| Next primary
NEXT PRIMARY South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday. At stake: 45 Democratic delegates. Polls show: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are neck and neck; one poll has Clinton ahead. 2004: George W. Bush won the state with 53 percent in the presidential election. NEXT DEBATE On Monday, Democrats debate 7-9 p.m. CST in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on CNN. The debate, on the holiday that honors the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. .
Bush prods Congress on AMT, mortgages
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 U.S. President George W. Bush Saturday urged Congress to act on fixing a potential middle-class tax problem and reform mortgage lending laws.
Bush used his weekly radio address to congratulate the Senate for passing legislation to prevent an unexpected tax bill for millions of middle-income Americans, who could get hit with a bigger federal tax liability this year because a decades old law -- the Alternative Minimum Tax, intended to force the wealthy to pay taxes -- was not indexed to inflation.
"As a result, the AMT's higher tax burden is creeping up on more and more middle-class families, and as many as 25 million Americans would be subject to the AMT," Bush said.
He accused the House of delaying the AMT fix, although the House has already passed legislation to address the problem.
Economic pressures flow along Virginia's section of New River
The designation does little to shield the river from development. Declaring a river Wild and Scenic -- another federal government designation -- provides some protection, but only 26 miles of the New River are Wild and Scenic. All of those miles are in North Carolina. Lawrence said he regularly gets unsolicited offers for his land from eager speculators. "We may be able to help you reach your financial goals," a letter from one Michigan land company said. That could sound appealing to someone like Lawrence, when the county's last tax reassessment tripled the assessed value of his land. "Those kinds of pressures are going to come," Borda said. "There's some balance that has to be achieved there. "I think the key is just to be able to plan for this as much as possible and do it in a very environmentally, ecologically, aesthetically appropriate way." Borda's main jobs are cutting governmental red tape and finding money for projects that serve the American Heritage River initiative's three-fold purpose: economic development, natural resource protection and cultural and historic preservation.
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