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Corporate spending on festive dining mixed: industry players

SINGAPORE: It is the time of the year when year-end office parties and corporate functions are in full swing, but players in the food and beverage (F&B) industry are reporting mixed demand from corporate customers this festive season as companies keep an eye on their budgets.

F&B players also had to cope with manpower shortage and rising costs.

Uncertainty in the world of business and economics has spilled over to hospitality service providers.

"Be it the festive month or the regular months, the bookings are actually quite about the same," said Patsy Lim, sales and marketing manager at Morton's The Steakhouse restaurant.

"But of course during the festive month, we have more of the corporate businesses that are celebrating over dinner in the private room, as well as cocktail events."

There were also dining outlets which reported a surge in bookings.

"We've definitely seen an increase of bookings - I would say about 20% upwards compared to last year," said Leslie Pereira, general manager at Hotel Fort Canning.

Companies could have become more conservative due to woeful headline growth numbers. Singapore's economy is expected to grow only 1.5 per cent this year.

Still, hospitality players say companies do want to celebrate, but more are demanding greater value for money.

Mr Pereira said: "It is very important during this time to be able to tailor make packages towards their budgets, be flexible with prices, be flexible with tailor making menus. Gone are the days where you just have a set menu and say, take it or leave it. The competition out there is so much."

For Fine Palate Catering, it has been a good year, especially with product launch events.

"Banks haven't quite come back yet and their expenditure is really on hold. They're only doing events where its absolutely necessary and there's definitely no mega budgets," said Heather Barrie, founder and director of Fine Palate Catering & Cafe.

"So that is definitely felt, but it has been that way for a while with banks anyway, so it hasn't really made that much difference - other areas of business have picked up to cover for it."

The caterer also has a cafe, but it is in no hurry to expand that part of its business.

This year, the Singapore government imposed restrictions on the hiring of foreign workers in a bid to improve labour productivity.

The move has impacted small and medium enterprises the most, particularly those in domestically-oriented sectors like services and retail.

- CNA/xq

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Obama, congressional leaders to meet Friday

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: McConnell's spokesman says Obama should give details of his proposal


• Boehner, Reid, Pelosi and McConnell will meet at the White House on Friday


• The Senate returns to work; the House will be back in session Sunday


• Without a deal, taxes go up and spending gets slashed in the new year

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama and congressional leaders will discuss the looming fiscal cliff impasse Friday at the White House, aiming for a last-minute deal to stave off automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

The 3 p.m. meeting -- which will include Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- will come days before the deadline to reach a deal, and after another day of Republicans and Democrats blaming each other for the stalemate.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage confirmed the meeting, but did not elaborate. Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck and McConnell spokesman Don Stewart both tried to put the onus on their rival political party -- in the former case urging the Democratic-led Senate to pass a bill approved by the GOP majority in the House, and in the latter asking for a detailed proposal from Obama.

Earlier Thursday, McConnell said his side won't "write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."

While a Senate Democratic leadership member said such details would be forthcoming, two White House officials said Obama will not send a fiscal cliff measure to Congress.

Reid, the Nevada Democrat, argued that Republicans undermined a potentially major agreement over the past two years by refusing to compromise on their opposition to higher tax rates for the wealthy. Hours before Friday's meeting was announced, he was doubtful there would be a deal by January 1.

"I don't know, time-wise, how it can happen now," Reid said.

Democrats, GOP challenge each other to act first

The Consumer Confidence Index sank Thursday amid growing fears the sides won't come together. If they don't, economists have warned it could cause another recession.

Fiscal cliff fears jolt consumer confidence

At the least, hopes for an imminent so-called grand bargain that would address chronic federal deficits and debt appeared dashed right now, leaving it to the White House and legislators to work out a less ambitious agreement.

The principal dispute continues to be over taxes, specifically the demand by Obama and Democrats to extend most of the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush while allowing higher rates of the 1990s to return on top income brackets.

Obama campaigned for re-election on keeping the current lower tax rates on family income up to $250,000, which he argues would protect 98% of Americans and 97% of small businesses from rates that increase on income above that level.

