A woman kept prisoner by her family for 18 years for having a baby out of wedlock was freed by police. Maria Monaco, 47, was found huddled in the corner of her bedroom.
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Saturday, June 14, 2008
Mandatory evacuation for Iowa, includes hospital--
Images of the state reminiscent of Katrina
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — They said this city would never flood. They talked about 1993, and 1966 and 1851, years when the Cedar River swelled and hissed but mostly stayed within its banks. They thought they were safe. They were wrong.
Days after it swamped Cedar Rapids and forced thousands of people out of their homes, the Cedar River has begun falling. But the misery will stretch on for days.
Officials guess it will be four days before the Cedar River drops enough for workers to even begin pumping out water that has submerged more than 400 blocks, threatened the city's drinking supply and forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital.
Read More
Read more from the Gainesville Sun
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — They said this city would never flood. They talked about 1993, and 1966 and 1851, years when the Cedar River swelled and hissed but mostly stayed within its banks. They thought they were safe. They were wrong.
Days after it swamped Cedar Rapids and forced thousands of people out of their homes, the Cedar River has begun falling. But the misery will stretch on for days.
Officials guess it will be four days before the Cedar River drops enough for workers to even begin pumping out water that has submerged more than 400 blocks, threatened the city's drinking supply and forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital.
Read More
Read more from the Gainesville Sun
FDA: Fla., Mexico suspects in tomato outbreak :: CHICAGO SUN
WASHINGTON---- Parts of Florida and Mexico were supplying ''the vast majority'' of tomatoes sold when the salmonella outbreak began in April and thus remain leading suspects, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
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Friday, June 13, 2008
Obamacons: Conservatives That Support Obama
Some prominent conservatives are hailing Barack Obama as the candidate of small government and reduced spending. Madeleine Brand talks to Bruce Bartlett of The New Republic about the strange phenomenon.
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Tim Russert, NBC Stalwart, Dies of Heart Attack
NBC newsman Tim Russert died suddenly today of a heart attack. Russert, who was 58, hosted Meet the Press since 1991. He was known as a dogged interviewer and a well-sourced Washington insider. Under his leadership, the show became an essential stop for politicians and officials at the highest levels.He rests in peace, his loved ones in solice.
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Thursday, June 12, 2008
Terms of Understanding for this Election Cycle
Words for the Day--provided mostly by Wikipedia.org
These terms are necessary to know if you plan on listening to presidential speeches--especially those of you who vote or declare yourselves Republican.
One would gather true Republicans would have these terms down pat already but there are segments of the American population that will declare themselves Republican for reasons that are unclear to me. Some of those people--I know--don't quite understand what all the flap is about over taxes and taxation.
Republicans won't bother to explain these terms to you. Anyone making more money that you won't explain these terms either so don't look for organized news groups to tell you. (They make wayyyyy more than you)
Capital Gains, Dividend, and Corporate Taxes, etc.
Capital Gains Tax: is a tax you pay on gains arising on the disposal of assets. Any form of property including an interest in property (eg a lease) is an asset for CGT purposes.
Dividend Tax: is an income tax on dividend payments to the stockholders (shareholders) of a company.Some jurisdictions apply a withholding tax to ensure collection of the dividend tax.
Explanation of the argument:
Those who want to get rid of the tax argue that a dividend tax amounts to unfair "double taxation", in the sense that the company has already paid a corporation tax on these profits, which means that the shareholders, as part owners, have likewise been taxed already.
Those who want to keep the dividend tax as it is, claim it is unfair to tax income generated through active work at a higher rate than income generated through less active means or that companies may not have paid their full share of income tax.
Their argument is that such a taxation can help the wealthiest of individuals who can afford to buy large quantities of stock as they could feasibly live off the dividend payments without any income tax on their earnings.
Corporate tax (varies)
Corporate tax refers to a tax levied by various jurisdictions on the profits made by companies or associations.Corporate tax in the United States is a tax on the taxable income of a C corporation or an entity taxed as a C corporation. The corporate tax is the default tax levied on a business entity unless the entity qualifies to be taxed under different tax rules such as those for non-profit organizations and S corporations. See table
An excess profits tax: is a tax on any profit above a certain amount. A predominantly wartime fiscal instrument, the tax was designed primarily to capture wartime profits that exceeded normal peacetime profits.[citation needed] In 1863 the Confederate congress and the state of Georgia experimented with excess profits taxes. The first effective national excess profits tax was enacted in 1917, with rates graduated from 20 to 60 percent on the profits of all businesses in excess of prewar earnings but not less than 7 percent or more than 9 percent of invested capital.
Terms heard in Democratic speeches:
Corporate welfare: is a term describing a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment on corporations. The term was coined by Ralph Nader in 1966,[1][2] and creates a satirical association between corporate subsidies and welfare payments to the poor, and implies that corporations are much less needy of such treatment than the poor. The Canadian New Democratic Party picked up the term as a major theme in its 1972 federal election campaign.
