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By Neil Rubenstein
Observer columnist 

Passage of New Bill Pleases Karen Bass

 

February 2, 2018



Let me share with you an email from our Congresswoman the Honorable and much respected Karen Bass. Washington, today, Representative Karen Bass (D-California) Ranking Member of the House Africa Subcommittee, applauded the passage of the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA) and Millennium Challenge Act (MCA) Modernization Act, which passed by a unanimous voice vote on the House Floor.

The Bill, introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-California), will make AGOA more effective by directing the President to establish a website with information regarding AGOA and by encouraging embassies in chosen countries promote export opportunities to the United States.

The bill also included Rep. Bass’s MCORE Act of 2015, which enables eligible countries with Millennium Challenge Corporation compacts to simultaneously enter one additional compact if the country is making considerable and demonstrable progress in implementing the terms of the existing compact. This would promote and develop a stronger economic relationship between the sub-Saharan Africa and the United States.

“The African Growth & Opportunity Act and the Millennium Challenge Corporation have proven track records of spurring economic development. Expanding these programs advances our position as international leaders, strengthens our domestic job market and economy, while protecting our national security interest, “Rep. Bass said. “It is in our economic and political interest to expand our economic relationships with the nations of Africa and this legislation strengthens these key laws in that effort.”

For well over a decade, AGOA has served as the key foundation to U.S. – Africa trade and investment. The AGOA Enhancement Act hopes to build on and improve this successful law, Rep. Bass has devoted a large portion of her time in Congress to pushing for the extension of AGOA. Working hand-in-hand with Democratic and Republican members of Congress, business and labor officials as well as the AGOA ambassadors and members of the African diaspora and civil society to push for the reauthorization of AGOA, earning its passage in June of 2015.

I just know your back copies like ours are in a corner of the office gathering dust but pull out the January 10th, 2018 of USA Today and read Trump sold $35 million in real estate in 2017, mostly to secretive buyers. Continuing, most of the sales of condos in President Trump’s Las Vegas development have continued to be to secretive shell companies that obscure buyers’ identities. In the two years before the Republican nomination, 4 percent of Trump buyers utilized this legal tactic. In the year after, the rate zoomed up to about 70 percent. A single condo in Trumps; Vegas development sold in October 2017 for $1.6 million or approximately $1,000 per square foot. The president is holding dozens of other real estate properties for sale including an eleven-bedroom, twelve-bathroom mansion on the Caribbean Island of St. Martin for $16.9 million; reduced from $28 million. It sleeps 20 and rents for $10,000 a night.

From the Wall Street Journal, U.S. counterintelligence officials about twelve months ago warned a senior White House official the Chinese government was lobbying for $100 million project less than 5 miles from the Capitol and White House. A planned garden at the National Arboretum would also have a 70-foot tower able (supposedly) to listen into private conversations inside Government Buildings.

Many of our neighbors have recently moved into the neighborhood and are not aware of all the Community Health Programs and events sponsored by UCLA and are free to sign up for the quarterly magazine listing dates, times and locations of such programs as aging, asthma, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease etc. call 1(800) 825-2631 or (uclahealth.org).

So, you are a condominium board member, perhaps just an owner or even a renter and need to know your rights and responsibilities and don’t know where to turn. Many of us are not aware HOAs, are governed by Business and Professions code, Civil Code, Internal Revenue Code, Code of Civil Procedure, Corporations Code, Government Code, Revenue and Taxation Code and Vehicle Code as well as Court Rulings and City Ordinance. A short while back I purchased the 2018 Condominiums Bluebook for $25 from the publisher in Walnut Creek, California (925) 627-7270 or (www.condobook.com).

Save the date for the California Strawberry Festival on the third weekend in May – May 19 and 20 in Oxnard. Call 1 (888) 288-9242. A great event for the entire family.

Do you like to hear a good motivational speaker then your hour lucky day will be here soon? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the very best basketball players of all time will speak at the Saban Theatre at 8440 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills 1(888) 645-5006 or (sabantheatre.org) on May 6, 2018.

American Airlines announced that it will soon offer free spirits to passengers in the economy section on international flight to and from Japan. Not to be passed up United Airlines will offer deep dish pizza for $9.99. Delta Airlines will have free meals to all onboard on several long-haul domestic flights.

Did you realize when Governor Brown took the oath in 2011 for his third 4-year term the Golden State was $27 billion in the hole then in 2012, we the voters, passed prop 30 and presto a massive tax increase created a $7.5 billion general fund surplus. Brown’s $190.3 billion plan for 2018-2019 is a new rainy-day fund that has $13.5 billion. The Local Control Funding Formula is fully funded for public schools two years early. So why do we need to spend $118 parcel tax when all this money is coming from Sacramento? It feels like every time I put my hand in my pants pocket I feel some ones there already.

For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.culvercityobserver.com; strolling down the page and underneath Opinion look for Rubenstein.

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