We're Being Taxed To Death: Interview with Jeff Ecker, Paymon's ...

NN&V Exclusive

Chuck Muth recently interviewed Jeff Ecker, general manager of Paymon?s Mediterranean ?Caf? in Las Vegas about doing business in Nevada. ? Ed.

Chuck:? Jeff, thanks for being with us today.

Jeff:??Thanks for having me, Chuck.

Chuck:??Now the main issue facing the restaurant industry in particular here in Nevada?is this food tax that the Tax Commission has?decided to levy against restaurants who give away food, I guess gifts or benefits to customers, as well as meals that you provide to employees that the employees don?t have to pay for.? Tell me a little bit about the background and the history of that tax and bring us up to speed on that.

Jeff:? Well,?originally this was a special use tax that was levied on businesses?and it was struck down a few years back. Presently there?s some litigation going on?between some of the larger hotels, casinos in Las Vegas.? And what they are asking for is to be paid back all the taxes that they had actually paid to the state?when they did provide the employee meals and comps for customers.? So?now [the Tax Commission has decided] that this is no longer valid as a special use tax but it?s valid as a sales tax.

Under this new code, the businesses that are providing free meals to their employees will have to assess the cost of the meals, and they will be taxed based on that.? And any business that comping meals will also be subject to the same type of tax.

Chuck:??So we?re talking about two different things here.? Let?s start with the employee meals.? That?s kind of a benefit in the restaurant industry.? If I remember, your employees come in and they?re going to work the dinner shift that starts?at say 5:00.? The employees have to come in and?get ready for the evening shift, around 3:00, 3:30.? And when they come in, the kitchen usually provides a meal for the employees for that day.? And the meal is given to the employees for free.? So there?s no sale of any meal.

I don?t quite understand.? How is it that the Tax Commission is charging you the restaurant owner a sales tax on a sale that isn?t being made.? That?s really an expense of doing business isn?t it?

Jeff:??Yes, that?s a really good question, Chuck.? I think back to my days in running the restaurant at Cornell University Statler Hotel, when I was in charge of actually the employee meals program.? Much of the food that was offered to our employees for meals was going to be discarded.? This was food?prepped or cooked in the three restaurants that were within the Statler Hotel.? And likewise, many of the hotels and larger restaurants, even the smaller restaurants,?sometimes?over prep.? Sometimes we have leftovers.? It?s all good.? It?s healthy.? It?s in good shape and it?s provided to employees free of charge.? And, unfortunately, now businesses have to make the decision whether to continue with offering these meals or pay the price or pass it on to the end user, which would be employees.

Chuck:??And, in this case, they?re assessing you.? The tax will be assessed on the cost of the meal, not the retail price as if you were selling it to a customer, is that correct?

Jeff:??Yes, that?s correct. ?It?s actually based on the food cost.? And in attempting to tally that, it?will probably be more time consuming and just as costly as selling it at the retail price, to be honest.

Chuck:??On the other side of this coin are meals that the restaurant gives away to its customers.? It could be a promotion.? It could be an inducement to get people to come into the restaurant -? buy one dinner, get one dinner free -?which the restaurant industry has done for years in order to get new customers to come into the restaurant.? According to the Tax Commission ruling now, you didn?t pay sales tax on meals that you gave away.? Now you have to pay the sales tax on the retail value of those meals. Is it the full meal or any menu item that is given away?

Jeff:??It?s my understanding that it?s any menu item that?s given away because it?s considered a comp, it?s free.? And that really is really confusing to me as well because in the restaurant industry, we use those types of enticements?as advertising.? It?s not much different than spending your entire budget for one year, which could be 3% or 4% of your typical gross sales on advertising.? You know, it?s just another method of advertising to get people to come in to either try your food or to let them know we really appreciate their business.

We incur the costs of the food, so we?re already paying for the food, and we?re taking a loss on that because we?re giving it away.? But we?re doing that as a goodwill measure to make sure that people come back and so we can sustain ourselves with all the competition that?s out there.? So, yes, it?s quite a measure that I can?t really understand.

Chuck:??Back to the example you were giving before with employees?? At the end of the night you?ve got food that wasn?t sold and I know restaurants donate that to shelters ad food kitchen that sort of thing.? Are you under the understanding that now you?re going to have pay tax on food that you might donate to a homeless shelter or food kitchen?

Jeff:??Yes, I don?t see any difference between an employee and a homeless person, honestly.? I don?t see the difference.? We?re giving the food?away.? We?re giving it away as a measure of goodwill.? And the fact of the matter is, if that food is going to be taxed to the homeless shelters and such, I doubt very highly that businesses would consider engaging in that anymore.? Businesses are doing this while at the same time barely hanging on because of the economy.? So to be penalized for giving something away to those that maybe can?t afford food or are less fortunate, I think that?s going to devastate the homeless shelters.

Chuck:??Just to be clear on this, if a customer buys a meal and is charged sales tax, the customer pays the tax.? What we?re talking about now is a customer who doesn?t buy the meal is still going to be charged a sales tax.? So either the restaurant has to eat the sales tax and pay that out of the restaurant?s own pocket, or you have to give away a free meal but still give the customer a check for the sales tax that?s owed on it.? Is that correct?

Jeff:??That?s correct.? And I can pretty much guarantee you that the restaurants are not going to insult the customer by doing that.? If they felt that it was worth giving the food away in the first place, then they?re going to wind up paying the tax themselves.? But I have to tell you that when it comes to the larger operations, maybe the casinos, the hotels, and they?re giving away much more than the smaller businesses, then it becomes much more difficult to assess and to continue doing business in that way.

Chuck:? Aside from the fact that this will actually be a direct tax?on the business, unless the business opts to insult its customers and hand them a check just for the sales tax on their free desert, from a regulatory standpoint and a compliance standpoint, how difficult is this going to be? Or is it fairly easy to track free meals and calculate the sales tax owed and remit it?? Is this going to be a nightmare for businesses or is this something that is not going to be that difficult really to comply with?

Jeff:??The method of compliance is actually not that difficult.? That is fairly easily tracked through any point of sales system that?s of a leading nature like your Micros, InfoGenesis, Squirrel, those types of systems.??Although the employee meals is a whole another situation.? That?s much more complicated and much more time consuming.

Chuck:??To bring us up to speed again on the legislative aspect of this, for the meals that were given to employees and free meals, complimentary meals to the customers, the?hotels and restaurants were charging a use tax or were being charged a use tax and remitting that to that state.? I believe it was the Nugget Casino in Sparks that?challenged this practice and said they?shouldn?t be paying a use tax on the comps.? And the court kind of split the baby here and said that?s correct.? This is not a use tax; however, it could be construed as a sales tax.? But the legislature, and again correct me if I?m wrong on this, Jeff, the legislature did not address that court ruling and left it open rather than defining whether or not it was the sales tax that was due.? And absent legislative action, the Tax Commission has now ruled unilaterally, without legislative approval,?that this is something that you guys have to do.? Is that correct?

Jeff:??That?s exactly what?s happened. ?And you know they pretty much rushed into this without getting the legislative ruling on it and, from what I understand, their stance is to remit any back monies that were assessed if the legislature strikes it down.? But many of the operators feel that once that money is given to the state, they?re never going to see it.? It?s never going to come back to them.? And what the operators can?t understand is why they would have rushed into something like this without getting legislative approval.

