New House GOP plan as debt-limit deadline nears

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks with reporters before going to the White House to meet with President Barack Obama, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, as Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn, D-S.C., right, listen. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Specialist Frank Masiello watches a television monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange showing a Washington news conference by House Speaker John Boehner, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. Leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate were negotiating separate but similar plans Tuesday to reopen the U.S. government and prevent a default on American debt that economists say could tip the global economy back into recession. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, arrives for a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. House GOP leaders Tuesday floated a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file and it was not clear whether it could pass the chamber. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time growing desperately short, House Republicans pushed for passage of legislation late Tuesday to prevent a threatened Treasury default, end a 15-day partial government shutdown and extricate divided government from its latest brush with a full political meltdown.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the measure, which was revised from a version unveiled only hours earlier that had been stocked with conservative priorities and had drawn swift condemnation from Democrats.

While the House readied for a possible Tuesday night vote, the immediate result was to impose a daylong freeze on Senate negotiations on a bipartisan compromise that had appeared ready to bear fruit.

As a day of secret meetings and frenzied maneuvering unfolded in all corners of the Capitol, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., stood on the Senate floor at midafternoon and declared, "We are 33 hours away from becoming a deadbeat nation, not paying its bills to its own people and other creditors."

Officials said that under the revised bill prepared by House Republicans, the Treasury would be permitted to borrow normally until Feb. 7 and the government reopened with sufficient funds to carry it to Dec. 15.

Additionally, members of Congress, the president, vice president and thousands of aides would no longer be eligible to receive employer health care contributions from the government that employs them.

"The House will vote tonight to reopen the government and avoid default," Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

He said the legislation would "end Obamacare subsidies for elected officials and staff in Washington, D.C., and pressure Senate Democrats to accept more sensible" time frames for reopening the government and renewing Treasury's borrowing authority.

Gone from the measure was a pair of provisions that had drawn objections, one a plan to delay a medical device tax created under the new health care law known as Obamacare. The other would have imposed tougher income verification standards on individuals and families seeking subsidies for care under the law.

Democrats had viewed both as concessions to Republicans, and deemed their inclusion as a violation of Obama's vow not to pay a "ransom" to the GOP for passing essential funding and borrowing measures.

Even with the changes, it was unclear whether Boehner and the GOP leadership had the votes to pass their measure.

The day's events prompted an outbreak of partisan rhetoric, mixed with urgent warnings that both the U.S. and global economies could suffer severe damage quickly unless Congress acted by Thursday.

Even something of an appeal for heavenly aid was thrown in, as Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida led House Republicans in a rendition of "Amazing Grace" at the beginning of a rank-and-file meeting called to discuss a way out of the impasse.

Speaking with reporters, Boehner said, "I have made clear for months and months that the idea of default is wrong and we shouldn't get anywhere close to it."

But the first measure the leadership produced evidently came up short on votes, and the White House trashed it as an attempt to "appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place. "

Democrats jumped on Boehner and the plan he produced.

In unusually personal remarks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Ohio Republican had "once again tried to preserve his role at the expense of the country."

That was a reference to a rebellious rank and file in the House, who routinely seek to push Boehner and the rest of the leadership to the right. A group met Monday night with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who last summer played a public role in a campaign to demand defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial government shutdown.

The Democratic attacks were too much for some Republicans who have been among those most vocal in calling for a bipartisan solution to the impasse.

"It's piling on and it's not right," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said of the response from the Democrats. "To categorically reject what the House and the speaker are doing — and I think he's pretty courageous in what he's doing — in my view is not serving the American people."

The House had been effectively sidelined in recent days as Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell engaged in intense negotiations to reopen the government and raise the debt limit.

That changed emphatically when details began circulating of some of the elements of the terms under discussion.

In addition to ending the shutdown and raising the debt limit, the two Senate leaders were considering a plan to delay a $63-per-person fee that the health care overhaul would impose on anyone who receives health care coverage under an employer-provided plan.

Some Republicans balked, complaining that was a concession to labor unions who are among the Democrats' most loyal political supporters.

Many unions have announced their opposition to the fee, but so, too, have businesses.

Reid and McConnell also have been discussing provisions to give federal agencies flexibility in adjusting to across-the-board spending cuts imposed under legislation that Obama signed in 2011.

