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Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Girl whose wish inspired mass Christmas carol celebration dies

“Our little angel on earth earned her pink glittery angel wings in heaven,” the family says

Laney Brown, 8, had asked to meet Taylor Swift and to hear Christmas carols

On Friday she had a video chat with the music star

Saturday night, for one hour, people packed the street and serenaded her

(CNN) — A little girl whose Christmas wish inspired thousands of people to sing in the streets died overnight.

Laney Brown, 8, suffered from leukemia.

“Our little angel on earth earned her pink glittery angel wings in heaven,” a post on an official Facebook page about her said. “She took her last breath at home in her bed at 3:10 surrounded by all her family and friends. I miss her so much already.”

Delaney Brown of West Reading, Pennsylvania, “inspired a community and touched hearts across the world,” as CNN affiliate WFMZ put it.

She loved music and dancing.

Her dying wishes were to meet country music superstar Taylor Swift and for some people to come by her house for a night of caroling.

10,000 carolers respond to girl’s wish

On Friday — her birthday — Laney and Swift video-chatted through FaceTime, a software application that allows callers to see each other on Apple products.

Then, Saturday night, the singers came. At first it was hundreds of people, then thousands. Then it was about 10,000, CNN affiliate WFMZ reported.

She was too weak to go to the window, but heard the wonderful music.

“I can hear you now!!! Love you!” she said in a Facebook post that showed a photo of her lying in bed with a breathing mask — and two thumbs up.

Laney was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia seven months ago. Last week doctors told her family that she had 70% cancer cells in her blood. She came home from the hospital Thursday.

The Christmas carol celebration outside her home attracted people from all over. Her dance team was there to honor her. Even Santa showed up.

Many of the singers held back tears.

“I can’t even express how I feel,” Krysta Rebe, who has a daughter Laney’s age, told WFMZ.

It was only an hour of singing, but it lifted the spirits of everyone who jammed the block.

“As much as I want that miracle to be saving the life of an 8-year-old little girl, Laney, the miracle was an 8-year-old little girl teaching an entire community, town, city and the whole country the true meaning of Christmas,” one participant, Marianne Franken, wrote on Facebook.”

On Wednesday, thousands of people liked and commented on the Facebook post announcing the little girl’s death.

“I do not cry for Laney, who lives on in peace and happiness with our Lord,” wrote Cornell Stornbergh. “I mourn for us, who now have to live in a world without her.”

CNN.com Recently Published/Updated

Girl whose wish inspired mass Christmas carol celebration dies

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Meet Ladar Levison, the SMU Grad Whose Snowden-Approved Email Service Made a Libertarian Hero

Eric Nicholson
Dallas Observer
Oct. 3, 2013

Four months ago, Ladar Levison was just another dude running a small business business and really enjoying beach volleyball. Then, in May, the FBI left a business card on his doorstep. He, and eventually the rest of the world, would soon find out why.

Levison, an SMU grad, runs Lavabit LLC, a small email services provider based in Dallas whose vigilant protection of user privacy make it the platform of choice for NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

This revelation, coming after it was noticed that Snowden used a lavabit.com email address to invite lawyers and activists to a press conference during his captivity in the Moscow airport, attracted a good deal of attention from tech press and sent new customers flocking to the service by the thousands.

Below is Levison’s latest press release posted on his Facebook page:

This article was posted: Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 10:31 am

Tags: activism, domestic spying, internet, technology

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Infowars

Meet Ladar Levison, the SMU Grad Whose Snowden-Approved Email Service Made a Libertarian Hero

Eric Nicholson
Dallas Observer
Oct. 3, 2013

Levison, an SMU grad, runs Lavabit LLC, a small email services provider based in Dallas whose vigilant protection of user privacy make it the platform of choice for NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

Below is Levison’s latest press release posted on his Facebook page:

This article was posted: Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 10:31 am

Tags: activism, domestic spying, internet, technology

Print this page.

Infowars

Meet Ladar Levison, the SMU Grad Whose Snowden-Approved Email Service Made a Libertarian Hero

Thursday, June 13, 2013

IRS Refunds $4 Billion Child Tax Credits Per Year to Illegal Immigrants Whose Kids Do Not Live in US (and May Not Exist at All); Earned Income Fraud Another $13 Billion

Here’s an interesting video that came my way yesterday from a close friend. The video highlights a news investigation by Channel 13, WTHR in Indianapolis, regarding fraudulent refunds of taxpayer money to illegal immigrants living in the US. The refunds are based on child tax credits, when the kids live in Mexico or elsewhere.

Link if video does not play: Another Massive Tax Loophole!

Typically videos like this are not remotely true, but this one is according to FactCheck.

Q: Does the IRS pay billions in tax refunds to workers who are in the U.S. illegally?
A: Yes. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General determined that $ 4.2 billion was paid in 2010, up from less than $ 1 billion in 2005. Leading Democrats are resisting a bill that would stop future payments.

