Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Paul Sullivan, Special to the Advertiser Published 9:12 a.m. CT Oct. 9, 2020

Open house on Oct. 18; A Pebble Creek resident can walk to the post office, YMCA, nearby churches, several dining options, and accompany a student on their walk to elementary school.

A home located at 1676 Pebble Creek Drive in Prattville is for sale for $389,900. An open house will be held at the property on Oct. 18 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The stunning four bedroom and two and a half bath home includes more than 3,300 square feet of living space within two stories.(Photo: Contributed)

Pebble Creek Drive features patio and spacious family homes tucked off the north side of busy Cobbs Ford Road in east Prattville.

The property is in an ideal location.

A Pebble Creek resident can walk to the post office, YMCA, nearby churches, several dining options, and accompany a student on their walk to elementary school.

Pebble Creek is one light from popular Daniel Pratt Elementary School located off Shelia Boulevard.

Pebble Creek Drive is a short street with several cul-de-sacs, Realtor Lisa Lynn said. It is common to see families out walking and riding bikes.

Pebble Creek Drive also is just 15 minutes from Maxwell AFB as well as jobs in downtown Montgomery.

A large cluster of patio homes lines the east side of Pebble Creek Drive, as well as an adjoining cul-de-sac. The one-story designs offer smaller yards, less maintenance and driveways which serve the back of the homes.

The newer family homes across Greystone Way on the west side of Pebble Creek Drive also feature smaller yards than normally accompany such roomy homes.

A home located at 1676 Pebble Creek Drive is for sale for $389,900. An open house will be held at the property on Oct. 18 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Lynn said.

The stunning four bedroom and two and a half bath home includes more than 3,300 square feet of living space within two stories.

The home is beautifully landscaped and includes a two-car garage. The home was built in 2015.

The home is just like new, Lynn said. The kitchen features a gas range with a griddle, a huge eat-on bar, new dishwasher and walk-in pantry.

A separate dining room has attractive wood floors and pine ceilings, she said.

Double French doors open to the beautiful sunroom, Lynn said, adding that the laundry room includes a chute from the upstairs. The master bath has a huge walk-in, two-head shower.

A covered deck provides peaceful views and relaxing moments outside. A storage shed and sprinkler system add to the value of the property.

* Close to golf course, YMCA, churches

*Popular elementary school nearby

*Family, patio homes

* Newer construction

*Limited pass-through traffic

* At least five homes have been sold in the past year

* The homes were sold in a price range from about $275,000 to about $365,000

* At least one home is for sale

* The home is priced at $389,900

* Home for sale measures more than 3,300 square feet

*To view properties or to inquire about any future open house dates and times, contact Realtor Lisa Lynn at 334-657-9596.

Directions: From downtown Montgomery, travel north on Interstate 65. Take the first Prattville exit and take a left on to Cobbs Ford Road. Travel east on Cobbs Ford past Larry Puckett Chevrolet and take a right on to Greystone Way. Pebble Creek Drive will be on the left and right just past the post office.

Source: Realtor Lisa Lynn

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Life within walking distance at Pebble Creek - Montgomery Advertiser

But the club has been closed since March due to the pandemic, and its not clear when the state will allow it to reopen, says owner Phil Rizzo. Though his landlord has given him a temporary reprieve from rent, which costs $23,000 a month, that wont continue forever.

Rizzo is devising a business planto reopen, pending approval and guidelines from the state. The cost of doing so will be significant $40,000 to $60,000 to start and theres no guarantee anyone will come. His worst fear is that he opens and has to close down again, as some movie theaters and restaurants have had to do this year. That would be a death blow.

Im nervous about the future, nervous about the comeback of Manhattan, Rizzo said on a recent Friday from his home in Pennsylvania. Its not like the business took a dive; the business is gone.

Rizzo is one of thousands of club owners pleading with Congress for a financial lifeline to help them to hold outuntil they can welcome music fans back whenever that is. A bipartisan group of senators hassponsored the Save Our Stages act, which would provide six months of financial support to venues. Rather than offering the reliefas a loan, which venues would need to repay, the bill would providegrants.

Yet bailing out strugglingbusinesses has been held up by gridlock. While the House of Representatives has passed a new coronavirus recovery act that includes provisions from Save Our Stages, itremains at odds with the Senate over the size of the bailout. The Senate has said its waiting on direction from the president, who is busy with hisre-election campaign and pushing for a new nominee to the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, President Trump said hewouldnt negotiate a recovery bill until after the election, though he later softened his stance.

