Structured Settlements ? the Easiest way to Settle Large Financial ...

News Excerpt: If your company has to fork out say $300,000 instead of paying all that in one lump sum structured settlement

ReleaseCo ? Editorial Notes: If you are representing a Company or a business establishment and find your company in a situation where it has to pay a large cash settlement to the staff or some other people, then Structured Settlement is perhaps the best and easiest way forward. In fact, if you play your cards right, you can also save your company a lot of money by way of expenses. Here?s how:

If your company has to fork out say $300,000, instead of paying all that in one lump sum structured settlement, your company could instead, buy an Annuity plan from an Insurance company legally known as ?Assignment Company?. If the recipient agrees to long-term structured cash settlement, then your structured settlement company might have to actually pay only say $275,000 to the assignment company which will invest that sum and pay out small sums each month or as per agreed terms. The total payout will be $300,000 and the difference of $25,000 will be met by the income from the investments of the initial deposit of $275,000. The paying company rids itself of the headache of having to administer the cash for structured settlement payments over an extended period of time, the recipient is assured or regular income at regular periods, the insurance or Assignment Company receives a large sum which it can invest and make good profits. All three parties to the structured settlement benefit.

The recipient of the structured settlement for cash benefits because instead of receiving one large lump sum which would probably be squandered on a holiday or some luxury goods, he or she receives small but significant amounts periodically. The clock-work payment in selling structured settlement enables the recipients to pre-plan their investment or expenditure. It also ensures that the money is not wasted.

Sometimes, beneficiaries for structured settlement might urgently need a large sum of money. This can happen in the event of medical emergencies, marriages etc. Since structured settlement cannot be changed once they are signed, the recipient can mortgage the structured settlement document and secure a structured settlement loan against it. The amount of loan will depend on the residual value of the structured settlement less service and commissions. As of today, there are a large number of such structured settlement buyers willing to issue loans against the documents. If you are looking for such structured settlement purchaser, it might be a good idea to shop around since the amounts they are willing to give as well as commissions and service charges might differ significantly.

A structured cash settlement can therefore be a very flexible instrument ? one that benefits the paying company as well as the beneficiary of the settlement. As far as the company is concerned, it can either opt to administer the structured cash settlement itself, or invest the money with an Insurance company to buy a structured settlement annuities plan that will make the payouts to the beneficiary. If the company administers the structured cash settlement itself, then it has the distinct advantage of being able to differ the liability (because it does not have to pay the entire amount in one go). In either case it benefits. Whichever way we look at it, a structured settlement is a win-win situation for the beneficiary as well as the payer.

Visit here for more information : http://www.structuredsettlementhq.com/structured-settlement-transfer.html

Tags: Cash for structured settlement payments, Structured settlement company, Lump sum structured settlement, Structured Settlement, For structured settlement


Author: Curt Matsen
Phone: 800-225-5340
Website: http://www.structuredsettlementhq.com


Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in these press releases please contact the company listed in the press release. Please do not contact ReleaseCo. We will be unable to assist you with your inquiry. ReleaseCo. disclaims any content contained in these release.

Source: http://www.releaseco.com/1324/structured-settlements-the-easiest-way-to-settle-large-financial-claims/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=structured-settlements-the-easiest-way-to-settle-large-financial-claims

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conference program - Sports Law Blog

?
Sport and Recreation Law Association Conference

The conference program for the upcoming Sport and Recreation Law Association (SRLA) conference is now posted. SRLA's annual event will be held March 1-3, 2012 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Source: http://sports-law.blogspot.com/2012/02/sport-and-recreation-law-association.html

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The Role Of Costs Lawyers | Identity Theft

As a lawyer, a solicitor as well as any other professional in the field of law, you will require the services of a cost draftsman to assess the cases brought before them by your clients and advice accordingly on costing for the cases. Costs lawyers will help you save a lot on time and money as well as in the process of helping you to increase your efficiency and ultimately the level of profitability. Most law costs draftsmen usually have long time expertise in many legal fields and will offer you the traditional costing services as well as value added services such as free courier and processing of publicly financed claims.

Today, there are many individuals and firms of costs drafter and costs lawyers who offer these important services to their clients at very reasonable prices as agreed upon. If you are looking for costing services, then you are in luck as there are a variety of firms with very experience costs drafters who have perfected the art over years and always pay attention to details to ensure that they articulate all the cost implications of case with precision to maintain profit margins. Normally, it takes 10 days for legal cost drafters to go through all the documents you provide to them and prepare a costing and billing system that is favourable to you.

