Americans would pay more to fund Social Security

By Allison Linn, TODAY

Most Americans think it?s important to preserve adequate Social Security benefits for younger generations ? and they may even be willing to pay more taxes to get that assurance, a new survey finds.

The survey, released Thursday by the nonprofit National Academy of Social Insurance, found that about eight in 10 Americans think it is critical to support Social Security even if it means that working Americans have to pay more in taxes. A slightly higher percentage of the 2,000 people surveyed said they think it?s critical to save Social Security even if wealthy people have to pay more.

But here?s the thing: Many Americans also want something in return.

The study found broad-based support among both younger and older Americans for a plan that would gradually increase the amount of payroll taxes everyone pays and also eliminate the cap on the amount of income that can be taxed for Social Security. In return, that plan would call for raising minimum benefits and increasing cost-of-living-adjustments.

The survey comes as many Americans are growing more worried about whether they will see any Social Security benefits at all. Under current government estimates, Social Security could face funding shortfalls in about two decades because the U.S. population is aging and generally living longer.

Experts say it?s not too surprising to find that older people are heavily in favor of retaining Social Security benefits even if it means paying more taxes, but it?s a little more surprising to find that younger Americans also seem to? support it generally.

Still, after five difficult years in which many people have struggled financially, many workers may see the allure of a plan that would give them some financial certainty late in life.

?Social Security wasn?t designed to be a sole major source of retirement income, but for many people who haven?t saved enough ? it certainly looks attractive,? said Alan Auerbach, director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at UC Berkeley.

Jasmine Tucker, income security research associate with the National Academy of Social Insurance, said she thinks the results show that people are willing to pay extra taxes for Social Security because they know that they will see a return on that investment later in life.

?People seem to be very resistant to raising any taxes, but I think Social Security is different,? she said.

Other studies have found support for raising taxes more narrowly on wealthy Americans to help fund Social Security. A Pew Research Center survey released in December found that 66 percent of Americans would support raising payroll taxes on high-income earners, while 55 percent would support reducing benefits for high-income seniors.

Related: Are you struggling in the suburbs? We want to hear from you.

Still, Auerbach ? who was not involved in the study ??noted that it?s one thing for people to say they would be willing to pay more taxes to help fund Social Security, and quite another for them to actually commit to a plan that would effectively shrink their current paycheck.

?Do people really know what this would mean in terms of their take-home pay? Have they really thought through what the implications are?? Auerbach asked.

Many Americans are seeing that real-world effect right now, because the end to the payroll tax holiday has resulted in an effective tax hike equal to about 2 percent of their wages. This survey was conducted in September, before the payroll tax holiday ended.

Critics also argue that it may not be feasible to fix Social Security?s funding woes just by raising taxes. Many other plans have called for a mix of raising taxes and reducing benefits either by curtailing cost-of-living adjustments or increasing the age at which people can get full benefits.

?There?s no attractive way to do this. There?s just a variety of less attractive ways,? said Andrew Biggs, resident scholar with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

Biggs also argued that despite what the findings show, it would be difficult for politicians to garner support for a plan that involved raising taxes on all Americans.

?If this stuff was so popular, somebody would have proposed it by now,? he said.

It is clear that Americans are anxious for Congress and President Barack Obama to find some way to overhaul Social Security and other programs designed to help older Americans.

A Gallup poll?released just days after the 2012 presidential election found that nearly nine in 10 Americans thought it was important for? Obama to take major steps to ensure the long-term stability of Social Security and Medicare.?

Related: Yes, we can fix Social Security (but it won't be pretty)?

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Would you pay more in taxes to help avoid a Social Security funding shortfall?

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Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/01/16795417-americans-like-social-security-and-are-willing-to-pay-to-keep-it?lite

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Google Says 2,000 Schools Now Use Chromebooks, 2x As Many As Just 3 Months Ago

Google continues its push to bring its web-centric Chromebooks into schools and it looks as if the fact that Google is in this project for the long haul is starting to pay off. According to Google, 2,000 schools now use Chromebooks for Education. That, by itself, isn't a massive number, but what's important to note is that there are now twice as many schools that use Chromebooks compared to just three months ago.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/m62DkDt8wS0/

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NetCitadel Pushes Security Intelligence into the ... - IT Business Edge

Gathering intelligence is one thing, finding a place to store and distribute it is another.

NetCitadel, a startup that came out of stealth mode this week, unfurled a OneControl Security Orchestration Platform that provides a central repository for collecting data about security events across the enterprise.

According to NetCitadel CEO Mike Horn, most IT organizations can?t afford to set and deploy complex security information event management (SIEM) systems on their own. And even if they do, there are no processes in place for delivering actionable intelligence.

