Wednesday, November 30, 2011

More than 200 held after police raid Occupy camps

Lucy Nicholson / Pool via EPA

LAPD officers search a protester arrested outside City Hall in Los Angeles early on Wednesday.

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By msnbc.com staff, NBC News and wire services

Updated at 7:10 a.m. ET: LAPD Chief Charlie Beck tells AP that an initial search of the city's raided?Occupy camp turned up no drugs or weapons.

Updated at 6:55 a.m. ET: More than 200 people were arrested during a raid of the Occupy LA encampment, The Associated Press reported. Police Chief Charlie Beck told a news conference that the arrests were mainly peaceful and there were no injuries.

Updated at 6:40 a.m. ET: Police gave Occupy Philadelphia demonstrators three warnings that they would have to leave early Wednesday?and?nearly all of the protesters?did so, according to?The Associated Press.?Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told WCAU that his officers "did an excellent job ... I'm very, very pleased and very?proud of them." Watch the video here.

Updated at 6:32 a.m. ET: At 6:09 a.m. ET, NBC Philadelphia reported that Occupy protesters were marching through the streets toward Rittenhouse Square. "Traffic is blocked" and "some of the city's mass transit has been halted," its website said.


Updated at 6:25 a.m. ET: Two Philadelphia police officers were taken to hospital with minor injuries following?a "scuffle" with anti-Wall Street protesters while clearing the?city's Occupy encampment,?authorities told NBC Philadelphia.

Updated at 5:50 a.m. ET:?Police arrested about two dozen?roving marchers who left the Occupy Philadelphia encampment early Wednesday after officers evicted protesters, The Associated Press reported. Police began pulling down tents at about 1:20 a.m. ET? after telling demonstrators they had to leave.?

Updated at 5:45 a.m. ET:?Four injuries?have been?reported during the operation to clear the?Occupy?LA site,?NBC Los Angeles said.?Two people?were transported to a local hospital but the extent of their injuries was not?immediately known.

Updated at 5:05 a.m. ET: KTLA reports that "dozens" of protesters have been arrested at the Occupy LA encampment. According to its website,?demonstrators were being "handcuffed with plastic zip ties" before being taken to Dodger Stadium for processing.

Updated at 4.45 a.m. ET: Occupy LA protester Opamago Cascini, 29, tells CNS why he's ready to go to jail: "It's easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk."

Updated at 4:33 a.m. ET: According to NBC Los Angeles, about 1,700 LAPD officers are on the scene as Occupy LA encampment is dismantled.

Updated at 4:30 a.m. ET:??LAPD Chief Charlie Beck was spotted at the camp shortly after 1:00 a.m. PT (4 a.m. ET), KTLA reports.

Updated at 4:20 a.m. ET: A LAPD public information officer tells KNBC's Conan Nolan?that some cops are helping Occupy?protesters to pack up their belongings. "Everybody is being very cooperative," the PIO?added.

Updated at 4:13 a.m. ET: KNBC's Beverly White says a local church has opened its doors "to give sanctuary to the 99 percent."

Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET: In a statement, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says: "We have taken a measured approach to enforcing the park closure because we have wanted to give people every opportunity to leave peacefully. I ask that anyone who remains in the park to please leave voluntarily."

He says a "First Amendment area" will remain open on the Spring Street City Hall steps while the park is closed.

"Once the park is cleared, it will be repaired and returned to all Angelenos to exercise their First Amendment rights," Villaraigosa added.

Updated at 4:05 a.m. ET: Speaking from Main and First, KNBC's Conan Nolan says LAPD appear to "have really thought this out and put a plan in place."?He?adds that police?tactic?of "sectioning off"?crowd "seems to be working well so far." Nolan says LAPD?sought advice from other police forces who previously cleared out Occupy camps. "This is very un-Oakland-like," he added. "It's been very peaceful."

Updated at 3:55 a.m. ET:?Other than?"some initial minor scuffling," LA Occupy crowd remains "boisterous but peaceful," Reuters reports. Police declared the crowd an "unlawful assembly" around 12:30 a.m. PT (3:30 a.m. ET), prompting some protesters to climb into trees.

?Updated at 3:50 a.m. ET: When asked about police on the scene?wearing white biohazard suits, LAPD Officer Cleon Joseph tells KNBC that?"we're prepared for anything."

Updated at 3:45 a.m. ET: NBC Los Angeles reports "several?arrests" at Occupy LA camp.

Updated at 3:35 a.m. ET: LAPD Officer Cleon Joseph to KNBC's Beverly White: "We're giving people a chance to leave right now. The dispersal order has been given." He says that people refusing to leave will be charged with obstruction. "They can't be here," he added. "We've given them fair warning."

Updated at 3:30 a.m. ET: NBC Los Angeles reports that?about 30?buses carrying?more than?1000 officers gathered at?staging area at Dodger Stadium?before heading?to?encampment.

Updated at 3:15 a.m. ET: Live video footage on NBC Los Angeles?shows police officers moving into City Hall park. A?large white tent is also seen to come down.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Members of Occupy LA, including some wearing gas masks, link arms as they await eviction in front of City Hall late Tuesday.

Updated at 3:10 a.m. ET: Police officers, including some in riot gear, have arrived at City Hall park, site of the protest camp,?KTLA reports. Some protesters have put on gas masks.

Updated at 2:40 p.m. ET: The Los Angeles Times reports?a police supervisor told a group of officers preparing to move in on the Occupy camp that the protesters have "a bunch of concrete gravel and other [things] they're going to throw at us."

"Please put your face masks down and watch each other's back," he added. "Now go to work."

Updated at 12:45 a.m. ET: A raid on Occupy LA?s City Hall encampment?appeared imminent Tuesday night as several local news sources reported that Los Angeles Police were gathering at Dodger Stadium.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he decided to evict the protesters after learning that children were staying in the camp.

"The chaos out there could produce something awful," he told The Times, because of reports of assaults and other incidents.

Occupy LA?s Facebook page said city buses would be staged near City Hall between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., NBC station KNBC reported.

It was not known exactly when police would clear the area out, but about half the tents were gone, the KNBC report said.

On Monday, protesters declared a minor victory after defying a midnight deadline to clear the camp, the Associated Press reported. Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters there was ?no concrete deadline? for removing the protesters.

"This is a monumental night for Los Angeles. We're going to do what we can to protect the camp," said Gia Trimble, member of the Occupy LA media team.

She said she thought a lot of people would stay and risk arrest, adding, "We're really committed to this."

KTLA TV journalist David Begnaud tweeted a picture of people?"linked arm and arm to protect what they have dubbed 'the last tent to go.'"

