Farm bill would save less than previously thought

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Farm bills passed by the Senate and a House committee last year would save far less money than previously thought, according to a new estimate released Friday.

A report from the Congressional Budget Office says a Senate-passed farm bill would save $1.3 billion annually, as opposed to the $2.3 billion per year in savings estimated last year. A bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee would save $2.7 billion a year instead of $3.5 billion.

While the amounts may seem small in comparison to the bills' $100 billion-a-year cost, the estimates are another roadblock for the embattled legislation and the farm-state lawmakers who have fruitlessly tried to convince House leadership to move forward on it.

One of the main arguments that House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., made in favor of passage is that the bill would save taxpayers money over time.

The farm bill sets policy for farm subsidies, programs to protect environmentally-sensitive land, rural development and food stamps. Food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, make up roughly 80 percent of the legislation's cost.

The normally reliable farm-state coalition in Congress fell apart in 2012 as agricultural issues fell by the wayside in an election year. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack blamed the lack of a farm bill on rural America's declining population and lost clout. A booming agricultural economy also played a part as farmers weren't clamoring for a new bill or changing farm policy.

The farm bills passed by the Senate in June and by the House Agriculture Committee in July died at the end of last year's congressional session after Republican House leadership said they did not have the votes to pass it. The most recent farm law, passed in 2008, expired in September and was extended until September 2013 as part of the New Year's agreement on the so-called fiscal cliff. Farm-state leaders will have to write a new bill this year but have not yet started that process or said how they plan to go about it.

President Barack Obama has expressed general support for a new farm bill but it wasn't among his priorities in the State of the Union address.

The budget office said it lowered the estimates because savings in cuts to the food stamp program were lower than previously thought. The estimates also changed because of fluctuating crop prices.

The report did not alter estimates for savings generated from eliminating a controversial crop subsidy called direct payments. The subsidies, which are paid to landholders whether they farm or not, cost $5 billion a year. Those subsidies would have been eliminated in both bills, with some of the savings directed toward new subsidy programs. Senate Democrats have also proposed using that savings to avert across-the-board government cuts that kicked in Friday.

A spokesman for the Senate Agriculture Committee said it is not unusual for the Congressional Budget Office to adjust its calculations and that the revised estimates wouldn't derail efforts to pass a farm bill.

"The committee will be able to achieve the savings needed once it passes the new version of the farm bill," said Ben Becker, a spokesman for Stabenow.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-01-Farm%20Bill-Savings/id-c8c5719565fa421e9df8279a5348b043

Colorado Lottery Pa Lottery Ebates lotto Illinois Lottery texas lottery Dell

Analysis: From builders to managers: educating China's leadership

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Sun Zhengcai earned his PhD from China Agricultural University in 1997, experimenting with different fertilizers for crop rotation in northern China, according to his doctoral thesis.

For the world's biggest grain grower and consumer, this type of research is crucial for improving yields. But it was an unlikely qualification for political leadership in China where engineers have traditionally held many of the top posts.

Sun represents one of the more far reaching changes in Chinese politics. Highly educated leaders in a broad range of disciplines are rising to the top of the ruling Communist Party, according to data from Connected China, a Reuters database application that tracks the connections and careers of China's leaders.

Sun, 49, who joined the Politburo at November's Communist Party Congress, is one of five PhD holders in a body in which all 25 members have at least a junior college education.

Some education experts explain the rise of this more highly educated leadership class as a product of the increasing complexity of China's economy and society.

It also reflects an evolution in the Party. A generation of revolutionary soldiers gave way to technocratic engineers who guided the following period of industrialization. The engineers are now handing over to leaders better qualified to run the world's second-biggest economy.

"As the society matures, it is always beneficial to have a leadership with diverse backgrounds," said Gong Peng, a Professor at Tsinghua University's Center for Earth System Science. "They bring different thinking and skills to the administration."

The data from Connected China shows far more Politburo members now hold PhDs and graduate degrees than earlier leadership generations.