In addition to the services they provide while reviewing the case file, flexibility is a key feature for many cost lawyers. This means that you can always get documents on demand, as they will readily avail them to enable you prepare for the case. With the advancing technology, a majority of costs lawyers have embraced the use of computers and internet to prepare and store all the information provided to them, giving them the opportunity to be effective and more time conscious.

Drafters usually take the case files with them and analyse all the details and their cost implications before attaching financial value for the entire case. Each and every solicitor or lawyer will at some point need a draftsman to carry out not only the costing of cases and drafting bills, but also for other purposes like preparing dispute points and replies. Your costs draftsman may also serve the purpose of an advocate and a general assessor of your legal costs Manchester as well as those of your opponents in the law suit.

Most costs drafter depends on the traditional financial advocacy and costing as well as the modern billing systems. The traditional system included the preparation of dispute points, bills of costs and replies alongside with specialized legal services in several disciplines that an experienced law costs draftsman will be able to provide. The field of law keeps on adjusting to new legal requirements and changing interpretations for the same statutes as well as changes in nature and complexity of crimes, which is the same manner in which cost lawyers adjust their knowledge to comply with the changing times.

Related posts:

  1. What You Really Should Know About Legal Costs
  2. Solicitors In The United Kingdom

Source: http://marcomolaro.com/the-role-of-costs-lawyers/

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Ease Eczema with Baking Soda Treatment | Health and Fitness

Saturday, February 11th, 2012 at 1:06 pm ?

?Baking soda has forever been an article in the originally abet kit for treating skin injuries and scalding. It is got wind to hamper searing and design of scars. When baking soda is miscellaneous as well as wet, the resulting endothermic opinion and its little antiseptic capital style it beneficial for treating skin irritations. Baking soda has scores of medicinal uses, not to state its trouble-free availability and low value. This makes it the advisable candidate for land treatments for scores of skin syndrome, teeth whitening and also acid reflux. Eczema is a non-contagious skin chaos that manifests as itchy scarlet patches on the affected series of the skin. It is a illness that affects staff of all period kinds, as well as infants. Eczema succor focuses on curbing the skin aggravation and giving remedy from itching. The antiseptic funds of baking soda are incredibly efficient for treating rashes caused by eczema.

assure note: Baking Soda and Baking Powder (second hand in cake methods, etc.), are not the similar. The type we are remarking to, in this commentary, is baking soda, moreover got wind as bicarb soda or sodium bicarbonate. check that that you?re obtaining the precise style as this problem is universal.

agreed Precautionary provision in advance Use

though baking soda is soft on the skin, assure stock the subsequent to precautionary arrangements in advance acquiring a baking soda bath for the primarily segment.

Everyone?s skin texture is not the unchanged. If you have vulnerable skin that is customarily liable to aversions from still gentle skin friendliness wareses, do not fritter away baking soda in your bath.
however if you have on no account had any variant skin allergic reaction, the eczema itself could type the affected spot receptive. It is more adept to defy along furthermore a dilute multiplicity on a youthful portion of the rash. If the redness of the rash increases or becomes uncomfortably itchy, it is enhanced not to burn up baking soda in your bath. This confront must be achieved as bathing babies in baking soda as their skin is naturally susceptible. If you information an abrupt feedback whilst doing the project, dilute the range spare. usually, it is not pointed out to brand eczema rashes irritating, although it is improved to be cautious.
effortlessly as you may well do along furthermore any cleansing brand, it is detail to moisturize your skin subsequent to a baking soda bath so your skin realizes not dry out and change into scaly.
If you?re bathing a infant in baking soda, check that that the kid achieves not swallow the bath wet. Ingestion of baking soda in exorbitant quantities is pointed out to origin headache and nausea still in grownups. without difficulty sport added affection as soon as bathing the infant and make certain to reveal only sequences affected by eczema to the bath resolution. when achieved, pat the child dry shortly so that it achieves not begin to lick the way out off its arms and feet.
In addition to eczema, if you have a pre-existing sympathy or kidney predicament, make sure you do not by chance swallow the bath answer as its exorbitant sodium fulfilled might source different medical worries.
If you?re a diabetic plus a inclination to mature infection or bleeding on the smallest cuts and wounds, do not make an effort baking soda on your eczema patches.

