Business tax violates Sol
First, a disclosure. My late father, Sol Dubroff, spent much of his career as a tax systems architect, working for the U.S. Treasury and later for the IMF and other development agencies. He absolutely detested the value added tax, or VAT. He accepted the fact that taxes are the price we pay for liberty and Read More →
Fueling the future
California has long been famed for its sun, sand and surf, but Dutch financial giant Rabobank is only concentrating on the sunshine. The Netherlands-based bank teamed up with a solar power company from the Bay Area to install a network of solar-powered electric vehicle recharging stations that would let drivers travel from Los Angeles to Read More →
Music industry turns up the volume in region
Over the past decade, the digital revolution upended the recorded music business and the industry’s biggest players have struggled to find a business model. But that same digital revolution has opened a plethora of new ways to scratch out a living making, recording or promoting music. The future shape of the music business is being Read More →
Rivals, regulators wait for PCBC results
As the end of the third quarter approaches, Wall Street is focused on one number in Pacific Capital Bancorp’s results: tier one capital. After Sept. 30, the region’s largest independent banking company and parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust will have to show federal regulators that it’s raised its all-important tier one leverage ratio, Read More →
Let them eat cupcakes
Call it comfort food if you will, but cupcakes may just be the perfect recession-proof little indulgences. In the Tri-Counties, cupcake bakeries – or cupcakeries – have proliferated over the past two years, and their owners say they’re only getting more popular. Maybe it’s because the HBO series “Sex and the City” shows its characters Read More →
Death penalty sought for Aguilar
Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten announced Sept. 22 that his office will seek the death penalty against an Oxnard man accused of shooting and killing a businessman who was leaving a U.S. Bank branch in Oxnard the morning Aug. 16. According to a news release, prosecutors will seek a death sentence for Jeffrey Aguilar, Read More →
Zumbox goes coast-to-coast
Westlake Village-based Zumbox, the provider of a Web-based paperless mail platform, said Sept. 22 that it has rolled out its system in San Francisco and Newark, N.J. Zumbox is a more secure version of electronic mail that works by verifying residents’ physical address by mailing them a pass code to turn on their inbox. The Read More →
