News on Youtube Jan 27 2018

Six of the 14 rural states -- Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire North

Carolina, and West Virginia saw improvements among their rural students

in at least one subject and grade since 2007

For more infomation >> Excerpt of NAEP in Rural Schools Video: Which rural states made the most progress on NAEP? - Duration: 0:17.

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Cuomo says East Coast states will sue feds, looking to thwart key piece of tax overhaul - Duration: 3:02.

Cuomo says East Coast states will sue feds, looking to thwart key piece of tax overhaul

New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that a coalition of East Coast states

will sue the federal government over the Trump-signed tax overhaul, in the latest bid to undermine

the law that Republicans have cheered.

The states -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- appear to be taking aim at a provision

that limits residents' state and local tax deduction (SALT) to $10,000.

While the law contains sweeping tax rate cuts for businesses and individuals, taxpayers

in high-tax states like those in the Northeast are expected to take a hit from the SALT change.

Cuomo called it an "economic missile."

"The elimination of full state and local deductibility is a blatantly partisan and unlawful attack

on New York that uses our hardworking families and tax dollars as a piggy bank to pay for

tax cuts for corporations and other states,� Cuomo said in a statement.

�This coalition will take the federal government to court to protect our residents from this

assault."

A press release from Cuomo�s office claimed that the elimination of full SALT deductibility

will cost New York $14.3 billion.

The move has picked up support from Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and New Jersey Gov. Phil

Murphy, who just replaced Chris Christie.

"Capping the State and Local Tax deduction had nothing to do with sound policy," Murphy

said.

"It is a clear and politically motivated punishment of blue states � like New Jersey and our

neighbors �who already pay far more to the federal government than we receive.�

The lawsuit is just the latest attempt by Democratic governors and other high-profile

lawmakers to thwart the tax bill.

While a number of major companies have announced bonuses tied to the bill, and firms across

America are preparing to revise their income tax withholding for workers, Democrats also

have downplayed gains for average Americans as "crumbs."

Cuomo has separately floated the possibility of largely ending the personal income tax

in his state, instead imposing an employer-side payroll tax that's deductible on federal taxes.

This would ease the impact of the SALT cap for employees, though companies would likely

adjust wages � which could be offset with a credit.

California officials have also raised the possibility of letting residents donate to

the state budget, and in return get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on the full amount of the contribution.

Taxpayers would then be able to deduct that �charitable� contribution from their federal

taxes, making up for any loss from the SALT cap.

Cuomo's lawsuit announcement did not specify a particular legal avenue of attack, though

such a suit could claim the law violates the 14th Amendment by targeting certain classes

of people -- namely those living in high-tax states.

source fox news

For more infomation >> Cuomo says East Coast states will sue feds, looking to thwart key piece of tax overhaul - Duration: 3:02.

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Stan Cohen on 'Israel, Torture and States of Denial II' - Duration: 2:15.

"You know, I would walk down the street and look at other people, and say, "Well, what

can they be thinking of?"

I was sitting in the back of a bus, I would think... yes, it was after this incident where

that man was tortured, it was a few years after our report, quite recently.

And there was a High Court judgement ruling made about whether this shaking, (tiltul,

as it's called in Hebrew) was one of the Landau Commission's permissible forms of

moderate physical pressure, or whether it wasn't.

And I was sitting on a bus, and Israelis are very voluble, shouting, and having open arguments,

and two people in front of me were having an argument about whether shaking a person

by the lapels, was really "force" and whether it was moderate or not.

Now, of course, when that happens, then you're already in a discourse in which people are

not asking whether something is bad and good, but they've certainly stopped asking whether

it happens.

They're just normalising it.

They're normalising it.

They say, "This is a feature of everyday life".

And we know that this is the problem.

We know, from other situations, historical situations, that it's not just about having

two opposing explanations – on the one hand you have this elite, Fascist, evil leadership,

and everybody's frightened of them, or, on the other hand, you have people who are

acting like nameless bureaucrats, the Eichmann type story, or you have people who are actual

believers.

You know, it's not this situation.

There are lots of other histories that have to be explained.

Which leads to the central problem, which is, what does this sort of information do

to you?

And what do you do to the information?

And once I'd got that question clear I was about to start to write a book based on it,

which is close enough to what I eventually did in States of Denial."