If there’s any way to describe the course of our current spring, perhaps ‘explosion’ is a possible description. We’ve waited through below freezing overnight temperatures, night after night. The crowning debacle was our 15-inch snowstorm in
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"Where Olmsted County News Comes First"
Online Edition
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
Volume ∞ Issue ∞
- 5:36:49, May 15th 2013 - Frank Hawthorne - Though I hated to see you reference Glenn Beck by name [Three Times ... [Read More]
- 11:42:07, May 10th 2013 - yenken - I feel very sorry for those who have commented do far, as when you stand fa ... [Read More]
- 12:10:25, Apr 26th 2013 - Frank Hawthorne - Mr. "Cabtrom's" garbage-out[burst]--in response to Ms. Reisner's w ... [Read More]
- 9:51:50, Apr 24th 2013 - jeff pischke - To Jerry Grehl, the number to the fillmore county sheriffs office is 7 ... [Read More]
- 9:27:24, Apr 22nd 2013 - Cabtrom - Blah blah blah, garbage in garbage out! ... [Read More]
- 7:00:49, Apr 11th 2013 - Donald Pierce - Col. Stan Gudmundson hit most of the important nails squarly on the h ... [Read More]
- 12:44:54, Apr 4th 2013 - Frank Hawthorne - My compliments to Ms. Hammer for giving us well-crafted "Rachel Rea ... [Read More]
- 5:09:06, Apr 3rd 2013 - truthiness - I see this is dated April 1. That explains it! ... [Read More]
- 12:04:33, Apr 3rd 2013 - Frank W. Hawthorne - Say WHAT?!? Stan's American-Pie [In SKY] is Falling--Not Again? ... [Read More]
- 12:40:21, Mar 29th 2013 - Jacob - It's a shame that so few people care about making their voices heard. If we ... [Read More]
An Amazon/Ebay Alliance?
Mon, May 13th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
Comments
Online shopping is a revolution of our modern world. Web-based companies such as Amazon and Ebay dominate online sales of almost anything—electronics, books, collectibles, jewelry, office supplies. You name it, they’ll ship it! Of course, Amazon sells the majority of its merchandise through other merchants. But there’s an underlying issue that relates to online retailers like Amazon. Can you guess what it is? That’s right, sales tax.
In 1992 the Supreme Court case Quill Corporation vs. North Dakota ruled that retailers would not have to collect sales tax unless the merchant had physical presence within the state, meaning a store or office space. This ruling has stood until today. However, now this ruling is being challenged as the United States Congress is working to pass a law requiring that all online retailers pay state sales tax regardless of whether or not they are actually physically in the state.
For years this proposal has been looming as states have faced budget deficits, and now they want every revenue dollar they can get. Amazon, for years, has been on the frontline lobbying against the legislation. But how far are measures likely to progress? Well, this time the odds are looking pretty good. The Senate voted on Monday, May 6 with bipartisan support for the bill. What appeared to be smooth sailing in the Senate may end up hitting a road block in the Republican-controlled House where many see the legislation through the lens of a tax increase.
As much as Amazon has protested in the past, the online retail giant has fulfilled a pass-the-buck strategy to Ebay. Amazon is shying away from its lobbying days against a sales tax enforcement measure. But why, after so long, would they just give in? The answer: Amazon has supposedly expanded so much that it plans to open facilities within most states to accommodate customers with faster delivery times and other services. Therefore, they’d be forced to pay sales tax anyway. This means that Amazon and Ebay, it seems, will never form the rumored alliance that has been swirling around.
So here’s the interesting part, how will this passed legislation impact the consumers? It’s pretty obvious, sales tax will now (theoretically) be strictly collected. A did-you-know on this subject matter is that, if a state has a sale tax in effect but was not collected by a retailer, it is actually supposed to be paid by the end of the year through a co .....
[Read the Rest]
In 1992 the Supreme Court case Quill Corporation vs. North Dakota ruled that retailers would not have to collect sales tax unless the merchant had physical presence within the state, meaning a store or office space. This ruling has stood until today. However, now this ruling is being challenged as the United States Congress is working to pass a law requiring that all online retailers pay state sales tax regardless of whether or not they are actually physically in the state.
For years this proposal has been looming as states have faced budget deficits, and now they want every revenue dollar they can get. Amazon, for years, has been on the frontline lobbying against the legislation. But how far are measures likely to progress? Well, this time the odds are looking pretty good. The Senate voted on Monday, May 6 with bipartisan support for the bill. What appeared to be smooth sailing in the Senate may end up hitting a road block in the Republican-controlled House where many see the legislation through the lens of a tax increase.
As much as Amazon has protested in the past, the online retail giant has fulfilled a pass-the-buck strategy to Ebay. Amazon is shying away from its lobbying days against a sales tax enforcement measure. But why, after so long, would they just give in? The answer: Amazon has supposedly expanded so much that it plans to open facilities within most states to accommodate customers with faster delivery times and other services. Therefore, they’d be forced to pay sales tax anyway. This means that Amazon and Ebay, it seems, will never form the rumored alliance that has been swirling around.
So here’s the interesting part, how will this passed legislation impact the consumers? It’s pretty obvious, sales tax will now (theoretically) be strictly collected. A did-you-know on this subject matter is that, if a state has a sale tax in effect but was not collected by a retailer, it is actually supposed to be paid by the end of the year through a co .....
[Read the Rest]
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Portrait of Savannah
Mon, May 13th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
To colour and gloss my mental gazetteer of Savannah, Georgia before I made the trip there in April, I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. I had purchased the book some years ago, I’ll admit for the title, which I had hope
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Happy Mother’s Day
Mon, May 6th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
With Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, I thought it is a great time to celebrate the importance of a Mom. From having a Mom, being a Mom, and loving a Mom, this column could fill pages of this paper with accolades for Moms everywhere who make
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Sedaris and The Unreliable Narrator
Mon, May 6th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
David Sedaris’ Barrel Fever is a collection of hilarious stories and essays, most of which are told through an intentionally unreliable narrator. Though somewhat formulaic and tiresome after reading, say, five essays in a row, there are several br
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The Newest Form of “Stranger Danger”
Mon, May 6th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
Last week in the news there was a headline of a Texas man, Steve Correa-Franca, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for enticing a 9-year-old girl from Minnesota to send him nude photographs through email. The man, who was the age of 33, was pos
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24-Hour Surveillance
Mon, Apr 29th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
In this day and age, the question ‘Are you ever alone?’ is a plausible interrogative statement. Whether someone is zooming in on your house via Google Earth, tapping your phone lines, hacking your email account, trying to infect your computer wi
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Word Play in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Mon, Apr 29th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
Viola: Are thou not the Lady Olivia’s fool?
Feste: No indeed sir, the Lady Olivia has no folly, she will keep no fool sir, till she be married, and fools are like husbands as pilchards are to herrings, the husband’s the bigger. I am indeed no
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Let the Sand Mining Begin, Says County
Mon, Apr 29th, 2013
Posted in Columnists
Posted in Columnists
It was just sixteen months ago when this column first broke the news locally about frac sand mining coming to Lake Wobegon—namely, Fillmore County. Two mine proposals had already been put forth, and we could see a frenzy of mine development in Wis
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