Air Power Not Enough To Remove Gaddafi

Libyan government forces tried to storm into the besieged city of Misrata on Friday as NATO generals acknowledged their air power was not enough to help insurgents remove Muammar Gaddafi by force alone.

Misrata, a lone rebel outpost in the west of the country, has been under siege by Gaddafi's forces for weeks. On Friday insurgents said government troops were advancing into eastern districts and fighting street battles with rebels.

"They tried to advance and enter the city from the eastern side, from an area called Eqseer which is a populated area. The rebels confronted them and clashes are continuing," insurgent spokesman Hassan al-Misrati told newsmen. The only active front in the war, along the Mediterranean coast around the eastern cities of Brega and Ajdabiyah, has descended into stalemate for a week with both sides making advances and then retreating behind secure lines at night.

The head of US Africa Command, General Carter Ham, said on Thursday the conflict was entering stalemate and it was very unlikely the rebels would be able to fight their way into Tripoli to overthrow Gaddafi.

Early hopes that Western air cover and attacks on Gaddafi forces would tip the balance in favour of the rebels have evaporated as government troops sheltered their mechanized forces near civilian areas which NATO fears attacking.

Pakistan Facing Economy Crises

Asian Development Bank has said, “Pakistan economy is facing fundamental challenges the financial deficit is mounting due to inordinate delay in increasing the income, Geo News reported.

ADB in its Outlook Report-2011 released here said that the escalating global crude prices and the enhancement of power tariffs would intensify the inflationary pressure the rate of inflation in the current fiscal year would be around 16 percent, while the volume of subsidies would shoot up to Rs.200 billion due to flawed planning, the report forecast.

ADB report further said that the Pakistan economy severely hit by the last year flood devastations facing myriad problems and the failure of the government in expanding the tax net swelling the financial deficit.

Pakistan’s economy would grow by 2.5 percent during the current fiscal year, the report predicted.

Paul Ryan’s Budget Numbers

Don’t believe Paul Ryan’s budget numbers until they’re fully confirmed: by details, and where necessary by Congressional Budget Office and Joint Tax Committee projections.

This is, to be sure, advice reporters should use for all such proposals. But it’s particularly apt in the case of the House Republicans, who have been caught again and again using phony numbers, most recently in the debate over whether to repeal health reform.

Indeed, looking through Paul Ryan’s budget document (which has a lot more rhetoric than it has hard numbers), I see at least two obvious causes for skepticism. The first is that Ryan is counting on considerable budget savings $1.4 trillion over the decade by repealing the Affordable Care Act. Of course, the CBO has said that ACA will be a net budget winner over the next decade, and a major winner after that. Is Ryan using honest CBO numbers, but just juggling the presentation? Or is he simply ignoring neutral evaluations of the effects of health care reform? Ryan couldn’t explain the numbers during his press conference today.

The second clue is that Ryan refers (on page 59 of the proposal) to “dynamic” scoring of taxes. This, of course, is the same supply-side nonsense that Republicans have been peddling since 1981. It’s easy to show major deficit reductions if you slash taxes but pretend that it will yield revenue increases, but in reality, of course it increases the deficit.

Tim Fernholz, meanwhile, points out another flaw: It’s one thing to set up budget targets or “caps” for the future, but quite another to actually hit them. It’s fair to credit Ryan and the Republicans with supporting real cuts even if they are talking about specific measures that have no chance of winning the support of the Democratic Senate and President Obama. But it’s a lot harder to know what to make of budget caps unaccompanied by specific program cuts.

As all budget wonks know, government spending tends to be unpopular in the abstract but popular when broken down to specific programs. That’s why promising “across-the-board” sequesters (pages 36-37) is a great budget gimmick for Congresses now, but never seems to work down the road. Note too that the Congressional Budget Office might accept a cap number for discretionary spending because there’s nothing to project about that number — but unless Republicans supply details, that projection is only as meaningful as the caps are foolproof. Which is to say, not very.

Bottom line: Paul Ryan’s budget claims to produce increasingly lower deficits than the president’s budget every year, getting to $773B by 2021. Reporters should treat that number as only that — a claim — until Ryan can show that the numbers are real.

Free Annual Credit Report

This free annual credit report includes instant online analysis help from the bureaus of Experian, Equifax and Transunion. It is important to remember that this free credit report does not include a credit score. To acquire credit score it usually takes between $20 and $40 but sometimes it is worth it to spend as little bit of extra cash to put a number value on a financial history.

