Black Entertainment News for Information

MT. ORAB, Ohio (AP) ? It’s winter, so Donna Robirds puts on two sweaters in the morning and keeps heavy blankets handy as she sets her thermostat low ? 60 at night ? and bundles up to keep her utility bill down.

At 67, with a fixed income and a $563-a-month mortgage, she lives on a tight budget. Food stamps help the retired state employee stretch her budget in this Appalachian village. So has the mild winter.

“We haven’t had the extreme cold, so it hasn’t been too bad,” she said. “I really need to watch my money. It’s going to be a struggle.”

Robirds’ daily battle is being played out across the Appalachian region, which stretches through 13 states from northeastern Mississippi to southern New York. A part of the country that has long lagged behind the rest of the U.S. economically finds itself on the leading edge of a national trend: The number of Americans 65 and older is increasing, and many are struggling as government services are being cut in a rough economy.

Nationally, with the aging of the baby boom generation, people 65 and over are expected to account for 1 of every 5 Americans by 2030. Some places in Appalachia have already reached that benchmark, such as southern Ohio’s Brown County, where Robirds lives.

“These counties are like the canary in the coal mine,” said Suzanne Kunkel, who heads the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University of Ohio. “This is a pretty dramatic change coming.”

More than 15 percent of Appalachia’s population is already at least 65, compared with 13 percent nationally, according to the 2010 Census. And projections show the number rising steadily in much of the region, as it is nationally.

The aging population means more demand for health care, economic help, transportation and home help, which are already in short supply in much of Appalachia.

“It’s getting more urgent in the number of people needing those services and having those available to them,” said Robert Roswall, commissioner of West Virginia’s Bureau of Senior Services. “We have people waiting for all those type of programs.”

Appalachia has long been plagued by isolation, poor roads, sewer systems and other infrastructure needs, lack of education and the decline of coal mining, manufacturing and other key industries. The region has low per-capita income (less than $30,000 in 2009, 18 percent lower than the nation’s), low college graduation rates, an exodus of young working people, and high rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, along with poor access to health care.

Peggy Basham, 74, of Summersville, W.Va., is worried.

“I think most everybody in the area is,” she said. “You’ve got baby boomers coming on. You’ve got so many seniors. … Nothing stretches very far.”

Basham helps craft quilts that are sold to support the Nicholas County Senior Citizens Center. The senior center feeds 500 people per month, and Basham said more would come if only they had transportation from their mountain homes. She said she sees elderly people regularly forced to choose whether to pay for prescription drugs, heat their homes or buy groceries.

West Virginia officials say their state has the country’s highest concentration of older residents than anywhere but Florida. Sixteen percent of West Virginia’s population is 65 or older, compared with 17.3 percent in Florida, according to census figures.

And unlike those who flock to Florida’s retirement villages and condominium complexes, aging people in West Virginia and elsewhere in Appalachia have long been less likely to move, often because they can’t afford it or they have a strong attachment to home.

Robirds doesn’t have much choice: Her home’s market value declined in the nation’s housing crisis, and she is years away from paying it off. But the mother of three doesn’t want to move anyway.

“I want to have a place for my grandchildren to stay when they visit,” she said, “and to be able to have my passion for gardening.”

Robirds got some vital help from Cincinnati-based People Working Cooperatively, a nonprofit organization that sent workers before winter to add insulation, clean vents, service her furnace, replace her refrigerator and perform other maintenance.

The organization, dedicated to helping poor people stay in their homes in the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana region, is seeing demand for its services rocket over the last two years, from 40,000 calls for help in 2009 to 66,000 in 2011, according to president Jock Pitts.

Those in charge of dealing with the surging numbers of elderly people say such community-based help and other innovative solutions are especially important in struggling areas such as Appalachia.

“Given our state’s limited resources ? we’re not going to hit the lottery ? we are changing, in Ohio, our approach,” said Bonnie Kantor-Burman, head of Ohio’s Department of Aging. “There is a limit to what the state and federal governments are going to be able to do.”

She sounds the alarm by often displaying a set of color-coded maps produced through Miami’s Gerontology Center that show the projected aging of the population in eye-popping detail: In 2000, about one-fourth of the population in three of Ohio’s 88 counties was 60 or older; in 2010, that was true of 16 counties, most of them in Appalachia. By 2020, it’s projected to be 76 counties ? with one-third of the population in six of those counties 60 or older.

