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First Lady Michelle Obama made a quick trip to Cincinnati on Thursday, preaching her husband?s record to the choir and stopping briefly at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

She collected some big money - about 300 people paid anywhere from $250 to $10,000 to hear her speak and to meet her.

She delivered a vigorous defense of her husband?s administration to the crowd at the downtown Westin hotel, saying President Obama?s work ?is not done.?

?If any family in this country is struggling,? the First Lady said, ?we can not be satisfied with our own families? good fortune.?

Obama spoke for nearly half an hour. Before that, she appeared at a private reception with big donors where attendees had an opportunity to have their picture taken with the First Lady.

Wearing a sleeveless black dress, Obama largely recited the accomplishments of the Obama administration. She told crowd that her husband ? raised by a single parent, with the help of his grandmother ? understands the problems of struggling families ?because he has lived them.?

?Who do we want to be??? she asked. ?Will we be a country where success is limited to a few at the top? This country is strongest when we are all better off.?

Her husband came to office three years ago, she said, to bring about change; and said change ?does not come easy.?

It was her first visit to Cincinnati since Sept. 2008, when her husband was running for president. Then, she spoke at a National Baptist Convention at the Duke Energy Center.

Her comments drew criticism from Christopher Maloney, spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party.

?The time has come and gone for empty rhetoric and broken promises. Ohioans simply cannot afford another four years of job loss, higher taxes and increased debt under Barack Obama,? he said.

The First Lady praised the passage of health care reform legislation that she said has already ?saved millions of seniors in this country an average of $600 a year for prescription drugs.?

?Now, there are some folks talking about repealing that reform,?? she said. ?Are we going to let that happen? Are we going to allow children to be denied health care coverage who have cancer or other serious diseases? We can?t do that.?

Shot back Maloney: ?The ?folks? Mrs. Obama dismisses represent 2.3 million Ohioans and a majority of voters in all 88 Ohio counties who demanded the repeal of Obamacare?s job-killing mandate in November.?

She also praised her husband for getting rid of the ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? policy toward gays in the military.

?Never again will our young people have to lie about who they are,?? she said.

Among those at the mid-day event were State Sen. Eric Kearney, D-North Avondale, and his wife, Jan-Michelle Kearney, both personal friends of the Obamas. Jan-Michelle Kearney attended Harvard Law School with Mrs. Obama.

After the fundraiser, the First Lady changed into a navy blue dress and took a private tour of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. She spent just over a half hour in the facility, walking through with Dina Bailey, director of exhibitions and collections. Walking with them was Mayor Mark Mallory and Verna Williams, of Pleasant Ridge, and Williams? 12-year-old daughter, Allison. Williams has been a friend of Obama?s since college.

It was a personal tour and a photo opportunity, but reporters weren?t close enough to hear Obama?s questions or comments. She?d never been to the museum center before and wanted to see it, said Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory.

?I don?t think people in Cincinnati are clear on the significance of the freedom center,? he said. ?The First Lady was very interested in seeing it.?

He said she also asked about the economy in Cincinnati, which he told her was looking up. Bailey explained, he said, that the museum would soon merge with the Cincinnati Museum Center. Without that change, the Freedom Center would have had to close next year.

Originally posted here:
First Lady raises money, visits Freedom Center

CHENNAI: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has declined to disclose details of her income tax returns under the RTI Act, citing personal freedom and security risk. In her reply to the I-T department, she also said there was no public interest involved in disclosing such information.

Chennai-based RTI activist V Gopalakrishnan had sought details of her I-T returns from the year 2000-2001 to 2010-2011. The assistant commissioner of income tax, New Delhi, who is also the chief public information officer (CPIO), wrote to the UPA chairperson on January 23 as per Section 11 of the RTI Act, 2005, seeking her response to the application. In her reply, Sonia said disclosure of such private information to third parties in guise of transparency in public life would amount to unwarranted invasion of the individual's privacy. The information submitted to the I-T department by an individual was confidential and private in nature and cannot be disclosed as per Section 138 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, she said.

This is the second time that the CPIO has rejected the petition. The application was first rejected without even seeking objection from Sonia. After the appellate authority's intervention last month on Gopalakrishnan's plea, the CPIO sought a response from Sonia. "By not calling for an objection, the CPIO has ignored the possibility of the third party expressing willingness for disclosure of personal I-T information," the authority had said.

