UPS offers regulators concessions on TNT bid

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? United Parcel Service Inc. says it has offered the European Union's regulatory watchdog some concessions in its proposed ?5.16 million ($6.8 billion) takeover of TNT Express NV.

UPS said the remedies involve the small package delivery sector and "comprise the sale of business activities and assets, in combination with granting access to air capabilities," but didn't release any information as to how this could affect the deal financially.

UPS offered to buy the struggling TNT, Europe's second-largest delivery company, in May. It hopes to bulk up its European operations to compete with the biggest express company in Europe, Deutsche Post and its DHL arm.

In October, regulators said they were worried the UPS deal would lead to over-concentration in the sector, with the only other remaining large competitor FedEx Corp.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-11-30-Netherlands-UPS-TNT/id-bfc4ab653a50430cad5fd83710bf9d7a

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FunTab Pro 7? kid-friendly Android tablet

QVC is offering the FunTab Pro 7″ Android tablet (4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS) for $149.96 as their special value for today (Nov. 30, 2012). ?The tablet has a 7″?800 X 480-resolution display with a capacitive multi-touch screen, 1GB processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage (expandable via microSD card), built-in WiFi, and?0.3-megapixel front camera and 2.0-megapixel [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/11/30/funtab-pro-7-kid-friendly-android-tablet/

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Solar System's Moons May Have Emerged from Long-Gone Planetary Rings

Ancient, Saturn-like ring systems may have acted as assembly lines for natural satellites

By John Matson

MOON SEEDS: An artist's conception depicts an ancient ring system releasing newly formed moonlets into orbit around Neptune. Image: Courtesy Frederic Durillon/Animea

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch," as Carl Sagan once said, "you must first invent the universe." And if you wish to make a moon from scratch, according to new research, you must first create planets with rings (after inventing the universe, of course).

Earth?s moon may have emerged from a long-vanished ring system, much like the rings still encircling Saturn ? and the same goes for many of the satellites orbiting the other planets. The bulk of the solar system?s regular satellites?those moons that stick close to their planets in roughly equatorial orbits?formed this way, rather than taking shape simultaneously with the planets as a direct result of planet formation, French astrophysicists have concluded. The researchers reported their findings in the November 30 issue of Science.

?It?s fundamentally the same process that gave birth to the moon and to the satellites of the giant planets, and that?s the spreading of rings,? says astrophysicist Aur?lien Crida of the University of Nice?Sophia Antipolis and the Observatory of C?te d?Azur in France, who co-authored the study with S?bastien Charnoz of the University of Paris?Diderot.

Through theoretical modeling, the researchers found that the moon-formation action begins at the edge of a planetary ring, where a satellite can take shape without being shredded by the gravitational pull of the planet. There, moonlets coagulate from the ring material before migrating outward. As the ring system spits out moonlet after moonlet, the small objects merge to form larger moons, which may merge in turn as they spiral outward from the planet.

The idea of a moonlet assembly line differs from the standard conception of satellite birth, in which moons condense along with their host planet from a swirling cloud of dust and gas, much like the planets themselves are thought to have taken shape around the nascent sun. The solar-system-in-miniature concept seems to work well for the largest moons, such as Jupiter?s four so-called Galilean satellites, but the retinue of smaller moons circling the other giant planets ?have so far been considered a by-product,? Crida says.

The new hypothesis seems to explain a key commonality among the regular satellites of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune ? namely, that moons farther from their respective planets tend to have larger masses than their closer-in neighbors. Like a snowball rolling downhill, the coalescing moons would grow larger and larger as they drift farther from the planet and its rings, undergoing progressively more mergers along the way. The end result is a neatly ordered satellite system, with small moons on the inside built from few moonlets and large moons farther out built from numerous moonlets.

?I think the best thing about this work is that they explain this link between the mass of the moon and the orbital distance, which was known before but not understood,? says planetary scientist David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., who did not contribute to the new research. ?If you had asked me a few years ago, I would think of our moon?s formation and the formation of the satellites of the outer planets differently,? he adds. ?This theory puts things on common ground.?

Planetary scientists generally accept that a giant impact into the newly formed Earth ejected a huge cloud of material that became the moon. In Crida and Charnoz?s conception, that ejecta first flattened into a ring around the planet, which then spread out and coagulated into the moon. But unlike Saturn?s ring, which would have leaked out numerous moonlets to form several moons, Earth?s relatively massive ring would have poured all its material into one large satellite before dissipating. ?It spreads very fast,? Crida says of Earth?s hypothesized ring. ?And if it spreads fast, only one moon has time to form.?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a879492a97be42d423b394a59febad9f

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Health officials warn of spiraling HIV in Athens

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Health officials warn that the Greek capital is seeing an alarming increase in new HIV infections, particularly among intravenous drug users, as the country struggles through a protracted financial crisis in which funding has been slashed for health care and drug treatment programs.

Officials said while there were about 10-14 new HIV infections per year among Athens drug users from 2008 to 2010, that number shot up to 206 new cases last year and 487 new cases by October this year ? a 35-fold increase.

Epidemiology and preventive medicine professor Angelos Hatzakis described the situation as a "big and rapidly developing epidemic in Athens."

Marc Sprenger, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said the situation must be dealt with quickly to prevent it from spiraling further.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-11-30-EU-Greece-HIV/id-8196a8826ce2466187ed4c5f2d9ad43d

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Ronda Rousey: ?I try to have as much sex as possible before I fight?

UFC/Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey appeared on Jim Rome's show on Wednesday. What does the champion use as her training secret? Does she have high-level training methods not available to amateur athletes and workout warriors?

Nope. She likes to have as much sex as possible before fights. Though Mick advised Rocky that women weaken the legs, Rousey believes it has the opposite effect on women.

"For girls it raises your testosterone, so I try to have as much sex as possible before I fight actually. Not with like everybody, I don't put out like a Craigslist ads or anything, but if I got a steady I'm going to be like, 'Yo, fight time's coming up,'" Rousey said.

She is not the first athlete to claim sex has benefits on the field of play. Elias Figueroa, a Chilean soccer player, said his coach advised him to have sex before important games. Argentinian soccer players were advised they could have sex during the World Cup, as long as it was with a regular partner and not accompanied by champagne.

There is little medical evidence that says sex has an effect, positive or negative, on an athletic performance.

"It certainly doesn't fatigue you in any particular way. So if we actually test your strength or your endurance the day after you've had sex, there's no effect," said Ian Shrier, a sport-medicine physician at the Jewish General Hospital at McGill University.

But if there is an exception, it's in combat sports like MMA. Maria Cristina Rodriguez Gutierrez, the director of sports medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told CNN that sex can reduce aggression.

"For combat athletes like fighters or boxers, having sex before an important fight can reduce the aggressiveness and make them passive," although effects vary from person to person.

It clearly works for Rousey, who has steamrolled every opponent she has faced on her way to the championship and a 6-0 record. She's won every fight with a first-round submission, and she recently was named the first woman in the UFC. Though her opponent and the date for her first UFC fight are currently unknown, UFC president Dana White said her bout will be a main event on a pay-per-view.