Meanwhile,more owners are giving up altogether. Hundreds of establishmentshave already called it quits, and about 90% of independent venues say they will be forced to close without government intervention, according to AudreySchaefer, spokesperson for the National Independent Venues Association.

Havingto wait until after the election would bedevastating, Schaefer said. Businesses are folding every day as they wait.

And venues are taking on more and more debt. Theyve signed personal guarantees, Schaefer said. These music venues arent like coffee shops and restaurants that you see open and open. Once these are gone, they are gone.

Few industries have suffered more during the last year than live music, which was among the first sectors to close and will be among the last to reopen. Live music thrives on the very situations a large group of people, possibly drunk, packed together deemed least safe by doctors during the pandemic.

While outdoor activities like theme parks and sporting events are resuming in many states, major concert promoters have said they dont expect live music to pick up again until next spring or summer at the earliest. Major music acts wont tour until they can put together multiple shows in numerous states or countries. In the meantime, agencies, management companies, promoters, ticket sellers and venues have all had to fire staff or close up shop because of the pandemic.

Live Nation Entertainment Inc., the worlds largest concert promoter,has access to enough capital to ride it out. Artists can make money from their recordingsor brand deals.But independent music clubs have few alternatives. Like restaurants, they operate on smallprofit margins. They dont collect much of the ticket revenue from a concert, instead relying on selling alcohol and merchandise.

Yet while restaurants can deliver their food at home and offer outdoor seating, most music clubs cant replicate the live experience at home. Selling tickets to online livestreams isnt a sustainable business model for thousands of venues.

The streaming thing is very cool, Rizzo said, but if you are a live-music person, a stream just doesnt do it.

Venues, promoters and artists have tried to come up with alternatives. Some are staging socially distanced shows. Others are giving up on music altogether at least for now and converting to a bar and restaurant.

But these options arentpossible for manyvenues, said Farid Nouri, the owner of the Eighteenth Street Loungein Washington. The spacehasno kitchen, and he cant rely on alcohol alone to fill a 10,000-square-foot venue with a capacity of 499 people.

Nouri opened the club in his adopted home city 25 years ago to promote electronic music at a time whenfew venues offeredit. Nouri DJs in his spare time, and has programmed a wide range of music at his club, including jazz, reggae and salsa.

But after a few months of waiting for the chance to reopen, Nouri realized he might not be able to do so anytime soon. Most clubs cant open fully until a vaccine is available, so Nouri decided to close the club for good.

My landlord was breathing down my neck for full rent.I had IOUs from vendors and staff waiting to get paid, he said. I didnt see any kind of revenue for I dont know how long.

Rob Mercurio is hoping to avoid a similar fate. Mercurio is the bassist in Galactic, a jam band,and the co-owner of Tipitinas, one of New Orleanss most famous clubs. He and his bandmates bought the club in 2018 after years of performing as its house band. Their group had formed in New Orleans, and they were upset seeingthe place sufferfrom years of neglect under previous ownership.The bandtook a small-business loan to make a number of investments.

The venue was eking out a profit before the pandemic, but now Mercurio is at the mercy of banks.

Werereaching the end of our rope, Mercurio said. The venue, which holds 800 people, is too large to function as just a bar. The bankhas allowed Mercurio and his partners to defer payments that have helped him keep his full-time staff, which includes a general manager and a talent buyer.But the money they received as part of the Paycheck Protection Program an earlier federal relief effort has been depleted.Real costs are about to hit, he said.

Business at the Bitter End was slowing down before the coronavirus due to the emergence of an entertainment scene in Brooklyn, said Rizzo, who started working at the clubin 1991 after bartending down the block. He became a manager at the Bitter Endand acquired a small stakein 1993. A few years ago, the clubs majority owner, Paul Colby, sold his stake to Rizzo.

The Bitter End has been luckier than most because of its history. Rizzo has raised close to $100,000 from two campaigns on GoFundMe. The first $12,000 was for his staff, which he had to let go, and the second campaign, which has raisedmore than$85,000, is for reopening costs.

