Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus at Verizon Center in DC

ESPN HQ

The First Week of Spring in Connecticut

Gasparilla Night Parade

Sea Lions Sunbathing in Cabo San Lucas

Rattlesnake Tequila 2 Shots for a Dollar

HIP HOP Underground Presents EPMD Live in DC

Kurtis Blow Giving DC Love

Biz Markie

MC Lyte

MC Cash performs Self Destruction with MC Lyte

Doug E Fresh Rips IT

Pepa with Vernon Davis on stage at Constitution Hall

UCONN Lady Huskies 89 and Counting

UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma was in the midst of his postgame news conference after his team's major-college record 89th victory in a row when a PR flack interrupted to hand him a cell phone.
Who could possibly be important enough to keep a roomful of reporters waiting? None other than President Obama himself.



"No, you're not interrupting anything," Auriemma said, chuckling. "If I was calling you and you had all those reporters in front of you, you'd be dying to take my phone call, right?"
Most congratulatory phone calls between a president and the coach of a championship team occur out of the public eye, so it was fascinating to see Auriemma so calm with one of the most powerful men on the planet on the other end of the line.

Auriemma, who has met Obama during White House visits each of the past two years, graciously accepted congratulations on defeating Florida State to eclipse the 88-game winning streak set by John Wooden's legendary UCLA men's teams from 1971 to 1974. He also noted that the Huskies haven't lost since Obama became president, joking "How about we keep that streak going for a couple more years, huh?" Maybe the highlight of the video, however, is the zinger Auriemma unleashed to reporters as soon as he got off the phone with Obama. "That was the new president of the University of Connecticut," Auriemma deadpanned. "We just wanted to get off on the right start."

Thanks to Obama the Rich Win Again

I really was a big supporter of President Obama and wanted him to be successful but he is allowing himself to be played, and lacking the back bone that I thought he had, I do understand he is in a difficult position and things are difficult right now, but stand tall and fight for what's right. If should not allow another party to dictate to him, he is the Commander and Chief. The extension to Bush's tax credit to the rich is contrary to what he promised and it seems that he does not understand how the game is really played. He wants us to think he caved in because he was looking out for the best interest of the working class an poor, but all he did was make a deal with the devil (Republicans) and they saw him coming. This is going to be his demise because it expires again in two years in time for the next election.

By all means, he is the Freaking, President he has the power of Veto, and he can do what he wishes in spite of the Republicans' agenda. I really wish Obama was more like or would at least sit down and talk with Representative Anthony Weiner, D-NY, I like his politics and he seems to have real understanding, and actually voted against the tax extension and the deal the president made with the Republicans. I could go on and on but will spare you of my thoughts and allow you to read the article posted on Yahoo, so that you can form your own opinion.

WASHINGTON – A massive bipartisan tax package preventing a big New Year's Day tax hike for millions of Americans is on its way to President Barack Obama for his signature Friday.
The measure would extend tax cuts for families at every income level, renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and enact a new one-year cut in Social Security taxes that would benefit nearly every worker who earns a wage.

The president is expected to sign the bill Friday afternoon. In a remarkable show of bipartisanship, the House gave final approval to the measure just before midnight Thursday, overcoming an attempt by rebellious Democrats who wanted to impose a higher estate tax than the one Obama agreed to. The vote was 277-148, with each party contributing an almost identical number of votes in favor (the Democrats, 139 and the Republicans, 138).

In a rare reach across party lines, Obama negotiated the $858 billion package with Senate Republicans. The White House then spent the past 10 days persuading congressional Democrats to go along, providing a possible blueprint for the next two years, when Republicans will control the House and hold more seats in the Senate. "There probably is nobody on this floor who likes this bill," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "The judgment is, is it better than doing nothing? Some of the business groups believe it will help. I hope they're right." Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said that with unemployment hovering just under 10 percent and the deadline for avoiding a big tax hike fast approaching, lawmakers had little choice but to support the bill.

"This is just no time to be playing games with our economy," said Camp, who will become chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee in January. "The failure to block these tax increases would be a direct hit to families and small businesses." Sweeping tax cuts enacted when George W. Bush was president are scheduled to expire Jan. 1 — a little more than two weeks away. The bill extends them for two years, placing the issue squarely in the middle of the next presidential election, in 2012. The extended tax cuts include lower rates for the rich, the middle class and the working poor, a $1,000-per-child tax credit, tax breaks for college students and lower taxes on capital gains and dividends. The bill also extends through 2011, a series of business tax breaks designed to encourage investment that expired at the end of 2009.
Workers' Social Security taxes would be cut by nearly a third, going from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, for 2011. A worker making $50,000 in wages would save $1,000; one making $100,000 would save $2,000.