Rousey is also a two-time Olympian, and she won a bronze medal for judo in 2008. It was a fight before the Beijing Olympics that made her think she could be successful in the cage.

"Yes. I got in a fight with a couple of guys at the end of 2007 in a movie theater. It was four couples so four guys and one girl tried to get into it. And I had two friends with me. But I was only really handling two guys by myself. They sued me for assault because it didn't really go too well for them. I guess if you lose a fight in Santa Monica the next option is to sue. Everyone in the theater was cheering for me. I was thinking I might have a future in this. It was before the whole MMA thing."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ronda-rousey-try-much-sex-possible-fight-171940850--mma.html

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India's GDP growth languishes, headed for decade low

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's economy extended its long slump in the last quarter, with lower-than-expected growth keeping it on track for its worst year in a decade and underscoring the urgency of politically difficult reforms to spur a revival.

The economy grew 5.3 percent from a year earlier in the July-September period, provisional gross domestic product (GDP) data showed on Friday, below the 5.5 percent posted for the three months ending in June.

"It is essential that the reform agenda is carried forward with vigor and that the recently announced measures are implemented," leading business chamber FICCI said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's chief economic advisor forecast full-year growth of between 5.5 and 6 percent, which would be the slowest since 2002/3.

"It will be between the two, because in order to get 6 percent we really need very strong growth in the second half," advisor C. Rangarajan told TV network CNBC.

A growth rate below 6 percent for the third quarter in a row is damaging for a country that aspires to at least 8.5 percent expansion to provide jobs for its burgeoning population, and makes it tougher for Singh to fund flagship welfare programs.

The quarterly number was lower than a Reuters poll had forecast and matched the January-March quarter, which was the weakest growth rate in three years. However, economists say inflation worries mean the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is unlikely to cut interest rates when it meets on December 18.

Facing the prospect of the downturn stretching into a general election due in 2014, Singh launched some of the most daring initiatives of his eight-year tenure in September, including raising subsidized diesel prices and opening the airline and retail sectors to foreign players.

These moves are likely to encourage investment going forward, and Friday's figures showed capital formation at 33.8 percent of GDP, its highest for at least two years.

Singh, however, is fighting to defend his reforms in parliament, where a non-binding vote on the supermarket policy will be held on Wednesday. The outcome may test the minority government's appetite for further reforms ahead of a string of state elections starting in December.

RECOVERY SEEN NEXT YEAR

Despite the current gloom, most economists expect the business-friendly measures to help investment to gradually pick up and the economy to slowly recover next year.

"We are getting close to the bottom, although we are most likely talking about a `bathtub shaped` recovery with some bottom scraping in coming quarters," HSBC Global research said in a note.

The government and economists warn more needs to be done to attract capital and modernize India's decrepit infrastructure. Opposition parties say the reforms hurt the common man and weaken regional governments.

India is battling weak consumer demand in overseas and domestic markets. The rupee remains weak and the trade deficit the widest ever after merchandise exports, which make up about 10 percent of GDP, fell for six straight months. Industrial output has contracted in four out of last six months.

Reaction to the data was muted from financial markets, which were still cheering the end of a deadlock in parliament that had threatened to hold up debate on reforms to attract foreign investment in the insurance and pension industries.

Mumbai's main stock index <.bsesn> hit a 19-month high.

Markets were also buoyed by a mildly upbeat view from Goldman Sachs on Thursday, with a report forecasting India's economic growth was likely to accelerate to 6.5 percent in 2013.

CHIDAMBARAM PRESSES FOR RATE CUT

Growth was dragged down by subdued manufacturing output growth of 0.8 percent on the year and farming output of 1.2 pct.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday again pressured RBI to cut interest rates, saying its tight monetary policy was a drag on the economy.

Low growth is making it harder for Chidambaram to rein in a wide fiscal deficit, which global ratings agencies say needs to be controlled if India is to avoid losing the investment grade designation on its sovereign debt.

In a major relief to the government on Tuesday, rating agency Moody's reaffirmed its stable outlook on India.

The deficit during the April-October period rose to 3.68 trillion rupees ($67.5 billion), or 71.6 percent of the budgeted full fiscal year 2012/13 target, data showed on Friday.

Chidambaram recently revised the target up to 5.3 percent form 5.1 percent, but most economists expect the government to overshoot this and hit around 5.5-5.6 percent.

The government says India needs to take more steps quickly, including speeding up approval for infrastructure projects, overhauling the tax system and reducing its swollen deficit to revive capital investment.

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh, Manoj Kumar and Arup Roychoudhury in NEW DELHI and Shamik Paul in MUMBAI; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indias-gdp-growth-languishes-headed-decade-low-102929578--business.html

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Verizon best, AT&T worst in Consumer Reports carrier survey

13 hrs.

Herb Weisbaum , NBC News

Consumer Reports' annual ratings of wireless providers, released Thursday, shows that the major cellphone companies still have a lot of work to do to boost customer satisfaction.

In fact, none of the big four national carriers had an overall satisfaction score above 72 percent, across the board lower than their overall scores from just two years ago. Consumer Reports says cellphone companies remain among the lowest-rated service providers it evaluates.

We pay a lot for our cellphones and wireless services and we expect a lot in return: rock-solid voice connections, seamless data downloads and world-class customer service. But apparently we don?t always feel that we?get it.

Verizon topped the list of major carriers in this year?s subscriber survey, followed by Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T. The rankings are based on responses from 63,000 readers.

?Verizon stands out from the pack if you are a heavy-duty data user,? said Mike Gikas, senior electronics editor at Consumer Reports. ?They?re the Cadillac network. They?re pricey in some respects, but in terms of overall quality of service and availability of service, they are the overall leader.?

This confirms what J.D. Power and Associates found in its 2012 Wireless Network Quality Performance Study released in August: Verizon is consistently better than the average wireless carrier and much better than most of its competitors.

But your satisfaction can depend on where you live. The Consumer Reports survey looked at 23 metropolitan areas. It found the quality of cell service can vary from place to place. For example, Sprint is virtually tied with Verizon in St. Louis, but in last place (significantly below AT&T) in Chicago.

It?s interesting to note that three smaller companies had the highest marks for customer satisfaction in the Consumer Reports survey: Consumer Cellular, U.S. Cellular and Credo Mobile. U.S. Cellular, the biggest of this group (with service in 24 mostly Midwestern states), earned a reader score of 88 percent.

?They also offer an excellent experience for consumers and an affordable one, especially if you?re looking for a family plan,? Gikas said.

One group that was happier than most: AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers who have smartphones that connect to 4G networks. They were consistently more satisfied than customers with 3G service. In fact, when it comes to 4G service, AT&T had the fewest problems of any carrier.

?AT&T has been a basement dweller for several years now. A lot of people are unhappy with the service, except 4G customers. They seem to like the service from AT&T,? Gikas told me.

A tough bunch to please
People?s expectation of good service is much higher than it was just a few years ago.

??They expect their smartphone to do whatever it?s supposed to do every time,? said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.

