The Heroic Absurdity Of Dan Brown

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As a believer in the enjoyably awful, I would recommend this book wholeheartedly if I could.

Read the whole story at www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

Michael Mancil Brown Charged In Mitt Romney Tax Returns Scheme

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Former Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney delivers remarks during the second day of the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) March 15, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Tennessee man was charged Wednesday in a scheme involving former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's income tax returns during the 2012 campaign.

The U.S. Justice Department said a federal grand jury in Nashville indicted Michael Mancil Brown, 34, of Franklin, and charged him with six counts of wire fraud and six counts of extortion.

Brown is accused of having an anonymous letter delivered to the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP accounting firm in Franklin last August, demanding that $1 million in digital currency be deposited to a Bitcoin account to keep some of Romney's income tax returns from being released. The Justice Department said Brown falsely claimed that he had gained access to the PricewaterhouseCoopers internal computer network and stolen tax documents for Romney and his wife, Ann Romney, for tax years before 2010.

A phone number listed for Brown had a message saying it was not receiving incoming calls. He did not immediately return an email message sent Wednesday evening.

The letter said interested parties who wanted the purportedly stolen returns released could contribute $1 million to another Bitcoin account. Bitcoin is a hard-to-trace form of electronic cash.

The Justice Department statement said similar letters were delivered to Democratic and Republican party offices in Franklin.

The letters claiming two decades' worth of the Romneys' tax returns had been stolen came amid last year's Republican and Democratic conventions.

At the time, Romney had steadfastly declined to release more than one year of tax returns, for 2010, and Democrats were trying to portray him as so wealthy he was out of touch with middle-class voters. Last fall, Romney also released his income tax returns for 2011.

Computer thumb drives were delivered with the demand. The letter said the tax returns delivered on the thumb drives were encrypted and more copies would be sent to "all major news media outlets" with the passwords to be released if payment wasn't made.

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Sherrod Brown To Unveil Student Loan Refinancing Bill

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U.S. households struggling with expensive student debt would be able to refinance into cheaper loans at no cost to taxpayers under legislation to be proposed by Ohio's senior senator.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) will unveil as early as today a proposal to grant the secretary of the treasury, a position Jack Lew now occupies, the authority to create a government-backed financing vehicle that could enable millions of distressed borrowers to refinance student debt not guaranteed by the government into new loans with significantly lower interest rates, according to a draft copy of his eight-page bill.

Brown’s legislation comes amid increasingly dire warnings from regulators and policymakers concerned that outstanding student debt -- now valued at nearly $1.2 trillion -- may put the economy at risk as overburdened households curtail spending, investment and savings in order to pay student loans, despite more than four years of record low borrowing costs.

“Why should our students and graduates be the last to benefit from historically low interest rates?” Brown said. “Helping graduates refinance their private student loan debt into more affordable terms frees up funds for them to buy houses, start businesses, or contribute to their communities. It makes sense for our students and graduates and it makes sense for our economy.”

Last month, President Barack Obama said that the $26,000 in debt carried by the average new college graduate “holds back our entire middle class.” Student loan payments “can last for years, even decades, which means young people are putting off buying their first car or their first house -- the things that grow our economy and create new jobs,” Obama added.

While most lawmakers appear to be chiefly concerned with the impending doubling of interest rates set to affect roughly a quarter of all future federal student loans starting Monday, Brown joins a small but growing group of legislators including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) attempting to help current borrowers.

About 60 percent of all federal student loans carry interest rates above 6 percent, according to July 2012 Department of Education data cited by the Center for American Progress. About three-quarters of all new federal student loans carry interest rates of 6.8 percent or 7.9 percent, forcing borrowers to pay record relative rates on their loans.

The rates, fixed by Congress, have not been updated to reflect the near-record low interest rate environment. For example, when Congress set the rates in 2007, the average new 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage could be had for about 6.3 percent, according to Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage financier. The average new 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage now carries a 3.9 percent interest rate.

The gap between what students and households pay to finance a college education and what the U.S. government pays to borrow has led to record profits for the Treasury, eclipsing earnings even at Exxon Mobil Corp., the nation’s most profitable publicly-traded company.

There is about $150 billion of private student debt, with new loans over the past few years carrying an average interest rate of 8 percent to 10 percent, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In recent years, student lenders have been able to generate increasing interest income off the loans they make relative to their own cost to borrow, something most banks are struggling with due to years of persistently low interest rates forcing them to reduce borrowers’ rates, the CFPB has noted.

The consumer agency has suggested that Washington policymakers consider government-initiated loan workout and refinancing schemes for distressed borrowers. A senior CFPB official, Rohit Chopra, is due to repeat that suggestion Tuesday during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

Brown’s proposal, which he calls the “Refinancing Education Funding to Invest for the Future Act,” mandates that whatever means the treasury secretary uses to enable borrowers to refinance their debt, “it shall not result in any net cost to the federal government” -- a potential boon to lawmakers eager to curry favor with young voters and middle-class families but wary of increasing government spending.

The bill in some ways resembles a 2008 law, “Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act,” which provided lenders with guarantees and cheap financing to stimulate new lending. Brown’s legislation seeks to help borrowers who are struggling with debt repayment.

