DOJ's Directive 144 to Combat Tax-Refund Fraud to Take Effect on ...

The Justice Department?s Tax Division has issued a new directive to further the efforts of the Tax Division and the U.S. Attorneys? Offices to respond quickly and effectively to the grave challenges in stolen identity refund fraud (SIRF) cases.

Tax Division Directive 144

Tax Division Directive 144, which takes effect on Oct. 1, 2012, will allow prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys? Offices that designate a point of contact for SIRF cases to open tax-related grand jury investigations, to charge by complaint criminals who are engaged in SIRF crimes and to obtain seizure warrants for forfeiture of criminally derived proceeds arising from SIRF crimes, all without prior authorization from the Tax Division.

To ensure fair and consistent nationwide enforcement of tax laws, the Tax Division has supervision over virtually all criminal proceedings arising under the internal revenue laws.? Tax refund fraud involving the use of stolen identities has emerged as fast-growing and insidious crime that is all-too-simple in its execution.? Strong coordination at all levels of law enforcement is vital to combating these criminals.? The Tax Division has issued Directive 144 to further these coordination efforts.

SIRF crimes covered by Directive 144 involve the filing or attempted filing of fraudulent tax refund claims, using personal identification information such as Social Security numbers that have either been stolen or are otherwise being unlawfully used.? When a stolen identity is used to commit tax refund fraud, tax dollars are paid out to fraudsters and all honest taxpayers are victims.

An individual taxpayer whose personal identification information is misused to file false refunds will receive any rightfully due refund from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), but may nonetheless experience burdens and delays in the process.? In specific cases, the most vulnerable in our country have been personally victimized by this form of identity theft, and one recent prosecution resulted in a conviction for the murder of a postal worker by a thief seeking access to erroneous refunds.

Expedited Prosecution Procedures Also Announced

The Tax Division has retained its authority in SIRF cases to review and authorize the filing of charges by indictment and information.? Simultaneous with the issuance of Directive 144, the Tax Division has announced new expedited review procedures in cases involving arrests in jurisdictions where the U.S. Attorney?s Office is participating in the procedures established in Directive 144.

SIRF convictions have resulted from the investigative efforts of many local and federal law enforcement agencies.? Prosecutions in SIRF cases brought by U.S. Attorneys? Offices and the Tax Division have resulted in lengthy prison sentences and substantial fines and forfeitures.

It is important that the IRS obtain information, through SIRF investigations, to intercept fraudulent tax refund claims before erroneous refunds are sent to fraudsters.? The procedures set out in Directive 144 and the new expedited review procedures are designed to facilitate this goal.

?Directive 144 and the new expedited review procedures are the result of a collaborative effort between the Tax Division and the U.S. Attorneys? Offices to strengthen law enforcement?s response to stolen identity refund fraud crimes, which are an affront to all honest taxpayers,? said the Tax Division?s Assistant Attorney General, Kathryn Keneally.? ?The prosecution of these crimes is a national priority, and we will continue to look for the most effective ways to bring this conduct to an end and to punish these wrongdoers.?

Source: http://www.lawupdates.com/summary/dojs_directive_144_to_combat_tax-refund_fraud_to_take_effect_on_october_1/

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Color CEO Bill Nguyen Checks Out Of Day-To-Day Operations, While A New Leadership Team Re-Tools

Sources tell us there is turmoil at the executive levels of Color Labs, the startup that launched with a focus on photo-sharing but quickly became a poster child for Silicon Valley hype after landing more than $40 million in Series A funding but failing to gain any real user traction. In recent months the company's leadership has been in a state of flux, we're told -- and some are attributing the instability to Color's charismatic but controversial founder Bill Nguyen. As with any startup drama, there are many moving pieces here. But after weeks of discussions with multiple sources very close to the situation, we're pretty confident that Nguyen has backed away from the typical duties of being CEO, although he retains the title in name.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/M47XEllKX0M/

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Rowling launches novel to fanfare, mixed reviews

LONDON (AP) ? After months of hype and anticipation, J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults has appeared, swept into the arms of hopeful booksellers and an army of grown-up Harry Potter fans eager to find out what his creator has done next.

A gritty and darkly humorous tale of ugly realities in a pretty English village, "The Casual Vacancy" seems a long way from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and reviewers gave it a mixed reception. But Rowling said Thursday she wasn't worried about the response.

"I've had my books burnt," said the author, whose magical stories were condemned as Satanist by some Christian groups. "I've got quite a way to go to upset people that much with 'A Casual Vacancy.'"

A story of ambition, envy and rivalry, the novel recounts the civic warfare sparked in the fictional Pagford when the unexpected death of a town official leaves a vacancy on the governing body. Characters set on a collision course range from the affluent lawyer Miles Mollison to the Weedons, a ramshackle clan living in The Fields, the run-down housing project on the edge of town.

