Subject: Taxes

• Another good reason to be rich

  Sure, there are plenty of good reasons to be rich– don't have to worry about the rising cost of living; the greater likelihood of attracting a pneumatic mate (or at least being able to afford to surgically alter your mate into a more pneumatic state, until a newer, pneumatic-er model comes along); etc., etc.– and now the Bush administration has given us one more. The rich are different from you and me, because the Bush administration doesn't particularly care whether they pay all the

  July 24, 2006

• Eddie Rose on "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly"

  Eddie Rose writes: "In California this year, we have--with one notable exception--the WORST slate of candidates, including a man who can't pronounce the name of the state he claims to serve! Were it not for the importance of several ballot propositions, it probably wouldn't make much sense to go to the polls at all--unless you believe that we should simply vote for the LESSER OF EVILS. What an option! Here are my recommendations: Prop. 1A: Use existing gas taxes for roads and transportatio

  October 29, 2006

• Speaking of congressional races ...

  Check out this little ray of sunshine from Bloomberg (the news service, not the mayor): Candidates Ignore $1.35 Trillion Minimum Tax `Bomb' By Ryan J. Donmoyer Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional candidates this fall are furiously debating Iraq, Medicare and extending tax cuts. Most are staying quiet about an imminent legislative challenge: how to stop a tax increase that will hit more than 20 million households next year, some with incomes as low as $50,000. The rest is here.

  October 31, 2006

• The Gov's Budget: Who, What, and How Hard?

  If you're a college student in California, congratulations-- you play a leading role in Governor Schwarzenegger's new budget plan. The governor believes in you. He believes you're the sort of person who can make a sacrifice for the public good. Instead of turning to, say, big businesses, real estate speculators, or those parasites who live off trust funds to find the "discipline" needed to make his budget work, he turns to you. The governor knows you're the kind of person who wouldn't mind p

  January 11, 2007

• From Most Corrupt to Most Wanted?

  Some of the FBI agents not busy investigating what you're pulling out of the tubes of the internet are engaged in truly worthwhile work: investigating the imaginative land deals of Congressman Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar, and one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington). I'm sure the more accountant-y agents are enjoying Miller's interesting approach to paying taxes, which was touched on in the post, Public Service for Fun and

  January 31, 2007

• A Billion Here, A Great Park There

  "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money", runs the quip that is the only reason most people who remember Senator Everett M. Dirksen remember him at all.  And news of the Great Park in this morning's Times brings that quote, if not Everett M., to mind. Orange County's Great Park, envisioned as a dramatic landscape of man-made lakes, streams and a rugged canyon in the middle of suburbia, will cost more than $1 billion to create. The new estimate, revealed

  March 5, 2007

• Saving them from WW2 Japan wasn't enough

  Matt Cunningham's Red County/OC Blog has an interesting post today on legislation backed by Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-Anaheim) that would require present-day U.S. taxpayers to pay reparations to World War II residents of Guam. It's not that our citizens or soldiers have ever done anything wrong to Guam. In fact, American soldiers—funded by U.S. taxpayers in the 1940s—gave their lives or limbs to remove the brutal Japanese military from their island. We could also note the U

  May 8, 2007

• New test of American-ness

  The pool of 100 questions unveiled today to be used on naturalization tests starting in October 2008 doesn't look all that different from the 96 questions they're replacing. At least not $6.5 million different, the reported sum spent on the revamp. Some hard questions were simplified – applicants had to name both of their state senators and all three branches or government on the old test and just one of each on the new – while some of the more random fact type questions have merely been r

  September 28, 2007

• Read Sheriff Carona's indictment here

  This morning, the Weekly stood with folks from the LAT, ABC7, NBC4 and other media outlets outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, waiting with bated breath and loaded cameras for the man of the hour—Sheriff Michael S. Carona (R-Indicted)—to make his walk of shame. Alas, the indicted party pooper was a no-show, and everyone went home empty-camera'd. We'll be back tomorrow to see if His Indictedness will grace us with his indicted presence. Meanwhile, intrepid Weekly

  October 30, 2007

• The Bono - Jesse Helms connection

  From our good friends at Rock & Rap Confidential: "Jesse Helms died yesterday, the Fourth of July. The LA Times front page described Helms as 'the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who for half a century infuriated liberals with his race-baiting campaign tactics.' President Bush described Helms as 'a kind, decent, and humble man. So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July.' "Bono agrees with Bush. Bono called Helms a 'good friend' and took him out to dinner

