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Thursday, March 7, 2013

WWE Main Event results: The Viper preys on Wade Barrett?s Hollywood ego

Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett: WWE Main Event, March 6, 2013Sin Cara vs. Antonio Cesaro: WWE Main Event, March 6, 2013Zack Ryder vs. Cody Rhodes: WWE Main Event, March 6, 2013Alberto Del Rio vs. Wade Barrett: Raw, March 4, 2013"Dead Man Down" premiere in Los Angeles: Raw, March 4, 2013Sheamus' Oscars Snubs: Raw, Feb. 25, 2013Alberto Del Rio vs. Wade Barrett: SmackDown, Feb. 22, 2013

ALBANY, N.Y. ? WWE Main Event featured three highly competitive contests including the latest bout in the storied rivalry of Wade Barrett and Randy Orton. Also, Zack Ryder battled Cody Rhodes in search of redemption after being decimated by Mark Henry on Raw. In the evening?s third contest, U.S. Champion Antonio Cesaro faced a new challenge, squaring off with Sin Cara!

Randy Orton def. Wade Barrett

Over the past few months, Randy Orton and Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett have been engaged in a highly competitive rivalry with each Superstar besting the other on separate occasions. But before competing in the latest chapter of their ongoing enmity toward one another, The Bare-Knuckle Brawler took the opportunity to remind the WWE Universe of his role in the upcoming film ?Dead Man Down.? After regaling the WWE Universe with stories of the Hollywood life that seemed only to annoy the Albany, N.Y., audience, Barrett showed a video package promoting the film. The Intercontinental Champion continued to run his mouth, even directing insults at ?The Marine 3: Homefront? star and WWE Main Event commentator The Miz.

Finally, The Viper slid outside the ring and attacked his opponent, silencing the British grappler and tossing him in the ring to begin the match. Immediately, the WWE Universe was reminded why these two ring warriors share one of the most competitive rivalries in WWE. Gaining an early advantage, Orton was relentless in his offense, keeping his opponent from channeling his uncanny resilience and battling back effectively.

Feeding off of the energy inside Albany?s Times Union Center, WWE?s Apex Predator maintained control of the contest until Barrett shifted the tide by moving outside the ring. Having competed against one another many times, both Superstars have an understanding of each other?s strengths and weaknesses and must devise new strategies in the midst of battle whenever they compete.

Although Barrett managed to rebound and keep Orton reeling late in the contest, The Viper?s early dominance and the support of the WWE Universe kept him in the fight. As the Intercontinental Champion prepared to execute the Bull Hammer elbow, Orton countered with a powerslam followed by a devastating RKO to secure victory.

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwemainevent/2013-03-06/results

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China aims to pacify middle class; boosts defense

A vendor watches the live telecast of the annual government work report by outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao on a television in a vegetable market in Fuyang in central China's Anhui province on Tuesday.

By Eric Baculinao, Bureau Chief, NBC News

BEIJING ? China pledged to tackle problems which threaten to alienate the country's growing middle class and aspirational masses as?its once-in-a-decade changing of the guard at the top of the country?s government got under way.

"We should unwaveringly combat corruption, strengthen political integrity, establish institutions to end the excessive concentration of power and lack of checks on power and ensure that officials are honest, government is clean and political affairs are handled with integrity,"said China's outgoing premier Wen Jiabao at the China?s National People?s Congress (NPC).

Wen on Tuesday enumerated major domestic challenges that have caused public discontent in recent years ? air pollution, toxic factories, tainted food and abuses of power ? and pledged more resources to environmental protection and public welfare. His speech was a tacit admission that quality of life had been sidelined by a focus on breakneck economic growth.

"We are keenly aware we still face many difficulties and problems in our economic and social development," said the premier, whose family was accused in a New York Times report late last year of amassing billions of dollars in assets.?

While the Chinese leadership also announced a boost in defense spending, the focus of this year?s Congress appeared to be decidedly domestic.

Widening inequality and a more discontented middle class were the big issues facing new leaders, said Damien Ma, analyst at the Paulson Institute, an independent think-tank.

