"Members of Congress will be getting a small pay increase next year. Under an executive order issued by President Obama on Thursday, members of Congress will join federal workers in seeing their pay rise by 0.5 percent after March 27. Congressmen and senators make $174,000 a year and will see an extra $900 in their annual pay packages before taxes next year." Continue reading →
"France's constitutional council has struck down a top income tax rate of 75% introduced by Socialist President Francois Hollande. Raising taxes for those earning more than 1m euros (£817,400) has been a flagship policy for Mr Hollande. The policy angered France's business community and prompted some wealthy citizens to say they would emigrate. Mr Hollande's government said it would rework the tax, due to take effect in 2013, to meet the council's complaints." Continue reading →
"The simulated chase this month was among the first test flights in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security program designed to evaluate the possible civilian use of 'Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems.' In coming months, dozens of companies will come to Oklahoma to put their state-of-the-art aerial vehicles through a series of scenarios designed to test their capabilities in situations that police and firefighters might encounter. Many of the drones being tested come with very advanced surveillance technology, including radar, video cameras, infrared thermal imagers and wireless network detectors that can collect sensitive information." Continue reading →
"Since they started selling in April 2007, eight months before the start of the Great Recession, individual investors have pulled at least $380 billion from U.S. stock funds, a category that includes both mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, according to estimates by the AP. That is the equivalent of all the money they put into the market in the previous five years. Instead of stocks, they're putting money into bonds because those are widely perceived as safer investments. Individuals have put more than $1 trillion into bond mutual funds alone since April 2007." Continue reading →
"At the moment it is a faint object, visible only in sophisticated telescopes as a point of light moving slowly against the background stars. It doesn't seem much – a frozen chunk of rock and ice – one of many moving in the depths of space. But this one is being tracked with eager anticipation by astronomers from around the world, and in a year everyone could know its name. Comet Ison could draw millions out into the dark to witness what could be the brightest comet seen in many generations – brighter even than the full Moon." Continue reading →
"When Monsanto revolutionized agriculture with a line of genetically engineered seeds, the promise was that the technology would lower herbicide use—because farmers would have to spray less. In fact, just the opposite happened. Sixteen years on, Roundup (Monsanto's tradename for its glyphosate herbicide) has certainly killed lots of weeds. But the ones it has left standing are about as resistant to herbicide as the company's Roundup Ready crops, which are designed to survive repeated applications of the agribusiness giant's own Roundup herbicide." Continue reading →
"Fitbit is entering a brave new world in privacy as it starts selling devices and data to a new market: employers. Scal says Fitbit is attempting to grow through corporate wellness programs. One of Fitbit's competitors, BodyMedia, says it is working with insurance companies to get its self-trackers into more workplaces. Scal says Fitbit is running an experiment with one insurer, to see if employees who use the devices go to the doctor less. This, he says, 'would be the holy grail for a product like this.' 'If we could make a direct connection to reduction in medical care costs, then I think the floodgates would be open,' Scal says." Continue reading →
"There are now 1.7 million Spanish households in which not a single family member still earns a salary. Nearly 4 million people have lost their jobs since late 2007, when the real estate bubble burst. More than half of those out of work in Spain are now considered to be long-term unemployed. The result is that an increasing number of them can no longer service the loans they took to purchase apartments, houses and commercial space during the boom years prior to the crisis. According to a forecast by the Spanish central bank, the number of foreclosures will increase by another 30 percent in the coming year." Continue reading →
"Federal workers have had enough. Now if only they can convince elected officials not to hit them again. As the White House and Congress look for ways to avoid a Jan. 1 'fiscal cliff' of budget cuts and tax increases, federal employee groups are increasingly mobilized against more hits on their pocketbooks. The Federal Workers Alliance (FWA), a coalition of 20 unions representing more than 300,000 employees, scheduled a 'federal employee day of action' on Tuesday to pressure officials not to take any more away from the workforce in the name of deficit reduction." Continue reading →
"The Social Security program ran a $47.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2012 as the program brought in $725.429 billion in cash and paid $773.247 for benefits and overhead expenses. The Social Security Administration also released new data revealing that the number of workers collecting disability benefits hit a record 8,827,795 in December--up from 8,805,353 in November. The overall number of Social Security program beneficiaries also hit a record in December, climbing from 56,658,978 in November to 56,758,185 in December." Continue reading →