Monday, December 31, 2012

'Dairy cliff' may be avoided, for a year at least

5 hrs.

Farm-state lawmakers have agreed to a one-year extension of the expiring U.S. farm bill that, if enacted, would head off a possible doubling of retail milk prices to $7.00 or more a gallon in 2013.?

The compromise measure resulted from bipartisan discussions in the House of Representatives' Agriculture Committee and talks with colleagues in the U.S. Senate, Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, the House panel's chairman, said in a statement Sunday.?

"It is not perfect - no compromise ever is - but it is my sincere hope that it will pass the House and Senate and be signed by the President by January 1," Lucas, a Republican, said.?

It was not immediately clear whether House and Senate leaders would bring the measure to a vote soon enough to avoid putting the so-called "dairy cliff" milk price spike into action.?

Separately, lawmakers are working on a last-ditch effort to avert the similarly timed "fiscal cliff," when the biggest tax increases ever to hit Americans are set to start, paired with significant federal spending cuts?

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in an interview with CNN taped Friday and aired on Sunday, urged Congress to come up with such a solution, if only an extension of the old law that expired nearly three months ago, lest milk prices start rising after Jan. 1, 2013.?

Absent a new bill or an extension of current law, milk prices would revert to rules set in 1949, the last "permanent" farm legislation in the United States. Government price supports would kick in, based on production costs 64 years ago, plus inflation. The potential retail milk price has been estimated at $6.00 to $8.00 a gallon versus current levels near $3.50.?

Lucas said in the statement that time had run out in Congress' current session to enact a new five-year farm bill, as farm-state lawmakers and the dairy lobby had hoped.?

Vilsack told CNN that soaring milk prices - if it comes to that - would ripple throughout all commodities "if this thing goes on for an extended period of time."?

The price of milk will not double on Jan. 1, if Congress fails to act. Instead, prices would rise gradually as supplies are removed from normal markets and land instead in U.S. Department of Agriculture storage facilities.?

With supplies more scarce in normal marketing channels, some milk distributors and dairy product manufacturers could have turned to imported supplies.?

The Department of Agriculture is reviewing a range of options for administering programs should a permanent law become legally effective on Jan. 1, a spokesman said on Friday.?

The Senate passed its new five-year farm bill in June, and the House Agriculture Committee followed with a version in July.?

But the House bill, with large cuts in food-stamp funding for lower-income Americans, has never been brought to a vote by the full House. The Senate and House have for months remained far apart on the issues of food stamps and crop subsidies.?

Lucas said the year-long extension "provides certainty to our producers and critical disaster assistance to those affected by record drought conditions."?

It would also mean another round of the direct subsidies to farmers that cost about $5 billion a year, and that both sides of debate had agreed earlier to eliminate.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/dairy-cliff-may-be-avoided-year-least-1C7753064

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Home Improvement ? Season 4 Intro | Home Improvement Ideas

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.cohocton.org/257-home-improvement-season-4-intro

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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Gang Rape Victim Dies, India Protests Rage; But Will They Spark Change?

Demonstrators hold candles during a candlelight vigil for a gang rape victim who was assaulted in New Delhi. A woman whose gang rape provoked protests and a rare national debate about violence against women in India died from her injurie
Demonstrators hold candles during a candlelight vigil for a gang rape victim who was assaulted in New Delhi. A woman whose gang rape provoked protests and a rare national debate about violence against women in India died from her injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from government that has struggled to respond to public outrage. (Photo: Reuters)

After a gang rape victim dies in India, a widespread debate about violence against women in the region has reignited yet again.

An unidentified 23-year-old medical student died on Saturday of a severe brain injury and internal damage caused by a Dec. 16 attack. Beaten, raped and pushed out of a moving bus, the medical student had been flown to a Singapore hospital on Thursday. At the time, she was in critical condition.

"The need of the hour is a dispassionate debate and inquiry into the critical changes that are required in societal attitudes," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.

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"I hope that the entire political class and civil society will set aside narrow sectional interests and agenda to help us all reach the end that we all desire - making India a demonstrably better and safer place for women to live in."

The victim - who is now being called "Amanat," an Urdu word meaning "treasure" - has become a nationwide symbol for frequent and unrelenting violence against women in India. Rape and sexual assault are among the fastest-growing reported crimes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Yet rape is rarely punished, with only 26.5 percent of reported incidents successfully prosecuted in 2010, according to The New York Times.??

New Delhi has the greatest number of sex crimes in India, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police data. According to the government, reported rape cases increased by almost 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.

Since the horrific attack on Dec. 16, the protests have become deafening. It is believed that most sex crimes in India go unreported and unpunished - and many citizens are starting to demand change.

Following news of the gang rape victim's death, the government was panicked that protests would become chaotic - and even violent. So the administration placed thousands of policemen around key areas, closing ten metro stations and some main roads in New Delhi. But more than 1,000 people gathered to protest, screaming that justice must be served. Some protesters recommended the death penalty for gang rape suspects.

Hundreds of protesters also hit the streets in the northern Indian city of Lucknow. Groups also spoke out in Hyderabad, which is in southern India, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Six men have been arrested in connection to the Dec. 16 gang rape, and according to India law they could receive the death penalty.

"She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome," Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, said in a statement.

The latest gang rape is only one in a string of incidents that has fueled unrest in the country.?On July 9, a teenage girl in Guwahati, in the northeastern state of Assam, was recorded by a television crew when a group of 10 - 15 men surrounded, beat?and stripped her. The group of men grew to about 40, and the crew continued taping.?