Smartphone users practically live with the device in their hands. They notice the difference between a connection that takes a second and a fraction of a second. And when something goes wrong, they?re likely to hold a grudge against the company.

The ads promise more and we assume our cellphone company to deliver. For example, subscribers with 4G phones expect those high-speed connections everywhere they go. But 4G service isn?t available everywhere.?

?If you travel, there are still a lot of open patches where 4G is not available,? Parsons noted. ?That frustrates people who want the service wherever they go.?

The potential downside of higher speeds
Consumer Reports cautions that faster phones can result in higher bills. It?s fun to use your phone to play online games and watch streaming video, but if you?re not careful you can really burn through the megabytes.

?Your monthly bill will double with a smartphone,? Gikas said.

And just as more people are upgrading to smartphones, Verizon and AT&T, the country?s two biggest wireless companies, no longer offer unlimited data plans to new customers.

As these ?all-you-can-eat? data plans disappear, some heavy users may find that they go through their monthly allowance a lot sooner than expected.

A cheaper way to go
If you?re looking to spend less on cellphone service, consider a prepaid plan with no monthly service contract. The rates are lower, the phones have gotten better ? you now have a greater choice of smartphones ? and Consumer Reports survey shows that customer satisfaction is relatively high.?

You will pay more for the phone because there is no subsidy from the carrier. With the typical 2-year contract, the cost of that phone is rolled into your monthly rate. With prepaid service, you buy the phone upfront, so your monthly rate is lower.

?Over the course of about two years, you?ll end up paying less,? Gikas noted.

Consumer Reports? top-rated prepaid carrier is TracFone. It offers inexpensive plans for people who don?t use their cell phone very often.

The editors say Straight Talk and Virgin Mobile are standouts for budget smartphones. They offer low-cost, unlimited plans for voice, text and data.

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter?or visit The ConsumerMan website.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/verizon-best-att-worst-consumer-reports-carrier-survey-1C7319906

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Strong European support for Palestinian statehood move

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Palestinian bid for indirect U.N. recognition of statehood received vows of support from more than a dozen European nations as of Wednesday, and diplomats said this backing may deter Israel from harsh retaliation against the Palestinian Authority for seeking to upgrade its U.N. status.

A Palestinian resolution on Thursday that would change its U.N. observer status from an "entity" to a "non-member state," implicitly recognizing the sovereign state of Palestine, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. But Israel, the United States and a handful of other members of are expected to vote against it.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been leading the campaign to win support for the resolution, and some European governments have offered him their support after an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel's destruction and oppose his efforts towards a negotiated peace.

The U.S. State Department said Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and U.S. Mideast peace envoy David Hale traveled to New York on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to get Abbas to reconsider.

"We've been clear, we've been consistent with the Palestinians, that we oppose observer state status in the General Assembly and this resolution," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

She repeated U.S. warnings that the move could hit U.S. economic support for the Palestinians. The Israelis have also warned that they might take deductions out of monthly transfers of duties that Israel collects on the Palestinians' behalf.

The United States and Israel say the only genuine route to statehood is at the negotiating table, through a peace accord hammered out in direct talks with Israel.

Granting Palestinians the title of "non-member observer state" falls short of full U.N. membership - something the Palestinians tried but failed to achieve last year. But it would allow them access to the International Criminal Court and some other international bodies, should they choose to join them. The Vatican numbers among the U.N.'s non-member states.

Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) official, told a news conference in Ramallah that "the Palestinians can't be blackmailed all the time with money."

"Some rights aren't for sale," Ashrawi said. "If Israel wants to destabilize the whole region, it can. We are talking to the Arab World about their support if Israel responds with financial measures, and the EU has indicated they will not stop their support to us."

ISRAELI RETALIATION MIGHT BE MODERATE

As there is little doubt about how the United States will vote when the Palestinian resolution to upgrade its U.N. status is put to a vote sometime after 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority has been concentrating its efforts on lobbying wealthy European states, diplomats say.

With strong support from the developing world that make up the majority of U.N. members, the Palestinian resolution is virtually assured of securing more than the requisite simple majority. But Abbas has been trying to amass as many European yes votes as possible.

"A strong showing in Europe will emphasize to Israel and the United States that the Palestinian Authority is widely seen legitimate," a Western envoy said on condition of anonymity. "It may also give Israel second thoughts about trying to bankrupt the Palestinians for something that is really symbolic."

One senior Western diplomat predicted that at least 120-130 countries would vote for the Palestinian resolution.

As of Wednesday afternoon Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland had all pledged to support the Palestinian resolution. Britain said it was prepared to vote yes, but only if the Palestinians fulfilled certain conditions.

Ashrawi said the positive responses from European states were encouraging and sent a message of hope to all Palestinians.

"This constitutes a historical turning point and opportunity for the world to rectify a grave historical injustice that the Palestinians have undergone since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948," she said.

A strong backing from European nations could make it awkward for Israel to implement harsh retaliatory measures. Diplomats say that Israel seems hesitant to take strong action against Abbas as it would antagonize Western European countries.

But Israel's reaction might not be so measured if the Palestinians seek ICC action against Israel on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes the court would have jurisdiction over.

It also seems wary of weakening the Western-backed Abbas, especially after the political boost rival Hamas received from recent solidarity visits to Gaza by top officials from Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia.

Hamas militants, who control Gaza and have had icy relations with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, unexpectedly offered Abbas their support earlier this week.

STALLED PEACE TALKS

No European nations announced they would vote against the non-member state move, though several U.N. diplomats said privately that the Czech Republic and Netherlands might be among those that cast no votes. Neither has announced an official position.

Germany said it could not support the Palestinian move though it was not clear if it would abstain, like Estonia and Lithuania, or vote against it.

Europe's undecided countries included European Union members Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden. Several EU members said they were hoping the 27-nation EU would reach a common position on the Palestinian move, though U.N. diplomats said that EU unity was an impossibility.

Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world.

In their draft resolution, the Palestinians have pledged to relaunch the peace process immediately following the U.N. vote.

Britain said it would be willing to support the Palestinian move on Thursday if two conditions were met.

"The first is that the Palestinian Authority should indicate a clear commitment to return immediately to negotiations without preconditions," Foreign Seretary William Hague told parliament.

"The second assurance relates to membership of other specialized U.N. agencies and action in the International Criminal Court," he added.

Rights groups said that stance contradicted Britain's stated commitment to accountability for serious crimes.

Israel and the United States have mooted withholding aid and tax revenue that the Palestinian government in the West Bank needs to survive. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has also viewed options that include bringing down Abbas.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas in London, Noah Browning in Ramallah, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Michelle Nichols in New York, and Reuters bureau in Europe and elsewhere; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-win-support-swiss-danes-u-n-vote-113331896.html

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Now Available As A Gmail Add-On, PhilterIt Lets You Browse Your Inbox Visually

It must be the day for Gmail platform apps - earlier this morning, TechCrunch announced the launch of a startup that automates contact management via Gmail, and now another company is debuting a new way to visually scan your email messages. Available as a Google Chrome application, PhilterIt organizes email messages by sender, allowing you to browse your email by scanning icons and logos, instead of subject lines, in your Gmail sidebar.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XfAaylokzxw/

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Associate lease explained | Car Finance, Loans & Leasing Blog ...

