Articles - World

Comedian, Bovi Ugboma, has proven that actions indeed speak louder than words as he threw a massive shade at MI Abaga withing saying a word.

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Conventional wisdom in the US holds that while California is blessed with natural beauty and a plethora of cultural options, those seeking lower taxes should head for Texas.

But over the last several weeks, a resurfaced 2018 graphic from the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has shown a number of social media users and news consumers that unless you are a member of the exclusive top one percent of income earners, taxes in Texas are actually higher than they are in California.

According to the ITEP graphic, total state and local taxes as a percentage of family income is 13 percent in Texas and just 10.5 percent in California for the bottom 20 percent of earners. The number drops to 9.7 in Texas and just 8.9 in California for the middle 60 percent of earners.

Texas defines low earners as those making less than $20,900 annually while California’s threshold is those who make less than $23,200 annually; for middle earners, Texas cites that as those who make between $35,800-$56,000 and for Californians, it’s $39,100-$62,300, per Houston Chronicle.

It is just the top one percent of earners that stand to dramatically benefit from lower taxes in Texas. The tax rate for those highest earners is 12.4 percent in California and just 3.1 percent in Texas, reflecting the two states’ differing economic and political philosophies. The top one percent of earners in Texas make $617,900 or more while those in California make $714,400 or more, reports the Chronicle.

That significantly lower tax rate for high earners, along with a different business tax structure, has played a part in luring the likes of Elon Musk and Joe Rogan from California to Texas in the last several years.

While Texas has no income tax, the graphic reportedly used statistics regarding not only income taxes, but also property and consumption taxes. Houston Chronicle ‘s survey found that the 2018 data is more or less unchanged today.

The high cost of living has also played a part in a recent surge of people choosing to leave California for Texas and a host of other states, a much-talked about influx that has played a part in remaking the housing markets of cities like Austin. While California will lose a seat in the House of Representatives next year, Texas will gain two.

After the graphic spread widely on the main economic forum on Reddit, a TikTok user named marzthedem posted about the data to a song called “The Joke is On You” by Nikki Williams with the caption, “Good OLE Republicans always taking care of the 1%.” The video has recieved more than 100,000 views.

Perhaps most significant, as a number of Reddit users pointed out, is that both California and Texas tax their poorest residents at a higher effective rate than nearly everyone else in their states.

The family of Nicole Brown Simpson is speaking out days after Chris Rock’s tasteless joke about hosting the 2023 Oscars.

Earlier this week, we told you that during a comedy set in Arizona over the weekend, the comedian and Fargo actor said he was approached to host the 2023 Oscars but decided to turn it down—likening it to “returning to a crime scene.” Show attendees at the Arizona Financial Theatre said that Rock then referenced the O.J. Simpson murder trial and said that coming back to the event would be like “asking Nicole Brown Simpson to go back to the restaurant where she left her eyeglasses before being killed.”

Well, that comment didn’t go over too well with Simpson’s family, more specifically, her sister Tanya who called the comedian out for the “distasteful” joke and for his comment towards Jada Pinkett Smith during this year’s Academy Awards.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tanya took to Instagram to express her disdain in a post of Rock: “Nothing Is more lovely then to wake up on a Tuesday morning (Not) with TMZ calling you saying Chris Rock made a horrible “joke” about Nicole. BEYOND distasteful!”

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She continued, “Nothing funny about his joke towards Jada as she suffers from a physical condition and nothing funny about equating an Oscar host invitation to a double homicide. I always thought he was funny, but he crossed the line with this one. In other words, Y’all!!!! Stop using my sister, OJ and Ron part of your cricking comedy act. There are families behind this tragedy!”

Per ET, Christopher Darden, the prosecutor in Simpson’s trial, also echoed Brown’s sentiments in a separate post to his private Instagram account, which read:

“I don’t advocate violence but I guess this guy hasn’t learned his lesson. I guess Will failed to slap any sense into him. I know some people who are deeply hurt and offended by this joke. Lame as it is. I mean he has every right to say what he said but maybe if some of his jokes were more general in nature and not so specific as to mock specific people. Nicole was somebody’s mother bruh and Ron was a son and a brother, you know? Do you always have to make a joke at somebody else’s expense? Ain’t you learned nothing from the slap that was heard around the world?”

