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2006 December

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
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3	4	5	6	7	8	9
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31

 
 

"Both the rising population and rising life expectancy give the lie to the claims of critics... that the conditions of the laboring classes were deteriorating during the Industrial Revolution." --- Robert Hessen

 
 
 

My 4*great uncle's (captain William Scott's) flag for the Republic of Texas.

2006 December

1st month of the 4th quarter of the 7th year of the Clinton-Bush economic depression

 

"By liberty, I understand the power which every man has over his own actions, and his right to enjoy the fruit of his labor, art, and industry, as far as by it he hurts not the society, or any member of it, by taking from any member, or by hindering him from enjoying what he himself enjoys.   The fruits of a man's honest industry are the just rewards of it, ascertained to him by natural and eternal equity, as is his title to use them in a manner which he thinks fit:   And thus, with the above limitations, every man is sole lord and arbiter of his own private actions and property - a character of which no man living can divest him but by usurpation, or his own consent." --- John Trenchard, Cato's Letters #62 (1721 January 20)

 

2006-12-01 (5767 Kislev 10)

2006-12-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 90,439 job ads

2006-12-01 (5767 Kislev 10)
Ned Warwich _Jewish World Review_
Yasam: Motorcycle riding terror-busters

2006-12-01
Dimitri Vassilaros _Pittsburgh Tribune-Review_
One CEO a-milking the tax-victims for $50M
"PNC Financial Services Group Inc. has been crunching the numbers for a partridge in a pear tree through 12 drummers drumming for more than two decades.   The cost this year to buy the gifts of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' is $18,920.   If John Q. Public also wants to spend money for a white elephant in the Fifth-and-Forbes corridor, it will take about $50M.   And that's what it will cost Mr. Public even if he does not want to.   Three PNC Plaza, a luxurious 23-story sky-scraper in downtown Pittsburgh, will have office space, a tony hotel, retail shops and, of course, pent-house condominiums.   It will cost about $170M to build.   But for tax purposes, the assessed value will be about $110M.   Jim Rohr is the chairman and CEO of PNC, the very successful banking and financial services company.   Mr. Rohr shamelessly demanded roughly $50M in public subsidies before he would break ground.   And he's getting it -- $30M from the state and $18M locally in tax-increment financing (TIF).   However, Rohr and PNC certainly are doing much better than the virtually bankrupt City of Pittsburgh that's handing over millions of dollars.   Rohr's company reported record profits in 2005 of about $1.3G.   Top executives recently were given huge bonuses.   Rohr's 2005 compensation package is valued at $18M.   Net profit in this year's third quarter -- one quarter -- was $1.5G."

2006-12-01 08:33PST (11:33EST) (16:33GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
ISM manufacturing index fell from 51.2 in October to 49.5 in November, indicating slight contraction (with graph)
"The new orders index fell from 52.1% in October to 48.7 in November.   The production index fell from 51.9% in the previous month to 48.5% in November.   The employment index fell from 50.8% in October to 49.2%."

2006-12-01 08:41PST (11:41EST) (16:41GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
US construction spending fell 1% in October

2006-12-01 10:15PST (13:15EST) (18:15GMT)

Radical leftists at Michigan State University assaulted organizer of Tancredo appearance at College of Law, slashed tires, pulled fire alarm twice in effort to suppress his views on illegal alien invasion
Denver Post
Rocky Mountain News
"Controversy over illegal immigration also turned violent at a College Republican event last month at Columbia University when protesters taunted a black speaker with the 'n-word' and then shut down the meeting when they stormed the stage during a speech by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist...   After police allowed people back in the building, Tancredo addressed a crowd of more than 40, stressing the issue of illegal immigration must be approached with a clear head...   The congressman also emphasized the importance of a single national language, English.   'I think diversity is a great thing.', he said.   'But it becomes a negative thing when it's the only thing.'"

2006-12-01
William H. Calhoun _Small Government Times_
Hispanics censor authors
American Daily
"an all-Hispanic school board has removed all white authors from the district reading list...   With the exception of a very small upper class of European descent, most Mexicans are either Amerindian or Mestizo (mostly Amerindian with a few drops of Spaniard or African blood).   In short, most Hispanics are genealogically Asian, they are not Western, and they despise the West."

2006-12-01 14:20PST (17:20EST) (22:20GMT)
Declan McCullagh & Anne Broache _CNET_
FBI listen in on cellular phones even when they've been turned off
"Kaplan's opinion said that the eaves-dropping technique 'functioned whether the phone was powered on or off'.   Some hand-sets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set...   Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies.   'They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time.', he said.   'You can do that without having physical access to the phone.'"
Tracfone sues
more privacy links

2006-12-01
_Boston Globe_
Illegal aliens groomed MA governor Mitt Romney's yard

2006-12-01
Louie Gilot _El Paso Times_
Border agents convicted by jury of violation of civil rights and tampering with evidence for shooting illegal alien in chase, may not get re-hearing
"With only about two weeks of work left in the U.S. Congress session, the hope for a promised congressional hearing into the case of 2 convicted El Paso Border Patrol agents is fading fast.   'We'll be done in Congress the week of the 11th.   We're running out of time.', said Alan Knapp, the deputy chief of staff and legislative director for U.S. representative Ted Poe, R-TX."

2006-12-01

DJIA	12,194.13
S&P 500	1,396.71
NASDAQ	2,413.21
10-year US T-Bond	4.43%
crude oil	63.43
gold	650.60
silver	14.19
platinum	1,154.50
palladium	332.75
copper	0.19825
natgas	8.422/MBTU
unleadedgasoline	$1.6855/gal
heatingoil	$1.8477/gal

I usually get this info from MarketWatch, which gets them from BigCharts.
 
 

2006-12-02 (5767 Kislev 11)

2006-12-01 16:34PST (2006-12-01 19:34EST) (2006-12-02 00:34GMT)
Russ Britt _MarketWatch_
Insiders and 2nd-class stock-owners
"Now that practice is newly facing the harsh glare of scrutiny, as a major share-holder of the New York Times Co. is demanding an end to the decades-old practice at that venerable newspaper giant.   These supervoting shares -- usually impossible for outside investors to get -- often are the regime in place at family-controlled firms, particularly newspaper companies that created separate, unequal share classes as a way to preserve their editorial independence.   But at a time of rising share-holder [and public] dissatisfaction with big media companies, dual-class stock promises to gain visibility -- while also standing in the way of the kind of shareholder revolts and hostile takeovers that have transformed so many companies in recent years.   'Management wants the best of both worlds.', said Nell Minow, founder of the watch-dog group Corporate Library.   'They want the access to capital of the public markets and they want the control of the private markets, and dual-class allows them to get that.'"

2006-12-02
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
So you think the computer job market is picking up?
"The industry lobbyists are lobbying Congress fast and furiously to get an increase in the yearly cap of H-1Bs issued.   M$, Intel and so on claim that they just can't hire enough people.   Our universities just aren't producing enough graduates in the computer area, they claim.   Well, compare that to the data available on the Web pages of California State University, Sacramento.

Degrees Earned

	Bachelor's	Master's	Total
civil engineering	52	17	69
computer engineering	39	1	40
computer science	74	54	128
electrical & electronic engineering	75	77	152
mechanical engineering	52	16	68

Firms saying they will hire graduates of the various majors as of 2006-11-30:

Firms Planning To Hire

	Firms	Ratio of Degrees to Firms
civil engineering	35	1.97
computer engineering	9	4.44
computer science	9	14.22
electrical & electronic engineering	13	11.69
mechanical engineering	20	3.40

Bachelor's + Master's Degrees Earned Each Year at Sacramento State University

year	Civil Eng.	Computer Eng.	Computer Science	E&E Eng.	Mechanical Eng.	Total
2002	55	39	129	104	46	373
2003	72	59	121	114	45	411
2004	69	33	157	106	61	426
2005	62	60	157	169	55	503
2006	69	40	128	152	68	457
total	327	231	692	645	275	2170

Look at the ratios of the numbers of firms to the numbers of graduates.   Computer Science and Electrical-Electronic Engineering have the highest numbers of graduates but the lowest numbers of firms seeking them!   Granted, we don't know how many slots these firms are trying to fill, but it should be clear that the computer job market has NOT rebounded as claimed.   As I've pointed out before, starting salaries in CS and EE, adjusted for inflation, have been flat or declining since 1999, both at the Bachelor's and post-graduate level.   As usual, the only 'shortage' is one of cheap labor, folks."

2006-12-02
Mella McEwen _Midland Reporter-Telegram_
Ortloff Engineers off-shore
"The Midland engineering services firm is looking to open an office in Japan, a desire spurred by the company's experience with a Japanese engineer it hired last year.   'We wanted to hire him.', but couldn't obtain an H-1B visa for him, said John Wilkinson, Ortloff's president and chief executive officer.   Now, he said, the engineer, who has a chemical engineering background, will represent Ortloff in Japan, developing business in Japan, the Far East, Southeast Asia and "perhaps as far as the Middle East.'...   last year the company received a certificate of export achievement from the U.S. Department of Commerce."

2006-12-02
Jennifer Muir _Orange County Register_
Huntington Beach police admit planting fake evidence in innocent people's vehicles
"A Huntington Beach police officer's exoneration for planting a loaded gun in a suspect's car has led to the revelation that police routinely plant evidence in unsuspecting civilians' vehicles for training exercises.   Chief Kenneth Small said Friday that police plant contraband – including unloaded weapons, fake drugs and drug paraphernalia – in suspects' vehicles after they're arrested as a method of training new officers in searches.   The training practice came to light Friday after a Huntington Beach man said he learned that an officer who planted a hand-gun [which he has a constitutionally recognized right to own and carry, anyway] in his car during a traffic stop was exonerated of wrong-doing...   News of the training technique sparked surprise and criticism from police officials across the county, who said planting weapons in civilian vehicles is 'inappropriate' and a 'bad idea'...   The training is usually done after suspects are arrested and the cars are being readied for impound, Small said...   Last month he received a letter from the police department saying the officers in his complaint had been 'exonerated' of wrong-doing.   Small said Friday that using a loaded weapon during training -- as Knorr testified he had done -- is against department policy, and that performing the exercise in front of Cox 'could have been done in a better way'.   But he said Knorr was exonerated because the policy was not widely understood...   The department doesn't have a formal protocol for using the public's vehicles in training exercises, department spokesman lieutenant Craig Junginger said.   However, vehicle owners typically aren't told their cars are being used for training because they're not usually present when the training occurs, Small said...   Ed Pecinovsky, bureau chief of training for the state's commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, said that no matter how careful officers are, using an arrestee's car in a training exercise is 'asking for problems'."

