Senators try to salvage Jan. 6 commission bill
AP, WASHINGTON
US senators on Tuesday labored to find a path forward for legislation creating a commission on the Jan. 6 insurrection, debating potential changes in a long-shot attempt to overcome opposition.
Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin were leading the informal talks, two people familiar with the effort said.
The talks were focusing on two issues that Republican senators have cited for their opposition to the legislation passed by the US House of Representatives to create the commission ensuring that the panel’s staff is evenly split between the parties and that its work does not spill over into the midterm election year.
US could fund up to 10 chip factories
INCREASING PRODUCTION: The planned US$52 billion in government financing could produce ‘US$150 billion-plus’ in private investment, the US commerce secretary said
Reuters, MANASSAS, Virginia
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Monday said that a proposed US$52 billion boost in US government funding for semiconductor production and research could result in seven to 10 new US factories.
Raimondo said at an event outside a Micron Technology Inc chip factory that she anticipated the government funding would generate “US$150 billion-plus” in investment in chip production and research including contributions from state and federal governments and private-sector firms.
US pot sellers stash piles of cash as banks refuse them
Reuters
The US cannabis business has a very particular cash flow problem too much of it.
Marijuana can be sold legally in 36 US states and the District of Columbia for medical use and in 15 of them and the district for recreational purposes, but it is still illegal on a federal level, meaning most banks do not service the industry in case they fall afoul of money laundering laws.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing legalization driving a surge in cannabis use, the sector’s producers, manufacturers and retailers are awash in cash, adding risk and costs to the most basic business transactions from paying employees and filing taxes to finding somewhere to store their income.
Courtesy Office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has asked the Internal Revenue Service to allow commuters to access money that was deducted from their paychecks for train tickets to ride Metropolitan Transportation Authority railways.
Schumer, from the Merrick LIRR train station on Long Island, asked the Internal Revenue Service to figure out a way for Long Islanders to access the unused money accrued last year from that payroll deduction.
“The federal government and the IRS by keeping the money when people couldn t use it, they weren t even allowed to commute,” Schumer said. “And the dollars belong in people s pockets, not in purgatory.”