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L.A. CLIPPERS OWNER'S SON FOUND DEAD AT HOME IN MALIBU OF DRUG OVERDOSE

The son of billionaire Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been found dead at a home in Malibu.
Detectives discovered the body of Scott Sterling, 32, at around 11:29 p.m. on New Year's Day after they were called to the property on Pacific Coast Highway.

Authorities suspect he died of an overdose, though an autopsy will be performed to confirm the cause of death.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Sterling had not been seen for a couple of days and was alone when found by officers at the apartment, which property records show was owned by his father.

It will be several weeks before a cause of death is determined, pending toxicology tests, police said.

Scott Sterling made headlines in 1999, when he shot his 19-year-old childhood friend, Philip Scheid, who he claimed attacked him with a knife.

The incident, which was reportedly to do with a girl both teens were interested in, happened at Donald Sterling's home on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, though neither he nor his wife were home at the time.

However, the 77-year-old was caught up in the shooting, with prosecutors citing the transcript of a phone call in which he seemingly attempted to intimidate or influence a detective.

More than a year after the incident, prosecutors decided not to file charges, saying the victim was not credible, according to KTLA.com.

The result frustrated police as medical records showed that Scheid was shot from behind at least 15 feet away, yet Sterling claimed self-defense.

'No rational person would entertain the possibility of his story being true,' Beverly Hills Det. Sgt. Jack Douglas wrote in a memo to prosecutors.

Clippers: Donald Sterling, pictured right, bought the San Diego Clippers in 1981 and in 1984 moved them to LA

Donald Sterling is a real estate giant with $1.9 billion in assets, according to Forbes.

He got into the basketball business in 1981, when he paid $12.7 million for the San Diego Clippers and two years later moved the team to Los Angeles.
The team has enjoyed little success ever since, but it currently owns the best record in the NBA and became just the third squad in league history to complete an undefeated month in December.
Apart from his ownership of the Clippers,  the older Sterling has made the news for numerous sexual harassment court cases and had also been sued for discrimination by tenants at one of the 150 buildings he owns across Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Las Vegas.
In 2003, 19 tenants at the Ardmore Apartments in Beverly Hills and the nonprofit Housing Rights Center brought a discrimination lawsuit against him, according to ESPN.
According to a testimony from a former property supervisor, Sterling was on a mission to evict or push out any tenants that didn't 'fit his image.'

Home: Sterling's apartment, shown here from the back, belonged to his father, according to property records.

That meant blacks, Mexican-Americans, children (whom he called 'brats') and government-housing-subsidy recipients.

Sterling refused to do repairs for black tenants and harassed them with surprise inspections, threatening residents with eviction for alleged violations of building rules.
He refused to fix the apartment of an elderly blind woman whose apartment had flooded. The woman asked for compensation for her ruined belongings, to which, according to testimony, Sterling responded: 'Is she one of those black people that stink? I am not going to do that. Just evict the bitch.'
The dispute ended with a settlement in 2005, that the judge called the largest ever obtained in such a case.
In 1996, a former employee named Christine Jaksy sued Sterling for sexual harassment.
The two sides reached a confidential settlement but according to testimony Jaksy gave under oath, Sterling touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable and asked her to visit friends of his for sex. Sterling also repeatedly ordered her to find massage therapists to service him sexually.
In another case, he was taken to court by a prostitute he had given a $1 million apartment to and then taken back.
'When you pay a woman for sex, you are not together with her,' Sterling testified in 2003, according to ESPN. 'You're paying her for a few moments to use her body for sex. Is it clear? Is it clear?'

