NASA’s next-to-last space shuttle flight is set to begin late next week, and special preparations are under way in case the commander’s wife, wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, is able to attend.
Endeavour is scheduled to blast off April 29 on its final voyage, the second last stainless steel pipe before the shuttle program ends. Mission managers set the launch date Tuesday.
The mission will be led by Mark Kelly, Giffords’ husband. He is awaiting doctors’ permission for his wife to attend the afternoon launch.
Giffords was critically wounded in Tucson, Ariz., three months ago and has been undergoing extensive rehabilitation at a hospital in Houston, home to Kelly and the rest of the astronaut corps.
Launch director Mike Leinbach said he hopes Giffords comes and stressed it would not be a distraction to his team.
“There’s a whole separate team working that issue,” Coach Bags he told reporters. “Hope she comes, but I don’t know if she will or not.”
Leinbach said there are security issues to deal with if Giffords travels to Florida for the liftoff. “Where does she go and how many people … there are just all kinds of things.”
“I hope she comes,” he added. “That would be cool.”
Kelly took a monthlong leave from NASA to be at his wife’s hospital bedside. He’s flown three times before in space, most recently in 2008. Crew families view launches at Kennedy Space Center from a restricted area, so Giffords likely will not be seen publicly if she attends.
The six-man crew will arrive Tuesday, shortly before the start of the countdown. Liftoff is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. the following Friday.
Endeavour will fly to the International Space Station and deliver a $2 billion particle physics experiment. The mission is scheduled for 14 days, but NASA expects to add two bonus days once the shuttle is in orbit.
It will be the 134th shuttle mission overall and the 25th for Endeavour, NASA’s youngest shuttle. It was built to replace Challenger, which was gearbox destroyed during liftoff in 1986.
The top of Endeavour’s wings still look factory fresh, Leinbach said. But the external fuel tank has been through a lot — namely, Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Part of the roof caved in at the New Orleans assembly plant and struck the tank. To commemorate the rebuilding effort, a picture showing a shuttle soaring through the eye of a hurricane was attached to the tank, the first such logo in shuttle history.
Leinbach said emotions are high as the shuttle program draws to a close. Only one other launch remains, by Atlantis at the end of June.
Earlier this month, 535 contractor workers were laid off in the latest round of cutbacks.
“That put a little bit of a somber mood on the team, I’d say, but we’re dealing damper with it,” Leinbach said. “The emotional aspect is very, very real. It’s very difficult to put into words.”
Leinbach said Kennedy Space Center got “a big boost” last week when NASA said Atlantis would go on display at its visitor center. The shuttle-winning museums were announced last week on the 30th anniversary of the first shuttle launch. Discovery is going to a Smithsonian branch in suburban Washington, and Endeavour will go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
NASA is under presidential direction to hand over orbital trips to commercial companies, so it can focus on expeditions to asteroids and Mars. For the next few years at least, American astronauts will continue to fly Russian capsules to and from led bulbs the space station, paying tens of millions of dollars per seat.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Microsoft Takes Patent Fight to Supreme Court
Microsoft Corp. took its fight to overturn a $290 million patent infringement judgment to the Supreme Court Monday, in a case that gearbox could re-calibrate the balance of power in information-age intellectual property disputes.
The immediate question before the high court was whether it's too hard to get an invalid patent thrown out. The broader question, raised by the Justices, is how the law should balance providing incentives for innovation, while ensuring that private parties can't lock up obvious or previously known developments.
Microsoft attorney Thomas Hungar told the Justices that lower courts were wrong to require that the software giant prove by "clear and convincing" evidence that a patent held by Toronto-based software company i4i LP is invalid. Normally, the standard of proof in civil lawsuits requires a preponderance of evidence – a less exacting standard.
The lower court held Microsoft to the "clear and convincing" evidence standard, and refused to invalidate i4i's claim to holding a patent for a certain feature of Microsoft's popular word processing program. Microsoft had argued damper the feature was based on already known technology, not a patentable invention.
If upheld by the Supreme Court, Mr. Hungar said, the decision "ensures the enforcement of invalid patents."
But Mr. Hungar's argument ran smack into a 1934 precedent from one of the court's most revered justices, Benjamin Cardozo, who in a case involving radio technology wrote that once issued, patents enjoy a presumed validity "not to be overthrown except by clear and cogent evidence."
"You're contradicting Cardozo?" said Justice Antonin Scalia, the court's senior member, who presided over the hearing because Chief Justice John Roberts, who owns Microsoft stock, recused himself.
Mr. Hungar said the Cardozo opinion concerned a narrower and different subset of patent challenges,
"But Justice Cardozo certainly didn't limit his holding in the way you led flexible strip suggest," retorted the court's newest member, Justice Elena Kagan. "The language of that opinion is extremely broad."
Justice Samuel Alito observed that when Congress revised the patent statute in 1952, it made no reference to the requiring challengers to reach the clear and convincing standard.
"The phrase, 'shall be presumed valid,' doesn't seem to me at all to suggest clear and convincing evidence," Justice Alito said. "Most presumptions can be disproved by much less."
Attorney Seth Waxman, representing i4i, said Congress was aware both of the 1934 Cardozo opinion and nearly 30 years of lower court precedent requiring clear and convincing evidence to invalidate a patent.
"Congress has actively acquiesced" in the clear and convincing standard, Mr. Waxman said.
Justice Stephen Breyer and several other justices groped for cable ties different methods that lower courts, the Patent Office, inventors and businesses could employ to ensure that only legitimate patents were enforced.
"It's a bad thing not to give protection to an invention that deserves it; and it is just as bad a thing to give protection to an invention that doesn't deserve it," said Justice Stephen Breyer. "Both can seriously harm the economy. What we're trying to do is we're trying to get a better tool, if possible, to separate the sheep from the goats."
The immediate question before the high court was whether it's too hard to get an invalid patent thrown out. The broader question, raised by the Justices, is how the law should balance providing incentives for innovation, while ensuring that private parties can't lock up obvious or previously known developments.
Microsoft attorney Thomas Hungar told the Justices that lower courts were wrong to require that the software giant prove by "clear and convincing" evidence that a patent held by Toronto-based software company i4i LP is invalid. Normally, the standard of proof in civil lawsuits requires a preponderance of evidence – a less exacting standard.
The lower court held Microsoft to the "clear and convincing" evidence standard, and refused to invalidate i4i's claim to holding a patent for a certain feature of Microsoft's popular word processing program. Microsoft had argued damper the feature was based on already known technology, not a patentable invention.
If upheld by the Supreme Court, Mr. Hungar said, the decision "ensures the enforcement of invalid patents."
But Mr. Hungar's argument ran smack into a 1934 precedent from one of the court's most revered justices, Benjamin Cardozo, who in a case involving radio technology wrote that once issued, patents enjoy a presumed validity "not to be overthrown except by clear and cogent evidence."
"You're contradicting Cardozo?" said Justice Antonin Scalia, the court's senior member, who presided over the hearing because Chief Justice John Roberts, who owns Microsoft stock, recused himself.
Mr. Hungar said the Cardozo opinion concerned a narrower and different subset of patent challenges,
"But Justice Cardozo certainly didn't limit his holding in the way you led flexible strip suggest," retorted the court's newest member, Justice Elena Kagan. "The language of that opinion is extremely broad."
Justice Samuel Alito observed that when Congress revised the patent statute in 1952, it made no reference to the requiring challengers to reach the clear and convincing standard.
"The phrase, 'shall be presumed valid,' doesn't seem to me at all to suggest clear and convincing evidence," Justice Alito said. "Most presumptions can be disproved by much less."
Attorney Seth Waxman, representing i4i, said Congress was aware both of the 1934 Cardozo opinion and nearly 30 years of lower court precedent requiring clear and convincing evidence to invalidate a patent.
