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On the evening of Dec. 16, 1773, a crowd of armed men, some allegedly wearing costumes meant to disguise them as Native American warriors, boarded three ships docked at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston. In the vessels’ holds were 340 chests containing 92,000 pounds of tea, the most popular drink in America. With support from the patriot group known as the Sons of Liberty, the intruders methodically searched the ships and dumped their tea into Boston Harbor. According to the British East India Company, whose proprietors owned the destroyed cargo, losses totaled more than a million dollars in today’s currency. The...

At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday December 16, 1773, a group of between 100 and 150 Americans raided three East India Company merchantmen moored in Boston and threw 92,000 lb of tea (worth $1.7 million in today’s terms) into the harbor. A central part of the American founding story, the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party is being commemorated this month as a key moment when patriotic Americans fought back against the greedy British and their oppressive taxation policies that forced up prices on commodities such as tea, which in turn led to the American Revolution. But the truth is...

<p>Moises Avila was alone in the office, staring at the screen of his desktop computer. A Spanish-language game show blared from the TV. February usually is a bonanza month for the America Travel Agency, the business Avila runs at the corner of Whittier and LaVerne in East Los Angeles. Holy Week is in April, and most of Avila’s customers have family ties in Mexico, where the seven days between Palm Sunday and Easter are set aside like a spring break — the busiest travel time of the year.</p>

COLUMBUS, Ohio – After just two hours of public testimony, a committee looking for solutions to Ohio’s highway funding gap found consensus on just one potential revenue source: raising the Ohio gas tax. The panel didn’t get to the level of detail Wednesday afternoon of specifying how much the tax increase should be. The Governor’s Advisory Committee on Transportation Infrastructure otherwise didn’t find agreement on other ways to raise money for Ohio’s road system, but additional sources of revenue could be added to a report being compiled on the group’s work. Other ideas discussed included indexing the gas tax to...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.) and her Republican critics have both called her proposal to dramatically increase America's highest tax rate "radical" but a new poll released Tuesday indicates that a majority of Americans agrees with the idea. In the latest The Hill-HarrisX survey — conducted Jan. 12 and 13 after the newly elected congresswoman called for the U.S. to raise its highest tax rate to 70 percent — a sizable majority of registered voters, 59 percent, supports the concept. Ocasio-Cortez has not introduced any legislation to enact the concept but the survey shows a broad cross-section of Americans supports it, at...

President-elect Trump's daughter, Ivanka, is lobbying Congress ahead of her father's inauguration next month to start working on reforms to childcare policies — an issue she championed while on the campaign trail. The 35-year-old mother of three and business owner has been calling House and Senate lawmakers encouraging them to get moving on legislation, the CEO of Main Street Republican Partnership told IJR on Thursday. "She's calling some to talk about the child care provisions," Sarah Chamberlain said. "It's gonna be a big issue for her ... I think she's hoping to [play a large role in the administration]."

At the DNC, Michelle Obama put on her victimhood hat one more time and declared, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” It’s not a new line, but an ongoing mantra. Back in 2009, Michelle whined that, “Many slaves who couldn’t enter the building worked to create the building.” But that’s too past tense. Michelle’s house continues to be built and maintained by slaves. Her lavish lifestyle of endless vacations, parties and public appearances is funded by millions and millions of slaves. Michelle Obama lives a life that is more lavish and luxurious than...

WASHINGTON -- Mere weeks into his first term as a U.S. congressman, Republican Rep. Tom Emmer is challenging the right flank of his party. Just after midnight Saturday, Emmer issued a statement calling out Republican House colleagues who don't support fully funding the Department of Homeland Security because of President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration. (snip) "I am disappointed that many of my colleagues chose to put the security of Americans at stake and waste time playing politics," said Emmer, who replaced Rep. Michele Bachmann in January. "Congress has a solemn responsibility. As a body, we should never hold...

Lady Godiva was married to Leofric, the 'grim' Earl of Mercer and Lord of Coventry, a man of great power and importance. The chronicler Florence of Worcester mentions Leofric and Godiva, but does not mention her famous ride, and there is no firm evidence connecting the rider with the historical Godiva. In 1043 the Earl and Countess founded a Benedictine house for an abbot and 24 monks on the site of St Osburg's Nunnery, which had been destroyed by the Danes in 1016... Earl Leofric laid his founding charter upon the newly consecrated altar, which not only granted the foundation,...