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Sonia Gandhi cites privacy, refuses to disclose info on I-T returns

Tax changes sought by big telecommunications companies suddenly stalled in the Senate on Thursday amid questions about the long-term impact to state and local government finances.

The Senate’s Finance and Tax committee completely rewrote the legislation (SB 1060), which companies such as Verizon, Comcast and AT&T have been pushing in order to ensure communications services taxes can’t be collected on certain products, such as downloaded games or home-alarm monitoring service.

The legislation included a controversial provision that would have given the companies freedom to bundle both taxable and non-taxable items into one package with a single price and yet calculate their taxes based only on the hidden prices of the taxable parts. Critics said that could allow companies to deflate their tax bills, by minimizing the internal price of anything that is taxable and maximizing the price of anything that isn’t.

State economists have warned that state and local governments would lose, at a minimum, $35 million a year as companies took advantage of the bundling provision. And one of their analyses showed the savings for the companies and potentially their customers — and the hit to governments — could potentially reach enormous proportions of more than $400 million a year.

With so much uncertainty, the tax committee decided to take all of the tax changes out of the bill and replace them with an 11-member working group that would study the communications services tax and recommend ways to modernize it. The working group’s report would be due before the start of the 2013 legislative session.

“The problem is we just simply don’t know how this is going to impact the tax structure,” said bill sponsor Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, who offered the amendment. “There’s no question that the telecommunications companies actually dispute those numbers. But because of the time frame, what I’ve explained to them is I just need more time to address it.”

A few hours later, the Florida House of Representatives passed its own version of the bill (HB 809), which includes both the tax changes sought by the telecom companies and the proposed working group.

The rest is here:
Telecom tax changes suddenly stall in the Senate

By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel

2:36 p.m. EST, February 23, 2012

Tax changes sought by big telecommunications companies suddenly stalled in the Senate on Thursday amid questions about the long-term effect on state and local governments' finances.

The Senate's Finance and Tax committee completely rewrote the legislation (SB 1060), which companies such as Verizon, Comcast and AT&T have been pushing to ensure that communications-services taxes can't be collected on certain products, such as downloaded games or home-alarm monitoring services.

The legislation included a controversial provision that would have given the companies freedom to bundle both taxable and non-taxable items into one package with a single price — and yet calculate their taxes based only on the hidden prices of the taxable parts. Critics said that could allow companies to deflate their tax bills by minimizing the internal price of anything that is taxable and maximizing the price of anything that isn't.

State economists have warned that state and local governments would lose, at a minimum, $35 million a year as companies took advantage of the bundling provision. And one of their analyses showed the tax savings for the companies and, potentially, their customers — and the hit to governments — had the potential to reach more than $400 million a year.

With so much uncertainty, the tax committee decided to take all of the tax changes out of the bill and replace them with an 11-member working group that would study the communications-services tax and recommend ways to modernize it. The working group's report would be due before the start of the 2013 legislative session.

"The problem is we just simply don't know how this is going to impact the tax structure," said bill sponsor Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, who offered the amendment. "There's no question that the telecommunications companies actually dispute those numbers. But because of the time frame, what I've explained to them is I just need more time to address it."

Separately on Thursday, the Florida House of Representatives passed its own version of the bill (HB 809), which includes both the tax changes sought by the telecom companies and the proposed working group.

jrgarcia@tribune.com or 407-420-5414

Excerpt from:
Telecom-tax changes stall in Senate

24 February 2012 Last updated at 04:24 ET

India's Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi has refused to furnish details of her income tax, citing "security" concerns, officials say.

An activist, V Gopalkrishnan, had requested the information under freedom of information legislation.

But in her reply, Mrs Gandhi said releasing the information might cause a "financial and security risk".

Mr Gopalkrishnan denied charges of any political affiliation and said he will continue his efforts.

In his query filed to the tax department last December, Mr Gopalkrishnan had sought details of Mrs Gandhi's income tax for the last 10 years, beginning in 2000.

This was done under the country's Right to Information legislation.

But his request was turned down.

He appealed and the income tax department was asked to send a notice to Mrs Gandhi requesting the information.

In her reply to the department, Mrs Gandhi said the disclosure of "such private information to third parties… in guise of transparency in public life would amount to unwarranted invasion of the individual's privacy".

She continued: "There is no case of bona fide public interest involved to disclose such information to third parties."

The tax department said the information sought had "no overriding public interest" and closed the request.

V Gopalkrishnan has the right to appeal.

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Sonia Gandhi rejects tax query