【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, September19, 2022】As a continuous effort to enhance our valuable service to We Chinese in America website readers, We Chinese in America website posts US Army recruitment information directly received from the US Army Recruiting Command headquarter office at Fort Knox, Kentucky. We are pleased to take on this important role partnering with US Army Recruiting Command (USREC) and be a part of the USREC’s Partnership Outreach Program to better inform the public.
Every taxpayer has the right to retain representation when working with the IRS
Tax Tip 2022-143
September 19, 2022
Taxpayers have the right to retain an authorized representative of their choice to represent them when they are dealing with the IRS. They also have the right to seek assistance from a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic if they cannot afford representation. This is one of the ten fundamental rights of all taxpayers as outlined in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
What the right to retain representation means for taxpayers:
- Taxpayers have the right to retain an authorized representative of their choice to represent them in their dealings with the IRS.
- Taxpayers who are heading to an interview with the IRS may select someoneto represent them.
- Taxpayers who retain representation don't have to attend with their representative unless the IRS formally summons them to appear.
- In most situations, the IRS must suspend an interview if the taxpayer requests to consult with a representative, such as an attorney, certified public accountant or enrolled agent.
- Any attorney, CPA, enrolled agent, enrolled actuary or other person permitted to represent a taxpayer before the IRS, who's not disbarred or suspended from practice before the IRS, may submit a written power of attorney to represent a taxpayer before the IRS.
- Taxpayers have the right to seek assistance from an LITC if they can't afford representation. They can find a LITC near them by visiting the Low Income Taxpayer Clinics page or by calling the IRS toll-free at 800-829-3676.
LITCs are independent from the IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate Service These clinics represent individuals whose income is below a certain level and who need to resolve tax problems with the IRS. LITCs can represent taxpayers in audits, appeals and tax collection disputes before the IRS and in court. In addition, LITCs can provide information about taxpayer rights and responsibilities in different languages for individuals who speak English as a second language. Services are offered for free or a small fee.
More Information
Publication 4134, Low Income Taxpayer Clinic List
Publication 4134, Low Income Taxpayer Clinics, Spanish version
(Source: IRS Tax Tips)
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【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, September 18, 2022】Consumers are increasingly encouraged to consume more plant-based foods and lower their consumption of foods from animal origin. Concurrently, older adults are recommended to consume an adequate amount of high-quality dietary protein for the prevention of age-related muscle loss. (Photo credit: Proutist Universal)
Several countries are adapting to dietary guidelines that recommend increasing the consumption of plant-based foods and thereby lowering the consumption of animal-based foods. This transition towards plant-based eating is primarily driven by environmental factors and is endorsed by the EAT-Lancet commission and the European Union's call for Europe-wide sustainable dietary guidelines before the end of 2030.
Plant-based diets can be classified according to the relative contribution of animal- and plant-based foods within the diet. A vegan diet is considered the strictest plant-based diet and excludes all foods from animal origin. The increased consumption of fruits and vegetables that concur with a vegan diet may improve the dietary intake of important nutrients and bioactive compounds. In accordance, vegan diets have been associated with potential health benefits, such as improving cardiovascular risk factors. These indications are promising for several subgroups of the adult population.
The age-related loss of muscle mass and strength becomes apparent approximately in the fifth decade of life and may result in sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is a muscle disorder that is characterized by low muscle strength in combination with low muscle mass or quality. As such, in view of the envisaged transition towards more plant-based dietary guidelines, it is urgently needed to underscore the potential impact of a vegan diet on muscle mass and strength at an older age.
An effective strategy to attenuate the rate of decline in muscle mass and strength with advancing age is ample physical activity combined with sufficient intake of high-quality dietary protein. Dietary protein contains indispensable nutrients called essential amino acids (EAAs) that are vital for maintenance of muscle mass and strength throughout life.
Older adults are recommended to consume sufficient high-quality protein to maintain muscle mass and physical function. The RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for older adults protein intake is approximately 1.0–1.2 g/(kg⋅d), with specific attention to timing and quality of the consumed protein.
(Source: PubMed Central)
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“COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are our best protection against the virus and I encourage anyone who is eligible for a booster to get one,” said Wilma J. Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer. “While COVID-19 numbers are currently trending down, the virus remains active and infectious in our community and we anticipate more cases in the coming months as people move activities indoors.”
So far, close to 1.45 million San Diegans have received a regular booster since they became available. The County has administered more than 400 bivalent boosters since limited supplies started arriving earlier this month, while the total from all providers has surpassed 34,000.
The new bivalent boosters were developed to generate an immune response from the original COVID-19 virus, as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants. The Omicron variants are still causing the majority of new COVID-19 infections in the region.
The Pfizer/BioNTech bivalent booster is available for individuals age 12 and older. Moderna bivalent boosters are authorized for those age 18 and older, but are currently not readily available in the region as the County is awaiting additional vaccine allocations from the state.
The bivalent boosters have not yet been authorized for children under the age of 12. Youths in that age group can get boosted with the previous version of the monovalent Pfizer vaccine.
San Diegans must be fully vaccinated with the primary series of one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines before receiving a bivalent booster, meaning they must have received the two-dose primary series of Pfizer, Moderna, or the relatively new Novavax. All of those vaccines remain widely available. Also eligible for the bivalent booster are those who received at least one shot of the Janssen vaccine, which is no longer widely available.
Anyone who wants to get a bivalent booster must wait at least eight weeks after they received a previous COVID-19 vaccine until they are eligible. In addition, anyone who is fully vaccinated and recently tested positive for COVID-19, should wait three months after infection to get a bivalent booster.
