2011 April

2011-04-05

2011-04-05 08:50PDT (11:50EDT) (15:50GMT)
Jeremy Beck _Numbers USA_
Guest-Worker/Off-Shoring Scandal Gets Very Little Media Attention

2011-04-05 11:54:35PDT (14:54:35EDT) (18:54:35GMT)
Brandon Balley _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_
Dell to hire "hundreds" in Sili Valley expansion
"Dell said it will move about 700 people later this year into the 2 buildings it has leased on Great America Parkway in Santa Clara. &nbp; In addition, the company said it plans to fill 'several hundred' new jobs in engineering, sales, marketing and services, with a goal of employing about 1,500 people at the center within 5 years."

2011-04-05 12:09:36PDT (15:09:36EDT) (19:09:36GMT)
_San Jose CA Mercury "News"_
US ditrict judge Leonard Davis over-turned jury award of $625.5M in patent suit of Apple by Mirror Worlds

2011-04-05
Geeta Anand _Wall Street Journal_
India graduates millions, but few are fit to hire

2011-04-05
Wendy Sefsaf _Immigration Policy Center_/_American Immigration Council_
House Sub-Committee continues critical examination of all forms of excessive immigration

2011-04-05
Bill Hendrick _Web MD_
Working Long Hours Increases Heart Disease Risks
Angela Haupt: US News & World Report
Ellin Holohan: BusinessWeek
Chicago IL Sun-Times/AP
Carrick Fergus Times
Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review
Marianne English: Discovery
"Scientists at University College London studied data on 7,095 civil service workers between the ages of 39 and 62, who at the beginning of the research project in 1991-92 showed no signs of coronary heart disease after a medical examination.   The participants were screened for coronary heart disease every 5 years until 2004.   The researchers found that adding information about the participants' work habits to standard data used in the Framingham risk score modestly improved prediction of people who would develop coronary heart disease.   People who put in at least 11 hours a day up their risk of a heart attack or dying from heart disease by 67%, compared to those who work a standard 7- or 8-hour day, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.   Those who work 10 to 11 hours a day increase their risk by 45%."

2011-04-05
_Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_/_AP_
Agreement is near to expand range of Yellowstone buffalo
"About 40% of more than 600 bison captured this year have tested positive for exposure to brucellosis."

2011-04-05
Matthew Robertson _Epoch Times_
Fellowes facility in Red China taken over, intellectual property stolen by armed thugs
"Before the recent take-over in [Red China] the company employed 2,700 workers in 16 countries, including 625 in the U.S.A.   It introduced its patented line of paper shredders in 1982, and in an attempt to cut costs it was an early entrant to the [Red China] manufacturing scene...   In 1998 a former Fellowes employee struck a deal with a company called Jinsen, in Changzhou, China, to manufacture paper shredders.   Later a second business, called Jinxun, was formed..."

2011-04-05
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
More about inflation: Inflation originates with government action

2011-04-05
Terence Jeffrey _Patriot Post_
In FY2010 federal government spent over $11.5T, $7.207T in loan payments, $8.6492T in new loans; $571.5G on Socialist Insecurity Abomination, $513.7G on Madicare, $399.1G to defense contractors; net extortion receipts of $1.5697T

2011-04-05
Debra J. Saunders _Rasmussen Reports_
Immelt, the jobs czar from hell

2011-04-05
Mark Krikorian _Center for Immigration Studies_
Importing Poverty
Rural Migration News
Steven A. Camarota: Illfare Use by Immigrant Households with Children

2011-04-05
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
On Decoding ICE Press Releases; or, Why Was That Farmer Criminally Charged?
"The PACER file started with a criminal complaint that reported that the Jefferson county (NY) emergency services had been dispatched to Butterville farm because of an injury to one of Barney's hired hands.   Let's pick up the story from the complaint, written by an ICE employee: '...upon arrival at the farm, the emergency personnel was directed to a Hispanic male later identified as "PL." EMS personnel...attempted to treat PL, but determined that he had expired.   A subsequent autopsy examination found multiple injuries to his head, neck and ribs most likely sustained by a fall from a fence during dairying operations.   To date, there have not been any New York State criminal charges filed in connection with his death, which appears to be accidental in nature...   ICE agents later determined that PL was a citizen of Guatemala and had illegally entered the United States.'   From what I remember as a Midwestern farm boy, dairy fences are usually made of wire and rarely are more than five feet tall.   I suppose you could try to climb over one and fall and kill yourself, but it sounds pretty unlikely to me.   Falling out of the hay mow, on the other hand, might more likely lead to fatal injuries, but that possibility was not discussed."

2011-04-05 (5771 Nisan 01)
Dennis Prager _Jewish World Review_
Why more people are left-wing atheists these days

2011-04-05 (5771 Nisan 01)
David G. Savage _Jewish World Review_
Supremes support tax breaks for donations to support religious schools

2011-04-05 (5771 Nisan 01)
Alastair Crooke _Jewish World Review_
Libya vs. Bahrain: Danger of the West's double standard

2011-04-05 (5771 Nisan 01)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Palestinian statehood is increasingly more likely. The lessons that can -- and must -- be learned from the Goldstone affair
"By all accounts, that phase will culminate in September at the UN General Assembly's annual conclave in New York.   As America marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 jihadist attacks, the Palestinian Authority's well-publicized plan to achieve UN recognition of a Palestinian state in all of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and northern, southern and eastern Jerusalem will reach its denouement."

2011-04-05 (5771 Nisan 01)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Diversity Perversity
"Diversity is an elitist term used to give respectability to acts and policy that would otherwise be deemed as racism."

2011-04-05 (5771 Nisan 01)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Political Statistics
Redding Record SearchLight/Scripps
Abilene KS Reporter-News
Lew Rockwell
Investor's Business Daily
Human Events
Real Clear Politics
New American
Patriot Post
Sunshine State News
NH Union Leader
"When someone gives you a check and the bank informs you that there are insufficient funds, who do you get mad at?   In your own life, you get mad at the guy who gave you a check that bounced, not at the bank.   But, in politics, you get mad at whoever tells you that there is no money.   One of the secrets of the growth of the welfare state is that politicians get a lot of mileage out of making promises, without setting aside enough money to fulfill those promises.   When congress votes for all sorts of benefits, without voting for enough taxes to pay for them, they get the support of those who have been promised the benefits, without getting grief from the [tax-victims].   It's strictly win-win as far as the welfare-state politicians are concerned.   But it is strictly lose-lose, big-time, for the country, as deficits sky-rocket."

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-06

2011-04-05 19:12PDT (2011-04-05 22:12EDT) (2011-04-06 02:12GMT)
Liz Bowie & Erica L. Green _Baltimore MD Sun_
Baltimore used same abusive hiring practices fined in Prince George's county say Filippino guest-teachers

2011-04-06 03:58PDT (06:58EDT) (10:58GMT)
Jeff Gerth & Allan Sloan _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
5 Ways GE plays the tax game

2011-04-06
Andrew Taylor _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Ryan's plan would produce a $995G deficit next year, compared with the $1.1T projected in Obama's budget proposal

2011-04-06 10:36:18PDT (13:36:18EDT) (17:36:18GMT)
Roxana Tiron _Bloomberg_
DC politicians still aren't serious about balancing the federal budget
"The Republicans' first comprehensive budget plan since the November elections when the party took control of the U.S. House would cut the federal deficit next year to $995G from about $1.4T now.   It wouldn't balance the government's books until 2040."

2011-04-06
_Hispanically Speaking News_
Maryland School District Found to be Under-Paying Its Guest-Teachers

2011-04-06
Jason Overdorf _Global Post_
Rising India receives large amounts of international aid, sends money abroad, even as it fails to alleviate poverty at home

2011-04-06
Milton R. Wolf _Washington Times_
Big government is crushing American standard of living

2011-04-06
"JWF" _Human Events_
Obama's Billion-Dollar Campaign

2011-04-06
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
"shortages"
 
I was quite taken aback today to read a blog that was quite critical of the H-1B program but meanwhile took it for granted that there is a computer industry labor shortage that must be filled.   The writer apparently thought it should be filled by training Americans, rather than by importing workers.
 
The blog reminded me of just how effective the industry lobbyists are.   They're not paid those big bucks for nothing.   But their shortage claims are just not true.
 
I've written about this repeatedly.   I don't have time now to give a thorough analysis, but just quickly, here are just a few of the points showing LACK of a shortage:

• Even during the dot-com boom, no study showed a shortage (other than the one sponsored by the industry).   One study did speak of a "tight labor market" but stated that there was no shortage.
   
• Wages, adjusted for inflation, have been flat or falling in the industry, both in general (OES data) and for new college graduates (NACE data).
   
• Career longevity for computer science grads is much shorter than among civil engineering grads, in spite of similar skill sets (analytical, problem solving etc.).
   
• Employers are extremely picky.   I mentioned recently that Google got 75K resumes in just one week, but plans to hire only 6K in an entire year, 2K in the Bay Area/U.S.A.

2011-04-06
John Hazard _Channel Insider_
Cross-border bodyshoppers at a disadvantage to real US employers?

2011-04-06
"Robert Hill" _YouTube_
research on the H-1B visa "guest worker" program (video)
Removing Outliers and checking for reasonability using Max, Min, Median, Average & Standard Deviation
data from LCAs

2011-04-06
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Death Penalty: Leftist moral relativism says it depends on whther they sympathize with the murderers
"Muslim terrorists, for example, who murder Israeli civilians are heroic freedom fighters in the liberal-progressive halls of our colleges and universities.   Israelis who defend themselves are murderers."

2011-04-06
William L. Anderson
Are we in a "liquidity trap"?

2011-04-06 (5771 Nisan 02)
Martin Peretz _Jewish World Review_
Richard Goldstone recants blood libel
"Let him pray with the Hamas Islamists who he believed or pretended to believe in his famous Gaza war crimes report would, like Israel has done, 'investigate, transparently and in good faith', the charges made against them.   Goldstone is crystal clear in his Washington Post disavowal of the report's accusations of intentional killing by Israel of non-Hamas Palestinians: 'civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy'.   On the other hand, Hamas's rockets 'were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets'.   Here is the judge's pathetic confession: 'If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.'"

