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BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) The right to bear arms brought together many second amendment supporters Wednesday night. Members of the Blair County Second Amendment Coalition and the Blair County Tea Party held a conference to get signatures for their ongoing petition.

As a veteran, I swore to uphold the Constitution and it didnt have an expiration date, so I will stand true to that oath, said Rhonda Holland, president of the Blair County Tea Party.

Leaders of the organizations called upon Americas founding documents and the countrys current climate to support their message that Pennsylvanians should have the right to bear arms.

This country was built with our forefathers who believed in what they did for us, said Bonita Shreve, president of the Blair County Second Amendment Coalition. Are we going to actually just put that in the trash?

Were only one tragic event away from the legislature having a knee jerk reaction that deteriorates our rights to keep and bear arms in Pennsylvania, said Jon Eichelberger, former Pennsylvania Senator for the 30th District.

Theyre collecting signatures to submit to the Blair County Board of Elections.

We are trying to get a resolution that basically says our tax dollars can not be used in furtherance of removing our second amendment rights, said Holland.

Leaders say there is urgency because they only have two weeks to gather the required amount of signatures (about 3,500) for their question to be included on the ballot for the next municipal elections.

The question reads:

Shall the County of Blair enter into a municipal agreement with any other Blair County municipalities passing a similar referendum to declare a Second Amendment Sanctuary, in which no taxpayer resources shall be used to enforce any legislation passed after November 2, 2021, that would infringe upon an eligible citizens right to bear arms? YES or NO.

If they reach 3,500 signatures on the petition, leaders say it will be put on the ballot.

This is not a drill, said Shreve. We need to sign those petitions, make our voices heard.

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Blair County 2nd Amendment Coalition & Tea Party gather support for the right to bear arms - WTAJ - http://www.wearecentralpa.com

Navjot Singh Sidhu and Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh meet over a cup of tea, bringing weeks of discord to an end.

Finally, the photo-op moment that the Punjab Congress had been waiting for eagerly, came at the Punjab Bhavan when chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh met newly-appointed Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu over a cup of tea on Friday.

Sidhu, along with his daughter, left his Patiala residence in the morning in a cavalcade comprising of a fleet of cars and buses that were full of his supporters and some MLAs. He finally arrived around 10:00 am at Punjab Bhavan where the chief minister hosted a tea party. After about 15 minutes the chief minister arrived. The media crew was kept away from the tea venue and were confined to the main gate of the Punjab Bhavan.

Later, Congress sources shared the pictures of Amarinder Singh and Sidhu sitting side by side flanked by a large number of MLAs. Photos tweeted by Raveen Thukral media advisor to the CM, showed Sidhu and Captain exchanging a few words and there seemed to be much bonhomie around.

Sidhu will formally take charge of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on Friday at Punjab Bhavan. The photo-op and bonhomie come after days of divide in the Congress. Sidhu and Amarinder Singh have been at loggerheads for quite some time now.

The chief minister also opposed his appointment as the state Congress chief and had said he would not meet Sidhu until the cricketer-turned-politician apologises for his derogatory" tweets against him.

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Captain Amarinder Singh's Tea Party: The Photo-Op Punjab Congress Eagerly Waited for Months - News18

The idol groups of KBSs Imitation will be standing on the same coveted stage in the upcoming final episode of the drama.

Ahead of the final broadcast, KBS released stills of Tea Party, SHAX, LA LIMA, and Sparkling performing at the MML Concert. In the drama, the MML Concert is a special end-of-year showat which only the top artists in Korea are invited to perform. It isconsidered to bethe dream stage of rookie singers. In the previous episode, Tea Party and Sparkling were thrilled at getting the invitation, while SHAX and LA LIMA proved their top idol status by beingnamed as headliners on the show.

Tea Party, which is composed of Ma Ha (Jung Ji So), Hyun Ji (Lim Nayoung), and Ri Ah (Minseo), will perform their debut song Show Me and their past resurgent hit as Omega 3, Call Me. Their performance will show the girl groups growth over the course of the drama.

SHAX, composed of Kwon Ryoc (Lee Jun Young), Do Jin (Yuri), Jae Woo (Ahn Jung Hoon), Lee Hyun (Hwiyoung), and Hyuk (Jongho), will perform MALO and AMEN and show off their trademark dark charisma and sharp synchronized choreography.

LA LIMA (Jiyeon) will perform No Answer and Closer,songs that alternately showher sultry appealand explosive charisma. Sparkling, composed of Yoo Jin (Yunho), Hyun Oh (Suwoong), Se Young (Seonghwa), and Min Soo (San), will perform DIAMOND and show a different appeal from SHAX with their refreshing charm, as well as their new rise after fighting through the danger of reorganization.

The production staff stated, The MML concert scene is intended as a gift to ease the regret of the show coming to an end. All the cast members and staff worked hard to prepare the scene, so please look forward to it.

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Tea Party, SHAX, Sparkling, And LA LIMA Shine Bright In End-Of-Year Performance On Imitation - soompi

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul announced Thursday hes backing Republican Don Huffines in his campaign to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott in a GOP primary next spring.

