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updated: 2016-09-01
 

"where any particular cause is sufficient for an effect, we ought to rest satisfied with it, and ought not to multiply causes without necessity." --- David Hume & Ernest C. Mossner 1735 _A Treatise of Human Nature_ pg629

 
 

2011 Jul

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
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3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

 

"Seldom are men blessed with times in which they may think what they like, and say what they think." --- David Hume 1739 title page (quoted in David Hume & Ernest C. Mossner 1735 _A Treatise of Human Nature_ pg32)

 
 
 

captain William Scott's flag for the Republic of Texas.

2011-07-01

2011-07-01
professor Gerald Boerner _Profile of the Day_
Battle of Gettysburg -- Day 1a: union troops retreat to high ground

2011-07-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 82,867 job ads

2011-07-01 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT) (13:00Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
John Cornyn backs H-1B abusing bodyshops
"The USCIS 'should not create a new policy that essentially denies the entire IT [bodyshopping] industry access to [cheap, pliant] H-1B workers', said Cornyn...   The Neufeld memo was cited by the USCIS as one of the responses it made to a study that revealed a fraud rate of more than 13% in H-1B petitions, plus technical violations in more than 7% of the petitions.   'Violations ranged from document fraud to deliberate misstatements regarding job locations, wages paid, and duties performed.', Neufeld said in testimony in March on the H-1B visa before House sub-committee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement."

2011-07-01
Pierre Georges Bonnefil & Patrick G. Brady _Lexology_
Grand jury is investigating Infosys abuse of B-1 visas

2011-07-01 04:00PDT (07:00EDT) (11:00GMT) (14:00Jerusalem)
Maggie McNeil _MarketWatch_
NAM wary of Obummer's manufacturing policy propaganda campaign
"America's manufacturing sector has been on the decline for more than 40 years.   More than a third of this country's workers worked in factories following World War II, and in 1970, one in four jobs was manufacturing; now the sector employs fewer than 12M, or less than 10% of the nation's total work-force.   Manufacturers were hit especially hard by the recession.   Of the almost 9M jobs estimated to have been lost during the recession, 2M of those were from manufacturing...   NAM welcomes the attention, and hopes it can turn into policies and regulations that are favorable for the industry.   Manufacturers have seen a pick-up since the end of the recession, and factories have gained back over 240K jobs in the last year and a half.   Because manufacturing jobs pay better than average, the come-back in jobs has been key to the broad economy, with estimates that almost a fifth of the gain in total wages and salaries during the recovery has come from manufacturing...   The 11K-member organization employs more than 140 policy and industry experts in its Washington, DC head-quarters and 9 regional offices across the country.   It spent almost $9M lobbying Congress in 2010, according to OpenSecrets.org.   NAM has been the second-biggest lobbyist in the manufacturing sector for more than a decade, behind only the behemoth corporate lobbyist General Electric (GE).   Specifically on taxes, NAM wants the corporate tax rate to be lowered to 25% or lower from 35%, wants lower individual tax rates to be made permanent, urges a territorial tax system for U.S. multi-nationals to reduce taxes on foreign-made profit, and is calling for a 'strengthened, permanent' research-and-development tax credit...   NAM's National Manufacturers' Institute launched a certification program to community college students to provide 500K skilled workers to the industry within the next 5 years."

2011-07-01 08:55PDT (11:55EDT) (15:55GMT) (18:55Jerusalem)
Laurie Segall _CNN_
FTC investigating Twitter for anti-trust abuses

2011-07-01 08:20PDT (11:20EDT) (15:20GMT) (18:20Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index fell from 74.3 in May to 71.5 at the end of June
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis

2011-07-01
Kevin McCoy _USA Today_/_Gannett_
Dominique Strauss-Kahn released from house arrest

2011-07-01
Kazuki Nishihara & Yasushi Kouchi _Yomiuri Shimbun_
Alarm bells ring over Red Chinese effort to export high-speed rail tech developed in Japan

2011-07-01
Ralph E. Gomory _Foreign Policy Journal_
The Interests of US Executives, Politicans on one side, and the Citizenry on the other have diverged

2011-07-01
Geoff Ross _Freedom Fighter Radio_
Agenda 21: Centralized Marxist philosophy of "sustainability"

2011-07-01
Rob Rogers _Billings MT Gazette_
Wings of Freedom tour features B-17, B-24, P-51 Mustang
"'When the Messerschmitt shot up our tail, there was nothing left to do but hit the silk.', he said.   They bailed out and landed in a potato patch where they were quickly picked up by SS soldiers.   'When I saw the skull and crossbones and the SS (on their uniforms), I thought I was goner.', he said.   Instead of killing him, they took him to a prisoner of war of camp in Poland.   There, Stoltz ended up participating in the Black Death March, an 86-day, 600-mile march across Poland at war's end that had 10K poorly dressed, malnourished prisoners of war living on roadside dandelions and battling frostbite as their German escorts raced to keep the captives hidden from the advancing Russian Army."

2011-07-01
_X Recruiters_
When is there a surplus and when is there a shortage of IT jobs?

2011-07-01
Frosty Wooldridge _News with Views_
Excessive immigration is hurting the US worker
"'The number of immigrants -- legal and illegal -- living in the U.S.A., is growing at an unprecedented rate.   U.S. Census Bureau data indicate that 1.6M legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year.   In 2006, the immigrant, or foreign-born population, reached about 38M in the United States.   Roughly 12M of these were illegal aliens.   Legal and illegal immigrants now account for one out of every eight persons living in the United States.   As recently as 1970 the proportion was 1 in 20 residents.   The U.S.A. has never confronted an immigrant population that has grown this much, this fast...   9% of adult native-born Americans (ages 18 to 64) were high school drop-outs in 2006, while 34% of recent adult immigrants had not completed high school.   (The rate was 60% for illegal immigrants.)'"

2011-07-01
Stephanie D. Schulte _Temecula CA Patch_
30,729 illegal immigrants at the Temecula checkpoints and others in Southern California
"Across the nation, 215,900 illegal aliens were deported from 2010 October to 2011 April, which averages to about 24K per month, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]."

2011-07-01
Nicole Rodriguez _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Research experience enrichment program for teachers in Fort Pierce

2011-07-01
Mike Cere _KGO abc San Francisco CA_
More older than younger starting new businesses

2011-07-01 (5771 Sivan 29)
Herb Keinon _Jerusalem Post_/_Reuters_
Greek government blocks terrorist-aid flotilla

2011-07-01 (5771 Sivan 29)
David Horovitz _Jerusalem Post_
Jimmy Wales's benevolent WikiPedia wisdom
"Such minor uncertainties or confusions in his own entry underline the validity of Wales's own reported comment in that February Guardian interview, to the effect that 'you shouldn't really use Wikipedia as the sole source for anything, ever.   You shouldn't use anything as the sole source for anything, in my view.'   Or, as he said to me, in an interview conducted during last week's Israeli Presidential Conference, 'There are safeguards' on Wikipedia, but 'nothing's perfect'...   He's also earnest and likable, and encouragingly upbeat about humankind.   One of the behavioral fundamentals guiding the Wikipedia volunteer 'community', he notes, is to 'assume good faith'.   And he clearly regards the success of Wikipedia, a function of the labors, expertise and integrity of that community, as vindication of his confidence in most people's decency.   'Most people are basically good.', he declares confidently.   Which is always pleasant to hear."

2011-07-01 (5771 Sivan 29)
Caroline B. Glick _Jerusalem Post_
Unmasking the "international community"
Jewish World Review
"While emptily mouthing slogans of tolerance, adherents to the rule of the 'international community' embrace the agenda of the most violent, intolerant, totalitarian forces in the world."
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-07-01

DJIA	12,582.77
S&P 500(SPX)	1,339.67
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,816.03
Nikkei	9,868.07
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	3.19
crude oil(CL1Q)	$94.94/barrel
natgas(NG11N)	$4.69/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1N)	$2.9726/gal
heatingoil(HO1N)	$2.92/gal
gold(GC1Q)	$1,486.70/ounce
silver(SI1U)	$33.71/ounce
platinum(PL1V)	$1,716.80/ounce
palladium(PA1U)	$757.45/ounce
copper(HG1U)	$0.26875/ounce
soybeans	$13.125/bushel
maize	$5.9675/bushel
wheat	$6.1225/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)	74.364
yenperdollar(USDYEN)	80.84
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)	$1.4508
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)	$1.6069
swissfrancsperdollar	0.8476
indianrupeesperdollar	44.65
mexicanpesosperdollar(MXN)	11.6350
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	667.22

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-02

2011-07-01 21:09:39PDT (2011-07-02 00:09:39EDT) (2011-07-02 04:09:39GMT) (2011-07-02 07:09:39Jerusalem)
Brian Womack _Bloomberg_/_San Jose CA Mercury News_
Google hires 12 lobbying firms amid FTC examination
"The company has enlisted Akin Gump, Bingham, Capitol Legislative Strategies, Chesapeake Group, Crossroad Strategies, Gephardt Group, Holland & Knight, Normandy Group, Prime Policy, the First Group, the Madison Group and the Raben Group, according to an e-mail from Google."

2011-07-02
Linda M. Linonis _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
US flags visible everywhere on this Independence Day week-end
"Though many think of the holiday as a day for cook-outs, parades and fireworks, Suhovecky said those are ways to celebrate, but Americans should remember it's the day the Declaration of Independence was declared in 1776."

2011-07-02
_X Recruiters_
If they follow the money trail, will Infosys be indicted?

2011-07-02
Matt Keyser _Brenham Banner_
Costs of illegal immigration
"Once living on a 38K-acre ranch 60 miles from the border, the family was forced to leave its property because of the threat of the drug cartels and human smuggling.   Coyotes (as they are known), hired to guide immigrants across the border for large sums of money, used the Burns' ranch as a haven from law enforcement to hide during the day and move at night to a check-point in Brooks County...   For the year, the Washington County jail houses an average of 105 inmates a day.   Of those, roughly one-third, or roughly 35 inmates, are illegal immigrants...   The decapitations are a trademark sign of the Los Zetas, a powerful Mexico-based cartel becoming more prominent in the U.S.A., especially in Harris County.   In 2010, ICE special agent Jamie Zapata was killed by cartel members in Mexico, and a Houston police officer was killed by Zeta members during a round-up."

