CNN.COM

It seems the controversy surrounding TLC’s “Toddlers & Tiaras” and its pint-sized stars is never-ending.

After one contestant dressed as Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman,” another, Isabella Barrett, was filmed singing LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” at an event.

Barrett’s mother, Susanna, has since filed a lawsuit against TMZ, Huffington Post and Daily Mail Online, among other media outlets, for running stories that she alleges “sexualize” her 5-year-old daughter, according to court documents obtained by CNN.

“After this firestorm, I quickly protected my daughter by having cease and desist orders sent to most media outlets that ran the story,” Susanna said in a statement provided to CNN, adding, “I intend to clear my daughter’s name.”

Barrett also detailed her version of the events shown in a video published by TMZ. (In the video, Isabella can be seen singing along to “Sexy and I Know It” at a DJ booth with a microphone in her hand.)

News organizations reported that the Barrett’s were at a nightclub, however, Susanna said in her statement that she and her daughter were actually at “a pet friendly charity event at an American bistro restaurant in New York City at 7:19 p.m. It was a private well-lit event with vendor tables and pets in attendance.”

CNN.COM

Los Angeles (CNN) — “The Help,” a movie about the treatment of maids in a Mississippi town during the civil rights era, took top honors at the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night, making it the movie to watch as the Oscar awards approach next month.
Viola Davis won the best actress trophy, while Octavia Spence was given the best supporting actress honor. Both women portrayed maids.
“The Help” also won the best cast ensemble SAG award.
“The stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of color and women,” Davis said. “It’s all of our burden, all of us.”
Davis’ best actress win seemed to throw the Oscar competition into a frenzy, since she beat Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams, actresses who won Golden Globes two weeks ago.
Streep was nominated for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “Iron Lady,” and MIchelle Williams, was nominated for playing movie legend Marilyn Monroe in “My Week With Marilyn.”
Jean Dujardin won the SAG best actor in a film award for his lead role in “The Artist,” a black-and-white, silent film.
The win gives Dujardin an apparent edge against George Clooney and the three other nominees in next month’s Oscar best actor competition.
Spencer’s supporting actress SAG award makes her a clear frontrunner for the supporting actress Oscar, considering she also won the Golden Globe.
“These women represent our mothers and grandmothers,” Spencer said, referring to the maids portrayed in “The Help.” “By honoring me, you’re honoring them.”
Christopher Plummer, 82, also earned frontrunner status for in the Academy Award best supporting actor competition by winning the SAG honor Sunday night for his role in “The Beginners.”
“I just cannot tell you how much fun I’ve had being a member of the world’s second oldest profession,” Plummer said as he accepted his SAG trophy.
Hollywood’s awards season neared mid-point Sunday night with the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild honors — the only industry awards that solely recognize performers.
The SAG actor trophies go to both television and film actors, and the winners are chosen by their acting peers.
SAG President Ken Howard also used the event to announce the actor union’s board approved a proposal to merge with AFTRA, another acting union, pending approval of their memberships.
On the prime-time television side, HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” won for best ensemble cast in a drama series for a second straight year. It was also the second consecutive time for the show’s star Steve Buscemi to win the SAG best actor in a TV drama award his role of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson.
Jessica Lange won the SAG trophy for best actress in a TV drama series for her work in the FX’s “American Horror Story.” It is her first SAG honor.
“It was a real leap of faith for me to jump into it, but it’s been a wonderful ride,” Lange said of her role as “Constance.”
In the television movie or miniseries categories, best actress award went to Kate Winslet for “Mildred Pierce.” Paul Giamatti won best actor for his portrayal of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in “Too Big To Fail.”
“Modern Family” won the best ensemble cast in a TV comedy series for a second year.
Alec Baldwin won SAG’s best actor in a TV comedy series for “30 Rock,” while 89-year-old Betty White was given the best actress in a comedy award for “Hot in Cleveland,” which she won last year.
“I don’t think they can read,” White said as she accepted. “I think they made a terrible mistake.”
White, the darling of last year’s SAG telecast, will turn 90 just days before the next awards show.
The show at the Shrine Exposition Center aired on TNT and TBS. Both TNT and TBS are units of Time Warner, the parent company of CNN.

cnn.com

Jacksonville, Florida (CNN) — Front-runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich got the most attention and Romney appeared to get the better of his opponent on a couple of occasions during the final debate before Tuesday’s critical Florida primary.
While his attacks Thursday night on his rival weren’t sharp, Romney was forceful and had Gingrich on his heels when he brushed accusations aside and turned them back on Gingrich at the CNN/Republican Party of Florida debate in Jacksonville.
“Romney won two ways tonight,” said CNN contributor and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. “One, by having a good debate and two by having [Rick] Santorum have his best debate yet.”
Romney appeals to the more moderate wing of the Republican Party while Santorum and Gingrich are competing for the conservative vote.
Asked to address the housing crisis, one of the major problems facing Florida voters, Gingrich began by claiming that Romney was knowingly and “unfairly” attacking him on his consulting record for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, sparking a fiery back-and-forth over which candidate has had a closer relationship with troubled lenders.

