Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license
It looks like cash hungry local governments are getting awfully rapacious these days:
Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To [Marilyn] Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
“The real kick in the pants is that I don’t even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous,” Bess says.
It would be one thing if Bess’ website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn’t outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can’t very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.
When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city’s now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, “I was told to hire an accountant.”
She’s not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number — though no one knows exactly what that number is — of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.
Even if, as with Sean Barry, that profit is $11 over two years.
To say that these kinds of draconian measures are detrimental to the public discourse would be an understatement.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/philly-requiring-bloggers-to-pay-300-for-a-business-license-101264664.html#ixzz0xRu7RUWP
Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts
DEA wants “Black English” linguists to decipher bugged calls
AUGUST 23--The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/justice-department-seeks-ebonics-experts
A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media”
The DEA’s need for full-time linguists specializing in Ebonics is detailed in bid documents related to the agency’s mid-May issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) covering the provision of as many as 2100 linguists for the drug agency’s various field offices. Answers to the proposal were due from contractors on July 29.
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Green living thrives in communes, eco-villages
Shared eco-friendly living is becoming increasingly popular in places that range from communes to co-housing, eco-villages or intentional communities.
These are not the hippy, free-love communes of the 1960s, but living arrangements that focus on organic farming, green building, communal spaces and other aspects of sustainability.
Alex Gibbs, 9, left, and his brother Austin Gibbs, 8, ride a pony cart on the grounds of Lake Village Homestead in Kalamazoo, Mich., in July 2007.
CAPTIONBy Eileen Blass, USAT"The future of housing, in general, is sustainable communities," Laura Mamo, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland and co-author of Living Green, tells Green House. She argues that single-family homes on large suburban lots have failed society, because they've created social isolation, dependence on personal cars and intolerably hefty mortgages for homeowners.
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Mamo cites Takoma Village, the first co-housing community in the Washington area. Located in Takoma Park, Md., it has 43 apartments and townhouses that open to a central courtyard and a common building where residents eat together.
Compact, walkable and energy-efficient neighborhoods are the goal of a program launched nationally in April by the U.S. Green Building Council, known as the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Neighborhood Development.
"From Ithaca to Japan and Oregon to Sweden, green utopias are sprouting around the world," writes The Huffington Post, citing examples from Ithaca, N.Y., to Detroit, Ore. It elaborates on seven of these modern-day eco-living alternatives:
EcoVillage (Ithaca, N.Y.) Ithaca, New York's answer to a modern day commune is EcoVillage, a green utopia that houses 160 residents. Its 60 houses are split into two housing groups, FROG and SONG, and are all low-impact and energy-efficient. The third housing group, TREE, is currently being constructed and will house 30 more homes. EcoVillage has a CSA vegetable farm and a U-Pick berry farm along with a root cellar and community gardens. 80 percent of the commune's 175 acres will remain as green space, 55 acres of which are already under protection through a conservation easement from the Finger Lakes Land Trust. Residents volunteer 2 to 3 hours a week by building furniture, farming or assisting with other necessary maintenance. Future endeavors for EcoVillage include creating organic orchards, greywater recycling, and biodiesel and vegetable oil fuel production.
Dancing Rabbit (Rutledge, Mo.) Missouri's Dancing Rabbit is an intentional community and eco-village that houses 50 residents. The goal of the intentional community is to maintain the rural prairie by restoring the land to its pre-residential state. With 10,000 trees planted already, Dancing Rabbit is on its way to achieving this goal. All power stems from renewable sources, including solar and wind power, and the homes are built from natural materials: straw veils, cob, and reclaimed lumber. The water supply comes from rainwater.
Toyosato, a Yamagishi village (Mie Prefecture, Japan) A main component of the Yamagishi movement, Toyosato, a sustainable farming cooperative, is home to 550 residents. Started by ten families in 1969, Toyosato is now one of the main farming corporations in Japan. Toyosato also attempts to make the neighboring area more sustainable. The cooperative donates compost to neighboring farms and also uses factory byproducts from soy sauce and tofu production as livestock feed. Since 1960, the Yamagishi movement has created 30 villages.
Breitenbush Hot Springs (Detroit, Ore.) Breitenbush Hot Springs is a cooperative that runs an on-site hot springs retreat and conference center. Each year, the commune hosts 25,000 guests. Located east of Salem, Oregon in the Cascades, Breitenbush houses 50 full-time residents with 30 summer time employees. The commune uses geothermal power and hydropower as off-the-grid energy sources. To join the commune, members must work for the cooperative for one year and purchase a member share for $500.
Twin Oaks Commune (Louisa, Va.) With 85 adults and 15 children, Twin Oaks commune in Louisa, Virginia is a communal living destination. Started in 1967, the residents at Twin Oaks share their incomes and work 42 hours per week in the communal sectors by making tofu, creating furniture and hammocks, farming, milking cows and aiding with childcare.
Kolonilott and Understenhodgen (Stockholm, Sweden) Kolonilott are Swedish communes ranging from gardening specific communes to summer only communes. In the 1900s, Sweden's government devoted land to be used for gardening as part of an act to provide land to the lower classes. Although developed in Denmark, cohousing communes are sprouting throughout Sweden. Located in Stockholm's wooded "green fingers" area, Understenhodgen composes 44 cohousing homes. This eco-friendly lodging is a car-free location that offers district heating, waste recycling and a kindergarten program.
Nubanusit Neighborhood And Farm (Peterborough, N.H.) Nubanusit Neighborhood And Farm is a cohousing community that boasts an organic farm, communal office space and residences ranging from single family to four-unit dwellings. Located adjacent to Nubanusit Brook, residents reside in their own homes yet share seventy acres of farm land, woodlands, pond and fields. The residents all participate in a CSA and rely on on-site cows and chickens for dairy and milk. Each residence in the commune is LEED Platinum certified.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/08/green-living-takes-root-in-communes-co-housing-eco-villages/1
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