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The Nine Circles of Hell! – all the news that gives you fits in print – the nine most hellish news stories for Tuesday, January 10, 2011, are:

US political independence higher than any other pre-election year

Airfare, food, coffee, gas, mail, clothes to cost more in 2012

One family’s struggles reflect “the real Occupy”

‘Private equity titans’ fight back against criticism of Romney

Billionaire backer of Gingrich targets Romney

Swiss bank charged with helping rich Americans avoid taxes

North Carolina will be first state to compensate eugenics victims

China urges US to “behave cautiously” with military

Fungicide not currently approved for US use found in orange juice

US political independence higher than any other pre-election year
Gallup
(1/9/12)

Record-High 40% of Americans Identify as Independents in ’11

The percentage of Americans identifying as political independents increased in 2011, as is common in a non-election year, although the 40% who did so is the highest Gallup has measured, by one percentage point. More Americans continue to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, 31% to 27% …

Gallup records from 1951-1988 — based on face-to-face interviewing — indicate that the percentage of independents was generally in the low 30% range during those years, suggesting that the proportion of independents in 2011 was the largest in at least 60 years.

In recent decades, Gallup has observed a pattern of increased independent identification in the year prior to a presidential election, and a decline in the presidential election year. The only exception to that was in 1992, when independent identification increased from 1991, perhaps the result of President Bush’s high approval ratings in 1991 and Ross Perot’s independent presidential candidacy in 1992.

Thus, one would expect that fewer Americans will identify as independents in 2012 than in 2011 …

Despite the Democratic advantage in party identification, proportionately more American independents lean to the Republican Party than to the Democratic Party. Thus, when independents’ party leanings are taken into account and combined with the party’s core identifiers, the parties end up tied. In 2011, 45% of Americans identified as Republicans or leaned to the Republican Party and 45% identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic.

This is similar to 2010, when the Democrats had a 1-point advantage in leaned party identification, but remains well below the 12-point Democratic advantage in 2008 — the largest Gallup has recorded for either party since it began regularly measuring leaned party identification in 1991 …

Increased independent identification is not uncommon in the year before a presidential election year, but the sluggish economy, record levels of distrust in government, and unfavorable views of both parties helped to create an environment that fostered political independence more than in any other pre-election year.

As Americans’ attention turns to choosing a president for the next four years and they line up behind President Obama or his Republican challenger, the percentage of independent identifiers is likely to fall this year. However, if national conditions and the political environment do not change appreciably over the course of this year, independent identification — even if it declines — will probably remain on the higher end of what Gallup has measured historically.

Airfare, food, coffee, gas, mail, clothes to cost more in 2012
CNN Money
(1/10/12)

6 things you’ll pay more for in 2012

Not only does it already cost more to fly than it did a year ago, but airfares are only going to continue to climb in 2012.

“My overall prediction is that we’re going to see a 10% to 15% average increase in domestic and international airfares [this year],” said Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University’s College of Business Administration in Boston …

Higher prices for groceries will be enough to kill most consumers’ appetites in 2012, especially since shoppers already had to stomach some substantial price hikes last year.

“Just about all items are up — but the biggest ones are the center of the plate foods like beef, pork and seafood,” said Brian Todd, president of the Food Institute, a nonprofit research group in Elmwood Park, NJ …

In addition to your meals costing more, your mocha java will, too.

Wholesale coffee prices have been on a tear for two years, rising 18% last year alone. That means that consumers are going to get a jolt when they pick up a pound of their favorite blend or even just a cup of joe …

Gas prices are poised to skyrocket in the months ahead, particularly over tensions in the Middle East.

Iran has been threatening to shut down a key passageway for oil exports, and recent fighting in Iraq could curtail exports from that nation. Add on the closure of a large refinery in Delaware and a potential rebound in economic activity worldwide and drivers are likely to see a spike in prices at the pump, said Robert Sinclair Jr., a spokesman for auto club AAA NY.