A type of Commercial Lease and Rental Agreement for use between spouses, inter-company transactions, or whenever the need exists to have a legitimate lease arrangement without bank funding.

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How does it work? ? an Associate Lease is an arrangement where an associate of the employee (eg: family member, friend or family company) owns the car outright and leases it to the employer under an Associate Lease Agreement. The employer then provides it to the employee on a fully maintained basis through flexible salary packaging.

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Taxation issues to consider ? as with a Novated Lease, under an Associate Lease, the car is recognised as an employer provided car for the purposes of the Income Tax Assessment Act (?ITAA?) and the FBT Act. (See Commissioner of Taxation in Ruling IT 2509). Depending on circumstances, the employee?s associate may or may not be required to register for GST but will be required to obtain an Australian Business Number (ABN) prior to taking out an Associate Lease. Under an Associate Lease, the employee personally will be unable to claim any deduction in relation to the vehicle. However, the employee?s associate will be assessed (for income tax purposes) for the lease payments received from the employer.

Source: http://h3sean.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/associate-lease-explained-car-finance-loans-leasing-blog-roche-finance.html

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Former KU coach Mark Mangino on Colorado's radar

Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn swung and missed on his first two coaching hires, Dan Hawkins and Jon Embree. So it?s no surprise that the first name to surface as a candidate to become Colorado?s next coach is a proven winner hungry to get back into coaching: Mark Mangino.

Bohn, a 1983 graduate of Kansas University, where he played football and baseball, knows how tough it is to build a winning football program at KU. Bohn knows his KU history well enough to know that Mangino was the first football coach to leave Kansas with a winning record since Jack Mitchell.

Colorado is in the midst of seven consecutive losing seasons. Mangino inherited a Kansas program coming off six consecutive losing seasons.

If Bohn is allowed to make the hire, nobody should be surprised if he picks Mangino.

Living in Naples, Fla., Mangino?s interest in returning to the sidelines was put on hold last season while wife Mary Jane battled breast cancer. Friends are happy to report Mary Jane is doing well and has completed treatment.

?She?s given me a directive: Go find a coaching job,? Mangino told the Oklahoman in an October interview. ?So we?ll see what happens. I don?t know where it will be. Could be anywhere.?

Could be Colorado.

If Mangino lands the job, he could become quarterback Jordan Webb?s first and fourth coach. Webb redshirted one season under Mangino at Kansas, played two for Turner Gill at KU and one for Embree at CU.

Mangino?s former assistants thriving

Dave Doeren left Mangino?s staff for Wisconsin, where he worked his way up to defensive coordinator. Doeren?s in his second season as head coach at Northern Illinois, where his team is 11-1 and ranked 19th in the nation. He has a two-year record of 22-4 (1-1 vs. KU) and is in line for a BCS conference job. His name has been mentioned in speculation for the Purdue job.

Doeren?s recruiting coups at Kansas included James Holt, Kevin Kane, James McClinton, Joe Mortensen, Mike Rivera, Darrell Stuckey and Aqib Talib.

Former KU defensive coordinator Bill Young left Mangino?s staff for Miami, where he spent one year and has been at Oklahoma State since then.

Ed Warinner, offensive coordinator for Mangino, left his job as Notre Dame?s offensive line coach to join Urban Meyer?s Ohio State staff as co-offensive coordinator/O-line coach.

Ineligible for the postseason, the Buckeyes went 12-0. He?s ready for a big head-coaching job.

John Reagan is offensive coordinator for the Rice squad that upset Kansas in Memorial Stadium in September.

David Beaty knows better than just about anybody the value of Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel?s Heisman Trophy worthiness. Beaty is the Aggies? wide receivers coach. Brandon Blaney is a defensive assistant coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Bill Miller is assistant head coach/linebackers coach at Minnesota. Je?Ney Jackson is strength and conditioning coach for Tom Crean?s top-ranked Indiana basketball team.

Louie Matsakis handles special teams and running backs and is recruiting coordinator at Youngstown State, where Tom Sims is assistant head coach/defensive line.

Chris Dawson has been Kansas State?s strength and conditioning coach since getting fired with Mangino. Dawson reportedly accepted an offer from Washington State?s Mike Leach shortly after his hiring, but quickly changed his mind and decided to stay with Bill Snyder.

Tommy Mangino is Hutchinson Community College?s offensive coordinator. He apparently inherited his father?s fiery personality and was ejected late in an early season game Hutch won, 49-12.

Source: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/double-chin-music/2012/nov/27/former-ku-coach-mark-mangino-on-colorado_/

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Mobile LTE subscribers expected to double by 2014

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, has suffered a stroke but is OK and resting in a Las Vegas hospital, a family friend said on Thursday. "He was doing well and says he's feeling OK," close family friend Brian Oxman told Reuters. Oxman, Michael Jackson's one-time attorney, said the 83-year-old patriarch of the pop music family started experiencing weakness on Wednesday while walking in a park near his home and was later admitted to a hospital. Jackson has a history of strokes, Oxman said. "He was talking fine," Oxman added. "He sounded excellent to me." A former ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mobile-lte-subscribers-expected-double-2014-031121151.html

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Upton headed to Braves; Pettitte returns to Yanks

B.J. Upton is on his way to Atlanta, while Andy Pettitte is staying in pinstripes.

With the winter meetings only days away, baseball's offseason began to heat up Wednesday with a pair of moves involving potential closers: Ryan Madson joined the Angels and Jonathan Broxton remained with the Reds.

Hours later, the Braves made big news.

Looking for a new center fielder and some right-handed pop, Atlanta found both in Upton, who had 28 homers and 31 steals for Tampa Bay last season. The fleet-footed free agent agreed to a $75.25 million, five-year contract, a person familiar with the deal said Wednesday night.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been completed. It was expected to be announced Thursday once Upton passes his physical.

Upton's score would be the biggest free-agent contract of the offseason so far and the largest in Braves history.

Pettitte, meanwhile, will return for another season with the New York Yankees.

Feeling strong at age 40, the veteran lefty completed a one-year deal worth $12 million, putting baseball's biggest postseason winner back in the Bronx.

"I think we're good enough to go all the way, I really do," Pettitte said on a conference call. "I'm at the point where, if I didn't feel like we had a chance to win it deep down, I wouldn't do this."

The five-time World Series champion retired after the 2010 season to spend more time at home but then decided to come back this year ? while working as an instructor during spring training ? and signed a contract guaranteeing him $2.5 million.

Pettitte went 5-4 with a 2.87 ERA in 12 starts. He missed almost three months because of a broken lower left leg, sustained when he was hit by a line drive off the bat of Cleveland's Casey Kotchman on June 27.

"I definitely think that if I would have pitched a full season and thrown 200 innings, that I definitely wouldn't feel as fresh and physically feel as good as I do right now," Pettitte said. "Obviously, I feel like that helped lead me to a quick decision."

