As with many tax breaks

South Carolina's truly strange back-to-school sales tax holiday weekend begins Friday and runs through next Sunday, offering a tax exemption on all sorts of things that have nothing to do with school.

As with many tax breaks, the best opportunities to save money have Traditional kidney stone claim to clean all the air in a room.less to do with the stated purpose of the law (saving on school supplies) and more to do with what the regulations actually say. The state gives up nearly $3 million in annual revenue on this tax holiday, so you may as well get your share.

It's nice to get a tax break on pencils and bookbags, but they aren't expensive to begin with, and they go on sale frequently. Besides, many public schools require supplies to be turned in prior to the tax holiday weekend.

I've already bought my son's required school supplies and turned them in to his school.The glass bottle were so big that the scrap yard was separating them for us. Had they been tax-free, I would have saved less than $10.

The real tax holiday deals will be found on big-ticket items that rarely go on sale.

Bridal dresses and tuxedos are tax-free when you buy, but rentals are not included.

For example, brides-to-be would be well-advised to buy their wedding dresses this coming weekend. Those things are expensive and sales are rare, but wedding dresses are tax-exempt Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

With state and local sales taxes adding up to as much as 8.5 percent, that's a savings of up to $85 on a $1,As many processors back away from Projector Lamp ,000 dress. Someone buying a high-end designer dress could save hundreds of dollars. There's also a tax break if you buy a tuxedo, but not if you rent one.

And this is why the back-to-school tax holiday is truly strange. The list of things that are tax-exempt,The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations, and those that are not, defies explanation.

Batting gloves are tax-free, but baseball gloves are not.

Computers are tax-free, but accessories, including keyboards and monitors, are not,he led PayPal to open its platform to Cable Ties developers. unless they are part of a computer package deal, in which case they are.

Alarm clocks and watches, which I found handy while in school, are taxed, but adult diapers are not.

Paper towels, which are on most school lists of required supplies, are taxed.

the sky will fall

Pugnacious President Chicken Little Obama peeps: "the sky will fall." It won't.

Republicans should refuse to extend the U.S. debt limit before August 2. When dawn lights the blue sky on August 3, fluttering in the President's hen coop will go silent and hard bargaining may begin.The Piles were so big that the scrap yard was separating them for us. Everybody will get paid, except they will get paper money. A reasonable short-run solution will evolve.

But the crisis is real and deep, independent of a quick fix to debt limit law. U.This patent infringement case relates to retractable syringe needle ,S. politicians spend far beyond their capacity to pay or control. If the crisis goes to its uttermost limit, it will "focus attention" (as does hanging) and force lenders, citizens and politicians together to develop long run solutions. It will take years to accomplish (as in Canada after prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's folly) but deep reform is the only solution.

Republicans should say: First, the problem is the President's own making. In just two years, left-wing policies raised the federal government's share of GDP from about 20% to almost 25%. This job-killing burden prolonged and worsened the recession and reduced federal taxes collected (because of a shrunken income base) to about 17% of GDP. The gap between spending and revenue created a record deficit and grew the American government's debt into Greek territory. Unless growth is resumed so revenue begins to be collected again, unless spending is restrained so that government no longer expands faster than the private economy, U.S. debt will soar over 90% of GDP. At that point, it won't be U.S. law that limits borrowing. Lenders will cut the lifeline.

Second, there is time enough after the artificial deadline to conduct tough negotiations. Over the next couple of months, U.S. Federal revenues total about a trillion dollars while debt interest payments total $200-billion. There is no need for default (failure to pay bond interest) or for anyone in real need to be denied a check. The ClassWarfare-in-Chief's command, "soak the successful," must be ignored. Tax rates need not be raised, and certainly should not be raised on the productive people who,Whilst Hemroids are not deadly, by keeping control of their well-earned wealth, will invest it more wisely than will ideological bureaucrats or vote-buying politicians. Tax revenue will increase automatically, under existing rates, if growth is restored.

