Knives and clubs on airplanes? Flight attendants don't like the new ...

Unions representing American Airlines and Southwest Airlines flight attendants reacted angrily Tuesday to reports that the Transportation Security Administration will allow knives, clubs and other such items onto flights.

The revised policy ?is a threat to passengers and affront to flight attendants. This policy was designed to make the lives of TSA staff easier, but not make flights safer,? said Stacy K. Martin, president of the Transport Workers Union?s Local 556 that represents Southwest flight attendants.

?While we agree that a passenger wielding a small knife or swinging a golf club or hockey stick poses less of a threat to the pilot locked in the cockpit, these are real threats to passengers and flight attendants in the passenger cabin,? she said.

Similarly, the new policy upset the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American?s flight attendants.

?The APFA and our colleagues at other flight attendant unions have enjoyed a close working relationship with TSA since its inception,? APFA president Laura Glading said.

?That?s why I?m a little puzzled that such a momentous decision would be made without consulting us. In addition to being industry stakeholders, first responders, and September 11th?victims, flight attendants are a resource. Nobody knows what it takes to keep passengers safe better than we do,? Glading said.

According to the APFA, TSA administrator John Pistole announced the policy at a Brooklyn aviation security conference Tuesday. The union said the policy change, to go into effect April 25, ?will bring the US into conformance with international rules.?

The Flight Attendants Union Coalition, which represents 90, 000 flight attendants put out a statement condemning the TSA?s action.

?Today?s announcement to permit knives back into the aircraft cabin is a poor and shortsighted decision by the TSA. Continued prohibition of these items is an integral layer in making our aviation system secure and must remain in place.

?As the last line of defense in the cabin and key aviation partners, we believe that these proposed changes will further endanger the lives of all flight attendants and the passengers we work so hard to keep safe and secure.

?Flight attendants are the front line safety and security professionals onboard every commercial passenger aircraft in this country and must be given the tools and training to protect ourselves, our passengers and the aircraft. Despite repeated requests for updated training to include basic self-defense maneuvers to allow us to defend ourselves, flight attendants still do not receive mandatory training about how to effectively recognize and defend others against attacks aboard the aircraft.?

Among the coalition?s members are the APFA, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Source: http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/03/knifes-and-clubs-on-airplanes-flight-attendants-dont-like-the-new-tsa-policy.html/

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PropertyManagementMaven: MORE INcorrect information on WHO ...

Their accountant says they don't need to send a 1099-MISC to me (they have sent it to vendors for work). Every forum I've looked at said that property management agencies should send the property owner a 1099-MISC to report their income from the rental.

The above question is from the INTUIT (Quicken) website and so far, all of the answers to the question are INcorrect or INcomplete.

YES - the property manager needs to provide a 1099-MISC for owners who are NOT a corporation and who have RECEIVED over $600 in income.

HOWEVER, the property owner can ALWAYS report the income on their Schedule E and if the property manager does not provide the proper reporting to the IRS, then the IRS will look to the property manager for their failure to report income.

NOT receiving the 1099-MISC does not mean that the landlord does not have income and they do need to file on the income they received for 2012.

?

Wallace S. Gibson, CPM * GIBSON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Ltd.

LandlordWhisperer

View our available Charlottesville, Albemarle and Lake Monticello rental homes online with photos and floor plans

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Source: http://propertymanagementmaven.com/post/3648050/more-incorrect-information-on-who-and-how-to-report-1099-misc-for-rental-income

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Italy president mulls new technocrat government-sources

ROME (Reuters) - President Giorgio Napolitano is considering appointing a new technocrat government led by a non-politician as one way out of Italy's political stalemate, Italian officials said on Tuesday.

Such a solution would come into play if center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani failed to form a government after receiving an initial mandate from Napolitano, as is expected, they said.

"Napolitano wants a government with the broadest possible support that will last as long as possible," one of the officials told Reuters.

Bersani won a majority in the lower house of parliament and says he has the right to be the first to try to form a government, although he has no workable majority in the Senate.

However, 5-Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo, who holds the balance of power after winning a huge protest vote, responded to speculation about a technocrat government in Italian media on Tuesday by saying he would not support such an administration.

