Monday Morning Links -- First Class Stamps Now Cost $0.46 But They Are Good "Forever"

Active rigs in North Dakota: 191.

WSJ Links

Section D: not in the paper today?

Section C (Money & Investing):
Key to oil: location, location, location: a must-read for those interested in investing in well-known publicly traded companies. Even Baytex is mentioned.

Section B (Marketplace):
Wow! Barnes and Noble expects to close as many as a third of its retail stores during the next decade. Great news for independents, mom-and-pop's, used book stores, Amazon. With the closure of the huge bookstore down the street from my home in San Antonio, it's pretty much now the wonderful Half-Price Books, perhaps the best used book chain in the US?

Fisker speeds up its search for suitors. One battery story after another.

And who saw this coming: Huawei ('wah-way') is now the third-biggest smartphone seller. Too much trouble to find the WSJ link; multiple other sources.  Jumped ahead of RIMM and Nokia.

Section A:
Immigration debate gears up. The GOP will screw this up also. Folks on both sides are asking the wrong questions.

Page 3: postal rates, volume, nice graphics.

Op-ed: if Chavez believes that the nation's oil billions belong to the people, why not give it to them directly? Another piece on windmill tilting.

Op-ed: if Lefty moves to Florida, he will find plenty of elite athlete company. [If he doesn't move to Florida, he's a fool.]

Last week, Lefty's rival, Tiger Woods, acknowledged that he left California for Florida in 1996 when he turned pro because of the difference in state tax. California's top marginal rate then was 9.3% for individuals earning more than $32,000. The move was particularly farsighted given that rates on high earners in California have since soared.
n November, voters in California approved a ballot measure raising the top rate on income over $1 million to 13.3% (the increase applies retroactively to last year). According to SportsIllustrated.com, Mr. Woods grossed $56.4 million in 2012. As a Floridian, he will keep about $7.5 million that he otherwise would have owed to the state of California. His net tax savings over his 16-year career come to about $100 million. Mr. Mickelson last year earned $60.7 million. Paying the 13.3% California rate, he will owe the state $8 million.
"The day California passed the tax increase, I received three calls from concerned athletes," accountant Steve Piascik, president of Piascik & Associates, told me. His firm is one of the largest representatives of professional athletes in the country.
Some examples:

• Torii Hunter, LA Angels of Anaheim, CA, who recently signed with the Detroit Tigers, calls home: Prosper, TX.
• Serena and Venus Williams grew up in Compton, CA, but moved with their father to Florida in the early 1990s. They currently reside in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, close to where Michelle Wie lives. She grew up in Palo Alto, CA.
• Sloane Stevens also now lives in Florida, near the same area. A lot of tennis pros have set up shop in Florida.
• Sam Querrey, 2nd-ranked American in tennis, moved to Las Vegas (no income tax state) from Thousand Oaks, CA.

The writer fails to mention all the NBA stars who have publicly talked about taxes, contracts, and no-income tax states. Let's see: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, the entire Spurs team.  

I've always wondered why Warren Buffett, a stickler for details and smart decisions, hasn't helped his secretary by moving the entire company to a non-tax state. Mr Buffett has often talked about how much tax his secretary pays. Of course, Nebraska is now likely to become the 10th state to have no income tax.