Sybil Wilkes ‘What You Need To Know’ Calls for Gun Legislation — Biden’s Tax Plan — Mobile Hairstylist’s Business Ruined

1. Calls for Legislation, Not Prayers, Following Nashville School Shooting

What You Need to Know:

Another school shooting took place Monday morning at a Christian school in Nashville, TN. Seven people, including three children and three adults, were among those killed at the Covenant School, serving Pre-K through 6th-grade students.

Police report a female shooter entered the school building in the Green Hills neighborhood after 10 AM. The shooter, originally thought to be a teenager, was identified as a 28-year-old former Covenant School student, Audrey Hale, of Nashville. Officers reported she entered the building through a side entrance, armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun. The woman moved from the first floor to the second, firing multiple shots. Three children and three adult school staff members were fatally wounded.

The shooter was killed by police in this, the 13th school shooting this year, that resulted in injury or death. The organization, EVERYTOWN for Gun Safety, reports this is the 33rd incident of gunfire on school grounds in 2023.

Both President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, spoke about the shooting, during previously scheduled events. In pointing out the need for gun control, the First Lady stressed, “Our children deserve better.”

Why You Need to Know:

Let me repeat two statistics: Monday’s mass shooting was the 13th school shooting this year. The organization, EVERYTOWN for Gun Safety, reports this is the 33rd incident of gunfire on school grounds in 2023. As the numbers continue to increase, and as more children are killed, it should be noted the response of politicians.

Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn said she was “heartbroken” about the shooting. What about the broken hearts of the families who lost innocent children Monday morning? Damn your broken heart, Senator. Get busy creating or supporting current gun legislation. Your prayers don’t mean Jack….just like, apparently the six lives that were torn apart by guns.

(SOURCE: AJC.COM)

2. Biden’s Tax Plan Takes Aim at MAGA

WRITTEN AND CONTRIBUTED BY KHAMERON RILEY

What You Need to Know:

The White House released a fact sheet entitled Extreme MAGA Congressional Republicans Propose Handouts to Rich and Tax Hikes for Working Families, detailing the extreme tax plans of MAGA Congressional Republicans and how the tax plan of the Biden administration instead wants to ask the super-wealthy to pay their fair share and cut taxes for hardworking families. 

On March 9, President Biden released a budget to cut taxes for working for people and families with children by almost $800 billion over the next 10 years without raising taxes on anyone with an income below $400,000 per year.

Congressional Republicans have instead offered a set of top-down tax proposals. Their agenda would add over $3 trillion to the debt with tax cuts and other giveaways skewed toward the wealthy and large corporations. They also have advanced proposals demanding massive cuts to programs from public safety to health care to education — while reportedly declining to put forward a budget.

The Fact Sheet explains who should pay more in taxes and why- naming billionaires, corporations that use tax loopholes, and money-splurging-investment banks directly. Under Bidens Plan, these entities will pay the brunt of America’s bill.

Why You Need to Know:

We know most Black families live at or below the poverty line. We also know wealth is a tool for us to gain power and live well. So it’s economically beneficial to continue to support the Biden administration and stick it to the super-wealthy who game the system. It was unlike President Biden to name MAGA supporters directly, but these preemptive strikes only confirm he’s building a fact-based track record against any Republican opposition come 2024. Know your facts before you engage in political discourse.

(SOURCE: WHITEWHOUSE.GOV)

3. New Maryland Provider Opening in Post-Roe ‘Abortion Desert’

What You Need to Know:

A new abortion provider is opening this year in Democratic-controlled Maryland — just across from deeply conservative West Virginia, where state lawmakers recently passed a near-total abortion ban.

The Women’s Health Center of Maryland in Cumberland, roughly 5 miles (8 kilometers) from West Virginia, will open its doors in June — a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections — to provide abortions to patients across central Appalachia, region clinic operators say is an “abortion desert.”

“Hours in any direction, there are no other abortion providers here — it’s smack dab in the middle of an absolute abortion desert, and that’s by design,” said Katie Quiñonez, executive director of the Charleston-based Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, the state’s lone abortion clinic until it was forced to stop the procedures after legislators in September passed a ban with narrow exemptions.