After the footage went viral, there was an outcry around the world questioning how the crew stood filming without trying to help the gang rape victim. For those in India, the incident was a horrible reminder of a gang rape that occurred in Mumbai on New Year's in 2008 when two women walked out of the Marriott hotel with their friends.

Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress and widow of former?Prime Minister of India,?Rajiv Gandhi?told protesters:?"Your voice has been heard. It deepens our determination to battle the pervasive and the shameful social attitudes that allow men to rape and molest women with such impunity."

For tips, complaints and observations on all things digital, email us at tips [at] idigitaltimes.com

? 2012 iDigitalTimes All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Source: http://www.idigitaltimes.com/articles/14056/20121229/gang-rape-victim-dies-india-protests-rage.htm

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

U.N. General Assembly voices concern for Myanmar's Muslims

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly expressed serious concern on Monday over violence between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar and called upon its government to address reports of human rights abuses by some authorities.

The 193-nation General Assembly approved by consensus a non-binding resolution, which Myanmar said last month contained a "litany of sweeping allegations, accuracies of which have yet to be verified."

Outbreaks of violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingyas have killed dozens and displaced thousands since June. Rights groups also have accused Myanmar security forces of killing, raping and arresting Rohingyas after the riots. Myanmar said it exercised "maximum restraint" to quell the violence.

The unanimously adopted U.N. resolution "expressing particular concern about the situation of the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state, urges the government to take action to bring about an improvement in their situation and to protect all their human rights, including their right to a nationality."

At least 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in Rakhine State along the western coast of Myanmar, also known as Burma. But Buddhist Rakhines and other Burmese view them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh who deserve neither rights nor sympathy.

The resolution adopted on Monday is identical to one approved last month by the General Assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human rights. After that vote, Myanmar's mission to the United Nations said that it accepted the resolution but objected to the Rohingyas being referred to as a minority.

"There has been no such ethnic group as Rohingya among the ethnic groups of Myanmar," a representative of Myanmar said at the time. "Despite this fact, the right to citizenship for any member or community has been and will never be denied if they are in line with the law of the land."

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-general-assembly-voices-concern-myanmars-muslims-055459299.html

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Why? (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Friday, December 28, 2012

Health Insurance Exchanges 101 | Shirazi Benefits

(Photo by Robin Kanouse via Flickr)

Everyone is talking about the health insurance exchanges and what they will mean to you.? Starting January 1st, 2014, the Affordable Care Act requires every state to create health insurance exchanges for businesses, employees, and individuals. ?If states do not establish an exchange in time, the Federal government will step in and create one.

So, what exactly is a health insurance exchange?

A health insurance exchange is an organized marketplace for individual, families, and small business to shop for and purchase health insurance based on quality and price. ??Basically, they are a store specializing in health insurance merchandise.

How is this all going to work?

In Colorado, the Health Benefit Exchange will be an online marketplace; a website where Coloradans can shop for and purchase health plans. Two will be set up: one for individuals, and one for small groups. This website will interface with various government databases to determine a consumer?s eligibility for tax credits and public insurance.

Small employers will also be able to purchase plans for their employees, using tax credits.

Insurance brokers will need to be certified to sell plans through the exchanges; they will be able to help individuals and small groups navigate the exchanges.

Who is eligible to participate? ?

An exchange would be available to be used by individual consumers who do not have access to a group plan and small businesses with up to 50 employees when it opens for enrollment beginning October 2013. Large employers may be allowed to participate in 2017.

Will the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange offer every health plan that is currently offered on the market?

No. The exchange will offer health plans that have been determined to offer adequate levels of coverage and comply with new regulations to protect consumers. These plans will have ratings and will fall into four tiers: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. The bronze plans will offer the basic coverage required by law and will be the most affordable. The platinum plans will offer the highest level of coverage and will be the most costly. Silver and gold plans will offer coverage with monthly premiums in the middle of that spectrum.

Are there any tax credits for going through the exchange?

For small group employers, the tax credit that you receive now will only be available if you purchase your plan through the exchange. An enhanced version of the credit will be effective beginning January 1, 2014. In general, on January 1, 2014, the rate will increase to 50 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

Advance tax credits are available to individuals and families with incomes between the federal poverty level and up to 4 times that amount to help reduce the cost of purchasing health insurance. That means an individual making up to $43,320 a year and a family of four making up to $88,200 a year will be eligible for this financial assistance. The amount of assistance will be determined on a sliding scale, which means the higher your income, the lower the amount of aid.

Can you provide an example of how the tax credit will work?

Here are three examples provided by the Internal Revenue Service in August 2011 to explain how the tax credits will work:

1. Family of Four with Income of $50,000, Purchases Benchmark Plan

  • Premium Cost for Plan Family Chooses: $9,000
  • Tax Credit: $5,430
  • What Family Pays: $3,570

2. Family of Four with Income of $50,000, Purchases Less Expensive Plan

  • Premium Cost for Plan Family Chooses: $7,500
  • Tax Credit: $5,430
  • What Family Pays: $2,070

3. Family of Four with Income of $50,000, Parents are between ages 55 and 64,
Purchases Benchmark Plan

  • Premium Cost for Plan Family Chooses: $14,000
  • Tax Credit: $10,430
  • What Family Pays: $3,570

I have a pre-existing condition. Am I eligible to buy insurance in the exchange?

Yes. Beginning in 2014, pre-existing conditions will be a thing of the past. No insurer can deny anyone health insurance based on health status, inside or outside the exchange.

Shirazi Benefits can help you navigate through all of this.?

?

Resource: Colorado Health Benefit Exchange.

