Photo, left:  IRS loses its mind. Randy Sowers, a dairy farmer in Maryland, is trying to get back the full $63,000 that he says was wrongly seized by the IRS four years ago. The feds pretended that bank deposits by a small dairy looked suspiciously like secretive accumulations of a global narcoterrorist ring.  Actually, they did not.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/17/small-businesses-still-fighting-for-cash-...
Small businesses still fighting for cash seized by IRS A tale involving a Maryland dairy farmer and North Carolina convenience store owner The business operations of a drug dealer or a terrorist have little in common with a Maryland dairy farmer.  But in a bizarre business tale, the IRS in February 2012 seized nearly $63,000 from a pair of dairy farmers after a series of cash deposits came under scrutiny due to federal laws. Those rules were intended to target criminals including money launderers, who deposit large amounts of cash in increments of less than $10,000 to evade authorities. 
In a prior settlement with the government, Randy and Karen Sowers, who own South Mountain Creamery in Middletown, Maryland, got back a portion of the seized money, around $33,500. Now in a new letter filed this week to the Justice Department, a nonprofit organization that has been working with the farmers is helping in the fight to get back the rest of the couple's money — $29,500 — despite the prior settlement.
Randy Sowers said his bank teller initially suggested that his wife keep deposits under $10,000 to avoid time-consuming paperwork at the bank. "We thought it was very legitimate," he said. Karen Sowers initially wanted to deposit $12,000 earned from a weekend farmer's market. "If I wanted to hide it, I would have put it in a can. We have trouble paying our bills and don't need the government coming and taking money from us."  Despite settling previously with the government, the Sowerses and Johnson say they are owed all of the assets, and initially had to settle for fear of losing the full amount seized and potentially more assets.
 The IRS and Justice Department work closely together on these seizure-related cases.
"Federal law prohibits the IRS from discussing specific taxpayers," IRS spokesman Dean Patterson told CNBC by email. A Justice Department spokesman also declined comment on specific cases. 
The Sowers case has attracted attention among small business owners, who argue time consuming paperwork and regulations sometimes can be nonsensical.  There have since been some policy changes. The IRS in October 2014 said it would restrict asset forfeitures to cases in which the property owner is suspected of criminal activity. And a policy directive from the Department of Justice issued last March says the asset forfeiture program will focus on the "most serious illegal banking transactions."  While the policy shifts are meant to apply toward future cases and doesn't necessarily apply to those impacted in the past, the development hasn't stopped the Institute for Justice or business owners from fighting for their cash.
 Congress has even gotten into the fray. The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight took up the Sowers case, and asked the Treasury Department to review similar cases.   The related cases include Khalid "Ken" Quran, who owns a convenience store in Greenville, North Carolina. He had more than $150,000 seized in June 2014 after he unknowingly agreed to forfeit his bank account when IRS agents visited his store, accusing him of skirting reporting laws. Quran denies the charges. 
The IRS said, 'You need to sign a paper' Ken Quran, a convenience store owner in North Carolina, has had more than $100,000 seized by the IRS. "He said, 'You need to sign a paper,' and I told him my English is not right," said Quran, an immigrant from the Middle East. "Then he read it to me like you would read the newspaper and said you need to sign it." Quran said he did nothing wrong. "No bank told me that. No bookkeeper told me that," he said.  He has not received any of his money back, and the Institute for Justice has also filed a petition on Quran's behalf. On Tuesday, the legal nonprofit send a letter to the IRS, asking for his petition to be reviewed.  The law to target large cash deposits "was passed to target drug dealers, money launderers and hardened criminals, but unfortunately it's being applied to people who are guilty of doing nothing more than business in cash," said Johnson.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:  Mona Charen, NRO, in re:  Dynastic Politics: A Tale of Crimson Colors and Blue Blood  (George W. Bush and family.jpg) http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431573/donald-trump-republican-party-self-sabotage
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Jim McTague, Barron’s, in re:  . . . Wittner argues, however, that oil prices have been driven not by fundamentals but by external reasons, namely China and emerging markets. Also, In the event that oil producers cap production, the uncertainty may drive investors with a short position to be skeptical, he said.   "We are already way below fundamentals," he said, adding that fundamentals suggest $40 oil. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/12/bob-doll-recession-odds-50-50-but-im-hopeful.html  ; http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/18/oil-to-go-to-50-by-the-end-of-the-year-analyst.html
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:   David Livingston, The Space Show, and Prof Mark Brodwin, U Missouri KC, Warkoczewski Observatory Director, in re:  6 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Gravitational Waves Now that we have had some time to think about LIGO's detection of gravitational waves, ...  ; Did a Gamma Ray Burst Accompany LIGO's Gravity Wave Detection?   ; Did a gamma ray burst accompany LIGO's gravity wave detection?
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  Josh Rogin, BloombergView,  in re: U.S. Scrambles to Hold Anti-Islamic State Coalition Together  After Wednesday's deadly bombing in the Turkish capital of Ankara, the U.S. is now scrambling to keep two key allies in its coalition against the Islamic State from going   http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-02-19/u-s-scrambles-to-hold-anti-islamic-state-coalition-together
 