I have to tell you, Chuck,?there?s something that hasn?t really been brought up by other people but our hotel industry, the casino industry in Las Vegas, when you think about this, and being taxed for comping players who are gambling.? Las Vegas and Nevada, we are in competition with so many other jurisdictions around the country and globally for the gaming dollar.? And when operators are taking on these heavy burdens of taxation, and they no longer can comp in the way that they were used to, to bring the people into Nevada, then other jurisdictions lined up are?better situated because they?re comping away items without any repercussions tax-wise.? So this is not a good situation for Nevada.

Chuck:??And as far as the Tax Commission is concerned, they have begun assessing you the tax as of this past I think, middle of February.

Jeff:??That?s right.

Chuck:??So the meter is running like a taxi cab.? You?re being assessed, that tax is being accumulated and they?re saying this is what you owe.? But you don?t actually have to remit it until, from what I understand, either the legislature acts or a definitive court case either upholds or strikes down this tax.? Is that correct?

Jeff:??Well, that?s my understanding.? But you know we just went through an audit from the Department of Taxation.? And the person that was doing the auditing said that some of the larger businesses, such as casinos, were already complying and remitting payments.? So I?m honestly not sure who to believe on that.? From what I understand, we have until the middle of, I believe, July or August, but from what the auditor said, the big companies were already complying.? So I?m honestly not sure.

Chuck:???The other big issue that?s come up recently was the United States Supreme Court has ruled that Obamacare is constitutional as a tax for folks who don?t buy insurance.? It?s a penalty if you don?t have health insurance.??If Congress does not overturn?Obamacare, and it is implemented and goes into affect, tell me how that?s going to affect you.? And before you do that, explain exactly what size restaurants [will be affected]?so people get an understanding of the size of Paymon?s Mediterranean Caf? and how?Obamacare factors into your operations?

Jeff:???Paymon?s Mediterranean Caf? has two locations, and we have about 80 employees total.? We?re like?many of the other restaurants in town, we all find ourselves in the same position, especially if we have more than one location.? If you have more than one location in a casual restaurant, usually you?re looking at having 80-120 employees.? And where that puts us with Obamacare is that if we were to?offer insurance to our employees, it would cost us about $250,000 a year.? If we don?t offer the insurance to our employees, which is Option 2, we would pay roughly $100,000 and the penalty tax.? Out of the 80 employees, the first 30 are exempts, which leaves us 50 employees, which would lead to $100,000 tax penalty.? Option 3 is to close down, which unfortunately right now as it looks, that?s the option that we would have to choose unless a miracle happens.? If it?s not repealed, we don?t have $100,000 per year to pay, especially when one of our locations is at that break-even point and has been for the last seven or eight quarters.

As a small business, it?s not uncommon to have 80 ? 120, or even 140 employees and it?s going to be devastating to any of the businesses with multi-locations and franchisees who have several locations.? Because now it no longer makes sense to operate more than one location where you get the 30 person rebate exemption.

Chuck:???And so none of the employees that Paymon?s now have health insurance.? They have to go out and get their own individual policies.??But once this Obamacare program kicks in full force, if they don?t have their own personal insurance, then you pay the penalty.? I mean what if you hire employees and they have their own personal insurance.? Do you still pay a penalty on them?

Jeff:? It doesn?t matter.

Chuck:??If you provide the insurance?

Jeff:? No, from what I understand, it?s that we are assessed the penalty for every employee that?s not insured by us.? And sadly, sadly, the scenario is that most of our employees are actually covered by their spouses, or on their parent?s insurance, and we would still have to face this type of a penalty.? And at the same time, they would?wind up paying and buying the individual mandated insurance as well.

Chuck:??So if you don?t provide the insurance, then every employee that you have, you have to pay a penalty for.? If that employee does have insurance through a spouse?s health insurance program, then they?re covered anyway.? You?re penalized whether they have insurance or not.? But if they don?t have any insurance whatsoever, then they?re put into the new national health insurance program that the penalties I guess are supposed to pay for.? Is that your understanding of how this going to work?

Jeff:??Well my, understanding is that we pay $2,000 per employee that we are not paying the premium on insurance, private insurance premiums for.? So even though they have insurance through their spouses, we would still be on responsible for every single employee that we employ.

Chuck:??Let?s say you were insuring all of your employees and you were paying $250,000 a year for health insurance.? And now all of a sudden, this Obamacare program comes into effect, and you have a choice of either continuing to pay $250,000 a year knowing that it?s going to escalate year after year also.? Or be assessed the penalty, which is going to cost you $100,000 a year.? Does it make sense for any business to stay in the private health market rather than just except the penalty and not insure any of their employees?

Jeff:??For small- to medium-sized businesses, it makes absolutely no sense to continue insuring employees with private health insurance when you can pay the $2,000 penalty.? Now for large businesses, it?s?a different story because with very, very large businesses, they use insurance and benefits as an attraction because they?re in competition for skilled labor and that type of thing.? But when you?re looking at small- to medium-sized businesses, my educated guess is that you would take, you would go ahead and pay the penalty and your employees essentially would still be insured through the national program.

Chuck:??Okay, let?s switch to another topic.? Talk to me a little bit about unemployment and two other areas?I?d like you to address.? One is the unemployment tax and I believe it has gone up this year to pay for higher unemployment benefits that the federal government has extended for long term unemployed.? And two, just tell me a little about what you may or may not perceive as abuse of the unemployment system and how that impacts businesses.

Jeff:??Sure.? Last November, I was at the?unemployment tax hearing and they basically assessed a 2% increase in unemployment taxes for businesses.? And that was mainly due to the extension of the federal mandate of extending unemployment in which the states then were?forced to borrow money from the federal government.? And in order to pay that money back with interest, it put states in a situation where they?had to increase the unemployment rate, the unemployment taxes.??In the restaurant industry, these costs?can be quite expensive because the more turnover you have in your industry, the higher ratios that you actually have to pay.? The modifier becomes higher because you?re going to have more unemployment claims as you have higher turnover.

That brings me to the situation of unemployment abuse.? And unfortunately in this state, there?s a lack of checks and balances, so much so that it really hurts businesses.? You have people who can claim unemployment even though they walk off the job.? They can make false allegations of sexual abuse.? There?s a multitude of things that happen when people get terminated, walk off the job.

And unemployment?s stance essentially is that if an employee hasn?t done something egregious, if they haven?t broken a law, then in this state they?re going to wind up getting unemployment.? And?every time a business incurs that situation where their employees are able to get unemployment, their modifier goes up, which means that they?re going to be paying more unemployment tax.

The few times that we?ve had to? deal with the unemployment division, it was like an interrogation against us.? When we found people doing things [they shouldn't], where they caught red-handed, such as theft and, the?system is geared toward the employee in the unemployment process.? If the employee doesn?t show up for the first hearing, and the business shows up to represent themselves, then another hearing is set.? There?s no penalty for not showing.? They can call in, yet we have to be there.? If we want information, their statement, we have to physically go down to the unemployment bureau within 24 hours of the hearing, which means you have to go down and gather the information to see what the employee said.??And then you have to turn around within 24 hours and go back to the hearing.? So it makes it very difficult for businesses.? And so I?m sure many businesses during the process of appeal just don?t have the time to deal with it, and they wind up losing the case and then paying higher taxes.