2006-12-02
_Domain B_
Indian banks don't comply with US anti-money-laundering procedures: Can't operate US branches

2006-12-02
Paul Craig Roberts _V Dare_
America's New Economic Problem

2006-12-02
Mike Luwe _Orange County Register_
H-1B workers take jobs from Americans
"I worked for one of the nation's largest employers of scientists and engineers and was responsible for hiring hundreds of engineers.   Overall, foreign-born engineers did not measure up to American-born and -educated engineers and scientists, primarily due to poor communications skills, both orally and in writing.   Almost every work assignment now involves either documentation of design, process or procedure and working in a team environment or interfacing with clients, customers or sponsors.   Most foreign workers do not do well in these assignments.   So why the big push to hire foreign-born engineers and scientists? The same thing that drives illegal immigration in this country – cheap labor.   The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has regularly ignored the law and has exceeded the limits allowed for hiring foreign workers under the H-1B program."

2006-12-02 15:34PST (18:34EST) (23:34GMT)
_CNN_/_Money_/_Reuters_
15K protest VW job cuts
"Volkswagen announced 2 weeks ago it would end manufacture of its top-selling Golf at its plant in Brussels, reducing the work-force to 1,500 from some 5K.   The news prompted a strike."
 

2006-12-03 (5767 Kislev 12)

2006-12-03
Michael Kinsman _San Diego Union-Tribune_
Internships help new high-tech grads make contacts
"Entrepreneur Aymen Ramlaoui knows engineers he can turn to when he can't figure out how to make something work.   He knows marketers to call when he is exploring how to develop an audience for his product.   He also knows that certain CEOs will take his calls and offer advice when he needs it.   And there are venture capitalists willing to help him when he needs money.   Ramlaoui sounds like he's been around for years, but he's actually an 18-year-old freshman at UC Santa Barbara who traces his vast base of business contracts to a semester internship during his junior year at High Tech High in San Diego."
 

2006-12-04 (5767 Kislev 13)

2006-12-04 09:24PST (12:24EST) (17:24GMT)
Robert Daniel _MarketWatch_
Stocks in Israel rebound

2006-12-04 07:45PST (10:45EST) (15:45GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
Pending home sales fell 1.7% in October

2006-12-04
William Hawkins _Examiner_
Importing poverty will weaken USA living standards
"Firms that hire illegal workers for lower wages, fewer (if any) benefits, and sometimes off the books entirely, do so to gain a competitive advantage against firms that obey the laws and only hire within the legal labor market.   Honest business owners are placed in the difficult position of having to choose between emulating the unlawful behavior of rivals or risking the survival of their own companies.   No one should condone a system that creates this kind of ethical dilemma...   [Tax-victims] end up subsidizing the employers who hire low-wage workers."

2006-12-04
Mike Cutler _Counter-Terrorism_
grave risks posed by the ineptitude of the USCIS
"The point is that USCIS is running an obviously fatally flawed program to naturalize aliens, where the emphasis is on the elimination of the back-log and not on making an effort to perform a cursory review of the relevant immigration files of as many as 30K cases this year alone!"

2006-12-04
Tash Shifrin _Computer Weekly_
Indian call centre security lapses affecting UK off-shore out-sourcing decisions
"And 52% believed that the knowledge transfer that occurs, when client organisations outsource an internal process, is likely to put the client at risk, unless [even if] best practice steps are followed."

2006-12-04
Jen Aronoff & Hannah Mitchell _Charlotte Observer_
390 lay-offs: Lenoir facing uncertain future: Broyhill plant closing ends way of life that has long been fading
"But Friday's announcement that Broyhill Furniture Industries would close its last U.S. wooden furniture plant and lay off 390 workers is the latest sign that the old way of life is no more...   The company, which got its start making wooden furniture a century ago, has only two plants left, both upholstery operations, which are considered less vulnerable...   Whether they had dropped out of high school, couldn't afford college or simply needed a steady pay-check, generations of Lenoir residents knew furniture jobs would be there -- and owners such as the Broyhills would take care of them.   '(Furniture leaders) provided jobs for a lot of people, but also saw their role as one of being humanists, philanthropists, giving back.', said John Hawkins of the Caldwell Heritage Museum.   Like other leading Lenoir furniture families, such as the Bernhardts, the Broyhills helped build a hospital and donated money to education and the arts.   Numerous venues, including the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center, bear the family's name.   For years, the company placed ads in local high school year-books...   In 1980, the Broyhill family sold their business to St. Louis-based Interco.   Now known as Furniture Brands International, the company touts how it has shifted production to Asia -- where labor is cheaper and health and environmental standards are weaker -- noting in its 2005 annual report that it has closed 31 of 57 domestic plants.   More have closed since that report, including three Broyhill plants...   Since 2001, Broyhill has closed 11 plants and laid off about 5,500 workers in Western North Carolina, beginning in Newton and circling ever closer to Lenoir, finally reaching the wooden furniture factories there in 2005.   Along the way, the company reduced its Christmas bonuses, eliminated July 4 and Thanksgiving celebrations, and froze hourly wages, employees said...   A century ago, Grand Rapids, MI, was the nation's furniture center..."

2006-12-04
Timothy Prickett Morgan _IT Jungle_
PriceWaterhouseCoopers body shop sustains flow of IT talent shortage propaganda with report of survey of tech execs
"You need look no further than page 33 of that PwC report to see the way out.   Of the executives polled, only 46% of them said that base pay was a highly effective way of compensating employees, and 27% said that other intangibles -- such as a collaborative working environment, training, access to leading edge technologies, a career path, mentoring, travel, and risk taking and innovation -- were the keys to keeping techies happy and still working for the company.   Only 19% of the executives thought equity or share options motivated employees, and only 12% thought health-care and retirement benefits were highly effective as motivators, too."
PWC propaganda piece
"The survey garnered 153 responses from senior executives based in 5 principal regions: 30% Asia, 41% Europe, 23% North America, 5% the Middle East and Africa and 1% Latin America."

2006-12-04
_KX TV_
Karl Rove says US government is incapable of stopping invasion of illegal aliens
alternate link
"I suspect that Rove's statement is based more on political considerations than policy considerations.   The illegal immigration issue has Republicans between a rock and a hard place.   Business interests want access to cheap labor, and the GOP would certainly like to keep itself in the good graces of the growing Hispanic voting bloc in this country, but the Republican base wants border enforcement for national security reasons, among other things.   What some Republicans -- like Rove and the President -- have chosen to do is try to convince Americans that stopping illegal immigration (or even just deporting the illegals who are in this country already) is an impossibility.   Because if the secure borders crowd begins to feel that truly secure borders are an impossibility they'll be more open to [non-solutions] like the President's amnesty guest worker program.   Build a fence along the border, complete with 'virtual fence' components like sensors and cameras in addition to actual physical barriers.   Empower local law enforcement (municipal P.D., highway patrol, etc.) to detain illegal immigrants until they can be turned over to federal authorities and encourage law enforcement offices to arrest illegals when they're found (some sort of incentive program from the feds for bringing in illegals would be good).   Stream-line the legal immigration process as well as the deportation process for illegal immigrants so that getting into this country legally is easier while getting those here illegally out is easier as well."

2006-12-05
Linda Kimball _Mens News Daily_
Deconstruction by Trans-Nationals Coming Soon
Post Chronicle
American Daily
Conservative Voice
"Fonte identifies two separate, but not terribly distinct, 'ideological and philosophical' movements, each of which are working towards the ultimate goal of a 'post-constitutional', 'post-liberal', 'post-democratic', 'post-American', and post-Christian authoritarian regime.   Fonte refers to these two movements as 'trans-national progressives' and the 'trans-national right'...   In speaking of the NAU and trans-national corridor schemes, Congressman Ron Paul remarked, 'The real issue is national sovereignty... decisions that affect millions of Americans are not being made by those Americans... or even by their elected representatives in Congress.   Instead, a handful of elites use their government connections to bypass national legislatures and ignore our Constitution (this super-high-way) will require coordinated federal and state eminent domain actions on an unprecedented scale, as literally millions of people and businesses could be displaced.   The loss of whole communities is almost certain…the ultimate goal is not simply a super-high-way, but an integrated North American Union, complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel.' ('The NAU: It's the Eleventh Hour—Get Busy' Devvy Kidd, _NewsWithViews.com_)...   In his book, _The Age of Fallibility_, George Soros declared, 'The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.'   Destroying the United States has become an obsession of Soros.   In pursuit of his goal, he has, 'assembled an army of radical allies who have long been at war with the American system...   Soros has constructed a party... unlike any in American history.   It is not an American-style party... accountable to the people and subject to their will, but is more like a Leninist vanguard party, fully as conspiratorial and just as unaccountable...   The SP has a dimension of which Leninists could never dream.   It is a party of rebels but also a party of rulers -- a corporate unity of capital and labor.   And it has insinuated itself into the heart of the American system.' (_The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party_ by David Horowitz and Richard Poe, pg 243)...   Conservatives, we are in an epic battle for the survival not just of our Republic, but for our rights and freedoms under our Creator's Law.   All must join this battle.   None should sit on the sidelines.   Only by working together can we defeat the enemies of individual liberty and save America for our children, grand-children, and future generations."
 