Other community efforts to keep senior citizens in their homes include The Village concept, in which residents and volunteers help provide transportation, handyman work and home health care. Pioneered in Boston in the last decade, it is spreading into such states as North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The state of West Virginia, meanwhile, has designated six “retirement zones” where senior citizens can get access to affordable housing, health care, education, culture and recreation.

“We need to be talking about it and working together to find solutions,” said Thomas Campbell, a state legislator from Greenbrier, W.Va., whose widowed mother is 89. “People in Appalachia tend to want to stay in their homes and have their family as close to them as they can, and I don’t think those are bad things. I think we’ll find a way to do it.”

___

Associated Press writer John Raby in Charleston, W.Va., contributed.

___

Contact the reporter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-02-21-Aging%20America-Appalachia/id-45e159e50614416a83ea7c98a513abf7

coachella sea shepherd elizabeth edwards shark tank tim tebow cfa hellgate

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Reuters – * U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open for equities on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 falling 0.1 percent, the Dow Jones futures gaining 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq 100 futures falling 0.1 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120217/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

may 21 doomsday hulk hogan preakness slim jim mary hart buffalo bill new zealand earthquake 2011

LONDON ? BP PLC has raised its quarterly dividend by 14 percent after posting double-digit gains in profit and revenue in the last three months of 2011 despite further big payments to compensate for a disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP also said Tuesday that it expects to complete payments to the Gulf of Mexico Trust Fund this year to cover its liability for damage from the massive blowout of the Macondo well in April 2010.

For the three months ending Dec. 31, BP reported a profit of $7.69 billion, up 38 percent from the $5.57 billion posted a year earlier. Revenue was up 15 percent at $96.3 billion.

Replacement cost profit, a closely watched industry measure, was 65 percent higher at $7.6 billion.

“2012 will be a year of increasing investment and milestones as we build on the foundations laid last year,” said CEO Bob Dudley.

“As we move through 2013 and 2014, we expect financial momentum will build as we complete payments into the Gulf of Mexico Trust Fund, restore high-value production and bring new projects on stream.”

For the full year, BP reported a profit of $39.8 billion compared to a loss of $3.7 billion in 2010; replacement cost profit was $23.9 billion compared with a loss of $4,914 million in the previous year.

And as of Dec. 31, the cumulative charges paid from the Gulf Trust fund amounted to $14.5 billion.

The hike in the quarterly dividend, to 8 cents per share, is the first increase since BP resumed paying dividends a year ago.

“The dividend is still far from the historical heady heights, however, whilst the ongoing fallout from the Gulf of Mexico spill is a distraction,” said Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown. “More positively, the fund put aside to finance these claims seems sufficient, whilst further planned divestments will enable BP to focus more strategically on higher growth opportunities.”

BP shares were up 0.3 percent in early trading in London at 4.91 pounds.

“It was good to see a dividend increase with the results and it is a good sign of confidence in the improving operational performance,” said Tony Shephard, analyst at Charles Stanley & Co., who rated the shares as “hold.”

“BP’s share valuation is low relative to the other oil and gas majors but it still faces uncertainty over the Gulf of Mexico tragedy.”

BP faces its day in court in New Orleans on Feb. 27 with the opening of a limitation and liability trial over the spill.

BP PLC, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cement contractor Halliburton Co. have been fighting each other over who was responsible for the causing the blowout, which was finally halted in July, 2010. U.S. investigators have said that BP bears ultimate responsibility for the spill, but has faulted all three companies to some degree.

The company has reached settlements with some of its partners and contractors including $4 billion from Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which had a 25 percent stake in the well: $1.1 billion from MOEX, which had a 10 percent stake; and $75 million from Weatherford International Ltd. which supplied casing components.

“As I have said before, we are prepared to settle if we can do so on fair and reasonable terms, but equally, if this is not possible, we are preparing vigorously for trial,” Dudley said.

BP says it currently has five deepwater rigs working on BP-operated fields in the Gulf of Mexico plus an appraisal well. It expects to have three more rigs working in the Gulf by the end of the year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120207/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_earns_bp

maldives motorola atrix worlds fair rick ross beltane randy couture vs lyoto machida pope john paul

MADRID ? Warning that very hard times lie ahead for Spain, the country’s next prime minister said his incoming conservative government aims to reduce the country’s deficit by euro16.5 billion ($21.6 billion) next year.

In a keenly awaited speech to Parliament a month after being elected, Mariano Rajoy still did not specify what bitter cocktail of spending cuts and tax hikes might be used to get the deficit down to Spain’s stated goal of 4.4 percent of GDP in 2012.

