Tax filings back on track, IRS reports
The Internal Revenue Service said online filings resumed Wednesday after its processing systems crashed Tuesday, the deadline for filing 2017 tax returns.
The IRS said that as of Wednesday morning, it had accepted more than 14 million submissions since processing systems reopened.
Acting Commissioner David Kautter said the IRS is current with all of the tax submissions and no backlog remains.
The agency said a hardware issue caused the failure of some its processing systems, which frustrated many visitors to its website Tuesday who wanted to make payments or gain access to other key services at the last minute.
After the glitch, the IRS extended the tax filing deadline until midnight Wednesday. No additional paperwork was needed to get the one-day extension.
Official in contempt of voter-ID ruling
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach violated an order that some voters were eligible to cast ballots while a lawsuit challenging a state law requiring proof of U.S. citizenship worked its way through the courts.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson found Kobach in contempt of court. She didn't impose a fine but ordered Kobach to pay damages, including attorney fees.
The American Civil Liberties Union sought the contempt ruling after Kobach refused to update the state's election guide or ensure that county officials sent postcards to residents who registered at driver's licensing offices without providing citizenship documents.
Robinson said in March that she had made it clear that voters covered by a May 2016 injunction she imposed were not to be treated differently than other voters.
Kobach, a Republican who has aggressively sought to prosecute allegations of voter fraud in his state, served as vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which was created to examine voter fraud nationally. President Donald Trump dissolved the panel in January after it became embroiled in lawsuits seeking to curb its authority and resistance from states that accused it of overreach.
Bump-stock maker to close for business
The largest manufacturer of bump stock devices similar to the ones used in the Las Vegas mass shooting last fall is shutting down its business.
A message posted on the website of Slide Fire Solutions, based in Moran, Texas, says the company will stop taking orders at midnight May 20 and shut down its website. The company provided no other details and did not say why it was shutting down.
A bump stock fits over the stock and grip of a semi-automatic rifle, allowing the weapon to fire rapidly like a fully automatic firearm.
About a dozen bump stocks were found among the weapons used by Stephen Paddock when he unleashed a hail of bullets from a high-rise Las Vegas hotel suite, killing 58 people and leaving more than 800 others injured.
The Justice Department said last month that it had started the process to amend federal firearms regulations to clarify that federal law defines bump stocks as machine guns.
That would reverse a 2010 decision by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that found bump stocks did not amount to machine guns and could not be regulated unless Congress amended existing law or passed a new law.
Some states, including Vermont and Florida, have imposed their own restrictions on the devices.
3 men convicted in Kansas bomb plot
WICHITA, Kan. -- Three Kansas militia members were convicted Wednesday of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali refugees, an attack thwarted by another member of the group who tipped off federal authorities about escalating threats of violence.
Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen were convicted of one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of conspiracy against civil rights. Wright was convicted of lying to the FBI. Sentencing is set for June 27.
Defense attorneys declined to comment after the verdict.
The three men were indicted in October 2016 for plotting an attack for the day after the presidential election in the meatpacking town of Garden City, about 220 miles west of Wichita.
Prosecutors have said a fellow militia member, Dan Day, became alarmed by some of his colleagues' threats and agreed to wear a wire as a paid informant.
A Section on 04/19/2018