Small Motorboats In The Bay

Mass. stores gear up for tax-free shopping weekend

Massachusetts retailers are geared up to do land-office business Saturday morning as they expect shoppers to fill their stores during the Bay State’s tax-holiday weekend.

The Fireplace Showplace in Seekonk will have three extra workers on hand this weekend in anticipation of strong business, said Pat Hart, the store’s manager.

“It’s good for small local businesses,” Hart said of the tax holiday.

The tax-free weekend in Massachusetts is the seventh in the Bay State since 2004.

Bay State retailers typically see a 2-percent increase in annual sales because of the holiday. Statewide, sales on tax-holiday weekends reach about $500 million, compared with $100 million on a similar weekend, according to Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

Consumers saved nearly $20 million during the 2010 tax holiday, according to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

Under the rules, Massachusetts repeals the sales tax on single items costing less than $2,500, excluding motorboats, tobacco, meals and utilities.

Including Massachusetts, nearly 20 states will hold sales tax holidays of one sort or another in 2011. Connecticut is among them. Rhode Island is not.

Such tax holidays typically are held in August when retailers hope to capture back-to-school sales revenue or attract shoppers getting a jump on cold-weather purchases, such as heating equipment or winter sports gear.

“Our business usually begins after the Labor Day holiday,” said Hart, of the Fireplace Showplace. The tax-free weekend “kicks off the season a little bit early.”

Connecticut’s 11th annual tax holiday occurs Aug. 21 to Aug. 27. Shoppers there will see more savings this year because the state legislature increased the sales tax to 6.35 percent from 6 percent and removed the exemption for clothing and footwear costing less than $50.

Previous attempts to create a similar holiday in Rhode Island failed, and, with deep budget problems, there’s been no attempt among supporters to restart the effort.

The effectiveness of tax holidays is frequently debated.

Some critics say the hiatus simply shifts spending from one period to another.

“I’m sure for that last couple of weeks people have been stalling their purchases,” Hart said.

The timing, typically in mid-summer, does not help all retailers.

Raw Footage from the Gulf: Beaches in Bay Jimmy “Stained Black ...

BP and its boosters say we dodged a bullet. They beat their chests and shout from the treetops that the 200-million-gallon spill off Louisiana’s coast didn’t break the back of the Gulf like all the “doomsdayers” said it would. They talk of safe seafood and booming Gulf tourism. They tell us the oil is gone, that it’s time to move on. In fact, according to BP, the Gulf has made such an unexpectedly fast recovery that “future loss” claims to victims of the spill should be shut down. No more damage so no more damage claims, or so argues BP’s legal team on into the night.

The oil giant’s earnings have bounced back into the black with last quarter earnings after taxation of $5.62 billion. And taking the “you can’t make this stuff up” application to a whole new level of incredulity, ex-BP CEO Tony Hayward has taken a lucrative job with Houston-based commodities trader Glencore in charge of (get this) environment, health and safety. Who better qualified than the man that unleashed the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States? I wonder how that reads on Mr. Hayward’s resumé.

With all the “good news” we’re hearing from BP and its partners, I thought it might be helpful to remind everybody of what reality looks like down here on the Gulf. Does anybody remember reality? It’s hard to recall sometimes because of the cacophony of rosy assessments and outright lies that fog the way, like so many barrels of oil.

This is truly startling footage – shot just last month by Louisiana charter boat captain, Allen Walker – particularly when it’s viewed against the backdrop of BP’s blusterings about a full Gulf recovery. If you think the oil is more or less gone and the Gulf is in the throes of a full recovery, this video will disabuse you of that notion.

The scene opens with Capt. Walker and members of his team in a small motor boat parked just off a beach in Bay Jimmy – which lies roughly 35 miles south of New Orleans in the northern reaches of the much larger Barataria Bay. In many ways it looks like footage from July 11, 2010 not 2011. The beach is completely black, soaked with oil, and according to Walker, it’s not only weathered oil but also what appears to be fresh oil coiling up on the beach with each wave (as you can see in the video).

Capt. Walker’s observations are in line with the theory, presented by myself and others, that the Macondo well site may still be leaking (see link to my previous post below). In May, members of my research team established a fingerprint match to BP’s Macondo Well from fresh oil washing ashore on Breton Island, approximately 40 miles due west of Bay Jimmy. We will report back with test results from the water and tar-ball samples Capt. Walker’s team took on this July 11 excursion.

Let's Go: Puerto Rico

Forest and stream

Fore'n'aft

Science reports of the Institute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Geological sciences

Oil field engineering