robert kennedy cardinals san diego weather north korea frances bean cobain north korea missile launch modesto
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Patent trolls? latest gambit: Sue businesses if they dare to use office scanners
The heated fiscal cliff negotiations are over ? for now ? so it's time to assess your wallet. You probably understand the centerpiece of President Obama's much maligned offer to Republicans, which raised income taxes on the wealthiest Americans by allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire for the highest brackets. (Obama was aiming to increase taxes on individuals making more than $250,000 per year and, but eventually settled on a threshold of $400,000, and $450,000 for couples. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/patent-trolls-latest-gambit-sue-businesses-dare-office-201509995.html
marysville tornados dr. seuss dr seuss the temptations rush limbaugh sandra fluke green book
Cliff averted, it's on to the next fiscal crisis
President Barack Obama waves as he gets off Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, Hawaii, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. The president is back in Hawaii for vacation after a tense, end-of-the-new-year standoff with Congress over the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama waves as he gets off Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, Hawaii, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. The president is back in Hawaii for vacation after a tense, end-of-the-new-year standoff with Congress over the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. The ?fiscal cliff? compromise, for all its chaos and controversy, was enough to send the stock market shooting higher Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., following a closed-door GOP meeting as the "fiscal cliff" bill passed by the Senate Monday night waits for a vote in the Republican-controlled House, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Onward to the next fiscal crisis. Actually, several of them, potentially. The New Year's Day deal averting the "fiscal cliff" lays the groundwork for more combustible struggles in Washington over taxes, spending and debt in the next few months.
President Barack Obama's victory on taxes this week was the second, grudging round of piecemeal successes in as many years in chipping away at the nation's mountainous deficits. Despite the length and intensity of the debate, the deal to raise the top income tax rate on families earning over $450,000 a year ? about 1 percent of households ? and including only $12 billion in spending cuts turned out to be a relatively easy vote for many. This was particularly so because the alternative was to raise taxes on everyone.
But in banking $620 billion in higher taxes over the coming decade from wealthier earners, Obama and his Republican rivals have barely touched deficits still expected to be in the $650 billion range by the end of his second term. And those back-of-the-envelope calculations assume policymakers can find more than $1 trillion over 10 years to replace automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as a sequester.
"They didn't do any of the tough stuff," said Erskine Bowles, chairman of Obama's 2010 deficit commission. "We've taken two steps now, but those two steps combined aren't enough to put our fiscal house in order."
In 2011, the government adopted tighter caps on day-to-day operating budgets of the Pentagon and other cabinet agencies to save $1.1 trillion over 10 years.
The measure passed Tuesday prevents middle-class taxes from going up while raising rates on higher incomes. It also blocks severe across-the-board spending cuts for two months, extends unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless for a year, stops a 27 percent cut in Medicare fees paid to doctors and prevents a possible doubling of milk prices.
The alternative was going over the cliff, an economy-punching half-trillion-dollar combination of sweeping tax increases and spending cuts. Despite the deal, the government partially went over the brink anyway with the expiration of a two-year cut in Social Security payroll taxes of two percentage points.
Action inside a dysfunctional Washington now only comes with binding deadlines. So, naturally, this week's hard-fought bargain sets up another crisis in two months, when painful across-the-board spending cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs are set to kick in and the government runs out of the ability to juggle its $16.4 trillion debt without having to borrow more money.
Unless Congress increases or allows Obama to increase that borrowing cap, the government risks a first-ever default on U.S. obligations. Republicans will use this as an opportunity to leverage more spending cuts from Obama, just like they did in the summer of 2011.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, vows that any increase in the debt limit ? which needs to be enacted by Congress by the end of February or sometime in March ? must be accompanied by an equal amount in cuts to federal spending. That puts him on yet another collision course with Obama, who has vowed anew that he won't let haggling over spending cuts complicate the debate over the debt limit.
The cliff compromise represented the first time since 1990 that Republicans condoned a tax increase. That has whipped up a fury among tea party conservatives and increased the pressure on Boehner to adopt a hard line in coming confrontations over the borrowing cap and the spending cuts that won only a two-month reprieve in this weeks' deal.
Put simply, House Republicans are demanding new spending cuts ? possibly through changes in Social Security and Medicare benefit formulas ? as a scalp, and they're dead set against raising more revenues through anything less than an overhaul of the tax code now that Obama has won higher taxes on the wealthy.