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-07

2011-04-07 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"This week's release reflects the annual revision to the weekly unemployment claims [AND] seasonal adjusted factors.   The historical [raw numbers and] factors from 2006 forward have been revised.   The calendar year 2011 factors...   The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 350,667 in the week ending April 2, a decrease of 6,790 from the previous week.   There were 421,130 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.2% during the week ending March 26, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,069,327, a decrease of 61,739 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.9% and the volume was 5,055,002.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending March 19 was 8,524,455.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV, and WI, during the week ending March 19.   States reported 3,563,031 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending March 19, a decrease of 25,785 from the prior week.   There were 5,590,944 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-04-07
Jeffrey Mervis _AAAS Science_ vol332 #6026 pg164
Conspiracy afoot to issue even more exessive numbers of H-1B visas to lower-qualified foreign grads of US universities

2011-04-07 12:03PDT (15:03EDT) (19:03GMT)
Charles Mead _MarketWatch_/_Medill_
Tech executives whine shortage amid talent glut

2011-04-07
_Baltimore MD Sun_
H-1B visas abused to under-pay cheap, pliant guest-workers... again
Staffing Industry Analysts
"The U.S. Department of Labor determined this week that the Prince George's County school system illegally reduced the wages of more than 1K foreign teachers the county hired under the H-1B visa program by requiring them to pay a total of about $4.2M in fees that, by law, should have been covered by their employer.   The H-1B program allows employers to hire foreign professionals to work temporarily in the U.S.A., but it requires they be paid the same wages and benefits as those paid to U.S. workers doing the same jobs.   Because the foreign teachers, who were mostly from the Philippines, paid about $4K each in various fees related to their visa applications and other expenses, the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division determined their compensation was substantially less than that of comparable U.S. workers.   It ordered school officials to immediately reimburse the teachers for those expenses and slapped the system with an additional $1.7M in fines for willfully failing to pay fees that it knew or should have known were its responsibility.   Under the H-1B program, employers are required to pay all the costs involved in recruiting foreign workers."

2011-04-07 11:18PDT (14:18EDT) (18:18GMT)
Peter Schroeder _The Hill_
CBO expects fedeal deficits to continue to increase
"The government is expected to run a deficit of $830G in the first 6 months of fiscal 2011, a $113G increase from the same period last year, the CBO reported Thursday...   The CBO reported that both government spending and revenue collection were up in 2011 when compared to 2010, by 11% and 7%, respectively.   In March alone, the federal deficit stood at $189G, which is $124G more than the same month last year."

2011-04-07
"Washington Watcher" _V Dare_
Memo to Candice Mille: Just Complete the Border Fences!
"When the left says border security must be 'conducted fairly, humanely, and in a non-discriminatory fashion' they mean no fence or troops on the border -- in fact, no enforcement that threatens to be effective.   This Fair/Humane/Non-discriminatory blah blah approach is at odds with the will of the American people.   They would like to complete the fence on the Southern Border by a margin of over 4-1.   With Republicans back in charge of the House, surely the very minimum that immigration patriots could expect is a serious border security bill.   Instead we get representative Candice Miller's (R-MI) Border Security Act of 2011 [HR1299], which was released last Friday."
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-04-07
John Stossel _Fox_
3 Cheers for Budget Cuts: but Ryan proposal does not go far enough
Republican Study Caucus proposals

2011-04-07 (5771 Nisan 03)
Steven Emerson _Jewish World Review_
Mueller talks about FBI budget, reaffirms CAIR ban
"Mueller acknowledged that young Americans are being radicalized by jihadist content on the Internet, especially the sermons and writings of American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki."
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
anti-CAIR
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-08

2011-04-08
Amos Harel & Avi Issacharoff _Ha Aretz_
Israeli government believes Hamas trying to establish "balance of terror": information gathered from Thursday's bus attack show the shooters knew the target contained children

2011-04-08 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Partial federal government shut-down may reduce international business travel, including H-1B visa abuse, some consular offices may close

2011-04-08
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
Viewing the H-1B Program from a Different Angle
"It is only later, years later, that these people will run into the strong ties that their employer has on them, as discussed later...   The H-1B program is many-faceted and in many ways diabolical, but we should not look for any political or moral support for program reform from the young high-tech workers entering into it."

2011-04-08
Brenda Walker _V Dare_
California is still struggling to remain American

2011-04-08
Andrea Koncz & Kevin Gray _NACE_
Top-paid majors for the class of 2011 Spring

2011-04-08
Beryl Benderly _Science_
28% STEM drop-out rates in Germany lead to "skill shortage" whining

2011-04-08
William L. Anderson
Massive federal spending, face it, is "ludicrous and cruel"

2011-04-08 (5771 Nisan 04)
Thomas H. Maugh ii _Jewish World Review_
Baruch Blumberg helped save the lives of millions
"Dr. Baruch Blumberg, who received the 1976 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering the hepatitis B virus, which causes severe liver disease and cancer, and who later developed the vaccine that protects against it, has died.   He was 85.   Blumberg died Tuesday after apparently suffering a heart attack after delivering the keynote address at a NASA conference at the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View, CA, near San Jose...   In the 1960s, researchers knew that there were two types of 'yellow jaundice' or hepatitis, one of them transmitted through the gastrointestinal system in food and the other transmitted through blood.   Those two are now called hepatitis A and B, and scientists know there are three other types as well, called C, D and E...   The 1989 identification of the hepatitis C virus by other researchers and development of a test for it led to elimination of the rest...   Baruch Samuel Blumberg, known to his friends as Barry, was born 1925 July 28, in New York City.   He enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, NY, but dropped out in 1943 to enlist in the Navy, becoming a deck officer on landing ships and eventually commanding one."

2011-04-08 (5771 Nisan 04)
R' Ephraim Buchwald _Jewish World Review_
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident... or do we?
"the idea that certain concepts and ideas are truly 'self-evident', is not an original Jeffersonian concept.   The Torah is filled with concepts and ideas that are considered self-evident.   Perhaps the earliest of the 'self-evident' concepts found in the Torah is the pronouncement that all human beings are created in the image of the Divine and that all are created equal.   In Genesis 1:27 we read: 'G0d created the human being in His image, in the image of the Divine, He created him [the human being].'   The Mishnah, in Sanhedrin 37a, commenting on the story of creation, states: 'Therefore was the first human being created alone, to promote peace among men...'...   There are many elementary things, true basics of life, that are perfectly clear and self-evident.   Though we see and hear these ideas and concepts all the time, we often fail to recognize them.   In fact, each time we hear them, we often react with surprise and excitement as though we are hearing them for the first time."

2011-04-08 (5771 Nisan 04)
Howard La Franchi _Jewish World Review_
Secret factories mass manufacturing key parts for Iran nuclear program
"An Iranian dissident group with a track record of revealing secret sites involved in Iran's nuclear program on Thursday offered more information -- this time, on industrial facilities where it says the Iranian regime is producing parts for the centrifuges used in its uranium enrichment program.   Flanked by poster boards with aerial photos of the alleged sites northwest of Tehran, 2 members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran told a Washington audience that the two sites have produced as many as 100K centrifuges under the direction of Iran's Defense Ministry."

Proposed Bills 2011

2011-04-08

DJIA	12,380.05
S&P 500(SPX)	1,328.17
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,780.42
Nikkei	9,768
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	3.58
crude oil(CLK11)	$113.16/barrel
natgas(NGJ11)	$4.041/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RBJ11)	$3.2607/gal
heatingoil(HOJ11)	$3.3197/gal
gold(GCM11)	$1,474.10/ounce
silver(SIK11)	$40.61/ounce
platinum(PLJ11)	$1,776.90/ounce
palladium(PAM11)	$794.20 /ounce
copper(HGK11)	$0.28190625/ounce
soybeans	$13.9225/bushel
maize	$7.68/bushel
wheat	$7.9750/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)	75.102
yenperdollar(USDYEN)	84.98
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)	1.4426
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)	1.6334
swissfrancsperdollar	0.9094
indianrupeesperdollar	44.08
mexicanpesosperdollar(MXN)	11.7345
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	681.54

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-09

2011-04-08 22:28PDT (2011-04-09 01:28EDT) (2011-04-09 05:28GMT)
Scott Paulson _Examiner_
Michele Bachmann on budget agreement: Get serious

2011-04-09
Steve Lohr _NY Times_/_Boston Globe_
Jean Bartik, programmer of first electronic computer, died at age 86
"Jean Jennings Bartik, one of the first computer programmers and a pioneer in a technology that came to be known as software, died March 23 at a nursing home in Poughkeepsie, NY.   She was 86.   The cause was congestive heart disease...   Ms. Bartik was the last surviving member of the group of women who programmed ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer...   Ms. Bartik, in particular, received professional recognition as a result.   Ms. Bartik and Frances Elizabeth Holberton, who died in 2001, were the lead programmers among the small team of women who worked on the ENIAC...   The ENIAC women were wartime recruits with math skills, whose jobs were initially described as plugging in wires to 'set up the machine'.   But converting the math analysis into a process that made sense to the machine, so that a calculation could flow through the electronic circuitry to completion, proved to be a daunting challenge...   Betty Jean Jennings was born in rural Missouri, the sixth of seven children in a farm family whose parents valued education, said her son.   She attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, now Northwest Missouri State University, majoring in math.   Her faculty adviser saw an advertisement in a math journal in 1945 that said the Army was recruiting math graduates for a wartime project in Philadelphia.   She applied, was accepted, and told to come quickly.   She got on the next train...   she met William Bartik, an engineer working on another Pentagon project.   They were married in 1946.   (They divorced in 1968.)   After the war, Ms. Bartik joined ENIAC's designers, John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly, in their effort to develop UNIVAC, an early commercial computer, introduced in 1951.   While at the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp., acquired by Remington Rand in 1950, Ms. Bartik worked on hardware and software for both BINAC, a small computer made for Northrup Aircraft, and the general purpose UNIVAC...   Ms. Bartik left the computer industry in 1951 to raise her 3 children and returned to it in 1967.   After holding a series of jobs in programming, training, and technical publishing, she was laid off in 1985 as she was nearing 61 and could not find another job in the industry...   'There's a lot of age discrimination, then and now, and I see it in my research.', said Timothy Bartik, a labor economist.   For the next 25 years, Ms. Bartik was a real estate agent in NJ."

