Report: Europe May Have Scuttled Google's FTC Deal

The postponement of Google's deal with the Federal Trade Commission may have been caused, at least in part, by Europe's tough stance with the company. As of a few days ago, reports suggested that Google was close to hashing out a deal with the FTC, but that the European Commission's two-year antitrust investigation was far from resolved.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/26cdbfbc/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C769120Bhtml/story01.htm

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Shapiro: Obama never learned how to manage Congress

By Walter Shapiro

Being president is a daily, even hourly, character test. Every decision from approving a drone attack in Yemen to framing the State of the Union address is fraught with real-world consequences that can shape a president?s legacy.

Of course, political survival plays a role in these calculations. That is why the six weeks since the election are so potentially revealing about Barack Obama, who remains the most guarded and emotionally remote modern president. For the first time since he ran for the Illinois state Senate in 1996, Obama does not have to worry about the short-term verdict of the voters.??

Since his definitive re-election, the president has summoned poetry from despair in his prayerful speech at the Sandy Hook memorial. But Obama also allowed Susan Rice, his presumed choice for secretary of state, to step aside in the face of trumped-up Republican attacks over Benghazi. And, in what appears to have been a futile effort to placate John Boehner, the president this week voluntarily abandoned a position on taxes that he had upheld in virtually every speech during the 2012 campaign.

Until the moment Obama leaves office in 2017, all assessments of his character as a leader are tentative, works in progress subject to revision in light of new developments. But with that sense of humility in mind, here is what we have learned about Obama since the election:

Guns: At his Wednesday press conference, Obama took umbrage at the accurate suggestion that he had been AWOL on the subject of gun violence before 20 children died in Newtown. ?I?ve been president of the United States dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an auto industry on the verge of collapse [and] two wars? Obama said defensively. ?I don?t think I?ve been on vacation.?

External events often dictate a president?s priorities, so Obama did not need to invoke Afghanistan and Iraq to justify his prior lack of interest in renewing the assault-weapons ban. But now that the president has pledged that gun legislation will be a centerpiece of his State of the Union address next month, Obama should be held to a higher standard.

Dating back to the 2009 stimulus bill and health care reform, the standard Obama approach to Capitol Hill has been to stand aloof from the legislative details and the backroom bargaining over final wording. But as Joe Biden should know from the 1994 crime bill (which included an ineffective assault-weapons ban), a hands-off approach by the White House does not work with gun legislation. Without active presidential leadership, any gun bill that passes Congress will have NRA-engineered loopholes wide enough to drive an armored truck through.

To govern is to choose. And in the tear-stained aftermath of the Connecticut massacre, Obama appears to have placed a higher legislative priority on guns than immigration reform. It may well be a morally and politically defensible choice, especially if Obama is correct in sensing that this is a once-a-generation moment to lessen gun violence.

But that cause requires an activist LBJ-style president willing to exert unrelenting pressure on Congress rather than the familiar conflict-averse Obama searching for a non-existent consensus. Within the tight limitations imposed by the Supreme Court, it will be difficult to pass federal legislation that both significantly reduces gun deaths and survives constitutional scrutiny.

That is the character test awaiting Obama over guns: The president has a choice between a protracted and debilitating legislative crusade on Capitol Hill or the empty symbolism of a toothless bill that does little to prevent the next school shooting.

National Security: Obama?s second-term national security team could well be dominated by two former senators and Vietnam veterans?John Kerry, who the president just nominated as secretary of state, and, if the rumors are true, Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon.

What this may suggest is that Obama has made a conscious decision to reflect America?s war weariness in his top appointments. Both Kerry and Hagel?along with Biden, of course?understand how an unpopular war can derail even the most successful two-term president. It is even possible to interpret both the Kerry Pick and potential Hagel nomination as an indication that Obama intends to resist any hair-trigger response to Iran?s nuclear weapons program or other flash-point crisis.

