October 2012

Soda Fights Back

Giant Soda

New York’s battle over big sodas is heading to the courtroom. The American soft-drink industry, joined by several New York restaurant and business groups, filed a lawsuit on Friday that aims to overturn restrictions, proposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and approved by the Board of Health, on sales of large sugary drinks at many dining locations in the city.

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Walmart Strike Memo Reveals Confidential Management Plans

Walmart

The seven-page internal memo, issued Oct. 8, is intended for salaried employees only, and contains instructions on how to respond to strikes by hourly workers that spread to 28 Walmart stores in 12 cities earlier this week. The strikes were the first by Walmart retail employees in the company’s 50-year history.

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Supermarkets Continue to Disappear: Bloomberg Subsidizes FreshDirect

Fresh Direct

We have been pointing out that the city’s outrageous subsidy of FreshDirect runs counter to the much ballyhooed policy of supporting local supermarkets-stores that have been disappearing at an alarming rate. It makes no sense to throw $127 million at a company that will put neighborhood stores at risk.

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Jackson Heights Man Charged With Cigarette Tax Fraud

NY Cigarette Tax

Investigators at the city Department of Finance and the state Department of Taxation and Finance last month charged a 54-year-old Jackson Heights man with possessing thousands of untaxed cigarettes and counterfeit tax stamps.

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New York’s Taxing Business Climate

Taxes

New York state’s business-tax climate has gone from bad to worst. The Empire State has dropped from an already terrible 49th place to last in the nation in the latest Tax Foundation rankings, released yesterday. New York and New Jersey swapped places in the conservative foundation’s “2013 State Business Tax Climate Index” after New Yok moved down from 48th place last year.

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