Just today, a coworker was telling me that she’s thinking about donating her old junk heap to a charity since she’s bought a new car. Then I read this.
Houston charity gives more than it receives
– reported by KHOU CBS Channel 11(1)
[snip]
Car donations used to be among the popular ones until this year when the IRS changed the rules. They’re more strict now and fewer people are willing to give up vehicles to charities. Except for one.
[snip]
Like many similar ones, Giving Heart gets people to donate old cars. But unlike many charities, it rarely sells them “as is” at auto auctions.
Instead, the Houston based organization gets them repaired, detailed, and then top dollar at a car dealer.
“We want to raise as much money as we possibly can for charity. That’s what it’s all about,” said George McLure, Giving Heart of America’s president. “And in addition to that give our donors a maximum tax deduction because for a lot of people that’s an important consideration.”
For example, the charity was given a maroon 1998 Ford Taurus in November. It was hardly perfect. The car had front end damage apparently from a wreck. A local body shops gave Giving Heart a discount to fix the car. A detail shop did the same thing to make it shine. Now it’s going up for sale.
“There’s no way it would have gone for more than $500 or $600 max,” McLure said. “We do expect now to get $5,295. I would be surprised it it goes for less than that.”
[snip]
About fifty vehicles are either under repair or up for sale by Giving Heart of America right now.
* * *
Reminders:
- KHOU CBS Channel 11 requires a free registration.
News
5 new campuses are opening here
Stepping Stones, KIPP, Harmony Science hope to build on success
– reported by the Houston Chronicle(1)
Students may begin registering next month to attend three new charter
schools operated by the much-touted Knowledge is Power Program, a
college-preparatory school known for its extended class hours and
strict discipline policies.
The new campuses, scheduled to open in the summer, should help relieve a waiting list that’s more than 1,000 families deep.
[snip]
KIPP will open the schools with one of 13 new charters granted in the
fall by the State Board of Education, putting Texas just six charters
shy of the state-mandated cap of 215. Harmony Science Academy and
Stepping Stones Elementary were also given permission to open new
campuses in Houston.
[snip]
About 1,200 students attend Harmony’s four Texas campuses. The new
charters will increase enrollment statewide to 2,900 by the end of next
year and to 5,600 by 2010.
[snip]
* * *
Reminders:
- Houston Chronicle links expire after a few days because they’re archived. If you want to access these articles after that, you either have to be a subscriber or go to the Houston Public Library and access the database using your Library Power Card.
News
McAllen cashes in as a shopping Mecca for affluent Mexicans
– reported by the Houston Chronicle(1)
The Texas-Mexico border is hardly a place where fashion designers would stake a claim.
There are no celebrities or upscale shopping districts. Yet, La Plaza Mall, which is half the size of Houston’s Galleria, is experiencing a fashion retail boom mostly by drawing Mexican shoppers across the U.S. border.
[snip]
Located along a busy commercial street, La Plaza Mall is anchored by
heavyweights Foley’s, Dillard’s and JCPenney and includes nearly 150
stores from upscale retailers such as Deutsch & Deutsch jewelers
and the Laredo-based Joe Brand to the Gap and Victoria’s Secret.
Fifty-five percent of the mall’s customers live in Mexico, Soto
said, and visit the mall regularly to buy clothes for themselves, as
well as friends and family. Unlike traditional shoppers who may
purchase one or two items in one visit, she says, they are snapping up
hundreds or thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise in a single trip.
[snip]
* * *Reminders:
- Houston Chronicle links expire after a few days because they’re archived. If you want to access these articles after that, you either have to be a subscriber or go to the Houston Public Library and access the database using your Library Power Card.
News
City adds fuel truck fleet on the cheap
– reported by KHOU CBS Channel 11
Remember all the gas shortages when millions of people left Houston before Hurricane Rita hit?
Houston officials worried about their own emergency vehicles.
Now, city officials are looking ahead to the next big storm and have cut a money-saving deal after learning the lessons of Rita.
The traffic during the days before Hurricane Rita taught everybody a lesson.
While evacuees worried about getting out of town, city government officials worried about getting gas to all its police cars, fire engines and city vehicles.
[snip]
“All we paid was the $500 administrative fee,” said Bowker, which as $500. “They [normally] run around, these trucks run $89,000 to $90,000 a piece. Those trailers are around $20,000 to $25,000 a piece.”
So Houston got more than a half-million dollars worth of gasoline tankers for about $7,500.
The city figures it’ll spend about $2,000 each getting them ready for the next disaster.
* * *Reminders:
- KHOU CBS Channel 11 requires a free registration.
News
I’ve spent the day in family drama. Damn, we almost made it through one holiday season without a war. But, no, can’t do it.
It started with a loud loud loud argument with my brother. Selfish a**hole is upset that I’m asking him to pay me back some of the money that he owes me. With the death of my father my mother’s income has been cut. Of course, it’s going to fall to me to make sure that everything gets covered.