Republicans oppose any kind of increase in tax rates, and Boehner suffered the political indignity last week of offering a compromise -- a $1 million threshold for the higher rates to kick in -- that his GOP colleagues refused to support because it raised taxes and had no chance of passing the Senate.

Fiscal cliff a self-inflicted problem

Last Friday, the president proposed the scaled-back agreement that included his call for extending tax cuts on households with incomes under $250,000, as well as an extension of unemployment insurance.

McConnell told Obama in a telephone conversation Wednesday that he must see details of a proposal before he can figure out how to proceed on a Senate vote.

However, a senior Democratic Senate source said Thursday that McConnell must first work things out with House Speaker John Boehner before Democrats divulge more.

Such squabbling has left many doubtful there will be a deal before the fiscal cliff takes effect. Reid criticized Boehner's insistence the Senate act on House measures, saying Democrats and Republicans have to agree on something together.

"We are in the same situation we've been in for a long time," Reid said. "We can't negotiate with ourselves."

Both sides play the 'blame game'

Reid said Boehner wants to wait until after the new House re-elects him as speaker early next month before proceeding with a compromise -- one that will need support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass.

Boehner is "more concerned about his speakership than putting the country on firm financial footing," Reid claimed.

In response, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Reid should stop talking and instead take up legislation passed by the House to avert the fiscal cliff. This comes a day after Boehner's leadership team issued a statement saying the Senate must go first -- either by passing or amending the House-passed proposal -- and only then will they act, an assertion Buck repeated Thursday evening.

Reid and Democrats reject the GOP proposals, which would extend all tax cuts passed under former President George W. Bush and revamp the spending cuts of the fiscal cliff. They've called them insufficient, shifting too much deficit reduction burden on the middle class.

Instead, Reid called on Boehner to allow a vote on a Senate-passed measure to implement Obama's plan to extend tax cuts to the $250,000 threshold.

However, McConnell rejected that possibility Thursday, as he sought to focus the debate on revising House-passed measures.

One possibility is the fiscal cliff takes effect and taxes go up in January, then Congress steps in to bring tax rates back down for at least some people -- allowing them to say they're lowering taxes, even if taxes for some wealthy people are higher in 2013 than they were in 2012. But retiring Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio calls that scenario little more than a political game.

"Nobody is willing to pull the trigger (because) everybody wants to play the blame game," LaTourette said. "This blame game is about to put us over the edge."

Opinion: Art that calls the fiscal cliff's bluff

Polls show most back Obama

Obama and Democrats have leverage, based on the president's re-election last month and Democratic gains in the House and Senate in the new Congress. In addition, polls consistently show majority support for Obama's position on taxes.

The Gallup daily tracking poll released Wednesday showed 54% of respondents support Obama's handling of the fiscal cliff talks, compared with 26% who approve of Boehner's performance.

"We believe very strongly a reasonable package can get majorities in both (chambers)," a senior White House official said. "The only thing that would prevent it is if Sen. McConnell and Speaker Boehner don't cooperate."

Americans less optimistic of fiscal cliff deal

Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist has vowed to back primary challenges against Republicans who violate his widely signed pledge not to raise taxes. Even if a deal is reached, he predicts budget showdowns will continue -- every time the government needs more money to operate.

"There the Republicans have a lot of clout because they can say we'll let you run the government for the next month, but you've got to make these reforms," he said this week.

On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress the government would reach its borrowing limit at year's end, but could take steps to create what he called "headroom" for two months or so.

However, Geithner said uncertainty about the fiscal cliff and deficit negotiations make it hard to predict precisely how long government measures to address the situation will last.

Crisis two years in the making

The possibility of a fiscal cliff was set in motion over the past two years as a way to force action on mounting government debt.

Now, legislators risk looking politically cynical by seeking to weaken the measures enacted to try to force them to confront tough questions regarding deficit reduction, such as changes to government programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The two sides seemingly had made progress early last week on forging a $2 trillion deficit reduction deal that included new revenue sought by Obama and spending cuts and entitlement changes desired by Boehner.

