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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/IGSzqii-5gI/story01.htm
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Sony Xperia Z has its own lockscreen bypass bug
Sony's Xperia Z is joining the ranks of the iPhone and Galaxy S3 today with some tinkering that has exposed a security flaw in the lockscreen of the device. According to Scott Reed, who found the flaw on his personal Xperia Z, the lockscreen bypass only takes a few easy steps and allows full access to the device. That's a bit further than some other recent lockscreen bugs will get you, and is certainly troubling. Sony has supposedly fixed the bug that led to some Xperia Z devices randomly bricking themselves, and now they've got another fun bug to fix on their hands.
It's always a good idea to keep your phone in your sight if it has some sensitive data on it, but you may want to be extra careful until this bug is fixed up. If you want to see the flaw in action, stick around after the break for a video of Scott doing it on his device.
Source: GSMArena
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/5ag8bjGIkCg/story01.htm
Singer Dionne Warwick files for bankruptcy in NJ
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) ? Singer Dionne Warwick claims in a recent bankruptcy filing that she owes nearly $10 million in back taxes and her monthly expenses exceed $20,000.
The South Orange resident and singer of classics such as "Walk On By," ''I Say a Little Prayer" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" filed a Chapter 7 petition in U.S. bankruptcy court in New Jersey last Thursday.
In the filing, the 72-year-old Warwick listed liabilities that include nearly $7 million owed to the Internal Revenue Service for the years 1991 to 1999 and more than $3 million in business taxes owed to the state of California.
Warwick, a cousin of the late Whitney Houston, also listed $20,950 in monthly income from royalties, retirement income and a contract with Culver City, Calif.-based Star Girl Productions. Her monthly expenses total $20,940 and include $5,000 for housekeeping/housesitting.
Warwick's publicist said that the singer was victimized by bad financial management in the 1990s and that she has paid back the actual amount of the taxes, but penalties and interest have accumulated over the years.
"In light of the magnitude of her tax liabilities, (Dionne) Warwick has repeatedly attempted to offer re-payment plans and proposals to the IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board for taxes owed," Kevin Sasaki said in an email Tuesday. "These plans were not accepted, resulting in escalating interest and penalties. Although the actual amount of back taxes owed has been paid, the resulting penalties and interest has continually accrued."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/singer-dionne-warwick-files-bankruptcy-nj-210030788.html
Friday, March 22, 2013
Berlin special: A snapshot of how German online game companies ...
Berlin special: A snapshot of how German online game companies are successfully going mobile
There are plenty of mobile game clusters around the world: San Francisco, Helsinki and Stockholm are some the best known in the west.But the reason isn't just because there are a lot of mobile games developers there.
These locations also have companies who can offer associated services, ranging from finance and funding to technical support, community-building, human resources, PR and marketing etc, not to mention a high quality of life for employees.
Like London, Berlin is a large European capital city, which is perhaps why it can't be classed as a cluster.
All manner of businesses and start ups operate in such cities, so games companies who are there are part of a wider commercial base, rather than being a key sector.
Nevertheless, a short trip to Berlin to see some of its companies does offer the opportunity to see how the German games industry is reacting to the rise of mobile.
Playing everywhere
Historically very strong in PC and browser gaming, companies like GameDuell are now aggressively taking their games cross-platform. We spoke to CEO Kai Bolik about the challenges and opportunities the casual web publisher's facing.
Offering a complete different sort of gaming experience, hardcore PC publisher Aeria Games is also investing heavily in mobile, as we learned from its European CEO Pascal Zuta.
Indeed, what's fascinating is that it operates its mobile games as standalone releases, so a French version for the French App Store, a German version for the German App Store, alongside a main English language version, of course.
It's an expensive approach, but one that's already demonstrating success.
Big and small
Berlin's not just about hundred-strong publishers though.
Small start-up SlipShift is going for the best of both worlds, developing casual mobile experiences alongside hardcore browser games. It's all about being open to all parts of the games industry, explains CEO Philipp Willers.
There are opportunities for service companies too.
One such is GameGenetics. It's a distribution or user acquisition channel. It works closely with the big browser and PC online publishers like Nexon, BigPoint, Wargaming.net, Gameforge, Ubisoft and Aeria.
As they start to release mobile games, it's shifting its business likewise, as CEO Alexander Piutti tells us.?
And, of course, there are lots of other companies in Berlin. Maybe next time, we'll get to visit the likes of Wooga, HitFox, SponsorPay, Trademob, and Exozet.
Source: http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Mobile+Games+Clusters/news.asp?c=49506
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GarageBand for iOS updated with Audiobus support
GarageBand for iOS has been updated with editing enhancements, bug fixing, and Audiobus support. Audiobus is an app that facilitates communication between supported music apps, allowing you to, for instance, create a track in one app, send it immediately to another for filtering or effects work, then send the filtered audio into another app, like a multi-track recorder. This all takes place within the apps themselves, no need to copy or use an ?Open In...? menu.
Audiobus recently announced an SDK for developers who want to support its capabilities.
Other enhancements includ the ability to turn off grid snapping, giving users greater control when editing their recordings. There is also a fix for an issue that caused feedback when connecting third-party audio accessories through the headphone jack.
The update is live one the App Store. Go grab it and let us know what you think.
- $4.99 - Download Now
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/n3Abng3Tj9M/story01.htm
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Organic-Food Champion?s Departure From USDA Sows Seeds of Concern
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan?s upcoming departure has raised a lot of questions about the Obama administration?s commitment to organic and local food production, but she said in an exclusive interview Wednesday that it will have almost four more years to institutionalize the changes she has made at the department.
Merrigan has been the champion of the organic and local food movement since the late 1980s, when she helped then-Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., write the Organic Standards Act. After leaving Leahy?s staff, she taught at Tufts University and worked in the Clinton administration.
The Senate?s unanimous confirmation of her appointment as deputy secretary in 2009 was considered a crowning achievement for farmers and foodies who thought USDA had long provided disproportionate benefits to conventional commodity and meat producers. Merrigan responded by creating the ?Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food? initiative, which has required every division of USDA to think about how it can help local food producers prosper.
When Merrigan announced she would ?be leaving? the Agriculture Department on May?3, she did not say whether she had resigned or had been asked to go.
