>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> answers on abc seven. everyday we talk with experts on issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real-time. today, tax questions. americans have started working on filing tax returns and have new layers of fusion due to lester's middle class tax relief payments. we have an accounting professor joining us to help. u.s. military recovery crews are busy retrieving the debris of the latest unidentified flying objects attacked it over u.s. and canadian airspace. since the chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of south carolina february 4, three

more objects have been detected and taken down by missiles. on friday an object was shot down over alaska. on saturday an object shot down over the yukon in canada and on sunday an object was shot down over lake huron in michigan. joining us alive to discuss how these flying objects have impacted global stability, professor -- a senior lecturer at center -- at santa clara university and specialist in international relations. thanks for your time. >> thank you for having me. place now in your opinion because of these four flying objects? >> in large part the objects have been probably been there all the time in large part. it probably does not -- it probably does not chop the level of danger. there have been other things contributing to it. this happens to be more of an icing on the cake.

>> do we know yet who these last three objects, not the original chinese spy balloon with the latest three, who wants them and what is the purpose? what do we know? >> we do not know anything about them just quite yet. in large part there is a lot of uncertainty regarding those particular objects. there have been a lot of things that have been floated around. the u.s. military does warned that we should be cautious regarding any of these -- drawing any conclusions on these particular objects. >> a tiny bit of information came out in the last couple hours. we know the one over the yukon was a metallic balloon with a payload but they did not explain what the payload could be. here is what national security council spokesman john kirby did say about why u.s. fighter jets shot the latest objects down quickly. >> their altitudes were conserlyower than the chinese high-altitude and did pose a threat to civilian commercial air traffic.

while we have no reason to suspect they were conducting surveillance of any kind cannot rule that out. >> they talked about how the altitude at 40,000 feet where commercial airplanes fly, one of the reasons they took it down quickly. could there also be other factors like political considerations driving this much quicker takedown? the first chinese balloon was over the continental u.s. for days and days. >> in large part there is a lot of domestic considerations that have to be taken into account. president biden has been subject to a lot of criticism primarily from the right. as well as some from the left about what took them so long to shoot down the first balloon. in this context it does make sense the three objects we now see were taken down quite so early. in addition to the issue regarding the safety regarding

aviation they are only flying at 40,000 feet. >> these are much smaller than the chinese balloon. i think a lot of people are asking why does it seem like we are seeing more of these suddenly and they are all being shot down? if it's something to do with the way we responded to the way we responded to the first one making more pop up? >> in large part the argument is many of these balloons have been around for a long time. what has happened is the military now has to be assessed its particular details regarding when to shoot these particular objects down. in large part there is a lot of domestic consideration that it has to address. just cannot allow these balloons to fly unabated. the other thing that is quite important is these balloons are visible. previous balloons or previous

spine mechanisms were unseen -- spy mechanisms are unseen. the fact you can see these does create a lot of urgency for the united states. >> in consideration is they adjust to the sensitivity of the radar to pick up more. if you are adjusting your sensitivity to pick up more you will find more as well. that is unnerving i think for the public. abc news sources has said the u.s. has concluded china has flown surveillance balloons over 40 countries. if that is true, is that unusual? do superpowers all do this in different shapes and forms? >> no, that is not unusual. in large part we spy on china. s. we spied on the soviet union. the soviet union spied on us. in that context perhaps it is not the fact the magnitude and that the public is more aware of these that is also quite

astounding. in large part we have been spying on china. they have been spying on us. in that particular context that is nothing new. if you take a look at history and espionage, have ours. the chinese have theirs. there is a particular issue now regarding tiktok and whether the chinese can spy on us regarding tiktok and there have been national concerns regarding having tiktok applications on government funds. >> nationstates do that to each other to try to improve their own strategic advantage and position. that is where it leads me to this. i think 10 days ago the philippines announced it is inviting the u.s. to expand its military presence with four new bases. this after a. of drawdown and going the other direction. does this have to do with something with the rising of

tension with china? > t cooperation between the united states, japan and the philippines. what they are preparing for is some type of escalation that might happen in taiwan and also in the south china sea. you can think about it as an increased web of cooperation among the three. it is not put so much as a military cooperation more as economic and other kinds of cooperation but you can see there is kind of like a redevelopment of cold war. you can refer to it as a cold war 2.0 if you would like. there is some response on with respect to what is going on with china. >> we talked about the tensions over taiwan which china claims for its own and of course taiwan is not sisterly see it that way. -- does not necessarily see it that way. i wonder how the balloons fit

into this picture in the context of that. will this change u.s. relationships and priorities in asia? does this hurt the u.s. efforts to keep things peaceful in the taiwan straits? >> it does escalate the efforts to enhance more cooperation among the countries. in large part as far as the united states in china is concerned, we are very interdependent with each other economically at least in that to killer context. in china and they are going through a very difficult economic process. and so covid has had -- they have had problems with covid. they are in an economic decline and they are trying to recover dramatically. there is also a demographic issue. in that context there are a lot of domestic angst perhaps china would not want to escalate tensions. they do need more cooperation with the united states.

