Immigrant children who came to the U.S. before they were teens do better in academic achievement and school engagement than native-born children, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins University, and the advantages extend to adulthood.

Last night, Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. That means middle-class families won’t see an increase in their income tax rates. We’ve avoided the fiscal cliff.
President Obama will sign the legislation soon. Last night, he described the agreement as, “one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity for everybody.”

German ambassador to Bulgaria Matthias Höpfner has issued an open letter to major Bulgarian daily Monitor, strongly objecting the paper’s toning down an interview of his.
According to the dipomat, the newspaper had cut remarks of his critical of media freedom in Bulgaria in the interview, which came out October 23.

President Obama scored a modest win in the third presidential debate, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll, but it’s Republican Mitt Romney who moved the needle among likely voters — including independents — with his debate performances.

An excerpt from Andy Greenberg’s This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim To Free the World’s Information.

The site for investigative journalism Bivol.bg, official partner of WikiLeaks for Bulgaria, has received a statement from CRIM about the failed public hearing on the alleged criminal past of Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.
The statement is signed by the Chair of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering (CRIM), Sonia Alfano, from ALDE, and Rita Borsellino, from S&D. With it, they explain that it is sent in connection with leaked information, published in Bulgarian and international media, wrongly presenting the closed-doors debate.

Chicago Public Schools Board President David Vitale said that at the end of more than 10 hours of negotiations on the second day of the strike, the schools made a comprehensive revised proposal of the contract one rejected Sunday.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Home sales surged 18 % over previous year levels, with data released today by the Illinois Association of REALTORS® showing signs that the state’s housing market is strengthening.
Statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condominiums) in June 2012 totaled 13,111 homes sold, up 18.0 % from 11,108 home sales in June 2011. This was the best June performance since 2010 when 13,144 homes were sold in Illinois.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday that the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah carried out the deadly bomb attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria on Wednesday.

Ever since a decade ago Bulgaria became an unconditional ally of the USA and even enlisted in the first „Coalition of Willing“ of George W Bush in Iraq, joining in Afghanistan shortly before that, and the Bulgarian medics were jailed in Libya as scapegoats in an affair with HIV-infected blood, numerous experts started warning that Bulgaria was threatened with terrorist attacks.