AAA predicts slight dip in Memorial Day travel - WANE.com

AURORA, ILL. (AAA) ? AAA Travel projects 34.8 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, a 0.9 percent decrease from the 35.1 million people who traveled last year.? The Memorial Day holiday travel period is defined as Thursday, May 23 to Monday, May 27.

In Indiana, just over 753,000 people are expected to travel, which is a 1 percent decrease from 2012. Of those, 689,000 are expected to travel by auto (.1 percent decrease) and about 36,000 by air (7.4 percent decrease). In Indiana, gas prices are on average $3.86 per gallon, up from $3.74 this time last year. The average price nationally for gas is $3.65.

?AAA is forecasting Memorial Day travel to experience a slight dip as economic improvements from last year are not strong enough to spur an increase in travelers,? said AAA Regional President Brad Roeber. ?Economic growth in the first quarter was strong, but the impact of the sequester is now beginning to be felt, which has reduced economic growth expectations.?

Highlights from 2013 Memorial Day Travel Forecast include:

• Memorial Day holiday travelers to total 34.8 million, a decrease of 0.9 percent from the 35.1 million who traveled last year
• Eighty-nine percent of travelers (31.2 million) to travel by automobile, an increase from 31.1 million last year
• Holiday air travel expected to decrease eight percent to 2.3 million from 2.5 million in 2012
• Median spending is expected to decrease more than six percent to $659, compared to $702 in 2012 with transportation costs consuming about 28 cents of every travel dollar.
• Travelers intend to journey an average of 690 miles which is higher than last year?s average of 642 miles.?

Impact of gasoline prices on travel plans

A survey of intended travelers found that gasoline prices would have no impact on plans for 62 percent of travelers. Of the remaining 38 percent of travelers who said gas prices would impact their travel plans, 27 percent plan to economize in other areas.? Eight percent are planning to take a shorter trip and three percent will travel by an alternate mode of transportation.

Median spending is expected to decrease as travelers prioritize family and friends

Median spending during the Memorial Day holiday weekend is expected to be $659, six percent less than the $702 median spending last year. Transportation is expected to consume approximately 28 cents of every dollar. Travelers expect to spend 22 percent on food and beverage and 20 percent on lodging.

During the holiday weekend, more than half of intending travelers will plan to partake in visiting with friends/family (59 percent) and dining (55 percent). Other popular activities include shopping (44 percent), going to the beach (32 percent) and touring and sightseeing (27 percent).

Car rental rates highest in four years, hotel rates rise modestly

According to AAA?s Leisure Travel Index, hotel rates for AAA Three Diamond lodgings are expected to increase over four percent from one year ago with travelers spending an average of $166 per night compared to $160 last year. Airfares are also up nearly 10 percent over 2012 prices with an average price of $215. The average hotel rate for AAA Two Diamond hotels remained unchanged with an average cost of $120 per night. Weekend daily car rental rates will average $43, 19 percent more than last year and the highest rate recorded for the holiday since 2009.

AAA?s projections are based on economic forecasting and research by IHS Global Insight. The Boston-based economic research and consulting firm teamed with AAA in 2009 to jointly analyze travel trends during the major holidays. AAA has been reporting on holiday travel trends for more than two decades. The complete AAA / IHS Global Insight 2012 Memorial Day Holiday Travel Forecast can be found at NewsRoom.AAA.com.
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Source: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/national/aaa-predicts-slight-dip-in-memorial-day-travel

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Factbox: Key players in the IRS scandal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three congressional committees and the Department of Justice are investigating the Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status as the scandal distracts from President Barack Obama's second-term agenda.

Below are some of the major players in the backlash over the IRS paying extra attention to advocacy groups whose names included terms such as "patriot" or "Tea Party" when considering applications for tax-exempt status.

* Steven Miller - The acting head of the Internal Revenue Service while the scandal unfolded. He was fired from the post on Wednesday after an internal IRS report found that poor management, and not partisan politics, led to an "inappropriate" focus on conservative groups starting in 2010. The IRS has acknowledged Miller knew about the targeting of conservative groups in 2012 but did not disclose the practice. He was the former deputy IRS commissioner for services and enforcement and had been at the agency for more than 25 years.

At a House of Representatives hearing on Friday, Miller apologized for "foolish mistakes" made at the IRS and said they resulted from a heavy workload. He leaves the agency in June.

* Douglas Shulman - IRS commissioner before Miller took over in the acting capacity in November 2012. A Democrat, he was appointed to the post under Republican President George W. Bush in 2008.

