As the third anniversary nears of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 17, a congresswoman from New York is looking to bring gun safety to the forefront of the congressional agenda.
Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y. 12th District) has introduced a legislative package containing five bills aimed at improving gun safety in the United States. "We stand alone as a country with mass shootings — there are too many guns," she told Cheddar. "If guns made Americans safer, we'd be the safest country on Earth."
The proposal looks to change many different parts of current gun legislation. One bill attempts to close what's called the "gun show loophole," which can exempt purchasers of firearms from getting a background check if they make the purchase at a retailing event typically held in a large public venue. Another bill looks to up the penalty for trafficking guns, making the crime a felony rather than a misdemeanor — a current technicality the congresswoman called "outrageous."
Jay W. Walker, founding member and organizer of Gays Against Guns, noted along with Maloney the need to confront the "Iron Pipeline," described as "the way guns get out of states with very weak gun laws and into states, especially cities, with stronger gun laws."
A common thread throughout the package is incentivizing what Maloney calls "responsible firearm ownership" with things like requiring liability insurance when purchasing a gun. The plan is to follow in the footsteps of other countries with tighter gun laws, she told Cheddar, who have implemented regulations like these and maintain safer streets.
The representative also expressed hope that the package will move quickly with President Biden in the White House and a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress to get it passed this year.
A new report from ProPublica and the Washington Post found that Facebook Groups played a major role in the spread of misinformation linked to the January 6 insurrection with more than 650,000 posts claiming that Joe Biden's election victory was illegitimate.
Millions of Americans with young children have relied on the child tax credit since the federal government began issuing checks in July 2021. The last round of payments was sent out just before the Christmas holiday — at the same time as the omicron variant surged. Leah Hamilton, associate professor of social work at Appalachian State University, joined Cheddar to discuss what the end to the tax credit means as the U.S. sees the end of many relief programs and its highest number of COVID cases since the start of the pandemic. "It'll become harder for families to meet their basic needs, increasing national childhood poverty rates and the proportion of families who have difficulty putting food on the table, maintaining stable housing, and paying their bills," Hamilton said. She also pointed to research that the credit as a long-term investment in children offsets claims that it contributes to macroeconomic impacts like inflation.
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Several Silicon Valley insiders are being accused of contorting a 1990s-era tax break to avoid taxes on millions of dollars of investment profits. The tax break is known as the qualified small business stock exemption, and it allows early investors in certain companies to avoid half of the taxes on up to $10 million in capital gains. A piece recently published in the New York Times says venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz replicated the tax exemption by giving shares of companies to friends and family, who would otherwise face a 23.8% capital gains bill. The CEO of Roblox is also accused of replicating the tax break for his family members at least 12 times. Although the loophole known as 'stacking' is considered to be legal, the Times piece implies that the exemption has been manipulated for the ultra-wealthy to become more wealthy. Greycroft co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Alan Patricof joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
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The push to regulate the gig worker economy is gaining steam as the share of workers who participate in freelancing through businesses like Uber and Lyft have also exponentially grown during the pandemic. Employment attorney Mark Kluger, founding partner at Kluger Healey, LLC, joined Cheddar to break down how the battle to reclassify gig workers will continue in the new year, and why the issue continues to generate conflict. "More and more workers are using gig work as their primary source of income and as a result of that they are not like employees in the sense that they don't have benefits like health insurance," Kluger noted.
2021 saw markets continue to be impacted by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic -most recently in the form of the Omicron variant- in addition to the global supply chain shortage, and increased inflation. But it wasn't all bad news, as crypto soared throughout the year, and meme stocks continued to have a moment. With the year coming to a close, investors are keeping an eye out to see if they should expect more of the same in the new year. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst, at DailyFX tells us what market trends to be on the watch for in 2022.
