ARTICLES

Plans to organise millennium party in Anjuna

Plans to organise millennium party in Anjuna take ugly turn

By A Staff Repórter

PANAJI, Dec 22: Plans to organise a new millennium rave party for foreign tourists at Anjuna beach on the state government property have taken an ugly turn with pólice arresting six persons for breach of peace in Anjuna this morning.

Escorted by a team of 30 policemen, the tourism department began demolition of the “¡Ilegal structures” at Paraíso de Anjuna, which falls in its property. presently given on léase. However, the demolition squad aban-doned the work after receiving a phone cali from a top politician.

On the other hand a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Mr Peter D’Souza, prayed for demolition of ¡Ilegal structures and restraining Mr Norman Azavedo and Mr Jeh Wadia frorr. holding the rave party in Anjuna in public interest.

Both, Mr Wadia and Mr Azavedo, have given an under-taking to the High Court saying that they will not carry out any constructions in the survey num-bers 212/1, 212/6 and 121/11, besides not to host, permit to host or use of any rave party or any other activities as mentioned in the PIL till the hearing on De-cember 23. Mr D’Souza also made the state of Goa, through the chief secretary, village panchayat, Anjuna, Directorate of Tourism, Town and Country Planning department, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Committee, Mr Azavedo and Mr Wadia as respondents in the petition.

The party was planned on over 70,000 sq. mts land and the petitioner said fhat the organisers had erected fencing aiong the property.

When reporters contacted the Chief Minister, Mr Francisco Sardinha, he said that he had stopped the demolition work in view of the matter being subjudice. He said the government would act as per the direction of the court.

The Director General of Pólice (DGP), Mr R S Sahaye, told reporters that six persons were arrestad in Anjuna for breach of peace there. He said the pólice had intensified patrolling along the coastal belt.

Replying to a question, Mr Sahaye said the cooperative ef-forts of all agencies involved in fighting the drug menace was

needed to fight the drugs, especially two state agencies, the tourism department and state excise department. Besides, Mr Sahaye also said the narcotics control bureau (NCB) and customs and central excise also would join in efforts to fight the drugs menace in Goa.

The Anjuna pólice when con­tacted said six persons, including one Mr Nesh Wadia had been arrested by the pólice and later released thern on bail. The pólice have registered cases under section 107 and 151 of the Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, according to the information available the Tour­ism Department had given its property at Anjuna to Mr Azavedo on léase and that the léase period had expired on September 30. The industrialist, Mr J Wadia had hired the property for holding a new millennium party for 10 days, beginning from today.

The tourism-trade sources said nearly 30,000 to 35,000 for­eign tourists were scheduled to particípate in the party during ten days. The trade sources also revealed that the massive publiciry was given to the party through internet.

The end of Tito’s !

The end of Tito's !

It is with sadness but with anger that we have sold our entire business in Goa. I personally have suffered the least as I was compensated adequately and even my future generations won’t have to work. I will also share some with our staff , but in the long term they now have no jobs. Can i please ask our officials to employ them as I do not ever plan any more business in Goa. By ” officials” i mean all the harassing lot, like police, pda, crz, ngos, panchayat n sarpanchas ( not Shawn Martins ), bdo, dy collectors, Am very grateful to certain segments of the Government like Dr Sawant , the IAS officers, ex staff , present staff, our neighbours , all my friends and family and the common people of Goa who all contributed to this great Brand called TITOS. End of an Era!

Goa tourism fails to cash in on millennium wave

Goa tourism fails to cash in on millennium wave

By A Staff Repórter

PANAJI, Dec 29: Though heavy tourist inflow was expected to Goa as a favourite millennium spot, figures and experience tell a different story.

The state government’s failure to clear the doubts created by counter-campaigns by other states in major metros have shattered many domestic tour­ists dream of celebrating their new millennium in this tourist paradise.

The Chief Minister, Mr Francisco Sardinha, who has reviewed the tourist arrival situation admitted that the inflow was not up to expectations, and hopes that it might go up on the last day or the first week of the new year.

The occupancy rates in many hotels and lodging houses have not touched cent per cent, despite the media hype that it will be “house full” in Goa. The five star hotels, which had tied up with .chain. hotels, are reporting back-to-back bookings.

Some of the domestic tourists, who claimed that they arrived in Goa by taking a risk of sleeping on the streets were shocked to get easy accommodation.

Dr Ompraksh Chaudhary, a Delhi-based doctor, said in Delhi every travel agencies had advised him not to go to Goa without prior bookings. However, he said he got easy accommodation and he has now decided to extend his stay in Goa.

In spite of the massive campaign carried out by travel agents through the Internet, there was no increase in chartered flights for the new millen­nium. However, the domestic tourists arrival number has gone up.

According to department of tourism statistics, 66 chartered flights had arrived from December 1 to 26, bringing 15,996 foreign tourists. The Airport Authority of India’s (AA1) officer at Dabolim airport said this chartered flights were cleared six months in advance. However, no new flight was cleared, for the millennium, he said.

Two new five star hotels have been opened in Goa for the millennium. Besides  385 bed  capacities, some small hotels also sprouted up in the   
state during the season. In all, there are 52 star-       
category hotels in the state.

The director of tourism, Mr Kesh Kamat, told        A The Navhind Times that the department had ins- pected an additional 25,000 domestic tourists the millennium.