Chuck:??Does the business pay that tax directly or is that something that the employee pays through payroll deduction out of their paycheck?

Jeff:??As far as the unemployment tax?

Chuck:??Correct.

Jeff:??That?s considered a payroll tax that we have to pay quarterly.

Chuck:??Okay, it?s not something that you deduct out of the employee?s paycheck where the employee is actually the one that?s paying the ??

Jeff:???No, no, no.? The 2% tax hike was on businesses.

Chuck:??One more area I?d really like to touch on.? Tell me how the government mandated minimum wage and overtime rules and regulations impact.? And let?s just stay with the restaurant businesses in particular.

Jeff:??In the restaurant industry, it?s common for tipped employees to be paid minimum wage because they make a certain amount of income from the tips.? The basic minimum wage is that for service industry employees.? Now in the restaurant industry here in Nevada, essentially the only people that get paid minimum wage are tipped employees.? We can?t possibly employ people for minimum wage in other positions.? We can?t pay dishwashers and cooks and hostesses and busser?s minimum wage.? We wouldn?t be able to staff our establishments.? So essentially the minimum wage is geared for the tipped employee.? They make five to six times the amount of money that non-tipped employees make because of their tips.

As the minimum wage keeps increasing, it simply goes to the people?making the most money in the restaurant.? What that does to an establishment is that it handcuffs them when they want to give a raise to a hostess or a cook or a non-tipped employee.? They no longer have the financial wherewithal to do that.? Then it becomes difficult to attract employees, such as cooks and dishwashers, when you don?t have the money to pay them.

Ultimately, what?s going to happen in the restaurant industry is that slowly you?re going to see cooks, hostesses, dishwashers and other staff wages going down to the minimum wage because the minimum wage keeps rising.? So there?s really no equity in the race of the?rising minimum wage.

It really hurts the youngsters? coming out of high school,?out of college.? Businesses now are looking for more seasoned professionals that we don?t have to train for six months for that same wage.? So minimum wage has?really put a damper on operations.? It?s caused us to have to lay people off.? It?s caused us to stop any raises.? For instance, since the economy has slowed down in 2007, we haven?t raised the base rates for these positions.? They?re completely stagnant.? And as minimum wage continues to rise, those positions are going to wind up having to be paid less and coming down to the minimum wage at some point in order for restaurants to survive.

Chuck:??Now on the overtime issue, let me lay this out and tell me if I?m correct or incorrect and let me know how this affects you.? Most people understand that there is a 40-hour work week.? And if an employee works more than 40 hours, they?re paid time-and-a-half for overtime.? A restaurant can be open 24 hours a day.? It could serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.? Let?s say you have a waiter working an 8-hour dinner shift on Tuesday night.? And then the restaurant schedules him to come in and work the breakfast shift the next morning.? That?is now more than 8 hours in a 24-hour day and rather than calculating the time weekly and you have to pay time-and-a-half on the extra hours worked above 8 hours?within a 24-hour time period.? Is this correct?? Is that the way it works now?

Jeff:???Yeah, that?s actually correct.? The federal law is 40 hours in a week.? The Nevada state law is more than 8 hours in a day.? Bu to make matter much worse, it?s not just 8 hours in a day, it?s 8 hours in a 24-hour rolling period, which makes it extremely difficult when you?re talking about restaurants and trying to staff properly because as we all know, business could be slow one day and very busy the next.??Sometimes a person would have to work dinner and then they would be called in for lunch the next day.? And now instead of employees switching shifts or whatever, it?s automatic overtime.

And speaking with Catherine Jacoby, President of the Nevada Restaurant Association, she made a really good example with last year concerning Burger King and they were supposed to come in and bring in a whole slew of Burger King?s in the town.? And that was the one ruling that stood between them coming here and them staying away.? So that is a rule that just makes it almost impossible to operate in the restaurant industry.

Chuck:? Let?s touch on this ? all the politicians that are in office today and all the candidates who are running for office,?are running on the number one issue, which is creating jobs, reducing unemployment.? What is it that government and these elected officials could do to help you and your type of business to be able to hire more employees?? Is there anything that the government can do that it?s not doing, or should do or stop doing to make it easier for you to hire more employees?

Jeff:??The government can, first of all,?stop their aggressive behavior when it comes to the fees and the taxes and the social programs, because what?s happened is businesses have gone into a stall.? They were waiting to see what was going to happen with Obamacare.? The private businesses are seeing too many disincentives right now.? They need to incentivize business.? Potential business men and womenwho would possibly go into business now are faced with these types of fees.? And they are a?disincentive to go into business.

The other thing is, Chuck, what banks are going to loan money to start-ups now when you can shave $100,000 or $200,000 off your bottom line because of Obamacare?? Do you think the banks are going to loan money to these people to get into business now?? They?re not loaning now to profitable companies who want to expand.? The money has tightened up.

Government and our elected officials need to regress from all of the fees and unnecessary taxes that we?re paying because we?re at a breaking point, and if they don?t recognize that, it?s going to be too late.? The private business man can not declare chapter 11 and stay in business.? Once his credit is ruined, he is out of the game, and there is nobody to come in behind him or her in this economic situation where money is so tight in the banking industry.

Our elected officials need to get on the ball and come up with ideas to create jobs, not push businesses out of business, and that?s what?s happening right now.? Businesses are collapsing as we speak.

Chuck:???And how about from a compliance and regulatory perspective, what is it that the government could do to ease the burden?? Are there things as a business person you have to comply with the government that is completely unnecessary that they ought to just drop to make things a little easier for businesses to operate and actually start up businesses?

Jeff:??Well, the modified business tax is a good example.? It?s essentially a gross sales tax, which hampers our ability to stay in business.? And the fees that we have to pay to the fire department every year now.? We have to draw plans to show what the inner workings of our restaurant and dining rooms? on an annual basis now.? The Health Department -?every time they come in and give you a B or C rating, it costs $450.? You?re going to see those C ratings all over the place now.??I?m hearing from other operators that for the first time they?re getting hit with C ratings, which is $400 ? $450 out of your pocket to be reinspected.

These are the things that have to stop.? The fees and regulations and the permits.? If you have businesses in multiple jurisdictions within Clark County and Henderson and the City of Las Vegas and the county and North Las Vegas, you have the identical operation.? You have to submit plans every single time, identical plans to each jurisdiction, duplicates.

Chuck:???And, last question, you mentioned the modified business tax.? For those who don?t know what the modified business tax is, explain that and what should be done with that tax if anything at all.

Jeff:???Basically, it?s a payroll tax that is levied upon businesses based on their gross sales.? And the problem with that is gross sales could be astronomical and a company could still be loosing money.? That tax money is coming off of the top.? It?s not coming off the bottom after you have your profit and loss statement.? Essentially you?re paying it before you?re paying anything else.? And it?s just another way of taking money from business.

It?s not much different than what the Water District pulled a couple of months ago when they levied medium- to small-sized businesses with the bulk of the increase.? It has collapsed several businesses already.

Chuck:???With the modified business tax?though, what I?ve heard is that they?ve exempted small businesses.? It?s a fee that?s charged per employee that you hire but small businesses don?t have that fee.? Is that your understanding?