Obama's latest offer set $400,000 as the income threshold for a tax rate increase, up from his original plan of $250,000. It also had a new formula for the consumer price index -- called chained CPI -- that wraps in new assumptions on consumer habits in response to rising prices, such as seeking cheaper alternatives, and would result in smaller benefit increases.

Statistics supplied by opponents say the change would mean Social Security recipients would get $6,000 less in benefits over the first 15 years of chained CPI. Liberal groups have openly challenged the plan, calling it a betrayal of senior citizens who contributed all their lives for their benefits.

Boehner appeared to move on increased tax revenue, including higher rates on top income brackets and eliminating deductions and loopholes. But his inability to rally all House Republicans behind his plan last week raised questions about his role and what comes next.

Reid and other Senate Democrats say House Republicans must accept that an agreement will require support from legislators in both parties, rather than the GOP majority in the House pushing through a measure on its own.

Some House Republicans have said they would join Democrats and support the president's plan in hopes of moving past the volatile issue to focus on spending cuts and entitlement reforms they seek.

Will fiscal cliff hurt the economy?

CNNMoney's Jose Pagliery and CNN's Adam Aigner-Treworgy, Brianna Keilar, Jessica Yellin, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, Greg Botelho and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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Another NYC "subway push" death

NEW YORK A mumbling woman pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday night, the second time this month someone has been killed in such nightmarish fashion, police said.

The man was standing on the elevated platform of a 7 train in Queens at about 8 p.m. when he was shoved by the woman, who witnesses said had been following him closely and mumbling to herself, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said.

When the train pulled in, the woman got up from a nearby bench and shoved the man down, he said. The man had been standing with his back to her.

Authorities say the woman waited until the last possible second before pushing the man, reports CBS New York station WCBS-TV.

It didn't appear the man noticed her before he was shoved onto the tracks, police said. The condition of the man's body was making it difficult to identify him, police said.

"Oh my God. That ... I've never heard of that. That is really ... a woman pushed a man. ... Oh my God. That is really crazy," area resident Shiek Hossain told WCBS-TV.

The woman fled, and police were searching for her. She was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, heavyset and about 5-foot-5, wearing a blue, white and gray ski jacket and Nike sneakers with gray on top and red on the bottom.

It was unclear if the man and the woman knew each other or if anyone tried to help the man up before he was struck by the train and killed.

There was no video of the incident at the station on Queens Boulevard in the Sunnyside neighborhood. Detectives canvassed the neighborhood for useable video.

On Dec. 3, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han was shoved in front of a train in Times Square. A photograph of him on the tracks a split second before he was killed was published on the front of the New York Post the next day, causing an uproar and debate over whether the photographer, who had been waiting for a train, should have tried to help him and whether the newspaper should have run the image. Apparently no one else tried to help up Han, either.

A homeless man, 30-year-old Naeem Davis, was charged with murder in Han's death and was ordered held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty and has said that Han was the aggressor and had attacked him first. The two men hadn't met before.

Service was suspended Thursday night on the 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was using buses to shuttle riders while police investigated.

Being pushed onto the train tracks is a silent fear for many of the commuters who ride the city's subway a total of more than 5.2 million times on an average weekday, but deaths are rare.

Among the more high-profile cases was the January 1999 death of aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale, who was shoved by a former mental patient. After that, the state Legislature passed Kendra's Law, which lets mental health authorities supervise patients who live outside institutions to make sure they are taking their medications and aren't threats to safety.

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White House Says It Has No New Fiscal Cliff Plan

The White House said today it has no plans to offer new proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff which looms over the country's economy just five days from now, but will meet Friday with Congressional leaders in a last ditch effort to forge a deal.

Republicans and Democrats made no conciliatory gestures in public today, despite the urgency.

The White House said President Obama would meet Friday with Democratic and Republican leaders. But a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the Republican "will continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act."

The White House announced the meeting after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the budget situation "a mess" and urged the president to present a fresh proposal.

"I told the president I would be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here, and as I said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago," McConnell said of his phone call with Obama Wednesday night.

