Obama earned $609,000 in 2012, pays $112,000 in taxes

President Barack Obama made less in 2012 than in any other year since taking office, with about 40 percent of the nearly $609,000 in income that he and first lady Michelle Obama reported coming from book sales.
Obama, who renewed his call for higher taxes on the wealthy in the budget he released Wednesday, paid $112,214 in taxes last year, putting his effective federal tax rate at 18.4 percent. The Obamas donated almost one-quarter of their income to charity, according to tax returns released by the White House.
Most of the $608,611 that the Obamas reported in adjusted gross income came from the president's salary, as he reported $394,840 in wages. An additional $258,772 came from royalties from his books, including his 1995 memoir "Dreams From My Father," his 2006 political book, "The Audacity of Hope," and a 2010 children's book, "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters."
Income from Obama's books has fallen off since 2009, when his books sales surged after his inauguration. The Obamas made $5.5 million that year — his first year in office — but the figure dropped precipitously the next year to $1.73 million. In 2011, the Obamas reported about $790,000 in income.
The president and Mrs. Obama signed their tax returns on Monday — one week before the April 15 deadline for Americans to file their 2012 returns.
Itemized deductions of $258,385 brought the Obama's taxable income down to $335,026. The first family deducted $45,056 in interest on the mortgage for their home in Chicago, plus $36,554 in state and local taxes and $26,751 in real estate taxes.
Through withholding and estimated tax payments during the year, the Obamas paid $129,029 to the Internal Revenue Service — an overpayment of $16,815. The Obamas directed that, rather than receive a refund, the overpayment will be applied to their taxes for next year.
The Obamas also claimed $39,875 in income from outside the United States. A White House official said all of that income came from book royalties, but did not disclose details about which countries the income came from. The official was not authorized to comment publicly on Obama's taxes and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The president and first lady reported donating $150,034 — or 24.6 percent of their income — to 33 charities. That's a slight dip from the previous year, when the Obamas donated more than $172,000. The largest contribution last year was a $103,871 donation to Fisher House Foundation, which provides humanitarian services to military members, veterans and their families. Other charitable groups that received donations from the president for $5,000 or less include the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the United Negro College Fund.
The president and the first lady also paid $29,450 in income taxes to Illinois, according to their state tax returns.
The White House also released tax returns for Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College.
The Bidens paid $87,851 in federal income taxes on $385,072 in adjusted gross income, for an effective federal tax rate of 22.8 percent. The vice president and his wife paid state income taxes in two states — $13,531 in Delaware and $3,593 in Virginia. The Bidens overpaid a bit last year in their withholdings, so they'll get a refund of $4,608 from the IRS.
They reported donating $7,190 to charity. The largest sum of $2,400 went to the Catholic Diocese in Wilmington, Del.
The president this week revived his push for wealthier Americans to pay higher taxes, arguing that higher earners like himself should bear a larger share of the burden for deficit reduction. The $3.8 trillion budget blueprint he unveiled Wednesday proposed that "wealthy millionaires pay no less than 30 percent of income, after charitable contribution, in taxes," to ensure that poorer Americans don't get stuck paying higher rates than the wealthy. Obama also proposed a change in the way inflation is calculated that, if proposed, would have the effect of pushing more Americans into higher tax brackets.
"The president believes we must reform our tax system, which is why he has proposed policies like the Buffett Rule that would ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share while protecting families making under $250,000 from seeing their taxes go up," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement accompanying the release of Obama's tax returns.
During the negotiations with Congress over New Years, Obama won a tax increase on incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples, although he had wanted those thresholds to be lower. The deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff preserved the lower Bush-era tax rates for the middle class.

Another Disaster: Boat mishap in Nigeria, 164 feared dead

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has confirmed that it has recovered nine bodies from a boat that capsized at 40 nautical miles off the coast of Calabar, Cross River State, South-south Nigeria.
The boat reportedly left on Friday from the remote town of Oron in Akwa- Ibom state and was heading across the Gulf of Guinea to Gabon, in Central Africa.

A text message to Dailypost on Tuesday night by NEMA Head of Public Relations, Yushau Shuaib, said two survivors have been taken to the University Teaching Hospital in Calabar.
The spokesman added that rescue operations are ongoing.