"Technocrat governments don't exist in nature but only political governments supported by parliamentary majorities. The Monti government was the most political government since the war," Grillo said on his blog.

He said a technocrat premier would just be a "fig leaf" to cover the responsibilities of the traditional parties.

The stalemate has caused alarm among Italy's European partners because of concern that instability could reignite the financial crisis that brought the euro zone to the brink of collapse before former EU commissioner Mario Monti formed a government of technocrats in November 2011.

Napolitano is charged with finding a way out of the impasse but does not begin formal consultations until after March 15, when parliament will be convened, for constitutional reasons.

Politicians have used the limbo period between last week's vote and talks with Napolitano for both speculation and maneuvering.

Napolitano encouraged political forces to use the time more constructively on Tuesday, saying in a statement they had "ample time for a fruitful preparatory phase for the head of state's consultations for the formation of a government".

With no party able to control the upper house, the options for putting together a government depend on an agreement between at least two of the three main rival forces in parliament - Bersani's center-left, the center-right bloc led by Silvio Berlusconi and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

Grillo has expressed repeated hostility to overtures from Bersani and appears unlikely to support a government led by him.

On Monday, Vito Crimi, newly appointed leader of the 5-Star Movement in the Senate, said his group would not give a confidence vote to any government led by one of the main parties but could back an administration "alternative to the party system".

However, on Tuesday he said his remarks had been misinterpreted and the movement would not support a technocrat government. He said the 5-Star Movement's aim was to lead a government itself.

Grillo spent much of the election campaign making fierce attacks on Monti's unelected government.

INVITATION

Monti remains in charge of day-to-day government business until a new government is formed, but cannot introduce any major legislation.

His own involvement in the election, in which he led a centrist grouping that won just over 10 percent of the vote, is thought to have ruled him out for another term as a non-partisan head of government.

Monti invited the heads of the three main blocs to meetings to discuss next week's European Council meeting in Brussels, the first opportunity for the main party chiefs to meet since the election.

The leadership of Bersani's Democratic Party (PD) is due to meet separately on Wednesday to discuss its next steps and to approve a core program of reforms in areas including corruption and party finance, which he has said he will present to parliament.

He has ruled out an alliance with Berlusconi and has called on Grillo's party, the third most powerful force in parliament with 163 members in the two houses, to back his proposals.

PD ally Nichi Vendola, leader of the Freedom Ecology Liberty party, said on Tuesday after a meeting of party managers that he opposed another technocrat government.

"We want a government for change, a government of anti-technocrats," Vendola told reporters.

However, Bersani's own position has been badly weakened by the election, which the PD had been clear favorite to win, and speculation has grown that he may be replaced, possibly by the 37-year-old mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi.

Renzi said in an interview on Rai 3's Ballaro on Tuesday that Bersani had beaten him in the PD's primary election and therefore had the right to make the first move and try to form a government, adding "all the PD must be behind him."

He added, however, he thought the PD had "sat down" after the primaries and had missed an opportunity by failing to make a stronger campaign.

Earlier, Renzi met Monti for two hours in his office in Rome. Afterwards, the mayor said the two discussed freeing up city funds that have been blocked by internal budget controls.

On Monday, finance ministers from the 17-member currency bloc meeting in Brussels said they were optimistic that whatever government was formed in Italy would show responsibility.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Barry Moody and Sophie Hares)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italian-president-mulls-technocrat-government-sources-113723497.html

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Pistorius' dad accused of racism over gun comments

EPA, file

Henke Pistorius (second left), seen in court here with his son Oscar (right), claimed the family had guns for protection and attacked South Africa's ANC government over crime levels.

By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

The father of "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius ? the Olympic star accused of murdering his girlfriend ? has been accused of racism after he claimed the family needed guns to protect themselves because they could not rely on South Africa's police.

Speaking to the U.K.?s Telegraph newspaper, Henke Pistorius criticized the government over crime rates in the country. His comments were attacked by the ruling ANC party and quickly disowned by the rest of the Pistorius family.