Rowling told a 1,000-strong audience at London's Southbank Centre that the idea for the book ? "Local election sabotaged by teenagers, basically" ? came to her on a plane several years ago.

Writing for a more adult readership, she said, had been "freeing" ? though "in other senses it's a challenging book," told from multiple viewpoints.

Rowling said the book's focus on teenagers, the heart of Pagford and of the novel, was not a million miles from her previous work ? although these troubled and profane youngsters are "not Harry, Ron and Hermione."

"They are very different teenagers," Rowling said. "They are contemporary teenagers."

The book's sex and swearing have drawn the most comment so far ? some audience members were startled to hear the F-word pass Rowling's lips during Thursday's reading. But the presence of death is perhaps the book's most adult element, and one that loomed over Harry Potter's world, too.

"Death obsesses me," Rowling said. "I can't understand why it doesn't obsess everyone. Think it does. I'm just a little more 'out.'"

Five years after the last Potter book appeared, Rowling remains the world's most successful living writer. The lines were shorter and the wizard costumes missing, but "The Casual Vacancy" appeared to some of the same fanfare that greeted each Potter tome, with stores wheeling out crates of the books precisely at 8 a.m. as part of a finely honed marketing strategy.

And Rowling retains the intense loyalty of Potter fans. In contrast to the tight security that preceded the book's release, the atmosphere at Thursday' reading was warm; it felt like a reunion. Several audience members asked Potter-related questions, which Rowling answered at length. One young man, wearing a "Rowling is our Queen" T-shirt, asked if her could give her a present. Rowling accepted it graciously.

Many in the crowd were young adults who had grown up on Harry Potter and we keen to follow her wherever she wanted to go.

"She's been such an inspiration to everyone," said 18-year-old university student Milly Anderson. "She's not just influenced people's childhoods ? she's molded them."

Anderson said she was loving "The Casual Vacancy" ? once she'd got over the change from stories of the boy wizard and his Hogwarts chums.

"There's swearing and sex," she said. "It's a bit of a shock."

"The Casual Vacancy" is already at No. 1 on Amazon's U.S. chart, and bookmaker William Hill put 2-1 odds on it outselling "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which shifted 2.6 million copies in Britain on its first day.

Reviews have been mixed. The Associated Press judged it a challenging but rewarding read full of emotion and heart.

However, The New York Times' influential critic, Michiko Kakutani, was damning.

"The real-life world she has limned in these pages is so willfully banal, so depressingly cliched that 'The Casual Vacancy' is not only disappointing ? it's dull," she said.

The Guardian newspaper's reviewer, Theo Tait, said it was "no masterpiece, but it's not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny."

The Independent's Boyd Tonkin found the sometimes "long-winded and laborious" writing soared when Rowling focused on her teenage characters.

Others, though, felt the lack of likable characters might alienate readers and Daily Mail reviewer Jan Moir slammed Rowling's stark focus on Pagford's haves and have-nots as the work of a "left-leaning demagogue" painting "a bleak and rather one-sided vision of life in modern England."

Technical problems also arose Thursday. Kindle readers and other e-book users in the U.S. complained that the font was so small they could hardly read it. The American publisher, Little, Brown and Company, issued a statement late Thursday afternoon acknowledging "there were issues with that file, including the adjustability of font color and size and adjustability of margins." The publisher said the problem had been fixed and that those with a flawed text should ask retailers to send a new one. Some readers also were unhappy with the e-book's list price, $17.99, although that didn't keep the digital version from topping the Kindle charts.

It's likely nothing Rowling publishes will ever match the success of the Potter books, which have sold more than 450 million copies around the world.

But booksellers are confident "The Casual Vacancy" will be one of the year's best-sellers, whatever reviewers say.

"A lot of children have grown up with Harry Potter. They're now adults who love books," Susan Sinclair, divisional manager for the Foyles bookstore chain, said.

"I think it's going to be a really big seller at Christmas. It'll be an easy gift ? but also a good one."

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

___

AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rowling-launches-novel-fanfare-mixed-reviews-193122300.html

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Github Resume Transforms Your Github Account into a One-Page Resume [Job Search]

Github Resume is a webapp that takes your Github account and turns it into an attractive one-pager that highlights your popular projects, preferred programming languages, and a bio for others to see.

If you're a developer, your Github account can be a valuable tool to get you hired. If you're a freelancer or indie developer, it may just as well be your resume: You pass it along with your cover letter, and when potential employers want to see your work, you send them there. To turn your Github account into an attractive landing page for visitors to learn more about your programming skills, just drop your username into Github Resume and let the webapp do the rest. When it's finished, you'll have a sharp-looking page you can add to your email signature file or send to potential clients who want to see your work.

