Michael Cohen creating fake invoices for shell companies to hide Trump's hush money payments was routine, prosecutors argued. Such an invoice was submitted into evidence in NYC [above, as reported live on social media by Adam Klasfeld and screencapped by Philip Bump for the Washington Post].
Cohen's fake invoice included this superlative piece of stock art, in which eight orange stick men surround a grey conference table on which rests a spectacularly gay 3-D bar graph, climbing from purple to red. It was created in 2007 by vector artist and illustrator Scott Maxwell of Lumaxart. So happy pride to all who celebrate.
Mustang GT4 Makes European Debut at Circuit Paul Ricard
Ford Performance will bring the Ford Mustang GT4 to a European competition for the first time in am exhibition debut at the FFSA Championnat De France GT GT4 European Series Southern Cup race at Circuit Paul Ricard 14-15 October.
The trip is intended to showcase the speed & versatility of the Ford Mustang GT4, the newest Mustang designed for road racing circuits around the world.
The Ford Mustang GT4 brings with it a full list of accolades from its debut season in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Championship, including poles at its first two races (Daytona, Sebring) and wins at Sebring, Watkins Glen and Road America. It has also raced in the Pirelli World Challenge series.
Ford Performance has entered the car, with veteran driver Scott Maxwell behind the wheel. Maxwell was involved in the development of the car and has raced it to victory in the U.S.
Scott Maxwell: With Hurricane Milton coming, here are 12 things savvy Floridians can do to prepare
I meant to send this several days ago. But there are still a few things that are possible to do, even on Milton Eve.
Transcription:
Hurricane Milton looks like the real deal — and headed our way.
One reader noted that some forecasts suggest this powerful storm may follow a route along Interstate 4 across Florida. If he does, expect him to stall several times around Champions Gate and the theme parks. Nobody ever traverses that route without serious slowdowns.
Still, there are plenty of things we can do to be prepared. Here are 12 tips veteran Floridians have shared about prepping for serious storms.
Move your car away from trees that may fall or drop branches. Either in your garage or even to a nearby public garage that allows it. This can also allow you to use your car if falling trees block roads leading in or out of your neighborhood.
Do your dishes and laundry now. If you have a stinky plate that you used to reheat old fish or some ripe workout clothes awaiting a wash, those things will only get stinkier and riper if you lose power. Might as well nip those malodors in the bud now. Plus, you can always use clean dishes and clothes.
Set up a group chat with your neighbors. These folks sometimes end up being your first-responders. You can either use a text chain or a social media app like Facebook messenger or WhatsApp. This is a good way for everyone to check on each other and be ready to help.
Don’t accidentally Facetime that neighborhood group chat at 3 in the morning. OK, so this one’s mainly for me. When we lost power in 2022, I pulled up my group chat to see if others had the same problem and accidentally fat-fingered the Facetime button, immediately ringing the phones of 14 neighbors, two of whom answered, wondering what idiot was calling them at 3 in the morning. (Sorry, Deb and Beth Anne.)
Put things you might need in an easy-to-find place. It’s great to have a flashlight. Less so if that flashlight is tucked in the back of a linen closet when you might need it in a pitch-black powerless house. The same goes for things like chainsaws. Might as well have them easily accessible.
Get portable phone chargers. Amazon may be the 10,000 pound retail gorilla. But it’s tough to beat Amazon’s same-day delivery options for electronic accessories — if you get the order in before the storm comes.
Have comfort food ready. Obviously the No. 1 choice is Funyuns. But since there will likely be a run on the tastiest onion-oriented snack treat mankind ever invented, you can opt for others as backup. Also, the FDA recently ruled that calories don’t count during a natural disaster. Just make sure it’s something that doesn’t need to be refrigerated.
Stay informed. Anybody who made it through the 2004 storm season is familiar with the infamous last-minute “wobble” that changed the trajectory of Hurricane Charley and left an unexpected trail of devastation and destroyed roofs across the state. So stay up-to-date on the latest forecasts. The National Hurricane Center at nhc.noaa.gov is super solid. And while the Orlando Sentinel may have some annoying columnists, the newsroom will also be providing round-the-clock coverage and updates about everything from forecasts and business closings to emergency contacts and power-restoration at orlandosentinel.com
Consider getting a power inverter. If you want to keep a laptop or some other small appliance going, a $20 power inverter that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter can be used to charge things. (Just don’t run your car in the garage with the door closed.)
Be patient. I often need to remind myself of this one. If we lose the kind of power that seems likely, it will take a while for it to come back on. Just remember that many of the people laboring to get your power back are working 24-hour shifts and had to leave their own families to do so.