But it is equally likely that, after the furor over Rice, Obama is simply taking the easy path?picking nominees who will sail through Senate confirmation because of their Capitol Hill pedigrees. (A scurrilous attack on Hagel as anti-Israel, orchestrated by Weekly Standard editor and Iraq War cheerleader Bill Kristol, has aroused a fierce counter-reaction).

That is the Obama enigma: How much is ideology and how much is conflict avoidance? With Kerry and Hagel, is the president reflecting a dovish, but pragmatic, outlook in foreign affairs? Or are these both make-no-waves choices picked because of factors that have little to do with their national-security orientation? Kerry, after all, was the only well-known alternative to Rice, and Hagel would be reprising the Robert Gates role as the token Republican at the senior level of the Obama Cabinet.

Taxes: In Iowa City in late May 2007, a fledgling presidential candidate named Obama unveiled his health-care plan. His proposed expansion of coverage would be paid for by (wait for it) ending the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 a year. There was nothing magical about $250,000 other than, in political terms, it seemed to separate the wealthy from the upper middle class.

But through slavish repetition by Obama, that $250,000 figure seemed as unalterable as pi. In his mid-November press conference, Obama again talked passionately about the need ?to pass a law right now that would prevent any tax hike whatsoever on the first $250,000 of everyone?s income.?

After more than five-and-a-half years, that ironclad Obama position is now officially inoperative. The president?s budget offer to Boehner Monday raised that income threshold to $400,000. Since the House speaker could not even pass a bill raising taxes on those earning more than $1 million per year, there is a persistent sense that?once again?Obama has been rolled.

There is no overarching ideology here, since some compromise in the face of the ?fiscal cliff? has long been inevitable. But with Obama, there is always the question of where does political positioning end and bedrock principle begin?

During his 2011 budget talks with Boehner, Obama offered to gradually increase the age of eligibility for Medicare. The president subsequently abandoned that position, but he is now willing to accept a new inflation formula for Social Security that will, over time, slightly reduce benefits. The point is not that Medicare and Social Security should be off limits in all budget negotiations, but rather it comes back to the enduring mystery of precisely what does Obama believe.

During his re-election campaign, Obama remained elusively vague about his second-term plans. But the assumption was that?once free of political pressures?Obama would reveal his governing agenda. Now, it seems quite possible that even after the inaugural address next month, we will still be searching for the Rosetta Stone that deciphers Obama?s vision.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/still-not-king-of-the-hill--in-his-first-term--obama-never-learned-how-to-manage-congress-153236240.html

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Egyptian prosecutor suddenly retracts resignation

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's chief public prosecutor, forced to quit this week after opposition protests, retracted his resignation on Thursday, setting the stage for more turmoil as the nation votes in a referendum on its political future.

Prosecutor Talaat Ibrahim, appointed by President Mohamed Mursi when he assumed sweeping new powers last month, said he had changed his mind because his resignation on Monday had been offered under duress.

Ibrahim had quit after more than 1,000 members of his staff gathered at his office in Cairo to demand that he step down. Mursi's decision to appoint Ibrahim, instead of leaving the appointment to judicial authorities, threatened the independence of the judiciary, the angered prosecutors said.

Ibrahim described his removal from office as "mysterious and abnormal" and said it was now up to the justice minister to decide on his future, according to the state-run al-Ahram news website.

Several prosecutors immediately announced they were suspending work and would stage an open-ended protest outside Ibrahim's office.

Ibrahim's about-face came 48 hours before Egyptians vote in a referendum on a divisive new constitution championed by Mursi as a vital step in Egypt's transition to democracy almost two years after the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

The opposition, facing defeat over the constitution, urged voters to reject the Islamist-backed charter and pledged to fight on to amend it during elections expected next year.

OPPOSITION URGES 'NO' VOTE

The opposition, a coalition of liberals, leftists, Christians and secular Muslims, called for a "no" vote against a document it views as leaning too far towards Islamism.

The first day of voting on December 15 resulted in a 57 percent majority in favor of the constitution. The second stage on Saturday is expected to produce another "yes" vote as it covers regions seen as more conservative and likely to back Mursi.