The move means the AL East champs are set to start 2013 with the same rotation as last season: CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Pettitte, Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova or David Phelps.

Next up for general manager Brian Cashman could be a contract for 43-year-old closer Mariano Rivera, determined to come back from a torn knee ligament.

Madson is making a comeback from Tommy John surgery, and he agreed to a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels five days before the start of baseball's winter meetings in Nashville, Tenn.

The longtime Philadelphia reliever missed last season with Cincinnati, which signed him in January after a stellar performance in 2011 with the Phillies. He had surgery in April on a torn ligament in his right elbow.

Well ahead of schedule in his recovery, Madson said he expects to be the Angels' closer. General manager Jerry Dipoto agreed the veteran is likely to supplant Ernesto Frieri when fully healthy.

"I feel like if I can throw the ball like I'm capable of, I expect to have that role," Madson said. "I expect to come to spring training and earn the job."

Broxton isn't sure what role he'll have in Cincinnati after securing a $21 million, three-year contract that gives the NL Central champions a chance to reconfigure their starting rotation.

The two-time All-Star came to the Reds last July in a trade with Kansas City. He filled in as the closer when Aroldis Chapman developed a tired shoulder and had four saves in six chances overall with a 2.82 ERA.

Now the Reds have the option of turning Chapman into a starter, which was the plan last season until Madson blew out his elbow. The team has told Chapman to prepare for next season as a starter, although it hasn't committed to Broxton as the closer.

"Nothing's in stone right now," assistant general manager Bob Miller said. "When we talked to Jonathan we said he was going to be at the back end of the bullpen. What happens depends on spring training and how things play out in the offseason."

Broxton wanted a multiyear deal so he could settle in one place. He didn't insist on assurances he'd be a closer.

"I went into the offseason with an open mind," Broxton said. "I've got experience in both roles. Even if Chapman doesn't work out as a starter, he can come back in and fill in as the closer. I'll be happy to throw the eighth (inning). It doesn't matter. You saw what he did last year."

The 28-year-old Upton hit .246 with 78 RBIs for the Rays last season. He will replace free agent Michael Bourn as the Braves' center fielder and should provide much-needed power from the right side.

Upton's first full season with Tampa Bay was 2007, when he hit a career-best .300 with 24 homers and 22 stolen bases. His home run totals have increased in each of the last three seasons, but he has hit below .250 with more than 150 strikeouts in four straight years.

Bourn was the Braves' leadoff hitter, but Upton is not expected to fill that role.

Elsewhere, the Boston Red Sox made a flurry of minor moves, trading right-handers Zach Stewart and Sandy Rosario as well as third baseman Danny Valencia.

Stewart was sent to Pittsburgh and Rosario to Oakland for players to be named. Valencia was shipped to Baltimore for cash.

Boston also hired Greg Colbrunn as hitting coach.

Athletics reliever Pat Neshek agreed to a one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration, while Kansas City traded right-hander Vin Mazzaro and first baseman Clint Robinson to the Pirates for minor league pitchers Luis Santos and Luis Rico.

The Chicago Cubs designated right-hander Casey Coleman for assignment to make roster room for newcomer Scott Feldman, who agreed to a $6 million, one-year contract the previous day.

Feldman's former team, the Texas Rangers, acquired right-hander Cory Burns from San Diego for a player to be named or cash.

___

AP Sports Writers Charles Odum, Greg Beacham and Joe Kay contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/upton-headed-braves-pettitte-returns-yanks-082645583--mlb.html

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Nationwide Internet blackout in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) ? Two US-based Internet-monitoring companies say Syria has shut off the Internet nationwide.

Activists in Syria reached Thursday by satellite telephone confirmed the unprecedented blackout, which comes amid intense fighting in the capital, Damascus.

Renesys, a U.S.-based network security firm that studies Internet disruptions, says Syria effectively disappeared from the Internet at 12:26 p.m. local time.

Akamai Technologies Inc., another U.S-based company that distributes content on the Internet, also confirmed a complete outage for Syria.

Syria has partially cut Internet connections during the 20-month uprising against President Bashar Assad but a nationwide shutdown is unprecedented.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nationwide-internet-blackout-syria-151512176--finance.html

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Source: http://mysixstringsblog.com/low-cost-internet-hosting-providers-critiques-and-ranking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=low-cost-internet-hosting-providers-critiques-and-ranking

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Corporate and Labor Union Political Spending Disclosure Requirements Compared in New Public Citizen Publication

By Adam Crowther and Taylor Lincoln

Flickr photo by Keith Ramsey

Today, Public Citizen released an in-depth fact sheet on the similarities and discrepancies in reporting requirements imposed on unions and corporations for their political spending.

Given all the hand wringing by Republicans over allegations that the rules are tilted in favor of unions, the information will likely surprise you. In fact, unions already are subject to significant public reporting requirements that pertain solely to them, whereas corporations are not.

The sources of about one-fourth of outside spending in all 2012 federal races?and about half of ?outside spending in key Senate races?were kept secret. The DISCLOSE Act (S. 3369) would fix most of this. But here too, the solution is being held up by Republican complaints that the measure is stacked against corporations.

The rational invoked by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is a key example of this type of complaint. Even McCain, a longstanding champion of campaign finance reform and a vocal critic of Citizens United v. Federal Election commission (he has called it ?the worst decision of the United States Supreme Court in the 21st century?), has opposed this seemingly common-sense bill.

McCain?s explanation for voting against the bill was that its $10,000 threshold (per two-year election cycle) for disclosure of political contributions represented a ?a clever attempt at political gamesmanship? by forcing ?some entities to inform the public about the origins of their financial support, while allowing others?most notably those affiliated with organized labor?to fly below the Federal Election Commission?s regulatory radar.?

The $10,000 threshold would unfairly target corporations, McCain argued, because union funds tend to represent a portion of aggregated union dues of far smaller amounts. ?What is the final difference between one $10,000 check and 1,000 $10 checks?? McCain asked in a statement accompanying his vote against the bill. ?Other than the impact on trees, very little.?

But the difference is very significant, as McCain no doubt is well aware. Much of election law is based on the premise that large contributions have more potential to cause corruption than small ones. This is the reason for contribution limits and disclosure thresholds. Contributions to candidates have been capped at relatively modest amounts relative to overall campaign costs since modern election laws were instituted in the wake of the Watergate scandal. (At present, an individual is limited to contributing $2,500 per election to a candidate.)

Likewise, the law requires disclosure of contributions of $200 or above to candidates and conventional political action committee, while smaller contributions do not have to be disclosed. McCain almost certainly accepts the corruption theory that underlies these laws.

McCain?s allegation that the bill?s thresholds were cleverly set to favor unions also lacks merit.

A scenario could exist in which a reporting threshold was intentionally designed to affect one type of organization and not another, thus creating an illusion of fairness. But that does not appear to be the case here. ?Union dues are so small that political contributions by individual union members do not get anywhere near $10,000. For instance, according to its required report to the government, AFL-CIO members? dues are just $9 per month, and the union uses only a fraction of that for political expenditures. If the authors of DISCLOSE were trying to maximize corporate disclosure while exempting unions, they would have chosen a threshold far below $10,000.

