Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

Richard Rubin, C2011 Bloomberg News Monday, December 19, 2011 Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Payroll processors are watching Congress with frustration as a Dec. 31 deadline for extending a payroll tax cut nears, and are warning companies about the difficulty of implementing a temporary provision passed by the Senate. Payroll companies can react quickly to a yearlong extension for the first paycheck of 2012 or adjust the second paycheck to correct problems, said Pete Isberg, president of the National Payroll Reporting Consortium, an industry group. Payroll providers still don't like a second consecutive year of December tax law changes or the Senate-backed two-month extension of the tax cut that could create unprecedented complications. "Payroll people feel like their concerns are not heard at the congressional level sometimes," said Mike O'Toole, who oversees government relations at the American Payroll Association. "Or else, Congress wouldn't even consider so...

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN NAIROBI, Kenya - The United States government is increasingly concerned about the Twitter account of the Shabab militant group of Somalia, with American officials saying Monday that they were "looking closely" at the militants' use of Twitter and the possible measures to take in response. Related American officials would not disclose what action they were considering. But some American officials said the government was exploring legal options to shut down the Shabab's new Twitter account, potentially opening a debate over the line between free speech and support for terrorism. Over the past two weeks, the Shabab, brutal Islamists known for chopping off hands and starving the famine-stricken populace, have been firing off pithy Twitter messages referring to their attacks and taunting the Kenyan military, which sent troops into Somalia in October to battle the Shabab. "Your inexperienced boys flee from confrontation & flinch in ...

By Christina DesMarais, PCWorld Google's integration of its social networking service into its email platform is a welcome change because it makes adding people to Circles and sharing photos super easy. The feature Google+ users will probably appreciate most is the ability they now have to post photos they receive in Gmail directly to Google+ without having to download the image, then upload it to Google+. According to the Official Gmail Blog, Google will be rolling out that change and others over the next few days to Gmail, Gmail Contacts and the "standalone" version of Google Contacts at contacts.google.com, although Google Apps users will have to wait a bit to see Contacts updates. So, is Google pushing Google+ too much? For Google+ users, probably not. Many of those who use it are big fans. And in spite of early claims that the platform would never take off, Google is by no means giving up on it. In fact, its Pages for companies feature is becoming increasing...