Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party |
- States’ rights: Utah bills demand return of federal land
- U.S. Corporate Taxes Need to Go to Zero
- Google Dominates Search, Despite Privacy Concerns
- FDA scientist sentenced to five years in prison for insider trading on drug approval knowledge
- Tea Party group backs Dem’s budget bill
- Marine’s Facebook page tests military rules
- Tea party feels shunned with red stars from Campbell GOP
- Santorum draws Kansas tea party ire
- Freddie Mac Asks Treasury for $146M to Stay Solvent
- Md. Senate panel votes to raise income tax
| States’ rights: Utah bills demand return of federal land Posted: 10 Mar 2012 06:22 AM PST By Ashley Powers, Los Angeles Times Las Vegas — Utah lawmakers are staging their own kind of Sagebrush Rebellion. The Utah House passed four bills this week demanding that the federal government hand over more than 30 million acres of land to the state, legislation that its own attorneys warned would likely be tossed out in court. But the Republican majority, resentful of Washington's power to limit mining, oil and gas drilling and agriculture on 60% of the state's land, said a costly legal battle would be worthwhile, the Associated Press reported. Utah is among the Western states that have long chafed at the role Washington plays in its affairs. In the 1970s, as part of the Sagebrush Rebellion, a number of them passed laws demanding control of federal lands. (Alaskans went even further, burning a National Park Service plane and setting up a statehood commission that was viewed as a flirtation with secession.) Though much of the West has moved onto other battles, Utah still thinks of the land war as one worth waging. Local officials have previously bulldozed their own roads through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which was created in 1996 when President Clinton signed legislation setting aside 1.7 million acres for the park. In another display of displeasure, local officials ripped down signs in Canyonlands National Park. To read more, visit: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-utah-federal-land-bills-20120302,0,119482.story |
| U.S. Corporate Taxes Need to Go to Zero Posted: 10 Mar 2012 06:19 AM PST
NEW YORK — On April 1, our ally Japan is playing a cruel little April Fools’ Day joke on us: The country is lowering its corporate tax rate from 39.5% to 35%. This will give the United States the dubious and awkward distinction of having, at 39.2%, the highest integrated federal/state tax rate among the developed countries of the world. In the world of politics, where nothing is without nuance and message, I wonder what our friends in Japan are trying to tell us? But Japan is not the only prankster in the bunch. Some of our largest corporations — members of the venerable Fortune 1000 club — are also paying a pretty nasty trick on us too. They are paying no taxes whatsoever. See the list, below, from the self-proclaimed non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy for companies that paid no taxes from 2008 to 2010. Worse, despite profits of more than $160 billion for the period, the companies actually got cash refunds of $10 billion. To read more, visit: http://www.thestreet.com/story/11450667/1/us-corporate-taxes-need-to-go-to-zero.html |
| Google Dominates Search, Despite Privacy Concerns Posted: 10 Mar 2012 06:15 AM PST
Despite mounting concerns about privacy following the recent consolidation of about 70 or so policies, Google is far and away the dominant search engine. As a part of its Internet and American Life Project, Pew on Friday released a report about search engines, putting Google at the top of the heap, used by 83 percent of those polled by the organization. To gather its results, Pew conducted phone interviews with 2,253 Americans age 18 and older. It found that Google’s not-so-close second is Yahoo, which is claimed by a miniscule 6 percent of users. Pew last asked about people’s preferred search engines in 2004, and since then Google has made major gains, jumping from 47 percent. Yahoo, by contrast, has fallen significantly from its 26 percent share eight years ago. Overwhelmingly, respondents are happy with the performance of search engines – 91 percent said they find what they’re looking for “always or most of the time.” They’re also generally satisfied with the reliability of the data they find, with 73 percent saying they feel that the data they find on search engines is “accurate and trustworthy.” To read more, visit: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401384,00.asp |
| FDA scientist sentenced to five years in prison for insider trading on drug approval knowledge Posted: 10 Mar 2012 06:13 AM PST
