Salisbury News: 11/15/12

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Marco Rubio On Tax Hikes For The Rich: Why Bother?

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Thursday there isn't much point in raising tax rates on the wealthy, because they also have the money to hire people who will help them get out of paying taxes.

"The billionaires and millionaires that are going to be impacted by higher rates, they can afford to hire the best lawyers, lobbyists and accountants in America to figure out how not to pay those higher rates," Rubio told National Journal’s Major Garrett at The Atlantic Washington Ideas Forum. "The people that are going to get stuck by that bill are the small businesses, the partnerships, the S corporations, that cannot hire the lawyers to get them out of it."

President Barack Obama has called for an end to the Bush-era tax cuts for those in higher income brackets. Republicans, meanwhile, say an extension of those tax cuts must be a part of a deal to avoid hitting the so-called "fiscal cliff," when the government will reach its deficit limit and could begin defaulting on its debts. Tax cuts will expire at the end of the year unless Congress votes to extend them.

Israel Moves Troops To Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian militants barraged Israel with more than 200 rockets on Thursday, killing three people as Israel pressed a punishing campaign of airstrikes on militant targets across the Gaza Strip. Three rockets targeted the densely populated Tel Aviv area, setting off air raid sirens in brazen attacks that threatened to trigger an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

Late in the day, Israel signaled a ground operation may be imminent as forces moved toward the border area with Gaza. At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored personnel carriers, and a number of buses carrying soldiers arrived. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he had authorized the army to call-up additional reservists for possible action. The army said it was prepared to draft up to 30,000 additional troops.

"I ordered the military today to widen the draft of reserve soldiers in order to be able to be ready for any development," Barak said. Military officials said the moves were to prepare for the possibility of a ground invasion, but stressed no decision had been made. Israel TV stations, however, said a ground offensive was expected Friday.

Most In US Won't Be Able To Escape 'Fiscal Cliff'

Everyone who pays income tax — and some who don't —will feel it.

So will doctors who accept Medicare, people who get unemployment aid, defense contractors, air traffic controllers, national park rangers and companies that do research and development.

The package of tax increases and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" takes effect in January unless Congress passes a budget deal by then. The economy would be hit so hard that it would likely sink into recession in the first half of 2013, economists say.

And no matter who you are, it will be all but impossible to avoid the pain.

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5-YEAR-OLD SAUDI GIRL DIES AFTER ‘RELIGIOUS SCHOLAR’ ALLEGEDLY TORTURES HER WITH WHIPS, ELECTRIC SHOCKS & AN IRON

In highly-disturbing news reports, a Saudi preacher is accused of torturing his five-year-old daughter to death. The man, Faihan al Gameri, is said to be a former drug addict who appears on television to speak about how he has changed his life around. Just days ago, his daughter Lamaa, died after months of suffering in a Saudi Arabian hospital from a hemorrhage due to a fracture to her skull.

But the head trauma wasn’t all that befell the young girl. Her other wounds included burns from a hot iron and broken arms, The International Business Times (IBT) reports. According to shocking articles about the troubling case, al Gameri used whips, electric shocks and an iron to abuse the child prior to her death.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is acknowledging that cuts in the federal budget should come from entitlements, not the defense budget.

Asked about sequestration, which the White House proposed in order to play chicken with the Republicans over tax cuts, Panetta said:

The fact is that, you know, we have addressed the discretionary area, we’ve taken almost a trillion dollars out of discretionary area and out of defense alone, almost a half a trillion dollars just out of defense. I think the responsibility now, both Republicans and Democrats, has to be to look at the entitlement area, what savings can be achieved on entitlements and what additional revenues need to be on the table as well.
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SCALIA VS. THOMAS JEFFERSON ON SECESSION.

Contemporary opinion, including that of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, says a state’s right to secede died with the hundreds of thousands of bloodied victims of the Civil War and that the sentiment behind the dozens of petitions on the White House website seeking permission for most of the 50 individual governments to leave the union will be fruitless.

But historians would note that Thomas Jefferson, a “pole star among political philosophers because he based his politics on the eternal, self-evident, fundamental truths that all men are created free and equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” believed states have a right to leave the U.S.

