[font size="+1"]Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton says the city went from 220 vets on the streets a couple of years ago to virtually none today. "These things are not unsolvable issues," he says.[/font]


Phoenix last month was credited as the first city to end chronic homelessness among military veterans, part of a nationwide push. In an interview in Washington on Thursday with USA TODAY's Capital Download, Mayor Greg Stanton discusses how the city did it and what it means. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

~~
~~

Q: How did you address it (the problem of homeless Vets in Phoenix_Bill USA)?

[font size="3"]A: I know the stimulus program was much debated and criticized, but the ability to have housing was in part caused by the fact that HUD and the VA allowed for additional vouchers because of the stimulus -- housing vouchers that allowed cities like Phoenix to have the amount of housing necessary to get the veterans immediately into a housing situation.[/font]
(more)

Indresh Mathur, Ph.D., who gave one of the talks, explained that cars on streets and highways in the U.S. run on a mixture of 90 percent unleaded gasoline and 10 percent ethanol. Race cars in the Indianapolis 500 burn mostly fuel-grade ethanol. This year the Indy 500 switched to a fuel containing 85 percent ethanol as opposed to 100 percent fuel ethanol. This makes the Indy fuel close to the real-life E-85 fuel sold at some U.S. gas stations.

"Even without the catalytic mufflers, there are much lower emissions of air pollutants that can have adverse effects on human health and promote the formation of smog."

Mathur, who is with Johann Haltermann Ltd., in Houston, said those include PAHs -- polycyclic aromatic compounds that exist naturally in the crude oil that becomes gasoline have been largely responsible for particulate matter emissions. The Indy fuel blend of E-85 sets a good example of the use of an alternative fuel use under very demanding engine conditions. It is a fertile ground for engineers to perfect the E-85 vehicle technology that can be leveraged into street vehicles.

Studies have shown that using fuels composed of more than 85 percent ethanol reduce a variety of air pollutants. These include sulfur emissions (80 percent lower), carbon monoxide (40 percent), particulate matter (20 percent), VOCs (15 percent) and nitrogen oxides (10 percent).
(more)

The open-wheel Indy cars have run on methanol since the late 1960s. The two fuels share many qualities; both are alcohol-based and have a higher octane rating than unleaded gasoline. But methanol is made from natural gas, a nonrenewable fossil fuel, while ethanol is a renewable fuel made from agricultural products such as corn.

Moreover, there's no performance drop-off with ethanol, according to Simmons, who used the fuel in his racecar last season, as well. Simmons says that [font color="red"]his racecar, powered by a Honda V-8 engine, actually accelerates better with ethanol. It also gets better fuel mileage, which has enabled the Indy Racing League to downsize its cars' fuel cells from 30 gallons to 22 (a 27% reduction in fuels needs or a 27% increase in fuel efficiency_Bill USA).[/font] On a full fuel load, that takes about 50 pounds out of the car's overall weight, which improves performance.

~~
~~

"My major interest in this is as a national security issue," says Bayh, who earlier this year joined senators Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) in introducing bipartisan legislation to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil by increasing the availability of ethanol and providing tax credits for manufacturers who retool their factories to build hybrid cars, among other measures. "Most people would agree it's better to have American farmers producing our fuel than Middle East sheiks."
(more)

The New York Times profiled a highly-secretive "collection of perhaps 1,500 right-leaning players in the entertainment industry" whose belated application for non-profit status may be complicated by their seemingly partisan affiliation with political candidates and figures, possible campaign activity that is prohibited. Notably, the Times missed a significant inclusion on this list of right-wing stars: Justice Antonin Scalia.

The group's application for a 501(c)(3) designation, a tax status for non-partisan groups that would allow donors to claim deductions, is currently being scrutinized because its claim that it "has absolutely no political agenda" is at odds with its record of hosting right-wing media and officials, according to the January 22 Times article. Unmentioned by the Times, listed on his most recent annual Financial Disclosure Report (CY 2012), Scalia also gave an August 25, 2012, speech to Friends of Abe and received reimbursement for his "transportation, food, and lodging." From the Times:

[div style="background:#FFDDDD;" class="excerpt"]

(T)he Internal Revenue Service is reviewing the group's activities in connection with its application for tax-exempt status. Last week, federal tax authorities presented the group with a 10-point request for detailed information about its meetings with politicians like Paul D. Ryan, Thaddeus McCotter and Herman Cain, among other matters, according to people briefed on the inquiry.

[...]

Tax experts said that an organization's membership list is information that would not typically be required. The I.R.S. already had access to the site's basic levels, a request it considers routine for applications for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

Friends of Abe -- the name refers to Abraham Lincoln -- has strongly discouraged the naming of its members. That policy even prohibits the use of cameras at group events, to avoid the unwilling identification of all but a few associates -- the actors Gary Sinise, Jon Voight and Kelsey Grammer, or the writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, for instance -- who have spoken openly about their conservative political views.

The I.R.S. request comes in the face of a continuing congressional investigation into the agency's reviews of political nonprofits, most of them conservative-leaning, which provoked outrage on the right and forced the departure last year of several high-ranking I.R.S. officials. But unlike most of those groups, which had sought I.R.S. approval for a mix of election campaigning and nonpartisan issue advocacy, Friends of Abe is seeking a far more restrictive tax status, known as 501(c)(3), that would let donors claim a tax deduction, but strictly prohibits any form of partisan activity.

(more)

Why Don’t We Have A National Manufacturing/Economic Strategy?