When asked to give his reaction to the
tourist response, Mr Kamat said the tourist arrivals
scenario has not changed. But he said the media—ti
hype, which had created a picture of heavy rush. This
scared many back-packers away.

Mr Kamat said during 1998, a total of 10,25,259
tourists arrived in Goa, while, till November this
year, this number has gone only up to 10,90,911.
He said there was good rise ia flow of tourists in Goa, compared to last year.

The. number of foreign tourists numbers also remained the same compared to last year. During 1998. 2,75,047 foreign tourists arrived in Goa, while till November this year, the figures read    _
2,38,704. Till December 26. another batch of
15,993 foreign tourists arrived through 66 char-
tered flights.

The director-general of pólice (DGP), Mr R S  Sahaye, has said that the travel agents’ main campaign pitch centered on “total    permissiveness for ” various activities.” He said this campaign was a sheer attempt to misguide the tourists, and those who wanted to enjoy the new millennium have arrived. He said the the pólice had kept special squads to control the law and order situation.

Travel and trade circles are attributing various factors for the tepid tourist response. Basically, many feel that the government had failed in its public relations.

Besides, the national print-media also gave a wrong impression that the cost of everything will be go up through the roof during the millennium, they said.

The new face of BAD !

The new face of BAD!

A couple of years ago, some of the kids recommended the TV series “Breaking Bad.” I had seen some chapter and it did not convince me, but as it is necessary to do with the series, I started with the beginning and kept watching until the third season. The parts are hilarious, but some social engineering didn’t make me feel comfortable. They talk continuously on their mobiles, which makes the children feel that they are, and sure, if you want to spend time, make time. Also, the real Mr. Bad, the president of a fast food chain, is a carbon copy of the president of the United States, which I did not find appropriate. That was then. Now after the Snowden revelations, the continued use of drones, Guantanamo isn’t even news, I’m starting to think it’s pretty spot on.

The mining of data, not the actual spoken words, have shown that what before was seen as conspiracy theories, have turned out to be reality. In Germany, where there has been a major scandal around a new nazi party, who were assassinating mostly immigrant turks, there were plainclothes police in the area every time. And, when they killed a policewoman and seriously injured her partner, there were American intelligence in the vicinity as well! When Dilma, the president of Brasil denounced her mobile phone being pinched, her major complaint was that they were using the information for commercial purposes, about the new oil finds in the ocean, in front of Rio. Then it turns out, that many gameapps are tampered, and the example they use is “Angry birds” a Finnish made game, very popular. When most games are made in the states, why use the birds as an example? Less people will use it, i.e. they will probably play American. Now, even the American senators are complaining, since they get their computers from the intelligence circuit, with spyware already installed.

All of this is in the virtual space, but the drones are very not so. The people who live in the tribal territories in Pakistan, or Yemen, for ex. are terrified, they hear the drone of the engines for days, day and night, never knowing when or where it is going to hit, then katabum, and their house is destroyed, blown into pieces, with the inhabitants plastered against the ruined walls. But no American soldier is at risk!

And, of course, for the badness as usual, trust the Russians!

Now, even Dick has joined the Pussies, as the Crimea has joined Russia, while the police (Russian or pro-Russian Ukrainian police?) were doing sharpshooting in Kiev, the demonstrators defending themselves as best as they could,

then as if it wasn’t enough, they shot down an airplane, not the first, a good friend was in the Korean flight, that was shot down in the 90;ies. And victims all over the place, locals, ozzies, dutch, most of the worlds experts on Aids, was that the real reason ?

And talking about victims, the Victims during millennia, has managed to sadden the world, killing a lot of Palestinians, creating a new generation of victims, in revenge for three of their own, and the never ending missiles. And the yihad, who uses victims to scare the others to flee, in Iraque, and Syria. As if there hasn’t been enough suffering. And they call them selves Isis!

I’ve been writing this article for a long time, when I had most of it down, but feeling it very negative, joebanana came under heavy hack attack, and it had our attention during months, until finally Ray, of Stoned Pig, who does web-security, managed to find the gate, through where the hackers accessed.

 

Now, when I finally reach the end, it seems in the United States, the younger generation, specially among the jewish, are shaking up their beliefs, and begin to regard values based on universal justice, respect, and tolerance, and they see the images from Gaza, and feel a profound consternation! It has to begin somewhere, and the young ones are the future after all. But it needs many generations to come out of the revenge cycle, specially after millenniums ! And a last image, also from the States, that gives some hope!

Boom – Shankar ! Missing Inka.

ELITE, AND NO TAX

Economy | Buying Power

For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions

The very richest are able to quietly shape tax policy that will allow them to shield millions, if not billions, of their income.

By NOAM SCHEIBER and PATRICIA COHEN

Louis Moore Bacon, shown with his wife, Gabrielle, is the founder of a highly successful hedge fund and a leading contributor to Jeb Bush’s Super PAC. Among his homes is one on Robins Island, off Long Island. Credit Left: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg News, via Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The hedge fund magnates Daniel S. Loeb, Louis Moore Bacon and Steven A. Cohen have much in common. They have managed billions of dollars in capital, earning vast fortunes. They have invested millions in art — and millions more in political candidates.

Moreover, each has exploited an esoteric tax loophole that saved them millions in taxes. The trick? Route the money to Bermuda and back.

