http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/30/iowa.samesexmarriage/index.html

Don't forget about the Iowa court ruling yesterday!!!

And to the fair share that Wal-Mart doesn't pay for:

Taxes to public hospitals to care for sick employees, food stamps to compensate for super-low wages, and a whole host of other social services that should be supported by wages but aren't because they are so low.

Oh, and good job Iowa. Good luck taking on the Supremes about smiting the man-woman marriage definition, though.

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=291155

www.standupdekalb.org/

A short break from GOP schaedenfruede for something perhaps more worthwhile?

http://www.nbjcoalition.org/news/nbjc-responds-to-sen-larry.html

I'm sorry. What is "tea sex"?

Here ya go Mel:

http://tinyurl.com/2hf7x5

"The phrase tearoom is also gay slang referring to a venue where public sex occurs, referring to tea rooms such as Lyons, but also typically a public toilet: T-Room = Toilet Room."

"Wal-Mart dodges taxes."

Let's see where should I begin??? I guess I will copy and paste a few things and let everyone that wants investigate further if there is an interest.

In March of this year I received an email from a state rep. Here is part of it with some names removed.

State Rep,
I talked to Mack Chandler and Lora Butler (she's the
director of tax law and policy) about the REIT issue. The loophole still exists in Georgia.

In February, Larry O'Neal dropped a bill (HB 447) to
close the loophole. Ms. Butler said that the bill was assigned to Ways & Means, but she does not think there's been a hearing on it yet. She said that it may have been mentioned once during a hearing on something else. Mr. Chandler thinks that the article that you gave me has made its way around the House, so there might be more interest in the bill soon.

I printed HB 447 for you and put it in the wire basket on the desk. Larry O'Neal is currently listed as the only sponsor.

HB 447 http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/sum/hb447.htm

In May of this year I received this as part of an email from the Change to Win group.

CtW Coordinators,

Wal-Mart’s angry response to our campaign against their state tax dodges means we’re hitting them in the right place. A senior Wal-Mart manager wrote to the Capital Times in Wisconsin—where Wal-Mart’s income tax rate is about 1/3rd of one percent—complaining that the paper’s article about Wal-Mart’s tax dodge was “unnecessarily scornful”. Some of the highlights are in the clippings below.

We’re ready to take the next step—calling on state legislators and statewide leaders to make Wal-Mart pay what it owes in:

CT, GA, IA, KY, LA, MD, MA, MI, MS, MO, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, VA, WV, and WI.

Here are parts of 2 news clips that were included.

Wal-Mart’s Use of Real Estate Investment Trusts to Avoid State Taxes
June 2007

A February 2007 Wall Street Journal article detailed how Wal-Mart uses a Real Estate Investment Trust or “REIT” to avoid state corporate income taxes in states that do not required combined reporting.

“Large multi-state companies like Wal-Mart are able to avoid up to $100 million in Iowa taxes annually using loopholes that allow them to shift income and reduce Iowa profits and corporate income tax, according to a report released this morning by the Iowa Policy Project”…Peter Fisher author of the report and a University of Iowa professor “said 16 of 18 Wal-Mart stores in Iowa he studied are owned by the same real estate trust. That income was eventually funneled to Wal-Mart and its executives as tax-free dividends, Fisher said.” (Des Moines Register: April 11, 2007)

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070412/BUSINESS/704120402/1029/BUSINESS

On July 30, Richard, Steve and myself sat down with the Atty. General and discussed how we in GA. need to proceed.

Happy reading over the Labor Day weekend and please remember, this is why we need your support with WakeUpWalmart.com.

If you have not already signed up for this campaign please take a minute now and do so.
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com

Tasso Knight
UFCW 1996

"Wal-Mart dodges taxes."

Let's see where should I begin??? I guess I will copy and paste a few things and let everyone that wants investigate further if there is an interest.

In March of this year I received an email from a state rep. Here is part of it with some names removed.

State Rep,
I talked to Mack Chandler and Lora Butler (she's the
director of tax law and policy) about the REIT issue. The loophole still exists in Georgia.

In February, Larry O'Neal dropped a bill (HB 447) to
close the loophole. Ms. Butler said that the bill was assigned to Ways & Means, but she does not think there's been a hearing on it yet. She said that it may have been mentioned once during a hearing on something else. Mr. Chandler thinks that the article that you gave me has made its way around the House, so there might be more interest in the bill soon.

I printed HB 447 for you and put it in the wire basket on the desk. Larry O'Neal is currently listed as the only sponsor.

HB 447 http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/sum/hb447.htm

In May of this year I received this as part of an email from the Change to Win group.

CtW Coordinators,

Wal-Mart’s angry response to our campaign against their state tax dodges means we’re hitting them in the right place. A senior Wal-Mart manager wrote to the Capital Times in Wisconsin—where Wal-Mart’s income tax rate is about 1/3rd of one percent—complaining that the paper’s article about Wal-Mart’s tax dodge was “unnecessarily scornful”. Some of the highlights are in the clippings below.

We’re ready to take the next step—calling on state legislators and statewide leaders to make Wal-Mart pay what it owes in:

CT, GA, IA, KY, LA, MD, MA, MI, MS, MO, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, VA, WV, and WI.

