The USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) has announced its Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts for the 2012 fiscal year. Over 114,000 acres of marginal California farmland have been enrolled in the federal conservation program designed to increase wildlife habitat.

 

Ordinarily, if a large corporation has a physical presence in a state, then that state can charge sales tax on transactions. California, in a desperate attempt to raise more money, has decreed that Internet transactions are now taxable even if the company has no physical presence in California and the goods were shipped from, say, Nevada to Missouri.

As well-intentioned as they may be, new regulations attempting to enforce rules about energy efficient lighting have set off charges of life-altering interference almost as intense as that other “choice” issue sparked by the Supreme Court back in 1973.