KANO BOMB BLAST: 108 PASSENGERS ROASTED TO DEATH

Scene of Kano bomb blast

KANO MOTOR PARK BOMB BLAST UPDATE:

• Death Toll Rises to 108 Passengers.

• 59 passengers that bought full ticket all died plus the other 49 passengers that bought small seat (attachment), were roasted alive.
  

HOW KESHI, NFF, USED AND ABANDONED ME...... Emmanuel Emenike

Super Eagles striker Emmanuel Emenike, has expressed his unhappiness, over the way Stephen Keshi has treated him, after he picked up a hamstring injury at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Spartak Moscow player, who ended the competition as the top scorer, says he has not heard from the coach, who eventually left him out of the squad to Kenya in a World Cup qualifier ever since.
“I must be honest with you, I have not been treated well by the coach and the NFF because they ignored me so soon, so fast,” he said in an interview with MTNFootball.
“Nobody from NFF and the coach have called to ask me about my injury. I am bitter about this. It is unfair and I can tell you that is why some players don’t come to give their best for the national team.
“When a player gets injured on national duty, I think the country’s football authority and coach ought to keep in touch to let him know he is loved and cared for.
“I am not a use-and-dump player. I will not act as one at all because my club career is very much important to me than anything.”

Emenike cited the case of Victor Anichebe and said it would be hard for any player to give their best in a Nigerian jersey.
“Look at a player like (Victor) Anichebe (Everton striker was injured while on national team duty last year), no one cared about him and you think he will come to national team to give his best,” he pointed out.
“I am not worried about that but I just need to tell them it’s unfair. It is not everything that is money, but a call just to show you care could change someone’s problem at a particular time.”
He however went on to praise his Russian club, who stood by him all the way and are helping him get back to the pitch.
“I must give kudos to my club for taking good care of me even though I didn’t get the injury while playing for them,” he said.
“I can’t wait to return to my best form. I feel like playing and banging in the goals for my club right now.
“I am happy with my rehabilitation and I will start joggling soon and I believe I will respond well because I have missed the game so much.”

HOUSE WIFE HIRES ASSASSINS TO KILL HUSBAND

A housewife, who allegedly masterminded the gruesome murder of her husband in Port Harcourt, is now telling the Rivers State Police Command all she knows about the crime.
The woman, whose identity could not be ascertained as at press time, was said to have plotted the assassination of her husband ( name withheld) on Wednesday night, at their house in Mgbeosimiri, in Agip area of Rumuolumeni.
The deceased, who was a prominent businessman and contractor with Nigerian Agip Oil Company, was killed at his country home, Mgbeoshimiri, Rumuolumeni, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the State. Saturday Sun gathered that the woman hid the alleged killers in their house before her husband returned from work, having told them that he was “a strong man” whose powers needed to be neutralised before they carried out the operation. According to a source, when the deceased returned home from work at about 11:30pm, the wife asked him what he wanted to take for dinner and her husband requested for oatmeal.
She was said to have drugged the meal, which weakened the man and paved the way for the assassins to murder him without resistance.
Shortly after the incident, one of the perpetrators was arrested and handed over to the police by members of a vigilance group, who noticed bloodstains on his clothes.
The woman, who later confessed to the crime, was said to have fainted at a police station, when she sighted one of the suspects in the murder. She was said to have confessed to conspiracy to kill her husband. According to her confession to the police, she decided to eliminate her husband when she discovered that he was making plans to marry a woman who was already pregnant for him.
When the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Benjamin Ugwuegbulam, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), was contacted, he told the reporter to give him some time to confirm from the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area. Subsequent efforts made by our reporter to reach him on phone proved abortive. DAILY SUN

Microwaving:The worst way to cook

It is a well known fact that raw food is more nutritious than cooked because cooking food destroys nutrients, whether it’s on a stove, or in the microwave oven. But microwaving food on high power can be more destructive than cooking on the stove.
Microwaving is the unhealthiest way to cook food. Dozens of researchers agree that the microwave oven absolutely decimates the nutritional value of food, destroying the very vitamins and phytonutrients that prevent disease and support good health.
“Microwaved food is not merely ‘dead’ food at every level; it is food that has been deconstructed, leaving nothing but empty calories, fibre and minerals” warned a nutritionist recently.