2011-04-09
_Business Standard_
Call centers in India face 35% attrition rates: Bodyshoppers agree not to recruit from each other

2011-04-09 11:59PDT (14:59EDT) (18:50GMT)
Anthony Martin _Examiner_
OKC bombing -- lazy analysis, redacted names, redacted lives

2011-04-09
Suzanne Venker _News Real Web Log_
What the LA Times is Afraid to Tell You About Phyllis Schlafly
"That is what the left can't stand: the notion that women don't need feminism in order to be accomplished...   The bottom line...is that Phyllis is 'all work and no play'.   She works around the clock -- from sun-up to sun down, 7 days a week, 365 days a year."

2011-04-09
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
Board of Immigration Appeals did the right thing -- Let's hope the US government publicizes it

2011-04-09
Peter Brimelow _V Dare_
GOP or GAP? Address to the Thomas Jefferson Club in Newtown, PA
Thomas Jefferson Club
Thomas Jefferson Club on immigration

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-10

2011-04-09 19:28PDT (2011-04-09 21:29EDT) (2011-04-10 01:29GMT)
D.K. Jamaal _Examiner_
Budget fight ruined reputations of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi

2011-04-10
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
What globe does Alden live on?
 
Only a True Believer globalist would be so cloistered and tin-eared to write "America needs this man" -- in referring to a foreign worker in a HEDGE FUND, of all things.   No, not an award-winning medical researcher, not an ingenious developer of green technology, etc.   A worker in a hedge fund.   As if the financial crash never happened.   How in the world did a hedge fund worker become a poster boy for H-1B?
 
What has happened to this worker may or may not have been fair or justified -- given the opening premise of the piece, it's hard to take author Alden as being accurate -- but in any case, there are lots of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who feel just as victimized as Mr. Ganti does.   In their cases, though, they are victims of the very program Mr. Ganti hopes to benefit from.
 
I would point Alden, for example, to an excellent web page put up by IEEE-USA, in their own words "the largest engineering professional organization in the U.S.A.".   The web site, called the Misfortune 500, was constructed to profile 500 American engineers with strong qualifications but who were finding engineering work hard to come by, with H-1Bs being hired by the tens of thousands.
 
Well, I said, "I would point" Alden to that page, because IEEE-USA's parent organization, the industry- and academia-dominated IEEE, forced them to take a pro-foreign worker stance, and the web page came down.   These days IEEE-USA has views similar to those of this author, in fact.
 
The piece is chock full of misleading and incorrect statements. I've refuted them before, and won't spend the time to do so here.
 
Norm
Thomas Huagersveen: Agence VU/NewsWeek: America's "National Suicide"

2011-04-10 13:21PDT (16:21EDT) (20:21GMT)
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Most Americans recognize that the flood of illegal aliens is detrimental to the USA's economy

2011-04-10
Steve Sailer _V Dare_
Andrew Ferguson and Amy Chua -- Deer Dad vs. Tiger Mother
"Crazy U. is not really a how-to guide.   Instead, the questions that interest Ferguson most have less to do with helping his son get ahead than with the Big Picture issues of why getting into college has become so frenzied and whether these changes are good for society.   Chua, on the other hand, just wants her progeny to win...   Although I've read scores of articles by Ferguson over the years, the line by him that I remember best is from the opening page of P.J. O'Rourke's 1991 book _Parliament of Whores_: '''How come,'' I asked Andy, ''whenever something upsets the Left, you see immediate marches and parades and rallies with signs already printed and rhyming slogans already composed, whereas whenever something upsets the Right, you see two members of the Young Americans for Freedom waving a six-inch American flag?'   ''We have jobs.'', said Andy.'   It's telling that Ferguson's most mordant line is in O'Rourke's book.   In his own writing, Ferguson lacks the reductionist urge to boil a bad idea down to its absurd essence.   He's a little too nice to be a great satirist and not quite cynical enough to be a great analyst...   why do parents obsess over how to get their child into a prestigious college but not over what their scion will (or won't) learn there?"

2011-04-10
_Stack OverFlow_
Objective-C: in, out, inout, const, bycopy byref

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-11

2011-04-11
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
111 years for the US Silent Service

2011-04-11 04:38PDT (07:38EDT) (11:38GMT)
Stephen Chapman _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Socialist Insecurity Numbers (SINs) available on-line via indexed tax docs
"As of 2011/04/10, I have discovered in excess of 50 tax documents containing any given combination of [Socialist Insecurity numbers of filers and their children], credit card information, names, addresses, tax IDs, and phone numbers being made available on-line...   these are tax documents as they have been/will be submitted to State and Federal government...   DO NOT STORE PRIVATE INFORMATION ON-LINE!"

2011-04-11
Sean Barron _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
STEM show-case at Youngstown State U

2011-04-11 08:36PDT (11:36EDT) (15:36GMT)
Karen Voyles _Ocala FL_
Keeping your gasoline pumps accurate
FL DoA&CS: Division of Standards
WikiPedia

2011-04-11 14:12PDT (17:12EDT) (21:12GMT)
Dan Scanlan _Jacksonville FL Times-Union_
2 Jacksonville men arrested in illegal alien construction fraud case
"Moises M. Torres and Raul Hernandez-Rodriquez, both of Jacksonville, are in the Duval county jail on $300K and $200K bail, respectively.   The investigation has been under way since 2007 by the Money Laundering Task Force, made up of police, immigration and state financial investigators.   It concentrated on subcontractors who avoid paying workers compensation premiums by setting up fake companies that file false insurance coverage certificates.   That reduces the cost of a project and makes them more popular when a contractor is bidding for services, according to the arrest report.   Investigators started looking into HMC after research showed it had cashed payroll checks at check-cashing companies between 2010 March 4 and 2010 July 22, totaling $2.24M.   The payroll was done that way to avoid taxes and insurance coverage, the arrest report said."

2011-04-11
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Another Obamanomics "triumph" as consumer spending slow-down indicates recovery still a distant hope
James C. Cooper: Fiscal Times

2011-04-11
William L. Anderson
When it comes to federal government budgets, sanity is missing in action

2011-04-11
Rob Sanchez _V Dare_/_Job Destruction News-Letter_
Eye Witness Accounts, Transcripts of March 31 House Judiciary Hearing on H-1B Visa Program
"there to witness the hearing including Patrick Thibodeau of Computerworld magazine, David North from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), Brendan Kavanagh, and Dr. Gene Nelson, PhD... David North..."

2011-04-11
"shadolsonshow" _YouTube_
George Soros and "National League of Cities" working to undermine America

2011-04-11 (5771 Nisan 07)
Mark Steyn _Jewish World Review_
America, it's your fault!   How's that for change?
"It's an open question whether Americans will fall for one more chorus of the same old song from Baucus, Harkin, Podesta and the other members of America's wrinkliest boy band.   But, if this is the level on which the feckless patronizing spendaholics of the permanent governing class want to conduct the debate, bring it on.   Paul Ryan's plan would "end Medicare as we know it'.   The Democrats' 'plan' -- [monkey]business as usual -- will end America as we know it...   One way or another, Medicare as we know it is going to end.   So, if you think an unsustainable 1960s welfare program is as permanent a feature as the earth and sky, you're in for a shock...   Our biggest problem is Medicare and other 'entitlements'.   They're the automatic pilot of Big Government.   Whoever's in the captain's seat makes no difference.   The flight is preprogrammed to hit the iceberg...   For some reason, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Harkin & company don't seem to mind this...   that's pretty much the [leftists'] attitude to binge-spending as a permanent fact of life...   America, 2011: A man gets driven in a motorcade to sneer at a man who has to drive himself to work.   A guy who has never generated a dime of wealth, never had to make payroll, never worked at any job other than his own tireless self-promotion literally cannot comprehend that out there, beyond the far fringes of the motorcade outriders, are people who drive a long distance to jobs whose economic viability is greatly diminished when getting there costs twice as much as the buck-eighty-per-gallon it cost back at the dawn of the Hopeychangey Era...   The spending of the class that laughs at the class that drives to work to maintain president Obama, senator Reid, senator Baucus, senator Harkin and Minority Leader Pelosi's 'communications director' in their comforts and complacency.   The Democrats' solution to the problem is to deny there is one.   Unsustainable binge-spending is, as the computer wallahs say, not a bug but a feature: We'll stimulate the economy with a stimulus grant for a Stimulus Grant-Writing Community Outreach Permit Co-ordinator regulated by the Federal Department of Community-Organizer Grant Applications.   What's to worry about?"

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-12

2011-04-12
Joseph Cress _Cumberland PA Sentinel_/_Lee_
Civil War bicycle tours start this Spring

2011-04-12 05:00PDT (08:00EDT) (12:00GMT)
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_/_Lee_
Monday April 18 is last day to register in order to vote in PA's May 17 primary
"Individuals applying to register to vote for the May 17 primary must be: A citizen of the United States for at least one month before the primary;   A resident of Pennsylvania and the election district in which the individual desires to register and vote for at least 30 days before the primary;   and At least 18 years of age on or before the primary."

2011-04-12 06:20PDT (09:20EDT) (13:20GMT)
David Goldman _CNN_
Cisco kills Flip, cuts 550 workers

2011-04-12
Bill O'Reilly _Fox_
The Far Left Wants to Crash the Economy
"A brand-new CNN poll says 58% of Americans support the new budget deal, 38% oppose, and, get this, 48% say President Obama is the guy who made it all happen; 35% say the Republicans drove the deal.   So even though Mr. Obama opposed the budget cuts, he's getting credit for them, according to the CNN poll."

2011-04-12 09:04PDT (12:04EDT) (16:04GMT)
Toni Bowers _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Your boss could be a sociopath
"the premise of _The Sociopath Next Door_, a book by Martha Stout, gives me the major creeps. Stout claims that as many as 4% of the population are conscienceless sociopaths who have no empathy or affectionate feelings for humans or animals. Sociopaths (or the more politically correct term, someone with antisocial personality disorder) show a lack of regret in their actions, with a common trait being the violation of the rights of others."

2011-04-12 09:20PDT (12:20EDT) (16:20GMT)
_Fox Phoenix AZ_
Georgia senate passed Arizona-style bill to control illegal immigration

2011-04-12
_Social Contract_/_PR News Wire_
Why illegal aliens' favorite day is April 15
Defrauding the American Tax-Victim - The Earned Income Tax Credit
"As millions of Americans brace themselves to pay taxes on April 15th, millions of illegal aliens get ready to celebrate a cash windfall of up to $5,750 from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), according to US Inc.   Why is this? Edwin Rubenstein, president of ESR Research and a former director of research at the Hudson Institute, explains in his recently updated report entitled Defrauding the American Taxpayer -- the Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration, that illegal aliens are among the chief beneficiaries of the $62.5G income transfer scheme known as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).   In the report, Rubenstein reveals that the IRS knowingly allows illegal aliens to defraud taxpayers by getting cash EITC payments of up to $5,750 for a family of 5.   The IRS also refuses to implement recommendations from its own Inspector General's office that could stop massive EITC fraud that costs [tax-victims] as much as $13G a year."

