Fiscal 'cliff' deal proving elusive

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., walks to a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats as he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., work to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Senate and House leaders rushed to assemble a last-ditch agreement to stave off middle-class tax increases and possibly delay steep spending cuts in an urgent attempt to find common ground after weeks of gridlock. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., walks to a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats as he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., work to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Senate and House leaders rushed to assemble a last-ditch agreement to stave off middle-class tax increases and possibly delay steep spending cuts in an urgent attempt to find common ground after weeks of gridlock. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, center, arrives at his office in the Capitol as he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Neveda, try to negotiate a legislative solution to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks to a closed-door GOP caucus as Congress meets to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts that could kick in Jan. 1., at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, arrives at his office in the Capitol as he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Neveda try to negotiate a legislative solution to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., third ranking in the Senate Democratic leadership, speaks on his cell phone following a closed-door caucus at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 to discuss how to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts that could kick in Jan. 1. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Capitol Hill deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" was proving elusive Sunday as a deadline to avert tax hikes on virtually every American worker and block sweeping spending cuts set to strike the Pentagon and other federal agencies grew perilously near.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell remained at odds on such key issues as the income threshold for higher tax rates and how to deal with inheritance taxes, among other issues. McConnell complained that Reid had yet to respond to a GOP offer made Saturday evening and reached out to Vice President Joe Biden, a longtime friend, in hopes of breaking the impasse. Biden assumed the lead role for Democrats, and a McConnell spokesman said the Kentucky Republican and the vice president were expected to negotiate by telephone into the night.

Rank-and-file lawmakers left the Capitol Sunday night with hopes that their leaders would give them something to vote on when they returned Monday morning.

One sign of progress came as Republicans withdrew a long-discussed proposal to slow future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients as part of a compromise to avoid the cliff. Democrats said earlier Sunday that proposal had put a damper on the talks, and Republican senators emerging from a closed-door GOP meeting said it is no longer part of the equation.

"I was really gratified to hear that Republicans have taken their demand for Social Security benefit cuts off the table. The truth is they should never have been on the table to begin with," Reid said late Sunday afternoon. "There is still significant distance between the two sides, but negotiations continue."

At stake are sweeping tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect at the turn of the year. Taken together, they've been dubbed the fiscal cliff, and economists warn the one-two punch ? which leaders in both parties have said they want to avoid ? could send the still-fragile economy back into recession. Tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 expire at midnight Monday, and $109 billion in across-the-board cuts in federal spending this year would also begin this week.

Workers could see more taxes withheld from their paychecks and federal agencies are likely to soon receive warning of possible furloughs if lawmakers fail to reach a deal to avert the cliff. The new Congress will be sworn in on Thursday and would inherit the problem if the current crop of lame-duck lawmakers can't find an answer before then.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the two sides remained at odds over the income threshold for higher tax rates and tax levels on large estates. Republicans said that Democratic demands for new money to prevent a cut in Medicare payments to doctors and renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed should be financed with cuts elsewhere in the budget. Republicans also balked at a Democratic proposal to use new tax revenues to shut off the across-the-board spending cuts, known as a sequester in Washington-speak.

President Barack Obama, in a televised interview, blamed Republicans for putting the nation's shaky economy at risk.

"We have been talking to the Republicans ever since the election was over," Obama said in the interview that was taped Saturday and aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." ''They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers."

"The mood is discouraged," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with Democrats. "The parties are much further apart than I hoped they'd be by now."

The pessimistic turn came as the House and Senate returned to the Capitol for a rare Sunday session. Reid and McConnell had hoped to have a blueprint to present to their rank and file by mid-afternoon.

McConnell and Reid were hoping for a deal that would prevent higher taxes for most Americans while letting rates rise at higher income levels, although the precise point at which that would occur was a sticking point.

Obama had wanted to raise the top tax rate on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000 from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. In talks with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, he offered to raise that threshold to $400,000.

The estate tax issue was particularly tricky since several Democrats, including veterans like Max Baucus of Montana, disagree with Obama's proposal to increase the top estate tax rate from 35 percent to 45 percent.

Republicans said Democrats pressed to turn off more than $200 billion in the across-the-board spending cuts over the coming two years. This so-called sequester is the punishment for last year's deficit "supercommittee" failure to strike a deal.

Hopes for blocking across-the-board spending cuts were fading and Obama's proposal to renew the 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut wasn't even part of the discussion.

Obama pressed lawmakers to start where both sides say they agree ? sparing middle-class families from looming tax hikes.

"If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff. It avoids the worst outcomes. And we're then going to have some tough negotiations in terms of how we continue to reduce the deficit, grow the economy, create jobs," Obama said in the NBC interview.

