JULIE PACE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is taking aim at Senate Republicans, accusing them of playing politics with measures that would extend benefits to the unemployed and increase lending to small businesses.

Striking a deeply partisan tone in his weekly Saturday radio and online address, Obama said the GOP leadership has chosen to “filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress” by blocking votes on agenda items the president says would breath life into the economic recovery.

“These steps aren’t just the right thing to do for those hardest hit by the recession,” Obama said. “They’re the right thing to do for all of us.”
The address was recorded at the White House before Obama flew to Maine on Friday for a weekend family vacation.

Lawmakers have been battling for weeks over extending unemployment benefits to workers who have been out of a job for long stretches of time. The last extension ran out at the end of May, leaving about 2.5 million people without benefits.

The House has already passed a bill to extend the benefits through November, but with the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats don’t have the 60 votes they need to overcome a GOP filibuster. The Senate plans to take up the measure again on Tuesday.

Obama said lawmakers’ obligation to extend benefits is both moral and practical, citing some economists who believe extending unemployment insurance is one of the most cost-effective ways to jump-start the economy because it puts money in the pockets of people who are likely to spend it quickly.

The $34 billion needed to extend benefits would be borrowed, adding to the nation’s mounting debt. Republicans have tapped into the public’s anger and concern over that debt, saying they would only support extending benefits if the bill was paid for.
Obama pushed back in his address, accusing Republicans of making their stand at the expense of the unemployed “after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit.”

Obama also called on lawmakers to send him a package of tax breaks and credit extensions for small businesses. Democrats are hoping to force Republicans to vote on the small business bill by the time Congress breaks for its August recess.

In their weekly address, Republicans focused on Obama’s recess appointment of Donald Berwick to the administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. By appointing Berwick while the Senate was in recess, Obama was able to avoid a public hearing and Senate vote for his nominee — a move Republicans have called hypocritical amid Obama’s promises of transparency.

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, who delivered the address, said Berwick’s recess appointment is particularly troubling given the large role he’ll play in implementing the massive health care overhaul Obama signed into law earlier this year.

“The president’s health care plan — the most sweeping overhaul of health care in our lifetime — cannot be implemented behind closed doors,” Roberts said.

Technorati Tags: : Barack Obama, Economics, GOP, jobless benefits, Obama Republicans, Obama Video, Obama Weekly Address, Politics News, unemployment benefits, Unemployment rate, Video

Make money with your camera

By: John Mackinnon

With just an average digital camera and a need for extra income it is absolutely amazing how many good money making opportunities are available. One of the reasons there are so many options in digital photography has to do with the incredible need for illustrating the never ending increase of web pages on the internet.
Another reason is that it is so easy to share photos online with friends and family. People that can’t be bothered to shoot and share the old film-style photos are now eagerly seeking photos that are digital.

Despite the many people that shoot their own digital photos there will always be a need to hire photographers that have a good eye and a system for consistently delivering clear and interesting shots.

Here are 4 of the best ways to earn extra income with a digital camera.

 
Child and Pet Photography: Children and pets will always evoke a tremendous passion from those closest to them. Where there is passion there is usually an eager market of people willing to open their wallets.

The secret of success in this market is to offer higher quality creative photos than the customers can produce on their own. It is also important that you start your business as simply and inexpensively as possible.

A young, stay-at-home mom and construction worker husband started a child and pet photography business part time that eventually became their full time source of family income. To keep the start-up costs low they used just an average priced digital camera and a spare room in their house for a studio.

 
They also avoided buying lots of different expensive backdrops buy shooting the children in front of one plain back drop. Using the popular software program, Photoshop, they would digitally place the children into almost any scene imaginable including an old fashioned wash tub. The results were highly unique, fast, low cost to produce and very profitable.

Wedding Photography: This market comes about as close as any to being recession proof because people are always getting married despite the economy. Another great thing about the wedding photography business is that there is always room for one more photographer. Since most weddings take place on the weekend, no one photographer, no matter how popular, can handle more than just a few of them.

Organization is the secret to success in this business. For example, checklists are needed to make absolutely sure that all of the essential shots are captured. Great control over your equipment is essential to prevent a disastrous malfunction. After all there is only one chance to get the job done right.

 
Finally you must be a master of managing a variety of personalities in order to get the essential group shots in a timely manner.

