Coronavirus stimulus checks sent to dead people need to be returned, IRS says

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/treasury-says-to-mail-back-checks-sent-to-dead-people/69-a0df92d9-f0d9-401d-8dd1-de534f06f561

There have been reports around the country of stimulus payments showing up for deceased people. The IRS has just announced what people need to do.

WASHINGTON — If you happened to get a coronavirus stimulus check made out to a deceased relative, the government expects that money back. 

The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that those who got money on behalf of a person who has died should return the funds to the IRS. 

As the $1,200 economic stimulus payments tied to the CARES Act were deposited and mailed out, there were many people left confused after they got checks meant for deceased relatives. 

While the Internal Revenue Service previously said it was aware of the situation, the federal agency hadn't offered any official guidance on what to do until Wednesday. 

The IRS website's frequently asked questions section now has instructions on what to do if you got money meant for a deceased relative. It states that, “a payment made to someone who died before receipt of the payment should be returned.”

However, if the money went to a married couple who filed their taxes jointly, only the portion for the spouse who has passed away would need to be returned, the department said.

The IRS website also states that people who are incarcerated in the legal system do not qualify for the money, and that payments made to them should also be returned.

The government has distributed about 130 million economic impact payments to taxpayers in less than 30 days. The IRS anticipates sending more than 150 million payments as part of the massive coronavirus rescue package. 

So, how exactly are you supposed to return a stimulus payment? Here's what the IRS says you should do. 

How do you return a stimulus check? 

If the payment was a paper check:

1. Write "Void" in the endorsement section on the back of the check.
2. Mail the voided Treasury check immediately to the appropriate IRS location listed below.
3. Don't staple, bend, or paper clip the check.
4. Include a note stating the reason for returning the check. 

If the payment was a paper check and you have cashed it, or if the payment was a direct deposit:

1. Submit a personal check, money order, etc., immediately to the appropriate IRS location listed below.
2. Write on the check/money order made payable to “U.S. Treasury” and write 2020EIP, and the taxpayer identification number (social security number,  or individual taxpayer identification number) of the recipient of the check.
3. Include a brief explanation of the reason for returning the EIP.

For your paper check, here are the IRS mailing addresses to use based on the state:

Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont: 

Andover Refund Inquiry Unit
1310 Lowell St Mail
Stop 666A
Andover, MA 01810

Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Virginia

Atlanta Refund Inquiry Unit
4800 Buford Hwy
Mail Stop 112
Chamblee, GA 30341

Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas

Austin Refund Inquiry Unit
3651 S Interregional Hwy 35
Mail Stop 6542
Austin, TX 78741

New York

Brookhaven Refund Inquiry Unit
5000 Corporate Ct.
Mail Stop 547
Holtsville, NY 11742

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Fresno Refund Inquiry Unit
5045 E Butler Avenue
Mail Stop B2007
Fresno, CA 93888

Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia

Kansas City Refund Inquiry Unit
333 W Pershing Rd
Mail Stop 6800, N-2
Kansas City, MO 64108

Alabama, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee

Memphis Refund Inquiry Unit
5333 Getwell Rd Mail
Stop 8422  
Memphis, TN 38118

District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island

Philadelphia Refund Inquiry Unit
2970 Market St
DP 3-L08-151
Philadelphia, PA 19104

A foreign country, U.S. possession or territory*, or use an APO or FPO address, or file Form 2555 or 4563, or are a dual-status alien.

Austin Refund Inquiry Unit
3651 S Interregional Hwy 35
Mail Stop 6542 AUSC
Austin, TX 78741

Supreme Court denies Pennsylvania businesses' request to halt governor's order keeping them closed

https://www.foxnews.com/us/supreme-court-denies-pennsylvania-businesses-request-to-halt-governors-order-keeping-them-closed

The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied an application filed on behalf of a group of Pennsylvania businesses and a Republican state House candidate to halt an executive order issued by Gov. Tom Wolf that limits which industries can operate amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The court denied the petition to stay the order without further comment.

"The application for stay presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied," the ruling states.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused a similar request last month, finding the group had "not established any basis for relief based upon their constitutional challenges.”

The petitioners include a real estate agent, the owner of a golf course and Danny DeVito, a GOP state representative candidate.