With inequality at its highest levels in nearly a century and public debate rising over whether the government should respond to it through higher taxes on the wealthy, the very richest Americans have financed a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding their fortunes. Some call it the “income defense industry,” consisting of a high-priced phalanx of lawyers, estate planners, lobbyists and anti-tax activists who exploit and defend a dizzying array of tax maneuvers, virtually none of them available to taxpayers of more modest means.

In recent years, this apparatus has become one of the most powerful avenues of influence for wealthy Americans of all political stripes, including Mr. Loeb and Mr. Cohen, who give heavily to Republicans, and the liberal billionaire George Soros, who has called for higher levies on the rich while at the same time using tax loopholes to bolster his own fortune.

All are among a small group providing much of the early cash for the 2016 presidential campaign.

Operating largely out of public view — in tax court, through arcane legislative provisions, and in private negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service — the wealthy have used their influence to steadily whittle away at the government’s ability to tax them. The effect has been to create a kind of private tax system, catering to only several thousand Americans.

The impact on their own fortunes has been stark. Two decades ago, when Bill Clinton was elected president, the 400 highest-earning taxpayers in America paid nearly 27 percent of their income in federal taxes, according to I.R.S. data. By 2012, when President Obama was re-elected, that figure had fallen to less than 17 percent, which is just slightly more than the typical family making $100,000 annually, when payroll taxes are included for both groups.

The ultra-wealthy “literally pay millions of dollars for these services,” said Jeffrey A. Winters, a political scientist at Northwestern University who studies economic elites, “and save in the tens or hundreds of millions in taxes.”

Some of the biggest current tax battles are being waged by some of the most generous supporters of 2016 candidates. They include the families of the hedge fund investors Robert Mercer, who gives to Republicans, and James Simons, who gives to Democrats; as well as the options trader Jeffrey Yass, a libertarian-leaning donor to Republicans.

Mr. Yass’s firm is litigating what the agency deemed to be tens of millions of dollars in underpaid taxes. Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund Mr. Simons founded and which Mr. Mercer helps run, is currently under review by the I.R.S. over a loophole that saved their fund an estimated $6.8 billion in taxes over roughly a decade, according to a Senate investigation. Some of these same families have also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative groups that have attacked virtually any effort to raises taxes on the wealthy.

 

For the Richest, Lower Taxes

The average tax rate for the ultra-wealthy has fallen dramatically.

Income Tax Rate

%

20

10

0

1995

2000

2005

2012

Top 400 earners

Source: Internal Revenue Service

In the heat of the presidential race, the influence of wealthy donors is being tested. At stake are the Obama administration’s limited 2013 tax increase on high earners — the first in two decades — and an I.R.S. initiative to ensure that, in effect, the higher rate sticks by cracking down on tax avoidance by the wealthy.

While Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have pledged to raise taxes on these voters, virtually every Republican has advanced policies that would vastly reduce their tax bills, sometimes to as little as 10 percent of their income.

At the same time, most Republican candidates favor eliminating the inheritance tax, a move that would allow the new rich, and the old, to bequeath their fortunes intact, solidifying the wealth gap far into the future. And several have proposed a substantial reduction — or even elimination — in the already deeply discounted tax rates on investment gains, a foundation of the most lucrative tax strategies.

“There’s this notion that the wealthy use their money to buy politicians; more accurately, it’s that they can buy policy, and specifically, tax policy,” said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who served as chief economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “That’s why these egregious loopholes exist, and why it’s so hard to close them.”

The Family Office

Each of the top 400 earners took home, on average, about $336 million in 2012, the latest year for which data is available. If the bulk of that money had been paid out as salary or wages, as it is for the typical American, the tax obligations of those wealthy taxpayers could have more than doubled.

Instead, much of their income came from convoluted partnerships and high-end investment funds. Other earnings accrued in opaque family trusts and foreign shell corporations, beyond the reach of the tax authorities.

The well-paid technicians who devise these arrangements toil away at white-shoe law firms and elite investment banks, as well as a variety of obscure boutiques. But at the fulcrum of the strategizing over how to minimize taxes are so-called family offices, the customized wealth management departments of Americans with hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in assets.

Family offices have existed since the late 19th century, when the Rockefellers pioneered the institution, and gained popularity in the 1980s. But they have proliferated rapidly over the past decade, as the ranks of the super-rich, and the size of their fortunes, swelled to record proportions.

“We have so much wealth being created, significant wealth, that it creates a need for the family office structure now,” said Sree Arimilli, an industry recruiting consultant.

Family offices, many of which are dedicated to managing and protecting the wealth of a single family, oversee everything from investment strategy to philanthropy. But tax planning is a core function. While the specific techniques these advisers employ to minimize taxes can be mind-numbingly complex, they generally follow a few simple principles, like converting one type of income into another type that’s taxed at a lower rate.

Mr. Loeb, for example, has invested in a Bermuda-based reinsurer — an insurer to insurance companies — that turns around and invests the money in his hedge fund. That maneuver transforms his profits from short-term bets in the market, which the government taxes at roughly 40 percent, into long-term profits, known as capital gains, which are taxed at roughly half that rate. It has had the added advantage of letting Mr. Loeb defer taxes on this income indefinitely, allowing his wealth to compound and grow more quickly.