Gone is the talk of a grand deal that would tackle broad spending and revenue demands and set the nation on a course to lower deficits. Obama and Boehner were once a couple hundred billion dollars apart on a deal that would have reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion over 10 years.

Republicans have complained that Obama has demanded too much in tax revenue and hasn't proposed sufficient cuts or savings in the nation's massive health care programs.

Obama upped the pressure on Republicans to negotiate a fiscal deal, arguing that GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain.

"The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me," Obama said.

Boehner disagreed, saying Sunday that the president had been unwilling to agree to anything "that would require him to stand up to his own party."

The trimmed ambitions of today are a far cry from the upbeat bipartisan rhetoric of just six weeks ago, when the leadership of Congress went to the White House to set the stage for negotiations to come.

But the deal under discussion Sunday appeared unlikely to settle other outstanding issues, including the sequester, which would total more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, divided equally between the Pentagon and other government agencies. And off the table completely is an extension of the nation's borrowing limit, which the government is on track to reach any day but which the Treasury can put off through accounting measures for about two months.

That means Obama and the Congress are already on a new collision path. Republicans say they intend to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract more spending cuts from the president. Obama has been adamant that unlike 2011, when the country came close to defaulting on its debts, he will not yield to those Republican demands.

Meanwhile, a senior defense official said if the sequester were triggered, the Pentagon would soon begin notifying its 800,000 civilian employees that they should expect some furloughs ? mandatory unpaid leave, not layoffs. It would then take some time for the furloughs to begin being implemented, said the official, who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the internal preparations.

Lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar matters. Democrats said they had been told House Republicans might reject a deal until after Jan. 1, to avoid a vote to raise taxes before they had technically gone up, and then vote to cut taxes after they had risen.

___

Associated Press writers David Espo, Robert Burns, Julie Pace, Jim Kuhnhenn and Michele Salcedo contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-30-Fiscal%20Cliff/id-7cddb1f7055b46f8bf1f0d1818f8c851

mike dantoni bulls heat goldman sachs brandon carr knicks coach encyclopedia britannica pi

Man Threatened Family Members Inside Crystal Lake Home ? CBS ...

Michael Walls (Credit: Crystal Lake police)

CRYSTAL LAKE (STMW) ? A northwest suburban man was arrested Saturday after wielding a gun and threatening family members, who barricaded themselves inside a room to escape him.

Officers responded to a domestic dispute at a single family home in the 400 block of Kelly Lane about 5 p.m., Crystal Lake police said. A man with a gun was threatening four other occupants, who barricaded themselves in a room while waiting for police officers to arrive.

Officers began speaking with Michael J. Walls, 45, who was seen holding a semi-automatic pistol while inside the home, Crystal Lake police said.

Walls surrendered to police and was arrested about 6:40 p.m., Crystal Lake police said. No one was injured.

Walls was charged with domestic battery, unlawful restraint, three counts of felony aggravated assault to a peace officer, and misdemeanor aggravated assault, Crystal Lake police said.

Walls is being held on $50,000 bond at the McHenry County Jail.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire ? Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/12/30/man-threatened-family-members-inside-crystal-lake-home/

david garrard michael bay ninja turtles san antonio weather mike daisey nicollette sheridan apple dividend snow white and the huntsman

Randy Shannon out as linebackers coach at TCU

Former Miami head coach Randy Shannon is on the move again, leaving TCU to possibly fill the LB coach position at Arkansas.

Randy Shannon is out as TCU's linebackers coach, according to FootballScoop.com. Shannon appears to be leaving on his own terms and could be headed to Arkansas to fill the same position, sources told the site.

Prior to arriving to TCU before the 2012 season, Shannon served as the head coach at Miami from 2007 to 2010, guiding the Hurricanes to a 28-22 record during his stint in South Beach. Before that, Shannon spent six years as Miami's defensive coordinator. The Hurricanes were perennially dominant on defense during that time, finishing in the top 10 nationally in total defense in five out of six seasons. Shannon received the Broyles Award, which is given annually to the best assistant in college football, after the 2001 season.

Shannon began his coaching career with Miami as a graduate assistant and held positions of defensive line coach, linebackers coach and defensive assistant with the Hurricanes and Miami Dolphins during his first decade as a coach.

