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...package is raising disapproving eyebrows among some groups. A coalition of plastic surgeons, a women's group, medical associations and pharmaceutical makers were distraught when Senate majority leader Harry Reid slipped the so-called Botax levy into the health care bill late last month in hopes of raising $5.8 billion over the next 10 years. The tax would apply to elective but not reconstructive plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures...
Still, Congress faces a heavy burden in searching every nook and cranny for ways to fund the health care reform bill's $849 billion price tag. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senator Reid, dismisses suggestions that women are being targeted and notes that Senators are looking everywhere for ways to fund the bill. "There was a point a few weeks ago when Senator Reid needed some additional revenue for this bill - the goal was to keep all the financing within the health care arena, and in the end, he decided to include this provision in the bill," says Manley...
...innovation and competition in the IT sector. When Microsoft first began trading blows with the European Commission, it took a confrontational approach, as if it never believed it would be tamed by Brussels bureaucrats. But the tussles have cost Microsoft dearly: the E.U. watchdog has fined the company $2.4 billion for illegal business practices over the years. At the same time, the rise of companies like Apple and Google - which both enjoy quasi-monopolies in other technology sectors - creates a new challenge for Microsoft. Indeed, as Microsoft, Apple and Google branch out beyond their core services and into new territory...
...comes as little surprise that Microsoft is one of the key complainants in the European Commission's current investigation into software giant Oracle's $7.4 billion planned takeover of hardware-maker Sun. Microsoft is also seeking to halt a Google takeover of mobile-advertising start-up company AdMob. (See pictures of work and life at Google...
...organization industry has proved pretty resilient in the recession. Demand for products that help working moms deal with what is commonly referred to as the second shift - i.e., all the work they have to do after they get home from work - is projected to increase 4.3% annually to $8.9 billion in 2013, according to the Freedonia Group, a market-research company...