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Saturday, 5 November 2011
Friday, 4 November 2011
Factory orders rose 0.3 percent in September (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Companies increased overall orders to U.S. factories slightly in September but demand in a key category that tracks business investment plans jumped by the largest amount in six months.
Total factory orders increased for a third straight month, edging up 0.3 percent, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Demand for core capital goods, the category that serves as a proxy for business investment spending, jumped 2.5 percent, the largest increase since a 5.4 percent rise in March.
The surge in demand for capital goods reflected significant increases in demand for heavy machinery and computers. These gains were seen as a positive sign for the weak economy that businesses are sticking with their plans to expand and modernize their operations.
The report on factory orders covers durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, and nondurable goods, products such as paper, chemicals and clothing.
Orders for durable goods fell 0.6 percent, reflecting weakness in commercial aircraft and autos. Orders for nondurable goods such as gasoline, chemicals, food and paper, were up 1 percent in September after no gain in August.
The strength in core capital goods helped lift the economy in the third quarter. Overall economic growth posted a rebound to 2.5 percent at an annual rate in the July-September period, much faster than the 0.9 percent rate of increase from January through March.
Part of that rebound reflected a boom in business investment in equipment and software, which grew at a sizzling annual rate of 17.4 percent in the third quarter. Economists said these gains are being supported by a tax break that lets businesses write off investments this year on an accelerated basis as long as the purchases were made before Dec. 31.
The overall 2.5 percent growth has helped ease fears that the economy could be slipping back into a recession. Still, it would need to be nearly double that rate to make a significant dent in the unemployment rate, which remained stuck at 9.1 percent in September for a third straight month.
Manufacturing has helped to drive growth since the recession ended. But factory production slowed in the spring ? particularly at U.S. auto plants ? after the Japan earthquake and tsunami disrupted supply chains.
The Institute for Supply Management reported this week that its manufacturing index dipped slightly to 50.8 in October from a reading of 51.6 in September. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.
While orders for motor vehicles and parts fell 2.1 percent in September after an even bigger 5.4 percent August drop, the expectation is for gains in this category in coming months, reflecting stronger consumer demand.
Automakers reported stronger sales in October, a hopeful sign that this key segment of the economy will be supported by higher demand in coming months. Sales are now back at the same pace they were before the March earthquake in Japan disrupted supplies and left many U.S. dealers with a shortage of popular Japanese models.
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Thursday, 3 November 2011
U.S. military retirees fret about healthcare fees (Reuters)
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) ? When Wayne Johnson flew missions in Vietnam in the 1960s, one of the allures of a military career was the pledge that those who risked their lives for the United States would be repaid with healthcare in old age.
Now, as the 65-year-old retired Air Force major nears an age when he may need to bank on that promise, support is building in Washington for changes that could make it more costly for military retirees and their dependents to receive healthcare. It is a move Johnson finds worrying.
"It's something that was an unwritten contract when we joined the military back in the '60s," said Johnson, who flew an OV-10 Bronco light strike aircraft as a forward air controller in Vietnam. "And now to change the rules when it's time to use it, certainly it's a violation of trust."
That sentiment, said Joe Davis, director of public affairs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, is widespread among the nearly 10 percent of U.S. military veterans, a little over two million people, who spent 20 years or more in the service.
"This is being perceived by the military, those in uniform today, by their families and all the retirees as a total breach of faith," Davis said. "I mean an absolute, 100 percent breach of faith."
Those remarks underscore how perilous it can be for politicians to make even modest changes to military healthcare programs, even when it involves raising premiums that have not budged since Bill Clinton was president.
Nonetheless, in an era of government belt-tightening, support appears to be growing for reining in the spiraling expense of military healthcare.
In recommendations to the budget-cutting congressional "super committee" in September, President Barack Obama proposed two steps to offset rising military healthcare costs.
He said Congress should impose a $200 annual fee on Tricare-for-Life, a health insurance plan for military retirees 65 and older that pays for most expenses not covered by the government's Medicare insurance plan for the elderly.