(The Bermuda insurer Mr. Loeb helped set up went public in 2013 and is active in the insurance business, not merely a tax dodge. Mr. Cohen and Mr. Bacon abandoned similar insurance-based strategies in recent years.)

Organizing one’s business as a partnership can be lucrative in its own right. Some of the partnerships from which the wealthy derive their income are allowed to sell shares to the public, making it easy to cash out a chunk of the business while retaining control. But unlike other publicly traded corporations, they pay no corporate income tax; the partners pay taxes as individuals. And the income taxes are often reduced by large deductions, such as for depreciation.

For large private partnerships, meanwhile, the I.R.S. often struggles “to determine whether a tax shelter exists, an abusive tax transaction is being used,” according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office. The agency is not allowed to collect taxes directly from these partnerships, even those with several hundred partners. Instead, it must collect from each individual partner, requiring the agency to commit significant time and manpower.

The wealthy can also avail themselves of a range of esoteric and customized tax deductions that go far beyond writing off a home office or dinner with a client. One aggressive strategy is to place income in a type of charitable trust, generating a deduction that offsets the income tax. The trust then purchases what’s known as a private placement life insurance policy, which invests the money on a tax-free basis, frequently in a number of hedge funds. The person’s heirs can inherit, also tax-free, whatever money is left after the trust pays out a percentage each year to charity, often a considerable sum.

Photo

Daniel S. Loeb, shown with his wife, Margaret, runs the $17 billion Third Point hedge fund. Mr. Loeb, who owns a home in East Hampton, has contributed to Jeb Bush’s Super PAC and given $1 million to the American Unity Super PAC, which supports gay rights. Credit Left: Patrick McMullan/Pmc

Many of these maneuvers are well established, and wealthy taxpayers say they are well within their rights to exploit them. Others exist in a legal gray area, its boundaries defined by the willingness of taxpayers to defend their strategies against the I.R.S. Almost all are outside the price range of the average taxpayer.

Among tax lawyers and accountants, “the best and brightest get a high from figuring out how to do tricky little deals,” said Karen L. Hawkins, who until recently headed the I.R.S. office that oversees tax practitioners. “Frankly, it is almost beyond the intellectual and resource capacity of the Internal Revenue Service to catch.”

The combination of cost and complexity has had a profound effect, tax experts said. Whatever tax rates Congress sets, the actual rates paid by the ultra-wealthy tend to fall over time as they exploit their numerous advantages.

From Mr. Obama’s inauguration through the end of 2012, federal income tax rates on individuals did not change (excluding payroll taxes). But the highest earning one-thousandth of Americans went from paying an average of 20.9 percent to 17.6 percent. By contrast, the top 1 percent, excluding the very wealthy, went from paying just under 24 percent on average to just over that level.

“We do have two different tax systems, one for normal wage-earners and another for those who can afford sophisticated tax advice,” said Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of San Diego who studies the intersection of tax policy and inequality. “At the very top of the income distribution, the effective rate of tax goes down, contrary to the principles of a progressive income tax system.”

A Very Quiet Defense

Having helped foster an alternative tax system, wealthy Americans have been aggressive in defending it.

Trade groups representing the Bermuda-based insurance company Mr. Loeb helped set up, for example, have spent the last several months pleading with the I.R.S. that its proposed rules tightening the hedge fund insurance loophole are too onerous.

The major industry group representing private equity funds spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year lobbying on such issues as “carried interest,” the granddaddy of Wall Street tax loopholes, which makes it possible for fund managers to pay the capital gains rate rather than the higher standard tax rate on a substantial share of their income for running the fund.

The budget deal that Congress approved in October allows the I.R.S. to collect underpaid taxes from large partnerships at the firm level for the first time — which is far easier for the agency — thanks to a provision that lawmakers slipped into the deal at the last minute, before many lobbyists could mobilize. But the new rules are relatively weak — firms can still choose to have partners pay the taxes — and don’t take effect until 2018, giving the wealthy plenty of time to weaken them further.

Shortly after the provision passed, the Managed Funds Association, an industry group that represents prominent hedge funds like D. E. Shaw, Renaissance Technologies, Tiger Management and Third Point, began meeting with members of Congress to discuss a wish list of adjustments. The founders of these funds have all donated at least $500,000 to 2016 presidential candidates. During the Obama presidency, the association itself has risen to become one of the most powerful trade groups in Washington, spending over $4 million a year on lobbying.

And while the lobbying clout of the wealthy is most often deployed through industry trade associations and lawyers, some rich families have locked arms to advance their interests more directly.

The inheritance tax has been a primary target. In the early 1990s, a California family office executive named Patricia Soldano began lobbying on behalf of wealthy families to repeal the tax, which would not only save them money, but make it easier to preserve their business empires from one generation to the next. The idea struck many hardened operatives as unrealistic at the time, given that the tax affected only the wealthiest Americans. But Ms. Soldano’s efforts — funded in part by the Mars family — laid the groundwork for a one-year elimination in 2010.

The tax has been restored, but currently applies only to couples leaving roughly $11 million or more to their heirs, up from those leaving more than $1.2 million when Ms. Soldano started her campaign. It affected fewer than 5,200 families last year.

“If anyone would have told me we’d be where we are today, I would never have guessed it,” Ms. Soldano said in an interview.

Some of the most profound victories are barely known outside the insular world of the wealthy and their financial managers.