The bottom line is that Wedding Photography is hard work but lucrative. Some people even make a good full time living just doing weddings on the weekends.

Youth Sports Photography: You might think that with so many people taking pictures of their sons and daughters playing sports why would they pay for additional photos? The key is that most people are not very good at getting action shots.

 
Can you imagine how thrilling it would be for someone to have a clear shot of the exact moment their grandson slides into home plate for the first time. Might they jump at the chance to have this once in a lifetime shot on a key chain or mug? What if they could go online after a game and select a shot or two and create a full size poster just like you see in the major leagues?

The key is to get the shots no one else does then offer creative packages that can be conveniently ordered online.

Sell Your Photos Online: It’s no secret that there has been an almost volcanic explosion of web pages on the internet. As a result there has been an increase demand for inexpensive photos to illustrate just about every topic imaginable.

 
Extra income seekers have learned which photos are in the biggest demand then posting them on sites like istockphoto.com to sell them over and over. The most successful amateur photographers have found that a nice collection of at least several 100 photos is necessary to begin to earn a consistent monthly income.

As with any extra income ideas, your photography business will be successful when you learn all of the essential tips and tricks for marketing and operating in a smooth and consistent basis. This is why it is always a great idea to seek the advice of those that have gone before you in this business. Consider interviewing photography business owners in-person or finding eBooks and dvd training programs that offer first-hand insights.

About the Author

For essential, first-hand advice from experts in the photography businesses mentioned above please follow this link: extra income ideas fro photography For a collection of other extra income ideas and expert training materials click here: extra income ideas

(ArticlesBase SC #2847155)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – 4 Ways to Earn Extra Money with Photography

Technorati Tags: Business, children photo business, extra money, how to make money with photography, make money with photography, money, photography, stock photos, wedding photography business

]]> http://www.neuzie.com/2010/07/17/4-ways-to-earn-extra-money-with-photography/feed/ 0 http://www.neuzie.com/2010/06/24/california-whooping-cough-epidemic/ http://www.neuzie.com/2010/06/24/california-whooping-cough-epidemic/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:42:02 +0000 Misha http://www.neuzie.com/?p=353

From the LATimes.com:

Five babies have died since January and the number of confirmed cases is four times higher than the same period last year. Health officials urge anyone in contact with infants to be inoculated.

By Kate Linthicum and Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times

Whooping cough is now at epidemic levels in California and the state could record the highest number of illnesses and death due to the disease in 50 years, the state’s top health official said Wednesday.

Reported cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, have quadrupled over the same time period last year, said Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health. Five infants — all under 3 months — have died, including two in Los Angeles County and one in San Bernardino County.

Whooping cough is a bacterial disease that infects the respiratory system. There have been 910 confirmed cases of the highly contagious disease in California between Jan. 1 and June 15. During the same time last year, 219 cases were confirmed.

An additional 600 possible cases are being investigated.

L.A. County has reported 148 suspected pertussis cases, said Director of Public Health Jonathan Fielding. He urged infants’ relatives and caregivers to get a booster shot.

Newborns are most likely to be infected by their siblings and parents. Fielding urged anyone who has a cough to stay away from infants.

Pertussis can make young infants gravely ill very quickly, and health officials recommend that even those with early symptoms be treated with antibiotics. They also say that doctors should strongly consider hospitalizing ill infants in a facility with access to an intensive care unit.

Although many people may think they are still protected from whooping cough because they received inoculations as a child, immunity can begin fading five years after the immunization.

In May, state health officials warned that physicians often don’t make a prompt diagnosis of whooping cough in infants because newborns can have deceivingly mild symptoms at first — such as a runny nose with an undetectable or mild cough.

Technorati Tags: california pertussis, california whooping cough, dpt vaccine, pertussis, pertussis epidemic, vaccination, whooping cough

From Consumer Reports:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with Regal Lager Inc., of Kennesaw, Ga., this week announced a voluntary recall of CYBEX 2.GO infant carriers.

A shoulder strap slider buckle can break, posing a fall hazard to babies. Regal Lager Inc. has received three reports of broken buckles, but no injuries have been reported. About 2,700 of the carriers were recalled in the United States and 400 in Canada.