"Congress has actively acquiesced" in the clear and convincing standard, Mr. Waxman said.
Justice Stephen Breyer and several other justices groped for cable ties different methods that lower courts, the Patent Office, inventors and businesses could employ to ensure that only legitimate patents were enforced.
"It's a bad thing not to give protection to an invention that deserves it; and it is just as bad a thing to give protection to an invention that doesn't deserve it," said Justice Stephen Breyer. "Both can seriously harm the economy. What we're trying to do is we're trying to get a better tool, if possible, to separate the sheep from the goats."
'shuttle successors'
With its shuttles about to retire, the agency has offered $270m (￡166m) of funds to four firms to help them mature designs for new orbiting vehicles.
Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp and SpaceX hope to sell bakugans astronaut "taxi" services to Nasa by mid-decade.
Until then, US crews will have go to the space station on Russian rockets.
"The next American-flagged vehicle to carry our astronauts into space is going to be a US commercial provider," said Ed Mango, Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme manager.
"The partnerships Nasa is forming with industry will support the development of multiple American systems capable of providing future access to low-Earth orbit."
The winning companies have a range of concepts under developments.
SpaceX, which has garnered much publicity recently, is perhaps the most advanced in its plans. It has already flown a rocket called Falcon 9 and a capsule called Dragon. It is being offered $75m over the next year if it meets certain milestones in advancing Dragon's crew-carrying capabilities.
The long-established Boeing company stands to win the high pressure sodium lamp largest award depending on developments. It has a capsule design called CTS-100 which could transport up seven astronauts to the space station. The $92.3m Nasa support will help Boeing get the vehicle through to its preliminary design review.
Sierra Nevada Corporation has already received considerable financial support in Nasa's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) effort, and is in line to get a further ￡80m in the latest round of funding. It is developing a shuttle-like vehicle that would launch atop a rocket.
The fourth recipient, Blue Origin, is a company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin has kept much of its space development activity secret, but it has requested funds from Nasa to help it mature systems for a cone-shaped crew vehicle. It has been awarded up to ￡22m.
Perhaps just as interesting as the companies that have won awards are the companies that have missed out.
These included ATK which makes the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) that lift the space shuttle off the ground. ATK wants to marry an evolution of these SRBs with the main core stage of Europe's Ariane 5 rocket. The concept, known as Liberty, would be used to launch other companies' capsules and spaceplanes.
ATK will now have to secure funds elsewhere if it wants to exercise bike carry the Liberty idea forward.
Also missing out on CCDev money is United Launch Alliance (ULA). This is the company that operates Atlas and Delta rockets for the US Air Force and for Nasa.
These vehicles frequently orbit satellites, but ULA believes the rockets could be modified to launch humans also.
Sierra Nevada, Boeing and Blue Origin had all talked about using an Atlas 5 to loft their proposed crew ships.
Where Monday's announcement from Nasa leaves ULA's plans is uncertain. Again, it will need to use its own funds or find a partner if it wishes to continue with the project to man-rate the Atlas and Delta rockets.
Nasa is keen that the next era of vcm ids human spaceflight include a strong commercial element. It plans to substantially increase its seed funding in 2012.
The philosophy is not shared by many in the US Congress who would prefer Nasa to lead the development of a shuttle successor along traditional procurement lines.
Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp and SpaceX hope to sell bakugans astronaut "taxi" services to Nasa by mid-decade.
Until then, US crews will have go to the space station on Russian rockets.
"The next American-flagged vehicle to carry our astronauts into space is going to be a US commercial provider," said Ed Mango, Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme manager.
"The partnerships Nasa is forming with industry will support the development of multiple American systems capable of providing future access to low-Earth orbit."
The winning companies have a range of concepts under developments.
SpaceX, which has garnered much publicity recently, is perhaps the most advanced in its plans. It has already flown a rocket called Falcon 9 and a capsule called Dragon. It is being offered $75m over the next year if it meets certain milestones in advancing Dragon's crew-carrying capabilities.
The long-established Boeing company stands to win the high pressure sodium lamp largest award depending on developments. It has a capsule design called CTS-100 which could transport up seven astronauts to the space station. The $92.3m Nasa support will help Boeing get the vehicle through to its preliminary design review.
Sierra Nevada Corporation has already received considerable financial support in Nasa's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) effort, and is in line to get a further ￡80m in the latest round of funding. It is developing a shuttle-like vehicle that would launch atop a rocket.
The fourth recipient, Blue Origin, is a company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin has kept much of its space development activity secret, but it has requested funds from Nasa to help it mature systems for a cone-shaped crew vehicle. It has been awarded up to ￡22m.
Perhaps just as interesting as the companies that have won awards are the companies that have missed out.
These included ATK which makes the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) that lift the space shuttle off the ground. ATK wants to marry an evolution of these SRBs with the main core stage of Europe's Ariane 5 rocket. The concept, known as Liberty, would be used to launch other companies' capsules and spaceplanes.
ATK will now have to secure funds elsewhere if it wants to exercise bike carry the Liberty idea forward.
Also missing out on CCDev money is United Launch Alliance (ULA). This is the company that operates Atlas and Delta rockets for the US Air Force and for Nasa.
These vehicles frequently orbit satellites, but ULA believes the rockets could be modified to launch humans also.
Sierra Nevada, Boeing and Blue Origin had all talked about using an Atlas 5 to loft their proposed crew ships.
Where Monday's announcement from Nasa leaves ULA's plans is uncertain. Again, it will need to use its own funds or find a partner if it wishes to continue with the project to man-rate the Atlas and Delta rockets.
Nasa is keen that the next era of vcm ids human spaceflight include a strong commercial element. It plans to substantially increase its seed funding in 2012.
The philosophy is not shared by many in the US Congress who would prefer Nasa to lead the development of a shuttle successor along traditional procurement lines.
Winklevoss Twins petition to void court ruling on Facebook settlement
On Monday, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss filed a OBD2 code scanner petition with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a court ruling from last week that said the two men can't get out of their 2008 settlement with Facebook.
For about $65 million in cash and stock, the Winklevosses settled a suit against Facebook that claimed co-founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for the social networking website while working on a site for them called ConnectU when the three were students at Harvard.
The settlement is now worth more than $160 million because of Facebook's rocketing popularity and value.
The investment firm T. Rowe Price exercise bike recently bought $190.5 million in Facebook shares.?Facebook, now the Internet's most visited website,?is valued at about $50 billion.
A three-judge panel at the Court of Appeals ruled?against the twins last week and now the two are looking to an 11-judge panel to consider their appeal.
The Winklevosses have argued in court documents that after the settlement was reached, they found out that their stock was worth less than were led to believe in the 2008 agreement.
The appeal was filed by the Winklevosses' lawyers at the law firm Howard Rice. Jerome B. Falk Jr., one of the twins' lawyers, said in a statement that the appeal is not for the courts to decide whether?the substantial settlement is worth being kept or not, but rather whether?the settlement was reached legally.
"Settlements should be based on honest dealing," Falk said. "Courts have wisely refused to high pressure sodium lamp enforce a settlement obtained by fraudulent means. The panel's decision shut the courthouse door to a solid claim that Facebook obtained this settlement by committing securities fraud. Our petition asks the full 9th Circuit to reopen that door."
Apple has sued Samsung for allegedly copying the iPad
Apple has sued Samsung for allegedly copying the iPad, iPod and iPhone with its Galaxy Tab and Galaxy handsets.
Samsung copied Apple technologies, designs and even packaging with its Google Android-based products, according to a complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple is golf irons seeking a jury trial in the case.
"Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple's innovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design, in violation of Apple's valuable intellectual property rights," Apple said in the complaint.
Late last year, Samsung became the first major consumer electronics maker to roll out a tablet to compete with the iPad. It is also one of the world's largest makers of mobile phones, especially handsets that use Android.
