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A Monongalia County homeowner is suing the Kanawha County assessor's office to get computerized data used for determining tax assessments.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Monongalia County homeowner is suing the Kanawha County assessor's office to get computerized data used for determining tax assessments.

David McKain, an engineer who owns a house in Monongalia County, filed the lawsuit Thursday in Kanawha Circuit Court. McKain went to court after officials in the assessor's office would not release Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal data that assessors use to determine real estate property values.

McKain argues the computerized information is public information under the state Freedom of Information Act. He wants the court to rule that the records are public, order assessors to release the information and pay his court costs.

"I don't know that they're doing something bad in Kanawha County," McKain said Friday. "I just want to determine if they're doing what they're supposed to do."

McKain said he bought a home in Monongalia County in 2007, but was surprised when his taxes jumped by about 60 percent the next year. He became concerned about the way real estate was assessed in the county, and asked for the computerized data assessors use to figure out property values.

McKain said he won a court battle in Monongalia County to get data similar to what he is requesting of Kanawha County officials. He said assessors in Monongalia County have since changed the way they determine property values.

McKain, who runs the tax reform website http://www.monfairassessments.org, said he asked for Kanawha County appraisal data to see how other counties determine property values. McKain requested Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal data for a single home on Oakmont Road in Charleston from 2005 through 2012.

But Steve Sluss, staff attorney for Kanawha County Assessor Phyllis Gatson, said local officials don't think the computerized appraisal data should be open to the public.

"We believe it's private information about peoples' homes," Sluss said. "We ask a lot of detailed information about their homes that they probably don't want other people to know about."

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Homeowner wants computer data on tax assessments

Run, Saverin! Run!

Were it not for the fact that youd still have to suffer the eternal torment of actually living with your wicked, miserable little self, life as a willing and active member of The State might be pretty tempting. After all, Team State operating in direct competition with Team Freedom enjoys some rather significant advantages, both on and off the field.

For one thing, Team State writes the rules of the gamerules it claims the right to change at any time and for any reason. It can choose to make Team Freedoms goal the size of a pea, for example, and its own goal the size ofwellwhatever it wants. It can recruit a million, steroid-jacked players to wear its own colours, and limit Team Freedoms membership to a couple of wimpy, though doggedly irreverent, newsletter writers. Who listens to those guys, anyway? Pshhh

Off the field, Team State may choose to sequester part or all of Team Freedoms funding. And if Team Freedom doesnt like it, Team State reading again from its own rulebook can choose to simply begin kidnapping members of Team Freedom at gunpoint and locking them up in cages.

More troubling still, Team Freedom suffers the added disadvantage of large scale defection and even of outright collusion with the enemy. In other words, many of Team Freedoms players are really (whether knowingly or not) playing for the other teamusing morally malleable catchphrases like fair share, civic duty and social contract as a way to distract and bamboozle some of Team Freedoms star players. They read aloud and with unashamed authority from Team States own rulebook, exclaiming with sweaty excitement, But its the law! Look, Team State wrote it down, right here!

And what can Team Freedom do about all this, other than vote for another member of Team State to act as game referee every four years or so? Nothing. Or so it would seem

Fellow Reckoners will by now be aware of the latest scheme by Team State to encroach on the lives of those they clearly consider to be their property. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey, two of the moreeractive members of Team State, held a press conference Thursday morning on Capitol Hill where they outlined legislation that would prevent Eduardo Saverin, the Brazilian-born, Singapore residing co-founder of Facebook, from ever returning to the United States.

Now, why would these senators do such a thing, you ask? What do a couple of freeloading, career barnacles have against the entrepreneurial spirits of a go-getting, 30-year-old success story?

Turns out that, back in September of last year, Saverin decided he didnt want to be considered a US tax slave anymorea move 1,700 other now-freer people also made during the same year. Abiding by the law, as decreed by members of Schumer and Caseys Team State, Saverin relinquished his citizenship and moved to Singapore back in 2010, a place where he (and his property) are treated in less of a gun-in-your-face, gimme-all-your-money manner.

According to industry estimates, the move should allow Saverin to keep about $67 million more of his own money than he would have otherwise been entitled to were he still officially a US resident when Facebook makes its IPO, tomorrow.

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Eduardo Saverin and Team Freedom Versus Team State

The Spanish archipelago has a reputation as a party destination, but the cost of living there is soaring for the thousands of Britons who call it home.

According to the latest figures from the Spanish National Statistics Institute, the Balearic islands of Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera are now home to almost 24,000 Brits.

But the cost of living has been climbing gradually in recent years. In Spain as a whole as in most large European countries inflation has taken its toll while wages have stagnated. A fall in the sterling to euro exchange rate has also affected expats, while Spain's well-publicised economic troubles mean the banks are reluctant to lend for personal or professional borrowing.

In the Balearics, where many goods are imported from the mainland and therefore more expensive the situation is even worse, with the popularity of the island pushing up property prices.

Expats Justine and Bruce Knox, who are based in Mallorca, own and run Knox Design. The islands are comparable to a city like London or Paris [in terms of price], said Justine. But I am sure there is still a small percentage of people who dont realise how much the islands have changed and still expect them to be a cheap destination."