The deficit was 9.2 percent of GDP last year and estimated by the outgoing Socialist government to be about 6 percent this year ? a figure Rajoy suggested may be too optimistic because the economy posted no growth in the third quarter. That stagnation prompted Spain, the IMF, the EU and many private economists to lower the country’s growth estimate for this year from 1.3 percent to 0.8 percent.

Spain was in recession for nearly two years and posted only listless growth this year, and some economists expect its growth could turn negative again.

Rajoy said Spain’s staggering jobless rate had risen to around 23 percent overall and around 46 percent for people under 25.

“The panorama could not be more somber,” Rajoy said.

Spain’s overall debt stands at euro706.34 billion ($919.6 billion) as of the end of September, up 15 percent from a year ago. The new figure is about 66 percent of GDP and includes the substantial debt held by Spain’s 17 semiautonomous regions.

Outlining his economic plans for the first time, Rajoy said he would end a freeze on cost-of-living adjustments for pensions but every other category of government spending would now subject to review.

Rajoy said by year’s end, his government will approve an extension of the 2011 budget as a stopgap and then offer a full 2012 budget by the end of March. Except for security forces and positions in basic public services, he said government jobs that become vacant as people retire will not be filled.

Spain’s opposition Socialist Party slammed Rajoy for providing few specifics on how he will cut government services to reduce the deficit or create jobs. But the Socialists will be able to do little to counter Rajoy’s proposals, since his party won an absolute majority in the Nov. 20 election.

“He didn’t explain how he’s going to do it,” said Jose Antonio Alonso, spokesman for the Socialists. “It was a disappointing speech … it was ambiguous and it wasn’t clear.”

Spanish stocks and bonds rose Monday in line with increases across Europe. The Madrid stock exchange was up 1.6 percent while borrowing costs for Spain’s 10-year bond dropped 0.13 of a percentage point to 5.13 percent.

Spain’s economy was upended after the 2008 credit crunch exposed a national real estate bubble. Now borrowing costs are rising for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, and Spain is often cited along with Italy as troubled economies that might have to join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in accepting international help. But both Spain’s and Italy’s economies are each larger than those three smaller nations combined and considered too big for Europe’s rescue fund to handle.

The Fitch Ratings agency warned last Friday it was considering downgrading the credit ratings of Spain, Italy and four other eurozone nations.

Rajoy’s Popular Party won the Nov. 20 elections by a landslide over the ruling Socialists. Rajoy will be voted in as premier on Tuesday, then formally take office Wednesday at the residence of King Juan Carlos.

Another key focus for the new premier will be labor market reforms designed to encourage hiring, such as changes to the way companies and unions negotiate collective bargaining accords. Rajoy said he has given Spain’s main business federation and labor unions until mid-January to come up with their own reforms, otherwise the government will impose a plan.

“These reforms must be done as soon as possible,” Rajoy told the 350-member Congress of Deputies, the lower chamber of Parliament.

He also announced tax changes to help self-employed people and small and medium-size companies, and says banks heavily exposed to the burst real estate bubble need to get rid of thousands of unsold homes they hold. Rajoy said Spain is saddled with about 700,000 unsold new homes from the construction binge.

Rajoy also envisions further bank mergers ? troubled savings banks in Spain have already fused from 45 to less than 20 over the past two years.

Also, Rajoy endorsed a business leaders’ proposal to boost productivity by moving most midday holidays to Monday ? ending a cherished Spanish practice of creating four-day weekends when holidays fall on a Tuesday or Thursday.

Antonio Barroso, an analyst with Eurasia group, said Rajoy’s measures addressed Spain’s most pressing difficulties, such as unemployment and a vulnerable banking sector.

Barroso said “controlling expenditure is the number one problem” but reducing the deficit and reforming public administration will be easier than restoring the health of the financial sector and tampering with labor entitlements.

He said tackling the problems of Spain’s financial sector “is very complicated,” adding that the Bank of Spain and the Popular Party are both split about the possibility of setting up a bad bank for toxic assets. Another possibility is establishing an asset protection scheme for financial institutions with bad property debts.

“The situation is very fluid,” Barroso said of government solutions to the country’s debt crisis.