The National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition, said a "no" vote meant taking a stand against attempts by the Muslim Brotherhood, Mursi's political base, to dominate Egypt.

"For the sake of the future, the masses of our people should strongly and firmly say 'no' to injustice and 'no' to the Brotherhood's dominance," the Front said in a statement.

A senior Front member, Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, head of the Popular Socialist Coalition Party, said that if the constitution was approved, the opposition would go on fighting to change it.

"That's why we will participate in the legislative election because it is the only way to amend the constitution," he said.

The constitution must be in place before elections can be held. If it passes, the poll should be held within two months.

In an attempt to mobilize voters, the opposition said it planned to hold public meetings, distribute flyers and send cars equipped with loudspeakers through the streets.

A street protest against the constitution in Cairo this week attracted only a few hundred people, well down on the numbers drawn to previous such events.

ISLAMIST PROTEST

Islamist groups are planning a mass protest in Alexandria on Friday, a move likely to raise tensions a day before the vote.

The Muslim Brotherhood called for the rally after a violent confrontation between Islamists and the opposition in Egypt's second city last week that ended with a Muslim preacher besieged inside his mosque for 14 hours.

The run-up to the referendum has been marked by often violent protests in which at least eight people have died.

Mursi and his backers say the constitution is needed to advance Egypt's transition from decades of military-backed autocratic rule. Opponents say it is too Islamist and ignores the rights of women and of minorities, including 10 percent of Egyptians who are Christian.

Demonstrations erupted when Mursi awarded himself extraordinary powers on November 22 and then fast-tracked the constitution through a drafting assembly dominated by his Islamist allies and boycotted by many liberals.

The referendum is being held over two days because many of the judges needed to oversee polling stayed away in protest.

Judicial authorities on Thursday named the judges who will supervise polling stations on Saturday. The opposition cited a lack of judges at some polling stations in a list of alleged irregularities in the first round.

In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of those voting.

(Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-opposition-vows-fight-against-islamist-charter-120802768.html

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Obama to Americans on gun control: I need your help ( video)

President Obama issued a videotaped response to the several hundred thousand people who have signed a petition posted on the White House website calling for toughened gun laws in response to the shooting, in which 20 school children and six adults were killed in?Newtown, Connecticut last week.

By Steve Holland,?Reuters / December 21, 2012

President?Barack Obama?urged Americans on Friday to keep up the pressure on lawmakers to tighten gun regulations as a result of the mass shooting of 26 people in?Newtown, Connecticut, a week ago.

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Obama issued a videotaped response to the several hundred thousand people who have signed a petition posted on the White House website calling for toughened gun laws in response to the shooting, in which 20 school children and six adults were killed at a?Newtown?school.

"I need your help," Obama said in the video. "If we're going to succeed, it's going to take a sustained effort from mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, law enforcement and responsible gun owners, organizing, speaking up, calling their members of?Congress?as many times as it takes, standing up and saying 'Enough' on behalf of all our kids."

Obama has called for?Congress?to approve a ban on the sale in the?United States?of military-style assault weapons, a ban on the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips, and to ensure everyone gets a background check before they buy a gun, even if the purchase takes place at an open-air gun show currently exempt from such requirements.

For years Americans have been reluctant to impose greater restrictions on gun purchases, but the?Newtown?shooting has changed many minds and Obama is seeking to take advantage of the shift in attitude.

He has directed Vice President?Joe Biden?and a team of Cabinet officials to offer concrete proposals by next month on how to tighten gun laws and improve Americans' access to mental healthcare, strengthen school safety and address a culture that glorifies guns and violence.

Obama said he would push for these proposals early next year.

"You've started something and now I ask you to keep at it," he said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/TT1qggyF458/Obama-to-Americans-on-gun-control-I-need-your-help-video

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5 signs he's ready for a relationship | eHarmony Relationship Advice

Are you dating someone but finding it difficult to establish whether he is really ready for a relationship? Without asking directly it can be hard to know so here are some signs you could look out for.