Maryland’s Immigrants More Educated, Legal And Asian

With a smaller fraction of Hispanic immigrants and a larger portion of Asian immigrants, Maryland diverges from stereotypes around the country by offering a picture of immigrant life in which immigrants are more educated, more prosperous and more likely to be documented.

Nationally, more than half of all immigrants are from Latin America and about 28 percent are from Asia, according to 2010 Census data. But the proportion of Hispanic to Asian immigrants in Maryland is much closer than in other states - about 40 percent from Latin America and 33 percent from Asia.

Maryland has the 12th-largest immigrant population in the nation, with nearly 14 percent of residents foreign-born, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

DEVELOPING -- Multiple deaths and dozens of injuries were reported after a train crashed into a trailer carrying veterans during a parade in Texas.

A flatbed 18-wheeler truck was reportedly carrying veterans, wives and their girlfriends for the "Hunt for Heroes" parade in Midland when it was hit by a train.

At least four deaths have been reported and at least 16 people have been taken to nearby hospitals, according to MyFoxDFW.com.

Advocates For Medical Marijuana Prepare For 2013 MD Legislative Session

There will be another push to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland during the 2013 legislative session, which begins in less than two months.

Supporters hope wider acceptance in places like Colorado and Washington State might ease their bill's passage in Annapolis.

It’s a pressing issue for people like Sarah Eyre -- an Air Force veteran who left her job with a defense contractor at Fort Meade to focus on her yarn-dying business, full time.

“I kept making more dyed yarn and more dyed yarn and it kept selling,” she said.

Balt. Co. Students Warned After Teacher Comes Down With Possible Case Of Whooping Cough

A health warning for students at one Baltimore County school after a teacher came down with a possible case of whooping cough—and students may have been exposed. Megan McCorkell has details on what parents need to know.

The county health department says the teacher may have whooping cough, a highly contagious respiratory disease, that’s been spreading across the country.

Parents say a fifth grade teacher at Harford Hills Elementary School fell ill Monday. She was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a possible case of whooping cough.

Montgomery County Declines To Close Schools On Islamic Holidays

Montgomery County’s school board effectively turned down a request Tuesday from leaders of the county’s growing Muslim community to recognize an Islamic holy day next school year with an official day off.

Saying they could not simply add a school closing for a religious occasion, board members asked that student and staff attendance be monitored closely on future Muslim holidays to determine whether there is sufficient absenteeism to warrant such a move.

“I think it’s important to recognize this is not a ‘no’ forever,” said John Mannes, the board’s student member.

Thousands of U.S. service men and women will be spending their Thanksgivings far from home, proudly defending our rights and freedoms.

In Afghanistan, where about 67,000 U.S. troops are serving, soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and civilians will be served a traditional Thanksgiving dinner while enjoying mild temperatures in the 50s and 60s.
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Fiscal Cliff Raises New Issues For Small Business

Small business owners who are worried about the so-called fiscal cliff are concerned beyond their own finances — they’re also uneasy about higher taxes on consumers, according to a new survey.

The survey, commissioned by Small Business Majority, a lobbying group, and released Wednesday, found that owners are most worried about losing tax breaks that they feel will help their companies, such as high deductions for equipment purchases. They are equally concerned that a 2 percentage point increase in payroll taxes will force consumers to cut spending, leading to less revenue for small business.

The results of the survey indicate that business owners generally aren’t focused on one of the most highly publicized aspects of the cliff, an increase scheduled to begin Jan. 1 in tax rates on individuals earning $200,000 or more or households earning $250,000 more. During the election campaign, Republicans including presidential nominee Mitt Romney contended that small business owners would be hurt by that increase, and that they would cut back on hiring new workers.
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Obama’s Post-Family America

The Republican Party went into the 2012 elections with a number of handicaps. One of the biggest of these handicaps was that it genuinely believed in a single country defined by the American Dream of family values, hard work and national greatness. The Democratic Party, which scored decisive victories across the country, never believed in any such thing, though its leading lights, like Obama, occasionally paid lip service to the idea as a sop to older white voters who would have been turned off by the 2012 version of Obama sounding like the 2002 version of Obama.

