Bruce Mohl on the ongoing effort to trade on well known brand names:
Two huge consumer brands have been busy cloning themselves.
Procter & Gamble Co. rolled out a cold-water version of its blockbuster Tide laundry detergent earlier this month. Coca-Cola Co., meanwhile, unveiled plans to start selling a seventh version of Diet Coke, this time sweetened with Splenda instead of aspartame
The culprit is a once-obscure federal tax provision known as the alternative minimum tax, which was created in 1969 to ensure that a relatively small number of wealthy people did not use loopholes to avoid paying taxes.
But it is increasingly being applied to families with incomes of $75,000 to $250,000 a year who claim relatively high deductions – like the ones for property taxes, state and local income taxes – and the exemption for children. When it does apply, it cancels some of those deductions..
The impact is about to mushroom. Barring a change in the law, almost 19 million taxpayers will be subject next year to the alternative minimum tax, or A.M.T., up from roughly 3.4 million this year and 1.3 million in 2000, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group whose calculations on this issue are widely accepted.
The non-indexing of the Alternative Minimum Tax will cause more problems over the next few years for Wisconsin residents.
We can’t change where people choose to live, but we can begin using some type of proportional representation system. For example, California could use a system like that in Peoria, Ill., for municipal elections. Instead of electing 40 state senators from 40 districts, voters in 10 districts could elect four senators each. Any candidate who won at least a quarter of the vote would earn a seat. These districts would be far more likely to be bipartisan, even electing some urban Republicans and rural Democrats.
Ellen Ullman, author of the excellent, the Bug on the Evils of Multitasking:
Not that Microsoft is the only culprit; distraction is built into the fabric of today’s electronic world. Icons on the PC toolbar flash; ads on Web pages shimmer and dazzle; software companies send e-mail messages to say your software is out of date; word processors interrupt to correct your spelling; Web pages refuse to show themselves until you update a plug-in; lights on laptops blink at you every time the hard drive whirs into motion (which, I’m here to tell you, happens a lot more often than you would ever care to know). The screens of TV cable news programs make three-ring circuses seem calm. You can’t even enjoy the 10th rerun of your favorite “Law and Order” episode without a glittering promo fluttering at the corner of the screen.
Stephanie Simon takes a look at the city “slickers”/dwellers who are buying up farmland as an investment and renting it back to traditional farmers:
Seeking steady, secure investments to round out their portfolios, big-city investors are increasingly buying Midwest farmland, spending $100,000 to $500,000 per field.
Many hire professional farm managers to maximize their profits. The managers, in turn, hire farmers like Wyant — sometimes offering them a stake in the crop but often paying them by the hour (or the acre), like a hired hand.
Madison woke up to an inch or two of snow this morning, with flurries continuing throughout the day.
“We regret to inform you that your identity has been stolen. We hope this does not cause an inconvenience.” Robert O’Harrow, Jr:
Earlier this week, ChoicePoint officials said the records of about 35,000 people in California may have been disclosed. But yesterday, the company said the scope of the scheme is probably much wider than it originally reported. Company officials said they were sending out more letters to 110,000 addresses throughout the country that may be connected to the reports delivered to the fraudsters.
“We have reason to believe your personal information may have been obtained by unauthorized third parties, and we deeply regret any inconvenience this event may
cause you,” the letters say.Authorities said the number of records involved may go higher as the investigation continues. “This is way far more reaching,” said Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Lt. Robert Costa, commander of an identity theft unit. “I believe that when we’re done it will be more than a half million nationally. It’s huge.”
I ran into Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenshlager at the Winter Farmer’s Market and mentioned that only California apparently has a law requiring notification of identity theft…. It’s long past time for Wisconsin to act.
Susan Crawford on the broadcast flag absurdity.
Stallman correctly takes Gates to task for his support of software patents (which are a very bad thing – Gates was against them in 1991. Now that the game is changing, he is of course for them).