WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

The Aftermath: Flooding, canceled flights, power outages, dogs and cats living together. (News Tribune)

Legalizing Gay Marriage: Puyallup senator closes the gap to one vote. (Weekly Volcano)

Mount Rainier: It has its grips on two overdue parties. (News Tribune)

South Carolina Debate: Newt Gingrich's fiery response to the first question - seeking comment on claims made by his second wife - set the tone for the night. (CNN)

Megaupload Site: Hackers launch attacks on a variety of US government and copyright enforcement websites after the file-sharing site was closed. (BBC)

The GQ&A: Burt Reynolds is Sterling Archer's spirit guide. (GQ)

Salute To The Kornfield: Surviving cast members salute Hee Haw. (Billboard)

Undersea Photographer: Russian photographer Alexander Semenov nails it. (io9)

You Are Welcome: The many d'ohs of Homer Simpson. (BuzzFeed)

A Lovely Songs About A Dog And A Fish

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Mount Rainier Park: It will likely open Saturday to allow workers to grieve the death of ranger Margaret Anderson. (News Tribune)

Fife Police Lt. Doug Burrus: Messed up again. (News Tribune)

Anderson Island: Out with the Christians, in with the chum. (News Tribune)

Drama In Iowa: Narrow loss a big win for Santorum. (CNN)

Yahoo Stays Alive: Brings in PayPal president Scott Thompson to run it. (CNN)

Meisterjintao Jintaomeister: There will be no entertainment on the TV. (BBC)

Arcade Fire and Decemberists: Part of the Hunger Games soundtrack. (MTV)

Weird: Axe body spray is trying to create a graphic novel. (Adrants)

Science Fiction Movies: 70 of them are coming our way this year. (io9)

Comic Book Men Preview: AMC's new show about Kevin Smith's comic book store. (Television Blend)

Amy Winehouse: Patti Smith wrote a song about her. (NME)

Get Smarter: 31 ways. (The Daily Beast)

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Kalakala vs. Coast Guard And Army Corps Of Engineers: Four options must be met now. (News Tribune)

Crime Hot Spots: Tacoma Police Department's fledgling program might get axed in the budget cuts. (News Tribune)

Rescuing The Ruskies: A research ship has arrived to help rescue a Russian fishing vessel that got stuck in the frozen waters off of Antarctica 10 days ago. (CNN)

Syria: Not good. (BBC)

Apple: New patent filings have revealed that the computer company is planning to power its laptops and smartphones with longer-lasting hydrogen fuel cells. (Telegraph)

PETA's Grinch of the Year: Janet Jackson. (NME)

Year End List: Ten best mobile games of 2011. (Paste Magazine)

Year End List II: Top 25 people of 2011. (USA Today)

Real Life Superheroes: No comment. (The New York Times)

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Ring The Alarm: Straight dope on Tacoma's impending crime wave. (Weekly Volcano)

Wheelz Comes To Screeching Halt: The Fircrest roller rink closed. (News Tribune)

Lakewood Rules: At least according to its city manager. (News Tribune)

Gingrich To Gay Man: Vote for Obama. (CNN)

Wow: The year in volcanic activity. (The Atlantic)

Nikki Sixx: Vegas residency is start of biggest years of Crue's career. (Rolling Stone)

David Letterman: Apologizes to Jay Leno. (Split Sider)

Nog Me Up, Scotty: Enterprise Xmas lights display. (Geekologie)

Alarm Clock App: Features fake wake-up calls from Jimmy Fallon. (Laughing Squid)

Time To Trim The Tree

GO LOCAL  >>>

After reading the Weekly Volcano's Holiday Guide Three: Geek Greetings Edition, you were inspired to shop the Internets hard. Uncle Jim will receive chocolate vitamins from a dude in Chicago. Cousin Willy will score a talking reindeer sold from a neighborhood in Orlando. Sister Sue will sure to be thrilled with a Hanson Singing Toothbrush sold from an attic in Wichita.

Not what we really had in mind.

Sure, sister Sue might be a bit bummed. You don't care. You completed your holiday shopping in one afternoon on your fat ass in front of the computer. And you saved money by avoiding retail sales taxes.

That's right. In a 1992 decision, Quill v. North Dakota, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that retailers are exempt from collecting sales taxes in states where they have no physical presence, such as a store, office, or warehouse. Businesses with a physical presence in a state are therefore put at a disadvantage by having to collect an additional 5 to 9 percent in taxes on purchases, depending on the state.

Sen. Debbie Regala (D-Tacoma) will have none of it. She's calling on Washington to create a level playing field by enforcing the collection of sales and use tax on remote or online sales.  

"By not collecting this tax, Washington retailers are put at a competitive disadvantage," says the state senator in a released statement. "This hurts our local businesses and it erodes the revenues that fund our public services."

