 347 days in office. On average, the president says something that is untrue 5.6 times per day.

With just over two weeks left before he reaches the one-year mark, Trump is on track to surpass 2,000 lies, misleading the public at a far higher rate than his recent predecessors.

Bankster hired to clean up toxic waste

Banned from the banking industry for life, Scott Pruitt's pal gets job running program for which he is totally unqualified.

Sharon Lerner for The Intercept

The Environmental Protection Agency has tasked a banker who was banned from the banking industry for life with oversight of the nation’s Superfund program.

In May, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation fined Oklahoma banker Albert Kelly $125,000. 

According to a consent order, which The Intercept obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the FDIC had “reason to believe that [Kelly] violated a law or regulation, by entering into an agreement pertaining to a loan by the Bank without FDIC approval.”

Two weeks later, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt appointed Kelly to lead an effort to streamline the Superfund program. In July, the FDIC went further, banning Kelly from banking for life. 

The “order of prohibition from further participation” explained that the FDIC had determined Kelly’s “unfitness to serve as a director, officer, person participating in the conduct of the affairs or as an institution-affiliated party of the Bank, any other insured depository institution.”

But Pruitt, who had received loans from Kelly’s bank, apparently didn’t find Kelly’s unfitness to serve in the financial industry as disqualifying his longtime friend from serving as a top official at the EPA. Since May, Kelly, or Kell as he was known in Oklahoma, has led the effort to streamline the Superfund program — which oversees remediation of some of the country’s most toxic sites.

Kelly would become a senior adviser in the federal environmental agency despite having no previous experience with environmental issues.

Pruitt earned only $38,400 as an Oklahoma state senator. Even with a $35,000 profit from selling his previous home, that was not enough on its own to buy a house in the Lakes at Indian Springs community in Broken Arrow, the suburb of Tulsa that Pruitt represented in the legislature.

Yet in 2004, Pruitt purchased a sprawling ranch house in the upscale gated community for $605,000. Located on a half-acre corner lot in the Lakes, his stately Tudor looked out on a manmade lake and had a stone fireplace, parking for five cars, and a storm-safe room.

To help pay for it, Pruitt turned to SpiritBank — a community bank that Kelly’s family had run since the 1930s. SpiritBank gave Pruitt and his wife three mortgage loans: one for $81,000, another for $359,000, and a third for $533,000. 

His wife, Marlyn Pruitt, has reported no assets or income.

The year before, SpiritBank had also loaned Pruitt money to help buy a share of the Oklahoma City RedHawks, a minor league baseball team. That deal was made in partnership with a local businessman named Robert Funk, co-founder of an employment company.

Post-Holiday dieting

From Fake Science, guaranteed NOT to use any of Donald Trump's forbidden words (e.g. "science-based).

You won't see this on Faux