Latest News

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  • Debate around meals tax heats up
    Mar 7, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    The state Department of Revenue estimated that Boston would garner about $1.4 million a month, but in October it hauled in $1.5 million. In Foxborough, selectmen are reluctant to send it once more to Town Meeting, where it has been voted down twice since last summer. The Legislature approved the measure last summer while also raising the state meals tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent.
  • 15 states make cut in Race to Top
    Mar 4, 2010 — Washington Post
    New York, which failed to pass a slew of reforms last month? Forty states and the District applied in January for a share of the funding, with possible awards of tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. Experts and former U.S. education officials say Duncan is the first education secretary to have control over so much money to drive school reform.
  • EDITORIAL
    Mar 4, 2010 — Cape Cod Times
    America has 104 plants, all built before the mid-1970s, including the Pilgrim plant near Plymouth. For now, nuclear waste products from plant operations are stored securely at plant sites. The plant, he says, will use existing nuclear waste products to make electricity and burn its own waste as well.
  • Foreign firms press for tax law change
    Mar 3, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    .../>The law also included provisions to prevent foreign-owned corporations from shifting income out of the country to avoid taxes and eliminated long-accepted deductions used by many firms. Officials of foreign-owned companies say international tax treaties recognize those deductions as legitimate.They support legislation that would allow the foreign subsidiaries to deduct royalty and interest payments if their home countries have tax treaties with the US government.
  • What States and Cities Are Doing to Help Small Businesses
    Mar 3, 2010 — New York Times
    Louis County, had heard complaints from owners who could not get bank loans, so he decided to spearhead a new small-business loan program called Boost. Louis-based financial services firm, Edward Jones, will announce its winners in June. The GrowFL program helps established companies identify new markets, research industry developments and maximize their use of social media.
  • Fiscal woes at T roll on for another year
    Feb 28, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Mullan said that number is not far off from current projections. Other people who follow the T closely have told me they expect the number to be higher, perhaps by tens of millions of dollars. And those are the rosy scenarios. Patrick is up for reelection and will depend heavily on MBTA riders and supporters.
  • JACK SPILLANE: Latest reality tv show, straight from nation's capital
    Feb 28, 2010 — New Bedford Standard Times
    As if we don't have "guvment care" already. The reality is that it's the Republican position that is more rhetoric than reality, more sophistry than earnest argument. Contact Jack Spillane at jspillane@s-t.com.
  • Operation: Health care
    Feb 28, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Had there been no free clinic, and his daughter not insisted he come that day, he may have died.The cost of reform is not the question. These therapies will be best in class, where cost is subordinate to efficacy and benefit. They are not the therapies that managed care mandates.
  • National reform would benefit the state
    Feb 24, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    The congressional health care bills would do just that. Financially stressed Bay State families would get help paying their health insurance premiums. Individuals making less than $32,000 are also eligible for help with premiums. National health reform would bring sliding-scale subsidies to an additional 75,000 middle-class individuals and families around the state.Small businesses would also get a help.
  • A 'winning Issue' For Obama?
    Feb 23, 2010 — Politico
    ...health care reform still undone, President Barack Obama is already eyeing a new top priority on his domestic to-do list: overhauling the nation’s primary and secondary education system, an issue that could lead to a bipartisan victory, which has so far eluded him.On Wednesday, the House will hold a bipartisan committee meeting on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, and the White House has signaled it’s serious about a timetable for the legislation.
  • Bay State groups press Congress on health care overhaul
    Feb 23, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    A recent membership survey showed that the average annual premium increase since 2006 has been 15 percent, but this year's was 22 percent.
  • Officials on easy street with free parking
    Feb 23, 2010 — Boston Herald
    She currently earns $100,000 a year as the director of the office of transition management. Karen Charles, who was hired as chief of staff for Cohen's replacement, James Aloisi. He's currently deputy secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and earning $110,000. Lily Mendez Morgan, who was a former special assistant to Gov.
  • One last big try on health Obama offers plan for summit, envisions way to bypass GOP
    Feb 23, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    It does not, however, include some of the GOP's most sought-after goals, such as caps on medical malpractice lawsuits.
  • Credit card rules' double standard
    Feb 22, 2010 — CNN
    If the card is obtained for business purposes, it's not covered. Capital One spokeswoman Pam Girardo confirmed that credit information for business cards is now being reported to credit bureaus. As part of the Credit Card Act of 2009, the Federal Reserve is required to conduct a study of credit card use by small businesses.
  • New credit card rules' double standard
    Feb 22, 2010 — CNN
    If the card is obtained for business purposes, it's not covered. Capital One spokeswoman Pam Girardo confirmed that credit information for business cards is now being reported to credit bureaus. As part of the Credit Card Act of 2009, the Federal Reserve is required to conduct a study of credit card use by small businesses.
