Braintree Adopts New Flood Insurance Rate Maps as Part of Federal ...

New insurance rate maps for Braintree residents with property in flood plains were approved by the Town Council on Tuesday night about a year and a half after they were submitted for public review by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The 183 supplemental flood insurance policies currently active in Braintree will be grandfathered in and their owners should not experience a change in their rates, Planning and Community Development Director Christine Stickney said. Those policies equal a total cost to property owners of $302,000 per year.

Councilors also approved administrative changes in the town's related bylaw to reflect the update. The map changes are minor, Stickney said, including slight changes in elevation mainly along the coast.

"We really didn't see any substantial changes," Stickney said.

Anyone who adopts a flood policy after July 17 ? the day the new maps take effect ? will see different rates than those in place now. Stickney said she could not say with certainty whether homeowners or commercial property owners buying insurance after that date in Braintree's flood plains would see higher rates, but that is a possibility.

For more details on the change, and to compare the new maps to the current maps, visit the town website at?http://www.braintreema.gov/FloodHazard.htm.>

Approximately a third of Braintree ? 2,424 acres out of 9,334 total ? lies in a flood plain, as defined by FEMA. The town participates in the National Flood Insurance Program and was required to adopt the new maps to remain eligible. Otherwise, the 183 policies would have been dropped after July 17, Stickney said.

FEMA regularly reviews flood insurance maps and recently turned its attention to the Northeast, Stickney said. The agency makes changes county by county.?The Planning Board previously recommended favorable action on the proposal on June 12.?

Braintree also participates in the voluntary Community Rating System, which provides incentives for communities to create proactive flood plans. Efforts including heightened maintenance of drains and other structures, as well as public outreach and educational programs mean that Braintree property owners with flood insurance save 5 percent on their rates, Stickney said.

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U.S. trade bill "not a gift" to Russia, Kirk says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top trade official urged Congress on Wednesday to quickly approve legislation to improve trade ties with Russia, unencumbered by human rights requirements, saying it was vital to keep U.S. exports competitive in the Russian market.

"Authorizing the president to provide permanent normal trade relations is not a gift to Russia," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in testimony to the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.

U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern about Russian support of the bloody crackdown on the opposition in Syria and many support proposed human rights requirements on Russia.

Congress is under pressure to approve permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) by repealing a Cold War-era trade restriction known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment because of Russia's entry in the World Trade Organization by August 22 at the latest.

If the Jackson-Vanik provision is not lifted, Russia would be entitled under WTO rules to deny U.S. companies the market-opening benefits it made to join the WTO, Kirk said.

"We could be paying tariffs sometimes double what other countries are paying," Kirk said.

Kirk also urged Congress to pass a "clean bill that enables us to maintain our competitive edge," in reference to the desire of many lawmakers to attach human rights legislation that U.S. companies fear could also hurt their exports to Russia.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, said he also thought "legislation granting Russia PNTR should be clean and targeted, or else the legislation could be unduly complicated and delayed."

After the hearing, Camp told reporters he wanted the White House to step up efforts to round up support for the bill before he would schedule action on the legislation.

"Having been involved in these issues for a number of years, I know how many tools the administration has in their toolbox to get something done. We need them to reach into that toolbox and use some of those tools to meet with members (of Congress) and engage them on this issue so we can move forward," Camp said.

Representative Sander Levin, the panel's top Democrat, said PNTR should not be enacted without approval of the so-called "Magnitsky bill to address human rights violations."

Congress should also consider "other legislative proposals to strengthen the rule of law in Russia and to protect and make whole U.S. investors that have been harmed by the lack of a rule of law there," Levin said.

Democrats also want language in the PNTR bill to put pressure on the Obama administration to bring cases against Moscow at the WTO if Russia does not honor its obligations.

China was generally spared any WTO challenges in the first five years after its entry - to the frustration of many lawmakers determined that Russia not be given a similar break.

The Magnitsky bill is named for a 37-year-old anti-corruption lawyer who worked for the equity fund Hermitage Capital in Moscow. His 2009 death after a year in Russian jails spooked investors and blackened Russia's image abroad.

