Today in History: March 13, Francis becomes first non-European pope in over 1,250 years
In 1925, the Tennessee General Assembly approved the Butler Act, which prohibited public schools from teaching of the theory of evolution. ( Governor Austin Peay signed the measure on March 21; the bill was challenged in court later that year in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Tennessee ultimately repealed the law in 1967.)
In 1946, US Army Private First Class Sadao Munemori was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for sacrificing himself to save fellow soldiers from a grenade explosion in Seravezza, Italy; he was the only Japanese American service member so recognized in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
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In 1954, the pivotal Battle of Dien Bien Phu began during the First Indochina War as Viet Minh forces attacked French troops, who were defeated nearly two months later.
In 1996, a gunman entered an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself; it remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.
In 2013, Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope, choosing the papal name Francis. He was the first pontiff from the Americas, and the first from outside Europe since Pope Gregory III's death in the year 741.
In 2020, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot in her apartment in Louisville, Ky., during a botched raid by plainclothes narcotics detectives searching for a suspected drug dealer; no drugs were found, and the 'no-knock' warrant used to enter by force was later found to be based on false information.
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Time Magazine
4 hours ago
- Time Magazine
The History of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit—And How it Could Improve Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill'
This April, over 150 Republicans and Democrats in Congress came together to introduce the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. The bill aims to address a crisis plaguing nearly every U.S. city: the shortage of low-income and moderate-income housing. Nearly half of American renters spend over 50% of their income on housing, a level that experts consider 'cost burdened," according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. The bill works by expanding a tool—the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) —which has a long and bipartisan history. Everyone from businesspeople to housing advocates have enthusiastically supported it. The credit helps underwrite nearly all construction of affordable housing in the U.S. Whether Congress can pass the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) may come down to whether its Republican boosters can get it into President Donald Trump's ' Big, Beautiful Bill," which the Senate is now working on. It would add cost to the legislation, which could cause rifts between GOP legislators. Yet, history indicates that including it could improve a key source of housing for America's 'working poor.' At the heart of the LIHTC is the idea of giving investors subsidies for building housing. This concept dates back to the era after World War II. Americans may be familiar with the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, the ' GI Bill,' which set up low-interest mortgages for veterans and other home buyers. It produced broad rings of single-family suburban homes around every city. Much less well-known, however, are a series of incentive programs the government enacted to spur the building of rental housing. Read More: A Look at Community Land Trusts and How They Combat the Affordable Housing Crisis During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the administration of Democrat Harry Truman used a tool called FHA 608 to quickly house veterans returning from World War II and the Korean War. It offered long-term loans and free project-planning assistance to apartment developers and guaranteed them a profit. In many cities, that produced more low-rent units than did the nascent U.S. Public Housing program. In the 1960s, another Democratic President, Lyndon B. Johnson, pushed a new set of subsidies. Housing was a top concern for Johnson as part of his War on Poverty —leading to his creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1965. His administration used two programs, FHA 221(d)3 and HUD 236, to provide depreciation tax breaks and ultra-low interest loans to private developers of low- and moderate-income apartments. As nationally syndicated financial columnist Sylvia Porter reported excitedly, 'There are unparalleled opportunities for profit awaiting you, the investor, in low-cost housing … as a result of the meshing of giant new housing and tax laws.' A savvy investor could use the 'big deductions … to offset your other highly taxed income'—a technique called a "tax shelter." As with the earlier Truman program, these subsidies to private developers 'far outdistanced the traditional public housing program' in producing new units, according to the United States Comptroller General Elmer Staats. During the 1980s, federal housing efforts ran headlong into a rising conservative movement, led by President Ronald Reagan. The right was determined to pare back government spending and slash programs. Congress moved to wipe out most aid to help build affordable housing and replace it with Section 8 vouchers. Instead of subsidizing construction, the government would pay landlords the difference between what a renter could afford and the market rate for rent. But business leaders and housing activists revolted. They insisted that Congress should create a strategy to stimulate construction of new units. In 1986, their efforts paid off as part of the sweeping, seminal bipartisan Tax Reform Act. Among