Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193457464?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Joe Paterno buried after thousands pay vigil (Reuters)
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was buried in a private ceremony on Wednesday after tens of thousands of mourners paid vigil in frigid weather as his hearse was carried from a closed funeral.
Paterno, 85, who died of lung cancer on Sunday, was head coach at Penn State for 46 years, and won more games than any other major-college football coach and two national championships.
But he was fired in November after a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with serial sex abuse. University trustees dismissed Paterno because he failed to tell police what he had been told about the alleged abuse.
Tens of thousands of people lined the street outside the campus Pasquerilla Spiritual Center in State College, Pennsylvania, in response to a campaign on Facebook to "Guide Joe Paterno Home," forming a gantlet covering much of the mile and a half to Penn State's football stadium.
"It shows how much of an icon he was and how many hearts he touched directly and indirectly," said Christina Flanaghan, 21, a third-year student at Penn State.
Nine pallbearers including son Jay Paterno carried the casket out of the spiritual center to a hearse that drove through town to a final resting place, which was kept secret.
"Thank you to all the people who turned out for my father's procession. Very moving," Jay Paterno wrote on Twitter.
Among those attending the funeral was former quarterback Mike McQueary, who as a graduate assistant in 2002 told Paterno he walked in on Sandusky molesting a boy in the showers.
Paterno told university officials but not police.
Sandusky, 67, who maintains his innocence, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court has placed him under house arrest.
Also attending the funeral was former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris, a pro football Hall of Famer who was perhaps the biggest star to play for Paterno.
Some 27,000 mourners passed by Paterno's closed casket for a viewing on Tuesday and 10,000 others on Wednesday, said Bob Smith, director of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center.
Among the final mourners was actor Billy Baldwin, who did not attend Penn State but attended many wrestling matches there in the 1980s. During that time, he said, he got to know Paterno, and had dinner at the Paterno home.
"I can't use words to describe the enormous, immense level of respect I have for the guy," Baldwin said.
(Reporting by Dave Warner; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/us_nm/us_usa_paterno
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Orman, Finance Experts Hawk Cards And Calendars. But To Help ...
5:00 pm, January 25th | by Hillary Reinsberg
Somewhere out there, there?s a diehard TV talk show devotee who just used her prepaid Suze Orman debit card to buy Jean Chatzky-branded office supplies from Office Depot. Two of TV?s leading female personal finance experts ? who spend their on-air hours advocating thoughtful saving and frugal spending ? are somehow convincing people to spend those saved-up dollars on Suze and Jean branded products. Critics are crying foul. Should you?
By most measures, Orman?s card, officially called The Approved Card From Suze Orman, is no different from other prepaid debit cards, which aren?t much more than glorified gift cards that happen to carry irritating fees. Various iterations are sponsored by a bevy of not particularly trustworthy celebrities, like Lil? Wayne, a 29-year-old rapper who is addicted to cough syrup. The one thing that separates Orman?s card is that unlike other debit cards, it reports to TransUnion, one of the country?s three credit agencies.
And Suze Orman thinks you?ve gotta have it. Problem is: almost no one else agrees. Partly because of the fees, and partly because prepaid debit cards are typically shunned by financial experts.
?Given the fact that she has endorsed avoiding fees throughout her career as a financial guru, it?s ironic that the exception she would make would be her own financial product,? wrote Fox Business??Gerri Willis in an email to The Jane Dough. Willis, the host of the Willis Report on FOX Business Network, has devoted some reporting on recent episodes to a kind of takedown of Orman?s card. ?Worse, with Suze in the financial product business, you have to wonder about just how independent her financial advice can be. When is she giving you her best advice and when is she pushing her product? We don?t know,? she added.
Across the board, the opinions are pretty much the same: Orman?s card isn?t criminal or even sleazy per se, but it goes against the kind of financial advice she makes a living off dispensing.??It?s not a bad card.?The problem is it?s not a great card either. It?s just a very typical prepaid card. And quite honestly, I think Suze could do a whole lot better for her fans,? Gerri Detweiler, a personal finance expert at?Credit.com, told MSNBC.
Her most outspoken fans agree they deserve better. But Suze doesn?t agree. ?Suze?s card has already damaged her brand. Just look at the online commentary from fans ?? they are perplexed by this and many are angry,? Willis added. ?Suze hasn?t helped herself by calling some of them idiots.?
Hearing that Orman called her fans idiots isn?t exactly a surprise. Orman?s known for her on-air badgering, though it is usually best described as a kind of loving aggression. She wants to help, but she?ll slap you on the behind to tell you that. Where Orman is the platinum blonde voice barking in your face about how stupid you were at 9 p.m., Chatzky is the kind, gentle and friendly brunette 9 a.m. version. On her regular Today show appearances, Chatzky doles out tips on how to cut back on your spending and how to ?pay down? your debt. It is less intrusive, less in-your-face.
But it is not free.
Just this week, Chatzky announced a line of personal finance tools to be retailed at Office Depot. While they won?t break the bank, I?m not sure they?ll help your savings account much either. A Chatzy-branded kid?s chore calendar for $13.99 seems a little superfluous, but there are also items like an expense planner and a tax checklist portfolio.
Chatzky?s products don?t have critics up in arms. ?What Jean is selling is a way of tracking your bills and expenditures in calendar form, plus her tips for financial management,? Willis told us. ?I don?t see this as fundamentally different from her books, but only an extension of her long-form advice. Were Jean to offer a financial product, the Jean Debit Card or the Jean mutual fund, I?d feel differently.?
Chatzky hasn?t created a mutual fund, but last year she did introduce two products:?the JeanChatzky Score Builder and another service called?Pay It Down!, both Internet tools to analyze and build your credit. They both cost money ? $19 a month and $30 a year, respectively. According to a?The New York Times report at the time, users were able to see a 40 point bump by using the products. That?s nice ? but it?s unlikely to tip the scales on securing that loan.
The general consensus seems to be this: financial tools don?t have to be free, but they?d better be honest.
As Caryn Effron, the founder of GoGirl Finance, a website that advocates financial literacy for women put it: ?If an expert is advocating financial literacy through a commercial partnership, I?m in favor of it as long as it?s also a win for the consumer.?
