Departmental Offices, FOIA Log January 1
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Dark Store Theory
Journal of Tax Administration Vol 6:2 2021 Dark Store Theory DARK STORE THEORY: EXAMINING THE TAX LOOPHOLE’S RELEVANCE IN WISCONSIN FROM MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES Daniel H. Boylan1, Jeffrey W. Cline1 Abstract Originally encouraged through legislative reformation during the 1950s, big-box retailers play a major role in the United States’ economy. Built to thrive in the suburbs, they were welcomed by municipalities and property owners who believed that the increased sales taxes that the stores would generate would, in turn, lead to increased tax revenues and lower property taxes. Municipalities and residential property owners are now pushing for legislative action to close a tax loophole that was ostensibly allowed through recent tax reform. However, there is a substantial amount of confusion over the legitimacy of the loophole, as analysts have opposing viewpoints. This research examines the relationship between the presence of big-box retailers and the property tax levies of local municipalities in Wisconsin. It then investigates the phenomenon known as the dark store loophole and analyzes the opposing perspectives held by specialists within the industry. It also considers the overall impact of the loophole on residential property owners. This research finds that imposing legislation to close the dark store loophole would enable local governments to lower residential property taxes. JEL Classification Codes: H11, H71, K11, K25, M48, N42, R51 Keywords: Property Tax, Municipality, Big-box Retailer, Dark Store Theory, Tax Loophole, Property Owner 1. INTRODUCTION Big-box retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Ikea have effectively transformed the way that Americans shop for everything from everyday items to decade-lasting furniture and appliances. -
2020 Impact Report 2 Contents Approach Reducing Our Emissions Supporting Climate Action Investing in Our People Driving Social Change
Contents Approach Reducing our emissions Supporting climate action Investing in our people Driving social change Approach Message from Mike 03 About this report 04 About Bloomberg L.P. 05 Governance 06 Stakeholder engagement 07 Risk management 08 Climate scenario analysis 10 Materiality assessment 14 Sustainability strategy 16 COVID-19 spotlight The business of resilience 18 Environmental impact Reducing our emissions 21 Supporting climate action 30 Social impact Investing in our people 44 Driving social change 51 2020 Impact Report 2 Contents Approach Reducing our emissions Supporting climate action Investing in our people Driving social change Message from Mike. Despite the enormous challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is well-positioned to take great steps forward in the fight against climate change. Governments are eager to respond to the fallout from the pandemic in ways that Our company has increased the environmental, social and governance (ESG) data make their economies stronger, more sustainable and more resilient. Business leaders and research we provide, and we have also introduced products to help clients better recognize the risks they face and understand that the same steps that cut carbon assess climate-related risks and opportunities, including new sustainability scores. emissions also help to spur growth and promote stability. The public wants power In 2020, we launched Bloomberg Green, the world’s definitive news source sources that won’t poison the air they breathe. And markets increasingly favor clean dedicated to the business, science and technology of climate change. energy over fossil fuels as the cost of renewable power continues to drop. Virtually all of our company’s profits go to fund the work of Bloomberg Philanthropies The year ahead can set the stage for a decade of transformational change — but only and, in 2020, our foundation expanded our efforts to drive action on climate change. -
Party Foul: Inside the Rise of Spies, Mercenaries, and Billionaire Moneymen -- Printout -- TIME
Party Foul: Inside the Rise of Spies, Mercenaries, and Billionaire Moneymen -- Printout -- TIME Back to Article Click to Print Monday, Mar. 03, 2014 Party Foul: Inside the Rise of Spies, Mercenaries, and Billionaire Moneymen By Alex Altman; Zeke Miller On a cold Saturday in January, a spy slipped into a craft brewery in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, where Hillary Clinton's standing army was huddled in a private room. The 43-year-old operative lurked in the corner with a camera on a tripod, recording the group of old Clinton hands as they plotted her path to the presidency. "Nobody," veteran Democratic strategist Craig Smith told the group, "had ever done it like this before." Within hours, a clip of the gathering was shipped to the snoop's employer, a for-profit research firm in northern Virginia. From there, it was packaged for a conservative magazine and subsequently went viral online. It was an early score in a presidential election that won't officially begin for another year--and it happened without any involvement from a candidate or either party. The Clintonites were members of Ready for Hillary, a super PAC that is spending millions of dollars to assemble a grassroots battalion for the former Secretary of State's campaign-in-waiting. And the infiltrator was one of more than two dozen "trackers" dispatched across 19 states by a company looking to damage Democrats. This is the dawn of the outsourced campaign. For decades, elections have been the business of candidates and political parties and the professionals they employed. People with names on the ballot bought their own ads and wielded the ability to smite enemies with a single phone call. -
