Nov
26

Congress returns as 'fiscal cliff' talks slow

WASHINGTON – Congress returned in a lame duck session with no signs of quick compromise to prevent a tax hike for most Americans...
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Peter Jackson Races to Complete <em>The Hobbit</em> in Time for Premiere

Peter Jackson makes epic films, and epic films take an extraordinary amount of time to produce. In the case of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the trek to completion is coming down to the wire.Jackson has been working on The Hobbit, which opens next month, at the Park Road Post Production facility in Wellington, New Zealand, for weeks to complete every last VFX trick, CGI shot and sound...
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Actor: CBS comedy ‘Two and a Half Men’ is ‘filth’

NEW YORK (AP) — The teenage actor who plays the half in the hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men” says it’s “filth” and through a video posted by a Christian church has urged viewers not to watch it.Nineteen-year-old Angus T. Jones has been on the show since he was 10 but says he doesn’t want to be on it. He says, “Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth.”The video was posted...
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Amid Hurricane Sandy, a Race to Get a Liver Transplant

It was the best possible news, at the worst possible time. The phone call from the hospital brought the message that Dolores and Vin Dreeland had long hoped for, ever since their daughter Natalia, 4, had been put on the waiting list for a liver transplant. The time had come. They bundled her into the car for the 50-mile trip from their home in Long Valley, N.J., to NewYork-Presbyterian...
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DealBook: Mortgage Interest Deduction Is Now Seen as Vulnerable

A tax break that has long been untouchable could soon be in for some serious manhandling.Many home buyers deduct their mortgage interest when assessing their tax bill, a perk that has helped bolster the income of millions of families — and the broader housing market.But as President Obama and Congress try to hash out a deal to reduce the budget deficit, the mortgage interest deduction looks vulnerable....
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Nov
25

Graham, King depart from Norquist's anti-tax pledge

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New Naval Era Dawns as China's Carrier Launches First Jet

China's aircraft carrier has launched and landed her first jet fighters, as shown in photos and videos released over the weekend by Beijing's state media.The milestone comes 14 years after the communist state acquired the derelict flattop Varyag from Ukraine, and nearly 18 months after the refurbished, rechristened Liaoning set sail from northern China.With the commencement of fixed-wing flight operations...
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U.S. musician Marcus Miller hurt in Swiss bus crash

ZURICH (Reuters) – U.S. jazz musician Marcus Miller was injured on Sunday along with members of his band when their bus crashed in Switzerland, killing the driver, police said.The two-time Grammy winner was travelling with 10 members of his band from Monte Carlo in Monaco to Hengelo in the Netherlands when the bus crashed on the highway near the town of Schattdorf in central Switzerland.A Swiss police...
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M.I.T. Lab Hatches Ideas, and Companies, by the Dozens

HOW do you take particles in a test tube, or components in a tiny chip, and turn them into a $100 million company? Dr. Robert Langer, 64, knows how. Since the 1980s, his Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has spun out companies whose products treat cancer, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia, among other diseases, and even thicken hair. The Langer Lab is...
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Legal Consensus of Warrantless Cellphone Searches Is Elusive

Judges and lawmakers across the country are wrangling over whether and when law enforcement authorities can peer into suspects’ cellphones, and the cornucopia of evidence they provide. Peter DaSilva for The New York TimesOrganizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where Hanni Fakhoury is a lawyer, have lobbied for legislation that would require authorities to obtain a warrant...
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