Corporate Executives Asked Obama to Authorize a “Tax Holiday” for Their Firms
At a meeting at the White House earlier this month, corporate executives queried President Obama about authorizing a “tax holiday” that would allow their firms to tap into more than $1 trillion, a bulk of which is socked away in offshore tax havens, Bloomberg reported. “The money – including hundreds of billions in profits that US companies attribute to overseas subsidiaries to avoid taxes – is supposed to be taxed at up to 35 percent when it’s brought home, or ‘repatriated,'” the Bloomberg report says. “What nobody’s saying publicly is that US multinationals are already finding legal ways to avoid that tax.”
Spat Between EPA and Texas Leaves Industry Free to Pollute
A legal battle between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas over pollution control is allowing refineries and factories to spew more toxic waste into the air and waterways than is federally acceptable, according to The Associated Press. The EPA recently intervened in Texas over pollution emission control and permitting, sparking a back-and-forth battle between the federal agency and the Texas state government. Texas and the EPA have disagreed over pollution regulation for years, and state officials and politicians argue the EPA is playing political games and violating the state’s rights. Federal regulators say they are only upholding national standards and current emissions levels in Texas are harming the environment.
Vets Have Trouble Finding Jobs
Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan are returning home and having more trouble finding work than other Americans, according to The Washington Post. The sluggish economy has kept unemployment rates hovering around 10 percent in recent years, but on average, more veterans have been unemployed than other Americans since 2005.
Former President of Israel Convicted of Rape
Moshe Katsav, the former President of Israel, was found guilty of rape and other sex crimes Thursday by a panel of three judge’s who said the Katsav’s testimony was “riddled with lies,” Reuters reports. Katsav had been accused by his aide of raping her when he was a cabinet minister in the 1990s, and sexually harassing and molesting two other women during his tenure as president from 2002 to 2007. He had vehemently denied the charges.
FBI Raids Business in Operation Payback Probe
The FBI has raided a Texas business and seized a computer while investigating the Operation Payback hackers, who temporarily froze the web sites of Mastercard, Visa, and other businesses that cut services to WikiLeaks, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun. The FBI began the investigation earlier this month after PayPal reported the hackers attacked its site. PayPal, Mastercard, and several other firms had canceled services to WikiLeaks after the whistleblower site began leaking secret US diplomatic cables. The FBI originally told Truthout that it could not confirm if it was investigating the hackers.
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