136 / 216
Transat lant ic Cable
EuroWire – January 2006
26
EuroWire – September 2 10
Chiefs of police from Houston, Los Angeles, Maryland,
Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix
and Tucson (Arizona) were present, and expressed unanimous
concern about the damage the law could inflict upon the
trust they have worked to build between law enforcement
and Latinos. Tucson Chief of Police Roberto Villasenor said,
“When you enact legislation that makes any subset of that
community feel like they are being targeted specifically, or have
concerns about coming forward and talking to the police, that
damages our capability to obtain information to [solve crimes].”
Mr Villasenor also pointed out that implementation of the law
poses serious logistical concerns. The requirement that police
officers verify the residency status of all arrested individuals
would, he said, sap their limited resources. This point was
amplified by John Harris, president of the Arizona Association
of Chiefs of Police, who said, “We are stretched very thin right
now and it’s getting nothing but worse in our communities in
terms of the budget crises. We don’t have enough resources to
continue to do this and to take on another responsibility.”
In brief . . .
In growing numbers, Americans living abroad are
❈
❈
renouncing their US citizenship. The
Federal Register
, the
government publication that records such decisions,
shows that 502 expatriates gave up their US citizenship or
permanent residency status in the last quarter of 2009. While
that represents a very small percentage of the 5.2 million
Americans estimated by the State Department to be living
abroad, it was the largest quarterly total in years. By way
of comparison, there were 235 renunciations in all of 2008
and 743 last year. The number of expatriates waiting out
the required period of time before meeting with consular
officers to formalise their renunciations has also grown.
Many American expats resent having to pay “double taxes.”
The United States is the only industrialised country to tax
citizens on income earned abroad when they are taxed
as well in their country of residence. These taxpayers are,
however, allowed an exclusion on their first $91,400 in
foreign-earned income.
Telecom
Virtuous to a fault, San Francisco passes a
cellphone radiation disclosure law
San Francisco is taking no chances. Possibly the most beautiful
city in the United States is almost certainly the most cautious,
having voted on 15
th
June to require all retailers of cellphones