Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193086081?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Brazil's Rousseff focuses on economy in Cuba visit
Brazil?s President Dilma Rousseff waves upon her arrival to Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Rousseff is in Cuba for a visit emphasizing economic cooperation. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
Brazil?s President Dilma Rousseff waves upon her arrival to Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Rousseff is in Cuba for a visit emphasizing economic cooperation. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
Brazil?s President Dilma Rousseff waves upon her arrival to Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Rousseff is in Cuba for a visit emphasizing economic cooperation. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
HAVANA (AP) ? Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff began a tour of Cuba on Monday in a visit emphasizing trade and economic cooperation.
Rousseff was greeted at Havana's international airport in the afternoon by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. She waved to reporters but did not make any public statements before leaving by car.
Her office said the trip would seek to bolster trade between the two nations, which rose 31 percent from 2010 to hit a record $642 million last year.
Rousseff planned to meet with President Raul Castro on Tuesday in the capital and also tour the nearby port of Mariel, which is being expanded with the goal of turning the facility into a base for industry and oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Brazil has financed almost 80 percent of the port project's $683 million price tag, according to a statement by the Brazilian presidency.
Also Monday, one of Brazil's biggest construction companies, Odebrecht, said an independent subsidiary would sign a contract to help administer the September 5 sugar mill in Cienfuegos province.
In a statement, Odebrecht said the 10-year agreement between its Infrastructure Works Co. and Cuba's state-run Azcuba sugar group "aims to increase sugar production and milling capacity and aid in revitalization."
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Gingrich bemoans Romney's Florida "carpet-bombing"
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, left, talks to an unidentified man after arriving at Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, left, talks to an unidentified man after arriving at Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, left, and his wife Callista, center, arrive at Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, leaves his campaign bus and boards his campaign plane in Panama City, Fla., as he travels to Fort Myers, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks to members of the news media, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, after arriving at the Chester County Airport in Downingtown, Pa. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)
MIAMI (AP) ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney for "carpet-bombing" his record ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary in Florida, trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in the final 48 hours before the vote.
On the defensive after barrage of attacks from Romney and a political committee that supports him, Gingrich said Romney had lied and the GOP establishment had allowed it.
"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."
Despite Romney's effort to turn positive, the Florida contest has become decidedly bitter and personal. Romney and Gingrich have tangled over policy and character since Gingrich's stunning victory over the well-funded Romney in the South Carolina primary Jan. 21.
Showing no signs of letting up, Gingrich objected to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline the then-House speaker for ethics charges.
"It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," Gingrich said.
Gingrich acknowledged the possibility that he could lose in Florida and pledged to compete with Romney all the way to the party's national convention this summer.
An NBC/Marist poll showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters and Gingrich slipping to 27 percent.
While Romney had spent the past several days sharply attacking Gingrich, he pivoted over the weekend to refocus his criticism on President Barack Obama, calling the Democratic incumbent "detached from reality." The former Massachusetts governor criticized Obama's plan to cut the size of the military and said the administration had a weak foreign policy.
Gingrich's South Carolina momentum has largely evaporated amid the pounding he has sustained from Romney's campaign and the pro-Romney group called Restore Our Future. They have spent some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week.
Gingrich planned to campaign Sunday in central Florida, while Romney scheduled rallies in the south. He was also looking ahead to the Nevada caucuses Feb. 4, airing ads in that state and citing the endorsement Sunday of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.
Gingrich collected the weekend endorsement of Herman Cain, a tea party favorite and former presidential hopeful whose White House effort foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, planned to remain in Pennsylvania where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized, and resume campaigning as soon as possible, according to his campaign. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul has invested little in the Florida race and is looking ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.
Gingrich appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This Week." Paul was on CNN's "State of the Union."
___
Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Tampa contributed to this report.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Private investors near deal on Greek debt
Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)
Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves Maximos Mansion after a meeting with Greek Prime minister Lucas Papademos, Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, left, and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leave Maximos Mansion after a meeting Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)
Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)
Charles Dallara managing director of the Institute of International Finance arrives at Maximos Mansion for a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece and its private investors are close to a deal that will significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed euro130 billion bailout.
Negotiators for the investors announced the tentative agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week.
Under the agreement, the investors would take a hit of more than 60 percent on the euro206 billion of Greek debt they own.
Here's how it would work: private investors would receive new bonds whose face value is half of the existing bonds. The new bonds would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent (compared with an estimated 5 percent on the existing bonds).
Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least euro120 billion, the private investors' bonds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other eurozone countries, which could also lose value in the event of a Greek default.
The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, euro130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund, although there are other issues involved before Greece can get that aid. This would be Greece's second bailout. The EU and the IMF signed off on a euro110 billion aid package for Greece in May 2010, most of which has already been disbursed.
Greece faces a euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.
Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 200 percent of the country's economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade.
In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors ? the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank ? have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, austerity alone will not fix Greece's problem. The country must also find ways boost its economic output, which at the moment is shrinking.
If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.
The banks, insurance companies and other private holders of Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.
The main creditor negotiators will leave Greece on Sunday and will remain in close consultation with Greek and other authorities.
___
Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed.
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The pupils are the windows to the mind
ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? The eyes are the window into the soul -- or at least the mind, according to a new paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Measuring the diameter of the pupil, the part of the eye that changes size to let in more light, can show what a person is paying attention to. Pupillometry, as it's called, has been used in social psychology, clinical psychology, humans, animals, children, infants -- and it should be used even more, the authors say.
The pupil is best known for changing size in reaction to light. In a dark room, your pupils open wide to let in more light; as soon as you step outside into the sunlight, the pupils shrink to pinpricks. This keeps the retina at the back of the eye from being overwhelmed by bright light. Something similar happens in response to psychological stimuli, says Bruno Laeng of the University of Oslo, who cowrote the paper with Sylvain Sirois of Universit? du Qu?bec ? Trois-Rivi?res and Gustaf Gredeb?ck of Uppsala University in Sweden. When someone sees something they want to pay closer attention to, the pupil enlarges. It's not clear why this happens, Laeng says. "One idea is that, by essentially enlarging the field of the visual input, it's beneficial to visual exploration," he says.
