Missouri: tax everything but the yachts

Wait a minute, Missouri's landlocked




Cash-strapped legislators have recommended spending cuts for Missouri schools and shelters for battered women, but so far the yachting class can enjoy another season of clear sailing.

Thanks to a longstanding tax exemption, Missouri’s marina set can opt to pay a small fee in lieu of sales taxes and shave as much as $30,000 off the purchase of a $500,000 boat.

That tax exemption alone is depriving state and local coffers of more than $6 million a year, according to some estimates. It’s just one of more than 130 untaxed transactions that are getting renewed attention in Jefferson City because of the state’s continuing budget crisis.

Read more: In a time of budget cuts, yacht sales sail through untaxed in Missouri - KansasCity.com



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USA beats Canada, eh

USA medal counts increases, Disney will probably make sappy movie starring Dennis Quaid and, best of all, millions of Canadian kids cry




Team USA pulled off the country's biggest Olympic hockey upset since the Miracle on Ice, stunning Canada 5-3 on Sunday. The Americans not only win Group A over Canada, but will have one of the top-two seeds in Wednesday's quarterfinal round. Canadian forward Corey Perry's reaction to American Ryan Kesler's empty net goal with 45 seconds left summed up the feeling across the host nation of Canada.

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ALSO: Latest Medal Count & Schedule

Toyota memo shows bragging for savings $100m inrecall

Here's an artist's rendering of the company...




Toyota's reputation for safety has come under renewed scrutiny after an internal memo showed that the carmaker's executives boasted of saving $100m (£65m) through a limited recall of floor mats connected to a potentially dangerous acceleration defect.

The memo was among documents released to a US congressional committee investigating Toyota's handling of safety issues. Its contents were revealed just days before the company's chief executive appears in front of the committee.

The memo shows that in a confidential presentation at its Washington office last July, Toyota said it had slashed costs by persuading US regulators to agree to an "equipment recall" to fix defective floor mats in about 55,000 Camry and Lexus ES350 models.

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CoOlDiGgY celebrates Black History Month: Nia Long

Nia's middle name is "makes us"

Obama puts forward $1 trillion health care plan

How will a good idea like health care reform be mutated until a soul-sucking, tax-draining, ineffective societal burden? Find out...




WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is putting forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year health care plan that would allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriated consumers.

Posted Monday morning on the White House Web site, the plan would provide coverage to more than 31 million Americans now uninsured without adding to the federal deficit.

It conspicuously omits a government insurance plan sought by liberals.

But it's uncertain that such an ambitions plan can pass, since Republicans are virtually all opposed and some Democrats who last year supported sweeping health care changes are having second thoughts. After a year in pursuitof his top domestic priority, Obama may have to settle for a modest fallback.

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"Boner" from 'Growing Pains' goes missing, battling depression

Doing a search with the terms "GROWING" and "BONER" was quite the experience. But, seriously, we have our fingers crossed for Andrew Koenig's safe return




The parents of Andrew Koenig -- who has reportedly been missing for the past week -- described their son as "suffering from depression" and "not doing good" in the days leading up to his disappearance.

Judy and Walter Koenig (who played Pavel Chekov in the "Star Trek" series) tell TMZ the last time heard from Andrew was on February 9. They say his cell phone is turned off and that they have learned the last time his phone received a text was on February 16 in Vancouver.

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Lawmaker wants retirement age lowered to 60 for six months

Makes sense and that's reason enough it won't pass. Look at the guy's wife, he obviously knows what he's doing




Congress could temporarily lower the age at which Americans can claim Social Security benefits as a jobs bill, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Sunday.

Kucinich, a liberal Democrat from the Cleveland area, said a $15 billion proposal he's floating would create 1 million jobs for the U.S. economy.

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Breaking News: Mila Kunis still hot

...we've been monitoring this situation continually. We will not stop monitoring Mila Kunis until her restraining against us goes into effect