Jeff:??That?s very small business.? You?re talking about businesses that are doing $250,000 and over.? I mean most businesses are doing more than $250,000 in sales.? So what they do is they exempt the first $250,000 in sales is all.? And after that, the tax can be quite astronomical depending on what your sales are.

Chuck:??So it?s gross revenue, not net.

Jeff:???Exactly.? Exactly.

Chuck:??Anything else you?d like to share with us on how difficult or easy or helpful the government makes it to do business in Nevada these days?

Jeff:? Well, it?s very difficult.? I just will close by saying that not only are the local businesses severely hurting right now, but other states are looking at us and saying there?s no way I would want to put a location in Nevada.? And most of the restaurant operators here in Nevada that have expanded in the last two or three years have done it out of state.? They have gone to Arizona.? They?ve gone to Texas.? They?ve gone to other states that are much more business friendly.

Source: http://nevadanewsandviews.com/archives/16438?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=were-being-taxed-to-death-interview-with-jeff-ecker-paymons-mediterranean-cafe

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Honest Mummy Reviews & Recommendations: Review: Beefeater ...

Beefeater are a name that have been around for years and I have to say I have not visited one of their restaurants for absolutely years, my assumptions have been that they are expensive and the food would not be that good.

I was wrong!? I'll say that again, just in case you are not sure.? I really was wrong.

The Service
On Saturday, late afternoon we were lucky enough to go along and try out The Stanborough Beefeater Grill in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire and we had a really superb time. On arrival the 2 waitresses on the floor were busy but we were acknowledged twice and told they would be with us soon.? The greeting was warm and we were seated in a comfy booth.? The waitress was very friendly and chatted with my twins about the show they had been to see that morning.


Within a few minutes our waitress Simone came over and introduced herself and took a drinks order, she was very efficient and personable.? The drinks arrived quickly and were as ordered and Simone was able to make some food suggestions as we placed our order.? The feeling was that nothing was too much trouble. We did laugh though, as it had been noted in the reservations diary that our table was booked by the PR agency and thus I assume they realised we were either important to judging them. Because of this we keenly watched the rest of the restaurant and the service that other tables were receiving and I can honestly say that the service was consistent and they were just exceptionally good at the all round customer experience.

The Food
With regard to the food, again there was nothing to disappoint us. It was all cooked well and the portion sizes were good.? All chips are bottomless, including the kids and thus those with a bigger appetite can fill up. I felt that the?vegetarian options were a bit limited but dh (who is the veggie) was quite happy and he had a vegetable risotto which he tells me was really pleasant.


For me, I started with the cheese and bacon potato skins, which we all loved and the kids nicked a good proportion of and then I didn't fancy chips so I went for the chicken breast wrapped in bacon with a black and blue sauce, served with new potatoes and vegetables.? I am pleased to report that the veg did taste fresh and the chicken was cooked to perfection.?To finish I had a waffle with banana, hot toffee sauce and ice cream and it was large and very good.

The Kids Menu
I was particularly impressed with the kids meal, it is a main course and dessert with free drink for ?5.25 and then you can add on a?starter for another ?1.? The choice is very good and the portion sizes were more than adequate.?JJ opted for the burger, fries and beans, Miss E had the same but with fish fingers and Miss M has a spaghetti bolognaise, garlic bread and corn on the cob.? That was? a really hearty meal and was enough for Miss E to have some too!

The kids desserts are great, often I find you have a choice of ice cream or ice cream for the kids but not so here.? Miss E indulged in a?large portion of profiteroles with ice cream and the other two had the mini chocolate challenge, where you can create your own dessert with ice cream, brownies, marshmallows and warm chocolate sauce.

What could they do better?
I have thought hard about what I might write as something to be improved for next time and the only thing I have thought of is that we were not offered the special daytime (until 6.30pm) value menu, but this is very minor when I think about just how good the?food and service was.? I would also have been happy with the cost had I of paid for the whole meal, all of us having a 3 course meal and drinks came to just over ?57 and for an evening out that is acceptable.

What promotions are there?
As mentioned there is a daytime value menu and also an evening value menu, the items on these menus?are more limited but when a main course starts from just ?4.99 in the day you can't really complain.? The upgrade for a starter and dessert is just 1.99 a piece, so you could end up with a 3 course meal for less than ?9.00, sounds good!

Also, what we discovered while at the restaurant is that there are often good promotions going on. We were told about the breakfast deal where an adult can get a full english buffet with drinks for ?8.25.? Nothing special there you may think until you realise that every adult can take 2 kids (under 15) with them to eat for free.? Fantastic, so when we have something to celebrate but not too much money we can all go for late breakfast on a?weekend (up until 11am) and have a great meal for just ?16.50 for the 5 of us? perfect!

The Final Verdict
Excellent, we would give the overall experience a 9/10.

Disclosure:? We received a ?50 discount on the cost of our meal for the purposes of this review.? I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Source: http://honestmummyreviews.blogspot.com/2012/07/review-beefeater-grill-restaurant.html

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Personal Finance Olympics: How Getting Out of Debt is Like ...

Woohoo! I'm excited you are here! Why don't you subscribe to my free newsletter so you can have access to even more goods? It's chock full of information on personal finance that you won't want to miss!

This is an article I wrote that was submitted as part of Go Banking Rates Personal Finance Olympics. If you enjoyed the article, please take a moment to click ?vote? on the right side of the article located here. You have to actually go to the Go Banking Rates site to vote and you can do that by clicking here! No registration is required.


Competitor:?This article comes from Jenny atTheJennyPincher.com.

Entry Category:?Strategies for Getting out of Debt

You may have never thought getting out of debt can be compared to training for the Olympics. It?s kind of a funny concept but I was thinking of how many of my personal finance blogger friends treat getting out of debt like a sport, whether they know it or not! While it may seem crazy, you can take a lot of the same practices used by Olympians and apply it to paying off your debt once and for all.

1. Your Starting Point -?In order to get out of debt, you have to understand where your finances are today. This means you are going to have to understand how much money you bring in, how often and how much debt you have. This will give you a clear picture of where you are so you know what you are aiming for to improve.

An athlete training for the Olympics wouldn?t begin a crazy routine without first knowing what they can or can?t do. They may get injured which can further delay training. It?s the same for your financial situation! You don?t want to start working towards reducing your debt until you have analyzed your situation and know what you can and can?t do financially to start paying down debt.

Debt Reduction Strategy:?Begin tracking income and expenses so you can see a clear picture of your financial situation as it is today. I recommend using an online tool called Adaptu to help manage this.

2. Set goals -?You probably already know this, but you are not going to accidentally accomplish your goals in life. It?s true, stop and say it with me: I am not going to accidentally accomplish my goals in life!

Just like an Olympian who has a dream to make it to the Olympics; you have to set goals with your finances to get out of your current situation. Do you think most athletes work towards getting to the Olympics by performing one off work-outs here and there? Obviously not, so why should getting rid of debt be any different?

Progress is made by setting goals and taking steps (no matter how small) each and every day to reach that goal. So how do we do this? First we need to know what the goal is. Is it to pay off credit cards? If so the first step is to stop using the cards! When you understand your financial situation today, you can set goals for your future.