But all of that money will go to paying insurance, maintain a sprinkler system and restocking liquor. The club relies on young college students, working professionals and tourists visiting New York. Its not clear when people will return to the office en masse, or how long it will take for travel to pick up again. For now, a lot of smaller clubs will need money from the federal government to get back open and stay open.

Even 9/11 we jump-started everything pretty quick, Rizzo said. But this time I dont know if the public will be ready and willing to come back fully.

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The Bitter End and other concert venues say they won't survive without a bailout - Crain's New York Business

CONNECTICUT - Residents are going through a period of extraordinarily high water high usage, and there is a significant lack of rain in the forecast. The State Department of Public Health said Wednesday that things are about to get ugly, especially in southwest Fairfield County.

On Monday, the Connecticut Interagency Drought Workgroup announced a Stage 3 drought for Hartford, Tolland, Windham, and New London counties. A Stage 3 drought is an "emerging drought event potentially impacting water supplies, agriculture, or natural ecosystems."

Now, a couple of days later, DPH is calling out residents of lower Fairfield County specifically those living in Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, and Westport to reduce their water usage by 20 percent due to drought conditions as well.

Fairfield county as well as the entire state of Connecticut was placed on a Stage 1 drought declaration in June. While Fairfield County remains in Stage 1 drought, water conservation measures are critical to reduce usage of the drinking water supplies that supply the southwest portion of the state.

"Connecticut has been in a drought for some time, and every resident especially those in lower Fairfield County can do their part to reduce demand on some of the public water systems and conserve this vital resource," said acting DPH Commissioner Deidre S. Gifford. "We are experiencing a combination of dry weather, lower than normal precipitation this summer, and likely because of that higher than normal demand for water due to outdoor water use."

Taking simple actions to reduce demand on the public water supply in the region could help stabilize the reservoirs that feed into the regional water system, according to a news release from the DPH. Regional water supplier Aquarion is asking customers to reduce nonessential water usage by 20 percent in addition to its mandatory, twice-weekly irrigation schedule.

The DPH has put forth the following guidelines it says could help in preventing a third drought trigger being hit, and further watering restrictions from being enacted:

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CTs Gone Bone Dry: Heres What You Can Do About It - Patch.com

By Jack Mayne

The City of Burien will be getting $780,000 from the state, with $380,000 earmarked for small Burien businesses as relief from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.

Burien City Manager Brian Wilson told the Council at its regular virtual session on Monday night (Oct. 5) that the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the CARES Act, has provided the city, via the state, with a second round of money.

Direct economic helpThis federal legislation was passed to provide fast and direct economic assistance for American workers and families, small businesses, and preserves jobs for American industries The CARES Act provides fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, and small businesses, and preserve jobs for our American industries.

Burien businesses to get the grants must be commercial enterprises with a Burien city business license, 10 or fewer employees, have been a for-profit business for 12 months or longer, and have a 25 percent or larger drop in their revenue. Grants up to $5,000 are available, said Wilson.

Ventures Nonprofit of Seattle will administer the funds, and this will be the second round, Wilson said. Ventures says it builds businesses and changes lives by equipping low-income entrepreneurs with training, support and access to capital.

The application period started Oct. 2, and will close on Oct. 15, 2020.

Wilson said there was an earlier grant of $385,000 directed to human services, with a good percentage of that (for) human services.

Vacated Annex hit by copper wire thiefThere has been extreme damage done to the Annex building, now closed and awaiting to be demolished, said Wilson.

There have been real problems with theft and with burglary inside that building to the point where the whole electrical system was compromised. That turned out to be an extreme safety concern, he said. We also had the fire sprinkler system and the water access damaged to the point where we had severe flooding that occurred within there and we have had continued problems.

Wilson said the Burien Police have identified a suspect in the act at the Annex on Sunday night and that person is in custody for burglary.

The burglars intent, said Wilson, was to get copper wire for sale.

Photos courtesy Burien Police / King County Sheriffs Office

Burien Police said that over the last week, they had received complaints of someone breaking into the Annex building and stealing copper from pipes and wiring.

Burien Police/King County Sheriffs Office Special Emphasis Team (SET) detectives monitored the property on Sunday, Oct. 4 then caught the burglar in the act cutting fences, breaking doors and digging up underground utilities in his search for copper.

He was arrested and booked into jail for burglary.

Face masks donated to Highline Public SchoolsIn other business, The city manager told Council the city has donated 5,000 face masks to the Highline School District for their students. The masks were donated to the city and we are happy to redistribute those masks to the Highline School District.

