“Republicans have quietly imposed a new tax on churches, synagogues and other nonprofits, a little-noticed and surprising change that could cost some groups tens of thousands of dollars. Their recent tax-code rewrite requires churches, hospitals, colleges, orchestras and other historically tax-exempt organizations to begin paying a 21 percent tax on some types of fringe benefits they provide their employees. That could force thousands of groups that have long had little contact with the IRS to suddenly begin filing returns and paying taxes for the first time.” More …
Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote
“Voter purges are an often-flawed process of cleaning up voter rolls by deleting names from registration lists. Done badly, they can prevent eligible people from casting a ballot that counts. This report examines the growing threat, and outlines steps every state can take to protect voters in November and beyond.” From the Brennan Center for Justice. More …
Trump’s Tax Cut Hasn’t Done Anything for Workers
“Wages were supposed to rise. Instead, they’ve fallen.” More …
Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software on Systems Sold to States
“The nation’s top voting machine maker has admitted in a letter to a federal lawmaker that the company installed remote-access software on election-management systems it sold over a period of six years, raising questions about the security of those systems and the integrity of elections that were conducted with them. Election Systems and Software has acknowledged that it had ‘provided pcAnywhere remote connection software … to a small number of customers between 2000 and 2006,’ which was installed on the election-management system ES&S sold them.” More …
Republican governor won’t send National Guard troops to the border
“Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker cited the “inhumane treatment of children” as the reason for canceling the deployment.” More …
Trump aides plan fresh immigration crackdowns before November midterm elections
“White House policy adviser Stephen Miller wants to make sure the president can show he’s doing something about border control.”
Listen to Children Who’ve Just Been Separated From Their Parents at the Border
“ProPublica has obtained audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, in which children can be heard wailing as an agent jokes, ‘We have an orchestra here.'” More …
U.S. interfaith leaders urge government to #KeepFamiliesTogether
“Recently, the Administration announced that it will begin separating families and criminally prosecuting all people who enter the U.S. without previous authorization. As religious leaders representing diverse faith perspectives, united in our concern for the wellbeing of vulnerable migrants who cross our borders fleeing from danger and threats to their lives, we are deeply disappointed and pained to hear this news.”
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US bishops condemn immigration policies that separate families at border
“The U.S. bishops began their annual spring assembly by condemning recent immigration policies from the Trump administration that have separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border and threatened to deny asylum for people fleeing violence.” More …
Climate Change May Already Be Hitting the Housing Market
“Between 2007 and 2017, average home prices in areas facing the lowest risk of flooding, hurricanes and wildfires have far outpaced those with the greatest risk, according to figures compiled for Bloomberg News by Attom Data Solutions, a curator of national property data. Homes in areas most exposed to flood and hurricane risk were worth less last year, on average, than a decade earlier.” More …