The complaint includes 10 charges of patent infringement, two of trademark violation and two of trade dress violations, plus unjust enrichment and unfair business practices. Apple named Samsung Electronics, Samsung America and Samsung Telecommunications America as defendants. The case was filed at the district court in San Francisco but is being transferred to Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler at the court's Oakland, California, location.
A spokesman for Samsung in the U.S. said the company had no cable ties comment on the lawsuit. Apple officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The allegations span a broad range of Samsung's mobile devices, including the Epic 4G, Captivate, Indulge, Nexus S and Galaxy S 4G smartphones as well as the Galaxy Tab. Apple singled out the Galaxy product line for criticism.
"The copying is so pervasive, that the Samsung Galaxy products appear to be actual Apple products -- with the same rectangular shape with rounded corners, silver edging, a flat surface face with substantial top and bottom black borders, gently curving edges on the back, and a display of colorful square icons with rounded corners," the complaint said.
Apple wants an injunction to stop Samsung's alleged intellectual property violations, along with led bulbs actual and punitive damages, Samsung's "wrongfully obtained profits" and funds for corrective advertising about the allegedly confusing products.
Samsung copied Apple technologies, designs and even packaging with its Google Android-based products, according to a complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple is golf irons seeking a jury trial in the case.
"Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple's innovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design, in violation of Apple's valuable intellectual property rights," Apple said in the complaint.
Late last year, Samsung became the first major consumer electronics maker to roll out a tablet to compete with the iPad. It is also one of the world's largest makers of mobile phones, especially handsets that use Android.
The complaint includes 10 charges of patent infringement, two of trademark violation and two of trade dress violations, plus unjust enrichment and unfair business practices. Apple named Samsung Electronics, Samsung America and Samsung Telecommunications America as defendants. The case was filed at the district court in San Francisco but is being transferred to Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler at the court's Oakland, California, location.
A spokesman for Samsung in the U.S. said the company had no cable ties comment on the lawsuit. Apple officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The allegations span a broad range of Samsung's mobile devices, including the Epic 4G, Captivate, Indulge, Nexus S and Galaxy S 4G smartphones as well as the Galaxy Tab. Apple singled out the Galaxy product line for criticism.
"The copying is so pervasive, that the Samsung Galaxy products appear to be actual Apple products -- with the same rectangular shape with rounded corners, silver edging, a flat surface face with substantial top and bottom black borders, gently curving edges on the back, and a display of colorful square icons with rounded corners," the complaint said.
Apple wants an injunction to stop Samsung's alleged intellectual property violations, along with led bulbs actual and punitive damages, Samsung's "wrongfully obtained profits" and funds for corrective advertising about the allegedly confusing products.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
super rich see federal tax drastically
As millions of procrastinators scramble to meet Monday's tax filing deadline, ponder this: The super rich pay a lot less taxes cold room than they did a couple of decades ago, and nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all.
The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.
Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.
The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes? The nation's tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level. There are breaks for having children, paying a mortgage, going to college, and even for paying other taxes. Plus, the top rate on capital gains is only 15 percent.
There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no jaw crusher federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
"It's the fact that we are using the tax code both to collect revenue, which is its primary purpose, and to deliver these spending benefits that we run into the situation where so many people are paying no taxes," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the center, which generated the estimate of people who pay no income taxes.
The sheer volume of credits, deductions and exemptions has both Democrats and Republicans calling for tax laws to be overhauled. House Republicans want to eliminate breaks to pay for lower overall rates, reducing the top tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. Republicans oppose raising taxes, but they argue that a more efficient tax code would increase economic activity, generating additional tax revenue.
President Barack Obama said last week he wants to do away with tax breaks to lower the rates and to reduce government borrowing. Obama's proposal would result in $1 trillion in tax increases over the next 12 years. Neither proposal included many details, putting off hard choices about which tax breaks to eliminate.
In all, the tax code is filled with a total of $1.1 trillion in credits, deductions and exemptions, an average of about $8,000 per taxpayer, according to an analysis by the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent electronic ballast watchdog within the IRS.
More than half of the nation's tax revenue came from the top 10 percent of earners in 2007. More than 44 percent came from the top 5 percent. Still, the wealthy have access to much more lucrative tax breaks than people with lower incomes.
Obama wants the wealthy to pay so "the amount of taxes you pay isn't determined by what kind of accountant you can afford."
Eric Schoenberg says to sign him up for paying higher taxes. Schoenberg, who inherited money and has a healthy portfolio from his days as an investment banker, has joined a group of other wealthy Americans called United for a Fair Economy. Their goal: Raise taxes on rich people like themselves.
Shoenberg, who now teaches a business class at Columbia University, said his income is usually "north of half a million a year." But 2009 was a bad year for investments, so his income dropped to a little over $200,000. His federal income tax bill was a little more than $2,000.
"I simply point out to people, 'Do you think this is reasonable, that somebody in my circumstances should only be paying 1 percent of their income in tax?'" Schoenberg said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee stainless steel pipe , said he has a solution for rich people who want to pay more in taxes: Write a check to the IRS. There's nothing stopping you.
"There's still time before the filing deadline for them to give Uncle Sam some more money," Hatch said.
Schoenberg said Hatch's suggestion misses the point.
"This voluntary idea clearly represents a mindset that basically pretends there's no such things as collective goods that we produce," Schoenberg said. "Are you going to let people volunteer to build the road system? Are you going to let them volunteer to pay for education?"
The law is packed with tax breaks that help narrow special interests. But many of the biggest tax breaks benefit millions of American families at just about every income level, making them difficult for politicians to touch.
The vast majority of those who escape federal income taxes have low and medium incomes, and most of them pay other taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes, property taxes and retail sales taxes.
The share of people paying no federal income tax has dropped slightly the past two years. It was 47 percent for 2009. The main difference for 2010 was the expiration of a tax break that exempted the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits from taxation, Williams said.
In 2009, nearly 35 million taxpayers got a tax break for paying interest on their home mortgages, and nearly 36 million taxpayers took the $1,000-per-child tax credit. About 41 million households reduced their federal income taxes by veterinary syringes deducting state and local income and sales taxes from their taxable income.
About 36 million families cut their taxes by nearly $35 billion by deducting charitable donations, and 28 million taxpayers saved a total of $24 billion because their income from Social Security and railroad pensions was untaxed.
"As a matter of policy, there would be a lot of ways to save money and actually make these things work better," said Leonard Burman, a public affairs professor at Syracuse University. "As a matter of politics, it's really, really difficult."
The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.
Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.
The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes? The nation's tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level. There are breaks for having children, paying a mortgage, going to college, and even for paying other taxes. Plus, the top rate on capital gains is only 15 percent.
There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no jaw crusher federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
"It's the fact that we are using the tax code both to collect revenue, which is its primary purpose, and to deliver these spending benefits that we run into the situation where so many people are paying no taxes," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the center, which generated the estimate of people who pay no income taxes.
The sheer volume of credits, deductions and exemptions has both Democrats and Republicans calling for tax laws to be overhauled. House Republicans want to eliminate breaks to pay for lower overall rates, reducing the top tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. Republicans oppose raising taxes, but they argue that a more efficient tax code would increase economic activity, generating additional tax revenue.
President Barack Obama said last week he wants to do away with tax breaks to lower the rates and to reduce government borrowing. Obama's proposal would result in $1 trillion in tax increases over the next 12 years. Neither proposal included many details, putting off hard choices about which tax breaks to eliminate.
In all, the tax code is filled with a total of $1.1 trillion in credits, deductions and exemptions, an average of about $8,000 per taxpayer, according to an analysis by the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent electronic ballast watchdog within the IRS.
More than half of the nation's tax revenue came from the top 10 percent of earners in 2007. More than 44 percent came from the top 5 percent. Still, the wealthy have access to much more lucrative tax breaks than people with lower incomes.