It also shows that education is not necessarily the only path to power: loyalties forged during political posts in the provinces, and family ties to former leaders also matter a great deal.

DR XI AND DR LI

The other PhD holders in the current Politburo are party leader and incoming President Xi Jinping, who studied China's rural markets at Tsinghua University. Li Keqiang, expected to become Premier after the National People's Congress in March, has a PhD in economics from Peking University. Liu Yandong studied China's political development at Jilin University, and fellow Politburo member Li Yuanchao explored socialist art and culture in his thesis at the Central Party School.

The current Politburo also features nine members with masters degrees and three with other higher degrees. That stands in stark contrast with members of the 14th Politburo formed in 1992. Only Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, who became China's top leadership duo a decade later, had graduate degrees in that group.

The change in the breadth of education has also been dramatic. Ten years ago, 15 of the 20 college-educated members of the Politburo were trained in engineering or the physical sciences. At the very top of China's hierarchy, engineers were even more heavily represented.

In the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee appointed in 2002, eight members of the party's top decision-making body were engineers and one was a geologist. Of these, four were engineering graduates of Tsinghua.

The current Politburo has only four engineers. They are outnumbered by colleagues with training in economics, finance and business management. It also shows a sharp increase in members educated in law, humanities and social sciences. The seven-member Standing Committee has only two engineers; Xi Jinping, who has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and Yu Zhengsheng who worked in missile guidance.

For some Chinese educators, the presence of fewer engineers at the top is a welcome development after decades in which technocratic leaders, often Soviet trained, dominated decision-making in Beijing.

"Engineers who do not learn about management may not be good managers and eventually good administrators," says Tsinghua's Gong. "I think it will improve the governing quality in China."

WORLDY LEADERS

In the early 1980s, then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping directed the party to foster a generation of better educated cadres who could accelerate China's market reforms.

China's subsequent rise as a major trading nation and growing military power is also increasing pressure on the party to select better educated and more worldly leaders, political analysts and education experts say.

"Because the country is changing and the world is changing, it requires a more sophisticated understanding of the issues," says Yu Maochun, an expert on Chinese politics and a professor at the Annapolis, Maryland-based United States Naval Academy.

Some experts question whether academic qualifications are as important as loyalty and family ties in a political system where many senior leaders, including Xi Jinping, are "princelings", children of senior party veterans.

EXPERIENCE IN PROVINCES

Data from Connected China shows an increasing emphasis on provincial-level party leadership experience for Politburo members.

In 1992, only nine of 23 Politburo members served as a provincial or municipal-level party chief. In the current Politburo, 19 of the 25 have held or currently hold a provincial post at this level, including Sun Zhengcai who is party secretary in Chongqing.

Many of the engineers who held top posts, including President Hu Jintao, spent long periods working in unrelated fields.

"They are not really engineers in the Western sense," says Yu. "They are really political hacks. Their career paths were not devoted to science but concentrated on the political system."

Despite the increasing diversity of education at the upper levels of the party, one feature of China's leadership remains virtually unchanged since the revolutionary period - the domination of men.

Only two women are in the current Politburo, Liu Yandong and Sun Chunlan, and none are in the Politburo Standing Committee.

(Reporting by Irene Jay Liu and David Lague; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-builders-managers-educating-chinas-leadership-221922952--finance.html

hocus pocus hocus pocus mta schedule PECO Hurricane Sandy update ellen degeneres tomb of the unknown soldier

Spaceflight Informed Consent, Tax Relief Measures Advance in ...

Sen. Steve Knight

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

Last week, State Sen. Steve Knight introduced measures that would amend California?s spaceflight informed consent law to include vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and service providers, and also exempt aerospace products used in manufacturing and research and development (R&D) from sales and use taxes.

These measures are in addition to a separate bill that Knight introduced in December that would provide sales and use tax exemptions on equipment and materials used for the renovation, reconstruction and rehabilitation of commercial space launch sites.

