Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/274375796?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Questcor Finds Profit for Acthar Drug, at $28,000 a Vial
[unable to retrieve full-text content]After pricing its once-obscure drug, Acthar, in the stratosphere, Questcor gained many fans on Wall Street. But the company has also drawn some doubters.
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How To Enjoy New Year's Eve Home Alone | YourTango
Eight ways to spend the night in.
No big plans tonight? Whether your party ideas fell through, it's too cold out or you're feeling under the weather, we say staying in is perfectly acceptable tonight.
There's plenty of fun ways to ring in the new year alone, bubble baths and cuddling with your pup included. Did we mention Groupon's having NYE discount specials?
More from YourTango: New Year's Day: 5 Romantic Activities To Do At Home
See the list of 8 ways to celebrate NYE solo at The Stir:?8 Perfectly Acceptable Ways to Spend New Year's Eve Home Alone
More from The Stir:
Source: http://www.yourtango.com/2012169531/how-enjoy-new-years-eve-home-alone
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Dems want House vote on Senate-passed 'cliff' deal
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, walks down a staircase on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, to a Democratic caucus meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. Squarely in the spotlight, House Republicans began deciding their next move Tuesday after the Senate overwhelmingly approved compromise legislation negating a fiscal cliff of across-the-board tax increases and sweeping spending cuts to the Pentagon and other government agencies. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, walks down a staircase on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, to a Democratic caucus meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. Squarely in the spotlight, House Republicans began deciding their next move Tuesday after the Senate overwhelmingly approved compromise legislation negating a fiscal cliff of across-the-board tax increases and sweeping spending cuts to the Pentagon and other government agencies. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Democratic leaders are pressing Speaker John Boehner to let the House vote on the Senate-approved bipartisan compromise that would avert much of the impact of the so-called fiscal cliff.
Following a nearly three-hour private meeting Tuesday between Vice President Joe Biden and House Democratic lawmakers, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats expected Boehner to allow the House to vote on the accord.
Boehner has said the House will vote on the Senate measure or vote to amend it. He and House GOP lawmakers were also meeting Tuesday, and some Republicans expressed concerns that the measure needed more spending cuts.
The Senate passed the measure early Tuesday on an 89-8 vote.
The compromise would allow tax increases on the nation's highest earners but prevent tax boosts from everyone else.
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Five Easy Ways to Insulate Your Home Heart House
While many eco-friendly homeowners have complained about the use of standard insulation products, prolonging the life span of an old house is far more ecologically sound than building a new one. According to a Planet Green article on TLC.com ("5 Easy Steps to A Well-Insulated House"), there are some very simple and practical ways to improve the insulation of your home.
1. Start with the attic, crawlspace and walls ? In the wintertime, the most important way to insulate your home is in the attic. Since heat rises, it is more likely to escape through the top of the house. The same rule applies when dressing for a cold day: always wear a hat and you won't lose heat through the top of your head. A Colorado Springs home contractor can inspect your attic or crawlspace for leaks and use the right type of insulation. One product that works well in the attic is Tiger Foam Insulation.
2. Windows don't always get much attention when insulating a home, but they are a very important part of the picture. In fact they account for about 25 percent of heat that is lost in the home. Energy panels are the least expensive way to insulate windows, or try some quilted drapes for extra warmth during cold weather months.
3. If you suspect a door is drafty, pick up a weather-stripping kit for under $20 and seal it up. The same method you use for entry doors can be used on storm doors.
4. Make sure your chimney isn't leaking hot air by investing in a better flue damper and a chimney balloon, but don't forget to close off the fireplace. An insulated glass door is a great place to start.
5. Lastly, don't forget the caulking. Surprisingly, warm air can leak out through your electrical outlets and even your plumbing fixtures. A simple treatment of foam insulation and caulking can usually solve these problems, but be sure your home also has enough ventilation. Take the time to speak with a contractor who is familiar with the latest home insulation solutions.
Why add insulation to your home?
