- 
 AIG
News
Enron
News
 WorldCom
News
A-Z
Accounting
Art / Museums
Books+
BusinessNews
Censorship
Comics
/ Links
ComputerNews
Consumer
Dictionaries
Directories
Education
Energy
Entertainment
Environment
FIND
Free-Speech
Genealogy
Government.gov
Guides
Health Medical
History
Humor
I.P.
Intellectual
Property
Intelligence
Labor
Language
Law / Legal
>Law
Enforcement
Library
Links
Linux
Maps
Media
Military
Music & MP3s
NET / WEB
NEWS-STAND
NoteWorthy
Nuclear
Opinion
Parents
People
Politics
Privacy
Radio/ Online
Reference
Science &
Tech
Search/Engines
>SpecialEngines
Seniors
Space
Sports
Terrorism
Travel
TV /Channels
U.S.
Vocabulary
Weather
Webcasting
Women
World
FOCUS:
Special
Reports
9-11
Meta Index September 11 2001
CLONING
NEWS
STEM
CELL NEWS
ENRON
NEWS
MICROSOFT
NEWS
WORLDCOM
NEWS
Quad
Cities
_A-Z.Gif's_
A-Z text
Top
|
ACCOUNTING News:
Counting just about everything.
20080429
-
 Barack
Obama -  Hillary
Clinton - Accounting
-  Indiana
-  North
Carolina -  Illinois
-  New
York
-  Colorado
- 2008
Election - "Obama
Heads for Superdelegate Edge." ... "The 795 superdelegates,
who can vote for any nominee, fall into one of two groups -- the elected
and the unelected." ... "The elected are the party's 28 governors, 234
House members, 49 senators and assorted big-city mayors and state officeholders."
... "The nonelected superdelegates are the more than 400 national and state
party officers of the Democratic National Committee." ... "Among elected
officials, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois
Senator Barack] Sen. Obama leads in endorsements from governors and senators.
He is behind among House members by one, but both camps expect him to pull
ahead unless he does badly in next Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina
primaries. If he doesn't stumble, enough elected Democrats are expected
to back Sen. Obama after the last primaries June 3 to give him the delegate
majority needed for nomination." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate and New York Senator Hillary] Sen. Clinton still leads in endorsements
from nonelected officials. Many have known her and former [Democratic]
President Clinton since the couple's White House years, or worked for them
then." ... "About 300 of the 795 superdelegates remain uncommitted; they
don't have to endorse anyone until [August] Aug. 27 at the Democrats' Denver
[Colorado] convention." -By Jackie Calmes
-WSJ.com
20080422
-
KBR
- Accounting
-
 Politics
-  Government
-  Investigation
-  US
-  Military
-  Housing
-  Iraq
-  Afghanistan
-  World
- "Ex-KBR
Workers to Testify on Contract Fraud." ... "Two former
KBR employees, Frank Cassaday and Linda Warren, are slated to testify before
the Senate Democratic Policy Committee next Monday, according to the panel."
... "The two reportedly sued their former employer on behalf of the U.S.
[United States] government, claiming KBR fraudulently boosted the number
of soldiers using KBR-managed recreation facilities in an effort to inflate
the fees it was paid." ... "Under a massive new Army logistics contract,
KBR will be one of three firms to compete for as much as $150 billion in
contracts to provide housing, laundry and other basic services in Iraq,
Afghanistan and around the world, the Army announced April 17."
-ABCNEWS.com
-
 John
McCain - Accounting
- Politics
-  Economics
-  History
- 2008
Election -  Arizona
- "Stephanopoulos
left unchallenged McCain's assertion that "every time you have cut capital
gains taxes, revenues have increased"." ... "Summary:
[DISNEY/ABC's] This Week's George Stephanopoulos did not
challenge [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona
Senator] Sen. John McCain's assertion that "history shows every time you
have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have increased -- going back to
Jack Kennedy." Stephanopoulos did not note that, notwithstanding a potential
short-term revenue increase, many economists have challenged the claim
that revenue goes up over the long term as a result of capital gains tax
rates being cut." ... "On the April 20 edition of ABC's
This
Week, host George
Stephanopoulos did not challenge Sen. John McCain's assertion that
"history shows every time you have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have
increased -- going back to Jack Kennedy." McCain's claim echoed ABC World
News anchor Charles Gibson's assertion,
during the April 16 Democratic presidential debate,
that "history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues
go up." Additionally, during a panel discussion later on This Week,
Washington Post columnist George F. Will asserted, "[I]t's true that
when you raise capital gains taxes -- rates, you lower revenues from that."