the knitted states does the more cooperation with china. in that context with the balloons have not in very helpful. it is not as if they can't be ignored because of domestic considerations in the united states. >> i want to ask you, you are a professor. you look at history. when you look at what has happened how would you advise the two nations and their presidents if they both went peace? >> it is easy for me to say cooperate and keep the tensions down but there are a lot of things beyond their control. most of it is domestic con in large part. in that context a way to hopefully do it would be to enhance more dialogue among the two and to reassure and provide more certainty that many of these things will not continue

or not will continue in that context. hopefully that will dampen down tensions between the two. we can continue more diplomatic and economic cooperation. >> there has not been a lot of diplomatic engagement so far. hopefully that will happen. appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. >> coming up next, tax season is fast approaching. this year you'll get to hold onto a little more of your money. the tax break the irs is giving to

i had no idea how much i wamy case was worth. c call the barnes firm to find out what your case could be worth. we will help get you the best result possible. ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪

>> there is some good news for,

for your taxpayers. the irs has decided it will not make you pay taxes on the middle class tax refund some of us got from the state of california. what if you already filled up the 1099 forms you received? this is one of the many confusing conundrums facing california taxpayers. joining us live to answer important questions arising from inflation related assistance, a professor of tax and accounting at san jose state university. thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> i want to start with other piece of good news. i think most of us in california have an extra month to file this year. is that due to our severe storms? >> not everybody in the state. you have to be one of the counties does data by the irs as having been affected and that would give you until may 15. it is still good to the little early for you can. >> you should check with your county and see if you're one of those. what were the middle-class tax refund payments?

how much was it, how many people got it? enacted last year. the lawmakers did not call it the middle class refund. they called it better for families tax refund. based on your 2020 information, you can get depending on your filing status and if you are independent and income level between 200 and $1000. -- $1050. >> the irs has ruled the funds qualify as relief. what does that mean? does that mean you don't have to count for tax purposes as income? >> that is right. california lawmakers made it clear it was not taxable for california. irs has clarified it is not taxable on your federal 1040 either. >> apparently as i understand millions of people have gotten there 1099 forms used to report payments as income. what if you already reported the money as income? >> most people probably have not

filed by this point but if they have and they reported it they could either file them in to return or file another return. just a replacement to what you filed before and they would take it off of that. just of course don't fill that out or don't report it could >> is a good question the irs did not specifically address. the iris would know that is not taxable. we also could put it on the schedule one agency and back it out online 24 z. >> i want to move it on because i want to talk about general tax questions. what else if anything is different and noteworthy for this year? >> unlike last year, no contributions for everybody. only if you itemize.

back to the regular size child tax credit which is 2000 per child under the age of 17. last year it was a little bit higher including for 17-year-olds. for paul -- for folks who are self-employed and also drive in the middle of the year the irs change the mileage rate to increase starting july 1 because of the increase in gas prices. hopefully those folks using the standard mileage did not what their odometer said july 1. >> i will have to move her that. as news reporters we drive a lot. that is good to know. anything storm victims in the bay area should know about? >> since it was a federally declared disaster, if they had some damage they might able to claim that on their 2022 return. part of the damage was in 2023. there were several counties listed by the irs.

they would get an additional month to file and to pay for their 2022 return had mentioned itemizing. that leads me to the perennial question, how do you know if it is better for you to claim the standard adduction or try to itemize? >> the irs has webpages that will help to go through figuring that out. if you have a tax advisor they will help you on that. 90% of people do take the standard deduction. that is because of changes made a few years ago. most notably that your state tax deduction for federal purposes cannot exceed $10,000. they increased temporarily the standard deduction through 2025. more likely people are going to be itemizing and leslie have a lot of standard

how about >> related expenses. >> extended exceeds 7.5% of your income level. all of it anyway. leo duct >> any final tips for reducing our tax bill and for people cannot afford to pay what they owe? >> if you can't pay, you still want to file on time because that will reduce any penalty. go to the irs website. there are ways you can work out an installment agreement but definitely file on time. if you are in one of the counties hit by the storm that would be may 15 otherwise april 15. it is also good to file as early as you can because it is too easy to keep on putting it off and then you might be rushing and getting things done. everybody should have most of

their april work by the end of january so they should be habit now to be able to file. >> try not to procrastinate. i know it is hard. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> coming up next, and up close look at the damage we were talking about. we will look at what is going on in santa cruz county. a cyclist takes us where cars cannot go to show us how bad