Another element of their negotiations would call for House-Senate negotiations on a possible deficit reduction measure to take the place of the across-the-board cuts.

The twin crises began more than three weeks ago, when some lawmakers in the House insisted on seeking the defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial shutdown of the government.

The White House refused, and the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected legislation to achieve the GOP goal, as well as subsequent legislation that contained scaled-back concessions on the health care overhaul.

The partial shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, swiftly merged with the approaching debt crisis.

According to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, unless Congress acts by Oct. 17, the government will lose its ability to borrow, and would be required to meet its obligations relying only on cash on hand and incoming tax receipts.

While it was unclear how long that would suffice, the date stood as a deadline. The closer it approached, the more urgent became the pleas of businesses and bankers in this country as well as officials overseas for the United States to put its finances into order.

Whatever the outcome, the all-out assault on Obamacare that became a tea party rallying cry last summer was long gone, repulsed by the president and his Democratic allies in Congress.

Instead, Republican disapproval ratings have plummeted in public opinion polls in the past two weeks, vindicating warnings from Boehner, McConnell and other party elders that the original strategy of threatening to shut down the government in hopes of wiping out the overhaul was badly flawed.

"We got ourselves in a ditch," McCain said. "And we got to stop digging."

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Andrew Taylor, Henry C. Jackson, Julie Pace and Alan Fram contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-15-Budget%20Battle/id-25b72ff0e3f6487f80d2443070c9746c
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The Ghosts in Our Machine: Film Review

The Bottom Line

Atmospheric doc is a tone poem for the already-convinced.

Opens

Friday, Nov. 8

Director

Liz Marshall

Following the animal-rights mission of a photographer who hopes dramatic pictures of caged animals will help change minds about their exploitation, Liz Marshall's Ghosts in Our Machine trades didacticism for first-person atmospherics. The moodily subjective work is best suited to viewers who already share most if not all of subject Jo-Anne McArthur's values; despite its obvious aesthetic appeal, its commercial value seems limited to niche bookings and special-event screenings for the activist community.

"I feel like a war photographer," McArthur says, carrying her camera into places she certainly isn't welcome and hoping what she finds will shock viewers back home out of their complacency. She sneaks into vast farms where thousands of animals are raised for their fur, stealing images of cramped quarters and infected wounds before employees arrive for the morning shift. "I'm not here to liberate them, she says," though she doesn't explain why; presumably, she'd be too easy to prosecute if she and her local guides opened hundreds of cages and then published photos from the site.

As the scene changes, visiting sanctuaries for abandoned farm animals, marine theme parks, and other settings, voiceovers elaborate on McArthur's conviction that her subjects are sentient creatures with as many rights as humans. She clearly identifies with the vegan protesters seen here, but the thesis gets muddy late in the film, where footage of slaughterhouses is accompanied by quotes from Temple Grandin, whose work is widely viewed as a way of making humanity's killing of cows more palatable to animal advocates.

Scenes where McArthur meets with editors and photo agents suggest the challenges she has getting work in front of non-activist newspaper and magazine readers. Make the work moving but not disturbing, she's told -- a big request for a woman who is so deeply pained by what she has seen.

Production Company: Ghosts Media

Director: Liz Marshall

Producers: Nina Beveridge, Liz Marshall

Executive producer: Mila Aung-Thwin

Directors of photography: John Price, Iris Ng, Nick De Pencier, Liz Marshall

Music: Bob Wiseman

Editors: Roland Schlimme, Roderick Deogrades

No rating, 92 minutes

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/reviews/film/~3/FOe_eiH3rRI/ghosts-machine-film-review-648469
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How to find out instantly when local Apple Stores get iPhone 5s stock

Apple’s iPhone 5s launched three weeks ago now, but it’s still ridiculously hard to come by in many regions. Lines continue to form each day outside Apple Stores in cities around the country, and even space gray iPhone 5s units are in short supply now in many areas. We recently told you about a great free tool that saves users time and voice minutes on their cell phone plans by instantly checking all of your local Apple Stores for iPhone 5s stock. The tool is already incredibly useful, but it just got even better thanks to a new notifications feature.