2011-04-12
Michael Ciric _Chicago Now_
Illegal immigration costs US tax-victims $113G annually

2011-04-12 12:03:16PDT (15:03:16EDT) (19:03:16GMT)
Janna Herron _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_/_AP_
Rents rising in Sili Vally again

2011-04-12 14:18PDT (15:18EDT) (19:18GMT)
John Melloy _CNBC_
> CPI based on 1980s definitions indicate inflation near 10%
"After former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation.   Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.   Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6% in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics news-letter.   Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things.   Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5% rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the news-letter's web site."
alternate inflation charts
more links and graphs

2011-04-12
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Green Energy Myth
Jerry Taylor & Peter van Doren: Forbes

2011-04-12
Amy Louviere _US DoL MSHA_
In line with Obama's pledge to force energy prices to soar, DoL MSHA shut down 2 coal mining operations

2011-04-12
Michelle Malkin _V Dare_
Make 80 the new 65
"'in 1950 the typical individual did not claim [Socialist Insecurity] until age 68.5.   In 1950, more than 20% of Americans worked in physically demanding jobs; today only about 8% do.'"

2011-04-12 (5771 Nisan 08)
Ken Dilanian _Jewish World Review_
CIA knows where one of world's most dangerous terrorism suspect is, but refuses to take action
"In fact, under the Obama administration, the CIA has stopped trying to detain or interrogate suspects caught abroad, except those captured in Iraq and Afghanistan."

2011-04-12 (5771 Nisan 08)
Wesley Pruden _Jewish World Review_
Tough decisions for the ditherer-in-chief

2011-04-12 (5771 Nisan 08)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Another Spending Cut Plan
"there aren't enough of 'the rich' to cover the huge and record-breaking deficit...   My plan would start by cutting off all government transfer payments to billionaires.   Many, if not most, people are probably unaware that the government is handing out the [tax-victims'] money to billionaires.   But agricultural subsidies go to a number of billionaires.   Very little goes to the ordinary farmer.   Big corporations also get big bucks from the government, not only in agricultural subsidies but also in the name of 'green' policies, in the name of 'alternative energy' policies, and in the name of whatever else will rationalize shoveling the [tax-victims'] money out the door to whomever the administration designates, for its own political reasons...   It would also be eye-opening to many people to discover how much government money is going into subsidizing all sorts of things that have nothing to do with helping 'the poor' or protecting the public.   This would include government-subsidized insurance for posh and pricey coastal resorts, located too dangerously close to the ocean for a private insurance company to risk insuring them...   If Medicare is so great, why is it necessary for the government to force people to be covered by Medicare as a precondition for receiving the money they paid into [Socialist Insecurity]?"

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-13
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
A first look at implications of recruiting foreign teachers
"Almost all of the Post coverage, and all of the DoL statements, dealt with the mistreatment of the foreign teachers, a valid matter to discuss, but not with the displacement of American teachers at a time when many of them are being dismissed for financial reasons...   In FY 2010, the Department of Labor certified 6,578 new K-12 jobs to be filled by H-1B workers...   what did the use of this program by some school districts show?...   the H-1B program demands no test of the labor market by employers (to see if American workers are available for these jobs) and, for all practical purposes, routinely appears to make no initial decisions based on the level of the wages promised...   These 80 employers [which were examined] secured, in total, 3,352 certifications of the national total of 6,578 in this category; in other words, these 80 employers employed 51 percent of the K-12 H-1Bs granted that year.   The 80 employers were not scattered randomly; rather, they were concentrated in Texas and the Southwest...   Twelve of the 13 Houston-area employers were local public school districts, and they had 259 certifications collectively; there were also 401 applications filed by the Houston-based Cosmos Foundation for a state-wide cluster of Turkish-sponsored charter schools, a Gülen [Gulen, Guelen] organization, to be discussed later.   The Greater Houston certifications thus add to 660, or about 10% of the K-12 certifications nationwide.   The relatively nearby Dallas Independent School District (ISD) had 311 more.   [Recent census data also show that Harris county is one of the 5 most populous counties in the USA.]   Another major concentration of these certifications was in Maryland, where Baltimore City had 399 of them and Prince George's County had 233 more, for a total of 632.   In addition to geographic concentrations there were some sub-occupational clusters as well.   In the table that follows we noticed 305 special education teachers (people who work with physically and mentally disabled children) and 664 bilingual teachers (presumably, since most of the latter are in Texas, these are teachers of Hispanic children with little knowledge of English).   Prince George's County had the largest delegation of special educators, 80 in all, while 266 of Dallas's 311 certifications were for bilingual teachers.   The Alief, TX, ISD (near Houston) called for 55 of its crop of 65 new H-1B teachers to be in bilingual education; this was the second largest concentration in that category...   While non-mass hirings by school boards, like the placement of single teacher of Japanese, is of little concern, wholesale decisions to avoid the American labor market by these big educational employers strikes me as bad public policy...   That sounds highly unlikely, but it is exactly what is happening, in real life, with K-12 teachers of Turkish; there were 59 of them or close to 1% of the universe of FY 2010 K-12 certifications, and close to 2% of those handled by the 80 education employers covered in this study...   Our study, dealing with only 12 of those states, showed 686 approvals in the following year, meaning that the Gülen [Gulen, Guelen] charters were either expanding quite rapidly, or were using a yet larger percentage of foreign workers in them, or both."
2010-04-25: Tim Steller: Arizona Daily Star: Gülen (Guelen) charter schools lead in use/abuse of guest-work visas for cheap foreign teachers
2010-04-26: More on Sonoran Science Academy and the Gülen (Guelen) movement
2010-05-25: Bill Gates is funding the Gülen (Guelen) movement to restore the Ottoman empire
2010-06-22: Gülen (Guelen) movement engulfing Lone Star State
2010-07-21: Paul L. Williams: Last Crusade: Fethullah Gulen: The PA Pasha Finally Exposed
2010-07-23: Perimeter Primate: Gülen (Guelen) schools and their many aliases and booming H-1B visa applications
2010-11-23: Tanya Hutchins: NBC 4i: Gülen (Guelen) "Concept" charter schools under scrutiny in Ohio
Gülen (Guelen) schools importing English teachers from Turkey
web log on Magnolia Science Academy
Gülen (Guelen) charter schools USA web log
Charter school scandals web log
Charter school watch-dog web log
2010-12-01: Magnolia Science Academy web log: Magnolia Science Academy and the Gülen (Guelen) movement: American Teachers in LA are you part of the massive lay-off?
2010-12-02: Magnolia Science Academy web log: Latest Gülen (Guelen) Cry Baby Award goes to Magnolia Science Academy -- Suleyman Bahceci
2010-12-04: Magnolia Science Academy web log: Gülen (Guelen) movement's Interfaith Dialog Foundation put up the initial $100K for the Magnolia Science Academies
2010-12-23: Gulen Charter Schools USA web log: Joshua Hendrick calls on Gülen (Guelen) charter schols to come clean
2010-12-27: Gulen Charter Schools USA web log: Gülen (Guelen) Movement, a new kind of Turkish Muslim Missionary Lobbists in the USA
2011-01-02: Gulen Charter Schools USA web log: web of Gülen (Guelen) movement charter schools confirmed
2011-03-20: Martha Woodall & Claudio Gatti: Philadelphia PA Inquirer: Guelen charter-school network with Turkish links draws federal attention
2011-03-22: Turkish Weekly: FBI investigating Guelen schools
Huerriyet Daily News & Economic Review
Pan Armenian net
Asbarez
Dr. Paul L. Williams: Canada Free Press
DoL's LCA data-base, quarterly data

2011-04-13 10:56PDT (13:56EDT) (17:56GMT)
Katie Mulvaney _Providence RI Journal_
UAE officer attending US Naval College at Newport RI on home confinement after arrest for slavery
"A federal magistrate judge on Wednesday agreed to release a United Arab Emirates officer on $100K cash bail with GPS monitoring after he allegedly tried to flee the country to avoid being prosecuted on charges that he forced a Filipino maid into unpaid labor.   U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond ordered that Arif Mohamed Saeed Mohamed Al-Ali be confined to his home, except to attend classes at the Naval War College and to visit his lawyer's office.   Navy Captain Stephen Senteio has also agreed to monitor Al-Ali, 46, and alert the court if he violates his bail terms...   Federal authorities arrested Al-Ali late Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport aboard an airplane bound for Dubai for violating his previous release terms that his travel be restricted to Rhode Island, except for Navy programs.   A federal grand jury indicted Al-Ali, who is attending a year-long program at the Naval War College, on a charge that he persuaded the woman to come to the United States and forced her to work 7 days a week without pay...   He is also charged with providing federal agents with false documents indicating he paid her $19K...   His wife and 5 children have returned to the United Arab Emirates...   A federal judge in New York on Tuesday released Al-Ali into the custody of 3 United Arab Emirates officials, including a military colonel and an attaché.   The judge ordered him to wear a GPS bracelet and appear Wednesday in federal court in Rhode Island."

2011-04-13
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Important speech by president Lincoln to commission from Virginia

2011-04-13
_Independence MO Examiner_
Federal government deficits threaten USA
"The U.S. government total [debt] is $14.29T. That's $45,926 per citizen, according to 2011-04-13 12:27PDT (15:27EDT) (19:27GMT)
_Centre PA Daily_
FAIR US: Illegal alien farm labor boosts profits of agribusinesses, saves consumers little
FAIR US

2011-04-13 12:40PDT (15:30EDT) (19:30GMT)
John Melloy _CNBC_
Teenage Wasteland: Jobless Rate For Young Is 25%... and Rising
graphs

2011-04-13 14:00PDT (17:00EDT) (21:00GMT)
Diane Heldt _West Cedar Falls IQ Courier_
pay to faculty at Iowa state universities lags that of their colleagues in the same athletic conferences
B.A. Morelli: Iowa City Press-Citizen
"The figures are from the annual salary report by the American Association of University Professors.   The 2010-2011 report was released this week.   ISU's average faculty salary across all faculty ranks was $88,300, according to the survey, second in the Big 12 Conference, compared with sixth place last year.   The UI's average faculty salary, $95,000, was seventh in the Big Ten Conference, compared with sixth last year.   UNI's average faculty salary of $69,100 was seventh in the Missouri Valley Conference, down from sixth last year...   ISU doesn't fare nearly as well when compared to its self-identified group of peer schools.   ISU's average faculty salary ranks 10th in that group, which includes schools such as Illinois, Michigan State, Arizona, Wisconsin and University of California-Davis."