How to investigate Eczema by the use of Baking Soda

route to class a Baking Soda Bath: Eczema patients may well throw in half a cup of baking soda to a finalize bath. make certain that the hose is not uncomfortably searing. similarly, sit down with to it that you carry a momentary bath. uninterrupted contact would origin extreme dryness. For bathing babies and teenage kids you may perhaps demanded to pop out and an still diluted reply and leisurely add to the admonition to half a cup, if taste be. It is fascinating to make an observation, that a baking soda bath yet bestows psychotherapy from diaper rash in babies. subsequent to the bath, make sure to kneading the affected areas plus a kind moisturizer. Do not deplete any chemical skin cream or abundant coarse yield. Wear suit in addition to unrefined fibers reminiscent of cotton.
Applying in mush Form: Alternatively, class a pulp of baking soda and hose down and demands liberally on the affected areas to relax itching. shower off following a few minutes and dab a couple moisturizer.

You will search out variant locales on the cyber web hiring antidotes for eczema as at any rate as by means of baking soda for legion variegated ailments (let alone cancer) . It is more adept to hold all this admonition and a jot of salt and not blindly make an effort the whole thing you come across. We could counsel that you pay awareness to the points of caution noted more than yet along furthermore through baking soda for external wish.

Filed under: Uncategorized

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Source: http://blaagh.com/ease-eczema-with-baking-soda-treatment/

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Yakima SUP Brah | Elevate Christian Network :: Sports and Recreation

Yakima?s S.U.P. Brah is a nose/tail tie-down system for stand-up paddleboards and other board styles. Those long boards can be, well, long, which is why the S.U.P. Brah provides some extra security. They can be paired up with lockable RipCords or Heavy Duty Straps when you carry your board to the beach. . Product ID: 218545, Shipping Exclusion: This item is only available for shipment by UPS to the lower 48 United States. APO, FPO, PO BOX, Hawaii, and Alaska shipments may not be possible for this item. (Please call prior to purchase.), Special Order: This is a Special Order item, will be shipped from the manufacturer, and is not stocked in our warehouse. All Returns/Exchanges are subject to a 20% restocking fee. This item does not qualify for our Price Matching Policy. Order processing time may vary.

Click HERE now to learn more?

Tags: United States, Order processing time, extra security

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Source: http://elevatechristiannetwork.com/sports-and-recreation/1702/surfing/yakima-s-u-p-brah/

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Romney and Paul: Not allies but not foes, either (AP)

PORTLAND, Maine ? Mitt Romney and Ron Paul rarely even acknowledge each other in the Republican presidential race, focusing their attention and attacks on rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum instead. That curious detente is being tested in Maine's caucuses this week, where Romney's reputation as a political shape shifter is going head-to-head with Paul's consistent libertarian views.

The caucuses began Feb. 4 and will continue through Saturday, when the state party will announce the results of the nonbinding presidential straw poll. Paul has campaigned hard in the state, and Romney has taken steps to shore up his position there to offset a potentially embarrassing loss following defeats in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota.

Romney unexpectedly added two caucus appearances to his schedule Saturday morning, an indication that the campaign is concerned about the potential of another defeat in the low-turnout affair. And the significance also is great for Paul, who has staked his candidacy on winning at least a handful of smaller caucus states.

Santorum, who won the three contests earlier in the week, has not competed actively in Maine, nor has Gingrich. That leaves an unusually direct contest between Romney and Paul, pitting the former Massachusetts governor's establishment support and geographic advantages against the Texas congressman's relatively small but passionate band of activists.

In many ways, the two candidates could not be more different. While Romney has changed positions on a number of important issues including abortion, gay rights and health care policy, Paul has hewed to his small government message since entering Congress in 1978.

The Maine face-off also is renewing attention to the persistent deep divisions in the GOP ? the more moderate, business-oriented wing represented by Romney and the restless tea party voters who've been receptive to much of Paul's platform.

Romney's aides say they do not view Paul as a threat to winning the nomination. But Romney and his team have also been mindful not to do or say anything that might anger Paul's loyal supporters.

"I think he's being very careful because he knows how important the Ron Paul voters are ? they obviously represent a very different dynamic," said Mike Dennehy, a former top aide to Republican John McCain's 2008 campaign. "They are the most passionate and the most frustrated of any voters heading to the polls. And many of them are independents."