A spokesman for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the author of the Senate version of the DISCLOSE Act, said in a statement to Public Citizen that the $10,000 threshold was selected to ?reduce the burden as much as possible for all covered organizations while still having meaningful disclosure.? In other words, a high threshold was chosen to minimize the burden on organizations in general, not to assuage unions. Whitehouse?s office also expressed the senator?s willingness to compromise with McCain.

In reality, most supporters of campaign finance reform would consider a $10,000 threshold too high, not because it provides an unfair advantage to unions over corporations, but because it provides an additional unfair advantage to groups that operate outside the conventional campaign finance system over those that are subject to conventional limits.

Citizens United already has granted an unfair advantage to outside entities by stipulating that their expenditures?and thus contributions to them?may not be limited. The single nod that Citizens United gave to advocates of a regulated campaign finance system was the decision?s wholehearted endorsement of disclosure. It is difficult to find justification in a system that affords unrestricted outside entities more permissive disclosure rules than those that are required to abide by contribution limits.

Still, any comprehensive disclosure regime that mandates reporting would be a vast improvement over the Wild West reality that has prevailed during the last two election cycles, even if the threshold were set as high as $10,000.

A simple solution would be to offer those who claim inequity the opportunity to choose the threshold for which political contributions would need to be disclosed. Any threshold between the conventional $200 level and the $10,000 proposal in DISCLOSE should be accepted.

Urge your members of Congress to support disclosure and other reforms to combat the effects of Citizens United.

Adam Crowther is a Researcher for Public Citizen?s Congress Watch. Taylor Lincoln is Research Director for Public Citizen?s Congress Watch.

Source: http://www.citizenvox.org/2012/11/28/corporate-versus-labor-union-political-spending-disclosure-compared-false-distinctions/

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Gazans thank Iran for help in battling Israel

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? Residents of the Gaza Strip have plastered large billboards in key locations thanking Iran for its help during a recent eight-day battle against Israel.

The posters reflect the strong ties between Iran and the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups in Gaza. Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy, citing Iran's support for the militants and its suspect nuclear program.

During the fighting, Gaza militants groups fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, including Iranian-made missiles reaching as far as Tel Aviv.

The posters, displayed in three locations in Gaza City, show the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, surrounded by Iranian and Palestinian flags, two hands in a handshake with the words, "Thank You Iran" in Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders have also publicly thanked Iran.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gazans-thank-iran-help-battling-israel-144525933.html

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Video: Researchers find evidence of ?chemo brain?

>>> now to health news tonight, and what they know about chemo brain , which will be familiar to you if you or someone you love has dealt with the frustration, fogginess and confusion among so many cancer patients. especially those in the fight against breast cancer . patients have talked about this since the dawn of chemotherapy. scientists say they can actually see it.

>> reporter: soon after she began her treatment for breast cancer , jodi, an author found herself in a mental fog. a condition known widely among cancer patients as chemo brain .

>> chemo brain was like having my brain constantly out of focus. it was as though i couldn't get the words in the proper alignment. as a writer, that was devastating.

>> reporter: the cloudiness continued. even after the chemo ended.

>> emotionally, i really wondered if i would ever be the same.

>> reporter: dr. rachel eggos has much of the understanding of the condition.

>> i have imaging evidence that shows chemo brain is real. part of being able to address a disease and help a patient through a disease is realizing the disease exists in the first place.

>> reporter: they performed brain scans on 128 breast cancer patients before, during and after chemotherapy. with knees images to measure how the brain is using energy. the researchers discovered chemo sets up very specific changes. in several key parts of the brain that control memory and decision making.

>> what am i going to get done today? what do i need to get at the grocery store? what am i going to have for dinner.

>> increasingly, hospitals and doctors are trying to make patients aware of the problem.

>> it's helpful for patients to understand they're not alone in this experience. that this does happen to a segment of the population. at present we can't predict who's at greatest risk for them.

>> fortunately the effect usually fades with time. better understanding of the impact on patients like jodi may lead to ways to treat or prevent the symptoms. robert bazell , nbc news, new york.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49986490/

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Stories, ukuleles will fill holiday program | Sonora / Tuolumne News ...

Ukuleles and story-tales will usher in the holiday season when Delta Kappa Gamma hosts its fourth annual community holiday show for families from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Stage 3 Theatre in Sonora.?

?Santa?s Gone Hawaiian!? will feature storyteller B.Z. Smith and Peg Reza with her Blue Shoes Auxiliary Ukulele Orchestra of Columbia.?

The wintery family concert is a benefit for ?The Read To Me? program, which provides a gift for family reading to every new baby born at Sonora Regional Medical Center. This year the event will also serve as a food donation drive for the Mother Lode Food Project.?

?We?d like show attendees to bring a non-perishable food item on the day of the show,? said Judy Hodges, a Delta Kappa Gamma member and chairwoman of the holiday show project.

?This is our fourth year for the show,? Reza said. ?We have a lot of fun and so do the families.??

Her band, the popular ukulele orchestra, will lead familiar holiday and winter songs while Smith shares stories and poems of the season. ?

?While we all have a good time, we can also raise funds for one important cause and bring in food donations for another,? said Smith, who also is a Delta Kappa Gamma member. ?And the crowd has grown. I start to get phone calls about the show in mid-November.??

The program offers about 40 minutes of storytelling and singing, followed by a brief intermission when cookies and juice are served. Then the program continues with a few more holiday selections.?

?It helps everyone if the kids get a little stretch in the middle,? Smith said.?

There will also be a family-friendly raffle during intermission.? From a Twain Harte Tree Farm Christmas tree? to rides on ?Santa?s Express Train? at Railtown 1897 Historic Park and a plethora of toys and activities, all of the prizes are planned for families and children.?

?And Peggy has donated a bright green ukulele to the raffle,? said Willow Thorpe, another DKG member and one of the project?s committee members.

?Our hope is to bring everyone into the holiday season with good cheer and a bright memory,? said Smith, Sonora?s longtime storyteller. ?

Both Smith and Reza bring rich experience and lots of performance years to this show.?

Smith is a nationally recognized storyteller, who won the National Storytelling Network?s 2011 Oracle Award for the Pacific Region.?

Reza is one of California?s premiere ukulele performers. She?s been a professional musician since her teens, but picked up the ukulele as her lead instrument about 10 years ago.?

?The uke has a bright, happy sound,? she said. ?It?s not surprising that so many people are ?Ukeing It Up? for a hobby these days.??

Reza has approximately 60 ukulele students of all ages in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. A popular instructor at Asilomar?s annual West Coast Ukulele Retreat and at Camp Oo-Koo-Lay-Lay, held each year in Pinecrest, this year Reza also joined Central Sierra Arts Council?s roster of Artists-in-the-Schools where she now offers a ?Learn the Ukulele Residency? for grades four and up.

Tickets for ?Santa?s Gone Hawaiian!? are $5 for everyone age 3 and up. Younger children are free, and do not require a ticket, but a canned food donation would be helpful, Smith said.?