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SHOOTING SUSPECT KILLS 2 AND INJURES 2 OTHER ON NEW YEAR'S EVE ARRESTED

A man suspected of killing two people and injuring two others on New Year's Eve in the Old Sacramento area of the state's capital city remained in the hospital Wednesday.
Carlito Montoya, 22, was arrested late Monday after he ran from the shooting scene at the Sports Corner Cafe bar, police Officer Michelle Gigante said.
Still armed with a gun, Montoya ran from the bar toward streets that were crowded with New Year's Eve revelers, police say. A fireworks display had ended just minutes before. Gigante said police immediately took Montoya into custody.
"They grabbed him very quickly and put him in the back of the car," said Diane Correia, who was having dinner across the street with her husband.
Afterward, police canceled a midnight fireworks show that was expected to draw as many as 40,000 people.
The pyrotechnics instead were detonated just after 8 a.m. Tuesday, startling residents of neighborhoods along the Sacramento River, according to the Sacramento Bee. Mike Testa, senior vice president of the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the newspaper the fireworks were armed with live charges and needed to be detonated for safety reasons.

Around 9:38 p.m. PST Monday, an argument inside the bar escalated into a fight and then into a shooting after a man brandished a gun. The shooting spilled out into the street.

"Before we know it, there was gunfire," said Correia's husband, Ray Correia. "And 'pop, pop, pop' and people were all ducking."

Gigante said a security guard at the bar, who was near a side door, heard gunshots, confronted the shooter and exchanged shots with him. Both were injured and taken to a hospital for treatment.
A 30-year-old woman, the 35-year-old man and bar bouncer Dan Ferrier, 36, were shot during the initial fight. The man, whose name was not released, and Ferrier died. The woman was shot in her lower body and is expected to survive.
Family and friends say Ferrier was filling in for another employee the night of the shooting.
"Helping someone out because that is the type of guy Dan was," said Tanya Cain, who was Ferrier's roommate for six years in Placerville, Calif. "If you needed someone to be there he was there."
Police are interviewing as many as 30 witnesses and recovered two guns from the scene, Gigante said.
Friends said Carlito Montoya is originally from Oakland, Calif., and recently moved to Sacramento. He was going to school to become a truck driver.
"He was trying to get his life straight," friend Joshua Sholz said.
Sholz said Montoya recently moved in with Sholz's brother in Sacramento. Both men were at the Sports Corner Cafe on New Year's Eve.
Outside Ferrier's home, candles were lit Tuesday in his memory.
"He was always said, 'Live every moment like it was your last' because he lost his parents very young," Cain said. "He always said you never know when it will be your last moment and God how true that turned out to be."

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NEW SONY FLAGSHIP CAMERA SLT-A99 COMPARES FAVORABLY TO CANON AND NIKON