However, as Media Matters for America documented,
notwithstanding a potential short-term revenue increase, many economists
have challenged the claim that revenue goes up over the long term as a
result of capital gains tax rates being cut. Indeed, the nonpartisan Joint
Committee on Taxation estimated in June 2006 that the 2006 extension of
the 2003 cuts on capital gains taxes would result in decreased
revenues of $20 billion over 10 years." ... "In a 2006 letter to Congress,
the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated,
"In analyzing the relationship between capital gains tax rates and capital
gains realizations, it is important to distinguish between the temporary
and permanent effects of tax rate changes. Investors can generally choose
when to realize their gains; if they believe that tax rates will change
in the future, they may try to time their realizations to occur during
a period with lower tax rates."" -By Eric H. Hananoki
and Jenny Hoffman -MediaMatters.org
20080418
-
John
McCain - Money
- Accounting
- Politics
-
- Arizona
- Illinois
- New
York - Obama
- Clinton
- 2008
Election - "CNN
chart purporting to compare candidates' "wealth" omitted Cindy McCain,
who is reportedly worth $100 million." ... "Summary:
On [TIME WARNER/CNN TV show] The Situation Room, an on-screen chart
showed [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator]
Sen. John McCain's income to be significantly lower than that of [2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidates and Senators from Illinois
and New York] Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton when combined with
the income of their spouses. However, the chart did not include any income
earned by McCain's wife, Cindy. As Dana Bash reported moments earlier of
Cindy McCain, "Some estimates actually put her worth at about $100 million.""
... "Earlier in the program, Bash compared the portion of McCain's income
that he gave to charity with the portion given by the Clintons and Obamas
-- without noting that McCain presumably benefits from his wife's wealth
and from her income from her separate property, a figure that she has not
released." -MediaMatters.org
-
John
McCain -
 Media
- Accounting
- Politics
- Arizona
-  Massachusetts
- 2004
Election - 2008
Election - "Several
media outlets advanced comparison between Cindy McCain's and Teresa Heinz
Kerry's release of tax info, ignoring key distinction."
... "Summary: Several media outlets have reported that [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain's campaign
justified refusing to release Cindy McCain's tax returns by citing [2004
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Massachusetts Senator] Sen.
John Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, as "precedent." But they did
not report that, in contrast with Cindy McCain, Heinz Kerry did release
a part of her 2003 income tax return that showed "total income," which
enabled The New York Times to analyze how she benefited from the
[Republican President] Bush tax cuts. Such an analysis of how the McCains
have benefited from the tax cuts -- which Sen. McCain supports extending
permanently
-- is not possible, based on the information his campaign has released
on Cindy McCain's income." ... "These media reports, therefore, have advanced
the McCain campaign's comparison between Cindy McCain's limited release
of financial information and Heinz Kerry's, and in doing so, ignored a
key distinction in the information they released: Unlike Heinz Kerry, Cindy
McCain did not release sufficient information for the public to determine
the extent to which she benefited from the tax cuts her husband supports
extending." -MediaMatters.org
-
John
McCain - DEBT
- Accounting
- Politics
- Government
- Military
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- 2008
Election - "McCain's
$3.3 Trillion Tax Cut, Budget Pledge at Odds (Update3)."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's plan
to cut taxes and balance the budget wins praise from fellow Republicans.
Economists and nonpartisan analysts say his numbers don't add up." ...