Obama wants the wealthy to pay so "the amount of taxes you pay isn't determined by what kind of accountant you can afford."
Eric Schoenberg says to sign him up for paying higher taxes. Schoenberg, who inherited money and has a healthy portfolio from his days as an investment banker, has joined a group of other wealthy Americans called United for a Fair Economy. Their goal: Raise taxes on rich people like themselves.
Shoenberg, who now teaches a business class at Columbia University, said his income is usually "north of half a million a year." But 2009 was a bad year for investments, so his income dropped to a little over $200,000. His federal income tax bill was a little more than $2,000.
"I simply point out to people, 'Do you think this is reasonable, that somebody in my circumstances should only be paying 1 percent of their income in tax?'" Schoenberg said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee stainless steel pipe , said he has a solution for rich people who want to pay more in taxes: Write a check to the IRS. There's nothing stopping you.
"There's still time before the filing deadline for them to give Uncle Sam some more money," Hatch said.
Schoenberg said Hatch's suggestion misses the point.
"This voluntary idea clearly represents a mindset that basically pretends there's no such things as collective goods that we produce," Schoenberg said. "Are you going to let people volunteer to build the road system? Are you going to let them volunteer to pay for education?"
The law is packed with tax breaks that help narrow special interests. But many of the biggest tax breaks benefit millions of American families at just about every income level, making them difficult for politicians to touch.
The vast majority of those who escape federal income taxes have low and medium incomes, and most of them pay other taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes, property taxes and retail sales taxes.
The share of people paying no federal income tax has dropped slightly the past two years. It was 47 percent for 2009. The main difference for 2010 was the expiration of a tax break that exempted the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits from taxation, Williams said.
In 2009, nearly 35 million taxpayers got a tax break for paying interest on their home mortgages, and nearly 36 million taxpayers took the $1,000-per-child tax credit. About 41 million households reduced their federal income taxes by veterinary syringes deducting state and local income and sales taxes from their taxable income.
About 36 million families cut their taxes by nearly $35 billion by deducting charitable donations, and 28 million taxpayers saved a total of $24 billion because their income from Social Security and railroad pensions was untaxed.
"As a matter of policy, there would be a lot of ways to save money and actually make these things work better," said Leonard Burman, a public affairs professor at Syracuse University. "As a matter of politics, it's really, really difficult."
The euro is facing new difficulties
Katainen, 39, has had challenges before: as finance minister in the coalition before Sunday's election he steered Finland through a recession.
He also has steadily moved his center-right party closer to the center stainless steel pipe and has now given it the leadership of government for the first time in 20 years.
But forming a new coalition which matches his europhile inclinations with the more euro-skeptic stance of True Finns leader Timo Soini will be hard.
Katainen, who grew up in a small town in central Finland and was a part-time teacher before entering local politics in his early 20s, noted that Finnish parties had always worked for compromises.
"It is our duty to form a majority government," he said on Sunday.
The election result showed Katainen's National Coalition Party narrowly won the election, gaining 43 seats in parliament, just topping the main opposition Social Democratic Party's 42 seats. The True Finns won a hefty 39 seats.
The biggest party in the outgoing coalition, the Center Party, suffered a big defeat and said it would go into opposition. Katainen will likely turn to the True Finns and the Social Democrats when he veterinary syringestries to build a new coalition.
Strongly pro-European, Katainen is a vice president of the European People's Party (EPP), a grouping of center-right parties in the European Parliament.
His party wants a cut in corporate tax to help create jobs and boost economic activity. It is also the most eager to promote nuclear power projects in the Nordic country.
As Finland's public debt is set to rise, the party is seeking to stabilize long-term finances by reforms such as raising the retirement age and halving the number of municipalities.
Retirement is a likely deadlock, since Social Democrats have said they will not enter a government that plans to raise the minimum age.
Tax cuts will be difficult to agree with both the Social Democrats and True Finns.
In talks with fellow finance ministers to create a stability mechanism for Europe, Katainen had to balance between Europe's hopes to lean more on triple-A-rated countries including Finland, and growing euro-criticism at home.
Since taking the party helm at age 32, Katainen has led the National Coalition, traditionally Finland's conservative party with ties to business, in a more liberal direction, Coach Bags winning new supporters among younger middle-class voters.
He cuts an image of a clean living and energetic family man and father of two. His dapper appearance is in stark contrast to the burly and folksy Soini.
Because of his schoolboy looks, Katainen has had to endure the nickname "Jyrki-boy" borrowed from a popular Finnish song and struggle to emerge from the shadow of former party leader and presidential candidate Sauli Niinisto and his cohorts.
He came into his own as party leader in 2008 when he sacked his foreign minister, Ilkka Kanerva, a National Coalition veteran politician, after Kanerva's text messages to an erotic dancer were splashed over the Finnish press.
Katainen replaced Kanerva at the foreign ministry with Alexander Stubb, another of a younger generation of media-savvy liberal internationalists in the National Coalition.
The two close friends smiled while checking Sunday's results together from an iPad at party celebrations.
But with Katainen as prime minister and Stubb as autoclave a possible foreign minister again, their balancing act with EU and domestic pressure is going to get trickier than before.
He also has steadily moved his center-right party closer to the center stainless steel pipe and has now given it the leadership of government for the first time in 20 years.
But forming a new coalition which matches his europhile inclinations with the more euro-skeptic stance of True Finns leader Timo Soini will be hard.
Katainen, who grew up in a small town in central Finland and was a part-time teacher before entering local politics in his early 20s, noted that Finnish parties had always worked for compromises.
"It is our duty to form a majority government," he said on Sunday.
The election result showed Katainen's National Coalition Party narrowly won the election, gaining 43 seats in parliament, just topping the main opposition Social Democratic Party's 42 seats. The True Finns won a hefty 39 seats.
The biggest party in the outgoing coalition, the Center Party, suffered a big defeat and said it would go into opposition. Katainen will likely turn to the True Finns and the Social Democrats when he veterinary syringestries to build a new coalition.
Strongly pro-European, Katainen is a vice president of the European People's Party (EPP), a grouping of center-right parties in the European Parliament.
His party wants a cut in corporate tax to help create jobs and boost economic activity. It is also the most eager to promote nuclear power projects in the Nordic country.
As Finland's public debt is set to rise, the party is seeking to stabilize long-term finances by reforms such as raising the retirement age and halving the number of municipalities.
Retirement is a likely deadlock, since Social Democrats have said they will not enter a government that plans to raise the minimum age.
Tax cuts will be difficult to agree with both the Social Democrats and True Finns.
In talks with fellow finance ministers to create a stability mechanism for Europe, Katainen had to balance between Europe's hopes to lean more on triple-A-rated countries including Finland, and growing euro-criticism at home.
Since taking the party helm at age 32, Katainen has led the National Coalition, traditionally Finland's conservative party with ties to business, in a more liberal direction, Coach Bags winning new supporters among younger middle-class voters.
He cuts an image of a clean living and energetic family man and father of two. His dapper appearance is in stark contrast to the burly and folksy Soini.
Because of his schoolboy looks, Katainen has had to endure the nickname "Jyrki-boy" borrowed from a popular Finnish song and struggle to emerge from the shadow of former party leader and presidential candidate Sauli Niinisto and his cohorts.
He came into his own as party leader in 2008 when he sacked his foreign minister, Ilkka Kanerva, a National Coalition veteran politician, after Kanerva's text messages to an erotic dancer were splashed over the Finnish press.
Katainen replaced Kanerva at the foreign ministry with Alexander Stubb, another of a younger generation of media-savvy liberal internationalists in the National Coalition.
The two close friends smiled while checking Sunday's results together from an iPad at party celebrations.
But with Katainen as prime minister and Stubb as autoclave a possible foreign minister again, their balancing act with EU and domestic pressure is going to get trickier than before.
