Obama Still an 'Optimist' on Cliff Deal

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

WASHINGTON D.C. – Ten days remain before the mandatory spending cuts and tax increases known as the “fiscal cliff” take effect, but President Obama said he is still a “hopeless optimist” that a federal budget deal can be reached before the year-end deadline that economists agree might plunge the country back into recession.

“Even though Democrats and Republicans are arguing about whether those rates should go up for the wealthiest individuals, all of us – every single one of us -agrees that tax rates shouldn’t go up for the other 98 percent of Americans, which includes 97 percent of small businesses,” he said.

He added that there was “no reason” not to move forward on that aspect, and that it was “within our capacity” to resolve.

The question of whether to raise taxes on incomes over $250,000 remains at an impasse, but is only one element of nuanced legislative wrangling that has left the parties at odds.

For ABC News’ breakdown of the rhetoric versus the reality, click here.

At the White House news conference this evening, the president confirmed he had spoken today to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, although no details of the conversations were disclosed.

The talks came the same day Speaker Boehner admitted “God only knows” the solution to the gridlock, and a day after mounting pressure from within his own Republican Party forced him to pull his alternative proposal from a prospective House vote. That proposal, ”Plan B,” called for extending current tax rates for Americans making up to $1 million a year, a far wealthier threshold than Democrats have advocated.

Boehner acknowledged that even the conservative-leaning “Plan B” did not have the support necessary to pass in the Republican-dominated House, leaving a resolution to the fiscal cliff in doubt.

“In the next few days, I’ve asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction,” Obama said. ”That’s an achievable goal.  That can get done in 10 days.”

Complicating matters: The halls of Congress are silent tonight. The House of Representatives began its holiday recess Thursday and Senate followed this evening.

Meanwhile, the president has his own vacation to contend with. Tonight, he was embarking for Hawaii and what is typically several weeks of Christmas vacation.

However, during the press conference the president said he would see his congressional colleagues “next week” to continue negotiations, leaving uncertain how long Obama plans to remain in the Aloha State.

The president said he hoped the time off would give leaders “some perspective.”

“Everybody can cool off; everybody can drink some eggnog, have some Christmas cookies, sing some Christmas carols, enjoy the company of loved ones,” he said. “And then I’d ask every member of Congress, while they’re back home, to think about that.  Think about the obligations we have to the people who sent us here.

“This is not simply a contest between parties in terms of who looks good and who doesn’t,” he added later. “There are real-world consequences to what we do here.”

Obama concluded by reiterating that neither side could walk away with “100 percent” of its demands, and that it negotiations couldn’t remain “a contest between parties in terms of who looks good and who doesn’t.”

Boehner’s office reacted quickly to the remarks, continuing recent Republican statements that presidential leadership was at fault for the ongoing gridlock.

“Though the president has failed to offer any solution that passes the test of balance, we remain hopeful he is finally ready to get serious about averting the fiscal cliff,” Boehner said. “The House has already acted to stop all of the looming tax hikes and replace the automatic defense cuts. It is time for the Democratic-run Senate to act, and that is what the speaker told the president tonight.”

The speaker’s office said Boehner “will return to Washington following the holiday, ready to find a solution that can pass both houses of Congress.”

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Boehner abandons plan to avoid ‘fiscal cliff’

House Speaker John A. Boehner abruptly abandoned a partisan plan to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” late Thursday after failing to persuade conservative Republicans to extend tax cuts for the vast majority of Americans and let tax rates rise for millionaires.

With more than four dozen House Republicans either on the fence or signaling their opposition, Boehner (Ohio) and other GOP leaders shuttered the House floor moments before the vote was scheduled to begin. They disappeared into Boehner’s office and then summoned rank-and-file lawmakers to an emergency meeting that ended with a terse statement calling off the vote.

Boehner’s sudden move throws into chaos efforts to avoid the fiscal cliff, just 11 days before more than $500 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts are set to take effect. Unless Congress acts, many economists predict the nation will again descend into a recession.

The House is now recessed until after Christmas and the Senate is scheduled to meet for only a few hours Friday afternoon before members leave town until Dec. 27.

Boehner’s inability to rally the House behind a proposal that would have preserved tax cuts for more than 99 percent of Americans — raising rates for only about 400,000 extremely wealthy families — casts doubt on his ability to pass any alternative to the fiscal cliff. It also underscores the limited clout that he and his leadership team wield within the Republican caucus.