Adults are welcome to attend with our without a child.?

?It?s just plain fun, no matter what your age,? Reza said.?

Advance tickets can be purchased at Mountain Bookshop in The Junction shopping center or at the Stage 3 Theatre Box office at 208 S. Green St.?

For the last two years the show has hit its maximum attendance of just under 100.?

Any unsold advance tickets will be available at the door, but advance purchase is highly recommended.?

?We really encourage people to get their tickets early,? Hodges said. ?As our audiences have grown, lots of people are there with their tickets in hand. We?d hate to have to turn anyone away.? ?

?The Read To Me? program of Tuolumne County?s Iota Epsilon Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International is a 26-year old family literacy program.?

?The Tuolumne County members of Delta Kappa Gamma provide each new baby born at Sonora Regional Medical Center with a book-bag. They give books to nearly 60 babies and their families each month. The book bags include a children?s book, a book authored by Delta Kappa Gamma members about the importance of family reading, and a bib with the ?Read-To-Me? bear printed on it.?

The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International includes many active teachers, retired teachers and professional women whose careers support education.?

For more information on DKG, visit www.dkg.org. ?

In addition, Ellen Beck and Susan Mundy, founders of the Mother Lode Food Project, will be on hand to fill their bright green donation bags and to answer questions about how the group is serving needy families in our community.?

For more information on ?Santa?s Gone Hawaiian,? call Smith at 532-7697 or visit www.stage3.org.?

Source: http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Entertainment/Stories-ukuleles-will-fill-holiday-progra

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Sandy recovery claims mount. How much will a divided Congress pay?

The US may be perched on the edge of the ?fiscal cliff,? with Republicans demanding spending cuts and Democrats clamoring for tax hikes to reduce the budget deficit.

But, one thing both parties are likely to agree on: spending billions and billions of dollars to help New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and other states recover from superstorm Sandy.

Within the last two days, the governors of New York and New Jersey have released estimates that they will need a combined $79 billion ($42 billion for New York and $37 billion for New Jersey) to pay for repairs, restoration, and mitigation against future storms. Connecticut expects to send its request in shortly.

IN PICTURES: Sandy: Chronicle of an unrelenting storm

On Wednesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg flew to Washington for meetings just about every thirty minutes with congressional leaders. On Monday, he said the city would like an additional $9.8 billion for storm damage on top of $5.4 billion that they have already submitted to FEMA.

He probably could have saved the airfare because budget experts think Congress is likely to open up the checkbook for this disaster.

?They will pretty much get what they ask for,? says Stan Collender, a budget authority and a partner at Qorvis Communications in Washington.

?Historically, Congress has been quite generous when there are disasters,? says Pete Davis of Davis Capital Investment Ideas in Washington, which advises Wall Street clients. ?It won?t be in the lame duck session, it will be next year.?

The money will likely come in the form of an emergency supplemental spending bill that will go through Congress once it resolves its current differences over spending and taxes. ?If it weren?t for the fiscal cliff this would get done really quickly,? says Mr. Davis.

But, won?t spending another $80 billion to $100 billion throw those calculations out of line?

?It will expand the deficit,? agrees Mr. Collender. But, that is not likely to matter, he and others say.

?Traditionally, supplemental spending bills are not paid for,? explains Davis. For example, the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been funded by supplemental spending bills.

One of the reasons Congress is so generous is that every senator and representative is keenly aware that a disaster can take place in their district at any time. In the West, wildfires can destroy communities. In the Midwest a drought can hurt farmers. Along the Gulf Coast, there could be another big oil spill.

The governors seeking federal money can also point to how generous Congress was after Hurricane Katrina ripped through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in 2005.

?In the past decade Congress has authorized supplemental appropriations after hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes, including $120 billion worth of aid in several bills passed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,? wrote Bloomberg in his letter requesting Federal aid on Monday.

In fact, the Gulf Coast delegation and the Army Corps of Engineers kept coming back to Congress for more and more money, recalls D.J. Nordquist, who was working at the office of the federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding at the time.

The comparison is not lost on the Northeast governors. In his request for funding, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo compared the damage done by Sandy and Katrina. In the three categories he picked, housing, power outages, and businesses impacted, Sandy was more significant.

As Ms. Nordquist notes, politicians have been known to exaggerate before. She recalls that Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu asked for $250 billion to start with. ?Her strategy was to ask for something astronomical,? she recalls.

In the case of Sandy, the numbers are also ticking upward very quickly. On Friday, Nov. 23, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey asked for $29 billion. On Wednesday he revised the number to $37 billion to cover measures to protect the state from future disasters.

In Christie?s request for aid, he added that he might still need more money. ?The estimate will likely be refined further to consider and include the long-term impact on the next tourism season, shifts in population, impact on real estate values, and other factors,? he said in a letter to Congress.

Governor Cuomo also wants a large amount of money to prevent future damage. He?s asked for $9.1 billion for what he termed ?common sense? mitigation and prevention costs such as flood protection for the World Trade center site and the subway system.

Bloomberg?s strategy on Wednesday was to try to make support for shelling out the money a nonpartisan issue. He met with deficit hawks such as Rep. Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky and with Democratic leaders including Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

?Now, we have to bring together both sides in Washington ? and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,? he said at a press conference late in the day Wednesday. ?Hurricane recovery is not a partisan issue.?

IN PICTURES: Sandy: Chronicle of an unrelenting storm

Related stories

Read this story at csmonitor.com

Become a part of the Monitor community

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sandy-recovery-claims-mount-much-divided-congress-pay-013431990.html

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Your Most Expensive Buy Could be the Uunique London Lotus iPhone 5

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function isValidEmail(str){
emailRe = /^\w+([\.-]?\w+)*@\w+([\.-]?(\w)+)*\.(\w{2}|(com|net|org|edu|int|mil|gov|arpa|biz|aero|name|coop|info|pro|museum))$/
phoneRe = /^((\+\d{1,3}(-| )?\(?\d\)?(-| )?\d{1,3})|(\(?\d{2,3}\)?))(-| )?(\d{3,4})(-| )?(\d{4})(( x| ext)\d{1,5}){0,1}$/
if (!emailRe.test(str))
return false;
else
return true;
}
var badword=0;
function postthecomment1(){
var comment_text = jQuery.trim($("#comment_text").val());
var comment_parentid = jQuery.trim($("#comment_parentid").val());
var content_id = jQuery.trim($("#content_id").val());
var whihcflag = $("#whichcontype").val();
$("#showerrorComment").hide();
$("#commentBoxRes").hide();
if(comment_text==""){
errmsg = "Please Enter Your Comment";
$("#comment_text").val('')
$('#comment_text').focus();
flag=1;
$("#showerrorComment").html(errmsg);
document.getElementById('showerrorComment').style.display="block";
return false;
}
if($("#whichusertype").val()=='1'){
var first_name = $("#first_name").val();
var last_name = $("#second_name").val();
if($('#UsernameSelector').attr('checked') == true){
var screenName = 'Anonymous';
}
else{
var screenName = $("#userscreenname").val();
}
var profile_url = $("#userprofilelink").val();
var profileImage = $("#userprofileimage").val();
var loginusertypeid = $("#loginusertypeid").val();

