WSSN Stories

By Manny Otiko | California Black Media

As the 2022 tax season kicks off, the IRS is reaching out to the public, encouraging people to file their taxes online and early. This was the main takeaway from a recent news briefing featuring IRS officers that Ethnic Media Services organized.

During the virtual meeting, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig and Ken Corbin, Wage and Investment Division Commissioner and Chief Taxpayer Experience Officer at the IRS, stressed the importance of filing via the internet and making sure all information submitted is accurate. That way, they said, taxpayers can avoid delays and seamlessly receive their returns into their bank accounts by direct deposit.

“It is our intent that filing is as smooth and easy as possible. We want to make certain that consumers are getting all the credits and refunds they are eligible to receive,” said Rettig.

“Paper returns have an inherent delay in processing,” Rettig emphasized.

During the presentation, Rettig and Corbin shared several updates and pointers they said everyone filing taxes this year should know. Here are seven important ones:

The Tax Deadline Filing Deadline This Year Is April 18

Unlike the last two years of the pandemic when the IRS moved the tax filing deadline to July (2020) and May (2021), this year’s deadline to file your taxes is April 18. That is much closer to the April 15 date we all know and have become accustomed to over the years.

You Can File Your Taxes Online for Free

The IRS is providing the option for you to file your taxes online at no coast via the IRS Free File Program. The IRS also provides a service to taxpayers called Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Program (VITA). The program allows taxpayers to get in-person tax filing assistance from certified tax professionals in their community for free. This year, due to the pandemic, some of the VITA professionals are offering virtual tax preparation sessions.

For customer support, Rettig is also discouraging taxpayers from contacting the agency via telephone. He said they should use the website instead. The IRS gets about 1 million calls a day and it only employs about 15,000 people to service the phone lines. The service is mainly for people who don’t have access to broadband or the internet, the Commissioner said.

Mistakes Could Delay Your Return

Corbin said it is important for people to be accurate when filing their taxes. Inaccurate filings mean the IRS has to schedule an employee to contact the filer, which will cause a delay.

“We urge taxpayers to take care, particularly for those who received a third economic impact payment or an Advanced Child Tax Credits in 2021,” he said. “Taxpayers should ensure the amounts they receive are entered correctly on the tax return.”

“This slows down the return process,” Rettig added, explaining that the automated system pushes filings with incorrect figures. “Last year we had 10 million returns that didn’t match.”

To get ahead of the problem this year, the IRS issued letters to taxpayers indicating the total amount received in 2021 by filers that were eligible for Advanced Child Tax Credits. Taxpayers can also create an account at IRS.Gov to verify the amount they received.  

Rettig said the IRS still owes people who received the Advanced Child Tax Credits between July and December 2021, but they have to make sure all the information they include in their tax returns is correct. “Know that was only half, of the advance tax credit they should receive,” he said. “To receive the other half, they must file a tax return with us.”

More Married Couples and Singles Qualify for Earn Income Credit

This year, Corbin says more families qualify for Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC), which is federal tax relief for filers with low to moderate annual incomes.

“Workers with qualifying dependents may be eligible for EITC if their earned income was less than $57,414,” he said. “The maximum EITC for those with no dependents is $1,502. That’s up from over $500 in 2020.”

The annual income requirement to qualify for EITC for taxpayers without dependents is $21,430 for single filers, and $27,380 for those filing joint returns.

“In the past, EITC for those with no dependents was only available to people ages 25 to 64,” he added.

You also don’t need to be under the age of 65 any longer to qualify for EITC without a qualifying dependent, and individuals and families who received investment income up to $10,000 may also qualify.

Homeless and Former Foster Youth Qualify for EITC

Homeless and former foster youth who are at least 18 years old also quality for EITC this year. The minimum age is 19 for most taxpayers and 18 for former foster youth and youth experiencing homelessness.

Beware of Scams

Corbin says tax filers should beware of scams.

“The IRS will not call you by phone without a notice in advance. Don’t accept a text, a call, especially if they ask for bank info or to pay with a gift card. That is a scam,” he said. “Those are the things we are seeing this season.”

The IRS Is Hiring

Rettig said the IRS, which is still processing a backlog of about 6 million tax returns from the last two years, is currently hiring. “We want to be reflective of the people we proudly serve,” the Commissioner said, touting the agency’s commitment to diversity. He said the IRS wants to employ people, including those who speak more than one language, who are able to communicate with taxpayers from all backgrounds. For more information, visit USAJobs.Gov.