Github Resume | Github via The Next Web

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/XcS3Opdxqeg/github-resume-transforms-your-github-account-into-a-one+page-resume

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Jackson estate, businessman settle copyright case

FILE - In a March 5, 2009 file photo US singer Michael Jackson announces that he is set to play ten live concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, which he announced at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. A trial scheduled to begin Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2012 will determine how much a businessman working with Katherine Jackson will have to pay her son?s estate for infringing some of its copyrights. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - In a March 5, 2009 file photo US singer Michael Jackson announces that he is set to play ten live concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, which he announced at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. A trial scheduled to begin Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2012 will determine how much a businessman working with Katherine Jackson will have to pay her son?s estate for infringing some of its copyrights. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 file photo, Michael Jackson follows his mother, Katherine Jackson, as they arrive for court on the opening day of his child molestation trial at Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif. A trial scheduled to begin Tuesday September 6, 2012 will determine how much a businessman working with Katherine Jackson will have to pay her son?s estate for infringing some of its copyrights. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Michael Jackson's estate and a businessman working with the singer's mother settled a copyright infringement lawsuit for $2.5 million on Tuesday, shortly before a trial in the case was scheduled to begin.

The settlement also restricts Howard Mann and his companies from using Jackson's likeness without permission in the future. It ends a year and a half of legal fighting over Mann's use of Jackson's name and likeness on a website used to promote unreleased songs, photographs and a book written by Katherine Jackson filled with recollections of her superstar son.

Mann is the CEO of Vintage Pop Media, which operated the website www.michaeljacksonsecretvault.com until it was ordered shut down last month by a federal judge who ruled the site violated copyrights controlled by the singer's estate.

Under the terms of the settlement, announced in court by estate attorney Zia Modabber, Vintage Pop Media Group is responsible for $2 million of the judgment, while the entity Vintage Associates LLC is responsible for the remainder. Vintage Associates is the custodian of the items that were at issue in the case.

Mann's attorney, Lee Durst, declined comment after the hearing. "The estate is delighted this matter is behind us," estate attorney Howard Weitzman said.

Among the items that had been improperly used were images from Jackson's posthumous film "This Is It" and a silhouette of the singer dancing in "Smooth Criminal." The settlement also blocks the usage of materials from "Thriller" that had appeared on Mann's website.

A jury trial on how much Mann owes the estate had been scheduled to begin Tuesday, with an expert estimating a license for the works is worth between $5 million and $12 million.

Mann's attorneys rejected a settlement offer last week of $2 million. They sought to introduce evidence that they were given bad legal advice about having to license the works and have considered calling Katherine Jackson as a witness. The Jackson family matriarch is one of the beneficiaries of the singer's estate, along with his three children.

U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson has noted that Mann doesn't appear to have the resources to pay a large judgment. The defendants' ability to pay was not discussed in court on Tuesday.

__

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-09-04-Jackson-Estate/id-8e44f44a2da24b469ab6fef8aedc551a

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US Airways adds second daily nonstop to Washington National

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20120905/BUSINESS02/120905008/1003/RSS02

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Small businesses are hiring. 4 ways to get noticed.

Private employment growth is picking up as small business look for qualified candidates to fill key positions. Here are four ways to get a company's attention

By Brandon Ballenger,?Contributor / September 3, 2012

In this July 25 file photo, job seekers visit a Primerica booth at a job fair in San Jose, Calif. Small businesses are starting to hire again, and playing to what they want can give you a leg up in the hiring process.

Paul Sakuma/AP/File

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More than a third of small business owners say they?re ?somewhat or significantly understaffed? ? and 1 in 5 will be hiring soon.

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According to the latest government jobs?report, the overall unemployment rate is at 8.3 percent. Private employment growth was better than expected, with businesses adding 163,000 jobs in July. That?s the strongest growth in the past five months.

If you?re part of the 8 percent and would like to become part of next month?s job growth numbers instead, it?s important to know what employers are looking for.

TD Bank quizzed more than 500 small business owners for a recent survey and asked about their biggest hiring challenges. Their responses?

• Finding new qualified candidates (42 percent)
• Training existing employees (23 percent)
• Offering competitive compensation (22 percent)
• Laying off inadequate employees (8 percent)
• Continuous employee turnover (5 percent)

Less than 10 percent of these owners plan to?lay off?workers this year, while 21 percent plan to hire.

Now let?s convert the challenges of those doing the hiring into advice for those looking to be hired?

1. Show your skills

The top worry employers have is finding qualified candidates, and their second-highest concern is training them. That?s the same issue a CareerBuilder survey of 2,600 employers found last fall. Pay special attention to the skills employers are seeking in your field right now. If you have them, play them up on your resume and in interviews. If you don?t, consider brushing up. There are lots of places that offer free job training, including employment centers.

2. Settle for less, for now

Also a big concern is competitive pay ? so it might be to your advantage to stress to employers that salary and benefits are secondary to getting a foot in the door. Once you can start proving yourself ? and the economy starts picking up more ? you?ll be able to negotiate the raise you deserve.

3. Check with bigger employers

If small businesses aren?t hiring, go big. According to a CareerBuilder survey from this time last year, companies with more than 500 employees were 10 percent more likely to hire and make new jobs permanent.

