Category: Government
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Crimes by politicians continue to go unpunished and underreported
I am concerned about the unaddressed political crime wave across America. High profile cases occasionally make headlines. But it appears that hundreds or thousands of crimes are charged, underreported, and not prosecuted. It seems like hardly a day goes by that an elected politician is not named in criminal charge somewhere and then we rarely…
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Why does Congress protect tax cheaters?
The issue of tax cheating, audits, and enforcement have been in the news lately. The topic is of growing concern in my daily business conversations. This post describes my own experiences. Background Despite evidence that tax cheating by high income earners has soared over the past decade and that more recent Congressional action is making…
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Business Ownership Information Disclosure
Absent any last minute action this week, the federal Corporate Transparency Act of 2021 becomes effective next week. Efforts by groups including our NJCPA to delay the start seem to have failed. As with any business issue in modern life, there is as much misinformation as real information. I want to be clear that this…
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Qualified immunity revisited: a small business perspective
The legal doctrine of qualified immunity, originating decades ago, serves as a safeguard for government officials facing lawsuits alleging violations of constitutional rights. Initially, the Supreme Court emphasized that this doctrine should not be a “license to lawless conduct.” However, state courts have frequently interpreted qualified immunity in a manner that allows officials to evade…
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Thanksgiving Day Insights into Black Voters
One of the most puzzling things to me personally in my work discussing local economic development is the increasing support of Donald Trump by some black neighbors. While I was part of the early fraud cases representing small business contractors against him, that was decades ago and much has changed in the world. Journalist Astrid…
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UFOs and government permits: an odd connection
For all our lives, there has been some background discussion of “UFOs”. It turns out that the simple fact is that at any given moment, there are thousands of “unidentified objects” data collection balloons in the sky above us. Some additional unidentified objects up there are apparently not balloons but something that some in our…
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Business Leadership Forecast for 2023
These eight macroeconomic trends will influence businesses leaders in 2023.
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SCOTUS will hear Anthony Novak case
The US Supreme Court agreed to hear an interesting case involving a familiar name “Anthony Novak”. Anthony Novak in Ohio was arrested, prosecuted and found not guilty of breaking local law for making Facebook posts that annoyed police. Now he wants to sue police but federal appeals court ruled that officers are protected by qualified…
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Activism revisited
I became a civic activist in my early 30s, about the same time I became a father. Like the planning for other aspects of my life, I try to approach it with a clear 5 step process: vision, mission, goals, strategy and plan B. Now is a good time to review, clarify and focus on…
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Why I’m proud of our election security
I am pleased to serve as a certified New Jersey election campaign treasurer and feel confident in our systems after having taken the time to understand the many election security measures used in our local communities to make our elections secure. The possibility of mass election fraud practically impossible. In our country, any attempt at…