
IRS will be ready to start sending monthly child tax credit payments in July, commissioner says
CBSN
Checks headed to families eligible for the child tax credit are on track to go out starting in July. The Internal Revenue Service commissioner confirmed the agency expects to launch its portal for the credit on July 1, despite concerns about the challenges the IRS would face implementing a program so quickly after the passage of the American Rescue Plan.
As part of the COVID relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden in March, the child tax credit was increased for one year with children ages 6 to 17 eligible for a $3,000 credit and children under 6 getting $3,600. The legislation also makes the benefit fully refundable and expands it to low-income families. For the first time, it also shifted half of the credit to advanced direct payments which the IRS was assigned to distribute starting in July, a move that is expected to boost millions of children out of poverty. Children younger than 6 would receive $300 a month in the second half of the year while kids 6 and older will receive $250 a month.
Santa Fe, New Mexico — A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home in February.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.