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19 Feb 2010 12:06

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U.S.: Plane-crasher Joe Stack’s big issue may have been unfair tax policy

  • What policy? A 1978 law limited how employers could be punished for misclassifying employees as contractors, but in 1986 an exception was made for engineers and computer workers specifically.
  • The effect The exception affected workers like Stack, forcing the employees to have to pay back taxes if the IRS found that they were misclassified. It’s an issue Obama’s still trying to reform today.
  • Joe’s issue Stack spent $5,000 of his own money lobbying to change the law to no effect. The change forced him to pay significant backroll taxes due to his contractor status. He compared himself to a slave. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Feb 2010 10:25

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U.S.: Stranded National Guard helicopter: No deaths but a tough rescue

  • 13 of 17 passengers rescued from a remote part of West Virginia source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2010 13:00

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U.S.: Great: United flight diverted to Salt Lake City after bomb threat



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2010 12:04

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U.S.: From the scene: Austin office building crash live video

  • Early word was that the plane hit an FBI office building, but it appears to have hit NEAR an FBI office building instead, which is less bad. MyFox Austin has a live stream of what’s going on. Fingers crossed for Austin residents. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

18 Feb 2010 11:52

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U.S.: A small plane hit a building in Austin, Tx. Twitter’s on the scene, kinda



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2010 11:12

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U.S.: Accuser in Duke lacrosse case charged with some crazy stuff

  • Crystal Mangum, the Duke lacrosse rape accuser, was charged with attempted murder in a domestic abuse case in Durham, N.C., after getting in a violent confrontation with her boyfriend Milton Walker and setting his clothes on fire in a bathtub. Above is her police mugshot. We expect this photo to get shown on TV a lot today. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2010 10:56

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U.S.: Amy Bishop had a case of Amazon Fever, John Irving worship

  • Her unpublished novel“Amazon Fever” holds some clues to her mental state. In “Fever,” the main character, Olivia, is an Alabama professor who attempts to revive her career by going to the Amazon and trying to figure out why a strange disease is killing monkeys.
  • her anxieties Peppered within, though, are anxieties that seem to be Bishop’s own – mainly about being a successful scientist. It’s something Bishop may have struggled with – a Harvard graduate, she was at a small-time university and was embarrassed of her beat-up car.
  • her second cousinThe suspect in the University of Alabama-Huntsville shootings, who had been denied tenure, was also a second cousin of novelist John Irving, writer of “The Cider House Rules.” Friends say that, along with her Harvard pedigree, made her a wee bit arrogant. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

17 Feb 2010 20:29

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U.S.: Silicon Valley in mourning after death of Tesla Motors workers

  • The future of electric cars may have been on the plane that crashed in this Silicon Valley neighborhood. Three Tesla Motors employees were on board, and they all died. “We are withholding their identities as we work with the relevant authorities to notify the families,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Tesla is a small, tightly knit company, and this is a tragic day for us.” The crash created a huge power outage in the region, which made a horribly depressing situation even worse. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Feb 2010 12:05

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Politics, U.S.: New York Times: The stimulus bill an unheralded success

  • The program has had its flaws. But the attention they have received is wildly disproportionate to their importance. To hark back to another big government program, it’s almost as if the lasting image of the lunar space program was Apollo 6, an unmanned 1968 mission that had engine problems, and not Apollo 11, the moon landing.
  • New York Times journalist David Leonhardt • In an analysis piece describing why the stimulus program actually worked. The numbers are somewhat inconsistent, but he points out in his article that yes, the stimulus has actually improved the job picture. People disagree on the details and Republicans will use it as a good excuse to trash Obama, but the numbers, Leonhardt argues, favor Obama. One point worth noting: In most worldwide financial crises this century, it generally takes five years for jobs to bounce back to normal numbers. Obama’s already doing better than that, Leonhardt says. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Feb 2010 11:08

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U.S.: How much did the stimulus help? Depends on who you ask

  • 1.5+ million jobs have been saved already, according to Obama’s chief economic adviser, who used a mathematical formula
  • 500,000 jobs have been saved so far, according to the CEO of Onvia, a contractor-advising company that tracks government spending source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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