As with every forum where men meet women there may be some men on eHarmony who ?aren?t really ready for a relationship. It can be difficult to tell a charmer from someone who is genuinely sincere about wanting to find a connection and develop a serious relationship so here are some signs to look out for which can help you know whether the man you are dating is actually ready for that commitment.

1.????? He has time for you

The first and most concrete sign that a guy is interested in developing a relationship with you is that he will make time for you even if his life is really busy. He will respond quickly to emails, calls and texts (within 24 hours) and will initiate conversations and dates to meet up.

A man is ready for a relationship when the time he invests in pursuing it is consistent and doesn?t change after the relationship has reached the bedroom. Often men are very attentive when they first meet a woman they are attracted to but their interest begins to wane once they have the prize and they start to look for the next pretty face.

If he won?t give you his time, don?t waste any more of yours on him.

2.????? He opens up to you

Notoriously men are a lot less open with their emotions than women are and are generally more reserved when talking about their feelings, past relationships and struggles they have in their life. A man is ready for a relationship when he has reached a level of emotional maturity where he understands the importance of developing intimacy through communication ? he wants to invite you into his inner world and isn?t afraid that you will judge him as weak if he lets you know that sometimes he hurts. One of the most intimate times for a man is after sex ? if he wants to cuddle up and talk then he is really into you rather than just casually dating you.

Another important aspect of this is when a man wants to draw you into his life ? showing you where he lives and introducing you to his family and friends ? all of this indicates that he is interested in developing a deepening relationship and making a commitment rather than keeping it casual.

3.????? He is affectionate as well as sexual

For men, wanting to have sex with a woman is not a sure sign of wanting to have a relationship with her. Women often mistake physical passion as a sign of deepening emotional intimacy ? it isn?t. Even if your sex life is off the scale, if only one part of a man?s anatomy is interested there is no guarantee the rest will follow. Showing affection outside of the bedroom, in ways that don?t always lead to sex ? hugging, holding hands, kissing etc ? gives a much stronger indication that he is ready for a relationship.

4.????? His friends are primarily people who are in relationships

Men will usually engage with people whose values they share so if their closest friends are people who are in steady, committed relationships it is a good indication that he is ready for that too. If however he is still hanging out with his mates, acting irresponsibly, playing the field and living an active bachelor lifestyle he may not be ready to give it up yet. Most men will have a combination of the two but over time you will see where his strongest attachments are and whose values he shares. Avoid getting deeply involved with someone who you think has the ?potential? to calm down and engage in a committed relationship ? you need to accept someone as they are now rather than what you think they could be if you push them in the right direction.

5.????? He is over past relationships

This is the biggest indication that a man is ready for a new relationship ? he is not bitter or cynical about women, commitment or relationships. He can look look at what happened realistically and see where he made mistakes rather than placing the blame for the failure of past relationships solely at the door of his exes ? his mother ? or women in general. He will give you his attention and get to know you as an individual and explore the relationship between you without prejudice.

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5 signs he's ready for a relationship, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating

Source: http://www.eharmony.co.uk/relationship-advice/relationships/2012/12/5-signs-hes-ready-for-a-relationship

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NHL cancels all games through Jan. 14

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, championship banners and retired numbers of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team hang from the rafters above the ice at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The NHL lockout that's already wiped out the first three months of the season is taking its toll on small businesses in many of the NHL's markets. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, championship banners and retired numbers of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team hang from the rafters above the ice at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The NHL lockout that's already wiped out the first three months of the season is taking its toll on small businesses in many of the NHL's markets. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

FILE - Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players Association, speaks to reporters about on going labor talks with the league outside the NHL headquarters in New York, in this July 31, 2012 file photo. Donald Fehr and the players' association are ready to get back to the bargaining table at any moment. They are now just waiting for the NHL to feel the same way. "(We aren't talking) because the owners have not indicated a desire to resume," the NHLPA's executive director said Wednesday night Dec. 19, 2012 before a charity hockey game. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, a hockey goal sits on the ice at Joe Louis Arena home of the Detroit Red Wings hockey club in Detroit. The NHL lockout that's already wiped out the first three months of the season is taking its toll on small businesses in many of the NHL's markets. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

(AP) ? The NHL could be one step away from canceling another hockey season because of a labor fight with the players.