2011-07-02
_KGO abc San Francisco CA_/_AP_
College students brace for higher tuition and fees

2011-07-02 15:00PDT (18:00EDT) (22:00GMT) (2011-07-03 01:00Jerusalem)
Chris O'Brien _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Tech executives' big spending on lobbying has not stopped federal investigations
"According to OpenSecrets.org, a web-site that tracks lobbying and campaign contributions, Google's PAC made $37K in campaign contributions during the 2006 elections, a figure that increased to $345,900 in the 2010 election cycle.   And the company spent $5.2M on lobbying in 2010, up from $260K in 2005.   Google has hired a range of former political insiders and retained several independent lobbying firms.   Among the notable hires are Pablo Chavez, who previously worked for senator John McCain.   And Google retained the Podesta Group, created by Tony Podesta, a former aide to senator Edward M. Kennedy...   In the last election cycle, 55% of its campaign contributions went to Democrats, while 45% went to Republicans.   And its lobbyists include names from both sides of the political aisle...   Of course, [executives] never label these efforts as attempts to wield influence.   [Executives] especially consider this all a benign mission to educate politicians about what they do while making sure their [customers'] interests are being heard...   FB spent $351,390 on lobbying in 2010, and has already spent $230K in the first 3 months of 2011."

2011-07-02
Bill King _Minneapolis MN Star-Tribune_/_Houston TX Chronicle_
Medicare sending bill to the next generation
"Take a hypothetical employee who entered the work-force in 1965 and retired in 2010, and assume that employee earned the country's median income throughout his career.   That person and his employer would have paid about $23K in Medicare taxes by the time the employee retired.   If the amount contributed each year had been put into a savings account earning 5% interest, there would have been a balance in the employee's account at the end of the employee's career of about $50K.   The annual average benefit paid to Medicare participants today is about $11,700.   Of that amount, most Medicare beneficiaries pay an annual premium of about $1,200, leaving a net average cost of just over $10K.   So it would only take about five years to exhaust the contributions made by the employee, assuming that those contributions would have been placed in a savings account.   However, the average life expectancy at age 65 is now 18 years, meaning the money put into the system for our hypothetical employee would run out 13 years before the employee dies.   The federal government currently estimates that after deducting the premiums Medicare beneficiaries pay, the total cost for the average beneficiary for his or her life-time will be more than $250K...   If a person earned the maximum taxable amounts or more from 1966 to 1993, the total contributions plus interest earned on contributions by 1993 would have been about $35K.   To have enough to cover his own Medicare costs, the employee would have had to have continued earning at least $135K annually after 1993 until retirement in 2010."

2011-07-02
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Prelude to Manassas: The Affair at Falling Waters (Hoke's Run/ Hainesville

2011-07-02
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Sesquicentennial in the Shenandoah Valley... what you probably won't hear about
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-03

2011-07-03
Matt McMillan _Hutchinson MN Leader_
MN corn acreage up, soybean acreage down

2011-07-03
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
the current tech job market
 
As I've mentioned before, only about half of the subscribers to this e-news-letter are tech workers.   The rest are journalists, academics, government researchers and so on.   But a few days ago I sent out a short survey to the techie subscribers, asking their take on the current job market.
 
The results were interesting.   A few of those who replied are doing quite well, better than ever.   Most, however, are making less than they did in 1998 in real terms, with little or no sense of job security.   Those who had worked as independent consultants seem to be in especially poor circumstances; many have left for more stable but much less lucrative permanent jobs, but most of those who have remained consultants report that rates are way down and time between contracts much longer than before.
 
There are a number of subscribers who gave up and left the field after seeing that it just was not economically viable for them.   They have turned to careers in real estate, nursing, (non-engineering) civil service and the like.
 
By the way, those with PhDs tend to be especially bitter (and especially under-employed), an irony in view of the industry lobbyists' frequent statement that industry needs H-1Bs because not enough Americans pursue doctoral study.
 
I will add my perspective as a computer science professor who pays close attention to employment for new grads.   At least in northern California, the market for new grads seems to have improved markedly just in the last few months, at least anecdotally.   I've seen my students, even one that is quite weak, getting offers for pretty good jobs.
 
OTOH, nationwide salaries for new computer science grads are only up 3% since this time last year, according to NACE.   (Again anecdotally, the same appears true for my students.)   And according to Dice.com, there are still 21 applicants for every job opening.
 
So, the "boom" for new grads is a mini-boom, at best, and things are not rosy for the older workers (remember, this means over 35).
 
The San Jose Mercury News ran a piece last week reporting on a hiring frenzy in Silicon Valley.   It was filled with the usual examples of certain individuals who are being aggressively courted by employers.   Yet the article says salaries in Silicon Valley are up only 3% since 2009.   That's just not compatible with the "labor shortage" image projected by the article.
 
Interestingly however, it did quote LinkedIn as saying that it was targeting new grads, citing the fact that older workers are "expensive".   That of course has been the issue with H-1B from the beginning, as I've often pointed out; the H-1B program, most of whose participants are young, gives employers the ability to avoid hiring the older workers.   LinkedIn claims that the older workers don't really exist in large numbers anyway, but for reasons I've given in detail before, this statement is disingenuous.
 
Norm
---30---

2011-07-03
Tresa Baldas _Detroit MI Free Press_/_Gannett_
Surveillance cameras help catch some illegal alien invaders crossing at river

2011-07-03
Jim Kouri _Canada Free Press_
EPA is giving millions in unconstitutional hand-outs to Red China, Russia, Thailand, India, and the UN
Intellectual Conservative
Right Side News

2011-07-03
Kelly O'Connell _Canada Free Press_
Why America's founders rebelled and their thoughts today

2011-07-03
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Greenspan says Fed's monetary policy did not work, did little more tan debase the dollar
Margo D. Beller: CNBC

2011-07-03
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
More on the Civil War and tangents
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-04: USA Independence Day

2011-07-04
Christine Keeling _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Brian Roberts, Canfield's "rocket man", designed experimental robot repair and refueling rig being launched on final space shuttle for testing at space station
"Now, at 41, he is the robotics demonstrations and test manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.   His team helped create the Robotic Refuel Mission module that will be tested on the International Space Station. It will allow satellites to be refueled or repaired from Earth...   It was during his time at the Maryland university that Roberts created a ratchetless space wrench for astronauts that was tested during John Glenn's 1998 flight aboard the shuttle Discovery."

2011-07-04
_Lubbock TX Avalanche-Journal_
Today Is Our Nation's BirthDay and Time for Courage

2011-07-04 07:01PDT (10:01EDT) (14:01GMT) (17:01Jerusalem)
John Biggs _NYTimes_/_San Jose CA Mercury News_
Styluses making a come-back for sketching and writing on computer screens

2011-07-04
Kate Brumback _Atlanta GA Journal-Constitution_/_AP_
D.A. King key to crafting bill to curb illegal immigration

2011-07-04 15:00PDT (18:00EDT) (22:00GMT) (01:00Jerusalem)
Brandon Bailey _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Red Chinese company Huawei is counting on Sili Valley STEM talent

2011-07-04
Daniel Greenfield _Canada Free Press_
Why do we still celebrate Independence Day?
"Is it the independence from being ruled by an out-of-touch government thousands of miles away, taxed at their pleasure, and told to be grateful for it?   Is it home rule under our own elected officials who can't be trumped by the decision of some political appointees whom we never voted for?   A victory won by militias that don't exist anymore, on behalf of freedoms that are constantly under assault from the nation's own capital?   Is it at the very least—national freedom, to be part of an independent nation that does not have to follow the laws of other countries or be part of a larger union of nations?   Every generation the fireworks get bigger and we lose more freedoms..."

2011-07-04
Otis A. Glazebrook iv _Canada Free Press_
A conservative republican's conundrum
"One hundred and fifty years ago today President Lincoln sent a message to Congress (which he had purposely kept out of session since his inauguration) justifying the massive un-constitutional actions he had taken after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter on 1861 April 12th.   It is not an occasion for Constitutional conservative celebration because this message marks the beginning of the destruction of federalism as the Framers had intended in the construction the general government."

2011-07-04
general Canwell Jeffington _Canada Free Press_
A reflection on Independence Day

2011-07-04
Alan Caruba _Canada Free Press_
A very Reagan Independence Day

2011-07-04
Warner Todd Huston _Canada Free Press_
Harvard study says American patriotism does not appeal to leftists
Los Angeles CA Times

2011-07-04
_Fox_/_AP_
Arizona launching web site to gather donations for construction of border fence

2011-07-04
Holbrook Mohr _Houston TX Chronicle_/_AP_
Naturalized citizen faces 10-year sentence for harboring/transporting 9 illegal aliens along I-55
"3 of the illegal immigrants were male juveniles from Guatemala, Honduras and India."

2011-07-04
Rachel Feldman _U of Haifa_/_Eurekalert_/_AAAS_
Uncovering the kingdom of Israel at Tel Shikmona
"In addition to many findings dating back to the Kingdom of Israel (some 3K years ago), remains of a Persian city (2,400 years ago) and a Byzantine town (1,500 years ago) have been exposed at the site... Tel Shikmona, on the southern edge of Israel's city of Haifa..."

2011-07-04
Thomas Sowell _Murfreesboro TN Daily News Journal_/_Gannett_
US Constitution
Alexandria LA TownTalk
Gaston NC Gazette/Freedom
Covington News

2011-07-04
Hans Rollmann _Newfoundland Independent_
Employment of guest-workers increasing, but is it the right thing to do?
"When the Immigration Strategy was adopted in 2007, the provincial government dramatically increased its sponsorship of immigrants under the PNP -- from 105 nominations in 2007 to 253 the following year, an increase of 140%.   In 2010, the government nominated 309...   the Temporary Foreign Worker program has become the dominant mechanism for bringing foreign workers to most other provinces...   In recent years, as employers in other provinces began recruiting literally hundreds of thousands of foreign workers through this program, recruitment agencies have cropped up to act as go-betweens, supplying firms with ready armies of foreign workers once their application is approved.   Last year, Citizenship and Immigration Canada reported 1394 temporary foreign workers were present in Newfoundland and Labrador.   While only comprising 1.2% of all temporary foreign workers in Canada, this is a 52% increase from the provincial numbers 5 years ago...   Outside of the US and UK, [Red China] and the Philippines are the dominant suppliers of temporary workers to this province.   Although they're spread across a range of occupations and skill levels, the most common professions in which temporary foreign workers were employed (in 2010) were petroleum engineers, specialist physicians, cooks, food service counter attendants and food preparers.   There's also been a dramatic growth in nannies since 2007.   While the numbers are still small compared to other provinces (Ontario alone had almost 100K temporary foreign workers last year) use of temporary foreign workers stands poised to grow in Newfoundland and Labrador...   Dr. Doug May, an economist at Memorial University who specializes in labour mobility, also expects employers to look at the use of temporary foreign workers with growing interest...   'Human behavior is constant, so if you or I wanted a cheaper car or cheaper book, and we can get it in the USA, and there's no restrictions, we'll go to the USA.'...   Gil McGowan is the President of the Alberta Federation of Labour.   His province has experienced a dramatic growth in use of temporary foreign workers, from just over 20K five years ago to 57,774 in 2010 (it peaked at a high of over 65K in 2009).   Alberta's experience with the program, he says, was disastrous...   When a company in PEI was caught in 2008 making foreign workers do different jobs from those they'd been approved for, their government tabled legislation imposing harsher penalties on companies that violated the rules...   Lewis Efford is the owner and manager of Progressive Management Consulting, which among other services has recently begun forming partnerships with [foreign cross-border bodyshops] to provide [cheaper, more easily brow-beaten] temporary foreign workers to [executives and managers] that [want] them in Newfoundland and Labrador.   He's been in contact with Filipino, Jamaican and East European agencies, to supply workers in a range of professions from mechanics, truck drivers, and care-givers to health care professionals."

