On Sat. Feb. 23rd at the Oklahoma State Capitol, we will have an opportunity to assemble and to demonstrate those numbers and make it very clear to our elected representatives that Oklahomans expect their privacy rights to be respected! Continue reading →
"Senior members of President Barack Obama’s administration want to put the mastermind of last month’s attack on an Algerian natural-gas facility on a secret 'kill' list, The Wall Street Journal reported. Adding Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar to a US list for targeted killing would entail a significant US military expansion into northwestern Africa, the newspaper said, citing unnamed US officials. It would mean extending drone strikes and other lethal counterterrorism operations to the region, the paper added." Continue reading →
"President Barack Obama is facing a liberal backlash over his hardline national security policy, which critics say is more extreme and conservative than that pursued by George W Bush. The outrage comes after a week in which Obama’s nominee to be the next head of the CIA, current White House adviser John Brennan, faced a grilling from the Senate intelligence committee over his enthusiastic support of using unmanned drones to strike suspected Islamic militants all over the globe." Continue reading →
"Treasury secretary nominee Jack Lew will face questions at his confirmation hearing next week about an investment fund registered in a Cayman Islands building that has been called a notorious site for tax haven abuse. Lew held between $50,000 and $100,000 in the fund… The investment fund could become an issue during the upcoming hearing because Lew’s job as Treasury secretary would give him a major role in shaping the administration’s tax policy. The president has targeted tax haven abuse as a major problem in the country’s tax system." Continue reading →
"Under Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s proposed sales-tax expansion plan, Ohioans may soon be paying sales tax on music downloads, parking garages and even funerals. 'Essentially, the tax would be assessed on all but about 40 of types of economic activity,' the Dispatch reported. The scope of the new sales tax proposal, however, is broad. It will include charges on bank services, bowling allies, hunting and fishing guilds, and amusement parks, concerts and sporting events that are not deemed educational." Continue reading →
"Scott Schmith is a patriot and a US military veteran but he is no longer a US citizen: Sick of complex tax rules making his life in Switzerland miserable he recently handed back his passport. 'It was a pretty big decision and there was a bit of anxiety,' said the 50-year-old photographer who served in the 1990-91 Gulf war and has been living in Switzerland since 1993. But once he received his Swiss passport and handed back his US one last September, 'it was like a load of weight off my shoulders.' A growing number of American expats are opting to give up their citizenship rather than deal with the increasing difficulties imposed on them by US tax authorities." Continue reading →
"Venezuela devalued its bolivar currency on Friday by 32 percent in a widely expected move that will shore up government finances after ailing President Hugo Chavez's blowout election-year spending in 2012 but will also spur galloping inflation. The move slashes the official bolivar exchange rate to 6.3 per dollar from 4.3 under currency controls Chavez created in 2003 that require importers and travelers to apply for hard currency through a state agency. Dollars on the illegal black market had for weeks been fetching nearly four times the official exchange, which economists cited as a sign an exchange rate adjustment was imminent." Continue reading →
"On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security, along with a SWAT team and Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies raided the home of Robert Adams in Albuquerque, New Mexico and, according to a federal search warrant affidavit the raid seized nearly 1,500 firearms from the man’s home and business. While having been watched for years and no charges filed as they seized Adam’s firearms, Federal investigators are saying that they are investigating him for gun smuggling, tax evasion, violating importation laws." Continue reading →
"The Strategy for Action unifies, for the first time, federal action to advance healthy housing, demonstrating the connection between housing conditions and residents’ health. It also promotes strategies and methods intended to reduce in-home health hazards in a cost-effective manner. 'Thanks to unprecedented collaboration across the federal family and among our many partners, we now have a specific plan for action to address radon and other preventable hazards found in homes across the country. This is important progress,' said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson." Continue reading →
"The Federal Aviation Administration has finally released a new drone authorization list. This list, released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, includes law enforcement agencies and universities across the country, and—for the first time—an Indian tribal agency. In all, the list includes more than 20 new entities over the FAA’s original list, bringing to 81 the total number of public entities that have applied for FAA drone authorizations through October 2012." Continue reading →