US economy adds 155K jobs; rate remains 7.8 pct.

In this Wednesday, Dec. 12 2012 photo, Taneshia Wright, of Manhattan, fills out a job application during a job fair in New York. Economists forecast that employers added 155,000 jobs in December, according to a survey by FactSet. That would be slightly higher than November's 148,000. The unemployment rate is projected to remain at 7.7 percent. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this Wednesday, Dec. 12 2012 photo, Taneshia Wright, of Manhattan, fills out a job application during a job fair in New York. Economists forecast that employers added 155,000 jobs in December, according to a survey by FactSet. That would be slightly higher than November's 148,000. The unemployment rate is projected to remain at 7.7 percent. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 file photo, an advertisement in the classified section of the Boston Herald newspaper calls attention to possible employment opportunities in Walpole, Mass. A private survey shows U.S. businesses sharply increased hiring in December, helped by a surge of new construction jobs created to help rebuild from Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs in December, a steady gain that shows hiring held up during the tense negotiations to resolve the fiscal cliff.

The solid job growth wasn't enough to reduce the unemployment rate, which remained 7.8 percent last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The rate for November was revised up from an initially reported 7.7 percent.

Each January, the government updates the monthly unemployment rates for the previous five years. The rates for most months don't change.

The government said hiring was stronger in November than it first estimated. November's job increases were revised up 15,000 to 161,000. October's increase was nearly unchanged at 137,000.

The "gain is perhaps better than it looks given that firms were probably nervous about adding workers with the fiscal cliff looming," said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics.

Even so, hiring hasn't been strong enough to quickly reduce still-high unemployment. The job gains for December almost exactly matched the average monthly pace for the past two years. Hiring has been steady but modest as the economy has grown slowly since the recession ended more than three years ago.

For 2012, employers added 1.84 million jobs, an average of 153,000 jobs a month, roughly matching the job totals for 2011.

Robust hiring in manufacturing and construction fueled the December job growth. Construction firms added 30,000, the most in 15 months. That increase likely reflected hiring needed to rebuild after Superstorm Sandy and also gains in home building that have contributed to a housing recovery.

Manufacturers added 25,000 jobs, the most in nine months.

Other higher-paying industries also added jobs. Professional and business services, which include positions in information technology, management and architecture, gained 19,000. Financial services added 9,000 and health care 55,000.

Lower-paying industry sectors were mixed. Restaurants and bars added 38,000 jobs. Retailers cut 11,300, a sign that the holiday shopping season might have been sluggish. But those cuts followed three months of strong gains.

All the job gains last month came from private employers. Governments shed 13,000 jobs, mostly in local school systems.

The stable hiring pace shows that employers didn't panic during the high-stakes talks between Congress and the White House over tax increases and spending cuts that weren't resolved until New Year's.

That's an encouraging sign for the coming months, because an even bigger federal budget showdown is looming. The government must increase its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by around late February or risk defaulting on its debt. Republicans will likely demand deep spending cuts as the price of raising the debt limit.

Friday's report did point to some weakness in the job market. For example, the number of unemployed actually rose 164,000 to 12.2 million. Approximately 192,000 people entered the work force last month, but most of them didn't find jobs.

The unemployment numbers come from a government survey of households; the number of jobs added each month comes from a separate survey of businesses.

A broader category that includes not only the unemployed but also part-time workers who want full-time jobs and people who have given up looking for work was unchanged in December at 22.7 million.

Despite the still-modest job growth, the economy is showing signs of improvement. Layoffs are declining. And the number of people who sought unemployment aid in the past month is near a four-year low. Banks are lending a bit more freely.

The jobs report showed that hourly pay is staying slightly ahead of inflation. Hourly wages rose 7 cents to $23.73 last month, a 2.1 percent increase compared with a year earlier. Inflation rose 1.8 percent over the same period.

The once-depressed housing market is recovering. A measure of U.S. service firms' business activity expanded in December by the most in nearly a year. And Americans spent more in November. Consumer spending drives nearly 70 percent of economic growth.

Manufacturing is getting a boost from the best auto sales in five years. Car sales jumped 13 percent in 2012 to 14.5 million. And Americans spent more at the tail end of the holiday shopping season, boosting overall sales that had slumped earlier in the crucial two-month period.

"There is little doubt that the seeds of faster growth are being planted," James Marple, an economist at TD Bank, said in a note to clients.