The Growth & Opportunity Project
GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY PROJECT GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY PROJECT 1 GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY PROJECT A ONE-YEAR CHECK-UP March 17th, 2014 The definition of insanity, according to the over-used proverb attributed to Einstein, is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Many political organizations don’t understand that principle. But the RNC, under Chairman Reince Priebus, does. After 2012’s disappointing election, he vowed to end the cycle of repeating the same thing—and to do things differently. The five of us served as co-chairs of the Growth and Opportunity Project, an independent review panel that Chairman Priebus convened after the presidential election to make recommendations about how to grow the party and win more elections. We spent three months and received input from over 52,000 individuals—from surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one meetings. While the report provided recommendations on what the party at large needed to do, we’re pleased to see that the RNC has made tremendous progress on many of our recommendations in the course of the past year. Likewise, many of the other party committees and outside groups have also embraced aspects of the report and should be commended for their progress. We touched on a broad range of issues, but the most important recommendations centered around three areas: engaging more voters with a positive message through a permanent, nationwide, diverse field operation; modernizing data and digital capabilities to provide tools for state parties and campaigns for voter contact; and updating the presidential primary, debate, and convention process to strengthen the eventual nominee. -
Lord Ashcroft's Republican Convention Diary. Day
Lord Ashcroft’s Republican Convention Diary. Day One: Trump begins as he means to go on An American political convention makes a British party conference look rather like a village fete. This year’s Republican National Convention is taking place in Cleveland, Ohio, in the twenty-thousand seat arena that is home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the city’s world championship- winning basketball team. I am among the fifty thousand people visiting for the event, along with 2,472 delegates, many of the stars of American politics (including Karl Rove, architect of George W. Bush’s two presidential victories, whom I caught up with yesterday pictured), and the fifteen thousand members of the media, who comprise the biggest international press corps outside that of the Rio Olympics. Cleveland itself inspires mixed views. Some like to refer to it as “The Mistake On The Lake”, or to remind you that the Cuyahoga River which runs through it was once so polluted that it caught fire. This is unsporting, since the city has plenty of merits, not the least of which is the world- class Cleveland Clinic, of which I am both a proud trustee and a grateful former patient. I spent a total of twenty-nine days in its intensive care unit last year recovering from septic shock. At one point I found myself surrounded by fifteen doctors. This was a new experience for me – fifteen lawyers in a room, yes, but never doctors. I had to tell them I preferred the lawyers. As the reader will know, the Republican Convention was last held in Cleveland eighty years ago, when the party nominated Alfred M. -
Super Pacs and 501(C) Groups in the 2016 Election
Super PACs and 501(c) Groups in the 2016 Election David B. Magleby* Brigham Young University Paper presented at the “State of the Parties: 2016 and Beyond”, Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, University of Akron. November 9-10, 2017. *I would like to acknowledge the research assistance of Hyrum Clarke, Ben Forsgren, John Geilman, Jake Jensen, Jacob Nielson, Blake Ringer, Alena Smith, Wen Je (Fred) Tan, and Sam Williams all BYU undergraduates. Data made available by the Center for Responsive Politics was helpful as were two interviews with Robert Maguire, whose expertise in political nonprofits was informative. 1 Super PACs and 501(c) Groups in the 2067 Election David B. Magleby Brigham Young University In only a short period of time, Super PACs have come to be one of the most important parts of American electoral politics. They raise and spend large sums of money in competitive federal elections. They have become fully integrated teammates with candidates, party leaders, and interest groups. While initially they were most visible in paying for television advertising, by 2016 they expanded their scope by providing a wide variety of campaign services once thought to be funded by candidate campaign committees (campaign events) or party committees, (get-out-the-vote, voter registration, list development). Where does the money come from that funds Super PACs and other outside groups? While much of the attention on sources of funding for Super PACs was initially on corporations and unions, the reality has been that most of the funding for Super PACs has been individuals. Publicly traded corporations have been infrequent funders of Super PACs, while unions have been more active in using Super PACs. -