However it works, psychological scientists can use the fact that people's pupils widen when they see something they're interested in.
Laeng has used pupil size to study people who had damage to the hippocampus, which usually causes very severe amnesia. Normally, if you show one of these patients a series of pictures, then take a short break, then show them another series of pictures, they don't know which ones they've seen before and which ones are new. But Laeng measured patients' pupils while they did this test and found that the patients did actually respond differently to the pictures they had seen before. "In a way, this is good news, because it shows that some of the brains of these patients, unknown to themselves, is actually capable of making the distinction," he says.
Pupil measurement might also be useful for studying babies. Tiny infants can't tell you what they're paying attention to. "Developmental psychologists have used all kinds of methods to get this information without using language," Laeng says. Seeing what babies are interested in can give clues to what they're able to recognize -- different shapes or sounds, for example. A researcher might show a child two images side by side and see which one they look at for longer. Measuring the size of a baby's pupils could do the same without needing a comparison.
The technology already exists for measuring pupils -- many modern psychology studies use eye-tracking technology, for example, to see what a subject is looking at, and Laeng and his coauthors hope to convince other psychological scientists to use this method.
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Journal Reference:
- B. Laeng, S. Sirois, G. Gredeback. Pupillometry: A Window to the Preconscious? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2012; 7 (1): 18 DOI: 10.1177/1745691611427305
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/JHO6TWrqC5A/120127162800.htm
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Chris Brown to Perform at Grammys
Chris Brown will perform at the Grammy Awards next month, E! reports. It will be his first appearance at the annual show since 2009, when ... you know.
The singer, whose career has rebounded nicely despite some memorable flare-ups, is up for three awards this year, so his appearance isn't too surprising.
Plans for his performance are still being worked out, so details are lacking at the moment. Meanwhile, his ex Rihanna will perform with Coldplay.
Chris Brown and Rihanna have been the subject of great speculation lately, most recently after they partied together (but separately) in W. Hollywood.
The two are said to be on good terms now, and even hooking up ... but they kept their distance last week. Brown was there with GF Karrueche Tran.
The Grammy Awards will be hosted by NCIS: LA star LL Cool J and telecast live on CBS from Los Angeles' Staples Center on Sunday, February 12.
Also set to perform are Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson, Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Paul McCartney, the Band Perry, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift and more.
[Photo: WENN.com]
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/chris-brown-to-perform-at-grammys/
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At least 11 hurt at Ohio casino construction site (AP)
CINCINNATI ? A partial collapse at the site of the city's new casino sent at least 11 people to the hospital with minor injuries, authorities said Friday.
A 30-foot by 50-foot section of floor collapsed just before 8 a.m. at the site of the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati under construction downtown, said Lt. Maurice Robinson, a police department spokesman.
"A single bay of the facility collapsed as concrete was being poured. All workers were accounted for," said Steve Rosenthal, of casino co-developer Rock Gaming LLC, in a statement.
Roads around the casino were closed by police, and reporters were not allowed close enough to get a look at what had fallen down.
Jessie Folmar, a spokeswoman for Cincinnati-based Messer Construction Co., said the company was on site trying to learn what happened.
Robinson said 11 injured were taken to hospitals, while fire department spokeswoman Jennifer Spieser said 13 were. She didn't know the nature of the injuries or whether others may have been hurt and treated at the scene.
The casino is being developed by Rock Gaming in partnership with Caesar's Entertainment. The same team is behind a casino project in downtown Cleveland where a garage partially collapsed on Dec. 16. A 60-foot by 60-foot second-level section of the parking deck gave way while concrete was being poured. No one was injured.
Casino development was touted during a statewide legalization campaign in 2009 for the immediate boost it would give to Ohio's economy, particularly through the temporary construction jobs needed to build the four new facilities in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo. According to a recent report from the Associated General Contractors of America, construction jobs indeed rose in Ohio this past year ? from 163,400 in December 2010 to 168,600 last month.
___
Associated Press reporters Doug Whiteman and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus and John Seewer in Toledo contributed to this report.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Heating and AC distributors file petition against Energy Dept.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry may have cursed his memory when he forgot the Department of Energy during a Republican debate in Michigan, but some in the heating and air-conditioning industry would certainly like to also forget the DOE.
Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), a self-described voice of wholesale distribution within the HVACR industry, has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit, through their attorneys, against a new DOE rule which establishes regional standards for air conditioners, heat pumps and furnaces.
The new rules, which go into effect in May 2013, divide the country into three regions with different minimum efficiency standards for HVAC appliances.
According to the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), the new regional standards will mean that a typical new air conditioner in the South will use 40 percent less energy, and a typical new furnace in the North will use about 20 percent less energy ?than before national standards were established in the late 1980s.?
?Climates as different as those of Minneapolis and Miami need different furnace and AC standards,? said Andrew deLaski, executive director of ASAP, in a statement. ?Until now, we?ve had one-size-fits-all national standards. These new, regional standards are a major breakthrough that will benefit consumers and the environment.?
Cause of Action, representing HARDI, however, claims that the new standards will result in the loss of nearly 17,000 jobs, $7 million in lost wages and that the elderly will be disproportionately affected because they will not be able to recover the costs associated with purchasing more expensive yet energy efficient appliances.
The group is seeking judicial intervention on the grounds that the DOE did not follow proper procedures when adopting the so-called direct final rule, mandating the regional standards.
?An agency will do this [direct final rule] when it feels like there is no controversy or debate on what the rule is going to be,? Cause of Action?s executive director Dan Epstein told The Daily Caller. ?Under the authority that the Department of Energy promulgated this rule ? which was under the Energy Independence and Security Act [of 2007] ? under that authority an agency can issue a direct final rule under that act but it has to withdraw the direct final rule if it receives any adverse comments from the public which may provide a ?reasonable basis for withdrawing that rule.??
