Hug It Out: Public Charter and District Schools Given $25 Million to Get Along

If you need a loan, ask Bill and Melinda Gates. Or better yet, ask one of the seven cities that are splitting a new $25 million grant courtesy of the couple’s philanthropic foundation.
The funds are going to promote cross collaboration between charter and district schools, which have previously operated in a strict and contentious independence from one another.
The foundation announced the award this week, and the cities benefiting are Boston, Denver, Hartford (CT), New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia and Spring Branch (TX).
How did they get so lucky? They’re among a group of 16 communities that signed the Gates-sponsored “District-Charter Collaboration Compacts” pledging for an open-source collaboration between public charter and district public schools.
Communication between these two models is unusual to say the least; they’ve had a long and illustrious history of battling each other over tax dollars, students and even building space.
But when charter schools first opened 20 years ago, their original purpose was to create an experimental educational space which would then share its best methods with public district schools. Instead, the two grew into rivals and critics of each are vehemently opposed to the other.
Among the complaints, charter schools are seen as selfishly siphoning off the most motivated students from the district while upholding a rich-poor educational divide and failing to live up to the promise of a better education. Others say its district schools that are the issue for their unionized teacher complacency and a consistent inability to keep a large margin of students from falling through the cracks.
In truth, neither system is a slam-dunk, and both are experiencing closures nationwide due to underperformance.
The goal of the District-Charter Collaboration Compacts is to restore the original relationship of the two camps, effectively establishing a regular protocol of sharing their best practices, innovations and resources.
Don Shalvey, the deputy director at teh Gates Foundation told The New York Times, “It took Microsoft and Apple 10 years to learn to talk. So it’s not surprising that it took a little bit longer for charters and other public schools. It’s pretty clear there is more common ground than battleground.”
But what will this grand collaboration yield? If all goes according to plan, students from both camps will benefit from new teacher effectiveness practices, college-ready tools and supports, and innovative instructional delivery systems.
According to the Gates Foundation, only one-third of students meet the criteria of college ready by the time they graduate. And most of the kids who don’t are often minority students from lower income areas. By creating collaborative aims with charter and district, kids from all over can have access to a wider swath of teaching frameworks and curriculums.

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Composición de un grupo de usuarios OpenNMS independiente; conferencia prevista para marzo 2013

Un grupo de usuarios OpenNMS ha creado la OpenNMS Foundation Europe como organización sin ánimo de lucro para promover la gestión de red en general y la plataforma de gestión de red OpenNMS en particular.
"La OpenNMS Foundation Europe acoge a todos aquellos usuarios de OpenNMS dentro de la comunidad OpenNMS, no solo a aquellos que contribuyen al código. Hemos integrado con éxito a aquellos que contribuyen al código, pero si uno fuese únicamente un usuario satisfecho que deseara compartir con el resto y aprender de ellos, estaríamos mucho peor organizados", ha explicado Alex Finger, presidente de la OpenNMS Foundation Europe. "Ahora disponemos de un lugar en el que reunir a los seguidores de OpenNMS y difundir nuestros conocimientos y experiencia en relación con el producto. Queremos abogar por el open source y enseñar a los demás a utilizar OpenNMS. La fundación es una forma de ampliar esta comunidad". La agenda de la conferencia de usuarios prevista para el año que viene ya está repleta de las historias y experiencias de estos usuarios, y completada por una formación básica y avanzada de la aplicación.
Tarus Balog, CEO del grupo OpenNMS Group (la empresa con ánimo de lucro detrás de OpenNMS), ha declarado: "Una de las plataformas de gestión más exitosa de todos los tiempos fue OpenView, de Hewlett-Packard. En gran medida, este éxito se puede atribuir a la comunidad independiente y activa desarrollada por el grupo de usuarios OpenView Forum. El hecho de que la fundación promueva todavía más OpenNMS y haga hincapié en la naturaleza open source del software nos anima y entusiasma".
La conferencia de usuarios OpenNMS está prevista para la semana del 11 de marzo de 2013, y tendrá lugar en la Universidad de Fulda, Alemania. La información completa sobre dicha conferencia y las oportunidades de patrocinio están disponibles en http://opennms.eu.
ACERCA DE OPENNMS
OpenNMS (www.opennms.org) es la primera plataforma de aplicación de gestión de red de empresa desarrollada siguiendo el modelo open source. Es una alternativa de software totalmente gratuita frente a los productos comerciales como HP Operations Manager, IBM Tivoli, y CA Unicenter.
ACERCA DE LA OPENNMS FOUNDATION
La OpenNMS Foundation Europe (www.opennms.eu) es una organización registrada sin ánimo de lucro de Alemania. La fundación promueve la educación, investigación, defensa e intercambio de conocimientos en torno a la gestión de red con software open source y, específicamente, OpenNMS. Está abierta para aquellas personas y empresas interesadas en formar parte de dicha comunidad.
ACERCA DEL GRUPO OPENNMS
El grupo OpenNMS (www.opennms.com) mantiene el proyecto OpenNMS. Dicho grupo también ofrece asistencia comercial, servicios y formación para la plataforma OpenNMS.
El comunicado en el idioma original, es la versión oficial y autorizada del mismo. La traducción es solamente un medio de ayuda y deberá ser comparada con el texto en idioma original, que es la única versión del texto que tendrá validez legal.

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US designates Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra front a 'terrorist' group at lightning speed