Debt Reduction Strategy:?Focus on 2-3 areas in your personal finances you want to improve on so you don?t get discouraged or overwhelmed (i.e. cutting out unnecessary expenses so you can apply those funds towards paying off debt)

Like this article? Then please vote for me here by clicking ?VOTE? on the right side of the article!! No registration is required!

3. Get to Work ??Once you have a clear picture of your financial situation and you?ve set goals, it?s time for the real work to begin. An Olympian would begin training for the Olympics by doing specific types of workouts that will help them improve their performance. Then they will repeat that same type of workout over and over it to master it and improve their time and performance.

You can apply the same line of thinking to getting rid of your debt. By repeating the same things that help improve your financial situation, you can get out of debt quickly. This can include things like planning your meals so you aren?t tempted to eat out all the time or staying in one night a week and saving that money to put towards your debt. Many times we forget that it?s the little habits we have daily that can have the biggest impact on our finances. This may require you to retrain your brain and pay attention to your behavior a little closer to see where you can improve.

Debt Reduction Strategy:?Change your behavior. Keep what works and drop the habits that aren?t working for you anymore or have contributed to getting you into debt. Repeat what works. Then repeat what works again. Then repeat what works some more until it becomes second nature for you.

4.?Review Your Progress/Adjust as Necessary ??It?s never easy dealing with money because we can have the best of intentions but we can?t foresee every little thing that may happen to us. It can be discouraging when ?life? gets in the way of our plans to reduce our debt. Many Olympic athletes have the same types of challenges. The difference is the successful ones keep going even when they?ve failed.

Things are going to happen that derail you from your progress of paying down debt. The best thing you can do is learn from it and move on. Some months are going to be good and others won?t. When you find something that works, stick with it. If something is sabotaging
you getting ahead, look out for it and adjust as needed.

Debt Reduction Strategy:?Make it a point on a regular basis (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) to look back and review your progress. Set a reminder on your calendar so you don?t forget to do this!!

5. Don?t Give Up-?I?m not going to lie to you, getting out of debt is not going to be easy. It?s going to take some sacrifice on your part and you are probably not going to like it. It?s going to be very easy to give up and go back to your old ways. But remember, this period of your life is only temporary if you let it be!

I heard a great example of this recently on a radio ad for?PassitOn?where Michelle Kwan talks about how she fell numerous times during her career but then went on to become the most decorated figure skater in U.S. History. What would have happened if Michelle gave up the first time she fell? She obviously would not have made history as a figure skater. What if you give up the first time you fail at trying to get out of debt? You clearly will never end up getting out of debt!

Debt Reduction Strategy:?Sacrifice when necessary with the understanding it will be worth it in the end. You will face disappointment and want to quit but keep going and believe in yourself and what you are doing. This season of your life is only temporary. Remember the goals you set in step 2 and keep working towards that.

6. Today Is the Day

An Olympian?s big day is when they get to perform their sport in front of millions of people around the world. All the training, hard work and dedication finally pays off. When it comes to paying off debt, your big day is when you make that final debt payment. How rewarding to know that you?ve accomplished your goals and it all paid off!

An even bigger bonus is now that you?ve paid off that debt, you?ve freed up your money to use towards building wealth for yourself, giving back to charities or organizations that you believe in and having the security of knowing you don?t owe anyone. Life is different when you are debt free!

By following these debt reduction strategies, you can begin your journey of getting out of debt TODAY! What are you waiting for?

Don?t forget to vote for me here?by clicking ?VOTE? on the right side of the article!! No registration is required!

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Source: http://thejennypincher.com/personal-finance-olympics-how-getting-out-of-debt-is-like-training-for-the-olympics/

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S. Africa recalls 500,000 HIV test kits: ministry

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africa-recalls-500-000-hiv-test-kits-ministry-090721807.html

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Mujadara Recipe Video (Most Popular Mujadara Recipe) Vegan ...

Mujadara Recipe (Also spelled as Mujaddara or Moujadara) howtoexpo.com is a healthy brown or green lentil bulgur pilaf. Topped with caramelized onion with just a little oil is packed with Iron and nutrition. Mujadara is an easy and healthy Arabic vegetarian / vegan dish. Served perfect with a salad and yogurt drink called Tahn or Ayran or Dugh. Find the recipe for the yogurt drink on our site howtoexpo.com Mujadara is the Arabic lentil rice recipe that once you try you will know what all the excitement is about. You will need a stock pot, frying pan, strainer, mixing bowl and utensil. Cooking great healthy whole grain food, made delicious and easy. Also an excellent diet recipe. I have all the written directions for this amazing Mujadara Recipe and more bulgur wheat recipes plus don?t forget about the yogurt drink that is traditionally served with this recipe. This Mujadara recipe has been a family favorite for ages and I would love to hear your comments. I have more Bulgur wheat recipes and am always available to answer questions for all my videos either here or at my website so do not hesitate to ask a question or request a recipe. But first check and see if I have already prepared a video. I am always on the lookout for healthy food ideas any suggestions? I would like to hear from you. You might also like: Whole Grain Lentil Soup howtoexpo.com Red Lentil Soup howtoexpo.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Source: http://online-recipes-free.com/mujadara-recipe-video-most-popular-mujadara-recipe-vegan/

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Hainan city in the land assignment income turn over to the higher ...

In new network Haikou on July 16 report (reporter Zhang Qianyi) Hainan saves the Fourth People?s Congress Standing Committee thirty-second meeting is held 16 days in Haikou city. Hainan province audit hall deputy hall to grow He Qiongmei to the ?government of Hainan province people about 2011 year to save budget and other financial revenue and expenditure audit report? (hereinafter referred to as ?report?) pointed out, Hainan province audit hall on budget implementation management, focus on people?s livelihood, the government fundsInvestmentProject, corporate finance four major aspects of the strict audit, disclosure of cities and counties inLandTransfer income turn over to the higher authorities and other aspects.?Report? say, Hainan province audit hall on 2011 year to save budget and other fiscal revenues and expenditures of the audit, the audit staff invested a total of 1035 people (second), audit 775 departments unit, selective examination 984 enterprises and village committee, audit amount amounts to 465000000000 yuan, than last year doubled the workload.?Report? point out, 2011 provincial budget implementation audit findings, 2011 year the provincial cities and counties in the provincial land transfer income 1064000000 yuan, up to the end of year 6, still have 741000000 yuan not over; provincial understating the budget income 201000000 yuan, among them finance fund deposit interest 79730000 yuan fails to timely inclusion of public finance income, non tax income 74470000 yuan stranded in transition family failing to timely clear turn over to the higher authorities, new construction land and unused land for construction land use fees paid the balance of 47010000 yuan fails to timely pay in the year to the state treasury, resulting in fewer columns the fund budget revenue; provincial finance will not lottery funds and other financial accounts into budget management.?Report? shows, to Hainan the province?s 18 cities and counties in 2011 of local tax collection and management of the audit, the province?s local tax revenue in all 28455000000 yuan, tax income to stabilize growth continuously. But the audit checks of 685 enterprises, 60 enterprises for the unpaid tax 661000000 yuan. In 2 counties of illegal advance land value-added tax and business tax 126000000 yuan. Individual cities and counties to the ?tax summonsed? management is not in place, the enterprise fails to timely pay taxes, some ?double stock? actual votes than approved turnover of 1 times, resulting in the loss of tax. In addition, there are tax levy and management information system is not perfect cause data errors, collect withholding fees accounting is non-standard wait for a problem. After auditing, taxation departments actively pursue, already had 21 enterprises to pay land value added tax and other tax 65357200 yuan.In 18 counties of Hainan 2011 annual land revenue collection audit results, of land market in Hainan province and the corresponding management system gradually perfect, the land market supply mechanism is built basically, the land revenue management continuous improvement. But the audit findings, there exist serious problems, including the arrears of land revenue, not in accordance with the provisions of the land assignment income distribution, not according to the procedures for the use of state-owned land ??.