Gas prices, on average, are about 50 cents less a gallon than a year ago, giving a de facto tax cut and providing relief to millions of consumers as the holiday season kicks into high gear. However, a growing number of politicians have suggested that, given cheaper fuel costs, conditions might be ripe to hike federal taxes on gas in order to help fund infrastructure projects. Rendell is one of those voices. He supports raising the federal gas tax—

In the past few primary elections the Tea Party has won some and lost some. Lately it's been more "lost some" than "won some." Several months ago I wrote that the Tea Party was founded on an act of impersonation based on an act of deception. They named themselves and patterned themselves after a bunch of so-called Boston Patriots who decided to rebel over a tax on tea by sneaking aboard a vessel that had received a shipment of tea and dumping the tea into the Boston Harbor. In order to conceal this criminal act from the authorities they dressed...

Retirement Will Kill You Teddy Roosevelt once said “the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Recent research suggests he may have been more right than he knew: Life’s “best prize” might actually extend life itself. Our common perception is that retirement is a time when we can relax and take better care of ourselves after stressful careers. But what if work itself is beneficial to our health, as several recent studies suggest? One of them, by Jennifer Montez of Harvard University and Anna Zajacova of the University of Wyoming,...

What are the tax implications of the zombie apocalypse? The only certainties in life are death and taxes, but how do you handle the taxes when death doesn't go quite as planned? Law professor Adam Chodorow takes a stab at estate planning for the undead in perhaps the only legal paper to cite both the Internal Revenue Code and Weekend at Bernie's II. Chodorow, a professor at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, authored the paper "Death and Taxes...and Zombies," which will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Iowa Law Review. Chodorow notes that, while the...

5 Unusual Sales Taxes You Need To Avoid With the economy still struggling, states are getting fairly crafty with how they charge consumers via sales taxes. It's no secret that dubious, yet all-too enforceable government laws have been with us since the dawn of the civilized world. In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs taxed cooking oil – of course, the main seller of cooking oil was the pharaoh. During the first century AD, the Roman empire taxed urine – a popular source of ammonia for common tasks like tanning hides and cleaning clothes. Then at the height of the Dark Ages...

New York City sues roll-your-own-smokes shopsSees tax evasion in do-it-yourself business By David B. Caruso - Associated Press Monday, November 21, 2011 NEW YORK — There is no place in the U.S. more expensive to smoke than New York City, where the taxes alone will set you back $5.85 per pack. Yet smokers who visit Island Smokes, a “roll-your-own” cigarette shop in Chinatown, can walk out with an entire 10-pack carton for less than $40, thanks to a tax loophole that officials in several states are trying to close. The store is one of a number around the country that...

So, the “Occupy” movement has wormed its way into Temecula. Not surprising. This area has been a haven for the workers, defenders and producers of society. Moochers suckling off the nanny state are never far behind wealth creators. It’s akin to fleas hopping around to keep up with a prized hunting dog. The disingenuous mainstream media equates the “Occupy” movement to the Tea Party movement. The two groups couldn’t be more different, in both values and personal hygiene. Even the name of this movement, “Occupy” is strange. How many of these same “Occupy” protesters were just a few years ago...

Regardless of one's feelings toward the Tea Party or policies it advocates, Tea Partiers have at least, during their short existence, conducted themselves relatively peacefully and responsibly. Of course, this isn't to suggest critics won't still cry foul whenever a Tea Partier shows up to a public event concealing a firearm, or a Tea Partier displays signs at a rally capable of being interpreted as derogatory. But at least the right to bear arms and freedom of speech, unlike rape, vandalism, and drug usage -- all seen at Occupy Wall Street protests -- are protected under the U.S. Constitution. As...

So what about Herman Cain's 999 tax plan? Turns out it has some very good aspects -- and some others, not so good. I'd give it two rousing cheers and one bronx cheer. ...But here we come to a problem. Cain doesn't get rid of the income tax. Instead, he reforms it. And then he adds a new levy -- a national retail sales tax -- on top of it.

The United States tax code is so backward that billionaire investor Warren Buffett pays only 17 percent in income taxes, a rate even lower than that of his secretary. Or so he claims. While I have great respect for Mr. Buffett, and while I agree that our tax code could benefit from major adjustments, Mr. Buffett's statement is misleading. And he knows it. Even worse, when Mr. Buffett implies that wealthier Americans are under-taxed, it gives public officials cover to pursue disastrous policies such as Maryland's failed millionaire's tax, and the pending sales tax on interstate Internet purchases known as...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Drawing a bright line with congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama is proposing $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue as part of his long-term deficit reduction plan, according to senior administration officials. The president on Monday will announce a proposal that includes repeal of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers, nearly $250 billion in reductions in Medicare spending, $330 billion in cuts in other mandatory benefit programs, and savings of $1 trillion from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the officials said. The plan includes no changes in Social Security and does not include an...