But most economists expect little improvement in hiring this year. A 2 percentage point cut in the Social Security tax expired Jan. 1. That means a household with income of about $50,000 will have about $1,000 less to spend. And the government will may impose spending cuts this year.

Both the higher taxes and spending cuts, along with uncertainty about future budget fights, could restrain growth and hiring.

That "likely means acceleration in the labor market will remain elusive for the time being," said Ellen Zentner, an economist at Nomura Securities.

Don Brown, chief executive of Arteriocyte, a medical device maker, plans to hire more people this year. But he is worried about potential cuts in government spending that could cut into his Cleveland-based company's revenue.

One such cut is a 2 percent reduction to the reimbursements Medicare provides to doctors and hospitals. It was delayed temporarily as part of the agreement this week. If that cut is implemented later this year, it would lower revenue for the hospitals and surgeons that buy his company's advanced products.

"Our entire customer base is unsure about what their reimbursement landscape is going to be," Brown said.

The Obama administration's health care reform also imposed a 2.2 percent sales tax on medical devices. Brown estimates that will cost the company $400,000. He had hoped that tax would be eliminated as part of the fiscal cliff talks.

Arteriocyte hired 10 new workers last year and now employs 76 people. The new hires included research scientists, two marketing specialists, and a sales representative. The company hopes to make five to 10 additional hires this year, but may not be able to do so if the Medicare cut occurs.

__

Follow Chris Rugaber at http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-04-Economy/id-bd6868c2030040519b914eb1557c40a1

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Saudi's top cleric warns against mixing of genders

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) ? Saudi Arabia's top cleric on Friday warned against the mixing of the genders, saying it poses a threat to female chastity and society, as the kingdom prepares for the first time to grant women seats on the country's top advisory body.

Delivering his traditional Friday sermon, Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik said authorities must adhere to Shariah, or Islamic law, by ensuring men and women are separated as much as possible at all times. The cleric's comments come just weeks ahead of allowing women to be members of the 150-member Shura Council, the country's top advisory body.

Since 2006, women have been appointed as advisors to the council ? an appointed, consultative body that has the authority to review laws and question ministers but cannot propose or veto legislation. There are currently 12 female advisors, but they do not have a right to vote in the assembly.

The move by King Abdullah to allow women a voice on the Shura Council is part of a larger reform effort by the monarchy to give women greater space in the public sphere. Last year, the kingdom began enforcing a law that allows women to work in female apparel and lingerie stores.

Religious leaders, including the grand mufti, have spoken out against such reforms.

The country is guided by an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism. In the kingdom, women cannot travel, work, study abroad, marry, get divorced or gain admittance to a public hospital without permission from a male guardian ? typically a husband, brother, father or uncle.

While Al-Sheik has spoken out in support of granting women the right to vote in 2015 alongside men in the nation's only open elections, he has criticized the decision to allow women to work in apparel stores, saying that it puts them in contact with men unrelated to them.

"It is necessary for women to be separated from men as much as possible, because this great religion protects the chastity of women against evil and corruption," Al-Sheik told worshippers at the Imam Turki mosque in Riyadh.

While his Friday sermon focused mainly on corruption in the kingdom, the grand mufti stressed that it is forbidden in Islam for a woman to stand before a man unveiled, warning that to do so will destroy the morals and values of society. The veil in Saudi Arabia refers to the full face covering worn by most women in the ultraconservative kingdom.

The Saudi government has not said how many women will be given seats on the Shura Council. Some local papers have suggested that women would be separated from the men in the assembly hall by a barrier, while others have suggested that women communicate via an internal video system.

However, those pushing for reform point to a recent council session where the country's top female official, deputy Education Minister Nura al-Fayez, sat in a full face veil and took part in the dialogue alongside the men.

"It sends a message to the conservatives that this is the example for women's participation in the Shura Council," Hatoon Al-Fassi, a columnist and professor of women's history in King Saud University said, adding that it also suggests this is what the king supports.

She said she is among many in Saudi Arabia who are rejecting a symbolic presence of women in the assembly.

"At the end we are not behind the scenes," Al-Fassi said. "We are asking for equality and for half of the council, or what is 75 seats."

Al-Fassi and other Saudi women have been pushing the government for social reforms and greater rights for women, including allowing women the right to drive and for the dissolution of male guardianship laws. Saudi women have staged protests defying the driving ban.