In this circumstance, the DOE determined that it did not receive adverse comments that would have provided a ?reasonable basis for withdrawing that rule? and made the rule final.
According to HARDI and Cause for Action, however, the DOE disregarded the industry?s concerns when considering a ?consensus agreement? and issued the direct final rule despite opposition from the industry.
HARDI is concerned that this ruling could set a poor precedent.
?If we were to simply ignore this abuse of statutory process, all federal agencies would remain unchecked,? HARDI Director of Government Affairs Jon Melchi told an HVACR contractor?s weekly news magazine. ?This rule completely changes the nature of HVAC distribution forever going forward and for the DOE to not impart all due diligence in creating a regulation that impacts the livelihoods of businesses and individuals is counter to the way the regulatory process is supposed to work. This process is a perfect example of why small businesses are angry with Washington, D.C. Our voices and views were not considered.?
The motion to intervene was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and joins the American Public Gas Association?s current lawsuit against the DOE.
The DOE did not respond to requests for comment.
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Source: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/27/heating-and-ac-distributors-file-petition-against-energy-dept/
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Uggie Retiring: 'The Artist' Dog's Trainer Says He's Tired
Uggie the dog is taking his final bow.
The beloved Jack Russell Terrier star of "The Artist" is being retired by his trainer, Omar Von Muller, a day after being egregiously snubbed by the Academy Awards. The black and white, silent film homage was nominated for ten trophies, and despite international acclaim and a television press tour that rivaled some of the biggest promotional pushes in Hollywood, none of those nods went to the talented canine.
"He may do a couple of little things here and there because he enjoys them, but I don't want to put him through long hours anymore. He's getting tired," Von Muller told Life & Style Magazine.
It was a banner year for Uggie, who, for his roles in both "The Artist" and the circus drama "Water for Elephants," has two nominations in the Best Dog in a Theatrical Film category in the first ever Golden Collar Awards. The show will take place on February 13th, just weeks before the big Oscar ceremony.
Von Muller is at least keeping it in the family when it comes to replacing Uggie on the big screen; the dog's brother Dash will be taking over.
"Uggie is 10 years old and has done a lot of work; he wants to relax at home," he said. "If somebody wants to do a movie with Uggie, they'll just have to deal with Dash!"
For more on this breaking development, click over to Life & Style.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Demi Moore seeks treatment for exhaustion (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? A spokeswoman for Demi Moore says the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health.
Publicist Carrie Gordon says the decision is due to the stresses in Moore's life, and she looks forward to getting well.
Gordon did not release any other details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.
The past few months have been rocky for Moore. She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to Ashton Kutcher following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.
Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.
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Rising costs push Kimberly-Clark 4Q profit lower (AP)
NEW YORK ? Kimberly-Clark Corp., the maker of Kleenex tissues, Huggies diapers and other household goods, is still waging a battle against rising costs that pushed its fourth-quarter profit down 19 percent.
The company, which increasingly relies on overseas markets to help offset weak demand in the U.S., also on Tuesday offered a 2012 adjusted earnings forecast that was below Wall Street's expectations. Its shares fell $1.25, or 1.7 percent, to $72.27 Tuesday.
Like many businesses, Kimberly-Clark is struggling with higher costs for raw materials like oil, wood, pulp and other things it needs to make and transport its products. It has raised prices on some products to help offset some of the expense, but must tread cautiously with price hikes to avoid turning off budget-minded shoppers.
The Dallas-based company continues to face soft demand in North America, as high unemployment and uncertain economic conditions keep many consumers focused on buying basic products on an as-needed basis.
In the fourth quarter, Kimberly-Clark earned $401 million, or $1.01 per share. That's down from a year ago, when it recorded a profit of $492 million, or $1.20 per share.
Excluding restructuring costs in its pulp and tissues segment, adjusted earnings were $1.28 per share, which fell short of the $1.30 per share that analysts surveyed by FactSet expected.
Wendy Nicholson of Citi Investment Research said in a client note that investors are probably disappointed by the company's results and the outlook for this year.
"While the incremental pressure to come from foreign currency exchange was likely anticipated, we suspect some will be frustrated that lower commodity prices are not expected to sufficiently cushion the blow of foreign currency exchange and still weak consumer spending in developed markets," she wrote.
Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 climbed 2 percent to $5.18 billion from $5.08 billion on higher prices and sales volumes, but missed Wall Street's $5.21 billion estimate.
Sales of personal care items fell about 5 percent in North America. While Kimberly-Clark raised prices on infant and child-care goods, it was not enough to counter increased promotions.
Chairman and CEO Thomas Falk told analysts during a conference call that another challenge the company faces is the multi-year decline in the nation's birth rate. According to the Census Bureau, there were 60 births per 1,000 U.S. women in 2010, down from 64.2 in 2008.
Total sales for Kimberly-Clark's personal care division edged up 2 percent to $2.2 billion. Consumer tissue segment sales were essentially flat at $1.7 billion, while the health care unit's sales rose 10 percent to about $420 million, partly on sales of exam gloves and surgical products.
Chief Financial Officer Mark Buthman said overseas markets continue to be a source of earnings strength, particularly in Latin America, China and South Korea. Falk said Kimberly-Clark's diaper business continues to expand in China, with Huggies now available in more than 70 cities.
For the full year, earnings fell 14 percent to $1.59 billion, or $3.99 per share. That compares with earnings of $1.84 billion, or $4.45 per share, in the previous year.
Adjusted earnings were $4.80 per share, while annual revenue increased 6 percent to $20.85 billion from $19.75 billion.
"Reflecting on the full year, bottom-line results were somewhat below our original goal for the year, mostly due to higher-than-expected cost inflation and soft demand in portions of the developed markets," Falk said.
"Regardless of the reasons, we are not satisfied with the results we delivered in 2011 and plan to get back on track in 2012," he added.