The protesters designated medics designated with red crosses taped on clothing. Some protesters had gas masks. Broadcast footage showed Los Angeles police officers boarding buses that had lined up near Dodger Stadium at what appeared to be some sort of staging area.

Organizers at the camp packed up computer and technical equipment from the media tent.

"The Los Angeles Police Department has demonstrated a willingness to respect the civil right of protesters," Occupy LA founding members?told KNBC?in?a statement. "We call on them to continue to demonstrate that restraint and respect."

Two men who have constructed an elaborate tree house fashioned a ladder pusher out of bamboo sticks tied together with twine. It was intended to push down a ladder that police may erect to get them out of the tree house.

Members of the National Lawyers guild had legal observers on hand for any possible eviction that may occur.

Pam Noles, a member of the camp media team, said the park is legally closed at 10:30 p.m.

Police have removed protesters in other cities. Some of those instances involved pepper spray and tear gas.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Occupy protesters on Dilworth Plaza appeared to be complying with a final warning from police to leave.

A message posted on the police?Twitter account, @Phillypolice, said?the department "thanks #occupyphilly for their cooperation. We're here to protect constitutional rights and ensure public safety."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/30/9105583-reports-police-raid-on-occupy-la-encampment-imminent

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More Exclusive Photos of the Navy's X-47B UAV

The U.S. Navy just completed the inaugural test flights of its second X-47B, and PM got more new photos of this futuristic UAV. By Andrew Moseman

1 of 4

The size of a strike fighter but with no need of an on-board pilot, the X-47B is vying to be the U.S. Navy's next great warplane. In February 2011, the Navy completed the first test flight with its demonstrator. Last week, the second X-47B took to the skies over Edwards Air Force Base in California. The second plane is called AV-2, and it reached 5000 feet in altitude during its half-hour test flight, the Navy says. 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Fitch may lower Fannie, Freddie debt outlook (AP)

NEW YORK ? The Fitch ratings agency will likely lower its outlook for debts linked to the U.S. government to negative, including debt of government-controlled mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fitch, one of the three major ratings agencies, said Tuesday it expects to announce the revised outlooks over the next several days.

The announcement comes a day after the agency downgraded its outlook on U.S. debt to negative. The agency kept its rating for long-term U.S. debt at the top AAA level but said it has less confidence in the federal government's ability to rein in the deficit.

Ratings are based on the likelihood of default. The AAA rating is the highest available and signifies an extremely low likelihood of default.

A special congressional panel failed last week to reach an agreement on $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts over the next decade. The impasse triggered automatic cuts of the same amount, which are scheduled kick in beginning in 2013.

The U.S. government rescued Fannie and Freddie in September 2008 and has funded them since the financial crisis. The two mortgage giants own or guarantee about half of all U.S. home loans and nearly all new mortgages. So if the U.S. government can't pay its bills, neither can Fannie and Freddie.

However, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government regulator that oversees Fannie and Freddie, has said the entities will meet their financial obligations because the government will continue to fund them.

An array of bonds and securities and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks also have credit ratings that are directly tied to the credit rating of U.S. debt.

In August, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services downgraded the credit ratings of Fannie and Freddie from AAA to AA-plus, reflecting the same downgrade S&P made of long-term U.S. government debt a few days before. It was the first time the agency had lowered the nation's AAA rating since granting it in 1917.

If Fitch were to downgrade U.S. debt in the next two years, Fannie and Freddie would certainly see its ratings fall too. Fitch said there is slightly greater than a 50 percent chance it would downgrade U.S. debt by 2013.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fitch_us_credit_rating

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Female biz owners at NJIT's EDC named top NJ entrepreneurs

Female biz owners at NJIT's EDC named top NJ entrepreneurs [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sheryl Weinstein
973-596-3436
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Own It Ventures, in collaboration with New Jersey Monthly magazine will honor three women business owners located at the NJIT Enterprise Development Center (EDC). Marjorie Perry, president of MZM Construction, Linda Sharkus, PhD, president of AcquiSci Inc., and Peggy McHale, principal at Consultants 2 Go, will be named among the top 25 leading women entrepreneurs and business owners in New Jersey for their service, leadership and contributions to New Jersey's economic recovery. The event (www.ownitventures.com) will be held 6 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2011, at the Mansion, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham Park.

"It is extraordinary that so many of our women entrepreneurs in our business accelerator program in Newark are being acknowledged for their achievements." said Judith Sheft, NJIT Associate Vice President, whose responsibilities include oversight of EDC. "It shows that our commitment to these women and their companies can have a tremendous impact on the state's economy."

More remarks include:

"It is an honor to be a part of such an elite group of women. With the support of the resources provided by NJIT's EDC, I have been able to grow my business and mentor other women as well," said McHale.

"I cannot tell you how proud it makes you feel when your peers acknowledge you for your accomplishments. I am thrilled to be a part of this wonderful night of recognition," said Perry.

"I would like to thank those at the NJIT-EDC Incubator who have helped AcquiSci and me through the challenging times of an early stage company. The resources have been extremely helpful with regard to our development," said Sharkus.

###

EDC located at NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, is home to over 90 high-tech and life-science companies. EDC companies have access to NJIT facilities and can partner with researchers to help grow their businesses. EDC puts start-up companies on a solid track to success with additional resources that include office space and laboratory facilities available at competitive rates and with flexible leases. EDC also provides comprehensive assistance with navigating the requirements for government contracts at all levels, preparing grant applications, and meeting regulatory rules and regulations. For more information, call 973.643.4063.

AcquiSci Inc., a private company based at EDC, is a medical device company that's developing the d-OSAB technological platform. Applications include the treatment of stroke and other inflammatory diseases and the purification of biological fluids. The company's core technology patent was issued by the USPTO in June 2010. For more information, call 732.280-8425 or email sharkus@acquisci.com.

Consultants 2 Go is a certified minority, women-owned consulting company that provides marketing and analytics consultants to Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies in the financial services, telecom, life sciences and insurance industries on an interim basis or as an outsourced project. For more information, call 973.645.0098 or email info@Consultants2Go.com.

MZM Construction & Management is a certified minority, woman and disadvantaged owned company that offers services in general construction and management to large and small companies, nonprofit and government agencies, as well as various transportation industries. MZM recently added architecture and engineering services to its capabilities. For more information, call 973.242.7100 or email admin@mzmcc.com.

NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls more than 9,558 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2010 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Office of Continuing Professional Education.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Female biz owners at NJIT's EDC named top NJ entrepreneurs [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sheryl Weinstein
973-596-3436
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Own It Ventures, in collaboration with New Jersey Monthly magazine will honor three women business owners located at the NJIT Enterprise Development Center (EDC). Marjorie Perry, president of MZM Construction, Linda Sharkus, PhD, president of AcquiSci Inc., and Peggy McHale, principal at Consultants 2 Go, will be named among the top 25 leading women entrepreneurs and business owners in New Jersey for their service, leadership and contributions to New Jersey's economic recovery. The event (www.ownitventures.com) will be held 6 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2011, at the Mansion, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham Park.

"It is extraordinary that so many of our women entrepreneurs in our business accelerator program in Newark are being acknowledged for their achievements." said Judith Sheft, NJIT Associate Vice President, whose responsibilities include oversight of EDC. "It shows that our commitment to these women and their companies can have a tremendous impact on the state's economy."

More remarks include:

"It is an honor to be a part of such an elite group of women. With the support of the resources provided by NJIT's EDC, I have been able to grow my business and mentor other women as well," said McHale.

"I cannot tell you how proud it makes you feel when your peers acknowledge you for your accomplishments. I am thrilled to be a part of this wonderful night of recognition," said Perry.

"I would like to thank those at the NJIT-EDC Incubator who have helped AcquiSci and me through the challenging times of an early stage company. The resources have been extremely helpful with regard to our development," said Sharkus.

###

EDC located at NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, is home to over 90 high-tech and life-science companies. EDC companies have access to NJIT facilities and can partner with researchers to help grow their businesses. EDC puts start-up companies on a solid track to success with additional resources that include office space and laboratory facilities available at competitive rates and with flexible leases. EDC also provides comprehensive assistance with navigating the requirements for government contracts at all levels, preparing grant applications, and meeting regulatory rules and regulations. For more information, call 973.643.4063.

AcquiSci Inc., a private company based at EDC, is a medical device company that's developing the d-OSAB technological platform. Applications include the treatment of stroke and other inflammatory diseases and the purification of biological fluids. The company's core technology patent was issued by the USPTO in June 2010. For more information, call 732.280-8425 or email sharkus@acquisci.com.

Consultants 2 Go is a certified minority, women-owned consulting company that provides marketing and analytics consultants to Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies in the financial services, telecom, life sciences and insurance industries on an interim basis or as an outsourced project. For more information, call 973.645.0098 or email info@Consultants2Go.com.

MZM Construction & Management is a certified minority, woman and disadvantaged owned company that offers services in general construction and management to large and small companies, nonprofit and government agencies, as well as various transportation industries. MZM recently added architecture and engineering services to its capabilities. For more information, call 973.242.7100 or email admin@mzmcc.com.

NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls more than 9,558 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2010 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Office of Continuing Professional Education.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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/2011-11/njio-fbo113011.php

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No YOU Da One: Vanjess Covers Rihanna


SoCal's favorite viral, sisterly duo has done it again.

Vanjess, whose take on Lady Gaga, T-Pain and other stars using only vocals and a Casio have earned them a cult following (gotta love YouTube), has cranked out another cover. This time, they pay homage to the Barbadian beauty, Rihanna.

Listen to their rendition of "You Da One" below:

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/no-you-da-one-vanjess-covers-rihanna/

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Fearing unrest, Israel delays work at holy site (AP)

JERUSALEM ? Israel's prime minister intervened to halt renovation work on a pedestrian walkway adjacent to the most sensitive holy site in Jerusalem to avoid inflaming public opinion in the Arab world, an Israeli official said Monday.

The renovation is meant to replace a rickety wooden ramp leading up to the enclosure known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Aqsa. The ramp was meant to be temporary when it was constructed in 2004 to replace an earlier one that collapsed in a snowstorm, but fears of sparking Muslim anger have prevented any further work since then.

The dismantling of the temporary walkway, which Jerusalem city officials have deemed potentially unsafe, was supposed to have begun in recent days, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the work postponed, Netanyahu told a security and foreign policy committee in Israel's parliament.

He cited the recent anti-government unrest in neighboring Egypt, implying that anger there could be turned against Israel if his government were seen to be endangering a holy site that has repeatedly served as a flashpoint for violence.

"It was my assessment that given the demonstrations in Cairo, on that specific day, that specific week ? it was not the time," Netanyahu told the committee, according to an official who participated in the closed session. He spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the subject.

The official gave no date for the resumption of work. The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the Israeli body directly responsible for the ramp, would not provide details on the project, and spokesmen for Netanyahu and Jerusalem City Hall declined to comment.

In 2007, when Israel began preliminary work to replace the temporary ramp with a new one, an outcry from Muslims eventually forced Israel to shelve the plan.

The walkway, which is not part of the compound, is located in the Old City's Jewish Quarter and is used by non-Muslim visitors and tourists. Muslim worshippers use a number of other entrances from the adjacent Muslim Quarter.

Israel says it has quiet contacts on the subject with the Islamic Waqf, the body in charge of the day-to-day running of the compound under Israel's security control.

The Waqf, which does not wish to be seen as collaborating with Israel, traditionally denies any contact with Israeli authorities, and a senior Waqf official said Monday that there was "no coordination" with Israel.

The ramp renovation constituted "an attack on al-Aqsa," Abdul Azim Samhadana said. "Israel is destroying this pathway in a way that is provocative and which attacks the sentiments of Muslims," he said.

On Monday, neighboring Jordan denounced the Israeli work as "unilateral" and aimed at "Judaizing" Jerusalem, according to an official government statement.

Jordan's king, Abdullah II, raised the issue Monday during a meeting in Amman with Israeli President Shimon Peres. A statement from the palace said the king urged Israel to "refrain from any measures that could change the features of Jerusalem, or affect Islamic and Christian holy places in the Holy City."

Jordan, which held east Jerusalem until losing the area in the 1967 Mideast war, still controls the Waqf, giving it a custodial role at Muslim holy sites in the city.

Underlying the opposition to the seemingly minor work is Muslim anger over the fact of Israeli control at the compound, Islam's third holiest site and a potent national symbol for Palestinians.

The compound was the site of two biblical Jewish temples and has been at the center of the Jewish faith for three millennia. Today, Jews pray outside at the adjacent Western Wall. For the past 1,300 years, it has been home to the golden-capped Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock and to the al-Aqsa mosque.

_______

Additional reporting from Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan.