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Source: http://shirazibenefits.com/health-care-reform/health-insurance-exchanges-101/

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Samsung details Jelly Bean update with new features for original Galaxy Note

When Mommy is away, Dad and son will play. And if your dad works in the video production business, that playtime gets filmed, turned into a time-lapse video and instantly goes viral. Emio Tomeoni, 30, of Kansas City, Mo., works odd hours and often finds...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-details-jelly-bean-features-original-galaxy-note-025039877.html

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Private picture of Mark Zuckerberg's family leaked

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2011 file photo, Randi Zuckerberg, former marketing director of Facebook and founder of RtoZ Media, speaks at the Executive Marketing Summit in New York. A picture Zuckerberg posted on her personal Facebook profile was seen by a marketing director, who then posted the picture to Twitter and her more than 40,000 followers on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Zuckerberg is the sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2011 file photo, Randi Zuckerberg, former marketing director of Facebook and founder of RtoZ Media, speaks at the Executive Marketing Summit in New York. A picture Zuckerberg posted on her personal Facebook profile was seen by a marketing director, who then posted the picture to Twitter and her more than 40,000 followers on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Zuckerberg is the sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

SEATTLE (AP) ? Even Mark Zuckerberg's family can get tripped up by Facebook's privacy settings.

A picture that Zuckerberg's sister posted on her personal Facebook profile was seen by a marketing director, who then posted the picture to Twitter and her more than 40,000 followers Wednesday.

That didn't sit well with Zuckerberg's sister, Randi, who tweeted at Callie Schweitzer that the picture was meant for friends only and that posting the private picture on Twitter was "way uncool." Schweitzer replied by saying the picture popped up on her Facebook news feed.

The picture shows four people standing around a kitchen staring at their phones with their mouths open while Mark Zuckerberg is in the background.

Randi Zuckerberg, who used to run Facebook's marketing department and now produces a reality television show, eventually said Schweitzer was able to see the picture because they had a mutual friend. Those tweets have since been taken down.

Schweitzer declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. Randi Zuckerberg didn't reply to a message via Twitter seeking comment.

Randi Zuckerberg used the dustup to write about online sharing etiquette.

"Digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend's photo publicly. It's not about privacy settings, it's about human decency," she posted on Twitter.

But Randi Zuckerberg's comments sparked sharp reactions from people who thought the issue wasn't about etiquette, but rather Facebook's often changing and often confusing privacy settings.

"The thing that bugged me about Randi Zuckerberg's response is that she used her name as a bludgeoning device. Not everyone has that. She used her position to get it taken it down," said Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group in San Francisco.

While Facebook has made improvements in explaining the social network's privacy settings, Galperin said they remain confusing to most people. She added that with people using Facebook as part of their everyday lives, the consequences of fumbling privacy settings can become serious.

"Even Randi Zuckerberg can get it wrong. That's an illustration of how confusing they can be," she said.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company recently announced it is changing its privacy settings with the aim of making it easier for users to navigate them.

The fine-tuning will include several revisions that will start rolling out to Facebook's more than 1 billion users during the next few weeks and continue into early next year.

The most visible change ? and perhaps the most appreciated ? will be a new "privacy shortcuts" section that appears as a tiny lock at the top right of people's news feeds. This feature offers a drop-down box where users can get answers to common questions such as "Who can see my stuff?"

But Galperin said Wednesday's incident also illustrates a general concern about Internet privacy. Essentially, she said, if you share information or a photo with your social network, people in your network have the ability to share that with whomever else they choose.

The mobile photo-sharing service Instagram, which is owned by Facebook Inc., had to answer to backlash to privacy concerns recently when new terms of service suggested user photos could be used in advertisements. The company later said it would remove the questionable language.

___

Manuel Valdes can be reached at http://twitter.com/ByManuelValdes .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-12-27-Zuckerberg-Sister's%20Photo/id-ab1a182018354a2c84aa1be10c36985d

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Transform Plain White Sugar into Powdered Sugar at Home

Transform Plain White Sugar into Powdered Sugar at HomeTransform Plain White Sugar into Powdered Sugar at Home We all have plain white granulated sugar at home, but when a recipe calls for superfine, powdered, or confectioners' sugar, don't run out and buy a whole bag for a few tablespoons. This technique lets you make it at home what the gear you already have in your kitchen.

If you need superfine, just toss a cup and two teaspoons of plain white sugar into a food processor for 30 seconds. If you need confectioners' suguar, pulverize a cup of white sugar and one teaspoon of corn starch into a spice grinder or a blender for a full minute. Then sift the mix through a mesh strainer, and you're all done. In both cases, you'll end up with one cup of what you need.

The folks at America's Test Kitchen explain that superfine and confectioners' sugar are just processed granulated sugar, so there's no reason you can't get the same results at home if you do it right. Hit the video above or visit the link below to see the tip in action.

How to Turn Granulated Sugar into Superfine and Confectioners' Sugar | America's Test Kitchen

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/R0QdtJ3AEm4/transform-plain-white-sugar-into-confectioners-sugar-at-home

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Metropolitan Correctional Center Inmates Escape: 2 Bank Robbery Suspects Missing From Lockup

Two male prisoners escaped from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago's South Loop early Tuesday.

The men have been identified as Jose Banks, 37, and Kenneth Conley, 38. NBC Chicago reports the two were last seen Tuesday morning in the Tinley Park, Ill. area, about 25 miles from the Chicago facility.

Authorities discovered that the men -- both recently convicted bank robbers -- were missing from their cell around 8:45 a.m., the Chicago Tribune reports. The two had last been checked in on at 5 a.m., at the 71 W. Van Buren federal facility, police said.