By Lou Yeboah

Understand that nothing – no calling or circumstance, no adversity or advancement, no pain or promotion, no status or station – escapes the brush strokes of My love for you. My love bleeds into every fabric and fiber of your being. There is nowhere you can escape My love. My love for you is unconditional, unending, and unmistakable. You see, before your first conscious thought, before even your first breath on Earth, I already loved you! [Jeremiah 1:5], says the Lord. Until death do us part! Nothing can escape the brush strokes of My love for you! I will never leave you. I will never abandon you.” [Hebrews 13:5].

I tell you; Paul was right. “Nothing can separate us from the love of God. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God …” [Romans 8: 35, 37-39]. “

I want you to pause this morning, afternoon, evening, night, whatever time of day it may be where you are and consider the overwhelming love of God. [Romans 5:8]. A love that was mocked, beaten, spat upon and had a crown of thorns twisted into His skull as He was beaten beyond recognition all because He loved you and me. I can imagine Angels watching in a state of shock when they saw how their great and glorious Master, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Lord of Hosts, was humiliated and taunted by demons and sinners. The powers of the universe shuddered and trembled when Jesus died. Even Satan couldn’t believe his own obscured eyes when he saw how this Mighty Son of God, who was so full of the Amazing Power of God, could be killed so easily. He could hardly believe it. This same Jesus cast out thousands of his demons, and healed tens of thousands of people who had been overcome by the devil… And now… He was defenseless, powerless, a willing lamb… Why? Because “No Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” [John 15:13]. Jesus wasn’t forced to die. He wasn’t overpowered, outnumbered, or tricked into it. He chose the Cross because of the love He has for you and me.

So, if you are searching for love this Valentine’s, then look no further – “God is waiting for you, with open arms. Ready to receive you, forgive you, embrace you. And it doesn’t matter where you’ve been, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter what you’ve experienced, it doesn’t matter what you have thought about yourself or what other people may have said about you – God loves you unconditional. His love is not like human love which can be fickle and fragile. “His Love is stronger than death,” says the Song of Solomon.

He loves you so much that he has engraved your name on the palm of His hand. [Isaiah 49:16]. He loves you so much that He knows how many hairs are on your head. [Matthew 10:30]. He loves you so much that He saves your tears in a bottle. [Psalms 56:8]. He loves you with an everlasting love. [Jeremiah 31:3]. For there is no greater love than the love the Father has for us. To send His one and only Son to sacrifice His life on our behalf is the greatest love story of all time. [John 3:16].

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power… to grasp how wide, long, high, and deep is the love of Christ. — [Ephesians 3:17-18]. But if you ever doubt that you are loved, read the love letters He’s written you. They’re in the Bible. The history of His love, the depth of His commitment, your worth – how much he values you and cherishes you, the lengths He went to in order to have a relationship with you. It’s all there. Just for you. Maybe this Valentine’s Day, it’s time you discovered your greatest love.

Happy Valentine’s Day in Advance!

CHARLOTTE, NC—- Today northAmerican Van Lines joined E. E. Ward Moving & Storage in celebrating their 2021 Agent of the Year win at their offices in Charlotte, N.C. The win comes one year after E. E. Ward celebrated its 140th anniversary as the oldest continuously black-owned and operated business in the United States – as recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce – and is the first northAmerican black-owned agent to receive this prestigious award.

“Safety. Quality. Customer Service. Teamwork. These four components have been the foundation of the northAmerican Agent of the Year award since its inception,” says Kevin Murphy, Vice President and General Manager of North American Van Lines, Inc. “Winning agents, like E. E. Ward, demonstrate a true commitment to providing our customers with the best service and quality moving experience possible. We are honored to have an agent of their caliber as part of the northAmerican family and welcome them into the Agent of the Year winner’s circle, a distinction they richly deserve.”

“Winning the Agent of the Year award reinforces the attitude of everyone on the E. E. Ward team that safety, service and quality come first,” says Brian Brooks, President and Co-Owner, E. E.

Ward Moving. “By staying focused on these principles, our company has been able to secure some significant honors including the American Moving and Storage Association 2017 Moving and Storage Agent of the Year Service Excellence Award and the 2020 BBB International Torch Award for Ethics Finalist. Our entire team is honored to be recognized as the 2021 northAmerican Agent of the Year.”

The northAmerican Van Lines Agent of the Year award recognizes the agent that attains the best overall scores in categories including service quality, hauling growth, sales growth, safety performance, and demonstrates the “Power of Blue” in supporting fellow agents and customers.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

Black political leaders from Southern California are sounding off as a week of celebratory activities and high anticipation begins. It is the lead-up to the National Football League’s (NFL) Super Bowl LVI game between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals.