2011-07-04
Larisa Brass _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Former Agilent employees continue to work on nanotech locally

2011-07-04
William L. Anderson
Krugman's Keynesian cash con

2011-07-04
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
"Happy BirthDay!"... and thanks to some of those who made it possible
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-05

2011-07-05
Lorna Thackeray _Billings MT Gazette_
WW2 veteran remembers Italian campaign
"Chuck Hauptman of Billings holds a photograph of K Company, 85th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, taken in the spring of 1944 in Camp Hale, CO. Hauptman is the soldier in front with the long legs... Casualties for the division included 996 killed and more than 4K wounded in a 110 days of combat, Hauptman said."

2011-07-05
Stephanie Weaver _Cumberland county PA Sentinel_
Boy Scout troop 182 won final race in "Anything Floats" competition

2011-07-05 05:06PDT (08:05EDT) (12:05GMT) (15:06Jerusalem)
Jeremy Beck _Numbers USA_
What a difference 7M jobs would make in the USA
"Employers have illegally taken U.S. jobs out of the hands of 8M American workers; workers like the less-educated young adults profiled by CBS.   Only 4% of those jobs are in agriculture.   The rest are in industries where citizens and legal immigrant workers compete directly with illegal labor.   Most of these workers have less than a college education: 32% of the civilian labor force and 74% of the illegal labor force have a high-school education or less."

2011-07-05
Michelle Malkin _V Dare_
Obummer's highly-paid staff
GOP USA
"In total, President Obama's 454 employees at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. will rake in $37M.   That's up $4M from the income of George W. Bush's staff in 2008, back when the unemployment rate was 3 points lower, the federal government work-force was 12% smaller and the massive deficit was still measured in hundreds of billions, not trillions.   1 in 3 of Obama's employees makes more than $100K a year.   Of particular interest to me are the high-paid Obama aides assigned to the apparently vital task of 'engagement' -- that is, politicking, pandering and partisan cajoling -- on the [tax-victims'] dime."

2011-07-05
Chriss W. Street _Big Government_
Most NYTimes editors and writers will never appreciate Independence Day

2011-07-05
Patrick J. Buchanan _Town Hall_
Is US government default inevitable?: Obummer under-estimates debt by $9T

2011-07-05 (5771 Tamuz 03)
Frank J. Gaffney ii _Jewish World Review_
Obummer regime embracing the Muslim Brotherhood
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

2011-07-05 (5771 Tamuz 03)
Craig Welch & Mike Carter _Jewish World Review_
What Seattle's terrorism-inclined Muslims talk about when they think no one is listening

2011-07-05 (5771 Tamuz 03)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Gross Media Ignorance
Lew Rockwell
Town Hall
Gaston NC Gazette/Freedom
"There's little that's intelligent or informed about Time magazine editor Richard Stengel's article 'One Document, Under Siege' (2011 June 23).   It contains many grossly ignorant statements about our Constitution.   If I believed in conspiracies, I'd say Stengel's article is part of a leftist agenda to undermine respect for the founding values of our nation...   I agree the framers were not gods and were not infallible, but they had far greater wisdom and principle than today's politicians.   The framers held democracy and majority rule in deep contempt.   As a matter of fact, the term democracy appears in none of our founding documents.   James Madison argued that 'measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority'.   John Adams said: 'Remember, democracy never lasts long.   It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself.   There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.'   Stengel's majoritarian vision sees it as anti-democratic that South Dakota and California both have 2 senators, but the framers wanted to reduce the chances that highly populated states would run roughshod over thinly populated states.   They established the Electoral College to serve the same purpose in determining the presidency.   The framers recognized that most human abuses were the result of government.   As Thomas Paine said, 'government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil'.   Because of their distrust, the framers sought to keep the federal government limited in its power.   Their distrust of Congress is seen in the language used throughout our Constitution.   The Bill of Rights says Congress shall not abridge, shall not infringe, shall not deny and other shall-nots, such as disparage, violate and deny.   If the founders did not believe Congress would abuse our God-given, or natural, rights, they would not have provided those protections.   I've always argued that if we depart this world and see anything resembling the Bill of Rights at our next destination, we'll know we're in hell.   A bill of rights in heaven would be an affront to God.   Other founder distrust for government is found in the Constitution's separation of powers, checks and balances, and several anti-majoritarian provisions, such as the Electoral College, two-thirds vote to override a veto and the requirement that three-quarters of state legislatures ratify changes to the Constitution."

2011-07-05 (5771 Tamuz 03)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Politics versus Reality part1
One News Now
"It is hard to understand politics if you are hung up on reality. Politicians leave reality to others...   what has actually happened when tax rates were raised to high levels on 'the rich', as compared to what has actually happened when there have been 'tax cuts for the rich'...   at least 4 different administrations in the 20th century -- under Presidents Calvin Coolidge, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The empirical facts are there...   The first time this political battle was fought, during the Coolidge administration, the tax-cutters won. The data show that 'the rich' supplied less tax revenue to the government when the top income tax rate was 73% in 1921 than they supplied after the income tax rate was reduced to 24% in 1925... 'the rich' were much less affected by high tax rates than was the economy and the people who were looking for jobs. After the Coolidge tax cuts, the increased economic activity led to unemployment rates that ranged from a high of 4.2% to a low of 1.8%. But that is only a fact about reality...   Since there are various countries, such as Canada and Britain, that have the kind of government-controlled medical systems that some Americans advocate, you might think that there would be great interest in the quality of medical care in these countries. The data are readily available as to how many weeks or months people have to wait to see a primary care physician in such countries, and how many additional weeks or months they have to wait after they are referred to a surgeon or other specialist. There are data on how often their governments allow patients to receive the latest pharmaceutical drugs, as compared to how often Americans use such advanced medications. But supporters of government medical care show virtually no interest in such realities. Their big talking point is that the life expectancy in the United States is not as long as in those other countries. End of discussion, as far as they are concerned. They have no interest in the reality that medical care has much less effect on death rates from homicide, obesity, and narcotics addiction than it has on death rates from cancer or other conditions that doctors can do something about. Americans survive various cancers better than people anywhere else. Americans also get to see doctors much sooner for medical treatment in general."
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-06

2011-07-06
David Skolnick _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Tim Ryan introduced bill to fund STEM education

2011-07-05 19:26:29PDT (2011-07-05 22:26:29EDT) (2011-07-06 02:26:29GMT) (2011-07-06 05:26:29Jerusalem)
Nathan Olivarez-Giles _Los Angeles CA Times_/_San Jose CA Mercury News_
Red Chinese government thugs want to own a chunk of FB

2011-07-06
Zachary Roth _Yahoo!_
As recovery lags, executives prosper... and lobby for more

2011-07-06 13:21:37PDT (16:21:37EDT) (20:21:37GMT) (23:21:37Jerusalem)
_San Jose CA Mercury News_/_AP_
Some economists mistakenly believe the economy has been recovering for 2 years, now: Do you feel any better off yet?

2011-07-06
_FBI_
Former Customs and Border Patrol inspector sentenced to 204 months in federal prison for smuggling illegal aliens and drugs

2011-07-06 (5771 Tamuz 04)
Jeffrey Fleishman _Jewish World Review_
Muslim Brotherhood preparing for upcoming election by purging politicians considered too moderate
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

2011-07-06 (5771 Tamuz 04)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Politics versus Reality part2
Mufreesboro TN Daily News Journal/Gannett
GOP USA
Tennessean/Gannett
Investor's Business Daily
"In reality, the shovels were never ready.   It can take forever to get all the environmental approvals to build anything in today's political and legal climate.   If Obama didn't know that, his advisers surely did...   Even if the government creates a million jobs, that is not a net increase in jobs, when the money that pays for those jobs is taken from the private sector, which loses that much ability to create private jobs...   Rent control supposedly rescues helpless tenants from the high rents charged by 'greedy' landlords -- at least in political rhetoric.   But the 2 cities which have the oldest and strongest rent control laws in the country also have the highest rents -- New York and San Francisco.   Yet that plain reality has not made a dent in the thinking, or lack of thinking, of those who support rent control...   whether in these two cities or in other cities around the world [rent control has resulted in] housing shortages and a reduced supply of maintenance and other auxiliary services, such as heat and hot water.   Other forms of price control likewise lead to shortages, and have for literally thousands of years...   Far from being discouraged by such realities, those who believe in price control for housing often think price control for medicines and medical care is a great idea too.   We need not speculate as to what effects price controls can have on medicines and medical care because there are already shortages of both in countries where a government-controlled medical system includes price controls."
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-07

2011-07-07 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 416,798 in the week ending July 2, an increase of 10,165 from the previous week.   There were 470,366 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.8% during the week ending June 25, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,526,384, an increase of 14,968 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.4% and the volume was 4,309,375.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 18 was 7,459,561, a decrease of 61,327 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, 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, WA, and WV, during the week ending June 18.   States reported 3,256,523 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending June 18, a decrease of 44,183 from the prior week.   There were 4,160,150 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

2011-07-07 06:40PDT (09:40EDT) (13:40GMT) (16:40Jerusalem)
Julianne Pepitone _CNN_
CGC: 41,432 lay-offs announced in June
More cuts ahead
Carolyn Duffy Marsan: NetworkWorld/IDG
ComputerWorld New Zealand/IDG
Shobhana Chandra: Providence Business Journal/Bloomberg
Jason Raznick: Forbes
Chris Versace: Washington Times
Vancouver Sun
Kerri Panchuk: Housing Wire
Greg Robb: MarketWatch
Chicago IL Tribune
Mary Ann Milbourn: Orange county CA Register
Mark Williams: Columbus OH Dispatch
10,176 government and non-profit cuts
14,308 electronics, computers and telecommunications
the most high-tech lay-offs so far in 2011 are CA, CO, MN, IL, WA and NY, all of which have seen between 1,000 and 1,900 high-tech workers lose their jobs this year, but the national average has been 2,400 per month.
245,806 total year to date
77,951 government and non-profit cuts year to date
23,027 retail year to date
20,857 aerospace/defense year to date
11,734 financial services year to date
10,735 industrial goods year to date
Ohio 6,131 announced cuts year to date

