It’s that time again! It’s time to pull out our shotguns and shoot some clay pigeons to raise money for Wonders & Worries at the Beretta USA No Worries Classic on September 29, 2012! The money raised will provide free counseling sessions and support programs for families and children whose parent has been diagnosed with a serious, chronic or terminal illness. And we have a big goal this year! We would like to raise $40,000 to help provide more than 500 one-on-one sessions for children. Knowing we can help in such a significant way is motivating and we would be honored to count on your help!
If you’re looking for good music, you may want to check out Snoop Dogg’s new album this fall. After a 35-day stay in Jamaica, he’s become Bob Marley reincarnated and changed his name to Snoop Lion. Also, his new family-friendly album will be reggae instead of hip-hop. We promise we didn’t make this story up!
Many people are turning to social media to spread their news and find supporters. Viral videos and ideas are easily spread through Facebook posts and Tweets. One campaign that caught our eye is #NikeLetter. Sixteen-year-old Matthew Walzer struggles tying his shoes because of his cerebral palsy, so he wrote a letter to Nike’s CEO explaining why easily fastened and supportive athletic shoes for people with cerebral palsy would change lives. The letter aims to make Nike aware of the need and to convince the company to produce a new kind of shoe. Posted on his blog, the letter has become a public campaign with the official hashtag #NikeLetter. There’s no doubt Nike has gotten wind of this, but how will they respond? It looks like we’re moving into a time where the power of word-of-mouth on social media could be any company’s best or worst friend.
Texas’s State National Bank is taking on The Dodd-Frank Act with a lawsuit filed in June. The bank’s chairman and CEO Jim Purcell and two conservative nonprofit groups are challenging the Act’s unlimited power and excessive regulations. The new regulations have forced many community banks to stop providing the same customer service they have for years because of the extra hurdles, paperwork and disclosures needed to make certain transactions. The compliance costs are putting a strain on banks, and some banks have dropped certain services. This could be detrimental to the future of many small community banks. While we know some regulations are needed to fix our economy, we’re not sure the Dodd-Frank is the right solution, especially if it puts banks out of business.
We do love our football in Texas! At the end of this month, Allen High School’s $60 million football stadium will open its facility for its first football game. The new stadium, funded by a $119 million bond package, features 18,000 seats, a 75-by-45 foot HD video scoreboard and a weight room.
In one of Nike’s latest ‘Greatness’ ads, the company features Nathan Sorrell, a 5 foot 3 inch 12-year-old who weighs 200 lbs., running down a road toward the camera. A narrator explains the meaning of greatness aimed to show how we are all capable of greatness if we choose it. Although many people find the ad inspiring, it has also become controversial. Some argue the ad exploits obese people and makes the boy look very uncomfortable performing a daunting task. Take a look for yourself. What do you think?
Have you ever thought about the impact of your purchases and how living a green lifestyle could make a positive change? A free app developed by fellow Entrepreneur Organization (E.O.) member Sanjay Nasta, and his company Atomic Axis will help you do just that! The app was developed for Whole Planet Foundation and Blue Avocado to offer customers an opportunity to make a difference. Shoppers complete a list of “green actions”, such as recycling and biking to work and will receive badges and coupons from several green brands.. They can also choose to donate a percentage of the coupon value back to Whole Planet Foundation to help fight poverty in impoverished communities. Fighting poverty and living green sounds like a win-win to us!
Watching Team USA athletes compete and excel at the 2012 Olympics inspired us and made our country proud!. How do we reward our hard-working athletes? How about making them pay taxes on their earnings? 127 Americans won 256 medals at the Olympics this year and will be awarded $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze from the U.S. Olympic Committee. This means the IRS will be paid up to $8,986 from gold medal winners, up to $5,385 from silver medal winners and up to $3,502 from bronze medal winners. Fair? Lawmakers don’t think so. They’ve introduced legislation to exempt the taxes on U.S. medal winners.
The presidential campaign is heating up. President Obama’s recent statements are giving Republicans the ammo to show he is in favor of a bigger and more intrusive government. Crediting the success of the 2009 government bailouts for GM and Chrysler, Obama said, “Now, I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry.” Yet, political statements always mean something a little different when put back into context. In reality, President Obama was explaining how jobs were brought back to America from overseas. Read the full quote here.
How often do you back up the data on your computer? Last week’s story of Wired reporter Mat Honan’s nightmare hacking experience will probably make you do it more often. Because his accounts were linked, hacking into one account gave the hackers access to Honan’s Amazon, Apple ID, Gmail, and Twitter accounts. The hackers were able to remotely erase all the data on his iPhone, iPad and MacBook, which included irreplaceable pictures from his daughter’s first year and a half and of his deceased relatives. The hackers and Honan have messaged back and forth since the cyber attack and claim they did it to show the companies its security vulnerabilities. Lessons learned: back up your data externally and in multiple places, regularly change your passwords and set-up account security questions.
Ok, who doesn’t enjoy a robust discussion about Basel III or perhaps pulling your fingernails out with pliers? Boring as it may be, bankers and the customers who enjoy a relationship with community banks should pay attention to the new standards for risk weighting assets. The new proposed capital standards could have some very serious negative implications. Treating a community bank lender like a global financial institution makes no sense. Here is a great piece from our friends at IBAT.
We’re cheering on our team member Jason Lippman as he runs another Leadville Trail 100 this weekend (August 18-19)! The 100-mile course through the Colorado Rockies puts runners at elevations of 9,200 feet to 12,600 feet. Feel free to leave Jason some encouraging messages on our Facebook page!
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 1.6 million businesses owed $58 billion in unpaid payroll taxes in 2007. From Tax Guard’s research of 8,053 business loans, 77.6 percent of the businesses have not filed and/or paid taxes on time and 20.5 percent of the businesses owe money to the IRS and no lien has been filed. The number of tax liens is growing and Far West Capital can help companies avoid these issues and mitigate tax problems. We fund companies that have and have had past due taxes. Give us a call today for more information.
If you weren’t inspired enough by the amazing feats of the Olympic athletes, we have one more for you. The British should be proud of this year’s Olympic games, but they won’t have time to take a breath as they set up to host the 2012 Paralympics at the end of the month. This is the biggest Paralympics in history with 4,200 athletes from 165 countries, and it looks like it will be a sell out! Thank you Oscar Pistorius for broadening our hearts and minds. We can’t wait to watch and see what else resilience, attitude and commitment can do!
