Brown Says Calif. Budget He Proposes Next Week Will Be `Painful’ [Bloomberg]
Jerry Brown said the budget he’ll propose as California’s new governor, 36 years after he first stepped into the job, will be “painful.” Brown, 72, a Democrat who served two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983, faces a self-described “day of reckoning” over a $28 billion budget gap that promises battles with lawmakers, unions and investors threatening to shun the bonds of the most- indebted state. “The budget I present next week will be painful but it will be an honest budget,” Brown said at his inauguration today in Sacramento, the state capital. “It is a tough budget for tough times.”

Loud Noise Likely Caused Birds’ Deaths in Arkansas [WSJ]
Can we get an auditor up in this mofo? The Times had the number of red-winged blackbirds at “more than 4,000” but now the Journal reports, “Between 1,000 and 5,000 birds died during the incident, which happened in Beebe, a town northeast of Little Rock.” Is there not a single human capable of getting a hard number of dead avians in all of the Natural State. We realize it involves counting but come on.

Time Management for Young Professionals [AW]
Admit it, this was your resolution, wasn’t it?

Coast Guard CFO takes blame for $138M in misspending [FCW]
Awfully big of you boss, “The Coast Guard’s chief financial officer is taking sole responsibility for the apparent misuse of $138 million despite federal auditors’ assertion that other Coast Guard officers and executives also ought to be considered responsible, according to a report.”

Skype 5 beta is horrible [AccMan]
An unmitigated review.

IRS pursues ‘Little Fockers’ star Teri Polo [Tax Watchdog/Detroit News]
Paying the $450k owed should be a snap now.

IRS forced to put some tax filings on hold [On the Money/The Hill]
Attention homeowners: “The Internal Revenue Service announced in December that it needed to reprogram some of its processing systems after a few provisions were extended during the recent lame-duck session — meaning that some taxpayers will have to wait until mid- to late February to file their returns. Taxpayers who itemize their deductions on a Schedule A form are among those who will have to bide their time before filing. (Itemized deductions include, among other things, charitable deductions and mortgage interests.)”

Pet Airways Appoints Andrew Warner as President and Chief Financial Officer [PR Newswire]
Yes, the company does what you think it does.

~ Happy New Year Capital Market Servants. Like many of you, we’re easing into 2011 like Warren Buffett eases into a hot bath. Accordingly, we’ll be on an abbreviated publishing schedule today, returning to a full slate tomorrow. If you’ve come back to some pleasant news (e.g. boss orders you to take the day day off) or something less welcome (busy season hours start now!) we’ll be around, so feel free to email us.

Goldman Invests in Facebook at $50 Billion Valuation [DealBook]
This could be considered a ‘Like,’ “The new money will give Facebook more firepower to smployees, develop new products and possibly pursue acquisitions — all without being a publicly traded company. The investment may also allow earlier shareholders, including Facebook employees, to cash out at least some of their stakes.”

Congress Targets Spending [WSJ]
But first, they are going waste everyone’s time, “The incoming House majority will start by offering two measures this week that carry more symbolism than substance. One will be a motion to repeal the health bill that President Barack Obama signed last year, and the second will be a measure to trim the cost of running the House itself. The health-care repeal isn’t expected to go anywhere in the Senate, where Democrats retain the majority, and the package of cuts to the House budget will only save about $25 million from a federal budget that exceeds $3 trillion.”

What’s Going to Happen to Financial Reporting in 2011? [Accounting Onion]
Tom Selling says you shouldn’t get your hopes up, “I predict that 2011 will be a year full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing to advance the cause of high quality financial reporting. You can take it to the bank – by which I mean any one of the banks fighting accounting reform tooth and nail.”

Did Orange Bowl Abuse its Tax Exemption With Caribbean Cruise? [TaxProf Blog]
Man, these Playoff PAC people really hate the bowl system.

Welcome to tax season. Let’s get busy! [CPA Success]
Unlike us, they’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed over in Maryland for this year’s tax season.

Five New Year’s Resolutions That Will Help You Avoid the Mistakes of 2010 [FINS]
Before tearing off into the 2011 horizon, maybe do a little reflecting on 2010 first.