?It has been an ambitious first term,? Merrigan said. ?From implementing the 2008 farm bill, improving school meals, expanding opportunities for American farmers, spending countless hours in the White House situation room, to shepherding USDA budgets through challenging times, it has been an honor to play a small part in history. I hope that during my tenure I was able to help open USDA?s doors a little wider, inviting new and discouraged constituencies to participate in USDA programs.?
Merrigan has always said publicly that she does not oppose large-scale commodity production or genetic modification of seeds and only wanted to make room for USDA to assist local and organic production. Conventional and biotech farmers and their advocates have considered her efforts at best to be silly, small-scale activities that divert USDA personnel from the serious business of producing food on a large scale and increasing exports?and at worst, to be hostile to their interests. Some of her fans think those interests forced her out.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release that he ?deeply? appreciated Merrigan?s service and that she ?helped USDA achieve record results over the past four years,? but he did not say he regretted her departure.
Vilsack has publicly supported Merrigan?s ideas and made them?along with conventional production, exports, biofuels, and rural development?part of his integrated vision for the future of a rural America that can hold and attract young people. But the terse words Merrigan and Vilsack used in their statements have led to speculation that he was jealous of her public profile.
In the interview, Merrigan did not discuss whether or not she was leaving willingly, but she said, ?It is a good time to depart, with a Democratic president who has talked about local and regional food production and a first lady who has been very supportive of these issues. It is very important that the work is embraced by the secretary, by the bureaucracy. It should not depend on one person.?
There is no question that Merrigan is the most prominent Agriculture deputy secretary in memory and that she will be remembered as a singular figure with her own reputation. At her urging, USDA has instituted tough standards to protect the integrity of the organic seal, signed equivalency agreements with Canada and Europe, increased crop insurance and conservation support for organic producers, created a grant program that provides locally produced foods for school meals, used government programs to build hoop houses to extend the growing season for vegetables in cold climates, and even made the foods sold in USDA?s cafeterias healthier.
While Merrigan may have succeeded in convincing the bureaucracy that local and organic agriculture are important, her support still seems to be concentrated politically on the coasts and in college towns. But politics may follow production. Merrigan said that an interactive map she has developed at USDA shows that organic and local food production ?is alive? in Alaska, Kansas, Virginia, and other places where it does not have a high profile.
Merrigan said she is putting off job hunting until she leaves but hopes in the future to focus on the changing demographics of agriculture, including beginning farmers and land-owning widows. She also said she believes that many of the changes she instituted at USDA to help small farmers navigate the bureaucracy could be used in other agencies. ?I am not just about the substance of these issues,? she said. ?I am also a public-policy person.?
Merrigan said she made one final point to political appointees in a speech announcing her departure: She is not leaving for family reasons. She said she disagrees completely with Anne Marie Slaughter, the former State Department official who questioned in The Atlantic whether women in big jobs can have it all. Merrigan has a husband and two children and tends to her father, who is in an assisted-living facility. Unlike a woman who works at McDonald?s and has the same responsibilities, Merrigan said, she has had staff who have asked when her father had a problem what they do could do to rearrange her schedule. Calling the position of Agriculture deputy secretary ?one of the jobs of privilege,? Merrigan said, ?I don?t want anyone to say I am leaving for family reasons. It is not fair to women in the workforce.?
Contributing Editor Jerry Hagstrom is the founder and executive director of The Hagstrom Report, which may be found at www.HagstromReport.com.
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NC scraps proposed pink-striped license for some
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) ? North Carolina said Thursday it is abandoning its plan to issue pink-striped driver's licenses to certain illegal immigrants, beset by mounting criticism of the specially designed IDs.
The state learned that such licenses are easier and more efficient to produce if they're similar to the traditional licenses issued to other drivers, said spokesman Mike Charbonneau at the state Transportation Department.
"My understanding is that when we're looking at that design, at the end of the day, we had to make sure we were following the letter of the law in the most efficient way possible," Charbonneau said.
In place of the proposed pink-striped design, the license is to look like the regular license issued to citizens save for words added in bold red letters: ""LEGAL PRESENCE / NO LAWFUL STATUS" and "LIMITED TERM."
The controversial original proposal also had included the phrase "NO LAWFUL STATUS."
The state will begin issuing the licenses Monday to young adults participating in the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The Obama administration initiative grants valid federal work permits to qualified applicants brought as children to the U.S. without legal authorization.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Hispanic groups and others had criticized the pink-striped design proposal as singling out holders of that identification for possible discrimination and humiliation.
Jewish leaders also joined the outcry. Four rabbis had earlier made plans to hand-deliver a letter Friday to Gov. Pat McCrory asking him to scrap the pink-striped design. They said they would still deliver the letter anyway. It was signed by more than 70 Jewish leaders nationwide.
"Our efforts do not end when major discrimination turns into minor discrimination; it ends when we are 100 percent positive that discriminatory policies will not go into effect in our state," said Rabbi Eric Solomon of Raleigh's Beth Meyer Synagogue.
They said they were especially disturbed that the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles would begin issuing the licenses Monday, eve of the Jewish holiday Passover.
The state Attorney's General Office had said in January that state law requires the state to issue drivers' licenses to qualified applicants brought to the U.S. as children without legal authorization. State transportation officials had said they would abide by that decision, then unveiled the specially designed licenses.
McCrory had previously supported pink-striped licenses, saying in February that he signed off on what he called the "pragmatic compromise" unveiled by Transportation Secretary Tony Tata. McCrory had said the licenses must be clearly marked to prevent the bearer from accessing government services or registering to vote.
A McCrory spokeswoman said Thursday the governor supports the new design.
Raul Pinto, staff attorney with the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the official decision to adopt a standard blue-striped license was "a huge step in the right direction."
But Pinto said his group still opposes the "NO LAWFUL STATUS" tag on the licenses and will keep monitoring whether it's "going to affect people in their everyday lives."
Democratic state Rep. Rick Glazier, who opposed the pink-striped design by co-sponsoring a bill against it in the General Assembly, said the pressure of public opinion appeared to be a factor in the change of plans.
The pink-striped license was "inherently discriminatory on its face" and would have humiliated any holder, Glazier added.
The Division of Motor Vehicles sent out a news release about plans to begin issuing the licenses starting Monday, but without mentioning the decision in the release. The design change was only evident in an attachment to the emailed release.
Jose Torres-Don, 25, of Carrboro, who is applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, said he didn't really care about the style or color of the driver's license he receives.