Three citizens honoredThree local people were unanimously proclaimed 2019 Citizens of the Year, an honor usually awarded earlier in the year, and a proclamation, both postponed from May due to the pandemic. The awards were cited by Mayor Jimmy Matta and City Manager Brian Wilson.

The first was for Grace Stiller who is a longtime board member and current interim board president for the Burien Arts Association whose mission is to enrich Burien with arts and culture.

Stiller founded the nonprofit organization Weed Warriors (now known as Nature Stewards) in 2008 as as a way to help youth enrolled in Highline area schools complete their community service requirements through projects that connected them to the natural world; and Stiller and her organization Nature Stewards is involved in the establishment and operations of two community edible gardens in Burien.

Pastors honoredThe two women honored together were Pastors Jenny Partch and Lina Thompson continue to advocate for the most vulnerable in our community, The two Pastors Jenny Partch and Lina Thompson worked with the Ecumenical Leadership Circle to organize emergency financial support for residents of the Fox Cove Apartments, who faced displacement because the building was being sold; and Pastors Jenny Partch and Lina Thompson witnessed the hardship suffered by people experiencing homelessness and those living at risk of losing their housing and felt called to action and organized a diverse coalition of community members and leaders to advocate for renter protections in Burien.

Council followed with a proclamation also originally slated for May but postponed because of the onset of the pandemic. The original Affordable Housing Week Proclamation noted the city found 1,115 people in southwest King County sleeping outdoors without shelter in January of this year, and two in five households in Burien are considered cost-burdened, because they were spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many existing financial constraints for low- and moderate-income households.

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City of Burien to get federal pandemic funds to aid local businesses; copper thief arrested at Annex - The - The B-Town Blog

The fire was started in the back west corner of the store and spread very quickly

by: Joe Gorman

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Fire investigators say a young child is responsible for a fire last month that destroyed a Mahoning Avenue dollar store.

Capt. Kurt Wright of the Youngstown Fire Department Fire Investigation Unit said the child set fire to wrapping paper and gift bags in the back corner of the store.

The blaze at the 3003 Mahoning Ave. store that broke out about 1:30 p.m. Sept. 24 heavily damaged the store. Heavy smoke flowed from the back west corner of the store, where the fire was set, out the front door. Firefighters had to call in an excavator to knock the back walls down so they could get to spots in the ceiling where it was hard to get water into to put the flames out.

The store is expected to be demolished at some point.

Wright said the fire caught very quickly because the materials that were set afire are very flammable and the store did not have a sprinkler system because of its size. Once the fire spread to the ceiling, it was out of control.

No charges are expected to be filed, Wright said.

Wright said the child set the fire with a lighter they got off of one of their parents. Both of the childs parents smoke, Wright said.

No one was injured in the fire, but the thick smoke, heat and the fact that some of the flames were inaccessible until the excavator was called in caused a second alarm to be put in.

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A 45-year-old woman was charged Wednesday with damaging her hotel room in Anaheim with a butane torch while caring for a toddler.

Christy Michelle Meteer pleaded not guilty to one felony count each of arson, vandalism and child abuse and endangerment at her arraignment in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana. She was ordered to return to court for a pretrial hearing Oct. 21 at the North Justice Center in Fullerton.

Police were called after the sprinkler system was activated about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Extended Stay America at 1742 Clementine St., according to Anaheim police Sgt. Shane Carringer. The defendant is accused of using a butane torch often associated with illicit drug use to burn various parts of her hotel room, he said.

A toddler-aged girl to whom Meteer is related was in the room with her, Carringer said.

Woman Accused of Torching Anaheim Hotel Room with Toddler Inside was last modified: October 7th, 2020 by Contributing Editor

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Woman Accused of Torching Anaheim Hotel Room with Toddler Inside - MyNewsLA.com

Construction work can be brutal at times. Shake hands with a contractor if you ever need proof of that, but prepare for the possibility of damaged fingers. Tough work produces tough people, and its easy to tell when a person has worked a lifetime of hard work by the force of their grip. But out of all the different types of occupations in construction, which ones stand out as the hardest contractor jobs?

Not all construction jobs are equal in terms of the effort they require, that much is for sure. Some are much, much harder than others. We took a look at several data sources to pin down some third-party perspectives about which jobs stand out among the hardest.

