The Commonwealth Times; November 27, 2017

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BEST SMALL, NON-DAILY —2017 Virginia Press Association The independent press of Virginia Commonwealth University

NEWS Student records • 2

November 27, 2017 • Vol. 59, No.14

SPORTS Tyrod Taylor • 6

SPECTRUM VHS Toys • 7

OPINIONS Trump’s tax plan • 11

Class credit

ILLUSTRATION BY MAI-PHUONG BUI

How the Republican’s tax proposal targets student borrowers

will be eliminated under the bills, which are based on President Donald Trump’s proposal released in Version of a tax cut, which September and tuition paid for by passed the U.S. House of Rep- employers will be taxed. The three resentatives and Senate Finance existing tax breaks given to those Committee weeks ago, will affect paying off student loans will be students paying off loans. merged into one. Deductions on loan interest This means that grants cover-

SARAROSE MARTIN Staff Writer

ing tuition may be viewed as taxable additional income. The tax bill will most heavily impact graduate students, who often receive tuition waivers for teaching or research. The waivers may be taxed as income — money graduate students never actually receive. The tax bill also seeks to raise

Rams win one, drop two in Maui NICK VERSAW Staff Writer Men’s basketball traveled to Maui, Hawaii last weekend for a trio of marquee non conference matchups with NCAA Tournament caliber opponents. The Rams dropped a pair of games to the University of Michigan and Marquette University on either side of a dominant showing in a blowout win over the University of California.

PHOTO BY SHAYLA BAILEY

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN The Rams fell short to the University of Michigan 68-60 in their third and final contest at this year’s Maui Invitational tournament Wednesday afternoon in Hawaii, dropping the Black and Gold’s record to 3-3 on the season Senior forward Khris Lane once again led the charge, scoring 13 points and eight rebounds in his 27 minutes of action. Sophomores Mike’l Simms and De’Riante Jenkins joined Lane in double-digit scoring with 12 points apiece. Wednesday’s loss was perhaps the most heartbreaking of VCU’s three games in Hawaii. After trailing for most of the afternoon, the Rams took command behind a 13-0 run early in the second half. From that point on, the two teams traded punches until Wolverine forward Moritz Wagner made the goahead layup with 1:11 remaining. The Rams would never recover.

“I thought we had put ourselves in a position to pull it out and we just beat ourselves late in the game there,” VCU coach Mike Rhoads said following Wednesday’s loss. “They executed down the stretch and we didn’t. I loved the fight we had to get back in it and take the lead. At that point, it’s in our grasp, but we’re going to learn the hard way through this one today that you have to finish it.” Lane had a more optimistic outlook after the loss. “I think we learned we can play with anybody in the country,” Lane said. However, Rhoades was disappointed in his team’s ability to hold the late lead. “We have to learn how to finish off games,” Rhoades said. “The biggest thing to me is that you can’t beat yourself. When you get that lead, you have to be solid on defense and you have to take care of the ball and get good shots on offense, and we didn’t do that.” Ultimately, the newly-crowned head man saw Wednesday’s loss as a learning opportunity for a young VCU squad with little crunchtime experience. “We just have to get better,” Rhoades added. “Sometimes you learn the hard way like we are right now. We’re going to use this to get better and better and hopefully late in games we can close them out.” —continued on page 5

the minimum income threshold that people become eligible to pay income tax and also reduce tax rates for individuals in general. Trump calls the bill a “middle-class tax break.” —continued on page 3


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