The men apparently tied bed sheets together to form a rope which they used to climb out of a window, NBC reports.

From the Associated Press:

Hours later, what appeared to be a rope, knotted at six-foot intervals, could be seen dangling into an alley on the side of the Metropolitan Correctional Center from a window approximately 20 stories from the ground.

According to ABC Chicago, police said it was not likely the two escaped with weapons, but they are still being considered armed and dangerous. The men could be wearing white t-shirts, grey sweatpants and white gym shoes.

Banks is the so-called "Secondhand Bandit," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. After he was convicted last week, Banks vowed to the judge, "You'll hear from me!"

This is a developing story.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/metropolitan-correctional_n_2322784.html

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Monday, December 17, 2012

SCRIPTed December 2012 | TechnoLlama

The new issue of SCRIPTed is now live. Some interesting articles this time round:

Issue DOI: 10.2966/scrip.090312

Cover

  • The @ngel of the Digital Era
    Anna Maria Lopez Lopez (website)
    I believe that we are never alone in this world, real or digital, that?s why I wanted to represent an angel of digital world with the @ symbol.

Editorial

  • All That Glitters Is Not Gold, But Is It Diamond?
    Daith? Mac S?thigh and John Sheekey, pp.274-279
    | HTML | PDF |
    A word from our editors.

Reviewed Articles

  • Engineering Compliant Software: Advising Developers by Automating Legal Reasoning
    Daniel Oberle, Felix Drefs, Richard Wacker, Christian Baumann, Oliver Raabe
    , pp.280-313
    | HTML | PDF |
    The impact of software on human interactions is ever increasing. However, software developers are often unaware of statutory provisions that regulate human interactions. As a consequence, software is increasingly coming into conflict with such provisions. Therefore, this paper contributes an approach for advising the developer in designing software that complies to statutory provisions. The approach relies on the formalisation of statutory provisions and semi-automated legal reasoning assisted by the developer.
  • Legal Challenges Posed by Online Aggregation of Museum Content: The Cases Of Europeana and the Google Art Project
    Vagelis Papakonstantinou and Paul de Hert
    , pp.314-339
    | HTML | PDF |
    Museums are, in most cases, publicly-owned holders of vast amounts of information that are, by definition, open to everyone. Location restrictions, however, usually limit public access. The Internet could change this: once museums digitise their collections and upload them onto their Internet sites, online access would be possible for anyone, anywhere. The difficulty in this case would be that there are practically thousands of museums around the globe, ideally each maintaining its own Internet site. Users therefore face substantial difficulties when conducting research online. From this point of view it is probably a self-evident development to aggregate online museum content in a single website, in order to facilitate user access. This explains the initiatives, for instance, of Europeana from the public sector and the Google Art Project from the private sector ? each one in terms of content volume and user exposure holds a pre-eminent position among its (Internet) peers. These initiatives, however, are disruptive, both as regards business methods and legal systems, challenging traditional notions and treading at the borders of well-established legal principles and long-serving rules and regulations. This article discusses the legal issues raised by the contemporary aggregation initiatives of museum content over the Internet, by reference to the above two initiatives. Questions relating to copyright, the sui generis database right, as well as, the issues of systems? interoperability, public sector information and restitution will be addressed in the analysis that follows.

Analysis

  • Being Unexceptionalist Or Exceptionalist ? That Is The Question
    F. Willem Grosheide, pp.340-353
    | HTML | PDF |
    This article considers whether it is desirable and, if so, will be possible to regulate Cyberspace. It departs from the Goldsmith/Post-debate, dating back already to the 1990s, which introduced the juxtaposition of what became known as the Unexceptionalists (opting for some form of adapted real world regulation) and the Exceptionalists (opting for, if any, a specific form of regulation). With reference to societal developments which illustrate that through the ages it has appeared possible to invent new legal models for the regulation of no man?s lands, the high seas, and international transborder trade, this article takes the Unexceptionalists-view, arguing that Cyberspace is best understood as a networked space, connected to the real world space and inhabited by natural persons as its users and understandable by experience.? Albeit, that in doing so, it is desirable to follow a tailor-made approach.
  • Criminal law and Cyberspace as a Challenge for Legal Research
    Bert-Jaap Koops, pp.354-366
    | HTML | PDF |
    The Internet transforms crime and crime-fighting, which has fundamental implications for the law and legal research. Since online and offline activities are seamlessly integrated, cybercrime is no longer a specialist field but affects the core of 21st-century criminal law. The transformation of crime exposes gaps in substantive and procedural criminal law, creating three types of challenges. First, regulatory challenges, e.g., how to deal with sovereignty and jurisdiction conflicts in borderless cyberspace. Second, normative challenges, such as value conflicts related to Internet content. Third, technological challenges, related to secure computing and value-sensitive design. The interplay of these challenges should lie at the heart of criminal-law research in the cyberspace age.
    Classic legal research often addresses problems in a one-dimensional manner: the law is taken as a given and then applied to a societal issue, or a social development is used to argue why and how the law should change. However valuable such research can be, legal research needs to factor in the role that technology increasingly plays in law and society, as well as the process of the mutual shaping of regulation, technology, and society. This calls for multidisciplinary research aiming for prudent solutions to regulatory problems. If criminal law is to stay abreast of the 21st century challenges of crime permeated by cyberspace, dogmatic understanding of the criminal law system itself no longer suffices. Rather, researchers need to be well-versed in regulation theory, adopting concepts like the regulatory tool-box and multi-level governance, to meet the challenges of globally, digitally networked crime.
  • Law in the Digital Era
    Tina van der Linden, pp.367-375
    | HTML | PDF |
    This paper revisits the discussion on ?Cyberanarchy? between the unexceptionalists (with Jack Goldsmith as their spokesman) and the regulation-skeptics (represented by David G. Post). The latter?s ?scale matters? thesis is illustrated briefly for copyright law, privacy and freedom of expression. The conclusion is that scale matters indeed, and that ?old? legal solutions need reconsideration.