She said that there is pressure from the religious establishment to keep to a minimum the number of seats for women in the advisory body.

"I believe that the religious establishment will insist on forcing its opinion to resist the kingdom's progressive reforms, but as women we are insisting on building society hand in hand."

___

Batrawy contributed to this report from Cairo.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saudis-top-cleric-warns-against-mixing-genders-163736561.html

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Egypt seizes anti-tank, anti-aircraft rockets in Sinai

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have seized six anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets in the Sinai peninsula that smugglers may have intended to send to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, security sources said on Friday.

They said the rockets, taken from a cache in central Sinai late on Thursday, were "modern", but did not disclose their origin. No smugglers were found in the area.

Egyptian security forces are trying to reassert control over the Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip and which has suffered from lawlessness since the revolt that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

The army announced recently it had seized smuggled rockets and other weapons in Egypt's western desert bordering Libya, which has been awash with arms since the civil war which toppled longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Egypt closed some of the tunnels used to smuggle goods into Gaza last year as part of a crackdown on Islamist militants blamed for the killing of 16 border guards on August 5.

Egypt brokered a truce ending the latest round of fighting between Israel and Gaza's Islamist Palestinian Hamas movement in November. Under the deal, Israel asked Cairo to crack down on Sinai weapons trafficking into the blockaded coastal enclave.

"Hamas has been deterred in the Gaza Strip, and Egypt is committed to preventing the arms smuggling," Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement on Friday.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has vowed to restore order in Sinai, but mistrust runs deep between the indigenous Bedouin population there and the central government in Cairo.

(Reporting By Yousri Mohamed and Dan Williams; Writing by Tamim Elyan; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-seizes-anti-tank-anti-aircraft-rockets-sinai-142329825.html

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U.S. Fiscal Deal Leaves Science Vulnerable

Congress's decision on January 1 to delay mandatory cuts to agencies, including the NIH and NSF, means administrators must still plan for possible plunges in funding for medical schools and other campuses

By Heidi Ledford and Nature magazine

Barack Obama's fiscal-cliff nightmare is not over yet, leaving funding agencies in limbo. Image: CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP/Getty

Law-makers in Washington DC greeted the new year with a frantic deal meant to avert a fiscal crisis. But the bill that passed the Senate and the House in pre-dawn votes on 1 and 2 January keeps researchers on tenterhooks for at least another two months by delaying mandatory spending cuts that could threaten science funding.

The last-ditch effort aimed to stave off the effects of the ?fiscal cliff?: a painful series of tax hikes and budget cuts, scheduled to take effect in 2013, that is meant to reduce the US budget deficit but could push the country?s weak economy back into recession. The cuts, known as the sequester, could shrink federal support for research and development (R&D) by US$57.5?billion over the next five years.

Rancorous last-minute negotiations yielded a tenuous agreement to raise taxes for the wealthy, but deferred decisions on the sequester ? an across-the-board reduction of about 8% in nondefense discretionary spending, with at least 9% carved from defense ? by two months. ?The bill isn?t ideal,? says Eleanor Dehoney, vice-president of public policy at Research!America, a science-advocacy group based in Alexandria, Virginia. ?But it does give advocates more time to convince policy-makers that cutting the US investment in R&D is counterproductive.?

Federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation have not announced what cuts they would make in the event of a sequester, but many institutions have drawn up contingency plans in case there is a sudden plunge in government funding. Nancy Andrews, dean of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, says that the medical school may need to cut back on graduate admissions, freeze salaries and reduce faculty recruitments if the NIH takes a severe hit.

The two-month delay to the sequester is a complication for Andrews, who is wrestling with decisions on faculty retention and recruitment that must be made by mid-January. ?If we need to spend more to help current faculty members maintain their research programs through funding gaps, it will be harder to provide start-up funding for new faculty members,? she says.

The delay means that law-makers will debate the sequester at the same time as they tackle the overall federal budget. The US Congress?s inability to agree on a 2013 budget last year led it to adopt a continuing resolution that allows the government to keep functioning at roughly 2012 funding levels. That resolution expires on 27?March. By then, the country will also have reached a cap on the amount of money that it can borrow.