"The problem is whether China can address the costs of that growth and seriously face the growing social cleavages that such growth has wrought,"?he said. ?

The rhetoric about improving the quality of life was not new, said Susan Shirk, an expert on Chinese politics and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration.

Reuters, file

An elderly exercises in the morning as he faces chimneys emitting smoke behind buildings across the Songhua river in Jilin, Jilin province, on Feb. 24. China's new rulers will focus on consumer-led growth to narrow the gap between rich and poor while taking steps to curb pollution and graft, the government has said.

"The ... government talked about it every year at the NPC for the past 10 years," she said.

It was also unclear how far the government could go to address worries over extraordinary high levels of pollution and food safety, experts said.

A boost in budget for forces tasked with maintaining the peace at home was worth note, said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of "China in the 21st?Century."

China's public security budget will reach $32.6 billion, an increase of 7.9 percent, which will "improve the mechanism for ensuring funding for primary-level ... judicial and public security departments," according to a Ministry of Finance report.

A big challenge for the government, and a possible impediment to addressing environmental concerns, will be the need to maintain high rates of economic growth, according to experts.?

"The government will struggle to reconcile its environmental agenda with the resource-intensive urbanization program that is set to underpin economic growth," said Nicholas Consonery of political-risk consulting firm Eurasia.

To boost domestic consumption and mitigate the widening rich-poor divide, China plans to migrate hundreds of millions of farmers to the cities in the next ten years. With higher incomes, the urban middle class will boost domestic consumption which will underpin future economic growth.?

In addition to promising to grapple with environmental and social welfare issues, the government announced a 10.7 percent increase to its military budget, continuing the double digit increases seen in the last two decades, even as the country appeared set to see its lowest economic growth in years.?

A new aircraft carrier and stealth fighter bombers would be added to the military amid escalating maritime disputes with Japan and other Asian neighbors, the NPC announced.

The defense modernization will help to ?resolutely uphold China?s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,? Wen said during his last work report after ten years at the helm of China?s Cabinet.

The move is seen as attempt of the new leadership headed by Party chief and incoming President Xi Jinping to project strength and forge strong ties with China?s military, a major base of support. China is now the world?s second biggest military spender with $114 billion, after the United States which spent $633 billion last year.

The ongoing military buildup was not cause for alarm, Shirk said.

?The increase is consistent with past budgets... Roughly in line with economic growth. Not a massive military buildup,? she said.

Related:

Chinese ex-police detained while trying to stamp out corruption

Notorious drug lord executed by China over 'Golden Triangle' smuggling, hijackings

China's Anti-Corruption Drive Hits New Year Sales

Source: http://behindthewall.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/06/17209529-china-seeks-to-pacify-middle-class-boosts-defense-spending?lite

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State Releases List of Insurance Rate Comparisons | Maui Now

File photo.

By Sonia Isotov

Hawaii Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito on Friday released for the first time a complete statewide list of home and auto insurance rates.

?This is a great resource for homeowners and renters to use to help themselves lower their insurance costs,? said Gordon Ito, State of Hawaii insurance commissioner, in a written statement.

?Insurance companies are more willing to lower costs when consumers shop around and compare.?

Home and condominium owners and renters can use the list of premium rates from all of the insurance companies to help them compare options offered by insurance companies for the same coverage.

The comparison tables show rates for homes and condominiums of different construction, such as double-wall or single-wall construction, in various parts of the state. Homeowners and renters can see the guide and comparison rates at: http://www.hawaii.gov/dcca/home_rates.

Last year, the Legislature passed a law requiring all homeowners insurance companies to provide premium information for consumers to compare. State law already required such information for motor vehicle insurance.

Both sets of data provide ?apples-to-apples? comparisons for consumers. On the homeowners insurance side consumers can compare how their category of home (structure type and age) while the auto insurance cases look one type of car and compares rates of clean abstracts and those of one citation or more.