A member of the NC Dream Team ? a group that advocates for young people brought to the U.S. unlawfully and seeking a path to citizenship ? Torres-Don said he just hopes the license uproar brings favorable attention to the plight of young people seeking proper documentation.
"What we ultimately seek is to drive without fear," he said. "We want to have a real conversation about how (being) undocumented is a problem."
___
Online:
To view new design: https://apps.ncdot.gov/newsreleases/details.aspx?r=7952
___
Martha Waggoner can be reached at http://twitter.com/mjwaggonernc
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nc-scraps-proposed-pink-striped-license-001810341.html
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Obsidian Finance Group - Summit 1031 Bankruptcy.: Investigative ...
"A dissident investor's candidate has joined the board at First Financial Northwest (FFNW) in Renton, Wash., ending a costly legal dispute.
Kevin Padrick?joined the board of $943 million-asset company on March 14, the company said Friday. Padrick is a senior principal at Obsidian Finance Group in Oregon. He will sit on First Financial's nominating and corporate governance and compensation committees, the release said.
The approval marks an end to First Financial Northwest's legal dispute with the Stilwell Group, which owns just under 10% of the company shares. The Stilwell Group had sought to invalidate the results of a June proxy vote in which Victor Karpiak became chairman of the board, defeating Stilwell's preferred candidate,?Spencer Schneider, on a technicality. The two sides settled in December. In January, Stilwell replaced Schneider with Padrick as its preferred board candidate."
Source and Full Article
http://www.americanbanker.com/people/dissident-investor-board-choice-joins-first-financial-northwest-1057618-1.html
Also note that Kevin Padrick has been named in a 100 Billion Dollar RICO / Racketeering Complaint.
http://www.crystalcox.com/2013/03/fox-manwin-porn-goldman-sachs-jason.html
Investigative Blogger Crystal Cox says, Kevin Padrick is PURE Evil. Got a Kevin Padrick Tip, Video, Document to EXPOSE, email me at?Crystal@CrystalCox.com
Kevin Padrick lied about the Summit Bankruptcy, lied about me, defamed me and sought massive whistle blower retaliation, and his connections got him a RULING for defamation against me, all my right stripped, but a man I still believe is a THUG, a Thief and Corrupt... in my Opinion, ya know because I can READ.
May you Burn in HELL Kevin Padrick,?IN MY OPINION. And may all the lives you have ruined or attempted to ruin be blessed with the white light of the Holy Spirit.
Links to research more on EVIL Asshole Kevin D. Padrick, Obsidian Finance Group
http://www.obsidianfinancesucks.com/2012/10/kevin-padricks-testimony-in-obsidian-v.html
http://www.obsidianfinancesucks.com/
http://obsidianfinancesucks.blogspot.com/
http://cascadiaproject.blogspot.com/
http://kevinpadrickobsidianfinance.blogspot.com/
http://obsidianfinancesucks.blogspot.com/2013/02/david-w-brown-obsidian-finance-group_13.html
http://pacificorpsucks.blogspot.com/
http://patriciawhittington.blogspot.com/2012/04/lets-take-look-at-obsidian-v-cox-trial.html
http://www.spencerschneider.com/
Source: http://www.obsidianfinancesucks.com/2013/03/investigative-blogger-crystal-cox-says.html
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013
The RNC Releases Its Recommendations to Rebrand the Party; Mia Love Staffs Up For a Possible Rematch
Click hereto read online and see our archives.
WHAT'S NEWS
- The RNC's "Growth & Opportunity Project" released its recommendations this a.m., calling on the party to find immigration solutions, engage minorities, young people and women, reduce the number of presidential debates, hold a quarterly summit of GOP pollsters and move the convention to June or July (Hotline reporting).
- Pres. Obama will nominate asst. AG Tom Perez as the new Secretary of Labor today. If confirmed, he'll be "the only Latino in Obama's second-term Cabinet" (Los Angeles Times).
- MA SEN Special: Rep. Stephen Lynch (D) released a new TV ad playing up his relatability, while implying that voters "cannot relate so easily" to Rep. Edward Markey (D) (Boston Globe).
- NYC Mayor '13: Comptroller John Liu (D) brushed his "legal troubles" aside and "officially began his campaign," criticizing Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) for addressing the needs of the "1 percent" over the "100 percent" (New York Times).
- IA SEN: Rep. Steve King (R) said he will "conduct polling over the next few weeks to see where he would stand" before making a final decision about running, adding that he felt energized post-CPAC (CNN).
- LA SEN: LG Jay Dardenne (R) will not run. Dardenne: "This fell in my lap. ... I love what I'm doing and I will continue to do that for the balance of my term" (LAPolitics.com).
- UT-04: '12 nominee Mia Love (R) has hired ex-UT GOP chair Dave Hansen, who "successfully ran" Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R) reelection, for a potential rematch with Rep. Jim Matheson (D) (Salt Lake Tribune).
- AZ GOV: '12 SEN nominee Richard Carmona (D) "says he will not run." Carmona: "I'm not ready to say I'll never do it again, but this time, it just isn't the right time" (Arizona Republic).
- OH GOV: Rep. Tim Ryan (D) will not mount a bid, preferring to retain his spot on the House Appropriations Cmte (On Call).
- WH '16: WI Gov. Scott Walker (R) acknowledged "that he?s open" to a bid and "pointedly declined to pledge to serve a full four-year term" if reelected (Politico). Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) won the CPAC straw poll (National Journal). MD Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) wrote an op-ed for Politico this a.m. about his push to end the death penalty.
OUR CALL
Hotline editors weigh in on the stories that drive the day
? Republicans must learn how to defeat Democratic senators with nominees that aren't pulled from the congressional delegation. Of the mere 6 Democrats who have lost since the '90s, 5 were knocked off by sitting or former GOP congressmen.
? Steve King's defenders say he's no Todd Akin, but his CPAC appearance likely did little to reassure Republicans who see another Senate race implosion brewing in Iowa. He argued for a renewed focus on social issues, rejected GOP "rebranding" and even recalled his frustration at Ronald Reagan's "amnesty act." King won his own way in his 2012 House race, and GOPers shouldn't expect his message to change if he runs statewide.