“During the crisis, policymakers employed a number of creative tools to revive the student lending market,” Chopra said in prepared remarks he planned to deliver at Tuesday's hearing. “Policymakers might now focus on the following objectives to increase private capital participation and market efficiency: spurring loan restructuring opportunities [and] jumpstarting a student loan refinance market.”

Brown’s legislation targets both.

His bill calls on the treasury secretary to first determine whether borrowers “are unable to secure adequate credit accommodations with existing private education loans.” If the secretary makes such a determination, the official then would have the authority to create a scheme to help borrowers.

The proposed legislation suggests that policymakers consider using the Federal Reserve, Federal Home Loan Banks, and Federal Financing Bank -- a government corporation that borrows from the treasury and lends to agencies and borrowers with government guarantees -- as sources of credit to refinance borrowers.

The CFPB suggested a similar idea last month.

During the recent financial crisis, the Fed created numerous extraordinary programs designed to stimulate credit. The world’s largest financial institutions, particularly foreign-based banks, were the biggest beneficiaries, Fed data show.

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Tina Brown defends the editorship of Newsweek as it's a bitter end

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BART Strike: San Francisco transit agency talks continue then Governor Jerry Brown steps (video)

SAN FRANCISCO - hundreds of thousands of travelers in the San Francisco Bay area have at least a temporary suspension of a massive transport strike when gov. Jerry Brown took part in a labor contract dispute.

Order 11th hour on Sunday night prevented the strike and the morning trip to continue normally, without widespread congestion trips that would have created a strike of Bay Area Rapid Transit, fifth largest railroad line of the nation, on the left.

In the order, Brown appointed a Board of researchers for an investigation of seven days in the dispute of the contract which had prepared to walk off the job at midnight on Sunday the unions.

The order issued Brown came under a law that allows the State's intervention if a strike significantly disrupt public transport services and endangering public health.

"For the sake of the people of the Bay area, urge you - in the strongest possible terms - parties to meet quickly and the time required to reach this dispute resolved," Brown said in the order.

Board will report its conclusions to the Governor, who can then petition the Court that calls for a 60-day cooling period, said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown. The report explains BART and positions of trade unions, but not to criticize or issue a recommendation.

In a statement, spokesman BART Rick Rice said that Chairman of the Board Tom Radulovich transit authority sent a letter to the Governor requesting their intervention and a 60-day cooling period. The Governor issued an order with considerably less time a week.

"The formal impartial investigation that accompanies the period of reflection will help to clarify the points of difference between the proposals," said the statement.

Union leaders issued a critical statement after the order, accusing the binding BART management negotiators until they stayed only a few hours before the strike would have started to provide alternative proposals on the basis of pay and benefits.

"Our hope is that Research Council of Governor will reveal how little time BART management has been on the negotiating table in the last 30 days, compared to how much time has passed to the media, the position", said the President of SEIU 1021 Roxanne Sánchez.

Spokesman BART Alicia Trost said Sunday afternoon that is "extremely frustrating" that unions were misrepresenting the proposals of improvements that have been received, including wage increases, and the transit authority was working all weekend despite allegations of absence.

"We have made several proposals this weekend and all going in one direction and was above, above, above," Trost said.

Bay Area Rapid Transit managers and Union leaders had returned to the negotiating table on Sunday in the hope of avoiding a strike that would have affected 400,000 travelers and created nightmares of traffic for the area of San Francisco for the second time in a month.

Representatives of the two largest unions of employees in the Agency and BART management negotiated for about 14 hours on Saturday and resumed Sunday morning trading as be seen a deadline of midnight. Brown's order came at around 22:30 on Sunday.

Remain large differences on key issues, including wages, pensions, safety of workers and health care costs.

Union train operators and agents of station average approximately $71,000 in wage base and $11,000 in time extra per year. They pay nothing toward their pensions and a flatrate of $92 per month for the health insurance, according to BART.

To weigh allegations of binding Sunday afternoon, previously in the weekend Union leaders expressed cautious hope for agreement and said progress was being made.

"The parties made some important but incremental moves yesterday, and I hope to reach an agreement," Josie Mooney, Chief negotiator for the Service Employees International Union 1021, said Sunday before heading to the negotiations. "If the parties work very hard, then it is certainly possible in the amount of time that we have."

"Definitely there was movement on both sides," Chief negotiator BART Thomas Hock said as he left the final negotiations Saturday night. "I hope that, if we are moving ahead, we will arrive at a proposal which both parties can agree."

Two of BART's largest unions issued a 72-hour notice on Thursday that employees outside of work if they do not reach agreement on a new contract by midnight Sunday.

"BART is the backbone of the network of transit. Any other transit agency has the ability to absorb the capacity of BART if there is a disruption, "said John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

In the event of a strike, transit agencies had planned to add bus and ferry service, carpool lanes kept open throughout the day and even give coffee gift cards to encourage drivers to pick up riders. Also they were encouraging workers to avoid rush hour traffic or distance if possible.

When BART workers closed train service for four days at the beginning of July, the roads were packed and travelers waited in long queues for buses and ferries. Unions agreed to cancel that attack and extend their contracts until Sunday, while they continued negotiations.