Police say they register more than 15,000 murders a year in South Africa, which has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, according to the United Nations.

"Some of the [family?s] guns are for hunting and some are for protection, the handguns,"?Henke Pistorius told The Telegraph. "It speaks to the ANC government, look at white crime levels, why protection is so poor in this country, it's an aspect of our society."?

He added: "You can't rely on the police, not because they are inefficient always but because crime is so rife."

Oscar Pistorius, famous for becoming the first person to run in both the Paralympics and Olympics, said in a written statement read to a court last month that he had fatally shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day after mistaking her for an intruder.

His father?s mention of ?white crime levels? and the lack of protection from the government sparked an angry reaction from the ANC, which has been in power since the country?s first democractic elections in 1994, following the fall of apartheid.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu told The Associated Press that it "rejects with contempt" any suggestion that the government doesn't adequately protect white South Africans against crime.

"Not only is this statement devoid of truth, it is also racist," Mthembu said in a statement. "It is sad that he has chosen to politicize a tragic incident that is still fresh in the minds of those affected and the public."

It was a long and emotional week for Pistorius, who is accused of premeditated murder in the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius must surrender his passport and cannot return to his home, which was the scene of the shooting. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Oscar Pistorius and the rest of his family issued a statement headlined ?Pistorius family distances itself from Henke Pistorius?s comments in U.K. newspaper.?

The statement said the sports star?s family were ?deeply concerned about the comments made by Oscar?s father, Henke Pistorius? about the family using guns to defend themselves and ?especially about his comments that the ANC government is not willing to protect white South Africans.?

Arnold Pistorius, the Olympian's uncle, was quoted as saying ?the Pistorius family own weapons purely for sport and hunting purposes.?

?Henke?s interview with the newspaper was unapproved by our media liaison team,? he said.? ?The comments doesn?t [sic] represent the views of Oscar or the rest of the Pistorius family.?

However, in his February statement to the court, Pistorius said he slept with his 9 mm handgun under his bed because "I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before."

The South African Police Service's National Firearms Center said Pistorius registered the 9 mm for self-defense. Police issued him with his gun license on Sept. 10, 2010.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Oscar Pistorius granted bail ahead of murder trial

Lawyer: Pistorius' brother facing homicide charge

'Nobody saw it coming,' Reeva Steenkamp's uncle says

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/05/17194429-oscar-pistorius-father-accused-of-racism-over-gun-comments?lite

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12 Tips To Manage Burdening Student And Credit Card Debt

If you are a student stuck at home and/or in a low paying job, your debts, be they your student loans or your credit cards, may be burying you alive.

However, this doesn?t necessarily need to be the case. Read on to discover how you can manage and even repay your debts soon.

Managing and Repaying Student Debts

Managing your student debts doesn?t necessarily need to be a hectic task. In fact, the only reason it seems so is because you?re too worried about how you will repay them. So, breathe and follow these tips to ensure that you?re on the right track.

• Start budgeting. This is important since it can help you save money to slowly pay off your student loan debt. Besides, it will help you become wiser while making financial decision since you will be able to differentiate between your needs and luxuries.
• Create a record to track your loans. Make sure that the file accurately states how much you owe and how much you have been paying. Also, insert any paperwork you receive from your lenders so that you can easily prove that you paid if asked.
• Always keep the line of communication open with your lender. Talking with them will help you come up with an executable plan that will make both of you happy. However, remember to be honest, realistic and upfront or else you may be forced to default and ultimately ruin your credit score.
• Consider adjusting your plan if you don?t think you?ll be able to pay your loans by their final deadline. Discuss alternative options, such as income-based repayment plans, and make sure that your lender agrees to consider them.
• Create priorities for your loans in order to pay off those with the highest interest rate first and minimize the total interest you should be.
• Try getting a job in the teaching, dentistry and medicine, law, or public service sectors. Chances are that a portion of your loan may be cancelled or you will be given the chance to join a loan forgiveness program. Some volunteering groups, such as the Peace Corps, also provide members with grants to repay their student loans.

