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Crackdown on cigarette
smuggling, counterfeit cigarettes
advanced by Senate panel
Star-Ledger [Newark, NJ], by Christopher Baxter
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Original Article
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Posted By:Ribicon, 2/21/2013 10:02:13 PM
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| Trenton — A Senate panel today advanced legislation to crackdown on cigarette smuggling, a problem with deep roots in New Jersey, and to increase penalties for importing, selling, distributing, transporting or possessing with intent to sell counterfeit cigarettes.(Snip) A report by the state Treasury Department completed in 2008, and made public in 2011, found about 40 percent of all cigarettes smoked in New Jersey were smuggled illegally, resulting in a loss of more than $500 million in uncollected tax revenue each year. The percentage was found to be the worst of any state, largely because of New Jersey´s relatively high
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Comments:
NJ has sky-high taxes on cigarettes, winds up losing huge amounts of money because criminals skirt the tax. Typical Northeast solution would be to raise the taxes even higher, to make up for the shortfall.
NJ also has very deep ties to organized crime, and surprise, the laws the state government passes just happen to benefit organized crime.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
BaseballFan, 2/21/2013 10:36:39 PM (No. 9189932)
Wow, who couldn´t see this coming?
They crank the taxes sky-high on a legal product. Then, when the inevitable happens (products on the black market increase), then need to spend money to put a stop to something that they created - - which means spending MORE money.
So which would be worse? Cutting the taxes back to somewhere reasonable, or having to spend even more to put a crimp in the black market so that the sky-high taxes can regain a foothold?
What a quandary. And to think, it was government intervention that caused it all.
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Reply 2 - Posted by:
Spidey, 2/22/2013 2:23:27 AM (No. 9190071)
Perfect example of liberals driving faster in the wrong direction.If they lowered taxes it would kill off the black market and people from nearby high tax states would do cigarette tourism.The left,giving up a tax is beyond their comprehension no matter how obvious it is to do so.
These people also think you can punish people into quitting,like double premiums in Obamacare for smokers,while omitting dozens of other behaviors that ring up healthcare costs.
If the left really had their way,they´d give people free hardcore drugs while saying it would reduce crime.
"Nobody should have to endure the hardship of having to steal everyday".
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Reply 3 - Posted by:
Trigger2, 2/22/2013 4:06:01 AM (No. 9190112)
Surprise. It´s all about money. What is NJ and every other high tax state going to do when the black market thrives on everything else these dumb demonrat infested states raise taxes on?
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Reply 4 - Posted by:
olcap, 2/22/2013 5:15:24 AM (No. 9190147)
Our country has been fully taken over by the mob.
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Reply 5 - Posted by:
provide, 2/22/2013 7:08:38 AM (No. 9190221)
Yeah, more Russian immigration out of the shadows.
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Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Ribicon"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
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Most Recent Articles posted by "Ribicon"
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So why is radar showing a
mysterious blob above Redstone
Arsenal? No one seems to know
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Huntsville Times [AL], by Leada Gore
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 6/5/2013 12:38:17 AM
Post Reply
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Researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the National Weather Service are working to figure out why radars are showing a mysterious blob above Redstone Arsenal after 1:45 p.m. today, the Times´ news partner WHNT News 19 is reporting. The anomaly showed up late this afternoon and was centered near the northwest edge of Redstone Arsenal close to Zierdt Road and Madison Boulevard/I-565. WHNT reported it was first believed the radar image was being caused by a damaged substation in the Madison or West Huntsville area. However, Huntsville Utilities used a spectral analyzer to see
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Star Wars star Mark Hamill
searches through a public ashtray
for used cigarette butts... which
he smokes in his luxury BMW
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Daily Mail [UK], by Staff
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/30/2013 12:28:04 AM
Post Reply
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As Luke Skywalker he was one of the most recognisable stars of his generation. So it is all the more shocking to see the bizarre sight of Mark Hamill searching through an ashtray for used cigarette butts. A series of images clearly show the veteran actor rummaging through the public ashtray outside a Los Angeles recording studio on Thursday. (Snip) Looking out of shape, 61-year-old Hamill then heads to a burger joint. After buying a burger and soda he eats in his car, before throwing the fast food trash bag on the road outside his vehicle. Mark then heads
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Sallie Mae to split loan and banking
businesses into two separate companies
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Associated Press, by Staff
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/29/2013 1:54:35 PM
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Sallie Mae plans to split into two separate, publicly traded companies. The student loan giant also named John Remondi as its chief executive officer. Sallie Mae, formally named SLM Corp, said Wednesday that the two separate companies – an education loan management business and a consumer banking business – would help unlock value and boost its long-term growth potential. The education loan management business would include the company´s portfolios of federally guaranteed and private education loans, as well as most related servicing and collection activities. Remondi will continue as its chief executive. The principal assets of the business are likely to include
