Shutdown averted: Congress passed a bill to prevent a partial government shutdown that had been threatened for today and sent the bill to the White House for President Biden’s signature. The stopgap measure only keeps part of the government open through March 8 and other parts of the government open through March 22. A long-term spending agreement needs to be reached to remove the threat of a continuing budget crisis. Far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives such as Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted House Speaker Mike Johnson for working out the deal with the Democrats that avoids a government shutdown for now.
Navalny’s funeral: Followers of deceased Russian dissident Alexey Navalny say they that Russian funeral parlors refused to handle Navalny’s body after receiving threats from people associated with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. They also said they were told no cemetery workers were available to dig a grave for Navalny. Navalny died in a Russian prison. He had previously survived being poisoned. A funeral service and burial had been scheduled for yesterday but could not be held and was rescheduled for today.
Trump’s judgment: In a court filing in New York, attorneys for journalist E. Jean Carroll asked a judge to reject a request from Donald Trump to delay requiring him to post the required bond or cash payment for the $83.3 million judgment awarded to Carroll. Trump was convicted by a jury of sexual harassment of Carroll and was twice convicted of defaming her. Trump asked the court to allow him to post less than half of the required money. Carroll’s lawyers said the court should not trust Trump and pointed to what they said was his history of failing to pay creditors and attorneys.
Documents trial: Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked Federal Judge Aileen Cannon to schedule the trials of Donald Trump, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira on charges of illegally possessing classified government documents to start July 7. The U.S. Supreme Court ends its current session at the end of June and it’s believed the court will have ruled on whether Trump is immune from prosecution by that time. The thinking is that by scheduling the start date now; all preliminaries can be taken care of to allow the trial to actually start in July. Judge Cannon, who was appointed to the federal bench by Trump, has made previous decisions to delay the trial.
Taxes due: The Internal Revenue Service has announced a new effort focused on high-income taxpayers who have failed to file federal income tax returns in more than 125,000 instances since 2017. IRS compliance letters are going out to more than 25,000 people with more than $1 million in income, and over 100,000 letters are being mailed to people with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million between tax years 2017 and 2021. The IRS says that it received information from third-parties showing that the people received the income but failed to file tax returns. In addition to the taxes and interest on unpaid amounts, people who don’t file can receive penalties of up to 25% of the tax bill.
Mall fire: The Bangladesh Health Ministry said today that at least 43 people were killed and two dozen injured in a fire in a six-story shopping mall in Dhaka, the country’s capital city. The fire was reported to have started in a restaurant on the first floor of the building. An estimated 75 people were rescued by firefighters. Many of the victims were women and children. The cause of the fire was not immediately determined.
