January 30, 2012
From The Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Contact Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
East Haven Police Chief Resigns; Commissioners Want Him Fired
Jan 30, 2012 3:55 PM
Embattled East Haven police chief Len Gallo announced his
retirement Monday, although the head of the town's police commission said he
wants Gallo fired so he can't collect unused vacation and sick time that could
total more than $100,000. Read more...
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Where did billions go?
(CNN) -- The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about
$2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete list of U.S.-funded
reconstruction projects, according to two new government audits.
The reports come from the office of the Special Inspector
General for Iraq
Reconstruction. FULL STORY at
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/29/world/meast/iraq-us-audit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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Visit http://PensionTsunami.com To Learn How States are Dealing with
Lucrative Public Employee Pension Benefits
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Congress exempt from some laws, but others apply WASHINGTON (AP) Jan 30, 2012 -- The Senate is opening debate
on legislation to ban insider financial trading by members of Congress, though
the Securities and Exchange Commission says lawmakers already are subject to
the same prohibitions as other investors. Congress, however, is exempt from
provisions of several other federal laws. In 1995, the House and Senate passed
the Congressional Accountability Act that did apply many civil rights, labor
and workplace safety statutes to the legislative branch. Congress is still
exempt from: -The Freedom of Information Act -
Continued at … http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_UNDER_LAW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-30-14-29-29
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Also check out the following
contained in this edition of Tax Talk…..
Ø
Jon Lender: Firing At Anti-Poverty Agency Bares Claims Of
Funding Misuse
Ø
More talk of tolls down the road for state legislature
Ø
Pentagon prepares for new military talks with Iraq
Ø
Malloy gets final approval for Jackson Lab investment
Ø
Will State Copy New Haven’s School
Reform?
Ø
Freddie Mac Bets Against American
Homeowners
Ø
Foreclosure Crisis: Banks and
Government Fail Homeowners
Ø
'Budget Crisis' in New London | NBC Connecticut
Ø
One Soldier's Progress Against
Traumatic Brain Injury
Ø
Brain Wars: How the Military Is
Failing Its Wounded
Ø
Thousands of federal workers owe back taxes
Ø
Brown ordered firing of regulator who took hard line on oil
firms
Ø
Con Artist Shares Inside Story of Google Pharmacy Ad Sting
...
Ø
Capital Gains Tax Rates Are Higher Than You Think, and
Getting ... Higher
Ø
Hollywood money flows to Calif. politicians who support anti
...-piracy bills
Ø
Haley Barbour's Pardon of Murderers
Shows Political Corruption Is Alive & Well
Ø
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship | The Washington-Wall
Street Revolving Door Keeps Spinning
Ø
Human Rights Watch: Iraq getting worse
Ø
Park City Vantage Point Puts Tragedy of American Health Care
in ...Vivid Relief
Ø
Being ex-president can be lucrative gig
Ø
Censoring of Tweets Sets Off #Outrage
Ø
Opinion: How to tame super PACs
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Jon Lender: Firing At Anti-Poverty Agency Bares Claims Of
Funding Misuse January 29, 2012|Jon
Lender, Government Watch A top
administrator's forced resignation at the Hartford-based Community Renewal Team
has bared allegations of irregularities and improprieties inside the regional
anti-poverty agency, which annually handles tens of millions of dollars in
state and federal grants. State Auditors
Robert Ward and John Geragosian confirmed Friday that
their office spent months investigating a complaint filed last April by a
"whistleblower" about alleged misuse of grant funds by CRT, and that
they had referred it to state Attorney General George Jepsen
for review in late September. Asked if he is investigating, Jepsen
said: "Our policy is that we don't comment on matters such as
this." Read full report at …..http://articles.courant.com/2012-01-29/news/hc-lender-column-crt-0129-20120129_1_crt-legal-counsel-resignation
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More talk of tolls down the road for state legislature
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Pentagon prepares for new military talks with Iraq
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Malloy gets final approval for Jackson Lab investment By Keith M. Phaneuf
Jan 30, 2012 Gov. The State Bond
Commission voted 8-2 to release $291 million, which will pay to build a new
173,000-square-foot research center for The Jackson Laboratory on the
University of Connecticut Health Center campus in Farmington. The funds also
will provide equipment and furniture for the facility, and will subsidize
roughly one-third of operating costs for the next decade. Financed over years,
the $291 million investment will cost the state another $153 million in
interest charges, according to a projection from nonpartisan legislative
analysts. Continued at …. http://ctmirror.org/story/15227/malloy-gets-final-approval-jackson-labs-investment
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Wall Street:
The Candidate’s Friend | Truthout
Jan 27, 2012 Michael Winship, Truthout:
"President Obama may talk a good populist game
and even kick some corporate butt when he goes on the attack against Wall
Street 'fat cats.' Yet he still enjoys the company of bankers ... and for all
their grumbling about his policies, the investment community is coming up with
significant cash for his re-election; the kind of change they believe in....
