Current Affairs

Changes to tax code starting Jan. 1, 2018

Chart lists changes under Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Want to know how the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affects you? I’m no fan of the new law — I’m middle class, own a home and live in the San Francisco area so will be paying considerably more — but this post won’t be about how monumentally unfair the bill is to tens of millions of Americans. Instead, it’s an item by item look at how the massive overhaul of the tax code will change not just how we file but how we spend and invest starting Jan. 1, 2018.

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Sen. Boxer on reforming the filibuster

Yesterday I headed into San Francisco and saw Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., speak to a packed gallery of 350 or so people at the Commonwealth Club of California (I’m a member). She’s in a hotly contested reelection campaign against Carly Fiorina. As is the case with popular speakers, audience members had to write their questions on a slip of paper and the moderator has to choose which ones to ask. The second question asked was the one I posed: Given the unprecedented use of the filibuster by the Republicans in the current Senate session, what is your position on reforming or eliminating the filibuster? Here’s the video I took of Sen. Boxer’s two-minute answer. She said she supports reforming the

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Boies predicts Prop 8 heading to Supreme Court

Apumped-up David Boies said last night that it’s a “dead certainty” that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue of same-sex marriage if a federal appeals court sustains the trial court’s landmark decision Wednesday overturning California’s Proposition 8. In an hourlong appearance before a capacity crowd of 300 at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, Boies — who led the plaintiffs’ legal team alongside Ted Olsen — declined to handicap the case’s chances before the conservative High Court. But he said his legal team was “not taking any justice for granted and not giving up” on any of the nine justices. Boies predicted the often liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would rule on the case later this year

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