Horn says the OncControl Security Orchestration Platform is a virtual appliance that creates an event bus over which a common security event framework can be extended across both physical and virtual IT systems. That includes the deployment of any new systems on the corporate network that don?t comply with established security policies.

Most importantly, Horn says that because that security intelligence is delivered as a service, the OneControl Security Orchestration Platform can be deployed on top of existing systems. In contrast, rival providers of security intelligence applications require IT organizations to either deploy expensive systems on premise, or upgrade their existing network infrastructure to access new analytics capabilities. The OneControl Security Orchestration Platform conversely makes uses of RESTful APIs to collect data from both existing and new systems across the enterprise, says Horn. Any solution that requires an organization to rip and replace existing systems simply won?t be accepted by IT organizations.

That information, adds Horn, is then used to not only identify potential threats, but also identify where the most risk is based on where business logic has been deployed.

Recognizing the importance of preventing all security threats from getting past the network perimeter, vendors are now rushing to provide security intelligence systems that automate the process of identifying potential threats. The assumption is that once those threats are identified, remediating those issues is a comparatively simple process.

It?s hard to imagine how IT organizations have coped this far without a comprehensive approach to security intelligence. As is often the case with all-things IT, an ounce of prevention is always worth several pounds of cure, so maybe the time has finally come to file security intelligence under the heading of better late than never.

Source: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/it-unmasked/netcitadel-pushes-security-intelligence-into-the-cloud.html

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'Voice of New York' Mayor Ed Koch dead at 88

Ed Koch, the brash, colorful and often confrontational mayor who helped to lead New York City out of its brush with bankruptcy in the 1970s, launching an astonishing municipal turnaround that continues to this day, has died. He was 88.

Koch was recently readmitted to the hospital after being treated for water in his lungs, The Associated Press reported. A spokesman confirmed the news of Koch's death early this morning.

In December, Koch recently battled pneumonia and was being treated with antibiotics and in September, he was hospitalized and was treated for anemia.

Koch took office on Jan 1, 1978 with New York City all but broke. Thousands of cops, firemen, sanitation workers and teachers had been laid off. Bridges were crumbling, the subways were caked in grime and graffiti, and crime was taking off.

Koch helped to restore the city's credit with budget cuts, and he revived the city's spirits with his unflagging enthusiasm for all things New York ? and an unflinching willingness to stand up to opponents.

By the time he left office at the end of 1989, New York was far from problem- free, but Gotham's future no longer was in doubt. "He went at it with a sense of joy, a sense of combat, a sense that made us all know, "That's the voice of New York, that's what we are," the writer Pete Hamill once said.

That voice never held back. Koch was forever dispensing opinions -- and forever asking New Yorkers, "How 'm I doing?" He attacked opponents as "crazy," "wackos" or "radicals." To critics who said he had drifted too far from his liberal roots, Koch said he was "a liberal with sanity."

"Part of the thing that was most refreshing and most appalling about Koch is that he will stand for what he believes in," the Rev. Al Sharpton, who repeatedly jousted with Koch in the 1980s, said in 2005. "He will not say what you want him to. And he will not be intimidated either way."

Koch put it this way: "I'm the sort of person who will never get ulcers. Why? Because I say exactly what I think. I am the sort of person who might give other people ulcers."

When the New York Giants won the Super Bowl in January 1987, Koch refused to allow a ticker-tape parade for the champs because the Giants had left New York for New Jersey's Meadowlands more than a decade earlier.

"If they want a parade, let them parade in front of the oil drums in Moonachie," Koch said, referring to a community near the Meadowlands.

While such outspokenness endeared Koch to constituents, his sharp tongue contributed to his biggest political defeats.

In 1982, while running for governor, Koch gave an interview to Playboy magazine in which he called living in rural areas "a joke" and described suburban living as "wasting your life." To top it off, he called living in the state capital, Albany, "a fate worse than death."

The comments alienated suburban and upstate voters, and Koch lost the Democratic primary to a New York City lawyer named Mario Cuomo, who went on to serve three terms as governor. Koch later called his remarks "the dumbest" he ever made.

Six years later, during the fiercely contested New York Democratic primary for president, Koch said Jewish voters would be "crazy" to support the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The remark infuriated and energized African-American voters, propelling Jackson to a surprising second-place finish behind Michael Dukakis.

The following year, the city's black voters got their revenge, helping Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins beat Koch in the 1989 Democratic primary. Dinkins went on to defeat former U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani to become the city's first black mayor.

Arguably, Koch became even more popular after leaving City Hall. He hosted a radio show, wrote books, reviewed movies and even dispensed justice for a while on television's "The People's Court," succeeding Judge Marvin Wapner.

For years he teamed up with his close friend, former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY), offering opinions and political analysis on the New York cable news station, NY1.