In this review, were not necessarily looking at the riskiest jobs or ones most likely to encounter an injury, but rather which ones are the most physically demanding on employees every day. With that in mind, the following are several examples of what experts consider to be the hardest construction jobs out there.

Sweat Index

Its tricky to find any actual metrics regarding how difficult a particular job can be, because levels of difficulty are often subjective. But earlier this year, editors with Business Insider put together a pretty cool resource using data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), which is a database of occupational information developed for the public and for the U.S. Department of Labor.

O*NET provides a lot of data on physical activities and strength requirements that people need in certain occupations, such as dynamic strength, explosive strength, time spent walking or running, stamina, and trunk strength. These are given a score between 1 (low) and 100 and those numbers were then averaged into an overall activeness score.

Jobs mentioned in the report came from an array of industries, most of which were construction-related but several were not. For example, the most physically demanding job out of any category was dancers, which were ranked as requiring the greatest amounts of stamina, flexibility, and coordination. Athletes/Sports Competitors and Fitness Trainers/Aerobics Instructors came in at numbers two and three, respectively.

Most of the list pertained directly to construction and maintenance jobs. The following were among the most physically demanding and are listed with their overall activeness scores:

Perceptions Vs. Reality

In another report from late last year, an interesting survey was published by an online construction industry lead-generation resource called CraftJack. The organization reached out to more than 1,600 contractors and more than 650 consumers to gain their perspectives on what they felt were the hardest jobs in construction. There was a bit over overlap between the two points of view, and some big differences.

According to the survey results, Consumers and contractors agreed roofing and demolition are the most physically demanding trades. And while contractors voted carpentry as the third-most physically demanding trade, it barely cracked the top ten for consumers.

This indicates there is a lot more exertion happening in construction than most consumers realize, which is likely attributable to average people having limited knowledge of what actually takes place on jobsites.

As far as an informed audience goes, contractors themselves ranked the most physically demanding jobs as:

Its worth noting that construction professionals had varying views of difficulty regarding jobs beyond their own specialties, but they share a mutual respect for some roles. For example, the authors pointed out that Contractors dont believe [jobs like] painting, carpet cleaning, and electrical work to be very physically demanding unless its their specialty. On the other hand, carpentry was equally saluted by both carpenters and non-carpenters.

The survey also included some details about which construction jobs were the most difficult to master, when it comes to skill levels and training. In this subject area, the surveys responders had a much tighter consensus. They ranked Electrical, Carpentry, HVAC, and cabinets and countertops as the jobs that were the most difficult to master, generally uniformly across respondents.

Sore Workers are Vital Workers

It probably goes without saying that although many of the jobs listed in this article are really hard jobs, theyre also vital to our economy. After all, construction is an investment-driven industry. And as such, it contributes greatly to the overall growth of the country. If it werent for the tough men and women who were willing to endure difficult physical jobs, its likely that our whole way of life would be totally different.

Although this article likely wont settle the debate among professionals about who works the hardest, it does provide a few baselines of comparison. At the very least, we hope it will add to the mutual respect shared by members of various trades, because they all work so incredibly hard.

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Examining the Hardest Contractor JobsExamining the Hardest Contractor Jobs - Building Indiana

Datacolor, a global leader in colour management solutions, announces the launch of ColorReader EZ, the latest addition to the companys ColorReader family of products that includes ColorReader and ColorReader Pro for professional markets. The recommended retail price is 65 including VAT.

The affordable new device incorporates the companys advanced colour technology in an easy-to-use tool designed for the consumer audience of home decor DIY enthusiasts. It simplifies the often challenging and time-consuming process of paint colour selection, such as finding wall and trim colours that coordinate, as well as selecting wall paint colours that complement existing dcor elements, tying the look of a room together.

The portable, Bluetooth connected ColorReader EZ device works in conjunction with the ColorReader mobile app (available for both iPhone and Android). The ColorReader app displays the exact measurement data in CIELAB, Hex and RGB as well as the three closest paint colour matches from the most popular paint brands.

In addition to the RAL and NCS colour standards, the app includes paint colour fan decks from Farrow & Ball or Sikkens and more for convenient access to up to 20,000 colours. ColorReader EZ also provides coordinating colours and suggested colour schemes, answering the question of What colour goes with this? immediately.