___

Alan Clendenning in Madrid and Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that overall debt figure includes debt owed by regions. )

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111219/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_spain_financial_crisis

information endeavour wtf come fly with me brain games coast to coast joakim noah

A currency trader reacts in front of the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader reacts in front of the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader looks at the monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. Asian stock markets slid Monday amid news that the mercurial leader of nuclear-armed North Korea has died, raising fears of increased political instability in the region. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders react at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. Asian stock markets slid Monday amid news that the mercurial leader of nuclear-armed North Korea has died, raising fears of increased political instability in the region. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. Asian stock markets slid Monday amid news that the mercurial leader of nuclear-armed North Korea has died, raising fears of increased political instability in the region. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders talk in front of the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index, left, and foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. Asian stock markets slid Monday amid news that the mercurial leader of nuclear-armed North Korea has died, raising fears of increased political instability in the region. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

PARIS (AP) ? European markets edged tentatively higher Monday, stabilizing after losses in Asia, as investors weighed the potential consequences of the death of North Korea’s absolute ruler, Kim Jong Il.

Markets’ first reaction was to drop on the news of Kim Jong Il’s death, which analysts warned could cause an uncertain power transition and put the brakes on talks aimed at getting the secretive communist state to give up its nuclear weapons.

Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader’s untested third son and heir-apparent, is expected to want to consolidate his power and dispel any notions of weakness.

Even before Kim’s death, the United States and others have said they viewed the power transition as a dangerous time ? when the ascendant Kim Jong Un could seek to demonstrate his leadership credentials through martial and provocative actions, such as a military attack on South Korea or a nuclear test.

“The most likely scenario for regime collapse has been the sudden death of Kim (Jong Il). We are now in that scenario,” said Victor Cha, a former U.S. National Security Council director for Asian affairs.

But after Asian indexes closed lower, European stocks recovered their poise. Germany’s DAX rose 0.7 percent to 5,741 and Paris’ CAC 40 index rose 0.2 percent to 2,979. Britain’s FTSE gained 0.3 percent to 5,405.40.

Wall Street was set to open higher, with Dow futures up 0.5 percent at 11,831 and the broader S&P 500 futures up 0.6 percent at 1,218.20.

Overnight South Korea’s Kospi index dived nearly 5 percent but later recouped some losses to close 3.4 percent lower at 1,776.93. The Korean won also fell, losing 1.6 percent against the U.S. dollar, a traditional haven in times of uncertainty. The Japanese yen and other regional currencies also weakened against the dollar.

The euro was flat around $1.3030.

Kim’s death overshadowed what already was a gloomy start to the week after Fitch warned after the market close on Friday that it may downgrade the credit ratings of heavyweights Italy and Spain, as well as Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland and Slovenia.

EU finance ministers will later Monday discuss how much money their countries will lend to the International Monetary Fund in a conference call.

The ministers will seek to decide how to split up the euro200 billion ($261 billion) EU leaders promised to send to the IMF at a summit 10 days ago.

The money is meant to boost the eurozone’s firewall against the escalating debt crisis.

There were some doubts whether the EU would reach the euro200 billion after several non-eurozone countries balked at having to support the currency union.

The ministers will also discuss in their conference call a new treaty to tighten fiscal discipline, a spokesman for the Polish delegation to the European said.

Over the coming days, investors will remain alert to developments in North Korea’s power transition.

Kim Jong Il’s death, announced Monday by North Korean state television, raises the specter of more instability on the divided Korean peninsula.

Those worries are most acute in South Korea and Japan, which have often been the targets of North Korea’s mercurial military and diplomatic actions.

“We’re seeing deeper negative sentiment in some markets,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, strategist at Credit Agricole CIB, in Hong Kong. “Basically this is because risk aversion on the geopolitical front has increased given that there’s a transition of power in a relatively unstable country. So we’re seeing an impact on equities, currencies.”

South Korea’s military and police went on alert and President Lee Myung-bak, convened a national security council meeting. Japanese leaders said they were watching markets closely and in contact with the U.S., Kyodo News Agency reported.

Kim was ailing after suffering what is thought to have been a stroke in 2008 and died at age 69 on Saturday.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency identified his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as the “great successor” to the man known officially as the “Dear Leader.”

But even with the younger Kim designated as his father’s successor, and already filling high-ranking posts, some experts fear a behind-the-scenes power struggle or nuclear instability.

Fitch Ratings said it did not view Kim’s death “as a trigger for negative action on South Korea’s sovereign ratings in itself.”

“For now, it’s much too early to say risks have materially increased, but clearly we will keep the situation under close review,” said Andrew Colquhoun, head of Fitch’s Asia-Pacific sovereigns.

Markets in Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia also sank on Monday.

Still, barring unexpected developments in Pyongyang the impact of Kim’s death on markets is likely to be passing, analysts said.

“In the short term there will be some psychological uncertainty but I think things will go back to the fundamentals,” said Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd. in Hong Kong.