Reports

  • Banking (On) the Brain: ?A Report on the Legal and Regulatory Concerns
    Aisling McMahon and Shawn H.E. Harmon, pp.376-383
    | HTML | PDF |

Book Reviews

  • Law and Technologies of the Twenty-First Century?
    By?Roger Brownsword and Morag Goodwin (eds)
    Reviewed by Nayha Sethi
    , pp.384-386
    | HTML | PDF |

About the blog

TechnoLlama covers several Cyberlaw topics, with emphasis on open licensing, digital rights, software protection, virtual worlds, and llamas. While the blog tackles these issues in a light-hearted and nonchalant manner, some serious points filter through from time to time.

Stats

Source: http://www.technollama.co.uk/scripted-december-2012?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=scripted-december-2012

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Routine morning, then shots and unthinkable terror

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) ? First, he killed his mother.

Nancy Lanza's body was found later at their home on Yogananda Street in Newtown ? after the carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School; after a quiet New England town was scarred forever by unthinkable tragedy; after a nation seemingly inured to violence found itself stunned by the slaughter of innocents.

Nobody knows why 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot his mother, why he then took her guns to the school and murdered 20 children and six adults.

But on Friday he drove his mother's car through this 300-year-old town with its fine old churches and towering trees and arrived at a school full of the season's joy. Somehow, he got past a security door to a place where children should have been safe from harm.

Theodore Varga and other fourth-grade teachers were meeting; the glow remained from the previous night's fourth-grade concert.

"It was a lovely day," Varga said. "Everybody was joyful and cheerful. We were ending the week on a high note."

And then, suddenly and unfathomably, gunshots rang out. "I can't even remember how many," he said.

The fourth-graders, the oldest children in the school, were in specialty classes like gym and music. There was no lock on the meeting room door, so the teachers had to think about how to escape, knowing that their students were with other teachers.

Someone turned the loudspeaker on, so everyone could hear what was happening in the office.

"You could hear the hysteria that was going on," Varga said. "Whoever did that saved a lot of people. Everyone in the school was listening to the terror that was transpiring."

Gathered in another room for a 9:30 a.m. meeting were principal Dawn Hochsprung and school therapist Diane Day along with a school psychologist, other staff members and a parent. They were meeting to discuss a second-grader.

"We were there for about five minutes chatting, and we heard Pop! Pop!, Pop!" Day told The Wall Street Journal. "I went under the table."

But Hochsprung and the psychologist leaped out of their seats and ran out of the room, Day recalled. "They didn't think twice about confronting or seeing what was going on," she said. Hochsprung was killed, and the psychologist was believed to have been killed as well.

A custodian ran around, warning people there was a gunman, Varga said.

"He said, 'Guys! Get down! Hide!'" Varga said. "So he was actually a hero."

Did he survive? The teacher did not know.

___

Police radios crackled with first word of the shooting at 9:36, according to the New York Post.

"Sandy Hook School. Caller is indicating she thinks there's someone shooting in the building," a Newtown dispatcher radioed, according to a tape posted on the paper's website.

___

In a first-grade classroom, teacher Kaitlin Roig heard the shots. She immediately barricaded her 15 students into a tiny bathroom, sitting one of them on top of the toilet. She pulled a bookshelf across the door and locked it. She told the kids to be "absolutely quiet."

"I said, 'There are bad guys out there now. We need to wait for the good guys,'" she told ABC News.

"The kids were being so good," she said. "They asked, 'Can we go see if anyone is out there?' 'I just want Christmas. I don't want to die, I just want to have Christmas.' I said, 'You're going to have Christmas and Hanukkah.'"

One student claimed to know karate. "It's OK. I'll lead the way out," the student said.

In the gym, crying fourth-graders huddled in a corner. One of them was 10-year-old Philip Makris.

"He said he heard a lot of loud noises and then screaming," said his mother, Melissa Makris. "Then the gym teachers immediately gathered the children in a corner and kept them safe."

Another girl who was in the gym recalled hearing "like, seven loud booms."

"The gym teacher told us to go in a corner, so we all huddled and I kept hearing these booming noises," the girl, who was not identified by name, told NBC News. "We all started ? well, we didn't scream; we started crying, so all the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us."

An 8-year-old boy described how a teacher saved him.

"I saw some of the bullets going past the hall that I was right next to, and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom," said the boy, who was not identified by CBSNews.com.

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. "That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."

He said the shooter didn't utter a word.

___

"The shooting appears to have stopped," the dispatcher radioed at 9:38 a.m., according to the Post. "There is silence at this time. The school is in lockdown."

And at 9:46 a.m., an anguished voice from the school: "I've got bodies here. Need ambulances."

___

Carefully, police searched room to room, removing children and staff from harm's way. They found Adam Lanza, dead by his own hand after shooting up two classrooms; no officer fired a gun.

Student Brendan Murray told WABC-TV it was chaos in his classroom at first after he heard loud bangs and screaming. A police officer came in and asked, "Is he in here?" and then ran out. "Then our teacher, somebody, yelled, 'Get to a safe place.' Then we went to a closet in the gym and we sat there for a little while, and then the police were, like, knocking on the door and they were, like, 'We're evacuating people, we're evacuating people,' so we ran out."