McConnell added, "Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."

"That having been said, we'll see what the president has to propose," the Republican Senate leader said.

But a senior White House official told ABC News, "There is no White House bill."

That statement, however, may have wiggle room. Earlier today White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "I don't have any meetings to announce," but a short time later, Friday's meeting was made public.

It's unclear if the two sides are playing a game of political chicken or whether the administration is braced for the fiscal cliff.

Earlier today, fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lashed out at Republicans in a scathing speech that targeted House Republicans and particularly Boehner.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

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Gen. Schwarzkopf's '5 Minutes of Unimportant Questions' Watch Video

Reid, D-Nev., spoke on the floor of the Senate as the president returned to Washington early from an Hawaiian vacation in what appears to be a dwindling hope for a deal.

The House of Representatives will meet for legislative business Sunday evening, leaving the door cracked open ever so slightly to the possibility of a last-minute agreement.

But on a conference call with Republican House members Thursday afternoon, Boehner kept to the Republican hard line that if the Senate wants a deal it should amend bills already passed by the House.

That was the exact opposite of what Reid said in the morning, that Republicans should accept a bill passed by Democratic led Senate.

Related: What the average American should know about capital gains and the fiscal cliff.

"We are here in Washington working while the members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here," Reid said. "I can't imagine their consciences."

House Republicans have balked at a White House deal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 and even rejected Boehner's proposal that would limit the tax increases to people earning more than $1 million.

"It's obvious what's going on," Reid said while referring to Boehner. "He's waiting until Jan. 3 to get reelected to speaker because he has so many people over there that won't follow what he wants. John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on a firm financial footing."

Related: Starbucks enters fiscal cliff fray.

Reid said the House is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker" and suggested today that the Republicans should agree to accept the original Senate bill pass in July. Reid's comments, however, made it clear he did not expect that to happen.

"It looks like" the nation will go over the fiscal cliff in just five days, he declared.

"It's not too late for the speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but that time is even winding down," Reid said. "So I say to the speaker, take the escape hatch that we've left you. Put the economic fate of the nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the House."

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel reacted to Reid's tirade in an email, writing, "Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not."

Boehner has said it is now up to the Senate to come up with a deal.

Obama, who landed in Washington late this morning, made a round of calls over the last 24 hours to Reid, Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Related: Obama pushes fiscal cliff resolution.

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2013 Smart Guide: Next-generation video games

Read more: "2013 Smart Guide: 10 ideas that will shape the year"

Bigger, better and far more immersive. With Nintendo's launch of the Wii U in November and Microsoft and Sony both expected to pitch in with successors to the Xbox 360 and PS3 in time for next Christmas, 2013 will be a huge year for console gaming.

Leaked details have sparked excited chatter about 3D gaming in 1080p HD and Ultra HD (which has four times the pixels of 1080p), and augmented-reality play in your living room. Nintendo, which was the first to introduce motion-controlled gaming last time round, has continued its pioneering streak and brought us two-screen play, by adding a touchscreen to its control pads.

The gaming field is getting crowded. Since the launch of the last generation of consoles in 2005-2006, games have begun streaming from the cloud, coming to TVs directly from PCs, even become available through a crowd-funded Android console.

Given the eclectic competition, it's no wonder the next crop of heavyweights are embracing novel designs. The idea of the Wii U's controller screen is to clear the TV screen of user-interface clutter and introduce multiplayer possibilities. Players in the room have different perspectives on the action depending on what is displayed on their controller, for example.

Sony and Microsoft are also embracing two-screen concepts. The next PlayStation will probably enhance its connection to the PS Vita, its portable cousin, allowing you to play a game on the move and then swap to the main console when you're home. Similarly, the next Xbox is expected to make Smartglass - an app that lets you control the console from a smartphone - more of a centrepiece.

If additional screens and eye-popping pixel counts aren't enough, perhaps we'll move beyond screens. Microsoft has filed a patent for projecting augmented-reality 3D images onto your living room walls. If that pans out, game worlds will burst out of the TV and into your home, with Kinect - or its successor - letting you control the action with simple gestures. Two screens might seem rather quaint when your whole living room is the control pad.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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China's working adults still depend on parents for economic support

SHANGHAI: The growing number of young adults living off their parents is sparking concern in China.