The Kentucky Senator, who grew up in Lake Jackson and attended Baylor University, said hes known Huffines, a Dallas developer, for more than 20 years.

He is a loyal, steadfast fighter for limited, constitutional government, Paul said. He has been in the thick of every conservative fight since I have known him. He is unafraid to stand up to the establishment. He is someone who will defend our freedoms.

The endorsement gives Huffines, a former state senator, backing from a leader in libertarian-conservative circles, and it aligns him with one of the most vocal critics of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the nations handling of COVID-19. Huffines has built a key part of his campaign around being critical of Abbotts mask mandate last summer and other executive orders he released during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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When Abbott had the chance to protect the freedoms of all Texans, he instead sided with power-hungry, pro-lockdown politicians in Washington, Huffines said. Abbotts lockdowns killed more than 3 million Texas jobs in one week.

Huffines is one of two high profile Republicans who have announced they are challenging Abbott in a primary next year when Abbott will be seeking a third four-year term as governor. Earlier this month, former Florida Congressman Allen West announced he too is running for the Republican nomination for governor.

Abbott has never faced a major primary challenger in his previous two campaigns for governor. Campaign finance reports show Abbott has more than $55 million ready for the 2022 election cycle.

Paul is the son of former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, who became a leader in the Tea Party movement and has run for president both with the Libertarian Party and the Republican Party.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com

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Sen. Rand Paul wades into Texas governor's race against Gov. Abbott - Houston Chronicle

Jul 24th 2021

WASHINGTON, DC

WHAT IS THE most important financial entity in the United States? The Federal Reserve sets the beat of global financial markets with its interest-rate decisions. JP Morgan, a bank, has a $3.7trn balance sheet. Some argue the United States Mint could help circumvent the ceiling Congress sets on the national debt by minting a trillion-dollar coin.

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And yet it is arguable that the crown belongs to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), whose massive $3.5trn in receipts is more than six times the revenues of the largest private company. Its ancillary assignments alone are vast, including the supervision of private pensions, determination of which institutions deserve tax-exempt status, and provision of payments for numerous government subsidies including $800bn in covid-19-related assistance paid to 160m people. All of these, despite their enormity, pale in comparison to its main assignment: collecting 95% of federal revenues.

For the 56% of American adults who pay taxes, the IRS serves as the primary face of the American government with a right to probe their most intimate financial affairs. It is a scrutiny that may become demonstrably sharper as the Biden administration, in search of revenue to fund large spending plans, wants more money to enhance the agencys enforcement, in the hope of flushing out hidden troves.

Support for the effort comes from a report published in July 2020 by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimating the tax gapthe difference between the amount owed and paidbetween 2011 and 2013 to have been 14% of revenues. By adding $20bn over the next decade to enforcement (an annual increase of 40% over current levels), the CBO estimates collections would increase by $61bn. By adding $40bn, collections would increase by $103bn. Additional collections, the CBO posits, would come as the indirect consequence of potential avoiders understanding their increased risk of being caught.

Increasing funds for the IRS would be a turnabout from a decade-long freeze (see chart). In the intervening years, the number of employees in the IRSs enforcement agency has dropped by 30%, audits of individual returns declined from 1.1% in 2010 to 0.6% in 2018, and audits of returns for incomes in excess of $1m have fallen from 12% to 3%. All this reflects a problem that extends beyond money lost. Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced, Albert Einstein is reputed to have said.

Yet if the proposal faces opposition, it is not merely because of the threat of increased harassment by tax authorities, but also suspicion that the enhanced spending on a more intrusive agency may miss the cause of shortfalls. Taxpayers, according to the American Action Forum, a think-tank, spend on average 17 hours on preparation; more than half pay for professional help. Polling reliably finds that Americans dislike the process. Confusion looms.

Only 3% of the 85m calls to the primary assistance number for individuals baffled by their returns reached a person during the most recent tax year, says Nina Olson, a former IRS employee who now runs the Centre for Taxpayer Rights. Confidence in the IRS has been damaged by asking the agency to decide which groups should be tax-exempt, which quickly becomes political. A decade ago the IRS removed the tax-exempt status of various Tea Party groups. Lois Lerner, who headed the relevant IRS department, was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about this. Then John Koskinen, a lawyer brought in by the Obama administration to run the agency after the scandal, was censured by Congress too.

Republicans seethed and many concluded that expanding enforcement activity was suicidal. In June IRS tax returns from some of Americas richest citizens were leaked to ProPublica, a group of investigative journalists, with the intention of influencing the debate over tax policy. The result was scintillating reading and a further blow to the agencys neutrality.

Expectations are that the enforcement money will come from a spending bill passed by the Democrats along party lines. Better, perhaps, might be a broad reorganisation to peel off ancillary activitiesand a simpler tax code. Neither of these things, however, is being discussed.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Seeking revenue"

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Should the IRS be given more money to find money? - The Economist