Honestly, I’m a little concerned that the estate tax is hurting family-owned businesses. I read the following in a Wichita Eagle article, and suddenly it really hits home: There are numerous examples where families had to sell their businesses to pay taxes when the founder died and the estate was taxed, often at a rate of 50 percent. This happened to the Joe Robbie family in Miami, forcing the sale of the Miami Dolphins. It tears me up to know that the estate tax is forcing owners of professional football teams to sell their teams because they can’t foot the tax bill. So sad.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a well respected advocacy group that has been very actively involved with voter registration drives with a particular focus on low income communities, is now being charged with negligence. In Philadelphia, 3,000 voter registration cards that ACORN submitted were rejected because of missing or invalid addresses and in Denver County about 200 cards were found to have similar handwriting on the signatures. The problems found with ACORN's voter registration cards range from nonexistent addresses to forged signatures.

The Senate has now failed to act on the nomination of industry-man Richard Stickler to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) twice. As we reported in February, Stickler is an industry man with a poor track record when it comes to health and safety. According to the United Mine Workers, mines run by Stickler had accident rates double that of the national average for six of eight years, including two fatal accidents at a mine Stickler managed for five years.

As reported in Congress Daily today, disagreements persist between Senate Finance Committee chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) and House Ways & Means chair Bill Thomas (R-CA) about how to handle the set of popular tax credit extension currently embedded in the "trifecta" legislation. Among the points of contention, if the extender bill were to be considered on a stand-alone basis, are: