TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalAustin billionaire Smith facing federal investigation
Robert F. Smith, the billionaire founder of Austin-based Vista Equity Partners, is facing an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service over possible tax crimes, according to a report by Bloomberg News Service.
Citing four people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, Bloomberg reported that federal authorities are looking into whether Smith failed to pay U.S. taxes on about $200 million in assets that moved through offshore structures. Smith has not been charged, and prosecutors may conclude he owes no taxes on those assets, according to the report.
The American-Statesman has not independently confirmed the Bloomberg report. Messages left seeking comment from Smith and Vista Equity Partners were not returned. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on whether an investigation exists. An IRS spokesman didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
According to the Bloomberg report, the investigation is looking into whether Smith was actually the beneficial owner of Caribbean-based entities that received proceeds from his company’s first private equity fund. Some funds from those entities went into a U.S. charitable foundation where Smith is president and founding director, the report said.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/business/20200824/report-austin-billionaire-smith-facing-federal-investigation
Coca-Cola or 'bottled poison'? Mexico finds a COVID-19 villain in big soda
MEXICO CITY — While touring southern Chiapas state last month, Mexico’s coronavirus czar took aim at a local vice he considers culpable for the country’s ongoing pandemic problems: rampant Coca-Cola consumption.
Health undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell connected soda consumption with COVID-19 deaths, blaming sugar for causing comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension – maladies common in Mexico, where almost three-quarters of the population is overweight, according to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“Why do we need bottled poison in soft drinks?” López-Gatell asked. “Health in Mexico would be very different if we stopped being deceived by these lifestyles sold on television and heard on radio and which we see on adverts – as if this was happiness.”
As COVID-19 cases mount in Mexico and the death toll soars – Mexico only trails Brazil and the United States in total pandemic fatalities – López-Gatell and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have increasingly pinned Mexico’s pandemic problems on its poor nutrition habits — soda consumption chief among them.
Read more: https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/health/2020/08/23/mexico-finds-soda-covid-19-coronavirus-villain/3423737001/
Judge won't be removed from criminal case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
by Emma Platoff, Texas TribuneTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is still fighting 5-year-old felony securities fraud charges, has failed in his bid to kick a Democratic Harris County judge off his ongoing criminal case.
An administrative judge in Houston, Susan Brown, denied Paxton’s motion to recuse Judge Jason Luong from the case, The Dallas Morning News first reported Friday.
It’s a loss for Paxton’s team in the long-running prosecution, which has yet to go to trial amid side fights over venue and prosecutor pay that have spanned years and bounced among numerous courts across the state. Paxton, a Republican, has maintained his innocence in the case, in which he is accused of persuading investors to buy stock in a technology firm without disclosing that he would be compensated for it.
An earlier judge in the case, Democrat Robert Johnson, recused himself earlier this summer because the Texas attorney general’s office is representing him — along with about 20 other Harris County judges — in an unrelated lawsuit over bail practices.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/21/ken-paxton-judge-criminal-case/
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declares state of disaster in 23 counties ahead of Hurricane Marco, Tropical
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declares state of disaster in 23 counties ahead of Hurricane Marco, Tropical Storm Lauraby Mitchell Ferman, Texas Tribune
HOUSTON — With two storms gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico, Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday declared a state of disaster for 23 counties and requested assistance from the federal government.
Hurricane Marco is expected to make landfall in Louisiana on Monday before moving into East Texas, with forecasters expecting sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Laura is expected to advance into the central Gulf Coast late Tuesday, when the storm could strengthen into a hurricane, the National Weather Service said.
"As Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura approach Texas, the state is taking necessary precautions to protect our communities and keep Texans safe," Abbott said in a statement.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/23/texas-hurricane-marco-laura/
Shelley Luther, Dallas salon owner who pressured Texas to reopen salons, says she's running for
Shelley Luther, Dallas salon owner who pressured Texas to reopen salons, says she’s running for state Senateby Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune
Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was jailed over reopening her business amid the coronavirus pandemic, said Saturday that she is running for Texas Senate.
Luther, who lives in Denton County, had been considering a run to replace state Sen. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper, in a yet-to-be-called special election now that he is poised to head to Congress.
"You better bet I'm putting my hat in the ring," Luther said during a "Back the Blue" rally supporting law enforcement in Denton County.
Luther became a hero to some on the right earlier this year after she was jailed for contempt of court for refusing to apologize for illegally reopening her salon. She was freed two days later after Gov. Greg Abbott removed the threat of jail time from an executive order and the Texas Supreme Court granted a motion for her release.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/22/shelley-luther-texas-senate/
Luther has evolved from a salon owner to a professional grifter.
141 new virus cases, 1 death reported in South Dakota Sunday
The number of people known to be infected with COVID-19 in South Dakota continued to outpace those who have recovered from the virus after the South Dakota Department of Health reported 141 new infections on Sunday.
The report included one death, pushing the state total to 161.