2011-07-07 12:36PDT (15:36EDT) (19:36GMT) (22:36Jerusalem)
Lisa Gartner _Washington DC Examiner_
Prince George's county MD agreed to pay $4,222,146 in back wages to guest-teachers, but many will lose their visas
Sacramento CA Bee
PR News Wire/UBM
WJLA
Michael Alison Chandler: Washington DC Post
Rodney Jaleco: ABS-CBN
Abby Brownback: MD Gazette
Staffing Industry

2011-07-07
Michael Hight _Ennis TX Daily News_
More Gulen (Guelen) school hijinks
"The conservative Republican Texas legislature, in Senate Bill 1, passed in June, will guarantee the bonds sold by the private owners of charter schools.   Privately owned charter schools, for example, Harmony Charter Schools, will be authorized by the state of Texas to sell bonds to construct new school buildings...   The Texas Education Agency (TEA) acknowledges that Charter schools 'dump' low performing students and students with special needs.   They push these students out of their school.   Dr. Ed Fuller has been quoted saying, 'It's not hard to be exemplary if you lose all the kids who aren't performing.'   Harmony schools 'lose' an extraordinarily high number, about 50%, of their students in grades 6 through 8 according to Fuller, a University of Texas-Austin researcher.   Charter schools do not out perform our public schools.   They create havoc.   Charter schools that have closed still owe the state $21M because they exaggerated their enrollment numbers.   Besides their 'dumping' policies, Harmony Charter schools have been associated with the Gulan Islamic movement.   Harmony does not teach Islam in the schools, but their Gulan [Gulen/Guelen] associations are undeniable according to University of Oregon's Joshua Hendrick, Ph.D.   His research extensively studied the Gulanists and their worldwide operations...   Cosmos Foundation, Inc., owners of Harmony Schools hired Jennifer Sarver, of BursonMarsteller, one of the world's largest public relation firms.   Karen Hughes is Global Vice-Chair of BursonMarsteller.   This is a very expensive and high powered public relation effort.   Followers of the Gulan Movement operate banks, educational institutions, media, and business networks in more than 100 countries around the world.   The Cosmos Foundation, Inc. which operates the Harmony schools filed for 1,157 visas applications (H1-Bs) since 2001.   It has brought 731 administrators and teachers from Turkey using H1-Bs surpassing all other secondary education providers nationwide."

2011-07-07
Jason Overdorf _Global Post_
25% of "scientists" at India's top forensics lab had fraudulent credentials
"In the Aarushi case, for instance, the Central Bureau of Investigation has claimed that police in the New Delhi satellite town of Noida, Uttar Pradesh, destroyed as much as 90% of the crime scene evidence."

2011-07-07
Eric Peters _American Spectator_
The Obummer Car

2011-07-07
David Catron _American Spectator_
ObummerDoesn'tCare and Kagan's (and Sotomayor's) conflict of interest

2011-07-07 (5771 Tamuz 05)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
MAD in the 21st century: Nuclear-armed terrorists
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-08

2011-07-08
Sean O'Sullivan _Wilmington DE News Journal_/_Gannett_
Srinivas Doppalapudi and Rakesh Mandava accused of conspiracy, H-1B fraud, and mistreatment of guest-workers

2011-07-08 04:50PDT (07:50EDT) (11:50GMT) (14:50Jerusalem)
_BBC_
Islamic Boko Haram hit-squads in Nigeria

2011-07-08
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Unemployment rates suggest we have a long way to go
KGO San Francisco CA
Christopher S. Rugaber: Knoxville TN News Sentinel/AP
Steve Goldstein: MarketWatch: graphs of dysfunctional US labor markets
graphs

20011-07-08 07:41PDT (10:41EDT) (14:41GMT) (17:41 Jerusalem)
Lucian Constantin _SoftPedia_
naturalized-Chinese employee of CME Group arrested for software source-code theft
"The suspect, a 49-year-old Chinese-born US citizen named Chunlai Yang, from Libertyville, IL, was charged with one count of trade secrets theft, a felony offense carrying a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a fine of $250K.   Yang was arrested last Friday at the CME office in Chicago, where he worked since 2000 as a software engineer.   The CME Group operates derivatives exchanges in Chicago and New York and develops on-line trading platforms to support its market-places.   The company began monitoring Yang's work activity in May after noticing that thousands of confidential files were downloaded to his computer.   It was later established that many of them were copied to removable storage devices.   According to the FBI, the files contained protected source code critical to CME's operations.   Investigators also found that Yang exchanged multiple emails with the assistant director of the Logistics and Trade Bureau for the Zhangiagang Free Trade Zone, one of which had CME code attached.   The Zhangiagang Free Trade Zone is an inland river free trade zone located in [Red China's] Jiangsu province.   It is connected to the Yangtze River and was established in 1992 to strengthen the link between Chinese companies and the international market.   At the time of his arrest Yang had intentions to travel to [Red China].   He had a flight booked for July 7th that was departing from O'Hare International Airport."

2011-07-08
Anthony Mason _CBS_
Job market dysfunctionalities pre-dated the latest recession

2011-07-08
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Leftists' one-world government under third-world control
Commentary

2011-07-08
William L. Anderson
Economic Fallacies
"Notice what Krugman is saying: Government magically can do away with opportunity cost by spending...   it DOES matter where spending is directed and it is not a fallacy to emphasize that point."
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-07-08

DJIA	12,657.20
S&P 500(SPX)	1,343.80
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,859.81
Nikkei	10,137.73
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	3.02%
crude oil(CL1Q)	$96.20/barrel
natgas(NG11N)	$4.21/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1N)	$3.09/gal
heatingoil(HO1N)	$3.10/gal
gold(GC1Q)	$1,541.60/ounce
silver(SI1U)	$36.54/ounce
platinum(PL1V)	$1,733.40/ounce
palladium(PA1U)	$778.95/ounce
copper(HG1U)	$0.275625/ounce
soybeans	$13.4650/bushel
maize	$6.37/bushel
wheat	$6.5125/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)	75.179
yenperdollar(USDYEN)	80.65
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)	$1.4247
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)	$1.6037
swissfrancsperdollar	0.8449
indianrupeesperdollar	44.33
mexicanpesosperdollar(MXN)	11.6280
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	673.74

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-09
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-10

2011-07-10
Rana Foroohar _Time_
Fire the MBAs, Hire Engineers and let them run the business

2011-07-10
Jerry Day _Daley Gator_
Idiot meters and some of the many ways they are being abused

2011-07-10
Marc Parry _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Jason Kaufman and other Harvard socialists join in with "social networking" sites to violate privacy

2011-07-10
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Counter-productive government planning: The hubris of leftists

2011-07-10
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
More on another view of the Shenandoah Valley's Civil War: 345 USCT soldiers and counting
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-11

2011-07-11
Stephanie Overby _CIO_/_IDG_
Infosys visa investigation: Experts debate impact on American "IT" workers
"Some industry watchers predict that the probe could hamper the 'IT' [bodyshopping] industry's ability to use of a variety of guest worker and business travel visas, which in turn could lead these companies to hire more American IT workers...   Donna Conroy...'It's curtains for the corporate culture that has avoided hiring experienced, highly-skilled Americans and new science and technology grads whom we've paid dearly to educate.'"

2011-07-11
_KGO San Francisco CA_
California students may see another tuition increase

2011-07-11 10:39PDT (13:39EDT) (17:39GMT) (20:39Jerusalem)
Karina Rusk _KGO San Francisco CA_
Cisco confirmed that lay-offs of as many as 5K are coming next month
Brandon Bailey: San Jose CA Mercury News
Benjamin Pimentel: MarketWatch

2011-07-11
Jeffrey Selingo _Chronicle of Higher Education_
How will colleges innovate as the market is disrupted?

2011-07-11
Laura Rambeau Lee _Big Government_
Is the "International Baccalaureate" program co-opting your child?
"Although IB began as a secondary level education program, they now have 3 programs: the Primary Years Programme (PYP) beginning with children aged 3 to 12; the Middle Years Programme (MYP) for children from 11 to 16 years old; and the Diploma Programme (DP) for students from 16 through 19 years old.   The IB has been recognized as a non-government organization (NGO) of UNESCO since 1970 and currently has the status of 'formal consultative relations as a network' with UNESCO.   Representatives from IB participate regularly in UNESCO meetings and comment on UNESCO proposals in education in their Education for All initiative.   Although the IB programme initially began in private schools, today over half of all IB World Schools are state schools...   Today the IB has over 940K students in 3256 schools in over 140 countries.   In the United States, the Primary Years Programme is in 280 schools, the Middle Years Programme is in 445 schools, and the Diploma Programme is in 751 schools...   The International Baccalaureate Programme is selecting our best and brightest children at the most impressionable time in their lives to indoctrinate them into becoming good 'global citizens'...   Students have made many videos for their International Baccalaureate projects that can be found on youtube.   Watch a few of them.   What our children are subjected to in IB is absolutely chilling."

2011-07-11
Cathie Adams _Texas GOP Vote_
Liberty News

2011-07-11
Jed Babbin _American Spectator_
Beware of "if-then" budget deals
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-12

2011-07-11 21:01PDT (2011-07-12 00:01EDT) (2011-07-12 04:01GMT) (07:01Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
Multi-tasking: More work, less productivity
"There's growing evidence that multi-tasking may be hurting productivity and actually making workers worse thinkers -- and businesses need to re-examine goals in this area...   'It's unequivocally the case that workers who are doing multiple things at one time are doing them poorly.', said Clifford Nass, director of the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab at Stanford University."

2011-07-12 04:00PDT (07:00EDT) (11:00GMT) (14:00Jerusalem)
Christina Hernandez _Smart Planet_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
GIT discovered means to capture ambient energy to power electronics
"There is a significant amount of energy all the way from FM radio up to WiFi...   we developed extremely wide-band antennas.   We managed to do this in a very cost-effective and environmentally-friendly way.   We developed in-house ink jet printer technology where we can ink jet print circuits or metals on very low cost substrates like paper or plastic.   The third trick we utilized was finding efficient ways to keep storing this energy...   with most of the conventional scavenges, we get minuscule amounts of power -- about 10 to 50 microwatts.   We can push it almost all the way up to one milliwatt."

