Amazon settles sales tax fight with Texas comptroller
Ross Ramsey:
Amazon.com will start collecting sales taxes from Texas customers this
summer and agreed to make capital investments of $200 million and
create 2,500 jobs in the state over the next four years, Comptroller
Susan Combs announced this morning. In return, the state will
drop its efforts to collect back sales taxes from the company. …
With the new deal, the company will start collecting sales taxes on
July 1.
Reciprocal and Sustainable Community
Ann and Derran Reese:
However, I am becoming a bigger believer in the idea that the most
significant cause for poverty is out (or at least my) unwillingness to
live in reciprocal, self-sacrificing community with the “other”. I
create poverty when I grasp on tightly to what is mine. I create it by
holding onto the differences between “us” and “them.” I create the
poor because I do not see them as my brother or sister. What the world
needs is a people who hold onto things loosely in order to live in
reciprocal and sustainable community.
The Apostle John put it this way:
How
does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a
brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us
love, not in word or speech, but in truth and
action.
Don’t Let Business Lobbyists Kill the Post Office
Conventional wisdom says that the US Postal Service is going broke
because it has an out of date business model, and that it is a waste of
government resources.
Matt Taibbi reports:
But politics also plays a huge part in this. In 2006, in what looks
like an attempt to bust the Postal Workers’ Union, George Bush signed
into law the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. This
law required the Postal Service to pre-fund 100 percent of its entire
future obligations for 75 years of health benefits to its employees —
and not only do it, but do it within ten years. No other organization,
public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent of its future health
benefits.
The impact of this legislation?
The new law forced the postal service to come up with about $5.5
billion a year for the ten years following the bill’s passage. In
2006, before those payments kicked in, the USPS generated a small
profit. Not surprisingly, the USPS is now basically broke.
Report Text Message Spam to AT&T
Glenn Fleishman:
- Bring up the text message in Messages and be sure not to click any
embedded URLs in the message.- Tap Edit.
- Tap the empty circular (radio-style) button to the left of the
unwanted message. The Forward button activates.- Tap the Forward button.
- Enter 7726 (the numeric equivalent of the letters S, P, A, and M on
a telephone keypad) and tap Send.- AT&T responds with a message asking you to send the number from
which the message originated (this and the spam report are cost-free
if you have a limited message plan).
Robery Wilonsky:
…Last summer First Assistant City Manager A.C. Gonzalez told the
city council it also intends to use license plate recognition cams to
“locate individuals owning outstanding City of Dallas fines and fees
by identifying their vehicles on Dallas streets and then posting
notices on vehicles that may have outstanding bills with the Dallas
Courts offices.” None of which sits well with at least one local
defense attorney.
Ted's Tidbits 