Author: Editor

What should gambling look like in America? A new wave of lawsuits and legislation is testing the boundaries.We got a clearer picture of what it means to be a gambling society in the US last year. Sport betting soared as Americans legally wagered $148 billion on sports, 24% more than the year before, per the American Gambling Association’s estimates.But concerns also rose around gambling addiction and whether the industry is doing enough to protect the most at-risk, including young men. High-profile betting scandals rocked the sports world and highlighted the risks for athletes. Culturally, there’s been a growing sense that…

When Amazon unveiled its Vulcan touch-sensing warehouse robot last week, it framed the technology as a way to make frontline jobs safer and easier.What the company didn’t mention is a broader ambition: using Vulcan and its expanding fleet of warehouse robots to reduce its need to hire a lot more humans.An internal document obtained by Business Insider describes Amazon’s long-term vision of automating many warehouse tasks. The document, dated late last year, said Vulcan and similar robots are “critical to flattening Amazon’s hiring curve over the next ten years” as the company builds “the world’s most advanced Fulfillment Network.” This…

Wealthy Americans and business investors are among the big winners in House Republicans’ draft tax legislation while targets of President Donald Trump’s ire such as immigrants and elite universities were hammered. The tax plan is likely to undergo significant changes as it winds through the House and then the Senate. But the committees’ drafts released this week have set up initial goalposts. Here’s who’s winning and losing so far in the tax fight.WinnersMultimillionairesThe rich would dodge a tax increase and gain the ability to pass more wealth on to their heirs in the bill approved early Wednesday by the House’s tax committee.House…

Ryan Routh, the man accused in a 2024 assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a West Palm Beach, Fla. golf course, had a federal court hearing Wednesday in Fort Pierce, Fla. In this file photo of the Alto Lee Adams Sr. United States Courthouse, attorneys argued several merits of the case — including what can and can’t be used in the trial. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump when he was running for president last year has asked a judge to dismiss some…

As a Republican-backed bill moves ahead in the House, proposed tax cuts under the measure include some new and surprising changes that could impact the wallets of millions of Americans. On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee voted in favor of the bill, which would make Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent while also adding a host of other reductions. The extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions would mean that most taxpayers wouldn’t see much of a change because their tax brackets would remain at the same levels they’ve been at since the cuts took effect in…

Key Senate Republicans are resisting the House’s plan to gut clean energy tax credits, vowing to soften the blow for emerging technologies and nuclear power.The pushback comes after House Republicans released a plan to help pay for an extension of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts by cutting more than $500 billion in energy tax credits from former President Joe Biden’s signature climate law.The comments from GOP lawmakers mean industries facing a sharp cutoff in federal help still have a chance to preserve their tax incentives for longer.The plan “needs refinement,” said Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, who serves on…

JAY MALLIN/BLOOMBERG NEWS The Internal Revenue Service will begin taking applications for 2026 Low Income Taxpayer Clinic matching grants from qualified organizations this Thursday, May 15, through July 14.Organizations may request up to $200,000 for the 2026 grant year. For every dollar of funding awarded by the IRS, a taxpayer clinic must provide a dollar in matching funds, and it must provide services for free or at a nominal fee.For 2026, the IRS is looking to obtain LITC coverage for Hawaii, Kansas, Montana and West Virginia. Florida, Nevada and South Dakota are also only partially covered by LITCs; uncovered counties…

A demonstrator carrying a sign that says “VOTING RIGHTS NOW” walks across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in 2022 in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Samuel Corum/Getty Images A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down one of the key remaining ways of enforcing the federal Voting Rights Act in seven mainly Midwestern states. For decades, private individuals and groups have brought the majority of lawsuits for enforcing the landmark law’s Section 2 protections against racial discrimination in the election process. But in a 2-1 ruling released Wednesday, the three-judge panel…

The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy have given their approval to new model legislation providing an alternative path to a CPA license in an effort to attract more people to the accounting profession.The optional path aims to maintain public protection while offering additional flexibility and options for CPA candidates. The changes will add an extra pathway to CPA licensure requiring a baccalaureate degree, including an accounting concentration, along with two years of experience, and passage of the Uniform CPA Examination. Other revisions to the model legislation, which can be used by states, include…

HBO became HBO Max, and then it became Max. Now, it will be HBO Max once more.Warner Bros. Discovery is renaming its streaming platform again starting this summer, restoring a name it ditched just two years ago. The company announced the rebranding Wednesday during its upfront presentation in New York.The change comes as Warner Bros. Discovery seeks to scale back its volume of content and focus on quality programming and storytelling.”The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,” said David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, in a statement.…