"McCain's proposal, outlined April 15, would extend [Republican] President
George W. Bush's tax cuts, reduce the top corporate rate, repeal the alternative
minimum tax and double exemptions for dependents. Price: $3.3 trillion
by the end of a President McCain's second term in 2017, according to figures
from his campaign and the Treasury." ... "Robert Bixby, executive director
of the Washington-based Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates
budget restraint, said ``the huge imbalance'' in McCain's plan ``is that
the tax cuts are specific and large and the spending cuts are small and
vague.''" ... "Once, McCain was a deficit hawk, Bixby said, but ``strange
things happen when people run for president.''" ... "McCain's spending
cuts, combined with increased revenue from economic growth, total $1.5
trillion over eight years, leaving a $1.8 trillion net increase to the
national debt." ... "Two Washington research groups said McCain's plan
would cost more. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated his
tax cuts would total $5 trillion over a two-term presidency. The Tax Policy
Center , run jointly by the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute,
said they would cost at least $5.7 trillion." ... "McCain's plan doesn't
address the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which now total more
than $12 billion a month. [$144 billion per year over eight years is potentially
$1.152 trillion of additional US debt.]" -By Ryan
J. Donmoyer and Indira Lakshmanan -Bloomberg
[TaxPolicyCenter.org
"Scoring
McCain’s Tax Proposals." ... "Even with the loophole
closers, these proposals [made by 2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] would reduce federal revenues by about $5.7 trillion over ten
years if they could be enacted immediately." ... "Adding the cost of the
corporate tax cuts, the total comes to $8 trillion over 10 years ($7.6
trillion starting in FY10). That scenario would reduce federal tax revenues
by $780 billion in FY2012—$140 billion more than the entire defense budget
in that year." ... "Cuts the size of those he [McCain] proposes will require
slashing discretionary spending and entitlements, and probably even reining
in defense spending. Small wonder he has backed away from his earlier pledge
to balance the budget—meaning that these tax cuts, like the ones signed
by President Bush, will be paid for by our children." [Accounting calculations
detailed in:] "Elements
of Senator John McCain's Proposed Tax Plans, Impact on Tax Revenue, 2009-18."
(.XLS
File) -By Len Burman and Greg Leiserson -TaxPolicyCenter.org]
20080409
-
 Families
-  Jobs
- Consumer
- Economic
- History
- Accounting
- "For
Many, a Boom That Wasn’t." ... "The bigger problem
is that the now-finished boom was, for most Americans, nothing of the sort.
In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American
family made about $61,000, according to the Census Bureau’s inflation-adjusted
numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most
recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less
— about $60,500." ... "This has never happened before, at least not for
as long as the government has been keeping records. In every other expansion
since World War II, the buying power of most American families grew while
the economy did. You can think of this as the most basic test of an economy’s
health: does it produce ever-rising living standards for its citizens?"
... "“We have had expansions before where the bottom end didn’t do well,”
said Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economist who studies the job market.
“But we’ve never had an expansion in which the middle of income distribution
had no wage growth.”" ... "But the larger point is still crucial: the modern
American economy distributes the fruits of its growth to a relatively narrow
slice of the population." -By David
Leonhardt -NYTimes
-
US
- Iraq
-
 Oil
- Accounting
- Politics
- Reconstruction
- Military
-  Michigan
- "Blitzer:
Iraqis playing U.S. taxpayers for 'suckers'?" ...
"Just before and immediately after the U.S. [United States] launched its
invasion of Iraq, [Republican President] Bush administration officials
optimistically predicted that Iraqi oil exports would soon finance the
reconstruction of the country. That didn’t happen. U.S. taxpayers were
stuck with the literally tens of billions of dollars in bills." ... "Now,
five years later and with the price of oil reaching more than $100 a barrel,
Iraqi oil exports are generating huge sums — $56.4 billion this year alone,
according to the Government Accountability Office. [Michigan Democratic]
Senator Carl Levin, the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says
Iraq now has tens of billions of dollars in surplus funds in their banks
and in other accounts around the world, including about $30 billion in
U.S. banks right now." ... "But Levin notes that the Iraqis by and large
are still not using their money to build new roads, bridges, schools and
hospitals. Why should they? Uncle Sam is still doing that for them." ...
"“The result is that far from financing its own reconstruction, as the
administration promised five years ago, the Iraqi government has left the
U.S. to make most of the capital expenditures needed to provide essential
services and improve the quality of life of the Iraqi citizens,” Levin
said in his opening remarks before the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus
and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. “As of last Thursday,” Levin added, “the United
States is paying the salaries of almost 100,000 Iraqis who are working
on reconstruction.”" -By Wolf Blitzer
-CNN
-
 John
Ashcroft - Criminal
- Corporate
- Government
- Secret
- Accounting
- Politics
-  Medical
- Home
- "Leniency
for big corporations in the U.S.." ... "Instead,
many companies, from boutique outfits to immense corporations like American
Express, have avoided the cost and stigma of defending themselves against
criminal charges with a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, which
allows the government to collect fines and appoint an outside monitor to
impose internal reforms without going through a trial. In many cases, the
name of the monitor and the details of the agreement are kept secret."
