GOP Senator Graham: Chances 'Exceedingly Good' for Limited Cliff Deal

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday that chances for a limited "fiscal cliff" deal in the next 48 hours were "exceedingly good," as talks to avoid tax increases and spending cuts on New Year's Day went down to the wire.

"I think people don't want to go over the cliff if we can avoid it," Graham, a leading conservative, said on Fox News Sunday.

He predicted that Republicans in Congress were going to accept some form of tax increases for wealthier Americans and this would hand a victory to President Barack Obama, although a leading Democrat warned of a big gap in talks between the parties.

Obama was "going to get tax-rate increases" on upper income Americans in the talks as he wants, Graham said.

The leading Senators from both parties are working on a stopgap fiscal cliff deal to avoid taxes increasing for almost all Americans on New Year's Day. They would probably leave the details of some other thorny fiscal issues, like government spending cuts, until January.

Graham urged Republicans to make a stand later when the time comes for Congress to decide on raising the debt ceiling.

"This deal won't affect the debt situation, it will be a political victory for the president and I hope we'll have the courage of our convictions when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling to fight for what we believe as Republicans, but hats off to the president, he won," Graham said.

Lawmakers are seeking a last-minute deal that would set aside $600 billion in tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts that are set to start within days. If Congress does not act, the measures would likely push the United States into a recession.

Senator Richard Durbin, a member of the Democratic leadership, told the "Face the Nation" show on CBS that there was still a "chasm" between the two parties in fiscal cliff negotiations, but anything was possible when Congress faced a deadline.

Graham said that if the Senate was unable to come up with the votes, it would be more difficult for any deal to get through the House of Representatives.

"And I want to vote for it, even though I won't like it ... because the country has got a lot at stake here," he said.

? 2012 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/GOP-senator-Graham-cliff/2012/12/30/id/469442

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President signs 2013 social insurance, health insurance budgets ...

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Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has signed into law next year?s budgets of the State Social Insurance Fund (Sodra) and the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund.

Although Sodra?s budget deficit was decreasing little by little, the authorities should continue to spare no efforts in order to balance the revenues and the expenditures of the fund, a press release from the President?s Office quoted Grybauskaite as saying.

The state leader urged to address unemployment problems effectively and to launch a substantial pension reform. She pointed out that the mechanism of compensating the pensioners and the disabled for the reduction of benefits during the crisis had not been established as yet.

The Constitutional Court has stated that the state shall provide fair compensation for the losses that resulted from the reduction of pensions.

The 2013 Sodra?s budget projects 9.679 billion litas (EUR 2.8 b) in revenues and 11.363 billion litas in expenditures. The revenues and the expenditures of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund should reach 4.122 billion litas and 4.122 billion litas, respectively, according to its budget law.

Source: http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/26029/president-signs-2013-social-insurance-health-insurance-budgets-into-law-201226029/

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Year-End Donations to Heifer International Are Tax-Deductible

Little Rock, AR, December 28, 2012 ?(PR.com)? As the end of the calendar year approaches, it?s time to round out your charitable contributions for the tax year, and Heifer International urges you to include the struggle against hunger and poverty in your philanthropic efforts. Because Heifer International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, donations are tax-deductible. Donors must make their charitable contributions by Dec. 31, 2012 in order to deduct them from taxes for the current year.

You may already know the joy of including Heifer International animal gifts in your holiday giving. Heifer International uses tools like livestock to bring self-reliance to struggling families, but these projects consist of more than just an animal. Training in animal care, earth-friendly agriculture and gender equity all provide the foundation for lasting change.

That?s why a tax-deductible, year-end donation to Heifer International represents a sound investment in the improvement of our world. Your gift will multiply, because every family receiving a Heifer International animal promises to ?Pass on the Gift? of their animal?s first offspring to another family nearby.

Heifer International?s model of creating enduring transformation in its project communities is known to be an effective solution to poverty, not just a one-time Band-Aid. Making a tax-deductible contribution to Heifer International as part of your tax planning means you are a part of that solution.

Heifer International is a reputable charity where your donation will be used responsibly. Learn more about making a tax-deductible, charitable contribution.

About Heifer International:
Heifer?s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. Since 1944, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in 40 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant. For more information, visit www.heifer.org or call 1-800-696-1918.

Contact Information:
Heifer International
Kelly MacNeil
501-907-2953
Contact via Email
www.heifer.org

Click here to read the full story: Year-End Donations to Heifer International Are Tax-Deductible

Press Release Distributed by PR.com

Source: http://money.rambergmedia.com/year-end-donations-to-heifer-international-are-tax-deductible/

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This Tiny Hover-Disc Can Be Driven Around with Nothing but Lasers

Lasers are cool. Things that hover are cool. This is both. Developed by researchers at Aoyama Gakuin University, this little magnetic hover-disc is powered by magnets and driven with lasers. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/YOHcNCpUYcg/this-tiny-hover+disc-can-be-driven-around-with-nothing-but-lasers

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Canon Pixma MG6320 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer

The Canon Pixma MG6320 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer is a handsome and well designed multifunction printer (MFP) primarily for home use. It's a joy to use, and it prints very good text; otherwise its output quality is solid if unspectacular. It is relatively slow, which may not be an issue if your printing demands are light.