4. Look for seasonal work

If job prospects aren?t looking good by the end of August, start checking with companies that typically add jobs for the holidays. Temporary work is better than no work, and if you make a good impression you might get hired permanently.

Brandon Ballenger is a writer for Money Talks News, a consumer/personal finance TV news feature that airs in about 80 cities as well as around the Web. This column first appeared in Money Talks News.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/50lri6LgzCQ/Small-businesses-are-hiring.-4-ways-to-get-noticed.

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The 7 Deadly Sales Sins Committed By Startups

Editor's note:?Steli?is the Co-Founder / Chief Hustler of?ElasticSales?and an advisor to several startups and entrepreneurs. You can follow Steli on Twitter?here.< At ElasticSales, we?ve had the honor to create and run sales campaigns for some of the hottest Silicon Valley startups today. We?ve also consulted with dozens more each week to learn the challenges their sales team face. We realize we can?t work with every startup just yet, but we have seen the same, avoidable mistakes made by many young companies as they conduct their sales campaigns. Below are ?7?Deadly Sales?Sins? committed by many startups today. Some of these may sound familiar to you, but by identifying and address these mistakes, you will help your company succeed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/K2Sv3_RZMRI/

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Kari Calder a Trusted Saskatoon Realtor and a Saskatoon Real Estate

The decision to purchase your home is one of the most important decisions you will ever make, and will also be one of your largest investments. Done right, it can also be one of the most exciting and fulfilling times in your life! Kari Calder a saskatoon Realtor with Century 21 Fusion is there to help you through the process, and provide you and your family with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you have a realtor working with your best interests in mind.

Read some examples of what Kari's clients have to say about working with her as their Trusted Saskatoon Realtor here?

Here she sahres her thoughts on what it takes to be a successful Saskatoon Realtor

I often have aquaintances (I won?t say friends as they know how hard I work), clients, university students, and people from the public ask me about my job and they all wonder if they could also be a real estate agent in Saskatoon. I have some answers below.

Q.Can almost anyone out there get their real estate license?

A. Yes

Q.Is it hard to get your license?

A.Not really if you know how to study.

Q.Is it hard to be a real estate agent in Saskatchewan?

A.Yes and no.

Q.Is it hard to be a successful real estate agent in Saskatoon?

A.Yes. The reasons are many and I will outline some below.

1. Anyone who has some book smarts can probably get their real estate license (but we do get fingerprinted so felons need not apply!) but not everyone can live the life of a Realtor? or find success in this lifestyle. It is one of the few careers out there that is also a lifestyle as we don?t leave our work at the office on Friday afternoon and pick it up again Monday. Not if you want to be successful that is.

2. One of the keys to being a successful real estate agent in Saskatoon and in general is to truly love what you do. I am passionate about helping people sell homes in Saskatoon as well as helping people buy a house for sale in Saskatoon?and condos for sale in Saskatoon of course as that is a large percentage of what I sell. For me, in general, what I do is not work (okay, I lied, the keeping up with the paperwork part IS work, but meeting people, showing houses for sale in Saskatoon, and helping people achieve their dreams is not work!)

3. A Realtor? in Saskatoon must be prepared to answer their phones from 7:30am until sometimes midnight if they have a deal on the go (if they have an offer on one of their houses for sale in Saskatoon or they are helping a person buy a house for sale in Saskatoon). I have had to run to the office at 11pm on more than one occasion to meet a client to get them their dream home as there was another offer on the table and they wanted that particular house for sale in Saskatoon. Successful Realtors? in Saskatoon do not turn their phone off Friday afternoon and leave their clients high and dry until Monday. Successful Realtors? in Saskatoon are prepared to hop in their car to meet their clients at a house for sale in Saskatoon the minute we see it may be ?the one? for their clients.

4. There is a lot of competition for Realtors? in Saskatoon. There are a lot of agents in the industry now and they are younger and eager. We also compete with for sale by owners and discount brokerages.

Q. I love looking at houses on MLS?, should I become a Realtor? in Saskatoon?

A. MOST people love looking at houses on MLS?! It is a fun past time and one of the most visited websites in the world. That isn?t what being a real estate agent in Saskatoon is all about. It is having the personality, business sense, work ethic, drive, lack of a life at times, and ability to say ?next? when people you have come to trust disappoint you and ditch you as their Saskatoon Realtor? if you don?t pick up your phone one time when they call. It can be upsetting when you spend countless hours, evenings, weekends with people only to have them buy from another agent when you are unavailable for an hour.

Q. Do you get paid an hourly wage?

A. No. It is strictly commission so the comment above about spending hours, evenings, days, etc with people and then not getting paid in the end can be a hard pill to swallow.

?Q. Is it a safe career?

A. Personal safety is always a concern in this industry. A Saskatoon real estate agent was attacked a few years ago and women in particular are the targets of unwanted attention and inappropriate phone calls at times.

