Amazon has reportedly ended its relationship with a German security company that was accused of having far-right links and mistreating foreign workers at the U.S. firm’s distribution centers.
It hasn’t drawn much attention, but Facebook’s first annual earnings report contains an accounting gem: a multibillion-dollar tax deduction for the cost of executive stock options and share awards.
Even though Facebook (FB) reported $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations in 2012, it will probably pay zero federal and state taxes—and even receive a federal tax refund of about $429 million—according to a Feb. 14 statement from Citizens for Tax Justice. The tax-research and -lobbying organization says companies such as Facebook should treat stock options the same in their reports to shareholders as they do in their tax filings. Citizens for Tax Justice calls the tax footnotes in Facebook’s Jan. 30 financial statement “an amazing admission,” but there’s nothing illegal about the breaks the company is claiming. Companies like Facebook are allowed to treat the cost of non-cash compensation, such as stock options, as an expense that reduces profits, essentially the way they treat cash compensation such as salaries.
Executive Producer: Baron Steven Pelsmaekers of Belgium and France
Associate Executive Producers: David Foley, Michael Riordan, Sarah Weaver, Sir Kelly, Marc Zicari, Sir Thomas of the Apocalypse, David Zinn, Angela Barkhouse, Chad Spalek
Art By: MartinJJ
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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, avowed Obamacare foe, proposed an ambitious plan Wednesday to cut his state’s uninsured population in half — by getting them covered through Obamacare.
The Republican announced that he is rejecting Medicaid expansion and the billions of federal dollars that would come with it. In fact, he’s proposing a net cut in the state Medicaid program.
Walker would take thousands of people currently on Wisconsin’s relatively generous Medicaid program — people who are above the federal poverty level — and move them into the Obamacare exchange instead, where they can get federally subsidized private insurance. Walker has already said he won’t run the exchange, requiring the federal government to take control instead.
Obamacare is good? Big government is the answer? From Scott Walker, of all people? Bizarro-world time!
I was born in Mississippi in 1949. Around that time one of the easiest ways to lynch an entire African-American family was to set the house on fire and shoot people as they ran out. That tactic took fewer people than the average hanging, and you didn’t have to show your face.
The technique also worked well in Al-Qaeda’s massacre at the American embassy in Benghazi.
And it worked at Big Bear, too.
The San Bernadino County Sheriff’s knew the grenades they fired into the cabin were highly flammable, and would be set off by a spark. Or a gun shot.
Either the sheriff’s people were stupid about that or the Sheriff lied when he said they had not intended to burn Dorner.
…Walter Slonopas is happy to be without a job. You see, he quit his job last week in order to save his mortal soul.
Two fifth-grade boys were held on $100,000 bond each after being charged with conspiracy to commit murder at their school in Washington state, officials said.
Remember the days when a cornerstone of our country included no “unreasonable search and seizure”? Good times, good times…
The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security.
The DHS, which secures the nation’s border, in 2009 announced that it would conduct a “Civil Liberties Impact Assessment” of its suspicionless search-and-seizure policy pertaining to electronic devices “within 120 days.” More than three years later, the DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a two-page executive summary of its findings.
“We also conclude that imposing a requirement that officers have reasonable suspicion in order to conduct a border search of an electronic device would be operationally harmful without concomitant civil rights/civil liberties benefits,” the executive summary said.
Executive Producers: Sir David Foley, Sir Thomas Pullyard
Previous Episode’s Art By: Thoren
Art By: Nick the Rat
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Nominated for an Animated Short Oscar.
How’s this for performance-related pay..?
On top of the usual national pride yadda yadda blah blah, the Super Eagles’ football players will also be in line for a week of free sex from the country’s prostitutes, should they emerge victorious.
I’m guessing ‘expert guest’ has a different meaning at Fox than in the rest of the world.
Near the end of the segment, it occurred to Carlson to ask her expert guest, Fox Business reporter Shibani Joshi, why it might be that Germany’s solar-power sector is doing so much better [than ours]. “What was Germany doing correct? Are they just a smaller country, and that made it more feasible?” Carlson asked.
Joshi’s jaw-dropping response: “They’re a smaller country, and they’ve got lots of sun. Right? They’ve got a lot more sun than we do.” In case that wasn’t clear enough for some viewers, Joshi went on: “The problem is it’s a cloudy day and it’s raining, you’re not gonna have it.” Sure, California might get sun now and then, Joshi conceded, “but here on the East Coast, it’s just not going to work.”
Gosh, why hasn’t anyone thought of that before? Wouldn’t you think that some scientist, somewhere, would have noticed that the East Coast is far less sunny than Central Europe and therefore incapable of producing solar power on the same scale?
You would—if it were true. As Media Matters’ Max Greenberg notes, it isn’t. Not even remotely.
UPDATE: Relevant findings (pdf)
In the weeks leading up to his alleged shootings that left three dead and another wounded, former LAPD officer Christopher Jordan Dorner is thought of have stalked some of those named in a manifesto he is believed to have posted online, law enforcement sources told The Times.
I’d doubt few will care except those of us who have the mailed disc version of Netflix (since newer stuff isn’t on streaming) and want to send and receive them on Saturdays.
Apparently trying an end-run around an unaccommodating Congress, the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week.
In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August and could save $2 billion annually.
The move accentuates one of the agency’s strong points – package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet services.
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
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