Gingrich claimed that Romney had profited off of investments in both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In turn, Romney tried to explain the nature of his investments, quickly pointing out that he may own bonds, but anything he owns is controlled by a “blind trust.”
Then he asked, “Have you checked your own investments, Mr. Speaker?” and pointed out that Gingrich also has investments in the mortgage lenders, a remark that got a response from the crowd.
Thursday’s audience did play a bigger part in the debate, in contrast to the other Florida debate on Monday, at which attendees were asked to hold their applause.
Also in contrast was Romney’s approach, standing casually with a hand in his pocket for most of the two hours, directing his answers to the audience instead of at Gingrich as he had in Monday’s debate.
Florida is the next state to vote in the already volatile nominating season with Santorum, Romney and Gingrich winning the first three contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, respectively.
Romney drew frequent applause early in the debate when he pushed back attacks by Gingrich over immigration.
Gingrich charged Romney’s immigration policy would result in the deportation of grandmothers who are in the country illegally. Romney has advocated for “self-deportation,” a policy that involves making economic conditions so difficult for undocumented workers that they choose to leave the country to find better opportunities.
The former House speaker said Romney was the most anti-immigrant candidate on the debate stage, which prompted outrage from Romney.
“I’m not going to go find grandmothers and take them out of them homes and deport them,” Romney said, accusing Gingrich of using “highly-charged epithets” irresponsibly. “Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers.”
However, Gingrich and Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, did agree with Romney that at least some illegal immigrants would be likely to “self-deport” if the government were to crack down on employers who hired illegal immigrants. All three men advocated a system of identification for immigrants that would help employers verify an employee’s legal status.
Trying to widen what was becoming a two-man debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the candidates flanking Gingrich and Romney, if they believed any profits earned from investing in the government-backed entities should be returned.

“That subject doesn’t really interest me,” Paul replied.
For his turn, Santorum launched into a screed against the personal turn the campaign has taken of late, asking that the debate shift back to the issues facing the country rather than the financial dealings of two candidates.
“The bigger issue here is, these two gentlemen, who are out distracting from the most important issues — we have been playing petty personal politics, can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies — and that’s not the worst thing in the world — and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy because worked hard and he’s going out and working hard? And you guys should leave that alone and focus on the issues.”
The day before the debate, Gingrich told an audience on Florida’s Space Coast, hit hard by the end of the space shuttle program, that he would build a colony on the moon by the end of his second term in office — a plan that found little support among his rivals on stage. Santorum said the depth of the debt crisis was too severe to consider such proposals. Romney said that even as a private sector suggestion, the idea was deeply flawed.
Citing his business experience, Romney said that if an executive had come to him suggesting spending “billions” of dollars on a colony on the moon, “I’d say ‘You’re fired.’”
Paul continued to walk his lonely path, vowing to cut back on many of the United States’ investments in the military, health care and other government services. The candidate often injected humor into the debate when he proclaimed himself uninterested in many of the topics argued over by the other candidates in favor of a strict constructionist view.
Earlier in the day, Gingrich lashed out at Romney, accusing him of engaging in sleazy negative politics and being part of a fragile establishment desperate to stop the former House speaker from winning the GOP nomination.
“Many of you have probably noticed a number of attack ads and all sorts of junk, and that’s what it is,” Gingrich told a crowd in Mount Dora. “This is the desperate last stand of the old order throwing the kitchen sink, hoping something sticks.”

They’re trying to “drown us in enough mud, raised with money from companies and people who foreclosed on Floridians,” Gingrich claimed. “Remember the Republican establishment is just as much as an establishment as the Democratic establishment, and they are just as determined to stop us. … This is a campaign for the very nature of the Republican Party and the very opportunity for a citizen conservatism to defeat the power of money and to prove that people matter more than Wall Street.”
Romney, meanwhile, said before Thursday’s debate he would focus on his opponent in the general election rather than his rivals on stage.
“We’re going to have some choice time talking about the president and his failures, we’ll probably talk a great deal about his State of the Union address and how badly mischaracterized he has described our nation at a time when so many people are suffering in this state and across the country,” he said.
But “we may talk about the differences between ourselves as well,” he added. “There may be some give and take.”
One of Romney’s most prominent supporters, however, didn’t hesitate to attack Gingrich on Thursday. Former GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole released a statement through the Romney campaign characterizing Gingrich as erratic, unreliable and certain to lead the Republican Party to defeat in November.
When Gingrich was in Congress, he “was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway,” Dole, a former U.S. senator from Kansas, said. As speaker, Gingrich “had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. … Democrats are spending millions of dollars running negative ads against Romney as they are hoping that Gingrich will be the nominee.”
The latest public opinion polls suggest that the battle for Florida’s 50 winner-take-all delegates — the largest catch so far this primary and caucus season — is turning into a two-man race between Romney and Gingrich. According to a CNN/Time/ORC International survey released Wednesday, 36% of people likely to vote in Tuesday’s Republican primary in Florida say they are backing Romney as the party’s nominee, with 34% supporting Gingrich. Romney’s 2-point margin over Gingrich is well within the survey’s sampling error.
The other two candidates are far behind, with Santorum at 11% and Paul at 9%, with 7% unsure of who they’ll vote for.
Gingrich received a boost in the polls after his double-digit victory in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, but Wednesday’s CNN poll and another by the American Research Group indicate that the former House speaker’s momentum might be waning.
And Monday’s debate in Tampa might not have helped Gingrich, as he repeatedly came under attack by Romney, Santorum and Paul over his record as House speaker in the 1990s, characterizations of influence-peddling after getting out of government and his past stance on health care reform. Gingrich didn’t seem to mount an effective response to many of the attacks.
With five days to go until the primary, the CNN/Time/ORC poll indicates that a quarter of likely primary voters say they may change their mind on which candidate they are backing.

www.bankrate.com

Would you give a thief direct access to your checking account?