2011-07-12
James Walsh _News Max_
Illegal aliens strain education budgets

2011-07-12
_Hispanically Speaking News_
USA and Mexican governments resume program to encourage illegal aliens to return to their homes in Mexico
"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior announced Monday that the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program (MIRP) -- a bilateral, voluntary program that ensures the safe return of Mexican nationals found to be unlawfully in the Sonora Arizona desert region of the United States to their places of residence in the Mexican interior -- has resumed for the eighth consecutive summer."

2011-07-12
Peter H. Milliken _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Oakhill defendants feel exonerated with dismissal of charges

2011-07-12 07:33PDT (10:33EDT) (14:33GMT) (17:33Jerusalem)
Jeffry Bartash _MarketWatch_
US trade deficit increased to $50.2G in May

2011-07-12 12:53PDT (15:53EDT) (19:53GMT) (22:53Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_
18 "IT" workers replaced by H-1B guest-workers sue Cognizant and Molina HealthCare
"In the law-suit, the 18 workers say that 'IT' managers at Molina Healthcare Inc. increasingly catered to the Indian workers while leaving U.S. workers, mostly security analysts and programmers who earned at least $75K a year, feeling excluded prior getting laid off last year.   The law-suit, filed in April in Los Angeles Superior Court against Molina, its CIO at the time, and Molina's out-sourcer [bodyshopper], Cognizant Technology Solutions, contends that over a period of several years the U.S. workers were marginalized as the 'IT' department became dominated by Indian nationals...   For instance, the workers describe an 'IT' department that took to celebrating Indian holidays, while Indian managers 'actively discouraged U.S. workers from celebrating U.S. holidays and traditions, such as Christmas, the Fourth of July [Independence Day] and Thanksgiving, by assigning mandatory work that, in order to be timely completely, required work during holidays traditionally celebrated in America'.   The law-suit says that non-Indian workers were kept from participating in critical decision making processes 'for the purpose of putting them at a disadvantage to the employees of Indian descent'.   It also charges that the IT management team only hired and promoted Indian nationals.   Some meetings that had long been conducted in English, would 'on many occasions' be conducted in 'the native language of Indian employees', the law-suit contends.   The law-suit makes a number of charges, including discrimination based on national origin.   'The IT department was known as little India.', said James Otto, an attorney for the 18 former Molina IT employees.   The 18 workers were among 40 that were laid off in 2010 January.   The 18 workers that filed suit claim the lay-offs were made to make room for H-1B workers."
Jimbo Wales's wikiPedia on Unisys/2010-01-19: Register: Unisys jettisons Medicare processing Health Information Management service to Molina Healthcare for $135M."

2011-07-12 13:45PDT (16:45EDT) (20:45GMT) (23:45Jerusalem)
Daniel Indiviglio _Atlantic_
Federal vs. state and local government jobs

2011-07-12
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
Economists say that farm subsidies should be cut
Sara Sciammacco: Environmental Wacko Group
"Crop insurance, a $6.5G-a-year federal program, was costing Americans plenty as private companies collected more to administer the program than farmers were paid and farmers took inadvisable risks knowing federal insurance would come through if their fields failed.   'In the U.S.A., in the federal crop insurance program, the people who deliver the program, the private insurance companies, receive $1.44 for every $1 that goes to farmers.', Smith said...   However most subsidies are paid to large farmers and the overall success rate of the farmer is strong compared to other businesses.   One in 200 farms fails annually, while the rate for Main Street businesses is 10 times that, Smith said."

2011-07-12
David Roberts _US DoL OPA_
tools to help include DoL data feeds in mobile apps released

2011-07-12
Theresa Minton-Eversole _Society for Human Resource Management_
NACE: new grads' salary offers up 4.8% from this time last year

2011-07-12
Joe Weisenthal _Business Insider_
US trade deficit (graph)

2011-07-12 (5771 Tamuz 10)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
3 unlearned lessons about appeasement may, yet again, cause massive loss of life
"Five years ago this week, Iran's Lebanese proxy opened war with Israel.   The war lasted 34 days, during which Hezbollah launched more than 4K missiles against Israel...   Today, Hezbollah is not simply in charge of Israel's former security zone in South Lebanon.   It is in charge of all of Lebanon.   The Hezbollah-controlled government controls all aspects of the Lebanese state that it wishes.   These include the military, the telecommunications networks, and the international borders, airports and sea ports, among other things.   Today, Hezbollah has not merely refilled its depleted missile arsenals.   It has tripled the size of its missile arsenals.   In 2006, IAF strikes in the first 24 hours of the war knocked out all of Hezbollah's long-range missiles.   Today, not only have those stocks been replenished, Hezbollah's arsenal includes missiles with ranges covering all of Israel, with larger payloads and many with guidance systems...   you can't convince terrorists to lay down their arms simply by walking away.   Israel withdrew from its security zone in southern Lebanon in 2000.   The withdrawal was a precursor to its withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.   In 2006, Israel was attacked from both territories."

2011-07-12 (5771 Tamuz 10)
Saeed Shah _Jewish World Review_
Pakistan jailed doctor who secretly collected DNA to confirm bin Laden's presence before raid

2011-07-12 (5771 Tamuz 10)
Hector Becerra & Paloma Esquivel _Jewish World Review_
Illegal alien castaways called police from Channel Islands
"Smugglers increasingly are ferrying illegal immigrants -- and drugs -- by sea to Southern California.   But in an effort to evade dragnets close to the San Diego-Mexico border, they have traveled farther north.   In the last few months, there have been 2 or 3 smuggling operations a week discovered from Orange County north, immigration officials said.   Boats leaving Mexican waters often head 100 miles out to sea before turning north, putting them on the west side of the Channel Islands, said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's [ICE's] homeland security investigations."

2011-07-12 (5771 Tamuz 10)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Unknown Unknowns
"Secretary Rumsfeld pointed out that there are some things that we know that we know.   He called those 'known knowns'.   We may, for example, know how many aircraft carriers some other country has.   We may also know that they have troops and tanks, without knowing how many.   In Rumsfeld's phrase, that would be an 'unknown known' -- a gap in our knowledge that we at least know exists.   Finally, there are things we don't even know exist, much less anything about them.   These are 'unknown unknowns' -- and they are the most dangerous...   Unfortunately, our own government creates uncertainties that can paralyze the economy, especially when these uncertainties take the form of 'unknown unknowns'.   The short-run quick fixes that seem so attractive to so many politicians, and to many in the media, create many unknowns that make investors reluctant to invest and employers reluctant to employ.   Politicians may only look as far ahead as the next election, but investors have to look ahead for as many years as it will take for their investments to start bringing in some money...   Since 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal, 'the U.S.A. has lost more than $200G in investment capital'.   They add: 'That is the equivalent of about 2M jobs that don't exist on these shores and are now located in places like China, Germany and India.'"
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-13

2011-07-13
Mike Pare _Chattanooga TN Times Free Press_/_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Chattanooga has a shot at getting Audi plant: VW subsidiary plans US factory

2011-07-13
_Economy in Crisis_
The WTO Now Controls Our Economy, Fate and Future

2011-07-13 12:50PDT (15:50EDT) (19:50GMT) (22:50Jerusalem)
Jennifer Waters _MarketWatch_
Groupon is yet another privacy violation gimmick

2011-07-13
Lauren McLane _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
Insane "road diet" project is not yet complete

2011-07-13
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
California is the radical leftist model for the USA
Tami Luhby: CNN: Companies fleeing the Golden State
"Officials in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and Utah are telling California firms how business-friendly they are in comparison.   Companies are 'disinvesting' in California at a rate 5 times greater than just 2 years ago, said Joseph Vranich, a business relocation expert based in Irvine.   This includes leaving altogether, establishing divisions elsewhere or opting not to set up shop in California."

2011-07-13
Peter Ferrara _American Spectator_
Reaganomics is the only reasonable answer

2011-07-13
Aaron Klein _World Net Daily_
Mother of Hillary's chief of staff linked to terrorists

2011-07-13
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Fed debases the dollar, inflates stock market prices

2011-07-13
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Climategate: A summary review
William Happer: First Things: The Truth About Greenhouse Gases: The dubious science of the warmists

2011-07-13 (5771 Tamuz 11)
Andrew Silow-Carroll _Jewish World Review_
Past and present imperfect: time travel movies

2011-07-13 (5771 Tamuz 11)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Failing Liberty 101
"Instead of commitment to a nation-state, 'loyalties...are moving to trans-national communities defined by many different ways: by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, and sexual orientation'.   This law professor's vision is shared by many educators who look to 'global citizenship' as the proper aim of civics instruction, de-emphasizing attachment to any particular country, such as the United States, pointing out that our primary obligation should be to the universal ideals of human rights and justice.   To be patriotic to one's own country is seen as suspect because it may turn into a militant chauvinism or a dangerous 'my country, right or wrong' vision.   The ignorance about our country is staggering.   According to one survey, only 28% of students could identify the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.   Only 26% of students knew that the first 10 amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights.   Fewer than one-quarter of students knew that George Washington was the first president of the United States.   Discouraging young Americans from identifying with their country and celebrating our traditional American quest for liberty and equal rights removes the most powerful motivation to learn civics and U.S. history.   After all, Damon asks, 'why would a student exert any effort to master the rules of a system that the student has no respect for and no interest in being part of?   To acquire civic knowledge as well as civic virtue, students need to care about their country'...   The fact that Obama became president and brought openly Marxist people into his administration doesn't say so much about him as it says about the effects of decades of brain-washing of the American people by the education establishment, media and the intellectual elite."
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-14

2011-07-14 05:27PDT (08:27EDT) (12:27GMT) (15:27Jerusalem)
Cathy Reeder _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Effort to help boy learn to read and write English leads to classes for parents
"When school let out in June, Edna Morales got the notice that broke her heart.   Her son Alonso, 7, had failed first grade at Hobe Sound Elementary School.   A clearly bright boy, his limited grasp of reading and writing in English had held him back.   Her even more limited English held back her efforts to fix the problem."