The NFL’s premier sporting event will be played in front of an estimated 70,000-plus spectators on Sunday, Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium, the state-of-the-art sports and entertainment complex in Inglewood, which opened two years ago.

U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA-43) was among the first hometown lawmakers to celebrate this year’s Super Bowl game featuring the hometown Rams being held in her city.

“We don’t want to brag but we’re the baddest! The @RamsNFL are going to be the #SuperBowl (champs) and the game will be happening in my district, the 43rd District! The world will be watching, and we will be winning,” Waters tweeted on Jan. 30.

The Rams moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1994. In 2000 they won Super Bowl XXXIV played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The team returned from the Midwest back to the City of Angels in 2016 after a $790 million settlement was paid to the city of St. Louis.

Members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) from the South end of the state also jumped in on the excitement, sharing their thoughts about the game and hyping up their hometown team that could bring a Super Bowl championship to Los Angeles.

“As Vice Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, it is my pleasure to wish the Los Angeles Rams a successful Super Bowl,” said Sen. Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles). “It is no easy feat to represent the greatest area in the nation, but there’s no better team I can think of to do it. Rams house!”

Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) of the 41st Assembly District, which covers areas on the eastern end of Los Angeles County applauded the team’s grit that he says took them to the big game.

“Congratulations to the Los Angeles Rams for making it to the Super Bowl! You all earned the right to be there, make us proud,” he said

The excitement of the sporting event is reverberating across the state, but millions of eyes around the world will be on the city of Inglewood.

Inglewood is located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and is17 miles from downtown Los Angeles. According to the 2020 United States Census, it has a population of 107,762. About 40.9 % of its residents are African American.

James T. Butts, Jr., who is African American, has been Inglewood’s mayor for the last 11 years. Butts, 68, a former law enforcement officer, has turned the South Bay town into a local economic powerhouse.

Butts helped negotiate the return of the Rams from St. Louis to the L.A. region. He also facilitated the relocation of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) to Inglewood.

The Clippers, currently housed in Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) will start playing in the $1.2 billion Intuit Dome being built in Inglewood in 2024.

Next to SoFi Stadium, NFL Media moved its office from Culver City into a 2000,000-square-foot facility for its NFL Network, NFL.com, NFL app, NFL Game Pass, and NFL Redzone brands.

“This moment, this moment in time is the ultimate of my career,” Butts said during the Inglewood City Council meeting on Feb. 2. “I walk in the morning, in the last two days people will stop, roll down their windows and talk about how proud they are to live in Inglewood.”

The Inglewood sports and entertainment complex is on the former grounds of the Hollywood Park racetrack.

Under Butts Inglewood is experiencing a business and cultural renaissance. In October, the L.A. Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Program (YOLA) relocated to Inglewood in the 25,000-square-foot Judith and Thomas L Beckmen Center. The Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles have also moved from Marina del Rey to Inglewood.

In addition, Inglewood will host the 2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship College Football Bowl game and present the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics World Games in 2028.

The city of Inglewood announced that masks will be required at the Super Bowl game and spectators must show proof they’ve been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19 upon entry into SoFi Stadium.

For more Super Bowl 56 and traffic impact information, text ‘INGSB to 888-777 or visit www.cityofinglewood.org.

The Trojan Olympian — winner of seven Olympic gold medals and the most decorated U.S. track and field athlete in history — brings a message of empowerment and perseverance.

LOS ANGELES, CA—-USC’s 139th commencement ceremony will take on a victorious spirit when Allyson Felix, Trojan alumna and renowned athlete and activist, delivers the keynote address in May.

“Allyson has already inspired the world as a runner and used her platform to push for women’s health and women’s rights,” said USC President Carol L. Folt. “Her spirit and her message will inspire our students as they set out to make their mark on the world.”

More than 15,000 degrees will be conferred during the May 13 ceremony. As many as 60,000 are expected to attend, and countless others around the world will watch online.

Felix will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the commencement ceremony.

USC commencement speaker: Los Angeles roots, Trojan traditions

Felix, who has described herself as “a Los Angeles girl through and through,” grew up a Trojan fan.

She is the daughter of an ordained minister, and her mother is an elementary school teacher. Her older brother Wes is also a USC alum and a Pac-10 champion in the 200-meter dash in 2003 and 2004.

Felix first connected with track and field at Los Angeles Baptist High School, where her slight exterior belied a powerful human engine. She was named High School Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News in 2003.

She turned pro in 2003, the same year she enrolled at USC. She became an international track star, winning her first Olympic medal in 2004 in Athens — a silver in the 200-meter dash — as a sophomore. Shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree from the USC Rossier School of Education in 2008, she won her first Olympic gold in Beijing.