It would require the United States to deny visas and freeze the assets of Russians linked to Magnitsky's death, as well as those of other human rights abusers in Russia.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the legislation earlier this month, and its corresponding committee in the Senate is expected to approve it next week.

DAMAGE RELATIONS

Russia has warned that approval of the Magnitsky bill would damage relations. But senior U.S. lawmakers have said some version of the Magnitsky legislation would probably have to be passed in conjunction with PNTR.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, has said he plans to incorporate the Magnitsky bill into the Senate version of PNTR.

The State Department has denied visas to some Russians involved in the Magnitsky case, but many lawmakers would like to see more visa bans and individual sanctions imposed.

Trade relations between the United States and Russia have been governed since 1974 by the Jackson-Vanik amendment. That measure made favorable U.S. tariff rates for Russian products conditional on the rights of Jews and other religious minorities to emigrate freely.

There is wide recognition that emigration is no longer a problem in Russia, but many U.S. lawmakers are loathe to repeal Jackson-Vanik for Russia without replacing it with new legislation to pressure Moscow on human rights.

At the same time, the provision is inconsistent with WTO rules that all members provide each other the same degree of market access on a unconditional basis.

The White House task of persuading Congress to approve permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) is also complicated by Russian support for the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

Levin said it would be particularly hard for lawmakers to vote for the legislation if massacres of civilians continue in Syria. Russia needs to be much more active in bringing a halt to the violence, he and other lawmakers said.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns told the panel the Obama administration had "serious concerns about democracy and human rights in Russia," but the time had come to establish PNTR by repealing the Jackson-Vanik provision.

"On Syria, our message to our Russian colleagues has been clear and consistent. Assad's campaign of terror against his own people is unconscionable," Burns said.

Burns told the panel he believed refusing to repeal Jackson-Vanik would not give the United States additional leverage over Russia on Syria or human rights, but would hurt U.S. companies.

"Keeping Jackson-Vanik in place for Russia also provides political ammunition for those in Russia who argue the United States is stuck in a Cold War mentality," Burns said.

The United States has a "very complicated relationship with Russia" that requires it to balance its concerns about human rights and Syria with other objectives, he said.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Will Dunham)

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Divided Greece "risks social explosion"

ATHENS (Reuters) - Pro-bailout party New Democracy may have come first in Sunday's Greek election but the radical left anti-austerity SYRIZA bloc was celebrating like the real winner well into the warm Athens night.

The election exposed a struggling nation deeply divided over whether to implement a harsh austerity package, the price for receiving a total of 240 billion euros in bailout money from the European Union and IMF to save its near-bankrupt economy.

"My biggest fear is of a social explosion," said a senior adviser to the country's likely next prime minister, New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras.

"If there is no change in the policy mix, we're going to have a social explosion even if you bring Jesus Christ to govern this country."

According to official figures with 99.9 percent of the votes counted, Samaras's conservative New Democracy party won just 29.7 percent of the vote, only 2.7 percentage points more than SYRIZA, which almost doubled its support from the previous election held on May 6.

When the votes for Greece's other anti-bailout parties, ranging from the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn to the Marxist-Leninist KKE, are added to SYRIZA's tally, up to 52 percent of Greeks cast ballots against the terms of the international deal.

New Democracy supporters had initially slumped despairing in their seats at the party's plush new headquarters as exit polls showed less than half a percentage point separating them from SYRIZA, only to cheer up as official results showing a better performance trickled in.

Even then, celebrations were muted. "What is there for us to celebrate ?" a member of Samaras's inner circle said. "Our country is in such a deep crisis."

The streets of central Athens are scarred with repeated waves of protests, some hospitals are running short of vital medicines, thousands of businesses have closed, beggars and rough sleepers are multiplying and suicides are rising.

New Democracy's Samaras now faces the awkward task of convincing the centre-left PASOK movement to join a coalition charged with implementing highly unpopular spending cuts and privatizations, while the economy nosedives.

Under the terms of the international bailout, the new government must fire up to 150,000 civil servants, slash spending by 11 billion euros this month, sell off a swathe of state-owned companies, improve tax collection and open closed professions to competition.