The fee on Tricare-for-Life, which is now free, would then increase annually according to a cost of living adjustment. The White House estimated the proposal would save $6.7 billion in mandatory federal spending over 10 years.
Obama also proposed changing Tricare co-payments on prescription drugs to encourage people to use cheaper generics rather than brand-name pharmaceuticals. The change, which would affect all but active duty military personnel, would reduce mandatory spending by $15.1 billion and discretionary spending by $5.5 billion over 10 years, the White House estimated.
Tricare is the military's main health insurance program.
Obama's suggestions received some support from senators. Democrat Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Republican John McCain, the senior Republican on the panel, both supported Obama's suggestion for fees on Tricare-for-Life.
"While this fee increase would hit those age 65 and over, a group mostly on fixed incomes who are vulnerable to unanticipated changes in expenses, I believe this fee increase is a reasonable step and should be considered," McCain, himself a Vietnam veteran, said in a letter to the committee.
How detailed the deficit-cutting committee will be is unclear. Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said he thought the panel was more likely to set a top-line number for defense spending and ask the Pentagon to figure out the details.
Harrison said he hoped the committee would take a more holistic approach to reforming military pay and benefits. What is needed, he said, is a commission that would "try to understand what they (military personnel) value rather than just making little changes here and there to save money."
UNSUSTAINABLE COSTS?
Even before Obama and the U.S. Congress agreed in August to cut military spending by $450 billion over the next decade as part of a debt reduction deal, officials were warning that spiraling healthcare costs were becoming a problem.
Care for another generation of warriors, those wounded, many grievously, in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to raise the burden further.
The rising cost of the military healthcare system is "simply unsustainable," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said before he left office earlier this year.
The overall military healthcare program, which covers 9.6 million active-duty troops, retirees and their dependents, is expected to cost $52.5 billion this fiscal year -- about 10 percent of the Defense Department's base budget -- up from $19 billion in 2001.
The nonpartisan CSBA says military healthcare costs rose at a real annual rate of 6.3 percent between 2001 and 2011, faster than the rate of inflation.
Government officials say the proposed fees are modest compared to the cost of health insurance and co-pays in the private sector.
Nationwide, family premiums in employer-sponsored health plans jumped 9 percent in 2011, and single premiums rose 8 percent, the Kaiser Family Foundation found in an annual study released in September.
But veterans wonder where it will all stop.
"I guess I could afford it, but I wouldn't like it," said Terry Lindsay, a retired Air Force senior master sergeant who also served in Vietnam. "I generally hate to see them messing with the benefit ... Once they start doing it, you lose confidence in what more is to come."
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives have been more circumspect in their stance toward raising fees on military benefits.
Republican Representative Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, did not explicitly rule out the idea. But he urged the super committee to avoid any action that would break faith with veterans and active duty troops -- a position echoed by McCain and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
But veterans say that is exactly what officials are doing with their efforts to impose more fees.
Johnson, who flew commercial planes for American Airlines after his military career, said he understands the financial pressures on the government and wouldn't be badly affected by the new fees. But he expressed concern for those who were more dependent on the program.
"I hope something gets done here that's not devastating for a lot of these elderly widow ladies that rely on this very, very much," he said. "It would hurt them a lot worse than it would hurt me."
(Editing by Warren Strobel and Christopher Wilson)
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Election 2012 challenge: How to win over 'frustrated' Walmart moms (video)
A Republican and a Democratic pollster share their survey data on Walmart moms, 27 percent of registered women voters. A majority voted for Obama in 2008, then swung toward the GOP in 2010.
What do Walmart moms want, and who will win their hearts in the 2012 election?
Skip to next paragraphThat question lies at the center of this critical bloc of swing voters, according to Republican pollster Neil Newhouse and Democratic pollster Margie Omero, who released a survey Wednesday on this demographic group.