To be sure, Romney and Paul do share some similarities.

Both have decades-long marriages ? Romney and his wife, Ann, have been married for 43 years, while Paul and his wife, Carol, have been wed 55 years. The two couples each have five children and large broods of grandchildren.

Both Romney and Paul are physically fit and highly disciplined in their personal habits. They're also religious ? Romney is a Mormon, and Paul is a Baptist who leaves the campaign trail most Sundays in part to attend church services near his Texas home.

Both men are veterans of the 2008 Republican nomination contest and are on friendly personal terms, as are their wives, aides say. The relationship in part explains their unwillingness to attack one another.

Paul's TV ads, which have included harsh, pointed critiques of Santorum and Gingrich, have been much easier on Romney. Paul's campaign ran one ad casting all three rivals as "counterfeit conservatives," but otherwise he has not criticized Romney with the same intensity as he has Gingrich. He slammed Gingrich for his work for the federal mortgage giant Freddie Mac, and he cast Santorum as a "corporate lobbyist and Washington politician."

Paul has also defended Romney against attacks on Bain Capital, the investment firm where Romney made millions. Critics, including Gingrich, have criticized Bain for consolidating companies and laying off workers to make big profits for Romney and other executives at the firm.

"If he loses the election because he restructured companies, I don't think that's a healthy way to sort out the candidates," Paul said in New Hampshire when asked about Romney's history at Bain.

Romney won New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, and Paul came in second.

Romney has returned the favor, occasionally praising Paul in debates for his understanding of health care. Paul is a former Air Force flight surgeon and obstetrician.

"You do exactly what Ron Paul said ... you have to get health care to start working more like a market," Romney said in a debate in December when asked how he would improve health coverage as president.

Romney reiterated that praise this week in a conference call with Maine supporters, saying Paul's years as a doctor gave him real world experience Gingrich and Santorum lack.

For Romney, staying on Paul's good side is also strategic.

Paul's presence in the race weakens Gingrich and Santorum, making things easier for Romney, the field's front-runner. Paul has earned more than 10 percent of the vote in every contest so far, except for the 7 percent he earned in Florida. And he's finished in the top three in three of the first eight contests. Those are voters who might otherwise support Gingrich or Santorum, since there is little overlap between Romney's voters and Paul's.

Paul may have something more tangible to give Romney as well: delegates.

So far, Paul has earned just nine delegates, but he's likely to accumulate many more because of the new proportional voting system adopted by most states. That means Paul may be in a position to arrange a transfer of some delegates to Romney at the Republican National Convention, which could be significant if Romney is locked in a tight race with another rival.

"If Mitt Romney remains on good relations with Ron Paul, they should be able to come to a polite agreement on how that will work," Dennehy said.

___(equals)

Fouhy reported from New York. Associated Press researcher Judith Ausebel also contributed to this report.

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Follow Steve Peoples on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sppeoples

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120210/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_vs_paul

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Important Tools for Online Business - Ezine Mark - EzineMark

While starting an online business, you will require some of the important tools in making your business successful. The major problem faced by most of the people is that they do not know which tools are best for their businesses. It should be noted that there are lots of different types of internet business tools available in the marketplace. However, not all the tools are important when starting the online business for the first time. In this article, you will find some of the business tools which you can require while starting your business.

  • Domain: Domain is a web address which your potential customers or clients type in the address bar in order to find your website. One thing that you can do is that you can assign the domain name of your website similar to your business?s name.

    This thing will help in identifying your brand name. If you search thoroughly, then you can actually find lots of places online which provide the domain name at a very economical price.
  • Hosting: It is essential to have a hosting account for your domain name. Hosting is quite affordable these days and there are myriads of providers. Thus, you will not find any kind of difficulty.

  • Website Editor: Once the domain name as well as hosting account has been bought, you will require setting up a website. You can use a website editor in order to give the desired looks and contents to it. Basically, you can make your website in a way you want. Most of the top home based businesses also make use of this tool for editing their html codes.

  • File Transfer Protocol or FTP Client: This transfer protocol is used for uploading the website to your hosting account.

    Some of the free FTP clients can be used in accomplishing this task.
  • Autoresponder: With the help of Autoresponder, you can stay connected with your potential customers, clients and prospects via email marketing. Autoresponders allow you to send articles, ecourses, newsletters, and email broadcast to different people present in your list. This tool also provides web form for placing on your site. This in turn, collects all the email addresses and names of visitors that visit your website.