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Source: http://www.zloan.info/32360.html

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Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman Tease Hellboy 3

hellboy

Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman may be in San Diego to debut footage from their giant robots vs. giant monsters summer 2013 tentpole picture?Pacific Rim. But at the EW Comic-Con studio, the longtime collaborators had another film on their minds:?Hellboy 3.

For a long time, whenever del Toro was asked about the dearly hoped for threequel, he would demure with a maybe-not-quite-a-joke that Perlman was not eager to spend multiple hours every day getting in and out of the extensive makeup for the hulking, blood-red character. But now both men are singing a different tune. ?I can say publicly that now we are together in trying [to do Hellboy 3],? del Toro told EW. Perlman was sitting right next to him, and was not shy about explaining why he?s game to strap on Hellboy?s trenchcoat one more time.?

?The [first] two movies were really set up to have this unbelievable resolve,? said Perlman. ?Everything that was done in both movies was leading up to this destiny, written in stone, of what Hellboy has been summoned to Earth to do. To not do it, particularly in light of the scope that Guillermo is thinking of for the resolve, would be in my mind a little bit of a shame.?

Watch it here:

As it happens, Perlman recently suited up again as Hellboy when he worked with?the Make a Wish Foundation to grant the dream of six-year-old boy battling leukemia. ?The make-up artist [with Spectral Motion] was the one who got contacted by the foundation,? explained Perlman. ?This kid was watching Hellboy when he was in treatment. [The makeup artist told me] he would like to meet Hellboy. I said, ?No problem, what day?? He said, ?I don?t think you understand. He does not want to meet Ron.??

Del Toro says the event was also a factor in helping to bring himself and Perlman together on making a third Hellboy. ?I?ve encountered a lot of kids who are fans of the movies,? said del Toro, ?but to hear the story of this kid who was watching the movies while going through treatment, it really just moved me a lot.? The director stresses that he hasn?t yet approached?Hellboy creator Mike Mignola on the prospect of a?Hellboy III, nor is a studio signed on yet. But, he says, ?We?re going to make an effort to do it. I hope it happens.? So do we!

Read more:
Guillermo del Toro talks about his ?intense? vision for ?Pinocchio?
Guillermo del Toro to produce animated ?Day of the Dead? ? so just how crowded is this man?s plate?
?Hellboy 3?: Please, Ron Perlman, make this movie

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1925552/news/1925552/

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Joshua Kors: ESPN's Jeremy Schaap: Giving a Voice to Penn State's Victims

Reporting balls and strikes is easy. ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap is pushing a lot deeper.

While others at his sports channel were honing their catch phrases, or providing an inside look at a star point guard's amazing work ethic, Schaap was headed to Bahrain to spotlight the American ally for torturing a soccer star who spoke out against the government. He has told the inspiring story of hockey player Evan Kaufmann, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, who is finding new life in the German hockey leagues. And he has given voice to Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, a rising All-Star and a survivor of sexual abuse.

Most notably, amidst an American media with a seemingly untaintable reverence for Penn State's legendary football coach, Schaap has stood alone in holding Joe Paterno's feet to the fire. His recent reporting has challenged the Penn State Board of Trustees' excuses and obfuscations. While most reporters have bathed their reports with weasel words like "wrongdoing" and "alleged misconduct," Schaap stood before the camera and called Paterno an "accessory to Jerry Sandusky's crimes" who, for 13 years, refused to act while his defensive coordinator raped young boys.

Schaap spoke with me about the Penn State scandal, his human rights reporting and his commitment to giving an uncensored voice to victims of abuse.


Schaap: With Penn State, it's my job to describe for viewers exactly what happened here. There's a line of course. We are basic cable. And I know that kids are watching. So you do ask yourself, "How many details of rape and sodomy do you want to give?" Still, I try to be as blunt as possible. I look at the coverage from other reporters, and the level of self-censorship, it drives me insane. All this talk of "inappropriate behavior" and "immoral conduct," weak language that fogs things up to the point where you don't even know what they're talking about anymore.

Kors: The language does matter.

Schaap: It does. Absolutely it does. And I think what happens, especially when reporters are covering legends like Paterno, is there's a tendency to be too polite, too deferential, even obsequious at times. But in this case, if you were really paying attention from Day 1, what was happening here was absolutely clear. It all followed a template directly from the Catholic Church, where officials' only interest was in protecting the institution and, by extension, protecting themselves. As this story rolled out, a blind man could have seen what was going on.

Kors: I think part of the problem?and I've seen this over and over in covering the military?is that beat reporters don't want to piss off high-level sources, or they'll lose access. So they hold their tongues.

Schaap: That's right. It's a problem that's been going on forever. With each piece, you ask yourself, "What bridges am I going to burn here? How much of the story am I willing to sacrifice to preserve my relationship with this source?" I'm lucky: I'm not a beat reporter. I don't depend on the same, high-level sources for my reports. So I don't have to take those questions into consideration. But it is ironic because for those that do, and do censor their own stories, their high-level contacts end up being worthless because they never end up reporting the harder truths they've gotten access to.

Kors: Seems like most sports reporting is aiming much lower anyway. There's a pattern: sports highlight, sassy catchphrase, cut to commercial.

Schaap: (Schaap laughs.) Yeah. It's true. I think it's part of the culture of this country. There is good sports reporting going on?at Real Sports, at E:60?but American sports reporters are not as aggressive as they should be. I saw this firsthand in 2006 at the Torino Olympics, when the [Wayne] Gretzky gambling scandal was blowing up. Gretzky held a press conference to explain, to settle things down, and the Canadian media just hammered him. Here is one of the most revered figures in all of Canada, and they treated him like Mike Wallace tackling a corrupt business executive. Americans, I think, are trained to expect more politeness from their sports reporters.

Kors: You described Paterno as "an accessory to Sandusky's crimes" and called his remaining supporters "sycophantic dead-enders." When former coach Mike McQueary testified in court that he witnessed a young boy being raped by Sandusky in 2001 and reported the crime to Paterno, you repeated McQueary's testimony in notably graphic terms. Did any producers from ESPN ever say to you, "You've gone too far. You can't say this"?

Schaap: No. Nobody's ever said, "Change your language" or "You can't say this." And with McQueary's testimony, if you play polite with those details, you're doing a huge disservice to your viewers. Because McQueary's testimony?what he saw and what he told Paterno?that was the crux of the case.

Kors: That's right. Paterno said that one reason he didn't go to the police was because McQueary's description of the assault was vague and limited.

