Wired on intellectual property holders and IP outlaws:
On the one side are the intellectual property holders, predominantly citizens of Western nations. They’re squaring off against IP outlaws, who tend to live in developing countries. The propertied class loudly asserts its ownership and control. The insurgents cry for openness and exploit technological loopholes with abandon.
It seems odd to me that the defenders of the PATRIOT act urge us to look at the details of the Act and stop viewing it as Federal law enforcement’s ticket to do essentially whatever law enforcement wants, without procedural safeguards.
When you get into the trenches and watch how they are actually using PATRIOT, however, it becomes pretty clear that law enfocement has interpreted it as their ticket to do whatever they want.
Bio 2004 is underway in San Francisco. Wisconsin, like many other states/government bodies, has a pavilion.
The exhibitor list is here. This list, with numerous government bodies illustrates the great temptation that states provide narrowly focused tax incentives, as discussed here recently.
In the end, these conferences can suffer from “increasing returns“, because the Kansas Biosciences Association, among many others are exhibiting (in the Kansas Pavilion), so too must the Illinois Farm Bureau, and many, many others.
TaxProf points to a “brazen” Powerpoint (!) presentation by Big 4 Accounting firm Ernst & Young: Turning Your State Government Relations Department from a Money Pit into a Cash Cow.
Kelly Zito writes that:
The Santa Clara County assessor has slashed the values of about 1, 200 office and industrial buildings by about $8 billion, further underscoring Silicon Valley’s protracted high-tech slump.
County officials boosted assessed values of about 9,500 homes and condos that had been cut last year, but more than 23,000 residential properties continued to receive reductions totaling about $1.7 billion, they said Thursday.
Madison’s property values have risen for years. Someday, there will be an adjustment, which will be painful for its tax base.
Highly Decorated Army Vet and writer David Hackworth, pens his weekly column on the subject of Consequence Day.
The Iowa Electronic Market began its 2004 Presidential Market yesterday. Right now, Bush is ahead of Kerry.
The Governor’s Task Force on Educational Excellence is evidently poised to suggest that the state fund schools by:
Amy Hetzner summarizes the proposal.
I think that school funding should include:
Dean E. Murphy writes about Seekers, Drawn to the Promised Land in Las Vegas.
Years ago, while living in San Francisco, I visited the Owens Valley (Eastern Sierra). The Valley, decimated by the LA Department of Water & Power may now see a flowing river, according to this article by Rene Sanchez.