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from Rolling Stone
After more than 24 hours of debate, the Senate voted in favor of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid package. The bill, because of the Senate’s changes, will now head back to the House for final passage and then on to the president to sign. On Saturday, the bill passed along party lines 50-49. Not one Republican supported the legislation that will deliver $1,400 in direct payments to most Americans, extend $300 per week supplemental unemployment insurance, and help fund federal covid programs for testing and vaccine distribution. It also includes a $3,600 one-year child tax credit. The Senate made last-minute changes to the House bill to appease centrist Democrats, such as lowering the maximum income allowed to qualify for stimulus checks. Now the checks will be phased out for individuals making $80,000 and couples making $160,000 instead of the House’s proposed $100,000 limit for individuals and $200,000 for couples. That means 12 million fewer adults will receive a stimulus payment.
from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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Back in 1787, the framers at the Constitutional Convention debated for the first time officially what the office of the president would look like and how it would function. When the topic of term limits came up, it may be surprising to hear that some fathers of democracy like Alexander Hamilton and James Madison argued for lifetime tenure for presidents, a policy that George Mason derided as elective monarchy. An early draft of the Constitution limited the president to a single seven-year term, but this divisive issue, with framers lobbying for numerous other options, eventually came to a compromise. The president would serve a four-year term, but there was no limit on how many terms a president could serve.
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from The Washington Times
News & Media Website in Washington, D.C.
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The Satanic Temple of Texas files suit to defend its religious right to child sacrifice
The Dallas Observer reports as follows. “[On Feb. 23, 2021] The Satanic Temple [of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston] filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas alleging certain state-mandated abortion regulations violate the religious liberty of its members … [and] violate the temple’s religious teachings. The Satanic Temple … wants its followers to be exempt from such regulations. The temple has members across the country, including in Texas.” “It’s legal to get an abortion in Texas,” clarifies the Observer, “but the procedure is banned after 20 weeks unless a life-threatening medical condition is involved or the fetus has a severe abnormality. If a person is eligible, the state requires them to get a sonogram and receive paperwork about medical risks, adoption alternatives, and developmental stages of the fetus … The state then requires a woman to wait 24 hours after receiving the sonogram and paperwork before she can go through with the abortion …” The Observer continues, “But the temple’s members consider abortion a ritualistic practice according to co-founder and spokesperson Lucien Greaves … [who maintains the] state regulations disrupt this ritual.”
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