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Newsletter: Today: How You and the GOP Could Be Taxed

Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), surrounded by families and members of the House Republican leadership, introduces a tax bill.
Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), surrounded by families and members of the House Republican leadership, introduces a tax bill.
(Win McNamee / Getty Images)
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House Republicans have unveiled their tax overhaul plan, but what will it look like when all is said and done?

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How You and the GOP Could Be Taxed

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What does the House Republican tax plan mean for you? At this point, it may be too early to say, given the grueling legislative process in the weeks ahead that will tax GOP unity. But using our powers of deduction, we can say that in its current form it would strike a blow to many Californians. Gone would be write-offs for state and local income taxes and student loan interest. Property tax deductions: capped at $10,000. Mortgage interest deductions: limited to new loans of no more than $500,000. Even a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric car buyers would get the ax. But the plan would immediately slash the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% and streamline individual rates from seven brackets into four. Republicans say it’s a big win for the average American family, while Democrats say it heavily favors businesses and the wealthy. Check out this breakdown of seven key points from the 429-page bill and judge for yourself.

(Len De Groot / Los Angeles Times )

More Politics

-- Sam Clovis, a talk radio host and former Trump campaign co-chairman who has been caught up in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, has withdrawn from consideration to be chief scientific advisor to the secretary of Agriculture.

-- In her new book, former interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile assails the Hillary Clinton campaign for taking “control” of the DNC.

-- On a Twitter employee’s last day of work, the worker deactivated Trump’s account for a brief while.

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Trump Heads to Asia, With a Stopover in Blue Hawaii

President Trump will visit Hawaii today before embarking on his first official trip to Asia, which includes stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. The question on everyone’s mind: What to do about North Korea? But before then, he’ll get a briefing at the headquarters of the troubled Pacific Command, just days after the Navy ruled that two collisions at sea that killed 17 sailors this summer were avoidable. The president will also lay a wreath at the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. It’s unclear how much more of Hawaii he’ll see, but many in the Aloha State hope he’ll gain a better understanding of a place where “Obama is a homeboy” before the heavy diplomacy starts.

Young Actors Accuse a Former Agent of Abuse

Tyler Grasham was a veteran Hollywood agent when the Beverly Hills-based Agency for the Performing Arts fired him Oct. 20. That’s the same day a 27-year-old film editor filed a sexual assault complaint against Grasham with the LAPD. The Times has interviewed eight young male actors and film industry professionals who allege Grasham sexually assaulted or harassed them. The allegations have renewed attention on long-standing complaints about the perils facing child actors in Hollywood. Grasham did not respond to numerous attempts for comment.

Smoke on the Water, a Diesel Cloud in the Sky

You don’t have to drive down the Harbor or Long Beach freeways to see the effects of air pollution from the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex; the diesel trucks driving in and out bring imported goods and greenhouse gas emissions to untold points beyond. Now the ports have approved a plan to phase out diesel in favor of natural gas and, ultimately, zero-emissions trucks and cargo-handling equipment over the next two decades. The $14-billion question: Who will pay for it?

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A Secret of the Great Pyramid, Revealed!

Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza has been the subject of countless theories, conspiracies and innuendo (grain silos! alien mummies! mystical powers!), so it’s little wonder that the discovery of a large hidden cavity in the pyramid has generated headlines across the globe. But how did the scientists figure it out? We can thank the subatomic particles known as muons.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

Back in 1958, there was no Dodger Stadium, the Dodger dog had not been invented, and the Houston Astros had yet to be formed. But on April 18 of that year, 78,672 fans gathered at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to see the Dodgers play their first game in L.A. The Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5.

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- Digging up the secrets of our past in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

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-- Five three-sport athletes help power the unbeaten Capistrano Valley High School football team.

-- A woman’s face turns into living artwork for Día de los Muertos.

CALIFORNIA

-- Los Angeles school district officials plan to recommend that 10 charter schools be shut down because they refuse to comply with district rules.

-- Cambodian immigrants who have been checking in with immigration authorities have found themselves being detained, some many years after convictions.

-- Democratic candidate Alison Hartson used the liberal show “The Young Turks” to launch her bid to oust Dianne Feinstein, saying it’s time for California’s longtime senator to go.

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-- Gov. Jerry Brown has denied parole for former Mexican Mafia shot-caller Rene “Boxer” Enriquez, marking the third time that the governor has blocked the convicted killer’s bids for freedom.

YOUR WEEKEND

-- Just in time for the cooler weather: How to make French onion soup and more great one-pot soup dinners.

-- Meet the woman behind behind Esters, the best wine bar in Southern California.

-- You’ll need to adjust your analog clocks as we “fall back” at 2 a.m. this Sunday. What to do with that extra hour? Perhaps visit the West Coast Clock and Watch Museum.

-- Looking for something else? Let our critics’ recommendations in movies, plays and more be your guide.

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HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Filmmaker Brett Ratner has sued a woman in federal court in Hawaii, alleging she defamed him with a Facebook post that claimed he raped her about 12 years ago.

-- Critic Lorraine Ali says the past year of reckoning for sexual predators has a soundtrack, and it’s Kesha’s “Rainbow.”

-- British soul singer Sam Smith is back with a new album, “The Thrill of It All.”

NATION-WORLD

-- Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said the gunman in the Las Vegas massacre was a narcissist who had been losing money for two years.

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-- Catalonia’s push for independence is not sitting well in larger and poorer regions of Spain.

-- A snapshot of Uzbekistan, homeland of the suspect in the deadly New York truck attack.

-- A journal made public by the CIA and apparently handwritten by one of Osama bin Laden’s daughters offers a glimpse into how the late Al Qaeda leader viewed the world.

BUSINESS

-- Billionaire CEO Joe Ricketts has abruptly shut down DNAinfo and Gothamist websites, including those in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

-- Trump’s choice for the next Federal Reserve chief, Jerome H. Powell, will probably face a key test: a president who wants to keep interest rates low versus an economy that would call for increases.

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SPORTS

-- The Dodgers have some personnel decisions to make in the off-season, but blowing up the roster seems unlikely. As for the pitching staff: It threw 1,684 strikeouts from Opening Day through Game 7 of the World Series, and this graphic details them all.

-- Was the Dodgers’ television deal worth it? The pact kept them out of homes, but they made it to the World Series.

OPINION

-- The federal tax code needs an overhaul, but the government doesn’t need a big infusion of debt, which is what the House Republican tax plan would produce.

-- Four dams in the West are coming down. It’s a victory wrapped in a defeat for smart water policy.

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WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Anita Hill has some thoughts on a watershed moment for sexual harassment allegations. (The New Yorker)

-- Republican mega-donor Robert Mercer wrote this memo distancing himself from Milo Yiannopoulos and Breitbart. (Bloomberg)

-- A dozen libraries reveal the oldest items in their collections. (Atlas Obscura)

-- Does the world need another poop emoji? It’s been the subject of intense debate. (BuzzFeed News)

ONLY IN L.A.

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Out on the water, Bunker Spreckels was just another surfer dude from Encino. Back on terra firma, he liked to party hard and cultivate a jet-setting image. After all, his stepfather was Clark Gable and his mother was an heir to the Spreckels sugar dynasty. Now, a new movie takes a look at the life of a man who helped revolutionize surfing but whose excesses would catch up with him at age 27.

If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at headlines@latimes.com.

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