Developer Mordy Tikotzky, the man behind the “iPhone Check” website, has now added a new alerts feature to the site that literally does all of the work for you. Simply enter your zip code; select your desired color, capacity and carrier; and then enter your email address. That’s it. As soon as one of the 20 Apple Store locations closest to you gets an iPhone 5s in stock that matches your desired configuration, the service will send you an email so you can drop whatever you’re doing and make a mad dash to the store.

Like his original iPhone Check service, Tikotzky’s new alerts feature is completely free to use. All he asks is that you make a voluntary donation via PayPal to help keep the service running if it helps you find the iPhone 5s you’re looking for, which seems like a very reasonable request.

The new iPhone Check Alerts page is linked in our source section below.

More from BGR: Get ready for the Galaxy S5: New flagship phone may debut in January

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/instantly-local-apple-stores-iphone-5s-stock-151006513.html
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Another migrant ship capsizes off Italy; 27 dead

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — For the second time in a week, a smugglers' boat overloaded with migrants capsized in the Canal of Sicily on Friday as it made the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe. At least 27 people drowned, but 221 people were rescued in a joint Italian-Maltese operation, officials said.

Helicopters ferried the injured to Lampedusa, the Italian island that is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and the destination of choice for most smugglers' boats leaving Tunisia or Libya. It was off Lampedusa that a migrant ship from Libya capsized Oct. 3 with some 500 people aboard. Only 155 survived.

Friday's capsizing occurred 65 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Lampedusa, but in waters where Malta has search and rescue responsibilities.

The two shipwrecks were the latest grim reminder of the extreme risks that migrants and asylum-seekers often take in an effort to slip into Europe every year by boat. Facing unrest and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, many of the migrants think the Lampedusa escape route to Europe, which is barely 70 miles (113 kilometers) from northern Africa, is worth the risk.

"They do know that they are risking their lives, but it is a rational decision," said Maurizio Albahari, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. "Because they know for a fact they will be facing death or persecution at home — whatever remains of their home, or assuming there is a home in the first place."

What drives them is the hope that they'll have a better life in Europe for themselves and their children, he said. "It's either perish or go somewhere."

In the latest case, the Italian coast guard said it received a satellite phone call from the boat that it was in distress and was able to locate it based on the satellite coordinates, said coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla.

A Maltese aircraft was sent up and reported that the boat had capsized and that "numerous" people were in the water. The aircraft dropped a life raft, and a patrol boat soon arrived at the scene, according to a statement from the Maltese armed forces.

Late Friday, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat reported that 27 bodies had been recovered, three of them children.

He said 150 survivors were rescued aboard a Maltese ship. An Italian patrol boat had another 56 survivors, while a fishing boat had 15, said Cmdr. Marco Maccaroni of the Italian navy. Between the Italian and Maltese ships, the total of survivors came to 221, though it wasn't clear if the injured who were flown by helicopter to Lampedusa were included in that figure.

The incident occurred as recovery operations continued Friday off Lampedusa for victims of the Oct. 3 shipwreck. The death toll stood Friday at 339, including a newborn recovered with its umbilical cord still attached, Di Milla said.

The recent deaths prompted renewed calls for the European Union to do more to better patrol the southern Mediterranean and prevent such tragedies — and for countries like Libya to crack down on smuggling operations.

"We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery," Muscat told a news conference in Valletta, the Maltese capital.

Lampedusa is the destination of choice for smugglers who usually charge more than 1,000 euro ($1,355) a head and cram the migrants onto boats that routinely run into trouble and require rescue. Fortress Europe, an Italian observatory that tracks migrant deaths reported by the media, says about 6,450 people died in the Canal of Sicily between 1994 and 2012.

Once in Italy, the migrants are screened for asylum and often sent back home if they don't qualify. During the 1990s and early 2000s, many of the arrivals were considered "economic migrants." But many of the latest arrivals are fleeing persecution and conflict in places such as Syria and Eritrea, and qualify for refugee status, U.N. officials say.

Many eventually end up in northern Europe's larger and more organized immigrant communities.

During a visit to Lampedusa this week, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso promised Italy some 30 million euro ($41 million) in EU funds to better care for newly arrived migrants.

Italian officials pledged to put the issue on the agenda of an upcoming European Union summit and on the EU agenda next year, when Italy and Greece hold the EU presidencies.