Where the Republican Party thought to bring out a national movement, the Democratic Party relied on a coalition of interest groups with little in common except for a dependency on the government and an outsider’s cultural antipathy to the Republican Party.

While the Republican Party still aspires to a vision of a single America, the Democratic Party pulls the strings of a broken America, a disassembled collection of hostile and suspicious groups protecting their own turf in post-American multicultural urban and suburban wastelands. This broken country of lost souls, fractured families and makeshift tribes is the Democratic Party’s base.

President Barack Obama lashed out at senior Republican senators Wednesday over their criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in the aftermath of the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Libya, saying they should "go after me" and not her.

Setting up a possible Senate confirmation fight, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had vowed shortly before Obama's remarks that he would take all steps necessary to block Rice's nomination if the president taps her to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who joined McCain at a Capitol Hill news conference, said he didn't trust Rice.

A feisty Obama defended his U.N. ambassador.

Jill Kelley And Natalie Khawam

We've learned a lot more about the Petraeus sex scandal in the past 24 hours.

Based on the latest information, there seems to be a chance that the damage could end here--with general embarrassment, the destruction of a couple of high-profile careers, and some challenges for a few families.

There's also a chance, however, that the scandal could continue to snowball, wreaking more havoc on the reputations of US military and political brass.

Wicomico County Board of Education Lobbies Congress To NOT BALANCE BUDGET AND INCREASE FEDERAL DEFICIT

The Wicomico County Board of Education wants Congress to forego sequestration cuts and let the federal deficit continue to escalate.

It appears that they want more of their same old 'STUFF' and anything that interferes with them getting that 'STUFF' - well they are opposed to it.

This is another classic example of runaway federal spending and special interest 'robbing the kitty'.

READ ON!

Fed Minutes Suggest Mew Bond-Buying Plan Is Likely

The Federal Reserve may be preparing to take further steps to stimulate an economy that remains too weak to reduce high unemployment.

Minutes of the Fed’s Oct. 23-24 policy meeting, released Wednesday, suggest that it might unveil a bond buying program in December to replace a program that expires at year’s end.

The bond purchases would be intended to lower long-term borrowing rates to encourage spending and strengthen the economy. The hope is that more hiring would follow.
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Thank The Straight Folks

Gays and lesbians are a tiny percentage of the population. And while we laid the groundwork for the breakthroughs we saw last week in Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Minnesota—we built this—we didn’t build it on our own. The majorities in the state legislatures in Maine, Maryland, and Washington that voted to make same-sex marriage legal? Straight. The governors who signed laws making same-sex marriage legal? Straight. The overwhelming majority of people who voted in favor of marriage equality in all three states after anti-gay bigots forced public votes on our civil rights? Straight. The majority that voted against writing anti-gay bigotry into Minnesota’s state constitution last week? Straight. And the president who took a huge political risk and came out for marriage equality before his reelection campaign? Straight. It has gotten better for us—better, not perfect—but it hasn’t gotten better for us in a vacuum. It’s gotten better for us because straight people have gotten better about us.
Rights are rights. They shouldn’t be put up for a vote. And we shouldn’t have to say “thank you” when they’re recognized. But the sad fact is that we have had to fight for our rights. But here’s the happy fact: We didn’t have to fight this one alone. Thousands and thousands of straight people stood with us and fought for us. We had help. And that’s what we should thank the straight people for. Not for granting us our rights—rights are rights are rights—but for joining our fight.
If you know a straight person in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, or Washington—if you know a straight in any state or in the District of Columbia—who donated money, phone-banked, went door-to-door, or took a political risk on our behalf, take your picture with that straight person, write a few words about what they did, and post it to www.straightupthanks.tumblr.com.

We saw a huge breakthrough in the struggle for LGBT equality last week. And it wouldn’t have happened without the help of so many righteous, kick-ass straight people. I’ll bet every queer person reading this knows a straight person who they should thank. I certainly do. Thank them in a public way: go to www.straightupthanks.tumblr.com, click on “submit a post,” share a photo, and thank a straight ally.

Because we literally couldn’t have done it without them.