What’s really deceptive about microwave cooking is that the food still appears to be basically the same, but at the cellular level, it’s like a nuclear war has taken place because virtually the entire vitamin and phytonutrient content has been destroyed. Vitamins and phytonutrients (plant-based nutrients) are delicate molecules which are fragile. They are easily destroyed by heat, which is why raw plant foods contain more plant nutrients than cooked foods.
The full story on microwave cooking is a long-drawn one. promote ill health because they turn nutritious, healthy food into empty, decimated calories.
A microwave does not just heat the food by moving the molecules faster. Microwave ovens create radio waves at a frequency of about 2.45 GHz. This is enough energy to destroy biological molecules through electromagnetic radiation. The microwaves excite the water molecules inside the food that is cooking, causing heat to be formed from the inside out. This results in a cell-by-cell molecular decomposition of the vitamins and phytonutrients that promote disease.
There is a tendency for most microwave users to cook everything on high power, except when defrosting. High is the default setting. The maximum power is also a major selling point for a microwave oven. The higher the power, the stronger the electric field, and the more damaging it is to nutrients even if the final temperature is the same.
So, the lower the power, the safer.
But only some microwave ovens are capable of true low power cooking. The microwave ovens equipped with inverter magnetrons actually reduce the power instead of just cycling it between high and off. So if you use a microwave, use one with an inverter magnetron, and cook on low power. Cooking on low power (not intermittent high) will greatly reduce the amount of damage done to the food.
But if you want to eat in a healthy way, make sure a significant part of your diet is raw plants. It’s okay to eat some steamed, stir-fried or even grilled vegetables, but when grilling foods, avoid burning them because all burned parts contain toxic, cancer-causing chemicals that promote colon cancer.

SODOM & GOMORRAH: 400-member homosexual club found in Benue State

As Benue state continues to grapple with the rising figures of HIV/AIDS in the state, Executive Secretary of the Benue State Agency for the Control of Aids (BENSACA), Mrs. Grace Wende has revealed that the agency recently discovered a 400-member homosexuals club existing in Makurdi the Benue state capital.
She said the organisation otherwise known as Men Sleeping with Men, MSM, has a large membership of male students from higher institutions in the state.
Wende who made this disclosure yesterday at a one day Training of Media Practioners on HIV/AIDS in Makurdi, said the existence of the gay club in the state was not helping the state government’s efforts at curbing the spread of the HIV virus in the state.
According to her, “the club was discovered during an Epidermic appraisal carried out by our Canadian partners in colloboration with BENSACA following the state government’s resolve to fight the increasing trend of HIV/AIDs in the state as shown in 2011 survey.
”In fact my office is already interacting with the group of young men who  are mostly undergraduates in various higher institution of learning located in the state.” She stressed that the idea of identifying with the MSM which usually holds their meetings in December in Makurdi was meant to reduce the spread of HIV virus commonly found among them.
Mrs Wende further urged all stakeholders to join the fight against the virus in the state, stressing, “there is a heightened need for scale-up of effective and efficient HIV prevention efforts in the state if we must all win this war against the virus.”

VANGUARD NEWS

Infant in Womb Holds Doctor's Hand

• Infant in Womb Holds Doctor's Hand …

Nevaeh Atkins was going to be born soon enough. She just wanted a helping hand, evidently.

She got one from her doctor, as seen in a photo snapped Oct. 9 by her father just before her birth via C-section.

In the photo, Nevaeh grips Dr. Allan Sawyer's hand even before emerging from her mother's womb.

"I just thought right away that it was a beautiful, amazing photo that I had never seen before," Nevaeh's mother, Alicia Atkins, told ABCNews.com. "I knew it was special right away.

"When my doctor broke my water, the doctor told my husband, 'Hey, she's holding my finger,'" Atkins said. "He had my camera, and so they were able to capture the moment of her holding his hand."