Falk said the company continued to clamp down on its costs over the course of the year, achieving $265 million in savings.
Looking ahead Kimberly-Clark anticipates 2012 adjusted earnings between $5 and $5.15 per share, below the analysts' average forecast for earnings of $5.23 per share for the year.
Annual revenue is expected to be flat to up 1 percent, which would imply revenue of about $20.85 billion to $21.26 billion. Wall Street forecast revenue of $21.22 billion.
"While we are cautiously optimistic that portions of the U.S. economy are improving, we are not planning for a big increase in market demand," Falk said.
He anticipates that demand will remain soft in the infant and childcare categories in the U.S. this year.
Commodity costs are expected to be a lesser concern, but Kimberly-Clark anticipates foreign currency exchange rates will continue to be volatile.
The company also expects to raise its dividend at a mid-single digit rate, effective in April.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Merkel urges EU to bury cliche of bullying Germany (Reuters)
BERLIN (Reuters) ? Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected as "unfounded" stereotypes about a domineering, dogmatic Germany whose economic strength hinders growth in the rest of Europe, saying such cliches did not help the cause of European integration.
In a group interview for newspapers from Spain, Italy, Poland, Britain, France and Germany published on Wednesday, Merkel also reiterated that Berlin does not have unlimited resources to bail out the debt-ridden euro zone.
"There are lazy Germans and hard-working Germans, left-wing Germans and conservative ones. There are those who support competitiveness and those who want redistribution. Germany is just as varied as the rest of Europe. We should bury the old stereotypes," said the conservative German leader.
Merkel has been lampooned as a Nazi and a dominatrix in newspaper cartoons and protest banners across Europe but above all in Greece, for demanding fiscal discipline as a condition for international aid during the two-year-old euro debt crisis.
She will address assembled business leaders and policymakers at the World Economic Forum in Davos later on Wednesday.
Reiterating her caution about calls from the International Monetary Fund and Italy, among others, for Germany to beef up its contribution to euro zone bailout facilities, Merkel said: "It makes no sense for us to promise more and more money without tackling the causes of the crisis."
"No matter how much we support multi-billion aid and rescue schemes, we Germans have to be careful and not end up running out of strength - because we don't have unlimited resources either - and that would not help the whole of Europe."
Merkel also voiced reservations about calls from the United States, among others, for export-powerhouse Germany to help the rest of the European Union grow by reducing imbalances in its current account. Some economists say German wage restraint for example, dampens demand for imports in Europe's biggest economy.
Recent economic figures have suggested Europe's largest economy is shrugging off the sovereign debt crisis that has hammered growth in other euro zone countries.
COMPETITIVENESS
"Nobody would benefit from a weaker Germany. Of course in time we have to reduce imbalances in Europe, but we should do this by getting other countries to improve their competitiveness rather than Germany being weaker," said Merkel.
The chancellor cited the example of restrictive labor laws in Spain which she said contributed to a high youth unemployment rate of over 40 percent. The European Commission was welcome to use unallocated "structural funds" for reforms to boost growth and employment in Europe, rather than returning them, she said.
Merkel warned that markets were "testing our determination to stick together". On Britain, which opted out of her fiscal pact for budget discipline across Europe, the chancellor said she was convinced the British "want to remain part of the EU".
While it is inevitable that cooperation would be closer between members of the euro zone, the currency bloc should not isolate itself from opt-out countries like Britain, she said.
"Whether it be the Euro Plus Pact or the fiscal pact, every single member state which doesn't have the euro is invited to be part of the project," Merkel said.
(Reporting by Stephen Brown, editing by Gareth Jones and Toby Chopra)
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Supreme Court tells Texas judges to do a better job on election maps
Saying federal judges in Texas exceeded their authority in rejecting election districts drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature, the Supreme Court instructed the judges to find remedies closer to the state's maps.
Federal judges hearing a lawsuit over election redistricting in Texas exceeded their authority when they jettisoned maps that had been approved by the state Legislature and replaced them with maps of their own.
Skip to next paragraphIn an unsigned unanimous opinion on Friday, the US Supreme Court said a three-judge panel in San Antonio should have deferred to legislatively-drawn maps whenever possible and only departed from the enacted maps when necessary to avoid a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution.
The dispute is significant because how election maps are drawn can impact who is elected and which political party prevails. With four new congressional districts in Texas, those and other newly drawn could play a key role in which party controls Congress next year.
The Republican-controlled Legislature?s maps were challenged by minority rights advocates and others who said they were drawn so as to minimize the likelihood of minority candidates being elected.
The high court said the federal judges in Texas were wrong to award themselves the power to draft new election districts and to base their effort on their own conception of what is best for Texas voters.
Setting the boundaries for congressional and other districts is a political task best left, as much as possible, to elected political leaders, the court said.
?To the extend the District Court exceeded its mission to draw interim maps that do not violate the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act, and substituted its own concept of ?the collective public good? for the Texas Legislature?s determination of which policies serve ?the interests of the citizens of Texas,? the court erred,? the justices wrote.
?Because the District Court here had the benefit of a recently enacted plan to assist it, the court had neither the need nor the license to cast aside that vital aid,? the justices said.
The Supreme Court action returns the case to the three-judge panel in San Antonio with instructions to defer as much as possible to each legislatively-drawn district and fashion a new interim map only in those cases that are necessary to avoid likely violations.
The justices agreed to hear the consolidated appeals, Perry v. Perez (11-713, 11-714, 11-715), last month on an expedited basis with Texas? scheduled April 3 primary fast approaching. They heard oral argument on Jan. 9.
In acknowledgment of the mounting legal morass, Texas postponed its planned March 6 primary for a month until early April. But even that date may not stand given the on-going litigation.
The Supreme Court appeal arose in the context of two different legal challenges related to the new election districts, which were adopted by the Republican-controlled Legislature in Austin last year.