As far as we can tell, your local Office Max does accept the Orman card.
Source: http://www.thejanedough.com/suze-orman-debit-card/
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EU ministers push bondholders in Greek deal
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, left, speaks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister and head of the eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, left, speaks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister and head of the eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Belgium's Finance Minister Steven Vanackere, right, speaks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, right, speaks with Luxembourg's Finance Minister Luc Frieden during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, right, speaks with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, right, speaks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
BRUSSELS (AP) ? European finance ministers piled the pressure on Greece's private creditors Monday to reach an agreement with Athens to cut the country's massive debt load, with the Dutch representative warning bondholders that they may be forced to take losses.
Time is running out for Greece to reduce its debt by some euro100 billion ($129 billion) and avoid missing a vital bond repayment deadline. Talks between the country and representatives of banks and other investment firms to secure a deal hit an impasse over the weekend.
The deal would involve private creditors swapping their old Greek bonds for ones with a 50 percent lower face value. The new, lower priced bonds, would also have much longer maturities ? pushing repayments decades into the future ? and will pay a much lower interest rate than Greece would currently have to pay on the market.
It's clear that Greece needs some form of deal soon ? it faces a euro14.5 billion ($19 billion) bond repayment on March 20, which it will be unable to afford if the bond swap doesn't go through.
The Greek government and representatives for the private creditors said they are moving closer to a final deal. But any agreement also has to be signed off by the other 16 countries that also use the euro as their currency and the International Monetary Fund, who have made the deal a key condition of the country winning any further bailout loans.
Greece has been surviving on a first euro110 billion ($142 billion) batch of rescue loans since May 2010, which were conditioned on deep spending cuts and sweeping public sector reforms.
At the center of the debate is the interest rate that Greece will have to pay on the new, lower-valued bonds. The interest rate is key not only to determining the overall losses for the bondholders but also to whether the deal will work.
If the interest rate is too high, a second, euro130 billion ($168 billion) bailout for Greece may not be enough to put the country back on its feet. The other eurozone states and the IMF would have to provide more loans, but they are unwilling to do so.
But if they are too low, the losses for bondholders will become so high that it will be difficult to get them to agree voluntarily to a deal.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager indicated that the eurozone may be moving away from its previous insistence that investors will not be forced to take losses.
"We've never pushed for a default, but we've never said it (a restructuring) must be voluntary," de Jager said as he arrived for a meeting with his eurozone counterparts in Brussels. "Our goal is a sustainable debt. It has our preference if it's voluntary, but it's not a precondition for us."
Greece needs to secure a deal quickly if it wants to avoid a disorderly default on March 20.
"Given that any debt swap deal will involve a lot of lawyers, it is estimated that around 5 weeks are needed between agreement and the bond maturing to prevent default," said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners. "This does not leave much wriggle room, although such pressure must focus the minds of all at the negotiating table."
A forced restructuring would likely trigger payouts on so-called credit default swaps ? a contract traded between banks and other investment firms that want to insure against potential defaults. Because the market in CDS is obscure ? with no clear data on who would owe whom how much ? the eurozone fears that a payout could lead to turmoil on financial markets similar to what happened after the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Although officials, including the French and Greek finance ministers, insisted that a deal was in the making, few expected a final agreement ahead of a key summit of EU leaders next Monday. De Jager suggested that negotiations may even drag on beyond that.
Greece's economic problems kicked off Europe's debt crisis more than two years ago and the continent's inability to resolve its troubles have raised concerns about other highly indebted countries. But positive bond auctions in Spain, Italy and France last week have eased some concerns about the region's bigger economies and have lifted stock markets and the value of the euro.
Ministers will also seek to put the finishing touches on their permanent bailout fund ? the euro500 billion European Stability Mechanism ? which is scheduled to come into force this year. They will also discuss a new intergovernmental treaty designed to keep eurozone countries from overspending.
___
Greg Keller in Paris and Nicolas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this story.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Gaming Everything ? Blog Archive ? Gust unveils new game
January 23rd, 2012 Posted in News, Vita
Posted By: Valay
Gust has been hinting at a new title on its website and in Dengeki PlayStation. Today, the title has been revealed in the Japanese gaming magazine following several days of teasing.
The developer behind the Atelier and Ar tonelico series is currently working on a project known as ?Sarge Concerto?. This will be the company?s first title for Vita.
Thus far, we?ve been able to determine that Sarge Concerto will incorporate significant online functionality. Some Japanese forum goers are wondering if all of the gameplay will be online only.
It also seems that Sarge Concerto won?t be an RPG unlike the company?s previous games.
Rumor has it that certain womanly features will be ?highlighted? in the experience. I?m sure you folks know what I?m referring to!
According to Dengeki PlayStation, Gust?s new project will arrive in Japan on April 26.
Source: http://gamingeverything.com/14304/gust-unveils-new-game/
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Video: Mobster?s ex-flame tells her side of the story
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46081750#46081750
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Strong start for stocks, but what's changed? (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks rising, bulls rampant are motifs you might pick if designing a coat of arms for Wall Street at the moment. But the motto should read: Caveat emptor. Yes, buyer beware.
The S&P 500, a broad measure of the market valuation of the biggest U.S. publicly traded companies, is up 20 percent from its October closing low. It keeps climbing on a mixed bag of fourth-quarter earnings, improving U.S. economic data, and easing credit conditions in Europe. It now stands at its highest level since early last August.
We have already seen what is probably the first upgrade of a target level for the index this year courtesy of Credit Suisse.
The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX (.VIX), a measure of what investors are paying to protect themselves against the risk of losses, is at its lowest level in seven months.
So it raises the question: Is this another Jackson Hole moment for risk assets?
At the Wyoming retreat in late August 2010, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sparked what was the second major leg of the stock market's rally from bear market lows the year before.
Is this the start of the third?
FRIENDLIER FOOTING FOR STOCKS
For Andrew Garthwaite, the Credit Suisse analyst behind the firm's more bullish stance, there are big changes afoot that are creating a more benign environment for stocks.
