Nothing contained in this blog or on www.keytlaw.com is legal advice. This is just a website that provides information about the law designed to help people deal with their legal needs. Legal information provided on this website is not the same as legal advice, i.e., the application of the law to a person’s specific circumstances.
We try to make our legal information accurate and useful, but we recommend that you consult a lawyer if you want professional assurance that our information and your interpretation of it is appropriate to your particular situation and legal needs.
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The lawyer website called Avvo has a web page called “Top Legal Blogs.” As of July 13, 2010, the date this post was written, KEYTLaw’s website was number 12 on Avvo’s list of the most popular law blogs in the United States. On July 13, 2010, KEYTLaw’s Alexa ratings were 159,774 worldwide and 39,515 in the U.S., which means that of the millions of websites and blogs in the U.S., only 39,514 sites got more traffic than www.keytlaw.com. According to Alexa: Alexa Traffic Rank A measure of keytlaw.com’s popularity. The rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to keytlaw.com and pageviews on keytlaw.com over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews is ranked #1. Traffic numbers change constantly so we will probably move up or down in the ratings over time, but we are proud to be one of the most popular legal websites in the United States.
CNSNews: ““We have a whopping 30 [National Guard troops] this week that are showing up,. . . . But the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has placed 15 signs along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 that links San Diego with Phoenix and Tucson warning travelers of drug cartels and human trafficking operations.” The warning signs and the feds lawsuit to overturn Arizona’s immigration law are the Obama administration’s answer to illegal immigation in Arizona. Here’s the text of warning signs:
“DANGER – PUBLIC WARNING, TRAVEL NOT RECOMMENDED
Visitors May Encounter Armed Criminals and Smuggling
Vehicles Traveling at High Rates of Speed
Stay Away From Trash, Clothing, Backpacks, and Abandoned Vehicles
BLM Encourages Visitors To Use Public Land North of Interstate 8″
If you read this article you are now warned so if you enter the dangerous areas of Arizona, you are taking the risk that something bad might happen.
The Tax Foundation: “The Case-Shiller index . . . shows a drop of almost 16 percent in home values across the country between 2007 and 2008. . . . Data on state and local taxes from the U.S. Census Bureau show that most states’ property owners paid more in FY 2008.” Arizona’s ranked 23rd on the list. The 2008 increase in property taxes over 2007 averaged 5.2%. Florida was 1st at 11.7%.
USA Today has a column written by Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy Disney who co-founded the Disney company with his brother Walt. Abigail says that as a person who inherited great wealth like other Disney children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, the federal estate tax is a wonderful thing.
The Probate Lawyer Blog: “Even though Michael Jackson’s father was not included as a beneficiary in his will or trust, it hasn’t stopped Joe Jackson from trying to intercede in the legal proceedings surrounding the estate.”
Wealth Strategies: “Many family business owners struggle with business succession planning because they cannot envision a suitable way to divide their ownership and control among a diverse group of beneficiaries, some of whom are active in the business and some of whom are not. However, by recognizing that ownership and control actually consist of four separate component levels that can be divided differently among the beneficiaries, a family business owner can more easily conceive of a succession plan that rationally assigns leadership and management powers while equitably allocating the economic benefits of the business.”
If your new nonprofit corporation is considering filing an application with the IRS to become a tax-exempt organization, here’s a must read warning from the IRS:
Number 10. Is there enough financial data? See the instructions to Form 1023 or Form 1024 to determine how much information you need to provide, based on how long your organization has existed.
Number 9. In what month does the annual accounting period end? Applications should indicate the end of their fiscal year. It is a good idea to check for consistency. Does the fiscal year ending date stated on the application agree with the fiscal year ending date stated in the by-laws, on the financial statements, and on any prior returns filed? Continue reading Top Ten Reasons for Delays in Processing Exempt Organization Applications
Washington Post: “The Justice Department filed another lawsuit against immigration practices by Arizona authorities [Phoenix area community colleges], saying Monday that a network of community colleges acted illegally in requiring noncitizens to provide their green cards before they could be hired for jobs.”
Can it get more bizarre? The federal government required by U.S. law to prevent people from entering and staying in the U.S. illegally sues because employers ask for proof that job applicants are legally in the U.S. The Obama administration is now actively preventing employers from complying with the federal law.