Q. Is there any job security?

A. No, if you don?t work you don?t get paid. You have to seek out clients.

Q. Is there disability, health care, etc?

A. It depends on which company you work for but it is paid for by the real estate agent.

Q. Can you get a pension?

A. No, you are self employed, a contractor.

Kari Calder Saskatoon Real Estate Agent

Century 21 Fusion

kari@saskatoonrealestate.net

?

?

Kari Calder is one Saskatoon's top Century 21 Fusion real estate agents. Kari can assist with all of your Saskatoon buying and selling real estate needs and she is a TRUSTED SASKATOON REALTOR

Source: http://www.trustedsaskatoon.com/blog/post/2012/09/02/Kari-Calder-a-Trusted-Saskatoon-Realtor-and-a-Saskatoon-Real-Estate-expert-shares-a-Tip-on-being-a-realtor.aspx

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Obama turns to technology during convention

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop at the Living History Farms Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop at the Living History Farms Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

President Barack Obama greets the crowd during a campaign stop at the Living History Farms Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop at the Living History Farms Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

President Barack Obama smiles during a campaign stop at the Living History Farms Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop at the Living History Farms Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? When the Democratic Party's national convention opens this week, President Barack Obama's target audience won't be in the crowd. It will be the small sliver of undecided voters in battleground states who will be critical to the outcome of what the polls show is a tight race with two months to go.

Obama's campaign will turn to technology to get some of those voters engaged in the convention. The campaign will stream the entire event online, incorporate voter comments into the feed, and have convention attendees interact electronically with those watching on the Internet and mobile devices.

It's an attempt to recapture the Obama team's insurgent, grassroots appeal from 2008, when the campaign set new standards for using technology in politics. The high-tech engagement also helps the campaign capture data on voters that can be used for registration drives and get out the vote efforts.

Targeting Hispanics, the convention will be streamed online simultaneously in Spanish. Obama is hoping his sizeable advantage over Republican rival Mitt Romney with Hispanics will help him win key battleground states in the West, as well as Florida and Virginia.

Republicans also streamed much of their convention on YouTube, though the feed was not interactive.

The move to online streaming comes as television networks cut back on their convention coverage. TV viewership was down during last week's Republican convention; about 30 million people watched Romney's acceptance speech, compared to 40 million who saw Sen. John McCain accept the GOP nomination in 2008.

Starting Tuesday, a parade of high-profile speakers will stand on a blue-carpeted stage in Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena to vouch for Obama's economic agenda, which his team says is focused on the middle class: ending tax cuts for the rich and reducing the debt, while spending more on education, energy and infrastructure.

Several voters ? called "American Heroes" by Obama's team ? also will speak at and appear in videos at the convention, putting a human face on Obama's program.

The Democratic National Convention starts less than a week after Republicans gathered in Tampa, Fla., to nominate Romney as the party's presidential candidate. Democrats hope that by holding their convention second, Obama can emerge with momentum on his side as the race for the White House bounds into its final stretch.

Obama will largely be responsible for generating that momentum. He will close the convention Thursday night with a speech in an outdoor football stadium, just as he did in 2008. Mindful of the comparisons to four years ago, Obama's campaign is scrambling to ensure that the 74,000-seat stadium is filled to capacity. The largest crowd Obama has drawn during the 2012 campaign is about 14,000 people, far less than the jaw-dropping crowds he attracted in the 2008 campaign.

Aides say Obama won't ignore the economic woes that have defined his four years in the White House. But they say he plans to focus largely on the future, and why he believes his policies will succeed in a second term.

Obama isn't expected to outline any new policy proposals. Instead, he plans to make the case for continuing what he has started. And he is expected to double down on agenda items, such as immigration and tax reforms, that gained little traction during his four years in office.

"When the convention is over, folks with be left with a clear road map of where he thinks America needs to go," said Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager. "And it will be clear what his focus will be in an Obama second term."

Working against Obama: the nation's 8.3 percent unemployment rate, sluggish economic growth and fears the economy could slip back into a recession.

There's also a general malaise. An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted earlier this month showed 60 percent of registered voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction, while just 35 percent say it is heading in the right direction.

The convention opens Tuesday with first lady Michelle Obama, whose popularity far surpasses her husband's, as a featured speaker. San Antonio, Texas, Mayor Julian Castro also is slated for that night. He will be the first Hispanic to deliver the Democratic convention's keynote address. Their roles on the convention's opening night are part of Democrats' efforts to shore up support among women and Hispanics, two crucial voting blocs where Obama holds an advantage over Romney.

Mrs. Obama is expected to make the case that Obama is the best candidate to advocate on behalf of the middle class because he has experienced their struggles himself.

Many voters already have heard Mrs. Obama's stories about her husband being raised by a single mother and his grandparents or having struggled to pay off student loans.