First, the European Central Bank's long-term repo operations are succeeding in reducing stresses in the region's banking sector. This week, three-month dollar Libor, the cost at which European banks can borrow dollars, marked its ninth straight day of declines.
Analysts say heavy cash infusions from the European Central Bank since late last year and signs of revived willingness to lend by U.S. investors in the new year show the banking system is flush with cash.
The U.S. economy is looking stronger than thought, with notable movement in the long-dormant housing market, where sales of previously owned homes just rose to an 11-month high.
In China, the engine of global growth whose manufacturing sector has been showing worrying signs of slowing, policymakers have demonstrated willingness to make conditions easier by lowering banks' reserve requirements.
"As we approach our year-end target two weeks into January, we have to ask ourselves the following questions: What has changed? Will equities rally further?," Garthwaite said in a research note.
His answer to the second question was yes. Credit Suisse raised its year-end S&P 500 target to 1,400 from 1,340. Critically, however, the firm did not overweight equities, saying the risks of a more severe recession in Europe and a slowdown stateside were still there.
HEALTHY DOSE OF SKEPTICISM
For Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York, the rally remains largely untested. More scary headlines from Europe or any signs that the global economy is deteriorating could spark a sharp reversal.
On Sunday, Greece's private creditors were working closely with the Greek government on a debt-swap deal, according to their chief negotiator, Charles Dallara, the head of the International Institute of Finance. Dallara told Antenna TV in Greece that he is confident that a deal can be reached. [ID:nL5E8CM0HB] Creditors faced losses of up to 70 percent of the loans they have given to Athens.
Most of the attention will now shift to a Monday meeting of euro-zone finance ministers, and to how EU states and the IMF view the progress in the debt-swap talks.
"It's a confidence-based rally with the overhang of several still meaningful events to come," Colas said. "It is all well and good to say that the Greek default is well understood, but we haven't gone through it."
Outside the United States, there are mixed signals from the global economy, too.
China's factory activity likely fell for a third successive month in January. The HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), the earliest indicator of China's industrial activity, stood below 50.
The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index (.BADI), which tracks rates to ship dry commodities and can be a useful gauge of economic activity, fell to its lowest level in three years on Friday on a growing surplus of vessels and a slump in cargo demand.
That is at odds with the work of RBC technical analyst Robert Sluymer. He sees growing outperformance of industrial metal copper to the safe-haven bet of gold as well as a rise in a basket of Asian currencies as a bullish sign for the economy.
The caution generated by the mismatches in the various data points is reflected by U.S. interest rates.
The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note has hovered at 2 percent or just below for the last month despite a brief spike in mid-December. That suggests bondholders are not eagerly embracing the improving economy thesis for the moment.
"There is still a lot of skepticism about recovery, about moving into risk assets, about a lot of things," Colas said.
"If you really wanted to believe this about incrementally economic certainty and expansion ... I would have thought you'd expect to see the 10-year back over 2 percent."
EARNINGS, DATA AND THE FED
Monday will start one of the two most hectic weeks of the earnings season. Big names on Monday's earnings roster include Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.O) and Halliburton Co (HAL.N).
The blitz of earnings plus economic indicators and a Federal Reserve meeting will give Wall Street an important gauge of the economy's health - and the outlook for interest rates.
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve's policymakers will convene their first meeting of the year with a two-day session. The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's rate-setting panel, will release its policy statement on Wednesday. No fireworks are expected, but a decision to release individual policymakers' interest-rate forecasts could alter expectations for rates on the margins.
This week's economic data will include December pending home sales data on Wednesday and a trio of reports on Thursday, when the latest weekly jobless claims, December durable goods orders and new home sales for December will be released. Friday will bring the government's first look at fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product and the final January reading on consumer sentiment from Reuters and the University of Michigan.
But Wall Street is most likely to be preoccupied with earnings. Tuesday's agenda calls for quarterly results from Apple Inc (AAPL.O), DuPont (DD.N), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) and Yahoo! Inc (YHOO.O).
Boeing (BA.N), ConocoPhillips (COP.N) and United Technologies (UTX.N) are set to report results on Wednesday. Thursday's earnings line-up includes 3M Co (MMM.N), AT&T Inc (T.N) and Starbucks (SBUX.O). On Friday, Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG.N) will weigh in with results.
In terms of companies beating expectations, the fourth-quarter earnings season has not been as good as previous ones. Of the approximately 70 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 60 percent have exceeded analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data.
In comparison, in the third quarter at this early point in the reporting cycle, 68 percent had beaten Wall Street's forecasts -- well below the 78 percent in that category in the second quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed.
In the earnings season so far, there have been some high-profile misses on both revenue and earnings.
General Electric Co's (GE.N) fourth-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street's expectations, with Europe's weakening economy and weak appliance sales the main culprits.
On the other hand, banks' earnings have served as a positive catalyst for the stock market so far. The sector has been one of the market's leaders despite mixed earnings, a sign that investors' worst fears did not materialize.
(Reporting By Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Mitchell: 'We won't let Joe's legacy die'
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Essential News from The Associated Press |
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? ?Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Nowitzki will miss 4 games to improve conditioning
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41), of Germany, puts a jump shot over Utah Jazz forward Paul Millsap (24) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Salt Lake City, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve C. Wilson)
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41), of Germany, puts a jump shot over Utah Jazz forward Paul Millsap (24) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Salt Lake City, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve C. Wilson)
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, of Germany, reacts after hitting a 3-point shot during the first half of the Mavericks' NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle says Dirk Nowitzki will sit out for at least the next four games, starting with Saturday night's contest in New Orleans, so the star forward can get in better game shape.
Carlisle says Nowitzki needs "an uninterrupted eight days of work to resolve some physical issues and conditioning issues."
The Mavs coach says Nowitzki would prefer to keep playing but coaches and training staff decided it would be better for the team if he is restricted from game activity for the next week. Carlisle stresses that "this is not a rest situation" but "quite the opposite."