$('#commentSubmit').attr('disabled','disabled');
$.post("http://luxpresso.com/2db/comment2db.php",{'login_type':'facebook','whihcflag':whihcflag,'first_name':first_name,'last_name':last_name,'screenName':screenName,'profile_url':profile_url,'profileImage':profileImage,'loginusertypeid':loginusertypeid,'comment_text':comment_text,"content_id":content_id,"comment_parentid":comment_parentid},function(data){
if(jQuery.trim(data)=='error'){
$("#showerrorComment").html('User and password did not match.');
document.getElementById('showerrorComment').style.display="block";
}else if(jQuery.trim(data)=='BadWord'){
badword=1;
$("#comment_text").focus();
$("#commentBoxRes").show();
$("#commentBoxRes").html('Whoa... STOP right there! Pls feed us love, not spam, links or abusive words :) Help us keep luxpresso a happy place!');
document.getElementById('commentBoxRes').style.display="block";
}else{
$("#commentBoxRes").show();
$.post("http://luxpresso.com/tpl/tplGetcommentadded.php",{"content_id":content_id,"pageval":"1"},function(data){ //alert(data);
$("#showcommentcontent").html(data);
$("#commentBoxRes").show();
//$("#Username").val('');
//$("#Useremail").val('');
$("#comment_text").val('');
var nocomments = $('#nocomments_'+17865).val();
//console.debug(nocomments);
if( nocomments > 0){
$('#comment_'+17865).html('');
$('#comment_'+17865).html(''+nocomments +' Comments ' );
}
var message = comment_text;
var article_title = "Your Most Expensive Buy Could be the Uunique London Lotus iPhone 5";
var article_page_link = "http://luxpresso.com/news-gadgets/your-most-expensive-buy-could-be-the-uunique-london-lotus-iphone-5/17865";
var story_section ="News";
var story_section_url ="http://luxpresso.com/gadgets";
var author_name = "Agencies";
var author_name_url = "http://luxpresso.com/author/agencies/1100";
var posteddate = "Nov 28th 2012 at 11:55AM"
var article_image_path ="http://images.idiva.com/media/luxury/content/2012/Nov/uunique-london-lotus-iphone2_100x75.jpg";
var attachment = {'name': article_title, 'href': article_page_link ,'properties' :
{
'Filed under': {'text': story_section, 'href': story_section_url},
'Author ' : {'text': author_name, 'href':author_name_url},
'Posted On': posteddate}
,'media': [{ 'type': 'image', 'src': article_image_path, 'href': article_page_link }] };
var action_links = [{'text':'luxpresso', 'href':'http://luxpresso.com/'}];
//FB.Connect.streamPublish(message, attachment, action_links);
streamPublish(attachment, 'luxpresso', 'http://luxpresso.com/', 'Share luxpresso.com');
$('#commentSubmit').attr('disabled','');

});
}
});
}else{
var username= jQuery.trim($("#Username").val());
var useremailid= jQuery.trim($("#Useremail").val());
var comment_parentid=jQuery.trim($("#comment_parentid").val());
var userpassword=jQuery.trim($("#Password").val());
var content_id=jQuery.trim($("#content_id").val());
var whihcflag =jQuery.trim($("#whichcontype").val());
var flag = 0;
if($('#UsernameSelector').attr('checked') == true){
var screenName = 'Anonymous';
}
else{
var screenName = $("#Username").val();
}
if(comment_text==""){
errmsg = "Please Enter Your Comment";
$("#comment_text").val('')
$('#comment_text').focus();
flag=1;
}else if(username=="" || useremailid==""){
errmsg = "Please login to comment.";
flag=1;
}else if (userpassword == "" || userpassword == "Password"){
errmsg = "Please Enter Password";
$('#Password').focus();
flag=1;
}
if(flag==0){ //alert("asda");
$('#commentSubmit').attr('disabled','disabled');
$.post("http://luxpresso.com/2db/comment2db.php",{'login_type':'normaluser','EmailId':useremailid,'whihcflag':whihcflag,'Username':username,"userpassword":userpassword,"content_id":content_id,"comment_parentid":comment_parentid,'comment_text':comment_text,'screenName':screenName},function(data){ //alert(trim(data));
if(jQuery.trim(data)=='error'){
$("#showerrorComment").html('User and password did not match.');
$("#showerrorComment").show();
}else if(jQuery.trim(data)=='BadWord'){
//alert("dsf")
$("#comment_text").focus();
$("#commentBoxRes").html('

Whoa... STOP right there! Pls feed us love, not spam, links or abusive words :) Help us keep luxpresso a happy place!

'); document.getElementById('commentBoxRes').style.display="block"; }else{ $("#commentBoxRes").show(); $.post("http://luxpresso.com/tpl/tplGetcommentadded.php",{"content_id":content_id,"pageval":"1"},function(data){ //alert(data); $("#showcommentcontent").html(data); $("#commentBoxRes").html('Thanks for posting the comment.'); document.getElementById('commentBoxRes').style.display="block"; // $("#Username").val(''); //$("#Useremail").val(''); $("#comment_text").val(''); var nocomments = $('#nocomments_'+17865).val(); //console.debug(nocomments); if( nocomments > 0){ $('#comment_'+17865).html(''); $('#comment_'+17865).html(''+nocomments +' Comments ' ); } }); } $('#commentSubmit').attr('disabled',''); del_cook('keepComment'); }); }else{ $("#showerrorComment").html(errmsg); document.getElementById('showerrorComment').style.display="block"; } } } function clearText(field){ if (field.defaultValue == field.value) field.value = ''; else if (field.value == '') field.value = field.defaultValue; } function trim(str, chars) { return ltrim(rtrim(str, chars), chars); } function ltrim(str, chars) { chars = chars || "\\s"; return str.replace(new RegExp("^[" + chars + "]+", "g"), ""); } function rtrim(str, chars) { chars = chars || "\\s"; return str.replace(new RegExp("[" + chars + "]+$", "g"), ""); } function edittoAnonymous( val ){ if($('#'+val).val() == 'Anonymous' || $('#UsernameSelector').attr('checked') == false){ $('#'+val).val(readCookie("USERSCREENNAME") ); //$('#emailuser').show(); }else{ $('#'+val).val('Anonymous'); //$('#emailuser').hide(); } } function edittotext(val){ //console.debug($(val).attr("readonly")); $('#UsernameSelector').attr('checked',false); //$(val).attr("readonly",false); } window.setTimeout(function() { // This will execute 0.5s after the page loads // and it will execute only once if(readCookie('focus_comment')) { $(window).bind('load', function() { $('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: $('#landcomment').offset().top }, 'fast'); $("#comment_text").focus(); Set_Cookie("focus_comment",'1', "-1"); }); } }, 500);

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Source: http://luxpresso.com/news-gadgets/your-most-expensive-buy-could-be-the-uunique-london-lotus-iphone-5/17865

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