Among these ... are employees of big-name firms including Goldman Sachs, Morgan
Stanley, Barclays and Citigroup." the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation has
a press release headlined, “Political Contributions from Financial
Sector Increased 700% since 1990,”which links to this analysis.
“Wealthy financial sector donors gave $178.2 million in political contributions
in 2010, more than ten times what they gave 20 years ago,” they report (when
you adjust for inflation, that’s 700 percent). “More than any other
industry, individuals from the finance, insurance and real estate
(FIRE) sector, particularly those in securities and investments, are
the key drivers of the overall growth of elite donors, or what Sunlight
calls the political one percent of the one
percent.” Read the Article at http://www.truth-out.org/wall-street-candidates-friend/1327701532
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Freddie Mac Bets Against American
Homeowners by Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica and Chris
Arnold, NPR News | @eisingerj Jan 30,
2012 The taxpayer-owned mortgage giant
made investments that profited if borrowers stayed stuck in high-interest loans
while making it harder for them to get out of those loans. This story was
co-published with NPR News and is continued at ….. http://www.propublica.org/article/freddy-mac-mortgage-eisinger-arnold
More coverage: Foreclosure Crisis: Banks and
Government Fail Homeowners
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'Budget Crisis' in New London | NBC Connecticut
Finizio says New London faces budget crisis
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One Soldier's Progress Against
Traumatic Brain Injury
Brain Wars: How the Military Is Failing
Its Wounded
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Thousands of federal workers owe back taxes January 26,
2012 By KEN THOMAS Data from the
Internal Revenue Service found that more than 279,000 federal employees and
retirees owed $3.4 billion in back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2010. The data
showed that 467 employees of the House of Representatives, or about 4.2 percent
of the workforce, owed more than $8.5 million. In the Senate, 217 employees, or
about 3 percent of the workforce, owed $2.13 million. Obama's
staff was not immune, either, with 36 people in Obama's
executive office of nearly 1,800 workers — about 2 percent — owing the
government $833,970 in back taxes. Obama used part of
his State of the Union address Tuesday night to promote economic fairness,
arguing for changes in the tax code that would create a minimum tax rate of at
least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. The finances of one of
his chief Republican rivals, Mitt Romney, has been scrutinized because he, like
many millionaires, pays a lower rate because most of his income came from
investments, which are taxed at a lower rate. Continued at … http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20120126&id=14732607&rrurt=1&rrcontrolId=ratCntrlBinary
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Brown ordered firing of regulator who took hard line on oil firms By Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles
Times January 29, 2012 Reporting from Sacramento— Late last year,
Gov. Jerry Brown pushed for
a top state regulator to ease key requirements for companies seeking to tap California's oil. The
official balked. Relaxing rules on underground injection, a risky method of oil
ex traction common in the state, would violate environmental laws, wrote Derek Chernow, then head of the Department of Conservation, in a
memo obtained by The Times. The process, in which a rush of steam, water and
chemicals flushes oil from old wells, had been linked to spills, eruptions and
a Kern County worker's death. The federal
government had asked the state to tighten its regulations, but the oil industry
complained that the stringent rules were killing jobs. Continued at …. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oil-20120129,0,1986503.story
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Con Artist Shares Inside Story of Google Pharmacy Ad Sting
...