This timing may increase the momentum behind big spending cuts, cautions Michael Lubell, director of public affairs for the American Physical Society in Washington DC. But it may also foster a more thorough discussion of which programs should be cut and by how much, he adds. Science is unlikely to emerge unscarred, says Lubell, but it may end up in better shape than it would have under the original sequestration plan. ?That doesn?t mean it?s going to be wonderful,? he adds. ?It means it will be less bad.?

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on January 2, 2013.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c904c456d339b2d7336a0f0d262658f1

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94% The House I Live In

All Critics (54) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (3)

"The House I Live In" leaves you shaking your head in deadened wonder at the waste of it all.

The House I Live In is a work of journalism, not propaganda: Jarecki has done his research and leaves it to you to decide what to make of it.

If [it] takes a while to focus, it eventually becomes the conversation starter the subject desperately needs.

Jarecki takes a highly original approach to create a compelling, thought-provoking look at a highly relevant and controversial topic.

An absorbing, disturbing sit.

It's a film as profoundly sad as it is enraging and potentially galvanizing, and it's one of the most important pieces of nonfiction to hit the screen in years.

Jarecki's arguments, presented as a very personal response to the war on drugs, are unashamedly those of a left-wing libertarian. They are also enormously compelling and extremely convincing.

Suffused with a righteous anger that Jarecki methodically turns up to full boil, The House I Live In is an emotionally shattering work, but also one with a hefty, legitimate intellectual punching power.

The ambitious look at the drug problem here offers a too simplistic view that demands a more critical and more inclusive look.

What this film argues, pretty convincingly, is that the war on drugs is much worse than a failure. It argues that it is tearing our society apart.

Jarecki makes clear that all our efforts and investments in fighting the War on Drugs haven't yielded any real success, only ruined lives, families and communities. There comes a point in any war where it becomes important to ask: Is it worth it?

Expertly researched, brilliantly argued and masterfully assembled, it is also easily the documentary of the year.

One of the finest documentaries of the year, this involving film is lucid, sharply well shot and edited, and ultimately so important that it's rather terrifying to watch.

A wide-ranging examination of the futile, self-defeating "war on drugs" ...

One of the best documentaries out this year, and a must-see for Senate and Congress in America.

An angry and personal attack on America's war on drugs contends it is a grotesquely wasteful public-works scheme.

Jarecki is a stickler for sticking to his subject, or sub-subject, until it squeals like a leech victim.

Jarecki offers 100 small conclusions rather than one big one for you to take away.

This urgent and formidably smart movie - perhaps the year's most important political documentary - has opened minds and changed laws already.

Tells a complex story with troubling ease.

Persuasively argues that punitive laws against users have historically involved disproportionately targeting poor, non-white communities.

Jarecki's parade of experts and eyewitnesses is impressive, as are his arguments that race and class prejudice enter into the policing efforts of America's drug warriors.

Jarecki's conclusion is powerfully plausible

No quotes approved yet for The House I Live In. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_house_i_live_in/

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More fiscal clashes loom as new Congress opens

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A new Congress opened for business Thursday to confront long-festering national problems, deficits and immigration among them, in an intensely partisan and crisis-driven era of divided government. "The American dream is in peril," said House Speaker John Boehner, re-elected to his post despite a mini-revolt in Republican ranks.

Moments after grasping an oversized gavel that symbolizes his authority, Boehner implored the assembly of newcomers and veterans in the 113th Congress to tackle the nation's heavy burden of debt at long last. "We have to be willing ? truly willing ? to make this right."

Also on the two-year agenda is the first significant effort at an overhaul of the tax code in more than a quarter century. Republicans and Democrats alike say they want to chop at a thicket of existing tax breaks and use the resulting revenue to reduce rates.

There were personal milestones aplenty as the winners of last fall's races swore an oath of office as old as the republic.

Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Deb Fischer of Nebraska were among the newcomers sworn in, raising the number of women in the Senate to a record 20. Tim Scott of South Carolina became the first black Republican in the Senate in more than three decades.

On the first day of a new term, one veteran made a stirring comeback. Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois returned to the Capitol for the first time since suffering a stroke a year ago, walking slowly up the 45 steps to the Capitol with the use of a cane. "Good to see you, guys," he said.

Across the Capitol, children and grandchildren squirmed through opening formalities that ended with Boehner's election as the most powerful Republican in a government where President Barack Obama will soon be sworn in to a second term and his fellow Democrats control the Senate.