According the the I-9 Employer Handbook, Employers are required by Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act
“to hire only persons who may legally work here: citizens and nationals of the United States and aliens authorized to work. To comply with the law, you must verify the identity and employment eligibility of anyone you hire, and complete and retain a Form I-9″
The following is from the website of the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services:
“Employment Eligibly Enforcement: All U.S. employers must complete and retain a Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens. On the form, the employer must examine the employment eligibility and identity document(s) an employee presents to determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the individual and record the document information on the Form I-9. The list of acceptable documents can be found on the last page of the form.
Checkout this statement from the instructions to the I-9 form employers must complete and send to the feds for new hires:
“It is illegal to discriminate against any individual (other than an alien not authorized to work in the United States) in hiring . . . .”
Washington Times: Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu says, “”Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona . . . , “They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has’.”
Arizona Republic: “”There’s no way Andy McDonel is taking down his ‘Don’t Tread on Me‘ flag. The homeowners association in McDonel’s Laveen neighborhood told him to remove the yellow banner with the coiled snake from the front of his house.”
The lender whose loan is secured by a lien on the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort the adjacent Lookout Mountain Golf Club filed a Notice of Foreclosure. The trustee’s sale is scheduled to be held on November 29, 2010. The original amount of the loan was $55 million.
I hate to hear these stories, which unfortunately are too common during these difficult economic times. A 26 year old recent law school graduate is interviewed on CNN about her inability to find a lawyer job despite graduating in the top half of her class, passing the Georgia bar on her first attempt and sending out over 100 job applications. She now has a big school loan debt and works as a coffee barista for $7.50 an hour.
Forbes: “Congress seems likely to clamp down on this wealth transfer technique. Here’s how you can still use GRATs [grantor retained annuity trust]. . . . Here’s how a GRAT works“
A man who sued a lawyer’s client for $918 billion also sued the lawyer for $38,000,000,000,000,000 – that’s $38 quadrillion for those of us that are big number challenged. This case might give us the answer to the legal question: Is a quadrillion more or less than a zillion? If he wins, I am going to go out on a limb and predict the plaintiff will have a hard time collecting all of the judgment. Would the plaintiff settle the case if offered $1 quadrillion? FYI: a billion has 9 zeros, a trillion has 12 zeros and a quadrillion has 15 zeros.
Wall St. Journal: “They’re the everyday fixtures of the Internet experience: pop-up stock quotes on a website, suggestions for related reading near a news article, videos along the side of your screen. Now, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen says he owns the technology behind all these ideas, and he’s demanding that some of the world’s top Web companies pay up to use them.”
“current budgetary trends are capable of destroying the country. . . . We can’t just tax our way out of this. We have to . . . cut spending or increase revenues in some combination that will begin to pull us back from the cliff. Obama must know that if he doesn’t address this, he will be the president who drove us toward a debt crisis. And so too must Congress, for both have now participated in the most fiscally irresponsible government in American history.”
Here are some other stories that prove Mr. Zuckerman’s point:
Arizona Republic: “The Santa Monica, Calif., City Council has canceled a $3 million contract with a Phoenix-based maker of manufactured homes [Cavco Industries Inc.] to protest Arizona’s new immigration law, even though it will likely cost the city more money.”
Arizona Republic: “The Obama administration is moving to throw out deportation cases against thousands of illegal immigrants if the immigrants have a potential path to legal residency. The move could affect as many as 17,000 immigrants who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas, including some who are currently being detained and could be released from detention facilities as part of the move, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.”
Arizona Republic: “A Beverly Hills-based gossip website has been hit with an $11 million judgment for libel and slander after posting false accusations about a northern Kentucky teacher who sidelines as a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.” The website is thedirty.com owned by Dirty World Entertainment Recordings, which got its start in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Arizona Republic: “It’s not that downtown Phoenix is a ghost town. . . . But few people linger. The city hopes to change that on Friday. With a bowling alley.” Here’s my favorite part of the story:
“In Phoenix, city officials and CityScape developers hope the bowl-o-rama will anchor the $900 million project with work lunches, evening corporate events and late nights out for 25- to 45-year-olds.”
What will Phoenix do next to revitalize jump-start downtown Phoenix night life – open a bocce ball facility or a bridge / canasta parlor?
Update: Pipe dreams for a vibrant commercial downtown Phoenix meet reality – “Two downtown Phoenix restaurants close.” The now defunct downtown Phoenix restaurants are Downtown Sports Grill near Washington and Second streets and Carmine’s Little Italy.
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