Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some vital stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
President-elect Donald Trump pledges to speed things up for some expensive investment projects, the head of our nation’s top law enforcement agency makes a shocking decision, and the lawyer for the suspected killer of a prominent health care executive makes a startling announcement.
Also, the IRS has a warning for our nation’s seniors and their retirement accounts, and a leading supermarket chain makes a surprising move after a grocery store mega-merger goes belly up.
Trump Pledges to Accelerate Approvals for Billion-Dollar Projects
Trump has just promised to speed up the amount of time it takes to get permits and also to trim environmental reviews for any person or company that invests $1 billion or more in the United States of America.The president-elect made his guarantee on Truth Social, and he promised that the application process for large-scale investors would be “fully expedited,” and also that it would include all required environmental approvals.
Trump did not say which specific industries he had in mind when he made his pledge. However, it’s well known that permitting reform has been a theme in the U.S. Congress over the past two years, especially when it comes to energy and mining proposals.
So you know, when Republicans take control of Congress next month, they’re likely to try to rework a long-standing law that requires federal agencies to conduct environmental reviews before approving large-scale energy projects.
It’s worth pointing out that according to a White House study from 2020, getting final environmental permits for an electrical transmission project takes an average of more than six years, and mining proposals often take decades to approve.
One mining executive told The Epoch Times that right now, it can take up to 30 years to build a mine. She said cutting down on that time is both an economic issue and a matter of national security in order to compete with China, which currently dominates the production and processing of critical minerals needed for both semiconductors and weapons systems.
However, not everyone agrees with Trump’s pledge to deregulate energy production. One environmental group calls the plan another example of the president-elect “putting special interests and corporate polluters in the driver’s seat,” saying that it will result in more pollution, higher costs, and fewer energy choices for the American people.
FBI Director to Step Down Before Trump Takes Office
The FBI says that Director Christopher Wray is going to resign next month. The opening paves the way for Trump’s nominee for the position, Kash Patel, to take over the job if he’s approved by the Senate.In an email, an FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times that Wray made his announcement during a recent town hall with the bureau’s employees.
Wray told the FBI team that he thought carefully about his decision for weeks, and that he decided the right thing for the bureau is for him to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down.
He also said that in his view, his resignation is “the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray,” and that it also reinforces the values and principles that are so important to how they do their work.
For the record, Wray is currently serving a 10-year term that started in 2017. Trump nominated Wray during his first term in office, and President Joe Biden opted to keep him in place during his term in the White House.
For a little background, Trump’s nominee, Kash Patel, is a former federal prosecutor who has worked for both the White House National Security Council and in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
CEO Murder Suspect’s Lawyer Says He’s Received Offers to Cover Legal Bills
The lawyer for the suspect, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, says that Mangione has been receiving a number of financial offers to help pay his legal bills, that he “probably wouldn’t” accept them, and that his client “appreciates the support that he has.”He continued by saying that when rich billionaires give money to political candidates, it’s considered free speech, and that maybe people were “exercising their right to free speech” by supporting his client.
She also said that NYPD investigators have matched the suspect’s fingerprints with those found on a water bottle and an energy bar recovered at the scene.
However, Mangione’s lawyer told reporters earlier he’s not convinced that New York officials have the right suspect, that Mangione is presumed innocent, and that he believes the judge should have set bail in the case instead of turning down the request.
The attorney confirmed that his client will fight any attempt to extradite him from Pennsylvania to New York, where he’s been charged with murder and a number of other gun-related crimes.
IRS Warns Seniors of Penalties If They Don’t Take Required Retirement Withdrawals
The IRS has just issued a notice reminding retirees who are aged 73 and older to take any required withdrawals from their retirement accounts before the end of the year, and the agency says that if they don’t, they face the prospect of hefty penalties.The IRS says that required minimum distributions (RMDs) must be taken each year from a number of retirement plans, including traditional IRAs and 401(k)s. If they fail to do so, the owner of the plan is subjected to a 25 percent excise tax on the amount that was not withdrawn.
However, that penalty drops to 10 percent if the shortfall is corrected within two years, and the damages may be waived entirely if the account owner can prove the mistake was “reasonable” and is being corrected.
You should also know that the IRS says that it’s the account owner’s responsibility to make sure the correct amount is withdrawn, even if it’s calculated by someone else, including plan administrators.
The IRS is also warning the beneficiaries of inherited retirement accounts to follow the RMD rules very carefully, because they differ based on factors like the account owner’s date of death and the beneficiary’s relationship to the deceased.
If anything is unclear to you or you have any questions, you can simply visit the IRS website at irs.gov, where they have the latest up-to-date information.
Albertsons Says It’s Ending Merger Agreement With Kroger
Yesterday, Albertsons announced it is ending its merger agreement with Kroger, and it’s accusing that company of breaching its contractual obligations to make sure that the joining of the two organizations would be successful.Albertsons filed a lawsuit in Delaware outlining the allegations against Kroger, which it says acted in “its own financial self-interest,” repeatedly provided insufficient proposals for divesting, and ignored the concerns of regulators.
So you know, earlier this week, a proposed merger between the two supermarket chains was blocked by multiple judges, who found that if the merger went through, it would have anti-competitive effects.
A lawyer for Albertsons says that the company is disappointed that the “significant benefits” of the proposed merger were lost on account of Kroger’s “willfully deficient approach” to getting regulatory clearance.
Meanwhile, a Kroger spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the claims by Albertsons are baseless and without merit, and that they’re an attempt to deflect responsibility and to seek payment of the merger’s break fee, which it is not entitled to.
By the way, Albertsons operates more than 2,200 stores across 34 states, including Safeway and Acme markets, while Kroger operates over 2,700 grocery stores under various banners such as Ralphs and Harris Teeter.
Additionally, last year, Kroger reported $150 billion in revenue, while Albertsons pulled in just under $80 billion.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Thursday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and always on-demand.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from Emily Dickinson, who said: “Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.”
As the Christmas holiday rapidly approaches, we hope your parents are still with you—and you with them.
Dickinson, by the way, was an American poet. Little known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.
Enjoy the remainder of your day, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
