Speaking at the headquarters of the 3M Company, which makes products ranging from post-it notes to high-tech fuels cell components, he called for tax credits for business research, increased money for federal science programs, and he talked about the need to improve math and science skills of American high school students.

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Additional tax credits for choosing hybrid, fuel cell, alternative fuel and advanced lean-burn technology vehicles have been offered since 2005.

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"I don't see it as a compromise, but as a transitional step" to a "full blown" policy of federally financing embryonic stem cell research, Doerflinger said, adding that if researchers found the experiments on the small number of cell lines promising, they would want to create even more cell lines, and that would create pressure to allow tax dollars to be used for more experiments.

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Additionally, the president called for expanding his existing tax credit proposal, which currently applies to hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, to include those using new clean diesel technology.

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One Saturday that did not fall in either tax season (January 1 to April 15) or second tax season (August 1 to October 15), I was either out of cell phone range or had the phone turned off.

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Miss Pettigrew, a Philadelphia school teacher, told me that she embraces the tax because she thinks it could be a first step in convincing teens to put the cell phones down and have a conversation.

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