2011-07-14 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 470,671 in the week ending July 9, an increase of 45,031 from the previous week.   There were 515,991 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.8% during the week ending July 2, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,514,148, a decrease of 41,683 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.5% and the volume was 4,384,591.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 25 was 7,484,894, an increase of 25,333 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, 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, WA, and WV, during the week ending June 25.   States reported 3,234,115 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending June 25, a decrease of 22,408 from the prior week.   There were 3,907,004 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;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-07-14
Mike Pare _Chattanooga TN Times Free Press_
ADM breaking ground for wareouse and terminal facility
"The ADM deal along with other projects such as Volks-wagen and Amazon at Enterprise South leaves just the 65 acres uncommitted and for sale, according to Paul Parker, Hamilton County's real property manager.   VW has 1,340 acres on which it used part of the parcel to build its new 1.2M-square-foot factory.   The German automaker also has an option for about 1,200 more acres, Parker said.   Internet giant Amazon took 80 acres at Enterprise South for its 1M-square-foot distribution center, which is now going up and slated to open before Christmas.   Also, the city opened a 2,800-acre nature park on land deemed too hilly for industrial development and which acts as a buffer between the VW plant and Interstate 75."

211-07-14 11:44PDT (14:44EDT) (18:44GMT) (21:44Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Rural/Metrol Corp. sale to Warburg Pincus LLC completed
"Rural/Metro provides emergency and non-emergency ambulance services and private fire protection services in 20 states and approximately 450 communities throughout the United States."

2011-07-14
Aaron Goldstein _American Spectator_
Obummer's Socialist Insecurity

2011-07-14
Matthew Vadum _American Spectator_
Lexix/Nexis indicates ACORN is $162,813 behind in extortion payments to governments

2011-07-14
George Neumayr _American Spectator_
Obummer's debt

2011-07-14
Ernest Istook _Heritage_
federal government debt: lessons from history

2011-07-14
Alfred Regnery _Town Hall_
mending Thomas Jefferson's regrets about lack of prohibition against federal government debt

2011-07-14
Ken Blackwell _American Spectator_
How to solve our growth and jobs deficit
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-15

2011-07-14 20:32PDT (2011-07-14 23:32EDT) (2011-07-15 03:23GMT) (06:32Jerusalem)
Jeff Campbell _WCNC_
Former UNCC employee of the year charged with harboring illegal aliens and fraud
"The man who was once honored as the 2001 UNCC Employee of the Year now faces a felony charge for allegedly helping approximately 66 international students falsify their student visas to allow them to stay in the United States.   According to court records filed in US District Court, Thomas C. Briggs is accused of concealing, harboring and shielding foreign nationals from detection in reckless disregard of the fact that those foreigners had entered and remained in the United States in violation of the law.   Briggs was an administrative support specialist in the Office of International Programs.   He worked at UNCC from 1992 until June of 2009, according to University officials, although the alleged crimes did not begin until sometime in 2007.   Briggs allegedly entered false information into a government database known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.   According to court records, he entered information into the database to indicate that foreign nationals were in compliance with their F-1 student visas, when in fact, they were not."

2011-07-15
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
S&E work-force work-shop, 2011 July 11
 
see update
 
I was in DC this past Monday, July 11 -- very briefly, as usual -- for a one-day work-shop held at Georgetown University, sponsored by the Sloan Foundation.   I'll omit the rather uninformative title, and instead give you the blurb:
 
The purpose of this work-shop is to review projections of the demand for and supply of science and engineering (S&E) workers, regulations governing the admission of foreign S&E workers and employers, and hiring patterns in S&E labor markets.   The work-shop will discuss how projections are made and evaluated; current OPT, H-1B and PERM regulations and proposed changes; S&E employer hiring patterns and S&E worker experience over the business cycle.   We plan another work-shop on the impacts of foreign S&E students and workers.
 
The attendees (by invitation only) could be described as the Who's Who of DC policy-makers related to the above issues.   While I won't name them individually (no, they weren't wearing bags over their heads, but I'll keep them anonymous for reasons given below), I'll state that they were from agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security [DHS], the National Science Foundation [NSF], the Government Accountability Office [GAO], the Congressional Research Service [CRS] and the "shadow-governmental" National Research Council [NRC]/National Academy of Sciences [NAS].   There were also several of us from academia, as well as several professional advocates -- one from organized labor, one from the business community who specializes in matters such as H-1B, and one from a think tank allied with the immigration lawyers.   There was even a student intern who is working with a presidential council on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) matters.
 
The work-shop was conducted under Chatham House Rules, meaning that one may report what was said but not who said it.   And I'm going to err on the side of being a bit more circumspect than I probably need to be under those rules, by not listing the names of the participants.   Otherwise some cogniscenti readers of this e-news-letter might be able to deduce the identities of those who made statements I mention here.
 
(OTOH, several long-time readers were present at the work-shop, and a couple of new ones.   I've also cc-ed one of the organizers.   So if I misreport something, please let me know, and I will post a correction, again without attribution.)
 
I have posted an updated version of the full paper I wrote for the work-shop (pdf).
 
The topic of my presentation concerned the fact that, contrary to current "conventional wisdom" in DC, use of H-1B and employer-sponsored green cards for reduction of labor costs (read "cheap labor") is commonplace among main-stream U.S. firms; it is NOT only a problem among the Indian-owned bodyshops.   I've written quite a bit here about this misperception in DC, but I must admit that even I was surprised on Monday as to how solidly entrenched this thinking is among policy-makers.   Much of my posting here will thus cover this point, but there are other issues well worth mentioning, which I will do first.
 
Perhaps most remarkable was the discussion of "diverted" STEM grads, an odd term meaning the workers who wind up in careers that do not make hands-on use of their STEM education.   Quite contrary to the constant claims made by the industry lobbyists that insufficiently many American students major in STEM fields in college, an extensively-researched 2007 Urban Institute report showed that in fact we are producing more STEM graduates than there are job openings in the field.   This had been known in various senses previously, but the Urban Institute report really attracted attention.   You can read my reviews of the study: review 1 and review 2.
 
The "diverted" STEM graduates sometimes go into jobs in which their education has some value, though not directly applied, such as a molecular biology grad doing analysis of biotech stocks for a mutual fund.   Or they might end up in jobs totally unrelated to their STEM education.
 
One of the speakers made a highly provocative remark on the "diverted" graduates.   Referring to the fact that one can make a lot more money by going into non-STEM careers (law, MBA, financial industry, etc.) if one has excellent analytical skills, the speaker said, "If you're good at math, you'd be crazy to go into a STEM career."
 
All the policy-makers present understood, and none challenged him on the point.   But several saw no problem in it.   One even said that the "diverted" STEM grads don't care whether they are in jobs that make direct use, or even any use at all, of STEM.   A job is a job, under this viewpoint.
 
I was quite taken aback by such remarks.   True, there are some STEM students who are not enthusiastic about their fields; many engineering students are in the major only due to parental pressure and the like.   Yet it should be obvious that the people who really contribute -- the ones we want to make use of their training -- are passionate about their work; they do NOT feel that "a job is a job".   To whatever degree these people are diverted (and I know many examples, apparently including one of the work-shop participants on Monday), we -- our nation and even the world -- lose.
 
I asked the speaker who made the "you'd have to be crazy" remark if the gap in salaries between, say, MBAs and physics researchers, was in part due to the H-1B and green card programs flooding the market.   He flatly denied it.   Since it's an obvious fact, recognized by the NSF, NRC etc. (see below) but obvious even without formal explanation, his denial was interesting.   I'm not sure how he was viewing it.
 
During my talk, I brought up the late 80s NSF internal report that said, in essence,
 
STEM PhD salaries are too high, so let's bring in a lot of foreign students to flood the market and keep wages down.   By the way, the resulting stagnant salaries will drive the American students away from STEM into law and MBA programs.
 
(I've paraphrased here, and will bring in the exact wording below.)   I commented, "Well, there are some NSFers here, so it will be interesting to see how they view this."   Indeed, one of them, whom I've known a bit for years, protested that the report hadn't actually said that, and that it wasn't the "smoking gun" that people had portrayed it to be.   At that point, another participant, who knows the history of the NSF statement in more detail than I, interjected, "I can respond to that."   He then explained that there were several reports, and that the one this NSFer had seen was not the inflammatory one; another of the reports did in fact express the opinions I've summarized above.
 
For those of you who haven't seen this yet (even if you have, I'm quoting more extensively here than I have before), I'll quote the exact phrasing below.   It will be important to other remarks I make later.
 
[Thus, to] the extent that increases in foreign student enrollments in doctoral programs decline or turn negative for reasons other than state or national policies it may be in the national interest to actively encourage foreign students. One way to do this is to ensure that foreign students have equal access to graduate student support funds provided through federal agencies. Another approach is to grant permanent resident status or immigrant status to foreign students successfully completing PhD degrees at U.S. institutions...
 
A growing influx of foreign PhDs into U.S. labor markets will hold down the level of PhD salaries...   [The Americans] will select alternative career paths...by choosing to acquire a "professional" degree in business or law, or by switching into management as rapidly as possible after gaining employment in private industry...[as] the effective premium for acquiring a PhD may actually be negative.
 
(Taken from Eric Weinstein, How and Why Government, Universities, and Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers, NBER, 1998)
 
One of the academics there, who jokingly described himself as "a member of the Economic Right", said that he was sure that the tech industry's fondness of the H-1B visa is motivated by a desire for cheap labor.   However, he said that that was fine with him, as it resulted in cheaper tech goods for consumers.   I questioned whether software labor costs contribute much to the retail price of, say MSFT Office, but in any case, there is a fundamental question as to whether we want to see our "good" jobs fall victim to this.
 
One of the participants from the NSF expressed the opinion that having a large number of foreign students (and by extension, having liberal H-1B and green card programs, which draw the foreign students here) is good, because it enables a lot of "third tier universities" to keep their doctoral programs afloat.   This is counter to the well-established fact that we are producing too many PhDs (whether foreign or domestic), and certainly at odds with the industry lobbyists' claim that the foreign students are all "the best and the brightest".
 
Now, let's return to the issue of the Indian-owned bodyshops, which I'll refer to as IBs for brevity.   As I mentioned earlier, my own presentation showed that the main-stream U.S. firms use H-1Bs for cheap labor too.   The main-stream companies do tend to hire a higher class of workers, but still they are paying the H-1Bs less than they would pay Americans (U.S. citizens and permanent residents) of similar quality.   Here's a summary of one of my analyses:
 
I first showed why gaping loop-holes in the legal prevailing wage -- the minimum legal pay for H-1Bs and green card sponsorees -- is 15% or more below true market rate (considerably more if age is accounted for).   I pointed out that the fact that the legal prevailing wage is lower than the true market wage this had also been found before by the GAO, etc.   I then presented green card data showing that at least half of the sponsorees were being paid only the prevailing wage.   Since research of others has shown that almost none of the green card sponsors are IBs, that implies that at least half of the non-IB, i.e. mainstream firm, foreign workers are being paid below-market wages.   I also presented other statistics showing this.
 
