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PyroFalkon #39;s Sims 4 Socialism Challenge Day 35
Let #39;s play The Sims 4! Jon "PyroFalkon" Michael, the writer of the IGN Entertainment strategy guide wiki for The Sims 4, has created a set of house rules to ...
By: PyroFalkon #39;s Let #39;s Play Extravaganza
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PyroFalkon's Sims 4 Socialism Challenge Day 35 - Video
October 22, 2014 Vol: 21 No: 43
By John V. Fox / Guest Writer
By golly, there already is socialism in Seattle. And I dont mean Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawants kind of socialism. Instead, its socialism for the rich: Meaning we foot the bill while the benefits go to an exclusive few in this case billionaires Paul Allen and Jeff Bezos. Its what city planners and most of our city council call a public-private partnership.
The 2015-2020 Capital Improvement Plan for Seattle City Light (SCL) contains more than $464 million in added energy infrastructure for South Lake Union (SLU) and the Denny Triangle all in order to accommodate development by
Allens Vulcan and Bezos Amazon. Most of the cost of adding this infrastructure is being passed on to the rest of us, primarily in the form of higher electric bills. SCLs budget narrative doesnt provide specific information on rate impacts but in May 2012, former Mayor Mike McGinn told reporters a key reason rates needed to jump
28 percent over the next six years was due to the cost of adding infrastructure in SLU Biotech development is particularly energy consumptive and accounts for a lot of the additional SLU capacity requirements.
Publicly SCL may tell you that since its adding capacity to an entire neighborhood with broader benefits for all that the costs of adding capacity due to growth should be spread to all ratepayers. As early as 2002, however, SCL gave serious consideration to several options, including upfront capacity charges and installation charges that would have required large property owners and developers to foot most of the bill for the capital improvements demanded by its projects. In 2013, SCLs Rate Advisory Committee briefly considered these options as well. Unfortunately, successive city hall politicians since Mayor Greg Nickels have shelved any options to ensure developers pay their fair share.
Vulcan owns about 40 to 45 percent of the developable land in South Lake Union. Meanwhile, Amazon has gone on a spending spree and bought acres of real estate in the Denny Triangle neighborhood. In recent years, the city council has upzoned these areas twice, both times to Vulcan and Amazons benefit. The companies have reaped tens of millions of dollars from the upzones.
And thats not all. Dont forget SLUs big transportation projects: $270 million for the Mercer Corridor Project and $51 million for the SLU line of the Seattle Streetcar (though actual costs rose later to $56 million).
Now SCLs ratepayers are shelling out $464 million more to provide these companies with additional public goodies. SCLs capital improvement projects to provide more reliable electrical service for the South Lake Union and Denny Triangle areas include $197 million in improvements and additions to the Broad Street Substation and $260 million in development, improvement and additions to the Denny Substation.
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Through partnership, Seattle hands Amazon and Vulcan $1 billion to transform look of city
FL voters...Time to Dump Rick Scott #39;s Tea Party Experiment
Thom Hartmann talks the Florida Governor #39;s race with America #39;s Lawyer - Mike Papantonio, Attorney-Levin Papantonio / Host-Ring of Fire Radio Website: http://www.ringoffireradio.com. If you liked...
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FL voters...Time to Dump Rick Scott's Tea Party Experiment - Video
The IRS may have inadvertently figured out how to win its legal battles against aggrieved tea party groups: Give them what they wanted in the first place tax-exempt status.
That was a major reason a Republican-appointed federal judge on Thursday threw out two lawsuits brought by more than 40 conservative groups seeking remedies for being singled out in the tea party targeting scandal, a victory for the IRS.
Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia dismissed almost all counts brought against the tax-collecting agency in two cases, ruling that both were essentially moot now that the IRS granted the groups their tax-exempt status that had been held up for years.
(Also on POLITICO: The GOP's 2016 tech deficit)
Walton, a President George W. Bush-appointee, also said individual IRS officials could not be fined in their individual capacity for allowing such treatment because it could hurt future tax enforcement.
The ruling, which the groups could appeal, has serious implications for tea party groups suing the IRS, suggesting they may never receive compensation for the long waits they endured for a ruling on their status.
The inspector general report that ignited the targeting controversy last year found that applications sat in limbo for as long as several years and that the groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, political affiliations and random things like social media posts.
Republicans said they were outraged at Waltons decision.
(POLITICO's polling center)
You get targeted and harassed for three years but, oh, because you finally get [tax-exempt status], the three years of harassment doesnt mean anything? asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who heads a congressional subpanel investigating the controversy. I find that argument lacking tremendously in light of what these people went through.
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IRS notches win in tea party cases
A federal court shot down a tea party groups effort to permanently bar the Internal Revenue Service from targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny, issuing a ruling Thursday that says the tax agency has taken enough steps to correct the problem.
Judge Reggie B. Walton also refused the request by True the Vote, a Texas-based group that tries to combat election fraud, to make Lois G. Lerner and other current and former IRS employees pay a penalty for having blocked the groups tax-exempt status and made intrusive inquiries into the groups activities.
Without ruling on whether the initial targeting was unlawful, Judge Walton said there was no longer a case because the IRS eventually did approve tax-exempt status.
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True the Vote argued that the IRS was pressured into stopping the targeting but could restart it at any time. The group asked the court to issue an order prohibiting the IRS from targeting, but the judge declined.
The defendants grant of tax-exempt status to the plaintiff, and the defendants suspension of the alleged IRS targeting scheme during the tax-exempt application process, including remedial steps to address the alleged conduct, coupled with the reduced concern about the recurrence of objectionable behavior government actors convinces the court that the voluntary cessation exception is not applicable here, wrote Judge Walton, who was appointed to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by President George W. Bush.
A True the Vote spokesman didnt have an immediate comment when reached by phone Thursday. The IRS also didnt comment.
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True the Vote applied for tax-exempt status in 2010 but was not granted approval until last year. The groups mission is to try to clean up voter registration rolls and spot election fraud.
Catherine Engelbrecht said that after she founded the organization, the federal government took an extraordinary amount of interest in her business and her personal activities. Authorities from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made inquiries with her or with King Street Patriots, another tea party group with which she was affiliated.
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Federal judge tosses tea party suit seeking permanent protection from IRS targeting