In 2009, Congress set out to require that investment partnerships like hedge funds register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, partly so that regulators would have a better grasp on the risks they posed to the financial system.

The early legislative language would have required single-family offices to register as well, exposing the highly secretive institutions to scrutiny that their clients were eager to avoid. Some of the I.R.S.’s cases against the wealthy originate with tips from the S.E.C., which is often better-positioned to spot tax evasion.

By the summer of 2009, several family-office executives had formed a lobbying group called the Private Investor Coalition to push back against the proposal. The coalition won an exemption in the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, then spent much of the next year persuading the S.E.C. to largely adopt its preferred definition of “family office.”

So expansive was the resulting loophole that Mr. Soros’s $24.5 billion hedge fund took advantage of it, converting to a family office after returning capital to its remaining outside investors. The hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller, a former business partner of Mr. Soros, took the same step.

The Soros family, which generally supports Democrats, has committed at least $1 million to the 2016 presidential campaign; Mr. Druckenmiller, who favors Republicans, has put slightly more than $300,000 behind three different G.O.P. presidential candidates.

A slide presentation from the Private Investor Coalition’s 2013 annual meeting credited the success to multiple meetings with members of the Senate Banking Committee, the House Financial Services Committee, congressional staff and S.E.C. staff. “All with a low profile,” the document noted. “We got most of what we wanted AND a few extras we didn’t request.”

A Hobbled Monitor

After all the loopholes and all the lobbying, what remains of the government’s ability to collect taxes from the wealthy runs up against one final hurdle: the crisis facing the I.R.S.

President Obama has made fighting tax evasion by the rich a priority. In 2010, he signed legislation making it easier to identify Americans who squirreled away assets in Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Islands shelters.

His I.R.S. convened a Global High Wealth Industry Group, known colloquially as “the wealth squad,” to scrutinize the returns of Americans with incomes of at least $10 million a year.

But while these measures have helped the government retrieve billions, the agency’s efforts have flagged in the face of scandal, political pressure and budget cuts. Between 2010, the year before Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, and 2014, the I.R.S. budget dropped by nearly $2 billion in real terms, or nearly 15 percent. That has forced it to shed about 5,000 high-level enforcement positions out of about 23,000, according to the agency.

 

Audit rates for the $10 million-plus club spiked in the first few years of the Global High Wealth program, but have plummeted since then.

Photo

Steven A. Cohen, shown with his wife, Alexandra, is the founder of SAC Capital and owns a home in East Hampton. He is a prominent art collector and has focused his political contributions on a Super PAC for Chris Christie. Credit Left: Carly Erickson/BFA; Right: Doug Kuntz for The New York Times

The political challenge for the agency became especially acute in 2013, after the agency acknowledged singling out conservative nonprofits in a review of political activity by tax-exempt groups. (Senior officials left the agency as a result of the controversy.)

Several former I.R.S. officials, including Marcus Owens, who once headed the agency’s Exempt Organizations division, said the controversy badly damaged the agency’s willingness to investigate other taxpayers, even outside the exempt division.

“I.R.S. enforcement is either absent or diminished” in certain areas, he said. Mr. Owens added that his former department — which provides some oversight of money used by charities and nonprofits to further political campaigns — has been decimated.

Groups like FreedomWorks and Americans for Tax Reform, which are financed by the foundations of wealthy families and large businesses, have called for impeaching the I.R.S. commissioner. They are bolstered by deep-pocketed advocacy groups like the Club for Growth, which has aided primary challenges against Republicans who have voted in favor of higher taxes.

In 2014, the Club for Growth Action fund raised more than $9 million and spent much of it helping candidates critical of the I.R.S. Roughly 60 percent of the money raised by the fund came from just 12 donors, including Mr. Mercer, who has given the group $2 million in the past five years. Mr. Mercer and his immediate family have also donated more than $11 million to several super PACs supporting Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, an outspoken I.R.S. critic. and a presidential candidate.

Another prominent donor is Mr. Yass, who helps run a trading firm called the Susquehanna International Group. He donated $100,000 to the Club for Growth Action fund in September. Mr. Yass serves on the board of the libertarian Cato Institute and, like Mr. Mercer, appears to subscribe to limited-government views that partly motivate his political spending.

But he may also have more than a passing interest in creating a political environment that undermines the I.R.S. Susquehanna is currently challenging a proposed I.R.S. determination that an affiliate of the firm effectively repatriated more than $375 million in income from subsidiaries located in Ireland and the Cayman Islands in 2007, activating a large tax liability. (The affiliate brought the money back to the United States in later years and paid dividend taxes on it; the I.R.S. asserts that it should have paid the ordinary income tax rate, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars more.)

In June, Mr. Yass donated more than $2 million to three super PACs aligned with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has called for taxing all income at a flat rate of 14.5 percent. That change in itself would save wealthy supporters like Mr. Yass millions of dollars.

Mr. Paul has suggested going even further, calling the IRS a “rogue agency” and circulating a petition in 2013 calling for the tax equivalent of regime change. “Be it now therefore resolved,” the petition reads, “that we, the undersigned, demand the immediate abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service.”

But even if that campaign is a long shot, the richest taxpayers will continue to enjoy advantages over everyone else.