Bring in campaign signs and inflatable Halloween decorations. These things can take off with ease in high winds. And the state is littered with both right now. A temporary move inside the garage is an easy fix. Or, if your campaign sign happens to be for a Moms for Liberty school board candidate, you can just burn it alongside any offending books.
Count your blessings. My wife and I had a rough house-year last year when lightning struck one side of the house, traveled through the attic and shot out the other. (Maybe I cracked one too many Moms for Liberty jokes.) The incident fried everything from the TV and the fridge to house lights and the pool pump. It was a royal pain. But we were OK and had the resources to move on. We knew not everyone was so lucky. So we tried to keep them in mind. That’s a good thing to do — remember those who have it worse — when problems happen.
Let’s be smart and look out for one another. Stay safe, friends.
Since the @MarsCuriosity Rover safely landed on Mars this past week, I started following some of the scientists and engineers involved with it on Twitter. Here is a short Q&A twittersation I had with Mars Rover Driver Scott Maxwell (@marsroverdriver).
Guess how few Florida businesses pay corporate taxes?
Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel
A fascinating thing happened this year in Florida.
Legislators were trying to help Darden Restaurants get a tax break.
Their problem was this: The Fortune 500 company was paying so little in corporate-income taxes on its headquarters in Orange County that the break was bigger than its tax bill.
And it's hard to find a way to let the company to pay less … than nothing.
This, my friends, is the state of corporate taxation in Florida.
GOP politicians would have you believe that the poor, poor businesses are overtaxed.
But would you like to guess what percentage of Florida businesses pay any income taxes at all?
Around 75 percent? Maybe 50?
Try 2.
Fewer than 2 percent, actually.
Out of 1.3 million for-profit corporations and companies in the state, only 24,112 paid any corporate income taxes at all last year, according to the state Department of Revenue.
More than 98 percent paid none at all.
If your business is paying anything, you're in rare company.
In fact, because so few companies pay, corporate-income taxes account for less than 3 percent of the state's revenues.
Still, Gov. Rick Scott and his peers in the Legislature want to make that lower — even as they take money from veterans and public schools.
Florida Republicans zealously pursue corporate-tax cuts, espousing a theory of trickle-down economics — trying to convince you that more money for corporations leads to more money for individuals.
Unfortunately, what has failed to trickle down to them is reality.
At 5.5 percent, Florida has had one of the lowest corporate-tax rates in America for years.
Yet we also have some of the highest unemployment rates and foreclosure rates.
We have lower-than-average salaries and fewer Fortune 500 companies than other states our size.
Quite simply, there is proof that low corporate taxes do not necessarily lead to an economic utopia.
But that hasn't stopped politicians from pursuing them.
In fact, nearly 10 years ago, the St. Petersburg Times did an impressive expose on the state's corporate-tax rates and found that some of Florida's biggest and most profitable companies didn't pay a cent.
The cruise giant Carnival Corp. was a good example: $1 billion in profits and not a single penny in corporate taxes for the state.
Darden is not Carnival. The parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster said that, although it doesn't pay taxes on its corporate headquarters, it does pay them on many of its 200 restaurants … though the company wouldn't say how much.
Still, the Times discovered that Florida politicians from both parties had created so many loopholes for companies that the amount of corporate taxes exempted was actually bigger than the amount of corporate taxes paid.
In the years since, legislators have created even more breaks and exemptions.
Last week, lawmakers pushed through an additional $30 million worth.
This comes two years after legislators raised basic cost-of-living fees on you to do things such as renew your drivers license and register your car. (They think if they call it a "fee" instead of a tax you won't notice.)
If the companies were hiring, that'd be one thing. But many aren't.
Instead, they are boosting executive pay and simply sitting on the cash.
Even conservative and business-oriented publications such as BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal have puzzled over corporate America's decision to stockpile money rather than reinvest in their companies — and our country.
Yet the politicians want to give them more.
We all know what the politicians get for their loyalty: big checks to their campaign accounts and even bigger checks for their "leadership" funds.
But what are you getting?
To help keep corporate-tax rates low, you've already started paying more for your drivers license, to enter a state park, even to file a lawsuit.
And now, your child's school may have fewer teachers. The social worker and highway patrolman will take home less pay. Funding for veterans, elderly and the poor may get cut.
And why? Because some politicians are still arguing that business taxes are too high, hoping you won't pay attention to the statistics and numbers that prove otherwise … numbers like 2 percent.