Children, warned to close their eyes so they could not see the product of his labors, were led away from their school.

Parents rushed to the scene. Family members walked away from a firehouse that was being used as a staging area, some of them weeping. One man, wearing a T-shirt without a jacket, put his arms around a woman as they walked down the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around them.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other public officials came to the firehouse. So did clergymen like Monsignor Robert Weiss of Newtown's St. Rose Roman Catholic Church. He watched as parents came to realize that they would never see their children alive again.

"All of them were hoping their child would be found OK. But when they gave out the actual death toll, they realized their child was gone," Weiss said.

He recalled the reaction of the brother of one of the victims.

"They told a little boy it was his sister who passed on," Weiss said. "The boy's response was, 'I'm not going to have anyone to play with.'"

___

Jocelyn Noveck reported from New York. Jim Fitzgerald and Pat Eaton-Robb in Newtown and Bridget Murphy in Boston contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/routine-morning-then-shots-unthinkable-terror-034139544.html

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

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Cambridge International AS and A Level Biology Coursebook with CD-ROM (Cambridge International Examinations)
by Mary Jones, Richard Fosbery, Jennifer Gregory, Dennis Taylor

New!: $50.00 (as of 12/05/2012 13:58 PST)

Education & Reference

This new edition of Cambridge International AS and A Level Biology is fully updated to cover the 2014 syllabus and endorsed by Cambridge International Examinations. The experienced author team have reviewed the core text, expanded the Applications of Biology chapters, and added two new chapters on practical skills. Each chapter now has a set of exam-style practice questions, as well as questions to help review the material. Also included are advice on how to revise and prepare for the examinations, multiple choice questions, revision summaries and answers to all book questions.

  • Rank: #242933 in Books
  • Published on: 2012-12-31
  • Original language: English
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Source: http://topeducationreference952.blogspot.com/2012/12/cambridge-international-as-and-level.html

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AP source: Suzuki, Yankees close in on $13M deal

NEW YORK (AP) ? Ichiro Suzuki and the New York Yankees closed in Friday on a $13 million, two-year contract, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

The sides still had to finalize language and the deal will be subject to a physical, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not complete. Suzuki will get $6.5 million a year.

Acquired from the Seattle Mariners on July 23, the 39-year-old Suzuki revived his career in New York. His batting average jumped from .261 with the Mariners, to .322 with the Yankees, with five homers, 27 RBIs and 14 steals.

A 10-time All-Star, Suzuki has 2,606 hits in 12 major league seasons.

Also Friday, New York finalized a $12 million, one-year contract with Kevin Youkilis, who is expected to start at third base during the first half of the season while Alex Rodriguez recovers from hip surgery scheduled for next month.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-suzuki-yankees-close-13m-deal-193043595--mlb.html

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Health News - Low back pain world's highest contributor to disability

A new study shows that lower back pain and osteoarthritis are now ranked second only to cancer as the leading cause of disease burden in Australasia.

Low back pain is the highest?contributor to disability in the world, according to a pivotal international study released today.

A study published by The Lancet in the latest Global Burden of Disease Study, found?lower back pain and osteoarthritis are now ranked second only to cancer as a leading cause of disease burden in Australasia.

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder, from Monash University?s Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and the Cabrini Institute led the study in collaboration with?Professor Lyn March of the University of Sydney.

Professor Buchbinder said the findings confirmed the global burden of low back pain was much higher than previously estimated and re-allocation of resources for research, treatment and prevention was urgently needed.

?Our study shows that lower back pain and osteoarthritis are now ranked second only to cancer as the leading cause of disease burden in Australasia,? Professor Buchbinder said.

?With ageing populations, it is highly likely?this burden will increase, suggesting?the health and research priorities that governments and others give to low back pain should be increased.

?Research is urgently needed to develop effective prevention and treatment strategies with the potential benefits of public health interventions likely to be substantial.?

Extensive research from 47 countries found the global burden of disability due to low back pain was previously underestimated. The researchers identified 116 studies measuring the prevalence of lower back pain worldwide and found 780 estimates from 47 countries. They found the prevalence of low back pain was higher in women and peaked in adolescence and at age 65 years.

The study also found that in Australasia, musculoskeletal conditions account for 15 per cent of the total burden of death and disability, just behind cancer at 16.2 per cent followed by heart disease, mental health and substance abuse at around 13 per cent.

?These are all important health issues and recognised as national health priorities by the Australian government but to date musculoskeletal conditions have not received an equitable level of priority,? Professor Buchbinder said.

The Global Burden of Disease study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was conducted by a consortium of international experts including?The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington Seattle, the University of Queensland and the World Health Organisation.

Monash University?

Source: http://www.healthcanal.com/disorders-conditions/34841-Low-back-pain-worlds-highest-contributor-disability.html

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These Iconic L.L. Bean Boots Are Your Winter-Is-Coming Deal of the Day

Neddard Stark, the world's worst weatherman, probably has some really nice boots. He certainly has a sweet sword, passed down for hundreds of years. Here in North America, the Bean Boots are the closest thing to a Stark heirloom you're going to find. L.L. Bean is from Maine, which is the Winterfell of the United States, and they've been making these boots in an essentially unchanged design since 1912. Plus, they come with a lifetime warranty. That warranty isn't a joke; I've had three different pairs of Bean Boots (I'm really hard on shoes) and every time they've been replaced by L.L. Bean, no questions asked. On the other side of durability, my mother's been wearing the same pair (labeled Maine Hunting Shoe) for 30 years. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/6CDwiBHljug/these-iconic-ll-bean-boots-are-your-winter+is+coming-deal-of-the-day

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Dead guts spill history of extinct microbes

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Extinct microbes in fecal samples from archaeological sites across the world resemble those found in present-day rural African communities more than they resemble the microbes found in the gut of cosmopolitan US adults, according to research published December 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Cecil Lewis and colleagues from the University of Oklahoma.

