Free Republic

There are a lot of candidates for biggest misuse of tax-increment financing. Enter a new contender: the pending approval of a TIF to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Lowe's in Belleville. It's bad enough that the world's largest retailer argues that it needs a tax break or it won't build. It's worse when a city, now dependent on Wal-Mart's sales taxes, feels that it can't turn down the request.

I have been harrassed, followed, suffered property damage and the introduction of substances into my home and vehicle that have been making my family (my 10 year old son and I) ill for over 2 years, I purchased a small bungalow on the south side of Chicago in a neighborhood at the southeast most tip of Chicago that borders Lake Michigan and a lakefront park. The parties involved: I believe are individuals from city government agencies (Department Water and Sewer, Department of Planning, Purchasing, Police Department), It seems that there is interest in this area and I believe there is...

In the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's," lead character Holly Golightly cheered herself up by window shopping at Tiffany & Co.'s (TIF) Manhattan store. A couple of years ago, the firm itself could have used a little cheering up. Sales and profit fell in fiscal 2001 and rose only slightly the next year. The main problem was demand. In a year racked by terror and recession, there just wasn't much of it for the kind of high-end merchandise Tiffany carries. But like a lot of retailers, Tiffany has recently bounced back, thanks in part to a healthier economy. "In the first...