Sony has a new flagship digital SLR camera, and it is a stunner. The Alpha SLT-A99 has a much larger image sensor than its other models, meaning higher resolution and sharpness. It is a whiz in low light and shoots terrific video, too.
It's also very expensive, ($2,800 for body only) so the A99 will appeal to serious hobbyists and pro photographers who also might consider cameras like the Canon 5D Mark III ($3,500 body only) or Nikon D600 ($2,000 body only).
But if you've been looking to upgrade from an entry-level SLR to a more serious model, you'll get a whole lot of camera for your money. Let's explore. With the A99 you'll see:
• Better, more consistent autofocusing than either the 5D or D600 for stills and, especially, for video.
• Cool features like automatic panorama stitching (unique to Sony cameras) and auto HDR processing. With HDR, the camera snaps three instant shots, one at normal exposure, one over-exposed and the other under-exposed. It then patches them together to get richer colors, a darker sky and more details in the shadows.
• A terrific professional workhorse that compares favorably to the Canon and Nikon. The A99 is easily Sony's best SLR to date.
The camera has a full-frame image sensor — roughly twice the size of Sony's equally terrific A77 camera, which was released a year ago. And with more pixels (24MP), there's more room for resolution and color.
The A99 has Sony's "translucent" mirror technology, which basically ditches the familiar mirror used in SLRs since the earliest days. The result is faster focusing and rapid-fire 12-frames-per-second shooting. (Comparatively, the 5D Mark III can shoot six frames per second. Shoot lots of images of your kids making funny faces and you'll see how 12 frames a second pays off.)
In the past the mirror helped photographers compose images by presenting a true rendition of a scene. Sony SLRs use an OLED electronic viewfinder instead.
Anyone who has struggled with autofocus on SLRs in dark environments (think sports, school plays) will love the results on the A99. The focus clicks in within fractions of seconds.
For video, the improved autofocus is even more of a big deal.
Focus is the big issue on cameras like the Canon 5D, the most popular model for DSLR video. You can use autofocus when you start recording, but if the subject moves, you won't be able to change focus without stopping the recording.
The great news for making video with the A99: The autofocus is quick, and responsive, and continues to function even once the recording has started.
The bad news: You can only make use of autofocus features for video if you're willing to shoot in automatic exposure mode.
That is a huge negative for pros. I always shoot in manual exposure for video (and stills) because I want accurate exposure. Auto overrides tend to give you wild mood swings if there's, say, a window behind a subject, or bright light of any type.
Sony attributes the auto exposure snag to a quirk with the translucent mirror.
Your workaround: Flip the lens from auto to manual focus. And for those of you who don't trust your eyes, Sony has a "focus peaking" feature that adds a colored line on the focus point to help properly align you. But caution: It's not 100% accurate.
When I reviewed the Sony A77 camera in 2011, I noted three shortcomings, two of which have been addressed and fixed with the A99.
• The hotshoe atop the A99 is no longer proprietary. That means you can now put accessories such as microphones, video lights and off-brand flash units atop the camera, and have them fit.
• Low-light video shooting has vastly improved. The A99 is terrific in low light, and unlike the A77, you can increase the light sensitivity to shoot in a much wider range of situations.
• The third is the auto exposure requirement for video, mentioned above, which is still an issue.
Sony has pulled out the stops for this camera, which competes successfully with top-of-the-line Canon and Nikon models. It's got a wider accessory lineup of sharp Zeiss lenses than in the past, and a cool new flash unit that doubles as a video light.
Bottom line
If you're in the market for an amazing DSLR, you have to pay serious attention to the A99. The autofocusing for stills can't be beat, the image quality is stellar, and features like the Sweep Panorama mode and HDR may sound gimmicky, but they work really well.

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FANTASIA'S INSTAGRAM COMMENTS ON NEW YEAR'S EVE LEAVES HER FANS ANGRY

Fantasia got all philosophical with the New Year approaching. She took to her Instagram page and denounced weed smoking and diverse Biblical sins such as gay marriage. The response from ‘Tasia’s followers were swift — and the message was quickly deleted.
In it’s place, ‘Tasia posted an apology to her gay fans, while blaming her Instagram followers for misinterpreting what she wrote. She captioned the message: “Sometimes you have to Lose to Win Again.”


Fantasia forgot that she can’t voice her personal opinions about the gays or gay marriage if she expects to have a successful career. Below is Fantasia’s attempt at an apology.

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HOW THE CELEBS BROUGHT IN THE NEW YEAR 2013

Jordin Sparks tips her hat to a new year as she celebrates New Year's Eve at the Tabu at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Dec. 31 2012.

Say cheese! Mariah Carey and hubby Nick Cannon rang in the new year in style. The singer shared this photo on her twitter account, saying, "Happy new year from Australia!!!!"

Toasting to a new year! Coco and Ice-T, who also celebrated their wedding anniversary, hosted New Year's Eve at LAX Nightclub. @LAX_Nightclub posted the picture, saying,"Happy New Year and Anniversary @FinalLevel and @CocosWorld from your friends at @LAX_Nightclub. #NYE13 #IceLovesCoco"

Nicki Minaj got the New Year's Eve party started at PURE Nightclub in Las Vegas on Dec. 31, 2012.



Rap mogul Ludacris and his lovely fiancee Eudoxie celebrated New Year with friends Kevin Hart and Larenz Tate in Los Angeles.

While Chris Brown spent New Year with Rihanna, his other girlfriend Karrueche stepped out with her bestie, singer Teyana.

Celebrity friends Adrienne and Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union celebrate the New Year in Miami.

It's Kanye and his baby mama! Kanye West wraps his arms around Kim Kardashian's baby bump as the two celebrate New Year's Eve at 1 OAK Las Vegas at The Mirage Hotel & Casino on Dec. 31, 2012.