A Walmart mom is a woman with children age 18 or younger living at home who shops at Walmart at least once a month. They represent 27 percent of all registered women voters and 14 percent of the overall electorate. A majority voted for President Obama in 2008, swung toward the Republicans in the 2010 midterms, and are still unhappy with Mr. Obama. But they haven?t given up on him.
?These women are frustrated,? says Mr. Newhouse of Public?Opinion Strategies, speaking at a Monitor-hosted breakfast Wednesday. ?They see Wall Street getting bailed out. ... There?s a resentment there that they see a government activism that doesn?t impact them directly. They want their share.?
Specifically, says Ms. Omero, this group is more concerned about paying for college and the price of groceries than they are about how high their taxes are.
?When I listen to the Walmart moms, in these focus groups, they didn?t say, ?You know what I need, I need fewer environmental regulations for businesses, that will really help me out,? ? says Omero. ?They said, ?I would like college affordability, and milk for everybody, and affordable housing, pay my electric bill.? These very tangible things.?
How these concerns play into each party?s election strategy is a different question. Newhouse is the pollster for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, though he declined to speak for the campaign. Still, when asked about Mr. Romney?s poll numbers ? which seem stuck in the mid-20s among GOP voters ? Newhouse asserted that ?this campaign has just begun, and we?ve got a long ways to go.?
For now, when asked to frame a broader Republican narrative for the election, Newhouse?zeroed in on personal responsibility.
?It?s probably that if we get government out of the way and out of our lives, that at least to a greater extent, it will enable these families to make ends meet and to do better on a personal basis,? Newhouse said. ?It will help in terms of job growth, reducing the deficit. It?s a more complicated message when you?ve got 52 percent of these voters who say they expect government to play more of a role.?
The personal-responsibility message may seem at odds with a demographic that is looking for more help from the government, but the Walmart-sponsored poll found that Walmart moms are more likely to blame themselves than any other group or person for the state of the economy.
Twenty-five percent of Walmart moms blame ?people who took on too much credit and live beyond their means,? the No. 1 answer. In second place was former President George W. Bush, with 22 percent. Third was ?Wall Street banks and big corporations,? at 15 percent. Obama came in fourth with 7 percent.
Among the public at large, big banks and corporations came in for more blame (21 percent) than Mr. Bush (15 percent), the pollsters said.
But no matter where the blame is placed, there?s no doubt the nation is in an extended sour mood.
?This is the longest period of sustained pessimism we?ve had in this country since we started doing polling,? Newhouse says. ?We?ve had, I think this is 93 or 94 straight months where a plurality of Americans believe the country is off on the wrong track.?
Newhouse notes that Obama?s negative job approval is noteworthy for its intensity. And even if GOP voters have not coalesced around a challenger to Obama, Newhouse isn?t worried about getting voters to turn out next year.
?When people are upset, they?re going to vote,? he says.
And for now, says Omero, Walmart moms in particular have yet to engage in the 2012 campaign.?They are focused on matters closer to home. For Obama and the Democrats, that presents a challenge. Even though Obama won the ?Walmart mom? vote in 2008, it?s not clear the Democrats can get them again.
?They?ll definitely need more ?touches? from a campaign to be engaged at the same level of more regular voters,? Omero says.
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Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Windows 8 desktop interface swaps classic theme for Metro, gets with the times
Update: This post originally misstated that the updated Basic theme was a new style, but in fact, it is already available in the Windows 8 developer preview.
Windows 8 desktop interface swaps classic theme for Metro, gets with the times originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tuesday, 1 November 2011
After attacks, a renewed focus on bear safety
BILLINGS, Mont.?? Wildlife agencies in the Northern Rockies go to lengths to warn people of the dangers of grizzly country ? from signs advising hikers to carry mace-like bear spray to radio ads that warn hunters to take care when stalking elk in bear habitat.
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But after two hikers were fatally mauled in Yellowstone National Park over the summer, officials acknowledge their drive to make visitors "bear aware" is not reaching everyone. As a result, park officials, bear biologists and others say that in coming months they plan to sharpen a bear safety message that was already under review in hopes of preventing future maulings.