Nowitzki has been playing with a protective sleeve on his right knee. His 17.5 points per game is a little more than four points below his career average.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Radiation, rusty metal seen in tsunami-hit reactor (AP)
TOKYO ? Radiation-blurred images taken inside one of Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear reactors Thursday showed steam, unidentified parts and rusty metal surfaces scarred by 10 months' exposure to heat and humidity.
The photos that were the first inside look since the disaster found none of the reactor's melted fuel or its cooling water but confirmed stable temperatures and showed no major damage or ruptures caused by the earthquake last March, said Junichi Matsumoto, spokesman for the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Pipes and grates inside the reactor's containment vessel were seen in some images. Other photos were dark and blurry, resembling abstract paintings. Experts are studying the most obscured photos to identify which reactor parts are there. Radiation was visible as static, or electronic interference with the equipment being used.
The photos also showed the inner wall of the container had been heavily deteriorated by the high temperatures and humidity, Matsumoto said.
TEPCO workers inserted the endoscope ? an industrial version of the kind of endoscope doctors use ? through a hole in the beaker-shaped container at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's No. 2 reactor, hoping the first look inside since the crisis would help them better assess reactor conditions and make repairs.
High temperatures and radiation leaks had prevented the close-up view until now. Results of the 70-minute operation were mixed.
"Given the harsh environment that we had to operate, we did quite well. It's a first step," Matsumoto said. "But we could not spot any signs of fuel, unfortunately."
He said it would take more time and a better technology to get to the melted fuel, most of which has fallen straight down into the area that the endoscope could not reach. TEPCO hopes to use the endoscope to look inside the two other reactors that had meltdowns but that also would require customization of the equipment and further reduction of radiation levels.
The endoscope failed to find the water surface, indicating less-than-expected levels inside the primary containment vessel and questioning the accuracy of water monitors, Matsumoto said.
Radiation-tainted cooling water has been leaking from all three damaged reactors, pooling in massive amounts around the nuclear plant. Determining the No. 2 reactor's water levels could have helped locate cracks or damage causing some of the leaks.
Better assessment will help workers know how best to plug holes and cracks in the containment vessel ? a protective chamber outside the core ? to contain the radiation leaks and gradually work toward dismantling the reactors.
Three of six reactors at the Fukushima plant melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems and set off the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
TEPCO and nuclear officials have said that melted fuel probably fell to the bottom of the core in each unit, most likely breaching the bottom of the core and falling into the primary containment vessel, some dropping to its concrete floor.
Experts have said those are simulation results and that exact location and condition of the fuel could not be known until they have a first-hand observation inside.
The probe Thursday successfully recorded the temperature inside the containment vessel at 44.7 Celsius (112 F), confirming it stayed below the boiling point and qualifying a "cold shutdown state," the stable condition that the government had declared in December despite skepticism from experts.
The government has said that it would take 40 years until the Fukushima plant is fully decommissioned.
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British police spent $54,000 checking the time (AP)
LONDON ? For Britain's biggest police force, time really is money.
Figures show that London's Metropolitan Police spent 35,000 pounds ($54,000) on calls to a speaking clock service between 2009 and 2011. By recording such calls, police presumably obtained proof of the times they entered into their official written reports.
The force also spent more than 200,000 pounds calling directory inquiries over the same period.
Data released after a freedom of information request from the Press Association news agency shows members of the force made more than 110,000 calls to the speaking clock, at 31 pence a shot.
The force said it was committed to cost-cutting, but there were "evidential and operational reasons" for officers and staff to need to know the exact time, and many had no direct Internet access.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Scanner Dock for iPad Wins Ugly Contest
You probably don;t need yet another iPad dock, but if you have gone computer-less and still need to scan the occasional sheet of dead treeware, then the iConvert Scanner Dock might be just the thing for you.
It’s a front-feed, 300dpi document digitizer with a slot up top for your iPad 1 or 2. The gap [...]
It’s a front-feed, 300dpi document digitizer with a slot up top for your iPad 1 or 2. The gap [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/mO6-_a3QRpU/
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Northwest hopes for reprieve from powerful storm
King County Deputy Joe Abreu at left helps Potelco workers, Joe Lewis, center and Travis Barrett clear a downed tree coated with ice Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in Seattle. An ice storm followed heavy snow in western Washington, bringing down trees that killed one person and knocked out power for about 100,000 homes while sending cars and trucks spinning out of control. (AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Steve Ringman) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; SEATTLEPI.COM OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
King County Deputy Joe Abreu at left helps Potelco workers, Joe Lewis, center and Travis Barrett clear a downed tree coated with ice Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in Seattle. An ice storm followed heavy snow in western Washington, bringing down trees that killed one person and knocked out power for about 100,000 homes while sending cars and trucks spinning out of control. (AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Steve Ringman) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; SEATTLEPI.COM OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
A Delta Air Lines plane is sprayed with de-icing fluid prior to take-off at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, in Seattle. On the heels of heavy snow that fell Wednesday, the Western Washington region was hit with an ice storm Thursday that closed runways at the airport and stranded hundreds of travelers as flights were delayed or cancelled. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
A Southwest Airlines plane sits covered in a a thick layer of ice while parked at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, in Seattle. On the heels of heavy snow that fell Wednesday, the Western Washington region was hit with an ice storm Thursday that closed runways at the airport and stranded hundreds of travelers as flights were delayed or canceled. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
A United Air Lines plane lands on at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on a recently re-opened runway, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, in Seattle. On the heels of heavy snow that fell Wednesday, the Western Washington region was hit with an ice storm Thursday that closed runways at the airport and stranded hundreds of travelers as flights were delayed or canceled. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Port Orchard Marina resident Mitch Glover builds a snow igloo in front of the A Dock gate in Port Orchard, Wash. on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Kitsap Sun, Meegan M. Reid)
SEATTLE (AP) ? The powerful Pacific Northwest storm that swelled Oregon rivers and left Washington state coated in ice that brought much of the state to a standstill was supposed to taper off Friday, but a rainy weekend forecast meant flooding worries would continue for some time.
The unusually strong system temporarily shut down Seattle's airport Thursday and knocked down so many trees state patrol troopers brought chainsaws in their cruisers to hack through the obstacles. It also left three people dead: a mother and her 1-year-old boy, killed after torrential rain swept away a car from an Oregon grocery store parking lot; and an elderly man fatally injured by a falling tree as he was backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a backyard shed near Seattle.
