The LuLac Edition #4,074, May 16th, 2019

TRUMP AND IRAN

Do you see the mayhem caused by Donald Trump nixing the Iranian ems deal? What this has done is made that part of the region unstable. It is no accident that people in Iraq are being told to leave because of high tensions.

U.S. PRESIDENT TRUMP TOOK OUT NEW 30-YEAR MORTGAGE IN 2018 WORTH OVER $5 MILLION

U.S. President Donald Trump obtained a new 30-year mortgage in 2018 for a property he owned in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to new financial disclosures made public on Thursday by the Office of Government Ethics.
The mortgage valued at $5 million to $25 million has a 4.5% interest rate, according to the new filings. A real estate website lists the house, which is near the president's beach front estate Mar-a-Lago overlooking the ocean, as being available for rent for about $81,000 a month.

CASEY, THUNE REINTRODUCE BILL TO ENCOURAGE YEAR-ROUND CHARITABLE GIVING

Senator Bob Casey (Photo: LuLac archives)

U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Thune (R-SD), both members of the Senate Finance Committee, reintroduced the Charities Helping Americans Regularly Throughout the Year (CHARITY) Act, a bill that would encourage charitable giving and make it easier for foundations and other tax-exempt organizations to conduct their charitable mission. The CHARITY Act (S. 1475) builds on several significant Casey-and Thune-supported charitable tax provisions that were signed into law the previous two Congresses, including one that makes permanent a law allowing taxpayers at least 70-and-a-half years old to make charitable contributions directly from their IRAs. Casey and Thune introduced similar legislation last Congress.
“The bipartisan CHARITY Act will make it simpler for more Americans to support worthy charitable causes,” said Senator Casey. “Charities across the nation, and in Pennsylvania, are doing important work that positively impacts our communities. This legislation will help these organizations to continue and hopefully expand their charitable endeavors.”
“Carrying out charitable missions should in no way be a challenge for folks,” said Senator Thune. “Our CHARITY Act would remove many of the unnecessary roadblocks that currently stand in the way of philanthropic giving and encourage more Americans to donate to charitable organizations. This legislation serves as a perennial vehicle for common-sense ideas to promote charitable giving, and I’m hopeful our latest version of this important, bipartisan bill will quickly make its way to the president’s desk to be signed into law.”
The CHARITY Act would:
•Make donor-advised funds an eligible charity for purposes of the IRA rollover law that permits an IRA owner at least 70-and-a-half-years old to exclude from his or her gross income up to $100,000 per year in distributions made directly from the IRA to certain public charities.
•Simplify how foundations are required to calculate the federal excise tax imposed on investment income.
•Require the Treasury Department to adopt regulations that align the simplified standard mileage tax deduction rate, which applies to the use of personal vehicles for volunteer charitable services, with the mileage rate that applies for medical and moving purposes.
Promote transparency by requiring nonprofits to file their annual returns electronically.
U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are cosponsors of the CHARITY Act.
The eight-bedroom house is on the beach.
The financial disclosures are mandated by law and offer a peek into the president's sprawling finances.
Trump has refused to release his tax returns, which would offer a clearer picture of how much money he is personally bringing in. The disclosures offer a glimpse of the number of properties he and his businesses own.

MEDIA MATTERS

WALN TV

BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

This week's guest will be Barbara Giovagnoli, Lackawanna County Recycling Coordinator. Find out more about what is accepted in recycling centers.
Tune in Sunday morning at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400-The Game, NEPA's Fox .Sports Radio and 106.7 fm; and at 7:30 on 105 The River.

ECTV LIVE

A Free classic movie, a River Festival, and Tunkhannock Heritage Days! Just a few of the special events planned at the Wyoming Cultural Center at the Dietrich Theater
over the next few weeks and the subject of our ECTV Live program during the week of May 20th! 

 Erica Rogler from the Dietrich Theater joins Hosts David DeCosmo
and Rusty Fender along with Program Director Mark Migilore for the program that can be seen on Comcast channel 19 (61 in some areas) and on the Electric City
Television YouTube page.

BUDDY RUMCHEK

Want to hear some great parodies on the news? Tune in to WILK Radio at 6:40 and 8:40 AM on Mondays. As Ralph Cramden used to say, “It’s a laugh riot!”

BOBBY V’S DOO WOP SOCK HOP

SUNDAY NIGHTS!

1969

Our 1969 logo

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the wife of jailed South African anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela since 1957 and the most prominent woman associated with the African National Congress, was arrested by South African police and imprisoned in Pretoria. She would be held in solitary confinement for nine months without charges filed (as permitted by the Terrorism Act, 1967) before being indicted for violating the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950. In all, she would spend 16 months in prison and would write about the experience in the 2014 autobiography 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69. .....The U.S. Naval Weapons Center began its classified "Project Gulf Q", a series of weather modification experiments in conjunction with the Naval Weather Research Facility and the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory. In five of the 16 tests done over an 18-day period in the Gulf of Mexico, the Center was able to cause rain to fall within 10 minutes of the seeding of warm cumulus clouds. The report would be approved for public release in 1974. …The House of Commons of Canada voted, 149 to 55, to approve Bill C-150, a massive overhaul of the Criminal Code, including the first legalization of abortion of pregnancy. Formerly outlawed, abortions could be carried out at an accredited hospital if a panel of three physicians judged that continuation of the pregnancy would be likely to endanger a woman's health; because of the lack of a definition for the word "health" in the new law, anti-abortion groups have commented that the law "subsequently received broad interpretation" by the panels and by courts and that "[t]he mental health criteria served to cover up abortions done for convenience and socio-economic factors." The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69 would pass the Canadian Senate and then receive Royal Assent on June 27. ……Bill C-150 also amended the law to legalize homosexuality among two consenting adults aged 21 and over, formerly a crime prosecuted under the national law against "gross indecency", removed prohibitions against the advertising or sale of contraceptives, and set the first national standards regarding drunk driving (requiring drivers to submit to a breathalyzer test and making a 0.08 concentration of alcohol a statutory offense). …..Abe Fortas became the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to resign as the result of a scandal. In 1966, while serving on the Court, Fortas entered into an agreement with a charitable foundation funded by financier Louis Wolfson, which contemplated that Fortas would receive $20,000 per year for life for services. The story of the pact with the Wolson Family Foundation — and Fortas's acceptance of a $20,000 payment — was revealed on May 4 by Life magazine.

After the news was removed, Fortas informed Chief Justice Earl Warren of the details of the arrangement. The seat vacated by Fortas would remain empty for the entire 1969-1970 U.S. Supreme Court term, until filled after 389 days by Justice Harry Blackmun on June 9, 1970. The U.S. Supreme Court vacancy would remain a record until 2017, when Neil Gorsuch's succession to the seat of Antonin Scalia following a 422-day vacancy..in Philadelphia James Tate says he is uncertain about another term for Mayor and in Wilkes-Barre the Fine Arts Fiesta is a big success on the Square and fifty years ago this week the number one song in LuLac land and America was . “Get Back “ by The Beatles.