"We thought we were doing pretty good," said park biologist Kerry Gunther, pointing to a 30-year average of one bear-caused human injury annually in Yellowstone. "Maybe we were getting lucky."
Many bear education campaigns focus on saving the animals themselves, part of a broader effort to recover a species once nearly wiped out by hunting and other pressures. Slogans such as "a fed bear is a dead bear" highlight the increased likelihood of bears becoming nuisances ? and getting euthanized ? if they get used to eating human food or garbage.
With the success of the recovery efforts, Yellowstone's grizzly population has now grown to about 600 bears. Those animals are pushing into new areas of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, forcing agencies to broaden the public safety side of their message.
Also growing is the size of the crowd that message needs to reach: Yellowstone National Park last year hosted a record 3.6 million visitors, and millions more visited five adjacent national forests and nearby Grand Teton National Park.
Among some of those visitors, said University of Wyoming sociology professor Patricia Taylor, "there isn't a real fear of bears or appreciation of how strong they are."
"People will say, 'We want a bear to come to the campground. We want to see it,'" she said.
Both victims of this summer's mauling deaths had visited the park previously. Officials said that indicated they had received at least some exposure to trailhead signs and other information describing how to avoid and respond to bear attacks.
Among the advice commonly offered is to travel in groups, make noise while hiking, carry bear spray ? and know how and when to use it.
By contrast, one of the summer mauling victims was alone. Neither was carrying bear spray. And in one case investigators said the victim and his wife may have triggered the attack when they ran, yelling, from an approaching mother grizzly with cubs.
The head of the federal government's grizzly recovery program, Chris Servheen, said that being told what to do around a bear is not enough.
Servheen said people in bear country also have to be mentally prepared to take action. He likened that to military training designed to ensure soldiers can react without hesitation to threats, and recommended people conduct practice bear encounter drills so they're comfortable taking out their bear spray, using it if needed and calmly backing away.
Both mauling victims fell into the loose category of "day hikers" who might enter Yellowstone's backcountry but not camp overnight.
However, the most intensive bear safety talks ? including instruction on food storage and what to do when charged ? are heard by that small percentage of park visitors who spend the night in the wilderness. In 2010, that included slightly more than 45,000 visitors, or just over one percent of the park's total.
Backcountry campers must get a permit and go through what Yellowstone's chief ranger, Tim Reid, described as a rigorous system for teaching them how to have a safe trip. "We're very successful in getting our message across on two of the cardinal rules: food storage and bear awareness and avoidance, and the need to carry bear spray as a preferred deterrent," Reid said.
"Then there's the rest of the world," Reid added ? the day hikers. How to reach that much larger group is one focus of the drive to sharpen the region's bear safety message.
Reid suggested it won't be easy. Many of Yellowstone's visitors come from overseas, creating language barriers. Others who pass through the park for only a day or two balk at paying about $50 for a can of bear spray they won't have much use for at home.
The University of Wyoming's Taylor last year surveyed more than 600 Grand Teton visitors to gauge public awareness of bear safety protocols. Most showed at least a basic knowledge of food storage guidelines meant to keep hungry bears away. Almost all correctly answered that running from a bear can trigger aggression in the animal.
Three percent of those surveyed fell into the "clueless" category with no knowledge at all about food storage rules. And more than 12 percent ? or about one in eight people ? said they knew so much about bears that they could predict when a bruin would turn aggressive.
"That's extraordinary to me," Taylor said. "I'm 60 years old. I've been a backpacker since I was 28 going into backcountry sites. I don't think you can know."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45094793/ns/us_news-environment/
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How Tea Party Indecision Is Boosting Mitt Romney (Time.com)
How lucky has Mitt Romney's presidential run been so far? Even conservatives scrambling to find an alternative to the Massachusetts governor are inadvertently boosting his bid for the Republican nomination.
