Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Join the Book Club

03/22/2014 Nativegrl77

Union of Concerned Scientists

EVENT INVITATION March 27: Fukushima Online Book Club Discussion

Please join the authors of our new book, Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster, in an online “book club” discussion on March 27. Praised as a “gripping, suspenseful page-turner,” the book is a definitive, scientific retelling of what happened at Fukushima three years ago—and an urgent reminder that U.S. nuclear power isn’t as safe as it could and should be.

Fukushima Online Book Club Date: Thursday, March 27 Time: 2:00-3:15 p.m. EST

RSVP for the Online Discussion Today

The book’s co-authors, UCS nuclear power safety experts, Dave Lochbaum and Edwin Lyman, and award-winning journalist, Susan Q. Stranahan, will discuss what the situation in Japan is three years later, what we have learned, and what more needs to be done to make nuclear power safer in the United States.

Visit our website to learn more about the book. If you have any questions about the book club or if you’d like to submit questions for the authors in advance, please email nuclearsafety@ucsusa.org.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

the NFL and non-profits

03/22/2014 Nativegrl77

March 05, 2012

Why Does the National Football League Deserve Tax-Exempt Status?

You may not know it, but the National Football League is a nonprofit organization. It may seem absurd that a collection of teams that generated at least $9 billion in revenue last season would be given tax-exempt status, but the NFL is technically classified as a 501(c)6 organization. Here’s how the IRS describes 501(c)6 tax-exempt status:

Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the exemption of business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade and professional football leagues, which are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.

It’s obviously notable that only professional football leagues are included here, as opposed to all sporting leagues. The exemption for football stems from lobbying efforts by Pete Rozelle in the 1960’s to earn an antitrust exemption for the merger of the NFL and AFL. The antitrust and tax exemptions were cleverly attached to an uncontroversial 1966 bill to “suspend the investment credit and the allowance of accelerated depreciation in the case of certain real property.” The NFL-AFL merger language was included at the end of the bill that had nothing else to do with football.

Here’s the meat of the IRS’ explanation of how these tax-exempt leagues are supposed to work:

A business league is an association of persons having some common business interest, the purpose of which is to promote such common interest and not to engage in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit. Trade associations and professional associations are business leagues. To be exempt, a business league’s activities must be devoted to improving business conditions of one or more lines of business as distinguished from performing particular services for individual persons. No part of a business league’s net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual and it may not be organized for profit to engage in an activity ordinarily carried on for profit (even if the business is operated on a cooperative basis or produces only enough income to be self-sustaining). The term line of business generally refers either to an entire industry or to all components of an industry within a geographic area. It does not include a group composed of businesses that market a particular brand within an industry.

It seems inconceivable that the NFL is not “engag[ing] in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit.” How are their efforts to maximize profits any different than those of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association or the National Hockey League? As far as the NFL’s “net earnings,” the nonprofit was actually in the red in 2009, according to its latest available return. Virtually all of the leagues $192.3 million in revenue in 2009 came from “membership dues & assessment.” While the NFL doesn’t explain how much each clubs pays in dues, it averages to about $6 million per team. NFL owners don’t have to pay taxes on those dues, as they are considered donations to a nonprofit. Meanwhile, the NFL had $234.6 million in expenses in 2009, but the “nonprofit” paid $53.6 million to 8 individuals. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell earned $9.9 million in 2009 (and will earn $20 million by 2019) but he wasn’t even the highest paid individual. NFL Network President Steve Bornstein was paid $12.6 million by the “nonprofit” even though NFL Network is part of NFL Enterprises, LLC. In other words, the only reason the NFL is operating in the red is because of the massive salaries it’s paying its key executives.

In 2010, Andrew Delaney, a Vermont Law School student, put together a fascinating paper examining the tax status of the NFL and found that the NFL was working like a “glorified tax shelter.” Delaney explains:

Through for-profit companies, the NFL sells licenses to use NFL intellectual property, broadcast games, etcetera, making a ton of money. That money is then distributed to the individual teams. The individual teams, in turn, pay their “dues and assessments” to the NFL. I don’t intend to mislead—some taxes certainly get paid here. The teams are considered for-profit and pay regular taxes. The teams’ tax liability is significantly reduced, however, when they pay their tax-deductible “dues and assessments.” How much and what gets taxed is just not publicly available. And it should be if the NFL is going to enjoy tax-exempt status.