Hour Two
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: Michael E Vlahos, Strategy & Policy Department, US Naval War College, in re: Jean Baptiste Vanmour (1671 - 1737) (Flemish-French) QFjzb2GyiY8Tw at Google Cultural Institute.  Russia takes Turkey to UN over Syria  Security Council meeting to discuss protection of "Syria's sovereignty" as Turkish shelling of . . .   ; Turkey says Obama shares Syria concerns with Erdogan, affirms support ; Russia fails in UN bid to rein in Turkey over Syria (1 of 2)
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:   Michael E Vlahos, Strategy & Policy Department, US Naval War College (2 of 2)
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:   Tunku Vardarajan, Hoover, in re:   "...[October's] India-African Forum Summit, at which pretty much every African head of state was present... was a moving event, proof that Indian diplomacy is not without sensitivity and savoir-faire. How tragic, then, that much of the good work done at the summit — by Prime Minister Modi and senior officials — should unravel on the streets of Bangalore. For at the end of the day, news-reading Africans aren’t going to remember that their (often unloved) leaders were wined and dined in India; they’ll remember that one of their women was stripped on the country’s streets because of her race."  http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/reverse-swing-racist-bangalore-racist-india/
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  Henry I. Miller, M.D.; Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy & Public Policy; Hoover Institution; in re:  "Will Zika Virus Be the Big Winner at the Summer Olympics?"   http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2016/02/17/will-zika-virus-be-the-big-winner-at-the-summer-olympics/#35982de34e75
 
Hour Three
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Gene Marks, Washington Post, in re: Economy   Why the Heck Are Small Business Owners So Optimistic? The Reason May Surprise You.  http://feeds.inc.com/~r/home/updates/~3/FotqkONymiI/story01.htm
US factory output rises in January by most in 6 months http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-us-factory-output-rises-in-january-by-most-in-6-months-2016-2
Producer Price Index Brings Minor Smell of Inflation http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/typepad/RyNm/%7E3/rUpJi9nRP1E/
AIA: \"Slight Contraction in Architecture Billings Index \" http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2016/02/aia-slight-contraction-in-architecture.html
Mom-and-pops fighting for IRS-seized cash http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/17/small-businesses-still-fighting-for-cash-seized-by-irs.html
Start ups    12 steps to raise capital for your startup http://yourstory.com/2016/02/raising-funding-startup/
Six Strategies to Succeed in the Smart Home Market http://ecmweb.com/contractor/six-strategies-succeed-smart-home-market
The Best Part of Entrepreneurship? Giving Up and Getting a Job https://hbr.org/2016/02/the-best-part-of-entrepreneurship-giving-up-and-getting-a-job
This $300 3-D Printer Makes Toy Design Child’s Play http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677048/s/4da858a5/sc/28/l/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0C20A160C0A20C160Cmattel0Ethingmaker0E3d0Eprinter0Efor0Ekids0Etoys0In0I92530A20A0Bhtml0Dutm0Ihp0Iref0Fbusiness0Gir0FBusiness/story01.htm
Apple Leans on 227-Year-Old Law in Encryption Fight http://time.com/4227236/apple-fbi-san-bernardino-encryption/
Google expands its same-day delivery service to fresh groceries starting in San Francisco and Los Angeles, $35 minimum order (Wall Street Journal) http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/02/17/google-launches-fresh-grocery-deliveries/
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:   Gene Marks, Washington Post (2 of 2)
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:  Janna Levin, theoretical cosmologist, Columbia, in re: Gravitational waves http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-future-of-gravitational-wave-astronomy/
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:   Charles Dunn, JPL NASA, in re:  LISA Pathfinder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LISA_Pathfinder
 
Hour Four
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi Occupied France, by Seth Meyerowitz and Peter Stevens   “The Lost Airman tells the suspenseful story of a truly remarkable American, shot down over enemy occupied territory in World War II, who amazingly managed to stay a step ahead of the Nazis for over six months and get back home. A terrific, thrilling tale you won’t want to miss.”—Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Avenue of Spies and The Liberator.  (1 of 2)
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi Occupied France, by Seth Meyerowitz and Peter Stevens   “The Lost Airman tells the suspenseful story of a truly remarkable American, shot down over enemy occupied territory in World War II, who amazingly managed to stay a step ahead of the Nazis for over six months and get back home. A terrific, thrilling tale you won’t want to miss.”—Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Avenue of Spies and The Liberator.  (1 of 2)
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:  India okays its own LIGO detector  The Indian government today approved construction of LIGO-India, using some duplicate components already available from the American LIGO gravitational wave detector.
“We have built an exact copy of that instrument that can be used in the LIGO-India Observatory,” says David Shoemaker, leader of the Advanced LIGO Project and director of the MIT LIGO Lab, “ensuring that the new detector can both quickly come up to speed and match the U.S. detector performance.” LIGO will provide Indian researchers with the components and training to build and run the new Advanced LIGO detector, which will then be operated by the Indian team.
What this new instrument will accomplish is to give astronomers more information when a gravitational wave rolls past the Earth. By having detectors half a world apart, they will be able to better triangulate the direction the wave came from, which in turn will help astronomers eventually pinpoint its source event.
Friday  19 February 2016 / Hour 4, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re: China’s long term space science plans  This article provides a nice detailed look at China’s planned space science missions, including an X-ray space telescope that will look for the X-ray counterparts of gravitational wave events. They also hope to launch their first Mars mission, which will include a lander, orbiter, and rover, by 2020.
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