A study found that 30 per cent of working-age adults still depend on their parents for economic support.

Experts worry this trend could become more pronounced with the second generation of children under the country's one-child policy.

From pre-natal education, toddler care, pre-school, all the way to university and then a job - it seems parents in China want to be involved in their children's lives all the way.

That's the trend experts have observed since the first generation of single children. But it's something the children don't quite welcome.

According to a survey by the China Research Centre on Ageing, 77 per cent of respondents felt parents intervene too much in their children's decisions.

Jennifer Feng, PR Director of 51Job, said: "I see that Chinese parents are increasingly domineering. So children in China often don't really know what they like because (be it schools or jobs) it wasn't their choice from the start."

And when it comes to the second generation of children born under the one-child policy, the parental influence is often so great, some can even rely on the older generation for their livelihood.

Wang Fei, father of a three-year-old boy, said: "For a Shanghainese child whose grandparents are also living in Shanghai, by the time he grows up and if he marries another single child, the couple may inherit three or four sets of apartments. They can live comfortably just by collecting rent."

Zhou Haiwang, Deputy Director of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences at the Institute of Population and Development Studies, said: "The tradition in China's society is still a one-way model of raising children, which means the older folks look after their children and even their grandchildren. The notion of living frugally and saving money hasn't changed among the elderly, and they will provide for their children in all aspects that they can, including material and physical help."

But it's not enough to merely provide resources to feed a child for life. Against the backdrop of three decades of phenomenal economic growth, experts say it's time for families which have created a comfortable lifestyle, to think about how they want to develop their next generation's survival skills.

Gordon Gu, Director of Shanghai Fesc Psychological Assistance Centre, said: "As the ancient Chinese saying goes, "wealth never lasts more than three generations". The consequence of parents' over-protection is a child who is good-for-nothing. That is the worst scenario."

Experts say when parents prepare too wide a safety net for their children, the kids will have a greater tendency to fall back on it - a thinking some parents encourage.

Gordon Gu added: "When they (parents) succeed, they naturally do not want their children to go through the same hardship they experienced again. They even tell their children not to be afraid at work. They may say, "If the company fires you or if it's difficult, just quit. Why do you have to work? We can provide everything for you.""

But analysts say this mentality encourages over-dependence on parents, and children risk losing their AQ or adversity quotient - the ability to thrive in adversity.

In the last of the five-part series on Friday, Channel NewsAsia looks at the changing behaviour of China's young generation in the workforce and how companies are coming up with fresh measures to retain this young talent.

- CNA/de

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Decluttering before the New Year

Time off work during the holidays is a perfect time to tidy up your home and work spaces to start the New Year right.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Do your New Year's resolutions include a push to clean up? Here are some tips to start


• Being organized is about being in control, says professional organizer Susan Fleischman


• Cleaning clutter can eliminate the need to buy what you simply can't find

(CNN) -- Whatever other resolutions we make leading up to the New Year -- to call Mom more often, lay off the late-night snacks -- getting ourselves organized is likely near the top of the list. And that often means clearing out the clutter that keeps us from functioning efficiently, whether we're at work or at home.

Many employees -- whether they go to actual offices or do their jobs from home -- find the last week of the calendar year is ideal for sorting through e-mails, clearing their desks, and reorganizing their work spaces. Sorting through stuff is rarely fun, but those who tackle it now will find themselves a step ahead when their now-vacationing colleagues and clients come staggering back after the holidays.

According to the National Association of Professional Organizers, which sponsors the annual "Get Organized Month" each January to help folks take control of their time, tasks and possessions, 83% of members polled say that "paper organization" ranks highest on their individual and corporate clients' to-do lists. For people taking time off between Christmas and New Year's, this week offers a chance to get things in order before 2013 arrives.