No? Unfortunately, you may be doing just that by regularly using your debit card. Debit cards may look identical to credit cards, but there’s one key difference. With credit cards, users who spot fraudulent charges on their bill can simply decline the charges and not pay the bill. On the other hand, debit cards draw money directly from your checking account, rather than from an intermediary such as a credit card company.

Because of that, even clear-cut cases of fraud where victims are protected from liability by consumer protection laws can cause significant hardship, says Frank Abagnale, a secure-document consultant in Washington, D.C.

He cites the example of the The TJX Companies Inc.’s T.J. Maxx data breach that exposed the payment information of thousands of customers in 2007. The incident resulted in $150 million in fraud losses, and much of it was pulled directly from customers’ bank accounts. While credit card users got their accounts straightened out and new cards in the mail within a few days, the case created major problems for debit card holders who waited an average of two to three months to get reimbursed, Abagnale says.

While debit card fraud is always a possibility, being careful where you use it can help keep your checking account balance out of the hands of criminals.

Skimming ATMs

The idea that outdoor ATMs are among the most dangerous places to use a debit card seems a little bit absurd. But some ATMs present a perfect opportunity for thieves to skim users’ debit cards, says Chris McGoey, a security consultant based in Los Angeles.

Skimming is the practice of capturing a bank customer’s card information by running it through a machine that reads the card’s magnetic strip. Those machines are often placed over the real card slots at ATMs and other card terminals.

“Any transaction you do outdoors at an open ATM is going to be higher risk exposure,” McGoey says. “If the public has access to it, then someone has the ability to add skimming devices to it, position cameras on it and position themselves in a way where they could surveil it.”

He says you’re better off using an ATM inside a retail outlet or other high-trafficked, well-lit place.

Julie McNelley, senior analyst for Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based financial services research firm, says even the card terminals that card users must swipe to get into ATM vestibules are being used as a skimming site by criminals. You can spot ATM skimmers by checking for ATM components that look beat-up or askew, she says.

Stealing PINs at gas stations

Gas stations are another danger zone for debit card use.

“You go to a gas station and you stick your debit card in there, and you swipe it through a machine,” Abagnale says. “I’m sitting across the street with a laptop and an antenna. I put a skimmer in there, and I’m picking up all the information. Before you even get home, I’ve debited your account.”

Gas station payment terminals have many of the characteristics card fraudsters love, McNelley says.

“In a gas station where you do have a whole bunch of pay-at-the-pump kinds of things and minimal supervision, it’s pretty easy for a bad guy to put a skimming device on and put a little pinpoint camera there and compromise debit cards that way,” McNelley says. Thieves often use small cameras to capture footage of debit card users entering their PINs so they can have free access to their money.

She says even if the thief doesn’t manage to get your debit card personal identification number, or PIN, from such a device, he still may be able to duplicate the card’s magnetic strip and use it for “sign and swipe” Visa or MasterCard transactions.

With the high potential for fraud in pay-at-the-pump debit transactions, it might make sense to use an alternative such as cash or credit cards the next time you fill up.

The Web is a risky place

Debit cards are a convenient way to buy products online, especially for those who don’t like to use credit cards. Unfortunately, the Web is one of the most dangerous places to make purchases, McNelley says.

“Online is the No. 1 place where consumers should not use their debit cards,” she says. “It’s susceptible at so many points. The consumer could have malware on their computer, so it could be at their endpoint that the data get compromised. It could be a man-in-the-middle attack where somebody is eavesdropping on their communications via the wireless network. And then at the other end, that data goes into a database at the merchant. As we’ve seen with some of the higher-profile breach events over the last year or so, that data is going to be vulnerable if (they’re) not properly cared for.”

Aside from the potential for hacking at many different points in a transaction, Abagnale says a fundamental problem with using debit cards online is it’s impossible to know who is handling your information.

“Buying stuff online, you have to be careful because you have to know who you’re doing business with. When you buy things online, what always kills me about that is people say, ‘This is a safe site,’” Abagnale says. “Who works there?”

Restaurants keep customer data on file

“Would you care for a side of debit card fraud with that?”

Restaurant servers don’t ask that question, but they might as well with the standard practice of taking customers’ debit cards to run them behind closed doors.

“Any place where the card is out of hand” can increase the chances of fraud, says McGoey. “The guy comes to your table, takes your card and disappears for a while, so he or she has privacy,” giving the person the opportunity to copy your card information.

Even restaurants without sit-down service can present a threat. McNelley says using debit cards to order delivery can be risky because cashiers tend to keep customer payment information on file. That may make future orders more convenient, but small businesses rarely take the steps necessary to safeguard payment information, she says.

Overall, she says, regardless of whether you use your debit card at a small restaurant or a big-box store, the possibility of fraud is always there. She cites the example of Michaels Stores Inc., which saw its customers’ debit card information stolen in May by debit card terminals doctored by thieves.