This recall involves CYBEX 2.GO infant carriers—”CYBEX” is embroidered on the fabric covering on the top of the head support, and ”2.GO” is printed on an orange tag near the head support. They were sold in colors called chili, indigo, purple and slate; and were sold at baby furniture and product stores nationwide and online from August 2009 through April 2010 for about $100. The products were manufactured in China.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled carriers and contact Regal Lager if they would like to receive a free replacement carrier. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell this or any recalled consumer product.

For additional information, contact Regal Lager at (866) 678-8940 between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, visit the firm’s website at www.regallager.com/recalls, or email the firm atinfo@regallager.com.

Technorati Tags: 2.GO, 2.GO recall, baby, baby and toddler, child product recall, CYBEX 2.GO, cybex recall, infant carrier recall, recalls and safety alerts

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Toronto — A magnitude-5.0 earthquake struck at the Ontario-Quebec border region of Canada on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and homes and businesses were shaken from Canada’s capital in Ottawa on south to an arc of U.S. states.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Morgan Moschetti, a seismologist with the USGS, said it was not unusual for an earthquake to be felt 300 miles (482 kilometers) from the epicenter and noted that the latest quake was felt in the U.S. from Chicago to Maine.

Other states that reported feeling tremors were Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York.

The epicenter of the quake was in Quebec, about 23 miles (38 kilometers) north of Cumberland, Ontario, on the Ottawa River, the USGS said.

The agency said the quake occurred at a depth of about 12 miles (19.2 kilometers) at 1:45 p.m. EDT (1741 GMT). The agency initially said the quake had a 5.5 magnitude, but later reduced it to a magnitude-5.0.

The tremors, which lasted about 30 seconds, rattled buildings in Ottawa and Toronto, as well as government offices across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec.

The Parliament building in Ottawa was evacuated, with workers sent home while the building was inspected. Workers also left buildings in Toronto.

The quake came just ahead of the weekend summit of G-20 and G-8 world leaders in Toronto and Huntsville, Ontario.

Melanie Lauzon, a Liberal member of Parliament, said her first thought was that Ottawa had been hit with “with a very large car bomb,” since the quake struck on the eve of the summits.

Conservative Senator Lowell Murray said the massive chandeliers of the upper chamber of Parliament began swaying during a mundane debate on energy issues.

“Initially we thought it might have been an airplane crashing into the building,” Murray said. “But we were standing around wondering what was going on. And I quickly realized it was an earthquake. And then everybody started shouting out, out, out.”

Residents of a number of states in the Midwest and Northeast reported feeling the earthquake.

In Ohio, people reported the sound of plaster cracking in Cleveland and buildings in Cincinnati gently swaying.

In Cleveland, James Haselden says his office in a renovated 19th century brick building swayed and he heard plastic cracking but saw no damage.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on its website that the Canadian quake was felt by some residents in the western Pennsylvania area.

NEXT PAGE

The quake also was felt in New Jersey, where the Bergen County administration building in Hackensack was evacuated after employees reported they felt a tremor.

Bergen County Police Lt. Christine Francois said numerous people in the Hackensack and Englewood areas called police to report earth tremors.

In Michigan, residents from suburban Detroit to Port Huron and Saginaw reported feeling the earthquake.

Detroit police spokeswoman Yvette Walker told The Associated Press that police personnel on the upper floors of the downtown headquarters building reported feeling the quake.

In New York state, people from Buffalo to Albany and north to Massena on the St. Lawrence River said pets were startled and plates rattled when the quake hit.

New York City officials said police received emergency calls came in from all over the city about shaking buildings, but there were no reports of damage.

David French, 53-year-old state worker from Cicero, New York, said he was at his computer inside his home near Syracuse when he felt his chair shake.

“I thought the chair was breaking or something,” he said. “I looked over and my filing cabinet was moving.”

The quake prompted several calls to state police in the Adirondacks area.

“A little shake, nothing too big,” is how Trooper Mark Revette described the temblor. “It happens. We get a couple of these a year.”

Kellie Tassone, 40, was at home on Oneida Lake in Cicero.

“My dog picked his head up just before it happened and kind of looked at me,” she said. Then the sliding door started to rattle “and the house was shaking.”

The USGS said the two largest quakes in western Quebec occurred in 1935 at magnitude-6.1 and in 1732 at a magnitude of 6.2, where it caused significant damage in Montreal.

The agency said earthquakes cause significant damage in the region about once a decade. Smaller earthquakes are felt three or four times a year.

