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Do online sales create an unfair market? Internet tax bill could level playing field between online, brick-and-mortar businesses BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Did you have a good shopping experience on “Cyber Monday”? You may not have realized it, but unless you collected local sales taxes on your online purchases and sent
them to the appropriate agencies, you probably violated state law. Don’t expect the police to be knocking on your door, however. You are among millions of American who are shopping online and under the current law, it is depriving cities, states and other local en-
tities of much needed revenue. All but five states impose taxes on retail sales, but rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court prohibit states and local taxing entities from collecting taxes outside their jurisdiction. Only business with a “physical presence” in a state can be made to
collect local taxes and use fees, the court ruled. The court cited the burden imposed on businesses trying to collect the correct amount of tax in more than 10,000 different jurisdictions nationwide.
WREATHS ACROSS AMERICA
It ‘keeps the memory alive’
PHOTOS BY KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
A salute is given as the Shaw Air Force Base Honor Guard presents the colors at the start of the Wreaths Across America ceremony on Saturday. Put on locally by the Sumter Civil Air Patrol Composite Squadron at Sumter Cemetery on Saturday afternoon, the wreathlaying event honored fallen veterans and those who continue to serve their country today.
Ceremony honors Sumter’s veterans BY RAYTEVIA EVANS ray@theitem.com
W
ith adoration and respect for those who serve in the U.S. mili-
tary and those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, the Sumter Civil Air Patrol Composite Squadron and about 100 people hung wreaths of remembrance and honor for military veterans. Location leader for Wreaths Across America Denise Owen said the local Civil Air Patrol was able to have close to 100 wreaths sponsored for the wreath-laying ceremony at Sumter Cemetery on Saturday afternoon. Owen said that data shows that 3,000
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military men and women were laid to rest at Sumter Cemetery, so supporters, honor guards from Shaw Air Force Base, the ROTC cadets with the Sumter Civil Air Patrol Composite Squadron and family and friends of military service members adorned the cemetery’s surrounding fence with the wreaths to honor those fallen veterans and those who continue to serve their country today. “We do this every year, and it’s to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, honor them and teach youth about their service to their country,” said Capt. Robert Buniel, commander for the Sumter Civil Air Patrol Composite Squadron. Each city and town across the country has a similar ceremony each year, explained Owen. About the same time Members of the Shaw Air Force Honor Saturday, Florence National Cemetery Guard march with wreaths in hand to
SEE TAX, PAGE A11
Torture report suggests CIA lied WASHINGTON (AP) — When CIA interrogators were torturing accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at a secret prison in Poland in March 2003, a top CIA analyst asked them to show him a photograph of an alleged terrorist named Majid Khan. The interrogators slapped Mohammed, denied him sleep, rehydrated him through his rectum, threatened to kill his children and waterboarded him 183 times. And he offered up details on Khan. The analyst later told the CIA’s inspector general that Mohammed’s information helped lead to Khan’s arrest, CIA records show. The watchdog included that as a success story in a 2004 report that became public and for many years stood as the most detailed accounting of the program. But the analyst, then deputy chief of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit, knew Khan already had been captured in Pakistan at the time Mohammed was asked about him, according to the 520page Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA interrogations that was released this past week. In other words, what she told the inspector general wasn’t true. The Senate report has exposed years of such CIA misrepresentations that seem designed to boost the case for the effectiveness of brutal interrogations. The CIA acknowledges the misrepresentation about Khan’s arrest, while disputing most and playing down others. But the Senate investigation relied on the CIA’s own records to document a pattern of an agency consistently understating the brutality of the techniques used on detainees and overstating the value of the information they produced. “You’ve decided to do something and now you’ve got to justify it,
place them on the fence at Sumter CemeSEE WREATHS, PAGE A11 tery on Saturday.
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DEATHS, A11 Kenneth W. La Mont Robert J. Rohrlack Sr. Joshua R. Lane Ida Cooke Robert L. Gilyard Annette “Nette” Cousar
SEE CIA, PAGE A11
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DOESN’T QUITE FEEL LIKE CHRISTMASTIME
5 SECTIONS, 36 PAGES VOL. 120, NO. 51
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