Subsidies: considered excessive, unwarranted, wasteful, unfair, inefficient, or bought by lobbying are often called corporate welfare. The label of corporate welfare is often used to decry projects advertised as benefiting the general welfare that spend a disproportionate amount of funds on large corporations. For instance, in the United States, agricultural subsidies are usually portrayed as helping honest, hardworking independent farmers stay afloat. However, the majority of income gained from commodity support programs actually goes to large agribusiness corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland, as they own a considerably larger percentage of production.[4]
According to the Cato Institute, the U.S. federal government spent $92 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006. Recipients included Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, and General Electric.[5]
Thanks Wikipedia
These terms are necessary to know if you plan on listening to presidential speeches--especially those of you who vote or declare yourselves Republican.
One would gather true Republicans would have these terms down pat already but there are segments of the American population that will declare themselves Republican for reasons that are unclear to me. Some of those people--I know--don't quite understand what all the flap is about over taxes and taxation.
Republicans won't bother to explain these terms to you. Anyone making more money that you won't explain these terms either so don't look for organized news groups to tell you. (They make wayyyyy more than you)
Capital Gains, Dividend, and Corporate Taxes, etc.
Capital Gains Tax: is a tax you pay on gains arising on the disposal of assets. Any form of property including an interest in property (eg a lease) is an asset for CGT purposes.
Dividend Tax: is an income tax on dividend payments to the stockholders (shareholders) of a company.Some jurisdictions apply a withholding tax to ensure collection of the dividend tax.
Explanation of the argument:
Those who want to get rid of the tax argue that a dividend tax amounts to unfair "double taxation", in the sense that the company has already paid a corporation tax on these profits, which means that the shareholders, as part owners, have likewise been taxed already.
Those who want to keep the dividend tax as it is, claim it is unfair to tax income generated through active work at a higher rate than income generated through less active means or that companies may not have paid their full share of income tax.
Their argument is that such a taxation can help the wealthiest of individuals who can afford to buy large quantities of stock as they could feasibly live off the dividend payments without any income tax on their earnings.
Corporate tax (varies)
Corporate tax refers to a tax levied by various jurisdictions on the profits made by companies or associations.Corporate tax in the United States is a tax on the taxable income of a C corporation or an entity taxed as a C corporation. The corporate tax is the default tax levied on a business entity unless the entity qualifies to be taxed under different tax rules such as those for non-profit organizations and S corporations. See table
An excess profits tax: is a tax on any profit above a certain amount. A predominantly wartime fiscal instrument, the tax was designed primarily to capture wartime profits that exceeded normal peacetime profits.[citation needed] In 1863 the Confederate congress and the state of Georgia experimented with excess profits taxes. The first effective national excess profits tax was enacted in 1917, with rates graduated from 20 to 60 percent on the profits of all businesses in excess of prewar earnings but not less than 7 percent or more than 9 percent of invested capital.
Terms heard in Democratic speeches:
Corporate welfare: is a term describing a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment on corporations. The term was coined by Ralph Nader in 1966,[1][2] and creates a satirical association between corporate subsidies and welfare payments to the poor, and implies that corporations are much less needy of such treatment than the poor. The Canadian New Democratic Party picked up the term as a major theme in its 1972 federal election campaign.
Subsidies: considered excessive, unwarranted, wasteful, unfair, inefficient, or bought by lobbying are often called corporate welfare. The label of corporate welfare is often used to decry projects advertised as benefiting the general welfare that spend a disproportionate amount of funds on large corporations. For instance, in the United States, agricultural subsidies are usually portrayed as helping honest, hardworking independent farmers stay afloat. However, the majority of income gained from commodity support programs actually goes to large agribusiness corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland, as they own a considerably larger percentage of production.[4]
According to the Cato Institute, the U.S. federal government spent $92 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006. Recipients included Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, and General Electric.[5]
Thanks Wikipedia
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Mississippi School Holds First Interracial Prom
With a nudge and a check from local resident Morgan Freeman, the high school in Charleston, Miss., held integrated its prom this year for the first time ever. One student reports that everyone had a ball, surprising themselves and the community.
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Barack Obama recruits team to tackle web smears
Barack Obama is recruiting senior staff to a new unit which will combat virulent rumour campaigns on the internet that threaten to cost him votes in the presidential election against John McCain. The unit is part of a huge expansion of Obama's campaign team as he shifts from the Democratic nomination race to the campaign for November's election.
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Florida growers cleared of samonella scare
Reported on Fox News (I know) and CNN this morning is that Florida and California tomato growers are cleared to begin shipping again, tomatoes.
More on this story throughout the day.
More on this story throughout the day.
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