The homeowner insurance rate comparison sheets also include the ?Consumer?s Guide to Homeowner?s Insurance.? The guide gives consumers general explanations of the different types of coverage and the basics of what homeowner?s insurance includes.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Analysis: Growth stumble, jobs funk beg for new policy tilt

LONDON (Reuters) - As western economies hit another pothole in their stuttering post-crisis recoveries, pressure to step up economic policy intervention to tackle entrenched unemployment may be building.

Global business surveys showing a second consecutive retreat in private sector growth last month, albeit from nine-month highs in December, have refired investor doubts about whether policy settings are adequate to protect recovery through 2013.

Few have lost sight of the fact that the country with the best growth performance so far, the United States, has some of the loosest policy settings. And the Federal Reserve makes no bones about its focus on joblessness.

"The large shortfall of employment relative to its maximum level has imposed huge burdens on all too many Americans and represents a substantial social cost," Fed vice-chair Janet Yellen said Monday, warning that "insufficiently forceful" action carried big risks.

Major central banks are flooring interest rates or printing money or both and are assumed in many areas to be the default safety net, and speculation that one or all of the European, British and Japan central banks will ease policy further at meetings this week continues to bubble.

But gnawing doubts about central banks' ability to do all the heavy lifting on their own are turning the focus back onto fiscal policy.

As a result, the highly-politicized debate over how to cut spending to rein in bloated government debts without snuffing out the economic growth needed ultimately to reduce such borrowing has raged again over a sobering month.

A vote against austerity in Italy, Britain's loss of its prized triple-A credit rating, and automatic budget cuts triggered in the United States on Friday have all amplified the risks of slashing budgets too deep and too fast while economies are weak or even contracting.

Government fears that creditors will turn on them if they tilt back towards growth from austerity may also be overstated, some feel - particularly if such a shift comes with some implicit global agreement.

"People continue to under-appreciate the level of cohesion in policy circles and how much the interventionist case is coming together," said Deutsche Bank economist Stuart Parkinson. "Many will be surprised by that over the next 3-6 months."

"If they (governments) are being asked to look beyond austerity for a little bit and have a go at reviving growth, they'll get the benefit of the doubt from investors."

Parkinson said fiscal and money policy would increasingly be targeted at staving off an "unemployment crisis" worldwide. He said governments were hyper-aware of both the short-term electoral challenge and more serious threats to social stability from persistently high long-term and youth jobless rates.

According to International Labour Organisation forecasts there will be some 74.2 million 15-24 year olds unemployed in 2013, up more than 5 percent since the crisis started in 2007.

"The real crisis is unemployment - particularly among the young," said Parkinson, adding this would drive action by global forums such as the G7 or G20 to offer cover for policymakers to ease up somewhat on severe domestic agendas.

International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard offered intellectual cover for a rethink last year when he said "fiscal multipliers" of the impact of spending cuts on economic activity during recessions were much greater than the IMF had originally assumed - even if he's since said those multipliers ease again as economies improve.

REWARDS FOR LEEWAY

With the United States seemingly rewarded by investors for backloading spending cuts until growth is on a better footing, should European governments now take notice? After all, its 10-year borrowing rates remain below 2 percent, Wall St stocks are at record highs and even the dollar is rising.

No other country can boast the world's dominant reserve currency, but there are signs that as voters push back against austerity, investors are not running as scared as deficit hawks would suggest - as the relatively muted market reaction to Italy's inconclusive election suggests.

Noting that Italy already has a cyclically adjusted budget surplus, Jim O'Neill, outgoing chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said: "Tightening fiscal policy for the sake of it with a vague aim of debt reduction is not a smart strategy."

Instead, Italy needs to generate growth through reforms of product and labour markets that will boost nationwide productivity, O'Neill said, adding: "Reform doesn't equate to austerity, as their voters have just shown."

Scott Thiel, Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income, Fundamental Portfolios at the world's biggest asset manager Blackrock, said he doubts we'll see any formal rolling back of fiscal targets in Europe soon. Italy, in his view, will still implement recent fiscal cuts and reforms in the absence of a coherent new government for a time anyway.