“Even if you do exercise caution … there are still the Michaels-type incidents that will happen,” McNelley says.

cnn.com

Giglio, Italy (CNN) — In his answers to prosecutors, defense attorneys and a judge, the captain of the ill-fated cruise ship Costa Concordia admitted he made a “mistake” in colliding with rocks off the Italian island of Giglio.
However, in statements made during a phone conversation with a friend earlier this month, Capt. Francesco Schettino said managers pressured him to steer the ship to the area where the collision occurred, two Italian newspapers reported Wednesday.
Both Costa Cruises and authorities have criticized Schettino’s behavior. He is under house arrest and faces possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship when the vessel struck rocks and rolled over onto its side in the waters off the island on January 13.
A 16th body was found Tuesday on the ship. Sixteen others are missing from the roughly 4,200 people aboard the cruise liner — 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members — at the time of the collision.
“I hit this projection of rock, that seems almost stuck into the ship, but this was my mistake,” Schettino said in the 126-page transcript. “… There isn’t anything I can say, as I was convinced that passing within .28 of a mile there wouldn’t be any problem.
The captain also brushed aside suggestions that at 15 knots, he was going too fast, as alleged by prosecutors.

“There isn’t a speed limit,” he said. “… We had more or less the speed needed to reach Savona on time.”
According to the transcript, Schettino maintained he ran the ship aground to keep it from sinking. “This is what allowed me to limit the tilting,” he said.
Maritime lawyer Jim Allsworth told CNN the maneuver is “fairly standard” in the case of a ship taking on water and in danger of sinking or capsizing. “The best thing to do is to put it aground to stop it sinking.”
Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera on Wednesday published excerpts from a telephone conversation Schettino had with a friend after his January 14 arrest.
The captain called his friend from the prosecutor’s office, and authorities tapped the phone, the newspapers said. Schettino attorney Alessandro Antichi confirmed the wiretap but would not comment on the conversation. The information should not have been published, he said, as it is part of the investigation.
“In my place, someone else wouldn’t have been so benevolent to have gone right under there, because they have pissed me off, go, go there,” Schettino said, in an apparent reference to getting close to the island, according to the newspapers. “The shallows were there but it wasn’t signaled by the instruments that I had and I went through … in order to follow what the managers wanted.”
The man behind the steering wheel, Jacob Rusli Bin, told investigators that after the ship struck the rocks, Schettino cursed and said he had not seen them, La Repubblica reported.
Speaking Wednesday before the Italian Senate, Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi gave an account of what occurred as documented by Roberto Ferrarini, the company’s director of marine operations.
The first contact between Schettino and Ferrarini took place about 15 minutes after the collision, at 9:57 p.m. In the call, Schettino told Ferrarini of the crash and said the ship had lost power but assured him the ship could still navigate and the situation was being investigated. In subsequent calls, Foschi said, Schettino updated Ferrarini about the ship taking on water but insisted it could still navigate.
Foschi told lawmakers that Ferrarini reported Schettino was calm during the calls. The last call in which the captain reported the situation was under control came in at 10:33 p.m., he said. Two minutes later, Schettino called to tell Ferrarini the ship was being evacuated, Foschi said, adding that Ferrarini was surprised at the sudden change.
Ferrarini and Schettino continued to talk during the evacuation, Foschi said, but did not provide further details.
Costa cannot conduct an independent investigation because prosecutors seized the ship’s data recorder, or “black box.” The recorder had some connection problems but is working, Foschi said. It contains conversation recordings and navigation system data, he said.
Schettino’s defense attorney, Bruno Leporatti, filed an appeal Wednesday of a judge’s decision to place the captain on house arrest, Leporatti’s office said in a statement. Both the prosecution and the defense are appealing the decision — prosecutors because they believe Schettino should be in custody, and the defense because it believes he should have been released with no restrictions on his movements.
In his deposition, Schettino defended his decision not to evacuate the ship immediately.
“It’s not like I can have a black out and immediately say, ‘Let’s all get out of here,’ ” he said. “Where do I send these people? I need to have the certainty and reach my decision on the fact that the ship is like that (no longer capable of floating). I am not going to put at risk the lives of 4,000 people.”
Cruise ship passengers described a scene of panic and confusion as they rushed for lifeboats. Some said the crew seemed overwhelmed and did not have accurate information on what was taking place.
In the transcript, Schettino also described the chaos, saying he helped passengers onto lifeboats and that some became stuck because of the angle of the listing ship. He said he was trying to launch a lifeboat when he realized he was no longer on board.
“I was then on the lifeboat. It isn’t as if I had boarded it,” he said. “Look, I fell on its roof.”
However, in the wiretapped conversation, Schettino tells the friend, “When I understood that the ship was tilting, I decided to leave, and left,” according to Corriere della Sera.
A captain’s leaving the ship with passengers still aboard is difficult to defend, said Italian criminal defense attorney Ugo Meucci, who does not represent Schettino.
“This is a very difficult position because our law is very strong, and the risk is very high for the captain,” who could face a 15-year jail sentence, Meucci said.
Schettino has resolutely defended his actions after the ship hit the rocks, insisting he kept his bosses at Costa fully informed of the accident’s severity.
“The gash (in the ship) was immense,” the captain said in the wiretapped conversation. “There was this projection of rock, and then all what I did afterwards, I did it with my most professionalism, and this can help me alleviate or at least give me the illusion to be at peace with my conscience.”
He tells the friend. “I’m proud of the fact that we saved almost all (the passengers). … I went around picking up people at sea and I’m at peace.”
Schettino also tells the friend, “I don’t ever want to go back on ship.”

bloomberg.com

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama called for the nation’s wealthy to pay more in taxes as part of a bargain to restore fairness to the U.S. economy and rein in the deficit, in a State of the Union address that hit the populist themes he’ll be repeating in his campaign for a second term.