Managing and Repaying Credit Card Debts

A survey conducted in 2012 uncovered that college seniors had an average of $4,100 in credit card debts. Though they may seem justifiable while you?re still at school, these debts are bad since they won?t increase your wealth or earning power. In fact, credit card debts may lead you to sink into bankruptcy on the long run. So, if you want to avoid a major slump, consider these tips.

• Determine which debts to pay off first if you have more than one credit card. Your aim should be to provide at least the minimum payment on each card. Another strategy is to pay more on the card with the highest interest rate or handle the smallest debts first.
• If you want to repay your debt faster and slash the amount of your interest, consider paying a little more than the total monthly minimum.
• Debt consolidation can be a helpful process if high interest rates are stopping you from paying more than the minimum. With a lower interest rate, chances are that you will pay the balance quicker without adding to your payments
• Again, budgeting is essential for managing and repaying your credit card debts. Not only will it help you save, but it will point out where you tend to overspend so that you can make wiser decisions later.
• Prepare to negotiate temporary reductions to your minimum balance payment. You will need to provide a good reason for this, but you may be able to pull this off if your creditors know exactly what you go through.
• Don?t be ashamed of getting counseling from a non-profit counseling agency like Consumer Credit Counseling Services. You may need a professional to guide you or help you if everything else fails.

So, don?t let your debts control your life. Remember these tips and make sure that you follow them for more financial peace in the future.

Source: http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/manage-student-and-credit-card-debt/

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How that smartphone makes you less manly

By Rob Walker

In an oversharing moment at the TED conference last week, Google co-founder Sergey Brin confessed to finding his smartphone ?emasculating.? You know about this, because the remark had the whole Internet aflutter, possibly because Brin himself looks so macho these days: fit, tousle-haired and evidently in possession of Ben Affleck?s recently abandoned beard. Throw in the Terminator-esque Google Glass that Brin says will remasculate the masses, and he seemed poised to annihilate us all. (By comparison, here?s what Brin looked like pre-Glass.)

Lulz ensued, of course. But if you set aside Brin?s surprising word choice and dubious eyewear, he?s getting at something that?s worth taking seriously. More and more of us are drifting away from PCs and laptops, and toward mobile, touch-screen devices. The benefits for consumers are clear enough, but what about the downsides?

One answer turns very specifically on that word choice: ?consumers.? Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, observed in a recent interview on the Australian radio show "Future Tense" that Wikipedia participants who transition to tablet devices seem to contribute less as a result, because those devices ?are better for watching videos and surfing the internet than for typing text.?

Her real point was that this is not just a problem for Wikipedia, it?s also a potentially profound shift in how to think about what the Internet is for. Instead of being a place where all sorts of people create all sorts of things for all sorts of audiences, Gardner continued, ?I think increasingly what's happening is, partly as a result of the kinds of devices that are being manufactured and that people are buying, people are moving toward a more consumption-based Internet experience from a production-based experience.?

Setting aside the cheap jokes about Brin and the art of manliness?mostly because I can?t think of any more?maybe these consumption-friendlier objects do emasculate, or ?make (a person) weaker or less effective? (to quote the top definition of the word that, um, Google kicked in my face). I now travel with an iPad instead of a laptop, and even when I bring a keyboard attachment, I definitely produce less. Beyond answering vital email and poking out a few ?likes? on one or another social network, it?s just much easier to watch something on Netflix, or catch up with whatever I?ve stashed in Instapaper.

Now, to offer an important but unfashionable caveat, I don?t think there?s anything wrong with consuming the Internet, as it were. There?s lots of great stuff out there. If it weren?t for the Internet, it?s unlikely I?d be able to enjoy Australian radio shows, for instance. And you wouldn?t be reading this column right now.

But Gardner?s point is a useful one for me to cite in my first column for Yahoo News. It?s a daunting thing to show up in 2013 and announce: ?I am writing about technology.? I mean, who isn?t? So first I should clarify that I?m interested in the digital world and the objects we use to access it, but also in physical technologies from crowd-funded drones to anti-surveillance hoodies, from weird new materials to tiny iPad-cleaning robots.