Thiel added, however, that there is still an implicit assumption in Europe that countries will get leeway if push comes to shove, and investors need to get a fix on the long-term mechanics to exercise any judgment on that.

"No one expects a growth-led fiscal adjustment to happen in a year," Thiel said. "This is a multi-year corrective process and, as an investor, an awful lot depends on your horizon. For me, it's way too early to tell on how current growth trajectories will affect longer-term fiscal sustainability."

(Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-growth-stumble-jobs-funk-beg-policy-tilt-061846502--sector.html

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Even after death, Chavez gets choice of successor

The flag-draped coffin containing the body of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez is taken from the hospital where he died, to a military academy where it will remain until his funeral in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Seven days of mourning were declared, all schools were suspended for the week and friendly heads of state were expected for an elaborate funeral Friday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

A supporter of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez holds a picture of him above a crowd waiting for Chavez's coffin to be taken from the hospital where he died, to a military academy where it will remain until his funeral in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Seven days of mourning were declared, all schools were suspended for the week and friendly heads of state were expected for an elaborate funeral Friday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro, second from right, links arms with Bolivia's President Evo Morales, left, as they arrive to the Military Hospital where Chavez died in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. The coffin containing the body of is being taken from the hospital to a military academy where it will remain until his funeral Friday. Seven days of mourning were declared, all schools were suspended for the week and friendly heads of state were expected for an elaborate funeral Friday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

The flag-draped coffin containing the body of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez is taken from the hospital where he died, to a military academy, where it will remain until his funeral in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Seven days of mourning were declared, all schools were suspended for the week and friendly heads of state were expected for an elaborate funeral Friday.(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Supporters of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez cry outside the military hospital where President Hugo Chavez, aged 58, died on Tuesday in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Seven days of mourning were declared, all school was suspended for the week and friendly heads of state were expected for an elaborate funeral Friday. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? A flag-draped coffin carrying the body of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez floated over a sea of supporters Wednesday on its way to a military academy where it will lie in state. Away from the procession route, jittery Venezuelans facing an uncertain future without their larger-than-life leader flocked to supermarkets and gas stations to stock up on supplies, preparing for the worse a day after Chavez succumbed to cancer.

Tens of thousands lined the streets or walked with the casket in the capital, many weeping as the body approached, led by a grim drum major. Other mourners pumped their fists and held aloft images of the late president, amid countless waving yellow, blue and red Venezuelan flag.

"The fight goes on! Chavez lives!" shouted the mourners in unison, many through eyes red from crying late into the night.

Chavez's bereaved mother Elena Frias de Chavez leaned against her son's casket, while a priest read a prayer before the procession left the military hospital where Chavez died at the age of 58. Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's anointed successor, walked with the crowd, along with Cabinet members and uniformed soldiers.

"I feel so much pain. So much pain," said Yamile Gil, a 38-year-old housewife. "We never wanted to see our president like this. We will always love him."

The former paratrooper will remain at the military academy until his Friday funeral, which promises to draw leaders from all over the world. Already, the presidents of Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia have arrived to mourn a man whose passing leaves an enormous void in the region's anti-American left.

"The Chavez-less era begins," declared a front-page headline in Caracas's El Universal newspaper.

But even in death, Chavez's orders were being heeded in a country covered with posters bearing his image and graffiti pledging "We are all Chavez!"

Maduro will continue to run Venezuela as interim president and will stand as candidate of Chavez's socialist party in an election the country's constitution requires be called within 30 days.

In a late-night tweet, Venezuelan state television said Defense Minister Adm. Diego Molero had pledged military support for Maduro's candidacy against likely opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, despite a constitutional mandate that the armed forces play a nonpolitical role.

For die-hard Chavistas who camped out all night outside the military hospital, Wednesday was the first full day without a leader many described as a father figure, an icon in the mold of the early-19th century liberator Simon Bolivar. Others saw the death of a man who presided over Venezuela as a virtual one-man show as an opportunity to turn back the clock on his socialist policies.

For both sides, uncertainty ruled the day.

It was not immediately clear when the presidential vote would be held, or where or when Chavez would be buried following Friday's pageant-filled funeral.