Once Greece's ruling party, PASOK's support collapsed to just 12.3 percent in Sunday's vote, giving the two pro-bailout parties just 40 percent of the popular vote, not a strong mandate for austerity.

A PASOK-New Democracy coalition is guaranteed a parliamentary majority thanks to a quirk of Greek electoral law which gives the winning party a bonus of 50 extra seats. But that will not win it the argument on Greece's streets.

The Greek economy is expected to shrink by 5 percent this year after contracting 7 percent last year and unemployment is running at almost 23 percent. Many economists believe that the harsh austerity measures will only make matters worse in the short term.

Ominously, PASOK's first reaction to the results was to say it would support a new Samaras administration but not formally join it, hardly a recipe for stable government in a country which has had two elections in less than two months.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has previously said he would only formally join a coalition if SYRIZA did so as well, something which is politically impossible, given the radical left bloc's unstinting opposition to the austerity measures.

Greek analysts noted that SYRIZA's charismatic 37-year-old leader, former student communist Alexis Tsipras, conceded defeat quickly in a phone call to Samaras, apparently relieved he was free of the pressure to form a government and make compromises.

"From Monday we will continue the fight," Tsipras told cheering supporters in an open-air square outside Athens university. "...the next government after this one will be a left government."

"We will fight to topple these policies," the youthful crowd chanted back as loudspeakers played World War Two Greek Communist resistance songs.

Filippos Nikolopoulos, a sociology professor at Crete University and SYRIZA supporter, said that Tsipras's fans were jubilant because they had won new force and authority by increasing their share of the vote so much on Sunday.

"We want Europe, we want to cooperate," he said. "But we do not want to be subjugated by (German Chancellor) Mrs Merkel."

Stathis Stavropoulos, a newspaper cartoonist famous for his drawings depicting German officials preaching austerity at Greece as Nazi taskmasters, said the new conservative government would have the people of Greece against it from the outset.

"Our dream of European union was very different," he told Reuters. "It was a union of countries and peoples, not a union to serve banks and not a Fourth German Reich."

Using the term for a Nazi regional leader under Hitler's Reich, Stavropoulos added: "Our country is under occupation. How would you feel if they sent a Gauleiter to run your country and tell you what to do ?"

The cartoonist said he had nothing against the German people or other European nations. Indeed, he had never visited Berlin, Paris or London -- but was familiar with Moscow, Beijing and Nicaragua from his Communist activities. "The Soviet Union may have ended but not the dream of democratic communism," he sighed wistfully.

(Editing by Anna Willard)

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Surviving Bankruptcy And Getting A Good Deal On An Auto Loan

Surviving Bankruptcy And Getting A Good Deal On An Auto Loan

Author : Bernard Bowers

Submitted : 2012-06-17????Word Count : 433????Popularity: ??Not Rated

Author RSS Feed?? Author RSS Feed

It can be quite easy for one to get a car loan following a bankruptcy. Negotiate the best deal by taking control of your financial situation. With so many lending options available, you can choose your lender. Before anything else, build up your credit again. Then, look for car financing before you start shopping. Not only do you stand the chance of improving on your interest rate, you would be paying less overall for your automobile.

Check The Options For Yourself

Be wary of lenders who specifically target customers with lousy credit. Not only would they burden you with high interest rates, they'd give you car options out of your price range. Take the initiative to look for the best financing options instead of going this route.

If you do your own homework and shopping around, you could have a lot of choices. And since you would have cash to pay, you could get a better price and a more reasonable list of car choices. They won't suspect you once had filed for bankruptcy some time ago in the past.

Straighten Up Your Credit Report

Settling any existing bankruptcy needs to be done before even thinking of an auto loan. You can get a free copy of your report online to check that all qualifying accounts have been closed. Check your credit report to make sure you have an accurate payment history.

The FICO score, as you may know, is your credit score and can also be found on your reports. Most people who have filed for bankruptcy recently would have FICO scores below 550. After two years though, you can have a score over 650, qualifying for market rates.

Increase Qualification Factors

Filing for bankruptcy doesn't mean you're all out of options right then and there. A down payment of 20% or more is a good start, so is having little debt and cash reserves in the bank.