With the 10 year treasury rate yield below its 50 day moving average interest rates are very attractive levels at the present time. Before deciding on a home loan, car loan, personal loan or credit card and may be wise to take advantage of the government free annual credit report that is available online at the website www.all-insurance4u.blogspot.com

By checking the free annual credit report online Americans will much better understand how creditors see their specific financial situation. Unfortunately, many Americans go through life without having any clue as to why interest rates are at a specific level on their loans. By having mistakes or errors on a credit report some Americans could be paying on interest rates that are much higher than they deserve.

It is always advisable to address mistakes and errors as soon as possible. By allowing these errors to accumulate on a credit history many Americans will find that their credit score dropped by as much as 100 points. Rather than allowing this to happen it is advisable to check the free annual credit report as soon as possible and address these issues before they get worse.

With interest rates very low at the present time there is no reason to pass up an opportunity to refinance a home loan or take out a line of credit at a very low interest rate. Before doing so it is always advisable to have an exit plan as Americans do not want to put themselves in high interest rate revolving debt problems.

How to Succeed at Business

When we recognize our sister’s successes, we rarely ask “how exactly did you do that? I mean, step by step.” We congratulate them and walk away thinking sure, they could do it.

What we don’t see is the persistent dogged and optimistic determination success requires. Belief in ourselves and our service or product. And perhaps most importantly, our willingness to fail.

Today I’m using as an example of those characteristics, two sisters I’ve written about before sisters who not only managed to convince Neiman Marcus to launch their book, but who changed the way financial literacy is taught in the Texas private and public school systems.

Finding Our “Natural” Market

When we last left Mandy Williams and Tina Pennington, the Red and Black sisters who launched their book on financial literacy with the support of Neiman Marcus, they were poised to find their “natural” market.

Marketing gurus tell us that our “natural market” is a group of people or industry or collection of businesses that share one of more of the unique personal characteristics that define us. Had Mandy written a memoir about her work life in the oil and gas industry, her natural market might include petroleum giants like Exxon, Texaco and Shell.

Still, Mandy and Tina thought their natural market was women at least women living in the United States all 155 million of them.

The sisters did what any smart entrepreneurs would do, they started connecting with their market by, among other things, speaking about financial literacy at women’s groups. At the same time, they began reaching out to women’s publications, which is what eventually brought them to my attention.

The Work

No one is an over night success and no one knows that better than residents of my town, Los Angeles, where PR machines continue to sell the dream of instantaneous celebrity and wealth to American and foreign markets.
This is work ladies. And here’s how Mandy and Tina did it.

In September of 2009, Brad Segal, the founding music teacher at KIPP’s Houston High School, brought Red and Black’s book to the attention of KIPP’s Executive director, Bryan Contreras. Though initially apprehensive that his students might not relate to a the sisters’ experience, he agreed to meet with the duo. As Mandy explained, Contreras was completely up front with the women about what he believed their real market to be cookie baking stay at home suburban moms and bored rich women who raced cars.

Mandy and Tina were not deterred. They explained to Contreras why they believed the book’s “real life” approach would appeal to KIPP students. They stressed that KIPP’s low income pupils in particular needed to be financially literate to make hay with the first rate education they were receiving.
The Beauty of the Charter

Though Texas exercises a greater degree of control over what school books our children read than any other state in the union, Tina and Mandy learned that Charter Schools can use any text they want. There’s no need for School Board approval because School Boards do not control Charter Schools.

At the end of their first 12 week high school financial literacy course, the two sisters had accomplished their primary goal. Their students reported that finances no longer frightened them and their exit survey showed that their students understood how their values and priorities drive their financial decisions.

Getting Financial Literacy into the Public Schools

Mandy then met with the Texas Education Agency and with representatives of the Lieutenant Governor’s office as they were curious how in less than a year Mandy and Tina had turned an unedited manuscript into a published book, launched by Neiman Marcus and used as a textbook for personal financial literacy program..

“At first, the bureaucracy was just too much of an effort,” said Mandy. “The system set up more roadblocks than it opened paths to completion. I finally said to a TEA representative that if I was ever asked why our book was not in the Texas public school system, I’d just refer those people to her.”

In doing so, Mandy was using one of the oldest negotiation power tools in the book promising to hold people publicly accountable for their decisions. It worked. Two months later they emailed her to advise that the State had posted a call for Personal Financial Literacy materials. What she initially thought would be 12-15 page submission, ultimately topped 125 pages. Less than thirty days later, without any further effort by Mandy, the proposal was approved.

L.L. Bean Offers

Online shopping can be addictive and convenient, but some may shy away from purchasing items with a couple clicks of the mouse due to the cost of shipping. For L.L. Bean enthusiasts, starting March 25, that will no longer be a problem.