Technorati Tags: canada earthquake, canada earthquake 2010, earthquake, toronto earthquake

By: Mark Schwartz

Do you need to get your messages out on the web, so your articles and ideas can be discovered and shared by a wide number of viewers?  Do you wish to get the message out about your services or products? Do you wish to enhance your presence on the internet, brand yourself and increase site visitors to your enterprise? Good!

Here are three websites that can aid you in building your Social Networking Spider Maze and drive site visitors to your web site.

Most Advertising folks generate many various kinds of advertising and marketing supplies for their promotional efforts.  These might include things like particular studies brochures, displays, or white papers that you simply give to your clients and prospects.  There’s now a further method to make use of all the “documents” you generate and get some free, targeted traffic back to your website.  You should use these websites to rapidly and simply flip almost any file-including PDF, Phrase, PowerPoint and Excel-right into a Web document and share it with the world.

By utilizing these sites you’re making your written works available to people on the Internet and mobile devices, and most importantly, fueling the conversations happening round them. All three are online communities and marketplaces to search out and share professional documents.

Here are the three sites it’s essential to try:

1.  scribd.com
2.  docstoc.com
3.  slideshare.com

So what is so nice about these 3 websites?

1. For those of us on a tight advertising plan, they’re free to use.  They are additionally easy to use which is absolutely great.  There are some sites out there which can be an actual pain to use. I used to be on one social networking site the other day and it took me close to 15 minutes to figure out an easy way to publish a video.

2. The major search engines like google crawl these sites. A few of the Power Pointa displays that I posted to scribd.com where on the primary web page of Google’s search results inside a day.  You may also define keywords and generally create inbound links to your website/blog, thereby growing site visitors even more.

3. You possibly can add virtually any type of file or document you want.  They are going to be mechanically converted right into a PDF file and are virtually immediately obtainable for looking at and downloading by others (in the event you mark them public).  That is nearly like submitting an article to an article directory aside from all of the different file sorts permitted.

Think about the potential site visitors you possibly can get.  Not only will people review your presentations, but they can even get copies and share them with their associates.  You’ll now have individuals serving to you promote your business. It’s possible you’ll even start to get people whom have never heard of you visiting your site or calling you!

The bottom line!! – these websites aid you create a viral advertising machine and grow your business!

And final of all…..

4. All three of these websites give you monitoring tools so you’ll be able to look at the downloads and see which of your postings are the most popular!

So all in all, these sites present an extremely efficient method for getting targeted visitors and are a very good low cost search engine optimization tactic, and they’re FREE. Now you may see why I like them a lot and wished to clue you in on them.

Have fun setting up your Social Networking Spider Web

About the Author

Mark Schwartz has perfected Social Networking Spider Web marketing and backlinking tactics. Social Media Spider Webs are important for businesses because they serve to increase Branding and serve as a giant lair to draw traffic to their business, websites and blogs.

To learn more of his Social Networking Spiderweb strategies like this one please visit his blog at http://markvschwartz.com.

And while you are surfing around check out his MegaRich – For Internet Entrepreneurs Blog. Magic happens for those who take action.

(ArticlesBase SC #1930112)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – 3 Fantastic Sites That Can Drive Visitors To Your Site – Social Networking Spider Web Tactics

Technorati Tags: docstocsocial media, networking, scribd, SEO, spider webds, web traffic

Technorati Tags: going on a trip, how to pack, how to pack lightly, packing for trip, travel tips, traveling light

From The New York Times:

A day after Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, was pummeled by members of a House committee over the company’s role in the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the chairman of the company said in an interview that Mr. Hayward would step away from daily involvement in BP’s enormous response efforts in the gulf.

Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP, told Sky News that after eight weeks of being on the scene, Mr. Hayward “is now handing over the operations, the daily operations, to Bob Dudley.”

He referred to Robert Dudley, an American oil executive who has been a managing director of BP since 2009.

Over five hours of testimony to the oversight and investigations panel of the Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, Mr. Hayward repeatedly said he had no direct knowledge of the company’s safety decisions in connection with the stricken well, and refused to speculate about the causes of the oil spill before a company investigation of the accident is completed. His sidestepping of basic questions angered lawmakers, who told him that he was “stonewalling” the committee.

Mr. Svanberg, who spoke for the company after a delegation of executives met with President Obama and his aides at the White House on Wednesday, acknowledged that Mr. Hayward has struggled in the public’s perception.