Felix took home three gold medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and two more at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In the Tokyo Games last year, Felix ran her last race as an Olympic athlete at the age of 35. The wins brought her career total to 11 Olympic medals — seven gold, three silver, one bronze — making her the most decorated U.S. track and field athlete ever, surpassing famed sprinter Carl Lewis.

Allyson Felix: championing women’s rights

She earned her 11th Olympic medal after embarking on one of the most challenging and rewarding journeys of her life — to be a mother — and chose to publicly take on one of the largest companies in the world and her employer, Nike.

Felix knew her decision to start a family could end her career, but she fought for contractual protections during and after pregnancy while turning the national spotlight on working mothers and child care needs.

Other Olympians followed her lead. Soon after, many major brands announced new policies and protections. Felix also went on to become the first sponsored athlete for Athleta, a line of athletic apparel for women.

Felix was open about a difficult pregnancy and birth after her daughter, Camryn, was born in 2018. Felix has called Camryn “by far my greatest accomplishment.”

Motivated by her life-threatening experience, Felix testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on the topic of the Black maternal mortality crisis in America in 2019.

She turned pro in 2003, the same year she enrolled at USC. She became an international track star, winning her first Olympic medal in 2004 in Athens — a silver in the 200-meter dash — as a sophomore. Shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree from the USC Rossier School of Education in 2008, she won her first Olympic gold in Beijing.

By Ben Jealous

President Joe Biden’s first year in office has brought both triumphs and disappointments. There’s no question that the administration has work to do on voting rights and on passing the critical social infrastructure pieces of the Build Back Better plan.

But firmly in the “wins” column is the president’s extraordinary success nominating and confirming to the federal bench extraordinarily qualified judges with a demonstrated commitment to civil rights, especially Black women judges. This is profoundly important to our legal system, to how justice is administered and to how everyday people experience life in our democracy, whether they ever find themselves in court or not.

That’s because even though the Supreme Court grabs headlines when it decides a big case, the high court takes only a few cases every year. The vast majority of federal cases is decided in the lower courts, at the circuit and district levels. This is where rulings are made that affect our right to vote, to not be discriminated against in housing or on the, to access health care, and so much more.

Having a strong contingent of Black women judges on these courts means the lived experience they bring — in addition to their stellar legal credentials — is coming into play in deciding cases that will shape all our lives for years to come.

The numbers tell a powerful story. A full 65 percent of President Biden’s circuit court nominees have been people of color. Three quarters have been women, and 42 percent have been Black women. These statistics break all previous for inclusion on the critically important circuit courts, whose opinions establish the law in all the states in their region.

The president has shown a similar commitment to diversity on the district courts, as well. And all this comes against a backdrop of record-shattering appointments overall: Biden has had more lower federal court judges (circuit and district combined) confirmed than any other president in his first year, in 60 years.

Probe beneath the numbers and you discover even more compelling stories: the personal histories of the Black women tapped by Biden to serve on our highest courts.

A distinguished Yale Law School graduate, Candace Jackson-Akiwumi had her pick of high-powered legal jobs. She worked for a while at a prestigious law firm, then quit to become a public defender, representing people who could not afford a lawyer. In that role, she helped expose the government’s use of “phony stash houses,” a way to trap people into committing crimes they would not otherwise commit. Today she serves as the only Black judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

Similarly, Yale alumna Eunice Lee spent 20 years at Manhattan’s Office of the Appellate Defender, representing poor people in New York City convicted of felonies. Today she is a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

And Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Harvard Law graduate, devoted years of her career to public service, representing low-income people in Washington, D.C., as a public defender. She also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she worked to end the unjust discrepancy between sentences for crack and powder cocaine. Today she serves on the D.C. Circuit and is often talked about as a future Supreme Court nominee.

The paths to confirmation for these women and their fellow nominees were tainted by attacks, racist and otherwise. The right-wing press criticized these nominees as “radical liberals.” The Senate Judiciary Committee asked Jackson and Jackson-Akiwumi point-blank at their confirmation hearings if race would play a role in their judicial decision-making. And far-right conservatives did everything they could to delay their confirmation. But all of them prevailed, with dignity, grit and grace, the qualities that so many accomplished Black women have shown in the face of adversity.

And the story is still being written. On the campaign trail, President Biden promised to name the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement paves the way for that to occur. Soon, we may see that woman take a long-overdue and rightful seat on the nation’s highest court; I look forward to celebrating that beautiful and momentous day.

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of Practice in the Africana Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches leadership. Jealous has decades of experience as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.