Under tax law, stolen property, bribes, kickbacks, and income from other illegal activities must be counted as income.  Embezzlers, thieves, and bootleggers may also take deductions for costs relating to criminal activity.

There's been a huge backlash on social media in Brazil, after a new survey suggested 65% of Brazilians think women who dress in a revealing way "deserve to be attacked".

Update 11 April 2014:  The institute which published the research - the IPEA - last week revealed it had made a mistake in its findings.  The correct figure for the percentage of Brazilians surveyed who agreed that women who dress in a revealing way "deserve to be attacked" was actually 26% they said - not 65%.

Later on it developed that [John] Dean had prepared another list, this one of McGovern supporters, which he had transmitted to the IRS with a request for special audits of their returns.  But IRS Commissioner Johnnie Walters took the matter up with Treasury Secretary George P. Shultz, who told him to "do nothing".  According to Shultz, Walters's notes showed that the President had no knowledge of the list.
. . .
Subsequently a congressional committee—headed by two Democrats, Representative Wilbur Mills of Arkansas and Russell Long of Louisiana—took a long, hard look at how the IRS had treated the White House "enemies."  The conclusion by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation was that a number of "'enemies' were either not audited or were audited too leniently."  Even more startling was the finding that a number of those on the lists had not even bothered to file income tax returns. (pp. 332-333)

Graphene is the strongest, thinnest material known to exist.  A form of carbon, it can conduct electricity and heat better than anything else.  And get ready for this: It is not only the hardest material in the world, but also one of the most pliable.

Only a single atom thick, it has been called the wonder material.

Graphene could change the electronics industry, ushering in flexible devices, supercharged quantum computers, electronic clothing and computers that can interface with the cells in your body.

5. So Who Owns the Land in Question?

The federal government owns the disputed land and has claimed ownership since before Nevada even joined the union, according to a 2013 U.S. District Court ruling.

“[T]he public lands in Nevada are the property of the United States because the United States has held title to those public lands since 1848, when Mexico ceded the land to the United States,” the ruling states, confirming the federal government’s longstanding claim that it lawfully acquired ownership of the land under the Treaty of the Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Narendra Modi, currently the favorite to be India's next prime minister, had to make an unusual admission on Thursday.  The 63-year-old Modi, long famous for being a bachelor without any family, was in fact married.

In fact, he was forced to acknowledge, he gave his vows almost 50 years ago.

What led Modi away, it seems, was the teachings of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a strict Hindu organization that is reported to require a vow of celibacy.  Modi's time with the RSS eventually led to his leadership of India's second largest political party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), . . .

Two Florida doctors who received the nation’s highest Medicare reimbursements in 2012 are both major contributors to Democratic Party causes, and they have turned to the political system in recent years to defend themselves against suspicions that they may have submitted fraudulent or excessive charges to the federal government.

The pattern of large Medicare payments and six-figure political donations shows up among several of the doctors whose payment records were released for the first time this week by the Department of Health and Human Services.  For years, the department refused to make the data public and finally did so only after being sued by the Wall Street Journal.

Topping the list is Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 59, an ophthalmologist from North Palm Beach, Fla., who received $21 million in Medicare reimbursements in 2012 alone.
. . .
Dr. Melgen’s firm donated more than $700,000 to Majority PAC, a super PAC run by former aides to the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada.  The super PAC then spent $600,000 to help re-elect Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who is a close friend of Dr. Melgen’s.  Last year, Mr. Menendez himself became a target of investigation after the senator intervened on behalf of Dr. Melgen with federal officials and took flights on his private jet.

The co-pilot of missing flight MH370 made a call from his mobile phone while the aircraft flew low over the west coast of Malaysia, it was revealed today as the U.S. denied reports the plane landed at a military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia.

Investigators have learned that the call was made from Fariq Abdul Hamid's mobile phone as the Boeing 777 flew low near the island of Penang, on the north of Malaysia's west coast.

'On why the call was cut off, it was likely because the aircraft was fast moving away from the tower and had not come under the coverage of the next one,' the paper said, quoting 'sources'.

Perhaps nothing summarizes better the book, as Ocando’s revelation in the introduction, that Chavez spent US$ 300 million in propaganda in the US during his first ten years in power.   Thus, while Chávez was accusing Washington of trying to destabilize Venezuela, he was outspending Bush and Obama in promoting his revolution.  And his buddies in Government, were always (or are?) trying to make friends in the US, to defend their money, their properties and even guarantee protection sometime in the future.

In fact, the promotion was not only of the revolution, but even paying companies in the US to regularly show that Venezuela’s economic numbers were doing well.  ironically, while Chávez formed the Venezuelan Information Office and Eva Golinger was hired to show the US was conspiring in Venezuela, there was proof of all the money being spent very directly by the Venezuelan Government to promote itself in the US and very little proof was ever shown that the US was doing the same thing in Venezuela or elsewhere.

The most decadent Beltway publication yet conceived, Washingtonian, has outdone itself with its latest celebration of what life is like inside the city fueled by your forcibly confiscated money.

The publication recently ran with a profile of White House Press Sec. Jay Carney‘s wife, ABC News personality and working mom Claire Shipman.  Carney’s two beautiful children are also profiled in the piece, but the profile itself is largely irrelevant.

What is worthy of dissection are the three featured images that add value to the profile.   And by “value,” we mean guffaws galore.