In addition to being brought up in rumblings about the Arkansas job, Shannon's name has also been mentioned as a candidate to fill South Florida's vacant defensive coordinator job.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Source: http://dallas.sbnation.com/tcu-horned-frogs/2012/12/30/3819642/randy-shannon-coach-tcu-arkansas

may day protests tony nominations 2012 facebook organ donor jessica simpson gives birth carrie underwood blown away chk ryan o neal

Latin Americans most upbeat despite woes

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? The world's happiest people aren't in Qatar, the richest country by most measures. They aren't in Japan, the nation with the highest life expectancy. Canada, with its chart-topping percentage of college graduates, doesn't make the top 10.

A poll released Wednesday of nearly 150,000 people around the world says seven of the world's 10 countries with the most upbeat attitudes are in Latin America.

Many of the seven do poorly in traditional measures of well-being, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war followed by waves of gang-driven criminality that give it one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations' Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions.

"In Guatemala, it's a culture of friendly people who are always smiling," said Luz Castillo, a 30-year-old surfing instructor. "Despite all the problems that we're facing, we're surrounded by natural beauty that lets us get away from it all."

Gallup Inc. asked about 1,000 people in each of 148 countries last year if they were well-rested, had been treated with respect, smiled or laughed a lot, learned or did something interesting and felt feelings of enjoyment.

In Panama and Paraguay, 85 percent of those polled said yes to all five, putting those countries at the top of the list. They were followed closely by El Salvador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Guatemala, the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

The people least likely to report positive emotions lived in Singapore, the wealthy and orderly city-state that ranks among the most developed in the world. Other wealthy countries also sat surprisingly low on the list. Germany and France tied with the poor African state of Somaliland for 47th place.

Prosperous nations can be deeply unhappy ones. And poverty-stricken ones are often awash in positivity, or at least a close approximation of it.

It's a paradox with serious implications for a relatively new and controversial field called happiness economics that seeks to improve government performance by adding people's perceptions of their satisfaction to traditional metrics such as life expectancy, per capita income and graduation rates.

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan famously measures policies by their impact on a concept called Gross National Happiness.

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced a national well-being program in 2010 as part of a pledge to improve Britons' lives in the wake of the global recession. A household survey sent to 200,000 Britons asks questions like "How satisfied are you with your life nowadays?"

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which unites 34 of the world's most advanced countries, recently created a Better Life Index allowing the public to compare countries based on quality of life in addition to material well-being.

Some experts say that's a dangerous path that could allow governments to use positive public perceptions as an excuse to ignore problems. As an example of the risks, some said, the Gallup poll may have been skewed by a Latin American cultural proclivity to avoid negative statements regardless of how one actually feels.

"My immediate reaction is that this influenced by cultural biases," said Eduardo Lora, who studied the statistical measurement of happiness as the former chief economist of the Inter-American Development Bank

"What the empirical literature says is that some cultures tend to respond to any type of question in a more positive way," said Lora, a native of Colombia, the 11th most-positive country.

For the nine least positive countries, some were not surprising, like Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Haiti. For others at the bottom, Armenia at the second lowest spot, Georgia and Lithuania, misery is something a little more ephemeral.

"Feeling unhappy is part of the national mentality here," said Agaron Adibekian, a sociologist in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. "Armenians like being mournful; there have been so many upheavals in the nation's history. The Americans keep their smiles on and avoid sharing their problems with others. And the Armenians feel ashamed about being successful."

The United States was No. 33 in positive outlook.

Jon Clifton, a partner at Gallup, acknowledged the poll partly measured cultures' overall tendency to express emotions, positive or negative. But he said skeptics shouldn't undervalue the expression of positive emotion as an important phenomenon in and of itself.

"Those expressions are a reality, and that's exactly what we're trying to quantify," he said. "I think there is higher positive emotionality in these countries."

Some Latin Americans said the poll hit something fundamental about their countries: a habit of focusing on posivites such as friends, family and religion despite daily lives that can be grindingly difficult.

Carlos Martinez sat around a table with 11 fellow construction workers in a Panama City restaurant sharing a breakfast of corn empanadas, fried chicken and coffee before heading to work on one of the hundreds of new buildings that have sprouted during a yearslong economic boom driven in large part by the success of the Panama Canal. The boom has sent unemployment plunging, but also increased traffic and crime.

Martinez pronounced himself unhappy with rising crime but "happy about my family."

"Overall, I'm happy because this is a country with many natural resources, a country that plays an important role in the world," he said. "We're Caribbean people, we're people who like to celebrate, to eat well and live as well as we can. There are a lot of possibilities here, you just have to sacrifice a little more."

Singapore sits 32 places higher than Panama on the Human Development Index, but at the opposite end of the happiness list. And things weren't looking good Wednesday to Richard Low, a 33-year-old businessman in the prosperous Asian metropolis.

"We work like dogs and get paid peanuts. There's hardly any time for holidays or just to relax in general because you're always thinking ahead: when the next deadline or meeting is. There is hardly a fair sense of work-life balance here," he said.