Adding insulation in an existing home saves money and improves comfort. Not only will it reduce your heating and cooling costs and likely pay for itself in short order, it will make your home more inviting and livable.
Will insulation make a difference in a newer home?
As a Colorado home improvement specialist, this is a question I am asked frequently. My answer is usually something like this: unless your home was specially constructed for energy efficiency, you can probably reduce your energy bills by adding more insulation. New homes will often develop drafts in strange places after the house has settled.
How do I know if I should add insulation?
To determine whether you should add insulation, first you will need to find out how much you already have and where it is located. This kind of inspection is best conducted by a qualified home energy auditor or contractor. Some companies offer this as a service when installing new doors and windows. Ideally, you will want to have a whole-house energy assessment completed before determining which areas are in need of insulation and sealing.
Keep in mind that just because you live in an older home does not mean you need more insulation. While it's true that many older homes have less insulation than homes built today, it's also likely that the previous owners added more insulation over the years.
Inspecting and Evaluating Your Insulation
A qualified contractor can check the walls, floors and attics near an unheated space such as the garage or basement. Exterior walls can be inspected by using an electrical outlet. First turn the power off to the outlet, then remove the cover and shine a flashlight into the crack around the outlet box. This will show if insulation is there and how thick it is. You might need to pull out some of the insulation to determine which type it is. Repeat this process by checking the outlets on all floors.
Determining Recommended R-Values
When you learn more about the insulation that has been used in your home it will be easier to determine the R-values. These values can be applied to the U.S. Department of Energy's Zip Code Insulation Calculator to figure out the amount of insulation that should be added to achieve maximum energy efficiency. The calculator will provide an estimate of the insulation cost, as well as the rate of return on your home improvement dollars.
Photo Courtesy of John Kasawa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Monday, 31 December 2012 06:47
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Source: http://www.hearthouse.com/five-easy-ways-to-insulate-your-home.html
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Senate leaders offer dour take on 'cliff' talks
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Capitol Hill deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" was proving elusive Sunday as a deadline to avert tax hikes on virtually every American worker and block sweeping spending cuts set to strike the Pentagon and other federal agencies grew perilously near.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell remained at odds on such key issues as the income threshold for higher tax rates and how to deal with inheritance taxes, among other issues. McConnell complained that Reid had yet to respond to a GOP offer made Saturday evening and reached out to Vice President Joe Biden, a longtime friend, in hopes of breaking the impasse.
One sign of progress came as Republicans withdrew a long-discussed proposal to slow future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients as part of a compromise to avoid the cliff. Democrats said earlier Sunday that proposal had put a damper on the talks, and Republican senators emerging from a closed-door GOP meeting said it is no longer part of the equation.
"I was really gratified to hear that Republicans have taken their demand for Social Security benefit cuts off the table. The truth is they should never have been on the table to begin with," Reid said late Sunday afternoon. "There is still significant distance between the two sides, but negotiations continue."
At stake are sweeping tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect at the turn of the year. Taken together, they've been dubbed the fiscal cliff, and economists warn the one-two punch ? which leaders in both parties have said they want to avoid ? could send the still-fragile economy back into recession. Tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 expire at midnight Monday, and $109 billion in across-the-board cuts in federal spending this year would also begin this week.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the two sides remained at odds over the income threshold for higher tax rates and tax levels on large estates. Republicans said that Democratic demands for new money to prevent a cut in Medicare payments to doctors and renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed should be financed with cuts elsewhere in the budget. Republicans also balked at a Democratic proposal to use new tax revenues to shut off the across-the-board spending cuts, known as a sequester in Washington-speak.
President Barack Obama, in a televised interview, blamed Republicans for putting the nation's shaky economy at risk.
"We have been talking to the Republicans ever since the election was over," Obama said in the interview that was taped Saturday and aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." ''They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers."
"The mood is discouraged," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with Democrats. "The parties are much further apart than I hoped they'd be by now."