But she is emphasizing them again in this campaign in hopes of drawing a contrast with Romney's privileged upbringing.

Polls show voters think Obama understands the economic issues that are important to them better than Romney, even though the Republican has an edge on who voters believe is better suited to manage the economy.

Former President Bill Clinton, who is emerging as one of the campaign's most effective surrogates, will headline the convention Wednesday and formally nominate Obama. He hopes to remind voters of the flush economy he presided over and make the case that Obama's policies will lead to similar results.

Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry will address the large stadium crowd Thursday night before Obama speaks.

Kerry, seen as a potential second-term secretary of state under Obama, will try to capitalize on the Democratic Party's rare advantage on national security issues. He is expected to trumpet Obama's decision to order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and the president's plan to end the Afghanistan war, a sharp contrast to Republicans who rarely mentioned the war during their convention or the tens of thousands of troops still engaged in combat.

Obama's young daughters start school in Washington next week and are not expected to have a formal role at the gathering. But they could come to Charlotte Thursday night for their father's acceptance speech.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-02-Obama's%20Convention/id-36389259d1a547d2a9d6b73d2ac3f350

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Does Your Relationship with Money Affect Your Relationship with ...

Gain Perspective on Financial Planning. Investments. Your Future.

Profile Perspectives is a personal finance blog based on articles Doug Goldstein, CFP?, director of Profile Investment Services, Ltd., published in The Jerusalem Post. The information posted is purely informational and does not constitute investment or tax advice. Advertisements on the site are neither endorsements nor recommendations. Consult your professional advisors before making any investments based on articles or advertisements.

Source: http://profileperspectives.com/does-your-relationship-with-money-affect-your-relationship-with-your-spouse/

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ONLINE LOVE TESTS BEING A SOLUTION TO UNANSWERED ...

Internet has been a center of entertainment now-a-days. A lot of entertaining things can be done through the internet. Online games are very popular now. They are really entertaining. In some games, the players are even able to compete with each other. Social networking sites are also emerging all over the world. It is necessary to keep in touch with the loved ones, making new friends from any place in the world and much more. Other places of interest are the matrimonial sites and the online dating sites. One can also browse through lots of interesting videos and technologies via the internet.

There are many love test games online. They measure the compatibility of couples and the love between them by some simple steps. Most sites consist of some questions with choices of possible answers to be chosen by the users. The questions are related to handling situations in favour of being a loving couple. The results vary depending upon the answers chosen by the users. The results may be sent via messages. Following love, there are also other online test games such as friendship testing, flirting meter, true relationship meter, and many others. More details of love test games can be found in the link www.liebestestmitnamen.de..

It is always the excitement of people to know about the future. They always want to know whether they are compatible with their life partners or the ones they love and to see if there is going to be any problems regarding the relationship or things related to it. Hence people always go for these online tests since they are fun, easy and free of cost. Love is something beautiful and online love tests are probably the virtual solutions to see whether the partners are perfect for each other and whether the love is real.

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Source: http://www.bilmok.org/online-love-tests-being-a-solution-to-unanswered-questions-of-relationships

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5 beached whales doing better at Florida center

MIAMI (AP) ? Veterinarians fed fish drinks to five rescued pilot whales Sunday and kept a close eye on them, trying to nurse the mammals back to health so they can one day return to the ocean.

The five whales were among a group of 22 whales beached in South Florida on Saturday. The rest died of natural causes or had to be euthanized.

The two calves and three juveniles were brought to Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Institute for rehabilitation. Experts said the animals were worn out, but mostly doing well.

"They've all been through a pretty stressful ordeal. We've seen each of them, at one point or another, have a little bit of trouble and need a little bit of help," said Dr. Michelle Davis, senior veterinarian for SeaWorld Orlando.

Some of the whales have been breathing faster than usual at times, causing them to float away from the group and become less active, she said.

Several organizations were working together to care for the whales. About 10 people monitored them around the clock and one person was assigned to each whale to watch it constantly. The whales are being fed fish smoothies through a feeding tube every four hours.

Wildlife experts believe the youngest whale ? a female under the age of 2 ? was still nursing. Her mother did not survive.

"The baby is swimming around the group, calling and whistling for the mother, so we're working to become the mom," said Stephen McCulloch, Harbor Branch program manager.

Experts are teaching her to drink formula from a bottle.

Davis said it was not clear why the whale pod stranded at Avalon Beach State Park in St. Lucie County.

Allison Garrett, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service, said it's possible one of the animals became sick and the rest of the pod followed it onshore.

"They won't leave (a sick whale). They'll stay together," she said.

The five survivors have only minor injuries and scrapes. The goal was to get the five whales strong enough to survive a roughly two-hour trip to their new home at SeaWorld, which could take about a week.

Davis said she did not know how long it would be before the whales could be released back to the ocean. Until they get better, the whales will rehabilitate together in a pool.

"Even now in the pool, most of them are staying together and swimming around together all the time. That's definitely a way to decrease their stress level," she said.