The Phoenix-area mom first saw the photo Oct. 10, but she had her assessment of its specialness affirmed after she posted it Dec. 26 on the Facebook page of her Glendale, Ariz., photography company, A Classic Pin-Up, and drew the attention of ABC News affiliate KNXV-TV and other local media.

Even Nevaeh's two older brothers, ages 2 and 3, were impressed.

"Every time they see it on TV, they say, 'That's Nevaeh's hand,'" Atkins said.

The picture is only emerging now because Atkins kept it under wraps for weeks after the birth as she enlarged it to give as a gift to Dr. Sawyer. She wanted him to see it first, and wanted him to see it big.

"I've never captured that picture before," Sawyer told KNXV. "It's really rare."

Finally, Atkins was able to reveal the picture to the rest of the world.

"We actually weren't going to put a copy of the photo in our house because we didn't know the reaction of people, whether it was too graphic or not," Atkins told ABCNews.com.

But after all the coverage the picture attracted, she said, she and her husband changed their minds. Now, Nevaeh (or "heaven" spelled backward) will grow up with it.

"We decided to put the photo in her room," Atkins said, "so that she'll always know how special it was."

(ABC News)

WHEN BEAUTY IS A CRIME... Dental Assistant Fired For Being 'Irresistible'

After working as a dental assistant for ten years, Melissa Nelson was fired for being too "irresistible" and a "threat" to her employer's marriage.

"I think it is completely wrong," Nelson said. "I think it is sending a message that men can do whatever they want in the work force."

On Friday, the all-male Iowa State Supreme Court ruled that James Knight, Nelson's boss, was within his legal rights when he fired her, affirming the decision of a lower court.

"We do think the Iowa Supreme Court got it completely right," said Stuart Cochrane, an attorney for James Knight. "Our position has always been Mrs. Nelson was never terminated because of her gender, she was terminated because of concerns her behavior was not appropriate in the workplace. She's an attractive lady. Dr. Knight found her behavior and dress to be inappropriate."

For Nelson, a 32-year-old married mother of two, the news of her firing and the rationale behind it came as a shock.

"I was very surprised after working so many years side by side I didn't have any idea that that would have crossed his mind," she said.

The two never had a sexual relationship or sought one, according to court documents, however in the final year and a half of Nelson's employment, Knight began to make comments about her clothing being too tight or distracting.

"Dr. Knight acknowledges he once told Nelson that if she saw his pants bulging, she would know her clothing was too revealing," the justices wrote.

Six months before Nelson was fired, she and her boss began exchanging text messages about work and personal matters, such as updates about each of their children's activities, the justices wrote.
The messages were mostly mundane, but Nelson recalled one text she received from her boss asking "how often she experienced an orgasm."
Nelson did not respond to the text and never indicated that she was uncomfortable with Knight's question, according to court documents.
Soon after, Knight's wife, Jeanne, who also works at the practice, found out about the text messaging and ordered her husband to fire Nelson.
The couple consulted with a senior pastor at their church and he agreed that Nelson should be terminated in order to protect their marriage, Cochrane said.
On Jan. 4, 2010, Nelson was summoned to a meeting with Knight while a pastor was present. Knight then read from a prepared statement telling Nelson she was fired.

"Dr. Knight felt like for the best interest of his marriage and the best interest of hers to end their employment relationship," Cochrane said.

Knight acknowledged in court documents that Nelson was good at her job and she, in turn, said she was generally treated with respect.

"I'm devastated. I really am," Nelson said.

When Nelson's husband tried to reason with Knight, the dentist told him he "feared he would have an affair with her down the road if he did not fire her."

Paige Fiedler, Nelson's attorney, said in a statement to ABC News affiliate KCRG that she was "appalled" by the ruling.

"We are appalled by the Court's ruling and its failure to understand the nature of gender bias.," she wrote.

"Although people act for a variety of reasons, it is very common for women to be targeted for discrimination because of their sexual attractiveness or supposed lack of sexual attractiveness. That is discrimination based on sex," Fiedler wrote. "Nearly every woman in Iowa understands this because we have experienced it for ourselves."

N4bn scam: EFCC may declare ex-Kogi gov. Audu wanted

ABUJA- Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, may declare former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu wanted, following the inability of its operatives to arrest him yesterday.