Video

Wolf signed an executive order on March 19 that compelled businesses not classified as "life-sustaining" to close in order to contain the spread of the infectious disease. Two businesses listed on the petition -- the Caledonia Land Company and B&J Laundry -- reopened after Wolf moved their industries to the list of life-sustaining businesses, Marc Scaringi, a Harrisburg-based attorney representing the petitioners, previously told Fox News.

Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office submitted a 43-page brief to the high court on Wolf's behalf defending his sweeping order.

“Much of what they argue amounts to public policy disagreements as to how the governor used his authority," the brief said. "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court applied well-established principles to conclude that the governor had that authority.

"Applicants do not challenge the principles themselves; they merely disagree with that court’s conclusions,” it continued. ”More fundamentally, such public policy prescriptions, as ill-founded as they are, are not legal grounds for challenging the governor’s order. The application should be denied.”

Like similar orders across the country, business closures have devastated local economies and have resulted in mass layoffs and worker furloughs.

Video

"What he's [Wolf] doing to the average person is ... he is at this point making people completely homeless," Kathy Gregory, a real estate agent in eastern Pennsylvania and one of the petitioners, told Fox News.

While her business hasn't been devastated, her long-term earnings look bleak since she hasn't had opportunities to meet with clients, show homes and other realtor duties.

DeVito, who has moved his campaign operations online after he was forced to close his office, said he will continue to fight Wolf's order via political solutions. He also criticized Wolf's order, which he previously characterized as overly broad.

"You have multi-national corporations operating in Pennsylvania while small businesses are totally shut down," he told Fox News.

Since March 15, more than 1.7 million Pennsylvanians have filed for unemployment, according to the state's Office of Unemployment Compensation. State governments have come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks as the call for the rollback of social distancing measures and the reopening of businesses grows louder.

On Wednesday Wolf announced plans to create a body to support efforts to increase COVID-19 testing and contact tracing while also providing public health sector jobs.

Video

“Our highest priority remains protecting public health and safety, but we must also look ahead to see how we can address future needs. To reopen our economy to its maximum potential, we will need to boost our ability to contain this highly transmissible virus,” Wolf said of the Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps.

Statewide, Pennsylvania recorded 51,845 coronavirus cases, including 3,345 deaths. The high court must still decide whether to hear an appeal to the state Supreme Court's ruling.

Health Care Workers: Escape from New York :)

Cuomo to Tax Health Care Workers Who Came to Help New York

Wed May 6, 2020 

Daniel Greenfield

3

(Illustration courtesy of Bosch Fawstin)

The only things certain in this world are death and taxes. That and Andy Cuomo is pretty sure he won't be picked for Biden's VP.

What else could explain a step this tone deaf, infuriating and outright insane.

Is Cuomo jealous of all the hate that Bill de Blasio has earned that he wants a piece of the hate pie?

Health care workers that came to New York to help fight the coronavirus pandemic at its epicenter will have to pay state taxes, according to the governor.

New York is notorious for its aggressive attempts to chase down anyone who ever set foot in the state for taxes. (Though New Jersey's tax authority was the one that used Nazis in an ad meant to intimidate taxpayers. Probably a unique approach outside the Third Reich.) And yes, legally they might be liable for it, if they hadn't come to save people's lives while risking their own.

Did New York try charging rescue workers who came to help at Ground Zero?

There are thousands of emergency workers here who've responded to requests by Cuomo and Mayor Bill De Blasio for help. Many of them are collecting paychecks from companies back in their home states, which allowed them to come to New York to volunteer.

Now Cuomo would like to seize their paychecks because transgender poetry workshops for inmates don't pay for themselves.

This should come up every damn time Cuomo is promoted by the media. Let them try and defend this.

"We're not in a position to provide any subsidies right now because we have a $13 billion deficit," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "So there's a lot of good things I'd like to do, and if we get federal funding, we can do, but it would be irresponsible for me to sit here looking at a $13 billion deficit and say I'm gonna spend more money, when I can't even pay the essential services."

Is this a bizarre attempt to blackmail more money out of the federal government?

Give us more or we'll start imposing liens on the homes of health care workers from Alabama?

Even though the state government asked thousands of people to come to New York from out of state to help fight coronavirus, they will have to pay New York state taxes, even on income they might make from their home states that they're paid while in New York.

Sorry guys. New York is run by progressive mobsters. Watch your wallets or they'll mug you for your pocket change.

And don't come next time. 

I know you meant well, but these are the sorts of people who run things here. 

Cuomo said he needs help from Washington in order to cover budget deficits from COVID-19, let alone subsidize state income tax for essential workers that flocked to New York's aid.