The deadly storms kill at least 45 people
Askewville, N.C., a town of a few hundred in rural Bertie County, awoke to near total destruction Sunday morning after a powerful, unusually large tornado touched down and then swept across 6 miles, flattening autoclave everything in its path, killing 11 people and injuring 50 more.
“It is devastating,” County Manager Zee Lamb said Sunday after surveying the damage in his 700-square-mile county. “We’ve had hurricanes, floods. We’ve had tornadoes before. But we’ve never seen anything like this.”
The county has shifted from search and rescue to recovery, he said. “People are already starting to clean up the debris, but it’s a real big mess.”
Tornadoes, high winds and flooding rains ripped across the South for three days, killing at least 45 people in six states Thursday through Saturday in the deadliest storm outbreak to hit the USA in more than three years. The Storm Prediction Center noted 243 initial reports of tornadoes in 13 states — an “astounding” number, Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said.
Severe storms in February 2008 killed 57 people across the Southeast.
The tornado that struck Bertie County was one of 62 in North Carolina, causing “significant damage” in 26 counties, according shaded pold motor to Julia Jarema, North Carolina Emergency Management spokeswoman. The state confirmed 23 deaths.
The storm hit the state late Saturday morning, and more continued into the evening.
“ We still don’t have a full grasp of what the damage is,” Jarema said.
Initial assessments found more than 65 homes destroyed and more than 600 damaged, but not all counties had reported, she said. Streets were blocked by downed trees and power lines, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses had lost power. A coordinating officer from the Federal Emergency Management Administration arrived Sunday.
“There is a lot of damage, and there are a lot of people who are hurting impact crusher physically and emotionally right now,” Jarema said.
In Bertie, the tornado destroyed at least 75 buildings, Lamb said. One extended family lost four homes and their business, he said.
“It’s just so spread out and so destroyed, he’s not going to be able to salvage much. The whole area is flattened. There’s nothing left,” Lamb said. “The debris is spread out over miles. There’s stuff in trees.”
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency after the storm caused flash flooding, power outages and, in Carroll County, a mudslide. Nine counties reported damage to homes and businesses,
downed trees and power outages. Waynesboro City and four counties reported flash flooding. The state confirmed five storm-related deaths.
One tornado touched down Saturday night at the switchyard of a Surry, Va., nuclear power station, cutting off electricity and triggering a shutdown of two reactors, according to a statement issued by Dominion Virginia Power. The company reported no release of radioactive material and notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “They shut down exactly as they are designed to do,” NRC spokesman Joey Ledford said. “There is no danger.”
The Surry power station in southeastern Virginia, across the James River from historic Jamestown, generates 1,598 megawatts of electric power . The tornado did not strike the two reactors, which are housed in steel-reinforced concrete containment buildings designed to withstand tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, the company said.
Meteorologists attributed the storms’ ferocity to cold air from the Plains colliding with warm, humid air from the electronic ballast Gulf of Mexico. Weather Channel meteorologist Mark Ressler predicted more strong storms with tornadoes, high winds and hail Tuesday in eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.
“It is devastating,” County Manager Zee Lamb said Sunday after surveying the damage in his 700-square-mile county. “We’ve had hurricanes, floods. We’ve had tornadoes before. But we’ve never seen anything like this.”
The county has shifted from search and rescue to recovery, he said. “People are already starting to clean up the debris, but it’s a real big mess.”
Tornadoes, high winds and flooding rains ripped across the South for three days, killing at least 45 people in six states Thursday through Saturday in the deadliest storm outbreak to hit the USA in more than three years. The Storm Prediction Center noted 243 initial reports of tornadoes in 13 states — an “astounding” number, Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said.
Severe storms in February 2008 killed 57 people across the Southeast.
The tornado that struck Bertie County was one of 62 in North Carolina, causing “significant damage” in 26 counties, according shaded pold motor to Julia Jarema, North Carolina Emergency Management spokeswoman. The state confirmed 23 deaths.
The storm hit the state late Saturday morning, and more continued into the evening.
“ We still don’t have a full grasp of what the damage is,” Jarema said.
Initial assessments found more than 65 homes destroyed and more than 600 damaged, but not all counties had reported, she said. Streets were blocked by downed trees and power lines, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses had lost power. A coordinating officer from the Federal Emergency Management Administration arrived Sunday.
“There is a lot of damage, and there are a lot of people who are hurting impact crusher physically and emotionally right now,” Jarema said.
In Bertie, the tornado destroyed at least 75 buildings, Lamb said. One extended family lost four homes and their business, he said.
“It’s just so spread out and so destroyed, he’s not going to be able to salvage much. The whole area is flattened. There’s nothing left,” Lamb said. “The debris is spread out over miles. There’s stuff in trees.”
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency after the storm caused flash flooding, power outages and, in Carroll County, a mudslide. Nine counties reported damage to homes and businesses,
downed trees and power outages. Waynesboro City and four counties reported flash flooding. The state confirmed five storm-related deaths.
One tornado touched down Saturday night at the switchyard of a Surry, Va., nuclear power station, cutting off electricity and triggering a shutdown of two reactors, according to a statement issued by Dominion Virginia Power. The company reported no release of radioactive material and notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “They shut down exactly as they are designed to do,” NRC spokesman Joey Ledford said. “There is no danger.”
The Surry power station in southeastern Virginia, across the James River from historic Jamestown, generates 1,598 megawatts of electric power . The tornado did not strike the two reactors, which are housed in steel-reinforced concrete containment buildings designed to withstand tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, the company said.
Meteorologists attributed the storms’ ferocity to cold air from the Plains colliding with warm, humid air from the electronic ballast Gulf of Mexico. Weather Channel meteorologist Mark Ressler predicted more strong storms with tornadoes, high winds and hail Tuesday in eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The world's oldest man in Montana died, at the age of 114
Walter Breuning's earliest memories stretched back 111 years, before home entertainment came with a twist of the radio dial. They were of his grandfather's tales hydraulic motor of killing Southerners in the Civil War.
Breuning was 3 and horrified: "I thought that was a hell of a thing to say."
But the stories stuck, becoming the first building blocks into what would develop into a deceptively simple philosophy that Breuning, the world's oldest man at 114 before he died Thursday, credited to his longevity.
Here's the world's oldest man's secret to a long life:
• Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. ("Every change is good.")
• Eat two meals a day ("That's all you need.")
• Work as long as you can ("That money's going to come in handy.")
• Help others ("The more you do for others, the better shape you're in.")
Then there's the hardest part. It's a lesson Breuning said he learned from his grandfather: Accept death.
"We're going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die. Because you're born to die," he said.
Breuning died of natural causes in a Great Falls hospital where he had been a patient for much of April with an damper undisclosed illness, said Stacia Kirby, spokeswoman for the Rainbow Senior Living retirement home where Breuning lived.
He was the oldest man in the world and the second-oldest person, according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group. Besse Cooper of Monroe, Ga. — born 26 days earlier — is the world's oldest person.
In an interview with The Associated Press at his home in the Rainbow Retirement Community in Great Falls last October, Breuning recounted the past century — and what its revelations and advances meant to him — with the wit and plain-spokenness that damper defined him. His life story is, in a way, a slice of the story of the country itself over more than a century.
At the beginning of the new century — that's the 20th century — Breuning moved with his family from Melrose, Minn., to De Smet, S.D., where his father had taken a job as an engineer.
That first decade of the 1900s was literally a dark age for his family. They had no electricity or running water. A bath for young Walter would require his mother to fetch water from the well outside and heat it on the coal-burning stove. When they wanted to get around, they had three options: train, horse and foot.
His parents split up and Breuning moved back to Minnesota in 1912. The following year, as Henry Ford was led downlight creating his first assembly line, the teenager got a low-level job with the Great Northern Railway in Melrose.