A Kaikōura cafe owner jailed for two months for selling food without adequate council registration is languishing in the local police cells awaiting a transfer to prison – where the first-time offender will spend Christmas without her family.

Her family say she is still in shock, upset and tearful over the sentence which they have described as “crazy” and “an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars”.

The two charges, under the Food Act 2014, were brought by the Kaikōura District Council.

Kaikōura District Council CEO Will Doughty said it was “regrettable” that the council had “no other option but to prosecute” Rayner.

“The Court’s ruling is sadly the inevitable conclusion of a year-long process in which Ms Rayner has been provided with numerous opportunities by Kaikōura District Council to comply with the Food Act, as all other food sellers do, and avoid prosecution – opportunities which she chose not to take,” he said in a statement posted to Facebook on Sunday.

Doughty said Rayner had “previously complied with food safety regulations”.

However, in 2021 she requested that her valid food registration be withdrawn.

“She then continued to sell food to the public without food registration measures in place at her cafe Bean Me Up, and has continued to do so right until the day of sentencing,” said Doughty.

“For Kaikōura District Council not to seek prosecution of a food operator who has been given every opportunity to comply with the Food Act by Council and the Court would have been a dereliction of Council’s duties to the public under the safety provisions of the Food Act.

“It would also have been unfair to other businesses who meet their food safety requirements under the Food Act – indeed many in the same street.”

Rayner and her family acknowledge she did not legally comply with the Food Act but maintain that both her business and the produce served complied with the rules.

She simply did not want to register anything with the council.

Rayner’s daughter Holly Timms told the Herald her mother was still being held in the police cells at Blenheim, waiting to be transferred to Christchurch Women’s Prison.

She had been able to spend time with her there and has also spoken to her on the phone.

“She’s doing okay given the circumstances, but she’s in shock, she’s in disbelief,” Timms said.

“She wasn’t prepared for jail, we thought maybe she would get home detention but that was never discussed.”

Timms said her mother was distrusting of authorities and refused a court-appointed lawyer and government-funded Legal Aid.

“This is her first offence, she’s never even had a speeding ticket – she’s 55 years old and the first port of call was to send her to prison?” Timms said.

“What the hell has just happened?

“At the moment she’s just going through the motions, she’s a bit upset, she’s been crying… her dog misses her, my grandma is beside herself and told me ‘I’m going to die from this’.”

Timms said for her and the wider family it had been a “very emotionally draining time”.

While there was a lot of support for Rayner in her community and across New Zealand, there was also a lot of hate being directed at the family.

“I’ve had random idiots message me on Facebook and say ‘I hope your mum dies in there’ and ‘I’m glad she got jail time, she’s a piece of sh*t’,” Timms said.

“It’s just crazy.”

Timms accepted there had to be a consequence in her mother’s case but said prison was “ridiculous”.

“I look at the case of Jayden Meyer in Tauranga and he didn’t even get any jail time for rape,’ she said.

“It’s pretty shocking… it’s a complete overreach.”

Earlier this year Meyer was sentenced to nine months’ home detention for the rape of four 15-year-old girls and the sexual violation of another.

He was 16 at the time of the offending.

“So why are they doing this to mum? There’s just no empathy, no compassion,” Timms said.

Timms hoped that she would be able to spend time with her mother at the prison on Christmas Day.

But the holiday season had been ruined by the sentence.

“I don’t even want to put the Christmas tree up, it doesn’t feel very festive or worth celebrating,” she said.

She said her mother still did not want a lawyer so it appeared she would serve the time and then return to Kaikoura to try and restart her life.

“At the moment she hasn’t thought about what she’s going to do, there’s no master plan yet – it’s really just taking each day as it comes and riding out the sentence,” Timms said.

“It’s just unbelievable – she’s done no harm to anyone, there has never been a complaint to the council about her, there’s been not one case of sickness related to her cafe since she started it in 2012, she’s been in hospo for 40-plus years and they’ve just thrown her in jail?

“It’s just awful.”