Benchmark oil for January delivery was up 51 cents at $94.04 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

___

Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-19-World-Markets/id-df5b828f5e5942ebb17709331d1a2814

basketball wives season 3 evelyn lozada atlanta thrashers vh1 winnipeg nhl bipolar symptoms lotro

A demonstrator holds a newspaper criticizing Mariano Rajoy, during a march against planned cutbacks, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Saturday, Dec.17, 2011. Next week Mariano Rajoy will be appointed as the next Spanish Primer minister , as Spain suffers in the economic crisis with more than five million unemployed. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

A demonstrator holds a newspaper criticizing Mariano Rajoy, during a march against planned cutbacks, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Saturday, Dec.17, 2011. Next week Mariano Rajoy will be appointed as the next Spanish Primer minister , as Spain suffers in the economic crisis with more than five million unemployed. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Citizens hold up a mock coffin reading in Basque ” I Need To act” during a protest against planned cutbacks, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Saturday, Dec.17, 2011. Next week Mariano Rajoy will be appointed as the next Spanish Primer minister , as Spain suffers in the economic crisis with more than five million unemployed. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

MADRID (AP) ? Warning that very hard times lie ahead for Spain, the country’s next prime minister said his incoming conservative government aims to reduce the country’s deficit by euro16.5 billion ($21.6 billion) next year.

In a keenly awaited speech to Parliament a month after being elected and then keeping largely silent over his plans, conservative Mariano Rajoy still did not specify what bitter cocktail of spending cuts or tax hikes might be used to get the deficit down to Spain’s stated goal of 4.4 percent of GDP in 2012.

The deficit was 9.2 percent of GDP last year and estimated by the outgoing Socialist government to be about 6 percent his year ? a figure Rajoy suggested may be too optimistic. This is because the economy posted no growth in the third quarter. That stagnation prompted the outgoing Spanish government to join the EU, the IMF and many private economists in lowering its growth estimate for this year from 1.3 percent to 0.8 percent.

Rajoy said Spain’s staggering jobless rate had risen to around 23 percent overall and around 46 percent for people under 25.

“The panorama could not be more somber,” Rajoy said.

Spain’s overall national debt stands at euro706.34 billion ($919.6 billion) as of the end of September. That is up 15 percent from a year ago. The new figure is about 66 percent of GDP ? but it does not include the substantial debts of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions.

Outlining his economic plans, Rajoy said he would end a freeze on cost-of-living adjustments for pensions, but said besides that every category of government spending is now subject to review.

Spain’s opposition Socialist Party slammed Rajoy for providing few specifics on how he will cut government services to reduce the deficit or create jobs, though the party will be able to do little to counter proposals Rajoy eventually brings to Parliament since his party won an absolute majority.

“He didn’t explain how he’s going to do it,” said Jose Antonio Alonso, spokesman for the socialists. “It was a disappointing speech… it was ambiguous and it wasn’t clear.”

Spanish stocks and bonds rose on Monday, in line with increases across Europe. The Madrid stock exchange was up 1.6 percent while the yield on the 10-year bond dropped 0.13 of a percentage point to 5.13 percent. A bond’s yield drops when the price rises.

Spain’s economy was upended after the 2008 credit crunch exposed a national real estate bubble. Now borrowing costs are soaring for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, and Spain is often cited along with Italy as a candidate to be the next country that might have to join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in accepting an international bailout. But Spain’s economy is larger than those three smaller nations combined and considered too big for Europe’s rescue fund to handle.

Spain has no more debt auctions scheduled in December.

Rajoy’s Popular Party won Nov. 20 elections by a landslide over the ruling Socialists. Rajoy has a comfortable majority in Parliament and will be voted in as premier on Tuesday, then formally take office Wednesday at the residence of King Juan Carlos.

By year’s end the government will approve an extension of the 2011 budget as a stopgap measure, and then a full-blown budget for 2012 by the end of March Rajoy said.

Another key focus will be labor market reforms designed to encourage hiring, such as changes to the way companies and unions negotiate collective bargaining accords. Rajoy said he has given Spain’s main business federation and labor unions until mid-January to come up with a package on their own. Otherwise, the government will act with a bill.

“These reforms must be done as soon as possible,” Rajoy told the 350-member Congress of Deputies, the lower chamber of Parliament.

He also announced tax changes to help self-employed people and small and medium-size companies, and says banks heavily exposed to the burst real estate bubble need to get rid of thousands of unsold homes they have on their hands. He said he also envisions further mergers in a sector where troubled savings banks have fused from 45 to less than 20 over the past two years.

