NOTE 16.  RECENTLY ADOPTED AND RECENTLY ISSUED ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted

In June 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) amended its rules regarding the presentation of comprehensive income.  The objective of this amendment is to improve the comparability, consistency and transparency of financial reporting and to increase the prominence of items reported in other comprehensive income.  Specifically, this amendment requires that all non-owner changes in shareholders’ equity be presented either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements.  In addition, the standard also requires disclosure of the location of reclassification adjustments between other comprehensive income and net income on the face of the financial statements.  The new rules became effective for us beginning January 1, 2012.  In December 2011, the FASB deferred certain aspects of this standard beyond the current effective date, specifically the provisions dealing with reclassification adjustments.  Because the standard only impacts the display of comprehensive income and does not impact what is included in comprehensive income, the standard did not have a significant impact on our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

In May 2011, the FASB amended its standards related to fair value measurements and disclosures.  The objective of the amendment is to improve the comparability of fair value measurements presented and disclosed in financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards.  Primarily this amendment changed the wording used to describe many of the requirements in U.S. GAAP for measuring fair value and for disclosing information about fair value measurements in addition to clarifying the Board’s intent about the application of existing fair value measurement requirements.  The new standard also requires additional disclosures related to fair value measurements categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy and requires disclosure of the categorization in the hierarchy for items which are not recorded at fair value but fair value is required to be disclosed.  The new rules were effective for us beginning January 1, 2012.  As of September 30, 2012, we had no fair value measurements categorized within Level 3.  The only impact for us is the disclosure of the categorization in the fair value hierarchy for those items where fair value is only disclosed (primarily our debt obligations).  Our disclosure related to the new standard is included in Note 8, “FAIR VALUE OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS,” to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

Accounting Pronouncements Issued But Not Yet Effective

In July 2012, the FASB amended its rules regarding impairment testing of indefinite-lived intangible assets. The amendment reduces the cost and complexity of performing this impairment testing by simplifying how an entity tests those assets for impairment and improving consistency in impairment testing guidance by aligning it with the goodwill impairment testing model. The amendment permits an entity to assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that an indefinite-lived intangible asset is impaired as a basis for deciding whether it is necessary to perform the quantitative impairment test.  The new standard is effective for us beginning January 1, 2013; however, the amendment will not impact us as we do not currently have any indefinite-lived intangible assets.

In December 2011, the FASB amended its standards related to offsetting assets and liabilities.  This amendment requires entities to disclose both gross and net information about instruments and transactions eligible for offset in the statement of financial position and instruments and transactions subject to an agreement similar to a master netting agreement.  This information will enable users of the financial statements to understand the effect of those arrangements on its financial position.  The new rules will become effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2013, and interim periods within those annual periods.  It is also required that the new disclosures are applied retrospectively for all comparative periods presented.  We do not believe this amendment will have a significant impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements; however we are currently evaluating the potential impacts to our footnote disclosures.