"This legislation is good for growth, good for jobs, good for working and middle class families, and good for businesses looking to invest and expand their work force," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Some Democrats complained that the package is too generous to the wealthy; Republicans complained that it doesn't make all the tax cuts permanent.
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., called it "a bipartisan moment of clarity."

The bill's cost, $858 billion, would be added to the deficit, a sore spot among budget hawks in both parties. "I know that we are going to borrow every nickel in this bill," Hoyer lamented.
An opponent of the legislation, Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., said Obama and lawmakers will face enormous election-year pressure in 2012 to extend the cuts again or make them permanent. Weiner said the Republicans turned out to be "better poker players" than Obama.
At the insistence of Republicans, the plan includes an estate tax that would allow the first $10 million of a couple's estate to pass to heirs without taxation. The balance would be subject to a 35 percent tax rate.

Many House Democrats wanted a higher estate tax, one that would allow couples to pass only $7 million tax-free, taxing anything above that amount at a 45 percent rate. They argued that the higher estate tax would affect only 6,600 of the wealthiest estates in 2011 and would save $23 billion over two years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the estate tax the "most egregious provision" in the bill and held a vote that would have imposed the higher estate tax. It failed, 194-233. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said he thought the White House could have gotten a better deal. "When I talk to the Republicans they are giddy about this bill," he said.

Four Tax Changes You Need to Know

I thought this article was worth sharing. It is crucial that we understand all of the tax incentives available to us as tax payers. Thanks to Yahoo.com for posting it. Despite the availability of professional tax preparation services, an estimated 40% of Americans do their own taxes. The typical do-it-yourself filer needs about 24 hours to complete the task, according to the IRS.

Commercially available software undoubtedly makes the job a lot easier, but no brand is guaranteed to be infallible. Thus, it's important for do-it-yourself filers to keep up as best they can with relevant changes to the tax code as a safeguard against errors in their tax prep software. Here are four of the most important changes to know about as you prepare your 2010 return.

1. Smaller Deductions for Business and Medical Mileage
You can't write off the cost of a daily commute by car, but you can deduct other work-related mileage you're not reimbursed for. This year, for example, you'd get 50 cents a mile for driving from, say, Boston to New York City and back for a trade show. That's five cents less per mile than you'd have gotten for the same trip in 2009.

At 16.5 cents a mile, the deduction for operating your car for medical reasons is 7.5 cents less than last year. However, driving for charitable purposes is still deductible at 14 cents per mile, just like last year.

[See States That Tax Retirees the Most]

2. Better Limits on Deductions for Property Damage or Loss Due to Theft
For damaged or stolen property to be deductible, the loss amount must now only exceed $100, compared with $500 in 2009. The "10% of AGI" rule still generally applies though.
Remember, AGI is the sum of all your income - such as wages, interest and alimony received - minus certain adjustments, such as IRA contributions, student loan interest you've paid and moving expenses.

3. Deduction for Taxes and Fees on New Motor Vehicle Purchases
Did you buy a new car, light truck, motor home or motorcycle between February 17 and December 31 of 2009? If so, in 2010 you can deduct state, local, and excise taxes related to the purchase. If your state has no sales tax, you can instead deduct other taxes or fees the purchase generated. A neat feature of this deduction is you can use it to increase your standard deduction or take it as a regular itemized deduction, whichever works out best for you.

[See Make the Most of Your Charitable Donations ]

There are a couple limitations to know about. First, the deduction is only good on up to $49,500 of the purchase price. Second, it's phased out at certain levels of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) - between $250,000 and $260,000 for joint filers and from $125,000 to $135,000 for other taxpayers. MAGI is your AGI plus certain deductions such as those for student loans, IRA contributions and higher education costs.

4. Bigger Deductions for Long-Term Care (LTC) Insurance Premiums
IRS rules allow LTC insurance policy owners to deduct more of their premiums in 2010 than in 2009. For example, those ages 51 to 60 can claim up to $1,230 in LTC insurance premiums this year, compared with $1,190 last year - about a 3% increase. Similar increases have been approved for other age groups as well: 40 and under, 41-50, 61-70 and 71 or over. At $330, the deduction is smallest for the 40-and-under age group. It rises progressively to a maximum of $4,110 for those ages 71 or over.