Here are parts of 2 news clips that were included.

Wal-Mart’s Use of Real Estate Investment Trusts to Avoid State Taxes
June 2007

A February 2007 Wall Street Journal article detailed how Wal-Mart uses a Real Estate Investment Trust or “REIT” to avoid state corporate income taxes in states that do not required combined reporting.

“Large multi-state companies like Wal-Mart are able to avoid up to $100 million in Iowa taxes annually using loopholes that allow them to shift income and reduce Iowa profits and corporate income tax, according to a report released this morning by the Iowa Policy Project”…Peter Fisher author of the report and a University of Iowa professor “said 16 of 18 Wal-Mart stores in Iowa he studied are owned by the same real estate trust. That income was eventually funneled to Wal-Mart and its executives as tax-free dividends, Fisher said.” (Des Moines Register: April 11, 2007)

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070412/BUSINESS/704120402/1029/BUSINESS

On July 30, Richard, Steve and myself sat down with the Atty. General and discussed how we in GA. need to proceed.

Happy reading over the Labor Day weekend and please remember, this is why we need your support with WakeUpWalmart.com.

If you have not already signed up for this campaign please take a minute now and do so.
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com

Tasso Knight
UFCW 1996

A GA Dem with cajones? 'Bout Time.
And he even calls out The Southern Company. Let's see DuBose or Calvin call out The Southern Company. No, that would take courage.

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A295362&comments=yes#lastcomment

But state Sen. David Adelman, D-Atlanta, worries that the hearing could have more damaging consequences than simply providing more embarrassing evidence of, as he calls it, "the continued Alabamization of Georgia."

Adelman says he thinks this was a pre-emptive move by opponents of renewable energy standards. He plans to introduce a bill this spring that would mandate 15 percent of the state's electricity come from renewable resources by the year 2020 – a policy known as a renewable portfolio standard. It's the same measure that was adopted by the coalition of Western states and that has already been approved on a national level by the U.S. House.

Currently, about 70 percent of Georgia energy comes from huge, old-fashioned coal-fired plants, of which two – plants Scherer and Bowen – consistently rank among the nation's dirtiest in terms of carbon emissions and other pollutants.

Adelman didn't attend last week's state House hearing, but he suspects its agenda may have been influenced by the long lobbyist arm of that Atlanta-based überutility, the Southern Co.

"The Southern Co. is the single greatest impediment to a national renewable portfolio standard – and they make no bones about it," he says. "The company's argument is that the South's only resource is wood, and that's expensive."

"Wal-Mart dodges taxes."

Let's see where should I begin??? I guess I will copy and paste a few things and let everyone that wants investigate further if there is an interest.

In March of this year I received an email from a state rep. Here is part of it with some names removed.

State Rep,
I talked to Mack Chandler and Lora Butler (she's the
director of tax law and policy) about the REIT issue. The loophole still exists in Georgia.

In February, Larry O'Neal dropped a bill (HB 447) to
close the loophole. Ms. Butler said that the bill was assigned to Ways & Means, but she does not think there's been a hearing on it yet. She said that it may have been mentioned once during a hearing on something else. Mr. Chandler thinks that the article that you gave me has made its way around the House, so there might be more interest in the bill soon.

I printed HB 447 for you and put it in the wire basket on the desk. Larry O'Neal is currently listed as the only sponsor.

HB 447 http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/sum/hb447.htm

In May of this year I received this as part of an email from the Change to Win group.

CtW Coordinators,

Wal-Mart’s angry response to our campaign against their state tax dodges means we’re hitting them in the right place. A senior Wal-Mart manager wrote to the Capital Times in Wisconsin—where Wal-Mart’s income tax rate is about 1/3rd of one percent—complaining that the paper’s article about Wal-Mart’s tax dodge was “unnecessarily scornful”. Some of the highlights are in the clippings below.

We’re ready to take the next step—calling on state legislators and statewide leaders to make Wal-Mart pay what it owes in:

CT, GA, IA, KY, LA, MD, MA, MI, MS, MO, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, VA, WV, and WI.

Here are parts of 2 news clips that were included.

Wal-Mart’s Use of Real Estate Investment Trusts to Avoid State Taxes
June 2007

A February 2007 Wall Street Journal article detailed how Wal-Mart uses a Real Estate Investment Trust or “REIT” to avoid state corporate income taxes in states that do not required combined reporting.

“Large multi-state companies like Wal-Mart are able to avoid up to $100 million in Iowa taxes annually using loopholes that allow them to shift income and reduce Iowa profits and corporate income tax, according to a report released this morning by the Iowa Policy Project”…Peter Fisher author of the report and a University of Iowa professor “said 16 of 18 Wal-Mart stores in Iowa he studied are owned by the same real estate trust. That income was eventually funneled to Wal-Mart and its executives as tax-free dividends, Fisher said.” (Des Moines Register: April 11, 2007)

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070412/BUSINESS/704120402/1029/BUSINESS

On July 30, Richard, Steve and myself sat down with the Atty. General and discussed how we in GA. need to proceed.

Happy reading over the Labor Day weekend and please remember, this is why we need your support with WakeUpWalmart.com.

If you have not already signed up for this campaign please take a minute now and do so.
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com

Tasso Knight
UFCW 1996