QUOTE OF THE DAY
Business Insider: Spain Just Passed An Insane Law Taxing Google For Linking To News
Last week, Spain passed a law that taxes any site that links to articles published by members of Spain’s newspaper association with descriptions of their work.
The law has been nicknamed the “Google Tax” because it specifically targets Google News, as well as other news aggregation systems.
This sounds crazy: Google News, which lists major headlines on a given topic with a line from each piece, is great for publishers because it pushes tons of readers onto their websites.
Forbes: Pence’s Playbook Nets Over 100,000 Jobs In Indiana
There are some true leaders in the Heartland Tax Revolution, and their leadership creates high-impact results. Case in point: Indiana. Governor Mike Pence’s commitment to boosting his state’s economy is already paying dividends. A firm supporter of tax reform, Governor Pence signed into law a package of tax cuts that gave Indiana one of the nation’s lowest corporate tax rates. The law goes into effect in the latter half of 2015, and by the time the cut is fully phased in (in 2021), Indiana will boast the second-lowest corporate tax in the nation.
Encouraging figures show that Pence’s approach is already working. In 2013, Indiana netted 50,000 new jobs. This year, only midway through summer, nearly 54,000 new jobs have been created. In June alone, Indiana saw an increase of 10,000 private-sector jobs. What’s more, Indiana already ranks among the top ten states with the best state business tax climate, according to thenonpartisan Tax Foundation’s 2014 report. (The individual income tax burden is tenth-lowest in the nation, and Pence would like to reduce it even further.)
Illinois News Network: State Fair officials found in violation of Ethics Act
Two State Fair officials have been found in violation of the Ethics Act’s ban on gifts under the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.
John Rednour, Jr., former-manager of the DuQuoin State Fair has been charged an administrative fine of $5,000 and asked to step down from his position as chairman of the DuQuoin State Bank after an investigation by the EXECUTIVE ETHICS COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS found he violated the Ethics Act during the 2012 fair.
Amy Bliefnick, manager of the Illinois State Fair, was levied an administrative fine of $1,000 plus two days suspension without pay for accepting unsolicited gifts in violation of the act.
Pew Charitable Trust: States Debate Regulating Digital Currency
Now that consumers can use digital currencies like bitcoin to buy rugs from Overstock.com, pay for Peruvian pork sandwiches from a food truck in Washington, D.C. and even make donations to political action committees, states are beginning to explore how to regulate the emerging industry.
Digital currencies — also known as virtual currencies or cash for the Internet —allow people to transfer value over the Internet, but are not legal tender. Because they don’t require third-party intermediaries such as credit card companies or PayPal, merchants and consumers can avoid the fees typically associated with traditional payment systems.
Advocates of virtual currencies also say that because personal information is not tied to transactions, digital currencies are less prone to identity theft.
Belleville News Democrat: In context, Illinois unemployment rate isn’t so good
Less is making Illinois’ unemployment rate look better, but the Illinois Policy Institute explains that it’s a distorted view. The unemployment rate dropped from 7.5 percent to 7.1 percent in June. However, the improvement is not because of job creation. Instead, people have quit looking for a job and are leaving the workforce — 21,700 of them in June. The institute said the number is worse than the worst month of the Great Recession, September 2008, when 17,500 Illinoisans left the workforce. Yikes.
The state also reported 5,200 net new jobs in June, but Illinois is down 18,100 jobs for 2014 — the worst record in the nation. The Policy Institute said Illinois is the only Midwest state to have a net loss of jobs in 2014.
Gov. Pat Quinn said after the unemployment numbers were announced that the state needs to keep the momentum. But as the Policy Institute notes, the momentum is in the wrong direction.
Bloomberg: Memphis Cops Call in Sick in New Tactic to Stop Cuts
Police and firefighters in Memphis are calling in sick by the scores as a new Tennessee law kicks in requiring cities to stop shortchanging workers’ pensions.
Their beef: Memphis’s plan to comply. Tennessee’s largest city, which for years has failed to save enough to support promised retirement checks, plans to make up that sum by eliminating retirees’ health insurance, which has fewer legal protections. At one point, 558 police officers stayed home, one fourth of the force, in a city that had the sixth-highest incidence of violent crime in the U.S. last year. At the end of last week, 131 were out.
The workers say Memphis should find money to shore up their pensions by rolling back business-tax breaks, which cost more than the city pays for their insurance each year. It’s an argument unions want to advance nationally to parry challenges to their benefits by cash-strapped governments.
Huffington Post: Three Cities Show How Food Trucks Live and Die on Political Whim
Maybe you don’t care about food trucks.
Maybe you eat leftovers at your desk, or frequent the restaurant next to your office.
But if you care about people having access to good, reasonably priced food, and the ability to open and operate a safe, responsible and successful business, the food-truck fight happening across the country should matter to you.
Chicago Tribune: State watchdog faults Metra for falsifying work logs
The state’s top watchdog today issued the results of two investigations at Metra, including a case that found a longstanding practice of falsifying federal work logs intended to ensure employees limit their hours of service to safe levels
The other investigation determined that a Metra Police Department lieutenant violated the state ethics act by completing a mandatory online ethics training program for four other police officers, who should have done it themselves.
In the work log case, Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said that a Metra practice called “change of assignment” resulted in the falsification of Federal Railroad Administration hours of service logs, which are completed for the safety of travelers and employees.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