The snow kept falling Thursday evening in western Washington and was not expected to stop until early Friday, but familiar rain is on its way, according to the National Weather Service.
"The better news is that we have a regular Pacific front coming in tomorrow with highs in the 40s," meteorologist Dennis D'Amico said Thursday.
Oregon should see a break in the rainfall for some hours before another front comes in, said meteorologist Paul Tolleson in Portland.
"We'll have decent fronts for the next 24 to 36 hours. It'll be just enough rain to make people nervous," he said.
The region hoped to clean up after two days of wind, snow and ice. More than 50 downed trees on railroad tracks and the threat of more falling forced Amtrak officials to close service between Portland and Seattle on Thursday morning. the closure continued Friday.
Officials in Spokane declared a snow emergency, banning parking along arterials and bus routes beginning Thursday evening. The City of Seattle asked people to get home before dark if possible, fearing even worse icing conditions by nightfall. And authorities told pedestrians to be extra careful on sidewalks and to look out for "falling ice from trees, buildings and power lines."
The State Patrol said it had responded to about 2,300 accidents in a 24-hour period ending at 9 a.m. Thursday, roughly quadruple the average number.
The National Weather Service said the last widespread freezing rain in Seattle was in December 1996.
Elsewhere, the state Transportation Department closed one highway for much of Thursday because of falling trees that also took out power lines. The Seattle Times reported late Thursday night that about 250,000 customers were without power in several counties in the Seattle area. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, authorizing the use of National Guard troops if necessary.
The weather system brought heavy snows to Washington's Mt. Rainier and four people were reported missing. A search was suspended at nightfall but was to resume Friday, officials said.
Farther south, near Reno, Nev., winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced thousands to evacuate their neighborhoods.
In Washington, ice closed Sea-Tac Airport completely in the early morning Thursday before one runway was reopened. Lines hundreds of people long snaked around nearly every ticket counter at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, with many passengers on their cellphones as they tried furiously to rebook their flights. Reader boards showed the vast majority of flights canceled or delayed. All three runways reopened by Thursday evening, but the backlog from the earlier disruption was going to take a while to clear.
Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air canceled 310 flights to and from Seattle Thursday and Alaska Air said it was canceling 50 flights on Friday.
Sarah Slack and her daughters, 9-year-old Jayda and 6-year-old Jaycee, were at the airport Thursday, trying to get to Disneyland for Jaycee's 7th birthday on Saturday. A connecting flight was cancelled, and it looked like the family from Puyallup wouldn't be able to get out until Friday evening. Jayda tried to take things in stride. "Our flight got cancelled....so we have to go tomorrow," she said.
Oregon State climatologist Kathie Dello said the Hawaiian "Pineapple Express" is responsible for the wet weather. The system is creating a fire hose-like effect, dumping a concentrated stream of Pacific moisture on a small area in the western Willamette Valley.
Another Willamette Valley town, Scio, contended with floodwaters and many residents were being evacuated as the city manager said water was pouring down Main Street.
Officials in the city of Turner have issued a voluntary evacuation order to residents, asking them to flee to higher ground as floodwaters from the rising Mill Creek swept through town.
To the west of Oregon's Coast Range, residents were being moved out of Mapleton, with a population of about 900.
In Albany, rising water from heavy rains swept a car carrying four people into an overflowing creek on Wednesday night. Two people escaped, but one child's body was recovered early Thursday morning, and family members in the afternoon located his mother's body, authorities said.
A witness said that the car was sucked into a culvert.
Near Issaquah, Wash., a man in his 60s backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a shed was killed by a falling tree, King County sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said.
Karina Shagren, a spokeswoman for Gregoire, said even though an emergency declaration has been issued, the National Guard has not been called up. Shagren said what sparked the proclamation was concern over truck drivers carrying dairy products not being able to drive more than 12 hours a day due to federal regulations.
Freight train operations were suspended by BNSF Thursday between Tacoma and Centralia. Large trees continued to fall, creating a safety hazard, said spokesman Gus Melonas, adding that regular service was not expected until Friday afternoon.
In a Tacoma apartment complex, 25-year-old Sam Doyle woke up to see a 40-foot tree on his Subaru Impreza, now with two busted windows and a caved in roof.
"It handles great in the snow but the snow ended up taking it out in the end," he said. "It could be worse. It could have been a person that got hit."
___
Cooper reported from Albany, Ore. Associated Press writers Doug Esser, Ted Warren, Shannon Dininny, Rachel La Corte, Nigel Duara and Nicholas K. Geranios contributed to this report.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Lohan returns to court for latest probation update
FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2011 file photo, actress Lindsay Lohan appears for a probation hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. Lohan returns to a Los Angeles court Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, to update a judge on her probation progress, which involves therapy sessions and cleanup duty at the county morgue. (AP Photo/Mario Anzuoni, Pool/file)
FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2011 file photo, actress Lindsay Lohan appears for a probation hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. Lohan returns to a Los Angeles court Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, to update a judge on her probation progress, which involves therapy sessions and cleanup duty at the county morgue. (AP Photo/Mario Anzuoni, Pool/file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Lindsay Lohan is returning to court to give a judge her second update on how she's faring under strict new probation requirements.
The hearing on Tuesday is expected to be much like Lohan's last progress update: short and without surprises.
The starlet has been doing cleanup work at the county morgue and attending psychotherapy sessions in an effort to avoid problems with her probation for separate drunken driving and theft cases.
Lohan's spokesman Steve Honig says the actress has made her community service her "primary focus" and is eager for Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner to receive the details.
The 25-year-old struggled with her probation until Sautner imposed a series of tough new rules, including monthly meetings with the court, in November.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
MCLA president hopeful for higher education funding
Click photo to enlarge
Wednesday January 18, 2012
MCLA President Mary K. Grant speaks about the need for increased funding for public higher education during the college’s opening breakfast on Tuesday.