The informed consent bill would add the following language to the law that Knight spearheaded the passage of last year:

?Space flight entity? shall also include a manufacturer or supplier of components, services, or vehicles that have been reviewed by the United States Federal Aviation Administration as part of issuing a license, permit, or other authorization pursuant to Chapter 509 (commencing with Section 50901) of Subtitle V of Title 51 of the United States Code.

The existing law provides spaceflight companies with limited liability protections from lawsuits filed if passengers are injured or killed during flights.

Knight also introduced a separate bill that would provide a five-year sales and use tax exemption on aerospace products used in R&D and manufacturing.

This bill would exempt from those taxes, on and after January 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2019, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person in the aerospace products and parts manufacturing industry for use primarily in any stage of manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of property, as specified, or for use primarily in research and development, as specified, or to maintain, repair, measure, or test that property. The bill would also exempt from those taxes the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, tangible personal property purchased for use by a contractor, as specified, for a qualified person. The bill would require the purchaser to furnish the retailer with an exemption certificate, as specified.

Knight introduced both measures on Feb. 20. The bills are now awaiting referrals to the relevant Senate committees for review.

Knight introduced a separate bill in December that would extend sales and use tax exemptions ?to also include equipment and materials used to construct, reconstruct, or improve new or existing facilities designed to launch, manufacture, fabricate, assemble, or process equipment that facilitates the renovation, rehabilitation, or reconstruction of commercial space launch sites.?

The existing law already includes the following tax exemptions:

(A)?Tangible personal property that has space flight capability, including, but not limited to, an orbital space facility, space propulsion system, space vehicle, satellite, or space station of any kind, and any component thereof.

(B)?Tangible personal property to be placed or used aboard any facility, system, vehicle, satellite, or station described in subparagraph (A), regardless of whether that property is to be ultimately returned to this state for subsequent use, storage, or other consumption.

(C) Fuel of a quality that is not adaptable for use in ordinary motor vehicles, but is produced, sold, and used exclusively for space flight.

That measure is now before the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.

Source: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/02/28/spaceflight-informed-consent-tax-relief-measures-advance-in-california/

fourth of july Jason Terry IFE Fireworks 2012 4th Of July

Sequester talks start at 10:18, behind closed doors (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288351132?client_source=feed&format=rss

britney spears At&t Wireless 9/11 Jerry Lawler andy murray Samsung Galaxy S3 bachelor pad

UK's 'naked rambler' arrested for nudity, again

LONDON (AP) ? A British man who has spent most of the past decade naked ? and in jail ? was back behind bars Friday after defying an order to cover up.

Stephen Gough, known as the "Naked Rambler," was arrested Thursday as he left a court in Southampton, southern England, wearing only boots, socks and a knapsack.

A judge had just imposed an order that he must "wear sufficient clothing in public to at least cover his genitalia and buttocks."

The 54-year-old former Royal Marine appeared at the same court Friday, and was ordered detained until a hearing on March 25.

Since 2003 Gough has completed two naked walks the length of Britain, with frequent interruptions for arrests, court appearances and jail time.

Prosecution lawyer Roger Trencher said Friday that Gough "has caused much offense nationwide and he has used a considerable amount of police time in England, Wales and Scotland."

Gough has said he believes nudity is a human right. Defense lawyer Jeffrey Norie-Mille told the court that Gough "believes it is his right not to wear clothes and go about his normal activities in that state of undress."

There is no law in Britain against public nudity. However, there are laws against indecent exposure or behavior likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress."

Gough has served multiple sentences for appearing nude in public places including courts and an airplane.