If you plan the things accordingly, then you can actually set up an online business with very little finance as well as tools. Once your site has started becoming profitable, you can start using other tools also.

Source: http://business.ezinemark.com/important-tools-for-online-business-7d337a8e66eb.html

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White House didn't foresee birth control backlash (AP)

WASHINGTON ? It's not like he wasn't warned.

As President Barack Obama considered a decision on birth control that would turn into an unexpected political nightmare, he heard it from inside and outside his White House: He risked a fierce backlash if he required religious employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception in violation of their beliefs.

Over the course of months, Catholic groups and officials spoke with White House aides, sent letters and wrote opinion columns. Vice President Joe Biden and Obama's then-chief of staff, Bill Daley, both Catholics, and other top administration officials spoke of the need to be aware of the consequences, given how Catholic groups would view the decision and how it would affect them.

But the president was hearing from the other side, too. Women's health advocates and their allies inside the White House were adamant about the importance of making free contraception available to all women; to them, it was a matter of health and fairness. Democratic senators and senior advisers joined in.

In the end, that's where Obama came down.

What came next evidently surprised the White House.

There were furious protests from Catholic groups, including administration allies. Republicans and even some Democrats were outraged.

The rising furor threatened to overwhelm the president's message and affect his re-election hopes. With no sign of the firestorm abating, Obama announced a hasty and embarrassing backtrack Friday.

"This is an issue where people of good will on both sides of the debate have been sorting through some very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone. With today's announcement, we've done that," Obama said. "Religious liberty will be protected, and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women."

Under the approach, employees at church-affiliated institutions such as Catholic hospitals or charities still could get free birth control coverage, but it would come directly from their health insurer. Employers would not provide or pay for it.

This solution soothed some concerns from religious groups while keeping women's groups satisfied.

So why wasn't this approach taken in the first place?

___

Similar solutions had been advocated to the White House for months.

According to a senior administration official, some approaches were considered and rejected as unworkable, but what came out Friday simply hadn't occurred to administration officials weeks earlier.

Back then, administration officials perhaps didn't feel the same sense of urgency, according to the official, who said the policy process could have been stronger. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

To many, it seemed a needlessly self-inflicted wound for a president known for taking a politically cautious approach. The White House insisted Obama was attuned to the concerns of religious employers, especially since he had worked with Catholic parishes early in his career in Chicago, and that he intended to address those concerns in time.

But to some Catholics it appeared the administration failed to understand their concerns and how the decision would resonate.

"Lord knows we tried" to warn the administration, said Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby.

Campbell said the administration seemed focused on the health issues involved in putting Obama's health care law in place. "Even though a bunch of us weighed in and said there was this other layer of concern, it's like above where they ordinarily focus, so it just didn't compute," Campbell said.

"I don't think they fully understood the religious liberty side and I certainly don't think they understood just how it would be received by Catholics," said Stephen Schneck, a political scientist at the Catholic University of America.

They soon would find out.

___

The administration announced the original policy on Jan. 20.

Within hours, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called it an affront to religious liberty and urged Catholics to tell their elected leaders to rescind it. Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York, the conference's president, appeared in a Web video to accuse the administration of being "on the wrong side of the Constitution."

About a week later, priests read letters from bishops in churches across the nation, expressing their concerns.

Republicans soon pounced. GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich accused the president of an attack on religion. Congressional Republicans announced plans to overturn the policy.

The White House began hearing from generally supportive outsiders as well.

Commentators such as E.J. Dionne and Mark Shields jumped on Obama for displaying a tin ear to Catholic concerns.

Former Indiana congressman and ambassador Tim Roemer and other moderate Democrats spoke out. Among the organizations that mobilized was Democrats for Life of America.

"It became apparent that this was not going to be something that was just going to lose steam," said Kristen Day, the group's executive director. "The ranks were actually increasing rather than decreasing."

Former Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said he and Roemer offered the perspective of two lawmakers who had represented conservative Democratic districts.

Stupak said he wondered, "Why would you pick this fight in an election year? In any year, to tell you the truth."

"At first they were sort of cool: `We know what we're doing, we'll get it resolved,'" Stupak said of the White House. "Toward the end, in the last week, it was more like, `We're working on it, we've heard you. We'll get this thing behind us.'"

