Out and About

Pelosi attacker illegal

■ The man accused of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer was in the country illegally, ICE sources said.

David DePape, who was hit with federal and local charges in the violent attack on 82-year-old Paul Pelosi, was in the US illegally because he overstayed his visa, according to sources. The 42-year-old suspect was born in Canada in 1980 and was in the US as early as 2001, sources said, citing his valid Social Security number, which can only be obtained with a job.

The Social Security number was obtained in Hawaii , sources said.

It’s unclear how long DePape stayed in the country past the legal threshold.

DePape faces charges from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and other criminal counts.

He was also charged federally with attempted kidnapping and assault.

He allegedly broke into Nancy Pelosi’s house in a bid to find the House speaker, but only her husband was home in what San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called a politically motivated attack.

Tales of Putin

■ Russian President Vladimir Putin is battling both pancreatic cancer and Parkinson’s disease, according to a new report citing leaked Kremlin emails.

A Russian intelligence source appeared to confirm in messages viewed by The Sun what has long been rumoured about the 70-year-old strongman.

“I can confirm he has been diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson’s disease, but it’s already progressing,” the security services insider reportedly claimed.

“This fact will be denied in every possible way and hidden,” the source said, according to The Sun “Putin is regularly stuffed with all kinds of heavy steroids and innovative painkilling injections to stop the spread of pancreatic cancer he was recently diagnosed with,” the person said.

“It not only causes a lot of pain, Putin has a state of puffiness of the face and other side effects including memory lapses,” the source continued.

“In his close circle, there are rumours that in addition to pancreatic cancer, which is gradually spreading, Putin also has prostate cancer,” the insider added.

Rumours about Putin’s supposedly poor health have been circulating for months, with several unconfirmed reports saying the president is battling cancer.

The Kremlin has always denied that Putin, who likes to project an image of strength, suffers from any illnesses.

No Federal Income Tax

■ Some 72.5 million households or 40 per cent of households will pay no federal income tax this year, down from the pre-pandemic high of 60 per cent two years ago, according to new estimates from the Tax Policy Centre.

In 2021, nearly 56 per cent of households or 99 million households paid no federal income tax, down from 60 per cent or 100 million households in 2020, the nonpartisan think tank said in the report.

For 2022, the standard deduction is worth $12,950 for individuals and $25,900 for married couples filing jointly. People earning below that amount do not owe federal income taxes.

Massive job losses in the pandemic’s early stages sent millions of people to unemployment lines and temporary rules exempted much of 2020 jobless benefits from income taxes, Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at Tax Policy Centre, said.

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Meanwhile, there were waves of direct cash assistance that were all technically tax credits – two rounds of stimulus checks in 2020 and another round in 2021, plus a temporarily enhanced child tax credit.

Those waves came and went. The approximate 40 per cent of households projected to pay no federal income tax is back to pre-pandemic levels, and is even slightly smaller than the 42 per cent to 43 per cent range during recent prepandemic years, Gleckman noted.