The researchers analyzed 1400-8000-year-old fecal samples preserved at three archaeological sites: natural mummies from Caserones in northern Chile, and samples from Hinds Cave in the southern US and Rio Zape in northern Mexico. They also used samples from Otzi the Iceman and a soldier frozen on a glacier for nearly a century. They compared the now-extinct microbes in these samples to microbes present in current-day soil and compost, as well as the microbes present in mouths, gut and skin of people in rural African communities and cosmopolitan US adults.

The authors discovered that the extinct human microbes from natural mummies closely resembled compost samples, while one sample from Mexico was found to match that from a rural African child. Overall, the extinct microbial communities were more similar to those from present rural populations than those from cosmopolitan ones. The study concludes, "These results suggest that the modern cosmopolitan lifestyle resulted in a dramatic change to the human gut microbiome."

As Lewis explains, "It is becoming accepted that modern aseptic and antibiotic practices, are often beneficial but come with a price, such as compromising the natural development of our immune system through changing the relationship we had with microbes ancestrally. What is unclear is what that ancestral state looked like. This paper demonstrates that we can use ancient human biological samples to learn about these ancestral relationships, despite the challenges of subsequent events like degradation and contamination."

###

Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org

Thanks to Public Library of Science for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125910/Dead_guts_spill_history_of_extinct_microbes

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Episode 179: Beck, Modern Family Values, and Love's Songs | The ...

This week: Pop star Beck Hansen?s new album looks great on paper? Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson of ?Modern Family? offers etiquette advice? Darlene Love, singer of Xmas soul classic ?Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),? lists non-awful yuletide tunes? We sing the praises of Leonard?s Cohen?s ?Hallelujah?? Top chefs debate if food should come with footnotes? and we learn how ?Gone With The Wind? brought Jimmy Carter and MLK together. Plus: paper beats air, a nutty joke, and Destiny?s other child.

Icebreaker: Beck Beck - pop star and sheet music author (see below) - cracks a nutty joke.

Small Talk: Reyhan Harmanci Reyhan Harmanci, deputy editor at the forthcoming food-and-culture magazine Modern Farmer, tells us why paper beats air? almost every time.

A History Lesson with Booze: Driven to Failure and ?The Edsel? This week back in 1939, the epic civil war film ?Gone With Wind? had arguably a MORE epic premiere. 150,000 people flooded the streets of Atlanta to celebrate. Hear about the Southern spectacle, then give a damn about this custom drink:

The ?French Connection,? as directed by Stuart White, mixologist at Miller Union in Atlanta, GA:

Ingredients:

  • 3 oz. Hennessy V.S.O.P. Cognac (infused with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves)
  • 1 oz. Leopold Bros Tart Cherry Liqueur
  • fresh ginger
  • champagne

Add cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to the cognac; let it sit overnight. Strain into your most elegant cocktail glass. Add cherry liqueur, top with champagne to taste, and garnish with fresh ginger. Sip in genteel fashion and enjoy the flavors of the South of France ? er, France in the South.

Guest List: Darlene Love Soul singer Darlene Love topped the charts in 1962 with The Crystals? ?He?s a Rebel.? She?s also known for Phil-Spector-produced holiday songs like ?Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).? Just in time for the holiday home stretch, Darlene offers a list of underplayed gems.

(Darlene hosts her annual Christmas show at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on December 22, and she?s in the upcoming Sundance doc ?Twenty Five Feet From Stardom? about legendary backup singers.)

Guest of Honor: Beck Back in 1994, Beck Hansen?s single ?Loser? became an unintended Gen X anthem. Since then four of his twelve albums have gone platinum. He?s scored hits with everything from funk rock tunes to folk ballads. His newest creation ?Song Reader? came out this week? and it?s not an album at all, in the modern sense of the word. It?s a beautifully-packaged portfolio of 20 all-new Beck tunes? in sheet music form. Rico talks to him about the American folk tradition, shanties, and Bing Crosby, but not about his six-pack.

Eavesdropping: John Brandon John Brandon?s ?Citrus County? was one of 2010?s most acclaimed novels. This summer he released ?A Million Heavens,? which follows a motley band of characters in and around the Albuquerque desert. This week, we overhear him reading a dinner party worthy-excerpt from the point of view of one of those characters: a wolf.

Chattering Class: Hallelujah! Bono once called Leonard Cohen?s ?Hallelujah? ?the best song ever written.? He then proceeded to record one of the worst covers of it imaginable (he?s since apologized), but he?s not alone in idolizing and reinterpreting the track: hundreds of artists have tried with varied results. Rolling Stone scribe Alan Light charts the sublime and tortuous path of the iconic song in his book ?The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of ?Hallelujah??, and shares some of his discoveries with Brendan.

Main Course: Food Sources Sure, it?s unethical to present other people words as your own?.but what about chefs ripping off other chefs? dishes without crediting them? This ?attribution? debate has been boiling over in the food world lately; Momofuku?s star chef David Chang railed against the practice via twitter. Brendan gets the latest from from Gabe Ulla of foodie website ?Eater,? who recently dug into the topic topic.