Several Democrats broke publicly with the president. Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a recent chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said the White House "made a bad decision."

___

Even as pressure mounted, Democrats supporting access to contraceptives pushed to make sure the White House didn't retreat.

For New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and other Democratic women in the Senate, their last opportunity to make their case came Wednesday, when the president took his motorcade to Nationals Stadium in Washington to meet with Senate Democrats.

Obama offered no hint an announcement was two days away, but under questioning he offered an assurance.

"He said to all of us that he was committed to the principle that women should have access to that contraceptive coverage," Shaheen said.

That same day, administration officials including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and the first lady's chief of staff, Tina Tchen, convened a meeting with women's groups at the White House to urge more women to speak out in support of the president's decision, a Democratic official said.

Participants discussed reframing the debate as less about the Catholic Church and more about a war on women, the official said, insisting on anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

By then it was already becoming clear that Obama would have to change course. Some 48 hours later, he stepped before the microphones in the White House briefing room to announce that he was.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn, Julie Pace, Ken Thomas, Ben Feller and Rachel Zoll contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120211/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_birth_control_political_backlash

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Biden says contraceptives fight can be worked out (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday the White House was working to address concerns raised by the Catholic Church over a new rule on contraceptives, and he believed an escalating election-year battle over the issue would be resolved.

The rule, announced on January 20, requires religious-oriented groups such as charities, hospitals and universities, but not churches, to provide coverage for birth control as other health insurance providers must do. The Catholic Church opposes most methods of birth control.

Top Republicans, including the party's presidential candidates, have condemned the rule as an assault on religious liberty. Prominent Democrats and women's health groups have urged President Barack Obama to hold his ground.

"I'm determined to see that this gets worked out and I believe we can work it out," Biden, who is Catholic, told Cincinnati's WLM radio station during a visit to Ohio.

ABC News, citing sources, said the rule had been the focus of an intense internal skirmish at the White House, with Biden, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and then-Chief of Staff Bill Daley warning it would spark heavy political fallout.

But they lost the fight to a group that included Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and senior advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Plouffe, who argued birth control saved women's lives, reduced unwanted pregnancies and was a fundamental women's health issue, ABC said.

The White House says the rule aimed to strike a balance between Catholic Church doctrine and women's right to health care. But it created a political firestorm on a hot-button social issue during an election year dominated until now by debates over the faltering economy.

"The Obama administration has crossed a dangerous line, and we will fight this attack on the fundamental right of religious freedom until the courts overturn it or we've got a president who will reverse it," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told a conference of conservatives in Washington.

Senate Republicans tried to offer an amendment to rescind it on Thursday but were blocked procedurally by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who urged everyone to "calm down."

Some moderate Democrats facing election this year in battleground states - like Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Robert Casey in Pennsylvania and Tim Kaine, who is seeking a Senate seat in Virginia - have opposed the rule.

Manchin and Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, introduced a bill to block the rule, although it has little chance of success in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Most Democrats have backed Obama.

A group of about a dozen House Democrats held a news conference to urge him to stand fast on the issue. "My colleagues and I stand in solidarity with American women who have waited decades for equity in contraceptive coverage," U.S. Representative Nita Lowey told reporters.

Polls indicate a majority of Americans and Catholics support the rule. A Public Religion Research Institute poll taken last week found 55 percent of Americans want employers to provide health-care plans that cover contraception and birth control, including nearly six in 10 Catholics.

"A HEALTH CALCULATION"

"This was not a political calculation, it was a health calculation," a senior Obama campaign official said.

Twenty-eight states include similar requirements to Obama's rule in their insurance regulations. Lowey said 335,000 houses of worship would be exempted.

The National Organization of Women said the rule would affect birth control access for an estimated 3 million women.

"We're really dismayed that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is trying to impose their beliefs about what women should do with their bodies on their employees," said Cindy Pearson, executive director of the National Women's Health Network.

"We think every single person in the U.S. should have access to health insurance and that it should cover everything, no matter where you work," she said.

The regulation, part of the 2010 healthcare law, requires health insurance plans to cover basic preventative care for women. The Obama administration, acting on recommendations from experts at the advisory U.S. Institute of Medicine, included birth control as part of that but exempted houses of worship.

Most employers and health plans have until August 1 to implement the new rule, but religious affiliated groups have until next year.

