Family of slain auto shop owner: 'We are lost'

A longtime Southwest Side business owner was shot and killed during a robbery at his muffler shop; His family talked with CBS's Susanna Song. (Source: CBS Chicago)

After Michael Kozel was shot in a hold-up robbery at his Gage Park muffler shop Wednesday, he reached out to his son, just hours before his death.

"'They shot me in the back,'" Michael Kozel Jr., recalled his father's last words to him.

Kozel said he believes his dad reached out to him at about 5:30 p.m. even before he had an ambulance called. When the man's only son got the call, he raced over from his job and found his father being treated by paramedics inside an ambulance.

Kozel, 57, was pronounced dead at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County at 9:09 p.m.

Thursday, Kozel's family remembered him as a compassionate man who turned his love for cars into a living that supported his tight-knit family.

Two men entered Kozel's business, Independent Mufflers Inc. in the 5600 block of South Western Avenue, about 5:20 p.m. and demanded money, police said. Kozel tried to flee but was shot in the back once as he tried to run away, authorities said.

An employee at his shop said Thursday that Kozel was with two employees at the time of the hold-up, one of whom was robbed.

He was the fifth homicide in Chicago in the first two days of 2013, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Kozel's family gathered at their South Side residence on the 2700 block of West Siepp Street in the Wrightwood neighborhood Thursday morning, tearful and visibly shaken by the loss of their patriarch.

His daughter, Amber Kozel, 30, said her father owned the muffler shop for more than 20 years. He had owned other various businesses in the automotive industry throughout his career, she said.

"He's been in the business for 35 years -- it all started with a love for cars," Amber Kozel said.

"He was in the business because he was a people person," said Kozel's wife, Antonia Kozel, 55.

Kozel grew up off of 26th Street and lived his whole life in Chicago, family said.

Amber Kozel said her father was often mistaken for Santa Claus by children because of his "big belly and big beard."

"Kids would stare at him awestruck," she said. "As in 'What should I say to Santa?'"

Antonia Kozel said her husband was a loving and giving family man.

"He would give anyone the shirt off his back," she said. "He didn't deserve this."

"Everything was taken care of for us as kids," Amber Kozel said.

Kozel's family said he was hard-working and spent long hours at the muffler shop -- usually 10-hour days, Monday through Saturday.

He had regular, loyal clientele at the muffler shop, his family said.

Kozel's son said his father was a carefree man.

While the area sees break-ins regularly, Kozel's 31-year-old son said the muffler shop was "like Fort Knox" when it was all locked up.

The shop had been robbed once before a few years ago, he said, and his father gave up the money.

Kozel leaves behind three grandchildren -- an 8-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, family said.

The family joined Kozel at the hospital Wednesday night before he died.

"We are lost," Kozel's son said.

Family members later returned to the shop in a tan SUV because Kozel's widow wanted to return to the site of the shooting.

"I think she just wants to be here," said Angelica Kozel, a family member, referring to Kozel's widow.

Manny Serna, 27, and two other men used thick white paint to cover graffiti on Thursday morning, which previously had been painted onto the muffler shop's garage door.

While the graffiti had been there for some time before Kozel's shooting, Serna said it was "out of respect" that they painted over the black spray paint. It was Michael Kozel's idea, Serna said.

"It's the least I can do," Serna said. "I was a manager at this muffler shop for 10 years and recently went my own way. But he was a great man."

Serna said he was a long-time friend of the family.

Serna pointed to a bullet hole in the garage door.

"See that hole? That's the last of him," Serna said.

Serna said Kozel was shot inside the muffler shop. The bullet that killed his former boss then traveled through the garage door, he said.

Another employee, Mike Shaw, said he had worked for Kozel for about six months and remembered him as a man who got along with everyone.

Shaw, 52, called Kozel a "good guy" and enjoyed working for him.

Kozel was with two employees at the time of the hold-up, said Shaw. He said one of the employees was also robbed at gunpoint.

Shaw said he lived in the Gage Park community and said he never felt unsafe.

"Today had been rough on everybody," said Shaw. "I don't think [it's] going to re-open anytime soon."

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Can the Government Really Ban Twitter Parody Accounts?

