Record Number of Americans Renounce Citizenship
April 17th, 2012Via: Reuters:
Last year, almost 1,800 people followed Superman’s lead, renouncing their U.S. citizenship or handing in their Green Cards. That’s a record number since the Internal Revenue Service began publishing a list of those who renounced in 1998. It’s also almost eight times more than the number of citizens who renounced in 2008, and more than the total for 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.
But not everyone’s motivations are as lofty as Superman’s. Many say they parted ways with America for tax reasons.
The United States is one of the only countries to tax its citizens on income earned while they’re living abroad. And just as Americans stateside must file tax returns each April – this year, the deadline is Tuesday – an estimated 6.3 million U.S. citizens living abroad brace for what they describe as an even tougher process of reporting their income and foreign accounts to the IRS. For them, the deadline is June.
The National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office, part of the IRS, released a report in December that details the difficulties of filing taxes from overseas. It cites heavy paperwork, a lack of online filing options and a dearth of local and foreign-language resources.
For those wishing to legally escape the filing requirements, the only way is to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship. Last year, IRS records show that at least 1,788 people did, and that’s likely an underestimate. The IRS publishes in the Federal Register the names of those who give up their citizenship, and some who renounced say they haven’t seen their name on the list yet.
Related:
Surreal Situation in U.S. Post Office
For Many Immigrants’ Children, American Dream Lies Abroad [h/t KL]
Blackhawk Choppers Buzz Chicago Skyscrapers
April 17th, 2012Via: NBC:
Workers in Chicago’s Loop business district were distracted from their work as Blackhawk helicopters rattled windows as they flew among the city’s skyscrapers.
The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications on Monday announced that Chicago is the site of a military training exercise this week involving personnel and at least three helicopters.
Calling it routine training, city officials say in a statement such exercises are conducted by military personnel in various cities around the country. They say the exercises are designed to improve the military’s ability to operate in urban environments.
Related: ‘If you notice a heavy military presence around downtown Los Angeles this week, don’t be alarmed’
Photos of Daily Life in the U.S. Government’s Secret Atomic City
April 17th, 2012What does this sign mean?
Security, That's All
Via: io9:
In 1942, the US government acquired the town of Oak Ridge in eastern Tennessee. From then on, Oak Ridge was just like any other town — except for the fences, the guards, and the top-secret uranium separating facility.
Related: DOE-Oakridge’s Photostream
Flashback: The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
Michigan Government Unleashes Armed Raids on Small Pig Farmers; Traditional Livestock Declared ‘Invasive Species’
April 17th, 2012Why does the state respond to people who sell homekilled meat in the same way that it responds to people who violently attack the state? … It’s because ubiquitous, small scale agriculture represents a greater threat to state power than armed resistance.
—“What if the millions of so-called dropouts are onto something?”
Via: Natural News:
NaturalNews can now confirm that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has, in total violation of the Fourth Amendment, conducted two armed raids on pig farmers in that state, one in Kalkaska County at Fife Lake and another in Cheboygan County. Staging raids involving six vehicles and ten armed men, DNA conducted unconstitutional, illegal and arguably criminal armed raids on these two farms with the intent of shooting all the farmers’ pigs under a bizarre new “Invasive Species Order” (ISO) that has suddenly declared traditional livestock to be an invasive species.
Wal-Mart Nominates Google Vice President to Board
April 17th, 2012Via: AP:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday that it nominated Google Inc. Vice President Marissa Mayer to its board of directors, a move that the discount retailer says will help it sell more products through mobile devices.
Mayer, 36, is vice president of Google’s “local and maps” division, which means she oversees products and software used on mobile devices like smartphones or tablet computes. Retailers like Wal-Mart are competing to sell more of their goods through mobile devices as more consumers use them to shop.
“We are on the cusp of a massive transformation in the way people shop in our increasingly connected world. Marissa’s insights and expertise in the technology and consumer areas are valuable assets to Wal-Mart as we move forward,” Wal-Mart Chairman Rob Walton said in a statement.
Mayer’s nomination expands the number of Wal-Mart’s board to 16 members. She must be approved by a shareholder vote at the company’s annual meeting on June 1.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Autism Linked to Industrial Food, Toxic Chemicals
April 17th, 2012Via: Common Dreams:
A new study by Clinical Epigenetics, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses largely on diseases, has found that the rise in autism in the United States could be linked to the industrial food system, specifically the prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the American diet. The study, published yesterday online, explores how mineral deficiencies could impact how the human body rids itself of common toxic chemicals like mercury and pesticides. The report comes just after a different report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, documented a startling rise in autism in the United States.
