North Carolina

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen ColoniesIn CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

In a big break for online shoppers, Web retailers generally don't have to charge sales taxes in states where they lack a store or some other physical presence.

Increasingly, states aching under the weight of the recession are seeking a way around that rule. Because companies like Amazon.com Inc. get help drumming up sales from online affiliates -- people who link to products on their blogs, promote Web shopping deals and offer coupons -- several states say the Internet retailers should charge sales taxes in states where those affiliates are based.

Even Snapple, an American iced tea maker with a homespun image, is outsourcing work to an Indian company. But in unusual twist, the deal may increase jobs in the United States.

The brand's parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, said Tuesday it had signed a new, five-year contract with HCL Technologies, a major information technology and outsourcing company based in Noida, India. HCL will manage Snapple's computer networks -- but may be hiring in the United States to do it.

Even Snapple, an American iced tea maker with a homespun image, is outsourcing work to an Indian company. But in unusual twist, the deal may increase jobs in the United States.

The brand's parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, said Tuesday it had signed a new, five-year contract with HCL Technologies, a major information technology and outsourcing company based in Noida, India. HCL will manage Snapple's computer networks -- but may be hiring in the United States to do it.

When futurist Anthony Townsend ponders the world's up-and-coming innovation hot spots, he tends to skip over the gargantuan, multibillion-dollar science parks going up in cities like Singapore, Shanghai, and Seoul. Instead, he homes in on places like Kitchen Budapest, or Kibu. An artists' colony of sorts on a hip street in downtown Budapest, Kibu is what Townsend, research director at the Institute for the Future, describes as a "pop-up lab."

In sailors' parlance, it is called local knowledge -- the invaluable and detailed insights into a location's prevailing winds, hidden shoals and tricky tides and currents, accumulated through firsthand experience. Without it, visiting mariners can find themselves in peril.

Online job advertisements fell by 131,000 in April and the drop has resulted in a decline of more than 1.32 million advertised vacancies in the last six months.

The national report by The Conference Board follows a dip of 100,000 ads in March, but is well below the record declines of 507,000 and 506,000 in December and January.

Online job ads have decreased 30 percent since November.

Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic:

A new $50 unlimited-calling plan sold under the Boost brand has been a badly needed success story for Sprint Nextel Corp., luring hundreds of thousands of new customers, by industry estimates.

But dealers and customers report widespread problems with texting on the Boost network. Messages are frequently delayed by hours, in many cases reaching their recipients early in the morning.

When Marty Kotis looked at his company's monthly wireless bill, he found a stunning charge -- for 2,500 text messages on a single staffer's phone.

There was more: Another staffer had 800, and a third, 700.

But Kotis, who owns a real estate development firm in Greensboro, N.C., didn't reprimand his employees, although many of the messages were personal in nature. Instead, he put it all into perspective.