Venezuela's constitution specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, currently Diosdado Cabello, should assume the interim presidency if a president can't be sworn in.

But critics say the officials left in charge by Chavez before he went to Cuba in December for his fourth cancer surgery have not been assiduous about heeding the constitution, and human rights and free speech activists are concerned they will flaunt the rule of law. Many took to Twitter to cite Article 233 of the constitution, which they said establishes Cabello as the rightful interim president.

Just a few hours before announcing Chavez's death, Maduro virulently accused foreign and domestic enemies, clearly including the United States, of trying to undermine Venezuelan democracy. The government said two U.S. military attaches had been expelled for allegedly trying to destabilize the nation, and Maduro insisted that Chavez was purposefully "attacked" with cancer. He said a scientific commission would be set up to investigate.

There has been no word on any plans for an autopsy, and while the government has said Chavez suffered from cancer, it has never specified the exact location or type of cancer.

Many mourners Wednesday took their cue from Maduro, venting anger at Washington and accusing Venezuela's opposition of conspiring with far-right U.S. forces to undermine the revolution.

"The government of the United States is not going to rest," said Oscar Navas, a 33-year-old fruit vendor and Chavez supporter who joined the procession. "It's going to continue conspiring against our revolution because we are anti-imperialists. I don't have the slightest doubt the CIA is here, undercover, doing whatever it can to destabilize our country."

Venezuela and the United States have a complicated relationship, with Chavez's enemy to the north remaining the top buyer of Venezuelan oil. But Chavez's inner circle has long claimed the United States was behind a failed 2002 attempt to overthrow him, and he has frequently used anti-American rhetoric to stir up support. Venezuela has been without a U.S. ambassador since July 2010 and expelled another U.S. military officer in 2006.

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell denied Washington was trying to destabilize Venezuela and said the claim "leads us to conclude that, unfortunately, the current Venezuelan government is not interested in an improved relationship."

Ventrell added that the suggestion that the United States had a hand in Chavez's illness was "absurd." He hinted the U.S. could reciprocate with expulsions of Venezuelan diplomats.

Capriles, the youthful governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in October presidential election, was conciliatory in a televised address Tuesday. He is widely expected to run against Maduro.

"This is not the moment to highlight what separates us," Capriles said. "This is not the hour for differences; it is the hour for union, it is the hour for peace."

Although the armed forces chief, Gen. Wilmer Barrientos, reported "complete calm" in the country late Tuesday, several incidents of political violence flared after Chavez's death.

A group of masked, helmeted men on motorcycles, some brandishing revolvers, reportedly attacked about 40 students on Tuesday who had been protesting for more than a week near the Supreme Court building to demand the government give more information about Chavez's health.

The assailants, who didn't wear clothing identifying any political allegiance, burned the students' tents and scattered their food just minutes after Chavez's death was announced.

"They burned everything we had," said student leader Gaby Arellano. She said she saw four of the attackers with pistols but none fired a shot.

Outside the military hospital, an angry crowd also roughed up a Colombian TV reporter.

"They beat us with helmets, with sticks, men, women, adults," Carmen Andrea Rengifo said on RCN TV. Video images showed her bleeding above the forehead, but she was not seriously injured.

Maduro and other government officials have railed against international media for allegedly reporting rumors about Chavez's health, although RCN wasn't one of those criticized.

Chavez leaves behind a political movement in control of a nation that human rights activist Liliana Ortega, director of the nongovernmental group COFAVIC, describes as a badly deteriorated state where institutions such as the police, courts and prosecutor's offices have been converted into tools of political persecution and where most media are firmly controlled by the government.

Javier Corrales, an Amherst College political scientist, said he was concerned about the "virulent, anti-American discourse" under Maduro. "It seems to me this is a government that is beginning to blame the United States for all its troubles."

"This is very dark," he said. "This is the most nebulous period, the most menacing that the government has been, and the actions have been pretty severe."

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker, Fabiola Sanchez and Paul Haven in Caracas contributed to this report.