Hundreds of residents came to the beach to help Saturday, flipping the animals upright so they could breathe better. Volunteers covered the whales with moist towels and poured water over them.

By evening, it was clear that most of the whales would not make it. Necropsies will be performed on them.

___

Associated Press writer Norman Gomlak in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-beached-whales-doing-better-florida-center-164338481.html

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Egypt TV head denies inciting Morsi&#39;s murder | Morocco World News

CAIRO, Sept 1, 2012 (AFP)

A television channel chief and presenter denied?calling for the murder of President Mohamed Morsi when his trial on incitement?charges opened in the Egyptian capital on Saturday.

?I merely criticised President Morsi,? Tawfiq Okasha told judges at the?court appearance, an AFP journalist reported.

Okasha?s Al-Faraeen channel, owned by Okasha and suspended on August 16,?aired a show that was stridently anti-Morsi and anti-Muslim Brotherhood, the?party from which the leader emanates.

The charges against him came at the same time that Islam Afifi, the editor?of small independent newspaper Al-Dustour, was accused of spreading false news?and inciting disorder.

Okasha arrived at court surrounded by his supporters who chanted ?The?people want Al-Faraeen!?

The court set the next session of the trial for October 3 after hearing the?case for the defence, which argued that the complaints against Okasha were not?filed by Morsi personally.

Both Okasha and Afifi were banned from leaving the country in August.

Afifi was freed after spending several hours in custody on the day of his?trial, after a decree signed by Morsi scrapped preventive detention for?alleged publishing crimes.

Afifi was the first journalist to go on trial since the overthrow of?veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak in February last year.

After his inauguration on June 30, Morsi moved to bolster his power over?the influential military and a state media that had been hostile towards his?once banned but powerful movement.

He got the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated upper house of parliament to name?new editors-in-chief for state media that had been hostile to him and the?Islamist group.

Morsi?s opponents accuse him of seeking to muzzle the press, and there has?also been international concern.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the prosecutions?of Okasha and Afifi ran counter to the spirit of last year?s revolution.

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2012/09/54029/egypt-tv-head-denies-inciting-morsis-murder/

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For Your Internet Business To Achieve Success You Need A ...

Perhaps you are mystified why you need to have a business blog, if your business is already succeeding with lots of traffic. If you wish to maintain your current business success, or improve on it, your business method needs to now include an online blog. Keeping your existing base of consumers and getting it to grow on an ongoing basis, it is essential to have a business blog. A business blog provides value to an already thriving web site, something not easily done otherwise.

A static website does not generate the feeling that there is somebody real somewhere, someone you could talk to. People like to be able to ask an individual a question and get a reply. There must be more to a web site than the print and the pictures. A blog lets you communicate with your site visitors, who can put up questions and comments and get your personal attention, which establishes rapport, something you won?t be able to do on a static web site. Social networking sites have made interaction with others a regular part of life, and especially so with important decisions like when purchasing something. The content on a blog could be updated with all the most up-to-date information, to keep site visitors fully abreast of issues. You can always be discussing information that?s fresh and appropriate. Discovering an economical but dependable http://xplorehosting.blogspot.com/2012/07/think-before-going-for-web-hosting.html takes some online research.

Search engines are responsible for 80% of a website?s visitors, and website owners are aware of this. The best way to get relevant visitors is through the search engines. People will find your products or services by way of their search queries on the major search engines. This is the reason it is wonderful for driving the kind of visitors you want to your web site. It is faster getting blog pages indexed than static pages, which is essential for showing up in the search engine results.

With the unique ping function that blogs have, visitors can be directed easier to a blog than a static website. Whenever a new post is made, it is pinged, letting the search engines know that fresh content has been put on the web site. Search engine spiders then scuttle over to your blog to ascertain if the content is original and brand new. If the crawlers are satisfied, your new content will be indexed and will be displayed in the search engine results for queries with the content?s keywords. You next should focus on getting a high page rank as a way for a lot of people to visit them.

Whenever you publish a new article the internal links on your blog are updated accordingly, something that can not be done with static web pages. Static pages require that you link them manually, and you also have to build a logical sitemap. You waste lots of time carrying out technical things which on a blog are done on auto-pilot. With a blog, you can be using your efforts to be running your business. For anyone with a web based business, a business blog is quickly becoming vital.

Source: http://www.webdesignbox.co.za/for-your-internet-business-to-achieve-success-you-need-a-business-blog.html

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Source: http://branden78.typepad.com/blog/2012/09/for-your-internet-business-to-achieve-success-you-need-a.html

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Cajun French Fries Recipe | Budget Savvy Diva

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What You Need

Fries ? I bake up frozen fries from the store

1/2 Tsp of Cayenne Pepper

1/2 Tsp of Pepper

2 pinches of salt

1/2 Tsp of Cumin

1/2 Tsp of poultry seasoning or similar.

