Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/215308395?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, March 26, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Obama confronts nuke threat on N. Korea front line
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? President Barack Obama is opening his pitch for faster work to lock down nuclear material that could be used by terrorists with an up-close look at the nuclear front lines along the heavily militarized border with volatile North Korea.
Obama arrived in Seoul on Sunday morning, local time, for three days of diplomacy. In the midst of an election year focused on economic concerns at home, Obama has designed a rare Asia visit that features time in just one country. He'll use much of the time to keep pressure on North Korea to back off a planned rocket launch and return to disarmament talks.
The goal of the large gathering of world leaders is to secure nuclear material and prevent it from being smuggled to states or groups intent on mass destruction. Progress has been uneven since the ambitious goal of lockdown by 2014 was first set out by Obama at a similar session in Washington in 2010. No breakthroughs are expected now.
Right across the border but not participating: nuclear North Korea, labeled by the White House as "the odd man out." It is brinksmanship with North Korea and Iran, another nation not invited to the summit, that has dominated much of the nuclear debate and that will cast an unquestionable shadow over talks in Seoul.
Obama has called nuclear terrorism the gravest threat the United States and the world may face. North Korea is a prime suspect in the proliferation of some nuclear know-how, along with missiles that could be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction. Iran is suspected in the arming of terrorists with non-nuclear weaponry, and the U.S. and other nations suspect Iran's nuclear energy program could be converted to build a bomb.
Syria, Pakistan and other global trouble spots are also on the agenda for separate meetings with global leaders attending a progress-check summit of more than 50 nations on Obama's goal of locking down nuclear material around the world by 2014.
Obama's first business: a visit to the volatile Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea, a show of strength amid confusion and disappointment over the state of diplomacy with the nuclear-armed North.
The symbolic visit to the border separating the Korean peninsula will be the fourth by a U.S. president. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all visited the DMZ; other U.S. officials regularly go there.
The border zone is a Cold War anachronism, a legacy of the uncertain armistice that ended the Korean War nearly 60 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of troops stand ready on both sides of the border zone, which is littered with land mines and encased in razor wire. Obama officials said the goal is to thank U.S. and South Korean military members and show U.S. resolve from "the front line of democracy" on the peninsula.
The United States has more than 28,000 troops in South Korea.
North Korea plans to launch a satellite using a long-range rocket next month, which the U.S. and other powers say would violate a U.N. ban on nuclear and missile activity because the same technology could be used for long-range missiles. Taken by surprise, the U.S. warned that a deal to resume stalled food aid to the North could be jeopardized if North Korea goes ahead.
The U.S. considers the rocket launch practice for a ballistic missile test and a violation of North Korea's international responsibilities. The planned launch appears to be part of a long pattern of steps forward, then back in U.S. dealings with North Korea, and plays into Republican claims that Obama is being played for the fool.
Campaign politics surrounding a sitting president typically subside when he is abroad, although Obama's posture toward threats to America will be scrutinized by his rivals.
The timing comes as daily economic worries, not foreign ones, are driving the concerns of American voters. Yet the setting does give Obama a few days to hold forth on the world stage while, back home, Republican presidential candidates keep battling each other.
Halfway into the four-year effort to safeguard nuclear materials from terrorists, many nations have taken voluntary steps to corral material that could be used for terrorist weapons. But they have sidestepped larger questions about how to track all such material, measure compliance and enforce security.
The summit will bring together nuclear-armed nations, plus those with civilian nuclear energy plants and several seeking to build them. Several non-nuclear nations and international organizations, including the U.N. and the International Atomic Energy Agency, are attending.
Countries known or suspected to have nuclear weapons are the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea.
Scores of countries still have research reactors fueled by weapons-usable uranium, and medical devices that use radioactive materials that could be fashioned into a "dirty bomb" are scattered all over the world.
___
Feller is AP's White House correspondent; Gearan is an AP national security writer.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-confronts-nuke-threat-n-korea-front-line-223518377.html
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Saturday, March 24, 2012
Signs of recovery grow in housing market
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The battered housing market looks to be on the mend as buyers make a tentative return and house prices stabilize.
Sales of new homes in February fell from January but jumped more than 11 percent compared with the same month last year and prices rose, according to data released on Friday that was in line with other recent signs of a slow recovery.
Big challenges lie ahead, most notably in the form of a glut of unsold properties - many of them foreclosures - and tight lending by banks. But even if the recovery is slow and bumpy, the worst of the six-year slump seems to be over.
"The housing market is slowly coming back. It's still a depressed market, but it's getting better. We have a long way to go," said Patrick Newport, an economist at Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.
New home sales slipped 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted 313,000-unit annual rate in February, the lowest since October, but were up 11.4 percent in year-on-year terms, the Commerce Department said.
The median new home price jumped 8.3 percent to an eight-month high of $233,700. Compared with February last year, the rise was 6.2 percent.
