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lawsuit

Amazon Tax, Short-lived?

by admin on June 7, 2011

The Amazon tax, which became law in January, is bad for businesses, workers, and families. Last week, Performance Marketing Associates brought a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Revenue challenging the constitutionality of the law.

As far back as last year, executive vice president, Kristina Rasmussen warned that if the bill passed companies would flee Illinois. The day the bill passed, small businesses like Fatwallet.com immediately began to look for facilities in Wisconsin to relocate to. For a state that is 48th in job creation, scaring away jobs and employers does not seem like a sustainable strategy for the future. But there is some good news, Performance Marketing Associates seems determined to get this harmful law overturned. From their press release:

“House Bill 3659, signed by Governor Pat Quinn last March, victimizes Illinois entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even non-profit organizations who publish online advertisements for out-of-state retailers in an unlawful attempt to expand the state’s taxing authority.”

This law, like the 67% tax hike just passed, is just another attempt by our Governor to ensure that government spending continues its skyward climb. The sad part is the bill won’t even accomplish its central goal: raise money for the state:

via Illinois Policy Institute – Blog – Amazon Tax, Short-lived?.

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Trial begins Monday for Ben Wilcox, a former dean at Kaplan who is accused of sending threatening e-mails to Kaplan students, employees and executives

Ameet Sachdev Chicago Law, November 30, 2010

A trial opened Monday in a Chicago federal courtroom against an alleged computer hacker that promises to reveal more than the details of a cybercrime.

Jury selection began in a case against Ben Wilcox, a 45-year-old River Forest resident who faces charges of hacking into his former employer’s computer system and sending out harassing e-mails. The former employer is Kaplan Higher Education, a for-profit education company based in Chicago that is part of the Washington Post Co.

The threatening e-mails were sent to Kaplan students, employees and executives. While Kaplan was the victim, the trial will shed uncomfortable light on the company.

Wilcox, who previously confessed to the computer crime, now alleges that Kaplan framed him because he threatened to blow the whistle on some of the company’s illegal activities, according to court documents his lawyer recently filed.

Wilcox, who worked as a dean of legal studies at Kaplan, is a plaintiff in a pending federal whistle-blower lawsuit that accuses Kaplan of inflating grades and fraudulently increasing enrollment numbers to obtain additional federal government subsidies.

via Ex-Kaplan employee alleges company framed him after he became a whistle-blower – chicagotribune.com.

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This is Otis McDonald, the face of the gun-lobby lawsuit now before the U.S. Supreme Court that will likely overturn Chicago’s handgun ban. I spent an afternoon with him to hear exactly why a black, liberal Democrat would side with the gun lobby. I expected the 76-year-old grandfather to spew a load of conservative gun-nut propaganda. Instead, Mr. McDonald told me the story of his life over slices of venison bologna and in-between calls from his lawyer, Alan Gura.

Mr. McDonald message was clear: It’s unfair to force an elderly man and his wife to sit inside their home defenseless when neighborhood criminals all around them are armed with a cache of weapons the size of a small militia.

For me– a guy who’s never shot a gun but lives in a shoot-em-up part of town — Mr. McDonald’s calm, reasoned insights were eye opening.

Here’s Mr. McDonald’s story.

via Let’s talk about packing pistols in Chicago … – Konkol’s Korner.

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