___

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-06-LT-Venezuela-Chavez/id-74625f549158449bbd3c9d3c00235dde

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

SPIN METER: In budget fight, sky is falling again

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama and his officials are doing their best to drum up public concern over the shock wave of spending cuts that could strike the government in just days. So it's a good time to be alert for sky-is-falling hype.

Over the last week or so, administration officials have come forward with a grim compendium of jobs to be lost, services to be denied or delayed, military defenses to be let down and important operations to be disrupted. Obama's new chief of staff, Denis McDonough, spoke of a "devastating list of horribles."

For most Americans, though, it's far from certain they will have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day if the budget-shredder known as the sequester comes to pass. Maybe they will, if the impasse drags on for months.

For now, there's a whiff of the familiar in all the foreboding, harking back to the mid-1990s partial government shutdown, when officials said old people would go hungry, illegal immigrants would have the run of the of the land and veterans would go without drugs. It didn't happen.

For this episode, provisions are in place to preserve the most crucial services ? and benefit checks. Furloughs of federal workers are at least a month away, breathing room for a political settlement if the will to achieve one is found. Many government contractors would continue to be paid with money previously approved.

Warnings of thousands of teacher layoffs, for example, are made with the presumption that local communities would not step in with their own dollars ? perhaps from higher taxes ? to keep teachers in the classrooms if federal money is not soon restored. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says teacher layoffs have already begun, but he has not backed up that claim and school administrators say no pink slips are expected before May, for the next school year.

To be sure, the cuts are big and will have consequences. Knowing what they will be, though, is far from a precise exercise.

And there is a lot of improbable precision in administration statements about what could happen: more than 373,000 seriously ill people losing mental health services, 600,000 low-income pregnant women and new mothers losing food aid and nutrition education, 1,200 fewer inspections of dangerous work sites, 125,000 poor households going without vouchers, and much more.

"These numbers are just numbers thrown out into the thin air with no anchor, and I think they don't provoke the outrage or concern that the Obama administration seeks," said Paul Light, a New York University professor who specializes in the federal bureaucracy and budget. For all the dire warnings, he said, "It's not clear who gets hurt by this."

The estimates in many cases come from a simple calculation: Divide the proscribed spending cut by a program's per-person spending to see how many beneficiaries may lose services or benefits under the sequester.

But in practice, through all the layers of bureaucracy and the everyday smoke and mirrors of the federal budget, there is rarely a direct and measurable correlation between a federal dollar and its effect on the ground.

That has meant a lot of tenuous "could happen" warnings by the administration, not so much "will happen" evidence.

So it was in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' letter to Congress laying out likely consequences of the spending cuts for her agency's operations. She said the sequester "could" compromise the well-being of more than 373,000 people who "potentially" would not get needed mental health services, which in turn "could result" in more hospitalizations and homelessness.

Duncan left himself less wiggle room. "This stuff is real," he said last week. "Schools are already starting to give teachers notices."

Asked to provide backup for Duncan's assertion, spokesman Daren Briscoe said it was based on "an unspecified call he was on with unnamed persons," and the secretary might not be comfortable sharing details.

Briscoe referred queries about layoffs to the American Association of School Administrators. Noelle M. Ellerson, an assistant director of the organization, said Monday that in her many discussions with superintendents at the group's just-completed annual meeting, she heard of no layoffs of teachers. While everyone is bracing for that possibility down the road, she said, "not a single one I spoke with had already issued pink slips."

Most school district budgets for the next school year won't be completed for two months, she said, meaning any layoff notices would come in early to mid-May. "No one had yet acted."

School districts in areas set aside for tribal lands or military bases count on Washington for a significant share of their budgets, and are to lose $60 million, or 5 percent of their federal payments, when the sequester starts. Nearly all money to run most of the nation's public schools comes from local sources such as property taxes that are not affected by the federal cuts.