... Our international competitors have national manufacturing strategies. THEY see themselves as countries, and they compete with us as if we were a country. But we do not respond as a country, so they win.

Here in the U.S. we have succumbed to a corporate/conservative/libertarian ideology that says we have to be separate from each other, on our own. The ideology dictates that it is wrong to act together – “collectively” – to solve our problems. This anti-government, anti-community, anti-country ideology dictates that the last thing we should do is have a national … anything – and, of course, no national strategies for competition with countries that are coming after us as a country.

The result? Our 2012 trade deficit was $540 billion. That is $540 billion drained from our economy.

Imagine what $540 billion of orders for goods and services made and/or done here would do for our economy. Imagine how many jobs would be created, factories opened, suppliers busy, etc. What you are imagining is a way to understand how much that trade deficit actually cost us in 2012.
(more)

In Davos, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a survey of 1,300 chief executive officers worldwide showing 44% expect the world economy to improve over the next 12 months. A year ago, only 18% said that about 2013's outlook.

More than 60% of the U.S. CEOs in the survey said they expect to hire more people this year. That's the highest level of headcount additions in the past five years of PwC's global CEO surveys, the firm said.

In Washington, the International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for both world and U.S. economic growth in 2014.

~~
~~

"The IMF is moving in our direction, and in the direction of the Federal Reserve. They're catching up with everyone," Englund said.
(more)

Almost a month has passed since 1.3 million Americans lost their unemployment benefits. The Senate’s attempt to extend benefits fell apart, while any hope for a vote in the House is even more precarious. Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) office averted responsibility to help the jobless when labor activists asked for action.

“Did the American dream. Got [my daughter] in college,” one activist named Wessita McKinley told the spokesman. “And I’m sitting here struggling. I’m now ready to take a street sweeper job if they would offer it to me. So I’m asking you the million dollar question. What am I supposed to do right now to keep a roof over my head, food in my stomach, clothes on my back, car insurance paid?”

McConnell’s spokesman Don Stewart’s response, highlighted by MSNBC’s Steve Benen, was, “I can only tell you what we can do here in the Senate. I have no control over your life.”

But McConnell and fellow Republicans have proved that they are controlling the impasse on the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program. First, they filibustered the extension while demanding additional budget cuts to pay for the program. When Democrats conceded and extended specific sequestration cuts in exchange for either a three-month or year-long extension, McConnell wanted to offer additional amendments, like delaying the individual mandate provision of Obamacare. But even after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid allowed a limit of five Republican amendments with a 60-vote threshold the GOP demanded more.
(more)

Among companies listed on the S&P 500, almost one in nine paid an effective tax rate of zero percent — or even lower — over the past year, according to an analysis by USA Today.

There are 57 separate companies listed on the index that paid a zero percent rate from the past year. Those companies include both household names like Verizon and News Corp. and lesser-known corporate giants like the data storage manufacturer Seagate (market value $15.9 billion) and Public Storage (market value $29.5 billion). Many of the companies USA Today identified in its analysis as paying negative rates make the list because they lost money, but several were profitable. Previous analyses have shown that the typical corporation pays a lower effective tax rate than most middle-class families, and a far lower one than the statutory corporate tax rate against which business interests disingenuously rail.

Getting to a zero percent tax rate despite turning a profit requires creative accounting, but not lawbreaking. The corporate tax code allows companies to avoid tax liability even in years when they turn a profit. Some of the profitable companies on the newspaper’s list, such as General Motors, achieved a zero percent rate by banking tax credits from previous years when business was bad. But the more common gambit involves moving revenues from parent companies to offshore subsidiaries based in tax haven countries in the Caribbean, Europe, and elsewhere.

Such offshoring of profits has caught the attention of policymakers in the United States and Europe this year, with the focus predominantly on Apple Inc. The U.S. tech giant not only avoided the American tax system, but managed to shelter about $100 billion in revenues from any taxes at all. That scheme relied upon a loophole in Irish law which that country’s government says it intends to fix, but the narrow change proposed by Ireland’s finance minister will not address the larger problem of corporate tax avoidance.
(more)

Despite widespread groans about the recent disclosure that Apple is finding ways to cut its federal tax bill, an analysis shows the computer giant is one of scores of corporations largely dodging the taxman.

A surprising number of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500, 57, have found ways to pay effective tax rates of zero, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Capital IQ.

The effective tax rate is a popular measure used by investors to compare how much companies pay in tax relative to profit.

CEO PAY: Executive compensation skyrockets on soaring stock market

The news comes months after after the Government Accountability Office released a report showing that companies in 2010 reported an average effective tax rate of 12.6%, well below the 35% federal corporate tax rate.
(more)

There are thousands of tax breaks and subsidies for the rich and corporations provided by federal, state and local governments, but these 10 will give a taste.

1. State and local subsidies to corporations: An excellent New York Times study by Louise Story calculated that state and local government provide at least $80 billion in subsidies to corporations. Over 48 big corporations received over $100 million each. GM was the biggest, at a total of $1.7 billion extracted from 16 different states, but Shell, Ford and Chrysler all received over $1 billion each. Amazon, Microsoft, Prudential, Boeing and casino companies in Colorado and New Jersey received well over $200 million each.

2. Direct federal subsidies to corporations: The Cato Institute estimates that federal subsidies to corporations cost taxpayers almost $100 billion every year.

3. Federal tax breaks for corporations: The tax code gives corporations special tax breaks that have reduced what is supposed to be a 35-percent tax rate to an actual tax rate of 13 percent, saving these corporations an additional $200 billion annually, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
(MORE!)