Area of the Bay and State have been pressuring officials of BART and Union leaders to reach an agreement this weekend, saying that a strike would create hardship for working families and damage to the economy of the region.

___

Mohajer reported from Los Angeles.

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Nancy Brown: Getting Enough Sleep Is Smart, Not Selfish

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It's getting late, yet there are still things you need and want to do. So you keep going until exhaustion takes over, never adjusting the alarm clock that will clang for you to get an early start on all the things you have to do the next morning.

Sound familiar?

Far too often, we see sleep as an enemy, robbing us of time that could be spent getting things done. Truth is, getting a decent night's sleep not only makes you more productive -- for women, it can be a step toward a longer, healthier life.

A new study from researchers at the University of California-San Francisco shows that women who reported sleeping less than six hours per night had far more inflammation than men who slept that amount. This doesn't prove the lack of sleep caused increased inflammation, but it raises the question. And while we don't know that inflammation causes heart attacks or strokes, some researchers think it may be an important link to these serious problems.

The bottom line: Women should not take any chances, especially since heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States, claiming more lives every year than all forms of cancer combined.

This new information is powerful because it is simply about something a woman can control: the number of hours she sleeps. Just to be clear, we don't know that sleeping more is a cure. But it is a step in the right direction, in several ways.

We all know that a good night of sleep can be refreshing. And now, in addition to that short-term benefit, as we drift off into the arms of Morpheus, we can think about being one of those women with good heart health, too. Put that way, those final few items on the to-do list seem far less important, don't they?

How many hours you carve out for sleep is a decision that should be on par with others that determine your wellbeing. As easy as this sounds, I know how difficult it can be. There are plenty of excuses, and I've used most of them myself.

The problem, of course, is that there aren't enough hours in a day to accomplish everything I want/need to do professionally and personally. Since I can't control the clock, I must keep better tabs on how I spend my time.

So I have to make choices. And when I get enough sleep, I know I'm more focused and effective the next day.

The big choice is in your overall approach. It's about embracing a lifestyle that will make you happier and healthier in the short-term, with the bonus of knowing it might just also extend your life.

Really, this comes down to prioritizing your health -- and your happiness. Aiming for more than six hours of sleep every night is the kind of small change that can make a big difference.

The same goes for eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly. Sometimes the recommendations and the reality don't match up. That's OK. Do the best you can today. Then, tomorrow, try to do a little better. Something is always better than nothing.

The core message is that healthy choices should become a way of life, as much of a ritual as brushing your teeth or checking your email.

In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg writes about our ability to reshape our routines and, thus, our lives. So, if you've long been burning the midnight oil, extinguishing that flame might be easier than you think.

Duhigg writes about the cycle of a cue leading to a routine that is justified by a reward. In this case, the need to get things done is the cue that leads to the routine of staying up late and/or waking up early, with the reward being the satisfaction of checking something else off the to-do list. But, at what cost?

The new study hints at potential long-term dangers. And, again, everyone knows the short-term benefits.

Another conundrum women face -- especially working women -- is the need to pack more hours into a day to care for others. Some women even feel they're being selfish if they don't satisfy everyone else's needs before their own.

Well, as we've all learned the hard way, you can't take care of anyone if your health is compromised. Your wellbeing, or the lack of it, trickles down to all those whom you help care for, personally and professionally.

It's time to start thinking of getting enough sleep (and eating right, and exercising regularly) as being smart, not selfish. Consider it your way of making sure you are around to be able to care for others.

You can do it. You just need to try. So here's a challenge, from me to you: Get more than six hours of sleep per night for a full week. While you're at it, see if you can trim a few things off that to-do list.

My guess is you will be more productive, as in having fewer things left on that to-do list at day's end. You will discover there really is time for more sleep and more exercise. And maybe more time to prepare a healthier meal.

If nothing else, you'll have given your body and your brain a week of wellbeing. My hope, however, is that such a lifestyle becomes your habit.

For more by Nancy Brown, click here.

For more on sleep, click here.

Follow Nancy Brown on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nancyatheart

Get Alerts It's getting late, yet there are still things you need and want to do. So you keep going until exhaustion takes over, never adjusting the alarm clock that will clang for you to get an early start on a... It's getting late, yet there are still things you need and want to do. So you keep going until exhaustion takes over, never adjusting the alarm clock that will clang for you to get an early start on a...

Former D.C. Councilmember Michael Brown Pleads Guilty To Bribery

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WASHINGTON -- Former District of Columbia Councilmember Michael Brown has pleaded guilty in federal court to a bribery charge.

Brown, who was charged with bribery on Friday, entered the plea Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors accused Brown of accepting $55,000 in cash payments from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking preferential treatment from the city government.

He lost his bid for a second term in November. He ran again for an open at-large seat but abruptly dropped out in April, citing personal and family matters.

Brown is the third current or former member of the council to be criminally charged since January 2012.

The 48-year-old Brown is the son of Ron Brown, who was U.S. commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton. Ron Brown died in a 1996 plane crash in Croatia while leading a trade mission.

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