Though it never explicitly says so, the recently-introduced Lofgren IDEA Act (HR2161) is very much focused on the IBs.   I mentioned this in the work-shop, only to find that everyone already seemed to be aware of it.   Indeed, they seemed to understand that this was in fact the point of the Lofgren bill.
 
There turned out to be a lively discussion of the role of the IBs in H-1B reform at the end of the day.   The work-shop lasted a full day (plus an evening dinner, very enjoyable).   At the end, the three organizers gave summaries.   Two of them highlighted the issue of the IBs, stating that this was a priority issue in reform of H-1B.   And I believe I'm correct in stating that one of those 2 organizers regarded the IBs as THE issue for reform.
 
Various other speakers and participants had made similar statements during the day.   One of them, another academic, was quite surprised when I mentioned to him during a break (and before my talk) that the main-stream U.S. firms use H-1B for cheap labor too, i.e. that it is wrong to view the IBs as the main abusers of the program.   His surprise illustrated just how much this view is taken for granted in DC and related circles.
 
One of the summarizers mentioned that the people who had written the H-1B statute had never anticipated that H-1B would be used by the IBs.   I asked him, though, what's so bad about that?   Why is it OK for Intel, say, to hire an H-1B directly, but not OK for Intel to rent an H-1B from Infosys, a large IB?
 
A number of people had ready answers to this, and spoke up immediately in response to my question.   Their reasons why reform legislation should focus on IBs included: the IBs (especially the small mom-and-pop outfits) have a higher than average rate of violating H-1B law; they are involved in using H-1Bs for off-shoring; it's harder to monitor the H-1Bs who work for the IBs, since they are essentially working for 2 employers; the IB business model specializes in providing cut-rate workers; and the IB business model does not follow a desirable "social net" (presumably meaning workers who will establish roots in the U.S.A.).
 
One can debate the merits of those and other issues involving IBs, but that doesn't mean that one should craft legislation that focuses almost exclusively on the IBs (as the recently introduced Lofgren bill does).   If my findings that the U.S. [main-stream] firms are also using the H-1B program for cheap labor are valid, why should it matter that the U.S. firms are under-paying foreign workers with U.S. Master's degrees while the IBs are under-paying foreign workers with Indian Bachelor's degrees?   The bottom line remains that American workers with U.S. Master's degrees have having their wages and job opportunities under-cut by the H-1B program.
 
So, why the disconnect?   Why are the policy-makers satisfied to only go after the IBs?   Undoubtedly, part of it stems from the adage, "politics is the art of the possible".   The IBs do have influence in Congress, but it pales in comparison to the clout of the big mainstream U.S. firms.   It's easier to clip the wings of the Infosyses than the Intels (though even under the Lofgren bill, the Infosyses would still be able to operate pretty much as before).
 
But it's more than that.   I've been writing about this subject since around 1994, and I've observed that many people support H-1B out of an admiration for the tech industry.   One researcher at the work-shop mentioned Google several times, saying something along the lines of, "We need to reform H-1B in a manner that keeps the Googles."   While his choice of example is misguided -- Sergey Brin came to the U.S.A. as a family immigrant at age 6, not as an H-1B or foreign student, and the idea for Google's PageRank search algorithm came from U.S.-born Larry Page, not Brin -- it's clear what he meant: Yes, the main-stream U.S. firms want cheap labor too, but we can forgive that because they also hire foreign geniuses, the reasoning goes.
 
I have always supported facilitating the immigration of "the best and the brightest", but very few of the H-1Bs are in the league, as I show in a paper that is (hopefully) coming out soon; by almost any measure, the H-1Bs, including those with U.S. degrees, are similar to the Americans.   Meanwhile, as information above shows (especially the NSF document), and the "you'd have to be crazy" remark so colorfully expresses, the H-1B and employer-sponsored green cards programs are resulting in an internal brain drain in the U.S., with stagnant wages driving bright U.S. kids away from STEM.
 
I pointed out in the work-shop that American creativity is our only comparative advantage.   The rest of the world is just as smart as we are, and they work just as hard.   Even the much-vaunted American research university system is not really better than the best in other countries (even if our research quantity is higher).   But our culture does produce more innovative people, and we are importing workers from countries whose governments fret their people are insufficiently creative.   Thus the internal brain represents a net loss to us.
 
It's noteworthy that the NSF document, written more than 20 years ago, not only forecast correctly that the suppression of salaries would drive out the Americans, but also suggested luring the foreign students with automatic green cards.   The latter proposal, of course, is quite popular in DC circles today, and is a feature of the Lofgren bill.   Yet the NSF's reasoning shows exactly why this is not a good idea.
 
The H-1Bs employed by the IBs account for only 12% of all the H-1Bs, according to the Washington Post.   That's a substantial chunk, yes, but since the abuse is widespread, targeting only the IBs is unwarranted.
 
Norm
---30---

2011-07-15
Joseph Cress _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
Historical marker for WW2 POW interrogation camp, Camp Michaux, to be unveiled

2011-07-15 08:07PDT (11:07EDT) (15:07GMT) (18:07Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index plunged from 71.5 in June to 63.8 in early July
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis

2011-07-15
Joe Weisenthal _Business Insider_
Debt instruments (graph)

2011-07-15
Julie Reiser _Trade Reform_
WTO favors fraud, comes out against honest Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

2011-07-15
_CSIRO_/_Eurekalert_/_AAAS_
Forests, alone, consume one-third of fossil fuel combustion products

2011-07-15
Saritha Rai _Silicon_
Indian bodyshop execs aise stink over data privacy rules
"Under new privacy rules, all companies operating in India will have to obtain prior written consent by letter, fax or e-mail before collecting personal data.   The written consent clause will make India's privacy laws more stringent than the EU data privacy directive or the US Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act [which is not saying much], said Atul Vashistha, chairman of Pleasanton, California-based consulting firm Neo Group, in an alert to clients."

2011-07-15 (5771 Tamuz 13)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Caution: Storm Approaching

2011-07-15 (5771 Tamuz 13)
Mark Clayton _Jewish World Review_
Pentagon unveils some of its new cyber-strategy
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-07-15

DJIA	12,479.73
S&P 500(SPX)	1,316.14
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,789.80
Nikkei	9,972.59
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	2.91%
crude oil(CL1Q)	$97.24/barrel
natgas(NG11Q)	$4.55/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1Q)	$3.13/gal
heatingoil(HO1Q)	$3.12/gal
gold(GC1Q)	$1,590.10/ounce
silver(SI1U)	$39.07/ounce
platinum(PL1V)	$1,755.50/ounce
palladium(PA1U)	$780.65/ounce
copper(HG1U)	$0.275625/ounce
soybeans	$13.87/bushel
maize	$6.85/bushel
wheat	$6.9475/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)	75.13
yenperdollar(USDYEN)	79.11
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)	$1.4149
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)	$1.6136
swissfrancsperdollar	0.8128
indianrupeesperdollar	44.52
mexicanpesosperdollar(USDMXN)	11.743
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	649.46

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-16

2011-07-16
Jessica Bruder _Axcess_/_Christian Science Monitor_
The price of gold
"And then they appeared: a constellation of glowing flecks, none larger than the head of a pin.   It's hard to believe that crumbs like these have obsessed humankind through the ages, but such is the history of gold -- indeed, the price of gold, which has become a parallel global power of sorts.   Treasure hunters have sought the rare yellow metal since the dawn of civilization.   In 3600BCE, gold was first smelted by the Egyptians, who believed it was the flesh of the gods.   The Greek poet Pindar called gold 'a child of Zeus', adding that 'neither moth or rust devoureth it, but the mind of man is devoured by this supreme possession'...   cattle, which preceded gold as a widely accepted unit of wealth.   (Gold's value was originally pegged to the worth of cows.   The Latin word for money, 'pecunia', comes from 'pecus', which means cattle, while the Indian 'rupee' is derived from 'rupa', or cattle in Sanskrit.   ['Salary' from salt.])"

2011-07-16
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
"Talent shortage" whining from trucking industry

2011-07-16
Will Weissert & Christopher Shermman _Star-Telegram_/_McClatchy_/_AP_
More illegal aliens from India are entering USA illegally
Fox

2011-07-16
Rob Sanchez _V Dare_/_Job Destruction News-Letter_
H-1B: The Wrong Prescription for Pharmacists

2011-07-16
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
3 generations of Conrads from Winchester VA
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-17

2011-07-17
Brenda Walker _V Dare_
Visa mill scams are profitable in Sili Valley
"Washington curiously allows student visas for unaccredited schools, despite the obvious scam appeal, and the result is rubber-stamping visas for dollars.   Lots of dollars, as more foreign students are admitted.   Most of the visa grifters come to rip off American jobs, but the permissiveness also attracts terrorists.   One example is Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, a Saudi student arrested in February on charges that he planned to build bombs for terror attacks inside the United States.   More than 26K Saudis got F-1 and F-2 visas in 2010, up from 6836 in 2001, based on the kumbaya idea (from George Bush and the State Department) that increased numbers of Saudis educated in the US would mean better relations and less jihad."
Lisa M. Krieger: San Jose CA Mercury News

2011-07-17
Shivani Shinde _Business Standard of India_
In face of increasing rejections of H-1B visa applications due to fraud and other issues, TCS will simply sponsor more applicants
"Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest information technology (IT) [cross-border bodyshop and off-shoring firm], says visa rejections have gone up significantly compared to a few years ago.   Other than increasing local hiring in the US, it also plans to increase applications under the H-visa category in its bid to counter the rise in visa rejection.   'If you compare the visa rejections to the last two years, then it has gone up.   I would say 2 years back, visa rejection would be in the sub-10% level.   But now, they are upwards of 20% [comparable to the 21% fraud level found by GAO a couple years ago].   Since the overall environment is uncertain, we have seen the rules being tightened.   Moreover, while the guidelines have remained the same, it is the question of application of these guidelines that is leading to rejection.', said Ajoy Mukherjee, head -- global human resources, TCS...   TCS will also visit 10 to 15 campuses in the USA to hire freshers, a practice that it started in 2008.   'We are looking at a range of 250 fresh hires in the US...'...   TCS will add 17K to 20K freshers [young, inexperienced, low-skilled, cheap candidates] in the second quarter.   It will add maximum freshers in the next 2 quarters.   The company's head-count crossed the 200K mark this quarter at 202,190.   It is targeting to hire 60K people this financial year."
Tata median salaries by city

2011-07-17
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Off the "war-path", and on the river

20011-07-17
Damon Horowitz _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Why you should quit your tech job and get a PhD in humanities

2011-07-17
_China Daily_/_People's Daily On-Line_
Talent shortage a bottleneck for auto industry
"Despite the rapid growth of the auto sector in recent years, the country still lags far behind auto powers Germany, Japan and the United States in technology, development environment, innovation and talents, said Fu Yuwu, vice chairman with the Society..."