Along with their matched colours, users can create colour palettes and effortlessly share these with paint retailers that offer online ordering and curbside pickup, as well as with paint contractors, architects, interior designers, family and friends. The greater level of colour confidence afforded by ColorReader EZ saves consumers time and money on reworks for colour errors. Whether its quickly finding a paint colour for a room refresh or finding the right shade to repaint an old dresser to match a childs room dcor, ColorReader EZ is a must-have tool for every project that includes colour decisions.

The paint colour selection process can be a challenge for all of us, since so many factors can affect how we view colour. We wanted to bring a level of ease and colour-confidence to consumers with an affordable product that they would use whenever they needed to make a decision about colour. ColorReader EZ takes the guesswork out of selecting and coordinating paint colours. It lets you capture colour inspiration where you find it, with an accuracy you cant get from a smartphone image. Its easy to then bring that colour inspiration into your home dcor whether thats painting a wall or room to match your favourite sports teams jersey or finding which shades complement your prized plant collection, said Stefan Zrenner, Director of Sales & Marketing, Consumer Solutions, for Datacolor.

To learn more about ColorReader EZ, visit ColorReader.Datacolor.com

Disclaimer: The use of third-party trademarks is for identification purposes only and does not connote any affiliation with, or sponsorship or endorsement by, the respective trademark holders.

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New! Datacolor ColorReader EZ The Portable Tool that Simplifies Matching, Selecting and Coordinating Colours - Property Community

WASHINGTON During Small Business Week, Sept. 22-24, the Internal Revenue Service wants individuals to consider taking the home office deduction if they qualify. The benefit may allow taxpayers working from home to deduct certain expenses on their tax return.

The home office deduction is available to qualifying self-employed taxpayers, independent contractors and those working in the gig economy. However, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended the business use of home deduction from 2018 through 2025 for employees. Employees who receive a paycheck or a W-2 exclusively from an employer are not eligible for the deduction, even if they are currently working from home.

Qualifying for a deduction

There are two basic requirements to qualify for the deduction. The taxpayer needs to use a portion of the home exclusively for conducting business on a regular basis and the home must be the taxpayers principal place of business.

To claim the deduction, a taxpayer must use part of their home for one of the following:

Exclusively and regularly as a principal place of business for a trade or business

Exclusively and regularly as a place where patients, clients or customers are met in the normal course of a trade or business

As a separate structure that's not attached to a home that is used exclusively and regularly in connection with a trade or business

On a regular basis for storage of inventory or product samples used in a trade or business of selling products at retail or wholesale

The term "home" for purposes of this deduction:

Includes a house, apartment, condominium, mobile home, boat or similar property

Includes structures on the property, like an unattached garage, studio, barn or greenhouse

Doesnt include any part of the taxpayers property used exclusively as a hotel, motel, inn or similar business

Qualified expenses

Deductible expenses for business use of home normally include the business portion of real estate taxes, mortgage interest, rent, casualty losses, utilities, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, and repairs. In general, a taxpayer may not deduct expenses for the parts of their home not used for business; for example, expenses for lawn care or painting a room not used for business.

Claiming the deduction

A taxpayer can use either the regular or simplified method to figure the home office deduction.

Using the regular method, qualifying taxpayers compute the business use of home deduction by dividing expenses of operating the home between personal and business use. Self-employed taxpayers filing IRS Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business (Sole Proprietorship) first figure this deduction on Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home.

Using the Simplified Option, qualifying taxpayers use a prescribed rate of $5 per square foot of the portion of the home used for business (up to a maximum of 300 square feet) to figure the business use of home deduction. A taxpayer claims the deduction directly on IRS Schedule C. Revenue Procedure 2013-13 (PDF) provides complete details of this safe harbor method.

Daycare facilities

Taxpayers who use their home on a regular basis for providing daycare may be able to claim a deduction for part of the home even if it is used as the same space for nonbusiness purposes. To qualify, both of the following requirements must be met:

The business must provide daycare for children, people age 65 or older, or people who are physically or mentally unable to care for themselves.

The business must have applied for, been granted, or be exempt from having a license, certification, registration, or approval as a daycare center or as a family or group daycare home under state law.