He could face up to five years in jail for breaching the no-nudity command, known as an Anti-Social Behavior Order.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-01-Britain-Naked%20Rambler/id-f19bd8356e8c472fb82f96468aebe595

us news law school rankings gael glen rice jr bars lindzi cox bachelor finale courtney robertson

China sets its 5th manned space mission for summer

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2003 file photo, China's first manned spacecraft Shenzhou 5 lifts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province. China will send three astronauts on a mission to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth, the manned space program said Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will take flight sometime between June and August, the program said in a statement. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Gang) NO SALES

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2003 file photo, China's first manned spacecraft Shenzhou 5 lifts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province. China will send three astronauts on a mission to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth, the manned space program said Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will take flight sometime between June and August, the program said in a statement. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Gang) NO SALES

BEIJING (AP) ? China will send three astronauts to its orbiting space station this summer in a mission that's part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will take flight sometime between June and August, the country's manned space program said in its statement Thursday. The craft will deliver its crew to the Tiangong 1, where the trio will spend two weeks conducting tests of the station's docking system and its systems for supporting life and carrying out scientific work.

Two Chinese spacecraft, one of them manned, have docked already with Tiangong 1 since it was launched in September 2011. China has been extremely cautious and methodical in its manned missions, while hoping to avoid accidents and loss of life that could tarnish one of the nation's most successful and prestigious scientific and engineering undertakings.

The station is to be replaced in around 2020 with a permanent space station that will weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station. China was barred from participating in the International Space Station, largely on objections from the United States over political differences and the Chinese program's close military links.

China's ambitious space goals also include plans for sending a rover to the moon, possibly followed by a manned lunar mission. China's manned space program launched its first astronaut, Yang Liwei, into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the U.S. to achieve that feat. The upcoming mission would be China's fifth manned space flight.

China would also be the third country after the United States and Russia to send independently maintained space stations into orbit.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-28-AS-China-Space/id-54e6114514bc48d1aaaf605ed7e5e2c1

google play Christmas Story after christmas sales case mccoy

SpaceX on verge of 3rd supply run to space station

This Jan. 12, 2013 photo provided by NASA shows the Dragon spacecraft inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. where teams had just installed the spacecraft's solar array fairings. The California company known as SpaceX is scheduled to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

This Jan. 12, 2013 photo provided by NASA shows the Dragon spacecraft inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. where teams had just installed the spacecraft's solar array fairings. The California company known as SpaceX is scheduled to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? The International Space Station is about to get another commercial shipment.

The California company known as SpaceX is set to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, hoisting a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments.

There won't be any ice cream, though, for the six-man station crew. The freezers going up are filled with mouse stem cells, protein crystals and other research items. On the previous Dragon delivery in October, chocolate-vanilla swirl was tucked inside.

Forecasters put the odds of good weather at 80 percent. Launch time is 10:10 a.m.

This will be the third space station visit for SpaceX, or more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the creation of Elon Musk of PayPal and Tesla electric car-maker fame.

NASA is paying the company to supply the orbiting lab; the contract is worth $1.6 billion for 12 delivery runs.

If launched Friday, the Dragon should arrive at the space station on Saturday morning. Astronauts will use the station's robot arm to grab the Dragon and attach it to the orbiting complex.

A variety of plant life is going up, including 640 seeds of mouse-ear cress, a small flowering weed used in research. Other experiments involve paint; high school students want to see how it will adhere and dry in space.

Russia, Europe and Japan also provide delivery services to the space station, but none of those cargo craft can return goods like the SpaceX Dragon. This latest Dragon will spend more than three weeks at the space station before departing and parachuting into the Pacific with a full load of medical specimens, fish, plants and old equipment.

NASA's shuttles used to be the main haulers up and down, but retired two years ago.

SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., is working to modify its Dragon capsules to transport astronauts to the station in another few years. A handful of U.S. companies are vying for the job.

Until then, NASA is buying seats for its astronauts on Russian Soyuz rockets to get to the station.

As is his custom, Musk will monitor the launch from SpaceX Mission Control in California.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-28-Private%20Space/id-7c73f203d0b74b80a88e58204a5f37ff

pulitzer prize winners nfl 2012 schedule gmail down tim lincecum ryan oneal file taxes online tupac shakur