Devoting time to both physically and mentally clearing out the "old" and embracing the "new" is about more than just getting rid of stuff. Being organized is really about being in control, says Susan Fleischman, a Chicago-based professional organizer, home stager and founder of clutterfree.

"As joyous as the holidays can be, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's is probably one of the most stressful of the year for people," she says. That's why spending the week after Christmas decluttering "really helps you recover and detox from the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

"It's very symbolic -- we're ramping up to the ultimate do-over. We all get to turn the calendar page and make a fresh start."

For those at work, says Fleischman, "the phone stops ringing, there are fewer meetings. Real work probably comes to a screeching halt. There are far fewer reasons to keep letting getting organized fall to the bottom of the to-do list." And these days, when employees often feel compelled to work harder and longer, being organized can be a real competitive advantage.

NAPO Industry Member Director Mary Dykstra says that on average, Americans waste time amounting to between six and 12 weeks a year searching for things in their offices and homes. "Just imagine if you could get out from under that clutter and spend that time helping your company build their business and ultimately, your career," says Fleischman, who was a public relations and marketing executive before launching her professional organizing business.

"Every minute counts when it comes to impressing the boss, your colleagues and clients. At work, we strive to project that we're knowledgeable, in control and experts. We're constantly accessing, sharing, reacting to information. Being able to put your hands on the information or generate some information means the better you'll be able to rise to the top and have clarity of thought and creativity and maximize productivity."

But what about moving from work to the home front? Cynthia Ewer, the Washington state-based editor of OrganizedHome.com and the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Organized Fast-Track," suggests we use this in-between-holidays week to step back and reflect on our habits and how well they're working for us at home.

It's important to remember, says Ewer, that "there are different personality types. "Organized" is what works for you. There are filers -- people who love folders. They want the serenity of knowing where things are. Pilers like to keep their eyes on their stuff. Deniers have bags of paperwork shoved into closets. Instead of using a "What-does-it-look-like?" yardstick, it's a "How-will-it-work?" question. Know yourself, and come up with solutions that reflect who you are, she says.

After all, she says, " 'It's here somewhere' is the most frustrating phrase in the English language."

Cutting clutter also can boost the bottom line. "How many times do you go to the store and buy the things you couldn't find?" asks Fleischman. But cleaning up and cleaning out also can generate money, says Ewer.

"It can be a real fun process to turn your clutter into cash."

Nab tax deductions by donating cleared-out items to nonprofit organizations. Declutterers can send usable books, DVDs, video games and music to third-party merchants in exchange for gift cards through the Amazon Trade-In Program. Even computer manufacturers like Apple offer gift cards to customers who send in an old iPhone, iPad or computer for reuse or recycling, if those devices still have monetary value.

"Leading an orderly life is about saving time, saving money, reducing stress," says Fleischman, who also blogs about organizing tips and clutter makeovers. "And that's energy you can spend on leisure pursuits, which is very important to emotional well-being."

Some tips for cutting through the workplace and home clutter this holiday week:

• Stockpile your supplies. Fleischman advises making sure you've got the right trash bins, shredders, file folders and markers at your fingertips before you start sorting and tossing.
• Take it a zone at a time. Your office, home and car didn't become a mess overnight, so declutter in increments. Fleischman suggests starting with desktops, then floors, then moving on to file cabinets and bookcases.
• Go from horizontal to vertical piles. If you're purging papers, clear those piles from your desk and the floor by placing newly sorted files in a cabinet or an upright vertical file. This way, your eyes can quickly scan and identify what you need at a glance.
• Free up the fridge. "Get the ghosts of Christmas past out of there -- all those little cans of this and that, the beef sticks from the gift basket no one can bear to throw out," says Ewer. Besides, this clean-up also will save you some calories.
• Be realistic. If you really write out bills at the kitchen table and not in the home office, says Ewer, get yourself a wheeled cart you can roll where the work gets done. If your kids' toys actually live in the family room -- not in the bedroom toy box -- create a storage solution there.

"Look at your patterns of living and organize yourself accordingly."

