Amazon Will Do Everything It Takes To Kill California's New Sales Tax Law - Business Insider

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Amazon is backing a referendum to overturn California's sales tax law, the New York Times reports.
Here's what's going on: states -- deep in the hole these days -- want e-tailers, and in particular Amazon, to collect sales tax on their affiliates. Amazon and others say, correctly, that they don't have to if they don't have a presence in the state. This debate has been going on for a while but has new urgency given the budgetary troubles of most states.
Affiliate marketing is one of the big ways Amazon generates incremental sales, so it's a big deal for them.
Recently California demanded the sales tax from Amazon. In response, Amazon shut off its affiliates. California then said, in essence, too bad, you still owe us all the sales tax from before you shut them off. And then Amazon gave them the one-finger salute.
So here we are.
Now Amazon is fighting back with the tools it has, a referendum to change the law in California.
A couple things are worth noting here.
Amazon is in the right here. The law and constitutional jurisprudence say it doesn't have to collect sales tax in states where it doesn't have nexus.Amazon supports a federal-level solution which is backed by 40 states called the Streamlined Sales Tax Initiative.And finally, anyone who messes with Jeff Bezos is in for a big fight.
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Vettel takes the quiet road to glory

Vettel's Formula One dominanceF1 champion Sebastian Vettel talks exclusively to CNN
Red Bull star dismisses claims this season has been "boring"
German says that you need a winning car and driver to be world champion
Ahead of the British GP, he already leads drivers' standings by 77 points

(CNN) -- There is a question that hangs over every sport, debasing the achievements of those who compete at the very highest level.

Be it golf, tennis or Formula One, the question remains the same: what is the true nucleus of a sportsman's success? Is it talent or technology?

This season it is Sebastian Vettel's turn to silence the doubters.

Few would argue his supremacy in F1. The 24-year-old world champion has won six races, from seven poles, and already commands a 77-point lead in the drivers' standings as we approach the halfway point of the season.

Equally, few would argue with Red Bull's technical supremacy, such has been the speed and new-found reliability that has been the cornerstone of Vettel's remarkable first half of the season. Is it the man or the machine that has secured his advantage? Vettel is unequivocal.

There are a lot of people around, a lot of girls around and a lot of parties
--Sebastian Vettel

"It always needs both," the German told CNN in an interview ahead of Sunday's British Grand Prix.

"Surely in Formula One you depend on your car. In a bad car you do not always win. You know, I always thought there is an opportunity to do great even when I was racing in cars that were not that competitive and able to win. My target going into the race was always winning.

"I think it still needs the drivers to push the team to make sure you keep that level, you know you keep developing yourself and the team, and together you can achieve that next step."

This Sunday's grand prix could be a crucial moment in the season. Another win for Vettel would make the second half the season in danger of becoming a formality. And although Formula One is a sport that venerates the legends that have ruled it -- be they Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher -- that happens only after they hang up their steering wheels. As they collect their laurels, the familiar criticism that the sport has become "boring" can be heard.

"I think the races this year have been exciting," Vettel says in answer to criticism that this season has become monotonous, in part, due to his and Red Bull's dominance.

"The race is not decided after the first corner or the first lap. There's a lot that can happen later on. So, you know there is this tension and this excitement, so I think it's different to what we have seen in Formula One maybe 10 years ago.

"Sometimes you have the best two (football) clubs in the world playing each other and they draw and nothing happens. So you know you can also say it's a boring game. And then the next one the score is 5-4, with a lot of goals."

And it could be argued he has a point. While the likes of Jacques Villeneuve and David Coulthard have bemoaned the lack of excitement, this season has had its moments.

Off the track there was the scandal surrounding the Bahrain Grand Prix, cancelled due to the worsening security situation following sectarian protests in the Gulf Kingdom. On the track there has been the excitement of Monaco, the increased aggression of Lewis Hamilton and, of course, Montreal, Vettel's only slip so far.

"I wanted to win that race and I was pushing very hard, you know the pace of Jenson," he said, referring to the rain-sodden Canadian Grand Prix that saw Jenson Button overtake Vettel on the last lap.

"I realized he was very quick and the only way was to push my maximum and, of course, if you push very hard ... when you're on the limit, you can do a mistake.

"Over the distance I think we did one mistake, the timing maybe wasn't perfect but, you know, that's life."

His focus is now on Sunday's race at Silverstone. Despite having the world at his feet, and all the temptations that being an F1 champion brings, he still shuns the glamorous life that many of his fellow drivers embrace.

"There are a lot of people around, a lot of girls around and a lot of parties," he said.

"I cannot afford to go on Saturday night for a couple of drinks because if I go to sleep late, I won't be fit the day after. You know sometimes you would love to go out and enjoy in some ways.

"But it's better to have a nice Sunday and have a better Sunday night."