Additional resources

IRS Publication 587, Business Use of Home (Including Use by Daycare Providers)

Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home

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IRS reminds taxpayers of the home office deduction rules during Small Business Week - Williston Daily Herald

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., unveiled a billOct. 9 to establish a commission that could be tasked with determining if a president is no longer fit for office.

The bill from Raskin, a former constitutional scholar, comes on the heels of President Donald Trumps Oct. 2 announcement of his positive COVID-19 test. The bill would create what would be known as the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office" in accordance with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

The commission would not have the unilateral power to invoke the 25th Amendment and kick Trump or any future president out of the White House. Pelosi and Raskin insisted in a press conference that the move was unrelated to the election less than a month away.

"This is not about President Trump," said Pelosi. "He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents."

Trump responded to the news by tweeting that Pelosi is angling to one day replace Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris. There is no factual basis to support that claim, and Pelosi would not sit on the commission the bill would create.

The Constitution allows for such a commission

The 25th Amendment, established in 1967 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, spelled out general procedures to guide the replacement of a president or vice president in the event of death, incapacitation, resignation or removal from office.

RELATED: What happens if a president or nominee dies or is incapacitated? Around elections, it gets thorny

The first three sections of the amendment lay out the succession plan for when these top two positions go vacant. They also allow the president to declare himself unable to carry out his duties and temporarily transfer the powers of the presidency to the vice president.

The fourth and final section is whats relevant to Raskins bill. The section authorizes the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or "of such other body as Congress may by law provide," to declare a president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."

"Legislation like this is provided for in 4," tweeted Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University and the author of a book on the provision. "It says that the VP and Cabinet invoke 4, but that Congress can legislate a different body to substitute for the Cabinet in that process."

"It gave Congress the power to replace the Cabinet with such other body as it might create by law," added Joel K. Goldstein, a professor of law emeritus at St. Louis University and the author of two books on the vice presidency, in an email. "If such a body was created, a majority of it would act with the vice president under section 4 of the amendment instead of the Cabinet."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., gestures to a board displaying the fourth section of the 25th Amendment during a press conference at the Capitol in Washington on Oct. 9, 2020. (AP)

The bipartisan commission outlined in Raskins bill would consist of 17 members, a mix of medical experts and former high-ranking officials selected by House and Senate leadership.

The body would include eight physicians with each member of House and Senate leadership appointing two plus four former high-ranking executive branch officials selected by the Republican leaders and four former high-ranking officials chosen by the Democratic leaders.

The final member, the chair, would be appointed separately by those 16 members.

Currently, the congressional leadership is made up of Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer from the Democratic Party, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy from the Republican Party.

What happens under the status quo

The 25th Amendment says that a declaration that the president can no longer carry out his duties made by the vice president and a majority of either the Cabinet or another body determined by lawmakers would elevate the vice president to the position of acting president.

The president could then restore his powers by declaring that no inability exists, but the same entity that initially transferred power to the vice president would be able to respond by doubling down on their declaration that the president is unable to discharge his duties.

At that point, the vice president would continue to act as president if Congress, by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, agreed that the president remained unable to serve.

The new panel would not cut the vice president out of the process. "It can act only in concert with the vice president, who is the key actor under the 25th Amendment," Raskin said.

The process under current law would leave the Cabinet in the mix. "The situation without (Raskins bill) is the situation we have now," Kalt told PolitiFact in an email.

"The Cabinet has a role in section 4 that this body would take over if the bill passed. Raskin and others feel that the Cabinet is too much under the presidents thumb to take a robust role under section 4," Kalt said. "A more independent group like this would not feel so constrained."

Leaving the decision to the Cabinet does run the risk that loyalty to the president could override necessary action, Goldstein said. But a commission brimming with doctors carries its own risks, even if mental illness or physical incapacitation were front of mind for the amendments writers.

RELATED: When can the 25th Amendment be used against a president?

If, for example, the president were kidnapped, on a plane that went missing, or out of reliable communication, "medical expertise would not be called for," Goldstein said.

Many in Congress at the time of the amendments writing had misgivings about the idea of a medical commission, Goldstein said. They thought a decision involving the Cabinet would carry more legitimacy, and they worried an independent body could be used to harass the president.

They also left the language intentionally vague to account for scenarios they couldnt predict.

"The framers knew that they were not addressing all problems," Goldstein said. "But they realized that if they tried to address everything, they would probably get nothing through."

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House Democrats' new bill on the 25th Amendment, explained - PolitiFact