Mortgage-Interest Tax Break Might Be Reduced Or Eliminated
October 25th, 2010Via: Market Watch:
The hugely popular mortgage-interest tax deduction could be targeted by a bipartisan commission charged with finding ways to chop the deficit, according to a report published Monday.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the mortgage-interest deduction, child tax credits and payment for health insurance with pretax dollars all could be put in jeopardy by the deficit commission, which is to issue recommendations on balancing the budget by 2015.
The report, citing people familiar with the matter, indicated that these tax breaks could be preserved at a lower level. Defense spending and a freeze on domestic discretionary spending also are being weighed, the report said.
Medicaid and Medicare changes are unlikely, and the commission has decided that Social Security changes wouldn’t have an impact for at least a decade because changes would have to be phased in.
Colgate Tries to Patent Traditional Indian Herbal Toothpaste
October 25th, 2010Here’s one for your overstuffed Corporation as Public Menace file folder.
Via: Herald Sun:
A LEGAL dispute between the US and India over a herbal toothpaste is leaving a bitter aftertaste between the two countries, with Colgate Palmolive accused of filing a bogus patent.
Colgate, the world’s largest producer of toothpaste, patented a toothcleaning powder in the hope that it would take the multibillion-dollar Indian oral hygiene market by storm.
However, Indian activists claim that the patent is bogus because the ingredients – including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint – have been used for the same purpose for hundreds, “if not thousands”, of years on the subcontinent.
China: Vending Machine Sells Live Crabs
October 25th, 2010Via: Japan Probe:
The inside of the machine is kept at 5 degrees celsius, a temperature cold enough to make the crabs go into a state of hibernation. A sign states that all the crabs in the machine are fresh: if the crab is dead-on-arrival, they promise to give you three free crabs.
Research Credit: JH
New Posts on Farmlet About Slaughtering Chickens
October 25th, 2010I Slaughtered a Chicken for the First Time (With a Little Lot of Help from My Friends)
Food in Uncertain Times: How to Grow and Store the 5 Crops You Need to Survive
October 25th, 2010The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe
Via: Chelsea Green:
In an age of erratic weather and instability, it’s increasingly important to develop a greater self-reliance when it comes to food. And because of this, more than ever before, farmers are developing new gardening techniques that help achieve a greater resilience. Longtime gardener and scientist Carol Deppe, in her new book The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, offers a wealth of unique and expansive information for serious home gardeners and farmers who are seeking optimistic advice. Do you want to know more about the five crops you need to survive through the next thousand years? What about tips for drying summer squash, for your winter soups? Ever thought of keeping ducks on your land? Read on.
Research Credit: AT
99 Weeks: When Unemployment Benefits Run Out
October 25th, 2010Via: CBS News:
The economic jam we’re in has topped even the Great Depression in one respect: never have we had a recession this deep with a recovery this flat. Unemployment has been at nine and a half percent or above for 14 months.
Congress did something that it has never done before – it extended unemployment benefits to 99 weeks. That cost more than $100 billion, a huge expense for a government in debt.
But now, for many Americans 99 weeks have passed and there’s still no job in sight. Some have taken to calling themselves the “99ers.”
“60 Minutes” and correspondent Scott Pelley went to several communities in search of the 99ers, but we didn’t expect to find such a crisis in Silicon Valley, the high tech capital that many people hoped would be creating jobs.
Related: Sold Out $329,000 Porsche Shows Recession, Obama Not Hurting Rich
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano “Opts Out” of X-Ray Scan
October 23rd, 2010Via: New York Daily News:
Airline passengers might want to consider a trip to the gym before heading to the airport now that high-tech body scanners have been unveiled at Kennedy Airport.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday hailed them as an important breakthrough for airport security and the fight against terrorism.
Yet when it came to testing the devices – which produce chalky, naked X-ray images of passengers – she turned the floor over to some brave volunteers.
“These machines represent an important way to stay ahead of the ever-evolving threat that faces the aviation industry,” Napolitano said.
WikiLeaks: Iraq War Diaries
October 23rd, 2010Via: WikiLeaks:
At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (‘The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ‘SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.
The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 ‘civilians’; 23,984 ‘enemy’ (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 ‘host nation’ (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 ‘friendly’ (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the ‘Afghan War Diaries’, previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.
$19 Billion Later, Pentagon’s Best Bomb-Detector Is a Dog
October 22nd, 2010Alternate title: The U.S. Military Is Putting the Dog Back in Boondoggle.
Via: Wired:
Drones, metal detectors, chemical sniffers, and super spycams — forget ‘em. The leader of the Pentagon’s multibillion military task force to stop improvised bombs says there’s nothing in the U.S. arsenal for bomb detection more powerful than a dog’s nose.
Despite a slew of bomb-finding gagdets, the American military only locates about 50 percent of the improvised explosives planted in Afghanistan and Iraq. But that number jumps to 80 percent when U.S. and Afghan patrols take dogs along for a sniff-heavy walk. “Dogs are the best detectors,” Lieutenant General Michael Oates, the commander of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told a conference yesterday, National Defense reports. That’s not the greatest admission for a well-funded organization — nearly $19 billion since 2004, according to a congressional committee — tasked with solving one of the military’s wickedest problems.
Stimulus Swindle: Los Angeles Spent $70 Million in Stimulus Funds to Create 7.76 Jobs
October 21st, 2010Via: The Upshot:
A new piece of evidence has emerged in the debate over the effectiveness of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, and it’s not good for Democrats. According to two newly released audits performed by the Los Angeles controller, L.A. spent enormous portions of the $594 million in stimulus funds it received on projects that created or saved just a handful of jobs. All told, the audits — available here and here [pdf] — examined $111 million in stimulus spending by the city’s Department of Transportation and Department of Public Works, and found that the money went to projects that created or retained just 54 jobs. That works out to roughly $2 million per job.
The $71 million that went to the Department of Public Works, which funded 15 road-surfacing and similar projects, was projected to save or create 238 jobs. But according to the audit, the money created just 7.76 jobs—or slightly more than $10 million per new job—and saved 37.7 (the fractions are a result of calculating the number of jobs by hours worked). The Department of Transportation’s $40 million created or retained just nine jobs, the audit found.
Related: Who Got Stimulated?