2006-12-05 (5767 Kislev 14)

2006-12-04 21:01PST (2006-12-05 00:01EST) (2006-12-05 05:01GMT)
Bambi Francisc _MarketWatch_
My-censored-Space in Red China

2006-12-05 05:40PST (08:40EST) (13:40GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Challenger says lay-off announcements up 11% in November
"Planned job reductions rose by 11% in November to 76,773 as more than 20K jobs were eliminated in the automotive sector, according to a monthly tally released on Tuesday.   So far in 2006, planned lay-offs total 785,179, out-placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas said.   That's down 19% from the 964,232 announced last year at this time...   November's job reductions were down 23% from 2005 November...   The auto industry announced 20,318 job reductions in November...   So far in 2006, a record 151,457 jobs have been eliminated in the auto sector, breaking the previous high of 133,686 set in 2001."

2006-12-05 07:16PST (10:16EST) (15:16GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
Factory orders fell 4.7% in October

2006-12-05 07:21PST (10:21EST) (15:21GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Productivity revised higher for October; Compensation lower
"Instead of rising at a 5.3% pace in the past year, unit-labor costs in the non-farm business sector were revised to a much-tamer 2.9% annual pace...   Productivity in the non-farm business sector rose at a 0.2% annual pace in the third quarter, revised from no gain previously reported...   instead of a 5.4% increase, unit labor costs fell 2.4%.   The revision was largely due to a downward revision in wages and salaries in the second quarter, as reported in last week's report on gross domestic product.   In the second quarter, real hourly compensation (that is, inflation-adjusted) fell at a 5.9% annual pace, rather than the 1.6% increase reported a month ago.   In the third quarter, real hourly compensation fell 0.4%, revised from a 0.7% gain.   In the past year, productivity has risen at a 1.4% annual pace, still the slowest gain in 9 years.   Unit-labor costs have risen at a 2.9% annual pace, down from 3.1% in the four quarters ending in the second quarter.   Real hourly compensation has risen 1% in the past year, down from 1.6% in the second quarter...   In the nonfinancial sector, productivity rose 5.6% in the third quarter and is up 3.8% in the past year.   Unit labor costs fell 2.7% in the third quarter and are up 0.5% in the past year.   Real hourly compensation fell 0.1% in the third quarter and is up 0.9% in the past year."

2006-12-05
Frosty Wooldridge _American Daily_
Repercussions of S2611
"As you sleep, your government plots to destroy future sustainability of your country.   If John McCain, Arlen Specter, Teddy Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and George Bush sneak S2611, named the 'comprehensive immigration reform bill' into law, it's as Orwellian as it gets!...   It gives blanket amnesty to illegal alien employers.   It gives Carte Blanc to illegal aliens to rape our welfare system, medical care and schools.   This bill completely negates the rule of law by encouraging lawlessness by forgiving past lawlessness.   It creates 2 tiers of justice: one for you to abide by our laws and another for illegal aliens whereby they don't have to abide by our laws.   It protects employers who attract illegals...   In a nut-shell, S2611 worsens our illegal immigration crisis.   If those numbskulls in the Senate would pass HR4437, we would be done with this crisis.   We could get on with our lives.   Our schools would be safe and uncrowded.   Everyone would get back to speaking and learning English.   It would stop the 'catch and release' at the border.   It would make employers hire legal workers via employer sanctions.   Our immigration laws work just fine; it's our president and Congress that fail our laws.   HR4437 solves many problems, however, billions of dollars fly out for 'anchor babies' with terrific fiscal impact on education, healthcare, welfare and deficit spending.   Congress must over-turn the misinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.   Nathan Deal (R-GA) submitted HR698 which addresses this issue, but to date Republican leaders have not allowed a vote on this bill.   A simple 'Yes' vote for HR4437 in the Senate along with HR698 would create a comprehensive package for immigration reform that would solve this national dilemma within a year."
Proposed bills of possible interest

2006-12-05 07:25PST (10:25EST) (15:25GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
ISM services index rose from 57.1% in October to 58.9% in November
Institute for Supply Management

2006-12-05
_Montgomery Advertiser_
Forestry company settles with SPLC over under-paid Guatemalans
"The proposed settlement, reached Thursday, calls for Express Forestry Inc. of Leslie to pay $220K, said Mary C. Bauer, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center's Immigrant Justice Project, who represents the workers."

2006-12-05
_IANS_/_Yahoo!_
Indians may get some socialist insecurity money back on return from USA
"The US is considering a pact with India to refund social security contributions by Indians on their return even if they had not worked for a requisite number of years, a top official said Tuesday...   According to the India-US CEO Forum, which was formed following a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush in Washington last year, Indians contribute some $500M annually as [socialist insecurity] in the US with no benefits accruing to them."

2006-12-05
Leonard R. Escudero _Arizona Republic_
US citizens must be taught to aim lower
"We don't need more high-tech institutions; we need a plan giving manual-labor diplomas to graduating eighth-graders.   That way, our high school drop-out rate would vanish."

2006-12-05
John Pasquarelli _Australian_
We knew Pacific rim would crack
alternate link
"When it happens, images of hundreds of boatpeople from West Papua and PNG pouring ashore on our northern coastline will come as no surprise to a small band of patriotic ex-PNG hands who have been trying for years to alert Canberra to the serious threat posed by the instability of Pacific rim countries to our north.   As Fiji's army neutralises and disarms police units, a coup is well on the way in that country.   And this only adds to the prospect of more asylum-seekers heading for Australian shores.   From Timor through West Papua and on to PNG and across the Solomons to Vanuatu, Fiji and beyond, the Pacific rim has been slowly sinking into a morass of corruption, criminality, disease and a reversion to tribalism over the past 30 years.   Since 1914, Australia has spent billions of dollars and man hours on PNG alone but the return has been bitterly disappointing.   Health and education programs have collapsed.   AIDS is spreading out from PNG and in 10 years one in three PNG women will be HIV positive.   Malaria and TB are rampant.   The once excellent public hospitals in Lae and Port Moresby are a disgrace.   PNG literacy rates are now lower than they were in 1975.   Criminality in the Pacific rim region is surging...   Canberra has not woken up to the steadily increasing influence of Taiwan and mainland China in the region, bringing with it Asian gangs who have been attracted by the easy road to Australian markets for their drugs...   Disintegrating Pacific rim countries provide ideal havens and a springboard to Australia for drugs, disease, criminals, terrorists and illegal immigrants.   Canberra has no idea of the huge disaster that lies ahead.   Against this backdrop there are silly people who want Australia to bring in guest-workers from the Pacific rim."

2006-12-05
Mike Cutler _Family Security Matters_
Leaderless in Washington, DC, State and Local Governments Take Control

2006-12-05
Spencer S. Hsu _Arizona Republic_/_Washington Post_
Plan for virtual border fence has intentional gaps
Government Executive
"Confirming well-known problems along the Mexican border, DHS also reported that the United States had 'effective control' over only 284 miles of its 1,993-mile southern frontier as of March, up from 241 miles in 2005 October.   The department set a goal of controlling 345 miles next year and the full border in 5 years.   But it acknowledged not having 'a wholly satisfactory methodology' of defining 'control'...   Despite a law authorizing a 700-mile physical fence on the Mexican border, the Congress and White House are pushing forward with SBInet, which would deploy a mix of fencing, vehicle barriers, sensors, cameras and other surveillance technology to create a virtual barrier along 6K miles of U.S. northern and southern borders.   SBInet will cost $1.2G this year and $7.6G through 2011 on the southern border alone, DHS reported.   By comparison, DHS agencies expect to spend $40.7G for border security between 2008 and 2011."

2006-12-05 14:42PST (17:42EST) (22:42GMT)
_WSB-TV_
Living Legal
"We've all heard the stories associated with more than 400K illegal [aliens] now living in Georgia.   Now, you will hear from a legal immigrant who says trying to function in Georgia the legal way is nearly impossible -- because the system doesn't recognize his paper-work.   You may have been following our stories lately about how illegals have found ways to gain access to our most vulnerable public services -- all by creating fake documentation.   Hector Marquez is completely legal, but tells us it has made his stay here nearly unlivable...   'We needed a chemical engineer who had knowledge of application of glass to steel and that's where Hector came in.   Hector and I met in Mexico and we began the process to bring Hector to the United States legally.   The process, the paper-work, took us over 2 years.', says Lakeman...   'What we have found is that Hector practically lives in a no man's land here in the United States.', says Lakeman.   'It's difficult for him to acquire a Driver's License, purchase a house, even open a bank account.'...   'I have my Mexican Driver's License and I have my Visa H-1B type, she checked my papers and said, ''No, you cannot obtain your Driver's License because you are not a citizen.''.', says Hector.   Compare that to what Channel 2's under-cover cameras found at a business in Cobb County -- a broker who caters to illegal immigrants, buying them car tags that get them on the road -- never even bothering with a license...   'I talked with this lady and she said, ''Are you legal or illegal?'' and I said, ''Legal.'' She said, ''I can't help you, I'm working with illegal people.'' I said, ''What?'''...   'We knew that we needed to do it legally.   The last thing we wanted to do is build a company, have 10, 20, 30 employees, then Hector's sent back to Mexico -- then where are we?   Everybody's out of a job -- you just can't do it that way.', says Lakeman.   State officials tell Channel 2's Dale Cardwell that Hector should have been able to get a Driver's License by presenting his Visa, but acknowledge some state employees are likely unfamiliar with what to do when presented with one.   Hector's current Visa expires in 2 years."