For the ultra-wealthy, “our tax code is like a leaky barrel,” said J. Todd Metcalf, the Democrats’ chief tax counsel on the Senate Finance Committee. ”Unless you plug every hole or get a new barrel, it’s going to leak out.”

Nicholas Confessore contributed reporting and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Opio

ARCHIVO – Esta foto de archivo del 19 de febrero de 2013 muestra pastillas de OxyContin preparadas para una foto en una farmacia en Montpelier, Vermont.

Más de 28,000 estadounidenses murieron por sobredosis de opiáceos en 2014, un récord para la nación. Eso es 78 personas por día, un número que no incluye a los millones de familiares, socorristas e incluso contribuyentes que sienten la onda de la adicción a las drogas en su vida diaria. Un aumento en los analgésicos recetados es parcialmente culpable: la venta de estos medicamentos se ha cuadriplicado desde 1999, y también lo ha hecho el número de estadounidenses que mueren a causa de una adicción a ellos. recurriendo a la heroína alternativa más barata y, cada vez más, al fentanilo, una droga aún más mortal.

ARCHIVO – Esta foto de archivo del 19 de febrero de 2013 muestra pastillas de OxyContin preparadas para una foto en una farmacia en Montpelier, Vermont. Más de 28,000 estadounidenses murieron por sobredosis de opiáceos en 2014, un récord para la nación. Eso es 78 personas por día, un número que no incluye a los millones de miembros de la familia, socorristas e incluso contribuyentes que sienten la onda expansiva de la adicción a las drogas en su vida diaria. Un aumento en los analgésicos recetados es parcialmente culpable: la venta de estos medicamentos se ha cuadriplicado desde 1999, y también lo ha hecho el número de estadounidenses que mueren a causa de una adicción a ellos. Cuando se agotan las recetas, las personas se encuentran recurriendo a la heroína alternativa más barata y, cada vez más, al fentanilo, una droga aún más mortal.

(Foto AP / Toby Talbot, archivo) Toby Talbot

La epidemia de opioides en NH jugará un papel en las elecciones presidenciales

Por KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Associated Press

Miércoles, 17 de agosto de 2016

El problema: más estadounidenses están muriendo por opioides que en cualquier otro momento de la historia reciente, y las muertes por sobredosis alcanzaron un pico de 28,000 en 2014. Eso equivale a 78 estadounidenses que mueren por una sobredosis de opioides todos los días, según los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades. . Los CDC utilizan opioides como un término general para los analgésicos sintéticos y para las drogas derivadas naturalmente del opio (conocidas más específicamente como opiáceos), como la heroína.

No es solo el uso de opiáceos ilícitos como la heroína lo que está en aumento: las muertes por sobredosis de analgésicos recetados se han cuadriplicado desde 1999, siguiendo un aumento similar en la cantidad de estos medicamentos recetados por los médicos.

Dónde están: Donald Trump considera que sus planes de construir un muro a lo largo de la frontera con México son esenciales para detener el flujo de drogas ilegales al país. La Administración de Control de Drogas informa que la incautación de drogas en la frontera sur se cuadruplicó entre 2008 y 2013. Hillary Clinton propone gastar $ 10 mil millones para abordar la crisis de las drogas. Su plan enviaría más dinero a los estados para expandir el tratamiento contra las drogas y los servicios de salud mental, promover una mayor disponibilidad del fármaco de reversión de sobredosis naloxona y apoyar mejores programas de prevención en las escuelas, entre otras cosas.

Por qué es importante: más de 2,4 millones de estadounidenses eran adictos a los analgésicos sintéticos o la heroína en 2014, según la última encuesta federal sobre el uso de drogas y la salud. Y ese número excluye a los millones más (familiares, socorristas, contribuyentes) que sienten los efectos dominó de la adicción en su vida diaria.

Clinton ha calificado la adicción a las drogas como una “epidemia silenciosa”. Pero es una que se está volviendo más fuerte, a medida que más y más estadounidenses comparten sus historias y muestran que la adicción a las drogas no sigue un perfil estándar de edad, raza o clase.

Durante décadas, la adicción a las drogas se consideró un problema de justicia penal, no de salud. El estigma está disminuyendo, pero muchos estados simplemente no tienen la capacidad de brindar tratamiento y recuperación a las personas que lo necesitan, dejando que los departamentos de policía y las salas de emergencia llenen el vacío. Los legisladores y defensores están luchando por los preciosos dólares de los impuestos para expandir los servicios, pero la Encuesta Nacional sobre el Uso de Drogas y la Salud de 2015 encontró que solo el 0.9 por ciento de las personas que buscan tratamiento para un problema relacionado con las drogas o el alcohol lo recibieron.

Los expertos ahora creen que la culpa es del fuerte aumento de los analgésicos recetados. Las personas se apresuran a compartir historias de que les recetaron docenas de pastillas para aliviar el dolor después de procedimientos tan simples como la extracción de las muelas del juicio. La fuerza de estos medicamentos puede causar adicción fácilmente, lo que obliga a muchas personas a recurrir a una alternativa más barata, la heroína, cuando se agotan sus recetas. Aproximadamente el 75 por ciento de los nuevos consumidores de heroína informan haber usado primero opioides recetados, dice el gobierno.

