TV News LIES

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning to lead one of the first trade missions to Cuba since the Obama administration loosened travel and trade restrictions on the Communist-ruled Caribbean island, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Quoting a person familiar with his plans, the paper said the Democratic governor, who will be among the first high-profile US politicians to visit Cuba since last month’s policy shift, would announce his plan on Wednesday and take the trip in coming months. It gave no further details.

During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will lay out a plan to extend tax credits to the middle class by hiking taxes on wealthier Americans and big banks, according to senior administration officials.

Under the plan, the capital gains tax would be raised from its current level of 15 percent up to 28 percent for couples with incomes over $500,000 a year. The plan would also strip a tax break, known as a "step-up," that allows heirs to avoid capital gains taxes on large inheritances.

President Barack Obama on Thursday will order federal agencies to provide at least six weeks of paid parental leave to employees and call on cities, states and Congress to provide similar leave to millions of other working Americans.

Obama also will call on the new Republican-led Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, which would allow millions of Americans to earn up to seven days a year of paid sick time.

A New York banker has withdrawn from being considered for a top US Treasury position, after coming under pressure in an era of heightened concern about the political influence of Wall Street.

As Antonio Weiss bows out of consideration, it’s a symbolic victory for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts and others seeking to limit banker clout. She vocally opposed his nomination by President Obama to be the Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance.

A federal grand jury is looking into loans made to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's re-election campaign and has ordered the state's ethics chief to testify next week as part of its investigation, according to a subpoena obtained by The Associated Press.

Carol Williams, the executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, was summoned to appear before the grand jury Wednesday in Topeka, according to documents the AP obtained through an open records request. She also was ordered to provide documents pertaining to loans Brownback's campaign received in 2013 and 2014.

Republicans who now run Congress say they want to cooperate with President Obama, and point to the administration's Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as the model. The only problem is the TPP would be a disaster.

If you haven't heard much about the TPP, that's part of the problem right there. It would be the largest trade deal in history -- involving countries stretching from Chile to Japan, representing 792 million people and accounting for 40 percent of the world economy -- yet it's been devised in secret.