2006-12-05
_Family Security Matters_
Crime Pays for Illegal Aliens -- And So Do We

2006-12-05
Jack Rasmus _Z Magazine_
Welcome to the New World Job Order: Body Shopping
"US 'free trade' policies and tax changes since 1980 have provided major incentives to corporations to dismangle the country's manufacturing base.   Various studies show there is at least a 20% pay differential between new jobs created in the USA due to 'free trade' and jobs exported from the USA due to that same trade...   This past October, WM, the largest employer in the U.S. with revenues of more than $310G a year, announced it was going to double the number of its workers employed part-time -- from 20% to 40% of its total work force -- while reducing full-time jobs by yet unknown thousands at the company.   Given WM's total U.S. employment of 1.3M, that means 260K more WM workers will now make roughly half of what full-time employees earn.   What little health and other company-paid benefits the 260K had as full-time employees will be reduced or eliminated.   WM will save an estimated $3.042G a year in wages and benefits by doubling its part-time work force to 40%, for a total of 520K part-timers.   WM also announced in October a 'cap' on wages that will impact many thousands more of its workers.   In addition, both part-time and full-time workers will have to work erratic work schedules and be on call nights and weekends, with as little as 24-hour notice of work shift changes...   The above combined actions by WM will result in a significant shift in income, from WM's employees as a group to the bottom line of the company's annual profit and loss statement.   The combined total from the announced changes could easily amount to $5G a year in direct savings to the company and, in turn, in lost income to workers.   It was not surprising that WM's stock price jumped by more than 10% in the days immediately following the above cost saving (and income shift) announcement...   High on the list in terms of impact on workers and their incomes has been the dismantling of the manufacturing base and the shipment off-shore of 8M jobs since the 1980s.   Occurring first in basic manufacturing industries in the 1980s, off-shoring subsequently spread to the tech industry in the mid-1990s and in recent years has migrated to other major sectors of the economy, such as business professional services and business 'back office' operations...   The dismantling of the U.S. manufacturing base, in particular, is about to enter a new phase with the imminent exportation of at least 200K more U.S. auto industry jobs to [Red China], India, and Mexico over the next 3 years, as auto assembly and auto parts companies shut down scores of factories...   Another form of corporate-driven job restructuring has been the importation of millions of skilled, professional workers over the last decade as a consequence of corporate efforts to expand the U.S. government's H-1B visa program.   In the case of H-1B visas -- a kind of reverse off-shoring -- jobs are not physically exported, but are allocated to foreign professionals who are imported to the U.S.A.   We're not talking about unskilled, S-1 visa workers filling entry-level, low pay, manual labor jobs in agriculture, construction, and personal services.   H-1B jobs are professional-technical jobs typically paying $70K a year and up.   These jobs often displace highly educated U.S. workers who have been laid off since the dot.com bust of 2000, as well as new college graduates in areas of electrical, computer, hardware-software engineering, and related disciplines.   A program originating in the [mid-1950s, but split off into separate sub-categories in 1990], H-1B visas grew by 500K between 2000-2004 right through the [Clinton-Bush depression].   During that same period, for example, the communications industry in the U.S.A. lost 1M jobs while it created about 500K new jobs -- i.e., just about the total of those imported on H-1B visas.   Not surprisingly, corporate elements are demanding a doubling of H-1B quotas in the new immigration bill and have proposed to expand the program to new areas, such as long-haul trucking operations...   The major department store chain Mervyns announced it was terminating all full-time employees and replacing them with part-time and temporary employees...   3K workers in the HP manufacturing facility in Boise, Idaho in 2005 discovered that HP management overnight arbitrarily reclassified everyone as 'independent contractors' instead of employees.   As many as 25% of the work force today in many auto and other basic manufacturing plants are temporary employees and in some factories two-thirds or more.   The number of temp workers in auto are about to grow exponentially as the largest auto parts company, Delphi Corp., with 134K employees worldwide, is in the process of closing 19 of its 21 remaining plants and shedding over 40K more U.S. jobs while expanding its Mexico production (where it is currently the largest manufacturing company of any kind)...   During Reagan's two terms (from 1980-1988) involuntary part-time jobs alone grew by 50% -- i.e., two and a-half times faster than full-time jobs.   Also, the number of temporary supply services (i.e., temp agency) jobs tripled during the period.   Actually, the numbers were much higher as temp agency jobs do not account for temp workers directly hired by companies.   The latter numbers are as least as large as temps hired indirectly through agencies, according to several studies.   In fact, collection of data for temp agency jobs did not even begin until the end of 1982, which eliminates the first 2 years from the temp totals for the decade.   Even so, the official government estimates of temp help agency jobs show they grew by 800K during the Reagan period.   About 1.6M temp jobs were actually added during this period when jobs from sources other than temp agencies are considered.   When new part-time and temporary job gains are combined for the decade, a total of 6.3M new part-time/temp jobs were created.   That's about 30% of the net job growth over the decade and represents a growth rate of nearly twice that of traditional jobs.   A raft of independent studies in the late 1980s/early 1990s showed the continued growth of part-time/temp workers from 1988 through 1994.   The studies provoked an official U.S. government response under Clinton in the form of a series of 4 ad hoc reports by the U.S. government between 1995-2000 in an effort to come up with better government data for estimating temp job growth.   Despite conservative assumptions, the 4 studies showed a continued growth in the easily estimated temp agency workers, which grew to 3M by the end of the 1990s compared to the official 800M count in 1989.   The reports still did not estimate company direct-hired temp workers, but did show a sharp rise in unincorporated self-employed contract workers -- like consultants, free-lancers, and other temporary work for hire occupations.   By the end of the 1990s, there were 7M temp workers of various kinds and another 22.3M part-time workers...   In the wake of the Bush recession of 2001, both part-time and temporary jobs surged.   By 2004, part-time jobs had grown from roughly 22M in 2000 to 25.3M.   Temp agency jobs similarly grew by 1M during Bush's first term and all forms of temp jobs rose to around 8.5M by mid-2004.   Combined part-time and temp jobs had thus increased from a combined 29.3M in 2000 to 33.8M by 2004 -- a gain of 4.5M in just 4 years...   According to government statistics, the ranks of the unincorporated self-employed had by the end of 2004 grown to 9.8M -- surging 400K a year in 2002 and 2003.   The numbers are, moreover, likely conservative since they still do not account for the growth of hundreds of thousands of undocumented, 'informal' contract workers who typically are employed on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis in construction, personal services, and other 'off book' jobs.   Excluding this latter category, by the end of George W. Bush's first term there were approximately 43.6M part-time, temp, and independent contract/ self-employed jobs in the U.S.A.   This amounted to about 33% of the total U.S. employed non-farm work force.

2006-12-05
James Carlini
The information age requires a FACT-based education
"What does FACT stand for? Flexibility, Adaptability, Creativity, and Technology are the skill sets needed for today's as well as tomorrow's jobs."

2006-12-06 (5767 Kislev 15)

2006-12-06
Matt Wickenheiser _Portland Press Herald_
US senator Susan Collins grills agencies on foreign labor
Kennebec Journal
"U.S. senator Susan Collins has sent letters to the heads of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Citizenship and Immigration Service, asking what their agencies have done to address problems in foreign-labor programs that were detailed in a recent Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram investigation.   Collins wrote in her capacity as chairwoman of the Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.   It's the first official call for answers from federal authorities since the newspaper's series ran in late September.   The 3-part series detailed concerns about the H1B visa program and the permanent green-card system.   H-1B visas let skilled foreign workers such as engineers, programmers and accountants work in the United States for 3 years, with a 3-year extension.   Green cards let foreigners live and work here indefinitely.   'If the individuals that receive visas do not actually work at the company and the location listed on the visa applications, we have no assurance that the true purpose of the visa applicant is not to enter the U.S.A. to commit terrorist acts or to otherwise harm our citizens.', Collins wrote in both letters...   Ralph W. Wyndrum Jr., president of IEEE-USA, a leading professional association for engineers, said Collins is doing 'a great service to the country' by highlighting what he called the misuse of H-1B visas, particularly in smaller states.   'IEEE-USA is pleased that Congress is starting to realize that there are significant flaws in the H-1B program, flaws that harm American workers, H1B visa holders and the U.S. economy.', Wyndrum said in an e-mailed statement.   What efforts are made by the Immigration Service to uncover such 'apparent acts of deception'?   What does the Immigration Service do in its processing of visa applications to determine that employers have 'legitimate and substantial business operations at the address' listed on the applications?   What is the Labor Department doing to combat fraud, given the statutory division of responsibilities between that department and the Immigration Service?   How is the Labor Department addressing the conclusion that its certification is a 'rubber stamp'?"
series index

2006-12-05 18:00PST (2006-12-05 21:00EST) (2006-12-06 02:00GMT)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
Yahoo is reorganizing, COO Dan Rosenzweig to resign, CFO Susan Decker to become head of Advertiser & Publisher Group, and Farzad Nazem to be CTO

2006-12-06 (5767 Kislev 15)
Mort Zuckerman _Jewish World Review_
The Mullah menace

2006-12-06 03:17PST (06:17EST) (11:17GMT)
John Hood _National Review_
Meet the New House Centrists

2006-12-06 08:41PST (11:41EST) (16:41GMT)
Rajesh Mahapatra _AP_/_Yahoo!_
Cisco to set up another shop in India
"Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. will set up a center in India to support all aspects of its worldwide operations, the company's chief executive said Wednesday.   CEO John Chambers also said Cisco's $1.1G India investment plan, announced in October last year, is on course and the company plans to launch a pilot manufacturing project in the South Asian country by March next year.   The latest moves, including a plan to triple its work force in India to 6K employees over the next 3 to 5 years, will help Cisco sustain the momentum of its business not just in India but in markets worldwide, Chambers told reporters...   The company already operates a research and development center in Bangalore."

2006-12-06
_Seoul Times_
How off-shore out-sourcing will destroy the USA
"We have, through our greed as manufactures, lost it all to the Peoples Republic of China, they make almost every thing we use here in America, automobile batteries, tires, packaging, video, audio components, cigarette lighters, electronic components, this list can go on indefinitely, this computer I am using to write this article is [Red Chinese] made, they have us right where they want us, economically.   If they wanted to cripple us, all the [Red Chinese] would have to do, is stop sending us our imports, we would come to a screeching halt.   They could sell to the rest of the world and ignore us...   [Red China's] world over-view for the environment is impressive.   The Three Rivers project will supply the [Red Chinese] the necessary electricity to build anything and resource the revitalization of the central and southern provinces...   The [Red Chinese rulers] have found a way to win it all, and we just gave it to them on a platter of gold."