"Now the focus turns to spending," Boehner said after Tuesday's vote, promising that future budget battles will center on "significant spending cuts and reforms to the entitlement programs that are driving our country deeper and deeper into debt."
Obama is just as adamant on the other side, saying higher revenues have to be part of any formula for further diverting the automatic spending cuts.
While conservative activist Grover Norquist gave Republicans a pass on violating his anti-tax pledge with this week's vote, he and other forces on the right won't be so forgiving on any future effort to increase revenues.
The refusal of Republicans to consider additional new taxes is sure to stir up resistance among Democrats when they're asked to consider politically painful cuts to so-called entitlement programs like Medicare. Democratic protests led Obama and Boehner to take a proposal to increase the Medicare eligibility age off the table in the recent round of talks.
The upshot? More scorched-earth politics on the budget will probably dominate the initial few months of Obama's second term, when the president would prefer to focus on legacy accomplishments like fixing the immigration problem and implementing his overhaul of health care.
The relationship between Boehner and Obama has never been especially close and seemed to have suffered a setback last month after the speaker withdrew from negotiations on a broader deficit deal. The two get along personally, but politically, a series of collapsed negotiations has bred mistrust. The White House has the view that Boehner cannot deliver while the speaker is frustrated that matters brought up in his talks with the president are not followed through by White House staff.
And on the debt limit, Boehner and Obama at this point are simply talking past each other.
"While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already racked up through the laws that they passed," Obama said after the deal was approved.
Said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel: "The speaker's position is clear. Any increase in the debt limit must be matched by spending cuts or reforms that exceed the increase."
Associated Pressdavid blaine gotye divine mercy cabin in the woods the legend of korra three stooges the three stooges
Nonpublic special education school graduates outpace their peers ...
While most children see dream jobs, spouses and freedom in their futures, Brian Bailey saw only death. The autistic boy, who stopped speaking at 18 months, grew up with anxiety about getting older, and his rocky educational track record early on didn?t allay his fears.
?I was obsessing from the beginning about his future, asking ?What am I going to do?? ? said his mother, Jennell Bailey, as she recalled his one week in a Baltimore public school general-education classroom, where she said he wasn?t flourishing.
But in 2014 when Brian Bailey graduates from the St. Elizabeth School in Baltimore ? a nonpublic institution that is part of a group called the Maryland Association of Nonpublic Special Education Facilities ? he will be eagerly anticipating the next stage of his life.
-
For Baltimore schools, special education still a work in progress
-
City school officials assure special education advocates at meeting
-
End of Vaughn G. closes one chapter, opens another in city schools
MANSEF, which is made up of schools that take in special-education students who are referred from public schools that can?t meet their needs, recently commissioned a report that showed that their post-graduation results outpace national outcomes for students with disabilities who receive services in public schools.
The study found that students with disabilities who graduate from MANSEF?s nonpublic schools are more likely than their public school classmates to be employed, enrolled in a post-secondary school and living independently and are less likely to have been exposed to the juvenile justice system.
?It was critical for us to know and validate the heroic efforts of the staff working in our schools, and really make sure that the education we provide is really top-notch,? said Dorie Flynn, executive director of MANSEF.
Flynn said that while the system?s nonpublic schools follow the state?s curriculum and are subjected to intensive annual evaluations and regulations by the state Department of Education, the organization wanted a snapshot of its results.
?It?s really important to do outcome studies,? Flynn said. ?You don?t want to do something if it?s fruitless.?
The research was compiled by Deborah Curran, a researcher and professor at the Johns Hopkins University, who called the results encouraging.
The MANSEF graduates were compared to results found in a study done by the U.S. Department of Education called the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2, which tracks a sample population of special-needs students who receive services in public schools as they transition to adulthood. The MANSEF study represented students from 18 nonpublic institutions two years after they graduated in 2007 and 2008.
Curran said the longitudinal study, which served as a model for the MANSEF study, was the most comparable data available, though students in the national study often have more severe disabilities.
?It demonstrates that these students, with the proper supports in place, they can go on to be very engaged in their community, in the world,? Curran said. ?I was surprised at how engaged they were, how many were out there doing something.?
For example, the percentage of students who graduated from MANSEF schools and were employed within one year was 53 percent compared to 27 percent nationally.