The MG6320 can print, copy, and scan. It can print from and scan to memory cards, scan as an attachment to an email; to a PC; or a network drive. You can preview images on its 3.5-inch LCD touch screen.

This is a handsome MFP, glossy black with beveled front and side panels and rounded corners, and a lid concealing the flatbed on top. (A white version with black trim is also available.) The front panel's centerpiece is the touch screen. The only other button, also a touch-sensitive virtual button, is the on/off switch.

The MG6320 measures 5.9 by 18.4 by 14.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 18.3 pounds. It's considerably more compact than the Canon Pixma MG5320 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-in-One , though it lacks much of that MFP's 300-sheet paper capacity. The MG6320 has a 125-sheet main paper tray plus a 25-sheet photo tray that fits 4-by-6 paper, and a built-in automatic duplexer.

This model includes the ability to print on printable optical discs, or on CD, DVD, or Blu-ray cases. The two paper trays are stacked together right underneath the fold-open output tray, a design that makes efficient use of space. The MG6320 has 6 ink tanks: pigment black; yellow; cyan; magenta; dye black; and gray; the latter two to enhance photo quality.

A program in the software suite lets you set the text and images for printing on optical disks, and offers a choice of layout templates. My Image Garden lets you organize photos and easily use them in creative projects.

Mobile Printing
This AirPrint compatible MFP also provides access to Pixma Cloud Link, which lets you print pictures from online photo albums; and Google Cloud Print, which lets you send documents to your printer from any Web-connected computer, smart phone, or device. You can print photos directly from your camera with its PictBridge WLAN. It has memory-card slots for a variety of formats in the CF, SD, and MS Duo families.

Connectivity
It offers Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB connectivity; I tested it over a wired network with drivers installed on a PC running Windows Vista. Along with a host-based driver, which installs by default, one can optionally install (by checking a box) an XPS driver, which lets you print out documents created in the XML Paper Specification (XPS) document format that Microsoft developed. Most users will only need the host-based driver, which is the one I tested it with.

Print Speed
The Canon Pixma MG6320 printed out the latest version of our business applications suite (as timed by QualityLogic's hardware and software) at a speed of 2.4 effective pages per minute (ppm), which is slow for an inkjet MFP in its price range. Two less expensive models, the Epson Expression Premium XP-600 Small-in-One and the Editors' Choice Kodak ESP 3.2, turned in speeds of 4.9 and 3.2 ppm, respectively. The Canon Pixma MG5320, which I reviewed two years ago, tested at 3 ppm. The Editors' Choice Epson Expression Premium XP-800, which adds fax and other office-centric features to a good mix of home features, tested at 5.2 ppm.

Output Quality
Overall output quality was typical of an inkjet, with text quality a little above average, graphics quality on the low side of average, and photo quality average for inkjets. Text quality may be good enough, depending on how picky you are, for documents such as resumes with which you want to create a good visual impression, but not for uses that require very small fonts such as demanding desktop publishing applications.

As for graphics, some of the illustrations looked a bit muted, with under-saturated colors. Very thin colored lines were barely visible. Many illustrations showed dithering in the form of fine graininess and dot patterns. Posterization (the tendency for abrupt shifts in colors in places where they should be gradual) was visible in one illustration.

Overall, photo print quality is about what you'd expect from drugstore prints. Even with the extra black and gray ink tanks, our monochrome test photo showed traces of red in some light gray areas.

Running Costs
The cost per printed page for the MG6320, based on the most cost-effective cartridges, is 4.6 cents per monochrome page and 13.5 cents per color page, a little on the high side. ?Although these ink costs are in effect identical to those of both the Epson XP-600 and XP-800, they can't compete with the ESP 3.2, for which Kodak claims 3.2 cents per monochrome and 9.5 cents per color page.

The Canon Pixma MG6320 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer is a handsome and well designed home-centered MFP. It has solid output quality, with above-par text for an inkjet. It is slow for its price; we've seen faster MFPs such as the Editors' Choice Kodak ESP 3.2 for considerably less. The ESP 3.2 also has significantly lower running costs. The Kodak has better photo quality than the MG6320, but has lower (100-sheet) paper capacity and lacks Ethernet connectivity.

In outputting our business applications suite, the Epson Expression XP-600 finished in less than half the MG6320's time. It had slightly better photo quality, though not as good text.? Its feature set is similar to the Canon's, though it adds a port for a USB thumb drive.

The MG6320 may not be the fastest, nor the most cost-effective printer, and there are others that surpass it in output quality. I do give this MFP points for user experience and design, with handsome appearance, responsive touch screen, and efficient placement of paper trays and other features. It's certainly up to the needs of most home users, and has a touch of style.