2006-12-07

2006-12-07 05:30PDT (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 449,309 in the week ending December 2, an increase of 125,748 from the previous week.   There were 444,600 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.0% during the week ending Nov. 25, an increase of 0.4 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,635,485, an increase of 560,883 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.1% and the volume was 2,695,927.   Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending November 18."

2006-12-07 01:12PST (04:12EST) (09:12GMT)
Carolyn Pritchard _MarketWatch_
News Corp. near deal to buy back its shares currently owned by Liberty Media in exchange for shares of DirecTV and other assets
"News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch implemented a so-called poison pill, or 'share-holder rights' plan, in 2004, after John Malone's Liberty Media acquired the [$11G] stake in News Corp.   A majority of share-holders voted to extend that plan in October."

2006-12-07 02:54PST (05:43EST) (10:43GMT)
_MarketWatch_
Seminole tribe of Florida to buy international Hard Rock Cafe chain for $695M

2006-12-07 10:59PST (13:59EST) (18:59GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Average US household net worth up 5.8% in 2006Q3: Borrowing down
"Net worth, calculated by subtracting liabilities from assets, had increased 0.2% in the second quarter after gains of 13% in 2003, 9.7% in 2004 and 8.5% in 2005.   Read the full government report.   Household assets grew by $1.04T to $67T in the third quarter, while liabilities increased by $267G to $13T.   Net worth rose to $54.06T...   Net financial investment fell by $265G, but capital gains totaled $864G.   The value of real-estate holdings increased by $120G, the smallest gain in 9 years.   The value of corporate equities increased by $225G, while the value of mutual fund shares increased by $83G.   Household net worth dipped slightly to 5.64 times disposable income.   Owners' equity in their real estate fell to a record low 53.6% of market value from 54% in the second quarter and nearly 58% in 2000.   Total debt reached 52.7% of net worth, the highest percentage since 2002.   Meanwhile, non-financial borrowing in the entire economy matched the slowest growth rate in four years, rising at an annual rate of 6.7%, the same as in the second quarter.   Borrowing by households grew at a 6.8% rate, the slowest in eight years.   Mortgage debt and consumer credit debt decelerated.   Mortgage debt increased at a 7.2% rate, also the slowest pace since 1998.   Borrowing under a home-equity loan increased by about 8.4% annualized, the slowest growth in more than two years.   Home-equity loans represented 10.1% of the $10.03T in outstanding mortgage debt.   Consumer credit, such as credit cards, increased at a 5.7% rate in the third quarter.   Borrowing by businesses increased at a 7.7% rate.   Corporate debt grew at a 7.0% pace, the slowest pace this year.   The deceleration mainly reflected less borrowing in the corporate bond and commercial paper markets, the Fed said.   Borrowing by the federal government increased 3.3%, while borrowing by state and local governments increased at a 9.3% annual pace."
Federal Reserve Board Press Release
Consumer credit fell by $1.2G in October

2006-12-07
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_/_San Francisco Chronicle_
Should the USA decrease its H-1B visa program?
"Though the industry says the foreign workers are needed to remedy a tech labor shortage, for most employers the attraction of H-1Bs visa holders is simply cheap labor...   The [H-1B] visas granted in computer-related fields are 10 times more numerous than in the next most common tech field, electrical engineering...   A Business Week article has pointed out that starting salaries for new bachelor's degree graduates in computer science and electrical engineering, adjusted for inflation, have been flat or falling in recent years.   This belies the industry's claim of a labor shortage.   Additional analysis at the master's degree level shows the same trend, flat wages -- contradicting the industry's claim that workers at the post-graduate level are in especially short supply.   M$ founder Bill Gates is personally leading the industry's charge for more H-1B visas.   Yet M$ asked its contract software developers earlier this year to take a 7-day furlough, to save money.   And the firm admits that its salaries are not keeping up with inflation.   Again, none of this squares with M$'s claims of a labor shortage.   The hidden agenda here is industry access to cheap labor.   Several university studies and 2 congressionally commissioned reports have shown that H-1B visa holders are paid less than Americans.   Though the law requires H-1B holders to be paid the 'prevailing wage', the definition of that term is filled with numerous gaping loop-holes, as a 2002 congressional report showed.   Yet Congress added even further loop-holes in legislation in 2004.   Just think tax code, and you'll understand what I mean.   The H-1B program does not require most employers to give hiring priority to qualified U.S. citizens and permanent residents.   If the employer is also sponsoring the foreign worker for a green card, there is such a requirement, but again loopholes render the rule meaningless.   As prominent immigration attorney Joel Stewart has said, 'Employers who favor aliens have an arsenal of legal means to reject all U.S. workers who apply.'...   I, too, support facilitating the immigration of 'the best and the brightest', but very few H-1B holders in the tech field are in that league.   Government data show that the vast majority make, at most, in the $60K range (Intel's median is $65K).   Yet even non-techies know that the top talents in this field make more than $100K.   And the vast majority of awards for innovation in the field have gone to U.S.-born workers...   As senator Bob Bennett, R-UT, said after Congress enacted the H-1B program expansion in 2000, 'There were, in fact, a whole lot of [members of Congress] against it, but because they are tapping the high-tech community for campaign contributions, they don't want to admit that in public.'   Meanwhile, a reasonable H-1B reform bill by New Jersey representative Bill Pascrell is being ignored, not only by the Republicans but also by his fellow Democrats."
more on the Cornyn's SKIL bill
guest-workers and off-shoring
 

2006-12-08 (5767 Kislev 17)

2006-12-08 (5767 Kislev 17)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Jews, Wake Up!
"With the publication of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group chaired by former US secretary of state James Baker III and former congressman Lee Hamilton, the debate about the war in Iraq changed.   From a war for victory against Islamofascism and for democracy and freedom, the war was reduced to a conflict to be managed by appeasing the US's sworn enemies in the interests of stability and at the expense of America's allies."

2006-12-08 09:35PST (12:35EST) (17:35GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index fell from 92.1 in late November to 90.2 in early December

2006-12-08
Dimitri Vassilaros _Pittsburgh Tribune-Review_
It's still gun control

2006-12-08
Edwin Rubenstein _V Dare_
Immigrant employment continues to out-strip natives as American Worker Displacement Index continues to increase

2006-12-08

DJIA	12,307.49
S&P 500	1,409.84
NASDAQ	2,437.36
10-year US T-Bond	4.55%
crude oil	62.03
gold	631.00
silver	13.895
platinum	1,108.80
palladium	333.95
copper	0.1945
natgas	7.561/MBTU
unleadedgasoline	$1.6213/gal
heatingoil	$1.7573/gal

I usually get this info from MarketWatch, which gets them from BigCharts.
 
 

2006-12-09 (5767 Kislev 18)

2006-12-09
Dmitri Iglitzin & STeven Hill _Los Angeles Times_
NLRB is no friend of workers
"The balance of economic power has become increasingly one-sided, and one reason is that a key institution -- the National Labor Relations Board, the country's chief arbiter of labor disputes -- remains solidly in anti-worker hands.   Although a quasi-judicial entity appointed by the president and empowered to adjudicate labor disputes, the NLRB actually sets the rules that govern those disputes and thereby exerts an enormous influence over who prevails.   In case after case, the Republican-dominated board has taken positions that have hurt American workers.   In one recent case, the Oakwood Healthcare decision, the board found (by its usual 3-2 Republican majority) that a group of Michigan nurses are excluded from the protection of the nation's most important labor laws on the spurious grounds that they are 'supervisors', not employees.   In one stroke, these workers -- and potentially tens of thousands of others -- lost the right to be in a union and to advocate collectively for workplace improvements."
 

2006-12-10 (5767 Kislev 19)

2006-12-10 04:00PST (07:00EST) (12:00GMT)
V. Phani Kumar _MarketWatch_
Indian body shops off-shoring to Malaysia
"Satyam Computer SErvices Ltd.'s announcement Thursday it plans to set up a 2K-seat software development center in Malaysia -- its largest such center outside India -- raises a question.   [Does India have a shortage of bodies to shop?]   The question may seem silly to those who know that only 1.3M of the country's population of nearly 1.3G bear its flag in the information technology and related service industries.   But dig a little deeper and consider that these industries find only about 250K of the 3.5M engineers who graduate every year employable, or willing to join the ranks, and the argument assumes a different tone...   finding employable and willing staff is getting difficult or that wage bills and attrition are keeping pace with the growth rates.   The increasing wages and staff turnaround rates are what forced Satyam to look over-seas...   35% of India's population is estimated to be aged 15 or younger."

2006-12-10
Dimitri Vassilaros _Pittsburgh Tribune-Review_
The rest of the story on the Middle East

2006-12-10
Dan Stein _Desert Sun_
The costs of illegal alien invasion out-weigh any benefits
"Since immigration burst on the scene some 20 years ago, the term reform has been associated with those who believe large-scale illegal immigration is a serious problem that needs reducing.   FAIR has educated the public the past 25 years on the need for true and comprehensive reform while opponents claimed a problem did not exist...   As opponents learned the majority of the American public is 'pro-reform', they tried to wrap their defense of unchecked record levels of illegal immigration as being 'reform measures' when, in fact, they will deform our already broken system...   Cut the numbers...   No amnesty or mass guest-worker program...   Protect wages and standards of living.   Immigration policy should not be permitted to undermine opportunities for America's poor...   Up-grade interior enforcement with strong employer penalties...   Stop special-interest asylum abuse...   Immigration time out.   We must restore moderation to legal immigration.   Beginning with the recommendations of the Jordan Commission in 1995, we need to restrict immigration consistent with stabilizing the U.S. population...   Equal under the law.   There should be no favoritism or discrimination against anyone because of race, color, creed, or nationality."
 

