States might levy tax on rebate

 

By Leslie Wines | Of The Associated Press  

Q: Will the rebate I am promised on my 2007 taxes be subject to taxes? Or can I spend it all without worrying about having to pay taxes on it later?

A: You will not have to pay federal taxes on it, but don’t spend too freely because you may end up having to pay state taxes, depending on where you live. In addition, the IRS has the right to divert your rebate to pay past due taxes.

….{snip}….

”If I were a betting man I would bet that you will end up paying taxes on the rebates if you live in California,” he said. Tax law in many states mirrors the federal code, but the California tax code is known for its many differences from U.S. law. In addition, the state is facing severe budget problems and may decide to go after a share of the funds.

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Toxic Cargo, Crowded Inland Rails at Risk for Dangerous Chemical Spill

“Toxic Cargo, Crowded Inland Rails at Risk for Dangerous Chemical Spill.”

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ERIN NEFF: All just to save a few bucks?

ERIN NEFF: All just to save a few bucks?

ERIN NEFF

It may in fact take a neurosurgeon to perform brain surgery, but it doesn’t take a medical degree to know that you should never re-use a syringe.Yet in Las Vegas, where the bottom line looms larger than the rear ends in America’s “fattest city,” it was somehow OK to turn licensed medical personnel into bean counters. The doctors and nurse anesthetists at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada would have exposed fewer people to life-threatening illnesses if they had been mashing up castor beans.

Yet here we are, with 40,000 people who had sought to stay healthy through preventive care left with a possible death sentence.

….{snip}….

Not only do 40,000 patients get the news that they may have been exposed to hepatitis C, hepatitis B or HIV, they get the added insult of having to pay for blood tests to find out for sure. There’s no fund from which the public health agencies can draw to provide free testing. Already, six patients — one last July and five others last September — have contracted hepatitis C thanks to the shoddy practices at the center.

….{snip}….

Now roughly 40,000 people are being told they have to foot the bill for their own tests. And while plastic syringes are relatively cheap (assuming the center bought in bulk, they’re less than a dime apiece), the tests are not. Patients are being quoted up to $400 for the three tests. Peace of mind sure takes a piece out of the budget.

And the only recourse — the one actually being suggested by doctors — is to hook up with a trial lawyer.

….{snip}….

http://urlet.com/said.baker

House bill would override EPA waiver ruling

By Josh Richman
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 3:54 pm in Anna Eshoo, Barbara Boxer, Barbara Lee, Dennis Cardoza, Ellen Tauscher, George Miller, Global warming, Jerry McNerney, Lynn Woolsey, Mike Honda, Pete Stark, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, Zoe Lofgren
Most members of the Bay Area’s House delegation are among original cosponsors of the Right to Clean Vehicles Act, a bill introduced today which would force the Environmental Protection Agency to grant a waiver giving California and 12 other states the ability to implement limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from cars.

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2008 Timber Harvest Plan

2008 Timber Harvest Plan

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Economic Shock to Hit Eureka Businesses this Summer

At last Tuesday’s City Council meeting it was revealed that the Enterprise Zone Employee Vouchers would  almost certainly not be refunded.  This news was delivered in a report from the League of California Cities.

Enterprise Zone Employee Vouchers are direct State of California subsidies to businesses in Eureka.  Over the last 3 years I estimate these subsidies at over $7,000,000 with an estimated $3,000.000 just this year.

How will Old Town businesses fare without a $3,000.000 taxpayer subsidy?  Will some of these 600 voucher employees be terminated?  Will unemployment go up? 

Mecca train derailment may have ruined crops

Officials say Mecca train derailment may have ruined crops

10:06 PM PST on Wednesday, March 5, 2008

By STEVE MOORE
The Press-Enterprise MECCA - Spilled acid from derailed train cars in Mecca may have put millions of dollars worth of crops at risk, government officials acknowledged to area farmers who met with them Wednesday night looking for answers on what to do next.About 75 people, many of them still evacuated from their homes after Monday night’s derailment of a Union Pacific train near the desert community north of the Salton Sea, heard updates from experts on the cleanup and health risks of the phosphoric and hydrochloric acid spills

http://urlet.com/steam.liberal

Bush vetoes U.S. bill outlawing CIA waterboarding

Sat Mar 8, 2008 1:20pm

(Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday vetoed legislation passed by Congress that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawmakers included the anti-torture measure in a broader bill authorizing U.S. intelligence activities.

“Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. He added that the vetoed legislation “would diminish these vital tools.”

….{snip}….

Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts called Bush’s veto “one of the most shameful acts of his presidency.”

http://urlet.com/inverse.assigned

More Nevada Surgery Clinics to Be Cited

By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY – 11 hours ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A statewide inspection of outpatient surgery centers like the one believed to have spread hepatitis C to its patients has uncovered dangerous practices at four other clinics, a health official said Friday.

The state swore to quickly inspect all 50 Nevada outpatient surgery centers after it was discovered the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada spread the blood-borne virus to at least six patients by reusing syringes and sharing vials of medication.

Of the 18 clinics inspected by Friday, three in northern Nevada and one in Las Vegas will be cited and fined for improper disease prevention techniques, state health division chief Mike Willden said.

Willden said there was no evidence that the clinics were responsible for any outbreaks of disease.

The Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Center in Las Vegas will be cited for repeatedly reusing syringes, he said. Willden could not say whether the center also reused medication vials. Clark County pulled the center’s business license, shutting it down shortly after the announcement.

http://www.urlet.com/able.midnight

Teams of investigators swooping into Nevada

Feds’ blitz: 30 days, 50 clinics

Teams of investigators swooping into Nevada to get answers

Steve Marcus

State Sen. Joe Hardy, center, joined by other senators, asks a question Thursday during a hearing at the Sawyer State Building on the health scare caused by the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.

By Marshall Allen, David McGrath Schwartz

Sat, Mar 8, 2008 (2 a.m.)

With patients in unprecedented numbers endangered by a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic, the state’s appetite and resources for regulating and enforcing laws governing medical practices are facing new scrutiny.

And as the crisis grows, teams of federal health investigators are swooping into Nevada. Their mission: to help inspect all 50 ambulatory surgical centers in the next 30 days and share their findings across the country.

They hope to learn how to avoid what Nevadans are still trying to grasp: nurses in one of the busiest clinics in the state knowingly neglecting the most basic disease prevention methods when they injected patients, apparently at the direction of physicians. That led to six acute hepatitis C cases and 40,000 people being told to be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

….{snip}….

The federal government contracts with states to inspect facilities. A heated debate about the state’s effectiveness in regulating the clinics is taking place in Nevada after the Endoscopy Center debacle. The arguments center on two subjects: inspections and enforcement.

The Endoscopy Center had not undergone a full inspection by the state because of a lack of resources, said Lisa Jones, chief of the state’s Licensure and Certification Bureau.

….{snip}….
Last year, Gov. Jim Gibbons proposed cutting 10 additional inspectors from a proposed budget because paying for them would have required a fee increase.

 http://www.urlet.com/colt.bitten