The .03% Solution - ProPublica

by Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica, Feb. 6, 2013, 12:15 p.m.

Last month, 11 European countries, including France and Germany, moved forward on introducing a minuscule tax on trades in stocks, bonds and derivatives. The tax goes by many names….

This month, Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, Democrat of Oregon, plan to reintroduce their bill calling for just such a tax.

A transaction tax could raise a huge amount of money and cause less pain than many alternatives. It could offset the need for cuts to the social safety net or tax increases that damage consumer demand. How huge a sum? Harkin and DeFazio got an estimate from the bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which scores tax plans. It's a hearty one: $352 billion over 10 years.

The money would come from a tiny levy. The bill calls for a three-basis-point charge on most trades. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. So it amounts to 3 cents on every $100 traded.

Click on the following for more details:  The .03% Solution - ProPublica

Feds to Publicize Drug and Device Company Payments to Doctors Next Year - ProPublica

by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber
ProPublica, Feb. 1, 2013, 4:25 p.m.

The release of payments data in September 2014 would mark a milestone in the push to bring transparency to medicine. Once posted, patients will be able to see if their physicians receive money from any of the companies whose products they prescribe. Studies have shown that such payments, however small, bias physicians towards companies and their products.

Until now, ProPublica's Dollars for Docs tool [2] has been the only freely available source for the public to search and analyze the payments made since 2009

Click on the following for more details: Feds to Publicize Drug and Device Company Payments to Doctors Next Year - ProPublica

Rockton leaders on hunt for full-time shaper of village - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

“Back a month or two ago, Mr. Walberg and some of his friends want to close Boone County’s Planning Dept.   Perhaps the staff will be applying for a job at a community who want a professional planner “. Bill Pysson

Village leaders want to hire a full-time planning director to coordinate the area’s planning and development so they’re prepared for growth in housing, development and retail when the economy bounces back.

Click on the following to read the entire story:  Rockton leaders on hunt for full-time shaper of village - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star