  July 7, 2008

• Virtual Tax

  November 4, 1999

• Nonprofits Help Low-Income Families File Tax Returns, Get Credits

  The Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove, Orange County United Way and the Legal Aid Society of Orange County have teamed to sponsor Free Community Tax Days to help families file their income taxes and claim tax credits they may not be aware they are eligible for. Particular focus will be directed at getting filers to explore their eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which is the primary anti-poverty program offered to individuals and families who meet the Internal Revenue Ser

  February 3, 2009

• State Taxman Pops Buena Park Doctor and Wife for Alleged Fraud

   The state Franchise Tax Board (FTB) reports today that physician John S. Han, 61, and his wife Sonya Han, 55, were arrested on felony counts of Medicare fraud and filing fraudulent state income tax returns after a search of their Buena Park home. According to FTB special agents, Mr. Han, who owns John S. Han, M.D., Inc. and operates Pain Medical Center in Norwalk, billed Medicare for more than $10 million in services from 2001-05 but failed to report more than $6.2 million in i

  February 5, 2009

• DeVore Scoffs at Budget Data Suggesting Orange County Uses More, Spends Less for State Services

  Assembly Budget Committee chairwoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) released data from the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) that suggests cuts under the state budget plan approved Thursday morning could hit Republican areas hardest because they use more government services, while the tax burden falls more heavily on Democratic leaning counties. Evans' analysis rubs Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) the wrong way, Malcolm Maclachlan reports in Sacramento's Capitol Weekly

  February 20, 2009

• A Fortuitously Timed Tax-Denying Conference Comes To Our Tax-Hating County

  Man met bril / Flickr / Creative CommonsSpotted on the commute to Weekly world headquarters today: a brown Dodge pickup whose back window read, in blue electricians-tape lettering, "TAX REVOLT!" Spotted on Red County and Orange Juice Blog: recall fever against all the Republicans who supported the state's recently passed tax-hiking budget.Spotted at Irvine's Atrium Hotel from March 13 to 16: Freedom Law School's 2009 Health & Freedom Conference. The conference, which has been held in Orange

  February 26, 2009

• An OC-Based Car Empire Breaks Down

  madaise / Flickr / Creative CommonsThe Capistrano Insider caught a story in Automotive News about Newport Beach's Mike Kahn, who, until recently, ran one of the fastest-growing car dealership chains in America. Or at least, that's how Automotive News ranked his company in 2007. Come 2009, though,  the market has slain, among many other things, Kahn's business.On Tuesday, Feb. 24, Kahn closed five dealerships--three Nissan stores in the Los Angeles area, one in Fremont, Calif., and a Toyota

  March 2, 2009

• Welcome to the Poorhouse: Ring-Ring-Ring!

  Please do not take it personally if I do not answer the phone when you call. Bill collectors used to call my home every morning beginning at 8:30. Then it was 8 a.m. Now it can be any hour of the day. They now call my home,  my cell phone and my work lines. One called my wife's main office line, for a bill that is under my name. After she pointed that out--ripping them a new one in the process--they stopped calling her there.My cell phone's history of received calls is now a collection of a

  March 6, 2009

• Welcome to the Poorhouse: Ah, Tax Time

  Collectors for credit-card companies have the phone ringing off the hook, but the messages in the mailbox are worse. Other creditors, the ones not calling because they have miraculously been paid on time, inform that finance charges are being jacked up due to late payments to other creditors. Non-payment notices arrive from Edison, the water district and the county assessor, who reiterates that not only is the huge property tax bill late but so is the late charge on it, and--unless you're a seni

  April 13, 2009

• DeVore Now Bugs Henley, Boxer AND Scrooge McDuck (Updated)

  Barbara BoxerWe vowed to be more sparing in our blog coverage of Irvine Assemblyman/2010 senatorial candidate Chuck DeVore's publicity campaign to seem like the most affably goofy nuclear-power lobbyist in the state. But it's time for an update, because DeVore's gone and made another Don Henley parody. This one jabs at Barbara Boxer, his 2010 opponent (contingent on the highly dubious assumption that DeVore will win the Republican primary)It's called "All She Wants To Do is Tax," a rip-off of H

  April 14, 2009

• Historic $618,000 Settlement Was Money Well-Spent for Owners of Low-Income Stanton Apartment Complex

  September 4, 2008

• Great Pork

  May 16, 2002

• !Ask a Mexican!