“There’s definitely a risk for prices to rise above $3.50″ in the first half of the year, according to Phil Thompson, manager of market analytics at Mobius Risk Group, a firm that advises energy producers and big energy consumers. That’s up 5% from the current average of $3.32 a gallon …

As the financially troubled U.S. Postal Services tries one measure after another to cut costs, including closing post offices, mail processing plants and even slashing Saturday mail service to remain afloat, higher mail prices are guaranteed for delivery in 2012.

Starting on Jan. 22, the cost of a first-class stamp will rise to 45 cents from 44 cents, while priority mail prices will jump 3.1% and the cost of using express mail will be 3.4% higher …

Apparel prices have also been on the rise, although with such steep sales around the holidays it’s been hard to tell.

Going forward, retailers will continue to try and pass along higher transportation and raw material costs, which means you’ll pay more for your clothes — when they aren’t on sale.

“Look for the average apparel product to be raised about 8% to 10%,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the market research firm NPD Group.

One family’s struggles reflect “the real Occupy”
CNN
(1/10/12)

Poor, but feeding the rich

Andono Bryant shuffles across an old shuffleboard court to pick up groceries at the food co-op.

“This is the real Occupy,” she says.

The 44-year-old mother of five grown children scoops up boxes of food. She doesn’t have time to go a mile away to the Occupy protests and shake her fist. She’s just trying to make sure her family can eat today.

A few miles north of the Georgia Avenue Food Cooperative, Andono’s husband, Alan, 47, serves steaks to some of the targets of the Occupy movement: the 1% of Americans who have enjoyed nearly 60% of all gains in income over the last three decades.

Alan Bryant mans the grill at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where a well-marbled cowboy ribeye fetches $44 and a fully loaded 1-pound potato goes for $7.

He prides himself on providing a good meal to customers.

“Once you get a person to smile as they eat, my day is fulfilled,” the line cook says. “When I see other people happy, it makes me happy.

“Even though on the inside, it really hurts.”

It hurts because it’s a constant reminder of the couple’s shattered dreams. The Bryants used to make $40,000, lived in their own home and gave to others. Now they live below the poverty line in the city with the widest income gap between rich and poor than anywhere else in the nation.

What do the readers think?

They’re among the millions of Americans who fell out of the middle class.

Tonight, when Andono and Alan sit down to dinner, it’ll be because she made a meal from co-op groceries: fresh green beans, canned yams, Nathan’s hot dogs.

“If it were not for the co-op,” she says, “a lot of us would not be able to survive. This is the bridge that helps get us over.”

The Bryants did everything right. They worked hard, paid bills, took modest vacations. And then, the bottom fell out.

“I went from the giving to the receiving,” Andono says …

The couple was never rich. But they were making it. They’d emerged from the lower class. She worked at a Publix grocery store and ran a small catering business. He worked two kitchen jobs: one for DoubleTree hotels, another for Waffle House.

Together, they brought in about $40,000. They bought a house for a bit over $100,000 in the neighboring city of Decatur.

She’d often travel north of Atlanta to pick up toys and clothes for donation. She’d then go to a street corner in Atlanta’s historically black West End neighborhood. Across the way was a homeless shelter. Those in need would come out to greet her.

“It just felt good,” she says.

Then their financial tsunami struck in the mid-2000s. She lost her job at Publix after an injured knee prevented her from working 40 hours, she says. About the same time, Alan lost his job with DoubleTree — and with it, their health insurance.

In 2006, Andono suffered a heart attack. She spent nine days in the hospital, undergoing an angioplasty so a stent could be inserted to help blood flow. The result: a whopping $47,000 bill, the family says.

She survived her brush with death and had a new attitude: to “just embrace life.” But she also had a more pressing demand: How are we going to survive? …

Families served by the co-op that the Bryants visit arrive by foot, bike, bus and car in Atlanta’s historic Grant Park, a bustling intown neighborhood that has seen home values skyrocket over the past decade.

The city’s income gap is on full display: The vast majority of the co-op members — 93% to be precise — make less than $22,000 a year, the national poverty line for a family of four. Two out of three make less than $11,000, says Chad Hale, who founded the program 20 years ago …

According to the Census Bureau, Atlanta had the highest income disparity in the nation among large cities, ahead of New Orleans, Washington and Miami.