A drug evaluator at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research for more than a decade, Cheng Yi Liang, 58, has been sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for using non-public FDA data to conduct illegal insider trading. According to reports, Liang generated more than $3.7 million, which he is now being required to forfeit, by accessing confidential documents about new or experimental drugs to which he had access. He then used this information to time precisely when he would make the most profit from their stocks, as well as when to pull out of them to avoid losses. “Cheng Yi Liang bought and sold stocks based on non-public information, and he tried to conceal his crimes by using the names of friends and relatives,” wrote U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein to Bloomberg in an email statement. “Mr. Liang violated his duty of loyalty to the FDA and profited from inside information.” Liang’s investing sprees allegedly took place between July 2006 and March 2011, during which time he paid close attention to when new drug announcements were set to be made, and made his investments appropriately. The lawsuit filed against Liang by the U.S. government alleges that he made an average profit of $135,015 per announcement. To read more visit: http://www.naturalnews.com/035194_FDA_insider_trading_drug_approvals.html |
| Tea Party group backs Dem’s budget bill Posted: 10 Mar 2012 06:02 AM PST By Erik Wasson – The Hill In a rare move, a Tea Party group has backed a budget bill sponsored by a Democrat in the House. Americans for Prosperity is backing a bill by Blue Dog Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.) to stop congressional pay when budget and spending bills are not passed on time. The bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Dean Heller (Nev.) in the Senate. “On behalf of more than 1.9 million Americans for Prosperity activists in all 50 states, I commend you for introducing the No Budget, No Pay Act, S. 1981 and H.R. 3643 respectively. Your bill sends Members of Congress a clear message: if you don't do your job and pass a federal budget on time, you won't get paid,” AFP’s James Valvo wrote to Cooper and Heller on March 8. To read more, visit: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/215253-tea-party-group-backs-dems-budget-bill- |
| Marine’s Facebook page tests military rules Posted: 10 Mar 2012 05:59 AM PST
SAN DIEGO — Marine Sgt. Gary Stein first started a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots to encourage service members to exercise their free speech rights. Then he declared that he wouldn't follow orders from the commander in chief, President Barack Obama. While Stein softened his statement to say he wouldn't follow "unlawful orders," military observers say he may have gone too far. The Marine Corps is now looking into whether he violated the military's rules prohibiting political statements by those in uniform and broke its guidelines on what troops can and cannot say on social media. Stein said his views are constitutionally protected. While troops have always expressed their views in private, Stein's case highlights the potential for their opinions to go global as tech-savvy service members post personal details, videos and pictures that can hurt the military's image at home and abroad. "I think that it's been pretty well established for a long time that freedom of speech is one area in which people do surrender some of their basic rights in entering the armed forces," said former Navy officer David Glazier, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "Good order and discipline require the military maintain respect for the chain of command," Glazier said. "That includes prohibiting speech critical of the senior officers in that chain of command — up to and including the commander in chief." To read more, visit: http://www.eastoregonian.com/free/marine-s-facebook-page-tests-military-rules/article_7f2141ce-6a70-11e1-8dcc-001871e3ce6c.html |
| Tea party feels shunned with red stars from Campbell GOP Posted: 10 Mar 2012 05:54 AM PST
A red star put on the corner of the index cards for some of those who attended the Campbell County Republican Party elections on March 3 has angered some tea party members. The Campbell County Republican Party wouldn't elect anyone with a red star on their card to any leadership position in the party. Those who signed the petition last year to put Libertarian state treasurer candidate Ken Moellman on the ballot received a red star. But some tea party members believe they were the intended target. The election in question happened at the Campbell County Republican Convention where the leaders of the Campbell County Republican Party are elected and precinct leaders are chosen. The Republican and Democrat parties on the county, district and state level will re-organize this year and elect leaders and choose delegates. Erik Hermes, the past president of the Campbell County Tea Party, said he filed an appeal Friday with the state Republican Party seeking to invalidate the results of the Campbell County GOP election. Campbell County Republican Party leadership, however, said the red star didn't signify the tea party but rather signified those who violated the Republican Party of Kentucky's preamble that requires "devotion to our party's principles and loyalty to its candidates." To read more, visit: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/nkypolitics/2012/03/09/tea-party-feels-shunned-with-red-stars-from-campbell-gop/ |