its many provisions was the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. LIHTC gave investors a tax credit—an update of the tax shelter idea—if they developed affordable housing or provided dollars to a non-profit doing that work. From 1986 through to today, the majority of affordable housing in the U.S. has been constructed with this credit. Local or state dollars often supplement it, but without LIHTC, many projects simply would not get built. The credit has worked pretty well for nearly 40 years, an impressive longevity. But two shortcomings have become apparent. The first is that when the Reagan Administration launched the program, the idea of mixed-income housing was not yet a goal. So LIHTC regulations favor projects that serve households that make 60% of an area's median income (AMI). That's an important demographic, including teachers, nurse assistants, food service managers, and other similarly situated individuals. But this target is too narrow on both ends. It often prices out the poorest Americans, who make 30% AMI or less, and it also offers nothing to people making 80% AMI, who increasingly need help with today's skyrocketing rents. A second shortcoming of LIHTC is that funding has not expanded since 1986, when both the population and its needs were dramatically smaller. The result is that, now, meaningful projects are excluded simply because of lack of available money. As Scott Farmer, the head of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency told me in an interview, 'The worst part of our job is that we get 120 applications a year and can only fund 30 to 35. Those other deals are great deals, we just don't have enough resources to go around.' The new AHCIA bill recently introduced in Congress aims to address both of those problems. It would encourage landlords to mingle tenants at all incomes. Mixed-income projects have been considered best-practice for some 30 years now; the AHCIA will help regulations catch up with that reality. The AHCIA would also dramatically expand the available credits. It would re-institute a temporary increase of 12.5% that Congress approved in 2018 but later allowed to lapse. And it would boost the total by an another 50%, allowing hundreds of additional projects to become reality. The AHCIA has serious support on both side of the aisle in Washington. Its Senate co-sponsors include conservative Republicans Todd Young of Indiana and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, along with liberal Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Maria Cantwell of Washington. The House version of the bill already has 130 cosponsors. The difficulty in passing the bill may not be opposition. Rather, it's that relatively small tax-related proposals like AHCIA rarely get enacted as stand-alone legislation. Instead, they often get swept up into fierce and partisan debates over taxes and spending. That's precisely what's happening right now in the Capitol—President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' includes massive tax cuts along with reductions in social service programs such as Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps), increased funding for deportations and border security, and much more. Despite its broad support, the AHCIA could be overlooked amid the bigger battles. The question will be whether advocates of AHCIA can push some pieces of their legislation into this larger bill. The history provides at least some modest hope. The use of tax credits has deep roots, both among Republicans and Democrats, and a long track-record of success. When Congress adopted LIHTC back in 1986, it came as part of much bigger legislation—so that path is a genuine possibility. Will leaders in Congress take action in 2025? If they do, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act has the potential to do a lot of good, to expand the housing supply, spur the economy, and help address the affordability crisis plaguing America. Tom Hanchett is a North Carolina-based historian. His new book Affordable Housing in Charlotte: What One City's History Tells Us About America's Pressing Problem is published by UNC Press.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
DHS sends out provocative new poster
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new poster online featuring World War II imagery, urging citizens to help locate and report immigrants who are in the country without documentation. 'Help your country and yourself,' reads the poster, which shows Uncle Sam with a hammer nailing a flier to a wall. 'Report all foreign invaders,' it says, providing a phone number to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The poster's language mirrors a sentiment coming from President Trump and his aides in the White House in recent weeks characterizing immigrants in the country illegally as 'foreign invaders' and blaming Democrats for allowing mass migration into the U.S. during former President Biden's time in office. The poster was posted to DHS's social media channels and was being widely shared on social platform X this week, including by White House officials. The poster's publication comes as ICE raids in Los Angeles and other cities around the country have increased as part of Trump's sweeping deportation plan, an agenda that has sparked protests in locations nationwide, most acutely in portions of the California city. Trump ordered plans for the U.S. military to assist in his deportation efforts, as DHS officials say threats against ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers have ramped up in recent weeks. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
New state law bolsters Red Hill fuel spill remediation efforts