Boehner opened the emergency meeting with his lawmakers by announcing that he would deliver the prayer, an unusual move. He then launched into the familiar lines: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Moments later, Boehner’s office issued a written statement.

“The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass. Now it is up to the president to work with Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff,” the statement said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

“The House has already passed legislation to stop all of the January 1 tax rate increases and replace [automatic spending cuts] with responsible spending cuts that will begin to address our nation’s crippling debt. The Senate must now act.”

After the meeting, Boehner and other Republican leaders left the Capitol without answering reporters’ questions. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that his chamber was leaving town until “after the Christmas holiday, when needed.”

The vote on “Plan B” was perhaps the most consequential test of Boehner’s leadership since he took control of the House early last year. Persuading a majority of Republicans to cast a politically treacherous vote to permit higher taxes could have enhanced his leverage with President Obama in future talks to secure a broad plan to rein in the national debt, Republicans said.

Failure, however, immeasurably weakens Boehner’s hand — and could imperil his hold on power.

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User revolt causes Instagram to keep old rules

SAN FRANCISCO: Instagram on Thursday tried to calm a user rebellion by nixing a change that would have given the Facebook-owned mobile photo sharing service unfettered rights to people's pictures.

"The concerns we heard about from you the most focused on advertising, and what our changes might mean for you and your photos," Instagram co-founder and chief Kevin Systrom said in a blog post.

"There was confusion and real concern about what our possible advertising products could look like and how they would work," he continued.

Protests prompted Instagram to stick with wording in its original terms of service and privacy policies regarding advertising and to do away with some changes that were to take effect in January, according to Systrom.

"You also had deep concerns about whether under our new terms, Instagram had any plans to sell your content," the Instagram chief said.

"I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don't own your photos, you do."

Instagram on Tuesday backed off a planned policy change that appeared to clear the way for the mobile photo sharing service to sell pictures without compensation, after users cried foul.

Changes to the Instagram privacy policy and terms of service had included wording that appeared to allow people's pictures to be used by advertisers at Instagram or Facebook worldwide, royalty-free.

Twitter and Instagram forums buzzed over the phrasing, as users debated whether to delete their accounts before the new rules kicked in.

Originally proposed portions of the new policy that rankled users included "You hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or through the service."

The terms also stated that "a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos, and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

Instagram said that the policy changes to take effect in January were part of a move to better share information with Facebook, which bought the company this year.

The original price was pegged at US$1 billion but the final value was less because of a decline in the social network's share price.

"I'm proud that Instagram has a community that feels so strongly about a product we all love," Systrom said while apologising to users and promising the offensive policy changes were gone.

-AFP/fl

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NIT staff eligible for Central government pension: Punjab and Haryana high court

CHANDIGARH: In a relief to the staff of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra and Jalandhar, the Punjab and Haryana high court has ordered the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) to implement Central government pension scheme to cover the NIT staff.

With these orders, hundreds of employees of these two NITs, who had joined the institutions before 2004, would now get pension after retirement. Importantly, the staff of the institute was covered under the pension scheme since its inception.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice AK Sikri passed these orders while dismissing an appeal filed by the Union government.

Justice Sikri held, ""The applicability of provisions of Central civil service rules to the employees of NIT, Kurukshetra, and NIT, Jalandhar, is not in dispute. It is on this basis that employees of these institutes, who were appointed prior to January 1, 2004, stand covered by the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972".

The bench, however, allowed two months' time to the authorities to implement these orders.

There are 20 such institutions in the country and most of them were having pension scheme for its staff, except NIT Kurukshetra and Jalandhar.

Earlier, they were known as regional engineering colleges (REC), but were later renamed as NITs by MHRD and declared deemed universities under the NIT Act, 2007. Before re-christening, it was governed by a board of governors.

The employees have been arguing that the board of governors had originally taken a decision on May 9, 1994 for extending pension scheme to the employees of the then REC, but the same was later rejected by MHRD in March 2001.

It was further contended that after enactment of NIT Act, 2007 and its notification, these institutes automatically came under the pension scheme of the Central government, which has the provision of pension for all employees prior to January 2004.

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Hollies Get Prickly for a Reason

With shiny evergreen leaves and bright red berries, holly trees are a naturally festive decoration seen throughout the Christmas season.

They're famously sharp. But not all holly leaves are prickly, even on the same tree. And scientists now think they know how the plants are able to make sharper leaves, seemingly at will. (Watch a video about how Christmas trees are made.)

