A judge has approved the 2011 sale of a Pennsylvania widow's house, finding that she had received ample notice about the $6.30 in tax interest that she still owed.

Police say a Chicago man carrying a Gucci satchel pulled out a submachine gun when a convenience store clerk tried to charge him a 22-cent soda tax this weekend.

Good year for write-offs: your chances of getting audited haven't been this low since the 80's.

The good news: underwater homeowners are getting $1.5 billion in debt relief. The bad news: the government is taxing that money as income. "Happy debt relief. Here's some more debt."

On January 1, the estate tax is scheduled to go from 0% to 55% overnight. The gift tax is scheduled to rise significantly next year, also. What this means for you: grandma should give you your inheritance now. Now! [Reuters]

Pakistan has a problem collecting taxes. The rich don't pay, and poor get screwed. But one neighborhood in Karachi has found a solution that works: send transgender tax collectors to the homes of the wealthy and shame them into paying.

July 1st means new taxes start, and yay here's our favorite: the New York City cigarette tax has gone up once again, now making NYC cigarettes the highest taxed in the country. Average pack price in town is now $10.80.

Rise up—it's Tanning Salon Tax Day! All across America, men and women are being persecuted for their choice of skin tone by that commie Barack Obama. Hands off our tan lines, and pass the Banana Boat© spf 0!

Governor David Paterson and state lawmakers, as part of an emergency (still non-existant) budget bill, are adding an additional $1.60 tax on cigarettes sold in New York, meaning a pack bought in the city would cost $5.85 extra in tax.

Probably not, but this Hussein Obama guy just doesn't stop. A little provision in his fascist health care bill says that, as of July 1, all indoor tanning sessions will be subject to a 10% tax. Where's the outrage?

Fat American wombs are overstuffed with fat baby eating machines that will soon die! Judo and soda taxes are our only hope. It's your daily fitness watch, where we watch your fitness—while jogging!

The Way We Live Now: Being mean. On purpose! The good thing about being mean is that is is fun to make others feel your pain. Homeless shantytown? Bulldoze it! Rich bankers? Tax em! Church money? Steal it! Whee.

I paid $10.50 for a pack of cigarettes this morning. Where's my bailout?

Just in case you've been hiking the Appalachian trail for the past seven months, there's this movie called The Dark Knight coming out today. It's a Batman movie, he of the cowl and the scowl, and it features his most nefarious foe, the Joker. That slithering baddie is played by Heath Ledger, an actor of beguiling good looks and talent who died-tragically, accidentally, hugely-in January. But his performance in this film lives on, and it's said to be the stuff of legend. Critics have been slamming their shoes on their desks for the past week, heralding it as "revelatory" and Brando-esque. The strength of this performance presented Warner Bros., months ago, with something of a conundrum. Should they continue plans to make his leering visage the movie's chief marketing image, or should they shy away from death, retreating to the simultaneously brighter and dimmer lights of Christian Bale and his boringer friends? Ultimately they chose to continue with their Joker-centric media deluge, and people got very angry! How dare they?! The man is dead, reduced to mere ashes floating in the Indian Ocean! It's immoral. And to that, we say bullshit.

Bad/ good news: New York is attempting to double its cigarette tax to $3 per pack, which would bring the overall cost of a pack to almost $9, the most in the nation. But the New York Association of Convenience Stores is lobbying hard against the increase, saying it will only drive smokers to bootleggers and Indian reservations to stock up. Gosh, how evil of these cursed Convenience Store lobbyists to oppose this vital public health measure! Also, does anybody know where I can send contributions to the Convenience Store lobby? This is tearing our society's fragile smoker-nonsmoker peace agreement apart! Luckily, the crack New York media found one smokin' teenager to put this difficult issue in perspective:

From an AP story that kind of soils my ebullience at Hillary's victory and on the other hand, kind of burnishes it too.

Good news, everyone: you are much, much more likely to be killed by someone you know than a stranger. So stop worrying! You'll be killed by a loved one, according to the Times: "so far, with roughly half the killings analyzed, only 35 were found to be committed by strangers." [NYT]