Follow Matti Friedman on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/mattifriedman

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_holy_site

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Stocks soar after big holiday shopping weekend

Trader Fred Demarco, left, and specilaist John O'Hara work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Hopes for a more far-reaching solution to Europe's debt crisis and a strong start to the U.S. shopping season sent stocks sharply higher Monday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Fred Demarco, left, and specilaist John O'Hara work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Hopes for a more far-reaching solution to Europe's debt crisis and a strong start to the U.S. shopping season sent stocks sharply higher Monday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Hopes for a more far-reaching solution to Europe's debt crisis and a strong start to the U.S. shopping season sent stocks sharply higher Monday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Benjamin Siony works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Hopes for a more far-reaching solution to Europe's debt crisis and a strong start to the U.S. shopping season sent stocks sharply higher Monday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Patrick Kenny, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. Hopes for a more far-reaching solution to Europe's debt crisis and a strong start to the U.S. shopping season sent stocks sharply higher Monday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

(AP) ? A strong start to the U.S. shopping season and hopes for a far-reaching solution to Europe's debt crisis sent stocks sharply higher Monday.

A record number of shoppers hit the mall or bought gifts online during the holiday weekend. Thanksgiving weekend is a make-or-break time for many retailers. For the past six years, Black Friday has been the biggest sales day of the year.

Markets in Europe are also up sharply as leaders there discuss new approaches for containing the region's debt troubles, including a joint bond issue.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 303 points, or 2.7 percent, to 11,535 at 11:45 a.m. Eastern Time.

The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 35, or 3.1 percent, to 1,194. The Nasdaq composite rose 88, or 3.6 percent, to 2,529.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-11-28-Wall%20Street/id-8a52663b1b734bf8ad21d039cf811740

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Gingrich and Romney Endorsements Based on False Assumptions (The Nation)

The Nation -- The political media class was astounded on Sunday when the New Hampshire Union Leader endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for the Republican presidential nomination. Mitt Romney, the former Governor of neighboring Massachusetts who keeps a vacation home in New Hampshire, is assumed to have a lock on the state. With Gingrich having recently gained the lead in national polls and in more socially conservative states such as South Carolina, could a Gingrich endorsement in Romney?s strongest state be the end of Romney?s five year campaign?

It?s worth remembering that the Union-Leader is owned by an arch conservative, Joseph W. McQuaid, who wrote the editorial. His views are not necessarily representative of New Hampshire?s more moderate Republican electorate. In 2000 the paper endorsed Steve Forbes but the state went for John McCain.

More importantly, the endorsement is based on false assertions about Gingrich. McQuaid credits Gingrich with ?forging balanced budgets and even a surplus despite the political challenge of dealing with a Democratic President. A lot of candidates say they're going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that.?

The most important legislation that lead to federal surpluses was the Deficit Reduction Act of 1993, passed by a Democratic Congress. It cut spending and raised taxes on high income earners. Gingrich led the Republican assault on that same Democratic caucus, complaining about the tax increases. The other major contributor to the disappearance of federal budget deficits was the booming economy of the 1990s for which Gingrich cannot plausibly claim credit.

As for working with Democrats, Gingrich?s antagonistic relationship with Clinton makes current House Speaker John Boehner look like President Obama?s best friend. Gingrich shut down the government and impeached Clinton for having an extra-marital affair even while Gingrich was himself carrying on a much longer affair.

But at least the Union Leader is not alone in making nonsensical endorsements. Consider Barron?s, the house organ of Wall Street. Owned by the Down Jones Company which also owns the right wing Wall Street Journal and which is in turn owned by Rupert Murdoch, Barron?s is usually a fairly straight newspaper. But its most recent issue ran a front page story that is basically an endorsement of Mitt Romney disguised as some sort of news analysis of Romney and Obama?s platforms.

The newspaper?s cover read, ?ROMNEY vs. OBAMA: One of these men is likely to cut government spending, help kick-start the economy, create jobs, boost investor confidence and keep America from going the way of Greece. The other isn?t.? I genuinely thought they might be saying that Obama was the former and Romney the latter. After all, it is Obama, not Romney, who has repeatedly offered to accept painful compromises such as cuts to Medicare, Social Security and domestic discretionary spending as part of a deficit reduction deal. In fact, Obama has already cut spending on Medicare and domestic programs. Romney says he would not agree to a deal with Democrats with $1 in increased tax revenue for every $10 in spending cuts. Such stubbornness does not bode well for our chances of reaching a grand bipartisan compromise on the budget.

The article is just partisan Republican ideology disguised as objective analysis. ?The Choice Ahead: Should the U.S. continue on its path to becoming more like Europe? Or should we play to entrepreneurial strengths?? asks the author, Jim McTeague. Europe, as Barron?s may not know, is a big place. There are countries in Northern Europe with not only greater equality and social services but also healthier growth than we have had in recent years, that might not be such a bad thing. The specific crisis at the moment is emanating from a few countries with their own specific problems, which in the case of Greece includes too little taxation, not too much.

The piece goes on to praise Romney for adopting standard Republican positions, as if the assumption that those policies would generate faster economic growth is settled fact not ideological conjecture. For example, it praises Romney for adopting the McCain-Palin platform of ?Drill Baby, Drill? for oil. Why would drilling for oil necessarily provide such a boost to our economy? Are they aware of the terrible economic and social cost of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico? They don?t even bother to tell you.

It?s a good thing that newspaper endorsements in presidential elections tend not to matter very much, because this first round of endorsements would mislead voters.

Like this article? Try 4 issues of The Nation at home (and online) FREE.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20111127/cm_thenation/164808

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Your abusive boss may not be good for your marriage, according to Baylor University study

Your abusive boss may not be good for your marriage, according to Baylor University study

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Having an abusive boss not only causes problems at work but can lead to strained relationships at home, according to a Baylor University study published online in journal, Personnel Psychology. The study found that stress and tension caused by an abusive boss have an impact on the employee's partner, which affects the marital relationship and subsequently the employee's entire family.

The study also found that more children at home meant greater family satisfaction for the employee, and the longer the partner's relationship, the less impact the abusive boss had on the family.

"These findings have important implications for organizations and their managers. The evidence highlights the need for organizations to send an unequivocal message to those in supervisory positions that these hostile and harmful behaviors will not be tolerated," said Dawn Carlson, Ph.D., study author, professor of management and H. R. Gibson Chair of Organizational Development at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, Waco.

A supervisor's abuse may include tantrums, rudeness, public criticism and inconsiderate action.

"It may be that as supervisor abuse heightens tension in the relationship, the employee is less motivated or able to engage in positive interactions with the partner and other family members," said Merideth Ferguson, PH.D., study co-author and assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Baylor.

Organizations should encourage subordinates to seek support through their organization's employee assistance program or other resources (e.g., counseling, stress management) so that the employee can identify tactics or mechanisms for buffering the effect of abuse on the family, according to the study.

The study included 280 full-time employees and their partners. Fifty-seven percent of the employees were male with an average of five years in their current job; 75 percent had children living with them. The average age for the employee and the partner was 36 years. The average length of their relationship was 10 years. Of the respondents, 46 percent supervised other employees in the workplace, 47 percent worked in a public organization, 40 percent worked in a private organization, nine percent worked for a non-profit organization and five percent were self-employed. Of the partner group, 43 percent were male with 78 percent of these individuals employed.