As you can probably imagine, the government has tinkered with the tax rules quite a bit more than this article describes. To see what other potentially beneficial changes have been made, check out a list called "Tax Changes for Individuals" at the IRS website. Who knows what other sorts of breaks you might unearth?

Conductor Job or Temporary NFL Position

There are a number of ways to look at this story. It sounds notable to place family over career, but if you have dreamed of a career in the NFL all of your life, do you seize the moment and take advantage of an opportunity, or do you become practical and realistic regarding the situation? What move would you make?

It's not often that you see a perfectly healthy, NFL-ready person turn down an offer to join the roster of a playoff team, but Mississippi State grad Keith Fitzhugh, who has spent time with the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free-agent safety, has decided to respectfully decline a recent offer by the Jets to be a part of their active roster.

Rex Ryan's defense was looking for new blood after losing safeties Jim Leonhard and James Ihedigbo for the season to injuries. Despite their 45-3 killer loss to the Patriots on "Monday Night Football," the 9-3 Jets are still a near-mortal lock for the postseason, with possible Super Bowl glory in their future. So why would Fitzhugh say "no"?

Because he's thinking about his family and its financial security. He's currently a conductor for the Norfolk Southern Railroad, and he's had that job since the Jets released him in September. There was no venom behind Fitzhugh's decicion to turn down the team that cut him; it's more about Fitzhugh's father, who is disabled and unable to work.

"I told them I'm very thankful for the opportunity," Fitzhugh recently recalled to Jenny Vrentas of NJ.com. "But right now, being that [NFL employment] would be for just a couple weeks, I feel that I'd rather stay with a secure company and job, somewhere I know I could have long-term employment." Fitzhugh was the 12th-ranked safety coming out of college in 2009, according to NFLDraftScout.com. He is known as a dynamic hitter and good special teams player with some range in pass coverage. He caught the eye of scouts at the East-West Shrine game, and has advanced his talent forward enough to stay on the short list of replacement-need players. But Daniel Rose, Fitzhugh's agent, affirmed the thoughts behind his client's decision.

"The kid has more heart than anybody I know," Rose told Vrentas. "This is his dream, to play. I don't think this is the last you've heard of Keith Fitzhugh." Let's hope so. Fitzhugh is deferring his NFL dreams for all the right reasons, and that's the kind of guy whose dreams should come true down the road.

I unsure if this happened or not, but As I see it, he should have met with his current supervisor to see if a leave-of-absence was an option or what options if any were available to him, or he should have simply stepped out on faith. I am uncertain of his current salary but I am sure the league's pay would have been enough to carry him over until the next job, if negotiated properly. However, I do admire the man for thinking of his family needs instead of his own.

Michael Jordan's New Unfinished Mansion

Easy Come Easy Go

I thought this article posted on Yahoo was interesting because so many people believe that if they inherit or earn millions, they will have it for ever, which is contrary to the fact for some.

Money management is key to financial success, regardless of how much you have in the bank, it is imperative that the ramifications are considered prior to making substantial investments. Lose the cockiness, arrogance, and most of all do your home work prior to making substantial purchases or investments.

Grateful to have found work in this tough economy, Nick Martin teaches grape growing and winemaking each Saturday to a class of seven students in a simple metal building here at a satellite campus of Highland Community College.

Nick Martin (featured above) at the Highland Community College vineyard in Wamego, Kan., where he has taught winemaking since losing a fortune he got from the sale of the business his father founded. (Steve Hebert for The New York Times)

Then he drives 14 miles in an 11-year-old Ford Explorer to a sparsely furnished tract house that he rents for $900 a month on a dead-end street in McFarland, a smaller town. Just across the backyard is a shed that a neighbor uses to make cartridges for shooting the prairie dogs that infest the adjacent fields.

It is a far cry from the life that Mr. Martin and his family enjoyed until recently at their Adirondacks waterfront camp at Tupper Lake, N.Y. Their garage held three stylish cars, including a yellow Aston Martin; they owned three horses, one that cost $173,000; and Mr. Martin treated his wife, Kate, to a birthday weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria, with dinner at the "21" Club and a $7,000 mink coat.

That luxurious world was fueled by a check Mr. Martin received in 1998 for $14 million, his share of the $600 million sale of Martin Media, an outdoor advertising business begun by his father in California in the 1950s. After taxes, he kept about $10 million. But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches, the money slipped through the Martins' fingers faster than they ever imagined. They faced temptations to indulge, with the complexities and pressures of new wealth. And a pounding recession pummeled the value of their real estate and new financial investments, rendering their properties unaffordable.
The fortune evaporated in little more than a decade.