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Former President Bush in ICU

Updated 6:40 p.m. ET

A "stubborn" fever that kept former President George H.W. Bush in a hospital over Christmas has gotten worse, and doctors have put him on a liquids-only diet, his spokesman said Wednesday, describing Bush's condition as guarded to CBS News.

Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, had said earlier in the day that the fever had gone away, but he later corrected himself.

"It's an elevated fever, so it's actually gone up in the last day or two," McGrath told The Associated Press. "It's a stubborn fever that won't go away."

"Following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever, President Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital on Sunday where he remains in guarded condition," McGrath said in an emailed statement. "Doctors at Methodist continue to be cautiously optimistic about the current course of treatment. The President is alert and conversing with medical staff, and is surrounded by family."

Doctors at Methodist Hospital in Houston have run tests and are treating the fever with Tylenol, but they still haven't nailed down a cause, McGrath said. Doctors also have put Bush on a liquid diet, though McGrath could not say why.

The bronchitis-like cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital on Nov. 23 has improved, McGrath said. The 88-year-old is now coughing about once a day, he said.

Bush was visited on Christmas by his wife, Barbara, his son, Neil, and Neil's wife, Maria, and a grandson, McGrath said. Bush's daughter, Dorothy, will arrive Wednesday in Houston from Bethesda, Md. The 41st president has also been visited twice by his sons, George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida.

Bush and his wife live in Houston during the winter and spend their summers at a home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

The former president was a naval aviator in World War II - at one point the youngest in the Navy - and was shot down over the Pacific. He achieved notoriety in retirement for skydiving on at least three of his birthdays since leaving the White House in 1992.

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Okla. Senator Could Prevent Gun Control Changes

If there's one person most likely to keep new gun-control measures from passing Congress swiftly, it's Sen. Tom Coburn.

Conservatives revere the Oklahoma Republican for his fiscal hawkishness and regular reports on government waste. But he's also a staunch gun-rights advocate, and he's shown a willingness to obstruct even popular legislation, something in the Senate that a single member can easily accomplish.

That mixture could make Coburn the biggest threat to quick passage of new gun-control laws in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., shooting that has prompted even pro-gun NRA-member lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to endorse a new look at how access to the most powerful weapons can be limited.

Coburn's office did not respond to multiple requests to discuss the current push for gun legislation. But given his record, it's hard to imagine Coburn agreeing to a major, new proposal without some fuss.

The last time Congress considered a major gun law -- one with broad support -- Coburn held it up, proving that the details of gun control are sticky when a conservative senator raises unpopular objections, especially a senator who's joked that it's too bad he can't carry a gun on the Senate floor.

After the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, Congress heard similar pleadings for new gun limits, some of them similarly to those being heard now. When it came to light that Seung-Hui Cho, the mentally disturbed 23-year-old who opened fire on campus, passed a background check despite mental-health records indicating he was a suicide threat, a push began to include such records in determining whether a person should be able to buy a gun.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a longtime gun-control advocate whose husband was killed in a mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road in 1996, introduced a widely supported bill to do just that. The NRA backed her National Instant Check System Improvement Amendments Act of 2007.

But Coburn didn't. The senator blocked action on the bill, citing concerns over patient privacy, limited gun access for veterans, and the cost of updating the background-check system,

In blocking that bill, Coburn pointed to a government study noting that 140,000 veterans had been referred to the background-check registry since 1998 without their knowledge.

"I am certainly understanding of the fact that some veterans could be debilitated to the point that such cataloguing is necessary, but we should ensure this process does not entangle the vast majority of our combat veterans who simply seek to readjust to normal life at the conclusion of their tours. I am troubled by the prospect of veterans refusing necessary treatment and the benefits they are entitled to. As I'm sure you would agree we cannot allow any stigma to be associated with mental healthcare or treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury," Coburn wrote to acting Veterans Secretary Gordon Mansfield.

Coburn succeeded in changing the legislation, negotiating a set of tweaks that shaved $100 million over five years, made it easier for prohibited gun owners to restore their gun rights by petitioning the government, and notifying veterans that if they abdicated control of their finances they would be added to the gun database. The bill passed and President Bush signed it in January 2008.

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