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Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail
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San Francisco Chronicle, by Jaxon Van Derbeken
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/29/2013 1:48:45 PM
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Numerous bolts used to anchor the railing along the bicycle path on the new Bay Bridge eastern span have failed, forcing Caltrans to make plans to replace hundreds of the steel parts, The Chronicle has learned. Crews that built the railing committed what experts called a basic mistake - they welded the bolts in place firmly in their slots rather than leaving a small amount of room to accommodate a natural expansion of the bicycle path that happens in hot weather. As a result, scores of the 1-inch-diameter bolts have been sheared off along the 1.2-mile bike path
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Germany may fall short of EV target
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Detroit News, by Dorothee Tschampa
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/29/2013 1:06:32 PM
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As Joachim Sander looks for a new car, he’s thinking it might be time to go electric. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will need the help of the Frankfurt IT consultant — and a lot more like him — to keep her word. Three years after Merkel said she wants to see 1 million battery-powered cars on German roads by 2020, there has been scant progress: On Jan. 1, only 7,114 of Germany’s 43.4 million passenger vehicles were electrics. Even adding hybrids powered with both electricity and conventional fuels brings the number to just 72,109. “Our plans and projects are ambitious, but
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Audit says 20,000 inmates were
mistakenly paid nearly $24M
in state and federal benefits
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Star-Ledger [Newark, NJ], by Ryan Hutchins
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/29/2013 12:48:08 PM
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Trenton — At least 20,000 inmates locked up in New Jersey’s prisons and jails were improperly paid nearly $24 million in benefits from state and federal programs over a two-year period, an audit by the state comptroller’s office has found. More than $10 million in unemployment benefits were paid to more than 7,600 inmates, according to the findings, which were released this morning. In one case, the audit found that an inmate collected unemployment payments for a year — totaling about $39,000 — while incarcerated for a drug offense. “Suffice it to say that when thousands of inmates are collecting unemployment checks
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Pressure cooker in bathroom
causes Dearborn hotel evacuation
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Detroit News, by Staff
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/28/2013 1:25:48 AM
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Dearborn — A Dearborn hotel was evacuated for a few hours Sunday night after a woman found a pressure cooker in a bathroom during a Muslim conference on faith. The cooker was discovered on the second floor of the Adoba Hotel about 9:45 p.m., prompting Dearborn police to detonate it as a precaution. It did not contain explosives, Dearborn police said. Two witnesses told The Detroit News police evacuated at least three floors of the hotel once known as the Hyatt Regency. Among them were guests of a wedding and attendees of the Conference of Ali, a three-day conference
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Pressure cooker scare in Mountain View
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San Francisco Chronicle, by Mike Moffitt
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/28/2013 1:25:34 AM
Post Reply
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Mountain View — The area around the San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View was shut down this evening and buildings evacuated after a resident spotted a pressure cooker near a building, according to police. The resident at 545 San Antonio Road called police around 6:10 p.m. Sunday to report seeing a pressure cooker in the bushes near the building’s lobby doors, police said. Police responding to the scene used an infrared device to determine that the pressure cooker was radiating heat. At that point, police set up a perimeter around the area contained by California Street, San Antonio Road,
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Breakthrough in fight against
pre-eclampsia: Scientists may
have found cause of the life-
threatening pregnancy condition
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Daily Mail [UK], by Jenny Hope
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/28/2013 1:09:40 AM
Post Reply
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Scientists may have found the cause of the life-threatening pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia – using a gas that smells like rotten eggs. Tests suggest giving hydrogen sulfide to pregnant women at risk of pre-eclampsia could prevent them developing the condition and protect the growth of their babies. The chemical compound is produced naturally in the body, but levels appear to be lower in some women. Scientists say that if used safely in the form of a drug it can make up for this natural shortfall and help maintain a healthy blood flow to the placenta – the baby’s life-support system
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´Crack baby´ scare overblown,
teen research says
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Associated Press, by Lindsey Tanner
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/27/2013 10:24:16 AM
Post Reply
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Chicago — Research in teens adds fresh evidence that the 1980s "crack baby" scare was overblown, finding little proof of any major long-term ill effects in children whose mothers used cocaine during pregnancy. Some studies have linked pregnant women´s cocaine use with children´s behavior difficulties, attention problems, anxiety and worse school performance. But the effects were mostly small and may have resulted from other factors including family problems or violence, parents´ continued drug use and poverty, the researchers said. They reviewed 27 studies involving more than 5,000 11- to 17-year-olds whose mothers had used cocaine while pregnant.
