H & M to open third Portland location

H & M really loves us.  We got a flagship store downtown in November, another one in Washington Square Mall in February, and now it is coming to Clackamas Town Center.  Alright, H & M is now available for Portlanders who do not like paying for parking!

McCormick and Schmicks for sale, just not to Fertitta

Laura Gunderson at the O continues to follow the saga unfolding with Portland's largest restaurant chain.  The embattled company has now announced that it is for sale to the highest bidder, as long as that bidder is not named Tilman Fertitta.

New streaming technology?

Torrentfreak offers this review of a new bittorrent powered tool for streaming video called SPARKD.  In short it allows for decentralized, anonymous, video streaming, which, if accurate, will almost certainly lead to much mayhem.  The technology looks nifty, to say the least.  Basically, as people watch a video through an embedded viewer, they will simultaneously seed the video for other viewers.  This would allow citizen journalists in remote parts of the world to get their video's out to the rest of the planet without needing a lot of bandwidth, for example.

Big purchase for Portland Parks

The City of Portland just announced plans to purchase 146 acres between River View Cemetery, Macadam Blvd. and Lewis and Clark College for a park.  It cost the city about $11.5 million to get the land, and it will be subject to a conservation easement, ensuring that it won't be developed.

Obama administration creating a gross revenue cap for S Corporations

The Obama administration announced a working plan to cap the gross receipts of an S Corporation at $50 million.  This is important, because an S Corp is a so-called pass through entity, meaning the entity does not pay any tax.  Under this proposal if a business generates over $50 million in revenue, it would have to be a C Corporation, meaning it would pay tax.

This is likely to be a key component in any tax reform for the US's corporate tax system which does not cost the US Government a significant amount of tax revenue.

EFF offers a good synopsis of the FBI's attempts to get on your computer

Read it here.

A few interesting legislative highlights from the last week

They are still debating doing away with the kicker.  Really?  I didn't think that was a hard choice.  Well, they didn't actually do away with it, but the House voted for it to be a line on your tax return, instead of an actual check.  This will apparently save the state millions in not writing and mailing the checks.  Of course, it is all a moot point, since the kicker requires to state to have a budget surplus, so don't hold your breath.

The house is also considering requiring banks to maintain foreclosed homes, as opposed to just letting them become looted eyesores.

And then today, the Senate gave us this, a bill which exempts large enough wineries (130 acres or more) from any additional licensing requirements to operate restaurants on the premises.  Several Senators are crying foul, stating that this law is just a naked give away to Oregon's four largest wineries.