Alan Bryant is aware of the Occupy protests. He doesn’t participate. To be frank, he doesn’t have time. Nor does he quite know how to feel about it all.

“If the rich or the middle class don’t spend the money (at the restaurant), that would put me very much in danger.”

He says he makes $11 an hour as a line cook. At that rate, it would take four hours of work to afford one of the cowboy ribeyes he cooks.

“I shake my head, but I keep a smile on my face,” he says.

It’s a tough pill to swallow when a steak gets returned after a single bite. He watches as waiters or waitresses toss the meat into the trash.

It’s the bittersweet dichotomy of his life.

“Right now,” he says, “my heart is filled with water.

“Sometimes we wonder how we’re going to have food on the table.”

‘Private equity titans’ fight back against criticism of Romney
The New York Times
(1/10/12)

With Romney Under Attack, Private Equity Fights Back

It was a long-held fear of Wall Street’s private equity titans. If Mitt Romney won the Republican nomination in 2012, the industry would come under intense scrutiny and withering attacks from his opponents.

As Mr. Romney has established himself as the front-runner in the large Republican field, those fears have come to fruition.

So the private equity titans are fighting back.

The industry’s lobbying group has hatched plans to counter the intensifying criticism of private equity’s business practices. In the coming weeks, the group, the Private Equity Growth Capital Council, will roll out an image campaign, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans who requested anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss them publicly.

Initiatives include online advertising that will promote the industry as one that creates jobs and expands companies. The council plans to reach out to political reporters and columnists in an attempt to disabuse them of what it views as gross misconceptions about private equity. It will also hire more people in the coming months, adding to its lean 10-person operation.

“There is a lot of misinformation being spread, purely for political purposes and on both sides of the aisle, as it pertains to private equity,” Steve Judge, the group’s interim president and chief executive officer, said in a statement issued on Monday. “While the business model has evolved over time, the fact of the matter is private equity provides capital and operational expertise to companies that are often underperforming or on the brink of failure.”

Those comments were in direct response to the stepped-up attacks against Mr. Romney’s business record this weekend.

Newt Gingrich said Bain Capital, the firm Mr. Romney ran, looted companies and left people unemployed. “When Mitt Romney Came to Town,” a soon-to-be released film backed by Mr. Gingrich’s political action committee, focuses on four soured Bain deals, including one where it laid off a hundred steel workers in South Carolina. A number of investigative articles in the media have also raised questions about Bain’s investment record while Mr. Romney ran the firm.

Billionaire backer of Gingrich targets Romney
the Atlantic
(1/9/12)

Meet the Billionaire Who Wants to Help Newt Gingrich Destroy Mitt Romney

Newt Gingrich may not be able to win the Republican presidential nomination, but with the help of a wealthy casino magnate with powerful allies around globe, he’s going to do everything he can to make sure Mitt Romney doesn’t either. After pledging for months to avoid negative campaigning, a pro-Gingrich “super PAC” is now pushing an anti-Romney documentary that features interviews with working-class people who were the victims of Bain Capital layoffs. (See the trailer below.) Adverstisments promoting the film will run across South Carolina in the run-up to next week’s primary.

That PAC — called Winning Our Future — is paying for the ads with a huge influx of cash that it just got from Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas billionaire with ties to China, Israel, and the Bush family. That’s him on the far right, sitting next to Israeli President Shimon Peres and George W. Bush in 2008. Adelson, who Forbes listed at the third-richest American in 2008, has quietly become Gingrich’s biggest backer. On Saturday it was announced that he gave $5 million to Winning Our Future, and some reports say he plans to spend as much as $20 million before the campaign is over. It may not be enough to save Gingrich’s bid, but it could be enough to burn down the Republican front runner in the process.

Adelson grew up in the working class neighborhoods outside Boston and got started in business selling toiletries to hotels. He later dropped out of college, became a mortgage broker and ran a tour business. According to this profile from The New Yorker in 2008 (which is an excellent primer on Adeleson’s rise to power), he made and lost more than one fortune, but then in 1979, he started a computer trade show in Las Vegas. (Comdex, an ancient ancestor of this week’s CES.) Within a decade, his success with the show led him to purchase the old Las Vegas Sands Hotel. That was when he started his climb from “merely rich” to becoming a billionaire. He built a massive convention center next door, turning the city into a huge business gathering destination, then tore down the aging casino itself and built The Venetian, a massive hotel complex with high-end shopping, restaurants, spacious rooms, indoor canals, and of course, a glittery casino that exemplified the “new” opulent Las Vegas.