Invoking a tax idea named for billionaire Warren Buffett, Obama said the law should make sure million-dollar earners pay at least 30 percent in taxes.

“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” Obama said in his televised address to a joint session of Congress. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

He also called for incentives for companies to return jobs to the U.S., development of domestic natural gas reserves and alternative energy sources, and providing American workers with better training. He promised tougher enforcement of trade rules and an investigation of wrongdoing related to real estate lending and of fraud on Wall Street.

Tax code changes require approval by Congress, and Obama is unlikely to get major legislative initiatives enacted before the November election, which will also decide control of the House and the Senate. He’ll be constrained on spending for his proposals such as infrastructure projects by efforts to contain the national debt. Last year’s deficit of $1.3 trillion was third-highest as a share of the economy since 1945.

Republican Response

In the Republican response, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who last year decided against a presidential run, said Democratic “extremism” has stifled domestic energy development and private sector job growth.

“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others,” Daniels said.

Obama is following the speech with a three-day trip to election battleground states where he’ll talks about his plans for manufacturing, energy and education.

With the presidential campaign under way, Obama is seeking to draw contrasts with the Republican presidential candidates. He’s also emphasizing his willingness to confront congressional Republicans, who’ve stalled his agenda and are seeking to overturn tighter regulation of Wall Street.

Tax Code Changes

“I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum,” Obama said . “But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis.”

Saying the country must reclaim “American values,” Obama proposed overhauling the tax code to make it simpler for working-class Americans and limit tax breaks for the wealthiest. He proposed ending tax subsidies for housing, health-care, retirement and child care for those with yearly incomes exceeding $1 million.

The so-called Buffett rule was inspired by an August New York Times op-ed essay in which Buffett said that in 2010 he paid a lower tax rate — 17.4 percent — than “any of the other 20 people in our office.”

When Obama first announced the proposal in September, he said that “Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett.” The secretary, Debbie Bosanek, was a guest of first lady Michelle Obama at the speech tonight.

Election Issue

“You can call this class warfare all you want,” Obama said, referring to Republican criticism of his proposals. “But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes?  Most Americans would call that common sense.”

Obama’s campaign is making tax fairness an election year issue. Republican candidate Mitt Romney yesterday released his tax returns and they showed he earned $21.6 million in 2010 and paid 13.9 percent in taxes.

The former private-equity executive earned more than half of his income from capital gains and dividends, which are taxed at a top rate of 15 percent, rather than the 35 percent top rate for ordinary income.

In an interview on NBC after Obama’s speech, Romney said that Obama had Democratic majorities in the House and Senate during the first half of his term and “could have done anything he wanted to do.”

“Why didn’t he get these things done during his first two years?” Romney said.

Gingrich Reaction

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is vying with Romney for the lead in the Republican race, said in an e-mailed statement that Obama “described his conviction that his big government is built to last and should be paid for with higher taxes.”

Even with the partisan division in Congress, lawmakers in the House chamber continued their recently adopted practice of bipartisan seating to listen to the president’s speech.

Democratic senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Robert Casey of Pennsylvania sat with their home state counterparts, Republicans Scott Brown, Mike Johanns and Pat Toomey. North Dakota Republican John Hoeven sat with Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of neighboring Minnesota. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions sat between Klobuchar and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden.

Manufacturing Jobs

In an effort to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S., Obama proposed ending tax breaks for companies that move their operations overseas. He said a tax credit should be created for companies that close operations abroad and bring jobs back home.

Obama’s proposals also include lowering tax rates for U.S. manufacturers and doubling the tax deduction for high-tech manufacturers.

Obama revisited an idea he presented in September to improve the nation’s infrastructure, except this time by using half of the savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay for it. The other half of that savings, he said, would pay down the deficit.

The president plans to issue an executive order in the next several weeks to speed the infrastructure effort.

Obama also talked about education and job training to make American more competitive and help reduce unemployment. Among his proposals is a partnership between community colleges and businesses to train and place 2 million workers.

He said Congress should overhaul unemployment insurance by requiring workers to undergo eligibility assessments. Obama called for career and financial rewards for successful teachers.

Energy Production

To promote U.S. energy independence, Obama directed the government to promote development of natural gas, which he said will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

Obama has taken credit for higher U.S. oil and gas production and lower imports as he faces criticism from Republican lawmakers, the oil and gas industry, and some labor unions for his Jan. 18 decision to deny a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline. He said the administration will create new rules for safe shale gas development and drilling practices.

He proposed incentives for manufacturers to upgrade their energy efficiency, which he said would save $100 billion over the next decade and he repeated his push for clean energy tax credits and his goal for 80 percent of the nation’s electricity come from clean energy sources by 2035.

The president took a hard line against China’s unfair trade practices, announcing the creation of a trade enforcement division that will target unfair practices from other countries, especially China, which has long come under fire in the U.S. for its currency valuation.

“We’ve brought trade cases against China at nearly twice the rate as the last administration – and it’s made a difference,” Obama said.

–With assistance from Julianna Goldman, Joe Sobczyk, Greg Giroux, James Rowley and Michelle Jamrisko in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Steven Komarow

cnn.com

Rave-goers and visitors to Amsterdam before December 2008 may be intimately familiar with magic mushrooms, but there’s little scientific knowledge on what happens to the brain while tripping.