Orbitz names new CFO [Crain’s]
Former Crocs (yes, those Crocs) CFO Russ Hammer officially took the big seat on January 1.

Jobless Claims in U.S. Fall to Lowest Level Since July 2008 [Bloomberg]
Initial U.S. jobless claims fell last week to the lowest level since July 2008, a sign that the labor market is improving heading into 2011. First-time filings for unemployment insurance decreased by 34,000 to 388,000 in the week ended Dec. 25, compared with the median forecast of 415,000 in a Bloomberg News survey, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. There were no special factors behind the drop, an official at the agency said as the data were released.

Xzibit no longer enjoying a pimped lifestyle [Tax Watchdog]
Pimp My Ride getting cancelled was a serious blow.

Better information, better decision-making [WaPo]
A new comptroller general for Congress to ignore.

Glassdoor.com Reveals Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions of 2010 [PR Newswire]
From Deloitte, “How many ridges [are there] around a quarter?”

Don’t Try This, Governor Brantstad (or Governor Culver) [Tax Update Blog]
Looney excuse of the day for not paying taxes.

Tattoos, body piercings, and accounting firms [AW]
Will sleeves soon be allowed year-round at the Big 4?

Eight questions for planning to grow in 2011 [CPA Success]
Tom Hood. Doing his thing.

Looking into the Crystal Ball for Tax Policy in 2011 [Tax Foundation]
Because President Obama and the Congress extended the Bush era tax cuts, taxpayers will wake up on January 1st without the hangover of higher taxes. There will be no increase in tax rates, the marriage penalty relief will remain, the child credit will be the same, and the lower rates on dividends and capital gains will all be the same.

Going for the auditors [The Economist]
The Economist finally gets into the act, “One possible outcome is a settlement in which E&Y agrees to co-operate with the prosecutors in cases they may bring against Lehman’s former executives. If so, the fines and sanctions suffered by the auditing firm and its partners may be stiff but not ruinous. After all, no one wants to cause the fall of another big accounting firm.”

Groupon Seeks to Sell Shares [WSJ]
Flying high with cash and confidence after snubbing Google Inc.’s reported $6 billion purchase offer, daily deals company Groupon Inc. has set its sights on raising nearly $1 billion in private funds. The Chicago-based company has filed a certificate with the State of Delaware, where it is incorporated, seeking authorization to sell up to 30.1 million preferred shares of stock at $31.59 per share, or a little more than $950 million.

Digimarc changes auditor after clash [Portland Business Journal]
Grant Thornton fired for KPMG. Have we heard this story before?

PE Outlook: KPMG’s Hessing On Private Equity’s Changing Seasons [Private Equity Beat/WSJ]
Things are looking up!

Tax Reform Won’t Happen in 2011 (or 2012) [TaxVox]
And everyone seemed so serious about it pre-November.

Dodging Repatriation Tax Lets U.S. Companies Bring Home Cash [Bloomberg]
At the White House on Dec. 15, business executives asked President Obama for a tax holiday that would help them tap more than $1 trillion of offshore earnings, much of it sitting in island tax havens. The money — including hundreds of billions in profits that U.S. companies attribute to overseas subsidiaries to avoid taxes — is supposed to be taxed at up to 35 percent when it’s brought home, or “repatriated.” Executives including John T. Chambers of Cisco Systems Inc. say a tax break would return a flood of cash and boost the economy.

Ernst & Young’s Liability For Lehman Larger Than Claimed [Forbes]
Don’t forget the 10-Q’s in 2008! “EY’s claim of an arbitrary cutoff for responsibility for the audit after the 2007 10-K is intended to fool the casual reader of media reports. Lehman remained an EY client until the bankruptcy in September 2008. This period included two more 10-Qs.”

Woman in disbelief that pastor broke into her home [Salon]
The tithe in the offering plate obviously wasn’t cutting it.

GAO will be able to audit Fed [On the Money/The Hill]
Somebody has an opinion on this, “The GAO under the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill is now required to audit the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program instituted in the wake of the financial crisis.”