Internet Marketing Academy-Building a Highly-targeted Opt in List ...

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Check Out This Great Credit Card Advice

Even though they have gotten a bad reputation recently, there are many advantages to using credit cards if you use them wisely when making purchases. If you need some useful advice on using your credit cards responsibly, keep reading to find some great tips.

Try avoiding paying for your restaurant bills on your card since it will take a while to show up and shock you a few days later. This can lead to you spending more money since you will have the perception that your balance is actually lower than it is.

Once you have applied for one or two cards, stop applying for additional accounts. Your credit score goes down every instance you apply for a card. Don?t jump on offers that are in the mail or an email that guarantee approval because they generally have very high interest rates.

If you cannot afford to pay cash for something, think twice about charging it on your credit card. It can be tempting to buy large items on credit, but this practice can quickly get out of hand, leaving you with more debt than you can pay off. So, pass up the big purchases unless you have the cash.

It is a bad idea to make credit card purchases using a public computer. Your information may be stored, making you susceptible to having your information stolen. When you leave your details behind on such computers you expose yourself to great unnecessary risks. Don?t make purchases from another person?s computer.

Before signing up for a card, be certain that you understand all of the terms associated with it. In particular, it is crucial to look for fees and raters that occur after introductory periods. Carefully read over the fine print so that you can ensure you completely understand the policy.

Only if you regularly shop at a certain store should you think about applying for a store credit card. When stores submit an inquiry into your credit history for a card, this gets reported on your credit report whether or not you ultimately get the card. If you have too many inquiries from stores, this can negatively affect your credit score.

If you?re not happy with the interest rate that you are being charged, ask the bank if they can change it. If they decline, then you might want to consider looking for a credit card that has better interest rates. After you find one, change to the credit card that will service your needs better.

Before you get something online with a credit card, be sure that you can trust the seller. Call the contact numbers on the website to ensure they are working, and avoid venders that do not list a physical address.

Do not apply for a new credit card before understanding all the fees and costs associated with its use, regardless of the bonuses it may provide. However, that incredibly fine print listed in your contract could come back to bite you hard. Make sure you read and understand the terms and conditions of any bonuses. Frequently, you are required to charge significant sums on the card in a short time to qualify for the bonus. Be sure to understand those terms so you are not disappointed.

Keep an eye on your credit score to see if you?re managing your credit well. It is a great way to see how others handle your accounts as well. Be on the lookout for reporting errors. If you find an error, contact the credit bureau as well as your credit card company.

If you need to acquire a credit card, though you lack a lengthy credit history, think about getting someone to co-sign your application. A co-signer can be a parent, sibling, trusted friend or anyone else who has already established credit. A co-signer states they are willing to be responsible for the debt if you default. This can help you get a first credit card, and start building your own credit.

If you only pay the minimum amount each month on your credit card, only the credit card company benefits. The monthly minimums are deliberately designed to be so low that you will be paying for years in in order to pay off your balance. In the meantime, the credit card company will be collecting inordinate amounts of interest from you. This is why you should always pay some amount over the minimum due. Paying off your balance faster helps you avoid expensive finance charges over the life of your debt.

It is hoped that you have learned some valuable information in this article. We must remain diligent about spending, because sometimes we do not realize we have overspent until our card balance is beyond our ability to pay. Remember what you?ve just read here to get the most out of credit cards without all the risk.

How To Manage Your Credit Cards And Stay Out Of Debt

Credit cards can be a great help in your life for helping your manage your finances. Not only are they good for building good credit, but they also can give you a backup plan, in case of times where you incur unintended financial burdens. Check out this article for great information about credit cards.

We highly recommend you Compare Credit Cards in order for you to find the best information on business credit card bad credit

Sometimes, people get excited about certain rewards programs, and they make a hasty decision to go with that particular company. First of all, check the fine print. Second of all, make sure you know what else is out there, before you jump into a relationship with a credit card company.

Protect yourself from credit card theft or loss, in order to safeguard your finances and credit rating. If a credit card becomes lost or stolen, immediately inform the credit card company. Doing so will limit your liability for any unauthorized charges. In fact, the law states that your maximum liability for paying for unauthorized transactions is limited to an amount of $50.

Pay close attention to all of the interest rates on your credit cards. Many cards charge you different rates depending on the type of transaction you execute. Cash advances and balance transfers commonly command a higher rate than ordinary purchases. You must keep this in mind before you begin shifting money on and off various cards.

Be sure to get assistance, if you?re in over your head with your credit cards. Try contacting Consumer Credit Counseling Service. This nonprofit organization offers many low, or no cost services, to those who need a repayment plan in place to take care of their debt, and improve their overall credit.

A key credit card tip that everyone should use is to stay within your credit limit. Credit card companies charge outrageous fees for going over your limit, and these fees can make it much harder to pay your monthly balance. Be responsible and make sure you know how much credit you have left.

If you are about to start a search for a new credit card, be sure to check your credit record first. Make sure your credit report accurately reflects your debts and obligations. Contact the credit reporting agency to remove old or inaccurate information. A little time spent upfront will net you the best credit limit and lowest interest rates that you may be eligible for.

If you find yourself struggling with your credit card accounts, start searching for a solution immediately. Do not get caught up in telling yourself that it will get better, without changing anything. Obviously, something went wrong, and something needs your attention. Get to the root of the problem and fix it.

After reading this article, you should know what to do and what to avoid doing with your credit card. It can be tempting to use credit for everything, but you now know better and will avoid this behavior. If it seems difficult to follow these tips, remember all the reasons you want to improve your credit card use and keep trying to change your habits.

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Source: http://articlesfair.com/uncategorized/check-out-this-great-credit-card-advice/

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Protecting Children When Immigrant Parents Are Detained | LexSpot ...