Now it appears that more research is warranted. A growing number of studies suggested that perhaps the mushrooms’ key ingredient could work magic for certain mental disorders.

New research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on why one of the mushrooms’ hallucinogenic chemical compounds, psilocybin, may hold promise for the treatment of depression. Scientists explored the effect of psilocybin on the brain, documenting the neural basis behind the altered state of consciousness that people have reported after using magic mushrooms.

“We have found that these drugs turn off the parts of the brain that integrate sensations – seeing, hearing, feeling – with thinking,” said David Nutt, co-author of the study and researcher at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom.

Nutt is also Britain’s former chief drug adviser, who has published controversial papers about the relative harms of various drugs. He was asked to leave his government position in 2009 because “he cannot be both a government adviser and a campaigner against government policy,” according to a letter in the Guardian from a member of the British Parliament.

Psilocybin is illegal in the United States and considered a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin and LSD. Schedule 1 drugs “have a high potential for abuse and serve no legitimate medical purpose in the United States,” according to the Department of Justice.

But in the early stages of research on psilocybin, there’s been a bunch of good news for its medicinal potential: psilocybin has shown to be helpful for terminally ill cancer patients dealing with anxiety, and preliminary studies on depression are also promising.

Nutt’s study is also preliminary and small, with only 30 participants. His group used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at how the brain responds to psilocybin, from normal waking consciousness to a psychedelic state.

The study found that the more psilocybin shuts off the brain, the greater the feeling of being in an altered state of consciousness, he said. It’s not the same as dreaming, because you’re fully conscious and aware, he said.

The medial prefrontal cortex, the front part of the brain in the middle, appears to be crucial – it determines how you think, feel and behave. Damage to it produces profound changes in personality, and so if you switch it off, your sense of self becomes fragmented, Nutt said. That’s what happens when psilocybin decreases activity in it.

“Some people say they become one with the universe,” he said. “It’s that sort of transcendental experience.”

Another brain region that psilocybin affects is the anterior cingulate cortex, which is over-active in depression, Nutt said. Some patients with severe depression that cannot be treated with pharmaceuticals receive deep brain stimulation, a technique of surgically implanting a device that delivers electrical impulses directed at decreasing activity in that brain region. Psilocybin could be a cheaper option, Nutt said.

It’s counterintuitive that a hallucinogenic drug would de-activate rather than stimulate key brain regions, although other studies have shown a mix of results regarding psilocybin turning brain areas on and off, said Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Griffiths was not involved in Nutt’s study, but has also researched the effects of psilocybin.

Even if this drug gets approved some day, don’t expect to be able to pick up a prescription for psilocybin at your local pharmacy, Griffiths cautioned. There’s too much potential for abuse, he said.

Although scientists have found many positive effects of psilocybin in experimental trials, there are of course potential dangers. Some people have frightening experiences while on psilocybin. The fear and anxiety responses of magic mushrooms can be so great that, when taken casually in a non-medical setting, people can cause harm to themselves or others. They may jump out a window or run into traffic because of a panic reaction.

The drug would have to be administered in a controlled setting in a hospital, if found in further research to be an effective and safe therapy for certain mental illnesses, Griffiths said. It would not be appropriate for people who already have psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, since psilocybin can exacerbate those symptoms.

But among healthy volunteers, Griffiths and others have found that people may have long-lasting positive effects from the vivid memories of being on psilocybin (in a controlled, experimental setting). People report mystical experiences of feeling the “interconnectedness of all things,” which can be life-changing.

“People claim to have an enhanced sense of self, more emotional balance, they’re more compassionate, they’re more sensitive to the needs of others,” he said. “They have more well-being and less depression, but they’re not ‘high’ in any conventional sense. They feel like their perceptual set has shifted.”

The memories of the psilocybin experience, and positive outcomes that users attribute toward them, can last as much as 25 years, research has shown.

Still, there’s just not enough known yet about the long-term safety of psilocybin to say whether it could also do damage to the brain, Griffiths said.

“There’d have to be changes in the brain for these long-lasting memories and attributions to occur,” Griffiths said. “We don’t know how those changes occur, and why.”

cnn.com

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama launches a three-day swing through key election states Wednesday after declaring in what could be his final State of the Union address that the nation was strengthening but must confront the defining issue of preserving the American dream.
In the speech Tuesday night to a joint sitting of Congress, Obama offered both his administration’s priorities for the coming year and his campaign messaging for his re-election bid in November.
Read the president’s speech
He defended a long list of his trademark policies — tax increases on the wealthy, Wall Street reform, health care reform, government stimulus spending — to applause from fellow Democrats while also offering proposals of interest to Republicans, such as corporate tax breaks and expanded oil and gas development.

Declaring “the state of our union is getting stronger,” Obama said America had come too far in its still sluggish recover from economic recession “to turn back now.”
With unemployment still above 8% and economic uncertainty lingering, Obama framed the challenges facing the country as a choice between opportunity for some or giving everyone a chance to prosper.
“The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive,” the president said. “No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
He continued by saying, “What’s at stake aren’t Democratic values or Republican values, but American values, and we have to reclaim them.”
The Republican response chided Obama for not addressing the nation’s $15 trillion debt more forcefully, presenting a stark contrast in policy proposals and outlook to the president’s more optimistic assessment of what has been accomplished and what is needed.
“It was irresponsible for him not to recognize the dire circumstances our country is in because of our debt,” conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina said. “He spent his speech making some more promises from government.”
CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen described it as a “politically shrewd speech” likely to satisfy Obama’s Democratic base while winning over some independents.
The annual evening of political pageantry, with senators and representatives joining Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, military leaders and others in the packed House chamber, included a poignant touch with Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in attendance the night before she will resign due to her brain injury from last year’s shooting attack in her native Arizona.