Many Catholic leaders have been outspoken in opposition to the rule. The Catholic Church rejects most forms of contraception such as birth control pills, but does condone the "natural" or "rhythm" method.

Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called on Obama to back off from the rule and said it contradicted assurances Obama gave him during a White House meeting in November.

Dolan, designated by Pope Benedict for elevation to cardinal, said he now questions if he can work with Obama to settle concerns about the rule.

He called on Obama to "simply give a much more dramatically wide latitude to that religious exemption and protection of conscience and religious freedom, and you're not going to hear from us any more," Dolan said on CBS's "This Morning" program.

"We can't have a government bureaucracy invading the privacy and the independence and autonomy and integrity that our constitution gives to religion," Dolan said.

The EWTN Global Catholic Network said it filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Alabama, seeking to block government agencies from implementing the rule. The case asks the court to find the rule unconstitutional, it said.

EWTN Global Catholic Network calls itself the largest religious media network in the world, with satellite television, radio, and print news services, and other activities.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan, Victoria Allen, Lily Kuo, Donna Smith, Julie Steenhuysen, Susan Heavey, Jeff Mason; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Philip Barbara)

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ECB keeps interest rates low as recession looms

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? The European Central Bank kept its key interest rate at a record low of 1 percent on Thursday to help the 17-nation eurozone stave off recession, while its president dodged questions on whether it could help Greece lighten its debt load.

Mario Draghi said that for now the ECB sees "tentative signs of a stabilization in economic activity" and expects the eurozone economy "to recovery very gradually in the course of 2012."

Some experts predict the region will slip back into recession, and Greece's huge debt problems remain a constant source of concern.

Draghi ducked questions about whether the ECB would give up profits on the Greek bonds it holds, as suggested by some officials, in order to help European leaders finance a second bailout package for Athens.

He did, however, leave open a legal door for the ECB to help lighten Greece's debt load at some point, saying the bank could distribute profits it stands to make on its Greek bonds to member states. That is standard procedure for any profits made by central banks and the governments could then do what they want with the money.

The ECB is prohibited from financing a government, so it cannot take an actual loss on the Greek bonds.

But Draghi said that "if the ECB distributes part of its profits to its member countries" according to their shares of ECB capital "that's not monetary financing."

The bank has mainly relied on two rates cuts and emergency liquidity to banks to stabilize the eurozone's financial system and protect it from a looming recession.

It has now left the refinancing rate, the rate it charges banks for borrowing, alone for two straight meetings after cutting it by a quarter point in November and December.

It has also flooded the banking system with cheap loans ? a move credited with easing fears of possible government defaults and bank failures.

The Bank of England also left rates unchanged but announced it would buy 50 billion pounds ($79 billion) more in bonds to stimulate the lagging British economy. Output contracted 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter and another quarter of shrinkage would officiall mean recession.

Many economists think the eurozone economy shrank in the fourth quarter and is going through a period of weakness, with the main question being how deep will the downturn be and how quickly things will pick up again. The ECB must interpret mixed signals from the economy, with some indicators, such as Germany's Ifo index of business sentiment, pointing up while other signs such as German exports have pointed down.

The bank has another offer of credit to banks coming up for allotment on Feb. 29, and some analysts think the takeup could exceed the euro489 billion from the first one on Dec. 23. That move is credited with easing fears of imminent meltdown from the government debt crisis. It helped banks pay off bonds coming due in the first quarter, and some of the flood of money was used by banks in financially weak countries to buy their governments bonds.

Draghi said should be "absolutely no stigma" in taking the help and said it was "a business decision and should be presented as such."

The stronger demand for short-term government bonds eased access to credit for countries such as Italy and Spain, which are struggling to keep fears of default from turning into self-fulfilling panic.

Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already needed bailout loans from the eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund to avoid disruptive debt defaults. Greece is in the process of negotiating a debt reduction with its creditors.

Many economists warn that the liquidity blast is only a temporary respite. The crisis still threatens disruption from Greece, which appears to have concluded difficult negotations over austerity measures in return for another bailout. Eurozone finance ministers are meeting to discuss the agreement later Thursday.

Without the bailout, Athens faces the prospect of a potentially devastating default in March, when it has a bond redemption to pay.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-02-09-EU-Europe-Interest-Rates/id-77904afdcd9f42bf8bec43376eb2fbae

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