Everyone agrees that children shouldn?t be separated from their parents. ?Sadly, our current immigration policy doesn?t recognize this fundamental concept and provides little useful guidance for how immigration authorities should work with the state on child custody arrangements in the case of detention or deportation. ?This leads to nightmare scenarios.

Even more scary, courts are sometimes terminating parental rights for people who are at risk of deportation, even after they are released:

In the Missouri case, a pregnant Guatemalan woman, Encarnacion Bail Romero, entered the country illegally and used a false social security number to gain employment. She later gave birth in Missouri to a baby boy. In 2007, while working at a poultry plant, she was arrested in an immigration raid and jailed. Separated from her child, relatives were forced to take care of her baby boy, Carlos. Friends of the relatives later took over caring for the boy. According to reports, those friends found a couple, Melinda and Seth Moser, who wanted a baby, and they let the Mosers take care of Carlos. The Mosers began to calling Carlos by a new name ? Jamison. This was only 5 months after Carlos? mother was arrested, and the Mosers quickly filed for adoption, arguing that Bail Romero had abandoned her child.

Bail Romero?s attorney, as well as child and immigration advocates, say this is not a case of abandonment. They say the undocumented mother was held in a jail without legal representation initially and given information she did not understand; she does not speak English. In fact, her first language is not Spanish but an Indian dialect. When she finally received paperwork as well as information that the couple wanted to adopt her baby boy, she refused to sign the papers, saying she only wanted her boy to be cared for until she got out. But a family court judge agreed with the Mosers that Bail Romero had ?abandoned? her child, and granted parental rights to the Mosers.

Some might point out that illegal immigrants who are detained are in a similar situation to those who have been incarcerated for other crimes. ?But in fact, basic rights such as parental visitation and continued legal custody are often denied to illegal immigrants. ?Again, our immigration policy has been absent, leaving a patchwork of interpretations at the local level.

For those who are undocumented with young children, the most immediate and practical step is to write up legal documents that state what should happen to your children if you are detained. ?These documents will be legally binding, even if you are not a citizen, and can ensure that your children do not end up in state foster care with strangers. ?Name family or friends as guardians who you trust and who understand what they are signing up for. ?An experienced estate planning attorney can help you with this process.

A more longer-term solution is difficult. ?If you cannot prove that you entered the United States legally, current immigration law requires you to leave the US as part of the process for getting a green card, where you could potentially be stuck for up to 10 years. ?However, if you entered the US legally and have immediate family who is an American citizen, it?s worth talking?to an experienced immigration lawyer. ?You might be able to receive a green card without leaving.

Source: http://blog.lexspot.com/immigration-2/protecting-children-when-immigrant-parents-are-detained/

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Comeback athletes for the London Olympic 2012

The comeback tales have always fascinated and motivated us in numerous ways. Olympic Games have a list of such stories that has always inspired the athletes to perform better and set higher standards of sportsmanship spirit. It is always the combination of single minded focus on the set goals and the never dying attitude of the athletes towards the sport that has led to achieve such comebacks. What goes on behind the minds of such athletes,who tend to define the physical limitation which comes with every sport?

American swimmers like Anthony Ervin, Brenda Hansen; Romanian gymnast Catalina Ponor; American sprinter Justin Gatlin and American cyclist Kristin Armstrong are few of those athletes who have made a successful comeback in the Olympic Games. It is possible to buy imagesof these athletes who have set new benchmark and are an inspiration for the millions of their fans. Nearly all of them had given upon games earlier for some reason or the other. Few had retired due to physical injuries and others for the age factor. Kristin Armstrong has suffered a collar-bone injury, in spite of which at the age of 38 she made a sensational comeback just after 23 days of her injury by qualifying for the 18-mile time trial and road race. Romanian three times Olympic winner Catalina Ponor in 2005 had decided to retire from the sport but now it is the great Romanian Nadia Comaneci who is mentoring the gymnast for the comeback in London Olympic 2012.

Similarly Australian swimmer Libby Trickett, who had won three Olympic gold medals and in all six medals is planning for a comeback in 2012 for London Olympics for 4x100m freestyle relay squad after announcing the retirement in the year 2009. American sprinter Nellum qualified for the London Olympics after undergoing three surgeries on his left hamstring. Not only that, he also set a personal record of 44.80 seconds in 400m race. Anthony Ervin had won a gold medal for 50m freestyle in Sydney Olympics in the year 2000;he had announced his retirement in the year 2003 along with selling his medal for $17000 and donating the amount to Tsunami relief fund has also decided to make a comeback for the London Olympic 2012. Sprinter Justin Gatlin was banned in the year 2004 during the Athens Olympics on the charges of doping; for which he also had to miss the Beijing Olympics 2008. This did not stop the America sprinter from setting a gold winning record of 9.80s. It is possible to buy content and keep yourself updated about the sportsperson like that of Anthony Ervin and Libby Trickett, who have been inspiring the newer generation.

The picture is not always filled with colours of success for the comebacks. There have been many legendary athletes who could not make a successful comeback; one of them is Slovenian track athlete Merlene Ottey; who holds the record of participating in the Olympic Games seven times and also for winning the World Championship for fourteen times. It was the Sydney Olympics 2000 where she was charged for doping and since then could not make a comeback in Olympics. You can buy news articles to know more about the athletes who could not make a successful comeback in the sport they loved the most.

Source: http://www.artipot.com/articles/1321318/comeback-athletes-for-the-london-olympic-2012.htm

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Real Estate Investment: Good or bad? | Strategic Growth- Managing ...

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Today multiple investment options are available in market with different specification and one of them is real estate. While asking to anyone about investing in real estate most of people including financial expert give instant response that real estate is good investment option.

Everyone think that one can earn lacs of rupees by buying and selling as real estate provides decent returns. Yes Real estate do provide good returns over a period of time but apart from return you have consider various other factors bedeciding real estate investment is good or bad . In this post we will guide you to make decision that real estate is good investment option or bad.

