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Three cheers for passing an epic tax overhaul bill were quickly silenced by three unlawful provisions. Here’s what’s happened: The House on Tuesday passed the most significant changes to the tax code in three decades. “This is a once in a generation opportunity,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. As House Republicans celebrated their first major victory, the bill was heading to the Senate for an evening vote and was likely to pass. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled that three minor provisions did not comply with strict budget rules and would have to be stripped out. That means the Senate will likely vote Tuesday night on a revised bill, and the House will have to vote again Wednesday to pass it. Then Republicans can deliver a $1.5 trillion package for President Trump to sign into law before Christmas, as he requested.
The incident was first described as “domestic violence,” but more details reveal that Track Palin, son of former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. was charged with beating up his father after breaking into his parents’ house. Track Palin, 28, had said he wanted to retrieve his truck, but his dad, Todd Palin, said don’t come over. The son told police he broke a window, disarmed his father and put him on the ground and hit him around the head, according to an affidavit by Wasilla police in Alaska. By the time police arrived, Todd Palin was bloodied and bruised. The son yelled at officers and “moved around in a strange manner” before being arrested without incident, the affidavit states. Track Palin is charged with felony first-degree burglary and misdemeanor fourth-degree assault. Sarah Palin has said her son suffers from PTSD from military service. He faced previous domestic violence charges in 2016.
An Eagle Scout and a surgeon driving on Interstate 5 became heroes when they stopped to help rescue and treat victims in Monday’s deadly Amtrak derailment south of Seattle. Daniel Konzelman told The Seattle Times he saw broken ankles, head injuries, a lot of blood and passengers paralyzed with shock. The Scout tapped into his first-aid training and crawled through shattered train cars to help. Neurosurgeon Nathan Selden helped treat people at a medical triage tent. Three people died and dozens were injured when the train took a curve at 80 mph, exceeding the 30 mph limit. Automatic breaking equipment was installed on the tracks but was still being tested.
Unregulated homeopathic treatments are on drugstore shelves next to traditional medicine, but they lack FDA approval and warning labels. Why? In 1988, the Food and Drug Administration decided that anything labeled as homeopathic didn’t need agency approval. The FDA is partially reversing course now, saying it will scrutinize some homeopathic products. The agency will look at remedies aimed at vulnerable groups, such as infants and people who might be using them for life-threatening diseases like cancer. What is homeopathy? It aims to treat illnesses with diluted forms of substances that cause an illnesses’ symptoms, and proponents like Gwyneth Paltrow have pushed them into the mainstream. Critics call it a potentially dangerous and unproven pseudoscience.
The second most annoying phrase of the year was tweeted by President Trump 147 times: “fake news.” A Marist Poll found that 23% of Americans disliked the term, though “whatever” was deemed most annoying. Whatever. The other contenders for “most annoying” phrase/word: “no offense, but” (20%) “literally” (11%) and “you know what I mean” (10%). The Marist Poll has surveyed Americans about annoying phrases for the past nine years. This year, Marist surveyed 1,074 people from Nov. 6-9, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

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