In the latest round of cancellations, the NHL on Thursday wiped out all games through Jan. 14. More than 50 percent of the schedule has been lost, and the rest is now in great danger, too.

"I don't want to characterize what today's cancellations mean or don't mean," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email. "I will stand on the announcement that was made."

So far, 625 regular-season games have been called off, including nearly 100 in the announcement made Thursday ? the 96th day of the NHL's lockout. The New Year's Day Winter Classic and the All-Star game also have been lost.

The NHL had previously canceled games through Dec. 30.

Daly said in a radio interview Wednesday that mid-January is likely the latest the sides could go to make a deal to save the season. When pressed, however, he said he expects the season will be played.

No drop-dead date has been announced by the NHL, which is the only North American professional sports league to cancel a season because of to a labor dispute. The 2004-05 season was lost to a lockout.

Daly said the sides hadn't been in contact with each other Thursday, and no new talks are planned.

The groups have remained apart since two days of meetings with a federal mediator last week produced no progress. There haven't been negotiations since Dec. 6 in New York, when talks broke down after a few days of bargaining.

Since the sides split last week, there has been limited contact ? phone calls and a brief email exchange.

The NHL believes negotiations should resume only when there is something new to say.

"I don't think either party is refusing a meeting," Daly said Wednesday. "But unless there is an indication one side or the other is prepared to move or has a new idea to move the process forward ? and so far neither side has indicated ? I am not sure what we would do at the meeting.

"What is the agenda? Who is directing the conversation? We don't have anything new to say right now."

Union executive director Donald Fehr said Wednesday he was glad to hear Daly's belief that there would be a season, and added he hopes Daly is right.

"Hopefully, we'll get back together and negotiate out the remaining issues as soon as possible," Fehr said. "(We aren't talking) because the owners have not indicated a desire to resume.

"We've indicated any number of times that we're willing to resume when they are (and) we're willing to resume without preconditions. So we're waiting to hear back from them."

Last week, the NHL announced it filed a class action suit in the U.S. District Court in New York, seeking to establish that its lockout is legal. In a filing posted Thursday, the court said the union had three weeks after receiving the suit to file an answer.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-20-NHL%20Labor/id-58b1767bc233412cadf55bf2c462d68c

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Business Is About Making Life Better ? Empowering Your Mind

Business isn?t just about the bottom line and making money. It?s about making life better, for everyone: owners, investors, employees, customers and society at large. Business is about people, not inanimate objects. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude is that everyone is there to serve the business instead of the way it should be, the business serving society.

The business community?s philosophy of considering everyone just a cog on a wheel, whose purpose is to provide them with more money, has cost them. In Northern Arizona, most service and retail businesses refuse to allow their employees federally required lunches or breaks. Because of that, and their cavalier treatment of employees, their staff has no loyalty to them. When a business isn?t loyal to its employees, the employees return the same level of loyalty.

Many businesses drive away their best employees, and don?t invest in them or support them which would let them serve better. The mindset of ?bottom lining? is a short sighted idea. It means that business puts on blinders that keep them from seeing other opportunities.

A local restaurant that had good food was sold. The new owners bought cheaper ingredients and the quality and taste of the food suffered. As a result, sales declined and the restaurant closed its doors. When business focuses only on today, and doesn?t take a long view of their future, it constricts the ability of the business to grow.

Finally, businesses are beginning to recognize that the lack of value they provide affects their bottom line. In the article ?We Need To Stop Maximizing Profit and Start Maximizing Value? at businessinsider.com, the author addresses this issue.