Our one of the client Mr.Raju thought real estate is good investment option and he has purchased flat at prime location of Navi Mumbai in 2010 for investment purpose. After 2 years that flat was giving him return of 50% and in order to fetch profit he has sold this flat.

Unfortunately, he was unaware about the tax implication on his hasty decision. Not only did he have to pay a substantial amount as tax on the profit, he also had to shell out the tax exemptions that he was availing of on the home loan. After considering this tax implication he was earning 5% return only.

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Learning:-Any financial transaction without knowledge can turn in to disasters.

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Let?s understand all factors described above, before making any real estate investments:-

Tax Implications:-

Short term capital gains tax:

As per income tax rules, if anyone sells real estate within 36 months (3 years) of buying it, the profit (difference between the purchase price and the selling price) will be added to his income for that particular year and taxed as per the tax bracket he is in.

So if you come in the highest bracket (tax at 30%), your gains will be taxed at 30%.Therefore if you gained 10 lakhs from the sale, you will have to pay 3 lakhs as tax.

Long term capital gains tax:

As per tax rules if you sell real estate after three years or 36 months, then it?s considered long-term capital gain (LTCG) and you have to pay 20% of the profit as tax.

You can get exemption of this tax under certain conditions. ?To get the exemption, you need to purchase the new residential house within a period of one year prior to or two years after transfer of the original house. As far as under-construction house goes, the construction needs to be completed within three years from the date of transfer of the original house.?

Loan implications:-

Due to lack of money if you have bought the house by taking home loan than you can take advantage of tax exemption on your principal amount (up to 1 lakh per year) and interest (up to 1.5 lakh per year).

Income Tax Act says, if you sell a house within five years of buying it, the tax benefits on the principal repayment and interest paid on the home loan are reversed. These are then included in your taxable income in the year of sale.

Therefore, if you have availed 5 lakh tax exemptions for the principal (in 80 C) & 7.5 lakh tax exemption on interest in last 5 years (since purchase of this house), you have to add this entire amount in your taxable income & you will be taxed at whatever income bracket you fall in. If you?re in the highest bracket of 30%, then 30% of 12.5 lakhs will have to be paid to income tax dept.

Home loan Interest implication:-

If you have purchased a house through home loan, than you have to pay EMI. EMI consists of the principal amount and interest. In the initial interest component in EMI is maximum. You have to simply reduce your profit by Interest amount you have paid to bank.

Maintenance & other Cost:-

If you have purchase flat than you are liable to pay fix maintenance cost to society every month. Not only that every year you will be paying municipality/ property tax.

RBI has passed directive that prepayment penalty is not applicable otherwise it could lower your profits even more as bank were charging up to 2% penalty.

Rental Income:-

Many people think that they will rent their real estate investment and earn money. Nothing wrong in it but maximum rent in most of the case is around 6% on investment amount. This 6% return will not even cover inflation.

Apart from this you have to declare this rental income as taxable income which may increase your income tax burden.

Cost of Time and trouble:-

It is very easy to buy property but sometime it is very difficult to sale. You might have to wait month together to get good deal for your property, During that time,you are investing your time and money in efforts to sell this property.

Sometime in need of urgent money you may sale this property at discounted rate or may end up paying brokerage charges to broker. This will further reduce your profit.

If you put all factors considered above than PPF, FD or RD could be better investment option as you are earning fix around 9-10% interest per annum. This return is assured & returns tension free. Of course income tax is applicable on this return but if you consider all factor describe above it is defiantly good deal compare to real estate.

So, real estate is good investment option only if:-

(1)?? You can hold property for long time (more than 5 Years)

(2)?? If you have excessive cash and you need not to take any loan for making investment.

(3)?? You are making profit in black transaction and white transaction profit is very less.

(4)?? You are always reinvesting profit from real estate to real estate.

After reading this article if you are thinking of hiding your transaction for not paying tax than think again, every transaction done above certain value is in eye of income tax.

Every registry paper requires your PAN card details and these details are capture by income tax. Income tax department may send you notice & you may be in other trouble.

So next time if you get advice that real estate is good investment option do remember what you read here. It may save your time and money.

All the Best!

Real Estate Investment: Good or bad?, 9.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating

Source: http://strategic-growth.in/finance/index.php/real-estate-investment-good-or-bad/

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Crop Insurance; Ag Economy; RFS - FarmPolicy

Farm Bill; Crop Insurance; Ag Economy; RFS; Budget Issues; and, CFTC

Farm Bill Developments

Meredith Shiner reported today at Roll Call Online that, ?Facing no clear consensus on a long-term farm bill, or even a one-year extension, House Republicans today pushed a stand-alone drought assistance measure, fearing Members otherwise would leave for August recess without any action to take home to struggling farmers and ranchers.

?Leadership had been scrambling to approve an unpopular one-year reauthorization of farm programs that Senate Democrats already said would be dead on arrival. And with an astounding 80 percent of the contiguous United States currently under drought conditions ? according to the National Drought Mitigation Center ? top GOP sources expressed serious concern about the optics of doing nothing to aid farmers at the height of summer.

?In a private, closed-door meeting in Speaker John Boehner?s office late this afternoon, leaders decided they could gin up enough votes to proceed with extending emergency benefits to farmers in duress. But they did not rule out having to twist GOP arms or appeal for Democrats? support.?

Today?s Roll Call article quoted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) as saying, ??We have a very good farm bill that includes drought relief that is very significant,? Reid said in his weekly media availability with reporters. ?I think what the House should do is take these provisions we have in the bill we sent them, and if they want to do something about drought relief, send that to us.?

??We?re willing to do anything that?s reasonable, but an extension some of them are talking about is not reasonable,? Reid added, summarily rejecting the one-year farm bill extension plan the House Rules Committee decided to scrap later in the day.