Some 30,100 migrants arrived in Italy and Malta in the first nine months of 2013, compared with 15,000 in all of 2012, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

___

Calleja reported from Valletta, Malta, and Winfield from Rome. Sylvia Hui contributed from London.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/another-migrant-ship-capsizes-off-italy-27-dead-204148041.html
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Powell, Motown Records' chief of charm, dies at 98

DETROIT (AP) — Maxine Powell, who was responsible for developing the charm, grace and style of Motown Records' artists during the Detroit label's 1960s heyday, died Monday at age 98.

Motown Historical Museum CEO Allen Rawls said Powell died of natural causes at a hospital in Southfield, Mich.

She didn't sing or write songs, but those associated with Motown say Powell was as essential to the label's operations as any performer or producer.

She directed the label's Artists Development Department, also known as "Motown's Finishing School." Through it, she emphasized to many artists — including Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Jackson Five and the Supremes — how they should carry themselves, treat people and dress.

Motown founder Berry Gordy said the training school was the only one of its kind offered at any record label.

"She brought something to Motown that no other record company had," Gordy said in a statement Monday. "She was a star in her own right — an original. She will always be remembered for her style and class, and she instilled that into the Motown artists by teaching them how to walk, talk and even think with class."

Powell's passing comes less than two months after she was honored at the museum by Robinson and others.

"She was such an important, integral part of what we were doing here at Motown," Robinson said at the Aug. 26 event held at the famed Hitsville, U.S.A, building.

"It didn't matter who you became during the course of your career — how many hits you had, how well your name was known around the world," he said. "Two days a week when you were back in Detroit you had to go to artists' development. It was mandatory."

Gordy paid tribute to Powell via videotape during the celebration, joking that he still remembered many of Powell's sayings, such as "Do not protrude the buttocks," and "Do not confuse me with your parents — they're stuck with you. I'm not."

Born in Texarkana, Texas, Powell was raised in Chicago, where she began her career as an actress. Powell later moved to Detroit. There, she opened the Maxine Powell Finishing School, where she trained African-American models. One of those models was Gordy's sister, Gwen, who was responsible for bringing Powell to Motown.

Once at Hitsville, she focused on polishing the young artists for their lives in the spotlight.

Some of the training included teaching Marvin Gaye to sing with his eyes open and having others balance books on their heads to improve posture. She also instructed artists on how to properly exit limousines.

Powell said in August that she would "teach until there's no breath left in my body."

"I love all the Motown artists," she said. "This has been a blessing. I thank God for allowing me to be here."

___

Associated Press writer Jeff Karoub contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powell-motown-records-chief-charm-dies-98-194321345.html
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Reid, McConnell optimistic on debt-shutdown deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of stubborn gridlock, the Senate's top two leaders raced to reach an agreement Monday that could head off a first-ever U.S. Treasury default threatened for midweek and end the 14-day partial government shutdown.

The stock market turned positive on bullish predictions from the two longtime antagonists at the center of the talks, Majority Leader Harry Reid for the Democrats Republican leader Mitch McConnell for the GOP.

The two men met twice before midafternoon, their sessions sandwiched around a White House announcement that President Barack Obama was calling them and the party leaders in the House for the second time in less than a week to discuss the economy-threatening crises. The meeting was subsequently postponed to give the two lawmakers more time to work.

Visiting a charity not far from the White House, Obama blended optimism with a slap at Republicans.

"My hope is that a spirit of cooperation will move us forward over the next few hours," he said. And yet, he added, "If we don't start making some real progress both in the House and the Senate, and if Republicans aren't willing to set aside some of their partisan concerns in order to do what's right for the country, we stand a good chance of defaulting."

Any legislation would require passage in the Senate and also in the House, where a large faction of tea party-aligned lawmakers precipitated the shutdown two weeks ago despite the efforts of both McConnell and Republican Speaker John Boehner. In the days since, polls show a marked deterioration in public support for the GOP.

McConnell also met with Boehner during the afternoon.

Officials said Reid and McConnell were discussing legislation to raise the government's $16.7 trillion debt limit until spring, staving off the possible default. It was not clear if that would permit Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to employ a series of steps that could add additional months to the extension, as administrations in both parties have done in recent years.