? One big shoe in the Arizona GOV race has dropped, with Richard Carmona deciding not to run. The next one might involve Gov. Jan Brewer, though maybe not in the most obvious way. It seems unlikely that Brewer will try to run for another term, though she's speculated that she still could under AZ's term limit law. But her Medicaid expansion plan has fomented a civil war in the state GOP, one that could expand into the GOP governor's primary depending on what stances Brewer's potential successors take.
? Anthony Weiner's $100K+ polling and research expenditure comprises the vast majority of his spending over the past two months. As the polls were reportedly conducted in late January, the fact he didn't make any significant outlays after that suggests he didn't like the numbers he got back.
HAIR OF THE DOG
"Phoenix-bound dog ends up on flight to Ireland" (AP).
FRESH BREWED BUZZ
- Ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner's (D-NY) dormant NYC mayoral campaign paid more than $100K to a San Francisco-based polling firm earlier this month, suggesting he was contemplating a return to politics in this year's elections (On Call). Liu: "That's a lot of money to spend on polls. ... I think he should run. Just stop texting" (CBS New York).
- "The Five Candidates Most Likely to Take On Mark Sanford" (On Call).
- Ex-WA Gov. Booth Gardner (D) died on Friday at age 76 after a long battle with Parkinson's (AP).
- "I don't think I'm a particularly good candidate -- sort of a balding, fat guy. And second of all, I'd say if I did run for office and win, I would serve out my term. I wouldn't leave office mid-term" -- ex-Bush adviser Karl Rove, on ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) telling him to return to TX and run for office ("Fox News Sunday").
- Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is giving away a trip to L.A. to a "lucky supporter," who will get to join him and comedian Conan O'Brien for brunch early next month (release).
- "I still have the dent in my filing cabinet that I kicked it after I heard the news that he had signed the amnesty act of 1986" -- King, discussing his frustrations with Ronald Reagan at CPAC (On Call).
- "History Channel's Satan Looks A Lot Like Barack Obama" (BuzzFeed).
- "'So who's your favorite for 2016?' -- that's [the line] everyone [is using]" -- CPAC attendee Megan Roberts, on flirting at the conference (ABC News).
- Jake Tapper's new show, "The Lead" debuts on CNN at 4 p.m. (Washington Post).
SWIZZLE CHALLENGE
- Zachary Taylor is the only U.S. president to be elected from Louisiana.
- The winner is Zachary Stokes, and here's his Swizzle Challenge: "What award-winning, box office smash was released on video cassette with a green plastic casing to combat piracy?" The 3rd correct e-mailer gets to submit the next question.
NJ'S EARLY BIRD SPECIALS
SHOT...
"Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller has lost the office suite his staff tried so hard to keep to Sen. Jerry Moran, the Kansas Republican's office confirmed Friday" (Roll Call).
...CHASER
"I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll have to -- I'll set the building on fire" -- Milton Waddams ("Office Space").
Sarah Mimms, Editor
Nigeria: French hostage and family in new video
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) ? A man who appears to be a French hostage held by Islamic extremists has appeared in a video filmed three days ago, in the second recording released since he and his family were kidnapped on Feb. 19 in northern Cameroon.
The video's audio airs a man's voice that identifies himself as Tanguy Moulin-Fournier. He says that his family is being held by the Islamic radical sect known as Boko Haram which wants all its members freed, especially women and children held in Nigerian and Cameroonian custody.
Boko Haram is an Islamic extremist group that has been waging a campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's north. They are held responsible for more than 790 deaths last year alone, and dozens more since the beginning of this year.
"We lose force (strength) every day and start to be sick; we will not stay very long like this," Moulin-Fournier says in the recording.
The family has been held hostage for 25 days, he says in a shaky voice, giving the only date indication on the recording. The family comprising of Tanguy, his brother, his wife and their four children was kidnapped outside a national park in Cameroon's Far North region.
The video was not immediately available, but a media source who viewed it says it shows the Moulin-Fournier family, including the four children. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
"They will not be able to get the seven hostages unless they free our members," one of the family's captors says in the recording, speaking in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north.
This is the second video showing the family since another video was posted on YouTube three weeks ago. But their health and spirits appear to be deteriorating.
"The living conditions are very hard," Moulin-Fournier said, "(heat), water, food, sleep, life in the desert, et cetera--conditions even more difficult for the white men that we are who are not used to the African (heat) and for the kids."
The video comes days after French foreign minister Laurent Fabius visited Nigeria and Cameroon as part of a campaign to get the hostages freed. He said that, in addition to the family of seven, extremists also hold an eighth French national who had been working on a renewable energy project in northern Nigeria. It is not clear which extremist group currently holds the French engineer kidnapped on Dec. 19.
Fabius said he had been working with Nigerian and Cameroonian authorities using an approach that he described as "determined and discrete."
The hostage situation is exacerbated by the recent killings of other foreign hostages held by a splinter group of Boko Haram.
European diplomats said those seven foreign workers who had been kidnapped from northern Nigeria on Feb. 16 had been killed by their captors after a video showing some of the corpses was made public. The killings stoked fears about the extremists' readiness to execute their captives in a country better known for quick ransom kidnappings.
However, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan told journalists Monday that all seven hostages, including two Lebanese nationals, one citizen each from the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy, and two people now believed to have been Syrian, may not be dead. Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, who visited President Jonathan in Abuja Monday, said that he still had hopes that the hostages would be freed.
"And that if they are killed," Jonathan said, "I insisted (during his meeting with Lebanese counterpart) that we must get their corpses."
___
Associated Press reporters Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, Nigeria and Bashir Adigun in Abuja contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-french-hostage-family-video-171414745.html
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Saturday, March 16, 2013
Implementing HPV vaccinations at a young age is significant for vaccine effectiveness
Implementing HPV vaccinations at a young age is significant for vaccine effectiveness
Thursday, March 14, 2013Initial vaccinations for human papillomavirus (HPV) at a young age is important for maximizing quadrivalent HPV vaccine effectiveness according to a Swedish study published March 13 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
HPV vaccination programs have been launched around the world in hopes of preventing cervical cancer and other HPV-related cancers. While incidence of genital warts is the earliest possible disease outcome to measure the efficacy of the HPV vaccine, the results of such efficacy trials may not be fully generalizable to real-life HPV vaccination programs. Furthermore, incidence of genital warts after on-demand vaccination with quadrivalent HPV vaccine using individual-level data remains unknown.