?Leaving the door open to moving the separate disaster piece of the farm bill was a significant move for Reid, especially given that many of his rank-and-file Members believe they should settle for nothing short of the full, five-year extension they passed with 64 votes in June.?

(FarmPolicy.com Note: Yesterday afternoon, Senator Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) addressed Farm Bill related issues on the Senate floor and discussed the importance of passing the five-year legislation, audio (MP3- 5:00)).

Ms. Shiner pointed out that, ?As late as this afternoon, Democrats were clearly divided on how to proceed if the House presents a disaster-only bill. Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) was set on continuing the push for a full bill and not approving a pared-down measure, according to Senate sources.

??We?ve got a five-year farm bill, we ought to have a five-year farm bill,? Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said, insisting he would not support a piecemeal approach.?

The Roll Call article added that, ?One key factor working in favor of the disaster-aid-only bill, if the language is acceptable to the Senate, is that Democrats may not lose much leverage in their fight to pass the overall farm bill. The larger package is still a deficit-reducer, and many have speculated that it could be used in a lame-duck session to offset other must-pass measures.

?As word spread that the House would attempt to pass the disaster bill, Senate Republicans also expressed an eagerness to take up the measure and approve it before next week.

??It strikes most of us that some kind of drought assistance clearing the Congress and getting to the president this week would be a good idea, given the severity of conditions all across the central part of the country,? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said.?

Erik Wasson reported yesterday at The Hill?s On the Money Blog that, ?House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) urged his colleagues to vote for the limited disaster bill when it comes up for a vote on Thursday.

??My priority remains to get a five-year farm bill on the books and put those policies in place, but the most pressing business before us is to provide disaster assistance to those producers impacted by the drought conditions who are currently exposed,? he said. ?Beyond that, I will continue to work with my leadership, Ranking Member Peterson and our members to determine the best path forward.??

The Hill update noted that, ?Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said the upper chamber would even not take up a pared down drought bill this week, in the hope of keeping the pressure on the House to allow a five-year farm bill to go to conference.?

??We are going to keep pushing in August,? Stabenow said. ?I think in August there a lot of folks who are going to have to answer a lot of questions back home.??

Mr. Wasson added that, ?Stabenow said the one-year extension or stand-alone disaster bill would hurt dairy farmers and other commodity producers.

??We are willing to sit down and work out the differences on the commodity title, and I am hopeful we can do that over August and that we will be able to have something that we can present to the House and the Senate in September,? she said.?

David Rogers reported yesterday at Politico that, ?Facing certain defeat, Republicans pulled their one-year farm bill extension from the House docket late Tuesday in favor of a narrower $383 million disaster aid package to address the immediate needs of drought-stricken livestock producers?[T]he action shows how much the GOP leadership ? having boxed itself in by refusing to take up a five-year farm bill ? is scrambling now to find something the party?s candidates can take home to farm states in August given the severe drought plaguing much of the country.?

Mr. Rogers explained that, ?The substitute will restore livestock indemnity and forage programs that have expired in the current farm program, with some assistance also for specialty crops.

?To keep down costs, the aid will apply only to 2012, while offsets will come from imposing caps on two conservation programs much as the House Appropriations Committee has already proposed in its 2013 budget bill. Early estimates indicate the net savings would be about $256 million.?

(FarmPolicy.com Note: On the issue of conservation offsets, an update posted yesterday at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Blog noted that, ?We now understand a livestock disaster assistance bill, without a farm bill extension, is being put together for consideration on the House floor under the ?suspension of the rules? process for non-controversial bills, a process which requires a two-thirds affirmative vote for a measure to pass.? We are not opposed to that in principle, but would be opposed if it coupled with cuts to farm bill conservation programs.?)

Yesterday?s Politico article indicated that, ?Stepping into the debate Tuesday morning, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack dismissed the extension as ?just an excuse not to put in the work to build a coalition? needed for a long-term plan for producers but also all of ?rural America.?

??We need a five-year bill,? Vilsack told POLITICO. ?If folks care about rural America they will get this done.?

?The ?rural America? theme is one that the former Iowa governor has sounded before, emphasizing the economic development, energy and land conservation elements of the farm bills. And with Iowa in play in the presidential campaign?not to mention Vilsack?s wife, Christie, running for Congress back home against Republican Rep. Steve King?the farm bill?s import can no longer be ignored.?

Mr. Rogers added that, ?Vilsack upped the ante himself, saying that rural communities can survive the drought but that their economic turnaround could be seriously hurt by the stalemate in Congress.?

The Politico article noted that, ?Leaders of the House and Senate Ag Committees had met Tuesday morning to try to find a path forward. But Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the ranking Democrat on the House panel, refused to accept the extension absent a promise from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to allow House-Senate negotiations in August on the larger five-year farm plans favored by the two committees?[M]ajor commodity groups backed Peterson, and he was helped too by his friendship with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). There had been concern that liberal food stamp advocates would back the extension ?since it spared nutrition programs. But Pelosi?s close ally, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), joined in opposition to the bill Tuesday making it harder to the GOP to get to a majority.?

Also yesterday, a news release from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) stated that, ?With farmland across upstate New York in the grip of a summer drought that is starving production from crops that are still recovering from a late spring freeze and last year?s back-to-back tropical storms, [Sen. Gillibrand] today called on leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees to include New York State in any disaster relief program in the 2012 Farm Bill.?

In other Farm Bill developments, a news release yesterday from Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kan.) stated that, ?To protect taxpayer dollars from waste and abuse, [Sen. Roberts] today called for a full accounting of the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s (USDA) change in definition of an error for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Roberts is concerned the change in error rates is forgiving errors at taxpayer expense and giving the Congress a false impression of the integrity of the $75 billion a year program.

??At a time when our economy is struggling and federal spending is out of control, the federal government needs to account for all spending, just as Americans do when making the family budget,? Roberts said. ?These errors, program-wide, could add up to be millions in wasted taxpayer dollars. I want a full accounting from the Department of Agriculture.??