"I'm 16 years old, had to go to work on account of breakup of the family," he said.
That was the beginning of a 50-year career on the railroad. He was a clerk for most of that time, working seven days a week.
In 1918, his boss was promoted to a position in Great Falls and he asked Breuning to come along.
There wasn't a lot keeping Breuning in Minnesota. His mother had died the year before at age 46 and his father died in 1915 at age 50. The Montana job came with a nice raise — $90 a month for working seven days a week, "a lot of money at that time," he said.
Breuning, young and alone, was overwhelmed at first. Great Falls was a bustling town of 25,000 with hundreds of people coming and going every day on trains that arrived at all hours.
"You go down to the depot and there'd be 500 people out there all climbing into four trains going in four directions," he said.
World War I was still raging in Europe, and Breuning, who had just turned 20, signed up for military service but wasn't called up. He wanted to join an Army unit formed by Ralph Budd, who was the railroad's cable ties vice president at the time and who later would become its president.
He sent Budd an application, and the reply was disappointing. Budd said Breuning couldn't join the unit because he wanted the young man to get a college education. The war ended later that year.
"So I never got into the war. The war ended too quick for me," Breuning said.
The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1919 and the nation was riding a postwar wave into the Roaring `20s.
Walter Breuning bought his first car that year.
It was a secondhand Ford and cost just $150. Breuning remembered driving around town and spooking the horses that still crowded the dirt streets.
"We had more damn runaways back in those days," Breuning said. "Horses are just scared of cars."
The year may have started well, but it went downhill fast. Drought struck. The price of hay skyrocketed and farmers had to sell their cattle. It was the first wave of agricultural depressions that would hit Montana over the next two decades.
The railroad started laying off people. Breuning had some seniority, so rather than losing his job, he was transferred to Butte. It was there he met his future wife, Agnes.
Agnes Twokey worked for the railroad as a telegrapher. She and Breuning worked the same shift in the office, and they got along well. Their friendship turned into a two-year courtship, and then they got married and returned to Great Falls.
Things were looking up for Breuning, Montana and the nation. Great Falls gave Montana its first licensed radio station in 1922. The following year, Jack Dempsey and Tommy Gibbons fought for the world heavyweight golf irons championship east of Great Falls in Shelby.
Breuning was optimistic. He and his wife bought property for $15 and planned to build a house.
Then it all went off the tracks. The Great Depression struck.
"Everybody got laid off in the `30s," Breuning said. "Nobody had any money at all. In 1933, they built the civic center over here. Sixty-five cents an hour, you know. That was the wage — big wage."
People began to arrive in Great Falls searching for work. He recalled transplants from North Dakota telling tales of desperate families pulling weeds from the ground and cooking them up for food.
Breuning's seniority paid off again — he held onto his job. But he and his wife never built their house. They sold the lot for $25, making a tidy $10 profit. It turned out to be the only time Breuning ever owned property — he was renter for the rest of his life.
Despite the hard times of the decade, he said what he considered the nation's greatest achievement came in 1935, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law as part of his New Deal.
"I think when Roosevelt created Social Security, he probably did the best thing for people," Breuning said. "You hear so much about throwing Social Security out. Don't look for it. Hang on to your hat. It'll never go away.
World War II lifted the nation out of its economic slump. Industry went into overdrive to support the war. With the men headed overseas to fight, the women took their places in factories.
Montana's Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, was the sole vote against the U.S. entry into the war.
By that time, Breuning was in his 40s and too old to be drafted. So he kept working on the railroad.
The man who otherwise preached kindness and service to others acknowledged that he had mixed feelings about the war and the Nazis. He expressed some sympathy toward Hitler.
The war ended in 1945 when President Harry Truman dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The debate over whether Truman did the right thing was argued in the streets and cafes of Great Falls.
Breuning stuck up for Truman, saying there probably would have been a lot more people killed had Truman not made the decision to bomb the Japanese.
"I think he did pretty dang good," Breuning said. "But you know, all presidents done something good. Well, most of them. Except that last one."
Breuning, a self-described Republican, meant President George W. Bush.
"He got us into war. We can't get out of war now," he said. "I voted for him. But that's about all. His father was a high pressure sodium lamp pretty good president, not too bad. The kid had too much power. He got himself wrapped up and that's it."
The 1950s brought rock-and-roll, put the U.S. in the middle of the Korean War and kicked off the space race with the USSR's launch of Sputnik. The world was introduced to Elvis Presley, Fidel Castro and Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
For Walter Breuning, the 1950s was marked by the death of his wife. Agnes died in 1957 after 35 years of marriage.The couple didn't have any children.
More than 50 years later, Breuning kept his feelings on his marriage and Agnes' death guarded.
"We got along very good," was about all he'd say. "She wouldn't like to spend money, I'll tell you that."
Breuning never remarried. "Thought about it. That's about it."
He did what he always did. He kept working.
Work was a constant in Breuning's life, what he did to get through the hard times and what he used to keep his mind active. One of the worst things a person can do is retire young, Breuning said.
"I remember we had a worker in the First National Bank one time retired early. He wanted to go fishing and hunting so bad. Two months (later) and he went back to the bank. He got his fishing and hunting all done and he wanted to go back to work," Breuning said.
"Don't retire until you're darn sure that you can't work anymore. Keep on working as long as you can work and you'll find that it's good for you," he added.
The same year the Beatles released their first album, Breuning decided it was time for him to retire from the railroad at age 67. It was 1963 and he had put in 50 years as a railroad worker.
But he stuck by his philosophy and kept working. He became the manager and secretary for the local chapter of the Shriners, a position he held until he was 99.
But he remained a fiercely loyal railroad man, so loyal that he only took an airplane once in his life, and that was to attend the funeral of a relative in Minneapolis.
His beloved railroad underwent many changes soon after he left.In 1970 it merged with other railroad companies to become the Burlington Northern Railroad.
His fellow clerks began to feel the effects of technology. In the 1970s, computers started changing industries and the need for manpower. At the railroad, men and women were laid off at depots and freight offices. Superintendents and clerks like Breuning were given their walking papers.
But even with so many of his former co-workers out of jobs, Breuning was adamant that the rise of the computer was good for the railroad industry and the world.
"I think every change that we've ever made, ever since I was a child — 100 years — every change has been good for the people," Breuning said. "My God, we used to have to write with pen and ink, you know, (for) everything. When the machines came, it just made life so much easier."
Breuning had lived in a sparse studio apartment in the Rainbow Senior Living retirement center since 1980.
When he was recognized as the world's oldest man and brought the retirement home some notoriety, he was offered a larger room. Breuning said no, Rainbow executive director Tina Bundtrock said in October.
Breuning would spent his days in an armchair outside the Bundtrock's office in a dark suit and tie, sitting near a framed Guinness certificate proclaiming him the world's oldest man.
He would eat breakfast and lunch and then retire to his room in the early afternoon. He'd visit the doctor just twice a year for checkups and the only medication he would take was aspirin, Bundtrock said.
His good health was due to his strict diet of two meals a day, Breuning said.
"How many people in this country say that they can't take the weight off?" he said. "I tell these people, I says, 'Get on a diet and stay on it. You'll find that you're in much better shape, feel good.'"
He had no family left but a niece and a nephew. They visited a couple of times at the retirement home, but they were strangers to him, he said.
Breuning's real family, his support group, was there in the Rainbow.
"Yeah, we're all one big family, I tell you that. We all talk to each other all the time. That's what keeps life going. You talk," he said.
Breuning talked current affairs with the other residents. One of his main causes was to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"War never cured anything. Look at the North and South right today. They're still fighting over the damn war. They'll never get over that," he said.
Along with debating others about the fate of the nation, Breuning also spent time a lot of time reflecting. Sitting in his armchair, he would reach back across the century and lose himself in a flood of memories that began with his grandfather's Civil War stories.