Arizona is entertaining a law that will make it a felony to use another person’s real name to make an  Internet profile intended to “harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten,” which to some sounds like a law against parody Twitter accounts. The legislation, if passed, would make Arizona one of a few states, including New York, California, Washington and Texas, to enact anti-online-impersonation laws. If these regulations seek to put a stop to fake representations online, that does sound like the end of fake celebrity baby accounts and Twitter death hoaxes. Then again, these laws have existed in these other places for years, and that hasn’t stopped the faux accounts from coming in. So what then does this mean?

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What kind of stuff is the law intended to prosecute?

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The law does not say that all uses of another person’s real name can be charged as a felony, but only profiles made for the more nefarious purposes fall into that territory. The legislation is  targeted at more serious forms of impersonation, like cyber bullying. Two Texas teens were arrested and charged under this law for creating a fake Facebook page to ruin a peer’s reputation, for example. Or, the case of Robert Dale Esparza Jr. who created a fake profile of his son’s vice principal on a porn site might fall under this law, suggests The Arizona Republic‘s Alia Beard Rau. Or, in one of the cases brought to court under the Texas version of this law, an Adam Limle created websites that portrayed a woman he used to date as a prostitute. (The case was eventually dropped because of a geographical loophole. Limle lived in Ohio, not Texas.) 

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Okay, the harm and threat in those situation is pretty clear. How can it at all apply to something relatively harmless, like a Twitter parody account? 

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The term “harm” is pretty vague, as this Texas Law blog explains, referring to that state’s version of this legislation, on which Arizona based its own law. “‘Harm’ can be very broadly construed–one person’s joke is another person’s harm,” writes Houston lawyer Stephanie Stradley. 

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So, that could extend to parody accounts then? 

Well, possibly. Stradley suggests that politicians who had parody accounts created to mock them might have a case. Some of the impersonation of Texas lawmakers has gone beyond just the jokey fake Twitter handle. Jeffwentworth.com is not the official site for Texas state senator, but rather redirects to the web site of the anti-tax advocate group Empower Texans which considers the San Antonio politician the “the most liberal Republican senator in Austin.” Wentworth told The New York Times this domain squatting amounted to “identity theft,” and could be the basis for the law’s usage. 

The law could also possibly effect sillier parody accounts, suggest privacy advocates. “The problem with this, and other online impersonation bills, is the potential that they could be used to go after parody or social commentary activities,” senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation Kurt Opsahl told The Arizona Republic’s Alia Beard Rau. ”While this bill is written to limit ‘intent to harm,’ if that is construed broadly, there could be First Amendment problems.”

Ok, but what about precedent? Has the law ever applied to a faux Twitter handle? 

Twitter has its own parody policy that mitigates a lot of the possible damage that could ever lead to a court case. Saint Louis Cardinals manager Anthony La Russa sued Twitter in 2009 because of a made-up account, but the account was removed before the case went anywhere (And that was before these laws went into effect.) 

But it’s not clear that parody would ever be considered harmful enough for the law. When California’s version went into effect, a first amendment lawyer suggested to SF Weekly‘s Joe Eskenazi that jokes could go pretty far without prosecution. “You’re going to have to have room for satire,” he said. The account would have to look fool people, he argued. “A key question is, ‘is it credibile?’” asks Simitian. “Do people who read it think it’s him?” Because of our increasing skepticism of things on Twitter, unless the site has verified checkmark, it’s unlikely that most people believe in a fake account for long. So, unless the imitation tweeter does something extremely harmful to someone’s character, it doesn’t sound like anyone would have a strong case. Alas, parody Twitter accounts, for better or worse (worse, right?) are here to stay. 

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Depardieu, in tax fight, gets Russian citizenship

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin has cast Gerard Depardieu in one of the most surprising roles of his life — as a new Russian citizen.

The announcement Thursday that President Vladimir Putin has approved Depardieu‘s application for citizenship is almost a real-life analogue to the French actor’s 1990 comedy “Green Card,” in which his character enters into a sham marriage in order to work in the United States.

But in this version, taxes appear to be at the heart of the matter. Depardieu has waged a battle against a proposed super tax on millionaires in his native country.

French President Francois Hollande plans to raise the tax on earned income above €1 million ($ 1.3 million) to 75 percent from the current 41 percent, while Russia has a flat 13-percent tax rate.

A representative for the former Oscar nominee declined to say whether he had accepted the Russian offer.

Thursday was a holiday in Russia and officials from the Federal Tax Service and Federal Migration Service could not be reached for comment on whether the decision would require Depardieu to have a residence in Russia.