Independent abortion clinics provide most abortions in the U.S. — especially for people with low incomes who live in isolated, rural states hostile to abortion access. The clinics are more likely to offer abortion after the first trimester and to provide both surgical and medication abortion options, according to the Abortion Care Network, the national association for independent abortion care providers.

Dozens of independent clinics across the country have been forced to close their doors since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and in 14 states, there are no abortion clinics at all.

At least 66 clinics in 15 states have stopped providing abortions since the decision, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. The number of clinics providing abortions in those 15 states dropped from 79 to 13 by October of last year, with the remaining clinics in Georgia. 

(SOURCE: APNEWS.COM)

4. New Mobile Hairstylist’s Business Ruined By Racism Before She Could Start

WRITTEN AND CONTRIBUTED BY COY MALONE

What You Need to Know:

Angel Pittman, a 21-year-old North Carolina hairstylist who is Black, set aside $14,000 for three school buses to be used as a mobile hair salon. In September 2022, she also purchased a plot of land in Salisbury for $10,000 to have a base. 

“I’ve never seen anybody driving around doing people’s hair. But not only did I want to get paid for doing hair, but I wanted to drive around, do a couple of homeless people’s hair and maybe go to some prisons and help incarcerated people,” Pittman said. 

After closing on the land, Pittman said she got a weird feeling about an elderly White male neighbor. 

Later that month, Pittman returned to the land with her mother to park the buses, and the older White man was asking, “Why are you guys here? Are y’all looking for shade?” On another visit, Pittman said, “He sat over there and had his gun out the whole time…He was like, ‘Get the f**k off my lawn.’ And [that] we need to get them f**king buses off his lawn. So basically saying my land was his.” 

This is when Pittman noticed her buses were vandalized with smashed windows and racial slurs were written on the vehicles. Her neighbor also posted Confederate flags, swastikas, and KKK signs on his property that Pittman insisted weren’t present when she purchased the plot or on any other visits.

Pittman contacted the Rowan county sheriff’s office and filed a report, but no actions have been taken. As a result, Pittman moved back home to Charlotte.

“I cried for a long time. For somebody to be hateful because of my skin color makes it even worse. It’s really heartbreaking,” Pittman said.

According to Mark McDaniel, one of Salisbury’s sheriff’s captains, the elderly resident has always decorated his lawn with white supremacy signs. “It wasn’t like he put it there overnight. It’s nothing like that. So those items were not just put there after the buses were put there.”

Why You Need to Know:

There’s no available channel to escalate police cover-ups or hate crimes, which are federal offenses. Why?

(SOURCE: REVOLT.TV)

5. Who Can Claim the Home Office Deduction on This Year’s Taxes?

WRITTEN AND CONTRIBUTED BY CATRINA M. CRAFT, CPA

What You Need to Know:

If you worked from home in 2022, you may be wondering if you qualify for the home office deduction, which offers a tax break for part of your home expenses.

Remote work was an option for 10.6% of workers in 2022, with higher percentages among tech, legal and other occupations. So, can you claim the home office deduction?

Your workspace must meet IRS guidelines

Based on the square footage of a specific area in your home, you must use your “home office” exclusively for work. And the IRS expects it to be the principal place for your business, used regularly.

It doesn’t need to be a room with four walls around it. It could be a designated 200 square feet in your home. But it would be hard to argue that your kitchen table is exclusively for business.

You have two options to calculate the home office deduction:
1. The simplified option: Uses a standard deduction of $5 per square foot of the portion of your home used for business, capped at 300 square feet, or $1,500.

2. The regular method: This is more complicated as it uses the percentage of your home used for business, including actual expenses, such as part of your mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, and depreciation. The calculation happens on Form 8829.

Typically, I calculate it both ways for new clients to see which option provides the bigger tax break.

Of course, some taxpayers may get a bigger tax break by using the regular method as it’s much more beneficial because the simplified option is capped at $1,500. But when using the regular method, it’s important to have documentation to show proof of your deductions as it’s an area of focus for the IRS.

(SOURCE: CATRINA M. CRAFT, CPA)

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