In order to determine the efficacy of maximizing HPV vaccines at a young age, Amy Leval, R.N., of the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and colleagues, looked at a cohort of females ages 10 to 44 years living in Sweden between 2006-2010 who were linked to multiple population registers to identify genital warts incidence in relation to HPV vaccination. Incidence rate ratios of genital warts were estimated using time-to-event analyses with adjustment for attained age and parental education level, stratified by age at first vaccination.
The researchers found that of the cohort, females with at least one university-educated parent were 15 times more likely to be vaccinated for HPV before age 20 years than females whose parents had not completed high school. For females over the age of 20, the rates of genital warts incidence decreased among the unvaccinated, suggesting that women with a high risk of genital warts favorably used HPV vaccines. The authors note their limitations, however, saying, "Interpreting the crude estimates of effectiveness for those aged 20 years or older at first vaccination is difficult because we found evidence suggesting a self-selection bias with women at high risk preferentially seeking vaccination."
In an accompanying editorial, Jennifer S. Smith, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, and Elisabete Weiderpass, Ph.D., of Karolinska Institutet, write that the low HPV vaccination coverage before the national school-based program in Sweden was implemented gave the opportunity to compare the incidence of genital warts in vaccinated cohorts with that in unvaccinated cohorts. "Future studies in Sweden?and elsewhere where HPV vaccine coverage rates are high in target populations, such as Australia and Canada?may need to compare vaccinated birth cohorts with older birth cohorts that were previously unvaccinated to evaluate the impact of vaccination on the population level."
###
Journal of the National Cancer Institute: http://jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org
Thanks to Journal of the National Cancer Institute for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Friday, March 15, 2013
Saner Named Seminary, Bible and Religion Professor - EMU News ...
Andrea Saner was named assistant professor of Old Testament and Hebrew language. Saner is the first faculty to be an official joint hire between the undergraduate Bible and religion department and EMS. (Photo by Lindsey Kolb)
Posted on March 14th, 2013
Andrea Saner will help Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) and undergraduate students find the connections between the ancient texts of the Old Testament and our modern world and church life. The newest member of the Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) and seminary faculty, Saner has been named as assistant professor of Old Testament and Hebrew language.
?My favorite moment in teaching is when students realize that even though the Old Testament is thousands of years old, the texts talk about subjects that are still very important to us today? said Saner. ?In these moments students learn that reading these old texts is still a crucial formative and informative practice for the community of faith today.?
A joint venture
Saner is the first faculty to be an official joint hire between the undergraduate Bible and religion department and EMS.
?During my campus visit, I was impressed and stimulated by the engagement of faculty, students and staff with my research and teaching, which suggests the learning environments of EMS and the EMU Bible and religion department are energetic and exciting,? said Saner.
?I?m very excited to get to teach both seminary students and undergraduates, because seminary and college students ask different sorts of questions.?
Peter Dula, chair of the Bible and religion department at EMU, said, ?Andrea is a scholar of the Old Testament, capable of technical exegesis as well as theological interpretation of scripture. She is also a gifted theologian who has written on both sixteenth century Anabaptism and on Augustine. That kind of range is rare anywhere in the academy, not just at EMS.?
Michael King, vice president and seminary dean, said upon Saner?s hiring, ?For the seminary, hiring Andrea makes even clearer that EMS is entering an exciting era of developing a core faculty team that integrates the wisdom, experience and mentoring gifts of our longer-career faculty and the energies and visions of early-career faculty. I see this contributing to leading-edge perspectives at a time of major transitions in culture, church and higher education.?
Education in peacemaking
Saner said, ?I?m very glad to be at an institution that is committed to following Jesus Christ in faithful witness, compassionate service and nonviolent living.
?There is much that Christians can learn about justice from the Old Testament. The Torah gives provision for the vulnerable in society and there is a consistent witness in the Old Testament for the need to trust God rather than human, military strength. But at the same time the Old Testament may not conform entirely to what a twenty-first century Christian might expect a pacifist text to look like.
?Education in peacemaking is not only about what one teaches, but how one teaches; a good classroom is one in which students respect one another?s viewpoints and experiences, especially when they disagree.?
Saner graduated from Messiah College in 2005, and earned her master of arts in theological studies, Biblical theology and ethics from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 2008. She is currently finishing her PhD in Old Testament at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Her dissertation is titled ?YHWH, the Trinity, and the Literal Sense: Theological Interpretation of Exodus 3:13-15?
Source: http://emu.edu/now/news/2013/03/saner-named-seminary-bible-and-religion-professor/
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Comcast, networks collaborate on TV binge week
This undated publicity photo provided by PBS shows Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess, left, and Shirley MacLaine as Martha Levinson from the TV series, "Downton Abbey." Carnival Films and MASTERPIECE on PBS today announced that six new cast names are joining the series plus the return of Shirley MacLaine for next season's finale. The Hollywood star, who reprises her role as Martha Levinson, proved a huge hit with viewers last year. (AP Photo/PBS, Carnival Film & Television Limited 2012 for MASTERPIECE, Nick Briggs)
This undated publicity photo provided by PBS shows Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess, left, and Shirley MacLaine as Martha Levinson from the TV series, "Downton Abbey." Carnival Films and MASTERPIECE on PBS today announced that six new cast names are joining the series plus the return of Shirley MacLaine for next season's finale. The Hollywood star, who reprises her role as Martha Levinson, proved a huge hit with viewers last year. (AP Photo/PBS, Carnival Film & Television Limited 2012 for MASTERPIECE, Nick Briggs)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The nation's largest cable company is planning a television "watchathon" for the last week of March, collaborating with several television networks to make entire series available for free on demand.
The Comcast Corp.'s plan encourages binge viewing, where people spend hours catching up on television series they may have missed the first time around and serves as a grand look into what may be the future of TV viewing.
Comcast has convinced more than 30 TV networks to make their programming available for the March 25-31 promotion. More than 3,500 television episodes will be offered, said Matt Strauss, senior vice president of digital and emerging platforms for Comcast.
"We're at an inflection point in how people watch television," he said.
Broadcast networks like ABC and CBS generally make only the four most recent episodes of a series available to on demand services. For the promotion, participating networks will make all of a season's episodes available for people to catch up on viewing.
Comcast customers will also have free access to premium networks like HBO and Showtime, which they would normally pay extra for, during the promotion. In many cases, entire histories of programs like "Game of Thrones," ''Homeland" and "Girls" will be available, along with some old series like "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos."