But it’s clearly an image buffer for Russia, calling attention to the country’s attractive tax regime and boosting Putin’s efforts to show that the economic chaos of the early post-Soviet period has passed.

“The distinctiveness of our tax system is poorly known about in the West. When they know about it, we can expect a massive migration of rich Europeans to Russia,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin bragged on Twitter.

Others aren’t so sure.

Political analyst Pavel Svyatenkov told the state news agency RIA Novosti that the move was “very good, very high-quality PR for Russia” but he was didn’t think it would ignite a flood of new residents.

“I don’t expect a massive movement of rich people to here, for the reason that Russia remains a pretty poor country by Western measurements and here there are bigger problems with crime and corruption,” he said.

As Depardieu’s criticism of the proposed tax roiled his country, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called him “pathetic.”

Depardieu responded angrily in an open letter.

“I have never killed anyone, I don’t think I’ve been unworthy, I’ve paid €145 million ($ 190 million) in taxes over 45 years,” the 64-year-old actor wrote. “I will neither complain nor brag, but I refuse to be called ‘pathetic’.”

Depardieu said in the letter that he would surrender his passport and French social security card. In October, the mayor of a small Belgian border town announced that Depardieu had bought a house and set up legal residence there, a move that was slammed by Hollande’s newly-elected Socialist government.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the French government spokeswoman, didn’t comment directly on Depardieu’s tax fight. But she drew a clear distinction between people who have personal or professional reasons to live abroad and “French citizens who proclaim loudly and clearly that they they’re exiling themselves for fiscal reasons.”

She said Putin’s offer “is an exclusive prerogative of the Russian chief of state.”

Depardieu has had increasingly high-profile ties with Russia.

Last October he visited Grozny, the capital of the Russian province of Chechnya, to celebrate the birthday of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. And in 2011, he was in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region to play the lead role in the film “Rasputin.”

He is well known in the country, where he appears in an ad for Sovietsky Bank’s credit card and is prominently featured on the bank’s home page.

“You have to understand that Depardieu is a star in Russia,” Vladimir Fedorovski, a Russian writer living in France, told the Europe 1 network on Thursday. “There are crowds around Depardieu. He’s a symbol of France. He’s a huge ambassador of French culture.”

Depardieu has made more than 150 films and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1990 film of the same name.

The Kremlin statement gave no information on why Putin made the citizenship grant, but the Russian president had expressed sympathy with the actor in December, days after Depardieu reportedly said he was considering Russian citizenship.

“As we say, artists are easily offended and therefore I understand the feelings of Mr. Depardieu,” Putin said.

Although France’s highest court struck down the new tax on Dec. 29, the government has promised to resubmit the law in a slightly different form. On Wednesday, the French government estimated the court decision to overturn the tax would cost the country €210 million ($ 275 million) in 2013.

In an interview, Depardieu told the Sunday Parisien the court decision made no difference.

France’s debt burden is around 90 percent of national income — not far off levels that have caused problems elsewhere in the 17-country eurozone.

Depardieu is not the only high-profile Frenchman to object to the super tax. Bernard Arnault — chief of the luxury goods and fashion giant LVMH and worth an estimated $ 41 billion — has said he would leave for Belgium.

____

Hinnant contributed from Paris. Silvie Corbet also contributed from Paris.

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Question Mark: Why Am I Getting Shorter With Age?

Sal DiMarco Jr. for The New York Times

The upward trajectory of youth starts falling for most people after 40. In a file photo, a Macungie, Pa., middle school nurse, Linda Duffy, measures a student.

Relax. You’ve been through this before.

Back when you were a baby baby boomer, your doctor probably laid you down every few months and measured your height.

Then came the big day: you toddled into the doctor’s office on your own two feet and instead of lying down to be measured, you stood up. And the odds are that when the doctor jotted down your height, it seemed to suggest that you had shrunk since the last visit.

The truth, of course, was that you weren’t really shrinking. When you were measured standing up, gravity compressed your spine. In follow-up visits, you quickly made up for lost ground, your height milestones rising on the doctor’s chart much as they may have in pencil markings on a kitchen wall.

Decades later, pretty much the same thing is probably happening to you right now, with two minor differences: you actually are shrinking. And you are not likely to get that height back.

Starting at about age 40, people tend to lose about four-tenths of an inch of height every decade, said Dr. David B. Reuben, chief of geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at U.C.L.A. Some of the height loss occurs as part of the normal aging process, and some because of disease. Our old friend gravity, bane of the first vertical height measurement, also plays a role. “It’s a Newton thing,” said Dr. Reuben, a past president of the American Geriatrics Society.