1/2 Tsp of Paprika

What To Do

Cook fries like on the package if frozen. This seasoning is so good you can even simply bake the fries and they will taste amazing!

Mix all the seasoning ingredients together and sprinkle on cooked fries.

This makes enough for a few batches of fries.

Enjoy!

Cajun French Fries Recipe

Serves: Varies

• Fries ? I bake up frozen fries from the store
• 1/2 Tsp of Cayenne Pepper
• 1/2 Tsp of Pepper
• 2 pinches of salt
• 1/2 Tsp of Cumin
• 1/2 Tsp of poultry seasoning or similar.
• 1/2 Tsp of Paprika

1. Cook fries like on the package if frozen. This seasoning is so good you can even simply bake the fries and they will taste amazing!
2. Mix all the seasoning ingredients together and sprinkle on cooked fries.
3. This makes enough for a few batches of fries.
4. Enjoy!

2.2.1

Other recipes you'll love:

Source: http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/09/cajun-french-fries-recipe/

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Taiwan, China sign currency clearing deal

TAIPEI, Taiwan ? Taiwanese banks will be allowed start handling China's tightly controlled currency this year.

A long-anticipated memorandum of understanding was signed separately Friday by Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People's Bank of China in Beijing, and his counterpart in Taipei, Perng Fai-nan.

Under the deal, Taiwanese banks can take yuan deposits and convert yuan into the New Taiwan dollar, skipping the current process of first converting the yuan into U.S. dollars.

Taipei has pushed Beijing hard for signing a currency clearing pact to benefit Taiwanese investors on the mainland and local banks. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949 but have increasingly closer trade ties.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsWebMD/~3/8TFGvfY6IH0/

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Wyoming wolves to lose Endangered Species Act protection

JACKSON, Wyoming (Reuters) - Gray wolves in Wyoming, the last still federally protected in the northern Rockies, will lose endangered species status at the end of next month, opening them to unregulated killing in most of the state, the U.S. government said on Friday.

The planned delisting of Wyoming's estimated 350 wolves caps a steady progression of diminishing federal safeguards for a predator once hunted, trapped and poisoned to the brink of extinction throughout most of the continental United States.

Wyoming will officially regain control over the management of its wolf population on September 30, joining Montana and Idaho, where more than 1,500 wolves were removed from the federal endangered list in May of 2011.

About 4,000 wolves in the northern Great Lakes region -- primarily Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota -- lost their status as endangered or threatened last January.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe on Friday hailed delisting of the last wolf population in the northern Rockies as a victory assured by the Endangered Species Act and cooperation among state and federal partners.

"The return of the wolf to the Northern Rocky Mountains is a major success story," he said in a statement.

Conservationists decried the move, questioning how an animal could be protected until September 30 only to be subject to "open fire" on October 1, the first day of Wyoming's regulated hunting season. Environmental groups say they fear ending federal safeguards could push wolves back to the brink.

Like Idaho and Montana, Wyoming is required to maintain a statewide population of at least 150 wolves, including 15 breeding pairs, to prevent a relisting.

Wyoming wolves will remain off-limits to hunters inside national wildlife refuges and national parks, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, as well as on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

FROM PROTECTION TO BULL'S EYE

But restricted hunting will be permitted from October through December within zones just outside those parks and refuges in the greater Yellowstone region of northwestern Wyoming, where most of the state's wolves reside.

For the rest of the state, wolves would be classified as predatory animals, subjecting them to unlicensed, unregulated killing year-round through methods such as shooting, trapping and pursuit on mechanized vehicles.

Wolves were reintroduced to the northern Rockies in the mid-1990s, but their return triggered an emotional debate that pitted livestock producers and hunters against conservationists.

Ranchers and hunting groups have argued that wolves prey on livestock and big-game animals targeted by sportsmen. Environmentalists contend the predators play a key role in restoring an ecosystem impaired by overgrazing and erosion caused in part by wildlife such as elk and mule deer.

Under Endangered Species Act protections, wolf numbers rebounded in the northern Rockies, far exceeding the original recovery goals set by the federal government.

Efforts in recent years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove wolves in Idaho and Montana from the endangered species list were reversed by court rulings.

But Idaho and Montana wolves ultimately were delisted last year through an unprecedented act of Congress, and those states have since sought to reduce wolf numbers -- mostly through hunting and trapping -- to as few as 300 from as many as 1,500.

Wyoming's wolves had remained protected while state and federal officials negotiated what safeguards would sustain a viable population under Wyoming management.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's latest estimate puts current numbers in all three states at more than 1,774 adult wolves.

The gray wolf originally was classified as an endangered species across the lower 48 states and Mexico, except in Minnesota, where the animal was listed as threatened.

An estimated 7,000 to 11,000 wolves roam much of Alaska, but are so abundant they have never been federally protected.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wyoming-wolves-lose-endangered-species-act-protection-005415014.html

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