  Is this over-reliance on her family a cultural difference?

  April 12, 2007

• Live Free Now

  March 16, 2006

• The Smart Guy

  June 9, 2005

• Wreck (of) a Nation

  June 2, 2005

• The Smart Guy

  June 2, 2005

• Burning Bush

  July 8, 2004

• Burning Bush

  April 8, 2004

• Letters

  November 6, 2003

• The Case for Governor Tom McClintock

  October 9, 2003

• Mr. Bigs Sack

  April 10, 2003

• Diary of a Mad County

  March 6, 2003

• Air Argyros

  March 28, 2002

• Letters

  August 2, 2001

• The New Hugh

  April 20, 2000

• Lie the Friendly Skies

  March 2, 2000

• Discounted Democracy

  November 11, 1999

• Send Lawyers, Guns and Cigarettes

  August 26, 1999

• How Bob Dornan Turned Political Defeat into a Windfall for his Family

  August 27, 1998

• The Loser Wins

  August 27, 1998

• Singled Out

  September 11, 1997

• Raises From The Dead

  July 24, 1997

• SanTana's Designated Choo-Choo Builder Cordoba As Controversy-Ridden as They Come

  Spurious GeorgeAs we predicted, Don Papi Pulido and his SanTana City Puppets rewarded Cordoba Corporation over more-qualified candidates with a contract to head a proposed streetcar project because of Cordoba head George Pla's many SanTana connections. Doug Irving of the Orange County Register had a great piece over the weekend about how SanTana officials are stonewalling his efforts to unearth public records pertaining to the $6 million contract. He also elicited a quote from Pla: Pla said his

  May 5, 2009

• Local Billionaire/Tax Felon Says His Swiss Banker Made Him Do It

  Amid President Barack Obama's vow to end off-shore tax breaks for U.S.-based multinational corporations and individuals within a decade, billionaire Igor Olenicoff, who owns homes in Laguna Beach and Florida, says from his Newport Beach office that his Swiss bankers led him to lie about his foreign holdings on U.S. tax returns, according to a story just posted on Bloomberg.com.Since December 2007, Olenicoff and his private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, have pleaded guilty to various tax crimes. Bu

  June 8, 2009

• Where Have All the Anti-Tax Crusaders Gone?

  When he wasn't running for governor, Fountain Valley's George "Nick" Jesson was associated with the We the People Congress, an anti-tax group that bought an ad in USA Today in 2001 challenging the government's right to tax income. Indeed, Orange County used to be crawling with anti-tax crusaders who claimed filing income tax returns was "voluntary" or "unconstitutional." Take one of their courses and they'd show you how to live tax-free. Well, the gubment shut those classes down licke

  August 20, 2009

• Does Miguel Pulido Work out of a Tax Preparer's Office?

  With IRS troubles like his, will Don Papi become Obama's ambassador to Mexico?For years, opponents of SanTana Mayor Don Papi Pulido have openly wondered how an invisible politician can make so much cash that he can afford an estate in the city's ritzy Floral Park neighborhood. His Form 700s have always included a grab bag of new investments, projects, and other cash inflows that the Don Papi has pursued--real-estate deals, car-related efforts, and a longstanding stint as a director of the Fuller

  June 4, 2009

• Diane Harkey Stink Smeared on Linda Ackerman, Who Seeks "Dripper" Duvall's Vacated Assembly Seat

  Harkey's ethical challenges produced recall calls. Assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point) has endorsed Linda Ackerman to fill the vacancy left by ex-Assemblyman Mike Duvall, who resigned in disgrace quickly after the Weekly's R. Scott Moxley and KCAL/KCBS reporter Dave Lopez exposed the Yorba Linda Republican morality cop and married father of two bragging about banging female lobbyists.Not only did at least one lobbyist have business before Duvall's panels, he sat on the Assembly

  October 21, 2009

• Don Bren's Gift That Keeps On Taking Public Money (or Trying to, Anyway)

  November 5, 2009

• Accountant Gets 4 Years for Stealing $500,000 From Trust Fund to Pay for Doll Collection

  ​A Laguna Hills accountant hired to manage a brother and sister's trust fund has been sentenced to four years in state prison for stealing more than a half million dollars to pay for a doll collection.  Margot Jean Strawn, 58, had pleaded guilty to two felony counts of grand theft with sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime over $500,000 and property damage over $150,000 and $50,000. Besides the prison time, Strawn was ordered to pay more

  November 17, 2009