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JUSTIN BIEBER PAPARAZZI KILLED IN LOS ANGELES TRYING TO TAKE A PICTURE OF WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS HIM

A paparazzo hoping to get a picture of Justin Bieber in his Ferrari after the vehicle was pulled over by police in Los Angeles got struck and killed by an SUV instead.
And as it turned out, the 18-year-old singer wasn't even in the sports car.

The incident began when the California Highway Patrol pulled over Bieber's white Ferrari around 6 p.m. Tuesday on the 405 Freeway, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Police directed the driver to exit the busy roadway onto Sepulveda Boulevard, and shortly afterwards the 29-year-old paparazzi, whose name has not been released, arrived to take pictures, law enforcement sources told the newspaper.

The photographer crossed the street to take photos, but was directed by officers to return to his car. When he finally went back to his vehicle, he was struck by an SUV.
Authorities said the man did not look before crossing the roadway, CBS 2 News in Los Angeles reported.

The victim was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he died.
Inside the Ferrari, which does belong to Bieber, was not the "Boyfriend" singer but instead two of his friends.

"While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim," Bieber said in a statement, according to CNN. "Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves."

The LAPD are investigating, but no charges have been filed.

OBAMA ADVERTS FISCAL CLIFF WITH CONGRESS BEGRUDGINGLY SIGNING ON TO WHITE HOUSE-SENATE TAX DEAL

The House last night safely carried America to the other side of the fiscal cliff, but not without some high-wire antics. The Republican-led House voted 257-167 for final passage of the White House-Senate tax deal that reversed the country’s plunge into a fiscal abyss of massive tax hikes and deep federal spending cuts.

After hearing his colleagues vent about the deal in two closed-door meetings, House Speaker John Boehner brought the plan to the floor exactly as it had been negotiated — turning back demands from his rank and file to pile on spending cuts.

President Obama leaves the White House last night after the House's late vote on fiscal-cliff legislation.

In the end, the deal won lopsided support from Democrats and enough support from the GOP to send the legislation to President Obama’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law. This ends a two-month standoff between Obama and Republicans that brought the country to the economic brink.

Obama praised the deal from the White House late last night before jetting to Hawaii to rejoin his family on vacation.

“The fact is the deficit is still too high, and we’re still investing too little in the things that we need for the economy to grow as fast as it should,” he said.
Hours earlier, a mini-rebellion by Republican lawmakers threatened to derail the bill. But Boehner abruptly changed course and let the compromise go to a straight up-or-down vote.
The dramatic turnaround unfolded a day after the United States sailed off the fiscal cliff, missing the midnight New Year’s Eve deadline that would have meant massive tax hikes on every American and huge federal spending cuts.
If the House hadn’t salvaged the deal, workers would have received dramatically lighter paychecks by next week, when more pay would have been withheld for higher federal taxes.
Rep. Mike Grimm (R-SI) called himself a “reluctant” supporter of the deal.
“I don’t want everyone in my district’s taxes to go up, so I have to do what’s responsible,” he said. “There’s some good stuff in there. I just really wish there could have been some spending cuts.”
Republicans railed against the absence of deficit-reducing spending cuts in the Senate bill, which focused on limiting tax hikes to individual incomes over $400,000 and family incomes over $450,000.
A nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report saying that the deal would add $3.9 trillion to the national debt only fanned the GOP uprising.
The CBO also calculated that there was a 41-to-1 ratio of tax hikes to spending cuts in the bill.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, emerged from an afternoon GOP conference meeting and declared: “I do not support the bill.”

The GOP meeting was dominated by a “steady stream” of lawmakers going to the microphone and blasting the bill, a participant told The Post.

Boehner offered members two options: amending the Senate bill with spending cuts, or putting the Senate bill to a vote. There was no guarantee the Democratic-led Senate would support any changes.

The speaker ultimately abandoned the first option.