He also thought about what might have been. After 97 years in Montana, Breuning said he thought back to his transfer to Great Falls back in 1913.
What course would he have gone on, how different would that century have been for him if he had stayed in Minnesota?
"Sometimes I wonder what would have exercise bike happened had I not moved to Great Falls. I think about that once in a while. What would have happened?" Breuning said. "I had a good job back (in Minnesota). But life is good here too."
But he didn't regret anything, and he implored others to follow his philosophy.
"Everybody says your mind is the most important thing about your body. Your mind and your body. You keep both busy, and by God you'll be here a long time," he said.
Breuning was 3 and horrified: "I thought that was a hell of a thing to say."
But the stories stuck, becoming the first building blocks into what would develop into a deceptively simple philosophy that Breuning, the world's oldest man at 114 before he died Thursday, credited to his longevity.
Here's the world's oldest man's secret to a long life:
• Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. ("Every change is good.")
• Eat two meals a day ("That's all you need.")
• Work as long as you can ("That money's going to come in handy.")
• Help others ("The more you do for others, the better shape you're in.")
Then there's the hardest part. It's a lesson Breuning said he learned from his grandfather: Accept death.
"We're going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die. Because you're born to die," he said.
Breuning died of natural causes in a Great Falls hospital where he had been a patient for much of April with an damper undisclosed illness, said Stacia Kirby, spokeswoman for the Rainbow Senior Living retirement home where Breuning lived.
He was the oldest man in the world and the second-oldest person, according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group. Besse Cooper of Monroe, Ga. — born 26 days earlier — is the world's oldest person.
In an interview with The Associated Press at his home in the Rainbow Retirement Community in Great Falls last October, Breuning recounted the past century — and what its revelations and advances meant to him — with the wit and plain-spokenness that damper defined him. His life story is, in a way, a slice of the story of the country itself over more than a century.
At the beginning of the new century — that's the 20th century — Breuning moved with his family from Melrose, Minn., to De Smet, S.D., where his father had taken a job as an engineer.
That first decade of the 1900s was literally a dark age for his family. They had no electricity or running water. A bath for young Walter would require his mother to fetch water from the well outside and heat it on the coal-burning stove. When they wanted to get around, they had three options: train, horse and foot.
His parents split up and Breuning moved back to Minnesota in 1912. The following year, as Henry Ford was led downlight creating his first assembly line, the teenager got a low-level job with the Great Northern Railway in Melrose.
"I'm 16 years old, had to go to work on account of breakup of the family," he said.
That was the beginning of a 50-year career on the railroad. He was a clerk for most of that time, working seven days a week.
In 1918, his boss was promoted to a position in Great Falls and he asked Breuning to come along.
There wasn't a lot keeping Breuning in Minnesota. His mother had died the year before at age 46 and his father died in 1915 at age 50. The Montana job came with a nice raise — $90 a month for working seven days a week, "a lot of money at that time," he said.
Breuning, young and alone, was overwhelmed at first. Great Falls was a bustling town of 25,000 with hundreds of people coming and going every day on trains that arrived at all hours.
"You go down to the depot and there'd be 500 people out there all climbing into four trains going in four directions," he said.
World War I was still raging in Europe, and Breuning, who had just turned 20, signed up for military service but wasn't called up. He wanted to join an Army unit formed by Ralph Budd, who was the railroad's cable ties vice president at the time and who later would become its president.
He sent Budd an application, and the reply was disappointing. Budd said Breuning couldn't join the unit because he wanted the young man to get a college education. The war ended later that year.
"So I never got into the war. The war ended too quick for me," Breuning said.
The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1919 and the nation was riding a postwar wave into the Roaring `20s.
Walter Breuning bought his first car that year.
It was a secondhand Ford and cost just $150. Breuning remembered driving around town and spooking the horses that still crowded the dirt streets.
"We had more damn runaways back in those days," Breuning said. "Horses are just scared of cars."
The year may have started well, but it went downhill fast. Drought struck. The price of hay skyrocketed and farmers had to sell their cattle. It was the first wave of agricultural depressions that would hit Montana over the next two decades.
The railroad started laying off people. Breuning had some seniority, so rather than losing his job, he was transferred to Butte. It was there he met his future wife, Agnes.
Agnes Twokey worked for the railroad as a telegrapher. She and Breuning worked the same shift in the office, and they got along well. Their friendship turned into a two-year courtship, and then they got married and returned to Great Falls.
Things were looking up for Breuning, Montana and the nation. Great Falls gave Montana its first licensed radio station in 1922. The following year, Jack Dempsey and Tommy Gibbons fought for the world heavyweight golf irons championship east of Great Falls in Shelby.
Breuning was optimistic. He and his wife bought property for $15 and planned to build a house.
Then it all went off the tracks. The Great Depression struck.
"Everybody got laid off in the `30s," Breuning said. "Nobody had any money at all. In 1933, they built the civic center over here. Sixty-five cents an hour, you know. That was the wage — big wage."
People began to arrive in Great Falls searching for work. He recalled transplants from North Dakota telling tales of desperate families pulling weeds from the ground and cooking them up for food.
Breuning's seniority paid off again — he held onto his job. But he and his wife never built their house. They sold the lot for $25, making a tidy $10 profit. It turned out to be the only time Breuning ever owned property — he was renter for the rest of his life.
Despite the hard times of the decade, he said what he considered the nation's greatest achievement came in 1935, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law as part of his New Deal.
"I think when Roosevelt created Social Security, he probably did the best thing for people," Breuning said. "You hear so much about throwing Social Security out. Don't look for it. Hang on to your hat. It'll never go away.
World War II lifted the nation out of its economic slump. Industry went into overdrive to support the war. With the men headed overseas to fight, the women took their places in factories.
Montana's Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, was the sole vote against the U.S. entry into the war.
By that time, Breuning was in his 40s and too old to be drafted. So he kept working on the railroad.
The man who otherwise preached kindness and service to others acknowledged that he had mixed feelings about the war and the Nazis. He expressed some sympathy toward Hitler.
The war ended in 1945 when President Harry Truman dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The debate over whether Truman did the right thing was argued in the streets and cafes of Great Falls.
Breuning stuck up for Truman, saying there probably would have been a lot more people killed had Truman not made the decision to bomb the Japanese.
"I think he did pretty dang good," Breuning said. "But you know, all presidents done something good. Well, most of them. Except that last one."
Breuning, a self-described Republican, meant President George W. Bush.
"He got us into war. We can't get out of war now," he said. "I voted for him. But that's about all. His father was a high pressure sodium lamp pretty good president, not too bad. The kid had too much power. He got himself wrapped up and that's it."
The 1950s brought rock-and-roll, put the U.S. in the middle of the Korean War and kicked off the space race with the USSR's launch of Sputnik. The world was introduced to Elvis Presley, Fidel Castro and Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
For Walter Breuning, the 1950s was marked by the death of his wife. Agnes died in 1957 after 35 years of marriage.The couple didn't have any children.
More than 50 years later, Breuning kept his feelings on his marriage and Agnes' death guarded.
"We got along very good," was about all he'd say. "She wouldn't like to spend money, I'll tell you that."
Breuning never remarried. "Thought about it. That's about it."
He did what he always did. He kept working.
Work was a constant in Breuning's life, what he did to get through the hard times and what he used to keep his mind active. One of the worst things a person can do is retire young, Breuning said.
"I remember we had a worker in the First National Bank one time retired early. He wanted to go fishing and hunting so bad. Two months (later) and he went back to the bank. He got his fishing and hunting all done and he wanted to go back to work," Breuning said.
"Don't retire until you're darn sure that you can't work anymore. Keep on working as long as you can work and you'll find that it's good for you," he added.
The same year the Beatles released their first album, Breuning decided it was time for him to retire from the railroad at age 67. It was 1963 and he had put in 50 years as a railroad worker.