In Paraguay, tied with Panama as the most-positive country while doing far worse than Panama by objective measures, street vendor Maria Solis said tough economic conditions were no reason to despair.

"Life is short and there are no reasons to be sad because even if we were rich, there would still be problems," she said while selling herbs used for making tea. "We have to laugh at ourselves."

___

Associated Press writers Romina Ruiz-Goiriena in Guatemala City; Juan Zamarano in Panama City; Heather Tan in Singapore; Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia; Pedro Servin in Asuncion, Paraguay, contributed to this report.

___

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/latin-americans-most-upbeat-despite-woes-214447953.html

Mayans Olivia Black doomsday winter solstice amber alert the voice christina aguilera

Midland police won't charge truck driver in Texas train crash

Two weeks ago, the streets of Midland were lined with flags during the funeral services for Army Sgt. Joshua C. Michael, one of four veterans who died in the train collision. (Roberto Rodriguez/The Amarillo Globe News/Associated Press)

By Andrew Khouri

December 7, 2012, 11:59 a.m.

In the wake of last month's deadly Texas train crash, the Midland Police Department does not plan to file charges against the man who drove a parade float carrying 12 veterans and their wives onto railroad tracks, a city spokeswoman said Friday.

The Nov. 15 crash in the West Texas town killed four veterans and seriously wounded five other people. The driver, Dale Andrew Hayden, was not physically injured in the crash.

?We don?t have any plans to file against the driver,? spokeswoman Sara Higgins told the Los Angeles Times.

She said the police report on the tragedy is nearing completion. It will then be sent to the district attorney?s office. ?

She could not explain why police do not plan to file charges against Hayden, but added that such information may be included in the forthcoming report.?

Midland County Assistant Dist. Atty. Steve Stallings told the Los Angeles Times that until he receives the police report, no decision can be made by his office on whether to prosecute Hayden.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board have previously said the truck pulling the float drove onto the tracks while warning bells rang. Witnesses said one of the crossing arms had dropped down and hit the parade float as it attempted to cross.

As of Wednesday, NTSB investigators still hadn?t interviewed Hayden.

The accident left Hayden ?highly traumatized" and he has received hate mail, according to Dallas-based lawyer Douglas Fletcher, who represents Hayden's employer,?in an interview with?the Los Angeles Times.

Fletcher said Hayden had been placed in a VA hospital in Big Spring, Texas, within 72 hours of the crash.

ALSO:

Gay marriage: Washington state issues 279 licenses in 6 hours

Nation remembers Pearl Harbor, but few recall local detention camps

Authorities are confident that bodies found are those of missing Iowa cousins

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-police-no-charges-against-driver-in-texas-train-crash-20121207,0,5043575.story?track=rss

denver news frozen planet creighton new smyrna beach st. joseph puerto rico primary manning

2nd winning ticket for huge Powerball pot claimed

NBC News

The Arizona Lottery held a press conference Friday in Phoenix to announce that an Arizonan had won half of the Powerball jackpot.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

The other winner of the $587.5 million Powerball jackpot has come forward with the winning ticket, The Arizona Lottery announced Friday.

At a press conference, the lottery said the winner was a male in his 30s who lives in Fountain Hills, Ariz., with his wife. The couple have lived there for about a year, having moved from Pennsylvania, the lottery said.

The lottery did not disclose the winner's name because he requested anonymity, but under the lottery rules in Arizona his name will eventually become public.

The jackpot was the largest in Powerball history, with a cash option of $384.7 million before taxes.

---

It is being shared with Mark and Cindy Hill, who claimed their prize on Nov. 30. The Missouri couple took the lump sum payment of $136.5 million after taxes.

The Arizona winner also elected to take the cash option, the lottery stated. It did not have specifics on how the winner planned to invest or spend the money.

The jackpot was the second-largest in U.S. history and set off a nationwide buying frenzy. At one point, tickets were selling at nearly 130,000 a minute.

Before the Nov. 28 drawing, the jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without anyone hitting the jackpot. In a Mega Millions drawing in March, three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot, the largest lottery payout of all time.?

Earlier, some media speculated that a man in Maryland might have won the other half of the Powerball jackpot.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cindy Hill, ?the matriarch of the Missouri family who half the record $580 million Powerball jackpot, and her children talk about their new life as millionaires.

More content from NBCNews.com:

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/07/15757507-second-winning-ticket-for-5875-million-powerball-jackpot-claimed-in-arizona?lite

adam sandler cbs College Football Scoreboard nfl scores nfl scores Devon Walker Tom Cruise