Since the 1970?s, businesses have been focused on the bottom line. This has increased profits, but the quality of products and services and workers incomes have decreased. That means fewer consumer dollars are spent to grow business. It also means that the business isn?t investing in its own company.

?Maximizing profits? will eventually cause the house of cards to fall. More money is spent to train a revolving door of workers because there?s no reason for them to stick around.

Business needs to create more value for the community, and value its workers, for it to thrive. It?s in a business? own interest to realize that business is not about products or making money. It?s about people and making life better.

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Source: http://self-improvementtools.com/2012/12/19/business-is-about-making-life-better/

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What NFL history says about (un)importance of Nos. 3 and 4 playoff seeds

Perhaps the Patriots will want to take a page from Doug Flutie and the 2005 team and dropkick their way to the No. 4 AFC seed again. (AP)

Perhaps the Patriots will want to take a page from Doug Flutie and the 2005 team and dropkick their way to the No. 4 AFC seed again. (AP)

With their loss to the 49ers on Sunday night, the Patriots slipped from the No. 2 to No. 3 seed in the AFC, a setback with obviously considerable implications. New England would have to win an additional playoff game to reach the Super Bowl, and the team would then have to win a road game in the divisional round in order to advance to the AFC championship game with a Super Bowl berth on the line.

WEEI.com?s Christopher Price argues that, given the likelihood that the Pats can?t overtake the Broncos (who play a couple of easy marks in the last two weeks of the season), New England would be well served to lose its way down to the No. 4 seed in the playoffs.

But what does history say? Have teams with the No. 3 seed done any better than those with the No. 4 seed? For that matter, how big is the difference in the second and third seeds in terms of the likelihood of emerging from a conference and reaching the Super Bowl?

Here?s a look at the seeds of the 44 teams to reach the Super Bowl since 1990, when the NFL went to a 12-team playoff format:

No. 1 seeds ? 21 reached Super Bowl, 9 won

No. 2 seeds ? 12 reached Super Bowl, 6 won

No. 3 seeds ? 2 reached Super Bowl, 1 won

No. 4 seeds ? 6 reached Super Bowl, 3 won

No. 5 seeds ? 1 reached Super Bowl, 1 won

No. 6 seeds ? 2 reached Super Bowl, 2 won

As one might expect, the No. 1 seeds have been the most frequent conference representatives in the Super Bowl, emerging almost one out of every two times (47.7 percent). And, as might also be expected, the No. 2 seed is the second most frequently represented, an unsurprising development given the opportunity to host a divisional playoff game and, in years where the No. 1 seed gets upset, the AFC championship game as well.

But beyond the top two seeds, the No. 4 seed has advanced to the Super Bowl with far greater frequency than the No. 3 seed. That doesn?t mean that there?s particular benefit to being the No. 4 seed as compared to the No. 3 seed, per se ? but, at the least, it?s hard to make the case for the intrinsic value of being the No. 3 or No. 4 seed.

Teams that win their divisions get to host home playoff games in the wild card round. After that, it?s a crapshoot. In other words, if the Patriots don?t think that they have a realistic chance of catching the Broncos or Texans in the remaining two weeks of the season, then they have little incentive to play to win ? particularly if they believe, as in 2005, that they could have a more favorable series of matchups if they lose one or both of their remaining games.

Source: http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2012/12/18/what-nfl-history-says-about-unimportance-of-nos-3-and-4-playoff-seeds/

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IRS: 100M taxpayers face delays without AMT fix

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Up to 100 million taxpayers ? about two-thirds of all filers ? won't be able to file their 2012 tax returns until late March if Congress doesn't adjust the alternative minimum tax by the end of the year, the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.

Congress routinely adjusts the AMT to spare millions of middle-income taxpayers from steep tax increases. But the fix for 2012 is caught up in negotiations over the year-end "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

If Congress doesn't fix the AMT retroactively to the beginning of 2012, the tax would hit an additional 28 million filers, increasing their taxes by an average of $3,700. Millions of others would face filing delays because the annual fix affects their tax credits.