A new study published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society suggests leaf variations on a single tree are the combined result of animals browsing on them and the trees' swift molecular response to that sort of environmental pressure.

Carlos Herrera of the National Research Council of Spain led the study in southeastern Spain. He and his team investigated the European holly tree, Ilex aquifolium. Hollies, like other plants, can make different types of leaves at the same time. This is called heterophylly. Out of the 40 holly trees they studied, 39 trees displayed different kinds of leaves, both prickly and smooth.

Five holly leaves from the same tree.

Photographs by Emmanuel Lattes, Alamy

Some trees looked like they had been browsed upon by wild goats and deer. On those trees, the lower 8 feet (2.5 meters) had more prickly leaves, while higher up the leaves tended to be smooth. Scientists wanted to figure out how the holly trees could make the change in leaf shape so quickly.

All of the leaves on a tree are genetic twins and share exactly the same DNA sequence. By looking in the DNA for traces of a chemical process called methylation, which modifies DNA but doesn't alter the organism's genetic sequence, the team could determine whether leaf variation was a response to environmental or genetic changes. They found a relationship between recent browsing by animals, the growth of prickly leaves, and methylation.

"In holly, what we found is that the DNA of prickly leaves was significantly less methylated than prickless leaves, and from this we inferred that methylation changes are ultimately responsible for leaf shape changes," Herrera said. "The novelty of our study is that we show that these well-known changes in leaf type are associated with differences in DNA methylation patterns, that is, epigenetic changes that do not depend on variation in the sequence of DNA."

"Heterophylly is an obvious feature of a well-known species, and this has been ascribed to browsing. However, until now, no one has been able to come up with a mechanism for how this occurs," said Mike Fay, chief editor of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society and head of genetics at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. "With this new study, we are now one major step forward towards understanding how."

Epigenetic changes take place independently of variation in the genetic DNA sequence. (Read more about epigenetics in National Geographic magazine's "A Thing or Two About Twins.")

"This has clear and important implications for plant conservation," Herrera said. In natural populations that have their genetic variation depleted by habitat loss, the ability to respond quickly, without waiting for slower DNA changes, could help organisms survive accelerated environmental change. The plants' adaptability, he says, is an "optimistic note" amidst so many conservation concerns. (Related: "Wild Holly, Mistletoe, Spread With Warmer Winters.")

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Police Chief Wants to Ban High-Capacity Firepower

High-capacity magazines are the deadliest of gun cartridges. They come in cases of 30, 40, 60 and even 120 rounds.

These magazines are maximum, economy-sized firepower packed into a steel cartridge. When strapped into a pistol or semi-automatic rifle, a shooter can fire non-stop until the magazine is empty. By then, the damage can be devastating.

That is why the Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson wants to outlaw all but the smallest of these magazines. Johnson wants to limit them to a capacity of 10 rounds.

The fewer the bullets, the more often the shooter has to stop firing, eject the empty cartridge and load another one.

A lot can happen in the window of time it takes to reload, Johnson said.

"Folks that are being attacked have time to react, to close that distance in," he said. "I think any football player in America would like to have four-and-a-half seconds to get to the quarterback without any of the offensive players."

An expert shooter like a police officer can switch magazines in less than two seconds. But for a nervous, scared adolescent, it would take much longer, Johnson said, which can be crucial.

During the Tucson, Ariz., attack on Rep. Gabby Giffords, gunman Jared Loughner was wrestled down when he stopped shooting to reload his 9-millimeter pistol.

During the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting spree last July, police say James Holmes' assault came to an end when his semi-automatic rifle jammed.

"As we've seen in America today, there have been several attacks where that reload is vital," Johnson said. "Tragically, in the shooting of a congresswoman, the reload was instrumental.

"We've also seen this in Baltimore County, in a school shooting that we had, where the reload became very instrumental in allowing the teacher to actually tackle a student that was trying to reload a double-barreled shotgun," he said.

Last week at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., police believe Adam Lanza was armed with high-capacity magazines. He fired at least 30 times before having to stop to reload.

Johnson said there is no reason that the general public should have access to high-capacity magazines.

"I have to advise you that even for law enforcement, 100-round magazines, 50-round magazines, have no place for law enforcement," Johnson said. "Certainly, we believe that limiting a magazine to 10 rounds, what was in place from '94 to 2004, is wise and certainly could save lives in America."

