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Purveyor's JournalBusiness Activity in U.S. Grew More Than Forecast in January
By Shobhana Chandra - Jan 31, 2013 9:59 AM ET
Business activity in the U.S. expanded more than forecast in January, a sign manufacturing picked up at the start of the year.
The MNI Chicago Report’s business barometer rose to 55.6 this month, the highest since April, after 50 in December. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 50.5.
A fourth-quarter acceleration in consumer spending may encourage firms to boost orders and production in early 2013, a sign manufacturing will keep adding to growth in the world’s largest economy. The report contrasts with data showing factory activity in the Philadelphia and New York area shrank this month as the risk of automatic government-spending cuts looms.
“We’ll see modest growth in manufacturing in 2013,” Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in Pittsburgh, said before the report. “My hope is that business investment picks up as we get through the year.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-31/business-activity-in-u-s-expanded-more-than-forecast-in-january.html
Israel Falls Near Bottom Of Press Freedom Rankings
The Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index for 2013 has ranked Israel No. 112 out of 179 countries – a plunge of 20 spots from the 2012 index and the lowest ranking the organization has ever given Israel.
The plunge in the index is due to “Israel’s conduct in Operation Pillar of Defense in November of 2012, when the Israel Defense Forces intentionally attacked journalists and buildings where media connected to Hamas had premises,” and that Palestinian journalists are still arrested, according to the organization. As for what is happening inside Israel, it says “reporters in Israel enjoy freedom of speech, but the military censor continues to be a structural problem.”
Until this year, Reporters Without Borders gave separate rankings to Israel inside the Green Line (pre-1967 borders) and to the occupied territories. While Israel inside the Green Line was ranked relatively high (up to 40th place), Israel beyond the Green Line was ranked 150th. The combination of the categories helps explain why Israel was ranked so low this year. Palestine, which is also ranked separately, moved up three places from last year, but remains low on the list, at number 146.
Israel has seen its ranking plummet before, notably after Operation Cast Lead in 2009. The explanatory material for the 2009 index noted that during the course of the operation, five members of the media were arrested, some of them illegally. In addition, there were three incidents of media crews being detained. As a result of the operation, 20 members of the media were injured and three journalists were killed.
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-falls-near-bottom-of-press-freedom-rankings.premium-1.500640
Validity of Consumer Bureau at Stake in Legal Challenge
By Carter Dougherty - Jan 31, 2013 12:01 AM ET
A law firm sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over its treatment of struggling homeowners may be the first to contest the validity of Richard Cordray’s status as the agency’s director after a federal court’s ruling on presidential appointees.
Gary Kurtz, a lawyer representing the Gordon Law Firm of Los Angeles, said he sent a Jan. 29 letter to the bureau asking for a negotiated settlement of the six-month-old case in light of a federal court ruling that invalidated so-called recess appointments similar to Cordray’s.
“I want to give them an opportunity to resolve this without court intervention,” Kurtz said in a telephone interview. “Resolving this informally would preferable.”
Absent a settlement with Gordon, the bureau risks a court challenge that could become a test case for its authority in the wake of recess-appointment ruling. In its July 17 complaint against the firm, the CFPB said Gordon took up-front fees to help homeowners facing foreclosure, then did “little or nothing” for them.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-31/validity-of-consumer-bureau-at-stake-in-legal-challenge.html
R-Word For U.S. Economy in 2013 is Rebound Not Recession
By Rich Miller - Jan 31, 2013
The “R” word that economists were using after yesterday’s news that U.S. gross domestic product contracted in the fourth quarter was rebound, not recession.
The economy will bounce back in the current quarter after plunging defense spending and dwindling inventory growth swamped gains for consumers and businesses in the final three months of 2012, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley. Businesses probably will rebuild stockpiles while consumers and companies keep on spending.
“It would be a mistake to view this drop in GDP -- driven by temporary corrections in defense spending and inventories -- as a possible harbinger of recession,” Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in an e-mail. “We expect GDP growth to rebound to around 2 percent in the first quarter.”
The expansion will stay on course thanks to a “mounting” housing recovery, a steadily improving job market and reviving demand for U.S. exports, said Mark Zandi, chief economist in West Chester, Pennsylvania, for Moody’s Analytics Inc. He sees GDP expanding 2.1 percent in 2013, after rising 2.2 percent last year.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-31/r-word-for-u-s-economy-in-2013-is-rebound-not-recession.html
Moscow Says Israeli Strike On Syria "Unacceptable"
Moscow said it is looking into reports that Israeli fighter jets carried out an air strike on a military research center near Damascus on Wednesday.
“Moscow has with grave concern taken reports about the Israeli Air Force raids on targets in Syria near Damascus," as spokesman said. “If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets in the territory of a sovereign state, which grossly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter by which motives it is justified. We are taking urgent steps to clarify the situation in all the details.”
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http://ruvr.co.uk/2013_01_31/Moscow-Israel-Syria-Damascus-air-strike/
American Incomes Rise By Most In Eight Years
Source: REUTERS
American incomes rose in December by the most in eight years, a positive sign for consumer spending that could help the economy sustain momentum early this year.
