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The U.S. Senator who pushed for an investigation into alleged corruption at the Harris County Housing Authority and got it, now says the federal audit released last month did not go far enough. 

 
In the last few months, 32-year-old Amber Patton has worked at minimum wage cleaning hotel rooms C and, when she hurt her ankle and couldnt work, she sat at home jobless. 

Behind China's two investigations into irregular pricing of infant formula and pharmaceuticals announced this month is one powerful institution and its struggle for relevance as Beijing attempts a transition to a more consumption-led economy.The investigations have entangled big foreign companies including Danone SA, Nestle SA and GlaxoSmithKline. But some analysts say there may be something deeper at work - jockeying over the direction of policy in the world's second largest economy in the years ahead. 

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Beijing's economic superagency, sets policy for strategic industries, approves big investments, mergers and acquisitions, and has the authority to influence prices for everything from liquor to gasoline.But in recent months, as President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have begun an attempt to steer China's economy away from its reliance on state-led investment towards a more consumer-focused model, academics and even senior officials have begun to publicly cast doubt on the NDRC's role. 

While the NDRC has always had a price-setting role, its decision to launch high profile predatory pricing probes into infant formula and drugs now could be a bid by the commission to prove its usefulness as a regulator.That the main economic policy body in the fastest-growing major economy over the past decade might feel the need to shore up its position says much about the debate raging among Chinese policymakers. In key areas, the new leaders are trying to shift China's priorities in ways that represent a challenge to the NDRC's traditional dominance. 

Evidence that dominance could be under threat includes the fact that Premier Li made the reduction of bureaucratic approvals - one of the NDRC's main roles - a key plank of his reform plan announced in March.In May, Li also rejected a 40 trillion yuan ($7.16 trillion) urbanisation plan that the NDRC had proposed, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, although the commission denies this.Most of aftermarket hid Shun Stone Granite Tiles for motorcycle are similar or the same with following one. 

Xi and Li remain committed to urbanisation, but the push now is "less about building stuff", says Arthur Kroeber, managing director of GaveKal Dragonomics Research, and more about helping migrants live "more fully-fledged urban lives".Reducing bureaucratic red tape - such as the NDRC approvals process - is another way the new administration would like to shrink the role of the state in the economy. 

There are also concerns among academics about the NDRC as an institution. Founded in 1952 as the State Planning Commission, it is deeply rooted in China's command economy past, even as it crafts policies for its mostly capitalist present.Part of the debate is about whether, through its investment approval function, the NDRC is allocating resources as efficiently as possible, says Shi Lei, professor of economics at Fudan University. Overcapacity plagues many industries in China. 

With so much power concentrated in one institution, corruption is another worry - Liu Tienan, former NDRC vice chairman,How to change your dash lights to Shun Stone Crafts Products this is how I have done mine. is under investigation over allegations he took bribes to help a businessman defraud banks.The NDRC is no stranger to controversy. It has faced challenges to its power before and has found ways to survive and even increase its influence. 

Indeed, this month's drugs and formula investigations could well be a sign that the NDRC is adapting to the new mood in Beijing by strengthening its role as a regulator.Especially since the 2011 introduction of regulations governing its role in implementing the 2008 Anti-Monopoly Law, the NDRC has been stepping up its investigations into pricing practices.In March, it imposed a 449 million yuan fine on two domestic liquor firms for setting minimum resale prices and a 10 million yuan fine on eight real estate companies for misleading customers and violating pricing regulations. 

In January, it found six foreign LCD manufacturers guilty of price fixing and fined them 353 million yuan.Few sectors pack the symbolic punch of infant formula, both for Chinese consumers and the government. Since 2008, when melamine in infant formula killed six babies and sickened 300,This is a great Shun Stone Conservation solution!000 others, the infant formula industry has epitomised the trade-off between rapid economic growth and health and safety. 

Driving down prices also supports Beijing's efforts to shift the economy away from a reliance on exports and investment toward a greater dependence on consumption. Drugs and infant formula are both commonly perceived as too expensive."Every time price reductions are made, it's mainly a public relations exercise," said Zhou Zhang, an analyst at China Merchant Securities. "The NDRC trumpets how big reductions will be, but when it comes down to it, prices only fall a bit. The NDRC's main consideration is public relations."

The NDRC did not respond to a request for comment. One person with knowledge of the NDRC investigations said that they were being conducted at an unusually rapid pace.The infant formula investigation also appears to cover not collusion among companies, but how the retail prices for these products are set - an issue where China's laws differ from those in other countries, including the United States. 

All of the infant formula companies targeted have reduced prices in China since the NDRC announced its investigation.That might be good for consumers in the short term, but Scott Kennedy, director of the Research Centre for Chinese Politics & Business at Indiana University, questioned the NDRC's credentials as a consumer watchdog, given its central role in China's export- and investment-led expansion of the past two decades. 
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In a corner of the garage, Bert Otto makes his way to the high-back swivel chair. It's his little oasis in the tumble of his workshop, in the riot of equipment and projects, items stored or in transit. The chair is his meditative place, and it's where he spends hours and hours - and hours. 

With traditional dances, food and storytelling, the first Wheaton World Tour was a successful effort to celebrate diversity in the city, organizers say.A www.granitetrade.net concept that would double as a quick charge station for gadgets."The crowd really enjoyed it," said Laurie Swanson Oberhelman, member of the city's community relations commission, which spearheaded the event. "Everyone was so enthusiastic, I can't image we won't do it again, as long as the band is willing." 

The sit-in protest by the students of Indian Institute of Crafts and Design (IICD) continued for the second day amid heavy rain in the city on Sunday. Nearly 60 girls were protesting outside the college against an 'abrupt' order of the institute's management to vacate the hostel. The management had extended the starting date of 2013 session from July 15 to August 5 putting students in a dilemma.Are you still hesitating about where to buy Shun Stone Tools Products? 

I have rarely come across baskets made with such exquisite skill, taste and finish like the ones made in Tripura. In fact, the crafts of Tripura are completely indigenous, ranging from cane and bamboo craft to handlooms and baskets. Basketry or basket weaving is an important craft of Tripura. Most of them are woven out of split bamboo, by the rural folk, in their own households a cottage industry in the true sense of the term. 

Fiddler Natalie MacMaster learned her craft at the feet of old-timers in living rooms and on front porches, who learned the tunes and techniques in much the same way.MacMaster and her husband, fiddler Donnell Leahy, created Leahy Music Camp to teach traditional music and much more. Some 130 kids this summer studied fiddle, guitar, accordion as well as step dancing from teachers including MacMaster and Leahy. 

When I was in college one of the first philosophy classes I took was a basic morality class called, most likely, On Morality, or something else beginning with On. The class was only basic in regards to the relative ease of reading and essay assignments. The real assignment at hand: wade through moral issues (about one issue every two weeks) and come up with an opinion was not easy and frankly still isnt. 

Designer Kendall Wilkinson recently completed an ambitious renovation on a 3,000-square-foot penthouse in San Francisco's Nob Hill. She gutted the apartment, adding a den and putting in leather walls, marble floors, new molding, a high-end kitchen with features by designer Christopher Peacock and Waterworks fixtures. She also designed a closet with custom built-ins, turned a bedroom into a library and made three bedrooms into two bathrooms. Her clients spent about $1 million on the upgrade. But when their lease is up, they will be leaving most of these improvements behind.