As of Friday March 25, apparel and outdoor gear maker L.L. Bean will permanently extinguish shipping fees for all online orders in response to customer demand. As stated in Business Week, L.L. Bean’s Chief Marketing Officer Steve Fuller said the Maine-based company is adopting the policy because that’s what customers want.

To promote its free shipping deal, the company is wrapping 10 MBTA (Massachusets Bay Transportation Authority) buses in advertisements that will make them look like mail-order packages. Anyone who rides the 10 buses from Monday to Saturday of next week will ride free, according toBoston.com. The MBTA, or the T as it is called in Boston, has twice before offered free subway rides as company promotions, once for ING and another time for Microsoft, but those were only for three-hour periods. L.L. Bean is the first company to focus on the city’s buses, according to Boston.com. The Maine-based company is paying the MBTA $216,000 for the promotion, which is roughly double what the 10 buses would collect from fares in a typical week.

“Boston is a very big market for us,” said Laurie Brooks, L.L. Bean spokeswoman in Boston.com. “We’re going to be running a national TV ad, with 15 second and 30 second spots, but we’re not doing anything fun like this.’’ The T’s busiest bus routes carry about 16,000 riders on an average weekday, with 10 or so vehicles operating on each route. According to reports, a busy bus might generate $1,200 a day in fares.

During the promotion, the inside of the buses will also be covered in advertisements that will resemble the inside of an L.L. Bean package.

Price of Procrastinating on Your Taxes?

NYSE Amex: BNX announced today online tax extensions, has released its Annual Tax Procrastination map. The map provides a real time view of tax extensions being filed by taxpayers across the United States.

"It's little wonder why people procrastinate in doing their taxes. Dealing with the IRS is up there with public speaking as far as human fears go and the fear is so acute that some people say they fear the IRS more than they fear their own deaths!" commented Dan O'Donnell, CEO of Banks.com. "Last year, over 10 million taxpayers opted to file tax extensions prior to the April filing deadline to extend their tax return due date to October 15th".

FileLater.com, Banks.com's most recent learning, allows taxpayers to file a tax extension with the IRS online and receive a quick acknowledgment from the IRS with no questions asked and no need to provide a reason for the extension. "Among the many comfort levels filing an online extension with FileLater provides is the IRS will approve and acknowledge your tax extension electronically online. That's a comfort level you just can't get when you put a stamp on an envelope and send your extension to the IRS through the U.S. Mail," added O'Donnell.

The company also announced that the customers who file an online extension using their Facebook account to login and who share their experience with five of their Facebook friends can file their extension absolutely free. "FileLater customers who utilize their Facebook logins, not only get to file their tax extension online for free, they also get to share a discount with their friends who need to file an extension," concluded O'Donnell.
About Banks.com

Banks.com, Inc. operates internet media properties including: banks.com, irs.com, filelater.com and mystockfund.com. Our properties provide users with relevant finance-related content and services and provide vendors targeted online advertising opportunities. Through banks.com, we provide access to current financial content, including financial news, business articles, interest-rate tables, stock quotes and financial calculators. We also provide users access to tax related financial services including free online tax preparation through irs.com and online tax extensions through filelater.com, a business we acquired in late 2010, as well as online stock brokerage services through mystockfund.com. In addition to Banks.com, it operates other search related websites including Look.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that may be subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may include statements regarding acquisitions, business estimates, future contracts, future financial performance and results of operations, including cost of revenues, operating expenses, interest expense, net loss and cash flow. Unless otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this press release. Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in the forward-looking statements may be found in Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Find Your Unclaimed Cash

Did you know that you could have unclaimed money just sitting around waiting for you? I wouldn’t think so or you probably would have went and found it, right? There are literally billions of dollars just sitting in the holding of states waiting for people to come pick them up. Some of the unclaimed money could be from paychecks, taxes, deposits etc.

It can’t hurt to check and see if you how unclaimed money but many people have no idea how to do it. I always saw the advertisements on the news but I could never get any information about how to search except for contacting the state. Contacting the state was quite a feat! You can easily use the internet to search for unclaimed money by going to www.MissingMoney.com.

I tried searching for myself but I didn’t find anything, so sad! There are some people that have thousands of dollars just waiting for them however. It only takes a few minutes to search so you might as well give it a try. Make sure you post below if you find any unclaimed money.

UNITED PARCEL SERVICE (U.P.S)

SmarTrend has detected shares of United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) have bearishly opened below the pivot of $72.27 today and have reached the first level of support of $71.61.

Should the shares continue to fall, we are monitoring the next support pivots of $71.20 and $70.13. Also, the shares are currently trading below the 50-day moving average of $73.24 and should find support at the 200-day moving average of $68.31.