Workers filled out an online survey. When their portion of the survey was complete, their partner completed a separate survey that was linked back to the workers'. The partner entered a coordinating identification number to complete his/her portion of the survey. The combined responses from the initial contact and the partner constituted one complete response in the study database.

Questions in the employee survey included; "How often does your supervisor use the following behaviors with you?" with example items being "Tells me my thoughts or feelings are stupid," "Expresses anger at me when he/she is mad for another reason," "Puts me down in front of others," and "Tells me I'm incompetent."

Questions in the partner survey included; "During the past month, how often did you . . ." feel irritated or resentful about things your (husband/wife/partner) did or didn't do" and "feel tense from fighting, arguing or disagreeing with your (husband/wife/partner)."

"Employers must take steps to prevent or stop the abuse and also to provide opportunities for subordinates to effectively manage the fallout of abuse and keep it from affecting their families. Abusive supervision is a workplace reality and this research expands our understanding of how this stressor plays out in the employee's life beyond the workplace," Carlson said.

###

Baylor University: http://www.baylor.edu

Thanks to Baylor University 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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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115508/Your_abusive_boss_may_not_be_good_for_your_marriage___according_to_Baylor_University_study

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The Federal Reserve's 'breathtaking' $7.7 trillion bank bailout (The Week)

New York ? A new report on the 2008 financial crisis reveals some shocking numbers that dramatically exceed the $700 billion TARP bailout

A new report by Bloomberg Markets Magazine details trillions of dollars in secret federal loans made to the big banks during the 2008 financial crisis, a process that helped them rake in billions of dollars in undisclosed profits. Here, some key numbers that illuminate the Federal Reserve's "breathtaking" $7.7 trillion bank bailout:

29,000
Pages of federal documents, courtesy of the Freedom of Information Act, and central bank records that Bloomberg combed through to reveal a "fresh narrative of the financial crisis"

More than 21,000
Number of transactions detailed in those pages

SEE MORE: Wall Street's job 'slashing': By the numbers

?

$7.7 trillion
Amount in undisclosed loans the Federal Reserve made to struggling financial institutions, according to the new Bloomberg report. That "dwarf[s] the Treasury Department's better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program [TARP]," say Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz at Bloomberg

$13 billion
Estimated amount in previously undisclosed profits the six largest banks ?? JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs Group, and Morgan Stanley ? took in, thanks to those loans and the Fed's below-market rates. Unlike the TARP funds, "the loans came with virtually no strings attached for the banks," says Travis Waldron at Think Progress

$160 billion
Amount in TARP funds the big six received

As much as $460 billion
Amount the big six borrowed from the Fed, as calculated by Bloomberg and measured by peak daily debt

SEE MORE: MF Global's 'spectacular' collapse: Winners and losers

?

$1.2 trillion
Amount that banks referenced in the new report required on December 5, 2008, "their single neediest day." The Federal Reserve didn't reveal to anyone which banks were in such dire need, say Ivry, Keoun, and Kuntz, and "bankers didn't mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy."

$86 billion
Amount that Bank of America Corp. owed the central bank when then-CEO Kenneth D. Lewis wrote shareholders saying that he was at the helm of "one of the strangest and most stable banks in the world" on November 26, 2008

SEE MORE: MF Global: Where is the bankrupt firm's missing $700 million?

?

$107 billion
Amount in secret loans that Morgan Stanley took in a single month, in September 2008

1 out of 10
Share of the country's delinquent mortgages that amount could have paid off

$6.8 trillion
Total assets held by the big six on September 30, 2006

$9.5 trillion
Total held on September 20, 2011. Rather than help curb the practice that caused the financial crisis, "the Fed and its secret financing helped America's biggest financial firms get bigger and go on to pay employees as much as they did at the height of the housing bubble," say Ivry, Keoun, and Kuntz

Sources: Bloomberg, Business Insider, Think Progress

View this article on TheWeek.com
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    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111128/cm_theweek/221883

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    Breakfast Topic: Have WoW and your tabletop gaming influenced ...

    This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

    A lot of us come from a pen-and-paper background when it comes to roleplaying games. Many of us have even tried our hands at running a game back in the day when gaming meant crowding around a table with books, dice, pencils and paper. We pretended to be someone else from another world, swinging swords and flinging fireballs using the world's most powerful graphics chip, the imagination.

    Not everyone is a great storyteller, and many of us that took up that role may have ended up with less than spectacular results. Then, after having played computer roleplaying games like Final Fantasy, EverQuest, or even World of Warcraft, you may have been introduced to a style of storytelling that may or may not have been completely different from anything you've experienced in the past.

    After partaking of this new experience, has your own personal storytelling in your pen-and-paper games changed much? Are there game mechanics that you've altered in your game because you think it works better the way World of Warcraft does it? What elements from World of Warcraft (or other games) have inspired your creative bug to tell your epic and not-so-epic stories? Do you find yourself more inspired by the storytelling in single-player or massively multiplayer types of roleplaying games?


    Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts

    Source: http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/26/breakfast-topic-have-wow-and-your-tabletop-gaming-influenced-ea/

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    Monday, November 28, 2011

    Tech Buzzwords Make Shortlist for Word of the Year (Mashable)

    The Oxford English Dictionary has chosen its (two-word) word of the year: Squeezed Middle. Last year's word of the year was big society, and the word of 2009 was unfriend. Those who spend time on Twitter might have guessed that OWS, occupy or 99% would have come out on top this year. They didn't come out on top, but they did make the shortlist, alongside some notable tech buzzwords. Gamification, clicktivism and crowdfunding made the U.S. shortlist, while hacktivism, sodcasting (playing music on your phone's speaker in a public place) and -- not surprisingly -- phone hacking made the UK list.

    [More from Mashable: Retweet & Sexting Are Now Words In Oxford English Dictionary]

    Here's the full U.S. shortlist for 2011's word of the year, along with OED definitions:

    • Arab Spring: A series of anti-government uprisings in various countries in North Africa and the Middle East, beginning in Tunisia in December 2010.
    • Bunga bunga: Used in reference to parties hosted by the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, at which various illicit sexual activities were alleged to have taken place.
    • Clicktivism: The use of social media and other online methods to promote a cause.
    • Crowdfunding: The practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.
    • Fracking: The forcing open of fissures in subterranean rocks by introducing liquid at high pressure, especially to extract oil or gas.
    • Gamification: The application of concepts and techniques from games to other areas of activity, for instance as an online marketing technique.
    • Occupy: The name given to an international movement protesting against perceived economic injustice by occupying buildings or public places and staying there for an extended period of time.
    • The 99%: The bottom 99% of income earners, regarded collectively.
    • Tiger mother: A demanding mother who pushes her children to high achievement using methods regarded as typical of Asian childrearing.
    • Sifi: A bank or other financial institution regarded as so vital to the functioning of the overall economy that it cannot be allowed to fail, a.k.a. "systemically important financial institution."
    The English language is ever evolving. Retweet and sexting were added to the dictionary in August, and earlier this year, Oxford acknowledged LOL, .