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Breaking: Rep. Jo Bonner
resigning from Congress
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Press-Register [Mobile, AL], by George Talbot
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/23/2013 4:25:43 PM
Post Reply
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Mobile - U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, confirmed today that he intends to resign from Congress later this year and take a job at the University of Alabama. Bonner, 53, has represented Alabama´s 1st Congressional District since taking office in 2003. He was re-elected in November with no Democratic opponent. Bonner´s office had no immediate comment but said the congressman planned a "major announcement" at a 4 p.m. news conference today in Mobile. Bonner will leave Congress effective Aug. 15 for a position as vice chancellor of government relations and economic development at the University of Alabama System, according to
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Gun control: Cartridge
ID law to take effect
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San Francisco Chronicle, by Bob Egelko
Original Article
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Posted By: Ribicon- 5/19/2013 2:34:55 PM
Post Reply
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A hotly contested gun-control law that was passed in 2007 is finally ready to be implemented, Attorney General Kamala Harris said Friday: a requirement that every new semiautomatic handgun contain "micro-stamping" technology that would allow police to trace a weapon from cartridges found at a crime scene. The law, signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, made California the first state to require micro-stamping, which engraves the gun´s serial number on each cartridge. (Snip) But at a Los Angeles news conference Friday, Harris announced that micro-stamping had cleared all technological
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Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
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‘I Refuse to Jump on the
Bandwagon of Attacking
the President’
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Fox News, by Staff
Original Article
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Posted By: KarenJ1- 6/8/2013 11:29:21 AM
Post Reply
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Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke to Neil Cavuto today live from Utah where he is hosting a bipartisan summit. The former Massachusetts governor told Cavuto that his goal in the summit was to pull together people from both sides of the aisle to discuss their highest priorities. According to Romney, Washington isn’t addressing the most important issues to either Democrats or Republicans. In the interview, Romney addressed the scandals facing Washington, saying he refused to “jump on the bandwagon of attacking the president and everything that’s going on in Washington.”
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How to Keep the NSA at Bay:
The Tricks From Privacy Experts
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Daily Beast, by Winston Ross
Original Article
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Posted By: MissMolly- 6/8/2013 4:56:55 AM
Post Reply
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It’s a fairly safe bet that most people are in one of four camps about all this National Security Agency-spying-on-Americans business: uninformed, apathetic, p****d off, or paranoid. For the uninformed, it’s probably a good time to get up to speed. Before you know it, Barack Obama will personally be hiding in your closet. For the apathetic, Dude, WAKE UP: You think because you live in the suburbs and you work at an insurance company that Big Brother will never come for you? What about that affair with your office secretary last year? What if her brother gets caught up
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The Obama Avalanche
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American Thinker, by Cindy Simpson
Original Article
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Posted By: Desert Fox- 6/8/2013 7:33:21 AM
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Like the grains of sand in the "creepy" sculpture of Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention that were blown away by bad weather, it is only a matter of time until the stones constituting the protective wall around the Obama narrative begin to tumble. After all, a single pebble can start an avalanche. The foundation of the Obama image, already weakened by broken promises and a floundering economy, has been seriously rocked by some explosive revelations in the Benghazi and IRS investigations. Completing a trifecta of "serial shocks," real tremors began when
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Katie Couric Daytime Show
Unmitigated Disaster´
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Breitbart´s Big Journalism, by John Nolte
Original Article
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Posted By: KarenJ1- 6/8/2013 11:52:26 AM
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A long time ago in a media world far, far away, Katie Couric was once seen as a competent, likable, down to earth co-host of NBC´s "Today Show." She was appealing, smart, and accessible, Bt success ruined Couric. Over time, she became a Media Diva and a divisive, hysterical left-wing partisan. Whatever your politics, it is impossible to dispute that Couric went Hollywood -- and narcissism is never pretty (or perky). In the wake of her chilling metamorphosis, Couric has only met failure. Her stint as the anchor of CBS News was a major humiliation. But her latest
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Obama administration takes first step in
probe on who leaked info about phone,
mail tracking
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Fox News, by Catherine Herridge*
Original Article
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Posted By: PChristopher- 6/9/2013 2:26:52 AM
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he Obama administration has taken a first step toward opening a criminal investigation into the purported leaking of classified documents related to the federal government tracking Americans´ phone calls and emails, a source familiar with the high-level discussions told Fox News on Saturday. The source said a “criminal report has been filed,” which begins the process. The FBI and Justice Department would likely be involved in such a probe, which is expected to focus on British and U.S. newspapers including The Guardian.