The US State Department designated the Jabhat al-Nusra militia fighting Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria a foreign terrorist organization Monday.
The speed with which the US government moved to designate a fairly new group that has never attacked US interests and is engaged in fighting a regime that successive administrations have demonized is evidence of the strange bedfellows and overlapping agendas that make the Syrian civil war so explosive.
The State Department says Jabhat al-Nusra (or the "Nusra Front") is essentially a wing of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the jihadi group that flourished in Anbar Province after the US invaded to topple the Baathist regime of secular dictator Saddam Hussein. During the Iraq war, Sunni Arab tribesmen living along the Euphrates in eastern Syria flocked to fight with the friends and relatives in the towns along the Euphrates river in Anbar Province.
Think you know the Middle East? Take our geography quiz!
The terrain, both actual and human, is similar on both sides of that border, and the rat lines that kept foreign fighters and money flowing into Iraq from Syria work just as well in reverse. Now, the jihadis who fought and largely lost against the Shiite political ascendancy in Iraq are flocking to eastern Syria to repay a debt of gratitude in a battle that looks more likely to succeed every day.
The Nusra Front has gone from victory to victory in eastern Syria and has shown signs of both significant funding and greater military prowess than the average citizens' militia, with veterans of fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya among its numbers.
The US of course aided the fight in Libya to bring down Muammar Qaddafi. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the chance to fight and kill Americans was the major drawing card.
In Iraq, the US toppled a Baathist dictatorship dominated by Sunni Arabs, opening the door for the political dominance of Iraq's Shiite Arab majority and the fury of the country's Sunni jihadis. In Syria, a Baathist regime dominated by the tiny Alawite sect (a long-ago offshoot of Shiite Islam) risks being brought down by the Sunni majority. Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in the odd position of now rooting for a Baathist regime to survive, frightened that a religiously inspired Sunni regime may replace Assad and potentially destabilize parts of his country from Haditha in Anbar's far west to the northern city of Mosul.
For the US, the situation is more complicated still. The Obama administration appears eager for Assad to fall, but is also afraid of what might replace him, not least because of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile. If the regime collapses, the aftermath is sure to be chaotic, much as it was in Libya, where arms stores were looted throughout the country. The presence of VX and sarin nerve gas, and the fear of Al Qaeda aligned militants getting their hands on it, has the US considering sending in troops to secure the weapons.
That's the context in which today's designation was made – part of an overall effort to shape the Syrian opposition to US liking, and hopefully have influence in the political outcome if and when Assad's regime collapses. But while the US has been trying to find a government or leadership in waiting among Syrian exiles, Nusra has been going from strength to strength. Aaron Zelin, who tracks jihadi groups at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, notes in a recent piece for Foreign Policy that 20 out of the 48 "martyrdom" notices posted on Al Qaeda forums for the Syria war were made by people claiming to be members of Nusra.
Zelin writes that it's highly unusual for the US to designate as a terrorist group anyone who hasn't attempted an attack on the US. In fact, the US only designated the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan, which had been involved in attacks on US troops there for over a decade, this September.
His guess as to why the US took such an unusual step?
The U.S. administration, in designating Jabhat al-Nusra, is likely to argue that the group is an outgrowth of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). While there is not much open-source evidence of this, classified material may offer proof -- and there is certainly circumstantial evidence that Jabhat al-Nusra operates as a branch of the ISI.
Getting Syria's rebels to disavow Jabhat al-Nusra may not be an easy task, however. As in Iraq, jihadists have been some of the most effective and audacious fighters against the Assad regime, garnering respect from other rebel groups in the process. Jabhat al-Nusra seems to have learned from the mistakes of al Qaeda in Iraq: It has not attacked civilians randomly, nor has it shown wanton disregard for human life by publicizing videos showing the beheading of its enemies. Even if its views are extreme, it is getting the benefit of the doubt from other insurgents due to its prowess on the battlefield.
Will it hurt the group's support inside Syria? It's hard to see how. The US hasn't formally explained its logic yet, but it's hard to see how that will matter either. The rebellion against Assad has raged for almost two years now and the country's fighters are eager for victory, and revenge. The US has done little to militarily assist the rebellion, and fighters have been happy to take support where they can get it.
Most of the money or weapons flowing into the country for rebels has come from Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar and some of that support, of course, has ended up in the hands of Islamist militias like Nusra.
Usually the US doesn't like support flowing to its designated terrorist organizations, and leans on countries like Saudi Arabia to cut off support. But in this case, a doctrinaire enforcement of its will could look like helping Assad (who has insisted everyone fighting his government is a terrorist since long before Nusra even existed).
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Campaña en Facebook contra diputado costarricense gana premio internacional

San José, 11 dic (EFE).- Una campaña en la red social Facebook en contra de la designación del diputado cristiano Justo Orozco como presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Congreso en Costa Rica, por sus posiciones en contra de la homosexualidad, ganó el premio Access Innovation Prize 2012.
La agencia costarricense de publicidad en línea BigWebNoise, creadora de la campaña, en la que participaron miles de personas pidiendo la salida de Orozco de la Comisión, informó hoy sobre el galardón y que a partir de ahora trabajará con Access y Facebook en desarrollo de la herramienta a nivel global.
La campaña "Fuera Justo Orozco" fue la ganadora de entre más de 300 postulantes de 66 países.
La "manifestación virtual" FueraJustoOrozco.com inició en junio anterior tras el nombramiento de Orozco como presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica.
Con el lema "si no bastó con la firma, pongamos la cara", la campaña invitó a los ciudadanos a "dar la cara", es decir a colocar su fotografía de perfil de Facebook en un espacio virtual para expresar su descontento por el nombramiento del diputado, que ha generando gran rechazo por sus posiciones abiertamente homofóbicas.
La aplicación alcanzó las primeras 5.000 caras en solo 48 horas y y sumó 14.000 usuarios en los primeros 10 días en línea. También produjo un enorme eco en medios de comunicación locales e internacionales, y una masiva difusión viral en redes sociales.
Esta es la primera vez que una acción costarricense de incidencia civil en línea es reconocida a nivel internacional.
El Access Innovation Prize, entregado el lunes en Nueva York, premia "las mejores ideas y acciones que usen las nuevas tecnologías de información para promover los derechos humanos", de acuerdo con un comunicado de la organización.
"En un país conocido por el respeto a los Derechos Humanos, esta iniciativa movilizó a los ciudadanos para dar la cara contra quien los amenaza", dijo al entregar el premio el gerente de Políticas Públicas de Facebook, Mathew Perault.
Para el director de Estrategia Online de BigWebNoise, Cristian Cambronero, "la frontera entre el mundo desconectado y el conectado cada día es más difusa. Internet ha probado ser una potente herramienta para la participación y la incidencia de los ciudadanos. Es una extensión del espacio público".
El jurado para este premio estuvo integrado por expertos en comunicación, innovación, derecho y emprendimiento como el consejero general de Twitter, Alex MacGillivray; el exCEO de Mozilla John Lilly y el vicepresidente de Comunicación y Políticas Públicas de Facebook, Elliot Schrage.
El premio otorga un reconocimiento económico de 20.000 dólares para garantizar la sostenibilidad del proyecto galardonado, pero además, los costarricenses trabajarán ahora junto a Access y Facebook en una segunda etapa que consiste en convertir la aplicación usada en FueraJustoOrozco.com en una herramienta "open-source" que pueda ser utilizada para causas sociales y de defensa de los Derechos Humanos en cualquier lugar del mundo. EFE

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T-Mobile to Offer Cheapest iPhone 5 in 2013