    [More from Mashable: Is Phone Hacking Ever Justified? [OPEN THREAD]]

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20111126/tc_mashable/tech_buzzwords_make_shortlist_for_word_of_the_year

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    How much crazier can Black Friday get? (AP)

    NEW YORK ? Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles. How did Black Friday devolve into this?

    As reports of shopping-related violence rolled in this week from Los Angeles to New York, experts say a volatile mix of desperate retailers and cutthroat marketing has hyped the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales to increasingly frenzied levels. With stores opening earlier, bargain-obsessed shoppers often are sleep-deprived and short-tempered. Arriving in darkness, they also find themselves vulnerable to savvy parking-lot muggers.

    Add in the online-coupon phenomenon, which feeds the psychological hunger for finding impossible bargains, and you've got a recipe for trouble, said Theresa Williams, a marketing professor at Indiana University.

    "These are people who should know better and have enough stuff already," Williams said. "What's going to be next year, everybody getting Tasered?"

    Across the country on Thursday and Friday, there were signs that tensions had ratcheted up a notch or two, with violence resulting in several instances.

    A woman turned herself in to police after allegedly pepper-spraying 20 other customers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart on Thursday in what investigators said was an attempt to get at a crate of Xbox video game consoles. In Kinston, N.C., a security guard also pepper-sprayed customers seeking electronics before the start of a midnight sale.

    In New York, crowds reportedly looted a clothing store in Soho. At a Walmart near Phoenix, a man was bloodied while being subdued by police officer on suspicion of shoplifting a video game. There was a shooting outside a store in San Leandro, Calif., shots fired at a mall in Fayetteville, N.C. and a stabbing outside a store in Sacramento, N.Y.

    "The difference this year is that instead of a nice sweater you need a bullet proof vest and goggles," said Betty Thomas, 52, who was shopping Saturday with her sisters and a niece at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, N.C.

    The wave of violence revived memories of the 2008 Black Friday stampede that killed an employee and put a pregnant woman in the hospital at a Walmart on New York's Long Island. Walmart spokesman Greg Rossiter said Black Friday 2011 was safe at most of its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores despite "a few unfortunate incidents."

    Black Friday ? named that because it puts retailers "in the black" ? has become more intense as companies compete for customers in a weak economy, said Jacob Jacoby, an expert on consumer behavior at New York University.

    The idea of luring in customers with a few "doorbuster" deals has long been a staple of the post-Thanksgiving sales. But now stores are opening earlier, and those deals are getting more extreme, he said.

    "There's an awful lot of psychology going on here," Jacoby said. "There's the notion of scarcity ? when something's scarce it's more valued. And a resource that can be very scarce is time: If you don't get there in time, it's going to be gone."

    There's also a new factor, Williams said: the rise of coupon websites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the online equivalents of doorbusters that usually deliver a single, one-day offer with savings of up to 80 percent on museum tickets, photo portraits, yoga classes and the like.

    The services encourage impulse buying and an obsession with bargains, Williams said, while also getting businesses hooked on quick infusions of customers.

    "The whole notion of getting a deal, that's all we've seen for the last two years," Williams said. "It's about stimulating consumers' quick reactions. How do we get their attention quickly? How do we create cash flow for today?"

    To grab customers first, some stores are opening late on Thanksgiving Day, turning bargain-hunting from an early-morning activity into an all-night slog, said Ed Fox, a marketing professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Midnight shopping puts everyone on edge and also makes shoppers targets for muggers, he said.

    In fact, robbery appeared to be the motive behind the shooting in San Leandro, about 15 miles east of San Francisco. Police said robbers shot a victim as he was walking to a car with his purchases around 1:45 a.m. on Friday.

    "There are so many hours now where people are shopping in the darkness that it provides cover for people who are going to try to steal or rob those who are out in numbers," Fox said.

    The violence has prompted some analysts to wonder if the sales are worth it, and what solutions might work.

    In a New York Times column this week, economist Robert Frank proposed slapping a 6 percent sales tax on purchases between 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and 6 a.m. on Friday in an attempt to stop the "arms race" of earlier and earlier sales.

    Small retailers, meanwhile, are pushing so-called Small Business Saturday to woo customers who are turned off by the Black Friday crush. President Barack Obama even joined in, going book shopping on Saturday at a small bookstore a few blocks from the White House.

    "A lot of retailers, independent retailers, are making the conscious decision to not work those crazy hours," said Patricia Norins, a retail consultant for American Express.

    Next up is Cyber Monday, when online retailers put their wares on sale. But on Saturday many shoppers said they still prefer buying at the big stores, despite the frenzy.

    Thomas said she likes the time with her sisters and the hustle of the mall too much to stay home and just shop online.

    To her, the more pressing problem was that the Thanksgiving weekend sales didn't seem very good.

    "If I'm going to get shot, at least let me get a good deal," Thomas said.

    ___

    Associated Press Writers Julie Walker in New York, Christina Rexrode in Raleigh, N.C., John C. Rogers in Los Angeles and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_re_us/us_black_friday_what_s_to_blame

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    Sunday, November 27, 2011

    Occupy movement targets Black Friday; 10 arrested

    KHNL-TV

    Occupy Honolulu protesters demonstrate at a Wal-Mart store in Honolulu early Friday,

    By msnbc.com staff

    Updated 2:57 p.m. ET: The Occupy Wall Street movement is taking its anti-corporate directly to Black Friday shoppers.

    Ten Occupy Oklahoma City protesters were arrested Friday morning after a protest at a Wal-Mart store in Del City, Okla., The Oklahoman reported.?

    Del City police Capt. Jody Suit told the newspaper that officers working off-duty security jobs at the store called for assistance about 2 a.m. because the protesters were causing disturbances in the back of the store.

    One of those arrested, Mark Faulk, 55, of Oklahoma City told the newspaper that he was filming the group's "mike check" ? in which one member of the group shouts something and then the others in the group repeat what the speaker said ? when??Del City police ran and started tackling people from behind.?


    Police Lt. Steve Robinson told The Associated Press that no excessive force was used.