As for the assertion that 600,000 women could be dropped from the Women, Infants and Children Program, that's not to say the rolls would be cut by that number. The actual number is likely to include women who are not enrolled in the program now and could be denied when seeking to join it. Federal officials say the true number will depend on how states can manage their caseloads.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has warned of impending furloughs of air traffic controllers, who may need to take one day off every two weeks, and said air-travel delays are likely across the country. Asked Friday why the airline lobby predicted no major impact on air travel from the sequester, he said, "I don't think they have the information we're presenting to them today."

"The idea that we're just doing this to create some kind of a horrific scare tactic is nonsense," LaHood said. But it's a pressure tactic nonetheless: "What I'm trying to do is to wake up members of the Congress on the Republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table."

However the cuts fall, Light at NYU says the Washington Monument ploy, also known as the Firemen First principle, is at work.

It goes like this: Put someone's budget at risk and the first thing you'll hear is a threat to close a cherished national symbol or lay off firefighters and police, when in fact there are other ways to cut spending.

It so happens the Washington Monument is already closed, for earthquake repair. But Obama indulged in the Firemen First principle quite literally.

He appeared at the White House in front of officers in blue uniforms to warn of the consequences of the sequester. "Emergency responders like the ones who are here today ? their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded."

The law gives little flexibility to agencies to protect favored programs, except for big ones specifically exempted from the automatic cuts, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits. FBI and Border Patrol furloughs are expected. Still, the White House has directed agencies to avoid cuts presenting "risks to life, safety or health" and to minimize harm to crucial services.

In the partial government shutdown during his presidency, Bill Clinton and his officials told some tall tales and sketched dark scenarios that didn't come to pass, though some might have if the crisis had lasted weeks or months longer. The shutdown played out over two installments totaling 26 days from mid-November 1995 to early January 1996.

National park properties closed (yes, even the Washington Monument), passport and federal mortgage insurance processing were disrupted and toxic waste cleanup stalled as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went idle, paid retroactively later. But states, communities and private groups stepped up to tide over the neediest, keeping Meals on Wheels rolling with their own resources, for example, until Clinton found emergency money to cover the costs. Warnings that Medicare treatment would be withheld proved unfounded, and veterans got their care.

Contractors, who perform many key services for government, kept working for IOUs. A claim by the government that deportations "have virtually ended" was not so.

The Justice Department told the story of a Florida gas station rejecting the government-issued credit card of a drug-enforcement agent to illustrate the indignity of it all.

But the reality was humdrum: The card had merely expired.

___

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Mary Clare Jalonick, Joan Lowy and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-26-Budget%20Battle-Sky%20Is%20Falling/id-0d1f7c4d7f144b45ab7eaf8612404fb7

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Microsoft Says Windows Phone Store Now Features More Than 130K Apps, 40K New Developers Registered Since WP8 Launch

Microsoft only provides sporadic updates to how the Windows Phone Store is doing, but today, it used the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to offer a few new numbers. According to Microsoft, there are now over 130,000 apps in the Windows Phone Store and the average Windows Phone user has now downloaded 55 apps. App downloads, the company says, have increased by 75% since the Windows Phone 8 launch late last year and paid app revenue has increased 91%. The Windows Phone developer ecosystem, too, is growing quickly according to Microsoft. More than 40,000 new developers registered with the company in the first 90 days since the launch of Windows Phone 8 and there are now over 15,000 apps in the store that leverage features only available in Windows Phone 8. SDK downloads, too, are up and have now topped 500,000 ?since October 30, 2012. One thing that’s worth noting when looking at the number of new developers is that Microsoft reduced the price of registering as a developer from $99 per year to $8 for the first year during the eight days after the Windows Phone 8 launch, so the numbers may be a good bit higher because of this. New Dev Center App Microsoft also launched a mobile version of its Dev Center dashboard today. The Dev Center app?provides developers with easy access to all the key metrics about their app, including download data, crash trends and reviews. The app, of course, also features a live tile and lets developers share a link to their app with others without having to go into the store first. To make Windows Phone even more attractive to developers, the company also teamed up with services ?like Box, mobile backend provider Buddy?and Photon Cloud, a service for game developers, to offer Windows Phone developer a number of special offers like free API calls and free service for a limited time.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/w2u9CZRzOFI/

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