US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. Treasury's Yellen says IRS needs to be 'completely redone'; Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers preparing plan to avert debt-ceiling crisis and more

"In my heart, I always felt the United States was the best country in the world," Xia, 50, said, just four months after leaving her home in Shenzhen Province to settle in the quiet enclave of Monterey Park close to Los Angeles. Mass shooter's motive elusive as Monterey Park mourns 10 dead Investigators scrambled on Monday to discover why a 72-year-old gunman opened fire in a California dance hall popular with older patrons and killed 10 people before fatally turning a gun on himself hours later.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 23-01-2023 19:00 IST | Created: 23-01-2023 18:29 IST
US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. Treasury's Yellen says IRS needs to be 'completely redone'; Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers preparing plan to avert debt-ceiling crisis and more
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. Treasury's Yellen says IRS needs to be 'completely redone'

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said rebuilding the Internal Revenue Service would be one of her top priorities in coming years, putting her squarely at odds with Republicans who have taken control of the House of Representatives. Yellen told Reuters in an interview on her way to Zambia that she was thrilled that Congress had approved $80 billion in new funding to help the agency reduce a huge backlog of tax returns and better hunt down $600 billion in unpaid tax bills.

Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers preparing plan to avert debt-ceiling crisis

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is preparing a plan to defuse a looming crisis over the nation's debt ceiling by changing it from a fixed dollar amount a percentage of national economic output, the group's top Republican said on Sunday. The proposal would replace Washington's current federal debt ceiling - currently set at $31.4 trillion - with a rule that would instead limit debt to a share of national economic output, said U.S. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, the Republican co-chair of the moderate Problem Solvers Caucus.

Biden to name Jeff Zients as next chief of staff, source says

U.S. President Joe Biden will name former COVID policy coordinator Jeff Zients as his next chief of staff, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday, refreshing a key role as Biden readies a likely re-election bid and faces a probe of his handling of classified documents. Ron Klain, Biden's current chief of staff, plans to leave his post in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters. He is expected to stay in the role after his successor starts to ease the transition, according to the source.

U.S. Justice Dept found more classified items in Biden home search

A new search of President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday by the U.S. Justice Department found six more items, including documents with classification markings, a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night. Some of the classified documents and "surrounding materials" dated from Biden's tenure in the U.S. Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer. Other documents were from his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Bauer said.

As tax season starts, U.S. Treasury emphasizes IRS customer service over audits

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service kicks off the 2023 income tax filing season on Monday armed with 5,000 new customer service representatives to slash call waiting times as the Biden administration implements $80 billion in new IRS funding. The new hires and technology improvements to more efficiently process paper tax returns and documents represent an early emphasis on improving services, according to U.S. Treasury officials.

Former Mexican drug czar heads to trial accused of aiding El Chapo

Opening statements are set to begin on Monday in the U.S. trial of a former Mexican law enforcement official once in charge of cracking down on drug trafficking, who now stands accused of taking bribes from the powerful Sinaloa Cartel. Genaro Garcia Luna led Mexico's Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2005 and was Public Security Minister from 2006 to 2012, during which time he worked closely with U.S. counter-narcotics and intelligence agencies.

Harris says abortion rights threatened across United States

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris said abortion rights are under attack across the United States in a speech Sunday marking the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that had established a right to abortion until it was overturned last year. "The right of every woman in every state in the country to make decisions about her own body is on the line," Harris said. "Republicans in Congress are now calling for an abortion ban at the moment of conception nationwide. How dare they?"

Monterey Park shooting turns mass celebration into massacre on Lunar New Year

The red lanterns bobbed and banners proclaimed "Happy Year of the Rabbit" but Monterey Park's famous Lunar New Year festivities were brought to an abrupt end by a shooting that left 10 people dead and another 10 wounded. Vendors dismantled stalls and workers took apart a fairground on Sunday in the normally placid community of 60,000, where thousands from across Southern California gathered on Saturday.

California shooting upends tranquil community: 'I don't feel safe'

Since she was a little girl, Li Xia's dream was to move from China and settle in America. On Saturday night, when she heard the gunfire that killed at least 10 people in her newfound home of Monterey Park, California, that dream was shattered. "In my heart, I always felt the United States was the best country in the world," Xia, 50, said, just four months after leaving her home in Shenzhen Province to settle in the quiet enclave of Monterey Park close to Los Angeles.

Mass shooter's motive elusive as Monterey Park mourns 10 dead

Investigators scrambled on Monday to discover why a 72-year-old gunman opened fire in a California dance hall popular with older patrons and killed 10 people before fatally turning a gun on himself hours later. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the reasons behind the Lunar New Year massacre carried out by Huu Can Tran on Saturday night remained elusive.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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