Los legisladores están comenzando a darse cuenta: en la reunión de la Asociación Nacional de Gobernadores en julio, 45 gobernadores firmaron un pacto destinado a soportar las reglas de prescripción. Varios fiscales generales están involucrados o están considerando librar batallas legales contra las principales compañías farmacéuticas, alegando que minimizaron los riesgos de adicción al comercializar analgésicos.

Al mismo tiempo, las drogas ilícitas a las que recurren las personas se están volviendo aún más mortales. El analgésico sintético fentanilo, que es hasta 50 veces más potente que la heroína, ahora se fabrica ilegalmente. A simple vista, es imposible distinguir entre heroína y fentanilo, lo que deja a las personas inconscientes de la letalidad de las drogas que consumen. Los estados del noreste y medio oeste, como New Hampshire y Ohio, están experimentando un aumento dramático en el uso de fentanilo. Más de 5,000 personas en todo el país murieron a causa de un opioide sintético como el fentanilo en 2014, y esa cifra solo está aumentando.

Como saben la mayoría de los políticos, las familias y las comunidades exigen un cambio rápido.

25 Years have flown by, since the fall of the Berlin wall !

Fue un momento de gran cambio y trajo mucha ilusión de que era posible crear un mundo más humano. ¡Tomó un tiempo, con la primera guerra iraquí en el medio, pero luego la elección de Bill Clinton y algunos de los mejores años que la humanidad ha experimentado! ¡Nuestro principal problema era averiguar si lo hizo o no! ¡Y el balance económico fue positivo durante años! Luego vino Bush junior, y el undécimo de septiembre, y ha sido un deslizamiento cuesta abajo desde entonces.Durante un tiempo, los “manantiales árabes”, los “indignados” y ocupar Wall Street parecían estar asumiendo la falta de acción, pero terminaron en callejones unidireccionales, y ahora, con Isis apoderándose de gran parte de Iraque y Siria, sin mencionar a Boko Haram en Nigeria (acaban de ocupar la ciudad, donde secuestraron a más de 200 niñas, luego se convirtieron en contra de su voluntad al Islam y se casaron con los combatientes, o violaron, o ambas cosas), la violencia y las humillaciones vuelven a estar en primer plano.

Luego, un cambio de actitud entre la juventud judía en los Estados Unidos, el Sr.Putin pareció llegar a razonar con Ukraina, y la respuesta de los turcos individuales (Nejat Agirnasli; http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index / 19651 / in-memory-of-suphi-nejat-agirnasli ) y los kurdos en el norte de Siria, resistiendo el embate de los combatientes del Isis, fue nuevamente un rayo de luz en la oscuridad, y la reacción de los combatientes del Isis cuando se enfrentaron Kobane, fue una adición interesante a la ecuación. Parece que no quieren luchar contra las mujeres (Narin Afrin, “nom de guerrè” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2791469/woman-fighter-leads-battle-against-islamic -estado-sitiado -sirio-ciudad-fronteriza-kobane.html), porque si una mujer está apretando el gatillo de una bala mortal, ¿no llegará al paraíso, lleno de vírgenes esperando cumplir sus deseos? En Irán, Que Ponen una una mujer en la cárcel desde el 30 º de junio, (Goncheh Gavami) Haber ayudado por una ONU Partido de voleibol masculino en Teherán. Y en Israel, algunas de las personas que trabajan en inteligencia, escuchando las conversaciones privadas de los palestinos, decidieron que estaban haciendo lo mismo, como por ejemplo. ¿Alemania comunista, y que su conciencia no mejorará continuar? Luego vino el anuncio de la construcción de un nuevo vecindario en tierras ocupadas en Jerusalén, y nuevamente, ¡estamos cerca de una nueva intifada! ¿Se siente como si lo hubiera escuchado antes?

Mientras tanto, en las alturas del Golán, al otro lado de la frontera israelí con Siria, reciben a las víctimas sirias de la guerra civil en un hospital militar, algunas inconscientes, que cuando se despiertan, para empezar, ¡creen que han llegado al cielo! Solo entonces se dan cuenta de que las vírgenes son reales y, aunque vestidas de blanco, ¡son enfermeras! Los médicos israelíes no discriminan por el bando en el que estaban luchando, mientras resultaron heridos, muchos de los cuales también eran civiles.

Y de lo micro a lo macro, Obama ha encontrado una manera de retribuir a Putin por la anexión de Crimea y la toma de control en curso de las provincias orientales de Ucrania, golpeando donde más duele, el precio de la gasolina. La economía rusa está lastimada, cuando el precio baja de los 90 dólares / barril, y los saudíes están contentos, ya que la economía iraní es similar, mientras que el fracking en Estados Unidos puede operar a un nivel de 60 $ / barril.

Finalmente, la naturaleza es la fuerza más poderosa, y en el noroeste de África, ¡el ébola está devastando las poblaciones! Los pocos que se contagiaron en occidente, han logrado sobrevivir, y los médicos sin fronteras, ponen su, y la nuestra, en medicinas que se pueden empezar a probar en unos meses. Y para terminar con una nota más alta, finalmente China y EE. UU. Acuerdan hacer algo para limitar sus emisiones de CO2, ¡para reducir el impacto del cambio climático!

¡Boom Shankar! Anders Inka desaparecido

Canacona pólice keep watch on beach parties

Canacona pólice keep watch on beach parties

From Our Correspondent

CANACONA, Dec 31: The Palolem beach in Canacona taluka is being overcrowded by foreign tourists fór the celebration of Christmas and New year. Hotels, shacks, temporary tents and other accommodation places are already full. The tourists are now being accommodated in the houses of the local residents.