That said, what I won?t be doing is joining the race to post images of and quote press releases for the latest gizmo. To me, what?s really interesting about technology isn?t technology?it?s what people choose to do with technology, for better and for worse. Perhaps it?s quaint to say so, but I?m a fan of human agency. And although I think Gardner?s concern should be taken seriously, I?m optimistic that I?ll have plenty to write about.

That brings us back to Google Glass: While I can see how it might impact ?what you?re meant to do with your body,? as Brin put it, it?s less clear to me how it improves what you can do with your mind. Evidently you?re supposed to use it to display information and record ?lifebits.??

OK, but personally I can?t wait until people start figuring out not what they?re supposed to do with this technology, but what they can do. Google Glass, you could say, will be a lot more interesting once clever people emasculate it.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/are-smartphones-and-tablets-turning-us-into-sissies--175359859.html

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Minn. considers banning actors from smoking on stage

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? During a key scene in the play "Venus in Fur" the lead actress lights up a Marlboro from her purse and takes a drag, tilting her head backward while exhaling a long stream of smoke.

Vanda smokes for only about a minute before dropping the cigarette into her coffee mug, but it's a pivotal moment that begins the character's transformation into an assertive woman. And some theater employees say it wouldn't feel nearly as raw if the actress couldn't smoke an actual cigarette on stage.

"If you're going to be authentic to that aspect of a play, it's essential," said Bain Boehlke, artistic director at The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, where "Venus in Fur" currently is playing. "Just the smell of the cigarette smoke is part of the world of the play."

Those moments of authenticity could become harder to pull off in Minnesota if lawmakers amend the state's smoking ban to eliminate an exemption for theatrical productions. Now that alternatives exist, a state senator says there's no reason actors should subject the audience to tobacco fumes or glorify smoking on stage, and she has introduced a bill that would ban the practice.

"It's so much easier to use e-cigarettes or to use something else that doesn't have all the carcinogens in it," said Barb Goodwin, a Columbia Heights Democrat.

Minnesota is one of 11 states, plus Washington, D.C., in which smoking bans don't apply to actors lighting up on stage.

Goodwin said she proposed her bill on behalf of a constituent, a frequent theatergoer with a severe allergy to cigarette smoke. The senator also worries that actors smoking onstage glamorizes tobacco for children.

Her constituent, Joan Gilmore, said cigarette smoke makes her throat tighten and her head pound. Gilmore, a 53-year-old sailing instructor from Fridley, said she has had to leave three plays early and skipped others after learning that actors would smoke onstage. She doesn't see why it's a big deal for actors to use pretend cigarettes.

"Theater is all about illusion," Gilmore said.

But Boehlke and other directors worry that the "clink" of an electronic cigarette on an ashtray or the smell of burning herbs will pull the audience out of the action of the play.

The Minnesota Opera already chooses not to use tobacco cigarettes, in part because it's bad for a singer's voice.

Actors at the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis' drama kingpin, rarely light up real cigarettes. An actor smoked an electronic cigar in the recent performance of "Long Day's Journey into Night."

But theater spokesman Quinton Skinner said the Guthrie wants to keep tobacco cigarettes an option, especially for plays set in a time when smoking "was part of a fabric of society."

"In order to realistically depict that, you need to have some onstage smoking," Skinner said.

Minnesota's exemption dates to 2007, when a group of theaters asked lawmakers for a pass as they put the final touches on the statewide smoking ban. Larry Redmond, a lobbyist for Minnesotan Citizens for the Arts who led that push, said his organization will fight against any change. He called it a matter of artistic freedom.

Goodwin rejects that.

"What's going to happen if they don't smoke in that production? Really, how is that going to have a good bearing on the way people feel about the play?" she asked incredulously.

Goodwin said she's open to allowing actors to smoke herbal cigarettes, but some directors aren't sold.

Joel Sass, who directed "Venus in Fur" at the Jungle, said most actors and audiences have hated the herbal alternatives when he has seen them used.

He doesn't believe the real thing must always be used but said it's important to have the option.

"We can't go in and cross out every stage direction in a Tennessee Williams play with smoking just because we have a moral objection to it now," Sass said. "It's about those people in that time."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/smoke-not-minn-200408446.html

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