Herschel Walker has moved his residency from Texas, report says
DALLAS — Herschel Walker says he doesn’t live in Texas anymore.
The former football star’s change of address, likely to Atlanta, might not have been a big deal except for the fact that there have been calls for an investigation into where he lives following his failed campaign for Senate.
Walker’s relocation out of Tarrant County — which he declared in an application to have a tax break removed from his Westlake home — comes after the former Dallas Cowboys running back’s residency drew national attention when he ran for office in Georgia last year.
Walker, the Republican nominee, lost in a runoff to Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock despite an endorsement from former President Donald Trump and financial support from the likes of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his son Stephen Jones, who together donated almost $6,000 to Walker’s campaign.
Legal questions surrounding Walker’s campaign lingered after the defeat because of a Westlake home, appraised at more than $3 million last year, that he had claimed as his primary residence to receive a homestead exemption.
Atlanta-based WXIA-TV reported Tuesday that Walker applied to have the tax break on the Tarrant County home removed.
—The Dallas Morning News
Missouri stands alone in proposal to tax food but not guns
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri would be the only state in the country that taxes food but does not tax gun sales under a bill being considered by the Missouri Senate.
The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, would exempt sales of firearms and ammunition made in Missouri from all state and local sales taxes.
The Missouri Senate advanced a version of the bill last week that included an amendment that would have eliminated the state’s 1.225% sales tax on non-prepared food. But Missouri Senate Republicans this week employed a rare procedural move to strip the provision saying it would’ve been too expensive.
“The monumental overcoming of that fiscal note would be something too large,” Brattin said on the floor this week, referring to a legislative estimate that found the proposal including the food tax amendment could cost the state more than $373 million beginning in fiscal year 2025.
Missouri Democrats have excoriated the decision to strip out the provision, saying it’s another example of Republicans prioritizing guns over a necessity like groceries. They point out that Brattin’s bill comes as Missouri has seen high rates of gun violence in the state’s urban areas.
—The Kansas City Star
Pride flag to fly on LA County buildings after unanimous supervisors vote
LOS ANGELES — A month after the Huntington Beach City Council voted to stop flying a rainbow flag from its City Hall, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has taken the opposite stance.
The five-member board voted unanimously Tuesday to fly the Progress Pride flag at county offices daily this June in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
Lindsey Horvath, supervisor for District 3, said the "deliberate exclusion of the flag" by local cities — presumably referring to Huntington Beach — was "disturbing and troubling" to the community.
The motion was co-authored by Horvath and board Chair Janice Hahn.
Hahn paid homage to former San Francisco County Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was California's first out gay man elected to public office and who commissioned the first Pride flag in the 1970s.
The updated Progress Pride flag, designed in 2018 by Daniel Quasar, adds more colors to the rainbow. Five new colors, featured in a chevron on the left side of the flag, represent LGBTQ+ people of color and the trans community, Hahn said.
—Los Angeles Times
Ukrainian defense minister denies links to Nord Stream sabotage
BRUSSELS — Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov on Wednesday denied his country's involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines last year.
"This is not our activity," Reznikov said at a meeting of EU defense ministers in Stockholm. Expressing confidence in ongoing international investigations, he said the reports were "like a compliment for our special forces."
An investigation from German public broadcasters ARD and SWR and Die Zeit newspaper linked Ukraine to the explosions in September 2022 at the two gas pipelines running between Russia and Germany.
Authorities in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States were involved in the investigations, Die Zeit reported.
According to media reports, including in The New York Times, investigators have so far found no evidence of who ordered the destruction. However, citing intelligence leads, they said a pro-Ukrainian group could be responsible.
The Times reported that the U.S. has "no evidence" linking the attack to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or his top aides.
Reznikov said he was not concerned that the reports could put a dent in Western support for Ukraine.
The mysterious explosions at the Baltic Sea pipelines connecting Russia to Germany occurred in September 2022.
—dpa
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