December 19, 2017 Records, FOIA, and Privacy Branch Office of Environmental Information Environmental Protection Agency 1200
December 19, 2017 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Records, FOIA, and Privacy Branch Office of Environmental Information Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (2822T) Washington, DC 20460 [email protected] Re: Freedom of Information Act Request Dear Freedom of Information Officer: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, and the implementing regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 40 C.F.R. Part 2, American Oversight makes the following request for records. On December 15, Mother Jones and the New York Times reported that EPA signed a $120,000 no-bid contract with Definers Public Affairs to provide media services.1 Definers was founded by Joe Pounder and Matt Rhoades, two longtime Republican political operatives. Mr. Pounder and Mr. Rhoades previously founded America Rising, a Republican political opposition research firm. The Times also reported that since President Trump took office, at least 40 FOIA requests have been submitted to the EPA by Allan Blutstein, a vice president for both Definers and America Rising. Many of those requests sought records about EPA employees who had been critical of the Trump administration. Earlier today, it was reported that EPA had decided to cancel the contract with Definers Public Affairs.2 However, many questions remain about the initial decision to award a no-bid contract to 1 See Rebecca Leber et al., The EPA Hired a Major Republican Opposition Research Firm to Track Press Activity, MOTHER JONES (Dec. 15, 2017, 6:00 AM), http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/the-epa-hired-a-major-republican-opposition- research-firm-to-track-press-activity/; Eric Lipton & Lisa Friedman, E.P.A. -
December 19, 2017 SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY Honorable Arthur A. Elkins Jr. Inspector General EPA Office of Inspector General 1
December 19, 2017 SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY Honorable Arthur A. Elkins Jr. Inspector General EPA Office of Inspector General 1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (2410T) Washington, D.C. 20460 Re: Suggestions for Audits and Evaluations Dear Mr. Elkins, The mission of EPA’s Office of the Inspector General is to “prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse through independent oversight of the programs and operations of the Environmental Protection Agency.”1 We respectfully request that the Office of the Inspector General immediately open an investigation into EPA’s decision to award a $120,000 no-bid contract to Definers Public Affairs Corporation for “news analysis and brief service focusing on EPA work and other topics of interest to EPA,” as well as EPA’s interactions with key Definers affiliates and staff members.2 Although EPA reportedly intends to terminate its contract with Definers3 in light of widespread concern,4 a full investigation is essential to determine whether EPA’s multi- faceted interactions with Definers and its affiliates has led to improper uses of agency resources. In particular, EPA’s no-bid $120,000 contract award to Definers Public Affairs Corporation raises serious questions of potential “waste, fraud, and abuse”: the organization’s partisan character and on-going promotion of Administrator Pruitt suggest that inappropriate 1 EPA Office of Inspector General, About EPA’s Office of Inspector General, https://www.epa.gov/office- inspector-general/about-epas-office-inspector-general#who_what_why. 2 https://www.usaspending.gov/Transparency/Pages/AwardSummary.aspx?AwardID=59978626. 3 See, e.g., https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/19/epa-to-end- controversial-contract-with-conservative-media-monitoring-firm/?utm_term=.6e3f99ccd0da; https://twitter.com/PounderFile/status/943172637202755584. -
Bloomberg Logo Data Licence
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Farmers Can Still Flex Muscles in Mid-Term Elections
