The Federal Reserve, notorious for its long-winded, deliberately vague pronouncements, is now limiting itself to 140-characters. The institution, which sets interest rates and controls the amount of money the U.S. prints, launched its Twitter account Tuesday. Called @FederalReserve, the feed will include press releases, speeches, its weekly balance sheet and testimony and reports to Congress. Also on tap: "Educational FAQs. It's doubtful the Fed will have as many Twitter followers as Ashton Kutcher but it could be useful to those who require the latest word on interest rates and so forth. https://twitter.com/#!/federalreserve

TED--the nonprofit that brings you 18-minute-or-less speeches by influential leaders--has launched Ted Quotes. The new feature takes stand-out quotes from each of the 1,147 speeches and makes them shareable via Facebook, Twitter or email. Users can search all quotes, view top quotes, or browse by topic. http://www.TED.com/quotes

"“There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.”" — Nigel Marsh

“What’s it like to be a baby? It’s like being in love in Paris for the first time after you’ve had three double espressos.” — Alison Gopnik

IRS walk-in assistance:

Denver IRS Office

1999 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202 M-F 8:30-4:30 303-446-1675

National phone line to order forms or seek assistance: 1-800-829-3676

Teletax 24-hour line recorded help: 1-800-829-4477

Taxpayer advocate problem resolution: 303-603-4600 or nationallly at 1-877-777-4778

For state tax information, you can call 303-238-7378, M-F 8AM-4:30.

Residents of Colorado can get walk-in service at 1375 Sherman St, Denver, CO 80261, M-F, 8AM - 4:30.

Google announced its online information hub for political elections in time for the Iowa Caucuses. It is the first website Google has dedicated exclusively to elections. The site includes news articles sorted by candidate and issue, links to voter resources such as the political calendar,YouTube's politics channel, and a trends dashboard that shows search trends, news mentions, and YouTube views for each candidate. "As Nov. 6, 2012, draws closer, the site will evolve into a robust election hub where citizens can watch, learn, discuss, participate - and perhaps even make an impact on - the digital campaign trail as it blazes forward to the election of the next President of the United States," a Google spokesperson wrote. Media hype notwithstanding, the Google site a research lightweight devoid of legislative and other discovery tools. You might find it useful for casual reading.

http://www.google.com/elections