FULL ANSWER

This is a rare case of an Internet rumor with some substance to it. In fact, it’s shaping up as a major dogfight in Congress. At issue here are the federal child tax credits that can be claimed by persons with dependent children under age 17. Some Democrats are already defending these child tax credit payments that have gone to those without a valid Social Security number, accusing Republicans who want to end them of a heartless attack on children.

Several different versions of this viral email all cite a recent investigative story by an Indianapolis television station, but WTHR-TV is far from the first to notice. The Washington Post and others reported on this last year when the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration issued a report on July 7, 2011.

The title of the report summed up the IG’s [Treasury Inspector General] finding: “Individuals Who Are Not Authorized to Work in the United States Were Paid $ 4.2 Billion in Refundable Credits.”

Problem Still Not Addressed

The WTHR video appears to be from 2012. The treasury inspector general report came out in 2011.

So Congress, the treasury, the IRS, and presumably president Obama have known about this for at least two years.

Fraudulent Bonanza for Illegals

The question I had this morning is a simple one: has anything been done yet?

It does not appear to be the case.

On April 16, 2013, The Washington Times featured an article by Edwin S. Rubenstein Collecting billions in a loophole, subtitled “Fraudulent tax refunds yield a bonanza for illegal immigrants”.

As federal services from air-traffic control to White House tours are ratcheted down thanks to the budget sequestration, millions of illegal aliens are now eagerly await billions in illegitimate Treasury payments, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Two programs, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) provide cash payments to low-income parents who pay no income tax and fail to have a valid Social Security number.

The IRS knowingly allows illegal aliens who claim children to get Earned Income Tax Credit cash payments of up to $ 5,891 per household. This is one reason why these cash payments are expected to exceed $ 52 billion in fiscal year 2012 alone. The General Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that roughly a quarter of all Earned Income Tax Credit payments are issued improperly.

Compounding the problem is the Additional Child Tax Credit, which was added to the older Child Tax Credit program that became law in 1997. The Child Tax Credit reduces the tax low-income families pay by $ 1,000 for each child under 17. If the tax filer claims five children for a credit of $ 5,000 but owes only $ 2,000 in taxes, under the Additional Child Tax Credit the IRS sends the filer a check for the difference, or $ 3,000.

The federal tax agency makes no effort to verify the existence of children or the eligibility of the tax-credit recipients to work in the United States. Indeed, IRS managers reportedly encourage their staff to ignore questionable applications and blatant fraud for the sake of fast-tracking Individual Taxpayer Identification Number approvals.

The scandal prompted at least one congressman to act. Last year, Rep. Sam Johnson, Texas Republican, introduced the ITIN Reform Act. The legislation would require people claiming Additional Child Tax Credit refunds on tax returns filed without a Social Security number to verify their citizenship status in person at an IRS office. Currently, the IRS sends these refunds automatically, with no questions asked.

Total Illegal Immigrant Fraud Over $ 17 Billion Annually

General Accountability Office (GAO) estimates one-fourth of the annual $ 52 billion in earned income payments is fraudulent. The math here is pretty simple. One-fourth of $ 52 billion is $ 13 billion, so the total cost to taxpayers is $ 17 billion annually.

Democrats do not want to do a damn thing about this, nor does the IRS. Please play the video, it’s a real eye opener.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

IRS Refunds $4 Billion Child Tax Credits Per Year to Illegal Immigrants Whose Kids Do Not Live in US (and May Not Exist at All); Earned Income Fraud Another $13 Billion

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Westboro Baptist Church Defector Confronted by Parents of Soldier Whose Funeral Was Picketed

Robert Kessler

Westboro Baptist Church Defector Confronted by Parents of Soldier Whose Funeral Was Picketed Libby Phelps Alvarez is the granddaughter of Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist “Church.” She left the Topeka, Kansas-based congregation, famous for picketing the soldiers of American soldiers killed in action, holding signs bearing slogans like “god hates fags” in 2009.

Wednesday she appeared on Anderson Live to talk about her decision to leave the church into which she was indoctrinated as a young child. Alvarez said she began picketing with the other members of the church (most of whom are related in some way to Phelps) when she was eight. Though she was raised to believe the church’s beliefs and was never exposed to other ways of thinking, it’s still hard to feel sorry for Alvarez on account of the terrible things she’s said and done in the past, including revealing earlier this year that she’d prayed for people to die. She vaguely expressed regret for her actions to Cooper, saying, “I do regret if I hurt people, because that was never my intention.”

During the show, Cooper also introduced Alvarez to Sherry and Randy Wyatt, whose son Sterling was killed in Afghanistan, his funeral was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church. Sherry Wyatt had this to say to Alvarez, and to the Westboro congregation as a whole:

Our son died to ensure freedom of assembly, to ensure freedom of speech, to ensure freedoms for those that are white, black, gay, straight, rich, poor … All that we get from your actions is just a show of absolute hate. We had thousands stand shoulder to shoulder in 105 degree heat, we had businesses bringing in water, we had our American Legion Auxiliary cooking hot dogs, we had people setting up health stations because of the heat. That is community, that is church.

Gawker

Westboro Baptist Church Defector Confronted by Parents of Soldier Whose Funeral Was Picketed