"At $16 trillion and rising, our national debt is draining free enterprise and weakening the ship of state," said the Ohio Republican, whose struggles to control his members persisted to the final weekend of the 112th Congress when "fiscal cliff" legislation finally cleared. "The American dream is in peril so long as its namesake is weighed down by this anchor of debt. Break its hold and we will begin to set our economy free. Jobs will come home. Confidence will come back."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he, too, is ready for attempts to rein in federal spending, but laid down a few conditions. "Any future budget agreements must balance the need for thoughtful spending reductions with revenue from the wealthiest among us and closing wasteful tax loopholes," he said. That was in keeping with Obama's remarks after Congress had agreed on fiscal cliff legislation to raise taxes for the wealthy while keeping them level for the middle class.

Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have other ideas, both having said in recent days that the days of raising taxes are over.

"Now is the time to get serious about spending," McConnell said. "And if the past few weeks have taught us anything, that means the president needs to show up early this time." People won't "tolerate the kind of last-minute crises that we've seen again and again over the past four years as a result of this president's chronic inactivity and refusal to lead on the pressing issues of the day."

While neither Boehner nor Reid mentioned immigration in their opening-day speeches, Obama is expected to highlight the issue in the first State of the Union address of his new term. Lawmakers are already working toward a compromise they hope can clear both houses.

Most Democrats have long favored legislation to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, and Republicans have stoutly resisted. Now, though, many within the GOP appear ready to reconsider, after watching with alarm as Obama ran up an estimated 71 percent of the Hispanic vote in winning re-election over Mitt Romney in November.

There is little doubt that fiscal issues are at the forefront, though, as they have been since the economy cratered more than four years ago. The issue dominated the just-ended Congress from beginning to end as tea party-backed lawmakers pressed relentlessly to cut spending and reduce deficits.

They met with decidedly mixed success.

They won Obama's signature on $1 trillion in cuts over a decade after using the debt limit as leverage, but were forced into a humiliating surrender a year ago after trying to block an extension in payroll tax cuts. And in the last major act of the 112th Congress, they were forced to swallow legislation that contained next-to-no spending cuts, raised tax rates on the wealthy while keeping them even for the middle class and boosted deficits by an estimated $4 trillion over a decade.

And now, the newly enfranchised Congress will begin by raising deficits. National flood insurance legislation to help victims of Hurricane Sandy will create slightly more than $9 billion in red ink if it passes as expected on Friday. A follow-up disaster aid measure that Boehner has said will be brought to a vote on Jan. 15 would add $27 billion ? more if the bill grows, as seems likely, after it is reconciled with a $60-billion Senate version.

The next big clash is expected to begin within weeks. A two-month delay in automatic spending cuts expires at the end of February. As well, the administration will seek authority to borrow more money in late winter or early spring, and financing expires for most government agencies on March 27.

Republicans have said they intend to seek significant savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other government benefit programs to gain control over spending. Obama has said he won't bargain over the government's borrowing authority. He has also said is open to changes in benefit programs, but would face resistance on that from liberal Democrats.

Boehner will lead a House that has a Republican majority of 233-200, with two vacancies, a loss of eight seats for the GOP. Fourteen Republicans declined to vote for him, a reflection of their unhappiness with his leadership, but several more defections would have been needed to deny him a first-ballot victory. It's not unusual for party leaders to lose the votes of some dissidents. Nineteen Democrats declined to support their leader, Nancy Pelosi, on a similar ballot two years ago after her party lost more than 60 seats in the 2010 election.

Democrats hold a 55-45 majority in the Senate, and control two more seats than they did the past two years.

Reid and McConnell are negotiating over possible changes in the Senate's filibuster rules to make the movement of legislation more efficient, even when it is hotly contested.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Andrew Taylor and Henry C. Jackson contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-fiscal-clashes-loom-congress-opens-213430760.html

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Facebook Redesign - Business Insider

An Australian designer named Fred Nerby created an entirely new look for Facebook and posted it to Behance.

He gave us permission to rerun it.

It's a pretty interesting look at how Facebook could overhaul its design.

It actually looks like something that would be a cross between Apple and Microsoft's design work. It has Apple's soft human touches and Microsoft's simple tile design.

Each slide that follows has a little explanation of the new design from Nerby on it.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-redesign-2013-1

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