Also, Rajoy endorsed a business leaders’ proposal to boost productivity by moving most midday holidays to Monday ? thus ending the cherished Spanish practice of creating up to four-day weekends when a holiday falls on, say, a Thursday, and people take Friday off, too.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-19-EU-Spain-Financial-Crisis/id-705ab6c726b44e8ba8e5100850e132c6

amish yellowstone monte carlo playstation network status tag heuer honey button

Highlights of the $1 trillion-plus 2012 spending legislation in Congress:

_$518 billion for the Pentagon’s core budget, a 1 percent boost, excluding military operations overseas.

_$115 billion for Pentagon war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan, $43 billion less than 2011 costs.

_$7.2 billion to sustain and modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

_$11.8 billion for the IRS, an almost 3 percent budget cut.

_$39.6 billion for homeland security programs, a 5 percent cut, though border security and immigration enforcement are increased.

_$8.4 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, a 6 percent cut from the president’s request.

_$4.3 billion for the Indian Health Service, a 6 percent increase.

_$30.7 billion for health research, a 1 percent increase.

_$14.5 billion for Title I grants to schools, virtually the same as last year.

_$11.6 billion for grants to school districts for special needs children.

_$4.3 billion for Congress’ own budget, a 5 percent cut.

_$122.2 billion for veterans programs.

_$3.5 billion for low-income heating and utility subsidies, a cut of about 25 percent.

_$53.3 billion for foreign aid and the State Department’s budget.

_$8.1 billion for disaster aid.

_Reforms to the Pell Grant program that maintain the maximum award at $5,550 but limit the number of semesters the grants may be received and make income eligibility standards more strict.

___

The measure also contains many policy provisions, including those to:

_Block detainees from Guantanamo Bay from being transferred to the United States.

_Block new energy efficiency regulations for light bulbs.

_Prohibit the District of Columbia government from funding abortions for poor women.

_Ban federal funding of needle exchange programs that help prevent the spread of AIDS among drug users.

_Delay new Labor Department regulations limiting coal dust in mines.

_Require the government to use the E-verify system to make sure new federal hires are eligible to work in the United States.

_Block the EPA or state regulators from requiring clean water permits for the construction of timber roads.

_Delay voluntary guidelines on the food industry to limit marketing to children of foods that have high fat, sugar or sodium levels.

___

Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration succeeded in dumping numerous other GOP policy “riders” from the bill, including attempts to:

_Block funding of various steps required to implement the new laws overhauling health care and financial regulation.

_Block Environmental Protection Agency rules on greenhouse gases, mountaintop removal mining and hazardous emissions from utility plants, industrial boilers and cement kilns. GOP efforts to block EPA rules on coal ash and large-scale discharges of hot water from utility plants were also blocked.

_Eliminate funding for family planning programs in the U.S. and overseas.

_Block Obama administration rules easing restrictions on people who visit and send money to relatives in Cuba.

_Ban taxpayer subsidies from being used to purchase National Public Radio programming.

_Eliminate taxpayer grants to Planned Parenthood.

_Require all teen pregnancy prevention grants to go to abstinence-only programs.

_Eliminate the option of public financing of presidential campaigns.

_Block “net neutrality” rules to prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against those who send content and other services over their networks.

_Bar the Consumer Product Safety Commission from creating a public database of product safety concerns.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111217/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_spending_highlights

yellow renren ipo aramark citation machine geronimo navy seal training yoda

WASHINGTON ? A majority of adults say President Barack Obama does not deserve a second term but are evenly divided on whether he will win re-election next year, says a new Associated Press-GfK poll that highlights some of the campaign obstacles he faces.

Although the public would prefer Obama be voted out of office, he fares relatively well in potential matchups with Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Another bit of good news for the Democrat: For the first time since spring, more adults said the economy got better in the past month than said it got worse.

The president’s approval rating on unemployment shifted upward ? from 40 percent in October to 45 percent in the latest poll ? as the jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, its lowest level since March 2009.

But Obama’s approval rating on his handling of the economy overall remains stagnant: 39 percent approve and 60 percent disapprove.

Heading into the 2012 campaign, the poll shows the challenges facing Obama as he tries to win a second term among a public that does not support his steering of the economy, the most dominant issue for Americans, or his reforms to health care, one of his signature accomplishments. Yet voters appear to be grappling with whether to replace him with Romney or Gingrich.

For the first time, the poll found that a majority of adults, 52 percent, said Obama should be voted out of office while 43 percent said he deserves a second term. The numbers represent a clear reversal since last May, when 53 percent said Obama should be re-elected while 43 percent said he didn’t deserve four more years.