2011-04-13
Tom McGregor _Dallas Web Log_
Is Barack Obama AKA Barry Soetoro?
"As an IRS tax examiner, one of many former federal jobs, I have seen what it appears Barry Soetoro has done, mostly by illegal aliens attempting to acquire a new identity in the US and/or criminals looking to acquire a new ID..."

2011-04-13
Donald A. Collins _V Dare_
Aroused citizens' ideas should be heeded to solve excessive immigration crisis
"we have been importing over a million immigrants legally every single year, despite our current 8.8% official unemployment."

2011-04-13
Thomas Mucha _Global Post_
OECD report on work
Kevin Voigt: CNN
Society at a Glance 2011 -- OECD Social Indicators
Working hours

2011-04-13 (5771 Nisan 09)
Jonathan Rosenblum _Jewish World Review_
Happiness Can't be Pursued... but eudaimonia most certainly can be obtained
"The most beneficial form of happiness, eudaimonia, is the out-growth of a life well-lived, not its goal."

2011-04-13 (5771 Nisan 09)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Taxes and Politics
Lew Rockwell
"today taxes are mostly the price we pay so that politicians can play Santa Claus and get re-elected...   But tax rates are a big political statement on the left, whether they bring in any revenue or not...   Tax rates are meant to make an ideological statement and promote class-warfare politics, not just bring in revenue...   Our corporate tax rates are higher than in many other countries.   That may have something to do with the fact that many American corporations (including General Electric) expand their operations in many other countries, providing jobs -- and tax revenues -- in those other countries.   But high-tax ideologues don't see it that way.   They would be horrified at the idea that we ought to lower our corporate tax rates, just so that more American businesses would do more of their business at home, providing more Americans with much-needed jobs."

2011-04-13 (5771 Nisan 09)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Eat the Rich
"getting rid of the rich would save us from distraction by leftist hustlers promoting the politics of envy.   Not having the rich to fret over might enable us to better focus our energies on what's in the best interest of the 99.99% of the rest of us...   This year, congress will spend $3.7T dollars.   That turns out to be about $10G per day.   Can we prey upon the rich to cough up the money? According to IRS statistics, roughly 2% of U.S. households have an income of $250K and above.   By the way, $250K per year hardly qualifies one as being rich.   It's not even yacht and Learjet money.   All told, households earning $250K and above account for 25%, or $1.97T, of the nearly $8T of total household income.   If congress imposed a 100% tax, taking all earnings above $250K per year, it would yield the princely sum of $1.4T.   That would keep the government running for 141 days, but there's a problem because there are 224 more days left in the year.   How about corporate profits to fill the gap? Fortune 500 companies earn nearly $400G in profits.   Since leftists think profits are little less than theft and greed, congress might confiscate these ill-gotten gains so that they can be returned to their rightful owners.   Taking corporate profits would keep the government running for another 40 days, but that along with confiscating all income above $250K would only get us to the end of June.   congress must search elsewhere."

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-14

2011-04-13 15:30PDT (18:30EDT) (22:30GMT)
Sam Shead _London Telegaph_
Rasmussen college has introduced mobile app development degree

2011-04-14 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"This week's release reflects the annual revision to the weekly unemployment claims [AND] seasonal adjusted factors.   The historical [raw numbers and] factors from 2006 forward have been revised.   The calendar year 2011 factors...   The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 443,503 in the week ending April 9, an increase of 89,686 from the previous week.   There were 514,136 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.1% during the week ending April 2, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,919,184, a decrease of 166,483 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.9% and the volume was 4,987,473.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending March 26 was 8,517,545.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV, and WI, during the week ending March 26.   States reported 3,563,031 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending March 26, a decrease of 25,785 from the prior week.   There were 5,852,143 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-04-14 06:29PDT (09:29EDT) (13:29GMT)
John Mariani _Syracuse NY Post-Standard_
PA construction company owners pled guilty to employing illegal aliens
"John Cimino, 55, of Doylestown, PA, and Anthony Cimino, 57, of West New Hope, PA, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Utica to conspiracy to conceal, harbor and shield illegal aliens from detection for commercial advantage and private gain, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Syracuse said...   [Paid] employees, legal and illegal, most of their over-time 'off the books', officials said.   John Cimino also pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax evasion, punishable by 5 years in prison and a fine up to $250K, officials said.   The Ciminos also have agreed to forfeit $223K to the federal government, representing the proceeds from their employment of illegal aliens, and are to pay $300K for under-reported pay-roll taxes owed and $225K in penalties, officials said."

2011-04-14
_Hispanically Speaking_
federal district judge declares people whose H-1B visas have expired can remain in the USA for two-thirds of a year if they have a renewal or change of status pending

2011-04-14 06:49PDT (09:49EDT) (13:49GMT)
Colleen Wixon _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Indian River county school board discusses dumping dozens of employees
"Among the recommended budget cuts are the elimination of 39 special area teachers at all elementary schools.   This equates to the schools' art, music and media teachers, district officials said...   An additional 13 non-core teaching positions, including 2 in-school-suspension teachers, 2 business teachers and a drama teacher, in secondary schools also are being proposed to be cut."

2011-04-14 08:13PDT (11:13EDT) (15:13GMT)
Jim Galloway _Atlanta GA Journal Constitution_
McDonald's managers charged with selling stolen IDs, harboring illegal aliens
WSB

2011-04-14
_GMA Philippine News_
MD guest-teachers to receive $4.2M in back pay

2011-04-14
_Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Volcanic plume under Yellowstone is larger than previously believed
"In the new study, images of the Yellowstone plume's electrical conductivity -- generated by molten silicate rocks and hot briny water mixed in partly molten rock -- show the conductive part of the plume dipping more gently to the west, at an angle of perhaps 40 degrees, and extending perhaps 400 miles from east to west...   The work complements a 2009 study done by Smith using seismic waves.   That work showed the plume of hot and molten rock dipping downward from Yellowstone at an angle of 60 degrees and extending 150 miles west-northwest to a point at least 410 miles under the Montana-Idaho border -- as far as seismic imaging could see.   The geoelectric image can see only 200 miles deep....   The hot spot finally reached Yellowstone about 2M years ago, yielding three huge caldera eruptions about 2M, 1.3M and 642K years ago.   Two of the eruptions blanketed half of North America with volcanic ash..."

2011-04-14
Victor Davis Hanson _Real Clear Politics_
Obama's disconnection from financial reality
Patriot Post
San Jose CA Mercury "News"
"Barack Obama just gave a belated but stern warning about escalating debt -- a few weeks after he presented a 2011 budget with a $1.6T deficit, the largest short-fall in American history.   Congressional Republicans are now crowing about reducing Obama's red ink by forcing some $38G in cuts.   Such supposed slashing means America would borrow just $1,562G this year rather than the scheduled full $1,600G...   Meanwhile, shrill critics of congress's modest cuts claim that the elderly, poor, sick, and helpless will be cast adrift if their government dares to trim its massive borrowing by less than 3% -- or just about 1% of this year's projected $3.7T budget.   Obama [and House Dems] borrowed more in the month of February alone ($223G) than did the spend-thrift George W. Bush during the entire 2007 budgetary year ($163G)."

2011-04-14
Paul Cerrato _Information Week_/_UBM_
No evidence that computerized medical records and equipment increase patient safety

2011-04-14 14:29PDT (17:29EDT) (21:29GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Alabama B-1 abuse case drew attention of senator Charles Grassley
NetworkWorld
PC Advisor
"A law-suit against Indian off-shore giant Infosys Technologies...   The law-suit triggering Grassley's letter to Clinton and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was filed in late February by Jay Palmer, a principal consultant at Infosys.   Palmer alleges that he was threatened and harassed after refusing to help the company bring workers in on B-1 visitors visas for work he believed required H-1B visas."

2011-04-14
William Gheen _ALIPAC_/_M MD News Wire_
Rucho appoints Matty Lazo-Chadderton of La Racists to gerrymandering commission
alernate link with discussion

2011-04-14 (5771 Nisan 10)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
DoJ's request: let us take on jail that bans all books except the Bible
"'The only book, magazine, newspaper, or religious publication that [jail officials] consistently permit prisoners to possess is the Bible.', the Justice department says in its complaint.   'These practices discriminate against non-Christian prisoners in violation of the first amendment's establishment clause.'   The first amendment's establishment clause forbids the government from favoring one religion over any other.   The amendment also bars the government from interfering in private acts of worship.   A Jewish prisoner seeking a Torah said he was told by jail officials that the prison only provides Bibles.   Two Muslim prisoners seeking copies of the Koran were told the same thing, according to the complaint.   Jail officials reportedly told the prisoners that they could possess copies of the Torah or Koran in the jail, but only if a family member personally delivered the book to the jail-house staff."

2011-04-14 (5771 Nisan 10)
Hannah Allam _Jewish World Review_
In post-Mubarak Egypt, country's most extreme embrace well proven political rule: The enemy of my enemy is my friend

2011-04-14 (5771 Nisan 10)
Joshua Mitnick _Jewish World Review_
Palestinian Authority gaining crucial boost for state from the IMF and World Bank

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-15

2011-04-15
Rami D. Fakhoury _International Law Office_
Donald Neufeld beginning to get a glimmer of a clue that immigration system is being abused
Neufeld testified: "In Fiscal Year 2010, USCIS conducted 14,433 H-1B [Administrative Site Visit and Verification Programme] site inspections.   Of those petitions subject to an ASVVP inspection, 14% were 'not verified', resulting in referrals to adjudicators or [Fraud Detection and National Security] for further inquiries.   Of those petitions that were 'not verified', 11% were reviewed by adjudicators and reaffirmed with an approval, and 46% were referred to [Fraud Detection and National Security] for further fraud inquiries or revoked by adjudicators.   The remaining 'not verified' cases are still pending review by adjudicators or [Fraud Detection and National Security]...   As compared to the nearly 21% fraud and non-compliance rate in 2008, the 14% 'not verified' rate suggests a reduced level of fraud in the H-1B program.   As it continues to analyze [Administrative Site Visit and Verification Programme] results and resolve those cases that have not been reaffirmed or revoked, USCIS expects to determine a current fraud rate in the program."