The report rounded off a week of mixed U.S. housing data and followed a similar pattern seen in the bigger market for existing homes - sales also fell in February, but stayed close to their highest level in nearly two years and prices rose for the first time on a yearly basis since November 2010.
Realtors say they are seeing higher traffic volume and are moving more houses off the market than a few years ago.
"My listings are selling much more quickly compared to the past few years, even approaching 2007 pre-crash levels," said Lindsey Sanders, a Realtor with Muffley & Associates in Atlanta.
"I began seeing a meaningful uptick in open house traffic last summer and it has continued to improve. I think this is a combination of sellers finally becoming more willing to ask market prices for their homes instead of bubble-level prices."
Builders tell a similar story. An index measuring confidence among homebuilders held at a near four-year high this month and they anticipated an increase in sales over the next six months.
While the pace of home construction fell last month, permits for future projects approached a 3-1/2-year high. Much of the activity is concentrated in the multi-family segment, as demand for rentals soars.
SPOTTY RECOVERY
The recovery remains spotty. According to CoreLogic, for every two homes sold, there is one that could be foreclosed. It estimated the so-called shadow inventory of homes at 1.6 million in January, down from 1.8 million a year ago.
KB Home, the fifth-largest U.S. homebuilder, on Friday said net orders for new homes declined 8 percent in its first quarter as cancellations rose.
"Don't expect this to be a broad-based, rocket-ship recovery," said KB Homes Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mezger on an earnings call. "The overall housing market is better, but this is definitely a localized recovery ... and in some cases, it's a zip-code-by-zip-code recovery."
KB's order decline was in sharp contrast to the strong order growth reported by other U.S. homebuilders, including D.R. Horton, Pulte and Lennar, who have forecast an improving housing market.
While the pace of new home sales held above 300,000 units for a sixth straight month, they are just over a fifth of their 1.389 million unit peak reached in July 2005.
"Mindful that more healing needs to be done, we expect new home sales in 2012 to post their first annual increase in seven years, rising 12 percent," said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Last month, the inventory of new homes on the market was unchanged at a record low 150,000 units. At February's sales pace it would take 5.8 months to clear the houses from the market, up from 5.7 months in January.
New home sales last month surged in the Northeast and West but slumped in the South and Midwest.
New home sales account for about 7 percent of the overall housing market and face stiff competition from the used home segment despite low levels of stock.
"Buyers have been able to take their time as they have little fear that prices or rates will get away from them. Mortgage rates, though, are beginning to rise slowly and that could continue through the rest of the year," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.
"Add price increases to that and there is a little more urgency to the decision. So while investors may be disappointed by this report, I think better times are just about here so be a little more patient."
(Additional reporting by Margaret Chadbourn in Washington and Michelle Conlin in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/home-sales-slip-prices-8-month-high-143754718.html
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Living Alone Linked to Greater Risk of Depression: Study
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/living-alone-linked-greater-risk-depression-study-130407874.html
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Friday, March 23, 2012
CPS Energy completes $521 million bond sale
CPS Energy has closed on the sale of $521 million in taxable bonds this week to fund the previously announced acquisition and initial capital expenditures of the Rio Nogales Gas Plant in Seguin.
The bond issuance includes a $404 million term bond and $117 million in serial bonds at a combined interest rate of 4.38 percent over 23 years. The final maturity date of the bonds is 2042. The offering attracted strong investor interest, which resulted in high market demand and a favorable interest rate for the utility.
CPS Energy first announced plans to buy the Rio Nogales plant on March 12. The generation from the 800 megawatt plant will replace the electricity output from CPS Energy?s oldest coal plant, the J.T. Deely facility, which will be decommissioned in 2018. Until then, CPS Energy will use some of Rio Nogales? output and sell the remainder of the power to third-party companies.
J.P. Morgan? was the senior underwriter and Fulbright & Jaworski LLP? and Escamilla, Poneck & Cruz LLP were co-bond counsel. PFM? and Estrada Hinojosa? were co-financial advisors. Bracewell & Giuliani? LLP and Shelton & Valadez, P.C. were co-underwriters counsel.
CPS Energy is the nation?s largest municipally owned natural gas and electric utility.
Receive free daily breaking business news direct to your inbox or mobile device. Click on this link to sign up.
CPS Energy has closed on the sale of $521 million in taxable bonds this week to fund the previously announced acquisition and initial capital expenditures of the Rio Nogales Gas Plant in Seguin.
The bond issuance includes a $404 million term bond and $117 million in serial bonds at a combined interest rate of 4.38 percent over 23 years. The final maturity date of the bonds is 2042. The offering attracted strong investor interest, which resulted in high market demand and a favorable interest rate for the utility.
CPS Energy first announced plans to buy the Rio Nogales plant on March 12. The generation from the 800 megawatt plant will replace the electricity output from CPS Energy?s oldest coal plant, the J.T. Deely facility, which will be decommissioned in 2018. Until then, CPS Energy will use some of Rio Nogales? output and sell the remainder of the power to third-party companies.