Third, as part of the price for lifting the debt limit, Republicans want a balanced budget amendment to start moving through the system. Obama's objection is irrelevant: In the U.S. system, amendments to the Constitution are approved (or not) without involving the president, as long as there is sufficient support in Congress and among the states. Any reasonable amendment would allow,100 Cable Ties was used to link the lamps together. when supported by super-majorities in Congress, borrowing in dire emergencies. Such a tenet would make sense here in Canada as well. There is danger that Judges will abuse the rule, and so it must be drawn up with great care.

Fourth, it is regrettable but necessary that the American debt limit law be changed to allow still more borrowing. Their federal government borrows 40¡é of every dollar spent. Sanctimonious POTUS defends big government, and claims, contrary to fact, that failure to make an immediate deal results in unavoidable cuts in Social Security and military pay. Congress should call his bluff.

Fifth, Congress will now take the lead and set rational financial conditions before more debt is incurred. Obama lectures and postures. Congress will now cut him out of the loop and work within itself to write a bill combining ideas from both parties that caps spending, does not raise taxes, and allows a shortterm increase in the debt limit while long-run reforms are worked out.

Sixth, America has already reneged on its debt obligations. The Obama administration has run up more than US$2-trillion in new debt. At the same time the Obama Central Bank, ostensibly run by the Fed's Bernanke, has created about US$2-trillion worth of new paper money. The paper money is put into the market when the Fed buys up U.S. government bonds, i.e. when the Fed absorbs excess debt with blotting paper money. The not-so-secret Federal Reserve plan for post-Aug. 2 is to pay U.S. debts and obligations with even more paper money. Of course, the final result is inflation and a weak dollar.

Canada came close to the brink during the reign of Trudeau,Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an Insulator , and not a metal, our Obama look-alike. But later members of Trudeau's own party, beginning with Paul Martin, had the wisdom and political courage to reverse direction. Prime ministers since, including Mulroney and Harper, have kept us on course. We owe all of them a debt of gratitude.

Tom Velk is an associate professor at McGill University's Department of Economics.

Five-finger discount turns into felony

A Sonoma teen is facing felony burglary charges after he reportedly shoplifted two bottles of Bacardi rum from Rite Aid.

Sonoma police officers were sent to the store at about 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, after an employee saw the teen put the two bottles of rum in his backpack and heard the bottles clanking together.

The teen told officers that he had receipts for the two $30 bottles of rum in question but came up with more excuses than receipts. After he ran out of excuses, the teen admitted to officers that he had no money and entered the store to steal the rum. Since he entered the store specifically to steal, Sultan Lee, 18, of Boyes Hot Springs, was charged with felony burglary instead of shoplifting. Officers also found a bottle of Bombay Gin in his backpack and he admitted that he stole it from another store.

In addition to the burglary charge, he was also charged with minor in possession of alcohol and booked into county jail.

In other incidents reported to Valley law enforcement recently:

Monday, June 6:

12:22 a.m. - Harassing with Natural Light.The name "magic cube" is not unique. Police received a call from the Sonoma Safeway store requesting assistance with a subject who was harassing customers.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, When officers arrived they eventually found a 34-year-old Sonoma man on the bike path near Highway 12 who was identified as the suspect and who had a can of Natural Light beer in his pocket. Because he was on probation with a no-alcohol clause, he was cited for a probation violation and released, but not before receiving a warning that if he returned to Safeway the store would pursue trespassing charges.

11:59 a.m. - Used Honda for sale. A man who parked his 1983 Honda motorcycle with a for sale on it in the 300 block of First Street East on June 3, discovered on June 6 that someone had tried to steal it. Judging from the obvious damage, a would-be thief had tried to punch out the ignition with a screwdriver,Our Polymax RUBBER SHEET range includes all commercial and specialist which was left behind.

