Ka-ching! Powerball's get-rich-quick mania seized America this week. And the biggest winner of the multistate numbers game was — drumroll, please — Uncle Sam.
Powerball is a government-sponsored gambling racket in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The feds automatically skim 25 percent off the top of a lump-sum cash award. Additional state withholding taxes vary depending on residency status. Mega-winners are taxed at the highest federal income tax bracket (nearly 40 percent); those who live in states with personal income taxes could pay up to an additional 9 percent. Local municipal taxes can add another 3-5 percent to the tax burden.
BOSTON – A second undercover video portraying Common Core as an exercise in profiteering by publishers including Boston textbook giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt surfaced Thursday, showing an executive of the company saying such education initiatives are "never about the kids."
The video, from Project Veritas, a nonprofit journalism outfit that on Tuesday released similarly damning footage, may prompt some remarks by Republican presidential hopefuls during planned debates Thursday night. At least, that appears to be the hope of James O'Keefe, the group's founder:
