Twitter Suing FBI, DOJ So All Govt Surveillance Info Can Be Released

By Newsmax Wires  |  October 8, 2014

Twitter is suing the FBI and DOJ so it's able to publish its complete transparency report on the government surveillance of its users, The Associated Press reported.

The social media company filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a California federal court to publish its full report, which documents government requests for user information. Twitter Inc. published a surveillance report in July but couldn't include the exact number of national security requests it received because Internet companies are prohibited from disclosing that information, even if they didn't get any requests.

The San Francisco-based company said in a blog post that it believes it's entitled under the First Amendment to "respond to our users' concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance."

The U.S. government has been able to access phone networks and high-speed Internet traffic for years to catch suspected criminals and terrorists. The FBI also started pushing technology companies like Google, Skype, and others to guarantee access to their data streams and grab emails, video chats, pictures, and more. It recently emerged that Yahoo was threatened with a daily fine of $250,000 by the U.S. government if it didn't comply with demands to give up information on its users. A secret 2007 lawsuit and subsequent appeal was ultimately unsuccessful, the company said last month after a federal judge ordered some material about the court challenge to be unsealed.

Technology companies say they turn over information only if required by court order, and in the interest of transparency with their customers, want to share information about the government's activities.

7 Money Mistakes That Can Mess Up Your Marriage

By Maryalene LaPonsie  |  MoneyTalksNews  |  October 14, 2014

Are you wondering whether you and your betrothed will have a love that lasts a lifetime? Then you need to forget about the kids, the in-laws and the s-e-x for a minute.

When it comes to whether you’ll remain together until death do you part, it’s all about the Benjamins. Yes, we’re talking money here, folks. According to a2013 study from Kansas State University, financial arguments are the leading predictor of whether a marriage will end in divorce.

Of course, there are no guarantees, but you may be able to increase your chances of marital bliss by avoiding common money mistakes. Check out this video about money and marriage, then continue for seven common money mistakes couples make.

Mistake No. 1: Thinking your spouse’s debt is not your problem

According to the Census Bureau, the median age of first-time newlyweds in 2013 was 29 for men and 26.6 for women. By that age, most people have had plenty of opportunity to rack up a little debt, whether it’s from student loans, credit cards or a shiny new car.

Now legally, you aren’t responsible for paying off the debt your spouse accrued before your marriage. However, you’re not being particularly smart – let alone nice – if you decide there is no way your income will be used to pay off Mr. or Ms. Right’s debt. Consider this information provided by the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Office:

• Debt is associated with less satisfaction in a marriage.
• Couples who spend time and energy worrying about debt have less opportunity to focus on their couple and family relationships.
• Those who have no major debt problems are happier in marriage.
• Car loans and credit card debt have a greater negative impact on a marriage than student loan debt.

Ideally, you’ll have discussed this matter before your wedding day and done your best to clean up bad debt in advance. But if you find yourself married to someone with a boatload of debt, it’s in your best interest to help pay it down as quickly as possible.

Trust in Government is Pathological

By Christopher Chantrill  |  American Thinker  |  October 7, 2014

This last weekend the Sunday shows had a “trust in government” theme. Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" asked Obama advisor Dan Pfeiffer why the government of the email-losing IRS, of no strategy on ISIS, of border mayhem could be trusted on Ebola.

On Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace threw a slow hanging pitch to George Will so he could hit it out of the ball park. Said Wallace:

[W]ith growing concerns over Ebola, the Secret Service and the VA and IRS scandals, can we trust the federal government to do its job?

Will replied that we have “much more to fear from excessive faith in government than from too little faith in government.” He got right to the point.

The distilled essence of progressivism is that government is a benign -- that is disinterested force, that's false. And, (b), it is stocked with experts who are really gifted at doing things.

That got me to thinking. I mean, who in the world would be dumb enough to have faith in government? It's not as if people have been faithfully believing in government down the ages. Charles Dickens let them have it in Little Dorrit with the government's Circumlocution Office, staffed with Barnacles and Stiltstockings and operating under the motto: How Not to Do It.

The answer is obvious, and Charles Dickens nailed it 150 years ago. The only people that have faith in government are the Barnacles and the Stiltstockings.

10 Investing Insights From Billionaire Warren Buffett

By Peter Bennet  |  MyBankTracker via Business Insider  |  October 8, 2014

At 84, Warren Buffett, the world's fourth richest person, shows no signs of slowing down
after he announced on Thursday (Oct. 2) that he's buying the Van Tuyl Group, the
nation's largest privately held car dealership chain in an all-cash $8 billion deal.
Besides owning trains (BNSF Railway), planes (NetJets) and now automobiles, WarrenBuffett also wholly owns or controls huge stakes in food (Heinz), restaurant (Dairy
Queen), beverage (Coca Cola), banking (Wells Fargo), insurance (Geico), furniture
(Nebraska Furniture Mart), real estate (Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices), building
(Benjamin Moore) and clothing (Fruit of the Bloom) companies, to name just a few.

At the center of all these acquisitions is an enduring Warren Buffett investment strategy
that is well worth knowing and applying to your own wealth-building goals.

While his investment strategy comprises many values and principles that have been
honed over the years, MyBankTracker has collected what it feels are the top 10 that can
help you become the next one-person, Buffett-like multinational conglomerate.

1. Invest in yourself before you invest in anything else.
Since 2011, the University of Nebraska Omaha has hosted the Genius of Warren Buffett
seminar, where at one such gathering, one student asked what aspect of investing, in his
leisure time, should he be studying.

The Oracle of Omaha replied: "For most people, the bulk of their income is going to come
from earning power in their chosen profession. Therefore, from the standpoint of
building wealth, free time is better spent sharpening one's professional skills rather than
studying investing."

Following his own advice, Buffett returned to Omaha, Neb., as a stockbroker and
enrolled in a Dale Carnegie public speaking course so he could better communicate with
clients, who would prove to be the lifeblood of his early success.

Tip: Like Buffett, you can find a course or certificate program offered by your local
community college to improve your professional stature and enhance your earning
power. Always be learning. Early in your career, put mastery before money.REUTERS/Rick Wilking
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett talks to reporters while holding an ice
cream at a trade show during the company's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska
May 3, 2014.

20 Easy Things That Will Make You the Next Millionaire

By Murray Newlands  |  Inc.  |  October 3, 2014

While you may be looking to make your first million off of your business alone, the fact of the
matter is that becoming a millionaire does not just come about by raking in profits from your
business. It arises from the decisions that you make in your day-to-day life as well. There are
more millionaires than ever nowadays, and it's not because the financial market is good; in fact,
it is pretty common knowledge that the economy has definitely seen better days, and the people
able to find success in it know how to act accordingly. To become the next millionaire, you will
need to blend business practices with responsible financial decisions in order to both maximize
profits and squirrel away some cash for the winter. Even though this is easier said than done,
the things that you have to do to become the next millionaire are theoretically fairly easy.

Buy The Things That You Need
Even though one of the reasons people strive to become millionaires is to be able to afford the
things that they want to do, living in a house far too big for your needs or shelling out on a
vehicle more luxurious than you require is going to set you back in your goals.

Spend Less Than You Earn
This is saving money and accruing wealth 101, but even old advice can be good advice, and such
is the case with this.

Make Sure That You Can Pay Off the Things That You Buy
And the quicker you can pay them off, the better! This will enable you to search for a job that
you love and will therefore be more conducive to putting you closer to your goals.

7 Retirement Tips For People In Their 30s

By Rich Ellinger  |  Business 2 Community  |  September 26, 2014

As people move into their 30′s, life often becomes more complicated. Getting married, starting a family, buying a house; these are just a few of the life events that often occur in one’s 30′s, and this makes it even tougher to prioritize saving for retirement.

While most of the advice we gave in our article “7 retirement tips for people in their 20′s” is still relevant, here are a few additional retirement tips for when you hit 30.

Make it a priority

While the 30′s is often a time of rapidly rising income, it’s also a time of even more rapidly rising expenses for most people. New houses need to be furnished, babies need to be clothed and fed, mortgage payments come around monthly. With so many competing priorities, it is easy to say that retirement is still very far away and can wait. This is a mistake.

One assumption that’s built into this viewpoint is that savings will become easier later. For most people, there will always be other priorities competing with our retirement savings aspirations. Helping elderly parents, a bigger house, a new car. In our consumption driven economy, there is always something we want and / or feel we need to have now. In addition, the penalty for waiting to save is large. By starting to save at 40 for retirement instead of 30, you will need to double your monthly savings to get to the same dollar figure by the time you hit 65.

The 5 Most Common Mistakes Investors Make

By Libby Kane  |  Business Insider  |  October 2, 2014

When investing, the stakes are alarmingly real: If we screw it up, we lose money. 

In his book "The 5 Mistakes Every Investor Makes And How To Avoid Them," Peter Mallouk outlines some of the most common investor errors he's seen over the course of his career as a wealth manager.

His firm, Creative Planning Private Wealth Management, manages about $10 billion for clients across the country, and has been named by CNBC as the top independent wealth management firm in the US.

So it's safe to say that he knows what he's talking about.

While he dives into more detail in the book, here's a quick overview of Mallouk's five recurring investor mistakes:

1. Basing investments on whether the market will go up or down

People who time the market try and be strategic about investing their money when the market is on the upswing, and pulling it out when the market is taking a bad turn.

'Obamaphone' use grew 100-fold in 3 years in Maryland -- to twice the eligible number

By Luke Rosiak  |  Washington Examiner  |  September 29,2014

As many as 645,000 Maryland residents had so-called Obamaphones in 2012 — one hundred times as many people as there were in 2009, and double the number in that state who are supposed to be eligible for the program based on their income.

The program, officially called Lifeline, is run by the Federal Communications Commission and imposes hefty fees on every paying phone company to give free phone service to low-income Americans.

The profits to telecom companies from the free, government-provided phone service are so great that in Nebraska alone, 51 corporations, many of them who are not even traditional phone companies building infrastructure and attracting paying subscribers, fought for a piece of the pie.

That structure allows advocates to argue that it’s not a tax and doesn’t affect the budget, and lessens the extent to which the FCC is beholden to Congress.

Here's The Best Way To Buy Stocks If You Fear A Market Crash

By Andy Kiersz  |  Business Insider  |  September 25, 2014

Investing in the stock market  can be extremely frustrating for those who look back on the big rally they missed and nerve-wracking for those who believe the may be putting money into the market at the top.

The S&P 500 has roared almost 200% from its March 9, 2009 low close of 676 to its high of 2,011 on September 18.

With today's big market selloff, some are worrying that we've seen the market peak. This obviously would make investors extremely hesitant to buy stocks for fear of a big decline or perhaps a crash.

However, obsessing over this risk could lead to analysis paralysis because you can never know with certainty if the market will indeed crash. And those who constantly stay out of the market for fear of losing money will miss out on some of the best opportunities to buy.

Fortunately, there is a very basic investing strategy that can save investors from losing too much hair as they make the decision to buy stocks. It's called dollar-cost averaging.

There's A Correct Way To Buy Stocks As The Market Is Crashing

The stock market is great for investors who have the benefit of long-term investing horizons. It's also better-suited for investors who aren't concerned about perfectly-timing market tops and bottoms. 

Obama: I’ll take executive action on immigration between the midterms and end of the year

By Katie Zezima  |  Post Politics  |  October 2, 2014

President Obama said Thursday night that he would take executive action on immigration sometime between the midterm elections and the end of the year.

Speaking before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Gala, Obama said he shares the frustration of many in the room upset that immigration reform remains stalled. Obama was accompanied to the gala by two congressional interns who are DREAMers -- young unauthorized immigrants who entered the United States before the age of 16.

"But if anybody wants to know where my heart is or whether I want to have this fight, let me put those questions to rest right now.  I am not going to give up this fight until it gets done," Obama said. "I know the pain of families torn apart because we live with a system that’s broken."

Obama laid blame squarely at the feet of congressional Republicans, who he said exploited a crisis of undocumented children at the southern border for political gain this summer and refuse to act with the president on immigration reform. However, he said, he ultimately needs Congress to pass an immigration law, because anything he does by executive action can be reversed by the next president.