The last adjustment expired at the end of 2011, and the IRS assumed Congress would adjust the tax again when it set up its computer systems for the upcoming filing season, acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller said in a letter to Congress. It would take until late March at the earliest for the agency to re-work its computers, he said.

This scenario would leave taxpayers a small window to meet the April 15 filing deadline. The IRS, however, would not comment on any proposal to extend the filing deadline, agency spokesman Terry Lemons said.

The AMT was first enacted in 1969 to ensure that wealthy people can't use tax breaks to avoid paying any federal taxes. The tax, however, was never adjusted for inflation, so Congress routinely patches it to keep it from hitting middle-income families.

In a November letter to lawmakers, Miller said 60 million filers could face filing delays, if the AMT is not addressed. On Wednesday, he said 80 million to 100 million filers could face delays. The number grew because of millions of taxpayers ultimately may not pay the AMT but will have to do calculations to make sure.

"That up to 100 million American households could be impacted according to the IRS demonstrates the urgency in which Congress and the White House must reach a reasonable, balanced solution to stopping the fiscal cliff," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "The alternative minimum tax simply has to be permanently fixed."

Hatch and other Republicans said the AMT issue provides a good reason to vote for House Speaker John Boehner's plan to extend expiring tax cuts for everyone who makes less than $1 million. Boehner said his proposal is a backup plan in case stalled talks with President Barack Obama fail. The bill, which is scheduled for a vote in the House on Thursday, would permanently patch the AMT.

"It gives us 100 million more reasons to pass the Republican plan now," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Obama said Boehner's bill is a poor alternative to serious discussions about a comprehensive deficit-reduction package. Lawmakers from both political parties expect the AMT to be adjusted in any comprehensive deal, if one can be reached.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irs-100m-taxpayers-face-delays-225506904.html

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DNA Dieting: Will DNA Testing Identify the Best Diet for You - Shape ...

Q: Is DNA testing to find the ?perfect? diet for me worth the money?

A: Not at this time. DNA testing is fascinating, but we are really not to the point where you will get enough information to create the ?perfect? diet for you based off your genes.

Currently one of the more popular and affordable genetic testing services is 23andMe. All you need to do is spit in a tube, pop it in the mail in the provided prepaid box, and log onto their site a few weeks later to see your genetic profile.

The 23andMe report gives you information about your DNA, carrier status, and risk for 245 different disease and conditions. At best, the information you will be able to get from test reports from companies like 23andMe will let you know if you are at increased risk for diseases including diabetes, heart disease, or obesity. It can also tell you things such as if you are likely to be lactose intolerant?or have Celiac?s disease. All this information if very interesting and much of it is useful, but we currently can't use it to generate the perfect diet for someone.

For example, if you find out you have the genetic profile such that you shouldn?t have lactose, there?s a simple fix: Stop consuming dairy or take a Lactaid when you do. But if you find that you have the genetic predisposition for heart disease, it?s less clear what you should do. Poll five different experts, and you?ll get at least three different dietary approaches that are the ?best? for treating heart disease. We aren?t to the point with our knowledge about certain diseases and treatments that a DNA test could give you advice for a diet specific for your genes.

I think it also depends on your personality and what you would do with the information. Diet and exercise is far and away the best treatment for diabetes, but despite this many people with diabetes refuse to commit to a regular exercise program or modify their diet in any significant way. Smoking can increase your risk for lung cancer by 13 to 23 times (depending on your gender) regardless of your genetic makeup, but more people start smoking every day.

I am personally fascinated by the level of information an average person can get from spitting into a vial and sending it off in the mail. While this information won?t give you the perfect diet for your body, it will give you lots of insights about your health and potential risk for a myriad of diseases. The price of this testing continues to go down, but whether the information is worth the financial cost is a personal decision.

Source: http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/ask-diet-doctor-dna-diet-bogus

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