A special state envoy has been tasked with better informing the public about contamination and remediation of Oahu's freshwater aquifer polluted by the Navy's Red Hill fuel storage facility. Gov. Josh Green on Friday signed a bill into law that directs a state Department of Land and Natural Resources official to develop a public dashboard to display water test results from sources around the Red Hill facility, which is being decommissioned by the Navy under a closure plan anticipated for completion in 2028. Act 197, which originated as House Bill 505, also includes a directive to develop a broader three-year public education program focused in part on efforts to remediate contaminated soil and water stemming from decades of fuel spills at the World War II-era facility. The Red Hill facility was built over 500 feet underground with tanks capable of storing 250 million gallons of fuel, 100 feet above the aquifer and connected to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Heading up the initiative will be a Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative coordinator, a new position created within DLNR. Funding for this position, an outreach coordinator and an administrative support specialist was appropriated by the Legislature last year. Recruiting efforts have been underway this year. The envisioned work by the three-person team among other things is expected to facilitate implementation of recom mendations made in a November 2023 report from the Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative, or WAI, working group. Another element in Act 197 establishes a special state financial account to receive contributions including appropriations and donations from the U.S. government, the state, the city and the public to address contamination from Red Hill and administered by the WAI coordinator. Healani Sonoda-Pale, a leader of the Native Hawaiian organization Ka Lahui Hawai 'i, said the new law was a product of community organizing efforts over more than two years and is a testament to the people's power. 'We know that restoring our aquifer and holding the federal government accountable will be a marathon, not a sprint, ' she said in a statement. The WAI working group formed in May 2023 was made up of state and city leaders including Green, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters, DLNR Director Dawn Chang, Honolulu Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer Ernie Lau and leadership in the Legislature. The working group's final report criticized Navy statements over contamination levels, and contended that far more fuel had been spilled over the past 80 years from Red Hill than has been documented. There have been 70 documented incidents over eight decades amounting to potential spills totaling 180, 000 gallons of fuel, including around 19, 000 gallons in a 2021 spill that contaminated a Navy well and water system on Oahu serving 93, 000 military members and civilians. The WAI report said total spill volume could be as high as 1.94 million gallons. The working group's 2023 report also called for access to Navy monitoring wells, stepped-up testing and payment from the Navy to repair Oahu's compromised water system. In direct response to the 2021 spill, BWS shut down several of its nearby wells to guard against fuel contaminating water distributed to other parts of the island. BWS also filed a $1.2 billion claim with the Navy to recover costs of the water agency's response under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The Navy has said it has a long-term commitment to protect Oahu's aquifer, environment and community members. Lau told state lawmakers in January while testifying in support of HB 505 that in working on the Red Hill issue for 11 years, it's clear to him that a structure beyond existing regulatory framework is needed to restore land and water contaminated by Red Hill fuel. The changes under HB 505 are intended to be part of the desired new structure. Sonoda-Pale said at the same Jan. 28 hearing on the bill held by the House Water and Land Committee that special officials are needed to ensure that Red Hill disaster remediation is carried out. 'It's going to take decades, ' she said. Alfred Medeiros told the committee that local government needs to do more to hold the Navy accountable for what he called crimes. 'Ola i ka wai. Water is life, ' he said. Medeiros added that people may have forgotten that the Navy poisoned the public water supply and that much more work needs to be done. 'There's still sediment sitting in those tanks, ' he said. 'There's still procrastination … they (the Navy ) don't show up to meetings.' Davie-ann Momilani Thomas told the committee that her family living in the Pearl City Peninsula community on the Navy water system still can't trust that their water is free of contaminants after cleanup efforts and monitoring by the Navy. 'I just want you all to know that I support this bill, because me and my family and many affected family members that are still living on the Navy interconnected plumbing pipes, we are still living off of bottled waters, ' she said. 'I do not trust our island water flowing through their (Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command ) plumbing pipes.' Testimony on the bill at the hearing was all supportive except for one comment pertaining to the special fund, and included endorsements from DLNR, BWS, several organizations including the Sierra Club of Hawai 'i and about 55 individuals. After five committee hearings, the House and Senate unanimously passed a final version of HB 505 on April 30. During an initial House vote taken March 4, Rep. Garner Shimizu, whose district includes Red Hill, called HB 505 a thoughtful bill. 'It continues the monitoring of the conditions at Red Hill and helps assure proper coordination between federal, county and state agencies as well as champion public transparency, ' said Shimizu (R, Moanalua-Aliamanu-Foster Village ).