House Democrats also griped about the deal’s tax cuts for families earning up to $450,000 a year.
Despite significant resistance from liberals who balked at Obama surrendering his long-held demand for a tax-hike threshold of $250,000, most House Democrats fell in line after a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. Republicans were clamoring to add more spending cuts to the bill and send it back to the Senate, although the move threatened to blow up the compromise carefully crafted by Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
The Senate passed the deal by 89-8 yesterday just after 2 a.m., two hours after the country technically fell off the cliff. Adding to the Capitol Hill pressure cooker were fears of a fiscal-cliff sell-off when Wall Street reopens today, and a deadline to fix the mess before noon tomorrow when a new Congress is sworn in.
In addition to extending Bush-era tax cuts up to the $400,000 and $450,000 thresholds, the Senate deal also postponed for two months the cliff’s across-the-board federal-agency cuts.
The rich also got hit with higher taxes on their capital gains, dividends and inheritance over $5 million, while Bush-era tax cuts were preserved for the vast majority of filers.
Low-income households will benefit from the extension of various tax credits, including child and college-tuition credits.
Unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless will be extended for another year.
The deal did not include an extension of the payroll tax cut, allowing the rate to revert to 6.2 percent from the current 4.2 percent.

JAY Z RINGS IN THE NEW YEAR WITH COLDPLAY AT THE BARCLAYS CENTER

Jay-Z, Chris Martin and Coldplay rang in 2013 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

VIP guests included Christina Aguilera, Victor Cruz, Jake Gyllenhaal, Adrienne Bailon and Jessica White. In front of a packed house, the rapper and rocker toasted the New Year with the help of Martin’s wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, kids Apple and Moses, and singer Bridget Kelly.

After the show came to an end with Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” the Nets part-owner and his friends hit the D’Usse Lounge backstage where they continued the celebration.

Then Jay — without wife Beyoncé, who performed a private concert in Las Vegas — and Martin (sans Gwyneth, who took their kids home) headed to the 40/40 club in Manhattan where they were joined by Gyllenhaal, Michael K. Williams, Cruz and Kelly, who is Jay’s backup singer.

The group plus more friends headed into a private room to down Ace of Spades champagne. A spy told us, “Partygoers in the club were snapping pics with their phones as Jay and Chris walked in the front door.”

[VIDEO] NATURE "WELCOME TO MY WORLD"

KANYE WEST AND KIM KARDASHIAN WANT PRIVACY WITH THEIR PREGNACY

KANYE WEST & KIM KARDASHIAN CELEBRATING NEW YEAR'S EVE TOGETHER

For once, Kim Kardashian wants the cameras turned off.
The 32-year-old reality TV star and her baby-daddy Kanye West have decided they will keep both the birth of their first child and the first few months of his or her life off "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," sources told TMZ.
All bets are off until then.
Momager Kris Jenner is already making the rounds to to the weekly celebrity glossies to auction off an exclusive baby bump cover photo, a source told The News Monday.
"(It) likely will sell at $300,000, and that's Kim solo because Kanye always looks so miserable," the source said.
And Kardashian seemed to relish the extra attention from photographers on the red carpet for the New Year's Eve bash she hosted at Las Vegas' tony 1Oak club.
Standing alongside her man and mom Kris Jenner at the $3,000 a table event, Kardashian showed off everything but her budding baby bump in a black dress with see-through netting accented by strategically placed appliqués. She reportedly raked in as much as $300,000 - enough for her baby's entire college education - for the appearance

Conspicuously absent was Kim's stepfather, Bruce Jenner, according to the Las Vegas Review, adding fuel to speculation that Kris' marriage is on the rocks.
That couldn't spoil the victory lap taken by the Kardashians since West broke the news during a concert at Atlantic City's Revel Resort.
"Now you're having my baby, and it means so much to me," he sang as the crowd of 5,000 cheered. Kardashian confirmed the news a few hours later on her website.
"It's true!! Kanye and I are expecting a baby," she posted. "We feel so blessed and lucky and wish that in addition to both of our families, his mom and my dad could be here to celebrate this special time with us."

