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HIDDEN TAX BREAKS

Capital gains taxes may quietly reduce more of your investment returns than you realize.

But the tax code includes several strategies that may help reduce that bill.

Three often-overlooked areas include investment-related expenses, cost basis adjustments, and real estate selling costs.

When structured correctly, these deductions may help minimize taxable gains.

Because the rules can be complex, many investors work with fiduciary financial advisors to plan tax-efficient strategies.

Use SmartAsset’s free tool to find vetted financial advisors serving your area.

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The moderate Kansas Republican died Saturday at 94. Three Senate terms behind her, and a reputation for across-the-aisle work that's grown almost unrecognizable in today's Washington. She was the first woman to chair a major Senate panel — a milestone she reached quietly, without much appetite for the spotlight.

Kassebaum eventually tired of the partisan strife that came to define the chamber. "I couldn't get elected today," she told an interviewer in 2013. Less resignation than diagnosis.

Private text messages obtained by reporters show the chief of a Mississippi police department using racist slurs regularly in personal exchanges. The department was already under scrutiny over the June fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy.

The messages land as the community keeps pressing for answers on that shooting, opening a second front in an already-simmering controversy. Local leaders now face pressure over both the killing and the culture inside the department that produced it.

The Brewers rookie shut down the Braves on Friday with six shutout innings, extending what many now consider the best pitching season in baseball this year. Batters go up. Batters come back. That's been the pattern for months.

CBS Sports called it the fastest show in baseball, and Milwaukee has quietly built a playoff push around him. If the Brewers get to October, Misiorowski is why the rest of the National League should be nervous.

A strike on a monastery in Myanmar killed fourteen people as civilians gathered for a meditation retreat, with a rescue worker saying the site had been hit twice. The attack deepens international alarm over the junta's targeting of civilian gatherings in the country's grinding civil war.

A slab of ice covering 76.4 square kilometers broke off Petermann Glacier on August 4, the largest calving event on record for that glacier. Researchers warn two more major calvings look likely — a worrying signal for global sea levels.

Mexican Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, accused by U.S. prosecutors of protecting the Sinaloa cartel, returned to his post on Friday after saying earlier he'd step down to focus on his defense. The whiplash reversal drew immediate criticism and complicates U.S.-Mexico cooperation on cartel prosecutions.

New CDC data shows MMR vaccination coverage among kindergarteners continuing to decline as non-medical exemptions climbed to a record 4.2%. The dip follows a week in which President Trump made a series of misleading claims about vaccines.

Assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of August 3, the third attack on the Ohio mosque. Members say they doubt the FBI under the Trump administration will classify it as a hate crime.

Dozens of cities have canceled contracts with Flock, the license-plate surveillance company facing public backlash, and competitors are quickly stepping in. Privacy experts caution that the alternatives collect much the same data, just with a different logo on the invoice.

Fast-fashion giant Shein is struggling to find new avenues for growth as pressure mounts from regulators in the United States and Europe. Its long-delayed initial public offering keeps slipping further out on the calendar.

Nvidia has told some of its largest customers that prices on servers containing its AI chips could rise more than 15%. The hike threatens to push the already-eye-watering cost of building AI infrastructure even higher.

The Dodgers president insisted the team is not for sale, addressing fan concerns after owner Mark Walter sold the Lakers for $12.5 billion just 14 months after buying the franchise. Walter's flip has fans wondering whether the Dodgers might one day get the same treatment.

Researchers at Mount Sinai's Icahn School found that a protein called TIMP2 supports microglial function and reduces age-related inflammation in aging mouse brains. The finding could open a new front in the fight against neurodegenerative disease, though human applications remain distant.

A construction crew in northeastern Brazil uncovered fossils of Dasosaurus tocantinensis, a 20-meter-long dinosaur that roamed the region roughly 120 million years ago. Its closest known relative once lived in what is now Spain, hinting at ancient links across the prehistoric supercontinent.

Scientists have developed a simpler, cheaper method to measure DNA-bound phosphorus in soil, a form of the nutrient that has long been difficult to track. Better measurement could reshape how farmers and ecologists understand nutrient cycling in a world running short of phosphorus.

The Tigers pulled off a stunning 2-0 upset over Manchester United at MKM Stadium to open the Premier League season. The result raised immediate defensive questions about Michael Carrick's side just ninety minutes into the campaign.

Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton suffered another calf injury and could miss the rest of the season, having not played since April 24 due to multiple strains. New York will need to keep hitting without one of the most fearsome bats in baseball.

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer named former five-star recruit Keelon Russell the starting quarterback, giving the No. 2-ranked quarterback in his recruiting class the keys over Austin Mack. The pick could raise the Crimson Tide's ceiling in a wide-open SEC.

Franchise director Jon Turteltaub confirmed that a third National Treasure is in the works with a script Disney has approved, more than twenty years after Nicolas Cage first stole the Declaration of Independence. "It's finally real," Turteltaub said — words fans have waited a very long time to hear.

Dale Morris, who built superstar careers for the group Alabama and Kenny Chesney nearly from scratch, died Friday in his sleep at 89. He was one of the most influential figures in modern country music management.

Writer Lauren J. Salkin filed a lawsuit Friday accusing Taylor Sheridan of lifting "Yellowstone" from a 2016 pitch, with 101 Studios, Paramount and Elevate Entertainment also named as defendants. Reps for the defendants didn't immediately respond.

What it is: As Republicans have embraced tough measures to clear tents and encampments from American streets, one group has done more than any other to draft the playbook: the Cicero Institute, founded by venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.

The detail: Cicero has pushed a policy agenda built around aggressive enforcement, mandatory treatment and restrictions on the "housing first" approach that dominated federal strategy for years. Lonsdale, a longtime GOP donor with deep ties in Silicon Valley and Republican politics, has used his network to move those ideas from think-tank white papers into statehouses and, now, the White House.

The shift: For years, federal homelessness policy increasingly centered on getting people into permanent housing without requiring sobriety, employment or treatment first. Cicero argues that model neglects addiction, mental illness and public disorder, and instead favors systems that make shelter, treatment and enforcement work together. That philosophical divide now sits at the center of the national homelessness debate.

Where it lands: State and local governments ultimately control much of what happens on sidewalks, in shelters and inside treatment systems, making implementation uneven. Enforcement can clear a visible encampment quickly, but lasting reductions depend on whether cities have enough shelter beds, treatment capacity and longer-term housing for the people displaced.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's homelessness stance — favoring encampment sweeps and conditional shelter over unconditional housing — tracks closely with Cicero's blueprint. It marks one of the clearest examples in the current administration of a single donor-backed institute translating private conviction into national policy.

What to watch: Whether the enforcement-first model actually reduces street homelessness, or simply relocates it. Cities are the testing ground. Measures such as repeat homelessness, shelter use, treatment participation and permanent placements will matter more than the number of tents removed. The data over the next year will shape the debate far beyond Washington.

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—The Five Minute Daily Team