More multifunction printer reviews:

??? Canon Pixma MG6320 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer
??? Dell C1765nfw Color Multifunction Printer
??? Epson Expression Premium XP-600 Small-In-One Printer
??? Epson WorkForce WF-3520
??? Epson WorkForce WF-2530
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/qiP7kvjCiro/0,2817,2413614,00.asp

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Putin signs anti-US adoptions bill

MOSCOW (AP) ? President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, part of a harsh response to a U.S. law targeting Russians deemed to be human rights violators.

Although some top Russian officials including the foreign minister openly opposed the bill and Putin himself had been noncommittal about it last week, he signed it less than 24 hours after receiving it from Parliament, where both houses passed it overwhelmingly.

The law also calls for closure of non-governmental organizations receiving American funding if their activities are classified as political ? a broad definition that many fear could be used to close any NGO that offends the Kremlin.

It was not immediately clear when the law would take effect, but presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying "practically, adoption stops on Jan. 1."

Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said this week that 46 children who were about to be adopted in the U.S. would remain in Russia if the bill comes into effect.

The bill has angered Americans and Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point, cutting off a route out of frequently dismal orphanages for thousands of children.

UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia while about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt a child. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children ? more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.

Russians historically have been less enthusiastic about adopting children than most Western cultures.

Lev Ponomarev, one of Russia's most prominent human rights activists, hinted at that reluctance when he said Parliament members who voted for the bill should take custody of the children who were about to be adopted.

"The moral responsibility lies on them," he told Interfax. "But I don't think that even one child will be taken for upbringing by deputies of the Duma."

The law is in response to a measure signed into law by President Barack Obama this month that calls for sanctions against Russians assessed to be human rights violators.

That stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested after accusing officials of a $230 million tax fraud. He was repeatedly denied medical treatment and died in jail in 2009. Russian rights groups claimed he was severely beaten and accused the Kremlin of failing to prosecute those responsible; a prison doctor who was the only official charged in the case was acquitted by a Moscow court on Friday.

The U.S. law galvanized Russian resentment of the United States, which Putin has claimed funded and encouraged the wave of massive anti-government protests that arose last winter.

The Parliament initially considered a relatively similar retaliatory measure, but amendments have expanded it far beyond a tit-for-tat response.

Many Russians have been distressed for years by reports of Russian children dying or suffering abuse at the hands of their American adoptive parents. The new Russian law was dubbed the "Dima Yakovlev Bill" after a toddler who died in 2008 when his American adoptive father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours.

Russians also bristled at how the widespread adoptions appeared to show them as hardhearted or too poor to take care of orphans. Astakhov, the children's ombudsman, charged that well-heeled Americans often got priority over Russians who wanted to adopt.

A few lawmakers even claimed that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants or become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army. A spokesman with Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not enter God's kingdom.

___

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-signs-anti-us-adoptions-bill-100228125.html

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2013 Kettlebell Workshop Dates - Rocofit Health & Fitness

Workshops in Vancouver, BC with Kettlebell Expert, Rosa Coelho

The perfect at home training tool for a full body workout. Kettlebell trainign will improve your fitness, increase your strength and have you looking and feeling amazing!

Workshop Dates:

12 January 2013 ? Time: 12pm-2pm

19 January 2013 ? Time 12pm-2pm

Cost: $99 taxes included

LOCATION: 10-737 Granville Street, Vancouver BC

3 doors up from the London Drugs on West George and Granville

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Read HERE My Personal Story in Discovering Kettlebells

What people are saying: I got all I wanted and more from the workshop with Rosa. Rosa added a lot more value to my session than just showing me how to swing a kettlebell, I really liked Rosa?s balanced perspective on health and fitness, and philosophy on personal training. Continue reading?

No EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! Whether your new to working out or have worked out all your life, kettlebells are an amazing tool for everyone. Learning the basics will keep you safe and give you the confidence to workout at home and get the results you?ve always wanted.

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Why Kettlebells Are Perfect For Your Home Workouts?

The perfect tool for working out at home.

Save money and time on gym memberships.

You only need one

They take up little space

Fun, different and effective.

Here to stay ? Kettlebells are an old Russian training tool not a fad.

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You Will Learn

How to effectively warm up to prevent injury

Mobility exercises to increase flexibility and improve quality of movement

Fundamental kettlebell movements (double arm swing, goblet squat, row, windmill, press)

Bodyweight exercises to combine with kettlebell workouts

What makes Rosa an expert Kettlebell Instructor?

Rosa has trained with some of the industries best. She is certified with the International Kettlebell Fitness Federation and has also completed Steve Cotters Master Class.

Rosa has featured with her kettelbell training on the Sky Active Channel with Dr. Kryin Hall. View Part 1 and Part 2 of her Kettlebell and Fat loss Interview

Rosa has extensive experience training clients in London England, Saudi Arabia and Canada. Rosa is known for her attention to detail and always puts technique and quality movement above all else.

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For further questions or if the event is full email Rosa at contact@rocofit.com

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Tags: beginners, downtown, featured, kettlebells, kitslilano, learn to use kettlebells, rocofit, rosa coelho, vancouver

Category: Beginner Kettlebell Workshops

Source: http://www.rocofit.com/beginner-kettlebell-workshops/2013-kettlebell-workshop-dates/

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