These are not "subsidies".

You can call it a subsidy when you give a corporation repped by a lobbyist who's a pal of yours a tax break. Not stealing income from a paramedic who came down here to save lives is not a subsidy. 

Calling it a subsidy is an organized crime euphemism.

"If we don't get more money from Washington, we can't fund schools, right, so at the rate we want to fund them. We are in dire financial need," he said.

The schools are closed and worthless. Taxpayers shouldn't have to 'subsidize' them.

The issue first came up when the temporary hospital in Central Park was being erected by Samaritan's Purse.

"Our financial comptroller called me," said Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the organization, "and he said, 'Do you know that all of you are going to be liable for New York state income tax?'

"I said, 'What?'" Isaacs continued. "[The comptroller] said, 'Yeah, there's a law. If you work in New York State for more than 14 days, you have to pay state income tax.'"

"I didn't know that," Isaacs told PIX11 News.

"What we're even more concerned about than the money," Isaacs continued, "is the bureaucracy, and the paperwork, and I think that once that's unleashed...once you start filing that, you have to do that for like a whole year or something."

Sorry guys, you meant well. But trying to help out in Sodom doesn't work out well.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/05/cuomo-tax-health-care-workers-who-came-help-new-daniel-greenfield/

Veterans battle homelessness long after discharge from the military

MAY 5, 2020, by Elsevier
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-veterans-homelessness-discharge-military.html

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

According to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, homelessness among US military veterans rarely occurs immediately after military discharge, but instead takes years to manifest with risk increasing over subsquent years. The study shows that this sleeper effect delay is evident among veterans who served before the Persian Gulf War era, as well as more recent groups from the post-9/11 conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The study points to the long-life cycle leading to homelessness among veterans. It often takes years for problems stemming from military service to build up before a veteran becomes homeless," explained Jack Tsai, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and is a clinical psychologist and health services researcher. "The team and I found that the risk increases exponentially over time in the period 5-15 years post-military discharge."

Dr. Tsai is research director for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, Tampa, Florida, USA. He is also affiliated with the School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, San Antonio, TX, and the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Data from two nationally representative samples were analyzed, including the records of 275,775 homeless veterans who used Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) services from 2000-2019, as well as a 2018 population-based community survey of 115 veterans with a history of homelessness. The average time between discharge and homelessness was found to be 5.5 years in the VA sample and 9.9 years in the survey sample.

Significant factors associated with longer discharge-to-homelessness periods include service in the Vietnam War, younger age at military discharge, income, and chronic medical and psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression and alcohol abuse). The findings suggest that some medical and psychiatric conditions take time to develop and do not quickly lead to homelessness but follow a more chronic course that, if untreated, can eventually lead to homelessness.

Deployments to the post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were significantly associated with shorter duration between discharge and homelessness, a phenomenon that is accelerating. Among homeless VA service users discharged from 2000 to 2008, it took 10 years or more for 10 percent of them to become homeless; among those discharged from 2009 to 2014, more than 10 percent were homeless seven years after discharge. This finding confirms previous research that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experience considerable difficulties with social adjustment.

"Understanding what happens to people after they leave the military and at what point they become homeless is important for policymakers, service providers, veterans, and their family members in order to prevent new generations of veterans from becoming homelessness. Those who end up homeless have very low quality of life, and developing strategic early interventions at various stages after military discharge can mitigate that risk," noted Dr. Tsai.

Primary and secondary prevention focused on chronic health conditions and social adjustment are crucial to prevent homelessness among these veterans. Further research is needed on how best to deploy resources to develop innovative interventions to prevent homelessness among veterans. The study also points to the effect of intersectional macro socioeconomic issues, such as the lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and barriers against subgroups (women veterans with children and veterans with cognitive impairments).

Recommend this post and follow TCW

https://disqus.com/home/forum/the-coconut-whisperer/

Even after respiratory symptoms fade, coronavirus victims face danger

https://www.foxnews.com/health/even-after-respiratory-symptoms-fade-coronavirus-victims-face-new-danger

Coronavirus victims are facing a new danger that may occur even after respiratory symptoms fade and infection from the virus clears.

Doctors are beginning to notice a troubling blood-clotting phenomenon, which is occurring more frequently in patients who have the virus. These clots are also being discovered in younger coronavirus patients and can result in sudden strokes or death.