In March 2012, Shulman told lawmakers that IRS personnel applied no extra scrutiny to conservative groups, although the new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said that Miller knew of the targeting as early as March 8, 2012.

Congressional leaders sent letters to Shulman inquiring about IRS targeting as early as June 2011. According to the inspector general, the IRS's Determinations Unit began targeting conservative groups in March or April of 2010.

* Danny Werfel - the White House budget official selected by Obama to replace Miller as acting IRS chief on May 22.

The Obama administration's point man in overseeing the "sequestration" budget cuts, he will now tackle the IRS scandal.

* Lois Lerner - director of the IRS's tax-exempt division who broke the news of the scandal on May 10 at an American Bar Association function when she publicly apologized for the discriminatory practices. The admission came just days after she testified in Congress but did not mention it. According to the inspector general, Lerner learned about the targeting as early as June 29, 2011.

Lawmakers have called for her removal from the IRS.

Miller on Friday acknowledged that the scandal-exposing question-and-answer session had been planned.

* Joseph Grant - IRS acting commissioner of tax exempt/government entities division at the center of the scandal. On Thursday he announced plans to retire on June 3 after joining the IRS in 2005. He took over the reins of the tax exempt division in late 2010 and Lerner worked under him.

* Sarah Hall Ingram - Preceded Grant as head of the IRS's tax-exempt division when the targeting of conservative groups began. Since December 2010, she has headed up the IRS division handling Obama administration's healthcare reform.

* William Wilkins - IRS chief counsel who is an Obama political appointee. He is the top legal adviser and takes the lead on all litigation involving the IRS. His office, although not necessarily Wilkins personally, knew of the targeting as early as August 2011, according to TIGTA. The IRS said Wilkins did not participate in the August 2011 meeting, which the agency said involved "staff attorneys several layers below Wilkins."

* J. Russell George - Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration. Investigated the complaints against the IRS and issued the public report on targeting of conservative groups. The IRS is an arm of the Treasury Department and lawmakers at the hearings are scrutinizing George for not issuing warnings about the practice earlier.

* IRS's Cincinnati field office employees - oversaw the reviews of tax-exempt applications. According to TIGTA, the Ohio unit set its own criteria for checking tax-exempt groups in the absence of clear guidance from more senior officials.

Republican lawmakers have named five workers they hope to bring in for questioning: Holly Paz, Washington-based director of rulings and agreements for the tax exempt division; Greg Muthert, a veteran Cincinnati office worker; Joseph Herr and Elizabeth Hofacre, who were cited by some Tea Party groups as handling their tax-exempt applications; and John Shafer, whom lawmakers described as "screening group manager."

A congressional aide said the five workers were chosen based on a timeline from the TIGTA report that listed the job roles involved in the activity. It was unclear whether these employees had any role in any wrongdoing.

* President Barack Obama - has said he was not aware of the ongoing practice, calling it intolerable and inexcusable. His Press Secretary Jay Carney said the White House Counsel was notified of the IRS's targeting during the week of April 22.

Obama has appeared multiple times in public to condemn the IRS's actions and has promised to cooperate with congressional investigations and a Justice Department probe, but he has not demanded a special prosecutor look into the allegations.

* Representative Dave Camp - Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee that is investigating the matter. On June 3, 2011, he sent a letter to then-Commissioner Shulman, inquiring about IRS targeting of taxpayers who donated to conservative groups and audits of tax-exempt organizations. The IRS then halted reviews of any tax-exempt groups but never addressed targeting concerns.

* Representative Darrell Issa - Republican chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee also conducting an investigation. He is seeking interviews with five IRS employees to learn more about the tax-exempt reviews.

* Senator Max Baucus - Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who said his tax code revamp will examine rules for nonprofit group's political activities in hopes of preventing such scandals in the future.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-key-players-irs-scandal-005432313.html

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EyePaint, WWF Together, and More

It's been a long week, and you deserve a break. Fortunately, this week's set of apps for iPad are full of fun and relaxation, and there's even app ready to do the work for you. Lucky you.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CXuKAZlNFb8/eyepaint-wwf-together-and-more-508321187

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Scientists discover oldest evidence of split between Old World monkeys and apes: Primate fossils are 25 million years old

May 15, 2013 ? Two fossil discoveries from the East African Rift reveal new information about the evolution of primates, according to a study published online in Nature this week led by Ohio University scientists.

The team's findings document the oldest fossils of two major groups of primates: the group that today includes apes and humans (hominoids), and the group that includes Old World monkeys such as baboons and macaques (cercopithecoids).