T-Mobile, the smallest of the "big four" wireless carries in the United States, already offers the country's cheapest iPhone service -- if you have an unlocked iPhone. And according to Engadget's Brad Molen, more than a million unlocked iPhones are on T-Mobile's network already.
Now, T-Mobile has announced that it will "add Apple products to its portfolio in the coming year," according to parent company Deutsche Telekom AG. And while that could mean anything from the new iPad Mini to an as-yet-unreleased Apple product of some kind, many expect T-Mobile to finally get the iPhone, making it the last major carrier in the United States to get it.
If T-Mobile does, and it continues to offer its $30 "Unlimited Web & Text with 100 Minutes" plan, that may make T-Mobile's iPhone the cheapest one out there -- even if it costs hundreds of dollars more up front than on AT&T.
Subsidies aren't just for big corporations
Most of the big-name wireless carriers in the United States offer what are called "subsidized" smartphones, meaning you don't pay their whole cost up front. Instead, you pay a discounted price (which can be as little as $0.01), but are locked into a wireless contract for up to 2 years. Wireless customers who switch before their contract is up have to pay an "early termination fee," which can go over and above the actual cost of the smartphone.
Buy now, save later
With prepaid smartphone plans, on the other hand, you pay the whole cost of the phone up front and afterward it's yours to keep (whether its SIM card is locked into one network or not). And with the announcement that T-Mobile is going prepaid-only starting next year, that means any iPhone the company carries will be of the unsubsidized variety.
Apple currently sells the 16 GB iPhone 5 for $649, contract-free, on its website. It also sells the 16 GB iPhone 4S for $549, however, while contract-free carrier Virgin Mobile sells the same phone unsubsidized for $449 with a $35 per month data plan -- not too much more expensive than T-Mobile's.
Lessons of the past​
It's hard to say how much T-Mobile would offer an iPhone 5 for if the device landed on its network. Virgin Mobile started out charging more up front and offering a $30 plan, while Cricket currently sells the contract-free iPhone 5 for $499 but its service starts at $55.
Assuming T-Mobile continues to offer its current "web exclusive" $30 unlimited plan for a hypothetical iPhone 5 on its network, it's not likely to be discounted much if at all from Apple's asking price. Just paying for 5 GBs of data per month from AT&T would cost $1,200 over 2 years, however, plus the $199 cost of a subsidized iPhone (and you have to pay for voice minutes and texting on top of that). Meanwhile, it's possible right now to buy an unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple and get 2 years of T-Mobile's $30 service for $1,369. That includes 5 GBs of data before connection speed throttling, plus unlimited texting and 100 voice minutes per month.
​Looking to the future
T-Mobile offers the cheapest iPhone 5 service right now. And if the "Apple products" T-Mobile is getting next year include the iPhone 5, T-Mobile customers may see even better offerings coming their way in the near future.

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New York City faces $811 million budget gap in FY 2014: report

 New York City faces an $811 million budget shortfall in fiscal year 2014 and lowered revenue projections in part because of Superstorm Sandy, the city's Independent Budget Office said on Thursday.
The city's tax revenue collections are likely to grow by just 3.4 percent in fiscal 2014 to $44.8 billion. That figure is $347 million lower than the IBO projected in May, it said.
The dimmer outlook is due to slower expected economic growth, particularly in the banking and securities industries, the IBO said. Near-term losses from Sandy, which ripped into the East Coast on October 29, also dampened projections for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2013.
In June, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council agreed on a $68.5 billion fiscal 2013 budget that spared 20 fire companies from closing and increased funding for day-care and after-school programs.
To close the projected budget gap, the city is likely to cut spending further and raise fees and fines, among other measures, according to a financial plan proposed by Bloomberg in November.
That plan includes cutting 1,340 jobs through 2014, mostly through attrition, the IBO said.
The city also expects to save $230 million in 2014 by borrowing and refinancing outstanding bonds at low interest rates.
GAP IS SMALL, BUT LABOR PROBLEMS LOOM
Even so, the gap -- which amounts to 1.6 percent of projected revenues -- is small enough to be closed largely through normal year-end accounting procedures, said IBO head Ronnie Lowenstein.
The city has not set aside money for a possible settlement in ongoing negotiations with organized labor, she said.
"There is, at this point, no money set aside in the city's labor reserve to pay retroactive wage and salary increases," she said.
Nearly all of the city's unions have been working without a current contract. The teachers' contract ran out in October 2009.
Under one settlement scenario, the city could owe wages and back pay of more than $5 billion through June 2013, the IBO's report said.
STORM COSTS UNCERTAIN
Before Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast, the IBO forecast the gross city product to grow at an annualized rate of 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013.
Now, the city's economic output is likely to shrink by 1.0 percent at the end of 2012 and rebound with growth of 1.9 percent in the beginning of 2013 as storm victims repair homes and businesses, the IBO said.
It said Wall Street's importance as an economic driver for the city is expected to continue waning, as it has since the recession.
The financial sector will account for 26.1 percent of aggregate wage growth during from 2013 to 2016 -- compared to pre-recession levels of nearly 60 percent.
Yet New York City could be on track to gain nearly 480,000 payroll jobs from the end of 2009 through late 2016, which would be the greatest employment expansion since 1950, the IBO said.
Medicaid and public pensions cost increases are expected to slow. But spending on debt service payments and health and other benefits will rise, the IBO said.
The city's general obligation bonds are rated AA by Fitch Ratings and Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service.

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House Republicans say resigned to tax hike in fiscal cliff