“To better address the explosion of autism, it’s critical we consider how unhealthy diets interfere with the body’s ability to eliminate toxic chemicals, and ultimately our risk for developing long-term health problems like autism.” said Dr. David Wallinga, a study co-author and physician at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
Research Credit: RP
U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms
April 16th, 2012This is from 2011.
Via: ABC News:
Companies Pass IT Staff Emails Through Monitoring Software Designed to Spot ‘The Enemy Within’
April 16th, 2012Mmmkay?
Via: IT World:
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article on how IT departments are coping these days with the biggest threat to data security — namely, employees in the IT department.
That the “enemy within” is the biggest threat to an enterprise is nothing new, but buried in the article was something that struck me as, well, Orwellian. The WSJ reports that some organizations “are even using new technology to look at the language of their IT staff’s emails to determine whether their behavior or mind-set has changed.”
“If you start to feel differently about the company you work for and the people you work with, you’d be surprised how your language changes,” says Ed Stroz, co-president at digital-risk-management firm Stroz Friedberg LLC, New York. The company, like other consulting firms such as Ernst & Young, makes technology to examine linguistics.
Common red flags include a dramatic change in the length of a person’s emails. For example, someone may start writing emails of half a dozen words when their messages used to read like novels. Other tip-offs: a rise in the number of anger-related phrases, greater use of the word “me,” and signs of more-polarized thinking, like the words “never” and “always.”
I understand the need to be aware of the attitudes of workers with high-level access to data and networks, but this strikes me as creepy. What if an IT employee suddenly has relationship problems or family issues? Will they then be flagged by HR as potentially troublesome or even a data security risk? And all without them even knowing there’s a dossier being created of them and their “suspect” behavior?
Related: London Data Center Readies Staff ‘Sleeping Pods’ for Olympics
Briton Killed After Threat to Expose Overseas Financial Dealings of Chinese Politician’s Wife
April 16th, 2012Via: Reuters:
The British businessman whose murder has sparked political upheaval in China was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by a Chinese leader’s wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation said.
It was the first time a specific motive has been revealed for Neil Heywood’s murder last November, a death which ended Chinese leader Bo Xilai’s hopes of emerging as a top central leader and threw off balance the Communist Party’s looming leadership succession.
Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad, and she became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected due to the size of the transaction, the sources said.
She accused him of being greedy and hatched a plan to kill him after he said he could expose her dealings, one of the sources said, summarizing the police case. Both sources have spoken to investigators in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese city where Heywood was killed and where Bo had cast himself as a crime-fighting Communist Party leader.
Gu is in police custody on suspicion of committing or arranging Heywood’s murder, though no details of the motive or the crime itself have been publicly released, other than a general comment from Chinese state media that he was killed after a financial dispute.
The sources have close ties to Chinese police and said they were given details of the investigation.
They said Heywood – formerly a close friend of Gu and who had been helping her with her overseas financial dealings – was killed after he threatened to expose what she was doing.
“Heywood told her that if she thought he was being too greedy, then he didn’t need to become involved and wouldn’t take a penny of the money, but he also said he could also expose it,” the first source said.
Cost of Insuring Spanish Debt Rises to Record
April 16th, 2012Via: Reuters:
Spanish 10-year government bond yields broke above 6 percent for the first time this year on Monday as concerns over the country’s ability to keep its finances under control pushed debt markets back into “crisis mode”.
Spanish yields were expected to rise further towards the panic-triggering 7 percent level beyond which debt costs are widely seen as unsustainable unless the European Central Bank resumes its bond purchases after a two-month break.
Yields on Germany’s benchmark 10-year Bund, viewed as the euro zone’s safest debt, hit a record low of 1.628 percent. The previous record was established in November 2011, at the height of the debt crisis before the ECB injected around 1 trillion euros of cheap three-year funds into the banking system.
“We’re back in full crisis mode,” Rabobank rate strategist Lyn Graham-Taylor said.
“It is looking more and more likely that Spain is going to have some form of a bailout. Assuming there is not an (ECB) intervention you would not see a cap on Spanish yields, they would just keep increasing.”
The latest blow to Spanish markets followed data on Friday that showed record borrowing by its banks from the ECB. Investors’ main fear is that banks parked most of the funds in domestic government debt, making them more vulnerable to sovereign stress.
…
Underlining investor fears, the cost of insuring Spanish debt against default hit a record high of $520,000 a year to buy $10 million of protection.
Contagion fears pushed Italian 10-year yields about 12 bps higher on the day at 5.66 percent.