Koch also remained a political force. His endorsements were crucial in helping to elect two Republicans -- Giuliani as mayor of New York, in 1993, and George Pataki, as governor of New York, in 1994. And his backing of then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat, eased the concerns of some older Jewish voters, helping her win a U.S. Senate seat in New York in 2000.

Edward I. Koch was born in the Bronx on Dec. 12, 1924 and reared in Newark, N.J. He served in the Army in World War II, landing in Cherbourg, France in September 1944 and earning two Battle Stars as a combat infantryman.

A graduate of the City College of New York and the New York University School of Law, Koch was a practicing attorney when he entered politics.

"I had no goals at that time, other than to meet people. Make friends," Koch told New York's Paper magazine. "I'm an achiever. I'm a good organizer, and I became a street spokesman for the Village Independent Democrats club. I was out every night on a soapbox."

Inspired by the speeches of presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, Koch aligned himself with insurgents who opposed Tammany Hall, the long-running but decaying New York Democratic machine. Koch defeated the last Tammany boss, Carmine DeSapio, in a race for Democratic district leader in Greenwich Village in 1963.

The victory propelled Koch to the City Council, and then to Congress, where he served for nine years before winning a four-way Democratic primary for mayor in 1977 by shrewdly tacking to the political center ? a shift that mirrored the political migration of white ethnic Democrats in the 1970s and '80s.

Koch cemented his popularity in 1980 when he acted as a kind of municipal cheerleader when a transit workers strike halted the subways and buses. Day after day, Koch stood on the Brooklyn Bridge, applauding New Yorkers walking to work.

"As I got on the bridge I began to yell, 'Walk over the bridge, walk over the bridge, we're not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees!' And people began to applaud. I knew I was onto something," he recalled in 2011.

During his administration, the go-go years on Wall Street in the 1980s led the city to new economic prosperity. He created a housing program which, over a ten year period, provided more than 150,000 units of affordable housing financed by city funds.

But Koch's brand of governing was not without dissenters. Koch had a troubled relationship with black voters. The relationship began its downward slide in 1978 with the death of a black businessman while he was in police custody. Other alleged cases of police brutality followed.

Racial unrest, his comments about Jesse Jackson, a municipal corruption scandal and soaring crime and homelessness doomed Koch's bid for an unprecedented fourth term.

Although Koch's endorsement helped Giuliani win 1993 mayoral race, the two had a falling out over what Koch saw as Giuliani's combative and authoritarian ways. Koch went on to write a book about it, Giuliani: Nasty Man.

Koch also wrote Citizen Koch; Ed Koch on Everything; I'm Not Done Yet: Remaining Relevant; and Eddie, Harold's Little Brother, a children's book which he co-authored with his sister, Pat Koch Thaler. He also teamed up with his good friend, John Cardinal O'Connor, who led the Archdiocese of New York, in writing, His Eminence and Hizzoner, which traced Koch's shift to more centrist and conservative positions.

Koch will spend eternity in his beloved Manhattan. He announced in 2008 that he had purchased a plot at the Trinity Church cemetery, after learning that the church permits Jews to be buried there. It is the only active cemetery left in Manhattan.

"I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone. This is my home," Koch explained. "The thought of having to go to New Jersey was so distressing to me."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ed-koch--the-mayor-who-kept-nyc-from-going-broke--dies-at-88-130516500.html

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Why not make your own energy drink? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Health concerns about the typical energy drink?are everywhere, so?you may not want to depend on them for energy. After all, not only can they be extremely high in caffeine, but they also tend to be full of sugar, artificial colorings and other unnatural ingredients. They don?t exactly fit my whole food, traditional diet criteria. The question is, how do you replace them?

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But having an afternoon pick-me-up can be helpful, which is why I wanted to share a few recipes for simple homemade, energy drinks.

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Chia Pomegranate Green Tea Cooler

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Why it works: Tea is a natural source of caffeine, however it also contains an amino acid called ?theanine? which is a natural relaxer with anti-anxiety properties. It helps energize you without making you jittery. When you are stressed, both the energy boost from the caffeine and the relaxing effect of the theanine can be helpful. Pomegranate juice is full of nutrients, flavonoids, and antioxidants and is low in sugar. This healthy juice can help give you a boost from nutrition alone. (It?s also worth noting that according to Bowden, it is called the ?natural Viagra? and has been traditionally associated with love and sexual vitality.) The chia seeds were traditionally used as a support for long journeys. The gel-like substance they form when put in liquid absorbs slowly into the body, for a slow release of nutrients and energy. Chia seeds are high in vitamins and minerals, making them a favorite with many nutritionists.

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Homemade Chocolate Milk

Directions: In a blender, mix 1 cup of whole milk with 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of fair trade cocoa powder, a dash of vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup or honey. Blend until combined.