Bruce agrees that expat life in the Balearics is expensive. Mallorca actually produces very little so we are really reliant on importing goods and that increases the price, he said.

Many expats on the islands choose to start their own businesses, but when it comes to getting financial advice, they are frustrated by the Balearic banks. A poll by Just Landed at the beginning of the year found that two-thirds of expats polled 64 per cent said that they do not trust local banks at all. They quoted "unfair" charges on their Spanish accounts as a cause for concern, while language can also be a major barrier especially as locals speak Catalan, not Spain's primary language, Castilian.

Its important that expats hoping to start businesses here have good financial, legal and business advice, said Telegraph Expat blogger Anna Nicholas. Social Security is pretty crippling here, and the bureaucracy can be exhausting.

But success stories can inspire potential expat business owners. Providing you are offering the right product and service to the right target market, it is an excellent place to run a business, said Justine. I do always recommend that, despite the potential to target English-speaking holidaymakers, it is still absolutely vital to be able to speak Spanish.

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Life's no party for expats in the Balearics

Facebook is updating its status to 'public company' as its stock jumps in its debut on the Nasdaq stock market.

The stock rose to $US42.05 on Friday morning. CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiled as he rang the opening bell from Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Surrounded by cheering Facebook employees and wearing his signature hoodie, the 28-year-old pushed the button that signals the opening of the stock market in New York.

On Thursday, Facebook and the investment bankers arranging the initial public offering (IPO) settled on a price of $US38 per share. The company and its early investors raised $US16 billion ($A16.23 billion) in the offering, which valued Facebook at $US104 billion. That makes Facebook the most valuable US company to go public.

Now, the stock market will assign a dollar value to Facebook that will rise and fall with investor whims. It will be subject to broad economic forces as well as how much profit it earns from one quarter to the next.

But Facebook is one of the rare companies whose IPO transcends Wall Street's money lust to become a cultural touchstone for the way technology is reshaping our lives. Since its start as a scrappy network for college students, Facebook has come to define social networking by getting 900 million people around the world to share everything from photos of their pets to their deepest thoughts.

It has done so while managing to become one of the few profitable internet companies to go public recently. It had net income of $US205 million in the first three months of 2012, on revenue of $US1.06 billion. In all of 2011, it earned $US1 billion, up from $US606 million a year earlier. That's a far cry from 2007, when it posted a net loss of $US138 million and revenue of $US153 million. The company makes most of its money from advertising. It also takes a cut from the money people spend on virtual items in Facebook games such as FarmVille.

Facebook's public debut marks a new milestone in the history of the internet - and the people who use it. In 1995, Netscape Communications' IPO gave people their first chance to invest in a company whose graphical web browser made the internet more engaging and easier to navigate. Its hotly anticipated IPO lit the fuse that ignited the dot-com boom and culminated five years later in a devastating bust that obliterated the notion that the internet had somehow hatched a new economy where making money no longer mattered.

It took Google Inc's IPO in 2004 to prove just how profitable a well-run internet company with a disruptive idea can be. In the process, the internet search leader has forced other industries to adapt to a new order where people have come to expect to be able to find just about anything they want by entering a few words into a box on any device with an internet connection.

Facebook's IPO underscores an internet evolution that has made the understanding of connections among people as important as Google's massive index of Web links. Now that Facebook will be under greater pressure to sell more advertising to bring in more revenue, this IPO also cast a brighter light on how just how much revealing information that people have been sharing the past few years without fully understanding the implications.

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Facebook stocks climb

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Stocks closed out an ugly week. Despite initial euphoria surrounding Facebook's public debut, the social network's shares barely popped above its offering price and failed to inspire investors to buy into the broader market.

All three indexes clocked their worst weekly losses of the year, finishing at the lowest levels since January.

U.S. investors focused on the global issues plaguing world markets Friday, which pushed stocks down for the third straight week.

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 73 points, or 0.6%. The index is down 3.5% for the week.

The S&P 500 (SPX) slipped 10 points, or 0.7%, and 4.3% for the week. The Nasdaq (COMP) fell 35 points, or 1.2% Friday and 5.3% for the week.

Facebook (FB), which priced its initial public offering at $38 a share after the closing bell Thursday, jumped 11% when it started trading mid-morning Friday, but closed just above break even line.

"People are talking about Facebook, but it's really a sideshow," said Win Thin, an emerging market strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman. "If Europe blows up, people will trade on that more than anything else."

The European debt crisis loomed over global markets. Asian stocks sold off sharply, based partly on the slowdown in the Chinese economy. European markets were also under pressure, and borrowing costs for Spanish and Greek debt remain high.

Concerns are mounting about a potential Greek exit from the euro, and the implications that it could have for other fiscally troubled nations such as Spain and Italy. Rating agency Moody's downgraded 16 Spanish banks Thursday, including giants Banco Santander (STD) and BBVA (BBVA), the latest sign of distress in Europe.

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Stocks: Worst week of the year