Scrolling around...November 19, 2012

Tax Preparers and IRS Agents May be Stealing Taxpayer Direct Deposit Refunds
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released Processes for the Direct Deposit of Tax Refunds Need Improvement to Increase Accuracy and Minimize Fraud

Investment Falls Off a Cliff-U.S. Companies Cut Spending Plans Amid Fiscal and Economic Uncertainty
U.S. companies are scaling back investment plans at the fastest pace since the recession, signaling more trouble for the economic recovery.

Half of the nation's 40 biggest publicly traded corporate spenders have announced plans to curtail capital expenditures this year or next, according to a review by The Wall Street Journal of securities filings and conference calls.

Nationwide, business investment in equipment and software—a measure of economic vitality in the corporate sector—stalled in the third quarter for the first time since early 2009. Corporate investment in new buildings has declined...

NYT: Church of England Prepares for Vote on Female Bishops
Two decades after it supported the introduction of female priests, the Church of England was set to begin three days of deliberations on Monday that will include a critical vote on the ordination of female bishops — a notion that still splits its members and priests into rival camps.

The 470-member national assembly of the church, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion that is deeply divided on issues of gender and sexuality, is to vote on Tuesday on the issue. The measure requires the approval of all three houses of the synod — grouping bishops, clergy and laity — by a two-thirds majority...

France: 100,000 protest gay marriage
FRENCH opponents of same-sex marriage and adoption have staged their first major protests, rallying more than 100,000 people nationwide as police used tear gas against counter-demonstrators in one city.

Wearing pink scarves and T-shirts and carrying pink balloons with the image of a man and woman holding two children's hands, demonstrators on Saturday marched against plans by the socialist government to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption...



How Free Speech Died on Campus
A young activist describes how universities became the most authoritarian institutions in America...

Public nudity ban eyed in fed-up San Francisco
San Francisco may be getting ready to shed its image as a city where anything goes, including clothing.

City lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would prohibit nudity in most public places, a blanket ban that represents an escalation of a two-year tiff between a devoted group of men who strut their stuff through the city's famously gay Castro District and the supervisor who represents the area...