In addition to approving legislation to fund the government until late this year, Reid and McConnell considered appointment of House and Senate negotiators to seek a deficit-reduction agreement that could ease or eliminate a new round of automatic federal spending cuts scheduled to begin in January. While the current round of these cuts fell on both domestic programs and the military, the upcoming reductions would hit primarily the Pentagon.

Also under discussion, officials said, was a possible tightening in income verification requirements for individuals who qualify for subsidies under the health care law known as Obamacare.

Separately, Democrats were resisting a Republican-backed proposal to suspend a medical device tax that was enacted as part of the health care law. The tax is widely unpopular among lawmakers in both parties, and the outcome of that disagreement remained unclear.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to comment on the private discussions.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has told Congress the deadline for raising the debt limit is Oct. 17.

He, the president and a wide array of economists, bankers and politicians in both parties — at home and backed by world leaders — have all warned that default could have catastrophic consequences for both the domestic and global economies.

The doubters alternatively say no default will occur or that if it does, it won't be the calamity that others claim.

But after holding center stage for much of the current impasse, there was little doubt that they had been shunted aside as Reid and McConnell worked toward an agreement.

As the Senate opened for business on Monday, Reid said he was "very optimistic we will reach an agreement this week that's reasonable in nature."

Moments later, Republican leader McConnell seconded his assessment.

"We have had an opportunity over the last couple of days to have some very constructive exchanges of views about how to move forward. Those discussions continue, and I share (the) optimism that we're going to get a result that will be acceptable to both sides," he said.

In announcing the lawmakers' meeting with Obama, the White House said the president would repeat a vow he has made consistently in recent weeks: "We will not pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government and raising the debt limit."

The prospect of a default and the possibility of a follow-on recession largely overshadowed the partial government shutdown that has furloughed 350,000 federal workers. Government research labs have been affected, veterans' services curtailed and much of the Occupational Safety and Health Organization shuttered.

With federal parks off-limits to visitors, the impact on tourism prompted several governors to petition Interior Secretary Sally Jewell successfully to permit the states to finance some reopenings.

The shutdown began on Oct. 1, at the beginning of the budget year, after the House adopted a strategy of conditioning broad federal spending legislation to a proposal to starve the three-year-old health care law of funding.

The president and Democrats refused, and the long struggle began, merging quickly with the fast-approaching deadline for a debt limit increase.

In the two weeks since, public opinion polls have charted a steady decline in Republican approval ratings, and an increase in the view that the party's lawmakers are acting out of political motivation.

The shutdown has proved problematic for the GOP in the Virginia governor's race, which is on the ballot this fall. Public opinion polls show the Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, ahead of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who is caught between tea party supporters on the one side and the public's general unhappiness on the other, magnified by the large presence of federal workers in the state.

Democrats hope for that situation to repeat itself nationwide in a year's time, when control of both houses of Congress will be at stake.

For now, though, the fear of economic harm produced warnings from around the globe that the United States must not permit a default.

Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, spoke with concern about the disruption and uncertainty on Sunday, warning of "a risk of tipping, yet again, into recession" after the fitful recovery from 2008.

_____

Eds: Associated Press reporters Donna Cassata, Andy Taylor, Alan Fram, Henry Jackson, Julie Pace and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/reid-mcconnell-optimistic-debt-shutdown-deal-181537803--finance.html
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Pinterest locks up exclusive deal to load widget on Telefonica devices

Widespread deal shows off international ambitions for Pinterest

International carrier behemoth Telefonica announced today that it has partnered with Pinterest to include its widget exclusively on devices for its networks. Starting today, users on O2 UK (part of the Telefonica family of companies) will have exclusive access to the Pinterest Widget through Google Play. In the coming weeks, users on several carriers including Vivo and Movistar will have the widget pre-loaded on their devices.

For those devices which don't have the widget pre-loaded, the carriers will be promoting the use of Pinterest through multiple channels in participating territories. While this may start to get annoying for users that just plain don't want it, it's a huge deal for Pinterest to work on expanding its international user base. The quickly growing social site says that its active usage in the U.K. and Latin America is up 130 percent since January.

Source: Telefonica (PR Newswire)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/3NBzVtX_apo/story01.htm
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