Click here to view my previous photos of the Air and Space Museum.
Up-Close at the National Air and Space Museum
Up-Close at the National Air and Space Museum
The Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 (abbreviated as FLSA; also referred to as the Wages and Hours Bill) is a federal statute of the United States. The FLSA established a national minimum wage, guaranteed 'time-and-a-half' for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term that is defined in the statute. It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage. - Wiki
Under the WARN Act -- The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act -- companies with more than 100 employees must give 60 days' notice if there is to be a mass layoff during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees (or for 50-499 employees if they make up at least 33% of the employer's active workforce). But in guidance issued on Monday, Assistant Labor Secretary Jane Oates said never mind about those pink slips: "Questions have recently been raised as to whether the WARN Act requires Federal contractors...whose contracts may be terminated or reduced in the event of sequestration on January 2, 2013, to provide WARN Act notices 60 days before that date to their workers employed under government contracts funded from sequestrable accounts. The answer to this question is 'no.' In fact, to provide such notice would be inconsistent with the purpose of the WARN Act." - CNSNews.com
5. Application of WARN Act to Potential Sequestration. Although it is currently known that sequestration may occur, it is also known that efforts are being made to avoid sequestration. Thus, even the occurrence of sequestration is not necessarily foreseeable. In addition, the sequester’s impact on particular accounts will depend at least in part on Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 funding that Congress has not yet enacted. Perhaps more importantly, Federal agencies also have some discretion in how to implement the required reductions if sequestration were to occur. Given that Federal agencies, including DOD, have not announced which contracts will be affected by sequestration were it to occur, and that many contracts may be completely unaffected, the actual contract terminations or cutbacks that will occur in the event of sequestration are unknown. Thus, in the absence of any additional information, potential plant closings or layoffs resulting from such contract terminations or cutbacks are speculative and unforeseeable. - US Govt Notice (PDF)
The Tax Justice Network, a campaign group, estimated last weekend that as much as $21 to $32 trillion of financial assets are sheltered in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax. - CNBC
Chris Sweeney and his husband were driving home to Seattle after a recent trip to Vancouver when they were stopped at the border for more than two hours and threatened with thousands of dollars in fines for dangerous contraband in the trunk of their car. Their suspicious cargo? Half a dozen Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs, each filled with a tiny plastic toy - a childhood favourite in Canada but an illegal choking hazard in the United States. "I thought (the American border guard) had done his search and hadn't found anything, and he was joking with us," Sweeney, 35, told The Canadian Press in an interview Wednesday. "He wasn't joking." The popular German chocolate eggs are not sold in the U.S. because they are considered a choking hazard. They are also banned because the treats are considered adulterated food by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sweeney said a border guard told him and his husband that they could be fined $2,500 per egg, and then ordered them to head to the port of entry, where they waited for more than two hours. "We really didn't know what was going to happen," he said. "I didn't know if maybe this was some really important thing that I just wasn't aware of and they were going to actually give us the fine of $15,000." But once inside, Sweeney said border staff later brushed off the offence and merely told them never to bring the Kinder Surprise eggs across the border again. - Canada.com
A loophole in U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations allowed the agency to approve flight training for 25 illegal aliens at a Boston-area flight school owned by yet another illegal alien, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Eight of the attendees had entered the United States illegally, while 17 had overstayed their visas, according to a GAO audit, CNSNews.com reports. Six of the illegals obtained pilot’s licenses. The discovery of the flight school issues began when local police — not federal authorities — stopped the school’s owner on a traffic violation and then were able to determine that he was an illegal alien, according to CNSNews. - Newsmax
(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration distributed $9 billion in economic “stimulus” funds to solar and wind projects in 2009-11 that created, as the end result, 910 “direct” jobs -- annual operation and maintenance positions -- meaning that it cost about $9.8 million to establish each of those long-term jobs. - CNS News
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Subtitle A of Title V of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE), enacts Chapter 4 of, and makes other modifications to, the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the tax law of the United States. FATCA has a few main parts:
- It requires foreign banks to find any American account holders and disclose their balances, receipts, and withdrawals to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), or be subject to a 30% withholding tax on income from US financial assets held by the banks.
- Owners of these foreign-held assets must report them on a new Form 8938 along with US tax returns if they are worth more than US$50,000; a higher reporting threshold applies to overseas residents. Account holders would be subject to a 40% penalty on understatements of income in an undisclosed foreign financial asset.