Data Reporting Changes
As COVID-19 activity continues to trend down in the region, and to align with the state’s reporting frequency, the County will transition to reporting COVID-19 data once a week.
Starting next week, local COVID-19 data will be updated on the coronavirus-sd.com page on Thursdays only, instead of twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. The County’s regular COVID-19 news release will continue to be distributed once a week on Thursdays.
Vaccination Progress:
- Received at least one shot: More than 3.02 million or 90.4% of San Diegans age six months and older are at least partially vaccinated.
- Fully vaccinated: More than 2.67 million or 80.0%.
- Boosters administered: 1,447,477 or 59% of 2,455,439 eligible San Diegans.
- More vaccination information can be found at coronavirus-sd.com/vaccine.
Deaths:
- Nine additional deaths were reported since the last report on Sept. 8, 2022. The region’s total is 5,483.
- Of the nine additional deaths, five were women and four were men. They died between Aug. 25, 2022 and Sept. 10, 2022; five deaths occurred in the past two weeks.
- Five of the people who died were 80 years or older, three were in their 70s and one was in their 60s.
- Five were fully vaccinated and four were not.
- All had underlying medical conditions.
Cases, Case Rates and Testing:
- 1,251 COVID-19 cases were reported to the County in the past three days (Sept. 12 to Sept. 14, 2022). The region’s total is now 918,279.
- 2,840 cases were reported in the past week (Sept. 8 through Sept. 14) compared to 2,797 infections identified the previous week (Sept. 1 through Sept. 7).
- San Diego County’s case rate per 100,000 residents 12 years of age and older is 17.59 for people fully vaccinated and boosted, 10.51 for fully vaccinated people and 35.77 for not fully vaccinated San Diegans.
- 7,176 tests were reported to the County on Sept. 10, and the percentage of new positive cases was 4.6% (Data through Sept. 10).
- The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases, among tests reported through Sept. 10, is 5.7%.
(Source: County of San Diego Communications Office)
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【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, September 17, 2022】The updated boosters target the newer, widely spread Omicron subvariants of the COVID-causing virus, BA.4 and BA.5, as well as the early 2020 form of the microbe, known as the ancestral strain. This is the first change for the Pfizer and Moderna shots since they were introduced two years ago, when they contained only genetic material from the ancestral form of the virus. (Image from Getty Images)
The new booster shots are expected to trigger a better immune response against the new subvariants. As people congregate closer together in winter months, they’re more likely to spread microbes between them.
The new vaccine formulations, which are known as bivalent shots because they contain components of two versions of the virus. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines contain snippets of viral genetic material called mRNA. Once injected, it can’t create a whole virus, but it does tell cells to build one isolated piece, the infamous spike protein found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2. When the human immune system detects that protein, it starts to produce antibodies and activate other immune cells that can fight the actual virus.
The updated boosters contain mRNA instructions for both the ancestral spike protein and the one on Omicron BA.4 and BA.5. (The protein from those two subvariants is extremely similar.) This is why the new shots induce a broader immune response. All of the other ingredients—such as lipids, salts and acids, which help protect the mRNA and deliver it to our cells, balance acidity and maintain the stability of the vaccine—haven’t changed from the original formulation. The overall dose of each updated booster is also the same as the original boosters.
In a clinical preprint study evaluating one of Moderna’s earlier bivalent booster versions—which was made with the ancestral form and the original Omicron variant, called BA.1—participants who received the booster had a 7.1-fold rise in neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron. The ones who received the ancestral-only booster had a smaller, 3.8-fold rise in neutralizing antibody levels. An advantage was also seen in neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron BA.4 and BA.5.
A similar result was achieved by an earlier bivalent booster developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. It led to a 9.1-fold rise in neutralizing antibody levels against the original form of Omicron, compared with a 5.8-fold rise obtained by the ancestral-only booster. A smaller advantage was seen in neutralizing antibody levels against BA.4 and BA.5.
Clinical trials of the earlier bivalent booster versions show that they have a risk profile very much like the original vaccines and boosters. The clinical study that evaluated the earlier version of Moderna’s bivalent booster showed that the most commonly reported side effects were typical, including pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, and some nausea and fever. An early version of a bivalent shot from Pfizer and BioNTech had a similar profile.
(Source: Scientific American)
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【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, September 15, 2022】Former President Donald Trump’s top general feared he would authorize a strike on Iran as his presidency ended. His intelligence chief wondered what Russia had on him. A billionaire friend convinced him to try buying Greenland. A half-dozen top officials considered resigning en masse.
Even his wife, first lady Melania Trump, was “rattled by the coronavirus and convinced that Trump was screwing up,” according to a forthcoming book from New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser set to publish on Tuesday.
In a phone call with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who maintained ties to the White House despite occasional criticism of Trump, Melania Trump sought help convincing her husband to take the pandemic more seriously.
“‘You’re blowing this,” she recalled telling her husband,” the authors write. “’This is serious. It’s going to be really bad, and you need to take it more seriously than you’re taking it.’ He had just dismissed her. ‘You worry too much,’ she remembered him saying. ‘Forget it.’ “
The razor’s-edge instability clouding Trump’s four-year tenure in the White House led many of his senior-most advisers to worry about the fate of the country. The volatility is laid bare in new detail in “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021.” The reporting for the book included two interviews with the former President at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Baker and Glasser write that many of the well-known fears about Trump’s presidency were in fact closer to reality than previously reported, leading to widespread attempts among those who worked for him to head off disaster.
(Source: CNN)
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