WE SEE NEW WORLDS IN EVERY ACRE. From scientists in our laboratories to our agronomists and sales professionals working in every farming community, we meet new challenges every season and provide new opportunities one field at a time. The DuPont Oval Logo is a registered trademark of DuPont. ®, TM, SM Trademarks and service marks of Pioneer. © 2014 PHII. 14-2499 Farmers can still flex muscles in mid-term elections By Sara Wyant WASHINGTON, July 28, 2014 – If a recent poll is any indication, Sen. Kay Hagan appears to be holding onto a small lead in a hotly-contested mid-term race that could determine whether Democrats retain their control of the U.S. Senate next year. There are 36 Senate seats in play this year and 21 are held by Democrats like Hagan with 15 in the hands of the GOP. If Republicans hold all of their own and pick up six additional seats, they can gain control of the Senate, setting the stage for Republican control of both chambers during the last two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. In North Carolina, Hagan leads her Republican challenger, state House Speaker Thom Tillis, by 7 percentage points, according to a July 17-20 survey by Public Policy Polling, with a margin of error of plus or minus three points. However, polls offer just a snapshot of public sentiment at any given time. In political terms, it’s still a long way until the November elections, and pundits and political operatives are watching and videotaping almost every move – waiting for something akin to “a Todd Akin moment,” where members of the Missouri Senate hopeful’s own party faced the troubling reality of disavowing their own candidate because of some of his comments. -
Participatory Propaganda Model 1
A PARTICIPATORY PROPAGANDA MODEL 1 Participatory Propaganda: The Engagement of Audiences in the Spread of Persuasive Communications Alicia Wanless Michael Berk Director of Strategic Communications, Visiting Research Fellow, SecDev Foundation Centre for Cyber Security and International [email protected] Relations Studies, University of Florence [email protected] Paper presented at the "Social Media & Social Order, Culture Conflict 2.0" conference organized by Cultural Conflict 2.0 and sponsored by the Research Council of Norway on 1 December 2017, Oslo. To be published as part of the conference proceedings in 2018. A PARTICIPATORY PROPAGANDA MODEL 2 Abstract Existing research on aspects of propaganda in a digital age tend to focus on isolated techniques or phenomena, such as fake news, trolls, memes, or botnets. Providing invaluable insight on the evolving human-technology interaction in creating new formats of persuasive messaging, these studies lend to an enriched understanding of modern propaganda methods. At the same time, the true effects and magnitude of successful influencing of large audiences in the digital age can only be understood if target audiences are perceived not only as ‘objects’ of influence, but as ‘subjects’ of persuasive communications as well. Drawing from vast available research, as well as original social network and content analyses conducted during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, this paper presents a new, qualitatively enhanced, model of modern propaganda – “participatory propaganda” - and discusses its effects on modern democratic societies. Keywords: propaganda, Facebook, social network analysis, content analysis, politics A PARTICIPATORY PROPAGANDA MODEL 3 Participatory Propaganda: The Engagement of Audiences in the Spread of Persuasive Communications Rapidly evolving information communications technologies (ICTs) have drastically altered the ways individuals engage in the public information domain, including news ways of becoming subjected to external influencing. -
Fifth Annual Rancho Mirage Writers Festival at the Rancho Mirage Library & Observatory
FIFTH ANNUAL RANCHO MIRAGE WRITERS FESTIVAL AT THE RANCHO MIRAGE LIBRARY & OBSERVATORY JANUARY 24–26, 2018 Welcome to the RANCHO MIRAGE WRITERS FESTIVAL! We are celebrating year FIVE of this exciting Festival in 2018! This is where readers meet authors and authors get to know their enthusiastic readers. We dedicate all that happens at this incredible gathering to you, our Angels and our Readers. The Rancho Mirage Writers Festival has a special energy level, driven by ideas and your enthusiasm for what will feel like a pop-up university where the written word and those who write have brought us together in a most appropriate venue — the Rancho Mirage Library and Observatory. The Festival starts fast and never lets up as our individual presenters and panels are eager to share their words and their thoughts. The excitement of books. David Bryant Jamie Kabler In 2013 we began to design the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival. Our Steering Committee kept its objective LIBRARY DIRECTOR FESTIVAL FOUNDER important and clear — to bring authors, their books, and our readers together in this beautiful resort city. In 2018 our mission remains the same, though the Festival has grown and gets even better this year. The writers you read and the books that get us thinking and talking converge at the Festival to make January in the Desert, not only key to our season, but a centerpiece of our cultural life. The Festival is a celebration of the written word. The Festival lives in our award-winning Library. Recent investments in the Library include: Welcome • Windows in the John Steinbeck Room and the Jack London Room that can be darkened electronically making for a better presenter/audience experience.