Will Drought Impact Christmas Tree Price Tags?

Like the state's producers of corn and soybeans, the year's drought set back Christmas tree farmers, but this year's selection of fresh foliage for the holidays won't likely be affected.

Area tree growers say the year's lack of rain and the summer's weeks of intense heat killed their youngest trees -- the ones planted this spring or last year -- but the ones ready for market, the seven-foot-tall tall pines that families love, are largely intact.

"It's a financial loss for the farmer rather than for the consumers," said Charlie Ide, who runs Ide Christmas Tree Farm in Downers Grove.

FROM THE OBAMA RE-ELECTION COMMITTEE

نمي

دان نور اگر رفت سايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و >نقش سايه دگر
نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست ننور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيستنقش >ديوار و
چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه. ر رفت سايهپيدا نيست >نقش
ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه پيدانيست ننور
اگر >رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر
نميدان نور اگر رفت سايه. >ر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش
سايهدگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت >سايه پيدا نيست ننور اگر

  رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش > >ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان

  نور اگر رفت سايه. ر رفت سايه پيدانيست >نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر

  نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه پيدانيست ننور اگر   >رفت سايه پيدا

  نيستنور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشمخير ه م نقش سايه دگر >نمي دان

  نور اگر رفت سايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوارو چشم خيره ما نقش سايه >دگر

  نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست ننور اگر رفتسايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و

  >چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفتسايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش

  ديوار >و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نوراگر رفت

  سايه

    پيدا >

  >نيست ننور اگر رفت سايه پيد نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر

  نميدان نور >اگر رفت سايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش

  سايهدگر نمي دان >نور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست ننور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش

  ديوار وچشم خيره ما >نقش سايه دگر

  نمي

    دان نور اگر رفت سايه. ر

  رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقشديوار و چشم خيره   >ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان

  نور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست ننور اگررفت سايه پيدا نيست >نقش ديوار و چشم خيره

  ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفتسايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا >نيست نقش ديوار و

  چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نوراگر رفت > >سايه پيدا نيست ننور

  اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايهدگر >نمي دان نور اگر

  رفت سايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا نيس نقش ديوار و چشم خيره مانقش سايه >دگر نمي دان

  نور اگر رف سايه پيدا نيست ننور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيستنقش ديوار و >چشم خ

  يره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه. ر رفت سايهپيدا نيست نقش

  >ديوار و چشم خيره ما

    نقش

  سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه پيدانيست ننور اگر رفت   >سايه

  پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نميدان نور اگر رفت سايه. ر

  >رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايهدگر نمي دان نور

  > >اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست ننور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و

  چشم خيره مانقش >سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش

  ديوار و چشمخيره ما >نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست ننور

  اگر رفت سايه پيدانيست نقش >ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگر نمي دان نور اگر

  رفت سايه. ر رفتسايه پيدا نيست >نقش ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايه دگ نمي دان

  نور اگر رفتسايه پيدا نيست ننور اگر   >رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش

  ديوار و چشم خيره ما نقش سايهدگر نمي دان نور اگر رفت سايه. >ر رفت سايه پيدا

  نيست نقش ديوار و چشم خيره مانقش سايه دگر نمي > >دان نور اگر رفت

  ساي پيدا نيست ن نور اگر رفت سايه پيدا نيست نقش ديوار و چشمخيره >ما نقش سايه

  دگر نمي دان نور اگر

    رفت

  سايه. ر رفت سايه پيدا يست نقش ديوارو چشم خيره ما نقش سايه

  دگر

If I hear more, I'll let you know.

Median Barrier, Lower Speed Limit Pitched To Heighten OC Pedestrian Safety

OCEAN CITY – Coming off a summer with numerous pedestrian accidents, city officials sat down this week with state authorities to come up with solutions.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Mayor and City Council met with the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) for their annual fall meeting.

