| IRS Summarizes Changes for Filing 2007 Returns
AMT exemptions rise. Filing is delayed for some taxpayers. Several popular deductions reappear on IRS forms. Tax relief is available to struggling homeowners whose mortgage debt is forgiven. Retirement savings incentives expand. A new deduction is available for some mortgage insurance premiums. And new recordkeeping rules apply to cash donations to charity. These are among the changes taxpayers will find when they fill out their 2007 tax returns. More information about the changes, summarized below, can be found on IRS.gov and in various IRS documents, including the Instructions for Form 1040. AMT Exemption Increased for One Year For tax-year 2007, Congress raised the alternative minimum tax exemption to $66,250 for a married couple filing a joint return, up from $62,550 in 2006.
Mirtle: The injury factor
Dealing with injuries is certainly part of life in the NHL these days, but Pierre LeBrun's piece on the level of parity in the league reminded me of just how much of an effect one absent body can have on a team's fortunes.
Looking at the standings, three teams jump out as feeling the loss of key personnel so far:
Nashville (7-7-0)
There's been an awful lot of talk about the Predators missing Tomas Vokoun, Paul Kariya and Kimmo Timonen, but the absence that's hurting the this team the most could be that of defenceman Shea Weber. Weber was second on the team in even-strength ice time last season, and generally paired with Dan Hamhuis against the toughest opposition forwards.
He turned 22 over the summer and was poised to join the ranks of the elite blueliners in the Western Conference before dislocating his knee cap in the season opener.
Market latest: Australia
A US election year should also bring downward pressure. OPEC countries recently called an extraordinary meeting in Vienna to debate targets and decided against lifting supply levels, citing the 10 per cent fall in oil prices. However, they also resisted cutting supplies. A global recession is not in the interest of OPEC countries so they are conducting a fine balancing act to maintain equilibrium. Rain to ease food prices A second positive is recent strong rains throughout Australia. This may rein in soaring food prices. However, this is likely to be short-lived. Grain inventories in the US have hit an all-time low as farmers divert food to bio-fuel production. Almost a third of this year's US grain crop is expected to be used for fuel and the price of grain is now tied to the price of oil – which as we noted may take a short-term breather.
Every School Every Thursday -- Ankeny
They had a great time celebrating the 100th day. In math, the students worked on dividing 100 items into piles of 10, 5, and 2, counting to 100 by 2s, 5s, and 10s, and they compared 100 pieces of rice and 100 pennies. In reading, the students wrote 100 words, read for 100 seconds, and made words with the letters, "one hundred days." The students also finished the sentences, "If I had 100 mosquito bites, I would ..." and "If I had 100 legs, I would ..." Northwest
Spencer Smith, Josephine Lewis, and Jennifer Rich's class buddied up with fourth and fifth grade students to make paper mache planets for our upcoming fun night. We also read books about the planets and sang songs. We had a great messy time.
Southeast
Four lucky students at Southeast got a chance to go out to lunch with the principal.
What if the 'Surge' Works?
But adding the hate-crime inquiry makes the race issue central to the trial, and makes it more likely to degenerate into a divisive festival of competitive racial victimization, no? ... 1:19 P.M. More on Sen. Hagel and the "surge" from an erstwhile antiwar fan of his: I am a little disappointed in the way he's opposed it. Not just the level of emotionalism ... [snip] ... but what really disappoints me is, what I've hear, his failure to kind of articulate really solid logic for being sure this is going to fail ... [E.A.] Don't look at me! I didn't say it. 2:50 A.M. .
K.J. gets overlooked, but shouldn't | Braves
Well I didn't plan to crank out another blog before the weekend, but for some reason there were more than 800 posts on the last one after a coupl days. Humm, seems to be a lot of interest in some cat going by the screen name U Kno Who. Seriously, it was a good couple of days with our special blog guest, and hopefully we can get Chipper and other Braves to stop by during the coming weeks while we're sequestered at Dark Star, and perhaps even during the season. In the meantime, we'll keep plugging away with the nice, motley cast we've assembled. So I'm just gonna give you a quick blog here today, providing a clean slate on which to post on through the weekend. We'll start daily blogs middle of next week from that familiar 'burb just outside Orlandopolis, where the only thing sunnier than dispositions of well-trained Disney employees is the sun itself.
Radio Talk
Carias went ahead and filed the criminal charge in Fulton County Magistrate Court against me and then filed civil complaints in Superior Court of Fulton County, GA against the company for 'negligent hiring' and harassment and invasion of privacy." He said he was willing to agree in writing never to talk on air about Yogi and Panda ever again "for the sake of company harmony." He said he had no real problem with them, that "they serve their audience well and deliver good ratings numbers and revenue." In the end, Wachs said, "A case of a humorous prank has turned into a culture clash, a suppression of 1st Amendment rights, and a ridiculous smear campaign against me as well as termination of my income without due process." Permalink | Comments (25) | 10/23: Buck & Kincade ratings By Rodney Ho | Monday, October 23, 2006, 06:14 PM The Atlanta Journal-Constitution John Kincade, co-host of the Buck & Kincade show on 680/the Fan, emailed me that in his time slot, his show beat the 2 Live Stews in the summer in the target demo of men 25-54.
Lemurs' Evolutionary History May Shed Light On Our Own
They also resolved the relationships among species within the remaining four evolutionary lineages, which includes a diverse cast of characters: the sifakas, named for the hissing "shee-fak" sound they make; the sportive lemurs, which are strictly nocturnal; the mouse lemurs, the smallest of all living primates; and the many so-called "true lemurs," including the blue-eyed black lemur (one of only three blue-eyed primates in the world) and the ringtailed lemur, which is often found in zoos. "By throwing this much data at the problem, we have absolutely confirmed, beyond any statistical doubt, that the spectacular array of lemurs all descended from a single ancestral species," said Yoder, noting that lemurs account for about 20 percent of primate species and live on less than one percent of the earth’s surface.
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