By Neil Rubenstein

Observer Columnist

President Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid more than $93,000 in federal income tax last year on an adjusted gross income of more than $477,000, according to tax returns released on April 10 by the White House.

Metropolitan Washington D. C. police arrested Arthur Baldwin earlier this year on a felony charge of first degree attempted burglary and destruction of property. Baldwin. a uniformed officer in the Secret Service Foreign Missions Branch, is accused of trying to break into his girlfriend’s house.

Theodorsia and I recently received a letter from a friend suggesting we send a few dollars to the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona for his mounting legal fees. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in front of U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow on whether he broke the law in failing to carry out a 2011 court order to refrain from bias against minorities and to stop racial profiling by his department.

Do you realize, according to Mary Gautier, a researcher at Georgetown University, there are now more sisters over the age of 90 than under the age of 60? So, what do you do if you are an aged Catholic nun and there are no younger nuns to care for you as you live out your days? Well, for Sister Angela Rooney, 98, and 57 other New York nuns, ages 73 to 98, they are living in Jewish Home Lifecare in the Bronx. They take an active part in the classes and hold the hands of the dying patients on the hospice floor.

Is there any reason why Sacramento cannot legalize online poker? Perhaps they do not need any more gold toothpicks right now.

A bill in Ohio seeks to expand access to treatment for certain sexually transmitted diseases by allowing doctors to prescribe medication to their patients’ partners without examining them.

In an attempt to keep open the possibility of formal Afghan peace talks, a peace envoy from Afghanistan met in Western China recently with former Taliban officials with close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence Agency. The meeting was hosted by China.

When I was growing up the Cocker Spaniel was one of America’s favorite dogs. My, how things have changed. The most popular pooch for the 24th consecutive year is the Labrador Retriever, the second place dog is the German Shepherd, in third place is the Golden Retriever, the mighty Bulldog is in fourth place, and my favorite, the Beagle, is in fifth.

Would you like to hazard a guess and offer an answer? What is the State of New York’s biggest export? If you shouted out “Diamonds!” you win a twenty minute ride in an Edsel or a Nash Rambler, the choice is yours.

From the I Really Don’t Give a Darn folder, where is George Zimmerman these days?

Don’t look so smug, I keep telling myself, because our turn will come and the truth will be told. Yes, I am talking about paying additional money for roads and bridges. Do you realize the Verrazano Bridge linking Brooklyn and Staten Island has a cash toll of $15 for cars and that could go to $16 in the near future? I can only imagine where taxes will be five years from now.

Get out the checkbook. A Queens, New York man says mall cops and a Gap employee targeted him because he is black. They accused him of shoplifting and forced him to remove his pants in the middle of an aisle in the packed Woodbury Common outlet mall. The man claims he was surrounded by police and a Gap staffer who demanded he lift up his shirt, then lower his pants. When no merchandise was found he was released.

You can just bet by Friday you need a chance to unwind and relax somewhere that’s both close and free. Check out Summer Music 2015 at the original Farmers Market, 6333 West Third Street, (323) 933-9211, (farmersmarket.com), May 29th through August 28, 2015 from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. on the West patio.

Strong leaders are few and far between but not in Pasadena, where Mayor Terry Turnek told the City Manager, Michael Beck, to include body cameras and a police auditor in the city budget for this year. The mayor said, “I’m on it. We are not going to fool around here. We are going to move the ball down the field.”

A Cleveland, Ohio police officer found not guilty in the fatal shooting of two unarmed people in a 137-shot barrage of gunfire has been charged with beating up his twin brother four days after his acquittal.

Between February 1962 and January 2015, per a report recently released by the top watchdog at the Social Security Administration, the agency paid $20.2 million in benefits to more than 130 suspected Nazi war criminals, 55 guards and others who may have participated in the Third Reich’s Atrocities during World War II.

For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.culvercityobserver.com by placing Rubenstein in hat website’s search box.