>> the sun is shining. the reservoir levels are higher. most of us might think things are great after the devastating storms but that is not the reality necessarily for the santa cruz mountains, a haven for bicyclists usually and where one bicyclist decided to write to the disaster zone and documented in a video called the tour de joining us is cyclist larry. >> how are you?

>> i'm good. i understand you live in houston but are currently in spain. is this another bike ride? >> this is a vacation with my wife. >> fabulous. >> santa cruz was my solo vacation. >> because you love writing, i know you grew up and spent half a decade -- i should say half a century writing that area and then you put out this video. the tour de disaster. tell us how it came about, the idea of riding through the damage area and capturing what you see. >> that was coincidence. i had planned to come to california for months in advance and have just arrived there a couple days before the bomb cyclone ended. out on the roads soul all of in. i just had to document it. >> for folks unfamiliar, tour de

tester, how did you give it that name? relate >> since i retired i began putting together youtube videos. i put all of my slides and a few of my video clips into this youtube video. towur d words from the tour de france. it is such a disaster area in santa cruz the words fit. >> 6000 views already from this video. how many days of writing was of that and how many miles did you ride through? >> it was eight days. i arrived on january 15. and wrote about -- 400 miles. >> is that roughly about 30 miles a day? >> about 40 miles a day.

you captured a lot. walk us through some of what we are seeing. we have a few clips. one of them, china grade road where you sell devastating instruction here -- devastating destruction here. >> the bridge was out. there is the photo. the other se people living on the other side of that bridge. they are going to have to go around an hour or more out of their way to get anywhere. they are really isolated now. >> it is going to take time. this is not an easy fix. you have something from trout goltry road i want to show folks. it is a sinkhole that is massive. let's queued that one up. here it is. >> yeah. that was not the only road with a big washout like that. there were several roads with huge washouts.

>> look at those pipes that are exposed. there is your bike in the photo. nice staging. granite creek road. you took some video there. this is a bulldozer trying to clear the debris. >> yeah, that was obviously they had gotten started on the repairing of that. that was a culvert that had gotten washed out apparently. i don't know. it looks like a a lot of culverts were blocked and the for sca csee hothat hs. did you ever put yourself in danger in terms of where you rode through? i knocars. did you have to get past some road closure signs? unexpected down truths, things like that. >> yes, i just had to control m

speed going downhill especially when the roads were wet and slick from the mud. it is really dangerous when there is mud on the road because of the slippery nature. >> can i just ask you what this experience goes like? i know the santa cruz mountains are super popular with cyclist. there is a reason you love it so much. >> yeah, it was from all the other times i have written the santa cruz mountains because i was stopping so often on just about every road i was on to look at the terrible damage. that was shocking. i had never seen anything like it on a single road let alone the dozens of rows i was -- of roads i was writing over. > what yo people will learn from your video? >> to respect mother nature.

there are people living in the mountains who consider it home. i got to meet a few wandering around looking at the damage. lives to normal. >> we certnlhope so. he video tour de disaster. appreciate you coming on. i would ask you how the cycling is in houston and i think i know the answer. >> california is great. >> that is why we live here. thank you, larry. you can get our live newscast. breaking news, weather every time

you go by lots of titles veteran, son, dad. -it's time to get up. -no. hair stylist and cheerleader. so adding a “student” title might feel overwhelming. what if a school could be there for all of you? career, family, finances and mental health. it's coming along. well, it can. national university. supporting the whole you.

tonight, the terrifying and violent rampage in new york city. a u-haul truck plowing through intersections, hitting multiple people, including an officer. surveillance showing the driver leading police on a frighting chase. jumping onto that sidewalk, hitting pedestrians and bicyclists and an nypd officer. eight people struck. we do have news coming in tonight on the driver. our investigative reporter aaron katersky standing by. also tonight, what are they? three more objects shot down from the sky. american fighter jets taking aim at three mystery objects in three days. so, how soon before search teams reach the debris in alaska, in canada, and just off michigan, over lake huron? tonight, what defense secretary lloyd austin is now saying. and what the white house said