December 2021

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

When longtime member of Team-Mates Marily Gude died, our local program knew we wanted to do something special in her memory. Marilyn mentored many students and was even texting a mentor the day before she passed. She touched hundreds of lives as a second grade teacher before retiring and becoming a mentor.

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State and Local Tax deduction and inflation

Question: What is the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction? A: As a senior member of the taxwriting Senate Finance Committee, I helped steer the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law that led to the greatest economic expansion in America in the last half-century. The 2017 tax law provided tax relief for everybody by lowering tax rates across the board and repealed and limited regressive tax benefits that are unfair to lower income Americans, such as capping the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT).

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At the library

A new book by J. K. Rowling tops the list of reading options acquired by the Hamburg Public Library this month. Books by Lasky, Paterson, Child, Gray, and Grisham join this list along with an audiobook by Shirley MacLaine.

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Research finds link between sewing masks, well-being at pandemic’s start

During a critical face mask shortage at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, home sewers responded by pulling out fabric stashes, threading their machines and getting to work. Recently published research shows their efforts to protect health care workers and loved ones stemmed not only from altruism, but also a desire for some sort of control during an unprecedented time of uncertainty.

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