As we age, the disks between the vertebrae of the spine, sometimes described as gel-like cushions, dry out and become thinner, with the result that the spine becomes compressed. The bone loss known as osteoporosis can also contribute. People who have the condition may sustain small compression fractures in the spine, often without their knowledge. “The best way to think about those is if you step on a soda can and the soda can just kind of crumples,” Dr. Reuben said.

The fractures can lead to excessive curving of the spine, which can be seen in many people as they age. When it is very pronounced, it is considered hyperkyphosis, sometimes known as dowager’s hump. Hyperkyphosis, however, can occur even in the absence of fractures, often as a result of a loss of muscle tone, especially in core muscles like the abdominals. Even the flattening of the arches of the feet that comes with time can contribute to a loss of height.

There is not much to be done about many of these changes, but people who exercise, strengthening their core, may retain or gain height through better posture. And some research, while not definitive, has offered promising evidence that yoga may even help reverse the curving of the spine. If the yoga is begun at an earlier age, it may be possible to prevent the condition altogether, though more research would need to be done to establish this.

Making sure to get enough calcium and vitamin D can help, Dr. Reuben said, and there are medications used to prevent the fractures caused by osteoporosis.

Of course, if sit-ups or downward dogs are not your style, there are two simple tricks to being taller. Check your height in the morning, when it is at its maximum. Or ask your doctor to measure you lying down.

Questions about aging? E-mail boomerwhy@nytimes.com

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Google puts Motorola campus on market

Smartphone maker Motorola Mobility will move its headquarters from Libertyville to the Merchandise Mart in the summer of 2013, relocating 3,000 employees to downtown Chicago, the company and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Thursday. (Source: WGN - Chicago)

Tribune staff

10:47 a.m. CST, January 3, 2013

Google has put up for sale Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.'s 1.1 million-square-foot headquarters in Libertyville.

The asking price for the property is not being disclosed, according to a spokeswoman for Binswanger, exclusive agent on the property.

The 20-year-old corporate campus, which was used for office space and research and development labs, consists of four connected, multistory buildings and includes a daycare center, cafeteria, full-service gym and other recreational facilities. Renovations to the buildings were undertaken in 1998 through 2005. There also is parking for 3,400 vehicles.

In May, Google completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. Two months later, the company announced it would move Motorola Mobility's headquarters to the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago in 2013.

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Judge: No 'credible evidence' Chief Keef moved to Northbrook

A Cook County judge ruled today that South Side rapper Chief Keef could remain free despite new allegations he violated his juvenile probation by moving to Northbrook without telling authorities.

Prosecutors asked Juvenile Court Judge Carl Anthony Walker to have the 17-year-old emerging rap star, whose real name is Keith Cozart, locked up pending a full hearing later this month.

But after hearing testimony from Cozart's probation officer, the judge said he had not been presented "any credible evidence" that the teen had moved from his Dolton home.

Cozart's attorney said the rapper was spending a lot of time recording songs in the Northbrook home of his manager, where they have set up a studio.

Prosecutors said that in addition to failing to tell his probation officer of his change in address, Cozart had not been heard from since his debut album "Finally Rich" went on sale on Dec. 18.

Several attempts by authorities to contact Cozart by phone were unsuccessful, so officials went to the Dolton home where Cozart was supposed to be living with his grandmother, but he was not there, Assistant State's Atty. Jullian Brevard said.

Cozart appeared in court today in a black coat with a fur-lined hood and tan jeans. Accompanied by two managers and several family members, the lanky teen held his arms in the air on the way out of the Near West Side courthouse and exclaimed, "Why they got a problem with my address?"

The court appearance was the latest legal trouble for Cozart, who is on probation after a juvenile conviction for pointing a gun at a police officer.

Last year, prosecutors alleged he violated his probation by taking part in a video interview at a gun range in New York during which he reportedly is shown holding a rifle.

Chicago police have been looking into whether Chief Keef and his allies played a role in the Sept. 4 slaying of aspiring rapper Lil Jojo.

The slaying garnered national attention after Chief Keef sent a taunting tweet about the slain 18-year-old, whose real name was Joseph Coleman, hours after the killing. Chief Keef received mostly negative feedback from his more than 200,000 Twitter followers before he claimed his account had been hacked.