Meanwhile, an opinion item posted earlier this week at The Hill Online stated that, ?Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has been a driving force on the farm bill, a five-year authorization measure whose fate could be decided this week.

?Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, defied the odds by passing her farm bill through the upper chamber in June, 64-35? [Sen. Stabenow] has proven to be an adept legislator in her first Congress as head of the Agriculture Committee.?

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Crop Insurance

Mark Peters reported in today?s Wall Street Journal that, ?A historic drought across the middle of the U.S. is shriveling crops?but not many farmers? incomes, as widespread use of crop insurance and record corn and soybean prices cushion the blow to growers.

?Farmers already are giving up on crops in parts of the Midwest as hot, dry weather shrinks corn stalks and leaves some cobs without a single kernel. Still, economists don?t expect incomes for commodity-crop farmers to slip drastically, keeping one of the strongest sectors of the U.S. economy humming.

??Crop producers will largely weather the losses,? said Joseph Glauber, chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.?

Mr. Peters noted that, ?At the same time, the drought is having a big impact on chicken farmers and cattle ranchers, who are paying record prices for feed, which is expected to translate into a 3% to 4% rise in food prices. Milk, cheese and other dairy products are also headed upward, and higher commodity prices are expected to squeeze margins for food companies.?

And Bloomberg writer Alan Bjerga reported yesterday that, ?This year?s once-in-a-generation U.S. drought may prompt record insurance payouts and still leave some farmers with serious losses as indemnities rival those of a 1988 drought and a 1993 flood, the industry?s top lobbyist said.

?The size of payouts will be known better in the next few weeks, Tom Zacharias, the president of National Crop Insurance Services, said today at a Bloomberg Government breakfast. The ratio of losses to premiums may be similar to those of the late 1980s and the 1990s, when floods and droughts paid out more than $2 for every dollar in premiums, said Zacharias, who declined to make an overall estimate. Premiums this year are close to $11 billion, Zacharias said.

?Farmers who have already signed contracts to sell corn, soybeans or wheat may have to repay buyers with their insurance money after their crops fail, he said. Still, many farmers will have financial strains lessened by the program, which has replaced costly federal disaster bailouts, he said.?

The Bloomberg article indicated that, ?Keith Collins, a consultant to the crop insurance industry and a former chief economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rejected as ?fantastical? the notion that farmers may be better off collecting insurance than raising a crop.

??You can find a wide range of income indemnification? depending on individual farmer situations, Collins said at the breakfast. In cases where farmers have already committed to sell their production and have to buy it back or break a contract, ?they turn an indemnification check over to their banker,? yet still need to cover seed and fertilizer expenses for the next crop, he said.?

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Agricultural Economy

Jack Farchy and Heba Saleh reported yesterday at The Financial Times Online that, ?The increase in grain prices is already being felt around the world. In Indonesia, the tofu industry has threatened to strike over rising soyabean prices; in Mexico, the cost of corn tortillas is on the rise; and Iran last week witnessed a rare protest over the cost of chicken.

?But the economic effects of the sharp rise in agricultural commodities have barely begun. A jump of 30-50 per cent in benchmark corn, wheat and soyabean prices has revived memories of the world?s last food crisis in 2007-08, and large consumers from Egypt and Morocco to South Korea and Taiwan are bracing for a renewed bout of food inflation.

?Marc Sadler, head of agriculture risk management at the World Bank, says: ?For sure there is growing concern across the world from developing countries about what this may mean for them.??

A tweet yesterday from The Financial Times Commodities, which included a graph, stated that, ??very poor? US #corn ratings: 1988 vs 2012. Highest proportion of crop is now very poor since USDA started tracking.?

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s National Agricultural Statistics Service released its monthly Agricultural Prices report yesterday, which stated in part that, ?The corn price, at $7.36 per bushel, is up 99 cents from last month and is $1.03 above July 2011 [related graph]? The soybean price, at $15.60 per bushel, increased $1.70 from June and is $2.40 above July 2011 [related graph]?and?The July price for all wheat, at $8.31 per bushel, is up $1.61 from June and $1.21 above July 2011 [related graph].?

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Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)

Brad Plumer provided a more in-depth look at recent developments this week regarding the EPA?s Renewable Fuel Standard in today?s Washington Post; reminding readers that, ?a coalition of U.S. meat and poultry producers called on the Environmental Protection Agency to relax its corn-ethanol program for one year.?

Moreover, Ken Anderson reported yesterday at Brownfield that, ?Some strong criticism today from Iowa Senator Charles Grassley directed towards that coalition of livestock, meat and poultry groups asking for changes to the Renewable Fuels Standard?s ethanol mandate.

??I think that what the group is really asking for is to have the grain farmers subsidize their livestock feed at three or four dollars, like they did or have been over a long period of time?until two or three years ago when the price of grain got up,? Grassley says, ?and I think they ought to be a little bit embarrassed to think that the grain farmer ought to subsidize the livestock farmer.?

?And, Grassley adds, if not for a vibrant ethanol market for corn, farmers wouldn?t have planted 96 million acres in 2012?the most since 1937.? (related audio also available at the Brownfield link).

And, Reuters reported yesterday that, ?The chief executive of global grains trading powerhouse Cargill lent his voice on Tuesday to a growing chorus of corn consumers urging the U.S. government to temporarily curb its ethanol quotas, saying that the expected drop in global corn production was ?manageable? with the right response.

?CEO Gregory Page said on CNBC that the U.S. biofuel mandate ?needs to be addressed? through existing policy tools, becoming the highest-profile executive to call for some relief from the Renewable Fuels Standard that requires that over a third of the corn crop is made into fuel ethanol.?