2006-12-11 (5767 Kislev 20)

2006-12-11 10:42PST (13:42EST) (18:42GMT)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional topped Tata's bid with $11.4G offer for Corus Group steel

2006-12-11 11:17PST (14:17EST) (19:17GMT)
William L. Watts _MarketWatch_
Congress delivers coal & goodies to executives
"The research-and-development tax credit, a popular break that often serves as a political football, lapsed on Dec. 31.   Then, efforts to revive it -- along with other expired items, such as deductions for college tuitions and for class-room supplies purchased by teachers out of their own pockets -- continually ran afoul of election-year gamesmanship, as Senate Republicans sought to tie the non-controversial measures to efforts to permanently slash the estate tax...   The research credit is a bit more generous in 2007: It's expected to reduce revenues by around $16.5G over 10 years, according the Joint Committee on Taxation, which scores tax legislation.   The bill also revives the deduction for state and local sales taxes for 2006, and extends it through 2007. The law allows [tax-victims] to deduct state and local sales taxes from their federal returns, rather than from state and local income taxes. &nbnsp; The measure is a top priority for taxpayers in nine states -- Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming -- that don't have a personal income tax."

2006-12-11 15:49PST (18:49EST) (23:49GMT)
Laura Mandaro & Michael Baron _MarketWatch_
DuPont plans to eliminate 1,500 jobs, close or cut back 10 sites
"With the savings from down-sizing the herbicide and nutrition parts of its agricultural businesses, it will pump $100M into seeds, a move that analyst Mark Gulley called 'terrific'."

2006-12-11
Dimitri Vassilaros _Pittsburgh Tribune-Review_
Judge for yourself

2006-12-11
Dexter Roberts & Pete Engardio _Corporate Social Responsibility Wire_/_Business Week_
Secrets, Lies and Sweat-Shops
"For more than a decade, major American retailers and name brands have answered accusations that they exploit sweat-shop labor with elaborate codes of conduct and on-site monitoring.   But in [Red China] many factories have just gotten better at concealing abuses.   Internal industry documents reviewed by BusinessWeek reveal that numerous [Red Chinese] factories keep double sets of books to fool auditors and distribute scripts for employees to recite if they are questioned.   And a new breed of [Red Chinese] consultant has sprung up to assist companies like Beifa in evading audits.   'Tutoring and helping factories deal with audits has become an industry in [Red China].', says Tang, 34, who recently left Beifa of his own volition to start a Web site for workers...   [Red Chinese] export manufacturing is rife with tales of deception.   The largest single source of American imports, [Red China's] factories this year are expected to ship goods to the U.S. worth $280G.   American companies continually demand lower prices from their [Red Chinese] suppliers, allowing American consumers to enjoy inexpensive clothes, sneakers, and electronics.   But factory managers in [Red China] complain in interviews that U.S. price pressure creates a powerful incentive to cheat on labor standards that American companies promote as a badge of responsible capitalism.   These standards generally incorporate the official minimum wage, which is set by local or provincial governments and ranges from $45 to $101 a month.   American companies also typically say they hew to the government-mandated workweek of 40 to 44 hours, beyond which higher overtime pay is required.   These figures can be misleading, however, as the Beijing government has had only limited success in pushing local authorities to enforce [Red Chinese] labor laws.   That's another reason abuses persist and factory oversight frequently fails.   Some American companies now concede that the cheating is far more pervasive than they had imagined...   Guarantees by multi-nationals that offshore suppliers are meeting widely accepted codes of conduct have been important to maintaining political support in the U.S. for growing trade ties with [Red China], especially in the wake of protests by unions and antiglobalization activists.   'For many retailers, audits are a way of covering themselves.', says Auret van Heerden, chief executive of the Fair Labor Assn., a coalition of 20 apparel and sporting goods makers and retailers, including Nike, Adidas Group, Eddie Bauer, and Nordstrom.   But can corporations successfully impose Western labor standards on a nation that lacks real unions and a meaningful rule of law?...   Based on [Red Chinese] government figures, the average manufacturing wage in [Red China] is 64 cents an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and demographer Judith Banister of Javelin Investments, a consulting firm in Beijing.   That rate assumes a 40-hour week.   In fact, 60- to 100-hour weeks are common in [Red China], meaning that the real manufacturing wage is far less.   Based on his own calculations from plant inspections, the veteran compliance manager estimates that employees at garment, electronics, and other export factories typically work more than 80 hours a week and make only 42 cents an hour.   BusinessWeek reviewed summaries of 28 recent industry audits of [Red Chinese] factories serving U.S. customers.   A few factories supplying Black & Decker, Williams-Sonoma, and other well-known brands turned up clean, the summaries show.   But these facilities were the exceptions."

2006-12-11
Ephraim Schwartz _InfoWorld_
S2691/SKIL bill on H-1B visa increased tabled until next month

2006-12-11 13:57PST (16:57EST) (21:57GMT)
Declan McCullagh & Anne Broache _CNET_
Tech executives and their lobbyists disappointed at the lack of hand-outs from congress but the public still took a beating
 

2006-12-12 (5767 Kislev 21)

2006-12-11 21:01PST (2006-12-12 00:01EST) (2006-12-12 05:01GMT)
Andrea Coombes _MarketWatch_
ManPOWER says hiring intentions are lower
"19% of firms surveyed said they'll be hiring in the upcoming first quarter, compared with 20% who said they intended to hire in the fourth quarter this year, according to the Manpower report.   Milwaukee-based Manpower surveys about 14K U.S. companies on their hiring plans each quarter...   For about 3 years, the portion of firms who said they planned to hire has hovered around 20%, but the 3 most recent Manpower surveys reveal a slow shift downward: 19% for the upcoming first quarter, down from 20% for the fourth quarter, down from 21% for the third quarter."

2006-12-11 21:02PST (2006-12-12 00:02EST) (2006-12-12 05:02GMT)
Bambi Francisco _MarketWatch_
Craigslist sticks with customer service
"Last week, [Craigslist president Jim Buckmaster] presented at the UBS Global Media conference.   'Jim made it clear that their goal is to help their users, not to maximize the company's profit.', wrote Ben Schachter, UBS Internet analyst.   According to a couple reports, Buckmaster's remarks were a bit befuddling to the audience of investors.   'Their focus on the user is very real.', Schachter continued, 'the company does not fully monetize its traffic or its services.   Jim noted that the $10 fee for broker-sponsored apartment listings was chosen because, it's a nice, round number.'...   With 13M unique visitors, Craigslist is the #7 commerce site, behind the likes of Amazon.com, WM Stores, eBay, and Target, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.   It ranks #56 among all the popular sites...   'It's about our values.', he said.   Those values are 1) Give a person a break 2) Treat other people like you want to be treated.'   'Can you simultaneously pursue your value and profits.', I asked.   Newmark, who describes the classified site as an online flea market, said anyone can do both.   But fortunately, he's been lucky, since the site is no-frills he's not had to raise investor funds, which invariably pressures most companies to thrust some sort of business model upon themselves."

2006-12-12 05:50PST (08:50EST) (13:50GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
Total October exports of $123.6G and imports of $182.5G resulted in a goods and services deficit of $58.9G, a slight drop
BEA press release

2006-12-12
S.J. Miller _Federal Observer_
Americans tell Congress: "Put lumps of coal in Bill Gates' Christmas stocking"
"Gates' demand for massive 'high-tech' visas (known as 'Bill's SKIL Bill') fell to defeat [for now].   Their attempts to flood the US with cheap labor workers to take American jobs failed in the face of pressure on Congress by outraged Americans.   Both last-minute, dark-of-the-night attempts by Texas senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson to increase H1-B high-tech [guest-work] visas were defeated in the final hours of the 109th Congress.   House Majority Leader John Boehner (OH) joined the high-tech whores with his end-run attempt to hang the measure on a US-India trade bill, and was slapped in the face."

2006-12-12 11:04PST (14:04EST) (19:04GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
US federal government defict fell to $75.6G in November (as compared to about $17G total federal spending from 1789 through 1902)

2006-12-12
Chris McManes _EurekAlert_
IEEE*USA commends senator Collins for seeking answers on flawed H-1B visa program
Safety On-Line

2006-12-12
_Daily Breeze_
Congress: Fence is necessary but not sufficient

2006-12-12
Charles Murray _National Review_
Charles Murray on immigration
"Making laws about who gets to become a citizen, under what circumstances, is a legitimate function of the state.   Protecting borders is a legitimate function of the state.   Enforcing the law is a central function of the state.   Immigration reform must begin first with enforcement of existing immigration law.   If it takes a wall, so be it.   And while I'm at it, I'll mention that English should be the only language in which public school classes are taught (except for teaching... a foreign language) and in which the public's business is conducted...   Milton Friedman was right: You can't have both open immigration and a welfare state...   I would get rid of reuniting-families provisions, get rid of the you're-a-citizen-if-you're-born-here rule, and make immigrants ineligible for all benefits and social services except public education for their children.   Everybody who immigrates has to be on a citizenship track (no guest workers).   And I would endorse a literacy requirement."

2006-12-12
_St. Paul Pioneer Press_
Swift meat-packing plants in 6 states raided for employment of illegal aliens
KWTX
Des Moines Register
USA Today
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Free Internet press
West Central Tribune
North San Diego County Times
Austin American-Statesman
abc
Rocky Mountain News
more from Rocky Mountain News
Drovers
Joliet Herald News
"Swift temporarily suspended operations Tuesday at its meat-packing plant in the Texas Panhandle town of Cactus and at 6 other plants around the country after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents staged a series of immigration raids.   'Operation Wagon Train' targeted Swift plants in Texas, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Utah.   ICE Agents say the crack-down is part of a program to round up illegal immigrants who have obtained jobs by stealing the identities of US citizens."