That death was a male older than 80 years old. Meanwhile, 62 people in the state were hospitalized with the virus, a decrease of four from Saturday after a sharp increase in hospitalizations between Friday and Saturday.
Saturday, one death was reported — a woman between 60 and 69.
The 141 new cases Sunday were out of 1,230 individuals tested, for a daily positive rate of 11.5%, the eighth consecutive day in which the rate has exceeded 10%. The new cases bring the state's total to 11,276.
Read more: https://www.thepublicopinion.com/news/local_news/141-new-virus-cases-1-death-reported-in-sd-sunday/article_c877f8ee-e56a-11ea-a92a-135c3d6a87c7.html
(Watertown Public Opinion)
Instead of building a wall around the mansion, SD Gov. Noem should try to break down barriers and
Instead of building a wall around the mansion, SD Gov. Noem should try to break down barriers and talk with peopleIn the spring of 1993, Gov. George S. Mickelson, a well-liked Republican who had worked for reconciliation between South Dakota and the nine Indian tribes within its borders, lost his life when his plane crashed in Iowa.
He was returning home from a meeting with corporate executives in an effort to save the John Morrell meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls. It was a dark time for South Dakota, and Indian and non-Indian South Dakotans paid their respects as his casket moved across the state.
Suddenly, Walter Dale Miller became governor. A taciturn conservative cowboy from New Underwood, Miller had served for years in the state legislature but lacked charisma. As governor, he did immediately make a dramatic gesture when he opened the governor's mansion one weekend for public inspection.
South Dakotans stood in line to walk through the house that had been built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936 and ultimately housed 16 of our governors. While not as opulent as its counterparts in other states, the mansion next to Capitol Lake in Pierre certainly served its purpose. Richard Kneip, a Salem Democrat and devout Catholic, raised eight sons there.
Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/instead-of-building-a-wall-around-the-mansion-gov-noem-should-try-to-break-down-barriers-and-talk-with-people
SD Gov. Kristi Noem's rejection of Trump's unemployment benefits is hurting South Dakota's economy.
There is no rationale for Noem’s rejection (as depicted in the approving image above found on youtube) of millions of dollars in unemployment benefits offered by President Trump as a replacement for the expired CARES Act benefits. There is no rationale, none, either in terms of plain human concerns for people out of work or for any particular economic gain to the state. On the contrary, Noem’s stubborness is actually a detriment to South Dakota’s economy.
Numbers just released by the South Dakota Department of Labor show that our state had just under 30,000 unemployed workers in July, which puts our unemployment rate at 6.3%, about twice what it was in July, 2019. That means if Trump’s plan (calling for $400/week, but allowing for $300/wk in states that can’t contribute their $100 weekly share) translated into a $300/week extra unemployment benefit through December to our laid-off workers, South Dakota would be getting $9 million a week from Washington.
That’s a lot of purchasing power to reject, for whatever reason. I hear that there are more job openings than unemployed people in South Dakota, so I suppose that Noem’s intransigience is heavily based on an opinion that people out of work should be able to find jobs, so there’s no need to accept any help from Washington on granting additional benefits.
No doubt some believe that workers gaining extra benefits are reluctant (“disincentivized” is the term often used) to seek work because they’re receiving enough money to get by from unemployment checks.
Intuitive as that argument seems, there’s no data to support it.
Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/sd-gov-kristi-noems-stubborn-resistance-to-accepting-the-unemployment-benefits-being-offered-by-trumps-plan-is-hurting-south-dakotas-economy
Drop box locations for absentee ballots have county auditor, Sioux Falls mayor at odds
Mayor Paul TenHaken isn't hip on allowing the top election official in Minnehaha County to place absentee ballot drop boxes at five Sioux Falls libraries.
Earlier this month, Minnehaha County Auditor Bob Litz announced he had ordered more than a dozen drop boxes where voters could drop off absentee ballots instead of relying on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver them to his office.
The announcement came amid national debate over the viability of early voting in the November election and the mail service's ability to protect the integrity of the democratic process.
But Litz Friday said he's backing off that plan after the city denied a request by his office to locate the drop boxes at public libraries.
Read more: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2020/08/21/sioux-falls-minnehaha-county-election-drop-box-ballots/3413150001/
Nebraska troopers find military tank abandoned on Interstate
OVERTON, Neb. (AP) – It wasn't a typical abandoned vehicle call for the Nebraska State Patrol on Thursday.
A patrol trooper was alerted early Thursday that a large military vehicle was sitting on a parked trailer at the Interstate 80 on-ramp near Overton, patrol spokesman Cody Thomas said.
The trooper determined the tank belonged to the South Dakota National Guard 211th Engineer Company, the Lincoln Journal-Star reported.
The patrol discovered the tank was being returned to South Dakota from a training mission in California when it was abandoned sometime Wednesday by the driver for a trucking company contracted to move it, Thomas said.
Read more: https://brookingsregister.com/article/nebraska-troopers-find-military-tank-abandoned-on-interstate
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,056
