I lose things all the time.  Last month I lost my wallet.  Once a week I lose my car keys.  Every day I lose the TV remote.

Thankfully, I’ve never lost a computer.

The Department of Homeland Sercurity (DHS), on the other hand, cannot say the same.

New documents show that component agencies of DHS, specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) combined to lose no less than 985 computers in fiscal year 2008.  Along with other component agencies in DHS, well over 1,000 computers were lost.

But the inventories of lost stolen and damaged equipment don’t stop with just computers.  They include radiation detectors, night vision scopes (hundreds of them), night vision goggles, lost vehicles, lost blackberries, computer servers, expensive radios and radio repeaters.

CBP maintains that the computer losses were within acceptable standards for asset management, saying the losses only represented about .5% of their total computer inventory.

(more…)

Colorado, like every other state in the nation, is struggling with revenue.

So what’s a state to do? Well, let’s see, the state already taxes income, gas, sales on goods, personal property, corporate income, entertainment, energy, phones, etc. All that’s left to do is…tax a tax.

Never happen you say?

Coloradans must pay a $1.50 waste-tire fee every time they dispose of an old tire at a retail outlet. And according to an “FYI Memo” from the state department of revenue, “Effective August 5, 2009, the waste tire recycling development fee is considered part of the purchase price and is subject to sales tax.”

Based on the revenue of the waste-tire fee from previous years, this means the state and other sub-governments could collect a grand total of anywhere between $300,000 to $500,000…all because they are taxing a fee.

(more…)