While many millions of Americans have suffered through this recession with only unemployment benefits to sustain them, Mr. Martin has reason to give thanks — he has landed a job at 59, however far away. He also had assets to sell to help tide his family over.
Still, Mr. Martin, a strapping man with a disarming bluntness, seemed dazed by it all. "We are basically broke," he said. Though he faulted the conventional wisdom of investing in stocks and real estate for some of his woes, along with poor financial advice, he accepted much of the blame himself. "We spent too much," he conceded. "I have a fourth grader, an eighth grader and a girl who just finished high school. I should have kept working and put the money in bonds."
Mrs. Martin recalled the summer night in 1998 when the family was having a spaghetti dinner at home in Paso Robles, in central California, and a bank representative called to ask where to wire the money. "It seemed like an unbelievable amount," she said regretfully.

Soon after the money arrived, the family decided to leave Paso Robles, amid some lingering tensions that Mr. Martin felt with his brother and brother-in law, who had run the business. Mr. Martin had never been in management at the billboard company, though he had been on the board and worked at Martin Brothers Winery, another family business. First, the Martins bought a house in Somerset, England, near the home of Mrs. Martin's parents, and he decided to write a novel. At about the same time, they spent $250,000 on the 3.5-acre camp with four structures on Tupper Lake, deep in the Adirondacks, as a summer home. They began extensive renovations at the lake, adding a stunning three-story boathouse and two other buildings.
Clouds gathered quickly. Life in England turned sour when Mr. Martin's novel, "Anthony: Conniver's Lament," did not sell, and the family's living costs — school fees, taxes and even advice for filing tax returns — swelled. In 2002, fed up with England, the Martins chose a new base, Vermont, and plunked down about $650,000 for a home there, as renovations continued on the Tupper Lake property.

By March 2007, the Martins were determined to move to the lake full time.
They managed their expenses for a while, but the costs mounted and mounted some more as they worked at refurbishing the Adirondack property — eventually totaling a staggering $5.3 million, Mr. Martin said. He poured another $600,000 into the Vermont property, he said.
He vacillates between blaming the builders and blaming himself for letting costs get out of hand. "We should have built something quite modest," he conceded.

Tensions rose in 2007 as summer came without any offers for the Vermont home.
"I thought that housing was going into a tailspin," he said. "I had the feeling that something bad was happening." So "we started selling cars, shotguns, antique furniture, whatever," Mr. Martin said. The Aston Martin fetched $395,000. With a big gap in his employment history, he found a job teaching English at Paul Smith's College near his home in Tupper Lake for $14,000 a year. For an additional $7,000, he coached the school's cross-country runners.

Then came the financial crisis. The markets plunged, as did the value of the Martins' trust. By fall 2008, with much of the family's net worth tied up in housing, Mr. Martin faced a series of margin calls. He needed more cash in his brokerage accounts because he had been tapping into a credit line with his investments as collateral. In January 2009, he cashed in a retirement account worth roughly $91,000. The houses could not be sold quickly. Though if they had been, some of the pressure would have lifted. "To maintain those things, you have to have a pretty good cash flow," Mr. Martin said.

The family ultimately put the Adirondacks property on the market for $4.9 million, then quickly slashed the price by half. Last month, the Martins got an offer for just half of the latest $2.5 million asking price. They have stopped making payments on their $1.1 million mortgage and their $53,000 in annual property taxes in the Adirondacks as well as the mortgage and taxes on their Vermont home. They cannot afford those obligations on Mr. Martin's current salary of $51,000. Their household income is down from $250,000 four years ago. At the moment, they are working with a loan modification unit at their bank. The lender proposed a new payment of $3,550 a month, reduced from $7,400. Given his current status, Mr. Martin argued, that it does not make much sense. He predicts that the house will ultimately be sold or taken over by the bank. Meanwhile, for the Christmas holidays and some of next summer, the family has found renters for the main house to help cover some of the costs.

