In a stroke of political ingenuity, his plan calls for granting the exemption only to the extent that a company declaring the dividend has paid honest-to-God taxes of its own.

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Billington, who has bequeathed a wonderful gift upon millions of cellphone users by granting an exemption wherein consumers may legally break the software locks on their handsets in order to transfer service to another carrier.

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The IRS requested and reviewed a list of all our members prior to granting the exemption, and it also devoted a single part-time staff person to manage all the incoming news applications, most of which apparently received heightened scrutiny.

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He says he proposed several steps the government could have taken to save Lehman from bankruptcy, including being allowed to convert to a bank holding company, granting it an exemption so its Utah bank subsidiary could raise deposits, and imposing a ban on naked short selling.

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