2011-04-15 05:13PDT (08:13EDT) (12:13GMT)
Douglas Hanks _Miami FL Herald_/_Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Wells Fargo report suggests much employment potention in Florida

2011-04-15 06:28PDT (09:28EDT) (13:28GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US industrial output rose 0.8% in March
"Capacity utilization -- a gauge of slack in the economy -- jumped to 77.4% in March from 76.9% in February.   This is the highest level since 2008 July but still below the average rate of 80.4% from 1972 through 2010...   The output for high-technology industries increased 0.9% in March and is up 16.8% compared with a year ago."

2011-04-15 07:33PDT (10:33EDT) (14:33GMT)
Ryan Mills _Naples FL Daily News_/_Treasure Coast FL Palm_
governor Rick Scott announced Florida unemployment rate of 11.1%

2011-04-15 07:35PDT (10:35EDT) (14:35GMT)
Joan Lowy _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Scientists say air traffic controllers should take more naps on night shifts

2011-04-15 07:52PDT (10:52EDT) (14:52GMT)
Jeffry Bartash _MarketWatch_
US consumer prices continue to soar
graphs

2011-04-15 08:00PDT (11:00EDT) (15:00GMT)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment rose from 67.5 for March to 69.6
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis

2011-04-15
Kim Kozlowski _Detroit MI News_
MI state universities to increase room and board charges to keep up with inflation in food and utilities prices

2011-04-15
Featherman _YouTube_
Gaddafi-adelphia at the dictator relocation office vs. Featherman
version 2

2011-04-15
Beryl Benderly _Science_
Dealing with anger in the work-place

20011-04-15
William L. Anderson
Who pays for "the kind of society 'we' want"?

2011-04-15 (5771 Nisan 11)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
Legal challenge to National Day of Prayer thrown out
"The plaintiffs in the case, said chief judge Frank Easterbrook [of the 7th circuit court of appeals in Chicago], must be able to show a genuine injury.   Feeling excluded or being made to feel unwelcome do not amount to a significant enough injury to confer legal standing to file a constitutional claim against the president, he said.   'Hurt feelings differ from legal injury.', he wrote in the 13-page decision."

2011-04-15 (5771 Nisan 11)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Turkey's cautionary tale

Proposed Bills 2011

2011-04-15

DJIA	12,341.83
S&P 500(SPX)	1,319.68
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,764.65
Nikkei	9,591.52
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	3.41
crude oil(CLK11)	$109.66/barrel
natgas(NGK11)	$4.22/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RBK11)	$3.29/gal
heatingoil(HOK11)	$3.23/gal
gold(GCM11)	$1,487.10/ounce
silver(SIK11)	$43.05/ounce
platinum(PLJ11)	$1,795.00/ounce
palladium(PAM11)	$770.00 /ounce
copper(HGK11)	$0.2659375/ounce
soybeans	$13.3175/bushel
maize	$7.42/bushel
wheat	$7.4425/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)	74.82
yenperdollar(USDYEN)	83.13
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)	1.4429
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)	1.6316
swissfrancsperdollar	0.8924
indianrupeesperdollar	44.34
mexicanpesosperdollar(MXN)	11.6730
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	676.28

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-16

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-17

2011-04-16 23:06PDT (2011-04-17 02:06EDT) (2011-04-17 06:06GMT)
Ken McCall, Steve Bennish & Tim Tresslar _Dayton OH Daily News_
Ohio and Montgomery county "under siege" as jobs disappear (with graph)
text version
Springfield OH News-Sun

2011-04-17
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
A first look at implications of abuse of H-1B visas to recruit teachers

2011-04-17
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Shenandoah Valley Delegates' Votes on Secession

2011-04-17
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
David Hunter Strother on rumors of a plot to seize the arsenal at Harper's Ferry

2011-04-17
David Barboza _NYTimes_
Inflation in Red China poses threat to global trade

2011-04-17
Beryl Benderly _Science_
Is the end of India's low-cost high-tech boom in sight?

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-18

2011-04-18
Chad Perrin _Tech Republic_
tech execs' lack of ethics is showing!
"Whatever they observe, they can share freely.   The end result is that privacy, for these people, is not real; it is a fantasy, an illusion, utterly obsolete in the information age.   While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is in many ways the poster boy for this attitude, Google is more fundamentally its embodiment on the Internet."

2011-04-18
Charles Grassley _Iowa Politics_
senator Charles Grassley is concerned that companies are abusing B-1 visa program to circumvent H-1B requirements

2011-04-18 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
WikiLeaks cables from/to US consulates describe H-1B fraud attempts
"fraud in the H-1B visa application process in countries that don't get much attention for it -- Mexico, Libya and Iceland...   Mexico presents 'persistent fraud problems' for the H-1B and L-1 visa programs as applicants 'over-state experience, education, or future job responsibilities in efforts to bolster their applications'.   The embassy also reported that 'individuals may also set up shell companies as a means to live in the U.S.'...   In 2009 September, the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, reported that 'an H-1B applicant presented documents that were clearly fake and stated that he paid a large sum for them on-line.   He believed this to be the process to obtain a work visa in the United States'.   In Iceland, the embassy in Reykjavik reported that immigration attorneys were attempting to fly in H-1B and L-1 applicants 'from other parts of the world for the sole purpose of having them apply for visas in Iceland in the expectation of fast and easy issuance'."

2011-04-18
Beryl Benderly _Science_
The Misuse of American Talent
"We have to make these careers -- careers in foundational science and technology -- more attractive.   It isn't just the money; indeed, I don't think it's mainly the money.   What matters most is the sacrifice of professional and personal security."
2011-04-14: Ashlee Vance: BusinessWeek: This Tech Bubble Is Different

2011-04-18
William L. Anderson
It's not "civility"; it's bad economics

2011-04-18
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
David Hunter Strother from the morning of 1861-04-18
More from Strother
uniform of the Jefferson county VA guard in 1861
general Kenton Harper arrived by dusk in Winchester
David Hunter Strother's sketch of the blaze from the vicinity of the Bolivar Heights
DHS's account of the evening

2011-04-18 (5771 Nisan 14)
Mark Steyn _Jewish World Review_
Doubling down on a bad bet

2011-04-18 (5771 Nisan 14)
R' Berel Wein _Jewish World Review_
The secret of how the data bank of memory is transferred from one generation to the next

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-19

Proposed Bills 2011

Patriots' Day: anniversary of the 1775-04-19 skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, MA
Battle Road
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Lexington Battle Green
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Patriots' Day
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Skirmishes at Lexington & Concord
Lexington local Patriots' Day observances schedule
letter by E. James Adkins
about Patriots' Day
wiseGeek: What is Patriots' Day?
History, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts
FreeRepublic: Jim Koch wants natonal Patriots' Day Celebrations
EyeWitness to History
Liberty Ride
Worcester Polytechnic Intitute: Battle of Lexington and Concord
U.S. History: Battle of Lexington
National Park Service
Mohican Press: Lexington Green
Boston 1775
Lexington Historical Society tours
Examiner
Doctor Samuel Prescott, William Dawes & Paul Revere
American Revolution: Midnight Ride: Paul Revere and the "mechanics"
Wikipedia on Paul Revere
Wikipedia on Samuel Prescott
Wikipedia on Longfellow's poem
Color Pro: William Dawes
BloggerHeads
US History
Rense on Samuel Prescott
Concord MA: The Love Story
captain John Parker
Wikipedia on captain John Parker
EyeWitness Account of the Skirmish
Captain Parker
American Revolutionary War
Patriot Resource
The American Revolution
Library of Congress

2011-04-19
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
David Hunter Strother on the morning of 1861-04-19
"the cherished ideal toward whose realization the noblest aspirations and efforts of mankind have been directed for ages.   The great experiment which the pure and wise of all nations are watching with trembling solicitude and imperishable hope.   It was something to belong to such a nationality.   Something to be able, in following one's business or pleasure, to travel to and fro without question or hindrance..."

2011-04-19
Mae Anderson _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_/_AP_
Gap plans expansion over-seas

2011-04-19
Mike Herndon _AL Press Register_
pay to university athletes continues to be artificially depressed
"If you mean paying them so they become employees, I don't see that happening.   If your question is, is it time to see whether or not the traditional definition of a scholarship -- which is room, board, tuition, fees and books -- is sufficient in some instances, I think that is an area that deserves a look.   One example might be that a scholarship could reach a level of the cost of education rather than just the definition of a scholarship, the full cost of education."

2011-04-19 06:55PDT (09:55EDT) (13:55GMT)
Jeffry Bartash _MarketWatch_
US home construction increased in March

2011-04-19 08:40PDT (11:40EDT) (15:40GMT)
Jerry Taylor & Peter van Doren _Forbes_
petroleum futures markets
"For example, assume that we buy a futures contract from you today for 1K barrels of oil maturing in 2011 August at $100 per barrel.   If tomorrow the same 2011 August contract settles in the market at a price of $100.40, you will owe me $400.   If the day after that, 2011 August oil settles at $99.60, I will owe you $400.   We will exchange money in this manner on a daily basis until the contract is up or until someone (perhaps even you) buys the other party out.   At the end of 2011 August when final settlement takes place, contracts will either be settled in cash and retired or rolled over into another futures contract.   Only 2% of futures contracts result in actual delivery of oil.   How do bets about the future price of oil affect current oil prices? They can do so if and only if those bets increase or decrease oil supply in the here-and-now through changes in inventory or production."

2011-04-19 09:38PDT (12:38EDT) (16:38GMT)
Conor Sen _MarketWatch_
Why Apple should buy Disney

2011-04-19 10:37PDT (13:37EDT) (17:37GMT)
Frank Munger _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
MSFT systems at ORNL breached by malware attack
more

2011-04-19
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
economics driving more farmers from beans to other crops

2011-04-19
Marc Perry _Chronicle of Higher Education_
2011-04-19 (5771 Nisan 15)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
We're being fed a lot of bull about bullying
"When responsible officials are prevented from exercising power, then bullies exercise power...   one of the most important things we can learn from other countries is to avoid the mistakes they have made."