New congressional districts must be drawn at least once every ten years to reflect population changes recorded in the census. Texas gained 4.3 million new residents since the 2000 census and thus qualifies for four additional seats in Congress, increasing the Texas congressional delegation from 32 to 36 seats.
In addition to apportioning the state?s voters among the 36 congressional districts, Texas also redrew election districts for its state house and state senate.
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Gina Carano compares sex and MMA on ?Conan?
We've had a lot of Gina Carano coverage lately, as the onetime Strikeforce title contender has been making the rounds to promote her movie "Haywire." This might be considered piling on, but during her appearance on Conan O'Brien's show, she talked about why she got into MMA and how fighting is like sex. It's not quite NSFW, but definitely PG.
[Yahoo! speaks with Gina Carano about Haywire]
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/gina-carano-compares-sex-mma-conan-180940511.html
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Will Interactive iBooks Be The Next Big Booty For Pirates?
With the shift from print books to digital books come a few nasty side effects. Sure, it's much easier much easier to acquire and read books when you don't even have to get out of your chair, but those digital copies can be cracked and disseminated for free with only a little more effort. As ebook sales expand, so does ebook piracy, so I have to wonder if Apple's concerted efforts in creating a new kind of iBook experience will open them up to unwanted attention from digital pirates.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LcEJDOE0wf0/
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Repurpose an Over-the-Door Shoe Holder into a Cleaning Products Organizer [Organization]
Over-the-door shoe holders are wonderful for organizing lots of household items in addition to their normal function. We've previously covered how to use them to store pantry items, cable storage, and gadgets. Now, household weblog Whine & Cheez shares how these versatile holders can help organize your cleaning products.
In this case all you need to is hang the shoe organizer from a door in your laundry room or linen closet and all of your sponges, sprays, and other cleaning gear in the shoe pockets. Keeping it handy and visible will encourage you to use the right cleaning tool for the right job.
Git er done! | Whine & Cheez
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Romney aims to stay away from his income tax issue (Reuters)
SPARTANBURG, South Carolina (Reuters) ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sought on Wednesday to stay away from the issue of how much he pays in taxes a day after acknowledging that his income tax rate is about 15 percent, but a key ally joined rivals' calls for Romney to release his tax returns.
During a campaign speech in Spartanburg, Romney avoided mentioning the comment he made a day earlier that his income tax rate is "probably closer to 15 percent than anything," making it lower than the rate paid by most wage-earning Americans.
The remark put Romney, one of the wealthiest people to ever run for the White House, at the forefront of a national debate over the fairness of U.S. income tax rates. Romney is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination to face Democratic President Barack Obama on November 6.
Romney's efforts to stay away from the issue took a hit earlier in the day when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a key ally of the former Massachusetts governor, urged him to release his income tax forms.
Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, two of Romney's rivals for the Republican nomination, pressed Romney during a debate Monday night to release his tax returns and have suggested he may be hiding something in not releasing his tax forms.
Christie played down the notion that the forms would reveal much about Romney, a former private equity executive at Bain Capital LLC with an estimated net worth of $270 million.
"Let's get all the facts out there. See what the tax returns say. And I think everybody will know that the story is probably much ado about nothing," Christie told the MSNBC program "Morning Joe."
Christie suggested that the attention being paid to Romney's finances was mostly a political drama aimed at undermining the former Massachusetts governor in advance of Saturday's South Carolina primary, the third contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination.
Christie, mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate for Romney, has been actively campaigning for Romney, making appearances in New Hampshire and Iowa, the first two states to hold nominating contests.
'POLITICAL DIRT'
On the campaign trail in the conservative state of South Carolina on Wednesday, Republican voters who were questioned about Romney's tax returns downplayed the issue.
"I think it's political dirt," said Don Ethier, 66, an undecided voter in Spartanburg. "They're needing something to discredit him, and they're making something out of nothing."
Although most U.S. politicians running for president release their tax returns, Romney does not need to do so, said Lawrence Easler, 66, of Spartanburg. "He's a real successful guy. He earned everything he's got, legally."
Adam Temple, a Republican consultant in South Carolina unaffiliated with any of the presidential candidates, called the flap over Romney's tax rate and returns "a small issue."
"It's not about jobs or how he's gonna create them and it's not about electability," Temple said. "Those are the things South Carolina voters care about. The guy has money."
But Temple said that if Romney wins the Republican nomination and the right to face Obama, "we'd be naive to think the Obama campaign isn't gonna make that an issue."
Romney, who has been reluctant to release his tax returns, said for the first time on Monday that he would release them -- but not until April.
Christie urged Romney to move up that timetable.
"What I would say to Governor Romney is: If you have tax returns to put out, you should put them out. You should put them out sooner rather than later because it's always better to have full disclosure, especially if you're the frontrunner," Christie said on NBC's program "Today."
The questions about Romney's finances gained steam on Tuesday, when he told reporters that most of his income stems from investments, placing him at the 15 percent tax rate for capital gains.
The top effective tax rate for U.S. salary earners is 35 percent.
The South Carolina primary may offer the last chance for conservatives such as Gingrich, a former House of Representatives speaker, and Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, to slow Romney's momentum.
Gingrich and Perry, the Texas governor, have been eager to paint Romney as out of touch with ordinary voters amid a slow economic recovery, and have pounced on the tax issue.
Gingrich has said he will release his own tax returns this week. Perry already has done so.
Some tax analysts have said Romney's tax returns could shed light on his work at the helm of Bain Capital that could give political ammunition to rivals.
A Wall Street Journal editorial on Wednesday called on Romney to use his returns as a platform to call for a simplified U.S. tax code.
"Mr. Romney could use the opportunity to make the moral and practical case for lower rates and fewer loopholes," the Journal said.
(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell. Editing by David Lindsey)
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Friday, January 20, 2012
No Wikipedia? What if the Internet went down? (AP)
WASHINGTON ? If a day without Wikipedia was a bother, think bigger. In this plugged-in world, we would barely be able to cope if the entire Internet went down in a city, state or country for a day or a week.