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Budget Issues

Naftali Bendavid reported in today?s Wall Street Journal that, ?Republican and Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they have agreed to extend current government funding levels through the first six months of the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, avoiding the prospect of a pitched budget battle shortly before the election.

?The deal gives lawmakers the ability to focus on other pressing matters. They must figure out by year?s end how to deal with $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts set to begin in January, as well as the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts next year.?

In related news, Austin Wright reported yesterday at Politico that, ?The Obama administration said on Tuesday it?s preparing to work closely with its sprawling bureaucracy on the daunting prospect of automatic spending cuts set to take effect next year.

?For months, the White House Office of Management and Budget has resisted calls from members of Congress and industry executives to explain how it would carry out the cuts, called sequestration, which begin to go into effect on Jan. 2 unless Congress moves to stave them off.

?But in a memo released on Tuesday, acting OMB Director Jeffery Zients announced his agency would soon start working with federal agencies to address ?issues raised by a sequestration of this magnitude.??

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Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

Devlin Barrett and Aaron Lucchetti reported in today?s Wall Street Journal that, ?A bankruptcy trustee sifting through the remains of MF Global Holdings Ltd. expressed confidence that the failed securities firm?s U.S. customers will get all their money back.

?In written testimony submitted to the Senate Agriculture Committee for a hearing Wednesday, trustee Louis J. Freeh said farmers, ranchers, traders and other investors still owed an estimated $1.6 billion ?eventually will be made whole,? according to a copy of the testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

?After MF Global collapsed in October under the weight of a customer panic caused by the New York company?s giant bets on European debt, investigators worried they might never recover the missing customer money. The shortfall occurred when MF Global dipped into customer accounts as it scrambled to stay alive.?

Keith Good

Comments are closed.

Source: http://farmpolicy.com/2012/08/01/farm-bill-crop-insurance-ag-economy-rfs-budget-issues-and-cftc/

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EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL

Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators

The system to review misconduct is rigged so even abusive teachers can stay on the job

By resisting almost any change aimed at improving our public schools, teachers unions have become a ripe target for reformers across the ideological spectrum. Even Hollywood, famously sympathetic to organized labor, has turned on unions with the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'" (2010) and a feature film, "Won't Back Down," to be released later this year. But perhaps most damaging to the unions' credibility is their position on sexual misconduct involving teachers and students in New York schools, which is even causing union members to begin to lose faith.

In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city's special commissioner of investigation?that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator's full examination was justified?in the 2011-12 school year:

?*? An assistant principal at a Brooklyn high school made explicit sexual remarks to three different girls, including asking one of them if she would perform oral sex on him.

?*? A teacher in Queens had a sexual relationship with a 13-year old girl and sent her inappropriate messages through email and Facebook.

If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless.

Here's why. Under current New York law, an accusation is first vetted by an independent investigator. (In New York City, that's the special commissioner of investigation; elsewhere in the state, it can be an independent law firm or the local school superintendent.) Then the case goes before an employment arbitrator. The local teachers union and school district together choose the arbitrators, who in turn are paid up to $1,400 per day. And therein lies the problem.

For many arbitrators, their livelihood depends on pleasing the unions (whether the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, or other local unions). And the unions?believing that they are helping the cause of teachers by being weak on sexual predators?prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct. The effects of this policy are mounting.

One example: An arbitrator in 2007 found that teacher Alexis Grullon had victimized young girls with repeated hugging, "incidental though not accidental contact with one student's breast" and "sexually suggestive remarks." The teacher had denied all these charges. In the end the arbitrator found him "unrepentant," yet punished him with only a six-month suspension.

Another example from 2007: Teacher William Scharbach was found to have inappropriately touched and held young boys. "Respondent's actions at best give the appearance of impropriety and at worst suggest pedophilia," wrote the arbitrator?before giving the teacher only a reprimand. The teacher didn't deny the touching but denied that it was inappropriate.

Then there was teacher Steven Ostrin, who in 2010 was found to have asked a young girl to give him a striptease, harassed students by text, and engaged in sexual banter. The arbitrator in his case concluded that since the teacher hadn't actually solicited sex from students, the charges?all of which the teacher denied?warranted only a suspension.

Michael Loeb, a middle school teacher in the Bronx and UFT member, calls this a "horrible situation," telling me "if you keep these people in the classroom, you are demeaning our profession."

Parents I spoke with described their tremendous fear about what is happening in the classroom. Maria Elena Rivera says her 14-year-old daughter was stalked by one of her Brooklyn high school teachers (who resigned from his position before the Department of Education decided whether to send the case to arbitration). Today her daughter is in counseling, says Ms. Rivera, and doesn't trust anyone: "It so messed her up. I can't protect her."

Local media have begun to get the word out, yet the stories come and go with trifling consequences or accountability. New York City's schools chancellor and districts statewide must have the power to fire sexual predators?and the final say cannot be that of an arbitrator with incentives to lessen the punishment.

Fortunately, state Sen. Stephen Saland has proposed legislation in Albany to do just this, removing arbitrators' final say while still giving teachers due process and the opportunity to appeal terminations in court. But the buck would stop with those officials in charge of our schools and tasked with protecting our kids: the chancellor in New York City, and school districts elsewhere in the state.

Mr. Saland's initiative has little chance of success without union support?which is hardly assured. "I don't understand how they think this could be a gray area," says Natalie Harrington, who teaches English at New Day Academy in the Bronx. "I worry that if the union goes to bat [against] this, it makes it seem like they will do anything to keep anyone in the classroom."

Michael Loeb still supports his union but says it "treats teachers like interchangeable widgets"?defending all teachers no matter what they have done.

The union has reached a moment of truth. With responsible legislation on the table, the right course of action is obvious. At stake is the safety of kids, the reputation of the unions, and the standing of every good and responsible teacher throughout the state.

SOURCE

Maryland Board of Education seeks racial quotas in school discipline

Racists!

