Daily Herald: Elgin looking at regulating ride-shares like Uber
Elgin will be considering strict regulations for ride-share companies such as Uber and others, a first in the suburbs and possibly in the country.
The city council is expected on Wednesday to discuss proposed regulations for the industry — which Elgin is dubbing “E-Hail” — that would mirror insurance and other requirements imposed on taxi companies.
E-Hail vehicles would be required to undergo yearly safety inspections to obtain license stickers from the city, which cost $50 when bought in April and $75 otherwise.
Yahoo: U.S. CEOs threaten to pull tacit Obamacare support over 'wellness' spat
Leading U.S. CEOs, angered by the Obama administration’s challenge to certain “workplace wellness” programs, are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, according to people familiar with the matter.
Major U.S. corporations have broadly supported President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform despite concerns over several of its elements, largely because it included provisions encouraging the wellness programs.
The programs aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses. A bipartisan provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law allows employers to reward workers who participate and penalize those who don’t.
The Fiscal Times: Prisoner Tax Fraud Now ‘A $1 Billion Problem’
The Internal Revenue Service has long-struggled with weeding out prisoner tax fraud—an issue that costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year. Despite the IRS’s efforts, the problem is getting worse.
Tax fraud committed by incarcerated people has skyrocketed in the last few years. Fraudulent refund claims by prisoners ballooned to more than $1 billion in 2012 from $166 million in 2007, according to federal auditors. Likewise, the number of fraudulent claims has increased from 37,000 to 137,000 over that same period. And that number is going to keep climbing unless the IRS gets its act together.
That’s the takeaway from a new scathing report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the federal watchdog tasked with keeping tabs on the IRS. IG J. Russell George blamed the agency for not taking up his previous recommendations to combat the fraud. – See more at: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2014/11/28/Prisoner-Tax-Fraud-Now-1-Billion-Problem#sthash.ygkIkBMH.dpuf
Bloomberg View: You Want a Bigger Paycheck? Convince Me.
There’s a common myth that standard economics predicts that people are paid an amount of money equal to the value of the things they produce. Actually, this isn’t true – in fact, the idea doesn’t even make sense.
In standard economics, your wage is equal to the marginal productivity of the company that hires you. That means that you get paid an amount equal to the amount that the company’s production increases when it hires you. Now, that may sound kind of like “you get paid what you produce,” but it’s not the same thing.
People generally don’t produce things individually. They produce things together, with the assistance of capital such as machines and buildings. So when a company hires you, its marginal productivity changes, because your presence affects the marginal productivity of everyone else at the company. In other words, in a competitive, classical economy, your wages are set not by your own effort and skill, but by how your effort and skill combine with the effort and skills of all the other people at the company, as well as all the company’s capital assets.
Northwest Herald: Illinois panel OK's electricity line proposal
The Illinois Commerce Commission has approved plans to build an electricity line designed to bring wind energy from Iowa to the state.
“The ICC approval is a great step forward for the Rock Island Clean Line project and brings Illinois one step closer to creating a cleaner energy future,” said Michael Skelly, president of Clean Line Energy Partners LLC.