    Occupy protests targeted other retailers across the country.

    More than a dozen Occupy Honolulu protesters demonstrated in front of a Wal-Mart store in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the predawn hours, NBC station KHNL of Honolulu reported.

    They accused Wal-Mart of supporting child labor and suppressing its work force.

    "Sweat shops in China and around the world produce these products," said Alala Zusman, one of the protesters. "People are paying low prices at Wal-Mart, and when Wal-Mart came in here, this neighborhood lost a lot of mom-and-pop stores."

    Meanwhile, Occupy Eugene protesters were moving from store to store in Eugene, Ore., urging shoppers to spend less money on what they call "Buy Nothing Day," NBC station KMTR of Springfield reported.

    Shoppers at Valley River Center said they wished the demonstrators, who chanted and sing reworded Christmas carols, would just go away.

    "I think it's a waste of time," one shopper said. "People are still buying."

    Story: Crazed weekend launches crucial retail season

    Occupy Seattle planned to hold a rally from noon to 5 p.m. local time at Westlake Park in the downtown retail core, The Associated Press reported. The Seattle group said it was promoting homemade gifts and local businesses as an alternative to what it called "rampant consumerism that plagues society, destroys the environment and supports the 1 percent."

    Occupy Atlanta planned to go even further, setting up its own "really, really free market" downtown as an alternative to Black Friday shopping.

    PhotoBlog: Black Friday shopping starts Thursday

    Organizer Tim Franzen told the AP that the market, which was scheduled to open in Woodruff Park at 3 p.m. ET, would feature free food, clothing and other items.

    He said demonstrators want to focus on the people who are struggling to make ends meet while banks and corporations bring in millions during Friday's shopping tradition.

    Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/25/9018571-occupy-movement-targets-black-friday

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    Italy's Monti in austerity race as market pressure grows (Reuters)

    ROME (Reuters) ? Prime Minister Mario Monti faces a testing week finalizing tax and pension plans aimed at shoring up Italy's strained public finances with markets pushing the euro zone's third largest economy close to a debt emergency that could overwhelm the bloc.

    Monti is expected to unveil measures on December 5 that could include a revamped housing tax, a rise in sales tax and accelerated increases in the pension age unless pressure from the markets forces him to act more quickly.

    Already borrowing costs have returned to the dangerous levels which triggered the collapse of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government, with yields on 10 year bonds ending last week at more than 7.3 percent.

    Italian yields are now in the territory that forced Greece, Italy and Portugal to seek international bailouts and an auction Tuesday of up to 8 billion euros (?6.86 billion) of 10 year BTP bonds will be a crucial test.

    Friday, Italy paid a euro lifetime high yield of 6.5 percent to sell new six-month paper, a level which analysts said cannot be maintained for long without pushing a public debt amounting to 120 percent of gross domestic product out of control.

    Italy, Europe's second biggest manufacturing power, would be far too big for existing bailout mechanisms and default on its 1.8 trillion euro debt would probably destroy the euro.

    A team from the International Monetary Fund is expected in Rome this week to evaluate the state of the economy, a mark of growing concern about the effect of the crisis on the world economy.

    Monti outlined the broad thrust of his reform plans earlier this month, promising a mix of budget rigor and reforms to stimulate economic growth and has stuck to Berlusconi's pledge to balance the budget by 2013.

    But with growing signs that Italy's chronically sluggish economy could be entering recession, he has come under pressure to provide concrete details quickly.

    The measures outlined so far are broadly in line with directions the European Central Bank gave Berlusconi's government as the price for supporting Italian bonds in the market when the crisis began to deepen in August.

    As well as loosening job protection measures, privatizing local services and opening up professions to more competition, additional budget measures estimated by Italian media at up to 15 billion euros could be announced.

    PRESSURE

    Monti can take some comfort from surveys showing broad popular support for his technocrat government but austerity measures have yet to bite deeply and surveys also show a mixed picture on individual austerity measures.

    A poll in the business daily Il Sole 24 Ore Sunday showed 83 percent support for plans to ease rules that protect those on permanent job contracts but which discourage employers from taking on full time staff and leave many workers in temporary jobs with few rights.

    Almost 89 percent favored a tax on large fortunes but only 32 percent were in favor of reintroducing a housing tax scrapped by Berlusconi in a last minute campaign pledge before the 2008 election.

    A separate survey in the Corriere della Sera daily showed 72 percent opposed to an increase in the pension age, a deeply sensitive issue in a country with a rapidly aging population.

    On pensions, the government is expected to bring forward an increase in retirement ages which is already planned and a wider reform is possible in the coming weeks.

    Il Sole 24 Ore said a deeper reform to so-called seniority pensions, which allow workers to retire earlier based on the number of years they have paid contributions, could be passed by Christmas after talks with unions.

    The revamped housing tax, known as ICI, is expected to be based on revised land registry valuations that would be closer to market prices and it could be scaled progressively to raise more from large property holdings.

    Scrapping the tax cost the Treasury around 3.5 billion euros a year, according to estimates by former Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti.

    Other ideas under consideration include raising the value-added tax band in bars and restaurants, which currently stands at 10 percent and lowering the maximum limit on which cash can be used to crack down on widespread tax evasion.

    There has also been speculation that a form of wealth tax, which has been firmly rejected by the center-right, could be introduced.

    (Reporting By James Mackenzie; editing by David Stamp)

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111127/bs_nm/us_italy

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    Federal Insurance Office to Crowdsource Views on Modernization of ...

    U.S. Insurance industry players should brace themselves for major changes in Insurance regulations come next year. As the new Federal Insurance Office (FIO) has been tasked to crowdsource views on ways to modernize the U.S. insurance regulatory framework. This announcement comes as a surprise to many as changes to insurance regulation has in the past always been met with resistance from industry players.

    FIO_Crowdsources_ways_to_modernize

    The FIO has embarked on the crowdsourcing initiative through the Federal eRulemaking Portal, and ?snail mail.? The agency will gather views from interested parties by mid-December 2011. The effort is part of the Dodd-Frank Act that empowers the FIO to find ways to modernize insurance regulation despite opposition from industry players.

    Under the initiative, interested parties will submit their views on the following areas;

    • Systemic risk regulation
    • Capital allocation standards
    • Consumer protection
    • Levels of uniformity of state insurance regulation
    • Possible gains from a federally regulated insurance industry

    The Department of Treasury expects the crowdsourced views to mainly focus on mechanisms and alternatives for regulation modernization and enhancements. The views are expected to showcase data or rationale, examples, supportive arguments and conclusions, existing legislative, administrative or regulatory proposals for implementing the outlined approaches or alternatives.