For more than two years, the Tea Party has been casting for a conservative champion to take on Barack Obama, and Romney has never made their call list. For many Tea Party members, his health-care law is a deal-breaker; others see him as a squishy pragmatist unfit to serve as the standard-bearer of their ideological movement. But Tea Partyers are also coming to grips with the realization that the candidates auditioning for their support in the presidential race all have blemishes of their own.(See photos of Romney on the trail.)
Several of Romney's rivals can lay claim to strong Tea Party support. Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain have all enjoyed a stretch as the movement's presumptive savior, while Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich boast robust followings. But no one has separated themselves from the pack jostling to position themselves as Romney's chief rival. As a result, the movement has fractured, splitting its support between a slew of candidates ? and leaving Romney without a singular, formidable foil.
"I have my issues with Romney, as do most people," says Christen Varley of the Greater Boston Tea Party. "However, nobody really seems to like anybody else."
This week's CNN/TIME/ORC poll of Republican voters in the first four primary battlegrounds provides a snapshot of how Tea Party fickleness has enhanced Romney's standing. In Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida, Romney fares better among more moderate GOPers than he does among religious conservatives and self-identified Tea Party supporters. But the latter group has been unable to zero in on a favorite. In Iowa, for example, Cain ? the current object of Tea Party ardor ? leads with 29% of self-professed Tea Party backers, with Gingrich at 13%, Paul at 12% and Perry at 8%. Romney, running first with 24% overall (and 17% among Tea Partyers), is the beneficiary of this crowded field. Thanks to a divided Tea Party bloc, he leads among this cohort in New Hampshire, ties Cain for first among movement supporters in Florida and sits second in South Carolina.(Read about Romney hitting the road again for 2012.)
"Romney's hope has to be that all the conservatives stay in the race through the first few states," says Ryan Hecker, a Tea Party activist who crafted the movement's Contract From America. "If there is one conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, Tea Partyers will rally around that person."
Hecker is a staunch opponent of Romney, whom he accuses of changing his position on a host of issues, from health care to the flat tax. "Anyone conservative who knows his record has to be against Mitt Romney," Hecker says. And yet, while they haven't forgiven Romney's sins, Tea Partyers are becoming acquainted with those of his rivals, and they may be giving Romney another look as a result.
Over Labor Day weekend, FreedomWorks, the Washington-based Tea Party advocacy group whose PAC Hecker works for, protested Romney's appearance at a rally hosted by the Tea Party Express, explaining that the Tea Party needed to protect itself against posers trying to swaddle themselves in the Gadsden flag. But within weeks, the movement's official line against Romney had softened. In an interview with the Huffington Post in late September, Matt Kibbe, FreedomWorks' CEO, allowed that Romney "has the opportunity to rehabilitate himself."
"It's not enough to be right and lose. The goal here is to win the presidency," he said. "For all of our reputation as strident ideologues, I think Tea Partyers are quite practical when it comes to politics. They're looking at electable candidates."
Kibbe was unable to be reached for comment for this story, but Brendan Steinhauser, the organization's director of federal and state campaigns, said he had not seen a groundswell of support for Romney. "Maybe some folks are saying Romney is the electable guy and [backing] him," Steinhauser says, pointing to conservative congressmen like Jason Chaffetz and Jeff Flake, who have endorsed the former Massachusetts governor. "But they're definitely more interested in finding a conservative alternative. They're just still figuring out who that is."
The glacial pace of this decision-making process has already given Romney an opening in Iowa, where a victory in the state's caucuses could prove a decisive blow if, as expected, he's able to follow it up in New Hampshire. The Tea Party is girding itself for the possibility. Several members of the movement say that without a sparkling candidate in the presidential race, they would be better served concentrating their energies on the battle to recapture the Senate, which could serve as a firewall against President Obama or a disappointing replacement. The Tea Party's goal is still to make Barack Obama a one-term President. But its inability to settle on an alternative to Romney increases the chance that they'll have no other option.
Read about who the tea party candidate is.
See a match-up between Romney and Obama.
View this article on Time.com
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