SHA Assistant District Engineer Ken Cimino said the SHA hired a consulting engineering firm to do a pedestrian safety study on MD 528, or Coastal Highway, between 62ndStreet and Convention Center Dr. The Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) played a vital role in the study providing real time information, according to Cimino.
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LLPOH’s Brief, Unofficial History Of Palestine/Israel

There is nothing as difficult as getting people to agree on the history of Palestine/Israel. Most histories you see are slanted dependent on whether they are written from the Jewish or Arab perspective. Following is a brief history, written largely by memory, that I believe hits the high points. Please do not get too hung up on the exact details, as it is not intended as a scholarly work.

The Jewish people go back around 4000 years or so. They inhabited Judea. They were an agrarian people, by and large, but certainly were also warlike at times. The first “diaspora” began around 586 BC, when Judea was conquered by the Babylonians. Very large numbers of Jews were forced to flee. Large numbers of Jews did remain in Judea, especially in the historic areas such as Jerusalem. The next major hit to the Jews came when Rome sacked Jerusalem in 61 BC, and in 135 AD Jews were driven from Jerusalem by the Romans. This further spread the Jews far and wide.

In approx.. 600 AD, the Muslims conquered the Middle East. They remained in control until around 1100 AD, when the Crusaders took Jerusalem and the surrounding environs, and the Crusades lasted around 200 years, when it all reverted back to Muslim control. This remained the same until Napoleon conquered the area, forcing both Jews and Arabs to flee.

Student Loan Interest Rates May Spike For Some

Americans want long-term solutions from a Congress that has been unwilling to negotiate over the last two years, but some compromises could come with a high price tag for students.

After a politically charged debate this summer telegraphed the bitter divide between Republicans and Democrats, Congress eventually agreed to extend a provision that freezes subsidized student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent. But that extension expires next summer — and if Congress wants to avoid the same partisan gridlock that stalled important legislation during the last two years, it will have to bring a longer-term solution to the table.

Some of the alternatives only seem to come to the detriment of the 9.4 million borrowers taking out subsidized loans — those with higher financial need — by imposing higher interest rates and uncertainty in what the rate would be year to year.

GREEDY SELF DESTRUCTIVE JACKALS

Bart Chilton On Silver Manipulation – Gold and Silver Coiling For a Major Move – The Next Disaster

In discussing the government’s lack of reaction in reforming the high frequency trading developments in the market, the CFTC’s Bart Chilton remarks in the video below about the unfortunate tendency of regulators not to act until something unfortunate happens as being a:

“…tombstone mentality, when you wait for a disaster before you put something in place.”

The CFTC is hampered and opposed at every step of the way by the financial powers and their exchanges, who unfortunately wield a powerful and well-funded lobbying effort that tends to lead the political element in Washington by the nose, or their wallets as you prefer.

I have come to believe that the US government will do nothing effective to reform the gold and silver markets and the equity exchanges until there is a MAJOR dislocation in the markets, and a virtual ‘run on the exchange.’

Change will come after the US financial system is threatened by a major solvency or liquidity event.

Whether it comes from a failure to deliver in gold and silver markets that exposes them as a highly artificial and overleveraged house of cards, or another ‘flash crash’ that brings down a major exchange or trading house through counter party failures, I now believe that this is what it will take to bring meaningful reform to this highly unstable financial system.

Change will be not voluntary with these greedy, self-destructive jackals, especially after the moral hazard that was introduced by the unfortunate policy of no-strings bailouts from the last financial crisis. That was a policy error of the first order.

Reform will be accomplished, but only under the duress of the next financial disaster.

Source

Toyota Recalls 2.77M Vehicles For Steering, Pump Defects

Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 2.77 million vehicles around the world for a water pump problem and a steering shaft defect that may result in faulty steering — the latest in a spate of quality woes for Japan's top automaker.

No accidents have been reported related to these two problems announced Wednesday, according to Toyota.

Some 1.51 million vehicles are being recalled for the steering defect in Japan and 1.25 million vehicles abroad — including 670,000 in the U.S. Affected models include the Prius hybrid, Corolla, Wish and other models produced from 2000 to 2011 in Japan, and from 2000 to 2009 overseas.

I see a reality show in the works?