Separately, 49 percent expected Obama to win re-election while 48 percent think he will be voted out of office.

Obama’s overall job approval stands at a new low: 44 percent approve while 54 percent disapprove. The president’s standing among independents is worse: 38 percent approve while 59 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, the president holds steady with an approval rating of 78 percent while only 12 percent of Republicans approve of the job he’s doing.

“I think he’s doing the best he can. The problem is the Congress won’t help at all,” said Rosario Navarro, a Democrat and a 44-year-old truck driver from Fresno, Calif., who voted for Obama in 2008 and intends to support him again.

Robin Dein, a 54-year-old homemaker from Villanova, Pa., who is an independent, said she supported Republican John McCain in 2008 and has not been impressed with Obama’s economic policies. She intends to support Romney if he wins the GOP nomination.

“(Obama) spent the first part of his presidency blaming Bush for everything, not that he was innocent, and now his way of solving anything is by spending more money,” Dein said.

Despite the soft level of support, many are uncertain whether a Republican president would be a better choice. Asked whom they would support next November, 47 percent of adults favored Obama compared with 46 percent for Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Against Gingrich, the president holds a solid advantage, receiving 51 percent compared with 42 percent for the former House speaker.

The potential matchups paint a better picture for the president among independents. Obama receives 45 percent of non-aligned adults compared with 41 percent for Romney. Against Gingrich, Obama holds a wide lead among independents, with 54 percent supporting the president and 31 percent backing the former Georgia congressman.

Another piece of good news for Obama: people generally like him personally. His personal favorability rating held steady at 53 percent, with 46 percent viewing him unfavorably. About three-quarters called him likable.

The economy remains a source of pessimism, though the poll suggests the first positive movement in public opinion on the economy in months. One in five said the economy improved in the last month, double the share saying so in October. Still most expect it to stay the same or get worse.

“I suppose you could make some sort of argument that it’s getting better, but I’m not sure I even see that,” said independent voter John Bailey, a 61-year-old education consultant from East Jordan, Mich. “I think it’s bad and it’s gotten worse under (Obama’s) policies. At best, it’s going to stay bad.”

Despite the high rate of joblessness, the poll found some optimism on the economy. Although 80 percent described the economy as “poor,” respondents describing it as “very poor” fell from 43 percent in October to 34 percent in the latest poll, the lowest since May. Twenty percent said the economy got better in the past month while 37 percent said they expected the economy to improve next year.

Yet plenty of warning signs remain for Obama. Only 26 percent said the United States is headed in the right direction while 70 percent said it was moving in the wrong direction.

The president won a substantial number of women voters in 2008 yet there does not appear to be a significant tilt toward him among women now. The poll found 44 percent of women say Obama deserves a second term, down from 51 percent in October, while 43 percent of men say the president should be re-elected.

About two-thirds of white voters without college degrees say Obama should be a one-term president, while 33 percent of those voters say he should get another term. Among white voters with a college degree, 57 percent said Obama should be voted out of office.

The poll found unpopularity for last year’s health care reform bill, one of Obama’s major accomplishments. About half of the respondents oppose the health care law and support for it dipped to 29 percent from 36 percent in June. Just 15 percent said the federal government should have the power to require all Americans to buy health insurance.

Even among Democrats, the health care law has tepid support. Fifty percent of Democrats supported the health care law, compared with 59 percent of Democrats last June. Only about a quarter of independents back the law.

The president has taken a more populist tone in his handling of the economy, arguing that the wealthy should pay more in taxes to help pay to extend a payroll tax cut that is worth about an additional $1,000 to a family earning about $50,000 a year. Among those with annual household incomes of $50,000 or less, Obama’s approval rating on unemployment climbed to 53 percent, from 43 percent in October.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. 8-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

___

Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_el_pr/us_obama_poll

bob dylan maps and directions wiki paul gray sexually transmitted diseases tia jade

ATHENS (Reuters) ? Greece began a round of talks with the EU, the IMF and bankers on Monday, with negotiators facing a tight timetable to decide key aspects of a new bailout plan to pull the country out of its economic crisis.

Inspectors from the EU, the ECB and the IMF arrived at the finance ministry for talks that will also include checking on Athens’ slow progress since a first rescue plan, agreed over a year ago in an effort to stem a crisis that has since dragged the whole euro zone into deep turmoil.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is then scheduled to meet the managing director of bank lobby IIF, Charles Dallara, at about 1200 GMT (7 a.m. EST) to try to make progress on a voluntary debt restructuring, an important component of the new 130-billion euro ($172 billion) bailout programme, a finance ministry official said.