| Santorum draws Kansas tea party ire Posted: 10 Mar 2012 05:49 AM PST BY JOHN HANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS, The Detroit News Topeka, Kan. — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum hoped to lock down a victory in Kansas’ GOP caucuses with two rallies Friday but faced grumbling from tea party activists for skipping their big rally in the state’s largest city. The former Pennsylvania senator figures to do well in today’s voting as he looks for a post-Super Tuesday victory to help him collect delegates to the party’s convention and chip away at the lead built by the front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Santorum enjoys strong support among abortion opponents who are a powerful constituency within the Kansas GOP, including leaders of Kansans for Life. Romney received a boost when Kansas GOP icon Bob Dole, the 88-year-old former U.S. Senate majority leader and 1996 presidential nominee, urged fellow Kansans to support him. But Romney wasn’t expected to visit before today’s caucuses, possibly hurting his chances of picking up some of the state’s 40 delegates. Santorum planned an event at a former Union Pacific railroad depot in Topeka, followed by a rally at a Wichita airport before leaving the state to campaign again in the South. His wife, Karen, was holding a cookies-and-coffee reception at his state headquarters in downtown Wichita. Some tea party members were frustrated that Santorum wouldn’t attend their rally. They spent $25,000 to rent the Century II arena in downtown Wichita and expected 1,000 to 3,000 people to attend. To read more, visit: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120310/POLITICS01/203100316/Santorum-draws-Kansas-tea-party-ire?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs |
| Freddie Mac Asks Treasury for $146M to Stay Solvent Posted: 09 Mar 2012 11:19 AM PST From: FOXBusiness.com Freddie Mac requested $146 million from the Treasury in order help make interest payments on government funds used to keep the mortgage buyer afloat, the company said Friday. Although Freddie Mac reported $619 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2011 as well as other income of $887 million, it was not enough to make the $1.7 billion dividend payment it was required to make to the government. Freddie Mac and sister company Fannie Mae were seized by the government at the height of the financial crisis and placed under conservatorship. Since then, Freddie Mac has had to seek $72.2 billion in federal aid in order to stay solvent. To read more, visit: http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/03/09/freddie-mac-asks-treasury-for-146m-to-stay-solvent/ |
| Md. Senate panel votes to raise income tax Posted: 09 Mar 2012 09:23 AM PST From: CBSNews.com Maryland income taxes would rise and a split of teacher pension costs with local governments would be phased in over four years instead of one, under changes to Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget plan that were approved by the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on Thursday. The panel also voted to close loopholes that some counties have used to avoid maintaining the amount of money they are required to spend on education. The income tax increase was described by supporters as modest for people in lower tax brackets, as higher earners would pay more. For example, single taxpayers who make up to $25,000 a year would see their state income tax rise from 4.75 percent to 4.9 percent. Single taxpayers who make between $75,001 and $150,000 would see an increase from 4.75 percent to 5 percent. “So for somebody making $40,000 a year, it’s maybe $30 a year, and that’s to protect our safety nets and maintain our investments in education, in roads, in public safety, in health care, so all in all, you know, we spent a lot of time working on this and trying to come up with the fairest, most equitable plan possible,” said Sen. Roger Manno, a Montgomery County Democrat who sponsored the legislation. Taxpayers filing jointly who make up to $50,000 would see an increase from 4.75 percent to 4.9 percent, while joint filers who make between $100,001 and $200,000 would see an increase from 4.75 percent to 5 percent. A couple making between $200,001 and $350,000 would see an increase from 5 percent to 5.25 percent. “In these times, it is necessary for everybody to share the burden,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, D-Calvert, said in a statement. To read more, visit: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57394117/md-senate-panel-votes-to-raise-income-tax/ |
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