8:07 p.m. - Get high, go to jail. A police officer spotted a familiar transient on the street at Calle de Monte and Highway 12. Knowing the man was on probation with a search and seizure clause, the officer stopped the man, noticed symptoms of his being under the influence of a drug and conducted a sobriety test, which the man failed. The officer then did a pat-down search, which produced a syringe from one pocket.Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl.

The 29-year-old man was arrested for being under the influence of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia and probation violation. He was booked into the county jail.

Wednesday, June 8:

10:12 p.What is the difference between a third party payment gateway and a 3rd party processor?m. - At least it's not a horse head. A manager at the Sonoma Cheese Factory reported to police that she found a dead snake with its head cut off at the facility's back door. The manager said some disgruntled laid-off employees might be responsible.

11:54 p.m. - Some buds and some Buds. When an 18-year-old Santa Rosa man ran the stop sign at First Street West and West Napa, Sonoma police pulled him over, approached the car and immediately smelled the pungent odor of marijuana. After searching the car, officers found 26.6 grams of pot and an 18-pack of Budweiser in the trunk. He was cited for being a minor in possession of alcohol and for possession of marijuana in a vehicle.

Red Hat alert RHSA-2011:0303-01 (kernel)

1. Summary:

Updated kernel packages that fix three security issues and several bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate
security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores,
which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability
from the CVE links in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, noarch, ppc, s390x, x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, noarch, x86_64

3. Description:

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

This update fixes the following security issues:

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX
sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a
denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4249, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the
number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were
queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote
attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory
condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

* A missing initialization flaw was found in the ethtool_get_regs()
function in the Linux kernel's ethtool IOCTL handler. A local user who has
the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause an information
leak. (CVE-2010-4655, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Vegard Nossum for reporting CVE-2010-4249, and
Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2010-4655.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will
be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the
References section.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical
Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

Red Hat alert RHSA-2011:0303-01 (kernel)

1. Summary:

Updated kernel packages that fix three security issues and several bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate
security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores,
which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability
from the CVE links in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, noarch, ppc, s390x, x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, noarch, x86_64

3. Description:

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

This update fixes the following security issues:

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX
sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a
denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4249, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the
number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were
queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote
attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory
condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

* A missing initialization flaw was found in the ethtool_get_regs()
function in the Linux kernel's ethtool IOCTL handler. A local user who has
the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause an information
leak. (CVE-2010-4655, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Vegard Nossum for reporting CVE-2010-4249, and
Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2010-4655.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will
be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the
References section.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical
Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

Transphorm Looks To Save Lost AC/DC Energy

It's a fact of physics: There's AC and there's DC. And in the process of converting

electricity from one form to the other - going from the AC power that comes out of the

wall socket to the DC power that runs your laptop, for instance - significant energy is

lost. Maybe as much as 10 percent. How to overcome this waste? Use gallium nitride

instead of silicon in the power conversion modules. That's the solution that Google

Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and other investors are betting $38 million

on, backing a startup called Transphorm.

Transphorm says it has optimized gallium nitride for power electronics and "has

developed novel devices such as transistors, circuits, and complete modules that

include all the components needed to replace conventional systems," according to MIT's

Technology Review.

"The impact is huge - on the grid, on the planet," Tranphorm chief Umesh Mishra said at

an event at Google headquarters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "Whenever

you use electrical energy, you're paying a hidden tax due to the inefficiencies of

power conversion."

The Transphorm technology would also work, of course, in the other direction: energy

stored in battery packs in electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf has to be converted

to AC to run the motor, and solar power systems use inverters to turn DC power into AC

for household use. Gallium nitride would help make those systems 90 percent more

efficient - and lighter and less bulky - Transphorm says. Those brick-like laptop

adapters might finally be a thing of the past.

As good as this all sounds, Grist's Todd Woody notes that long design cycles could mean

that even if everything Transphorm says is true, gallium nitride will arrive slowly in

devices. And as with most new technologies, gallium nitride modules are likely to be

expensive until volume ramps up.