Employers Could Face 40 Percent Workman’s Comp Hike

A proposed 40 percent increase in workman’s compensation rates has raised a backlash from the Delaware business community. Delaware Department of Insurance has scheduled a series of public information sessions to inform and educate residents about the proposed change.

The Insurance Department held a public information session in each of Delaware’s three counties. A Nov. 13 information session was held at Delaware Technical and Community College in Georgetown.

A public hearing has been rescheduled to 10 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 20 at the Carvel State Office Building on North French Street in Wilmington.

7th Annual FREE Historical Christmas Walking Town Tour

December 2, 2012 4 PM to 7 PM

Take a walking tour of the town or ride the trams

for an old fashioned Christmas experience.

Holiday Shopping May Come With Serious Problems For Retailers

Many people may be counting fewer blessings on Thanksgiving since they have to work during the holiday. More stores, like Wal-Mart, will be opened during the holiday this year to bring in more sales.

Yet, many employees are angry that they will have to work during the holiday. Consequently, many have started grassroots campaigns in an effort to organize employee walk-outs at retail stores across the country.

Employee and Labor Relations Expert Jason Greer talked to WBAL about the probablity that the employee walk-outs could actually happen at retail stories, like Wal-Mart.

Welcome To The New America: Indebted "Boomerang Parents" Move In With Their Children

A very sad article from the New York Times, but I can’t say I’m really surprised. In the ultimate irony, in many cases throughout America it is actually parents that are forced to move in with their kids due to the piles of student loans taken out on their behalf. We are officially a nation of unemployed debt slaves. Aren’t you glad we bailed out Wall Street?

From the New York Times:

It has been six years since Ms. Fitzgerald — broke, unemployed and in default on the $18,000 in loans she took out for Jenni’s college education — became a boomerang mom, moving into her daughter’s townhouse apartment in Hingham, Mass.

In the first three months of this year, the number of borrowers of student loans age 60 and older was 2.2 million, a figure that has tripled since 2005.That makes them the fastest-growing age group for college debt. All told, those borrowers owed $43 billion, up from $8 billion seven years ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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Israel Strikes Back at Hamas Rocket Attacks, Warns All-Out War Possible

JERUSALEM – Israel moved closer to an all-out ground war with Hamas Thursday, as Israeli planes, tanks and gunboats pounded suspected militant positions in Gaza in retaliation for another day of Hamas rocket attacks that left at least three Israelis dead.

Tel Aviv residents say they heard an explosion following an air-raid alert across the city, raising fears of a Gaza rocket strike on Israel's commercial capital.

Israeli authorities were trying to determine where the rocket may have landed on Thursday. Eli Bean, the head of Israel's rescue service, says no injuries have been reported.

US Postal Service, Costing $250 Million Daily, Posts Record $15.9 Billion Loss, May Run Out Of Cash Soon

That the biggest government source of employment just posted a record $15.9 billion loss (bigger than the $15 billion expected previously), is no surprise to anyone: after all most are openly expecting the USPS to fold, the only outstanding question is whether it will transform into a company that is actually competitive with the private sector (unlikely), or liquidate (also unlikely in an era where government jobs are becoming the only form of employment available). Sadly, keeping this zombie alive costs all other taxpayers $250 million each day: money that could be used much more effectively in other areas of the economy, but won't. Because there are USPS votes that have to be purchased at cost. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that while the USPS had a total of 607,400 employees in October, this was the lowest number of total employees for the non-profit (but certainly loss-driven) government run organization since the 1960s! Perhaps most shocking is that the USPS peaked at over 900K employees in 1999 when it was still if not profitable (as it doesn't need to be by its charter) then certainly breakeven. Sadly those days are now gone, and the next thing to go will be all the promised benefits for the 600K or so employees.

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The Ten Best Small Towns In America

Some people say America's "small towns" are a dead concept, that mom-and-pop stores are a thing of the past, and that quintessential neighborhood relationships aren't built for the 21st century.

Map publisher Rand McNally and USA TODAY are rebutting that notion. They partnered up to compile a list of the best small towns in America, asking people to vote on factors including friendliness, food, and beauty.

So if you're in a mood for a trip, and New York, LA, and Chicago aren't quite your style ...

Check out the best small towns in America >

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