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are resigned to seeing some sort of income tax increase in legislation to avoid a "fiscal cliff," but such efforts could be doomed in the absence of spending cuts, some Republican lawmakers say.
Congress and President Barack Obama are gearing up for a last-ditch attempt to avoid $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that could halt progress in the U.S. economy, which lately has been showing signs of gaining ground.
The White House said Obama will host a meeting on Friday with the four top congressional leaders - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Republicans have a majority in the House, while Obama's Democrats control the Senate.
House Speaker John Boehner informed his 241 Republican members on Thursday that the House would come back into session late on Sunday in anticipation of possible fiscal-cliff votes.
This Sunday's session "was about the only thing decided" during a half-hour conference call among House Republicans, said Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona, who will leave the House at the year-end to join the Senate.
In an interview shortly after the phone call, Flake said Republicans in the House and Senate were resigned to seeing some sort of increase in top income-tax rates, although he did not specify a dollar threshold.
While he said he did not want to see any income tax rates go up, Flake said: "I've felt we should've moved a week or two ago to accept the top rate going up and tell the president 'congratulations.'"
The bigger problem in avoiding the fiscal cliff, Flake said, would be if Obama demanded cancellation of the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts set to begin on January 2 without alternative spending cuts to replace them.
"There will be resistance from a lot of House conservatives to a deal that does that," Flake said.
Asked if the days leading up to next Monday, December 31 could thus be fruitless, Flake said, "That is what I am afraid of."
A Senate Democratic aide did not discount the possibility of some spending cuts being included in a limited bill to avert the fiscal cliff - even if they fell far short of the $1 trillion or so in cuts over 10 years that at one point was being discussed in talks between Boehner and Obama.
'TIRED OF WAITING'
Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who also participated in Thursday's House Republican conference call, said its overarching theme was that the Senate should take the bill passed by the House earlier this year to extend all expiring income tax rates and amend it in a way senators see fit.
The House could then either accept that measure, or amend it, and bounce it back to the Senate.
"People are tired of waiting on the Senate to do things," Cole said.
Senate Democrats counter that last July they passed a bill extending the Bush-era tax cuts - except on net household income above $250,000 a year.
Nevertheless, the Senate must still couple its tax-cut bill with Obama's request for extending jobless benefits and possibly some other budget or tax measures.
"I assume the House would want to come back on Sunday knowing that we (the Senate) were going to do something on Friday or Saturday," said Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Senate's Republican leadership.
House Republican leaders informed their members that the chamber could stay in session dealing with the fiscal cliff through Wednesday, January 2 - the last day of the current Congress and a day before the new Congress is sworn in.
Cole said Boehner "made very apparent he is not interested in passing a bill that didn't have a majority of Republicans" supporting it.
But Cole said this was "not quite as elusive to achieve" as many people thought. He said Boehner had "over 200 votes" out of 241 Republicans for his failed "Plan B" - a bill extending lower tax rates except for millionaires - which everyone knew would not become law.
Thus, a bill with prospects of being enacted could attract more support, Cole suggested.
If a new bill came to the House floor to raise taxes on upper incomes, Boehner could force passage with a combination of Democratic and Republican votes.
With public opinion polls showing that Republicans would get most of the blame if the country were to go over the fiscal cliff, some House Republicans have become nervous about their political fortunes.
Both Flake and Cole told Reuters that during Thursday's conference call, some Republicans urged Boehner to bring the House back to Washington sooner than Sunday - a request Flake described as being aimed at improving the "optics" of House Republicans being absent from Washington so close to the December 31 deadline.
But Boehner stuck with his promise to give members at least 48 hours notice of a return.
Cole remained upbeat about a positive end to the fiscal-cliff mess that has gripped Washington for two months now.

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French government says will propose a rejigged 75 percent tax plan

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government will redraft a proposal for a 75 percent upper income tax band and resubmit it, the prime minister's office said on Saturday, after the Constitutional Council rejected the measure included in the 2013 budget.
"It will be presented as part of the next budget law," Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's office said in a statement, without giving a time frame. The statement said the Council's rejection of the 75 percent tax would not affect efforts to trim the public deficit.

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French court rejects 75 percent millionaires' tax

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75 percent upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013 in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit.
The Council ruled that the planned 75 percent tax on annual income above 1 million euros ($1.32 million) - a flagship measure of Hollande's election campaign - was unfair in the way it would be applied to different households.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government would redraft the upper tax rate proposal to answer the Council's concerns and resubmit it in a new budget law, meaning Saturday's decision could only amount to a temporary political blow.
While the tax plan was largely symbolic and would only have affected a few thousand people, it has infuriated high earners in France, prompting some such as actor Gerard Depardieu to flee abroad. The message it sent also shocked entrepreneurs and foreign investors, who accuse Hollande of being anti-business.
Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said the rejection of the 75 percent tax and other minor measures could cut up to 500 million euros in forecast tax revenues but would not hurt efforts to slash the public deficit to below a European Union ceiling of 3 percent of economic output next year.
"The rejected measures represent 300 to 500 million euros. Our deficit-cutting path will not be affected," Moscovici told BFM television. He too said the government would resubmit a proposal to raise taxes on high incomes in 2013 and 2014.
The Council, made up of nine judges and three former presidents, is concerned the tax would hit a married couple where one partner earned above a million euros but it would not affect a couple where each earned just under a million euros.
UMP member Gilles Carrez, chairman of the National Assembly's finance commission, told BFM television, however, that the Council's so-called wise men also felt the 75 percent tax was excessive and too much based on ideology.
FRANCE UNDER SCRUTINY
Hollande shocked many by announcing his 75 percent tax proposal out of the blue several weeks into a campaign that some felt was flagging. Left-wing voters were cheered by it but business leaders warned that talent would flee the country.
Set to be a temporary measure until France is out of economic crisis, the few hundred million euros a year the tax was set to raise is a not insignificant sum as the government strives to boost public finances in the face of stalled growth.
Hollande's 2013 budget calls for the biggest belt-tightening effort France has seen in decades and is based on a growth target of 0.8 percent, a level analysts view as over-optimistic.
Fitch Ratings this month affirmed its triple-A rating on France but said there was no room for slippage. Standard & Poor's and Moody's have both stripped Europe's No. 2 economy of its AAA badge due to concern over strained public finances and stalled growth.
The International Monetary Fund recently forecast that France will miss its 3 percent deficit target next year and signs are growing that Paris could negotiate some leeway on the timing of that goal with its EU partners.
The INSEE national statistics institute this week scaled back its reading of a return to growth in the third quarter to 0.1 percent from 0.2 percent, and the government said it could review its 2013 outlook in the next few months.
Saturday's decision was in response to a motion by the opposition conservative UMP party, whose weight in fighting Hollande's policies has been reduced by a leadership crisis that has split it in two seven months after it lost power.
The Constitutional Council is a politically independent body that rules on whether laws, elections and referenda are constitutional.

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Rejected French tax measures worth 300-500 million euros: finance minister

PARIS (Reuters) - The French Constitutional Council's rejection on Saturday of a 75 percent upper income tax rate and other minor measures in the 2013 budget will affect some 300-500 million euros worth of tax revenues, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said.
"The rejected measures represent 300 to 500 million euros. Our deficit-cutting path will not be affected," Moscovici told BFM television.
He added that the Socialist government would resubmit a proposal to raise taxes on high incomes in 2013 and 2014.