The sheer size of Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, is what gives the experiment its resonance. Roughly 20 percent of the nation's television households are Comcast customers.
For the television networks, the experiment offers viewers a chance to catch up with or get acquainted with series they might not have followed. Lately, series like "The Walking Dead" are increasing in ratings in a way that indicates many people are watching past episodes during lulls in the series and getting hooked.
For the premium networks, the special week might also encourage more customers to pay for their service if they try, and like, some series that they might not have been exposed to, Strauss said.
All of the programs will be available to Comcast customers on mobile devices and tablets as well as television. The company is encouraging greater use of its application that allows viewing everywhere, a product that has started more slowly than people expected. Networks might also be encouraged to make more of their programming available on demand if the week is successful, he said.
Networks might have been concerned about losing some of its live audience to on-demand programming, but the week before Easter is generally slow with a lot of reruns being aired.
"We really see this as a collaboration where we are all partners," Strauss said.
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New study on UTIs suggests flagellin is key in stimulating body's natural defences
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Public release date: 15-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Ivanka Moerkerken
i.moerkerken@uroweb.org
31-026-389-0680
European Association of Urology
Arnhem, 11 March 2013 - A new study by British scientists reveals that motile Escherichia coli isolates demonstrated significant activation of NF-?B signaling suggesting that flagellin plays a key role in up-regulating the host innate defences against urinary tract infections (UTIs).
UTIs are commonly caused by Escherichia coli. The host innate defences function to protect the uro-epithelium from microbial assault via a variety of mechanisms. These include NF-?B signalling pathways activated via cell-surface Toll-like-receptors responding to bacterial pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Flagellin, a protein responsible for bacterial motility, is a key activating PAMP.
The study, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Newcastle University in the UK, investigated the motility of 24 clinical isolates associated with UTIs and their ability to activate NF-kB. The scientists aimed to examine the relationship between flagellin expression and host response.
"Research into the causes and treatment of urinary tract infection (UTI) is vital at this time as the incidence of UTI and bacteriuria are increasing with an aging population," commented Mr. Ased Ali of Newcastle University's Institute of Cellular Medicine and the study's presenting author.
"There is rapidly growing resistance exhibited by organisms, especially E. coli, to conventional antimicrobials which makes infections potentially more and more difficult to treat," he explained. "This is confounded by the fact that there have been no new classes of antibiotics to treat Gram-negative bacilli like E. coli for more than 40 years. It is amazing that the fluoroquinolones were the last new class of antibiotics to treat Gram-negative bacilli! Our ultimate aim is to develop agents that enhance the immune response and help the body defend itself better as an alternative to conventional antibiotics which work against the pathogen alone."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 15-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Ivanka Moerkerken
i.moerkerken@uroweb.org
31-026-389-0680
European Association of Urology
Arnhem, 11 March 2013 - A new study by British scientists reveals that motile Escherichia coli isolates demonstrated significant activation of NF-?B signaling suggesting that flagellin plays a key role in up-regulating the host innate defences against urinary tract infections (UTIs).
UTIs are commonly caused by Escherichia coli. The host innate defences function to protect the uro-epithelium from microbial assault via a variety of mechanisms. These include NF-?B signalling pathways activated via cell-surface Toll-like-receptors responding to bacterial pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Flagellin, a protein responsible for bacterial motility, is a key activating PAMP.
The study, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Newcastle University in the UK, investigated the motility of 24 clinical isolates associated with UTIs and their ability to activate NF-kB. The scientists aimed to examine the relationship between flagellin expression and host response.
"Research into the causes and treatment of urinary tract infection (UTI) is vital at this time as the incidence of UTI and bacteriuria are increasing with an aging population," commented Mr. Ased Ali of Newcastle University's Institute of Cellular Medicine and the study's presenting author.
"There is rapidly growing resistance exhibited by organisms, especially E. coli, to conventional antimicrobials which makes infections potentially more and more difficult to treat," he explained. "This is confounded by the fact that there have been no new classes of antibiotics to treat Gram-negative bacilli like E. coli for more than 40 years. It is amazing that the fluoroquinolones were the last new class of antibiotics to treat Gram-negative bacilli! Our ultimate aim is to develop agents that enhance the immune response and help the body defend itself better as an alternative to conventional antibiotics which work against the pathogen alone."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/eaou-nso031113.php
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British inquest into Kremlin critic's death delayed to October
By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's long-awaited inquest into the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has been delayed again and will not begin until October, the coroner overseeing the case said on Thursday.
Robert Owen, a senior judge acting as coroner, said Britain's main suspect, Andrei Lugovoy - a former security agent who is now a member of Russia's parliament - was wrong to refuse to cooperate with his investigation.
Litvinenko, 43, who had been granted British citizenship, died after someone slipped polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope, into his cup of tea at a plush London hotel in 2006.
In a deathbed statement, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder, a claim Russia has denied. British police and prosecutors say there is evidence to charge former KGB agents Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun with murder.
An inquest, which under British law must be held when someone dies unexpectedly to determine the circumstances, was due to start on May 1, having already been postponed for years.
But after hearing that evidence, including 60 volumes amounting to some 15,000 pages of documents from the Investigative Committee of Russia, would not be ready in time, Owen said he would postpone his inquiry until October 2.
"There can be no departure from that date," Owen told a pre-inquest hearing at London's Royal Courts of Justice.
Addressing Litvinenko's widow Marina, he said: "I'm acutely aware that this will come as a great disappointment to you that this matter will be deferred for a further five months."
Ties between Britain and Russia fell to a post-Cold War low following Litvinenko's death, but British Prime Minister David Cameron has sought better relations since taking office in 2010.
The two countries' foreign and defense ministers met in London on Wednesday in the latest effort to improve diplomatic links, after which no public mention of Litvinenko was made.
SECRET MATERIAL
Another pre-inquest hearing last month heard that Britain had requested that material relating to the death should now be kept secret in the interests of national security.
That prompted accusations from the lawyer for Litvinenko's family that Britain was trying to cover up his work for its MI6 intelligence service, as well as material that showed Moscow was behind his death to protect Russian trade deals.
On Tuesday Lugovoy, who denies any involvement in the death, said he would no longer cooperate with the inquest, accusing the British government of concealing evidence.