As a lawyer who used to bring civil-rights cases for a living, I am very disturbed by the Maryland State Board of Education?s proposed rule on race in school discipline...

This proposed rule violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution by pressuring schools to discipline students based on their race, rather than their individual conduct and the content of their character. That is at odds with court rulings like the federal appeals court ruling in People Who Care v. Rockford Board of Education, 111 F.3d 528, 534 (7th Cir. 1997), which forbid both racial-balancing, and quotas, in school discipline.

Crimes and infractions are not evenly distributed among racial groups, as the Supreme Court noted in United States v. Armstrong, 517 U.S. 456 (1996). As that 8-to-1 Supreme Court ruling emphasized, there is no legal ?presumption that people of all races commit all types of crimes? at the same rate, since such a presumption is ?contradicted by? real world data. For example, ?more than 90% of? convicted cocaine traffickers ?were black? in 1994, while ?93.4% of convicted LSD dealers were white.? Crime rates are higher in some ethnic groups than others.

But the Board of Education seems to have forgotten that reality in proposing a rule that would require school systems to discipline and suspend students in numbers roughly in proportion to their racial percentage of the student body, and require school systems that currently don?t do so to implement plans to eliminate any racially ?disproportionate impact? over a three-year period. Thus, it is imposing quotas in all but name.

The Board has also seemingly overlooked a federal appeals court decision that ruled that schools cannot use racial proportionality rules for school discipline, since that violates the Constitution?s Equal Protection Clause. See People Who Care v. Rockford Board of Education, 111 F.3d 528, 534 (7th Cir. 1997). That court ruling also said that a school cannot use race to offset ?disparate? or ?disproportionate impact,? and that doing so is not a valid kind of affirmative action.

The proposed rule, COMAR 13A.08.01.21, is found on page 25 of the Report of the Maryland Board of Education: School Discipline and Academic Success: Related Parts of Maryland?s Education Reform. It reads as follows:

A. The Department shall develop a method to analyze local school system data to determine whether there is a disproportionate impact on minority students. B. The Department may use the discrepancy model to assess the impact of discipline on special education students. C. If the Department identifies a school?s discipline process as having a disproportionate impact on minority students or a discrepant impact on special education students, the school system shall prepare and present to the State Board a plan to reduce the impact within 1 year and eliminate it within 3 years. [boldface added]

Thus, the Board seeks to ban ?disproportionate impact? ? the term for something not motivated by racism that nevertheless unintentionally affects or weeds out more minorities than whites ? in school discipline. But it has done so without the qualifications and limitations to that concept that apply in court. The Supreme Court has allowed minority employees to sue over such ?disparate impact? in limited circumstances, but it has refused to allow minority students to sue over it. Its ruling in Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275 (2001), said that individuals could not sue under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act for ?disparate impact,? only intentional discrimination. Title VI is the federal law that covers racial discrimination in schools and other institutions that receive federal funds. (The Board?s proposed rule is not needed to prevent racism or deliberate discrimination, since there are already several laws banning discriminatory treatment of anyone based on their race, as opposed to disparate impact, that students victimized by racial discrimination can already sue under, like 42 U.S.C. 1981, and Title VI).

The fact that there are disparities in suspension rates between different ethnic groups does NOT prove racism by school officials, or discrimination. For example, in a ruling by Justice Sandra Day O?Connor, the Supreme Court said that it is ?completely unrealistic? to argue that minorities should be represented in each field or activity ?in lockstep proportion to their representation in the local population.? (See Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 507 (1989)). In an earlier ruling, Justice O?Connor noted that it is ?unrealistic to assume that unlawful discrimination is the sole cause of people failing to gravitate to jobs and employers in accord with the laws of chance.? (See Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust Co., 487 U.S. 977, 992 (1988).)

Many racial disparities in suspension rates are clearly NOT the product of discrimination. For example, Asians generally have lower infraction and suspension rates than whites and other ethnic groups, but no one would suggest that Asians are racially favored by school officials. Indeed, on occasion, school officials have discriminated against them: school officials in Philadelphia recently turned a blind eye to attacks on Asian students by African-American students in some of the city's schools, resulting in a federal investigation of the school system. In past generations when racism was more common, East Asians suffered extreme forms of discrimination by government officials, such as the California Supreme Court's turning Chinese immigrants into legal non-persons in the 1850s (it said they could not even testify in court, essentially creating an open season on their lives and property) and the federal government's internment of Japanese-Americans in the 1940s.

The Constitution does not forbid ?disproportionate impact? or ?disparate impact.? The Supreme Court made that clear in Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 248 (1976), where it noted that it cannot be denied ?that a whole range of tax, welfare, public service, regulatory, and licensing statutes? are ?more burdensome to the poor and to the average black than to the more affluent white,? yet they are still constitutional.

The fact that a higher percentage of black students are suspended than whites in most schools is not, for the most part, the product of racism by school officials, but rather reflects greater infraction rates tied to lamentable factors like poverty and single-parent households. As a scholar at the Brookings Institution points out, ?children who spend time in single-parent families are more likely to misbehave, get sick, drop out of high school and be unemployed.? As the National Center for Health Statistics notes, while most whites and Asians are born to two-parent families, most blacks and Hispanics are not. See National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 60, No.2: Births: Preliminary Data for 2010 (Nov. 17, 2011).

Since infraction rates are typically higher among such minority groups, their discipline and suspension rates are naturally higher as well, even if that is bureaucratically defined as ?disproportionate impact.? This is a reflection of unpleasant realities, not school officials? racism. Preventing such discipline will only cause more disorder and violence in the schools, especially in predominantly black schools, thus harming the very disadvantaged people the Board of Education seeks to help. Students are commonly victimized by members of their own race and peers of the same ethnicity. So watering down discipline for members of a racial group does not help that group. The fact that black students have been shortchanged by the larger society is not a reason to add insult to injury by depriving them of an orderly school environment and effective school discipline, or subjecting them to the ?soft bigotry of low expectations.?