Sen. Regala is sponsoring Senate Joint Memorial 8009, a resolution asking Congress to authorize enforcement of the collection of the retail sales tax by out-of-state sellers that have no physical presence in Washington.  In the released statement, Sen. Regala states, "As of now, the collection of that tax is only voluntary; without action by Congress, in state businesses are losing sales to online purchases through out-of-state merchants who do not collect state sales taxes."

Read the rest of Sen. Regala's press release after the jump:

Read more...

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

More Than Glass Balls: The 2,000-mile-long debris field from the March tsunami in Japan is headed our way. (News Tribune)

Social Media Vs. Emergency Preparedness: Join Social Media Club Tacoma and chat  with WSDOT, Pierce County Emergency Management, American Red Cross and other groups. (SMC Tacoma)

It's On: True Tacoman game matches local history with good food. (Weekly Volcano)

Unemployment Rate: The U.S. economy added 80,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate eased from 9.1 percent to 9 percent. About 13.9 million Americans were still out of work last month. (CNN)

R.I.P. Flattus Maximus: GWAR guitarist found dead. (Billboard)

R.I.P. Sam Beauregarde: Willy Wonka star died of cancer. (E Online)

R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection. (boing boing)

Lights, Camera, Plastic: Fifteen movie scenes recreated with LEGO. (Geekologie)

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

City of Tacoma's Website: Now with more back-end bacon. (News Tribune)

Not As Gritty: The Pac 40 reopens on Pacific Avenue. (News Tribune)

Ayatollah Not Happy: Iran's supreme leaders criticizes U.S. over assassination allegations. (CNN)

Today In SimCity 4: Does presidential hopeful Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan sound familiar?(Huffington Post)

It Happens: Lawnmower DUI (TruTV)

What About Her Teeth?: Lindsay Lohan gets fired from community service program. (Gawker)

Oh My: Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore break up. (Flavorwire)

Treat Yo Self Day

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Kids These Days: Cost per kid at Remann Hall juvenile detention center has dramatically risen in the past decade while the number of residents has declined. (News Tribune)

Cars Vs Guns: Tacoma police shot and injured a man last night after he refused to pull over. (News Tribune)

Highway 101 Shake: A magnitude 5.3 earthquake jolted an area about 140 miles off the southern Oregon coast last night. (News Tribune)

Blackout Berry: BlackBerry says service is fully restored. (CNN)

Best News Ever: HBO has renewed Boardwalk Empire. (Comingsoon.net)

Don't Panic!: Widespread Panic is not breaking up. (Billboard)

Effed Up: Bookstore chains (like Barnes & Noble) are pulling DC graphic novels because of DC's exclusive deal with the Kindle Fire. (Robot 6)

Of Course Gossip Girl Is On The List: The 10 most annoying characters on TV right now. (Flavorwire)

Halloween: 15 freaky crafts. (Blastr)

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND >>>

Lousy Lakewood Lawnmover: Dude is robbing old ladies. (News Tribune)

Attack Of The Killer Moths: Canuck Lepidoptera is effing with our cherry trees. (News Tribune)

RIP Steve Jobs: Read his obituary in the New York Times.

The Stories Behind The Stories: The Tacoma Film Festival 2011 opens today. (Weekly Volcano)

We Feel Old: Cassette tape is being removed from the dictionary. (Paste Magazine)

For Whom The Bell Tolls: Metallica turns 30. (stereogum)

Fresh Prince II?: Snoop Dogg to get a NBC family sitcom. (Deadline)

Freddie Mercury II?: Lady Gaga is in talks to front Queen. (NME)

Good Grief: Cafeterias in France ban ketchup. (LA Times)

CRITICAL MASS >>>

Every Tuesday, Spew sifts through the local Internets for arts stories so you don't have to.

The first local arts story we discovered sifting through our Google Reader is the Weekly Volcano's review of Always...Patsy Cline at the Capital Playhouse. Volcano theater critic Christian Carvajal gives props to lead Kittra Coomer for coming damn close to carry Cline's voice.

Tacoma Arts Commission's blog, Tacoma Arts, bumps up the Art at Work Month hype teasing us with "some mouthwatering freebies" coming our way. They also posted a retrospective of past awesome Art at Work Month swag.

Speaking of the Tacoma Art's blog, they wrote a little ditty on the Weekly Volcano and co-publisher Pappi Swarner, complete with Yosemite Sam quotes.

Our new favorite website Post Defiance has an in-depth look at GreekGirlCon. Although it's in Seattle, it sounds awesome.

The Trib's Go Arts blog reviewed the photography show at Tacoma's Bick House gallery. We've seen the show twice and agree it's a must-see.

The Spaceworks Tacoma blog previews Edward Albee's one-act play The Zoo Story, which opens Oct. 13 at the Toy Boat Theatre, and organization taking advantage of the City of Tacoma's Spaceworks project.

LINK: Free things to do this week in the South Sound