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First Chicago fails, Wintrust takes over assets - Chicago Tribune

By Becky Yerak Tribune reporter 6:18 p.m. CDT, July 8, 2011

First Chicago Bank & Trust failed Friday, and its assets and deposits were taken over by Lake Forest-based Wintrust Financial Corp. Since April 2010, Wintrust, which has assets of $14.1 billion, has acquired six collapsed lenders with total assets of about $1.9 billion.

First Chicago is the fifth Illinois bank to fail this year.

First Chicago, which had $959 million in assets as of March 31, had been operating under regulatory scrutiny for more than a year. In April, it had fallen to "significantly undercapitalized" status and was given a deadline of early June to raise enough money to be considered "adequately capitalized." The bank, whose main investor has been a California private equity firm, was looking to raise about $50 million.

The FDIC said that Northbrook Bank & Trust Co. will assume the deposits of First Chicago. Northbrook is owned by Wintrust.

Wintrust, which has already repaid the money it borrowed under the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, has been the most active recently in picking up failed banks in the Chicago area, folding them into the 15 community banks it owns.

First Chicago Bank is the product of two community banks in the Chicago area. In the fall 2006, Labe Bank and Bloomingdale Bank and Trust joined forces to create a bank with combined assets of more than $1 billion. On Dec. 11, 2006, the bank officially became First Chicago Bank & Trust, and the holding company became First Chicago Bancorp.

It's not clear whether the First Chicago name will become available again. An earlier First Chicago was bought by Chase.

Failing this year in Illinois: Western Springs National Bank & Trust, Bank of Commerce, Valley Community Bank and Community First Bank Chicago.

According to its Web site, First Chicago has three locations in Chicago and one each in  Norridge, Park Ridge, Itasca and Bloomingdale.

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FCC takes steps toward implementing ‘Net Neutrality’ rules

Friday, July 1, 2011 · 10:10 am · 32 Comments

“Remember those net neutrality rules the U.S. Federal Communications Commission passed back in December? The agency is taking steps toward finally implementing them, although the rules still won’t go into effect for months,” Grant Gross reports for IDG News Service.

“The FCC on Thursday took a procedural step toward publishing the controversial rules in the Federal Register, the official U.S. government publication for agency rules. The FCC, said a spokesman, planned to send a Paperwork Reduction Act notice to the Federal Register and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Thursday, one of the final steps before the rules are published,” Gross reports. “Next week, the Federal Register is likely to publish the FCC’s estimates on the paperwork burden the net neutrality rules would create, the spokesman said. After a 30-day public comment period on the paperwork estimate, the OMB will have to approve the proposed rules.”

Gross reports, “After the OMB approves the rules, they will be published in the Federal Register. Sixty days after publication, they go into effect, meaning it could be nearly a year between the FCC’s vote to approve and the implementation of the rules… Some FCC critics have questioned why the agency has not yet published the rules in the Federal Register. Back in April, Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican, questioned if the agency was delaying publication in order to derail an effort by House of Representatives Republicans to repeal the rules.

Read more in the full article here.

“Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell says he thinks that there is a ‘better than average chance’ that a court, likely the D.C. circuit, will stay the FCC’s network neutrality rules,” John Eggerton reports for Broadcasting & Cable. “That came in an appearance June 29 on Fox News’ online program Power Play with Chris Stirewalt.”

“House Republicans this week renewed their attempt to roll back the regs via an amendment to the 2012 appropriations bill defunding FCC implementation, a gambit they tried with the stop-gap spending bill last spring without success,” Eggerton reports. “The House also passed a resolution to invalidate the rules but that, too, was not getting any traction in the Democratically-controlled Senate. McDowell cited the appropriations move, but pointed out that was tough given the Senate makeup.”

Eggerton reports, “That led up to his observation that it would more likely be overturned in court once the ‘gumming-up’ by OMB over paperwork was through and the rules could be noticed and challenged.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Al Franken: Big corporations are ‘hoping to destroy’ the Internet – March 16, 2011
Speaker Boehner rips FCC bid to regulate Internet; likens ‘shocking’ national debt to Sputnik threat – February 28, 2011
House passes amendment to block funds for FCC ‘Net Neutrality’ order – February 17, 2011
Rasmussen: Just 21% of likely U.S. voters want FCC to regulate Internet – December 28, 2010
FCC cites Android ‘openness’ as reason for neutered ‘Net Neutrality’ – December 22, 2010
U.S. FCC approves so-called ‘net-neutrality’ regulations – December 21, 2010
Tim Lee on ‘network neutrality’: Libertarian computer geeks should forge a third way – December 16, 2010
Google and Verizon propose ‘Net Neutrality’ rules, but exempt wireless’ – August 9, 2010
Big win for Comcast as US court rules against FCC on authority to impose ‘Net Neutrality’ – April 6, 2010

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