Over lunch recently at Barleycorn's Downtown Bar and Deli in Wamego, Mr. Martin said he believed "the worst is behind us." Perhaps. But a forced restructuring can be difficult for children and spouses even in longstanding marriages. Sometimes he and his wife took it out on each other, he said. "She bought a bunch of horses. I blamed her for the horses. I bought cars. She blamed me for the cars — and the house being too big. We had a rough time," he acknowledged. "But I think we have gotten over that." Until Christmas, when she plans to join him, Mrs. Martin continues to work as a substitute teacher with autistic children at an Adirondacks elementary school: a $12,000-a-year job she loves in a place she says she is hesitant to leave. With their younger daughter, she has moved into a smaller building on their big property.

A lively woman who loves bike riding and horses, she has built a close network of friends. "What is the place in Kansas like?" she asked a reporter with some trepidation before her first visit at Thanksgiving. Mr. Martin, who moved to Kansas last April, brought the couple's 13-year-old son, Edward, to join him in the fall. He has been counting the days until his wife and Sophia, 9, come permanently. The older daughter, Mrs. Martin's from a previous marriage, has found work in Florida after finishing high school. In the meantime, Mr. Martin is also overseeing a one-acre vineyard beside the Oregon Trail Road, drawing on his knowledge of the wine industry from his California days.

He does what he can to lessen the family strains. "I have a temper. I have to control my temper," he said. "I could drink like a fish, but if you have problems in your life, drinking does not help." And he recites a quotation he holds dear : "The measure of a man is not whether he falls down, but whether he gets up again." Still, Mr. Martin is prone to ruminate over the loss of so much money. He is furious at the banks and the bankers, who he thinks gave him bad advice, and he still sounds angry at his brother and others who decided to sell the company and who he says gave him little voice. Some of them got more than $100 million each, he said, while he got $14 million, as did his father and his sister Ann, because they were all minority shareholders.
His brother-in-law David Weyrich said that if Mr. Martin had objections to the sale, he did not voice them. Mrs. Martin says she believes the move from California was motivated in part because he resented his brother and brother-in-law's bigger role in the community.
She also speculates that the Adirondacks estate was alluring partly as a way of keeping up. "I think he wanted to show his brother and brother-in-law that he had a big home, too," she said over dinner recently in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Mr. Martin disagreed. "We are Irish Catholics, and we thought it would be a compound for our family over generations," he said. After the cramped rooms at their house in England, he liked the big rooms, he said. "Sometimes, things don't work out."

As I see it, life is meant to be lived and money is meant to be spent, just be informed and not compulsive, but most importantly live your life to the fullest and without fear.

New Home for Wesley Snipes

Came across thisMIAMI (Reuters) - Actor Wesley Snipes was ordered on Friday to start serving a three-year prison sentence for failing to file income tax returns by a federal judge who rejected the Hollywood star's bid for a new trial.

"The defendant Snipes had a fair trial ... The time has come for the judgment to be enforced," U.S. District Judge Terrell Hodges said in his ruling.

Revoking bail for the 48-year-old star of the "Blade" trilogy, the judge ordered him to report to prison as directed by the U.S. Marshals Service or Bureau of Prisons.

It was not clear when or where Snipes would begin serving his time behind bars, however. His lawyer, Daniel Meachum, has said he would appeal if a new trial was denied.

Meachum told the Orlando Sentinel the ruling was shocking.

"Wesley is very disappointed but staying strong and positive," the newspaper quoted Meachum as saying.

Snipes had already lost his appeal of the prison sentence stemming from his 2008 conviction in Hodges' Ocala, Florida, court on three counts of "willful failure to file tax returns" for 1999 through 2001.

Snipes was found not guilty of five other counts in the high-profile felony tax case.

In seeking a new trial, Meachum had argued that jurors in the original trial were biased and that the prosecution's star witness had his own criminal problems.

At his sentencing, prosecutors said Snipes, a resident of Windermere, Florida, had earned more than $38 million since 1999 but had filed no tax returns or paid any taxes through October 2006.

Although he is best known for his roles in action films, Snipes has also had critical success in comedies like "White Men Can't Jump" in 1992. He played the lead in director Spike Lee's interracial drama "Jungle Fever" in 1991 and also played the jazz saxophonist in Lee's "Mo' Better Blues" in 1990.

Eric Thompson, a supervisor in the U.S. Marshals Service office in Orlando, Florida, said the Bureau of Prisons would notify Snipes and his lawyer of a surrender date.

"He'll probably get it by certified mail," Thompson said.

He declined to say what prison was likely to be selected for Snipes except to say that it would not be in Florida.

A listing for Snipes already posted on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website says his prisoner ID or registration number as 43355-018, his location is "in transit" and his release date is "unknown."

(Reporting by Tom Brown, additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Doina Chiacu)