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Why it works: Milk gives you good source of both protein and fat for sustained energy. Milk also contains some natural sugar that gives a boost of energy. Use grade B maple syrup for a higher nutrient content, and you will add both more natural sugars for a more instant energy boost. The cocoa powder gives some caffeine, as well as more antioxidants and nutrients (such as magnesium). I prefer raw, pastured milk.

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Green Drink

Directions: The darling of the raw foodie and many health conscience people, the green drink trend shows no sign of slowing down and there are many green drink mixtures available online. Make according to the package directions, or add a scoop to a smoothie.

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Why it works: Green drinks work because they are high in nutrients, very alkalizing (which makes you feel refreshed and energized). Plus, some mixes contain herbs known for their energizing attributes. Mix them with a pomegranate, noni, or other antioxidant-rich juice, or combine with a high protein snack like nuts or canned fish for sustained energy.

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The above recipes are gentle, natural options for an energy boost and are perfect for a mid-day drink. Being more natural, and not as high in caffeine, they may not keep you in a working frenzy all night long when you need it, but on the plus side, they offer many health benefits.?

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Related stories & drink recipes on MNN:

Source: http://www.mnn.com/food/recipes/blogs/why-not-make-your-own-energy-drink

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'30 Rock': Ending a 7-season marathon of mirth

NEW YORK (AP) ? You want resolution on the "30 Rock" finale?

You're gonna get it. Sort of. At least, the sort befitting "30 Rock," with its loopy storytelling mixed with joy in spoofing the culture of TV.

Closure, if that's what it is, comes in a two-minute postscript on this hour episode (airing Thursday at 8 p.m. EST on NBC). But maybe you should just stop reading right now, you "30 Rock" purists who don't want to know what happens or might seem to happen, however wacked-out and ironic it may be.

Which, among other things, includes this sly touch: a reference to the snowglobe revelation with which the medical drama "St. Elsewhere" famously concluded a quarter-century ago.

But there's more. Just before the final fade-out, NBC President Kenneth the former Page (Jack McBrayer) is pitched a new comedy series taking place right there at network headquarters, 30 Rock.

Hmmm. This is no ending. It's a Mobius strip.

The comic coda suggests where many of the characters might be a year from now. But that's not the point of the finale, which mostly wants to have fun. And does.

This last yahoo of "30 Rock" after seven brilliant seasons takes delight in tracking the unraveling of its characters as the show-within-the-show, "TGS," comes to an end with its own final broadcast. After that, of course, its producer, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), its stars, Jenna Moroney and Tracy Jordan (Jane Krakowski and Tracy Morgan) and other members of the "TGS" staff will have to leave the cozy, kooky nest of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The prospect of doing that terrifies them all.

Meanwhile, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), the newly minted CEO of NBC parent Kabletown, is battling his own existential crisis.

He has gotten the top job he wanted all his life. And as the ultimate Republican capitalist, he has even scored a lash-out from a treasured enemy, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"Jack Donaghy is an economic war criminal," Pelosi is seen declaring on a cable news network. "If the Democratic Party controls Congress, I will see to it that he is punished in the worst way possible: by having to come down here and listen to us."

Even with total victory under his belt, Jack still feels unfulfilled. What else can he do? He resigns from the company and begins a journey to discover what might truly make him happy.

Jack's despair includes the fear that he's lost Liz as a friend.

"I don't have that many people in my life," he sobs to Jenna. "I spend Christmas alone in the Hamptons drinking Scotch and throwing firecrackers at Billy Joel's dog."

Out of a job, Liz is miserable as a stay-at-home mom of adopted twins. Conversely, her husband, Criss (played by guest star James Marsden), hates steady employment.

"It's OK to want to work," he consoles Liz. "One of us has to. We just got it backwards: You're the dad."

"I do like ignoring your questions while I try to watch TV," Liz agrees.

(Interestingly, a year hence Liz is seen back at work producing a dumb sitcom with her children in tow. Where is hubby Criss?)

During the finale, "30 Rock" doesn't hesitate to snack on its own past.

Liz and Tracy have an awkward heart-to-heart at the strip club where Tracy lured her on their first encounter on the series' premiere.

And a high point of the episode comes when Jenna revisits the project she starred in years ago, a film with the lips-scrunching title "Rural Juror" (which inevitably comes out sounding something like "ruhr juhr").

On the farewell "TGS," Jenna performs the theme from her new musical adaptation of "Rural Juror," with, inevitably, almost nothing she sings recognizable as English.

It serves as a reminder: "30 Rock" wasn't just a brilliant comedy series. It also forged a comic language of its own.

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Online:

http://www.nbc.com

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Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/30-rock-ending-7-season-marathon-mirth-141758515.html

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