Wednesday January 18, 2012 By Jennifer Huberdeau
North Adams Transcript
NORTH ADAMS -- With the spring semester kicking off today, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts? administration, faculty and staff celebrated the new session on Tuesday in the newly renovated Amsler Campus Center with an emphasis on the critical need to lobby for public higher education funding.
MCLA President Mary K. Grant said that she is hopeful the state will appropriate additional funding to its public universities and community colleges this year, alleviating a portion of the ever-growing financial burden on families.
"We know every year that student costs go up across the country and right here at home, and we have to be thinking about how our strategic plan utilizes our resources," she said. "If you look at where fund levels were for all of state [university] institutions in 2001, the number looks vaguely familiar, as it does today. If you think about it, in a decade we?re back at the same level of funding, but all of our campuses across the state have more students. We have more programs, and nothing in the last 10 years has gone down in price."
She added, "When I think about the work we are doing, we are extremely efficient. What we need now is a greater investment in higher education to support the work we?re doing."
Grant pointed to a slide that showed, in 2001, funding for the state?s nine state universities totaled
$191,687,000, just slightly more than the fiscal 2012 appropriation of $191,029,099."When budgets go down, student fees go up. The relationship is pretty clear, and we need to turn this number around at home and across the country if we want to be the creative, entrepreneurial nation that we strive to be," she said.
Heading into the next budget cycle, Grant said the state Board of Higher Education has requested a 5 percent increase for higher education operating budgets, along with increases in funding for collective bargaining, scholarships and its Vision Project.
"I am hopeful, ever hopeful," she said of the request.
However, with more and more families struggling in today?s economy, she said the college?s admission staff is busy and always reworking its recruitment strategies.
"As we think about recruitment, we?ve got a staff that?s on the road and they?re looking at their strategies for how we expand our reach and how we look at financial aid packages in this market as the cost of higher education is getting more expensive and families are struggling," she said. "Transfer students are one of the biggest movements in the marketplace in higher education. We?re looking at students who are starting at a two-year college, graduating with an associate?s degree and then moving on to baccalaureate degrees."
She said the college is working to ensure it is providing the right type of support to transfer students to ensure their move into a four-year institution, such as MCLA, is smooth.
Several of the college?s union leaders also spoke out about the threats to public higher education, urging local politicians and college administrators not to fall prey to belief systems that call for less taxation of corporations and the rich.
The opening breakfast also highlighted ongoing work on the campus, including the start of construction on the Center for Science and Innovation, renovations at the Hoosac Hall dormitory and the move of Admissions from Blackinton Street into the Smith House. In addition, it was announced that English professor Paul Lesage has been named associate dean of academic affairs, a position he?ll hold for two years before passing it on to another faculty member. The position will allow faculty to be more involved in the administration and lend support to the Academic Affairs department, Grant said.
Source: http://www.thetranscript.com/headlines/ci_19763168?source=rss
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Ralph Fiennes is ?The Wiseguy? in Details Magazine
Ralph Fiennes lightened up for a brief rom-com waltz with J. Lo. But after more than two decades as an actor, the 49-year-old Brit has discovered that brooding is just more fun. In this month?s ?The Wiseguy?, the actor talks to DETAILS about playing villains, a few of his former female co-stars, and his role [...]
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang leaving company (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO ? Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is leaving the struggling Internet company, as it tries to revive its revenue growth and win over disgruntled shareholders under a new leader.
The surprise departure, announced Tuesday, comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO.
Thompson is the fourth CEO in less than five years to try to turn around Yahoo ? a challenge that Yang was unable to pull off during his own tumultuous 18-month reign as the company's CEO in 2007 and 2008.
Yang, 43, endorsed Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception.
"My time at Yahoo, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life," Yang wrote in a letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. "However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo."
The letter didn't say what Yang plans to do next. He doesn't need to work, thanks to the fortune he has amassed since he began working on Yahoo in a trailer at Stanford University with fellow graduate student David Filo. Yang is worth about $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine's latest estimates.
Yang is also stepping down from the boards of China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Yahoo is negotiating to sell its stakes in both of the Asian companies as part of its efforts to placate investors. The deal could be worth as much as $17 billion, but still faces a series of potentially daunting obstacles before it gets done.
Besides surrendering the board seats, Yang is giving up his position as "Chief Yahoo," an honorary title he held as he mingled among workers, while keeping tabs on various company projects.
Thompson could have an easier time overhauling Yahoo without Yang looking over his shoulder and possibly second guessing his decisions, said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.
"This has the fingerprints of frustration on it," Gillis said. "It's one of those situations where it looks like he is losing the battle to control the company's direction and now he is saying, `That's it, I'm out.'"
Although a popular figure among Yahoo employees, Yang had alienated the company's shareholders by turning down a chance to sell Yahoo in its entirety to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, in May 2008. Yahoo shares haven't topped $20 for more than three years. The stock gained 47 cents to $15.90 in extended trading after Yang's decision was announced.
The slump in Yahoo's stock has diminished Yang's wealth. He still owns a 3.6 percent stake in the company.
Investor anger over his handling of the Microsoft negotiations led to Yang's resignation as CEO in late 2008 and the hiring of Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz to replace him. Bartz and Yang had gotten to know each other as part of Cisco Systems Inc.'s board of directors.
After initially hailing Bartz as the solution to Yahoo's problems, Yang and the rest of Yahoo's board fired her as CEO in September.
Yahoo's revenue has been falling in recent years even as advertisers have poured more money into the Internet. Much of the money, though, has been going to Internet search leader Google Inc. and Facebook's online social network, as Yahoo has fallen further behind in the race to innovate and develop products that attract Web traffic.
Despite its struggles, Yahoo remains profitable and still boasts a worldwide audience of 700 million people.
But visitors aren't sticking around Yahoo's services as much as they once did, depriving the company of more opportunities to sell ads ? the main source of its revenue.
It has been a jarring comedown for Yahoo, which emerged as one of the Internet's first stars after Yang and Filo expanded the service beyond its roots as a hand-picked directory of websites.
