Big Time News Blog: 02/02/20

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Second person linked to butterfly sanctuary found dead in Mexico

The body of a tour guide who worked at a famous butterfly reserve in Mexico has been discovered two days after a prominent monarch butterfly activist was found dead.Mexican authorities said they are investigating the possible murder of Raul Hernandez, whose body was found beaten and with a head injury possibly caused by a sharp object.

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Iowa Poll canceled after Buttigieg supporter says candidate's name was omitted during a poll call

The Register's editor said the decision should not affect the outcome of Monday's caucuses. "A poll is simply a snapshot in time of Iowans' opinions."

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Pennsylvania groundhog declares early spring 'a certainty'

At sunrise on Groundhog Day, members of Punxsutawney Phil's top hat-wearing inner circle revealed the cuddly oracle's prediction — his 134th, according to the Pennsylvania Tourism Office. Awoken by the crowd's chants of “Phil!” the groundhog was hoisted in the air for the assembly to hail before making his decision. In reality, Phil's prediction is decided ahead of time by the group on Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill just outside Punxsutawney.

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A US national security adviser says 'there is no reason for Americans to panic' about coronavirus as report claims second US plane heads to China to evacuate more Americans from Wuhan

A second plane is on the way to evacuate US citizens still in Wuhan in China as the death toll from coronavirus continues to rise.

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Kerry unloads on NBC after report he was overheard talking about 2020 bid

"A complete and total misinterpretation," the former secretary of State fumes.

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Democrats Make Final Appeals in a Cloudy 2020 Iowa Caucus Race

By BY ALEXANDER BURNS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3b1V9bk

The last day before winners and losers.

By BY MAGGIE ASTOR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/391mybt

How’s Elizabeth Warren feeling? ‘Good.’

By BY SHANE GOLDMACHER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2GPhifa

There’s No Right Way to Mourn

By BY SIAN BEILOCK from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2GJYVs5

‘Scared and Panicked’: Travelers Rush to Avoid Virus Quarantine

By BY VIVIAN LIN, THOMAS FULLER AND RICHARD FAUSSET from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/36PWBu3

Joe Biden aims for surrogate show of force.

By BY KATIE GLUECK from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2UkNG12

Australia’s Volunteer Firefighters Are Heroes. But Are They Enough?

By BY DAMIEN CAVE AND MATTHEW ABBOTT from NYT World https://ift.tt/37Yl5ms

British drugmaker GSK to collaborate with CEPI in effort to develop coronavirus vaccine

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc is collaborating with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to contribute towards the effort of developing a vaccine for the coronavirus outbreak, GSK and CEPI said on Monday.

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Sanders calls for unity, but his supporters have other ideas

When Bernie Sanders addresses throngs of supporters who gather at his rallies, the divisions that plague the Democratic Party can feel far away. Speaking at a concert for Sanders on Friday night, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., led sustained booing from the stage at the mention of Hillary Clinton, his rival in the 2016 primary. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat who has campaigned for Sanders across Iowa, says the Democratic establishment should conform to the progressive movement, not the other way around.

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Bloomberg Proposes Tax Plan to Raise $5 Trillion for Policies