Pressure to discipline minorities and whites in numbers proportional to their percentage of the student body may also lead to other forms of racial discrimination in discipline, such as needless suspensions of white and Asian students for technicalities that would result in nothing more than a warning for a black student.

Writing in the Summer 2006 edition of the Manhattan Institute?s City Journal, educator Edmund Janko explained how informal pressure from bureaucrats to suspend students in numbers proportional to their race (what Maryland?s Board now seeks) led him to engage in unfair racial discrimination against students, such as suspending white students for conduct that ?would mean, in cases involving minority students,? merely ?a rebuke from the dean and a notation on the record or a letter home?:

More than 25 years ago, when I was dean of boys at a high school in northern Queens, we received a letter from a federal agency pointing out that we had suspended black students far out of proportion to their numbers in our student population. Though it carried no explicit or even implicit threats, the letter was enough to set the alarm bells ringing in all the first-floor administrative offices. . .

There never was a smoking-gun memo . . . but somehow we knew we had to get our numbers ?right??that is, we needed to suspend fewer minorities or haul more white folks into the dean?s office for our ultimate punishment.What this meant in practice was an unarticulated modification of our disciplinary standards. For example, obscenities directed at a teacher would mean, in cases involving minority students, a rebuke from the dean and a notation on the record or a letter home rather than a suspension. For cases in which white students had committed infractions, it meant zero tolerance. Unofficially, we began to enforce dual systems of justice. Inevitably, where the numbers ruled, some kids would wind up punished more severely than others for the same offense.

I remember one case in particular. It was near the end of the day, and the early-session kids were heading toward the exits. . .The boy was a white kid, tall, with an unruly mop of blond hair. He was within 200 feet of the nearest exit and blessed freedom. But he couldn?t wait. The nicotine fit was on him, and he lit a cigarette barely two yards from me. I pounced, and within 20 minutes he was suspended?for endangering himself and others.

Janko?s article is aptly titled, It Still Leaves a Bad Taste, and is available? here. His disturbing and unpleasant experience may be mild compared to what Maryland teachers and principals will experience if the proposed rule, COMAR 13A.08.01.21, is adopted in its current form. The federal agency that pressured Janko is the Education Department?s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ? where I used to work as a lawyer. Its disparate-impact regulations ? which are of dubious validity in banning any kind of disparate impact at all, after the Supreme Court?s 2001 decision in Alexander v. Sandoval barring lawsuits against practices with a disparate impact ? never purported to require school systems to eliminate all racially ?disproportionate impact,? the way the Maryland Board of Education apparently seeks to do in school discipline through the proposed rule. Its rules never reached all statistical disparities.

Moreover, even if a school?s policies? did have a meaningfully ?disproportionate impact,? the school only needed to demonstrate to OCR a ?substantial legitimate justification for its practice,? to keep using it. See Ga. State Conference of Branches of NAACP v. Georgia, 775 F.2d 1403, 1417 (11th Cir. 1985). No such common-sense exception for educational justifications is spelled out in the proposed rule. In short, Janko discriminated as he did because of bureaucratic dictates that were far less extreme than what may result from COMAR 13A.08.01.21. This is far more extreme. If the proposed rule is adopted in its current form, discrimination far worse than what Janko recounts will occur in Maryland?s schools.

SOURCE

Men can wear skirts at Oxford University as academic dress code is changed to 'meet needs of cross-dressing students'
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For centuries, the sight of Oxford students in their distinctive academic gowns has been as familiar? in the city as its dreaming spires.

But the ancient university has been forced to rewrite its traditional dress code ? to avoid upsetting transgender students.

From next month, men will be allowed to wear skirts or stockings to exams while women can choose suits or white bow ties.

Under the old regulations, male students were required to wear a dark suit with dark socks, black shoes, a white bow tie, and a plain white shirt and collar beneath their black gowns when attending formal occasions such as examinations.

The dress code is strictly enforced by the university's authorities, which have the power to punish students deemed in breach of the rules.? Punishments range from fines to rustication ? the suspension of a student for a period of time ? or expulsion, known as 'sending down'.

However, the university's council, headed by Vice-Chancellor Andrew Hamilton, has dropped any distinction between the sexes by deleting all references to men and women.

While students are still required? to dress appropriately for formal occasions and exams, they no longer need to ensure their 'sub-fusc' ? the clothes worn with full academic dress ? is distinctive 'for each sex'.

The reforms were introduced following a campaign by the student union, which argued that transgender students, including transvestite or 'gender confused' men and women, could face punishment if they wore 'inappropriate' dress.

Jess Pumphrey, the union's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer executive officer, said the change would make a small number of students' exam experiences 'significantly less stressful by eliminating the need for trans students to cross-dress to avoid being... disciplined during their exam'.

She said there was 'an active? transgender community' in Oxford, and every member she had spoken to 'had found sub-fusc, under the old regulations, to be stressful'. But one unnamed law student told the university newspaper Cherwell: 'This seems a bit unnecessary. It only applies to a tiny percentage of the student population and it seems unlikely that a trans student would really be confronted about what they are wearing.'

Former students also voiced their concerns about the change. Ann Widdecombe, who graduated from Lady Margaret Hall in 1972, said: 'If men want to prance around in skirts, that is entirely up to them.

'In my day, it would have been unthinkable ? men were men and women were women, and we dressed accordingly. But I think the university is just saving itself from a silly row, and from that point of view I'm on their side. Why go courting a silly row when they don't need one?'

A spokesman for Oxford said: 'The regulations have been amended to remove any reference to gender, in response to concerns raised by Oxford University Student Union that regulations did not serve the interests of transgender students.'

SOURCE

Source: http://edwatch.blogspot.com/2012/08/teachers-unions-go-to-bat-for-sexual.html

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