Yahoo's early success turned it into a Wall Street darling and landed Yang on the covers of leading business magazines. At the height of the dot-com bubble 12 years ago, Yahoo's stock was trading above a split-adjusted $100 amid talk that the company might eventually try to buy a long-established media franchise such as the Walt Disney Co.
But now investors widely regard Yahoo as a misguided company that can't come up with a cohesive plan to define itself for Web surfers and advertisers.
Yang and Bostock have been the focal point for much of the criticism, partly because of their key roles in the Microsoft talks in 2008. After buying a 5.2 percent stake in Yahoo last autumn, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb demanded that both Bostock and Yang step down from the company's board. If they refused, Loeb indicated he would finance a shareholder rebellion to oust both men from the board.
Loeb's fund, Third Point LLC, didn't immediately return a phone called Tuesday.
Bostock, Yahoo's chairman for the past four years, has given no indication that he plans to step down.
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Mozambicans urged to leave flood-prone areas (AP)
MAPUTO, Mozambique ? Mozambican authorities are urging people to leave flood-prone southern and central areas as a tropical depression brings heavy rains and high winds.
The main roads of Mozambique's capital were flooded Tuesday after heavy rain fell intermittently Monday. The storm whipped up waves as high as 20 feet (6 meters), keeping Maputo fishermen in port Monday.
State radio reports that much of Xai-Xai, the capital of the southern province of Gaza, was underwater and without electricity. The storm had also brought power lines down. Xai-Xai was worst hit by the 2000 floods that killed at least 700 people.
The National Meteorological Institute on Tuesday predicted more heavy downpour.
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Monday, January 16, 2012
'Bad year for ice': Snowmobile in lake tragedy
By msnbc.com staff and news services
HANOVER, Minn. -- Divers recovered the bodies of two men Sunday whose snowmobile sank after hitting open water on a lake near the Twin Cities, the first thin-ice related deaths reported in Minnesota in a mild winter that has left ice unreliable across the state.
Dozens of people have fallen into frigid waters around Minnesota this winter as unseasonably warm temperatures have weakened ice and in some cases left patches of open water such as those on Lake Charlotte northwest of Minneapolis.
"It was a single snowmobile and it appears to have just run right into open water," said Captain Greg Howell of the Wright County Sheriff's Office. "It's been a bad year for ice."
Local NBC station KARE 11 reported that the two young men were graduates of the Rockford High School, according to its principal, Ryan Jensen.
Jensen named the victims as 2009 graduate Brad Skafte, 20, and 2010 graduate Adam Patnode, 19, KARE 11 said.
The station reported that divers found their bodies around 8 a.m. (9 a.m. ET) Sunday using sonar equipment.
"It's hard to take in," said Nathan Bigley, a friend of the two young men, according to KARE 11. "It still really hasn't hit me hard. But they were both really good guys. Everyone loved them in the community."
Dan Harberts, whose son was also good friends with the two victims, told the station that "they always seemed to be bored."
"Sitting around was never good enough for them," Harberts said. "They're way too young for something like this to happen."
Tail lights vanished
A 66-year-old man from Buffalo, Minnesota, riding an all-terrain vehicle, had reported seeing a snowmobile drop into the lake on Saturday night. He went to investigate and was rescued by a neighbor when his ATV also sank into the water, Howell said.
"It's fortunate we weren't looking for three instead of two," Howell said.
The man, Gail King, told the Star Tribune that he had heard a cracking noise and then the tail lights of the snowmobile vanish into the water.
He did not hear any shouts for help, the Tribune reported.
Searchers found snowmobile tracks leading straight to an area of open water on the lake and family members reported two men missing who were thought to have been snowmobiling on the lake Saturday night, Howell said.
Divers located the snowmobile but have not yet pulled it from the lake, Howell said.
The ice depth ranges from an inch to 12 inches on lakes in the county with open water in some spots, Howell said.
Across Minnesota people have reported falling through the ice this winter on-foot, in cars, riding ATVs and snowmobiles, and even in an ice boat, which has steel runners and a sail, officials have said.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Why Is This Supercarrier's Deck Packed With Cars In the Middle of the Pacific? [Image Cache]
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
TV One network focuses on missing blacks (AP)
PASADENA, Calif. ? After 16 years playing a police lieutenant on "Law & Order," actress S. Epatha Merkerson is turning to some real-life crime stories.
Merkerson is the narrator for "Find Our Missing," a series that debuts Jan. 18 on the TV One network. It tells stories about black Americans who are missing, hoping to turn up clues that can solve some of the cases.
The series was born out of a pervasive feeling among many blacks that their missing-person cases don't get as much attention as missing-person cases involving whites, particularly attractive young white women.
"The local and regional press does a good job," Wonya Lucas, president and CEO of the cable network aimed at black viewers, said Saturday. "The national press doesn't really cover these stories to the extent that they should, and that's a void that TV One will now fill."
Each hour focuses on two separate cases. Besides Merkerson's narration, producers fill time by re-enacting some scenes with professional actors.
Two people missing since 2009 are featured in the first episode: Pamela Butler, an employee of the Environmental Protection Agency who disappeared from her Washington, D.C., home; and Hasanni Campbell, a 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy from Oakland, Calif.
"We are painfully aware that these are not just stories," said Donna Wilson, executive producer of the series. "These are people's lives."
Blacks account for 12 percent of the population yet are involved in about a third of the country's missing-persons cases, said Toni Judkins, programming chief at TV One. The network is available in some 56 million homes, or about half the ones that have TV.
Producers are working with the Black and Missing Foundation in helping to bring the cases to light.
The show will encourage tips to law enforcement, hoping to break down some of the attitude that makes people feel like snitches, foundation president Derrica Wilson said. She and the series producer are not related.
Merkerson said she became involved because she realized many of these cases needed the attention.
"It's important for me to give back to the community that has given so much to me," she said.
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Iran says it has evidence U.S. behind scientist's killing (Reuters)
TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian state television said on Saturday Tehran had evidence Washington was behind the latest assassination of one of its nuclear scientists.
In the fifth attack of its kind in two years, a magnetic bomb was attached to the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan's car during the Wednesday morning rush-hour in the capital. His driver was also killed.