The pessimistic turn came as the House and Senate returned to the Capitol for a rare Sunday session. Reid and McConnell had hoped to have a blueprint to present to their rank and file by mid-afternoon.
"I'm concerned with the lack of urgency here. There's far too much at stake," McConnell said. "There is no single issue that remains an impossible sticking point ? the sticking point appears to be a willingness, an interest or courage to close the deal."
McConnell and Reid were hoping for a deal that would prevent higher taxes for most Americans while letting rates rise at higher income levels, although the precise point at which that would occur was a sticking point.
Obama had wanted to raise the top tax rate on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000 from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. In talks with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, he offered to raise that threshold to $400,000.
The estate tax issue was particularly tricky since several Democrats, including veterans like Max Baucus of Montana, disagree with Obama's proposal to increase the top estate tax rate from 35 percent to 45 percent.
Republicans said Democrats pressed to turn off more than $200 billion in the across-the-board spending cuts over the coming two years. This so-called sequester is the punishment for last year's deficit "supercommittee" failure to strike a deal.
Hopes for blocking across-the-board spending cuts were fading and Obama's proposal to renew the 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut wasn't even part of the discussion.
Obama pressed lawmakers to start where both sides say they agree ? sparing middle-class families from looming tax hikes.
"If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff. It avoids the worst outcomes. And we're then going to have some tough negotiations in terms of how we continue to reduce the deficit, grow the economy, create jobs," Obama said in the NBC interview.
Gone is the talk of a grand deal that would tackle broad spending and revenue demands and set the nation on a course to lower deficits. Obama and Boehner were once a couple hundred billion dollars apart on a deal that would have reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion over 10 years.
Republicans have complained that Obama has demanded too much in tax revenue and hasn't proposed sufficient cuts or savings in the nation's massive health care programs.
Obama upped the pressure on Republicans to negotiate a fiscal deal, arguing that GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain.
"The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me," Obama said.
Boehner disagreed, saying Sunday that the president had been unwilling to agree to anything "that would require him to stand up to his own party."
The trimmed ambitions of today are a far cry from the upbeat bipartisan rhetoric of just six weeks ago, when the leadership of Congress went to the White House to set the stage for negotiations to come.
But the deal under discussion Sunday appeared unlikely to settle other outstanding issues, including the sequester, which would total more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, divided equally between the Pentagon and other government agencies. And off the table completely is an extension of the nation's borrowing limit, which the government is on track to reach any day but which the Treasury can put off through accounting measures for about two months.
That means Obama and the Congress are already on a new collision path. Republicans say they intend to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract more spending cuts from the president. Obama has been adamant that unlike 2011, when the country came close to defaulting on its debts, he will not yield to those Republican demands.
Meanwhile, a senior defense official said if the sequester were triggered, the Pentagon would soon begin notifying its 800,000 civilian employees that they should expect some furloughs ? mandatory unpaid leave, not layoffs. It would then take some time for the furloughs to begin being implemented, said the official, who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the internal preparations.
Lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar matters. Democrats said they had been told House Republicans might reject a deal until after Jan. 1, to avoid a vote to raise taxes before they had technically gone up, and then vote to cut taxes after they had risen.
___
Associated Press writers David Espo, Robert Burns, Julie Pace, Jim Kuhnhenn and Michele Salcedo contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-leaders-offer-dour-cliff-talks-192333199.html
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The Aging Effects Of Sugar
While we all know the damaging effects of sun damage, smoking and drinking have on our skin, a hidden culprit is sugar. Sugar of all types can cause loss of elasticity, sagging and deeper wrinkles. Find out how to minimize these effects and slow skin aging.
Article by Health-and-Fitness:Anti-Aging Articles from EzineArticles.com (c) Health-and-Fitness:Anti-Aging Articles from EzineArticles.com - Read full story here.
Source: http://anti-aging.fitnessthroughfasting.com/anti-aging/the-aging-effects-of-sugar.php
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