A champion of bipartisan politics, the still unsteady Giffords repeatedly was helped in rising to applaud Obama’s speech by her Republican colleague from Arizona, Rep. Jeff Flake.
“It was the least I could do,” Flake, a staunch conservative and frequent critic of the president, said. Asked if fellow Republicans thought he stood up so often to support what Obama was saying, Flake said in reference to Giffords: “I think most people would understand I support my colleague and friend.”
Obama began and ended the 65-minute speech by praising U.S. troops for unity and teamwork that can serve as a model for facing the country’s problems.
He called for lowering corporate taxes and providing incentives for U.S. manufacturers to bring overseas jobs back to America, while ending tax breaks for businesses that continue to outsource. At the same time, Obama said, every multinational company should pay a basic minimum tax, while giving American manufacturers a tax cut.
“It’s time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America,” Obama said, adding a challenge to Congress he repeated throughout the night to send him a bill that he pledged to sign “right away.”
He also challenged Congress to act on comprehensive immigration reform, a major election-year issue for the important Hispanic-American vote. Short of a major overhaul, he called for legislation like the DREAM Act that provides children of illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military a path to possible citizenship.
In response to Republican criticism of his energy policy, Obama said to applause he was ordering his administration to open up 75% of potential offshore oil and gas resources. At the same time, he also said U.S. oil production was at the highest level in eight years, countering GOP claims he was stifling oil development.
On income taxes, Obama repeated his longstanding call for the wealth to pay more in taxes, including a specific proposal for millionaires to have a tax rate of 30%. Earlier Tuesday, millionaire Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney revealed his actual tax rate was lower than 15%.

Obama’s presidency so far has been mostly defined by the ideological battle between Democrats and Republicans over the role of government in American society.
Bolstered by the conservative tea party movement that helped deliver the House majority in 2010, Republicans have pushed for shrinking government to ease mounting federal deficits and debt.
Obama and Democrats argue that deficit reduction must include both spending cuts and revenue increases in a balanced approach that maintains the essential role of government in American prosperity and opportunity.
The partisan divide has led to repeated congressional showdowns over budget and tax issues, with public dissatisfaction with Congress at historically low levels and the U.S. credit rating downgrade.
In his speech, Obama described the possibilities offered by what he called a “blueprint for an American economy that’s built to last.”
“Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people,” Obama said. “An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.”
At the same time, he repeated his readiness to work with Republicans to build on economic recovery that has started but still struggles to take off.
“But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place,” Obama said.
“Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same,” he continued. “It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no cop-outs. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody.”
Read the GOP’s response
In the official GOP response, conservative Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said that “it’s not fair and it’s not true for the president to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles.”
“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others,” Daniels said. “As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat. If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category. If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have.”
In particular, Daniels called for “a dramatically simpler tax system of fewer loopholes and lower rates” and “a pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that otherwise could be used to hire somebody.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is surging in Republican presidential polls after his primary victory Saturday in South Carolina, said at a campaign event in Sarasota, Florida, that if elected president, his first acts would be to sign executive orders undoing policies of the Obama administration.
“Our goal is, in the executive orders that we sign on the first day, that by the time President Obama lands in Chicago, we will have dismantled about 40% of his administration,” Gingrich said to cheers.
Obama heads to Iowa, Arizona and Nevada on Wednesday to kick off a three-day tour of five states considered key for the November election. He will speak during the day at manufacturing plant in Iowa and an Intel campus in Arizona.
In his speech Tuesday night, Obama proposed now familiar steps as well as some new ones. The list included:
• A tax code in which the Bush tax cuts expire and the wealthy pay more;
• More refinancing for homeowners in trouble;
• More clean energy incentives;
• Enhanced education and job training initiatives, and,
• The creation of a China task force to monitor trade violations.
Obama and Democrats want to avoid the November election being a referendum on the president and his stewardship of the economy.
Instead, they seek a contrast campaign between a GOP they hope to define as allied with wealthy interests that brought near financial collapse in 2008 versus a president who will fight for working Americans.
Obama’s address drew on themes from the Kansas speech he delivered in early December that focused on restoring equal opportunity for all, rather than an economy where the wealthy and reckless such as irresponsible Wall Street investors get ahead.
Democratic sources acknowledge that to succeed in November, Obama has to make the case that his policies have begun to make a difference, with the economy showing signs of improvement.
According to the administration, the economy has added nearly 3.2 million private-sector jobs over the last 22 months, and American manufacturing is creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s. The American auto industry is coming back, adding 100,000 jobs in the last year, and U.S. oil production is at the highest level in eight years.
Republicans argue that Obama’s policies have stymied growth by increasing regulations and delaying opportunities such as the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada in order to appease some of his liberal support base.
“Extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy,” Daniels said. “It must be replaced by a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.”

www.ryanseacrest.com

Your new guilty pleasure has arrived as Bravo has released the first look at video from “Shahs of Sunset” in a cold open for the highly-anticipated show.
The two minute clip sets the scene for the show which follows a group of young Persian-American friends who live and work in the area between Beverly Hills and West L.A. — nicknamed Tehrangeles (a combo of Los Angeles and Iran’s capital Tehran) — which is home to approximately 500,000 Iranians, the largest population outside of Iran.
First Look: Cast of Bravo’s ‘Shahs of Sunset’ Revealed [PHOTO]
“When the revolution happened, we had to pick up and flee the old country,” explains the cast via voiceover in the somber opening of the video. “We really didn’t get to take our wealth with us, we got out. I’ve been a refugee since I was eight. My parents sacrificed everything for me to be free…so we ended up in Beverly Hills!”