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Campaña en Facebook contra diputado costarricense gana premio internacional

San José, 11 dic (EFE).- Una campaña en la red social Facebook en contra de la designación del diputado cristiano Justo Orozco como presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Congreso en Costa Rica, por sus posiciones en contra de la homosexualidad, ganó el premio Access Innovation Prize 2012.
La agencia costarricense de publicidad en línea BigWebNoise, creadora de la campaña, en la que participaron miles de personas pidiendo la salida de Orozco de la Comisión, informó hoy sobre el galardón y que a partir de ahora trabajará con Access y Facebook en desarrollo de la herramienta a nivel global.
La campaña "Fuera Justo Orozco" fue la ganadora de entre más de 300 postulantes de 66 países.
La "manifestación virtual" FueraJustoOrozco.com inició en junio anterior tras el nombramiento de Orozco como presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica.
Con el lema "si no bastó con la firma, pongamos la cara", la campaña invitó a los ciudadanos a "dar la cara", es decir a colocar su fotografía de perfil de Facebook en un espacio virtual para expresar su descontento por el nombramiento del diputado, que ha generando gran rechazo por sus posiciones abiertamente homofóbicas.
La aplicación alcanzó las primeras 5.000 caras en solo 48 horas y y sumó 14.000 usuarios en los primeros 10 días en línea. También produjo un enorme eco en medios de comunicación locales e internacionales, y una masiva difusión viral en redes sociales.
Esta es la primera vez que una acción costarricense de incidencia civil en línea es reconocida a nivel internacional.
El Access Innovation Prize, entregado el lunes en Nueva York, premia "las mejores ideas y acciones que usen las nuevas tecnologías de información para promover los derechos humanos", de acuerdo con un comunicado de la organización.
"En un país conocido por el respeto a los Derechos Humanos, esta iniciativa movilizó a los ciudadanos para dar la cara contra quien los amenaza", dijo al entregar el premio el gerente de Políticas Públicas de Facebook, Mathew Perault.
Para el director de Estrategia Online de BigWebNoise, Cristian Cambronero, "la frontera entre el mundo desconectado y el conectado cada día es más difusa. Internet ha probado ser una potente herramienta para la participación y la incidencia de los ciudadanos. Es una extensión del espacio público".
El jurado para este premio estuvo integrado por expertos en comunicación, innovación, derecho y emprendimiento como el consejero general de Twitter, Alex MacGillivray; el exCEO de Mozilla John Lilly y el vicepresidente de Comunicación y Políticas Públicas de Facebook, Elliot Schrage.
El premio otorga un reconocimiento económico de 20.000 dólares para garantizar la sostenibilidad del proyecto galardonado, pero además, los costarricenses trabajarán ahora junto a Access y Facebook en una segunda etapa que consiste en convertir la aplicación usada en FueraJustoOrozco.com en una herramienta "open-source" que pueda ser utilizada para causas sociales y de defensa de los Derechos Humanos en cualquier lugar del mundo. EFE

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Samsung Galaxy Muse is like an iPod Shuffle that Syncs with Your Phone

In perhaps the most awkwardly titled tech press release ever, Samsung Mobile announced the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy Muse, a device which appears to have nothing to do with "CORRECTING and REPLACING and ADDING MULTIMEDIA" but everything to do with being a music player crossed with a smartphone accessory.
​Say goodbye to iTunes?
While most handheld music players (and smartphone or tablets with music apps) sync with a PC or Mac music app, like iTunes or Banshee, the Samsung Galaxy Muse syncs with your Android phone itself. It uses the Muse Sync app, which Google Play says will install on devices like the Nexus 7 tablet but which Samsung says will only work with the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note II smartphones.
​Plug it in, turn it on
The pebble-shaped Muse connects to your Samsung phone via its headset jack. It doesn't have a screen, so you have to control it iPod Shuffle style, and use the Muse Sync app to see how much of its 4 GB of space are free and decide which playlists to sync. Since it only has those 4 GB, it can only hold a fraction of the music that can be put on the much more powerful smartphones.
​Who is Samsung selling the Galaxy Muse to?
Samsung says "users can sync the songs they want and leave their phone behind," the usefulness of which may depend on whether or not you feel limited by having to bring your smartphone with you. The press release mentions its "wearable design and small form factor," and suggests taking it "in place of [your] smartphone ... at the gym or on the go."
​What other gadgets are like the Galaxy Muse?
The most obvious comparison is to the iPod Shuffle, Apple's similarly tiny and screen-less portable music player. At $49, it costs the same as the Galaxy Muse (although a Droid-Life tipster found a $25 off coupon code for the Muse), but comes in seven different colors and has an embossed click-wheel controller instead of a flat and featureless surface. It requires you to use iTunes on a desktop PC or Mac, though.
​On the upside
The Galaxy Muse's six hours of battery life may not be suitable for all-day listening, but may at least take the pressure off of a battery-hungry smartphone (so long as it's one of Samsung's flagship models). And as PCMag's Chloe Albanesius notes, "it's not very convenient to strap a 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II to your arm when you hit the gym."
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Facebook, Google tell the government to stop granting patents for abstract ideas

Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG) and six other tech companies have petitioned the courts to begin rejecting lawsuits that are based on patents for vague concepts rather than specific applications, TechCrunch reported. The agreement, which was cosigned by Zynga (ZNGA), Dell (DELL), Intuit (INTU), Homeaway (AWAY), Rackspace (RAX), and Red Hat (RHT), notes the only thing these abstract patents do is increase legal fees and slow innovation in the industry. The companies claim that “abstract patents are a plague in the high tech sector” and force innovators into litigation that results in huge settlements or steep licensing fees for technology they have already developed on their own, which then leads to higher prices for consumers.
“Many computer-related patent claims just describe an abstract idea at a high level of generality and say to perform it on a computer or over the Internet,” the briefing reads. “Such barebones claims grant exclusive rights over the abstract idea itself, with no limit on how the idea is implemented. Granting patent protection for such claims would impair, not promote, innovation by conferring exclusive rights on those who have not meaningfully innovated, and thereby penalizing those that do later innovate by blocking or taxing their applications of the abstract idea.”
The companies conclude, “It is easy to think of abstract ideas about what a computer or website should do, but the difficult, valuable, and often groundbreaking part of online innovation comes next: designing, analyzing, building, and deploying the interface, software, and hardware to implement that idea in a way that is useful in daily life. Simply put, ideas are much easier to come by than working implementations.”