by Miranda Miller,
January 27, 2012 David Whitaker used his Rhode Island electronics equipment company,
MixITforME.com, to scam customers and a credit card processing company out of
up to $20 million in 2005. After accepting millions of dollars in orders for iPods and failing to fulfill many, Whitaker did what any
reasonable person would do... he hired a private security detail, rented a
private jet, and skipped town. It wasn’t his first time at the rodeo. Whitaker
had stolen his mother’s credit card at 16 years old, to rent a private jet and take
his girlfriend on a shopping spree. When he started MixITforMe.com in Rhode Island, Whitaker was already fleeing probation in Massachusetts, for
larceny charges. He needed a partner to lend some capital and a bit of
legitimacy to his new venture, so Whitaker teamed up with a man named Cory
Johnson. Within a few months, they had moved from a home-based business to
occupy three floors of a downtown Providence
office building. Whitaker and Johnson recruited management experts from CompUSA
and other dot-coms. He was living the high life, with
a $200,000 a month mansion in Miami, a $9,000 a
month home in Jamestown,
and his own bodyguards and security staff. Whitaker even threw a half-million dollar
New Year’s Eve party. After fleeing the U.S.
over that pesky missing millions deal, Whitaker set up shop in Mexico. This
time, he operated as an online pharmacy, specializing in the sale of illegal
growth hormones and steroids to Americans. He decided to write the Wall Street Journal from prison recently to
tell his side of the tale that resulted in one of the largest financial
settlements in history.It was a stroke of luck for U.S. federal authorities that in March 2008,
this convincing, disarming, and charming career criminal was arrested in Mexico for
entering the country illegally. Upon his extradition, he told authorities how
complicit Google Adwords had been in helping him advertise his illegal business to U.S. consumers.
"It was very obvious to Google that my website was not a licensed
pharmacy," Whitaker wrote to the Journal. "Understanding this, Google
provided me with a very generous credit line and allowed me to set my target
advertising directly to American consumers." Read Article at …… http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2142026/Con-Artist-Shares-Inside-Story-of-Google-Pharmacy-Ad-Sting
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Capital Gains Tax Rates Are Higher Than You Think, and
Getting ... Higher e21 Team | January 27, 2012 The President’s State of the Union Address
included discussion of the proper level of taxation for investment income.
Specifically, the President suggested it was improper for investment income to
be taxed at a much lower rate than labor income. This obscures the actual
taxation rates faced by investors. Capital
gains are taxed twice, but this isn’t really clear on the typical tax return.
This partly explains why the issue of double taxation is often misunderstood.
Here is a simplified example to help clarify things: Read complete article at http://www.economics21.org/blog/capital-gains-tax-rates-are-higher-you-think-and-getting-higher
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Former City Colleges Chief’s
Sick Pay Windfall - Chicago News ...
by PATRICK REHKAMP
| Jan 26, 2012 While many public and
private employers have a “use-it-or-lose-it” policy toward sick time, Wayne
Watson will be paid for most of the 500 unused sick days he accrued before
leaving the top job at Chicago’s community colleges – a perk worth $500,000,
according to records obtained by the Better Government Association. Watson
already has received about $300,000 of that sum since he stepped down in 2009,
and he is due to get two more annual payments of $100,000. He was among the
biggest beneficiaries of a policy that generated more than $7 million in
post-employment payments for another 140 former City Colleges of Chicago employees in the
past decade. City Colleges records show the system has
paid those retirees at least $3 million and still owes them a total of $4.2
million. Continued at ….. http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/former-city-colleges-chief-due-500000-in-unused-sick-pay/
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Hollywood money flows to Calif. politicians who support anti
...-piracy bills January 24, 2012 | Will Evans, California Watch
Hollywood is threatening
politicians with one thing they hold very dear: campaign cash. As anti-piracy
legislation stalled in Congress last week, the movie industry's top lobbyist,
former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, warned Democrats not to count on Hollywood
money if they turn their backs on the industry's legislative priority.
Among the biggest recipients of Hollywood money are Californian members of
Congress who remain supportive of the controversial anti-piracy bills. Eight
Californians in the House of Representatives, as well as Democratic U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, co-sponsored the
bills, representing more co-sponsors than from any other state. Continued at …. http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/hollywood-money-flows-calif-politicians-who-support-anti-piracy-bills-14591
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Haley Barbour's Pardon of Murderers
Shows Political Corruption Is Alive & Well The Stir
Posted by Adriana Velez
on January 12, 2012 at 12:55 PM What a corrupt legacy former Mississippi
Governor Haley Barbour leaves behind. I was shocked by the 200+ pardons he
issued on his way out of office, but the more you dig into the details, the uglier
the picture gets. Barbour's many shady pardons make Mississippi politics look like a backwards
swampland of good-old-boys back-scratching, a reputation that will stick to the
governor's mansion like tar. I don't envy the incoming governor's job of cleaning
up this tarnished reputation.