Schaap: And McQueary said as much in his testimony, that he blunted his language for the 75-year-old man. But he was insistent that he got the point across. The entire foundation of the case for Paterno is that McQueary didn't truly, fully explain what he saw. And remember, this was 2001. When you learn that in 1998, long before McQueary's report, Paterno was very well informed about Sandusky's abuse of children, then everything Paterno says about 2001 collapses.

Kors: Are you a reporter or a commentator?

Schaap: (Schaap laughs.) That's something I've given a lot of thought to. At the beginning of my career, I started out with a strict "No opinion" policy. Now I'm covering news events, but I also do commentaries for SportsCenter. I'd like to think my reporting is in the tradition of Jimmy Breslin or my father. The goal is to communicate the facts, to synthesize what you know into one report.

Kors: Your reporting on these pieces could be shallower. Like your recent profile of [Mets pitcher] R.A. Dickey. That piece could have been, "Hey, looks like Dickey's racking up a lot of wins" without ever mentioning the sexual abuse he suffered as a child.

Schaap: Well, that's the heart of his story. And it's amazing that he's willing to talk about it so honestly and so thoughtfully. You know, New York magazine did a piece on him the other day and didn't even mention the abuse. And I thought, how do you do that? Struggling with that abuse is how he became who he is. When I do stories, I want to tell the bigger picture.

Kors: To be more than just a sports reporter.

Schaap: Actually, being "just a sports reporter" has played to my advantage a lot of times. Last year we went to the Middle East to do a story on Bahrain. At that time, they weren't letting any Western journalists into the country. So we said, "Hey, we're just doing a story about your soccer team." The Bahraini government figured, "Oh, well, okay. It's just about soccer," and they let us in. What we didn't mention is that the story was about the Bahraini soccer stars who were tortured by the government for speaking out during the Arab Spring. Once we got in the country, that's the story we covered.

Kors: Is there a theme to your reporting?

Schaap: I think so. I like doing stories that are tangentially about sports, that get at something larger. Stories about people who don't have a voice.

Kors: Let me read you a tweet you posted this week: "All the talk about tearing down the JoePa statue is incomplete. It should be replaced by a statue dedicated to the boys who were raped by Sandusky and abandoned to his sickness by Paterno et. al. Put it right there in front of Beaver Stadium."

Schaap: That's right. And not to shame Sandusky or the program. It's to address this problem of sexual abuse, which nobody wants to discuss. We should celebrate those children for their courage in speaking out. Some people say, "Oh, but that would offend the sensibilities of our fans." That attitude is how we got to a place where Paterno and [Penn State athletic director Tim] Curley were so squeamish they could brush all this away, a place where the church in Boston and Philadelphia can abuse its children and duck the consequences successfully. If we can make some permanent statement about what happened here, why not do it? To brush that opportunity aside, that's cowardly.

Kors: Yeah.

Schaap: Dickey confirmed this too. Abused kids, he said, they pick up on all this. They learn that this is something they should be ashamed of and something society wants them to be silent about. They start thinking, "If no one wants to hear me talk about this, then I must be damaged. Otherwise, why the cloak of secrecy and silence?" I think Dickey is so brave for speaking out, for being so public. What he's doing is going to change a lot of people's lives.

Kors: The New York Times just ran a piece about the NCAA, how they're hemming and hawing about applying sanctions to Penn State's football program. Of course, they didn't need to hem or haw when it came to Reggie Bush and USC. They cracked the whip there pretty damn fast.

Schaap: Yeah, the NCAA sanctions, to be honest, I could care less. I don't care if Penn State football went away forever. Or if they don't get a scholarships. Or can't play a night game. It's almost a way for people to not talk about what happened here, to get back to talking about football. People say that punishing them with recruitment changes, making it tough for Penn State to be a player next year in the Big Ten, would send a strong message. As if learning that children were molested by one of the top coaches wasn't enough to make a point. I understand why some people say they shouldn't play. But the whole topic, it's insignificant. It diminishes the issue.

Kors: Another aspect of the TV coverage that has really irked me is the way words like "character" and "honorable" are tossed around like nothing. Paterno, we hear, was a man of character because he made sure his players did their homework. He was honorable because he donated to the library. Even McQueary, some said, was really a courageous man and shouldn't be judged on this one incident. Well, I'm sorry, but the only time you know whether someone is courageous or has character is when those qualities are tested.

Schaap: I know. I agree. That language has become an ingrained part of sports reporting. I remember covering a Nebraska football game, and the commentators spoke about how courageous the kids were for mounting a comeback after a bad first half. And I'm thinking, you can't extrapolate that from this game. No matter how many wins you have, no matter how many points you've scored. Character, courage, honor: these have nothing to do with the scoreboard. Reporters always talk about a "courageous performance." We have to get away from that language.

Kors: And it's not just sports. Tune in to American Idol, and you'll hear the judges say, "Oh, that was a courageous performance." Since when is performing a Cyndi Lauper song a sign of courage?

Schaap: [Schaap laughs.] If there's another thing to come out of this scandal, it's that: that we don't really know these guys?the players, the coaches?even though we see them on the sidelines. And we can't make judgments about what kind of people they are based on their actions on the field. Too much of our sports reporting has become hagiography.

Kors: That blind hero worship is part of the fan culture too, especially on campus. I remember watching the Penn State students riot after Paterno was fired. To think this was my country, my generation, I just felt so ashamed.

Schaap: You do have to wonder sometimes about our values. Of course, there was no golden age of values way back when. But this impulse to defend the establishment, to protect the institution against all outsiders, it seems stronger now than ever before. Especially in college football. There's a tribalism there that you just don't see in other sports. Those students should have been rioting to get Paterno fired. I'd hope that a lot of the kids who did riot would want to take back what they did. But my hunch is that they'd just double down on it. It is shameful.

Kors: Is there a broader lesson to the Penn State scandal?

Schaap: Yes. That the college sports system is out of control. This scandal, I think, is an indictment of that system. It's an indictment of our culture, a culture where a football coach could effectively be the head of a major educational institution. A system where the coaches have the power because their sports generate the revenue for the other programs at the university. A cult had developed around Paterno. There's no doubt about that. And at that point, nobody could reign him in. I always thought that the image of him as this paragon of probity was all too convenient.


Kors: You think Paterno bears responsibility for what happened.

Schaap: Definitely. These monsters like Sandusky are always going to be out there. But we see over and over again people who aren't pedophiles protecting them and perpetuating their crimes, whether it's the Catholic Church or Penn State.

Kors: True.

Schaap: I hope the idol worship of our sports stars comes to an end. After they win a lot of games, it's easy to develop a mythology around them. It's time now to step back and be more careful about the way we characterize our sports stars, which isn't to say that some of them aren't wonderful human beings. But if you're going to come to that conclusion, form that conclusion from their actions off the field.

Follow Joshua Kors on Facebook: www.facebook.com/joshua.kors

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Follow Joshua Kors on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joshuakors

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshua-kors/jeremy-schaap-joe-paterno_b_1680405.html

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Researchers map brain, finds Alzheimer's patients drive differently

Monday, July 16, 2012

Activity lingers longer in certain areas of the brain in those with Alzheimer's than it does in healthy people, Mayo Clinic researchers who created a map of the brain found. The results suggest varying brain activity may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The study, "Non-stationarity in the "Resting Brain's" Modular Architecture," was presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference and recently published in the journal PLoS One.

