cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/28466921

The IRS has collected $1.3 billion from high-wealth tax dodgers since last fall, the agency announced Friday, crediting spending that has ramped up collection enforcement through President Joe Biden’s signature climate, health care and tax package signed into law in 2022.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel traveled to Austin, Texas, to tour an IRS campus and announce the latest milestone in tax collections as Republicans warn of big future budget cuts for the tax agency if they take over the White House and Congress.

Yellen said in a speech in Austin that in 2019, the top one percent of wealthy Americans owed more than one-fifth of all unpaid taxes, “leaving ordinary Americans to shoulder the burden.”

A suburban Detroit judge is no longer handling cases after a court official turned over recordings of her making anti-gay insults and referring to Black people as lazy.

“The move makes it all but impossible for a new administration to claw back $27 billion intended for carbon-cutting projects.”

These are older stories, but I just found out about this place. Here is a 2nd article: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/theme-parks/2024/05/12/morgans-wonderland-theme-park-accessibility/73660563007/

I also just read that they're planning a hotel geared towards families with disabilities

A one-of-a-kind theme park that’s fully accessible to people with disabilities is back to life complete with new rides and attractions after undergoing a multi-million dollar expansion.

Morgan’s Wonderland, an inclusive theme park in San Antonio, recently reopened after four months of improvements and upgrades.

Following the $6.5 million overhaul, the park now offers a first-of-its-kind 4-seat zip line that can accommodate riders in wheelchairs as well as those who need extra restraints, respiratory equipment or other special gear. Another new offering is the wheelchair-accessible Jette’s Wonder Bikes which features glider-style cars that riders can make go up and down using pedals or hand cranks. There is also a lake cruise and a 4D cinema that offers riders in wheelchairs a roller-coaster experience using a video screen with motion effects.

Link to their website: https://morganswonderland.org/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18900805

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suffered a string of defeats in school board races in several counties on Tuesday.

The Republican governor, who has sought to reshape his state's education system by regulating how schools deal with subjects such as race, sexual orientation and gender, threw his support behind 23 school board candidates last month.

A majority of those candidates lost their races on Tuesday.

…

"People want sanity. People want common sense. And people believe we should educate everyone," Long told The Associated Press. "The people have spoken."

Baby beavers have been born in urban London for the first time in more than 400 years, a conservation project said.

The family of Eurasian beavers were introduced to a nature reserve in Ealing, west London, in October as part of a project that aims to get the public to engage with nature, to study biodiversity improvements and to monitor flood mitigation effects.

Project leaders said the fact that at least two babies, or kits as they are called, had been born on the Paradise Fields site in Greenford showed the beavers were "happy" with the habitat.

Dr Sean McCormack, one of the volunteers behind the project, said he and the other volunteers were "totally over the moon, thrilled, excited".

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18786196

Private and public investment in clean energy rose to a total of $147B in the first half of this year — a record-setting figure.

Exactly two years ago today, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, establishing a wide array of clean energy programs meant to supercharge spending on climate solutions.

Investment in clean energy projects — from solar manufacturing facilities to home batteries to hydrogen hubs — has taken off ever since, rising to record heights in the first half of this year.

Across the first six months of 2024, U.S. cleantech investment hit $147 billion, per new data from the Clean Investment Monitor, a joint project from Rhodium Group and the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. That’s a more than 30 percent jump from the first half of 2023. The report measures actual investment — not announcements or plans — from both public and private sources.

The largest solar grazing project in the U.S. will reduce mowing costs and emissions — and make for some happy sheep.