| The price of power: Every president gets audited, even Trump | | It's tax season. For everyone. For the most part, President Trump has managed to keep the public's prying eyes off his tax returns . But a few folks at the Internal Revenue Service are going to get an in-depth look at the billionaire's returns, every single year he is in office. That's because an obscure IRS rule in place since the Nixon administration says the tax returns of the president and vice president are automatically audited , every year, without exception. The audits are routine, but under Trump they may get special scrutiny because he is the first president since Gerald Ford to refuse to release copies of his returns. Although Trump promised in 2015 to release his returns, he has continued to balk, citing as his chief excuse that he was under audit . While Democrats hope the mandatory audits could lead to Trump releasing his old returns, others say the rule simply means he can use the audit rationale to keep his returns safely locked at IRS headquarters for the remainder of his presidency. What are your odds of being audited? Depends on your income and what deductions you take. | | Terrifying news for 98,000 veterans in the nation's capital | | Things were looking up — or at least forward — for the Department of Veterans Affairs. It released a new website Wednesday to promote transparency, showing exactly how care at every VA hospital and clinic across the country compares with nearby private-sector hospitals and national averages. After secret wait lists in Phoenix , this feels good. But just a few hours later, the agency's chief watchdog issued a rare alert saying patients at D.C.'s VA hospital are in "imminent danger." The facility had to borrow bone material for knee replacement surgeries. And at one point, the hospital ran out of tubes needed for kidney dialysis, so staff had to go to a private-sector hospital and ask for some. Senior VA leaders have known about the problem for months and haven't fixed it, he said. All eyes on the VA. Again. | | What a blunderful world | | Remember last week when everyone was shocked by Pepsi's Kendall Jenner ad ? Ah, simpler times, before a paying customer was bloodied on a plane, before the White House press secretary used "didn't even sink to" in a sentence about Adolf Hitler. But just when you think the Internet's rage response is about to fritz out, you witness a rare thing: an apology from Sean Spicer. Trump's spokesman issued a mea culpa on Tuesday and again Wednesday: "I got into a topic that I shouldn't have, and I screwed up," Spicer told Greta Van Susteren (at a Newseum event in which Kellyanne Conway was called "the darkness" ). Spicer apologized way faster than United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz. Doing damage control, he apologized again Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America ." When asked by the network to explain what it called a "muted" response in first days after Sunday's incident, Munoz said it was because management was still trying to learn all the details. "My initial words fell short of truly expressing the shame." Hey, at least it got "hold my beer" trending. | | Back to the 're-accommodated' United passenger. Was he really selected at random? | | USA TODAY talked with some industry insiders to get a sense of how airline systems decide who gets bumped following the uproar over that controversial United Airlines flight . Short version: It probably wasn't truly random. Here's how it generally works: Once a flight is set, an airline's customer service software kicks into action. The software generates a "just-in-case" list of who should be bumped if there aren't enough seats. Who's on that list depends on some factors required by law, some factors required by the airline and some factors related to the airline's efforts to keep its best customers happy. So which airline is the most likely to boot you? It's not United. Side note: The passengers who recorded the incident technically violated United policy. |  | | Tie this up with a bow (actually, don't) | | This is knot a joke: You're tying your shoes all wrong, according to science. America's epidemic of loose laces can be blamed, in part, on faulty technique, says a newly published study . But wait, there's more. The mere act of walking loosens even a beautifully knotted lace and quickly leads to what the study's authors call "catastrophic knot failure." THE HORROR. Christopher Daily-Diamond, study co-author, says he mostly still ties a weak knot, confessing that old habits die hard. "It's a little embarrassing." | | This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY | |
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