Sure, we'd survive. People have done it. Countries have, as Egypt did last year during the anti-government protests. And most of civilization went along until the 1990s without the Internet. But now we're so intertwined socially, financially and industrially that suddenly going back to the 1980s would hit the world as hard as a natural disaster, experts say.
No email, Twitter or Facebook. No buying online. No stock trades. No just-in-time industrial shipping. No real-time tracking of diseases. It's gotten so that not just the entire Internet but individual websites such as Google are considered critical infrastructure, experts said.
"Nobody would die, but there would be a major hassle," said computer security expert Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure in Helsinki, Finland.
If an Internet outage lasted more than a day or two, the financial hit would be huge, with mass unemployment, said Ken Mayland, a former chief bank economist and president of ClearView Economics. Eugene Spafford, director of Purdue University's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, worries about bank runs and general panic.
Psychologically, too, it could be wrenching.
"I think it's easier to get off heroin," said Lisa Welter of New York City, who weaned herself for a month last year from just the social aspects of the Internet ? she still paid bills online ? and felt as if she was "living in a cave."
"There would be a sense of loss: What would I do with my time?" said Kimberly Young, a psychologist who directs the Center for Internet Addiction and Recovery.
On Wednesday, certain websites, most prominently Wikipedia, went dark to protest legislation in Congress that would crack down on pirated movies and TV shows. It was a one-day stunt. But it raises questions about our connectedness.
It is possible that hackers, terrorists, accidents or even sunspots could take down the Internet and cause areas to become cut off and unreachable, said Spafford, one of the foremost experts on computer security. The U.S. and other developed nations have multiple and robust routing systems that make it unlikely large areas would be affected, but smaller countries could be vulnerable to nationwide outages, Hypponen said.
The world only has to look back one year to Egypt to see what a sudden unplugging could spawn.
The government of Hosni Mubarak tried to stop protests in January 2011 by switching off the Internet. The shutdown halted businesses, banking operations and ? at the height of the demonstrations ? the ability of the protest leaders to organize and communicate with one another.
During the five days that the Internet was out, anti-Mubarak activists had to rely on help from abroad to spread their news and update Web pages. The outage harmed protesters' ability to organize or to counter government propaganda that portrayed them as agents of foreign powers, said Ahmed Saleh, who was in charge of managing the Facebook page that was credited with mobilizing thousands of Egyptians to take to the streets.
With the shutdown, the protests swelled as people unable to follow minute-by-minute what was going on took to the streets.
"No Internet meant that more people went down and realized that this was for real. The protests grew, and so did the anger against the government domestically and internationally," Saleh said.
He said the lack of Internet also allowed him to "live the moment" because he was not distracted with tweeting and posting on Facebook or analyzing the situation. This, he said, strengthened real face-to-face connections between people.
Nicholas Christin, associate director of the Information Networking Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, said that while a prolonged Internet outage would be uncomfortable, it might also bring out the best in people.
"I think you would find that people are very resilient," he said. "We would go back to the libraries."
Christin said he has gone a week without the Internet as part of a vacation. The first few days were rough, he said, but then "it was fantastic."
Christin did it by choice. Others had it imposed on them because of weather disasters or financial problems. They weren't nostalgic about it.
For three days, Jill Williams lost the Internet and power because of a California windstorm last month. Her small business requires her to use email to plan events.
"Those three days I felt deprived," she recalled in an email, responding to a Twitter request for anecdotes about going Internet-less. "The Internet has totally consumed my life, both business as well as pleasure."
Wyatt McMahon of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech University was having a hard time Wednesday just dealing with the shutdown at Wikipedia, which he leans on as a first step in his searches in his field, which combines statistics and biology.
If the entire Internet were lost, "that would be beyond catastrophic. Every single day, every single hour, if not every 30 minutes, I am using the Internet for work," McMahon said. "So if anything like that were to happen, it would bring everything to a screeching halt."
___
Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.
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Summary Box: New London airport gets support
(AP)? WILL IT FLY? Support is growing for a new London airport in the Thames Estuary region of southeast England, the capital's mayor said Wednesday. Boris Johnson said the government was "increasingly interested" in the ambitious proposal, which would see a massive new air hub built where the River Thames meets the North Sea.
HEATHROW HEAVE-HO: The new airport would effectively replace Heathrow, London's current long-haul hub. The airport handles 65 million passengers annually, making it Europe's busiest, but longstanding plans to build a third runway there were scrapped following a drawn-out and acrimonious debate with local residents and environmental groups.
READY FOR TAKEOFF: The airport would be built about 40 miles southeast of central London. A proposal recently published by London-based Foster & Partners envisions a multi-runway facility on a marshy, sparsely populated peninsula at the edge of the estuary. It would be linked to London by a four-track, high-speed train line which would plug into the Channel tunnel rail link and a planned high-speed line to Birmingham, England.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsGamecore/~3/AHjPDqlsE9s/
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Teri Whitcraft: The Million Moms Challenge: Helping Moms Around the World, One Story at a Time
The statistics are staggering: Every 90 seconds, someone in the world dies during pregnancy or childbirth. That's 1000 women and girls every day. Yet experts say more than 80 percent of those deaths are preventable with access to basic medical care -- and that doesn't include the more than 1 million babies a year who are stillborn because their mothers did not receive needed medical care.
How can you NOT want to help?
The "Sisterhood of Motherhood"
Last September, ABC News and the United Nations Foundation joined forces to launch the Million Moms Challenge, a call to action to engage millions of Americans with millions of moms in developing countries. Our goal: to create a vibrant community around the shared dream of a healthy pregnancy, a safe birth, and a baby who will survive and thrive -- basic human rights that all too often are simply out of reach for women in the developing world.
The idea was to transcend distance, language and cultural differences by tapping into the common experience of moms -- the so-called "Sisterhood of Motherhood." As Tina Sharkey, CEO of Baby Center, told ABC News: "Whether your child is born in a hut or in a private hospital room, that moment of profound transformation is the same. No matter what language you speak, what personal belief system guides you -- at our core, all moms want the exact same thing -- a happy and healthy family."