Geological analyses of the study site indicate that the finds are 25 million years old, significantly older than fossils previously documented for either of the two groups.

Both primates are new to science, and were collected from a single fossil site in the Rukwa Rift Basin of Tanzania. Rukwapithecus fleaglei is an early hominoid represented by a mandible preserving several teeth. Nsungwepithecus gunnelli is an early cercopithecoid represented by a tooth and jaw fragment.

The primates lived during the Oligocene epoch, which lasted from 34 to 23 million years ago. For the first time, the study documents that the two lineages were already evolving separately during this geological period.

"The late Oligocene is among the least sampled intervals in primate evolutionary history, and the Rukwa field area provides a first glimpse of the animals that were alive at that time from Africa south of the equator," said Nancy Stevens, an associate professor of paleontology in Ohio University's Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine who leads the paleontological team.

Documenting the early evolutionary history of these groups has been elusive, as there are few fossil-bearing deposits of the appropriate age, Stevens explained. Using an approach that dated multiple minerals contained within the rocks, team geologists could determine a precise age for the specimens.

"The rift setting provides an advantage in that it preserves datable materials together with these important primate fossils," said lead geologist Eric Roberts of James Cook University in Australia.

Prior to these finds, the oldest fossil representatives of the hominoid and cercopithecoid lineages were recorded from the early Miocene, at sites dating millions of years younger.

The new discoveries are particularly important for helping to reconcile a long-standing disagreement between divergence time estimates derived from analyses of DNA sequences from living primates and those suggested by the primate fossil record, Stevens said. Studies of clock-like mutations in primate DNA have indicated that the split between apes and Old

World monkeys occurred between 30 million and 25 million years ago.

"Fossils from the Rukwa Rift Basin in southwestern Tanzania provide the first real test of the hypothesis that these groups diverged so early, by revealing a novel glimpse into this late Oligocene terrestrial ecosystem," Stevens said.

The new fossils are the first primate discoveries from this precise location within the Rukwa deposits, and two of only a handful of known primate species from the entire late Oligocene, globally.

The scientists scanned the specimens in the Ohio University's MicroCT scanner, allowing them to create detailed 3-dimensional reconstructions of the ancient specimens that were used for comparisons with other fossils.

"This is another great example that underscores how modern imaging and computational approaches allow us to address more refined questions about vertebrate evolutionary history," said Patrick O'Connor, co-author and professor of anatomy in Ohio University's Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

In addition to the new primates, Rukwa field sites have produced several other fossil vertebrate and invertebrate species new to science. The late Oligocene interval is interesting because it provides a final snapshot of the unique species inhabiting Africa prior to large-scale faunal exchange with Eurasia that occurred later in the Cenozoic Era, Stevens said.

A key aspect of the Rukwa Rift Basin project is the interdisciplinary nature of the research team, with paleontologists and geologists working together to reconstruct vertebrate evolutionary history in the context of the developing East African Rift System.

"Since its inception this project has employed a multifaceted approach for addressing a series of large-scale biological and geological questions centered on the East African Rift System in Tanzania," O'Connor said.

The team's research, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Leakey Foundation and the National Geographic Society, underscores the integration of paleontological and geological approaches that are essential for addressing complex issues in vertebrate evolutionary history, the scientists noted.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/maA5M4zQ-yA/130515131556.htm

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Amazon Coins available for Kindle Fire, users enjoy $5 credit to get started

Forget Bitcoin: Amazon's got a digital currency of its own, known as Coins, coming to the Kindle Fire right on schedule. The virtual money, which was originally announced back in February, is now ready to go for anyone who frequents the Amazon Appstore or uses a Kindle Fire to purchase apps and games. Bezos & Co. is willing to throw in a bit of an investment to get you started, as the online retailer will hook up existing and new users with 500 free coins -- a value of $5. Need more than that? Head to the More Coverage link below to grab as many coins as fits your fancy. A 10 percent discount awaits those who purchase in bulk, which adds a tad more incentive to go all-in on the new service.

Filed under: Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, Amazon

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Source: Amazon

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/13/amazon-coins/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Publisher iDreamSky Grosses $5-7M Per Month By Bringing Western Indie Mobile Games To China

China now has more active iOS and Android devices than the U.S., up from about 40-50 million in circulation the last time I visited in late 2011. What that means is local entrepreneurs can finally build scalable mobile software businesses. iDreamSky is one of the companies riding this wave.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/T-6mTmLUToA/

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