Researchers compared brain activity to a complex network, with multiple objects sharing information along pathways.

"Our understanding of those objects and pathways is limited," says lead author David T. Jones, M.D. "There are regions in the brain that correspond to those objects, and we are not really clear exactly what those are. We need a good mapping or atlas of those regions that make up the network in the brain, which is part of what we were doing in this study."

Researchers examined 892 cognitively normal people taking part in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, and set out to create an active map of their brains while the people were "at rest," not engaged in a specific task. To do this, they employed task-free, functional magnetic resonance imaging to construct an atlas of 68 functional regions of the brain, which correspond to the cities on the road map.

Researchers filled in the roads between these regions by creating dynamic graphic representations of brain connectivity within a sliding time window.

This analysis revealed that there were many roads that could be used to exchange information in the brain, and the brain uses different roads at different times. The question to answer then, said Dr. Jones, is whether or not Alzheimer's patients used this map and these roads in a different way than their healthy peers.

"What we found in this study was that Alzheimer's patients tended to spend more time using some roads and less time using other roads, biasing one over the other," he says.

While more research is needed, the researchers say one implication is that how we use our brains may protect us from Alzheimer's. Dr. Jones says exercise, education, and social contacts may help balance activity in the brain.

"Diversifying the mental space that you explore may actually decrease your risk for Alzheimer's," he says.

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Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/news

Thanks to Mayo Clinic for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/121749/Researchers_map_brain__finds_Alzheimer_s_patients_drive_differently_

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Is Raising Marginal Tax Rates on Higher Income Individuals a Good ...

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Newly elected French President Francois Hollande campaigned on a promise to raise the marginal tax rate to 75% on individuals making more than 1 million euros. President Obama wants to increase marginal tax rates on high-income individuals to their level before the Bush tax cuts. ?Obama defines ?high? as anyone making over $250,000 per year. Neither the modern history of high tax rates, economic analysis, or their consequences for the budget deficit and income redistribution indicates that raising taxes on higher income individuals are a good idea.

A few decades ago, tax rates on higher incomes were at least 70% not only in high taxing Scandinavian countries, but also in the United States (where the top rate was 91% in 1960) and many other countries where government spending took a relatively small share of GDP. The widespread avoidance and evasion of such high taxes through sophisticated accounting methods, reduced work effort, and even in countries like Sweden through outright barter for services and goods, led to a world wide revolution toward flatter and much lower tax rates. The bi-partisan tax accord in the US in the 1980?s reduced the top income tax rate to 28% (the top rate was 33% for a fraction of high income persons), and even Sweden lowered its top income tax rate to about 55%. Since aside from the Great Recession, GDP has grown quite rapidly during the decades subsequent to the tax reduction movement, why is there growing pressure to raise tax rates again on the so-called ?rich??

From the academic side, support for raising taxes on higher income individuals mainly comes from evidence on individual behavior over the lifecycle. This evidence suggests that labor supply does not respond very much to changes in after-tax earnings (see a good survey of this issue in Meghir and Phillips, ?Labor Supply and Taxes?, 2010). Yet evidence on aggregate labor supply, such as the differences in hours worked among countries with different levels of taxes, suggests that workers spend considerably more hours working when marginal tax rates on their incomes are lower.

A recent article in the Journal of Economic Literature tries to reconcile the micro and macro based conclusions by arguing that the micro evidence gives a biased picture of aggregate labor supply responses (see Keane and Rogerson, ?Micro and Macro Labor Supply Elasticities: A Reassessment of Conventional Wisdom?, June 2012). One of the factors in their reconciliation comes from the importance of on the job investments in human capital. These investments bias downwards the micro estimates of labor supply elasticities that are based on variations in hours worked over the lifecycle. This bias is especially large at younger ages where most of these investments occur since the true earnings at these ages is much larger than the observed wages at these ages because younger workers are raising their future wages through investments in their human capital. This bias helps explain why computed elasticities of labor supply are usually greater for older workers.

A second important bias shows up especially in the difference between the labor responses of men and women. It has long been known that women respond more to higher tax rates on their (family) earnings because many women then leave the labor force entirely rather than simply adjusting their hours worked. As Keane and Rogerson show, such decisions to enter or leave the labor force can greatly increase the aggregate labor response to changes in tax rates.

These and other corrections to simple interpretations of the micro evidence on labor responses to changes in tax rates clearly suggest that aggregate labor responses to tax rates may be quite large. Moreover, as welfare economics shows, raising tax rates by only a few percentage points on a sizable tax rate base- as in President Obama?s proposal- will tend to have large costs in efficiency even when the elasticity of response to the tax increase is relatively small.

?I would not argue, however, that the evidence conclusively proves that the higher taxes proposed would do significant damage. Suppose then to be conservative that there is only a 50-50 chance (I believe the true probability is much more than 50-50) that the tax increases proposed by Hollande and Obama would sizably reduce hours worked and the effort put into work relative to the magnitude of the tax increases, and would cause sizable loses in efficiency relative to the additional revenue raised. Would such probabilities justify much higher tax rates?

To answer this question, one has to consider the potential benefits and costs of raising taxes on higher income individuals, and determine whether expected benefits exceed expected costs. If higher taxes on the rich only slightly affected their work effort (the usual assumption in revenue calculations), tax revenue would rise, but not by a lot since the great majority of revenue comes from taxes on the other 98% of taxpayers. With only a little increase in revenue under the most favorable conditions about labor supply responses, such tax increases would do little to close the budget deficit, and not much additional revenue would be available to redistribute to lower income families.

Higher taxes on the so-called ?rich? would likely reduce after tax income inequality. The sizable growth in earnings and income inequality since 1980, especially at the high-income end, is one of the forces behind the movement toward higher taxes on the ?rich?. In particular, many people are upset about CEOs getting high bonuses and stock options even when there companies are doing badly, or bankers getting their very high options and bonuses even after they made such bad decisions that contributed to the financial crisis. I have sympathy with these concerns, but the way to attack these problems is not to raise the taxes on everyone earning more than $250,000. For professionals and small business owners, not workers in the financial and banking sectors, constitute the great majority of persons in that higher income bracket. The best way to meet these concerns is by further improving corporate governance, and by formulating effective rules-based banking regulations that discourage the too big to fail banks from taking on excessive risks, and hence unjustified compensation.

So the gain in tax revenue from higher taxes on richer individuals would not be great even in the chance that these taxes only slightly discourage their hours worked and effort at work. But the cost to the economy in the chance that higher taxes greatly discourage their effort (relative to the magnitude of the tax increase) is likely to be substantial in terms of fewer hours worked and less work effort by high income individuals, reduced incentives to start businesses, less investments in their human capital, investing abroad rather than in the US or other countries that raised these taxes, and even migration abroad, especially in countries like France where many talented Frenchmen are already working in Britain, the US, and other countries.

So I conclude that even with considerable uncertainty about how much higher taxes on higher-income individuals would reduce their work effort and their investments, the expected gain from raising these taxes is likely to be negative. The trend toward lower marginal tax rates during the past 50 years was perhaps mainly the result of interest group pressure from higher income individuals, but it also receives support from a benefit-cost analysis of the expected effects of tax increases on behavior.

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Source: http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2012/07/is-raising-marginal-tax-rates-on-higher-income-individuals-a-good-idea-becker.html

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