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-20

2011-04-19 19:15PDT (2011-04-19 22:15EDT) (2011-04-20 02:15GMT)
Michael Carl _World Net Daily_
Flood of Turkish teachers prompts investigation: FBI looking into Islam-influenced Guelen school network
"The operations of Turkish expatriate Fethullah Gulen [Guelen], who previously was revealed to be linked to Islam-influenced schools run at U.S. [tax-victims'] expense, reportedly now are under investigation for visa fraud.   Ruth Hocker, the former head of a parents group of the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School in State College, PA, says she became curious about the qualifications of the school's teachers and ended up getting confirmation about the alleged fraud case...   WND previously reported on the large network of jihad-preaching schools in the organization that is being paid for by [tax-victim] dollars...   Terrorism analyst, author and Family Security Matters contributing editor Paul Williams explained that Gulen left Turkey under a cloud and came to the United States carrying an agenda.   'Fethullah Gulen is a chap who fled Turkey in 1998.   He was attempting to avoid prosecution from the secular government at that time; he wanted to set up an Islamic government.', Williams said."

2011-04-20 04:12PDT (07:12EDT) (11:12GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Another insane Republican congress-critter calls for numbers of H-1B visas to increase

2011-04-20
_BBC_
Gold price tops $1500/ounce, silver at $44.34/ounce
"In Hong Kong trade, gold hit a record $1,500.70 an ounce, which traders said was mainly due to Standard & Poor's downgrade of its outlook on US debt. Silver also touched a 31-year high of $44.34 an ounce."

2011-04-20 06:05PDT (09:05EDT) (13:05GMT)
_Business Week_/_AP_
Hanes increased prices and profits in 2011Q1
"The company, best known for its T-shirts, socks and underwear, noted that prices it paid for cotton soared 60% to 83 cents per pound, from 52 cents a year ago...   Hanes' net income rose 32 percent to $48.1M, or 49 cents per share for the quarter that ended April 2, up from $36.5M, or 37 cents per share, in the same quarter last year."

2011-04-20 12:04PDT (15:04EDT) (19:04GMT)
Nick Bilton _NYTimes_
Apple iOS devices are storing owners' location data at frequent intervals
"The file, which is called 'consolidated.db', keeps track of GPS data on 3G-enabled Apple devices and regularly updates itself with a user's location...   A cell phone owner's location information has always been [unethically] stored by cellular carriers, but has been available in the past only through a court order approved by a judge.   Making the file visible and unencrypted on iOS devices could make it available to anyone who gains access to the phone."
Evil "Where2.0" conference site
Alasdair Allen & Peter Warden: O'Reilly: Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves: A hidden file in iOS 4 is regularly recording the position of devices

2011-04-20 13:36:07PDT (16:36:07EDT) (20:36:07GMT)
Lisa M. Krieger _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_
universities report slight increase in recruiters showing up at job fairs to recruit cheap, young, inexperienced laborers
"As commencement approaches, 148 recruiters are visiting UC Berkeley this week at a job fair so big that it was turned into a two-day event -- for the first time since 2008.   More than 1,500 students are expected to attend.   Earlier this month, Santa Clara University's fair attracted 75 employers, up from 50 last year.   At San Jose State, lines of students snaked through the Student Union hallways and the number of prospective employers jumped from 52 to 73 -- so high that recruiters were turned away...   Last week, Stanford hosted 128 companies at its under-graduate fair...   The jobless rate for new college graduates averaged 9.3% in 2010, double the figure for older graduates, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.   (It was far higher, 17%, for 20- to 24-year-olds without degrees.)...   The 150 biggest public companies in Silicon Valley had their most profitable year in history in 2010, bolstered by demand for new handheld gadgets.   Campus counselors caution students that Santa Clara County still has an unemployment rate of 10.3%..."

2011-04-20 14:31:27PDT (17:31:27EDT) (21:31:27GMT)
Frank Michael Russell _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_
51% of real estate sales in CA are "distress" transactions

2011-04-20
Steve H. Hanke _Cato Institute_
The Cheap Dollar Problem (with graphs)
"a cheap dollar is advertised as an export stimulant and the fuel for a economic boom...   About the only thing that has boomed during the last 2 years are prices, particularly commodity prices."

2011-04-20
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
1861-04-20: David Hunter Strother notes word of Virginia secession, riots in Baltimore and destruction of the navy yard at Norfolk
Northern VA and the VA conventin
Ron Baumgarten: All Not So Quiet Along the Potomac

2011-04-20 (5771 Nisan 16)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Academic Rot

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-21

2011-04-21
George Barnette _AFRO_
US DoL says Prince George's county violated the rules in compensation of guest-teachers
"The DoL said its investigators found that the school system reduced the wages of 1,044 foreign teachers hired under the program.   PGCPS is now required to pay over $5.9M in back pay and civil penalties and may be disbarred from filing new petitions, extension requests or requests for permanent residency for foreign nationals."

2011-04-21 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"This week's release reflects the annual revision to the weekly unemployment claims [AND] seasonal adjusted factors.   The historical [raw numbers and] factors from 2006 forward have been revised.   The calendar year 2011 factors...   The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 380,668 in the week ending April 16, a decrease of 67,357 from the previous week.   There were 436,814 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.1% during the week ending April 9, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,879,433, a decrease of 63,610 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.8% and the volume was 4,931,238.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 2 was 8,299,810.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV, and WI, during the week ending April 2.   States reported 3,527,093 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending April 2, a decrease of 23,693 from the prior week.   There were 5,344,082 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-04-21 07:25PDT (10:25EDT) (14:25GMT)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Conference Board reports leading economic indicators rose 0.4% in March

2011-04-21 07:47PDT (10:47EDT) (14:47GMT)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index fell from 43.4 in March to 18.5 in April

2011-04-21
Justin Rohrlich _Minyanville_
As cotton prices rise, polyester prices follow
"With cotton prices up 150% since August, apparel manufacturers have been looking for any way possible to contain costs.   Aeropostale (ARO) is reducing the size of tags in garments, saving 5 cents on each piece of clothing.   [Others] are 're-engineering' their fabric blends, to include more synthetic fibers in an attempt to keep prices low...   As apparel makers have sought alternatives to cotton, prices for other materials, like bamboo and silk, also spiked.   Even demand for wood pulp -- used to make polyester -- is up."

2011-04-21
Nels P. Highberg _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Faculty salaries don't tell the whole compensation story
"Academics have long been talking about ways to represent the reality of life as a graduate student, adjunct, tenured or tenure-track faculty member, or administrator to others fairly and ethically.   We want to make sure that students know what they are getting into if they pursue a PhD.   We want to make sure that legislators know what we actually do on a day-to-day basis as they enact laws and budgets shaping university life.   We often feel like the realities of our lives do not align with what others think about our lives.   And my concern is that articles about salary averages in any kind of general sense contribute to the warped image of life as a university professor...   We do need to make it clear to anyone thinking of entering the professoriate that not only may they struggle to find a job, they cannot predict their salary if they get a job."

2011-04-21 14:28:20PDT (17:28:20EDT) (21:28:20GMT)
_San Jose CA Mercury "News"_/_AP_
MSFT plans to boost pay for their employees worldwide
"the competition for talent has been fiercest -- for early and mid-career research and development staff, mid-level employees in general, and for workers in hotspots like China and India."

2011-04-21
Robert P. Murphy _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
Uncle Sam: Busted

2011-04-21
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
1861-01-01: poetical prayer for the country
"receive our prayer, In this our Country's trying hour; Unveil Thy face–stretch forth Thine arm– And save us by Thy mighty power. So shall our praise be of Thy name, Our glad hosannas all of Thee, As o'er Columbia still shall wave The banner of the brave and free."
1861-04-21: DH Strother in Baltimore

2011-04-21
Brett French _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Wandering bison causing trouble in Gardiner

2011-04-21
David Case _Global Post_
US government deficits and debt
"This year, the government will take in about $2.2T and spend $3.8T.   For every dollar it collects, it spends $1.70...   In 2012, according to the budget Obama submitted to congress, the U.S. will spend about $80G less ($3.7T).   And as the economy recovers, the Treasury will take in $425G more ($2.6T).   At least, that's what the administration expects.   Obama's budget risks getting larded with pork as it works its way through congress.   If Obama's budget were to be signed into law, the U.S. would spend $1.42 for every dollar it collects.   That's better than 2011, but no one would call it good.   You hardly need to crunch numbers to conclude that this is unsustainable.   The U.S. currently owes more than $14T dollars.   In 2011 we will pay $205G in interest -- about $1,600 per household.   According to Obama's budget, by 2020, interest payments will jump by more than 400 percent, to $863G...   The money largely comes out of your pay-check.   In 2012, American workers will send a hefty $2.07T to Washington, compared to $327G from corporations.   (For 2011, the corporate contribution will only be about $198T.)...   [So-called] Entitlement programs burn nearly 60% of the total budget -- $2.1T out of $3.7T.   Most of that goes to retired people.   The government pension program ([Socialist Insecurity]) costs $761G, and health care for the elderly costs $468G.   A smaller allotment ($269G) supports health care for the poor, known as Medicaid.   And a final $598G funds 'other mandatory programs' established by congress, including unemployment, Food Stamps, and retirement benefits for soldiers and federal civil servants...   America's national security apparatus is poised to cost [only] $881G in 2012, up from $815G in 2010.   To put this in perspective, if the U.S. security budget were a country, it would be the world's 19th biggest economy, behind Australia (population 22M) but ahead of Iran (73M), the world's fourth biggest oil producer.   Only 2 states, NY and CA, have economies bigger than the security budget.   Incidentally, the [Corporation for Socialist Broadcasting's unconstitutional] subsidy ($445M) is equal to about 4 hours of [constitutional] security spending...   The Defense Department budget accounts for the biggest portion of this: $553G...   America's 2 major wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, are funded by a line item called the 'Overseas Contingency Operations', which adds $118G to Pentagon coffers for 2012...   Including the wars, the Pentagon spends $671G.   That's more twice the 2001 figure of about $300G."

2011-04-21 16:35PDT (19:35EDT) (23:35GMT)
Thomas Claburn _Information Week_
iPhone location tracking is only the tip of the privacy and security ice-berg

2011-04-21 (5771 Nisan 17)
Paul Greenberg _Jewish World Review_
The Bible in School: A Retort to Modern Contempt
"Now we seem to live in a biblically illiterate era, and it shows.   Not just in the quality of the prose that crosses an editor's desk every day, or in the junkspeech that politicians and educantists mouth as a matter of course, but in the paucity of thought behind their tinny catch words."