2006-12-12
_Greeley Tribune_
ICE received 25 arrest warrants Monday on suspicion of forgery and criminal impersonation
Crowd gathered at packing plant
"More than 100 people were at the plant by 09:20 and as another group was led from the plant people along 8th Avenue yelled to them in Spanish, telling them 'don't get down, don't worry. Tomorrow we will come and get you.'"
Crowd moved to block north exit to prevent buses and vans loaded with suspects from moving
Tancredo statement on raids
"I congratulate all law enforcement agencies involved in the successful raid...   My hope at this point is that the U.S. government has the courage to prosecute the Swift & Company executives who may have been complicit in their hiring...   When something of this scale happens, it's pretty likely that the plant managers were aware of it, often with the consent of management."
 

2006-12-13 (5767 Kislev 22)

2006-12-12 23:08PST (2006-12-13 02:08EST) (2006-12-13 07:08GMT)
Dino Perrotti _ComputerWorld_
American scientists, engineers and computer workers won a round against tech executives
"Cisco [one of the nominally American firms that actively aids oppression in Red China] has recently committed over $1G and 6K jobs to their India operation.   Many other companies will follow suit...   [Executives] have lost their civic pride and sense of responsibility.   IOW, out-sourcing directly hurts a large [number] of American citizens and only helps the very wealthy few who control American companies...   A major lobbying effort is being mobilized as you read this.   K Street is currently full of tech company lobbyists who are transferring their funds from Republicans to Democrats.   There will be a major battle next year between American engineering organizations and tech companies over the H-1B cap.   There will be a huge push to dramatically increase the cap...   Only CEOs and their wealthy board members want an increase to the H-1B cap and Congress should not be working for them.   It will be tough for congress to get an increase without suffering the wrath of the voters...   There is a huge pool of engineers in this country.   There are displaced engineers who left the profession completely or have been under-employed.   There are college graduates who are ready, willing and able, but require some time and training.   But mostly, there are engineers seeking a better relationship with management.   There are engineers who long for a change in the way they are treated.   They yearn to be part of the team in a broader sense.   They simply want control of their project and the respect they deserve.   If companies went back to competing with each other for American engineers, then they would start offering these things to them, instead of finding ways to avoid confronting them.   If one major tech company decided to use that approach, every engineer in the country will want to work there, regardless of pay.   In addition, when engineers feel appreciated and in control of their project, they work at a very high level.   When an engineer feels that he or she is just a small cog in a big machine, personal productivity slows to a crawl.   Today, you'll find engineers working like robots on only small tasks, when they are capable of much more."

2006-12-13
Roy Lawson _CoderBrigade_
Software Employment Growth and Decline

2006-12-13 02:47PST (05:47EST) (10:47GMT)
Michelle Malkin _Yahoo!_
Beware of illegal aliens seeking hazardous materials licenses
Human Events
Conservative Voice
Ocala Star-Banner
"Last week, law enforcement officials arrested an illegal alien enrolled at a Smithfield, RI, tractor-trailer training school who was trying to obtain a commercial driver's license and permit to haul hazardous materials.   Not many people paid attention.   You should.   Illegal alien Mohammed Yusef Mullawala, 28, of Jamaica, NY, had obtained driver's licenses from New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.   He was reportedly in a hurry to get a commercial driver's license and a permit to haul hazardous cargo...   A joint investigation was initiated by investigators from the Rhode Island State Fusion Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force in Rhode Island, New York & New Jersey, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after driver's school officials became concerned about his suspicious behavior.   'His behavior was consistent with terrorist-type activity.', major Steve O'Donnell of the Rhode Island state police told the press.   'He showed no interest in learning the fine art of driving a tractor-trailer.   He had no interest in learning how to back up.' Sort of like learning how to steer a plane, but not take off or land...   it was alert private citizens who notified the Department of Homeland Security of Mullawala's suspicious behavior...   Mullawala was here on a temporary student visa that he had overstayed...   In Boston, suspected al Qaeda agent and illegal alien Nabil al-Marabh obtained a license permitting him to drive semi-trucks containing hazardous materials, including explosives and caustic materials.   In Minneapolis, suspected al Qaeda operative Mohamad Elzahabi, who obtained a green card through a fake marriage, was able to obtain a commercial driver's license to drive a school bus and to haul hazardous materials -- despite FBI knowledge that Elzahabi had been tied to terrorism."

2006-12-13 (5767 Kislev 22)
John Stossel _Jewish World Review_
Are the rich cheap?

2006-12-13
Devona Walker _Sarasota Herald Tribune_
Florida guest-worker numbers up 500%
"Unprecedented enforcement of the nation's immigration laws is pushing Florida growers to use guest workers at a pace not seen for 40 years...   Spencer says no tomato grower has used the program since the early 1960s.   His West Coast Tomato employs 400 farm-workers year-round and about 1K seasonal workers.   This year, the Palmetto company has 35 guest-workers...   Last year, there were about 1K guest-workers legally in the United States under the federal program -- referred to as H-2A -- with about 16 employers applying for workers.   In 2006, that ballooned to about 5K with more than 70 employers applying, says Greg Schell, a Lake Worth labor attorney and farm worker advocate...   All that combined to create a 'fear factor' among growers and other employers with large numbers of [illegal alien] workers, Schell said...   'Employers are really worried about these no-match letters.', Schell said.   'We've got huge numbers of applications for H-2A workers and H-2B workers.   We're still trying to get our arms around the whole thing -- not knowing who they are or who they are working for, but just that they are here.'...   Florida farmers are lobbying to change regulations for H2A program to make it more user-friendly.   To qualify, employers must now petition for guest-workers, [allege] the shortage of domestic workers, pay for round-trip transportation, house them free of charge and pay them an elevated rate.   If a grower employs both domestic and guest workers, all must be paid that same rate: $8.56 per hour."

2006-12-13 04:27PST (07:27EST) (12:27GMT)
_Greater Danbury News Times_
Trial began for former DMV worker involved in providing illegal aliens with licenses
"Jannette Rodriguez-Roman, 34, of Waterbury is accused of taking part in a scheme to sell thousands of state driver's licenses to illegal aliens and felons.   Rodriguez-Roman is charged with violating the state Corrupt Organizations Racketeering Act and multiple counts of bribery, bribe receiving, conspiracy to commit bribe receiving and second-degree forgery."

2006-12-13 05:52PST (08:52EST) (13:52GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Mortgage applications at one-year high

2006-12-13 08:39PST (11:39EST) (16:39GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Retail sales increased 1% in November
census bureau press release

2006-12-13
Chris W. Colby _Naples News_
Mistrial declared in trial of Cuban smuggler of illegal aliens because corrupt judge didn't like testimony
"n the second day of the trial in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers, Judge John E. Steele ended the trial after a U.S. Customs and Border Control agent testified that 2 people connected with the case had identified the defendant Noel Lopez as one of 2 men who had smuggled the [aliens] aboard.   That testimony was contrary to the prosecutor's understanding of the agent's report and what was represented to defense attorney Joaquin Perez, Lopez's attorney, before and during the trial...   All 20 of the Cuban nationals stated that they were citizens and nationals of Cuba and that they had left the island nation on Aug. 13 on a homemade boat when they ran into bad weather.   The 20 Cuban migrants were released later that day after being processed and interviewed by Border Patrol agents and receiving the all-clear from the Florida Department of Health.   They were then referred to local volunteer agencies for resettlement help as part of the Department of Homeland Security's Cuban Haitian Entrant Program."

2006-12-13 11:34PST (14:34EST) (19:34GMT)
_San Diego Union-Tribune_
Swift back to business as usual
"Swift & Co. meat-packing plants in Greeley and in 5 other states were running at reduced levels on Wednesday, one day after nearly 1,300 employees were arrested in a massive immigration sweep that temporarily halted operations, the company said...   Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Washington said a total of 1,282 people were arrested at the plants in what the agency described as a crack-down on an identity-theft scheme.   But ICE said 1,217 of the detainees were being held on immigration charges alone and only 65 were facing identity-theft or other criminal charges...   The trade publication Cattle Buyers Weekly estimates Swift has the capacity to process 15,850 cattle per day and about 46K hogs per day, editor and publisher Steve Kay said."

2006-12-13
Katie Johnson _Austin MN Daily Herald_
45 fugitive illegal aliens busted
Albert Lea Tribune
compilation: "45 illegal aliens were arrested in Austin and Albert Lea during a 4-day initiative last week called 'Operation Return to Sender'...   Tim Counts, public affairs officer for ICE, said Operation Return to Sender, unlike a raid, was targeted solely at 'fugitives who have been ordered to be deported and went into hiding'...   Tim Counts, ICE spokesman, there are an estimated 650K immigrant violators hiding out in the United States [for whom final orders of removal have been issued by the courts]...   Of the more than 52K illegal aliens apprehended by ICE since the first teams were created in 2003, about 22,669 had criminal convictions...   By the end of the fiscal 2007 year, ICE intends to have 75 fugitive operations teams, which is up from the current 50, deployed throughout the country.   The operations teams apprehend more than 1K illegal aliens a week."

2006-12-13 11:41PST (14:41EST) (19:41GMT)
Rober M. Showley _San Diego Union-Tribune_
San Diego county housing prices fell by record 6.9% in November
"The median price stood at $482K, the same as in August, but off $36K from 2005 November's $518K, the all-time record.   The October median was $485K...   Newly built houses and condos and newly sold condo conversions fell the most, down 13.8% from 2005 November, but the $455K median was up $500 from October.   The record of $527,750 was set a year ago, but analysts suspect the steep decline was likely caused by a large influx of lower-priced condo conversions...   Ventura was the only other county besides San Diego with lower median prices.   Orange County showed no change at $616K, and Los Angeles was up just 2.6% to $510K."

2006-12-13
Christine De Loma _East Texas Review_
Immigration policy the focus of debate at Texas Association of Business conference
"The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) issued a report last month calling for state lawmakers to end property tax exemptions to businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants and prohibit those businesses from operating in the state for a certain time period."