Walker set a formal hearing on the probation violation allegations for Jan. 28.

jmeisner@tribune.com

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A Minute With: Singer Trey Songz on new movie “Texas Chainsaw 3D”

LOS ANGELES, January2 (Reuters) – R&B and hip-hop artists have appeared in horror films before, but 28-year old singer Trey Songz tackles a brand new incarnation of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise with “Texas Chainsaw 3D.”

The film, which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, follows a young woman who inherits a lavish, isolated mansion. When she visits it for the first time with her three friends, one of whom is played by Songz, they realize there is horror awaiting them in the basement.

Songz, a Grammy-nominated artist with hits like “Say Aah,” “Can’t Be Friends” and “Bottoms Up,” took a break from his world tour to talk to Reuters about his first movie role as a lead actor.

Q: Is acting something you’ve had your eye on?

A: “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but music comes first. I wanted to make sure when I did choose a role, I had time to really get in to it. (Director) John (Luessenhop) came to the studio to meet me for the first time and I told him to give me 24 hours to figure it out. I had just come off tour, I was recording an album and the four weeks I was set to have for vacation would be the four weeks I’d be shooting the film.”

Q: What did you think about during that 24-hour period?

A: “Making sure I wouldn’t be carrying the weight of the film. My name means so much in the music world that I was worried I’d have to carry the film, but I think the franchise carries the weight of the film. Luckily, (my character) Ryan is a likeable guy. There wasn’t too much stress on me mentally and it didn’t take too much away from me as a person in order to be him … I couldn’t ask for a better stepping-stone as a first-time actor.”

Q: You’ve stated that you are the first black actor in the “Texas Chainsaw” franchise. What does that mean to you?

A: “I think it means something not only to me, but to the franchise. Ryan was originally envisioned as a white male. The fact that the studio, the producers and the director went out on a limb and put a black man in such a strong part in a classic movie first made in the 70s, when things were so different, speaks volumes too.”

Q: Your single “Heart Attack,” off your fifth and current album “Chapter V,” was nominated for a best R&B song Grammy, making it your third nomination. What would a win mean?

A: “Right now I feel like I’m in the Grammy club, but not in the V.I.P. I’m just looking at the V.I.P. going, ‘I got to drink. I want a bottle, just let me in the V.I.P. please!’ But all jokes aside, the Grammy is the most elite award you can win as a musician so it would mean so much.”

Q: You moved around a lot as child, partly because you had a stepfather who worked in the military and partly because of your mother’s work opportunities. What was that like?

A: “When you’re a young, single mother, you’re dependent on welfare. Your mother is struggling and we would move around a lot – Virginia, Florida, Kansas, New Jersey, Baltimore … I went to eight different schools before ninth grade.”

Q: How does that impact you today?

A: “I’ve never really been settled. I don’t think I’ve ever known what it was like to be a person that was used to sitting still. I think it’s given me the ability to detach from any situation. It’s so easy to remove myself from the closest of situations just because I’ve had to do it my whole life.”

Q: Do you ever want to know what it feels like to be settled?

A: “I do. I don’t know when it will happen. I don’t even know how to. When I sit still for a couple of days, I get fidgety. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Q: I suppose acting is another way to keep yourself from sitting still. Will there be more acting in store for you?

A: “I’ve set a goal for myself to land a couple of films a year. Recently, I shot a movie starring Paula Patton entitled ‘Baggage Claim.” It’s an urban film where I get to be comedic as well as sexy.”

Q: Comedic and sexy – it’s great that you see yourself that way. What confidence!

A: Some things just are what they are!

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Jackie Frank)

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Employers Must Offer Family Health Care, Affordable or Not, Administration Says

WASHINGTON — In a long-awaited interpretation of the new health care law, the Obama administration said Monday that employers must offer health insurance to employees and their children, but will not be subject to any penalties if family coverage is unaffordable to workers.

The requirement for employers to provide health benefits to employees is a cornerstone of the new law, but the new rules proposed by the Internal Revenue Service said that employers’ obligation was to provide affordable insurance to cover their full-time employees. The rules offer no guarantee of affordable insurance for a worker’s children or spouse. To avoid a possible tax penalty, the government said, employers with 50 or more full-time employees must offer affordable coverage to those employees. But, it said, the meaning of “affordable” depends entirely on the cost of individual coverage for the employee, what the worker would pay for “self-only coverage.”