2011-04-21 (5771 Nisan 17)
Thomas H. Maugh ii _Jewish World Review_
New research could lead to new types of treatment for Type 2 diabetes
"Dr. Daniel Winer, an endocrine pathologist now at the University of Toronto, and his twin, Dr. Shawn Winer of the University of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, reasoned that the death of excess fat cells might trigger an autoimmune reaction.   In an earlier study with senior author Dr. Edgar Engleman of the Stanford University School of Medicine, they demonstrated in mice that, as fat accumulates in the tissues surrounding organs, it outstrips its blood supply, leading to the death of cells on the periphery of the fat deposits.   When that occurs, the body mobilizes its immune system to break down and carry off the dead cells.   But that produces antibodies against the cells and many of the proteins normally found only inside the cells.   In the new study, the team turned its attention to B cells, the lymphocytes or white blood cells that manufacture antibodies against foreign invaders.   They genetically engineered mice so that they could not produce B cells and found that the rodents never became diabetic, no matter how fat they became.   They next looked at normal mice that were prone to becoming diabetic when they became obese.   One group they treated with a biological drug called anti-CD20 that binds to B cells and blocks their activity.   The second group received no treatment.   The mice that received the drug did not become diabetic when they became obese, while those that did not receive it did become diabetic.   The effect lasted only about 40 days, however, and then needed to be repeated.   The group finally studied a group of 32 obese men, half of whom were diabetic and half who were not.   They found that the diabetic men had a distinct group of antibodies against cellular proteins that were not present in the healthy men, suggesting that an unusual autoimmune reaction was taking place.   The findings suggest that some people are genetically more susceptible to the immune reaction, which is typical of autoimmune diseases."

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-22

2011-04-22
Sheena Moore _Spend Matters_
U of Washington increasing tuition and fees, neglecting education
"if you're a Washington resident and you want to go to UW, your best bet at the moment isn't to get straight A's and ace the SAT.   You might actually be better off moving out of state for high school and applying from there...   The University of Washington is by far the superior public university in the state -- and rejected (yet highly qualified) students must now sacrifice the best education they could get if they want to pay in-state tuition.   If they want a similar caliber school, they'll have to go out of state and pay triple the amount or go private.   This being said, in-state tuition may not even be as advantageous anymore.   '...Last year, resident tuition jumped by 13.1%, while non-resident tuition only rose by 3.9%, well less than the annual 5.6% public 4-year tuition inflation reported by the College Board.'   Not much of a deal, really."

2011-04-22 04:35PDT (07:35EDT) (11:35GMT)
Alexi Howk _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
3D conversion portion of Digital Domain has company employment growing rapidly
"That section of the company, now headquartered in Port St. Lucie, is the largest division with 151 employees, And that portion of the company alone is now expected to reach up to 500 jobs, surpassing the company's goal of hiring 500 overall employees throughout the entire company by 2014.   Originally based in Agoura Hills, CA, about 10 miles west of Los Angeles, 48 of In-Three's 65 employees chose to relocate to Port St. Lucie when Digital Domain acquired the company last Fall...   Jon Karafin, formerly In-Three's vice president of production operations and now director of production operations at Digital Domain Media Group...   Digital Domain Media Group was lured to Port St. Lucie in late 2009 by state and local officials with an incentive package worth nearly $70M.   In exchange, the company agreed to create up to 500 jobs with an average annual salary of $65K by 2014.   The goal this year was 90 jobs.   However, with the acquisition of In-Three, the company has topped 243 employees so far this year...   He [Karafin] said the move to Florida has enabled the company to keep huge portions of its work in-house rather than out-sourcing it over-seas.   He said costs in California are becoming too expensive, so the move to Florida made sense."

2011-04-22 04:49PDT (07:49EDT) (11:49GMT)
Elaine Kurtenbach _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Toyota production disrupted until November or December due to parts problems resulting from earth-quakes, tsunami

2011-04-22 05:51PDT (08:51EDT) (12:51GMT)
Sandra Pedicini _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_McClatchy_
Clothing costs rise as cotton prices soar
Orlando FL Sentinel
Joplin MO Globe
Alice Gregory: NY Magazine: Cotton price rise means more skinny jeans
Rose Ellenberg: Tufts U clothing swap
Stephanie Clifford: NYTimes: Camouflaging price creep
Richmond VA Times-Dispatch
"cotton prices up 126% from last July [or is she saying that prices are 126% of what they were last July?].   That translates to about a dollar more per raw pound—a jump of approximately $2.12 for a pair of dungarees."

2011-04-22 09:15:36PDT (12:15:36EDT) (16:15:36GMT)
Michael Liedtke _San Jose Mercury "News"_/_AP_
Netflix CEO Reed Hasting's 2010 pay doubled while stock price tripled

2011-04-22 11:26:13PDT (14:26:13EDT) (18:26:13GMT)
Michael Liedtke _San Jose Mercury "News"_/_AP_
Google spent $1.48, MSFT $1.72M on lobbying in 2011Q1 rather than cleaning up their own acts
TechCrunch

2011-04-22
Marian L. Tupy _Global Post_
reducing subsidies, opening agriculture to international trade could improve Japan's economy
"Japanese agriculture is among the most heavily protected in the world.   The import tariff on rice, sugar and wheat is 778%, 305% and 252%, respectively.   Duties on butter, cheese, peanuts and skimmed milk range between 737% and 218%.   Over 100 agricultural items are protected by a tariff of over 200%.   In the European Union and the United States, tariffs over 200% are relatively rare and neither has a tariff of over 500%.   According to the World Trade Organization [WTO], Japan's average agricultural tariff is 22.2%.   It is 5.2% in the United States and 13.5% in the EU.   The Total Support Estimate [TSE] for the Japanese agricultural sector, or the value of all financial transfers from [tax-victims] and consumers to agriculture, was 1.05% of the GDP in 2008.   The TSE in the EU and the United States was 0.91% and 0.67% respectively.   In monetary terms, support for agriculture in Japan, the EU and United States came to $52G, $168G and $96G respectively.   Combined, the 3 accounted for 84% of agricultural subsidies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2008.   What have these policies accomplished? Import tariffs make Japanese food expensive at home while subsidies keep taxes high.   The value of agricultural production fell from 6T yen in 1990 to 3T yen in 2008.   The number of workers in that sector declined from 4.5M to 2.6M over the same time period.   At 66 years, the average age of a Japanese farmer is among the highest in the world."

2011-04-22
_Global Post_
Termites devour 10M rupees ($222K) of scrip in State Bank of India

2011-04-22
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
1861-04-22: DH Strother writes from Baltimore

2011-04-22
Christopher Noble _MarketWatch_
This Week
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed the shortened week on Thursday with a gain of 52.45 points or 0.4% at 12,505.99.   For the week the Blue Chip index added 1.3%.   The NASDAQ Composite (COMP) ended Thursday up 17.65 points or 0.6% at 2,820.16 making for a weekly gain of 2%.   The bench-mark Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) gained 7.02 points or 0.5% on Thursday to close at 1,337.38.   For the week the index was up 1.3%."

2011-04-22
_Undhimmi_
Red Cross says there is no "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza

2011-04-22 (5771 Nisan 18)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Obama's "altruistic" foreign policy

2011-04-22 (5771 Nisan 18)
Hannah Allam _Jewish World Review_
Leadership vacuum in Suez illustrates Egypt's instability

Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-04-23

2011-04-23
Lee Rood _Des Moines IA Register_/_Gannett_
2 sentenced in H-1B visa fraud conspiracy case
"Fazal Mehmood, 51, and Vineet Maheshwari, 37, from Pakistan and India respectively, were sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Davenport for conspiracy to commit visa fraud, making false statements to the United States government and for engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property.   Both men were allowed to work in the United States because of employer documents filed by Worldwide Software Services or Sana Systems.   Federal prosecutors said they applied for H-1B visas for foreign workers that contained false statements about their jobs and work locations...   In addition to the prison sentences, the judge ordered the defendants to forfeit more than $1M in proceeds of the visa fraud."

2011-04-23
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Sugar producers vs. candy companies over sugar imports
"The producers favor the regulatory status quo, in which U.S. agriculture policy works like a hand on a faucet, only allowing large amounts of foreign sugar into the country when American sugar struggles to meet demand.   Small farms will suffer to benefit confectioners, they say...   Corporations argue that current rules keep sugar prices artificially high.   That above-average price, they say, amounts to a sugar tax paid at the cash register that costs the U.S. $4G annually...   Phillip Hayes... works for the American Sugar Alliance, which lobbies for sugar beet, cane and corn farmers, including those in Montana and Wyoming, for whom sugar beets are a multi-million dollar business.   Trudi Boyd is his adversary.   She lobbies for the Coalition for Sugar Reform, a supergroup of candy, baking, dairy and food-processing organizations.   The group advocates for sugar policy reform whenever congress writes a new farm bill...   There's the Stop Unfair Giveaways and Restrictions, or SUGAR, act by senators Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and Mark Kirk, R-IL, and Dick Durbin, D-IL.   The bill would eliminate the existing sugar program.   There's the Lugar Free Sugar Act of 2011 by senator Richard Lugar, R-IN...   Representative Joe Pitts, R-PA, and representative Danny Davis, D-IL, introduced the Free Market Sugar Act to open the tap on foreign sugar...   'There's only 8 cents worth of sugar in a $1.25 pack of Peeps.', Hayes said.   'They might save 3 cents, but do you think the shopper will save anything?'   U.S. candy profits are up for companies like Nestle, Hershey and Cadbury.   Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory was the fourth-most profitable food stock traded on NASDAQ over the past 12 months with a 19.6% profit margin.   U.S. sugar policy doesn't call for government payments to farmers...   Senator Max Baucus, D-MT, said Friday he won't support eliminating the sugar program.   He's the only member of Montana's delegation on an agriculture committee.   [Montana] has 2 sugar refineries and more than 30K acres of sugar beets.   Luther Markwart, of the American Sugar Beet Growers Association...   Law-makers from IL and PA represent big candy states.   IN has food processing companies that also are part of the lobbying effort to overturn existing sugar policy.   That's not about Republicans or Democrats; it's about listening to your peeps."

2011-04-23
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Stealth Inflation as the government jiggers its price indices
Richard Lehmann: Forbes: Inflation Lives So Hedge Your Portfolio Now