"I have come to the conclusion that the British authorities will not give me a chance to prove my innocence," said Lugovoy, 46, who had appointed lawyers to represent him at the inquiry.
However, Owen said Lugovoy was "simply wrong" in his assessment. He told the hearing he had not yet decided whether any evidence would be withheld and said any such material could not then form any part of his conclusions.
"It would appear from that assertion that he does not understand the concept of the independence of the judiciary...," said Owen, adding he would give his conclusion on the British government's request in the next two weeks.
After the hearing, Marina Litvinenko said she was not surprised by the delay to the inquest nor Lugovoy's decision.
"I still believe in British justice," she told reporters.
However, Alexander Goldfarb, a close friend of Litvinenko, said he suspected Lugovoy had only cooperated in the first place so he could see the evidence which the police had against him which was made available to all parties involved in the inquest.
"His decision to pull out should also be viewed in that context," he said.
(Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/british-inquest-kremlin-critics-death-delayed-october-162415972.html
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Thursday, March 14, 2013
Wall Street fed up with declining bonsues
Two of every five Wall Street workers are ready to head elsewhere, and higher pay may not even help.
A new survey shows that 41 percent of financial service workers want out, due to declining bonuses that in turn helped drop salaries 18 percent in 2012.
In fact, hopes have turned from an increase in bonuses, which have long fueled salary structure on the Street, to higher base salaries, according to the survey of 1,431 workers by eFinancialCareers.
"We've hit the pain point on compensation," a narrative accompanying the survey said.
Read More: Fed Gets Ready to Judge Big Bank Plans
Just 11 percent of respondents said they were "very satisfied" with their salaries while 37 percent reported being either somewhat or very dissatisfied.
Front-office workers suffered the most, losing 21 percent in earnings compared to 2011. Among firms, sell-side outfits got burned the worst, seeing a 24 percent slide in total earnings during the a period where the stock market performed well.
Wall Street rookies also took it hard, with a 22 percent drop in base salary.
The survey also reported an uptick in respondents who said, when asked what would convince them to stay put, that "nothing would change my mind."
Read More: Major Changes Under Way at Goldman Sachs
The upshot of the survey is that it is likely going to get tougher for Wall Street firms to retain talent.
"Talent is the life-blood of financial services. Recruiting and retaining talent is the mantra you hear in the halls of human resources," the survey's authors said. "These findings point to harder times ahead to get - and keep - the talent on the bus."
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/wall-street-fed-declining-bonsues-1C8874179
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Can we refund an employee's pretax contribution for a transit pass ...
Question: An employee had pretax deductions made from her pay for mass transit passes. She terminated in the middle of January with a balance in her account, which she now wants refunded. Can we do this? If we can, how do we tax the refund?
Answer: You?re off the hook. Refunds of pretax contributions can?t be made to any employee. Under the tax regs, employees can?t revoke their pretax deductions after the beginning of the period (usually a month) for which a pass is provided. Revocations would trigger constructive receipt and, therefore, taxes, since employees could choose whether to receive a benefit or cash.
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Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Scientists on hunt for new species
12 March 2013
Last updated at 11:32 ET
A Chester Zoo team is set to visit a remote, mountainous region in Nigeria to assess what species live in an area where few surveys have been conducted.
They will carry out the first biodiversity assessment in the Gashaka Gumti National Park.
The area is said to be home to the last viable population of the endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti).
A 12-strong team from the zoo includes security and maintenance staff.
"Obviously it would be great to find a big, sexy bug or frog but it is hard to tell you how likely that will be because we do not know what is there," explained Chester Zoo director general Mark Pilgrim.
"But there is a good chance that there are a lot of things there that we currently do not know about.
"Whether it is a brightly coloured big thing or not, we will have to wait and see."
The team was hoping to leave immediately but has had to delay its departure because of the murders of foreign nationals by a Nigerian Islamist militant group at the weekend.
Biodiversity hotspot
The park, located in eastern Nigerian on the border with Cameroon, is the country's largest national park and is considered to be one of the continent's most important biodiversity hotspots.
Continue reading the main storyNigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee
- Scientific name: Pan troglodytes ellioti
- Global population: 6,500 (estimated)
- One of four subspecies of chimpanzee
- Found predominantly in moist and dry forests
- Omnivores - fruit comprises about half of their diet, but leaves, bark, and stems are also important
- Mammals comprise a small but significant component of the diet of many populations
- Chimpanzees form social communities of 5 to 150 animals
(Source: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species)
Dr Pilgrim said that the zoo had been funding the core support facilities a research field camp in the park for more than a decade, but was now becoming directly involved.
"The field camp was mainly set up to look at and protect the Nigerian chimpanzee, which is a sub-population of chimpanzee," Dr Pilgrim added.
The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee is under threat.
Conservationists say that high levels of exploitation, loss of habitat and habitat degradation has led to the species experiencing a "significant population reduction" over the past 20-30 years.
The total population is estimated to be in the region of 6,500, with up to 1,500 found in the Gashaka Gumti National Park.
It is one of four subspecies of the primate, although some recent research suggest that the differences between the subspecies are too small to warrant such classifications.
The camp allows about 20 students each year to work on projects researching the area's population of primates, led by Prof Volker Sommer from University College London.
Dr Pilgrim told BBC News that the presence of the research projects was "what helps protect the forests".
"By having these strange foreigners wandering around, looking for primates is what keeps the forest safe," he observed.
As the zoo would become more involved in the field project, Dr Pilgrim said that it was also an opportunity to widen the focus of the research carried out from the camp.
"Of course, the flagship research remains the Nigerian chimpanzee, which is what makes the area so special and important.
"But because the zoo has wider expertise than that, we are taking out a range of experts to also look at the frogs, birds, small mammals etc because those areas have had very little in the way of surveys in the past."
"This is really the first biodiversity assessment of this forest."
Dr Pilgrim said that he hoped the data gathered during the the field trips will allow partnerships to be forged with scientists working in Nigerian universities.
"For example, it may be that we turn up a number of strange beetles that we do not have the expertise to identify," he suggested.
"This will be an intense, short trip but there will be more follow-up trips to get some really strong scientific papers out of the project."
On Tuesday afternoon, Chester Zoo announced that a decision had been taken to postpone the trip following news at the weekend that a Nigerian Islamist militant group had killed seven foreign hostages.