... "Deferred prosecutions have become a favorite tool of the [Republican
President] Bush administration. But some legal experts now wonder if the
policy shift has led companies, in particular financial institutions now
under investigation for their roles in the subprime [home] mortgage debacle,
to test the limits of corporate anti-fraud laws." ... "Some lawyers suggest
that companies may be willing to take more risks because they know that,
if they are caught, the chances of getting a deferred prosecution are good."
... "Deferred prosecution agreements, or DPAs, have become controversial
because of a medical supply company's agreement to pay up to $52 million
to the consulting firm of John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, as
an outside monitor to avoid criminal prosecution." ... "Beyond financial
crimes, deferred agreements have been used in lieu of prosecuting companies
- though not individuals - for export control violations, obscenity violations,
Medicare and Medicaid fraud, kickbacks and environmental violations." (1,
2)
-By Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
20080403
-
John
McCain -
 Chuck
Hagel - Military
- Money
- Account
-  Law
- Politics
-  Virginia
-  Nebraska
- US
- Iraq
- Op-Ed
- 2008
Election - "McCain
Is AWOL On New GI Bill." ... "In November 2007, Sens.
[Virginia Democratic Senator] Jim Webb and [Nebraska Republican Senator]
Chuck Hagel penned an op-ed in the New York Times advocating a reformed
G.I. Bill that would provide Iraq war veterans with greater educational
opportunities." ... "The idea, which was first introduced in January 2007,
was at once ambitious and benign. Adjust the current landmark law -- which
requires members of the armed services to pay $1,200 in order to participate
-- to better account for spikes in tuition and living expenses. Not only
would there be a greater incentive for those considering enlistment, but
the American economy would be bolstered by an influx of educated veterans."
... ""We must put together the right formula that will demonstrate our
respect for those who have stepped forward to serve in these difficult
times," wrote Webb and Hagel. "First-class service to country deserves
first-class appreciation."" ... "Flash-forward several months and Webb
and Hagel's vision (after months of consideration) is on the cusp of codification.
The 21st Century G.I. Bill may be included in the language of the next
Iraq war supplemental. And while, if considered separately, it could require
60 votes for passage, more than 50 Senators -- including many Republicans
-- have already signed on as co-sponsors." ... "And yet, surprisingly,
one of those Senators who has not yet offered his support is [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain." -By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
-
Corporate
- Government
-
 Aviation
- Safety
- Audit
- Transportation
- Law
-  Texas
- "FAA
Whistleblower Says He Was Threatened: Tells Congress
Agency Viewed Airlines More Like "Customers" Than Companies To Be Regulated."
... "The FAA [Federal Aviation Agency] last month took the rare step of
ordering the audit of maintenance records at all domestic carriers following
reports of missed safety inspections at Dallas[Texas]-based Southwest.
The airline was hit with a record $10.2 million fine for continuing to
fly dozens of Boeing 737s that hadn't been inspected for cracks in their
fuselages." ... "Both FAA whistleblowers - Charalambe Boutris and [Douglas]
Peters - said the agency views the airlines as its "customers" instead
of companies to be regulated. They said the FAA's chief maintenance inspector
at Southwest, Douglas T. Gawadzinski, knowingly allowed Southwest to keep
planes flying that put passengers at risk, and that another inspector knew
of the problem and did nothing." ... "Gawadzinski is still employed by
the FAA, but has no responsibility for safety decisions, said Nicholas
Sabatini, the agency's associate administrator for aviation safety. The
FAA will "take whatever action the law will allow" when the investigation
into the Southwest episode is complete, he added." ... "Gawadzinski was
not asked to testify at Thursday's hearing because he was considered to
be a hostile witness who would most likely refuse to answer questions that
could have incriminated himself, according to a spokesman for the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee."
-AP via -CBSNews
20080330
-
Iraq
- US
- Military
- Politics
- History
- Money
- Accounting
- Investigators
- "After
years of effort, Iraqi army still can't 'stand up'."