2006-12-13
sergeant Jim Greenhill _National Guard Bureau_/_eMilitary_
Operation Jump Start a success
"The extra eyes and ears provided by the National Guard -- especially in observation posts called entry identification teams -- has resulted in a drop in the numbers of illegal aliens apprehended.   Border Patrol agents say that means that OJS is a success, because decreased apprehensions mean fewer people are trying to cross illegally...   The Guard members are seen as a temporary measure while the Border Patrol boosts its ranks by an additional 6K agents to about 18K agents, officials say.   That process takes time -- prospective agents are carefully screened, they must be trained, and they must pass a series of exams including ones designed to test their required Spanish proficiency."

2006-12-13
Mike Cutler _Family Security Matters_
Score one for ICE arrests of illegal aliens
"these arrest operations need to be conducted routinely if the goal of deterring illegal immigration is to be realized.   Illegal aliens need to be concerned constantly that they stand a good chance of being arrested by ICE.   Employers similarly need to feel concerned that they, too, stand a good chance of being discovered and that they will suffer significant consequences.   It is important that the illegal aliens apprehended be detained and then placed under deportation proceedings, but we need to follow what ultimately happens to them.   If, as has often happened in the past, many of these aliens are simply processed for immigration hearings and then released, then many of them will most likely abscond, never to be seen again...   Incredibly, the immigration reform bill that the Senate passed during the last session, S2611, would enable illegal aliens who succeeded in stealing [Socialist Insecurity Numbers, SINs] to receive Social Security benefits for having committed a felony!...   unscrupulous employers can use the Basic Pilot Program as a defense to try to provide an illusion that they are complying with the immigration laws while they may realize that their employees have assumed false identities."

2006-12-13
Dennis Ehren _Fond du Lac Reporter_
US sovereignty is in jeopardy
"For the past 20-plus years, our high-paid, self-serving Congress has done nothing to stop the invasion of illegal aliens, criminals, terrorists and drugs into America from Mexico.   They are robbing, killing, swindling our welfare system, destroying our children's minds with illegal drugs, and illegally voting in elections.   Terrorists are organizing in cells, planning attacks of mass destruction and deaths.   All Congress sees is blanket amnesty and a partial fence that will take 10 years to build.   We've been laboring under the illusion that our cagey Congress is only interested in hate-mongering and covering their corruption, scandals and incompetence.   Now we know why — they're meeting in secret with foreigners and that's putting America's sovereignty in jeopardy.   Last year, President Bush, Mexico's president and Canada's prime minister met in secret to hatch their envisioned North American Union Plan, a partnership of North America.   Sounds like a rehashed European Union.   They deviously formed special business and government teams of Americans, Mexicans and Canadians to concoct nasty surprises behind closed doors.   Considering their leaders' mindsets: Open free-for-all borders, uninhibited trading between countries, new common money, unacceptable changes to our policies and laws, diverting our electrical power to Mexico, more environmental restraints and what else?   Their North American Competitiveness Council is without a doubt devising ways to force the United States to adhere to the whims of global government and international law.   We better start demanding our senators find out exactly what their anti-America agenda is."

2006-12-13 15:13PST (18:13EST) (23:13GMT)
_World Net Daily_
Tancredo cancelled Miami speech due to bomb threats
"'What is more 'Third World country' than threatening to bomb the place?', Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa told WTVJ-TV, in reference to bomb threats for this week's event at the Miami Rotary Club."

2006-12-13 15:39PST (18:39EST) (23:39GMT)
_WKRC_
287-g authorizes local police to enforce immigration laws
Alabama
Composite: "Only 7 such state and local agencies in the entire country are currently using the power at this time...   Richard Jones, Butler County Sheriff: 'If we go into a business and business supervisors, managers, are violating federal immigration law we can enforce that law, we can use federal courts, prosecutors, the nay-sayers that have said all along, for a year and a half, he can't enforce federal law it's out of his jurisdiction that changed effective today.'...   The name 287-g is actually the designation of the section of the National Immigration and Nationality Act...   State and county agencies in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida and North Carolina already participate in the program, established by a 1996 law.   Local authorities must complete federal training and sign an operating agreement for federal supervision before they can detain illegal immigrants.   Agencies in the program also get help from federal data-bases in identifying suspected illegal immigrants."

2006-12-13
_Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
22% of Americans pushed into early retirement
"Losing their jobs, on average about eight years early, leaves them ineligible for Social Security, unprepared for the future, and with half the savings they had expected for retirement, the study showed.   Sun Life, one of Canada's largest insurers, and Harris said a survey of 701 adults in the United States showed that 22% of all retirees had been involuntarily retired several years before they had anticipated, and 69% had to change their lifestyle as a result.   About 55% were ineligible for [Socialist Inecurity] when forced out of work.   Lay-offs and down-sizing accounted for nearly half of all forced retirements, with illness and injury the second biggest cause.   10% of women said family obligations were the reason, while 2% of men did."
 

2006-12-14 (5767 Kislev 23)

2006-12-14 10:01PST (13:01EDT) (18:01GMT)
Tiffany Wright _Somerset County Daily American_
Fleetwood Folding Trailers employees worry about out-sourcing
"After almost a month Fleetwood Folding Trailers officials still have not come up with an alternative plan that would diminish thoughts of out-sourcing the company's sewing department to Texas and Mexico...   Many of the employees said if their department is out-sourced they think other departments will soon follow.   'We need support from the community so they don't send our jobs to Mexico.', said Donna Nair, an employee of the company for 35 years.   'I feel once our department goes, others will, and the whole plant will be gone.'...   The company, which is a division of California-based Fleetwood Enterprises, has between 50 and 54 employees in the department, Green said.   The Somerset Township facility has about 520 employees."

2006-12-14 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 381,697 in the week ending December 9, a decrease of 67,160 from the previous week.   There were 391,961 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9% during the week ending December 2, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,440,288, a decrease of 180,159 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.0% and the volume was 2,542,217.   Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending November 25.

2006-12-14 07:21PST (10:21EST) (15:21GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
Import prices rose 0.2% in November
BLS ex-im price data

2006-12-14
Elliot Spagat _Yahoo!_/_AP_
Golden State Fence Company executives pled guilty to hiring illegal aliens
Corruption Chronicles
"Golden State Fence Co. will pay $4.7M.   Mel Kay, 64, the company's founder, chairman and president, will forfeit $200K, and Michael McLaughlin, 42, a manager in the company's Oceanside office, will pay $100K.   The 2 men admitted hiring at least 10 illegal immigrants...   Hirsch said prosecutors plan to ask for 6 months behind bars for the 2 men at sentencing March 28.   The maximum sentence is 5 years.   Prison time is unusual in such cases.   Among Golden State Fence's projects in recent years was construction of part of a 14-mile border fence in San Diego in the late 1990s...   The illegal hiring took place between 1999 and 2005.   U.S. immigration officials said last year that 100 employees at Golden State Fence's Riverside office were unauthorized to work, including three whom the company had been ordered not to employ after a 1999 audit by the government.   Golden State, which has 750 employees, saw sales soar from $60M in 1998 to $150M in 2004, according to a biography of Kay provided by the company."

2006-12-14
Faye Bowers _Christian Science Monitor_
Illegal alien invasion linked with identity thefts

2006-12-14
Dana G. Smith _American Chronicle_
Pride, Prejudice, and Money Changers
"Steve Dobbins, president and CEO of Carolina Mills, who supplies thread, yarn, and textile finishing's to apparel makers (half of which go to Wal-Mart) said: 'But you can't buy anything if you're not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs.'... The problem with going over-seas is the mere fact of the wage factor. According to Alan Tonelson of U.S. Business and Industrial Council, this represents the actual problem for many in the US. These companies who go over-seas 'are paying [Red Chinese] wages and selling at U.S. prices, they're not creating better living standards for America'."

2006-12-14
Jennifer Talhelm _AP_/_Seattle Times_
Raids draw skepticism from both sides in immigration conflict
"Observers on both sides of the immigration debate were somewhat skeptical, calling Chertoff's crack-down on identity theft a new refrain in an old song.   Advocates for more enforcement said they had little faith that the Bush administration would keep up the raids because the president supports a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for some of the 11M illegal immigrants in the country now.   'This is a little bit of enforcement to create a cover for amnesty.', said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors vigorous immigration enforcement.   On the other side, immigrant-rights groups said the raid terrorized thousands of workers and their families but did little to the employers or the people who sold the workers the documents in the first place."

2006-12-14
Mike Littwin _Rocky Mountain News_
ID theft is a red herring in raids on Swift
"There were 1,282 arrested - of whom 65 were charged with felonies.   That's as in 65.   For the math-impaired, that's 5% of those arrested.   And of those 5%, not all of them were even arrested for identity theft...   At the Greeley plant, they arrested 262 people. And 11 were charged with felonies.   Of the 11, some were charged with re-entering the country illegally, some with identity theft."
comments

2006-12-14
Thomas Sloma-Williams alternate e-mail _Quality Magazine_
More of the same
"A Republican-led Congress has increased trade opportunities, encouraged economic expansion, enacted favorable tax laws that allow rapid ROI on equipment purchases, [taken measures to worsen] some worker [glut] issues and provided tax incentives for corporate R&D, to name a few accomplishments...   watch for easy passage of President Bush's guest-worker program that delivers amnesty to illegal [aliens].   [Business executives who] rely on low-paying labor will benefit by this action...   Many of the tax breaks that have increased spending on capital equipment, business investment and encouraged consumer spending do not expire until well after the 2008 elections...   The $3.4G in spending we are projecting for 2007 continues to build on an upward tick that started more than 3 years ago..."

2006-12-14
Dan Phillips _Reality Check_
Paleo-conservatives vs. neo-conservatives
American Daily
Chron Watch
"I will attempt to explain the origin and history of the movement now called paleo-conservatism, and how it differs from 'regular conservatism', for lack of a better term.   But perhaps more importantly, what does this movement have to offer us that regular conservatism does not?...   Prior to World War II, there existed a coalition often referred to now as the Old Right.   The Old Right was a collection of traditionalist and libertarian politicians