A spokeswoman for the zoo said: "It is fair to say the safety of the group was paramount in that decision and it wasn't made easily."
She added that a new date for the trip had yet to be decided.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21741911#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Ryan's budget: GOP takes aim at Dem spending plans
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., holds up a copy of the House Budget Committee 2014 Budget Resolution as he speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., holds up a copy of the House Budget Committee 2014 Budget Resolution as he speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama, escorted by Senate Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer, waves as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, to visit with Senate Democrats in the first of four meetings with lawmakers this week to discuss the budget. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., gestures as he speaks about the 2014 Budget Resolution, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
One of President Barack Obama's motorcade vehicles is seen parked in front of the US Capitol Building in Washington, Tuesday, March 12, 2013. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to visit with Senate Democrats in the first of four meetings with lawmakers this week to discuss the budget. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama, escorted by Senate Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer, waves as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, to visit with Senate Democrats in the first of four meetings with lawmakers this week to discuss the budget. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Republicans redoubled their efforts to roll back signature accomplishments of President Barack Obama on Tuesday, offering a slashing budget plan that would repeal new health care subsidies and cut spending across a wide swath of programs dear to Obama and his Democratic allies.
The GOP plan was immediately rejected by the White House as an approach that "just doesn't add up" and would harm America's middle class. Obama has rebuffed similar plans two years in a row and ran strongly against the ideas when winning re-election last year ? when its chief author, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was on the Republican ticket.
Ryan's budget illustrates the stark differences in the visions of tea party-backed Republicans and Obama and his Democratic allies about the size and role of government ? with no obvious avenues for compromise.
Senate Democrats are responding with a milder plan that would repeal automatic spending cuts that began to take effect earlier this month while offering $100 billion in new spending for infrastructure and job training. The Democratic counter won't be officially unveiled until Wednesday, but its rough outlines were described by aides. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to describe it publicly.
That plan by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., would raise taxes by almost $1 trillion over a decade and cut spending by almost $1 trillion over the same period. But more half of the combined deficit savings would be used to repeal the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that began to hit the economy earlier this month and are slated to continue through the decade.
All this was in the works as Obama trekked to the Capitol to join Senate Democrats for their weekly closed-door policy luncheon as part of his bipartisan outreach efforts to lawmakers in both House and Senate on the budget. Obama is pressing for a "grand bargain" that would attract more moderate elements from both parties ? even as this week's competing budget presentations are tailored to appeal strictly along party lines.
Obama meets with House Republicans on Wednesday.
At issue is the arcane and partisan congressional budget process, which involves a unique, non-binding measure called a budget resolution. When the process works as designed ? which is rarely ? budget resolutions have the potential to stake out parameters for follow-up legislation specifying spending and rewriting the complex U.S. tax code.
But this year's dueling GOP and Democratic budget proposals are more about defining political differences ? as if last year's elections didn't do enough of that ? than charting a path toward a solution.
"If you look at the two budgets, there's not a lot of overlap," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, top Democrat on the Budget Committee. He said the lack of "common ground" makes it necessary to make uncomfortable compromises.
One such compromise might be to adopt a stingier inflation adjustment for Social Security cost-of-living increases and the indexing of income tax brackets. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, pressed for the new inflation measure in both sets of his failed previous budget negotiations with Obama, and the idea was favorably discussed in the "supercommittee" negotiations chaired by Murray in the fall of 2010.
But this "chained CPI" idea is nowhere to be found in either the Ryan or Murray budgets. Obama did propose the idea in his meeting with Senate Democrats ? but only as an element of a broader deficit-reduction pact in which Republicans would yield on approving new tax revenues.
"The president was pretty clear that there are pieces of the Social Security system he is willing to talk about. But's he's going to need some give from Republicans, as we all are," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
Driving the House GOP plan is a promise to pass a budget that would balance the government's books, which the measure would achieve by cutting $756 billion over 10 years from the Medicaid health program for the poor and disabled, cutting deeply into the day-to-day budgets of domestic agencies and repealing new health coverage subsidies enacted two years ago with Obama's signature health care bill.
In last year's presidential campaign, Ryan ran against both Obama's promise to raise tax rates on the wealthy and more than $700 billion worth of cuts to Medicare providers. But now, Ryan claims that money to help balance the budget ? as well as about $1 trillion in taxes over a decade passed by Democrats as part of Obama's health care overhaul.
"We're not going to refight the past, because we know that that's behind us," Ryan told reporters on Tuesday.
Ryan is moving on to a new battle over the annual cap for the 12 spending bills that Congress is supposed to pass each year. His budget assumes that the $1 trillion in savings over the coming nine years from controversial automatic spending cuts, just now starting, much of the money coming from the day-to-day agency budgets for the Pentagon and domestic agencies, will stay in effect.
Ryan, however, would restore those cuts to the Pentagon and instead makes domestic agencies absorb them. This double-whammy means, for instance, that non-defense appropriations would be limited to $414 billion next year ? which is $55 billion below the caps already mandated under the automatic cuts. That would likely mean gridlock when it comes time to advance appropriations bills this summer.
Ryan's plan promises to cut the deficit from $845 billion this year to $528 billion in the 2014 budget year that starts in October. The deficit would drop to $125 billion in 2015 and hover pretty much near balance for several years before registering a $7 billion surplus in 2023.
The White House weighed in against the Ryan plan, saying it would turn Medicare into a voucher program and protect the wealthy from tax increases.
"While the House Republican budget aims to reduce the deficit, the math just doesn't add up," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. "Deficit reduction that asks nothing from the wealthiest Americans has serious consequences for the middle class."
Ryan has also revived a controversial plan that would, starting in 2024 for workers born in 1959 or after, replace traditional Medicare with a voucherlike government subsidy for people to buy health insurance on the open market. Critics of the plan say the subsidies wouldn't grow with inflation fast enough and would shove thousands of dollars in higher premiums onto seniors before very long.
Meanwhile, the Senate turned Tuesday to a bipartisan, almost 600-page measure for the ongoing fiscal year that serves as the legislative vehicle to fund the day-to-day operations of government through Sept. 30 ? and prevent a government shutdown when current funding runs out March 27.
Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and John McCain, R-Ariz., held up the official start of debate on the measure, complaining that they hadn't had enough time to scrutinize it. The two are longtime thorns in the side of senators on the powerful Appropriations Committee.
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