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‘Cliff’ standoff: Boehner works to wrangle votes for ‘Plan B’; Obama threatens veto

House GOP leaders scrambled to rally their members Wednesday behind a plan to extend tax cuts on income up to $1 million, defying President Obama’s veto threat and setting up a showdown that could send Washington over the year-end “fiscal cliff.” Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) paced the House aisles as he shook hands, patted shoulders and buttonholed his fellow Republicans in search of support for his plan. The proposal would extend tax rates for the overwhelming majority of workers while deferring action on other austerity measures, such as automatic cuts in domestic and military spending, slated to hit next month.

A House vote on the plan, scheduled for Thursday, poses a major political test for Boehner’s leadership team, which is pitching it as a vote of confidence and a way for Republicans to extract more concessions from Obama in negotiations over government spending and taxes.

After progress over the weekend toward agreement on a broad package of measures to address the federal deficit, Obama on Wednesday blasted Boehner’s decision to temporarily halt negotiations and instead push the alternative plan.

“Take the deal,” Obama said at a midday news conference, suggesting that the main obstacle to an agreement is GOP antipathy for the president himself. “They keep finding ways to say ‘no’ rather than to say ‘yes.’ ”

Before the talks were suspended, the two sides had closed the gap dividing them, but significant differences remained. Obama, for instance, is demanding that tax rates increase on income over $400,000, while Boehner insists that tax hikes be limited to income above $1 million.

In a public statement that lasted less than a minute, Boehner repeated his charge that Obama’s last offer was not “balanced” — because, according to estimates, it raises more than $1.3 trillion in new tax revenue while cutting spending by only $930 billion. Boehner vowed that his plan, extending tax cuts for all but millionaires, would pass the House.

“Then, the president will have a decision to make,” Boehner said. “He can call on Senate Democrats to pass that bill, or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in history.” If the legislation wins approval, the speaker said he would resume talks with Obama on a broad plan to tame the federal debt.

In a meeting with business leaders at the White House, senior administration officials warned that Boehner’s “Plan B”, as he calls it, could ultimately lead the nation over the fiscal cliff.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has promised to block the plan if it passes the House, and Obama vowed on Wednesday to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.

Nor is it certain that Boehner’s proposal can pass his own House. If it fails there, congressional leaders fear it would leave Boehner politically debilitated and possibly unable to rally Republican support for a subsequent bipartisan deal with Obama, perhaps in January.

Democrats are not expected to lend Boehner a single vote, at least not until he shows he can deliver a majority from within his own ranks. Boehner is able to lose up to two dozen Republicans and still pass the measure strictly with GOP votes. But he had already seen more than 10 House conservatives defect by Wednesday evening over their opposition to tax increases. Boehner tried to mollify Republicans concerned that his plan would not avert military cuts by planning a second vote on legislation to shield the Pentagon budget from automatic reductions.

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Review slams BBC over Savile report but says no cover-up

LONDON: An official report strongly criticised the BBC's handling of allegations of child sex abuse against late presenter Jimmy Savile, but cleared the world's biggest broadcaster of a cover-up.

The findings by an independent inquiry sparked the resignation of the BBC's deputy director of news, and led to the editor and deputy editor of the programme at the centre of the scandal being replaced.

The report exposed the "chaos and confusion" at the BBC although it dismissed claims that its flagship current affairs programme Newsnight dropped an investigation into Savile so as not to jeopardise Christmas tribute shows to him.

The BBC commissioned the inquiry by former Sky News executive Nick Pollard in October during a major crisis at the corporation that cost then-director-general George Entwistle his job.

Savile, who died last year at the age of 84, was one of the BBC's top TV and radio presenters.

The child abuse claims were first made public by rival broadcaster ITV two months ago and since then police have identified 199 crimes in which Savile is a suspect, including 31 alleged rapes.

Newsnight first had evidence of the allegations a year ago, shortly after Savile's death, but it dropped the story after just a few weeks.

The Pollard report found no evidence to support claims that this was to avoid an embarrassing clash with planned Christmas tributes to the late star.

But it criticised the decision to drop the probe and the BBC's failure to deal with the ensuing crisis at the broadcaster, which it said was plagued by infighting and a "critical lack of leadership and coordination".

"The decision to drop the original investigation was flawed and the way it was taken was wrong but I believe it was done in good faith. It was not done to protect the Savile tribute programmes or for any improper reason," Pollard said.

"In my view, the most worrying aspect of the Jimmy Savile story for the BBC was not the decision to drop the story itself. It was the complete inability to deal with the events that followed."

BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, said the BBC accepted the review in its "entirety" and looked at the failings of the corporation with "pretty searing honesty".

In an email to staff, acting director-general Tim Davie welcomed the finding that there was no cover-up but acknowledged the report had exposed "clear failings" which must now be addressed.

He announced a shake-up of staff at Newsnight, saying the programme's editor, Peter Rippon, and deputy editor, Liz Gibbons, would move to other BBC jobs.

And he said Stephen Mitchell was resigning as deputy director of BBC news and would leave next year after 38 years with the corporation.

Mitchell had stood aside pending the Pollard review, and was criticised in Wednesday's report for removing Newsnight's Savile investigation from an internal BBC list that flagged up controversial stories.

Mitchell's boss, director of news Helen Boaden, keeps her job despite being criticised for failing to take greater responsibility as the crisis grew.

Davie later told Newsnight that it had been a "particularly bad and sorry saga" but defended the lack of sackings.

"My job is not to just dismiss people, my job is to make a fair and balanced assessment of the facts," he said.

"The idea that you have to sack someone to lead to cultural change I think is just flawed."

The report also revealed that when Savile was ill a BBC executive had emailed Entwistle before he became director general to urge against preparing an obituary for the late presenter because of concerns about "the darker side" of his life.

Entwistle said he never read that email and Pollard said he found nothing to suggest anyone preparing the tribute programmes was aware of the rumours or allegations about Savile.

London police on Wednesday arrested an eighth person in connection with the Savile abuse probe, who was identified by media as the star's former producer.

The scandal over Newsnight's dropped investigation was compounded when the programme broadcast a television report last month which wrongly implicated a senior former Conservative politician, Alistair McAlpine, in child sex abuse.

The BBC was forced to apologise and pay substantial damages to McAlpine, and Entwistle resigned as director-general after only 54 days in the job.

He will be replaced by former BBC news chief and current Royal Opera House chief Tony Hall in March.

A further investigation is ongoing into what the BBC knew about Savile's activities during his time there.

- AFP/al

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Himachal Pradesh assembly elections 2012: Neck-and-neck contest predicted

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh is all set to decide its political future with counting scheduled on Thursday. The poll fight, which began on November 4 with a record turnout, seems to be a neck-and-neck contest between the ruling BJP government and the Congress party.

Since the assembly elections 46 days ago, candidates have been trying to determine voters' mood. While the Congress appears confident of showing BJP the door, the ruling party seems to be banking on anti-UPA mood due to a number of factors like the LPG and diesel price hike and reduction in number of subsidized cylinders.

Though both the parties are confident of winning conformably, post-poll surveys suggest a tight fight.

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Detecting Rabid Bats Before They Bite

A picture is worth a thousand words—or in the case of bats, a rabies diagnosis. A new study reveals that rabid bats have cooler faces compared to uninfected colony-mates. And researchers are hopeful that thermal scans of bat faces could improve rabies surveillance in wild colonies, preventing outbreaks that introduce infections into other animals—including humans.

Bats are a major reservoir for the rabies virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Previous research shows that bats can transmit their strains to other animals, potentially putting people at risk. (Popular Videos: Bats share the screen with creepy co-stars.)

Rabies, typically transmitted in saliva, targets the brain and is almost always fatal in animals and people if left untreated. No current tests detect rabies in live animals—only brain tissue analysis is accurate.

Searching for a way to detect the virus in bats before the animals died, rabies specialist James Ellison and his colleagues at the CDC turned to a captive colony of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Previous studies had found temperature increases in the noses of rabid raccoons, so the team expected to see similar results with bats.

Researchers established normal temperature ranges for E. fuscus—the bat species most commonly sent for rabies testing—then injected 24 individuals with the virus. The 21-day study monitored facial temperatures with infrared cameras, and 13 of the 21 bats that developed rabies showed temperature drops of more than 4ºC.

"I was surprised to find the bats' faces were cooler because rabies causes inflammation—and that creates heat," said Ellison. "No one has done this before with bats," he added, and so researchers aren't sure what's causing the temperature changes they've discovered in the mammals. (Related: "Bats Have Superfast Muscles—A Mammal First.")

Although thermal scans didn't catch every instance of rabies in the colony, this method may be a way to detect the virus in bats before symptoms appear. The team plans to fine-tune their measurements of facial temperatures, and then Ellison hopes to try surveillance in the field.

This study was published online November 9 in Zoonoses and Public Health.

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