Athens narrowly escaped bankruptcy this month after its EU partners and the International Monetary Fund agreed to release an 8-billion aid tranche despite weak revenues and slow reforms.

But it needs the new bailout plan — with contributions from official lenders as well as banks — to stay afloat next year and to face a major bond redemption in March. It must also wrap up the talks before general elections scheduled for February19.

“It would be desirable if the (debt restructuring or “PSI”) talks starting today led to an initial agreement by the end of the week, otherwise we will be running short of time,” a Greek banker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“If there is no initial deal by the end of the week, then it will be difficult to complete the PSI (private sector involvement) in January and it could delay the election.”

Banks represented by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) agreed in October to write down the notional value of their Greek bond holdings by 50 percent in exchange for new paper.

BOND SWAP TALKS

The writedown will help to reduce Greece’s debt ratio to 120 percent of GDP by 2020 from over 160 percent this year. But key elements of the plan such as the coupon and discount rate, which determine the cost for banks, are still being discussed.

“The basic disagreement between Greece and bondholders is that investors want to exchange the full 50 percent of nominal value in bonds and the cash to be used as guarantees for the principal,” the Greek banker said.

“The coupon of the new bonds will also be discussed and there could be a compromise at about 6 percent.”

Another banking source close to the talks said the negotiations would cover a broad array of issues.

“There is no consensus as things stand,” he said.

“It’s not only about financial terms but also about the legal structure and what law will prevail, whether there will be collective action clauses and what kind of credit enhancements will be included.”

The talks with bankers might continue on Tuesday, while the meetings with the EU, IMF and ECB officials — dubbed the troika — are scheduled to wrap up by the end of the week before resuming in January.

“The PSI will be high on the troika’s agenda. Budget revenue and spending for 2011 will be examined, as well as whether the revised targets for this year can be met,” a government official said. “For 2011, if current spending and revenue trends continue, the deficit will be at about 10 percent of GDP and not (the target) of about 9 percent.”

Delays on a plan to put 30,000 state workers on the road to redundancy this year will also be discussed, the official said, adding that state organizations and public services had so far only notified about 6,500 people.

(Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by Stephen Nisbet)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111212/bs_nm/us_greece

israel running scared lithuania blue blood diamond sylvester stallone iceland

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? As with many carnal matters, the much-ballyhooed sex-scene episode of “Glee” caused a rise — ratings-wise, anyway — on Tuesday night. And a modest boost for CBS’ “NCIS” was enough to make it the top-rated show of the evening and help boost the network to an overall win Tuesday.

Meanwhile, ABC’s new comedy “Man Up” continued to lose ground, according to preliminary numbers.

“Glee,” on Fox at 8, grew 3 percent to a 3.1/8 and 6.8 million total viewers. But “New Girl” at 9 dipped 3 percent to a 3.5/9 and 6.8 million total viewers. The network’s night ended with distressing news — with “Raising Hope” at 10 dropping 16 percent, taking a 2.1/5 and 4.6 million total viewers.

“NCIS,” on CBS at 8, inched up 5 percent over last week’s performance for a 4.1 rating/11 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, with 20.3 million total viewers, which also made it the most-watched program of the evening. “NCIS: LA” the following hour performed flat with last week for a 3.4/8 and 15.5 million total viewers.

The new drama “Unforgettable” closed the night with a 4 percent boost, taking a 2.4/7 and 11.6 million total viewers. Overall, the network averaged a 3.3/9 and 15.8 million total viewers, which made it the highest-rated and most-watched network of the night.

ABC experienced a night of modest downturns, with “Last Man Standing” at 8 slipping 4 percent to a 2.6/7 and 9.2 million total viewers. “Man Up” at 8:30 slid 6 percent to a 1.7/5, a series low, and 6.2 million total viewers. The “Dancing With the Stars” results show at 9 was down 4 percent from last week, taking a 2.7/7 and 14.8 million total viewers. The network rounded out the night with the special “In the Spotlight With Robin Roberts: All-Access Nashville,” which drew a 1.7/5 in the demo and 8.6 million total viewers.

NBC had a mixed evening, with “The Biggest Loser” at 8 crawling up 4 percent for a 2.4/6 and 6.8 million total viewers, and “Parenthood” at 10 dropping 9 percent for a 2.0/6 and 5.2 million total viewers.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111109/tv_nm/us_ratings

gypsies rockefeller center kyoto sasquatch big foot plantar fasciitis ice t