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Verizon Offering $5 Shared 4G Plan for Samsung Galaxy Camera

Imagine the powerful Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, except that it can't make phone calls and its backplate has been replaced by a digital camera -- handgrip, zoom lens, and all. That's basically the Samsung Galaxy Camera in a nutshell, and whether it's a small, awkwardly-shaped Android tablet or a digital camera that you can play Modern Combat 3 on depends on how you look at it.
When the Galaxy Camera launched last month, it was only available in white, and cost $499 on AT&T's network with a month-to-month data plan. But on Dec. 13, it launches on Verizon's network, in both white and black. The Verizon Galaxy Camera costs $50 more up front, but in return it has 4G LTE instead of HSPA+, and Verizon is offering a "promotional price" for the monthly charge: Only $5 to add it to a Share Everything plan, instead of the usual $10 tablet rate.
A 4G digital camera
While it's capable of functioning as an Android tablet (or game machine), the biggest reason for the Samsung Galaxy Camera's 4G wireless Internet is so it can automatically upload photos it takes. Apps such as Dropbox, Photobucket, and Ubuntu One offer a limited amount of online storage space for free, where the Galaxy Camera can save photos without anyone needing to tell it to. Those photos can then be accessed at home, or on a tablet or laptop.
Most smartphones are able to do this already, but few (with the possible exception of the Windows Phone powered Nokia Lumia 920) are able to take photos as high-quality as the Galaxy Camera's.
Not as good of a deal as it sounds
Dropbox is offering two years' worth of 50 GB of free online storage space for photos and videos, to anyone who buys a Samsung Galaxy Camera from AT&T or Verizon. (The regular free plan is only 2 GB.)
The problem is, you may need that much space. The photos taken by the Galaxy Camera's 16 megapixel sensor take up a lot more space, at maximum resolution, than ordinary smartphone snapshots do. Those camera uploads can eat through a shared data plan, and with Verizon charging a $15 per GB overage fee (plus the $50 extra up-front on top of what AT&T charges) it may make up for the cheaper monthly cost.
On top of that, the Galaxy Camera's photos are basically on par with a $199 digital camera's -- you pay a large premium to combine that kind of point-and-shoot with the hardware equivalent of a high-end smartphone.
It does run Android, though, right?
The Galaxy Camera uses Samsung's custom software for its camera app, and lacks a normal phone dialer app. Beyond that, though, it runs the same Android operating system found on smartphones, and can run all the same games and apps.
Some apps don't work the same on the Galaxy Camera as they do on a smartphone, however. Apps which only run in portrait mode, for instance, require you to hold the camera sideways to use them (especially unpleasant when they're camera apps). And while it can make voice and even video calls over Skype, it lacks a rear-facing camera or the kind of speaker you hold up close to your ear. So you may end up making speakerphone calls and filming the palm of your hand.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Selling flak jackets in the cyberwars

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When the Israeli army and Hamas trade virtual blows in cyberspace, or when hacker groups like Anonymous rise from the digital ether, or when WikiLeaks dumps a trove of classified documents, some see a lawless Internet.
But Matthew Prince, chief executive at CloudFlare, a little-known Internet start-up that serves some of the Web's most controversial characters, sees a business opportunity.
Founded in 2010, CloudFlare markets itself as an Internet intermediary that shields websites from distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks, the crude but effective weapon that hackers use to bludgeon websites until they go dark. The 40-person company claims to route up to 5 percent of all Internet traffic through its global network.
Prince calls his company the "Switzerland" of cyberspace - assiduously neutral and open to all comers. But just as companies like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have faced profound questions about the balance between free speech and openness on the Internet and national security and law enforcement concerns, CloudFlare's business has posed another thorny question: what kinds of services, if any, should an American company be allowed to offer designated terrorists and cyber criminals?
CloudFlare's unusual position at the heart of this debate came to the fore last month, when the Israel Defense Forces sought help from CloudFlare after its website was struck by attackers based in Gaza. The IDF was turning to the same company that provides those services to Hamas and the al-Quds Brigades, according to publicly searchable domain information. Both Hamas and al-Quds, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are designated by the United States as terrorist groups.
Under the USA Patriot Act, U.S. firms are forbidden from providing "material support" to groups deemed foreign terrorist organizations. But what constitutes material support - like many other facets of the law itself - has been subject to intense debate.
CloudFlare's dealings have attracted heated criticism in the blogosphere from both Israelis and Palestinians, but Prince defended his company as a champion of free speech.
"Both sides have an absolute right to tell their story," said Prince, a 38-year old former lawyer. "We're not providing material support for anybody. We're not sending money, or helping people arm themselves."
Prince noted that his company only provides defensive capabilities that enable websites to stay online.
"We can't be sitting in a role where we decide what is good or what is bad based on our own personal biases," he said. "That's a huge slippery slope."
Many U.S. agencies are customers, but so is WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing organization. CloudFlare has consulted for many Wall Street institutions, yet also protects Anonymous, the "hacktivist" group associated with the Occupy movement.
Prince's stance could be tested at a time when some lawmakers in the United States and Europe, armed with evidence that militant groups rely on the Web for critical operations and recruitment purposes, have pressured Internet companies to censor content or cut off customers.
Last month, conservative political lobbies, as well as seven lawmakers led by Ted Poe, a Republican from Texas, urged the FBI to shut down the Hamas Twitter account. The account remains active; Twitter declined to comment.
MATERIAL SUPPORT
Although it has never prosecuted an Internet company under the Patriot Act, the government's use of the material support argument has steadily risen since 2006. Since September 11, 2001, more than 260 cases have been charged under the provision, according to Fordham Law School's Terrorism Trends database.
Catherine Lotrionte, the director of Georgetown University's Institute for Law, Science and Global Security and a former Central Intelligence Agency lawyer, argued that Internet companies should be more closely regulated.
"Material support includes web services," Lotrionte said. "Denying them services makes it more costly for the terrorists. You're cornering them."
But others have warned that an aggressive government approach would have a chilling effect on free speech.
"We're resurrecting the kind of broad-brush approaches we used in the McCarthy era," said David Cole, who represented the Humanitarian Law Project, a non-profit organization that was charged by the Justice Department for teaching law to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is designated by the United States as a terrorist group. The group took its case to the Supreme Court but lost in 2010.
The material support law is vague and ill-crafted, to the point where basic telecom providers, for instance, could be found guilty by association if a terrorist logs onto the Web to plot an attack, Cole said.
In that case, he asked, "Do we really think that AT&T or Google should be held accountable?"
CloudFlare said it has not been contacted about its services by the U.S. government. Spokespeople for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, told Reuters they contracted a cyber-security company in Gaza that out-sources work to foreign companies, but declined to comment further. The IDF confirmed it had hired CloudFlare, but declined to discuss "internal security" matters.
CloudFlare offers many of its services for free, but the company says websites seeking advanced protection and features can see their bill rise to more than $3,000 a month. Prince declined to discuss the business arrangements with specific customers.
While not yet profitable, CloudFlare has more than doubled its revenue in the past four months, according to Prince, and is picking up 3,000 new customers a day. The company has raked in more than $22 million from venture capital firms including New Enterprise Associates, Venrock and Pelion Venture Partners.
Prince, a Midwestern native with mussed brown hair who holds a law degree from the University of Chicago, said he has a track record of working on the right side of the law.
A decade ago, Prince provided free legal aid to Spamhaus, an international group that tracked email spammers and identity thieves. He went on to create Project Honey Pot, an open source spam-tracking endeavor that turned over findings to police.
Prince's latest company, CloudFlare, has been hailed by groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists for protecting speech. Another client, the World Economic Forum, named CloudFlare among its 2012 "technology pioneers" for its work. But it also owes its profile to its most controversial customers.
CloudFlare has served 4Chan, the online messaging community that spawned Anonymous. LulzSec, the hacker group best known for targeting Sony Corp, is another customer. And since last May, the company has propped up WikiLeaks after a vigilante hacker group crashed the document repository.
Last year, members of the hacker collective UgNazi, whose exploits include pilfering user account information from eBay and crashing the CIA.gov website, broke into Prince's cell phone and email accounts.
"It was a personal affront," Prince said. "But we never kicked them off either."
Prince said CloudFlare would comply with a valid court order to remove a customer, but that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has never requested a takedown. The company has agreed to turn over information to authorities on "exceedingly rare" occasions, he acknowledged, declining to elaborate.
"Any company that doesn't do that won't be in business long," Prince said. But in an email, he added: "We have a deep and abiding respect for our users' privacy, disclose to our users whenever possible if we are ordered to turn over information and would fight an order that we believed was not proper."
Juliannne Sohn, an FBI spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department lawyer who prosecuted computer crimes, said U.S. law enforcement agencies may in fact prefer that the Web's most wanted are parked behind CloudFlare rather than a foreign service over which they have no jurisdiction.
Federal investigators "want to gather information from as many sources as they can, and they're happy to get it," Sussmann said.
In an era of rampant cyber warfare, Prince acknowledged he is something of a war profiteer, but with a wrinkle.