- It closes a tax loophole that investors had used to avoid paying any taxes on dividends by converting them into dividend equivalents.
The reporting requirements are in addition to reporting of foreign financial assets to the US Treasury Department, particularly the "Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts" (FBAR) for foreign financial accounts exceeding US$10,000 required under Bank Secrecy Act regulations issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). - Wikipedia
Notice of Termination – Custody Account / Account AgreementThis 'example' is a copy of the termination notice sent to me. I have a dilemma here as the account has barely any money in it and it will probably cost more money for me to close out the account than it is worth. Hell, the biggest asset this account probably has is the potential for me to file a discrimination suit in Finland as this firms action's appears to be based solely on my nationality. I do have other accounts, but combined, they do not add up to an amount requiring me to report these foreign assets to the IRS on my tax return. That said, my other accounts are very useful for me as my wife has relatives there and we spend a good deal of time in Finland each year and having a domestic bank account makes life much easier when paying bills and renting apartments. I am concerned that those banks will also attempt to close our accounts. No matter, I will get by with or without them. As for Nordnet Bank, no grudge against them. I do not need their services. I will use another company. I used to recommend them to my Finnish friends, but now will point them elsewhere. This will however just waste time during my next visit.
Nordnet Bank AB Finnish Branch hereby terminates Your Custody Account / Account Agreement as of May 31, 2012 in accordance with the Nordnet Bank AB Finnish Branch’s general terms and conditions, paragraph G.12.
The termination is due to the changes in the American legislation, which means that U.S. residents or those liable to pay taxes in the U.S. will no longer have the option to remain customers at Nordnet. We regret the need to terminate Your account.
During the period of notice both parties must comply with the general terms and conditions.
The termination means that You need to transfer or sell Your securities at Nordnet and transfer Your cash balance from Nordnet to another service provider. Nordnet does not charge a fee from the transfer of securities or cash. Below You can find further information on how to proceed.
In case our information of Your U.S. residency or taxpayer status is incorrect, we kindly ask You to promptly contact us via asiakaspalvelu@nordnet.fi or by phone +358 20 198 5898. Our customer service is open on weekdays 9–18.30 (Finnish time).
Best regards,
Nordnet Bank AB Finnish Branch
I have been told by more than one source that Leon Panetta was directing the operation with both his own CIA operatives, as well as direct contacts with military – both entities were reporting to Panetta only at this point, and not the President of the United States. There was not going to be another delay as had happened 24 hour earlier. The operation was at this time effectively unknown to President Barack Obama or Valerie Jarrett and it remained that way until AFTER it had already been initiated. President Obama was literally pulled from a golf outing and escorted back to the White House to be informed of the mission. Upon his arrival there was a briefing held which included Bill Daley, John Brennan, and a high ranking member of the military. When Obama emerged from the briefing, he was described as looking “very confused and uncertain.” The president was then placed in the situation room where several of the players in this event had already been watching the operation unfold. Another interesting tidbit regarding this is that the Vice President was already “up to speed” on the operation. A source indicated they believe Hillary Clinton had personally made certain the Vice President was made aware of that day’s events before the president was. The now famous photo released shows the particulars of that of that room and its occupants. What that photo does not communicate directly is that the military personnel present in that room during the operation unfolding, deferred to either Hillary Clinton or Robert Gates. The president’s role was minimal, including their acknowledging of his presence in the room. - Socyberty (White House Insider: Obama Hesitated – Panetta Issued Order to Kill Osama Bin Laden)
A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves. The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land. - Daily Caller
Argentina’s industry minister called for British imports to be banned, in the latest attempt to compel Britain to negotiate over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands as tension rises ahead of the 30th anniversary of the 1982 war. Britain responded by summoning Osvaldo Marsico, charge d’affaires at the Argentine embassy in London, to receive a formal protest at the Foreign Office. “We made clear that such actions against legitimate commercial activity were a matter of concern not just for the UK, but for the European Union as a whole, and that we expect the EU to lodge similar concerns with Argentine authorities,” said a Foreign Office spokesman. - The Telegraph
Facing intense criticism over the nationalization of its biggest oil firm, Argentina on Thursday ordered the seizure of YPF Gas, another group controlled by Spain's Repsol, a move expected to further inflame tensions. - Yahoo News