Mi Oficina Income Tax owner might not be good at math

Did you ever hear the old phrase that "A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client". Well, apperently this can be applied in the world of tax preperation as well.

Upland resident Jose Alberto Garcia, Jr., 28, who is the owner and operator of Mi Oficina Income Tax and has been accused of filing false tax returns for 2001 through 2004, failing to claim the nearly $968,000 in unreported income.

To be clear, the California Franchise Tax Board is not saying that Mi Oficina did anything wrong on their customers taxes just that the owner shanked the math on his own taxes pretty badly.

Garcia pleaded guilty and is getting hit with 300k in fines and probation. Not bad, I guess he's not his own lawyer.

More details at FTB.

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State of Upland speach moved to Upland...Ya' think?

In what I can only attribute to standard governmental decision making, Upland's "State of the City" address was planned on 3/24 in Ontario at the Double Tree Hotel. W...T...F?

This is a "big yikes". Not that I cleared my calendar for this or anything but if Upland is going to spend some money, shouldn't it be here. And while I'm at it, why do they need a conference room anyway? Put JP up on the gazebo during this weeks Farmer's Market (oops, I've yet to post about the Farmers Market starting back up) and you'll get maximum # of Uplanders to attend.

Luckily, someone figured this thing out and postponed it until 4/29 and will have it Upland. I bet we lose the deposit though.

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Peppertree Elementary takes a direct hit from John and Ken

So here's the deal, fair and balanced as possible at this point. John and Ken of KFI AM 640 radio (aka the highest rated talk radio show in the COUNTRY) started the 3 o'clock by announcing that they had just received the best email in the history of the show. That's 20 plus years.

Listen here

The basics of the email were: (this is one side of the story filtered through radio show hosts) Parent of kindergarten teacher tells students to wear pink on "Pink Friday" or they won't get a toy to play with at school. Child worries about pink clothes. Mom dresses child in pink so kid can get a toy. Mom complains to Principal (TY Tibbi) who agrees that bribe kids is not a good idea. Mom tells principal that complaint should be anonymous so as to not incur retribution from teacher to student. Principal tells teacher of complaint and tells teacher the name. Teacher tells class in front of Parent and other parents that because parent (teacher identifies our hero) no one gets a toy. Parent complains to principal that it should have been anonymous. Principal takes teachers side.

Again, this is one side of the story and there may be a perfectly reasonable explanations for all of this. My questions still are...Why is the teachers union using kids to get attention? It looks foolish. For one, I would have worn a Berka to school if I thought I would gain favor with a teacher. Two, kids know nothing about the topic. Teachers should have told there students not to wear pink and that protesting was the teachers job and the kids should stay out of it. If the teacher gets laid off, have the kids failed? Also, I may get laid off soon so if the teachers can have the students wear green next Friday for me that would be great. Green for money right? It's better than pink for pink slips.

So, any Upland teachers want to give me their side of the story...leave a comment.

Edit, to add a little more balance I will says this, even if all of this is true, the principal and teacher are not the devils that J&K would have you believe. It's pretty standard for a boss to tell a subordinate who complains about them. It's kind of up to the subordinate to not let on that they know and just fix the issue. Also, I imagine when belong to a union as strong as the Teacher's Union, going against the union will cause problems so a class with kids with no pink shirts would have been looked upon harshly by the Union.

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Peppertree Elementary runs afoul of Jon & Ken

If you haven't heard, today was "Pink Friday" at schools in California. Teachers have asked their students to wear pink in support of teachers.

A parent of a kindergarten student at Peppertree emailed John and Ken at KFI AM 640, to complain about the teacher "bribing" her kid to wear pink by promising a toy. I'll have more details tonight.



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Upland Teachers and lay-offs

Conventional wisdom says work for the Government and you'll always have a job...or is it you'll never have to work a day in your life? Anyway, budgets have been slashed and as many as 78 Upland Teachers could get laid off.

I sure hope that UUSD is running lean in the administrative departments before they go knocking off teachers. Also, I have no idea what a Principle makes but if any more than 10% more than the highest paid teacher, it's wrong.

Really, you don't even need a principle. Just hire a 60 year old man to stroll threw the playground thumping a paddle in his hand and job done.

At Sierra Vista, we all thought Mr Barton and Mr. Riley had had paddles. No one spread any rumors that Mrs. Hughes had a paddle but that's just because kids don't believe women will swat them...unless they're nuns.

I can joke about this because I'm a pro at getting laid-off.

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Red Light Cameras go dim....maybe

I hate these red light cameras (Upland locations after the jump) in Upland. No, it's not the Big Brother thing and it's not that I want to run red lights. It's the lies that they inspire.

DB has a story about Upland considering getting rid of these things because they are costing the city money. Also in the report, Police Chief Steve Adams says that these were put in place for "Public Safety" and when they were installed we were all told of the studies that proved that these save lives.

Pffft! BS, we all know this is a money grab. Those things are there to make money and nothing else. If no one ever ran a red light when those were installed and they made no money, they'd be down tomorrow.

Chief Adams also says in the same report that the reason we need to dump these things is because they are costing Upland money. Now, it sounds like a price is being put on our safety.

Here's the real scoop. Upland threatens to cancel contract. Redflex (those turncoat camera operators) sends a sales guy over to calm everyone down. $8.9k (or a figure more like $5.6k) credit is extended, cameras stay up. Standard play.

Upland Red Light Camera Locations:
Euclid and Foothill
Mountain and Foothill
Mountain and Eighth

DB's Report.


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Get To Know Your Gov't Representative: David Drier

For the life of me, I can't figure out why we let the same people run our government year after year. Democrat or Republican. These guys just get themselves in more pockets every year until they are no longer working for votes but instead are working for donations. What a racket.

Exhibit A, David Drier. Aside from some gerrymandering, Drier has basically "owned" the same District since 1981. That's 28 years of him "representing" us. He's 57 years old so basically he's spent half his life "working for you".

Unfortunately we are what is called a safe seat for the Republicans. We have ourselves to blame. Everyone thinks gov't is a mess except for the guy that represents them. No party should own a seat this way.

Drier was the target of KFI Hosts Jon and Ken's Political Human Sacrifice back in 2004 due to his perceived soft stance on illegal immigration. It was not enough to get him unseated but it sent a message...kind of. He's still in a super safe seat.

Although he's never come out, Drier is rumored to be gay. So much so that openly-gay Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, when asked whether Dreier was passed over for the position of House Majority Leader because of his "moderate" views, told a crowd of reporters "Yes, in the sense that I marched in the moderate pride parade last summer and went to a moderate bar.” Hilarious.

My negative tone is not because of his party, not because he's gay (allegedly), and not because of his stance on illegal immigration, it's just because he doesn't feel a need to represent us anymore. He knows we're going to vote for him because...he knows we won't vote Dem.

Links
Wiki
Drier in da House
Voting Record
Contributors


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