HILARY CLINTON RECEIVES BLOOD THINNERS FOR CLOT

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is under observation after receiving medication for a blood clot that was discovered during a follow-up exam for her recent concussion.

WASHINGTON — Doctors treating Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for a blood clot say the clot formed in her head but they stress that they are confident she will make a full recovery.
The kind of blood clot in the skull that doctors say Clinton has is relatively uncommon but can occur after an injury like the fall and concussion the secretary of state was diagnosed with earlier this month.
Doctors said Monday that an MRI scan revealed a clot in a vein in the space between the brain and the skull behind Clinton's right ear.
The clot did not lead to a stroke or neurological damage and is being treated with blood thinners, and she will be released once the proper dose is worked out, her doctors said in a statement.
The clot is located in the vein in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear. She will be released once the medication dose for the blood thinners has been established, the doctors said.
In their statement, Dr. Lisa Bardack of the Mount Kisco Medical Group and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University said Clinton was making excellent progress and was in good spirits.

Clinton has been at New York-Presbyterian Hospital since Sunday, when the clot was diagnosed during what the doctors called a routine follow-up exam. At the time, her spokesman would not say where the clot was located, leading to speculation it was another leg clot like the one she suffered behind her right knee in 1998.
Clinton had been diagnosed with a concussion Dec. 13 after a fall in her home that was blamed on a stomach virus that left her weak and dehydrated.
The type of clot she developed, a sinus venous thrombosis, "certainly isn't the most common thing to happen after a concussion" and is one of the few types of blood clots in the skull or head that are treated with blood thinners, said neurologist Dr. Larry Goldstein. He is director of Duke University's stroke center and has no role in Clinton's care or personal knowledge of it.
The area where Clinton's clot developed is "a drainage channel, the equivalent of a big vein inside the skull — it's how the blood gets back to the heart," Goldstein explained.
Dr. Joseph Broderick, chairman of neurology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, also called Clinton's problem "relatively uncommon" after a concussion.
He and Goldstein said the problem often is overdiagnosed. They said scans often show these large "draining pipes" on either side of the head are different sizes, which can mean blood has pooled or can be merely an anatomical difference.
"I'm sure she's got the best doctors in the world looking at her," and if they are saying she has no neurological damage, "I would think it would be a pretty optimistic long-term outcome," Broderick said.
A review article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005 describes the condition, which more often occurs in newborns or young people but can occur after a head injury. With modern treatment, more than 80 percent have a good neurologic outcome, the report says.
Clinton returned to the U.S. from a trip to Europe, then fell ill with a stomach virus in early December that left her severely dehydrated and forced her to cancel a trip to North Africa and the Middle East. Until then, she had canceled only two scheduled overseas trips, one to Europe after breaking her elbow in June 2009 and one to Asia after the February 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Her condition worsened when she fainted, fell and suffered a concussion while at home alone in mid-December as she recovered from the virus. It was announced Dec. 13.
This isn't the first time Clinton has suffered a blood clot. In 1998, midway through her husband's second term as president, Clinton was in New York fundraising for the midterm elections when a swollen right foot led her doctor to diagnose a clot in her knee requiring immediate treatment.
Clinton had planned to step down as secretary of state at the beginning of President Barack Obama's second term. Whether she will return to work before she resigns remained a question.

SENATE OVERWHELMINGLY PASS "FISCAL CLIFF" BILL NOW THE COUNTRY JUST WAITS ON APPROVAL FROM THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER AND PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

The U.S. Senate has given overwhelming approval to legislation to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of higher taxes for most Americans. The bill now moves to the House where passage is less certain.

WASHINGTON — Legislation to negate a fiscal cliff of across-the-board tax increases and sweeping spending cuts to the Pentagon and other government agencies is headed to the GOP-dominated House after bipartisan, middle-of-the-night approval in the Senate capped a New Year's Eve drama unlike any other in the annals of Congress.
The measure cleared the Senate on an 89-8 vote early Tuesday, hours after Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky sealed a deal.