Delaney ultimately concludes that “if the NFL isn’t violating the letter of nonprofit status, it’s certainly violating the spirit.”

The important thing here is that WE THE PEOPLE granted the NFL this tax exemption, even if it was decades ago. (Just as we granted the leagues the anti-trust exemption for negotiating television broadcast contracts.) As a result, we can revoke that exemption if the league blacks out its fans, forces fans to pay for personal seat licenses, extorts public money from municipalities by threatening to move teams, etc. The NFL may technically be a “nonprofit,” but it sure as hell isn’t acting in the public interest.

Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Email him at brian@sportsfans.org and follow him on Twitter here.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Obamacare is working . Stand up for it!

03/21/2014 Nativegrl77

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The Final Stretch

03/20/2014 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

Momentum Is Building As Enrollment Deadline Nears

We’ve been talking about the Affordable Care Act a lot this month, and we will continue to do so as the days tick away until the March 31 deadline to enroll in health insurance or pay a fine. With just 12 days left, more and more people are signing up for coverage and the word is spreading about affordable care. Here’s what has been going on:

5 million have now signed up for private insurance in the state and federal marketplaces. On the heels of last week’s announcement that 4.2 million had enrolled through the end of February, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that enrollment has now passed the 5 million mark. That’s 800,000 additional enrollments in just over two weeks – almost the same as the entire month of February. Enrollment is increasing rapidly as the deadline approaches, and it will continue to do so in the remaining days. This is in addition to the millions who are gaining coverage through Medicaid and the 3.1 million who have coverage by staying on the parents’ plan.
1 million have signed up for coverage in California. California has been a leader in helping to implement the law, and as a consequence has seen a huge number of people benefitting from the law. The state’s insurance exchange, Covered California, passed a million people enrolled on Saturday—one-fifth of all sign-ups nationwide. “We are pleased and privileged to be helping a million people find the peace of mind that comes with having insurance,” the exchange’s Executive Director said. “But we’re not stopping at a million.”
Celebrities line up to lend their voices to enrollment efforts. Ever since President Obama sat down for the hilarious “Between Two Ferns” interview with comedian Zach Galifianakis, the administration has rolled out numerous other celebrity voices to spread the word about the law. LeBron James recorded a public service announcement in which he reminded his audience, “You never know when you might take a hit.” A number of celebrities’ moms sat down to ask, “Seriously, do you want your mothers to have a nervous breakdown? You need health insurance.” And famed NCAA basketball coaches Geno Auriemma and Roy Williams recorded a video to kick off a different kind of bracket – the sweet 16 reasons to get covered. Obama will make his first appearance as President on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” tomorrow to tout the law.
Report finds sports injuries that are common among young people cost thousands. Many of the “young invincibles” who don’t think it’s worth it to enroll in health care coverage might want to think again. Accidents happen, and when they do health care can be costly. A broken arm, for example, costs an average of $7,700.

Meanwhile, as millions of Americans get access to health insurance for the first time, Republicans in Congress continue their repeal-at-all-costs approach. Their latest anti-Obamacare bill would cause a spike in insurance premiums up to 20 percent and leave 13 million fewer Americans with insurance. And while the GOP keeps insisting it will provide an alternative to the ACA, you shouldn’t believe the hype. The New York Times even called out their latest gambit for what it was: all new talk, but no new ideas. The only plan they agree on is to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

BOTTOM LINE: While Republicans keep trying to figure out ways to repeal the ACA and go back to the days when insurance companies were in charge of your health care, the new health care law’s successes march on. Insurance sign-ups passed another historic threshold Monday, with 5 million now covered. And there are numerous outreach efforts to keep the momentum up through the March 31 deadline to enroll.