The new rules, to be published in the Federal Register, create a strong incentive for employers to put money into insurance for their employees rather than dependents. It is unclear whether the spouse and children of an employee will be able to obtain federal subsidies to help them buy coverage — separate from the employee — through insurance exchanges being established in every state. The administration explicitly reserved judgment on that question, which could affect millions of people in families with low and moderate incomes.

Many employers provide family coverage to full-time employees, but many do not. Family coverage is much more expensive, and the employee’s share of the premium is typically much larger.

In 2012, according to an annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance averaged $5,615 a year for single coverage and $15,745 for family coverage. The employee’s share of the premium averaged $951 for individual coverage and more than four times as much, $4,316, for family coverage.

Starting in 2014, most Americans will be required to have health insurance. Low- and middle-income people can get tax credits to help pay their premiums, unless they have access to affordable coverage from an employer.

In its proposal, the Internal Revenue Service said, “Coverage for an employee under an employer-sponsored plan is affordable if the employee’s required contribution for self-only coverage does not exceed 9.5 percent of the employee’s household income.”

The rules, though labeled a proposal, are more significant than most proposed regulations. The Internal Revenue Service said employers could rely on them in making plans for 2014.

In writing the law, members of Congress often conjured up a picture of employees working year-round at full-time jobs. But in drafting the rules, the I.R.S. wrestled with the complex reality of part-time, seasonal and temporary workers.

In addition, the administration expressed concern that some employers might try to evade the new requirements by firing and rehiring employees, manipulating their work hours or using temporary staffing agencies. The rules include several provisions to prevent such abuse.

The law says an employer with 50 or more full-time employees may be subject to a tax penalty if it fails to offer coverage to “its full-time employees (and their dependents).”

Employers asked for guidance, and the Obama administration provided it, saying that a dependent is an employee’s child under the age of 26.

“Dependent does not include the spouse of an employee,” the proposed rules say.

Thus, employers must offer coverage to children of an employee, but do not have to make it affordable. And they do not have to offer coverage at all to the spouse of an employee.

The administration said that the rules — which apply to private businesses, nonprofit organizations and state and local government agencies — would require changes at many work sites.

“A number of employers currently offer coverage only to their employees, and not to dependents,” the I.R.S. said. “For these employers, expanding their health plans to add dependent coverage will require substantial revisions to their plans.”

In view of this challenge, the agency said it would grant a one-time reprieve to employers who fail to offer coverage to dependents of full-time employees, provided they take steps in 2014 to come into compliance. Under the rules, employers must offer coverage to employees in 2014 and must offer coverage to dependents as well, starting in 2015.

The new rules apply to employers that have at least 50 full-time employees or an equivalent combination of full-time and part-time employees. A full-time employee is a person employed on average at least 30 hours a week. And 100 half-time employees are considered equivalent to 50 full-time employees.

Thus, the government said, an employer will be subject to the new requirement if it has 40 full-time employees working 30 hours a week and 20 half-time employees working 15 hours a week.

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Dow soars 2% after deal to avoid 'cliff'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks began the new year with a broad rally on Wednesday, sparked by a last-minute deal in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts that threatened to derail the economy.

In 2013's first trading session, the S&P 500 was on target for its best percentage gain since November 19 and highest close since October 19.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 229.64 points, or 1.75 percent, to 13,333.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 26.53 points, or 1.86 percent, to 1,452.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 74.26 points, or 2.46 percent, to 3,093.77.

U.S. markets were closed on Tuesday for New Year's Day.

Nine stocks rose for every one falling on the New York Stock Exchange and all 10 of the S&P 500 industry sector indexes gained at least 1 percent. The S&P financial index was up 2.2 percent.

The S&P Information Technology index gained 2.1 percent, including Hewlett-Packard , which climbed nearly 5 percent to $14.95. HP's gain followed a miserable 2012 when the stock fell nearly 45 percent.

Congress passed a bill to prevent huge tax hikes and delay spending cuts that would have pushed the world's largest economy off a "fiscal cliff" and possibly into recession.

The vote avoided steep income-tax increases for a majority of Americans but failed to resolve a major showdown over cutting the budget deficit, leaving investors and businesses with only limited clarity about the outlook for the economy. Spending cuts of $109 billion in military and domestic programs were temporarily delayed, and another fight over raising the U.S. debt limit also looms.

"We got through the fiscal cliff. The next big thing, and probably more contentious thing, is negotiating the debt ceiling and possibly entitlement reform in early 2013," said Jim Russell, senior equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Cincinnati.