It was around the time that he bought the Sands that Adelson, who grew up as a Massachusetts Democrat, had a conversion to Republicanism, after befriending William Bush, the brother of George H. W. Bush. A relative newcomer to the world of the super rich, Adelson had the same proverbial epiphany that most newly wealthy people make when they see their 1040, arguing: “Why is it fair that I should be paying a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else?” The rest is obvious history.

As Adelson gained influence in Vegas, he began to spread his reach around the globe. In 2004, he made a deal with the Chinese government to open the first American-owned casino in Macao, a move that multiplied his wealth fourteen times in the last decade. (As a demonstration of his closeness China, he allegedly helped kill a Congressional bill denouncing Beijing’s 2008 Olympic bid.) He has also been a major player in Israel-American politics, donating millions to AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, until abandoning the group after they supported an increase in aid to the Palestinians, who he considers an “invented people.” He met with President George W. Bush in the White House to lobby against peace negotiations and worked to oust former Israeli Prime Minister (and former friend) Ehud Olmert after he declared a willingness to negotiate a two-state solution. In 2007, he opened in his own free daily newspaper in Israel that has been called a mouthpiece for current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In America, the 78-year-old billionaire has aligned himself with Gingrich who shares similar views on Israel. He was the biggest supporter of American Solutions for Winning the Future, a different PAC that Gingrich personally ran before he was a candidate, and was replaced with the “independent” Winning Our Future. Legally, Winning Our Future and the Gingrich campaign must remain separate, but this latest move only underscores how flimsy those rules are and how massive an influence super PACs are having on the primary. When essentially one person can keep an entire ad campaign alive, even after the candidate it means to support ceases to be viable, that’s a discouraging fact of American politics. It’s also one that won’t quell any fears about the power of the 1%.

In any case, it’s clear that Gingrich’s supporters, with Adelson’s help, mean to take down Romney, no matter what it does to Gingrich’s reputation or the general election chances of any Republican nominee. Like Gingrich, Adelson appears to be a man who doesn’t forget or forgive a slight and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. And also one with a nasty temper.

Swiss bank charged with helping rich Americans avoid taxes
Reuters
(1/9/12)

U.S. moves toward legal action against Swiss bank: sources

U.S. authorities are moving toward taking legal action against Wegelin & Co, which could lead to an indictment of one of Switzerland’s last pure private banks, on charges that it enabled wealthy Americans to evade taxes, according to two persons with knowledge of the case.

Negotiations in the case have reached a critical stage, with an indictment possible though the bank is seeking a deferred prosecution agreement, which would be less damaging. The outcome depends on how prosecutors, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Treasury Department agree to treat the matter, the sources said.

Founded in 1741, Wegelin is one of Switzerland’s oldest banks. An indictment of it would be a blow to a national tradition of banking secrecy that dates back to the Middle Ages. It would be a step forward for a U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion by Americans through Swiss banks.

The crackdown started around 2007 with an investigation of UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank. It has since spread to the entire Swiss banking industry. Dozens of U.S. clients and at least two dozen Swiss bankers have been charged, in moves that have strained U.S.-Swiss relations.

Albena Bjorck, a spokeswoman for Wegelin, declined to comment on Friday when asked whether the bank was considering the possibility of being indicted. Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment.

The latest turn in the Wegelin case comes amid a broad criminal probe by the U.S. Justice Department of 11 Swiss and Swiss-style banks, including Wegelin, suspected of selling offshore tax evasion services to tens of thousands of wealthy Americans. Inquiries, growing out of scrutiny of UBS, are focused on Credit Suisse AG and Basler Kantonalbank among others.

Basler Kantonalbank confirmed a year ago that it was under investigation and in contact with U.S. authorities. Credit Suisse said in July its offshore private banking practices were under investigation and that it would “continue to cooperate with the U.S. authorities.”

