angeles
California tax scheme
This is really off-topic, but … “Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners — holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear,” says the Los Angeles Times , going on »»» Technically, it’s not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers’ annual tax bills won’t change. Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You’ll be repaid any extra withholding in April.
Continue reading »Newspapers continue downhill slide
In much the same way the corporate entertainment industry has lost its relevancy thanks to P2P communications, the downhill slide of the US press corps(e) continues as newspapers are forced to give way to online scribes, the vast majority of them ordinary people. “The Audit Bureau of Circulatations reported today that the average weekday circulation of the nearly 400 daily papers that reported sales slid 10.6% between April and September compared to the same six-month period in 2008,” says the Los Angeles Times , going on, “That was bigger than the 7.1% decline recorded during the previous six months.” Of America’s five biggest dailies, the Wall Street Journal, “displaced USA Today as the nation’s largest daily, notching a slim 0.6% gain in subscribers to reach slightly more than 2 million,” says the story, continung: “USA Today’s circulation fell 17% to 1.9 million as the Gannett Co. paper, which gets many of its sales at hotels and airports, was hit by the slump in travel.
Continue reading »California Investigating Voting Machine’s Undetectable Vote-Delete Function
LOS ANGELES — California is conducting a months-long investigation in the state’s electronic voting systems after reports of serious flaws — including registered users’ ability to delete votes without even leaving an electronic trail. The investigation is examining how the system’s internal audit logs actually work and whether audit records can be easily altered or deleted, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen. The investigation stems from a serious problem found in January with voting systems made by Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems).
Continue reading »Transformers: Revenge of the Bird!
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is on track to make even more than the original Transformers,” says the Los Angeles Times , going on: “And it could well contend for at least as many Oscars as the first film.” BUUUUUUT —- “unlike Transformers which earned good enough reviews to score 61 at Meta Critic and a very respectable 68 at Rotten Tomatoes, the sequel has been savaged by the critics.” But the only people who hear about the critics are the Hollywood moguls — and the critics. My daughter, Emma (13 next month), and a bunch of her home-school friends went to see T2 when it opened. They all thought it was great.
Continue reading »Phil Spector faces 18 years for murder
p2pnet news view Crime | Music:- Legendary corporate music industry producer Phil Spector (right) once forced Dee Dee Ramone to play bass at gunpoint, said Times Online . He fired a gun in the studio while he was recording John Lennon’s album Rock ‘n’ Roll, And he once showed his wife a gold, glass-topped coffin and, “told her that she’d die there if she ever left him for a member of the Rolling Stones,” said the story. Now Spector, 68, found guilty of second-degree murder of B movie actress Lana Clarkson, faces at least 18 years in jail, says the New York Times : “The jury, ending a five-month trial, reached its decision after 27 hours of deliberating whether he shot the woman in a fit of anger or, as his lawyers argued, merely witnessed her suicide.” Spector already been tried once, the first ending in a hung jury in 2007 with 10 out of 12 calling for a conviction.
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