This comes via Instapundit. Tom Cobern and Jim DeMint have put the  breaks on a whole pile of pork. From over 12,000 to 2,600. The article is at the Club for Growth blog and while there aren’t dollar figures, it runs into the billions.

Denton (DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton) added that Congress passed 12,852 earmarks in the fiscal  2006 spending bills and that by preventing “an earmark-laden omnibus bill, Senate conservatives have effectively cut the number by 80 percent, down to 2,600 earmarks, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.”

Something to cheer about. 

Blog here.

The Tax Foundation published a paper this month on Gross Receipts Taxes which they characterize as tax pyramiding and just how unfair they are. They made one mention of Hawaii in the paper.

Delaware, New Mexico and Hawaii each levy taxes commonly referred to as “gross receipts taxes,” but which incorporate elements of both sales and gross receipts taxes.

In other words we get the worst of both worlds.

Summary here and whole article (pdf) here. 

The state of Massachusetts is holding PB along with Bechtel primarily responsible for the ceiling failure that killed a woman.

The state suit says at all relevant times B/PB were fully responsible for (a) “overall management, coordination and interfacing of all design and construction projects” and (b) “quality assurance including implementing actions necessary to assure that work and products satisfied requirements for quality.” (par 25) 

Are we really sure we want this company to design our rail project?

See the whole article at TOLLROADSnews.