J.P. Morgan? was the senior underwriter and Fulbright & Jaworski LLP? and Escamilla, Poneck & Cruz LLP were co-bond counsel. PFM? and Estrada Hinojosa? were co-financial advisors. Bracewell & Giuliani? LLP and Shelton & Valadez, P.C. were co-underwriters counsel.
CPS Energy is the nation?s largest municipally owned natural gas and electric utility.
Receive free daily breaking business news direct to your inbox or mobile device. Click on this link to sign up.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_30/~3/3lKd-FLkg5Y/cps-energy-completes-521-million-bond.html
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Improving the living conditions inside your home
by Home on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 | Comments Off
Remodeling can become an inexpensive activity that is capable of changing or improving the living conditions inside your home. Aside from that, it can also increase the livable spaces within, thereby giving you more options on what you may want to add in it. All these are possible with simple home improvement ideas. Focusing your attention on your house?s exterior is a good start. The exterior can give neighbors that impression that things are much better inside. Simple activities like putting fresh paint can do just that.
Modern times call for so many home improvement ideas. But it would be much better if you can introduce the element of affordability in it. Low-cost improvements will not only improve our homes, but it also saves you money in the long run. And this is what really matters these days, given the hardships we are in. Here are some of these great ideas.
Introducing ?Green? technology ? Because everyone is now realizing the importance of taking care of our environment and this great big home that we are living in, having green technology inside your home is a trick that sets the tone for your home improvement ideas. You can put together solar panels, environment-friendly cleaners, efficient cooling and heating systems, and of course, the very dependable energy-saving light bulbs. Some of these may seem too heavy for your budget right now, but it sure will carry you in the long run. Generating your own electricity is very efficient and cost-effective; however you may want to look at it.
Redecorating and painting your home?s living spaces ? These are very simple tricks that can do so much to beautify your home. And it really works! Introducing fresh new paints to the rooms using cool and soothing colors plus the accents helps in creating a more relaxed atmosphere, making you and the rest of your family want to stay home more often.
Painting the inside of your house is something you can do quite easily. Matte-finished paint is extremely easy to paint with. Your local home-improvement store can fill you in on what supplies you need. It can even teach you what materials you need and the procedures you need to go through to successfully paint your inside walls. You could even learn how to do stenciling or other decorative techniques.
You can replace your old, faded curtains with bright new ones at a low cost. Hit the bargain stores for these instead of the high price stores though. Remember you are trying to keep everything as affordable as possible. You also could choose new blinds, shades or other window dressings.
Kitchen duty involves brightening up the kitchen you have. You can just replace the cabinet doors with new ones if they are too badly aged. Another way to brighten them up would be to paint them. If they have a protective finish on them it will have to be removed first through stripping or sanding. Then all you have to do is use a good quality high-gloss or satin-finish paint to lift their look. Also replace the old knobs with new ones. Don?t forget the drawers either.
Simply shampooing the carpets will do wonders for your whole house. Carpets have a way of getting stained and grungy looking if not cleaned periodically. We walk on them all day without realizing we are grounding in dirt which dims the color of the carpet. You can rent shampooers or have it done professionally; either way is an affordable investment in your house.
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Source: http://home-improvement-idea.com/improving-the-living-conditions-inside-your-home/
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
Medicaid Standard Utility Decrease | Cooper, Adel & Associates
?
By Heather Chapman
Effective April 1, 2012, the Ohio standard utility allowance applied for determining benefits for Medicaid and Food Assistance will decrease from $599 to $533 per month. This applies mostly for determining the monthly allowance for the community spouse when the other is institutionalized. This change will affect current and future eligibility for food assistance, nursing home and waiver cases, but will mainly just mean an increase in the patient liability that the institutionalized person must pay each month. For anyone that has a case affected by this change, a notice should have already been sent out for those that the mass automatic change caught, all others will go through a manual desk audit and have notices sent out no later than March 14, 2012. Food assistance cases should only experience a decrease in the amount that is received for the Ohio Direction Card.
The utility allowance was originally increased when the the cost of utilities was high and people were struggling to keep their bills paid. Even though gas prices and utility fees have steadily increased since 2009, the decrease was passed to help tax payers and not the individuals needing the assistance.
As of January 1, 2012, the Social Security cost of living increase of 3.6 percent was a long awaited relief for the more than 60 million Americans struggling to make ends meet. The first automatic increase since 2009. Now for Ohio residents receiving Social Security, the much needed income will be offset by the decrease in the utility standard providing little help in today's economy.
The requirements and standards for eligibility continue to change and will become a long term point of contention with politicians in ways to balance the budgets. Their solutions for the future is leaning towards massive Medicaid cuts. In order to help your long term care and planning for yourself or your loved ones, seek the advice of a legal professional, particularly one with elder law experience, who is equipped with the knowledge and updated requirements for Medicare eligibility.
Source: http://cooperelderlaw.com/medicaid/medicaid-standard-utility-decrease/
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