In two months I pay off my car. Taking care of Mom after that won’t be a financial burden, really. Until then, I need some help.
It’s not like I’ve asked him to contribute to her wellbeing. I’ve just asked him to pay me back some of the money he owes me, which he’d already promised to do anyway.
Perhaps later I will blog some about the content of the argument with baby brother. I’m too upset right now to do that.
Having Linda come after me later about how I treated him, that I didn’t need. I never saw that fight coming at me. I tried to get out of it. Really, I did. But she kept coming at me and I let her have the fight she so obviously wanted.
It got ugly fast.
It ended with my screaming at her, in the parking lot in front of my apartment as she was getting into her truck, that she wasn’t welcome back in my home. And I told her husband that they were not going to get in the way of my relationship with their children. I promised to make their lives hell if they tried.
Not a good day.
Family
I love silver jewelry. I adore silver jewelry. I prefer silver to gold anyday. I have earrings, chains, charms, bracelets, rings and other things. All in silver.
So I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting places to buy accessories to add to my collection.
Special thanks to
Shop Girl for sending me to J. Silver. I haven’t bought anything yet, but am sure that I will.
There are pieces to suit every budget, too, making J. Silver a good spot for quality jewelry, including precious and semi-precious pieces, throughout year.
Retail Therapy
For those of us interested in acquiring a piece of history, here’s an auction to attend:
AstroWorld to hold public auction
– reported by KTRK ABC Channel 13
[snip]
Next month, AstroWorld will begin auctioning off parts of the park including the rides. Greezed Lightnin’, The Viper, and some water slides are all going up for sale. Other pieces of the park, including memorabilia and even signs will be on the auction block, as well.
The sale starts January 6 and runs through January 8. For more information, log on to AstroWorldAuction.com.
News
The Blog Herald has put out their list of the “The Top 10 interesting people in the Blogosphere in 2005.” In short, here’s the list:
- Matt Mullenweg, WordPress
- Mena Trott, Six Apart
- Jason Calacanis, Weblogs Inc., (AOL)
- Michelle Malkin
- David Krug (aka Liberal Cowboy), Jack of All Blogs & the Team at Go Flock Yourself
- Nick Denton, Gawker Media
- Rupert Murdoch, News Corp
- David Sifry, Technorati
- Darren Rowse, b5media
- Frank Warren, Post Secret
For more information on who these people are and why they were chosen, read The Blog Herald post.
General
I just found the Amazon Affiliate Link Creator Freeware, thanks to The Blog Herald.
Do you hate creating Amazon links for your blogs and webpages? Well, we decided to do most of the work for you.
I use Amazon ads in at least one of my blogs, and I hate having to create the links. They’re cumbersome to create. I think I’ll give this a spin to see if it works.
General
I picked up this story on the New Mexico Business Weekly about online sales and sales tax. Specifically, it covers why some purchases online are taxed and some are not. Very nice reading for those of us who deal with small businesses who are affected by selling and buying online.
Buying online is tax free, but states feel lost revenue pain
[snip]
Buying things over the Internet and not paying any tax on the purchase is accepted by many as a fundamental “right”. But that “right” is not as clear as it might seem. Why do some Internet sellers collect the sales tax and others do not?
The answer is complicated and based on rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. If you are a buyer, you probably think that no sales tax is a good thing. But what if you are a seller who has to collect and you are competing with a seller that does not? What if you are a seller of widgets made in your garage? Do you need to know the tax law and rates everywhere in the U.S.?
Sellers are generally required to collect sales or use tax when they sell to customers in a state where the seller has a “physical presence,” for example a store. In New Mexico, sellers located here are required to pay the gross receipts tax even if they don’t collect it from the purchaser.
If the seller does not collect the tax on sale, the purchaser is supposed to pay the use tax directly to the taxing jurisdiction. Most purchasers do not comply with this requirement and tax-collecting enforcement against individuals is effectively non-existent in most states. In New Mexico, the Legislature has instructed the Taxation & Revenue Department not to take enforcement action against individuals.
This ambiguity with regards to tax collection stems from Supreme Court decisions handed down in 1967 and 1992. In them, the court said that a business must be physically present in a jurisdiction before it can be required to collect and remit sales and use taxes. The principal basis for the Court’s decisions is that, in looking across the country, the sales tax system in all of the states is just too complicated for a seller to contend with if it doesn’t have a presence in the taxing state. In the court’s view, it would be unfair to require a seller of things to have to comply with all of the laws, rates and procedures if the seller did not have a presence in the taxing state.
[snip]
Although the Supreme Court could change its ruling, or Congress could change the law under its power to regulate interstate commerce, there is no reliable way to predict when or if any of these changes might occur. Legislation has been introduced in Congress to overturn these court decisions over the last several years, but the bills have not progressed.
[snip]
General