It would prevent middle-class taxes from going up but would raise rates on higher incomes. It would also block spending cuts for two months, extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, prevent a 27 percent cut in fees for doctors who treat Medicare patients and prevent a spike in milk prices.
The measure ensures that lawmakers will have to revisit difficult budget questions in just a few weeks, as relief from painful spending cuts expires and the government requires an increase in its borrowing cap.
House Speaker John Boehner pointedly refrained from endorsing the agreement, though he's promised a vote on it or a GOP alternative right away.
The measure is the first significant bipartisan tax increase since 1990, when former President George H.W. Bush violated his "read my lips" promise on taxes. It would raise an additional $620 billion over the coming decade when compared with revenues after tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003, during the Bush administration. But because those policies expired at midnight Monday, the measure is officially scored as a whopping $3.9 trillion tax cut over the next decade.

President Barack Obama praised the agreement after the Senate's vote.
"While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country and the House should pass it without delay," Obama said in a statement. "This agreement will also grow the economy and shrink our deficits in a balanced way — by investing in our middle class, and by asking the wealthy to pay a little more."
The sweeping Senate vote exceeded expectations — tea party conservatives like Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., backed the measure — and would appear to grease enactment of the measure despite lingering questions in the House, where conservative forces sank a recent bid by Boehner to permit tax rates on incomes exceeding $1 million to go back to Clinton-era levels.
"Decisions about whether the House will seek to accept or promptly amend the measure will not be made until House members — and the American people — have been able to review the legislation," said a statement by Boehner and other top GOP leaders.
Lawmakers hope to resolve any uncertainty over the fiscal cliff before financial markets reopen Wednesday. It could take lots of Democratic votes to pass the measure and overcome opposition from tea party lawmakers.
Under the Senate deal, taxes would remain steady for the middle class but rise at incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples — levels higher than President Barack Obama had campaigned for in his successful drive for a second term in office. Some liberal Democrats were disappointed that the White House did not stick to a harder line, while other Democrats sided with Republicans to force the White House to partially retreat on increases in taxes on multi-million-dollar estates.
The measure also allocates $24 billion in spending cuts and new revenues to defer, for two months, some $109 billion worth of automatic spending cuts that were set to slap the Pentagon and domestic programs starting this week. That would allow the White House and lawmakers time to regroup before plunging very quickly into a new round of budget brinkmanship, certain to revolve around Republican calls to rein in the cost of Medicare and other government benefit programs.
Officials also decided at the last minute to use the measure to prevent a $900 pay raise for lawmakers due to take effect this spring.


Even by the dysfunctional standards of government-by-gridlock, the activity at both ends of historic Pennsylvania Avenue was remarkable as the administration and lawmakers spent the final hours of 2012 haggling over long-festering differences.
Republicans said McConnell and Biden had struck an agreement Sunday night but that Democrats pulled back Monday morning. Democrats like Tom Harkin of Iowa said the agreement was too generous to upper-bracket earners. Obama's longstanding position was to push the top tax rate on family income exceeding $250,000 from 35 percent to 39 percent.
"No deal is better than a bad deal. And this looks like a very bad deal," said Harkin.
The measure would raise the top tax rate on large estates to 40 percent, with a $5 million exemption on estates inherited from individuals and a $10 million exemption on family estates. At the insistence of Republicans and some Democrats, the exemption levels would be indexed for inflation.
Taxes on capital gains and dividends over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples would be taxed at 20 percent, up from 15 percent.
The bill would also extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for an additional year at a cost of $30 billion, and would spend $31 billion to prevent a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
Another $64 billion would go to renew tax breaks for businesses and for renewable energy purposes, like tax credits for energy-efficient appliances.
Despite bitter battling over taxes in the campaign, even die-hard conservatives endorsed the measure, arguing that the alternative was to raise taxes on virtually every earner.
"I reluctantly supported it because it sets in stone lower tax rates for roughly 99 percent of American taxpayers," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "With millions of Americans watching Washington with anger, frustration and anxiety that their taxes will skyrocket, this is the best course of action we can take to protect as many people as possible from massive tax hikes."

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