As the beach parties have been banned at some other beaches in the state the influx of tourists is seen to be diverted to Palolem and other neighbouring places, with the intention of holding the beach parties. However the Canacona police have already taken steps to stall the organisation of beach parties. This has further sent the tourists to the Ankola and Gokarn beaches in the Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka.

The police sub-inspector (PSI) of Canacona, Mr Maheshwar Naik, has said the illegal activities will not be permitted in the Canacona taluka, including the Palolem beach área. The police force has kept a round-the-clock vigilance, over the taluka, he added.

Beach party in south Goa thwarted

 

Beach party in south Goa thwarted


From Our
Correspondent

MARGAO, April 2: Foreigners residing at coastal area in north Goa mainly from Anjuna, Vagator, Baga. Calangute and Candolim had planned clandestinely to have beach party on April 1 in South Goa in an isolated place near Agonda-Canacona.

The foreigners had also made arrangements for transport of foreigners from the northern belt and had also circulaled literature showing plans about location of the beach party in coded languages.

They had also painted some of the roads leading to Agonda by spraying liquid paint to show directions which was not easily vis­ible to general public. About 500 to 600 foreigners were to take part in the party, police sources revealed.

The South Goa Police under the supervision of the Superintendent of Police (South) Mr A K Singh. collected information in this respect and alerted all the police stations in South Goa to this effect.

Some of the organisers managcd to proceed to Agonda in the late afternoon, but they were chased and followed by the canacona police. The organisers were in for a sur-prise at Agonda and Palolem, as they had also kept boats ready lo take them across the creek from Palolem beach to the seculated place near Agonda, so that nobody can get access to the site where the beach party was to be held. The Canacona police also managed to arrest the main organisers in the beach party, Frank Wibing and a Germán national presently residing at Candolim, along with his Mahindra jeep.

A case was booked against him for defacement of roads and for planning to organising the party. he has been remanded to police custody for further investigation.

Meanwhile, all the pólice stations on the national highway like Verna, Margao town, Colva, Cuncolim and Canacona were alerted and suspected vehicles linked to the beach party were thoroughly checked and many of them were fined and issued challans.

While checking early morning today the Canacona pólice also intercepted one Israeli national Ms Revital Grich aged 26 years and recovered from her 22,500 grams of charas from her which was hidden near her underwear.

A case U/S 21 of N.D.P.S. Act 1985 has been booked and placed in police custody. She is been produced before Special Judge at Mapuca for remand of 14 days police custody.

Court verdict on rave party today

Court verdict on rave party today

BY HERAI.D KM’OKTKR

PANJIM, DP.C : The fate of the rave party schcduled at Anjuna beach by Paradiso de Anjuna still hangs in balance as the High Court has posted the judgement for Friday.

The Bench comprising of Justice R K Bhatta and Justice R M S Khandeparkar continued hearing in the public interest litigation filed by Peter D’Souza against the party. However, arguments could not be completed today and are posted for tomorrow morning.

Advócate A Agni appeared for Norrrm Azavedo, Mahesh Jethmalani represented Jeh Wadia and Advócate General A N S Nadkarni appeared on behalf of the government.

Advocate Jethmalani argued that it was not a rave party but a live party as usual and no drugs will be served.

The respondents admitted that alcohol will be served in the party. However, when Justice Kandeparkar asked for a copy of the liquor licence it was found that a licence was obtained in the ñame of U D Kamat with no house number and with Anjuna beach as the address.

Justice Khandeparkar questioned the respondents how they can use a licence issued to a third party when liquor licenses are not transferable.

The Bench raised doubts about the validity of the licence as no expiry date was mentioned on it.

The counsel for the respondent informed that the contract for leasing the hotel with the government was signed in 1993 and the same was renewed in 1996 which expired on September30, 1999.

The Bench also asked the re­spondents to produce documents to prove that they are in the legal possession of the restaurant, which they could not furnish.

The respondents also said that they had applied on December 1 for renewal of the contract, while Advó­cate General Nadkarni clarifíed that the renewal of licence is under consideration of the government. How­ever, he expressed his ignorance about the precise status of the application as of now.

However, the petilioner pointed out that the set procedures like inviting lenders for renewal of contract were not followed.

Advócate Agni, to one question, stated that the total leased área is only 300 mts which occupies the restaurant.

Then asked how the big área taken up for the party, Advocate Agni replied that they have asked permission of the government to erect a temporary structure to hold the party which will be removed voluntarily after the party is over.

Though they claimed that they had applied for the permission to the government on December 1, they failed to produce a copy before the court.The advocate general pointed out that the government has not received any such application and added that an ap-plication for renewal of contract was received and the deci­sión on the same is awaited.

The panchayat stated that it has conducted a panchanama of the site on December 14 under police protection and a notice was served on them.

The panchayat also added that since no reply was received from the organisers, they will go ahead with the demolition.

The issue of illegal construction came up in the gram sabha meeting which was held on De­cember 12 and the gram sabha decided to conduct the panchanama, replied the panchayat when asked how the decisión on conducting a panchanama came about.

The panchayat remained mum when asked why no action was not taken when the activity began.

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