“There’s something about this virus that’s exaggerated that to the nth degree,” said Mitchell Levy, chief of pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine at the Warren Albert School of Medicine, according to Bloomberg. “We’re seeing clotting in a way in this illness that we have not seen in the past.”

A Resident physician stands outside a room at an Intensive Care Unit on April 20 in New York. Coronavirus victims are facing a new danger that may occur even after respiratory symptoms fade and infection from the virus clears. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

He added that blood clotting is “probably the most important thing that’s emerged over the last perhaps month or two."

Clots may form and damage several types of organs in the body. They include the heart, liver, or in patients’ arterial catheters and filters that support failing kidneys.

However, blood clotting that appears in the lungs is thought to be the most severe in coronavirus patients. It can impede blood flow and impact infected patients who already have difficulty breathing due to the virus -- previously believed to be a typical respiratory disease.

Margaret Pisani, an associate professor of medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine says clots in the lungs are likely what’s causing coronavirus patients who may appear well to suddenly “fall off the ledge” and develop a blood-oxygen deficiency, the paper reported.

Doctors had previously attributed lung damage to pneumonia, but they are now looking at clotting as well.

Dr. Hooman Poor, a lung specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, noticed blood was not flowing well through the lungs of 14 patients on ventilators, which he determined was due to clotting.

"I feel like all these patients have blood clots in their lungs," Poor said last month, according to the Reuters.

A report in the New England Journal of Medicine last week found that five people between the age of 33 to 49 who had strokes, also tested positive for the coronavirus. They were all treated for large-vessel blockages.

On April 13, a study published by researchers in the Netherlands found that 31 percent of intensive-care unit coronavirus patients they observed had a complication associated with clotting. The study described the findings as "remarkably high."

The large arterial lung clots can also put an overwhelming strain on the heart, which may result in cardiac arrest. Clotting may also disrupt blood flow for coronavirus patients on ventilators, said Edwin van Beek, chair of clinical radiology at the University of Edinburgh’s Queen’s Medical Research Institute, according to Bloomberg.

“That’s quite frightening when you think of it because we didn’t know what we’re up against until we were in a later stage," Frank Rasulo, a physician in neurocritical care in Italy told the paper.

NEW YORK CITYPublished 2 hours ago 15 children in New York City hospitalized with mystery ailment linked to coronavirus: report

https://www.foxnews.com/health/15-children-in-new-york-city-hospitalized-with-mystery-ailment-linked-to-coronavirus-report

Hospitals in New York City have reported that they are treating 15 children that have shown symptoms often associated with Kawasaki disease, which global health officials have linked to the coronavirus.

The New York Times reported early Tuesday that the children range from 2 to 15.  Their illnesses have been described in a bulletin as a multisystem inflammatory syndrome potentially linked to COVID-19.

Last week, Matt Hancock, the U.K.’s health secretary, issued a warning that some children have died in Italy and Britain from an unknown condition that has been likened to Kawasaki disease. Doctors in Europe said some of the children who died from the inflammatory ailment had no underlying conditions.

The Times pointed out that none of the children in the U.S. died.

“It’s increasingly recognized that Covid-19 hasn’t read the textbook about what it should be doing as a respiratory virus,” Prof David Burgner, a pediatric and infectious diseases doctor at Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, told the Guardian last week.

Alligator attack victim in South Carolina didn’t scream during incident, witness says

https://www.foxnews.com/us/alligator-attack-victim-in-south-carolina-didnt-scream-during-incident-witness-says

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — A woman killed by an alligator at a South Carolina pond told a friend she wanted to get close to the animal and didn’t scream as it attacked her and dragged her into the water, according to a police report.

Cynthia Covert, 58, died in the attack Friday afternoon on Kiawah Island, Charleston County deputies said.

A deputy had to shoot and kill the alligator to get Covert away from the animal, according to the police report released Monday.

The woman Covert was staying with said she didn’t seem herself Friday and walked toward the alligator, which lunged and grabbed her in its mouth when she was about 4 feet away, deputies said.

Covert, of Johns Island, made no sound as the alligator pulled her under, the woman told police.

The woman’s husband and another man tried beating the alligator with shovels, but the animal swam deeper, the police report said.

When deputies arrived, the alligator kept surfacing with Covert and going under. One officer was able to shoot the animal as it surfaced again, police said.

Firefighters used poles to get Covert out of the pond but she died at the hospital, authorities said.

An autopsy Monday found Covert died of drowning, the Charleston County Coroner’s Office said.