Watch Arianna, Sarah Brown and Donna Karan share their birth stories:
-First we partnered with nearly two dozen of the most respected non-governmental organizations around the world- including Save the Children, Partners in Health, World Vision, White Ribbon Alliance, ONE.org and mothers2mothers, to name a few.
We created a dedicated website (www.MillionMomsChallenge.com) featuring original video stories, news from our partners, and live, interactive posts from hundreds of mom bloggers (provided by BlogFrog).
And we hit the road, traveling to 16 countries and producing dozens of stories, ranging from investigative reports to feature stories to an hour-long primetime special with Diane Sawyer -- "Giving Life: A Risky Proposition."
"The Most Dangerous Thing A Woman Can Do"
For the primetime special on December 16th, 2011, we focused on countries where giving birth is literally the most dangerous thing a woman can do.
In Afghanistan, where more than half of marriages involve child brides, we met 15-year-old Miriam, married at 13 and about to give birth to her first child. Our producers travelled into Taliban-controlled areas to tell the stories of young mothers; one producer was threatened and stripped of his possessions at gunpoint during a trip near the Pakistan border.
In Sierra Leone, where one in six women dies in pregnancy or childbirth -- most often from postpartum bleeding -- we investigated why so few hospitals have the anti-hemorrhaging drug misoprostol, which can save lives for less than the cost of a postage stamp.
We also looked at success stories. Deborah Roberts reported on the so-called "Bangladesh miracle": how one of the poorest countries in the world achieved a 40 percent reduction in maternal deaths in the past decade, primarily by training skilled birth attendants and sending text and voice messages to pregnant women. And in Mexico, Dr. Richard Besser reported on the dramatic impact family planning has had on improving the lives of women and their children.
Baby Bumps and Twitterthons
But it wasn't just television. To engage a new audience, we worked with Baby Center to host the world's first virtual Baby Shower for Global Good -- an 8-hour "twitterthon" where more than a 1600 people won prizes and tweeted with top experts around the world. Total twitter impressions: over 94 million.
We launched the Imagine Me & You Facebook contest, where more than 450 women submitted photos of their "baby bumps" with a message for their little ones in an effort to win a rare photo session with renowned photographer Anne Geddes in her Sydney, Australia, studio . The contest sparked more than 40,000 "likes" and signups for the Challenge.
And we worked with the USC Institute for Global Health to develop an online video game "1000 Days," highlighting the crucial 1000-day window from pregnancy through age two when proper nutrition can determine a child's future.
An Outpouring of Support
In just 4 months, the Million Moms Challenge created an online community of more than 110,000 and raised more than $200, 000 (including generous contributions from Johnson & Johnson and Disney Baby). But it was our viewers who did the heavy lifting, donating more than $1.5 million throughout the entire year to organizations featured in our division-wide "Be the Change: Save a Life" series. It was clear that people wanted to make a difference -- and they did:
- After Dr. Richard Besser met a woman in Bangladesh whose child died from diarrhea linked to dirty water, we asked viewers to help build a water tap for the island community. They donated enough to build 10 faucets and 20 toilets.
- After Christiane Amanpour reported on malnutrition in Guatemala, where 80% of children are stunted, we asked viewers to donate40,000 to help children in one village develop normally. They gave enough to help the children of five villages.
- Elizabeth Vargas met a group of students from Stanford University developing a low-cost incubator for premature babies in India. The resulting100,000 in donations helped propel the incubator into testing, and it is now being used to help babies in villages in rural India.
Then there were smaller -- but equally important -- milestones that had less to do with raising money than raising awareness here at home:
- When JuJu Chang reported how Hope Phones was collecting old cell phones in the U.S. and recycling them so new phones can be bought for health workers in the developing world, the nonprofit went from collecting 200 handsets per month to 500 handsets per business day.
- After seeing David Muir's report on a measles outbreak in Somalia and a vaccine that costs just 24 cents, 15-year-old Dimitri Godur rallied his eighth-grade classmates in Florida to raise money for the Shot@Life campaign -- enough for more than 4,000 doses of the "24 cent solution."
- When ABC News and Duke Global Health Institute asked college students to send in their big idea for improving maternal health, eight graduate students from John Hopkins won a $10,000 prize donated by the Lemelson Foundation. Their idea: a "Protein Pen" that can screen for preeclampsia as well as other potentially deadly conditions for less than a penny a test. They recently returned from field-testing the pen in Nepal.
The Next Chapter
For the entire team here at ABC News -- including all the correspondents and producers who reported from around the world -- the year-long global health series has been an extraordinary project. And it's just the beginning.
As the network becomes more focused on political coverage during the election year, the U.N. Foundation will carry the momentum of the Million Moms community into its next phase , continuing to shine a light on the individuals and organizations helping to save the lives of mothers and children around the globe. And now, with the Global Motherhood platform at the Huffington Post, the idea of a vibrant global community -- that "Sisterhood of Motherhood" -- is becoming even more of a reality.
Here's to million moms reaching out to moms and children to create healthier communities throughout the world!
The Million Moms Challenge was part of ABC News' year-long, division-wide series "Be the Change: Save a Life", sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Teri Whitcraft is a Senior Producer of ABC News Special Units, and Coordinating Producer of ABC News' year-long, division-wide global health series.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/teri-whitcraft/million-moms-challenge_b_1214617.html
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Romney rolls out final SC primary ad (AP)
COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is rolling out his closing appeal for votes in Saturday's South Carolina primary with an ad that takes swipes at President Barack Obama's economic policies and makes tough-to-keep promises.
The ad shows Romney giving his victory speech in New Hampshire's primary two weeks ago with his family in the background and mixes images from campaign stops on factory floors around the country.
"President Obama wants to fundamentally transform America," Romney says. "I stand ready to lead us down a different path. This president has enacted job-killing regulations; I'll eliminate them. He lost our triple-A credit rating; I'll restore it. He passed Obamacare; I'll repeal it."