The number enrolled in a four-year college was 11 percent, compared to 4 percent in the national sample; about 74 percent of MANSEF special-education students were living at home after one year, while 84 percent were nationally.
And about 16 percent in MANSEF schools had been involved in the criminal justice system, while 58 percent in the national study were.
An original MANSEF school, St. Elizabeth is one of 93 programs in Maryland that serve students in a setting that is small, well equipped and heavily staffed.
?We are able to collaborate and individualize to an intense degree,? said Lori Revitz, clinical coordinator at St. Elizabeth. ?Because we understand them so well, we can help them understand themselves.?
The debate around inclusive settings, in which special-education students are in general-education classrooms rather than being segregated, continues to be contentious. But parents and educators at St. Elizabeth ? which has extracurricular activities like proms, sports teams and a student council, and where students have jobs and can even take college courses ? say that young disabled adults are in a setting where they can flourish.
?The truth is [there is more] normalization here than in inclusion,? said Joshua Gervais, transition coordinator for St. Elizabeth. ?One of the biggest things that holds students back is socialization. Here, they?re good enough.?
For Mary Lee Richardson, that was key to choosing St. Elizabeth for her 16-year-old, autistic son, who was struggling in a Baltimore County high school. Soon after starting school, he fought going every day because few knew his name, let alone his frustrations.
Article source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-ci-nonpublic-schools-20121231,0,5410760.story
Source: http://backtoschool.newzogs.com/?p=426
Allyson Felix Kourtney Kardashian Baby Girl Ashton Eaton London 2012 basketball London 2012 Slalom Canoe Alex Morgan Misty May Treanor
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Video: Emerging Deal?
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50332743/
bill o brien portland trailblazers will kopelman dakota fanning casey anthony video diary lamarcus aldridge justin timberlake engaged
10 Things to Know for Today
Fireworks explode over the ancient Parthenon temple at the Acropolis Hill during the New Year's celebrations in Athens, on Tuesday Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Fireworks explode over the ancient Parthenon temple at the Acropolis Hill during the New Year's celebrations in Athens, on Tuesday Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A man smokes marijuana on the official opening night of Club 64, a marijuana-specific social club, where a New Year's Eve party was held, in Denver, Monday Dec. 31, 2012. On Election Day, Nov. 6, 2012, a plurality of Coloradans voted in favor of Proposition 64 to legalize recreational marijuana. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, from Kentucky, heads into his office after a vote on the fiscal cliff, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in Washington. The Senate passed legislation early New Year's Day to neutralize a fiscal cliff combination of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that kicked in at midnight. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and stories that will be talked about today (all times EST).
1. SENATE APPROVES 'FISCAL CLIFF' DEAL
Next up is the House, which meets at noon to vote on an agreement that kept taxes steady for the middle class, among other things.
2. WHAT IT MEANS FOR TAXPAYERS
Tax cuts are extended on incomes of up to $400,000, estate and capital gains taxes increase and payroll taxes go up 2 percentage points.
3. 5, 4, 3, 2 ...
From Times Square to Myanmar, the world rang in 2013 with hope for change after a year of hard economic times and natural disasters.
4. DOCTORS GIVE DETAILS ON CLINTON'S BLOOD CLOT
It's located in a vein between the brain and the skull behind the secretary of state's right ear.
5. WHY NO ONE KNOWS NEWTOWN SHOOTER'S FINAL RESTING PLACE
Families of other mass killers have had to weigh their need to mourn against the risk that a public gravesite could be desecrated.
6. WHAT NEW DRUG COULD FIGHT TB
Sirturo, used for hard-to-treat strains, is the first new medicine approved to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.
7. SUPPORTERS PRAYING FOR CHAVEZ
Three weeks after cancer surgery, the Venezuelan leader's condition appears increasingly dire.
8. WHY OSCAR VOTERS HAVE ONE MORE DAY
Criticism of its new online system prompted the motion picture academy to extend the deadline until Friday.
9. THIS CLUB IS BYOP
Two Colorado clubs were believed to be the first legal recreational marijuana dens in the nation.
10. 12 SACKED IN NFL POSTSEASON
Seven football coaches and five general managers lost their jobs after the regular season ended.
Associated Pressmarques colston golden state warriors free agents nfl 2012 milwaukee bucks bear grylls us news law school rankings gael
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)