If the government goes over the "fiscal cliff," millions of households could see tax increases because of an obscure part of the tax code, known as the Alternative Minimum Tax. Host Michel Martin talks with NPR Business Editor Marilyn Geewax about exactly what could happen and who would be affected.
Police in the Central American nation of Belize said Monday that they are looking for the founder of the software company McAfee Inc. to question him about the slaying of another U.S. citizen, his neighbor in an island town on the Caribbean.
John McAfee lived next door to 52-year-old Gregory Viant Faull, who was found with a gunshot wound to his head inside his two-story home north of San Pedro, a town on the island of Ambergris Caye, said Raphael Martinez, spokesman for Belize's Ministry of National Security. The housekeeper discovered the body Sunday morning and called police.
Martinez said that no charges had been filed in the case, describing McAfee, 67, only as a "person of interest" for police.
"It's too early in the investigation. To say he is a suspect would be a bold statement," Martinez told The Associated Press.
Police officers went to McAfee's home on the island but he had not been there, the spokesman said.
One resident of the island told the AP that Faull had complained about McAfee's behavior, and others said the former software executive was hard to befriend.
The case was the latest twist in McAfee's recent life as an eccentric yoga lover. He sold his stake in the anti-virus software company in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.
He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis and that he was moving to Belize.
Last April, Belize police raided McAfee's home looking for drugs and guns. McAfee said officers found guns, which he said were legal, and he was released without charge after being detained for a few hours.
Faull's killing shocked the island community. Residents said Faull was a longtime home owner there who had recently retired as a builder and moved from Florida to live full-time in the island.
"He was starting to enjoy his retirement," said a real estate agent.
The agent, who insisted on speaking anonymously out of fear of retaliation, said she had heard Faull complain about McAfee's numerous dogs barking outside his property.
Other residents said McAfee seemed standoffish and not friendly.
"His physical appearance doesn't really inspire you to go over and make friends with him. He's a little scruffy looking," said another real estate agent, Bob Hamilton.
Martinez said police had questioned other neighbors of Faull but had been unable to locate McAfee.
The AP tried unsuccessfully to contact McAfee by email. McAfee said in May that he was disconnecting his phone because he felt he was being harassed by police.
Police said Faull's computer and phone were missing, but there were no signs of forced entry at his home. Police reported finding a single 9-mm shell casing and said it appeared Faull was killed between late Saturday and Sunday morning, which was a rainy night on the Caribbean island. Faull was last seen at 10 p.m. Saturday.
Harvey Hilbert enlisted in the Army in 1964. He was in the infantry, and in January 1966, he was sent to Vietnam to fight. Five months later, his unit was sent into the jungle. That was the last time he fought in Vietnam.
"It was coming on dusk, and we went into what's called a hot landing zone — means we were under fire," Hilbert told StoryCorps. "We jumped off the helicopters and took a position. And then the enemy stopped shooting."
The company commander sent three soldiers into the jungle to set up a listening post to look for enemy forces and report back. Usually, the three newest men in the unit were sent out for this kind of duty, Hilbert says. He had met one of the men who was sent out that night.
"He went about 100 meters or so out in front of the line," Hilbert says. "But the enemy hadn't gone anywhere. They were embedded in the jungle. And around midnight, they opened fire."
The three men had set up their listening post in the middle of a battalion of enemy soldiers. They grabbed their rifles and started running back to the helicopters.
"All I saw were soldiers with rifles, and machine-gun fire coming at me," Hilbert says. "And so I shot at 'em. And one of them fell about 10 or 15 feet from me and was screaming in pain, and it turned out it was this young man that I had met."
A few minutes later, Hilbert got shot in the head.
"I could hardly move, and I thought that if I fell asleep I would die. So I was trying to stay awake, listening to this young man scream.
"He died just before I was airlifted out. You know, I'm 65 years old, and I can remember clearly that young man — the color of his skin, his face, his cries.
"You know, there's a legacy of war that lasts forever," Hilbert says.
Hilbert was hospitalized at a field hospital in Vietnam, where he had to have bullet fragments removed from his brain. Hilbert was partially paralyzed on his left side, though he recovered the use of most of his leg and some of his arm.
He was decorated with a National Defense Service Medal and a Purple Heart, among other medals, for his service.
Audio produced for Morning Edition by Katie Simon.