    Many industry players have already expressed opposition to such proposed regulatory changes. However, some players have kept an open mind, but even then they can?t agree on what changes to be implemented. No one knows as yet to what extent the crowdsourced views will influence the resulting changes, or who the views will be crowdsourced from.

    ?

    Thanks insurancetech
    Image credit Steve-h

    Source: http://dailycrowdsource.com/2011/11/25/government/federal-insurance-office-to-crowd-source-views-on-modernization-of-u-s-insurance-regulations/

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    Brooke Hauser's 6 favorite books about immigrants (The Week)

    New York ? The journalist recommends works by by Dave Eggers, Henry Roth, and Junot D?az

    The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $15). Fadiman spent nine years in Merced, Calif., documenting the culture clash between American doctors and Hmong refugees from Laos. At the center of the story is a little girl with severe epilepsy ? a condition that her doctors want to treat with anti-convulsants, and that her parents attribute to the wandering of her soul.

    What Is the What by Dave Eggers (Vintage, $16). Eggers channels the voice of real-life hero Valentino Achak Deng, one of Sudan's 20,000 "Lost Boys," who walked thousands of miles to escape civil war.

    SEE ALSO: Ann Beattie's 6 favorite books

    ?

    Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (Picador, $16). Roth was 28 when he wrote his debut novel, about a boy coming of age in the Jewish slums of New York's Lower East Side. Though it didn't sell many copies when it was first published, in 1934, Roth's portrayal of the Jewish immigrant experience is now an American classic.

    The Gangster We Are All Looking For by L? Thi Diem Th?y (Anchor, $15). "Linda Vista, with its rows of yellow houses, is where we eventually washed to shore." So begins this semiautobiographical novel about a young girl who flees Vietnam by boat and ends up in San Diego. L?'s lyrical and spare story brilliantly captures what it's like to mourn the loss of one's home country while searching for a place in America.

    SEE ALSO: Chris Matthews' 6 favorite JFK reads

    ?

    Netherland by Joseph O'Neill (Vintage, $15). O'Neill, who was born in Ireland and raised in Holland, has written one of the most memorable works of fiction about life in New York City post-9/11. The Dutch narrator is a financial analyst who rediscovers a love of cricket while befriending a wily Trinidadian expat. The novel exposes the personal connections formed and lost in the aftermath of a crisis.

    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot D?az (Riverhead, $15). Oscar Wao, a Dominican-American "ghetto nerd," hails from New Jersey, but he is haunted by fuk?, a curse that has followed his family from Santo Domingo. D?az's shatteringly original novel proves that sometimes, home is the strangest of strange lands.

    SEE ALSO: Mark Whitaker's 6 favorite memoirs

    ?

    ? Brooke Hauser's first book, The New Kids, is a group portrait of the students at an all-immigrant New York City high school.

    View this article on TheWeek.com
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    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111125/cm_theweek/221758

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    Saturday, November 26, 2011

    Newsmaker: Technocrat "oil man" takes charge of Libya lifeline (Reuters)

    TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Libya's new oil minister is seen as the right kind of technocrat, deeply experienced yet not too closely tied to the former regime of Muammar Gaddafi, to help restore the OPEC member's economic lifeline after eight months of war.

    Abdulrahman Ben Yazza is in his mid-50s and brings experience from both Libya's oil industry and Italian firm Eni, the largest foreign oil producer in Libya before the war.

    He worked at Libya's Waha Oil company and at the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), culminating in a seat on the management committee. He then headed a joint venture between NOC and Eni.

    "He's an excellent oil man," NOC Chairman Nuri Berruien told Reuters. "He's a first-class professional ... The most important (thing) is that he's from the oil patch. It is very important, it is good to work with people who speak your tongue."

    A source close to Ben Yazza said the married father of four from Tripoli had been living in Milan for the last few years and traveling frequently to Libya.

    "Ben Yazza is an old guy, well known and well liked. He knows Eni very well but that doesn't mean he will be pro-Eni ... he will be pro-Libyan," one Libyan oil industry source said.

    "He's more a technocrat politician. Remember this is a transitory government, a bit like the Monti government in Italy ...It doesn't represent the power equilibrium and none of the big shots are in it."

    Of all the new appointments in Prime Minister Abdurrahim El Keib's government, set to lead the country to elections next year, analysts and industry sources said Ben Yazza is seen as the most technocratic and least colored by the country's regional politics.

    "In meetings he would listen to everyone's opinion," a person who worked with him at the NOC said, describing Ben Yazza as "very respectable."

    NEW FACES

    Before the February revolt, Libya's oil policy was run by the NOC headed by Shokri Ghanem, who defected in June and is believed to be living in Europe.

    Officials have since indicated there will be changes, with plans to split commercial arrangements from policy.

    Ben Yazza himself is seen as somewhat independent despite his NOC history, as a man who reportedly clashed at one point with Ghanem and who carries no strong affiliation with the ousted regime.

    He is "very competent with a strong personality," one diplomatic source said.

    "There were other candidates in the sector who had good international pedigrees, but they were often very closely associated with Col. Gaddafi - or they amplified their connections with Gaddafi in order to increase their prestige," said Geoff Porter, a U.S. independent expert on Libya.

    "In the new post-Gaddafi Libya, they are tainted and would have been rejected by the Libyan population and by the hydrocarbon sector workers in particular."

    The new set of faces will have to sustain the revival of the industry, which is returning to the international market faster than expected.

    Libya holds Africa's largest oil reserves and was pumping 1.6 million barrels per day before the revolt.

    Questions remain about the future, with a potential shake-up that would give more power to the oil ministry and carve up the NOC's responsibilities.

    Berruien said the oil ministry and NOC would "complement each other."

    Ben Yazza's appointment could see a number of former Libyan state oil company executives return to the public sector, according to political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

    "Highly experienced and extremely well-connected, we expect Ben Yazza to announce the recruitment of a number of his former NOC colleagues and friends to the NOC and the ministry," it said.

    "The implications for the sector are good. Separating the regulatory and oversight functions from operations will remove some conflicts of interest," it said.

    "Ben Yazza (will have) the opportunity to root out some of the more entrenched examples of corruption."

    Still, he could encounter opposition from some workers still wary of former NOC officials. Waha Oil workers just recently ended a strike after their demands for a new chairman were met.

    "Lack of experienced personnel has long been a retarding factor in the Libyan oil and gas sector and Ben Yazza will see the return of senior officials currently with IOCs (independent oil companies) as important if the sector is to reach its full potential," Eurasia said.

    (Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun and Christian Lowe in Tripoli, Stephen Jewkes in Milan, Jessica Donati in London; editing by Jason Neely)

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/ts_nm/us_libya_oil_minister

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