Hard choices about budget cuts and the critical need to raise the debt ceiling will confront Congress about the same time in two months "so the fur will be flying," Russell said.

U.S. stocks ended 2012 with the S&P 500 up 13.4 percent for the year, as investors largely shrugged off worries about the fiscal cliff. For the year, the Dow gained 7.3 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 15.9 percent.

Bank shares rose following news that U.S. regulators are close to securing another multibillion-dollar settlement with the largest banks to resolve allegations that they unlawfully cut corners when foreclosing on delinquent borrowers.

Bank of America Corp rose 3 percent to $11.95 and Citigroup Inc gained 3.7 percent to $41.03. The KBW bank index rose 2.4 percent and the S&P financial sector climbed 2.2 percent.

Shares of Zipcar Inc surged 48.2 percent to $12.21 after Avis Budget Group Inc said it would buy Zipcar for about $500 million in cash to compete with larger rivals Hertz and Enterprise Holdings Inc. Avis advanced 4.8 percent to $20.78.

Shares of Apple rose 2.5 percent to $545.56, helping to lift the S&P technology index up 2.3 percent following a report that the most valuable tech company has started testing a new iPhone and a new version of its iOS software.

Economic data showed U.S. manufacturing ended 2012 on an upswing despite fears about the fiscal cliff, but construction spending fell in November for the first time in eight months.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Fiscal cliff bill moves to House, timing and outcome uncertain

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington's last-minute scramble to step back from a recession-inducing "fiscal cliff" shifted to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday after the Senate approved a bipartisan deal to avoid steep tax hikes and spending cuts.

In a rare late-night show of unity, the Senate voted 89 to 8 to raise some taxes on the wealthy while keeping income taxes low on more moderate earners.

The bill's prospects were less certain in the House, where a vote had not yet been scheduled.

Republicans, unhappy that the bill contained over $600 billion in tax increases but only around $12 billion in spending cuts, said they may change it more to their liking and send it back to the Senate. Party leaders planned to take the temperature of rank-and-file lawmakers over the afternoon before deciding on a course of action.

"My recommendation would be not to take a package put together by a bunch of sleep-deprived octogenarians on New Year's Eve," said Representative Steve LaTourette, a moderate Republican from Ohio who is a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner.

Republicans could face a backlash if they scuttle the deal. Income tax rates technically rose back to 1990s levels for all Americans at midnight, and public opinion polls show Republicans would shoulder the blame if Congress fails to act.

Many conservative Republicans have rejected tax increases on any Americans, no matter how wealthy. Some liberal Democrats were also upset with the complex deal, which they thought gave away too much.

Lingering uncertainty over U.S. tax and spending policy has unnerved investors and depressed business activity for months, and lawmakers had hoped to reach a deal before Tuesday, when a broad range of automatic tax increases and spending cuts would begin to punch a $600 billion hole in the economy.

Financial markets have avoided a steep plunge on the assumption that Washington would ultimately avoid pushing the country off the fiscal cliff into a recession.

With financial markets closed for the New Year's Day holiday, lawmakers have one more day to close the deal.

"My district cannot afford to wait a few days and have the stock market go down 300 points tomorrow if we don't get together and do something," Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, said on the House floor.

LATE-NIGHT DRAMA

The bill passed by the Senate at around 2 a.m. would raise income taxes on families earning more than $450,000 per year and limit the amount of deductions they can take to lower their tax bill.

Low temporary rates that have been in place for less affluent taxpayers for the past decade would be made permanent, along with a range of targeted tax breaks put in place by President Barack Obama in the depths of the 2009 recession.

However, workers would see up to $2,000 more taken out of their paychecks annually as a temporary payroll tax cut was set to expire.

The bill would also delay an across-the-board spending cut in domestic and military programs for two months, and extend jobless benefits for 2 million long-term unemployed people who otherwise would see them run out.

The bill would raise taxes on less than 1 percent of the population, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

However, that may be too much for conservative Republicans in the House, who last month scuttled an effort by Boehner to limit tax increases to those who earn more than $1 million. He has faced insurrections from his conservative wing in other budget showdowns over the past two years.

Republicans had hoped to include significant spending cuts in the deal to narrow trillion-dollar budget deficits. Conservatives were already looking forward to the next battle over the debt ceiling, in late February, to extract deficit reduction measures from the Democratic president.

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