Personal income for Americans rose 2.6 percent last month, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That was the biggest increase since December 2004 and well above analysts' expectations for a 0.8 percent gain.
Personal income rose in November and December, the Commerce Department said, because of special dividends and accelerated bonuses to beat increases in taxes this year.
The big rise in incomes suggests total consumer spending power entered the new year on stronger footing, even though much of the gains may not have been distributed evenly throughout the workforce.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/american-incomes-rise-most-eight-years-1B8192162
Netanyahu Tells America It's Now Or Never (RE:Iran)
Netanyahu has drawn a line in the sand, only this time, it's for the U.S.
According to a Maariv report, when speaking to a visiting delegation from the American Jewish Committee, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was simply not strong enough to force a halt to Iran's nuclear enrichment program. In order to halt the program, Bibi said, the U.S. would have to strike, and they must do so this year.
Netanyahu:
"The sanctions are only likely to stop Iran if there is a credible (military) threat over their head ... and in order for it to be a credible threat, you need to mean it, meaning that if the sanctions don't work – and they haven't until now – you will use it," he said.
He followed this up by saying that 2013 would be the last year America could effectively put an end to Iran's nuclear program. If not, they would get their hands on enriched uranium and build a bomb in "a short time" according to Netanyahu.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/netanyahu-tells-america-to-bomb-iran-2013-1#ixzz2JWbdi4Gn
Israel Admits ‘Shameful’ Birth Control Drug Injected in Unaware Ethiopian Jews
The Israeli government has tacitly acknowledged injecting Ethiopian women immigrating to Israel with a long-acting contraceptive without their knowledge, telling them they couldn't come into the country if they didn't take the shot, which the women thought was a vaccination.
Many have called the practice appallingly racist.
The shots are being blamed for a 50 percent drop in the birth rate in Israel's Ethiopian community over the past decade.
There are about 120,000 Jews of Ethiopian origin living in Israel, about a third of them born in Israel. There have long been conspiracy theories circulating about forced sterilization. But after a documentary aired last month on Israel's Educational Network, Health Ministry Director General Ron Gamzu has banned Israel's health maintenance organizations from injecting Ethiopian women with the contraceptive Depo-Provera.
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http://atlantadailyworld.com/201301293476/ADW-News/israel-admits-shameful-birth-control-drug-injected-in-unaware-ethiopian-jews
Brooklyn Religious School Rabbi Suspected of Sex Abuse
The accusations come amid mounting pressure to report allegations of abuse within the insular, secretive community, the largest outside IsraelBy COLLEEN LONG | Wednesday, Jan 30, 2013 | Updated 6:43 PM EST
A rabbi at a religious school in New York's ultra-orthodox Jewish community is suspected of sexually abusing students, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.
The accusations come amid mounting pressure to report allegations of abuse within the insular, secretive community, the largest outside Israel, and were reported barely a week after a respected religious counselor in the same sect was sentenced to 103 years in prison for sexually abusing a girl. Both cases come from within the Satmar Hasidic sect, the official said.
The 33-year-old man was taken into custody after reports he may have brought two students to motels for sexual liaisons, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A third encounter was reported in a car. The official said the victims were all teenage boys, ages 14 to 16, and the encounters took place between March of last year and last week.
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It is has been difficult to prosecute cases of abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community. Families are encouraged to speak to their rabbis instead of going to secular authorities, and when they do go to police or prosecutors, they are often harassed or shunned. In the case of Nechemya Weberman, convicted last month of sustained sexual abuse, the accuser testified that her family was threatened and harassed.
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http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Orthodox-School-Rabbi-Sex-Abuse-Accusations-Borough-Park-Brooklyn-189105421.html
Gabrielle Giffords’ Husband Smacks Down Wayne LaPierre
Source: Washington Post
Perhaps the most important moment so far in today’s Senate Judiciary hearing on guns came when astronaut Mark Kelly directly confronted NRA head Wayne LaPierre over the shooting of his wife, Gabrielle Giffords. Between that exchange and another one involving Senator Dick Durbin, LaPierre’s argument was completely unmasked for the sham that it is.
During the hearing, LaPierre repeatedly voiced the talking point that there’s no need to expand the background check system because criminals don’t cooperate with background checks. Kelly responded:
The Tuscon shooter was an admitted drug user. He was rejected from the U.S. Army because of his drug use. He was clearly mentally ill. And when he purchased that gun in November, his plan was to assassinate my wife and commit mass murder at that Safeway in Tucson. He was a criminal. Because of his drug use, and because of what he was planning on doing. But because of these gaps in the mental health system, in this case, those 121,000 records, I admit did not include a record on him. But it could have.
And if it did, he would have failed that background check. he would have likely gone to a gun show, or a private seller, and avoided that background check. But if we close that gun show loophole, if we require private sellers to complete a background check, and we get those 121,000 records and others into the systems, we will prevent gun crime. That is an absolute truth. It would have happened in Tucson. My wife would not have been sitting here today if we had stronger background checks.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/30/gabrielle-giffords-husband-smacks-down-wayne-lapierre/
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