Four of the pardoned inmates are former trustees of the Governor's Mansion. They
were all convicted of murder. And they walked free this past weekend. David
Gatlin and Anthony McCray killed their wives (well, in Gaitlin's
case, ex-wife), Joseph Ozment killed a man in a
robbery, and Charles Hooker was sentenced for life for murder. True, they were
convicted before Barbour's two terms as governor, but it still makes Barbour
look like one of the most corrupt governors in American history. So there's a
lesson learned -- working for a governor has its benefits, especially if you
plan on killing someone someday.I don't mean to be
flippant here. I'm just shocked and sickened by this news. Not only were they
pardoned -- but they were among the first to be released! A Mississippi judge has blocked 21 of
Barbour's pardons, but it's too late for these four. And keep in mind, these
are not "alleged" murderers. These are men who were found guilty of
murder by a court of law.None of these men had been
released early for good behavior. And the weak reason Barbour gave for all the
pardons makes no sense at all. "The pardons were intended to allow them to
find gainful employment or acquire professional licenses as well as hunt and
vote." Yup, wouldn't want to deprive a convicted killer a hunting license,
now, would we?What do you think about former Governor
Barbour's pardons? Continued at …..
http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/131425/haley_barbours_pardon_of_murderers
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Bill Moyers
and Michael Winship | The Washington-Wall Street
Revolving Door Keeps Spinning Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Moyers & Co.: "And so it goes, the revolving door
between government service and big money in the private sector spinning so fast
it becomes an irresistible force hurling politics and high finance together so
completely it's impossible to tell one from the other." Continued at ….. http://www.truth-out.org/washington-wall-street-revolving-door-keeps-spinning/1327435866
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Human Rights Watch: Iraq getting worse
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Park City Vantage Point Puts Tragedy of American Health Care
in ...Vivid Relief An estimated
700,000 American families file for bankruptcy every year because of medical
debt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/park-city-vantage-point-p_b_1223842.html
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Being ex-president can be lucrative gig January 27, 2012|By Brianna Keilar,
CNN White House Correspondent 
Being
president pays; $400,000 a year, in fact. That salary has increased over time.
President Harry Truman left office in 1949 making $100,000. When Richard Nixon
entered the White House in 1969 the salary went up to $200,000. It remained
there for 30 years, until Congress doubled the presidential salary effective in
2001, when President George W. Bush took office……"My Life" netted
Bill Clinton a $15 million advance. George W. Bush earned $7 million for the
first 1.5 million copies of "Decision Points."
Jimmy Carter has written 14 books. Read complete article at
….. http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-27/politics/politics_pays-to-be-president_1_book-sales-decision-points-president-obama?_s=PM:POLITICS
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Censoring of Tweets Sets Off #Outrage Somini
Sengupta, Jan 27, 2012 The New York Times News
Service: "[Twitter] became a bullhorn for millions of people worldwide,
especially vital in nations that tend to muzzle their own people. But this
week, in a sort of coming-of-age moment, Twitter announced
that upon request, it would block certain messages in countries where they were
deemed illegal. The move immediately prompted outcry, argument and even calls
for a boycott from some users.
Continued at ….. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/technology/when-twitter-blocks-tweets-its-outrage.html?_r=1
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Opinion: How to tame super PACs By Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Special to CNN updated 9:19 AM
EST, Sun January 29, 2012 (CNN) -- For more than half a year, super PACs and
other third-party advertisers have aired misleading attacks against Republican
Massachusetts incumbent Sen. Scott Brown and his probable Democratic opponent,
professor Elizabeth Warren. (You can see a sample of these ads at FlackCheck.org.). By calling on these groups to stay out of
their contest, Brown and Warren are attempting to do something
about "air pollution" in their state. There's a way that Massachusetts viewers
and TV and radio stations in the state can help them achieve that goal. Continued at ….. http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/29/opinion/jamieson-tame-super-pacs/index.html?hpt=hp_t2