On a parallel track, Swiss government officials and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service are trying to negotiate a civil settlement for more than 300 other Swiss banks – the remainder of the Swiss banking industry – on the matter of private banking services that may have enabled tax evasion.

Wegelin confirmed on Wednesday that three of its employees had been indicted by U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan for selling tax evasion services to wealthy Americans. The charges outlined the sales role of senior unnamed partners at the bank.

The office of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney said on Tuesday that the indictment of the three bankers charged them with trying to “capture business lost by UBS AG and another large international Swiss bank in the wake of widespread news reports that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating UBS” in 2008 and 2009.

North Carolina will be first state to compensate eugenics victims
The Associated Press
(1/10/12)

N.C. sterilization panel: Victims deserve $50K

People sterilized against their will under a discredited North Carolina state program should each be paid $50,000, a task force voted Tuesday, marking the first time a state has moved to compensate victims of a once-common public health practice called eugenics.

The panel recommended that the money go to verified, living victims, including those who are alive now but may die before the lawmakers approve any compensation. The Legislature must still approve any payments.

A task force report last year said 1,500 to 2,000 of those victims were still alive, and the state has verified 72 victims. If the estimate is correct, the payments could total around $100 million. Survivors will have three years to apply for payments from the time a measure approving them goes into effect.

Before the vote, chairwoman Laura Gerald said the task force was seeking a balance between the victims’ needs and political reality, noting that “compensation has been on the table now for nearly 10 years, but the state has lacked the political will to do anything other than offer an apology.”

North Carolina is one of about a half-dozen states to apologize for past eugenics programs, but it is alone in trying to put together a plan to compensate victims.

The panel had discussed amounts between $20,000 and $50,000 per person, and some victims and their family members had reacted angrily to the proposals because they felt the amounts were too low. But on Tuesday, some said they were simply looking forward to the issue being resolved.

“I just want it to be over,” said 57-year-old Elaine Riddick, who was sterilized when she was 14 after she gave birth to a son who was the product of rape. “You can’t change anything. You just let go and let God.”

China urges US to “behave cautiously” with military
news24
(1/10/12)

Be cautious over military plan, US told

Beijing has urged the United States to exercise caution as it refocuses its defence policy to counter China’s rising military power and growing assertiveness in Asia.

China’s defence ministry said a new US military strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama last week was based on “unfounded” charges, and insisted its rise presented “an opportunity, not a challenge” to Washington.

“There is a movement towards greater peace and stability across the Asia-Pacific region,” said spokesperson Geng Yansheng in a statement published on the ministry website late on Monday.

“We urge the United States to follow the prevailing trend, take an objective and balanced view of China and its military and behave cautiously and in a manner conducive to developing good relations.”

Geng’s comments came hours after China’s foreign ministry said the new US defence strategy was based on “groundless” and “untrustworthy” charges, and insisted it posed no threat to any nation.

Fungicide not currently approved for US use found in orange juice
The Associated Press
(1/10/12)

FDA steps up testing for fungicide in orange juice

The Food and Drug Administration says it will step up testing for a fungicide that has been found in low levels in orange juice.

FDA officials said they aren’t concerned about the safety of the juice but will increase testing to make sure the contamination isn’t a problem. In a letter to the juice industry Monday, the agency said that an unnamed juice company contacted FDA in late December and said it had detected low levels of the fungicide carbendazim in the company’s own orange juice and also in its competitors’ juice. Fungicides are used to control fungi or fungal spores in agriculture.

Carbendazim is not currently approved for use on citrus in the United States, but is used in Brazil, which exports orange juice to the United States. An FDA spokeswoman said the company’s testing found levels up to 35 parts per billion of the fungicide, far below the European Union’s maximum residue level of 200 parts per billion. The United States has not established a maximum residue level for carbendazim in oranges.

In the letter to the Juice Products Association, FDA official Nega Beru said the agency will begin testing shipments of orange juice at the border and will detain any that contain traces of the chemical. Because it is not approved for use in the United States, any amount found in food is illegal.