Basic City: A Planned Industrial Power

Chris Graham

The area at the foot of the western slope of the Blue Ridge was ripe for development in 1889. First, mining speculator Richard N. Pool chartered the area as Ingalls City. He was quickly outmaneuvered by Jacob Resse a Pittsburg industrial who saw the area as the next steel capital. He bought up the land and the famous Lithia Spring and laid out the plan for Basic City. With great hopes and vision the newly incorporated town set out to create the future.

Frank Clemente: Apple Tax Dodging Highlights Need for Reform

AFP

Talk about taking your business to “The Cloud.” In an ingenious effort to avoid billions of dollars in taxes, Apple, Inc., has been levitating subsidiaries between American and Irish soil, claiming that from a tax-law perspective, they exist in neither country and so are subject to neither country’s taxing authority. And, sadly, the scheme has worked: no taxes have been paid to the U.S., a relatively paltry sum was paid to Ireland.

U.S. Supreme Court invalidates patents on cancer genes

AFP

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision today that invalidated patents on two genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation on behalf of researchers, genetic counselors, patients, breast cancer and women’s health groups, and medical professional associations representing 150,000 geneticists, pathologists, and laboratory professionals.