Romney promises in the ad to cut, cap and balance the federal budget. "If you believe that the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not a destiny," he says, "then I am asking for your vote."
The ad is a stark contrast to the harsh messages Romney and a political action committee supporting him have been using for weeks in South Carolina, a state whose Republican primary winner has gone on to win the nomination each time since 1980. South Carolina's primary is expected to thin the field before candidates rush to delegate-rich Florida, which holds its primary Jan. 31.
Television ads, mailers and phone messages have been rough. Mail pieces, for instance, have called challenger Rick Santorum a hypocrite for raising his pay while in the Senate and said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich launched an attack on America's free enterprise system by questioning Romney's business deals.
Romney's ad sets up several challenging policy initiatives for a Romney administration. Cutting the deficit, much less balancing the federal budget and capping spending, has been an elusive goal for a deeply partisan Congress. While Romney and other candidates complain about regulations killing jobs, businesses have cited the overall economy and slow consumer demand more frequently than regulations as the top problems. That suggests that rolling back regulations may not easily lead to job creation.
When Standard and Poor's downgraded the nation's AAA debt rating last year, it came after months of warnings about gridlock in Congress over dealing with the nation's financial problems. In a time of rising economic challenges, S&P said the U.S. had weakened "effectiveness, stability and predictability" in its policymaking and political institutions. It is far from clear when and how those shortcomings will be repaired.
The new federal health care law that Obama pushed through over GOP objections will have key elements tested in the Supreme Court this year. Even if those elements fail, facets of the health care law are popular and may never be repealed, including ending lifetime maximum policy limits and extending coverage under a parent's health insurance policy to children until they're 25.
___
Follow Jim Davenport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jimdavenport_ap
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
French president: Credit downgrade changes nothing
French President Nicolas Sarkozy gestures during a meeting with Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, not seen, at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy gestures during a meeting with Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, not seen, at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, right, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, talk before a join press conference after a meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, right, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, attend a join press conference after a meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, right, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, attend a join press conference after a meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, right, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, shake hands after a join press conference after a meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
MADRID (AP) ? French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday shrugged off his country's loss of its prized AAA debt rating, saying the downgrade by rating agency Standard & Poor's would change nothing.
The comments, his first since S&P lowered its score on France and eight European other countries on Friday, followed a successful auction by France of euro8.6 billion ($10.9 billion) in short-term debt Monday. The yields, the interest rates charged by investors on the debt, fell ? a sign investors still see the country as a good bet.
France won a further small reprieve Monday, when the Moody's agency confirmed that it would keep its top rating. However, the S&P decision could seriously impair Sarkozy's bid for re-election this spring.
Sarkozy told reporters he was unconcerned with the opinions of ratings agencies.
"We have to react to this (the downgrade) with calm, by taking a step back," he said at a news conference with the new Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. "At the core, my conviction is that it changes nothing."
Sarkozy won support from Rajoy for a new European tax on financial transactions being pushed by France and Germany. Rajoy's center-right government took power last month, and had not previously stated its position on the tax.
The French president said the ratings agencies' decisions would not affect his policies, though he did acknowledge that France has work to do, saying that its deficits and spending were too high and that its growth was too slow.
He also noted that two of the three major agencies still rate France at triple-A, the highest rating. Fitch confirmed the rating last week. The S&P move was especially brutal for France, one of the world's biggest economies and a financier of bailouts for smaller, poorer eurozone countries.
There are more government auctions in Europe this week, including longer-term offerings from France on Thursday, so the European debt crisis will never be too far from investors' minds.
The news conference began combatively when Sarkozy refused to answer a question about whether France's downgrade would affect its ability to lead Europe out of the crisis and if it had any connection with the meeting between the French, Italian and German leaders scheduled for next week being postponed.
Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have taken the lead in proposing solutions to the crisis and major decisions are often hashed out at their meetings ahead of European summits.
"You don't have the latest information," Sarkozy blithely told the reporter, apparently referring to Moody's decision on Monday. The reporter rephrased the question two more times, but Sarkozy again refused to answer.
Later on, in response to other questions, he confirmed that the three-way summit would take place in February and spoke about the S&P downgrade.
Earlier, Sarkozy met with Spanish King Juan Carlos, who said he's confident France and Spain would help Europe find a way out of the crisis.
The king said the two nations were "struggling together for the advance of a unified and prosperous Europe in solidarity that confronts the crisis with strength."
Rajoy's Socialist predecessor also supported the financial tax championed by Sarkozy, but was ousted from office by Spaniards angry about the country's hurting economy and high unemployment.
The European Commission has estimated that the tax could raise as much as euro57 billion ($72.2 billion) a year, funds that could be used to help reduce the substantial budget deficits crippling European economies.
For the tax to be successful, however, it needs to be adopted by as many countries as possible. Sarkozy has said it might be enough to enact it among the 17-nation euro countries. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti prefers applying it across the full 27-nation European Union, but that would be more difficult because of U.K. opposition.
Part of the reason for the tax would be to raise funds at a time when governments are struggling with high debts.
Moody's cited France's economic strength as a reason for affirming its top rating but said bleak growth prospects in France and the region present "risks to the French government's fiscal consolidation plans."
"France, like other eurozone sovereigns, may face a number of challenges in the coming months. The need to provide additional support to other European sovereigns or to its own banking system cannot be excluded," Moody's warned.
Moody's said Monday it "will update the market during the first quarter of 2012 as part of the initiative to revisit the overall architecture of our sovereign ratings in the EU."
Sarkozy's challengers for the presidency have seized on the S&P downgrade as evidence that his policies are wrong-headed and ineffective.
It will be a bruising election battle for Sarkozy, a dynamic leader who has a strong international profile but is widely disliked at home. Leftists say he has coddled the rich, while many of those who supported him in his 2007 campaign say he hasn't fulfilled his promises.
___
Angela Charlton and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.
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