You can get lower rates or reduce them by being particular regarding the loan's terms and conditions. Compared to fixed rate loans, adjustable rate loans offer lower rates. A three year loan will also have lower rates than a five year loan.

Research As Much As You Could

The last way and possibly one of the best ways to save on your loan would be by researching. Compare rates and fees based on loan quotes. If you're at a loss, go online and visit any one of several auto loan broker sites.

Author's Resource Box

When you notice a squeak as you brake it may be time for Apex brake line repair.

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Italy government not worried about effect of Greek vote on banks: official

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'Falling Skies': Noah Wyle On Fighting Aliens In Season 2, Becoming Show's Elder Statesman

LOS ANGELES -- Noah Wyle is confronting an alien invasion, the death of his wife and the potential annihilation of the human species in "Falling Skies."

But he had to face a more personal issue in tackling the role of history professor Tom Mason in TNT's sci-fi series, returning 9-11 p.m. EDT Sunday for season two: Wyle, 41, has become an elder statesman, relatively speaking.

"I'm Anthony Edwards," said Wyle, referring to the "ER" co-star who's got eight years on him and boasted more credits when they started on the medical drama in 1994. "I'm the guy who's been around a little longer and has a little more set savvy."

It's a shift that came up faster than expected for Wyle, who looks younger than his years despite the beard he added for gravitas on "Falling Skies."

"When I showed up on set and realized I was going to play a father to Drew Roy, who's 26, my first instinct was, `You gotta be kidding me.' Then I thought, `Why is nobody else having a problem with this?'"

With his own children just 9 and 6 years old, Wyle protests, "I'm a young dad."

His TV expertise is much appreciated, said Remi Aubuchon, the show's executive producer.

"Noah is a terrific example for the rest of the cast and us. He's always on set prepared and he stays on the set. And this is a revelation for me, he reads scripts early and his notes are always well thought-out and smart."

Intelligence is a hallmark of Wyle's characters since "ER," the actor acknowledges: "I tend to play smart guys, which I like. Brains over brawn."

But Professor Tom is far from deskbound. There's plenty of opportunity for him to show off his action skills as Tom and other Earthlings fight multi-legged aliens, un-fondly nicknamed "skitters" by their human prey, and their murderous robots.

Wyle views Tom as a new form of hero who synthesizes the military code embodied by tough soldier Weaver (Will Patton) with a knowledge of history, creating what a colleague termed a "warrior statesmen."

His skills are put to the test as the new season unfolds. After voluntarily leaving Earth to meet the aliens on their spaceship turf, he's viewed with suspicion by members of Massachusetts' "2nd Mass" civilian resistance group.

The 10 episodes of season two, filmed in Vancouver, bring new depth to the characters and begin to unfold the "mythology onion" surrounding the aliens and their mission, Wyle said.

"It feels a lot fresher, a lot more fun, instead of going, `I'm Tom Mason, I used to be a history professor. To prove that, I'm going to cite historical references for each one of these battles,'" he said.

There's definitely more action afoot this season, Aubuchon said, and at the specific direction of executive producer Steven Spielberg.

"His primary thing, and I believe he used these words, was, `Amp it up. Fans want more. We have to deliver more than we did in the first season,'" Aubuchon said. With six months elapsed since the invasion, and the initial trauma past, the conflict had to evolve.

The 2nd Mass understands "we're not playing anymore, we're not hiding, and if we die, we die honorably," he said.

Spielberg was also adamant that "Falling Skies" avoid turning into a "hardware show" with emotions swamped by special effects, Aubuchon said. There will be family time for Tom and his three sons, and romance as well.

In one episode, widower Tom and lovely pediatrician Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood) share a brief, tender moment over a rare chocolate treat Tom has found for her.

Call it "post-apocalyptic dating," Aubuchon said, "when you know an alien might come around the corner at any moment."

But the revved-up alien action is the payoff for Wyle's home-front audience, including his son, Owen, who helped dad choose between playing a policeman, lawyer, insurance adjustor or "Falling Skies" alien fighter.

"It keeps my son entertained," Wyle said, smiling.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org.

___

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