“It is clear Tony has made remarks that have upset people,” Mr. Svanberg said to Sky News.

Mr. Svanberg himself had to apologize for his own remarks after he called those affected by the spill in the gulf “small people.”

While the company prepared to make changes at the top of its response effort, BP reported some incremental progress in the field.

On Thursday, BP was able to recapture 25,290 barrels of crude oil leaking from the wrecked well. It was the most the company had yet been able to collect in a day through the containment cap system it put in place earlier this month.

Workers drilling one of the relief wells, meant to help seal the well more completely, came within 200 feet of the damaged well on Friday, BP said. And the Coast Guard said that skimming equipment was being produced and prepared for attachment to thousands more available vessels to collect oil off the surface of the sea.

Oil is still gushing from the undersea well at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, however, and shows no signs of slowing down. The well may not be killed — the technical term for sealing off what has become a pernicious adversary — until August, when the two relief wells are completed.

How is it possible to measure progress that seems like a few tiny drops in the proverbial bucket?

The Coast Guard and BP prefer to consider the recent small advances — cautiously — as signs of hope. The Q4000, the second vessel to join the containment effort above the well, began collecting oil early on Tuesday morning, and within three days achieved its maximum capacity of about 10,000 barrels a day.

“I was quite encouraged,” Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, who gave a technical update to reporters on Friday.

By the end of June, the Q4000, together with the Discoverer Enterprise, the vessel with a direct connection to the containment cap on the well, will be joined by a third means of collecting escaping oil — a free-standing riser on the seabed floor. Together, they are expected to be able to collect about 50,000 barrels of oil daily, Mr. Wells said.

Two relief wells are being drilled, but although the first is close to the existing well, it will still take until early August to complete them, Mr. Wells said. It was unclear how long it would take from that point to kill the well.

“While we’re extremely encouraged about how well the drilling is going,” Mr. Wells said, the relief drilling will have to go slower now, becoming more cautious the closer the operation gets to intersecting the damaged well.

“Things have gone well down to this stage, but that doesn’t always mean things will continue to go well,” Mr. Wells said. “Obviously, we’re looking to kill the well as soon as possible.”

Technorati Tags: Bp Ceo Tony Hayward, Carl-Henric Svanberg, Green News, Gulf Oil Spill, Tony Hayward Gulf Cleanup, Tony Hayward Steps Down, Video

From the Huffington Post:

he United States overcame a daunting two-goal deficit to force a draw against Slovenia on Friday, but the Americans may have deserved to win outright. Shortly after tying the game in the 81st minute, the U.S. had a free kick near the Slovenian goal.

Landon Donovan, who scored the first U.S. goal of the game, lobbed the ball towards the goal and teammate Maurice Edu knocked it in. A referee called the goal off, apparently because he thought the American committed a foul.

Replays suggest that the call may have been ill-advised — and if anything, Slovenian defenders should have been flagged. Numerous observers criticized the official’s decision. “Where is it? There’s no offsides,” one commentator said upon viewing the replay.

After the game, Donovan spoke about the referee’s controversial call. “It was the guy’s first World Cup game so maybe he got a little caught up in the moment,” he said. Scroll down to watch. Was the call correct?

Technorati Tags: Maurice Edu, Maurice Edu Foul, Poll, Slovenia, Slovenia World Cup, Soccer, Sports News, USA, USA Foul, USA Offsides, USA Offsides Call, USA Vs Slovenia, USA World Cup, Video, World Cup, World Cup 2010

The annual ‘will-he-retire-or-will-he-play’ waiting game has begun – this year, with a new twist: a non-debilitating ankle injury that requires surgery to extend his already storied career.

I’m a gigantic Favre fan – I have been since the afternoon in Green Bay that he took over for a broken Don  Majkowski on a September afternoon. Favre won that game, 24-23, and started every game for Green Bay through the 2007 season. He holds about a bazillion NFL records, about 20 MVP awards, has thrown for something like 40 miles and is guaranteed to have the NFL Hall of Fame named after him.

I’m on the fence this year. As a man who’s also in his 40’s, I can’t imagine how he tolerates what happens to his body every Sunday (or Tuesday through Saturday, for that matter). On the other hand, one more Super Bowl victory, one more MVP season, one more…

Read the ESPN story here