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New exhibition explores our love and hate of money

 How does money make you feel? Fearful, stressed, happy?
U.S. financial guru Suze Orman has teamed with the producer of the popular Body Worlds exhibits for a new traveling show to look at how we relate to and understand money.
Orman, media star and author of best-selling books on personal finance, described the finance-themed exhibit as "an extension of my life's work as a financial educator, and an innovative way to teach people about money".
The interactive, multi-media exhibit, "Economia: Money Matters," will begin a five-year, nationwide tour in the fall of next year, starting in Chicago. The admission-charging show will move on to other venues that include science and natural history museums.
Gail Vida Hamburg, who designed and developed the exhibition, said she hit on the idea several years ago.
"I found a study about worry, stress and depression and their links to money or rather the lack of money ... I realized that I could synthesize all of this information into a designed exhibition with multimedia and interactives (displays)," said Hamburg, who designed the Body Worlds traveling exhibition of preserved human corpses that has toured Europe, North America and Asia.
The Money Matters exhibit spans 7,000 square feet with galleries on phases of life ranging from College Road to Third Phase, or retirement. It aims to meet national and state financial literacy goals for children and adults.
Hamburg, who founded museum exhibit firm Rainworks Omnimedia in 2010, believes the show's appeal is universal because money is something that everyone has a relationship with throughout life.
Orman has described the show as a walk through the life of money, and the effect it can have on you.
"It will be entertaining," she said in a statement, "and when you're having fun learning, the lessons stay with you."
Hamburg said she addressed finance's fear factor by engaging people with various exhibits and displays.
"How do you make it easy for visitors to understand the power of compounding?" she asked, adding that it has traditionally been taught with graphs or charts or calculators.
She decided to approach it differently using visitor prompts, and entry into a computer terminal and to show the results through the growth of actual physical objects.
"We should all be so smart with money and channel our inner Suze Orman. But we're not and we don't. Unless you're an MBA or an economist or a freak, you don't want to read about SEP-IRA or social security or student loan interest rates."
The goal of the exhibition "is to give visitors the tools and resources for financial self actualization," she added.

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Analysis: Mortgage demand too much for U.S. banks, who respond slowly

Big U.S. banks are hiring mortgage bankers to meet a surge in demand for home loans and refinancings, but they are still struggling to process applications, which could undermine the Federal Reserve's attempts to stimulate the economy.
Since the Fed announced its plan in September to buy up to $40 billion of mortgages a month, consumer mortgage rates have fallen more slowly and by less than they would have done in more normal times.
On average, 30-year home loan rates are down just 0.18 of a percentage point this week from September 13, when the Fed announced its latest stimulus program. Some analysts estimate that in more normal markets, rates would have fallen by roughly 0.31 of a percentage point or more. That could save a home buyer thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a mortgage.
The dysfunction in the mortgage market, which has yet to fully recover after its battering in the U.S. housing bust and subsequent financial crisis, means most benefits from the Fed's new stimulus plan may be accruing to banks instead of consumers.
Banks still committed to the home loan business are hiring to meet increased demand, but fewer banks are committed to the business after the 2007-2009 mortgage crisis pulverized some of the biggest lenders in the United States and wounded many others.
Capacity constraints work in the banks' favor. Profit margins for home lending are more than double their usual level, JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon told investors last Friday. The major U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc, all said mortgage operations boosted third-quarter profits.
Lenders making mortgages say they do not want to hire too many staffers only to lay them off when volume declines. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that banks will make $1.47 trillion of home loans this year for home purchases and refinancings, but then just $1.04 trillion in 2013, a decline of nearly a third.
"We are trying to ... not over hire," Andy Cecere, chief financial officer at U.S. Bancorp, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Top U.S. mortgage lender Wells Fargo added about 2,000 people in the third quarter as volume surged. Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan said in an interview the bank is responding to the impact of the Fed's plan. Chase has increased its number of loan officers by 23 percent over the last year, and expects to keep hiring aggressively, said Kevin Watters, head of mortgage originations at JP Morgan Chase.
But mortgage applications are also jumping, rising nearly 17 percent in the week ended September 28. With demand that strong and no staffers to handle extra business, banks have little reason to cut rates much. In a speech on Monday, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley acknowledged that difficulty, noting the Fed's efforts to stimulate the economy in recent years would have had a bigger economic impact if consumer mortgage rates were falling more.
Bank staffing issues are a headache for mortgage applicants already struggling with tough appraisals and wary lenders. Many borrowers tell Kafka-esque stories of bureaucracy, where what used to be a 30- to 60-day process has stretched to 90 days or more.
PROFIT BONANZA
The mortgage business has grown much more concentrated. The top two mortgage lenders made 14 percent of mortgage loans in 2000, 29 percent of mortgages in 2006, and 44 percent in the first half of 2012, according to Inside Mortgage Finance data.
Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are the top two lenders now, and their predecessor companies were the top in 2000.
In 2006, Countrywide Financial Corp - now owned by Bank of America Corp - and Wells were the top. Bank of America last year stopped buying loans from other banks after suffering billions of dollars of losses from its exposure to home loans, which has cut its volume in half and limited smaller banks' capacity to lend.
Bankers are unsure how long the refinancing bonanza will last.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon told investors the mortgage boom will continue "next quarter, maybe for a couple of quarters after that but it won't last for that much longer."
Citigroup Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach told investors on Monday that figuring out how long the refinancing boom will last is "one of the big questions facing a lot of institutions at this point in time."
Smaller banks are struggling with the same questions.
Matt Williams, president of Gothenburg State Bank in Gothenburg, Nebraska, and incoming chairman of the American Bankers Association, said his bank was not adding staff even though its 28 employees were "stressed to the max right now."
Williams said his bank, with $125 million in assets, expects rates eventually will go up, cutting demand for refinancing.
Mortgage demand was rising even before the Fed announced its latest plan to buy home loans, but that announcement immediately lowered bank funding costs. The effect on bank revenues will take longer to show up, because it takes months to process and close mortgage applications.
For consumers, capacity constraints among mortgage lenders mean rates are not falling as much as they theoretically could.
The average 30-year consumer mortgage rate was 3.37 percent, Freddie Mac said on Thursday - about 1.13 percentage points higher than rates investors in mortgage bonds would accept, as measured by the "secondary rate" for mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae.
In the second half of 2011, the gap between consumer mortgage rates and the secondary rate averaged closer to about 0.9 percentage point, suggesting lenders could cut rates another 0.23 point. However, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae boosted fees for guarantees by 0.1 of a percentage point in August, meaning the difference may be only about 0.13 of a percentage point.

