Tax proposal

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty delivered the first major speech of his Republican presidential campaign Tuesday in President Obama's hometown, blistering the president's handling of the economy and proposing tax cuts for businesses and individuals.

Speaking at the University of Chicago, across the street from where Obama once lectured at the university law school, Pawlenty contended his proposals combining lower tax rates with an emergency freeze on spending would be a "better deal" than what the Obama administration is offering.

"How are you enjoying your recovery summer? That's what the president said we were having. But that was last year," Pawlenty said. "Gas is nearly $4 a gallon. Home prices are in the gutter.... Unemployment's back over 9 percent. Our national debt has skyrocketed." Pawlenty's speech came on the heels of last month's slow job-growth numbers, an increase in the nation's unemployment rate to 9.1 percent and Wall Street fears of a possible double-dip recession.

But for a presidential contender stuck in low single digits in the polls, serious doesn’t get you anywhere in a news world driven by what’s trending on Google (which often includes any news item involving Google itself). So on Tuesday, the former Minnesota governor proposed a “Google Test,” as he made the standard Republican pitch for spending cuts.

“If you can find a service or good available on Google or the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn’t need to be doing it,” said Mr. Pawlenty, speaking at the University of Chicago. “The post office, the Government Printing Office, Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, were all built for a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products. But that’s no longer the case.”

Never mind that there really is no private-sector alternative to some things the US Postal Service does, such as rural mail delivery. Or Amtrak, outside of its most-trafficked routes. Pawlenty was making a point, and by invoking Google, it’s possible that some element of his speech will break through the miasma of junk news (dominated today by the antics of a Democrat, one Rep. Anthony Weiner).

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Otherwise, Pawlenty laid out an economic plan that borrowed from former President Reagan and went farther, in some ways, than House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, the wunderkind of modern-day economic conservatism. Pawlenty would reduce the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, down from its current 35 percent. He would close loopholes to make up for some of the lost revenue.

Arizona wildfire

Flames from a mammoth forest fire licked the ridges surrounding the eastern Arizona town of Eagar Tuesday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of about half the 4,000 residents as surrounding towns also prepared to empty.

People started streaming out of Eagar as sheriff's deputies and police officers directed traffic. Flames were spotted on a ridge on the southeastern side of nearby Springerville and columns of orange smoke rose from the hills. Ash rained from the sky, which was filled with thick smoke, and when the sun peeked through, it was blood red.

Angie Colwell, her husband Mike and their two children were loading up their belongings as authorities ordered their Eagar neighborhood to evacuate.

"We love the mountains, and we're just afraid of what's going to be left after the fire comes through," the longtime resident said.

The blaze has burned 486 square miles of ponderosa pine forest, driven by wind gusts of more than 60 mph since it was sparked on May 29 by what authorities believe was an unattended campfire. It officially became the second-largest in Arizona history on Tuesday.

No serious injuries have been reported, but the fire has destroyed 10 structures so far. It has cast smoke as far east as Iowa and forced some planes to divert from Albuquerque, N.M., some 200 miles away.

The smoke that fills the air here reminded some of the blistering snowstorm that swept through Greer, about 15 miles southwest, last winter, but without the chill.

The smoke blocked out the sun, made mountain roads even more treacherous, and prevented the hospital from evacuating some patients by air ambulance on Monday.

“It extends for hundreds of miles and was so bad this morning that neither the helicopter nor the fixed-wing aircraft could go up,’’ said Jerry Campeau, chief executive officer of the 25-bed White Mountain Regional Medical Center, which has had a steady stream of people coming in with respiratory problems. “We had to take patients out by road.’’

All but the main roads are shut here, and law enforcement officials have been directing evacuees to head west, toward Phoenix, and not toward Albuquerque, where the fierce winds are blowing the smoke.

Sue Chlarson and her husband spent several days packing up their home in southern Eagar, which would be one of the first consumed if the fire veered toward the town. She said those who stay behind were misguided.

“Your property is important but your life is more important,’’ she said. “What about all those people who depend on you? Is staying fair to them?.

Halloween costume

Halloween costumes are costumes worn on or around Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. The Halloween costume has a fairly short history. Wearing costumes has long been associated with other holidays around the time of Halloween, even Christmas. Among the earliest references to wearing costumes at Halloween is in 1895, where "guisers" are recorded in Scotland, but there is almost no mention of a costume in England, Ireland, or the United States until 1900. Early costumes emphasized the pagan and gothic nature of the holiday, but by the 1930s costumes based on characters in mass media such as film, literature, and radio were popular. Halloween was originally promoted as a children's holiday, and as a means of reining in the licentious and destructive beahvior of teenagers. Early Halloween costumes were aimed at children in particular, but after the mid-20th century, as Halloween increasingly came to be celebrated by adults, the Halloween costume was worn by adults as much as children.

Economics of Halloween costumes

Children dressed up in Halloween costumes.

Retailers begin to display Halloween costumes starting around August. The most popular Halloween costumes in the United States for both kids and adults in 2010 were:

Lady Gaga

Jersey Shore cast

BP executive; BP oil worker; oil slick (from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill)

Chilean miners (from the 2010 Copiapó mining accident)

Avatar characters

LeBron James

Justin Bieber

Pirate

Paul the Octopus

Chad Kroeger (frontman of Nickelback)

Lil Wayne

Twilight characters

Barack Obama

Toy Story characters (from Toy Story 3)

Michael Jackson

Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook, also depicted in the movie The Social Network)

Big research conducted a survey for the National Retail Federation in the United States and found that 53.3 percent of consumers planned to buy a costume for Halloween 2005, spending $38.11 on average (up $10 from the year before). They were also expected to spend $4.96 billion in 2006, up significantly from just $3.3 billion the previous year. The troubled economy has caused many Americans to cut back on Halloween spending. In 2009, the National Retail Federation anticipated that American households would decrease Halloween spending by as much as 15% to $56.31.

History of Halloween costumes

Although Halloween is often claimed to be a cultural descendant of the Celtic festival of Samhain, such claims are generally not considered either historically accurate or scholarly. In particular, the custom of dressing up in costumes and going "guising" or trick-or-treating at Halloween developed from Christian customs created in Western Europea around the 15th century. Guising at Halloween in Scotland is recorded in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. The practise of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.

The holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day were often celebrated with costume parades, wild parties, and licentiousness of all sorts. In the 18th century in the United Kingdom, Halloween was celebrated in rural areas by farmers as a fertility rite, while in cities it had a Carnival-like atmosphere. But as Halloween was transported to the United States by waves of European immigrants, the licentious and rowdy elements of Halloween were domesticated to conform with the emerging Victorian era morality. Halloween was made into a private rather than public holiday, celebrations involving liquor and sensuality de-emphasized, and only children were expected to celebrate the festival.

While wearing costumes at Halloween is recorded in Scotland in 1895, there is little evidence of costumes in England, Ireland, or the United States prior to 1900, however. Early Halloween costumes emphasized the pagan and gothic nature of Halloween, and were aimed primarily at children. Costumes were also made at home, or using items (such as make-up) which could be purchased and utilized to create a costume. But in the 1930s, A.S. Fishbach, Ben Cooper, Inc., and other firms began mass-producing Halloween costumes for sale in stores as trick-or-treating became popular in North America.