In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has remained constant while the 200-day MA has risen 0.25%.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of United Parcel Service have traded between a low of $56.47 and a high of $77.00 and are now at $71.46, which is 27% above that low price.

SmarTrend is monitoring the recent change of momentum in United Parcel Service. Please refer to our Company Overview for the results of our proprietary technical indicators that have been scanning shares of United Parcel Service in search of a potential trend change.

Chris Brown Apologizes

Though Robin Roberts says Brown was aware she was going to ask about Rihanna, Chris told a different story on last night's "106 & Park" on BET where he said the talking points approved by his people were all about "positivity" and his new album.

Brown says he was "thrown off" by Robin's line of questioning and said she only brought up the Rihanna incident in an effort to "exploit me."

The singer says he then exploded backstage "to release the anger that I had inside me," adding that "I got very emotional and I apologize for that." Chris Brown was invited on 'Good Morning America' to perform and be interviewed. There were no talking points offered."

GMA Shares Tips For Finding Unclaimed Money

Billions of dollars, That's the amount of unclaimed money in the United States waiting to be given back to the rightful owners. The money includes forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed overtime checks and lost insurance refunds, and it's sitting there, waiting for you.

Banks and other businesses are required to turn unclaimed money over to the states for safekeeping. The 50 states plus the District of Columbia have set up a free website you can use to see whether there are any forgotten funds in your name.

Click Here to see extra tips for how to search for missing money.

"GMA" decided to try it out.

At the crossroads of America, in Times Square, we set up our "GMA" unclaimed money headquarters.

Soon, we are in business and I am either a hero or a zero.

At first, we are sweating actually freezing as we come up with nothing. Nada.

But then along comes a lucky lady.

Motorola owes her money and the state of New York is sending a check.

It's important to check every state where you have lived.

And every name you've ever lived under.

Thirty-two minutes into our experiment, we hit a streak.

We found modest amounts of money for several people in a row.

Not all state websites tell you how much money you have coming.

Then a woman approached us who suspected there was unclaimed money in her husband's name. Sure enough, there were funds waiting for him from sort of unused cashier's check. And we suspected the dollar amount was high because the state of New York wasn't willing to blindly send a check. Instead, the state wanted the couple to submit a notarized affidavit to claim their funds.

We conducted 25 searches found missing money in seven of the cases.

We found money for those happy people by using the free website set up by the states. But there are some new ways to find unclaimed money by checking with the feds as well.

The Treasury Department

The Treasury Department has billions of dollars worth of savings bonds that have matured and aren't earning interest anymore but haven't been cashed in by the owners. The treasury has set up a website where you can search by social security number.

Banks

Bank deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and if you didn't collect your money when the bank went under, the FDIC holds that money for you. For failed credit unions, the National Credit Union Association does the same thing.

Swift Car Insurance

Many people refer to the internet when finding swift car insurance. They are looking to get insurance for their car in a hurry because of different reasons, but turning to the internet can really help people tremendously.

For one, the convenience of shopping for anything online is always favorable. Some people do not want to shop around with different insurance providers and they don’t want to spend the time to get on the phone with insurance provider after insurance provider. This is why the internet has become the number one place where people who are looking for swift car insurance will go for information as well as insurance quotes.

The fact that you are online right now means that you are already ahead of most people when it comes to attaining swift car insurance. You will be able to immediately go to different websites and get a number of quotes within minutes. This will allow you to look at all of the proposals and it will help you choose the best swift car insurance that is the most favorable to you.

Depending on what your driver’s license record looks like, your results may vary from others. A lot of people that want swift car insurance are unaware of how quotes are calculated; therefore you should try to understand that before you are expecting a ridiculously low quote.

For example, if you have accidents in your driving history that were due to your driving negligence, or whatever the case may be, but if it was determined by your police report and your insurance provider that you were at fault, it means that your insurance will be going up. The reason for this is because now you are considered a liability to the insurance company and in order for them to be on the safe side with your driving record, they will need to charge you a higher premium, just in case.

Another thing that affects the premium of your swift car insurance is the amount of points that you have on your driving record. The more points you have means that you received tickets and they were not settled in court. This lets them know that you are more vulnerable to get more speeding tickets or even have an accident because your history shows that you have several points on your license. If you received those points from speeding tickets, they will be able to see that because once they pull up all of your information for your swift car insurance quote it will show them why you received those points. If you are a speed demon in the streets then you are more apt to getting another ticket and even hitting someone in the street, so your insurance will reflect that.

Whether or not your driving record is clean, you should definitely check online for swift car insurance quotes and shop the best deal possible for yourself and for your family. There are so many companies online that are fighting for the next customer that they are willing to offer better deals online than they would to a regular person who would walk into their office.