(Bloomberg) -- Michael Bloomberg said Saturday he would raise taxes on the wealthy, increase the corporate tax rate, and curb tax-free inheritances of large estates, elements of a tax plan that he says would raise $5 trillion over a decade.Tax rates on low-income and middle-class Americans set by the 2017 Republican tax law would remain the same.Bloomberg’s plan serves to show how he’d pay for an array of proposed new spending initiatives, which so far top $3 trillion. But his campaign cautioned that the tax plan could still change as the former New York mayor rolls out even more policy plans in the near future.The tax overhaul would also close loopholes that the rich can exploit, according to a summary of the plan, which would allow for more spending on education, job training, infrastructure and in other areas and fight income inequality, Bloomberg said.“My tax plan will make the tax code more progressive,” Bloomberg said during a campaign event Saturday in Denver. “I’m a wealthy guy, and I didn’t need a tax cut.”“Right now, I give nearly all of my company’s profits to charity,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Under my plan, I’ll continue doing that -- but I will also pay more in taxes to make sure all Americans have the same opportunities I did. That’s only right.”Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg, LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.Democratic ThemesBloomberg’s plan touches many of the same themes that his Democratic competitors have embraced, including raising income taxes on the wealthy, taxing capital gains at the same rate as wages, increasing corporate tax rates, and bolstering the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to audit.The 2020 presidential hopefuls and Democrats in Congress have seized on popular sentiment for increased taxes, particularly for the wealthy and corporations, after the 2017 Republican tax law failed to gain the public’s backing and partially contributed to Democrats winning the House majority in the 2018 midterms.The Bloomberg campaign said it hasn’t finalized the details of his plan, including what the threshold would be for taxing estates, because it hasn’t yet designed all of Bloomberg’s policy proposals and tallied their costs.$3 TrillionBloomberg has released more than 20 proposals covering health care, the economy, climate and other issues since joining the race on Nov. 24, but he hasn’t provided cost estimates in most cases. The estimates he did release exceed $3 trillion over 10 years, including spending $1.2 trillion over 10 years for infrastructure and $1.5 trillion for health care. But there are dozens of other policy elements in the plans released so far, with no price-tags attached.The plan released on Saturday adopts several of the policy ideas that Bloomberg’s moderate competitors, including Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, have touted. It stops short of some of the more progressive ideas -- such as a wealth tax or financial transaction tax -- floated by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who’ve proposed tens of trillions of dollars in tax increases to pay for universal health care.Instead of a wealth tax, the Bloomberg campaign said it’s looking to increase taxes on the wealthy with a 5% surtax on all income -- both wage and capital gain -- above $5 million a year. The idea is a pared-back version of an idea getting consideration in Congress that would put a 10% surtax on income greater than $2 million. This type of plan is seen as a way to raise revenue from rich taxpayers without the political and legal problems associated with a wealth tax.Bloomberg proposes reversing some of the central elements of the $1.5 trillion GOP tax law championed by President Donald Trump. He would raise the top individual tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, increase the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, and repeal a 20% deduction for so-called pass-through income from limited liability companies and partnerships. Bloomberg has said the corporate rate needed to be lowered in the 2017 measure for competitive reasons, but went too far.The campaign said it’s planning to design a mechanism so that small businesses and low-income people wouldn’t be harmed by the elimination of the 20% write-off. The tax benefit helps companies ranging from small mom-and-pop businesses to large investment funds, so a full repeal of the 20% tax break would face some political opposition from both Republicans and Democrats.‘Basis Step Up’The plan also would also tax capital gains income for those earning more than $1 million at the same rate as wage income -- 39.6%, according to the plan. The campaign didn’t specify what happens to those below the threshold, who now pay the current long-term capital gains rate of 23.8% on the proceeds selling stocks, bonds or real estate.It would end so-called “basis step up” which allows heirs to avoid paying taxes on appreciated assets. The campaign said it would seek to prevent wealthy investors from deferring taxes on their capital-gains income, but the proposal didn’t specify how it would do that.The plan also looks to restrict corporations’ ability to dodge taxes offshore and would apply diplomatic pressure to tax haven countries that help companies harbor profits. It will also call for lowering the threshold at which the estate tax applies, but hasn’t yet set that amount.Bloomberg would ideally want a Democratically-controlled Congress to pass a tax bill if elected, but thinks there are elements of the plan that Republicans could support, the campaign said.Bloomberg has also said that while he knows tax increases are unpopular, the public can be convinced they’re necessary to pay for needed public services. As New York mayor, Bloomberg increased property taxes by 18.5% in 2003, the largest hike in city history, to generate $837 million to plug budget deficits. Bloomberg said that while his poll numbers suffered as a result, he was re-elected in 2005.“I probably had the worst polls any mayor in America has ever had, and then I came back and won going away because people said, ‘I didn’t like spending more money, but he needed it,”’ Bloomberg said in a Jan. 11 interview.(Updates with Bloomberg comment in fifth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.net;Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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China flies citizens home to virus-hit Wuhan

China has flown two planeloads of its citizens back home to Hubei, the locked-down province at the centre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak where they were greeted by authorities in full-body protective suits. A Xiamen Airlines charter flight from Bangkok touched down late Friday in the provincial capital Wuhan, where the infection is believed to have originated in a market that sold wild animals. Health authorities in white, full-body protective gear stood by the cabin door as the plane's 73 passengers disembarked, smiling through face masks and waving to news photographers.

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Polling: Americans dissatisfied with the state of the union

The turbulence of impeachment, a contentious presidential campaign and a global virus health threat confront President Donald Trump as he prepares to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night. Approval of Trump has stayed persistently in negative territory, and the country is more polarized now than it has been under any other president in recent history. The Republican-controlled Senate, which is conducting the trial, narrowly rejected Democratic demands Friday to summon witnesses, all but ensuring Trump's acquittal.

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China's isolation grows as virus toll reaches 259

China faced deepening isolation over its coronavirus epidemic on Sunday as the death toll soared to 259, with the United States and Australia leading a growing list of nations to impose extraordinary Chinese travel bans. China toughened its own quarantine measures at the centre of the outbreak in Hubei province, a day after the United States temporarily barred entry to foreigners who had been in China within the past two weeks. "Foreign nationals, other than immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents... will be denied entry into the United States," Health Secretary Alex Azar said.

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The gold-standard Iowa poll was canceled 1 day before the Caucus because Pete Buttigieg's name was thought to have been left off a poll call

With only a day to go before the Iowa Caucus, the most highly-regarded Iowa poll will not be released.

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Ukraine wants larger compensation for its citizens killed in plane shootdown in Iran

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Kiev was not satisfied with a size of compensation Iran had offered to families of Ukrainians killed in the downing of a plane near Tehran last month and would seek larger payments. The airliner was struck by a missile on Jan. 8 shortly after it left Tehran en route to Kiev. Iran admitted its forces had shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane in error, after initially denying it had a role in the incident.

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Closely-watched Iowa poll release is canceled less than 48 hours before caucuses

The release of the Des Moines Register poll results, closely watched in Iowa and among political insiders, were canceled Saturday night, less than 48 hours before the state will caucus. CBS News political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns joins CBSN from Des Moines, Iowa, for the latest.