Chuck Shepherd
New Jersey is a big state, but when just one man decided to move away, the state Legislature's budget office director warned that the loss of that man's taxes might lead to state revenue problems. Billionaire hedge-fund manager David Tepper evidently pays a bundle, and the budget office director pointed out that the state's reliance on personal income taxes means that even a 1 percent drop in anticipated tax could create a gap of $140 million under forecasts.
In the doghouse
Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Durham has such a reputation as a "dog" around women working at the Capitol that the House speaker recently issued a directive relocating Durham's office to a less-populated building across the street. Further, Durham is allowed access only to certain legislative meetings and to certain staff (i.e., no free-ranging among female staff members). After interviewing 34 people, the state attorney general said he believed that Durham's unwanted sexual approaches and commentaries were impeding legislative business.
Who's a good dog?
Some are just blessed with doggy charisma, say owners who showcase their pet's charm on "personal" social media accounts, and now specialized marketers scour those sources to match the most popular pooches with advertisers seeking just the right four-legged companion for their image. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, entrepreneurial dog owners have rushed to create popular Instagram accounts and Facebook posts (and now, even to put their photogenic pups on a live-streaming app called Waggle) to catch agents' eyes and, they hope, lead to four- and five-figure paydays from such advertisers as Nikon, PetSmart, Residence Inn and Heinz.
Name game
Among the names chosen for Internet start-up ventures (although, face it, the more sensible names are already taken): Houzz (home design and remodeling), Kabam (online interactive game company, formerly "Watercooler Inc."), Klarna (e-commerce company that pays the store for your purchases and then collects from you), MuleSoft (makes software to integrate applications) and Kabbage (makes small-business loans online). Wired magazine reported in February that those ventures, and two dozen other inexplicably named start-ups, are all "unicorns" — with investors pledging at least $1 billion to each one.
Police report
• According to surveillance video, a man broke into a Five Guys restaurant in Washington, D.C., in the middle of the night on March 18, cooked himself a cheeseburger and fled.
• Ellis Battista, 24, was arrested for the February break-in at a convenience store in Las Cruces, N.M., in which he took only a pack of cigarettes — for which he left $6 on the counter. He also damaged the door getting in.
• Amanda Schweickert, 28, was charged with a felony and three driving offenses in March in Springville, N.Y., when deputies noticed that her rear license plate was just a piece of cardboard painted to sort of resemble a New York plate. The state also requires a front plate, but Schweickert had not gotten around to that yet.
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