... "Iraq's new army is "developing steadily," with "strong Iraqi leaders
out front," the chief U.S. [United States] trainer said." ... "That was
three-plus years ago, and the trainer was David H. Petraeus, now the top
American commander in Iraq. Some of those Iraqi officials at the time were
busy embezzling more than $1 billion allotted for the new army's weapons,
according to investigators." ... "The 2004-05 Defense Ministry scandal
was just one in a long series of setbacks in the five-year struggle to
"stand up" an Iraqi military as [Republican] President Bush has promised
and allow hard-pressed U.S. forces to "stand down." The latest discouraging
episode was unfolding this weekend in bloody Basra, the southern city where
Iraqi government forces -- in their toughest test yet -- were struggling
to gain the upper hand in a battle with Shiite Muslim militias." ... "Year
by year, the goal of deploying a capable, free-standing Iraqi army has
seemed to always slip further into the future." ... "How not to build
an army:" ... "Early 2003: The first reversal came even before
the March U.S. invasion, when the Pentagon discarded prewar plans that
called for restructuring the 400,000-man Saddam Hussein-era army into a
postwar force of 150,000 to 200,000." ... "Mid-2003: U.S. occupation
chief L. Paul Bremer III unilaterally ordered Saddam's army disbanded,
and the Bush administration opted for a token military force to guard Iraq's
borders. Bremer said the army had already fallen apart after Saddam's fall.
The controversial move helped prompt many Sunni officers to eventually
join the insurgency." ... "Iraqi view: [Lt. Gen. [Lieutenant General]
James] Dubik says Iraqi defense officials don't expect to take over internal
security until as late as 2012 and won't be able to defend Iraq's borders
until 2018." -By Charles J. Hanley
-AP via -Star-Telegram.com
|
|
IMAnet.org
>mamag
>StrategicFinanceMag
WSJ
Search Accounting News:
News
Search
<Accounting>
in:
<AllTheWeb-[News]>
<AltaVista-[News]>
<Google-[News]>
<MSN-[News]>
<RocketNews>
Specialty search:
<Google's U.S.
"Uncle Sam," .gov and .mil>
Search:
<Accounting
News>
in:
<Google>
<MSN>
<Yahoo>
Search:
<Accountancy
News>
in:
<Google>
<MSN>
<Yahoo>
Search
Google:
<Financial
Accounting Standards Board -[News]>
"Glossary of [Accounting]
Terms, Acronyms, and Abbreviations."- | A
| B | C
| D | E|
F
| G | H
| I | J
| K | L
| M | N
| O | P
| Q | R|
S
| T | U
| V | V
| W | X
| Y | Z
| Quick Ref
| -AICPA.org
Accounting
News
|
Surveillance
- 
Terrorism
- 
Telephone
- 
Internet
- 
Intelligence
- 
Vt
- "More
FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed." ... "The FBI [Federal
Bureau of Investigation] acknowledged it improperly accessed Americans'
telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth
straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at
tracking terrorists and spies." ... "Testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing, [FBI Director Robert] Mueller raised the issue of the FBI's controversial
use of so-called national security letters [NSLs] in reference to an upcoming
report on the topic by the Justice Department's inspector general." ...
"An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded personal
records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data
than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last
year's audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many
national security letters were requested by more than 4,600." ... "National
security letters, as outlined in the USA Patriot Act, are administrative
subpoenas used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. They allow the
FBI to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks,
credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records
about their customers or subscribers without a judge's approval." ... "Speaking
before the FBI chief, [Vermont Democratic Senator and] Senate Judiciary
Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. [Democratic-Vermont], urged Mueller to be
more vigilant in correcting what he called "widespread illegal and improper
use of national security letters."" ... ""Everybody wants to stop terrorists.
But we also, though, as Americans, we believe in our privacy rights and
we want those protected," Leahy said. "There has to be a better chain of
command for this. You cannot just have an FBI agent who decides he'd like
to obtain Americans' records, bank records or anything else and do it just
because they want to."" -By Lara Jakes Jordan
-AP via -SFGate.com
Dennis
Hastert - 
Ark
- 
Food
- 
- 
Science
- 
John
Edwards
-