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Reprieve is issued for tax errors tied to the health law

 
Published Feb. 25, 2015

Washington

Reprieve is issued for tax errors tied to the health law

Taxpayers who've filed their 2014 returns only to learn that the government provided them with erroneous information on health care subsidies won't be required to submit corrected returns, the Treasury Department said Tuesday. The decision amounts to a reprieve from paperwork headaches for an estimated 50,000 early filers, out of a pool of some 800,000 healthcare.gov customers affected by a tax reporting goof disclosed last week. The majority who haven't filed their tax returns are still being urged to wait until they receive corrected information from the Department of Health and Human Services. The announcement means those who have filed would save time, effort and any additional tax preparation fees for correcting returns with erroneous details. "The IRS will not pursue the collection of any additional taxes from these individuals based on updated information in the corrected forms," the Treasury statement said.

Chicago

'50 Shades of Grey' sex ends in arrest

A University of Illinois at Chicago student has been charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old female student in what prosecutors say was part of a re-enactment of scenes from the film 50 Shades of Grey. Mohammad Hossain, 19, and the woman went to Hossain's dorm room on Saturday afternoon, authorities say. Hossain allegedly had the woman strip to her bra and underwear, and then bound her hands above her head and to a bed with a belt, used another belt to bind her legs, stuffed a necktie into her mouth and blindfolded her. He then removed her bra and underwear, prosecutors say, and beat her with a belt. After she was hit a few times, the woman begged him to stop, but Hossain kept going with the belt and his fists. The attack allegedly ended in a rape. Detectives say Hossain admitted "doing something wrong" but maintained he and the woman were re-enacting scenes from 50 Shades of Grey.

Ohio

Man says he was told not to pray in gym

A 28-year-old Muslim man has accused gym chain LA Fitness of violating his civil rights after managers at a location in Cincinnati ordered him not to pray in a locker room, according to a lawsuit. Mohammed Fall says that he routinely prayed after lifting weights or playing basketball, and that he has seen other people making religious gestures in the gym, including the Christian sign of the cross. Chris Link, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio, told the Los Angeles Times that Fall being on private property does not preempt his right to religious expression. To win the suit, he may have to prove he was targeted because of his faith.

Texas

Charges filed as old rape kits get tested

Evidence from more than 6,600 rape kits that went untested for years in Houston have turned up 850 hits in the FBI's nationwide database of DNA profiles. Charges have been filed against 29 people since the city launched an effort in 2013 to test 6,663 rape kits — some of which dated back nearly three decades. Testing was completed in the fall, and the results have now been uploaded to a database used by investigators nationwide to compare DNA profiles of suspects, Mayor Annise Parker said. Experts say Houston's backlog — and similar backlogs in other U.S. cities — are due in part to the high cost of testing which can run from $500 to $1,000 per kit, though advocates argue that the lack of testing signals that sex crimes haven't always been law enforcement priorities.

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Elsewhere

France: Paris police say they spotted at least five drones flying over the French capital overnight, and an investigation is underway into who was flying them and why.

Germany: An 18-month-old boy has died of measles in Berlin, the first known death in an outbreak of the disease that has seen more than 570 cases in the German capital since October.

Times wires