  • Op-Ed Contributors: How the G.O.P. Can Fix Health Care
    Feb 22, 2010 — New York Times
    For example, the Democratic bills would let providers share in Medicare savings if they can show that the way they prevent and manage illnesses reduces complications and costs Medicare less. But we want not just more care; we want better health. Liberals cannot insist on Medicare for all, and conservatives cannot insist on markets for all, plus tort reform.
  • City hikes its local hotel tax: Move boosts local tax to 6% on top of state's 5.7 percent
    Feb 18, 2010 — Gloucester Daily Times
    Both the meals and room tax hikes are set to take effect April 1 -- the start of the final quarter of the current fiscal year.
  • Democrats defend stimulus spending
    Feb 18, 2010 — Sentinel & Enterprise
    Scott Brown "flat-out wrong" for suggesting the program has failed to create jobs in the state. John Olver, D-Amherst, announced $95.5 million in stimulus transportation grants for rail improvement and economic growth projects. Of the funding, $55.5 million will support the Fitchburg Commuter Rail extension project to extend commuter rail 4.5 miles.
  • Entrepreneurs turn to 401(k)s to fund start-up businesses
    Feb 15, 2010 — USA Today
    Only about half of small businesses survive at least five years, says the U.S. Small Business Administration. And small-business bankruptcy filings increased 44% from the third quarter of 2008 to the same quarter in 2009, according to Equifax. The IRS in 2008 issued a memorandum regarding such loans.Before an entrepreneur decides on either option, it's a good idea to get legal and tax advice.
  • The secret small business history of the presidents
    Feb 15, 2010 — USA Today
    Steven D. Strauss is a lawyer, author and speaker who specializes in small business and entrepreneurship. His latest book is The Small Business Bible. You can sign up for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" at his website —www.mrallbiz.com.Yahoo!
  • Extravagant promises spark much debate
    Feb 14, 2010 — The Berkshire Eagle
    But I believe I can have a positive influence on this community. It's not just about money." As for Berkshire Money Management, Harris said: "We built our business on a national basis, and only recently have we entered the local market. Last year, he said, BMM's gross revenue was about $1.5 million.
  • For governor, employment is the bottom line
    Feb 14, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    We've got to be about the business bottom line. They are off the energy grid now, and they sell power back into the grid. It's not one-offs. The issue for me isn't the gaming; it's the jobs and the revenue.
  • Patrick wants health cost veto
    Feb 11, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Those costs are then passed on to consumers. The Massachusetts Medical Society is against that proposal.Key lawmakers praised Patrick's legislation but declined to take a position on it.
  • Republican gubernatorial candidate Baker cool to rail expansion
    Feb 11, 2010 — New Bedford Standard Times
    Commuter rail, especially the preferred Stoughton route through the Hockomock Swamp, is unlikely to happen, in his opinion, Baker said. Baker did not say which projects he was referring to in the "mini-Big Digs" description in the Fox 25 interview. Like Baker, Mihos said he opposes building a rail line through the Stoughton route.
  • Labor Steams Over Dem Inaction
    Feb 10, 2010 — Politico
    A pro-union Transportation Security Administration nominee quit before he even got a confirmation vote. Look at what the Democratic administration has done for us!'" Gage said. "People are going to say, 'Huh? Obama has pushed for education programs that have long been unpopular with teachers' unions.
  • Trying to fill lending gap
    Feb 10, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Mary's Bank credit union in Manchester, N.H. Credit unions such as St. Mary's want to lend up to 25 percent of their assets to small businesses, double the current federal cap on their commercial loans. Its chairman, Representative Barney Frank, readily acknowledged that letting credit unions lend more to businesses is controversial. ``The community banks don't like it,'' said Frank, a Democrat from Newton.
  • Governor pushes plan for small businesses
    Feb 9, 2010 — Sentinel & Enterprise
    BOSTON -- A plan to help small businesses grow and create jobs began to shape Monday with Gov. Patrick plans to file legislation that would create a $50 million tax credit for job creation. Senate President Therese Murray also filed legislation yesterday to consolidate many of the state's economic development agencies, such as the Massachusetts Film Office, and give the governor greater control and oversight.
  • Patrick's business aid welcomed
    Feb 9, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Take our survey at www.boston.com/business.CREATING JOBSWhen do you think jobs will return to Massachusetts?
  • 4 questions that will help you reinvent your business
    Feb 8, 2010 — USA Today
    Suddenly, Apple was no longer simply in the computer business. Successful business reinvention usually occurs when the entrepreneur taps a new idea that gets the creative juices flowing.3.Where is the opportunity? His latest book is The Small Business Bible.
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