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The Scandal Dump is a Smokescreen.
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American Thinker, by Philip Cowan
Original Article
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Posted By: FlyRight- 6/9/2013 10:40:03 AM
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For several months, the Benghazi scandal lay dormant, apparently forgiven and forgotten. Then, inexplicably, it reared its ugly head when Congressmen Ron Johnson and Jason Chaffetz smelled Obama´s blood in the water. After feigning affliction with the flu, and then ostensibly tumbling down a carpeted stairwell resulting in an unconfirmed concussion, then-Secretary of State Clinton was finally forced to testify before Congress. Clinton´s desperate attempt to put the Benghazi scandal to rest with her now-infamous impassioned declaration -- "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
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NSA Leaker Is No Hero
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Commentary Magazine, by Max Boot
Original Article
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Posted By: Dreadnought- 6/9/2013 4:01:21 PM
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That didn’t take long. The official who leaked top-secret information about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs to fight terrorism has now come forward in the pages of the Guardian to revel in his role “as one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning.” Edward Snowden is described as a 29-year-old high school dropout who worked (ironically) on computer security for the CIA before becoming a highly paid contractor at Booz Allen, making a reported $200,000 a year working for the National Security Agency in Hawaii. The Guardian story presents him as a martyr
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In nation´s breadbasket,
Latinos stuck in poverty
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Associated Press, by Gosia Wozniacka
Original Article
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Posted By: NorthernDog- 6/9/2013 10:46:44 AM
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FRESNO, Calif. — On a warm spring day, farmworker Cristina Melendez was bedridden and unable to make her way back into the asparagus fields of central California for the kind of backbreaking work she´s done since childhood. The 36-year-old mother of seven was desperate. Her bank account had been at zero for months, the refrigerator was nearly empty, and she didn´t have enough to cover the rent. Lacking health insurance, Melendez couldn´t see a doctor or afford medication, so her illness dragged on — and another day came and went without work or pay. A native of Mexico
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IRS manager: White House
not involved in reviews
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Associated Press, by Philip Elliott
Original Article
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Posted By: john56- 6/9/2013 4:12:39 PM
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Washington - A self-described conservative Republican who is a manager in the Internal Revenue Service office that targeted tea party groups told investigators that he, not the White House, set the review in motion, the top Democrat on the House watchdog committee said Sunday. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., released a partial transcript of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform interview with the unnamed manager in the IRS' Cincinnati office. In it, the employee said the extra scrutiny for tea party groups' tax exempt status was an effort to be consistent
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Getting The IRS Out of Obamacare
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Breitbart´s Big Government, by David Bossie
Original Article
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Posted By: LittleHoodedMonk- 6/9/2013 5:07:54 AM
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As the IRS scandal continues to take shape and the massive overreach of one of the most powerful agencies in Big Government becomes even more apparent, it becomes frightening to think this same agency will soon be heavily involved in your personal healthcare situation. Remember folks, as the United States Supreme Court said nearly a year ago, Obamacare is a tax and thus falls under the jurisdiction of the IRS. (Snip) Georgia Congressman Tom Price has introduced the Keep The IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013 (H.R. 2009). The recently introduced legislation already has
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´I Was Born This Way´
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American Thinker, by Clayton E. Cramer
Original Article
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Posted By: magnante- 6/9/2013 11:57:27 AM
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One of the more effective arguments used by those arguing for same-sex marriage and sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws is that homosexuals have no choice in the matter -- that sexual orientation is something that you are born with, and you can´t change it. The claim is that this is a natural part of human variability, no different from skin color or hair color or how tall you are. (snip) There is pretty persuasive evidence that what determines sexual orientation, at least for some homosexuals, is environmental.
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Are you a sugar addict?
Scientists say high fructose
corn syrup is as addictive as
cocaine - but you may not
even know you´re eating it
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Daily Mail [UK], by Staff
Original Article
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Posted By: Attercliffe- 6/8/2013 7:01:09 AM
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Canadian researchers have found that high-fructose corn syrup can cause behavioral reactions in rats ´similar to those produced by drugs of abuse, such as cocaine´. Professor Francesco Leri of the University of Guelph, who carried out the research, said it suggested there was an addictive quality to foods that contain high levels of high-fructose corn syrup which could explain, at least partly, the current global obesity epidemic. During the experiment, rats were fed foods containing varying levels of high-fructose corn syrup. They were then given access to a lever which controlled how much syrup they received. The more concentrated the
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