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US rate on 30-year mortgage rises to 3.41 pct.

Average U.S. mortgage rates rose only slightly this week and continued to hover near record lows, a trend that has helped boost home sales and refinancing.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage edged up to 3.41 percent, from 3.37 last week. Three weeks ago, the rate touched 3.36 percent. That's the lowest level on records dating to 1971.
The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, often used for refinancing, rose to 2.72 percent. That's up from last week's record low of 2.66 percent.
The rate on the 30-year loan has remained below 4 percent all year, helping drive a modest housing recovery. And rates have fallen even further since the Federal Reserve started buying mortgage bonds in September to try to encourage more borrowing and spending.
Home sales have increased from last year, and prices are rising more consistently in most areas. Builders are more confident and starting more homes. Lower rates have also persuaded more people to refinance. That typically leads to lower monthly mortgage payments and more spending.
This week brought more positive news on the housing front. U.S. sales of new homes jumped last month to the highest level in more than two years, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. And slightly more Americans signed contracts last month to buy homes, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.
Still, the housing market has a long way to a full recovery. And many people are unable to take advantage of the low rates, either because they can't qualify for stricter lending rules or they lack the money to meet larger down payment requirements.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also held steady, at 0.6 point.
The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage slipped to 2.59 percent from 2.60 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans remained at 0.4 point.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage was unchanged at 2.75 percent. The fee also was unchanged, at 0.6 point.

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US home sales rise 2.1 percent in October

U.S. sales of previously occupied homes rose solidly in October, helped by improvement in the job market and record-low mortgage rates.
The increase along with a jump in homebuilder confidence this month suggests the housing market continues to recover.
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales rose 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million. That's up from 4.69 million in September, which was revised lower.
The sales pace is roughly 11 percent higher than a year ago. But it remains below the more than 5.5 million that economists consider consistent with a healthy market.
As the economy slowly recovers, more people have started looking to buy homes or rent apartments. Prices are steadily climbing, while mortgage rates have been low all year. At the same time, rents are rising, making the purchase of a single-family home or condominium more attractive.
"Altogether, the report is encouraging," said Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital. "Our view is that housing is in a recovery phase," he added, though it will be restrained by limited credit and modest job gains.
A separate report Monday showed confidence among homebuilders rose this month to its highest level in six and a half years. The increase was driven by strong demand for newly built homes and growing optimism about conditions next year.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index increased to 46, up from 41 in October. Readings below 50 suggest negative sentiment about the housing market. The index last reached that level in April 2006. Still, the index has been trending higher since October 2011, when it stood at 17.
The Realtors' group said Superstorm Sandy delayed some sales of previously occupied homes in the Northeast. Sales fell 1.7 percent there, the only region to show a decline. Those sales will likely be completed in future months, the group said.
The median price for previously occupied homes increased 11.1 percent from a year ago to $178,600, the Realtors' said.
A decline in the number of homes available for sale is helping push prices higher. There were only 2.14 million homes available for sale at the end of the month, the lowest supply in 10 years. It would take only 5.4 months to exhaust that supply at the current sales pace. That's the lowest sales-to-inventory ratio since February 2006.
Prices are also benefiting from the mix of homes being sold. Sales of homes priced at $500,000 and above have jumped more than 40 percent in the past year. Sales of homes and condominiums that cost less than $100,000 fell 0.6 percent.
There have been other positive signals from the housing market. Applications for mortgage loans to buy homes jumped 11 percent in the week ended Nov. 9, compared with a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers' Association said last week. Purchase applications are up 22 percent in the past year.
Foreclosures are slowing. The number of properties that began the foreclosure process in the first 10 months of the year fell 8 percent compared with the same period last year, RealtyTrac said last week.
And builders broke ground on new homes and apartments at the fastest pace in more than four years in September. The jump could help boost the economy and hiring.
Still, the market has a long way back to full health. Many potential home buyers cannot meet stricter lending standards or produce larger down payments required by banks.
That can be a particular problem for first-time homebuyers. They accounted for 31 percent of sales in October, down slightly from September and below the 40 percent that is common in a healthy market.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that banks' overly tight lending standards may be preventing sales and holding back the U.S. economy.

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News Summary: US home sales rise 2.1 pct. in Oct.

SALES RISE: U.S. sales of previously occupied homes rose moderately in October, helped by improvement in the job market and record-low mortgage rates. Sales rose 2.1 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million according to the National Association of Realtors.
INVENTORIES: A decline in housing inventory is helping push prices higher. There were only 2.14 million homes available for sale at the end of the month, the lowest in 10 years.
GAINS LIKELY TO CONTINUE: As the economy slowly recovers, more people have started looking to buy homes or rent apartments. Mortgage rates are at record lows and rents are rising. That makes buying a home more attractive.

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