Meet M.J., Reza, Asa, Sammy, Mike and GG, the show’s young stars who sport expensive cars and designer clothing in their daily grind to juggle living and working in Los Angeles while balancing the demands of their families and traditions:

Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi | @GolnesaGG

GG is an exotic beauty with a fiery temper and very little filter. Fully supported by her father, this classic “Persian Princess,” goes out to lunch with her friends during the day and shops for Mr. Persian Right at night. More than ready to start a family, GG is definitely looking to settle down, but the 29 year old is having a hard time finding a man that can support the lavish lifestyle and handle herunapologetic personality.

Mike Shouhed | @MikeShouhed

Mike is part of the self-appointed “Persian Real Estate Mafia” in Los Angles. After being a high roller in the Vegas commercial real estate market, Mike lost his shirt in the crash and has moved back home to rebuild. The 33 year old reformed player has the best of intentions, but old habits are hard to break and Mike can’t seem to stop charming every girl in the room. His friends joke he’s looking for “the one” every night at the club, but ultimately he is looking for a woman he can bring home to his mother.

Mercedes “MJ” Javid | @MercedehJavid

MJ is a 30-something year old, luxury real estate agent living the high life in the Hollywood Hills. A known party girl, she sometimes struggles balancing her “networking” at night with her early mornings at the office. Coming from different sides of the spectrum MJ and her overbearing and unconventional Persian mother, Vida, fight over everything from the way MJ dresses to the boys she dates. MJ struggles to find out who she really is and what she really wants from her friends, from her work, and from her family.

Reza Farahan | @RezaFarahan

Born in Tehran, Iran, and raised in Beverly Hills, Reza is a 38 year old prominent player in the Los Angeles real estate world. Best friends since high school, Reza and MJ love to party, drink champagne and spend money on designer names. He is one of few openly gay Persians in the community and often struggles with gossip and prejudice regarding his sexuality. Reza’s family supports him in spite of the pressure they feel to ostracize him. Despite his untraditional style, Reza is an old fashioned guy at heart who wants a partner, a family, and the American White Picket Fence happy ending, but he is going to have to get past the baggage he carries from his upbringing to achieve it.

Asa Soltan Rahmati | @ASAjoon

Asa is a controversial singer/artist who prides herself on living the “Modern Persian gypsy bohemian lifestyle” and is prominent in the Venice artist scene. A refugee who fled Iran as a young girl Asa grew up in Europe before moving to Los Angeles as a teenager. The sassy 35 year old is often considered an outsider in the group doing whatever she wants, whenever she wants including dating outside her race and religion. With little desire to settle down any time soon, Asa’s main priority in life is staying true to herself and her career.

Sammy Younai

Sammy is a residential developer in Beverly Hills specializing in building multi-million dollar homes specifically for the Persian community. Constantly working to make a deal, Sammy feels the pressure from his family and culture to be wildly successful in his career. The 35 year old loves to spend his money and is often the first one to buy bottle service at one of LA’s hottest clubs. Sammy is a “ladies man” and is always on the prowl for his next fling, but recently began debating if it’s time to find the right Persian girl who appreciates what’s in his heart and not in his wallet.

Produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions, “Shahs of Sunset” will premiere on March 11 at 10PM on Bravo. Follow Ryan Seacrest Productions on Twitter at @RSP to keep up on details leading up to the premiere!

latimes.com

First, they could grow a mustache, just like Walt Disney. Now, they can grow a little more facial hair but not quite enough to be like one of the Seven Dwarfs.

Disneyland announced that it’s loosened up its dress code — known as the “Disney Look” — to now allow employees to grow more facial hair. Beginning Feb. 3, employees can show up for work with a beard or a goatee without worry, just as long as it’s shorter than a quarter of an inch and not a soul patch (a patch of hair just below the bottom lip).

“Disney Look guidelines are periodically reviewed in relation to industry standards, as well as the unique environment of our theme parks and resorts,” Betsy Sanchez, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman, said in a statement.

“While we are careful to maintain our heritage and the integrity of our brand, a recent review of our guidelines led to a decision that an update was appropriate at this time.”

A number of changes have been made to the look in recent years. In 2010, Disney said women didn’t have to wear pantyhose with skirts and allowed sleeveless tops — so long as the shoulder straps were at least 3 inches wide — and men could wear untucked, casual shirts.

In 2000, Disney allowed employees to grow mustaches, overturning a 43-year-old ban.

Despite the wave of changes, there are still plenty of style choices off limits to Disney employees: visible tattoos, body piercings (other than the ears for women), “extreme” hair styles or colors, and muttonchops. A shaved head is acceptable for a man but not for a woman.