Etiquette: Jesse Tyler Ferguson Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson is best known for portraying the lawyer Mitchell on ABC?s mega-hit sitcom ?Modern Family?. (Yes, he says, he?s also known as ?the redhead one? or ?the openly gay one.?) His performance has earned him 3 consecutive Emmy nominations. Jesse offers up wisdom and wisecracks about taking off your clothes, bugging your parents, and giving your best friend space to marinate. (Head here for more information about Jesse?s non-profit Tie the Knot.)

One for the Road: Solange - ?Losing You? Solange Knowles famously got her start performing with big sister Beyonce in Destiny?s Child. Her new solo album ?True? (her third) comes out in January. It?s called ?Losing You?.

Other Music in this week?s show:

The Sea & Cake - ?The Argument?

Aphex Twin - ?Boy/Girl Song?

Tipsy - ?Liquordelic?

Max Steiner - ?Tara?s Theme?

Damu the Fusgmunk - ?Gone With The Sunset?

Israel Houghton - ?Hark?

Bing Crosby - ?The Bells of St. Mary?

Whitney Houston - ?Joy to the World?

Darlene Love - ?Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)?

Doozy - ?Do We? We Do.?

Automatic Toys - ?Do We? We Do.??

Danny Goulter - ?Do We? We Do.?

Laura Marling - ?Sophia?

Nolan - ?Thief?

Leonard Cohen - ?Hallelujah?

Jeff Buckley - ?Hallelujah?

Bono - ?Hallelujah?

Washed Out - ?Eyes Be closed?

Solange - ?Losing You?

Beck

Source: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/dinnerpartydownload/2012/12/episode-179.html

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Taxing the rich: why $250,000 became the benchmark

Some Democrats had sought an income threshold well above $250,000. But since the election campaign and in 'fiscal cliff' talks, that's the number President Obama has settled on. Here's what's behind it.

By Linda Feldmann,?Staff writer / December 14, 2012

President Barack Obama speaks to workers about the economy during a visit to Daimler Detroit Diesel in Redford, Mich., earlier this week.

Paul Sancya/AP

Enlarge

What is the definition of ?wealthy??

Skip to next paragraph Linda Feldmann

Staff writer

Linda Feldmann is a staff writer for the Monitor based in Washington.

Recent posts

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This matters, especially now, as President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner try to come to terms on a package of tax hikes and spending cuts that will keep the nation from going over the "fiscal cliff" on Jan. 1.

Over the years, Democrats have gone back and forth on the ?wealth? question, as they have sought ways to raise more federal tax revenue. For a time, it was a taxable family income over $250,000 a year. Then last year, Democratic leaders ? with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer leading the charge ? decided it should really be $1 million. That?s a pretty big difference, no matter how you slice it.

After all, as Senator Schumer likes to point out, there are pricey neighborhoods in his state (and others), where $250,000 is a comfortable income, but hardly extravagant. The $250k threshold would also mean higher taxes on some small businesses, which is politically awkward.

?I think we feel millionaires ? that?s the fairest way to go,? Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of California told Politico in October 2011. ?

But then the presidential campaign kicked into gear, and Mr. Obama went back to $250,000. It was one of his mantras on the stump: The wealthiest households in America should pay modestly higher taxes on annual incomes over $250,000, the same rate they paid during the prosperous Clinton era. The million-dollar benchmark might have been easier to sell politically, but it would have meant giving up a whole lot of tax revenue ? $68 billion a year, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

For the same reason, Warren Buffett?s suggested benchmark of ?maybe $500,000 or so,? as the billionaire investor wrote in The New York Times last month, also wouldn?t work.

So the $250,000 family threshold (and $200,000 for individuals) looks as locked in as Obama?s insistence that the rich pay a higher tax rate, not just that they kick in more revenue to the feds. This week, Obama lowered his revenue goal from $1.6 trillion over 10 years to $1.4 trillion, a small move toward what is expected to be a final revenue number in the $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion range.

The president?s allies on Capitol Hill are in lock step behind him on the $250k benchmark.

?I originally believed a million dollars was the right place to draw the line,? Schumer told the Monitor Thursday. ?The president campaigned on $250,000, the voters ratified that, and that?s where we are.?

It?s also worth noting that the $250,000 benchmark would end up being higher than that, as the Obama administration has bent over backwards to make sure people below $250k in taxable income don?t end up paying a higher marginal rate.

A Dec. 5 report in the Times concludes that, in fact, ?a large majority of families making up to $300,000 ? as well as hundreds of thousands of families with even larger incomes ? would not pay taxes at a higher marginal rate.?

There are multiple reasons, according to reporters Catherine Rampell and Binyamin Appelbaum.

?To guarantee that tax rates do not increase for any family making less than $250,000, the Obama administration proposed in 2009 to raise marginal rates on taxable income above roughly $230,000 ? because the minimum amount of income a family is entitled to shelter from taxation is roughly $20,000,? they write. ?But the average amount families in that income range are entitled to shelter from taxation is much larger, closer to $60,000. In other words, families with taxable income of $230,000 on average earned about $290,000 in 2009.?

Furthermore, they add, the administration is adjusting the numbers for inflation ? that is, $250,000 in 2009 dollars. In effect, the Times reporters say, Obama is ?now proposing to raise marginal rates on families with taxable incomes above $246,000 ? meaning, on average, families earning more than about $305,000.?

They cite an analysis by the Tax Policy Center that says the president?s rate hike would affect only the top 1 percent of taxpayers, instead of the 2 percent Obama often cites.

Also worth noting: People below the $250,000 benchmark will be subject to other tax increases, such as those in the Affordable Care Act.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/agM6yLqIHq0/Taxing-the-rich-why-250-000-became-the-benchmark

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