Political world: Seeking to break a stalemate that is threatening 160 million workers with Jan. 1 tax increases, President Barack Obama today urged the top leaders of Congress to first pass a short-term extension of the payroll tax cut, and promised to work with lawmakers on a full-year measure. Obama’s calls to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., came as the two leaders were trapped in a deadlock over competing demands. House Republicans insist on immediate talks on a full-year measure; Democrats insist that the House adopt a bipartisan Senate plan for a 60-day extension and focus on the full-year plan when Congress returns from vacation in January. If legislation isn’t passed by New Year’s Day, payroll taxes will go up by almost $20 a week for a worker making a $50,000 salary. Almost 2 million people could lose unemployment benefits as well, and doctors would bear big cuts in Medicare payments. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
One Irish rover: Facebook has agreed to make several changes to its services to improve transparency and better protect the personal data of its millions of users outside of the United States, following an in-depth audit of its international headquarters that was released today. The social media company agreed to changes including asking European users if they wanted to partake in its Facial Recognition, reworking its policies of retaining and deleting private data, reducing the amount of information collected about people who are not logged into Facebook, the company says in response to a report by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. Facebook’s international headquarters are based in Dublin, Ireland, a member of the European Union. This means the company is required to comply with European data privacy laws, which are more stringent than those that apply in the United States, particularly regarding how long data can be retained. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
The parting glass: Microsoft is pulling out of the International Consumer Electronics Show, the largest trade show in the Americas. It’s joining Apple in saying that it prefers to put on its own events when the time is right to show off its products. Microsoft says the next show, to be held Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas, will be the last show at which it has a booth or the CEO delivers the customary kick-off speech. The software company has been one of the biggest U.S. supporters of the annual event, which gathered nearly 150,000 people this year. Microsoft says it will continue to use CES as a place to connect to customers, but it won’t have a booth because its product milestones don’t align with the show’s January timing. Apple hasn’t participated in any trade shows since 2009.