But he stuck by his philosophy and kept working. He became the manager and secretary for the local chapter of the Shriners, a position he held until he was 99.
But he remained a fiercely loyal railroad man, so loyal that he only took an airplane once in his life, and that was to attend the funeral of a relative in Minneapolis.
His beloved railroad underwent many changes soon after he left.In 1970 it merged with other railroad companies to become the Burlington Northern Railroad.
His fellow clerks began to feel the effects of technology. In the 1970s, computers started changing industries and the need for manpower. At the railroad, men and women were laid off at depots and freight offices. Superintendents and clerks like Breuning were given their walking papers.
But even with so many of his former co-workers out of jobs, Breuning was adamant that the rise of the computer was good for the railroad industry and the world.
"I think every change that we've ever made, ever since I was a child — 100 years — every change has been good for the people," Breuning said. "My God, we used to have to write with pen and ink, you know, (for) everything. When the machines came, it just made life so much easier."
Breuning had lived in a sparse studio apartment in the Rainbow Senior Living retirement center since 1980.
When he was recognized as the world's oldest man and brought the retirement home some notoriety, he was offered a larger room. Breuning said no, Rainbow executive director Tina Bundtrock said in October.
Breuning would spent his days in an armchair outside the Bundtrock's office in a dark suit and tie, sitting near a framed Guinness certificate proclaiming him the world's oldest man.
He would eat breakfast and lunch and then retire to his room in the early afternoon. He'd visit the doctor just twice a year for checkups and the only medication he would take was aspirin, Bundtrock said.
His good health was due to his strict diet of two meals a day, Breuning said.
"How many people in this country say that they can't take the weight off?" he said. "I tell these people, I says, 'Get on a diet and stay on it. You'll find that you're in much better shape, feel good.'"
He had no family left but a niece and a nephew. They visited a couple of times at the retirement home, but they were strangers to him, he said.
Breuning's real family, his support group, was there in the Rainbow.
"Yeah, we're all one big family, I tell you that. We all talk to each other all the time. That's what keeps life going. You talk," he said.
Breuning talked current affairs with the other residents. One of his main causes was to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"War never cured anything. Look at the North and South right today. They're still fighting over the damn war. They'll never get over that," he said.
Along with debating others about the fate of the nation, Breuning also spent time a lot of time reflecting. Sitting in his armchair, he would reach back across the century and lose himself in a flood of memories that began with his grandfather's Civil War stories.
He also thought about what might have been. After 97 years in Montana, Breuning said he thought back to his transfer to Great Falls back in 1913.
What course would he have gone on, how different would that century have been for him if he had stayed in Minnesota?
"Sometimes I wonder what would have exercise bike happened had I not moved to Great Falls. I think about that once in a while. What would have happened?" Breuning said. "I had a good job back (in Minnesota). But life is good here too."
But he didn't regret anything, and he implored others to follow his philosophy.
"Everybody says your mind is the most important thing about your body. Your mind and your body. You keep both busy, and by God you'll be here a long time," he said.
China Home Sales Increase in First Quarter
China’s housing sales value rose 26 percent in the first quarter as homebuyers increased their purchases even as the government stepped up its measures to curb speculation. Property stocks exercise bike climbed to a five-month high.
The value of homes sold increased to 860.7 billion yuan ($132 billion) from a year earlier, the Statistics Bureau said today, driving overall property transactions 27 percent higher to 1.02 trillion yuan. The amount was released separately from home prices after the government in January changed the way it reports housing price data in 70 cities.
Premier Wen Jiabao said April 13 in a cabinet meeting that the country faces challenges including rising property prices in many cities even as real estate transactions shrink. About 40 Chinese cities last month said they will cap new home prices below annual economic and disposable per-capita income growth or keep them steady following the central government’s measures to rein in housing values.
“Home sales and investment, lagging indexes, remained strong, but the volume for new construction dropped,” said Bai Hongwei, a Beijing-based property analyst at China International Capital Corp., the country’s biggest investment bank. “It showed the government’s measures are working. If real estate investment drops sharply, it will immediately impact China’s economic growth a lot.”
China’s economy grew a more-than-estimated 9.7 percent in the first quarter and high pressure sodium lamp inflation accelerated in March to the fastest pace since 2008, the government said today.
Home sales value in March rose to 414 billion yuan, close to the total of the first two months this year of 447.1 billion yuan, based on calculations subtracting government data in the first two months from the first-quarter figures. A total of 158.5 million square meters (1.7 billion square feet) of homes were sold from January to March.
New home construction rose 20 percent in the first quarter to 310.2 million square meters, the statistics bureau said.
The effects of the government’s controls on the property market were evident in the first quarter, Sheng Laiyun, spokesman for the statistics bureau, said in Beijing today. The government is pushing for the golf irons development of more low-cost homes, which will have a “relatively big” impact on housing prices as supply increases, he said.
February new home prices increased in all but two of the 70 Chinese cities monitored by the government. The national statistics bureau is scheduled to report March’s home price data on April 18. Nationwide prices rose 0.6 percent in March, led by smaller cities, SouFun Holdings Ltd. (SFUN) said on April 1.
China’s investment in real estate rose 34 percent to 885 billion yuan in the first quarter, according to the government data today. The current tightening measures will remain in place for the led downlight remainder of 2011 and likely into 2012, Jones Lang LaSalle, a property consulting company, said this week.
The value of homes sold increased to 860.7 billion yuan ($132 billion) from a year earlier, the Statistics Bureau said today, driving overall property transactions 27 percent higher to 1.02 trillion yuan. The amount was released separately from home prices after the government in January changed the way it reports housing price data in 70 cities.
Premier Wen Jiabao said April 13 in a cabinet meeting that the country faces challenges including rising property prices in many cities even as real estate transactions shrink. About 40 Chinese cities last month said they will cap new home prices below annual economic and disposable per-capita income growth or keep them steady following the central government’s measures to rein in housing values.
“Home sales and investment, lagging indexes, remained strong, but the volume for new construction dropped,” said Bai Hongwei, a Beijing-based property analyst at China International Capital Corp., the country’s biggest investment bank. “It showed the government’s measures are working. If real estate investment drops sharply, it will immediately impact China’s economic growth a lot.”
China’s economy grew a more-than-estimated 9.7 percent in the first quarter and high pressure sodium lamp inflation accelerated in March to the fastest pace since 2008, the government said today.
Shares Rise
The measure tracking property stocks on the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.9 percent to the highest since Nov. 8 as of the 11:30 a.m. midday break. It’s also the biggest advance among five industry groups on the benchmark gauge today.Home sales value in March rose to 414 billion yuan, close to the total of the first two months this year of 447.1 billion yuan, based on calculations subtracting government data in the first two months from the first-quarter figures. A total of 158.5 million square meters (1.7 billion square feet) of homes were sold from January to March.
New home construction rose 20 percent in the first quarter to 310.2 million square meters, the statistics bureau said.
The effects of the government’s controls on the property market were evident in the first quarter, Sheng Laiyun, spokesman for the statistics bureau, said in Beijing today. The government is pushing for the golf irons development of more low-cost homes, which will have a “relatively big” impact on housing prices as supply increases, he said.
Clear Targets
The government has clear targets, is resolute and has forceful measures to control the market, he said at a briefing to discuss the nation’s first-quarter economic performance.February new home prices increased in all but two of the 70 Chinese cities monitored by the government. The national statistics bureau is scheduled to report March’s home price data on April 18. Nationwide prices rose 0.6 percent in March, led by smaller cities, SouFun Holdings Ltd. (SFUN) said on April 1.
China’s investment in real estate rose 34 percent to 885 billion yuan in the first quarter, according to the government data today. The current tightening measures will remain in place for the led downlight remainder of 2011 and likely into 2012, Jones Lang LaSalle, a property consulting company, said this week.
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