The United States has denied involvement in the killing and condemned it. Israel has declined to comment.
"We have reliable documents and evidence that this terrorist act was planned, guided and supported by the CIA," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a letter handed to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, state TV reported.
"The documents clearly show that this terrorist act was carried out with the direct involvement of CIA-linked agents."
The Swiss Embassy has represented U.S. interests in Iran since Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
State TV said a "letter of condemnation" had also been sent to the British government, saying the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists had "started exactly after the British official John Sawers declared the beginning of intelligence operations against Iran."
In 2010, chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service Sawers said one of the agency's roles was to investigate efforts by states to build nuclear weapons in violation of their international legal obligations and identify ways to slow down their access to vital materials and technology.
Tehran has urged the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the latest killing, which Tehran says is aimed at undermining its nuclear work, which the West and Israel say is aimed at building bombs. Tehran says its nuclear program is purely civilian.
Tension has mounted between Iran and the West as the United States and European Union prepare measures aimed at imposing sanctions on the Iran's oil exports, its economic lifeblood.
The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Catherine Crier: Mommy, where do jobs come from?
Yesterday morning, I listened as Romney surrogate Chris Chocola, Club for Growth, repeated the Republican mantra that government doesn't create a single job. Try shutting down our national security apparatus -- defense, homeland security, intelligence, all the support contractors right down to farmers, uniform suppliers, companies making those million dollar toilet seats... and you'll see just how many jobs the government creates. In fact, if this occurred, there would be a global depression. (I'll save the Adam Smith debate about warfare as the biggest misuse of national resources for another day.)
Given the enormity of this one area of government job creation, we don't have to argue about all those public employees outside the military-industrial complex that seem to be dispensable these days -- the cops, teachers and firefighters, or the scientists and engineers that, thanks to taxpayer R&D, gave us the Internet, GPS and countless life-saving drugs or, gasp, clean air and water. We won't even debate the valuable government subsidies for critical technology, like the microchip that spawned a global economic revolution and produced, literally, millions of jobs.
After the microchip was invented in 1958 by an engineer at Texas Instruments, 'the federal government bought virtually every microchip firms could produce.' NASA bought so many [microchips] that manufacturers were able to achieve huge improvements in the production process -- so much so, in fact, that the price of the Apollo microchip fell from $1,000 per unit to between $20 and $30 per unit in the span of a couple years.Is America Losing Its Mojo? Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, 1/14/09.
Every single GOP candidate regurgitates this anti-government talking point while, in the very next breath, asserting that as government officials they've created more jobs than anyone else in the race: Newt claims about 11 million jobs while Speaker of the House in the Clinton years; Perry touts his "one million jobs" Texas record while ignoring both the quality of those private sector jobs (most are minimum wage) and the very large number of public sector (government) jobs included in his figures; and Romney wants credit for his time as Governor (although Mass. was 4th lowest in new jobs in those years). As for his 15 years at Bain Capital, Mitt argues that 100,000 jobs were created through his company's investments and expertise, while ignoring analysis from the WSJ that it was a wash, at best, when Bain-related layoffs, bankruptcies and outsourcing are included.
Each Republican candidate says they will push through lower taxes and cut regulations -- a sure way to unleash the currently oppressed private economy. If this oft-repeated theory of domestic growth is correct, then why were the Bush years, with a Republican Congress cutting taxes and regulations in six of the eight years, such an abysmal time for job creation? According to the leftist rag, the WSJ, "The Bush administration created about three million jobs (net) over its eight years, a fraction of the 23 million jobs created under President Bill Clinton's administration and only slightly better than President George H.W. Bush did in his four years in office." And remember, GWB had two wars going and created the mammoth Dept. of Homeland Security to help with those job numbers.
In my new book, Patriot Acts, I look at the facts about tax cuts and job growth over the last century. As I ask in the book, please ignore current rhetoric and put your thinking cap on for a moment. The GOP argument is that we need tax cuts for 'job creators' to grow the economy. If the wealthy 'investor class' was impoverished, if they didn't have private capital to invest, this position might hold water, but those at the top (individuals and corporations) are sitting on a record pile of cash -- cash that has grown throughout the largest economic downturn since the Great depression; cash that is not being invested here at home.
Since the early '80s, as their rates have gone down, wealthy individuals have not reinvested much of their tax savings in domestic job growth. Instead, they've saved most of that money, spent it on luxury goods or invested it abroad. Even Reagan realized his 'trickle down theory' wasn't working. In 1986, he raised corporate tax rates and eliminated the special break for capital gains, demanding equal taxes on income from wealth and income from work. Today, Republicans bow to their hero but ignore his own realizations about the failings of supply side economics.
This week, the WSJ reported that, contrary to the insane propaganda we're hearing on the campaign trail, about 69 percent of U.S. corporations pass through their earnings and pay NO federal corporate income taxes. When companies do pay taxes, the average rate is 18.3 percent -- and this at a time when the federal debt is exploding and state budget shortfalls are rampant.
As for 'deregulation' creating significant job growth, former Reagan economic adviser Bruce Bartlett put it bluntly. "It's just nonsense. It's just made up." The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks companies' reasons for large layoffs. It reported that corporations attributed 1,119 layoffs to government regulations in the first half of 2010, while 144,746 were attributed to poor "business demand." Simply put, American consumers didn't have money to buy goods.
Countless nonpartisan economists and rational policy-makers have explained the historic path to growth: investment in infrastructure, improved education, legal immigration for the best and brightest and a balanced approach to spending cuts and revenue growth. Because these recommendations do not respect rigid ideology, they get no traction on Capitol Hill.
I don't care about labels; I care about facts. Whether you're a liberal or conservative, you should demand honest information before making decisions. Supporting policies based on utter nonsense is insane, period. As you listen to the arguments and assertions from our various candidates, as you watch their incendiary attack ads, think about this statement (warning?) from a top Romney campaign adviser made to NYT's Tom Edsall: "We are in the persuasion business, the propaganda business... Ads are agitprop... Ads are about hyperbole, they are about editing... They are manipulative pieces of persuasive art."
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-crier/mommy-where-do-jobs-come_b_1204180.html
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