2011-07-17
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
The despot's heel, or a good swift kick from the tip of the boot?

2011-07-17
William L. Anderson
America's Bourbons: Krugman and Reich
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-18

2011-07-18
Angeli Sabilo _POC_
Hundreds of Filipino guest-teachers protest at US DoL against ban for Prince George's county to renew or sponsor more guest-teachers
IndyBay
"The PGCPS has already agreed to pay back $4.2M in backwages but will still be debarred for 2 years from 'filing new petitions, requests for extensions or requests for permanent residency of foreign workers'.   Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said 'the Labor Department has the responsibility for ensuring that employers who use the H-1B program follow the law and do not place U.S. workers at a disadvantage to H-1B workers'."

2011-07-18
_Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Canfield native watched as shuttle refueling device was tested

2011-07-18
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Fraudulent-ID mill discovered in Ohio

2011-07-18
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
How many illegal aliens are there in the USA?
"In 1986, under the Immigration Regulation and Control Act, President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to the nation's illegal alien population.   At the time, we were told that population was about 1.5M.   However, amnesty was actually granted to 3M of those who crossed our borders illegally.   Washington arbitrarily estimates that every year since 1986, 500K illegal aliens take up residence in this country, either by over-staying their visa or by crossing into this country illegally.   Additionally, they believe that the 1M illegal aliens who did not qualify for the 1986 Amnesty (many were criminals), simply stayed anyway.   When you multiply 500K by 25 years, then add the additional million criminal aliens to the total, you have 13.5M illegal aliens.   Then, in 2010, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the number of illegal aliens in the United States had dropped to only 10.8M...   Between 1987 and 2005, the average annual number of apprehensions made at the U.S./Mexican border was roughly 1.3M, with arrests reaching a peak of 1.6M in 2000.   Over the last few years, that number has dropped.   Between 2006 and 2010, the average annual number of apprehensions was roughly 650K...   'We're about 33% effective.   It's like shoveling sand against the tide.', said Bonner.   So, using Bonner's rather conservative estimate, 41.8M illegal aliens have entered the U.S. since the 1986 amnesty."
graphs of visa statistics

2011-07-18
Matthew McLaughlin _Cumberland Pa Sentine_
Options for dealing with structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges
"More than 26% of the nation's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers [ASCE]...   A structurally deficient bridge isn't unsafe, but it needs a lot of maintenance to stay [safe].   Along those same lines, when bridges reach the end of their useful life-span, it means they will be so costly to maintain it's more financially responsible to replace them completely, according to Stoner."

2011-07-18
Joseph Cress _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
Carlisle PA student learned about D-Day
"Spare was one of 15 high school students from around the country selected to participate in the first-ever Normandy: Sacrifices of Freedom Institute administered through the National History Day program out of the University of Maryland College Park.   Held June 18-28, the institute was the brainchild of Albert H. Small, a wealthy corporate executive with a passion for history.   Working with National History Day staff, Small agreed to fully fund the institute in which 15 student/teacher teams were selected to participate in a rigorous study of World War II history with the focus on the D-Day invasion of 1944 June 6.   The institute split its time between Washington DC and Normandy, France."

2011-07-18
Ray Trombino _Green Valley News and Sun_
Look at history for rules on immigration
graphs

2011-07-18 10:41PDT (13:41EDT) (17:41GMT) (20:41Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
TN wheat crop expected to double to 21M bushels as a result of dry, warm weather

2011-07-18 13:53:19PDT (16:53:19EDT) (20:53:19GMT) (23:53:19Jerusalem)
Brandon Bailey _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Cisco to eliminate 6,500 jobs (with graph)
Benjamin Pimentel: MarketWatch
"The company's cuts rank among the biggest this year, along with 6K jobs expected to be lost due to the bankruptcy of Borders Group and 7,500 jobs being cut in a restructuring by the U.S. Postal Service, according to the Challenger firm."

2011-07-18
Basil Irwin _Floyd Reports_
Employment loss trough worst since 1948
2011-07-08: Joe Weisenthal: Business Insider: CHART OF THE DAY: The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever Is Now Scarier Than Ever

2011-07-18
Joe Weisenthal _Business Insider_
poll: Biggest risk to economy over next 12 months is... government (graph)

2011-07-18
_World Net Daily_
Clinton staffer who "lost" thousands of White House e-mail messages and was booted from DHS for fraudulent credentials has been hired by Obummer for cyber-security post
"'She's a security risk.', said a government computer specialist.   'I don't know how she got clearance.'   'We're fuming about it.', said another federal employee.   'Knowing her, I don't see how she could ever be 100% honest.'   A CyberCom spokesman said Callahan could not be interviewed and did not want her 'name in public'.   Asked for Callahan's title, he claimed such information was 'personal'.   CyberCom, which began operations last year, is part of the U.S. Strategic Command located in Fort Meade, MD...   Chip Sparks, a White House programmer, recounted a run-in he had with Callahan in 1997.   After questioning a technical decision she made, he said she wrote him a threatening note.   'Please be advised I will not tolerate any further derogatory comments from you about my knowledge, qualifications and/or professional competence.', Callahan blasted Sparks in a 1997 March 3, e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by WND."

2011-07-18
Drew Zahn _World Net Daily_
Environmentalist whackoes push to keep illegal alien highways open

2011-07-18
_PR News Wire_
Pure water can be harvested from smoke-stack vapors
Utility Products

2011-07-18
Bob Dane _Fox_
Why is cost of illegal immigration ignored in debt debate?

2011-07-18
Adrian McMenamin
What percentage of Computer Science grads in the UK have CS jobs?
"Just 84.7% of recent graduates from full time computer science degrees were in employment in 2009-2010..."

2011-07-18 (5771 Tamuz 16)
Lou Marano _Jewish World Review_
David Mamet's tragic vision
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-19

2011-07-19
Joe Guzzardi _Floyd Reports_
Message to Obummer: Stop dreaming and seal the borders

2011-07-19
David Louie _KGO San Francisco CA_
Study claims tech firms to increase staffs by 15%
"It seems like all we ever hear are stories about jobs being cut.   A new study, though, shows Silicon Valley employers expect to expand their work-forces by 15% over the next few years.   Highly-skilled engineers are expected to see the greatest job growth.   'It looks like the Silicon Valley and technology are going come out of the recession.', said NOVA executive director Kris Stadelman.   'The least promising thing is that the jobs that aren't at the very top, companies are really looking to out-source to take to lower cost areas of the country and the world.'   But there's some disappointment in a new study conducted by 4 South Bay work-force training programs.   Out-sourcing is expected to hit older workers.   The most vulnerable worker is an engineer with a 20-year-old degree, who has been unemployed over a year, laid off by a 'B' list company that lack the sizzle of Apple, Facebook or Google.   VT worked as an accountant for 12 years, only to get laid off in January.   Her job was out-sourced to [Red China]."

2011-07-19
Phyllis Schlafly _World Net Daily_
Time to say good riddance to the WTO as it backs fraudulent labeling (not COOL)

2011-07-19
_China Daily_
Financial industry reports shortage of talent
"Fudan's School of Management is expanding, vying to become the Chinese equivalent to the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This effort is in line with Shanghai's ambition to beef up its local business schools..."

2011-07-19
Barry Ritholtz
Historic highest marginal income extortion rate

2011-07-19
Patrick J. Buchanan _Town Hall_
Buchanan's over-optimistic assessment of negotiations surrounding excessive federal government debt

2011-07-19
"GEARS" _Enginer web logs_
STEM employment/unemployment
graphs of unemployment by occupation
graphs of unemployment by industry

2011-07-19
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
"I bought myself"... Henry Roy's Civil War

2011-07-19 (5771 Tamuz 17)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Israel's 2 options
"Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is in Europe this week seeking to convince the Spanish and Norwegian governments to support the Palestinian bid to side-step negotiations with Israel and have the UN General Assembly recognize Palestinian sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem in addition to Gaza."

2011-07-19 (5771 Tamuz 17)
Frank J. Gaffney ii _Jewish World Review_
Anti-American activities: congress needs a cold war style effort to root out those conducting war against civilization

2011-07-19 (5771 Tamuz 17)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Good Things
"Life has many good things.   The problem is that most of these good things can be gotten only by sacrificing other good things.   We all recognize this in our daily lives.   It is only in politics that [people routinely try to ignore] this simple, common sense fact..."
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-20

2011-07-20
Rush Limbaugh
We're still waiting for Obummer's plan to balance the federal government budget

2011-07-20 12:09PDT (15:09EDT) (19:09GMT) (22:09Jerusalem)
Ned Barnett _WKZO_
The educated and unemployed find support in NC
Reuters
"the mostly middle-aged people with college degrees and deep experience who gather weekly for a support group for the unemployed...   A support group that began in 2008 with five members now draws at least 65 each week, with more than 340 on its rolls...   Americans who should be in their prime earning years -- funding their children's college, paying off homes and planning for retirement -- are instead exhausting their savings, losing their assets and struggling to keep pride in themselves and faith in the future.   And there's no sign of a let up.   At the start of the recession in 2007 December, unemployment among those with college degrees was 2.1%.   After peaking at 5.1% in late 2010, the number remains high at 4.4%, U.S. Department of Labor statistics show."

2011-07-20 14:58PDT (17:58EDT) (21:58GMT) (2011-07-21 00:58Jerusalem)
Erik Wasson _Hill_
Tax-victim groups divided on Gang of 6 plan not to put ff balancing the federal budget
Charles Babington: Beaumont TX Enterprise/AP
"The House has 240 Republicans. But 38 have signed a pledge to oppose any debt ceiling increase unless it is accompanied by a constitutional amendment to balance the budget..."
HR2560 Jason Chaffetz of UT: the too little, too late plan to put off balancing the federal government budget

2011-07-20
William L. Anderson
Gold at $1600? Paul Krugman says it is a nefarious plot by Glenn Beck! (Pay no attention to the government inflation behind the curtain.)

2011-07-20
Terry Jeffrey _Town Hall_
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab workers used dead peoples' Socialist Insecurity Numbers

2011-07-20
Beth Healy _Boston MA Globe_
State Street Corp. to cut 850 tech jobs, 558 of them in MA

2011-07-20
Ann Coulter _Town Hall_
Leftists' double standards exposed... again

2011-07-20
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
The run to the guns... on the Plains of Manassas...

2011-07-20
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
John O. Casler, on the eve of battle...
"we were on the eve of experiencing the realities of war in its most horrible form -- brother against brother, father against son, kindred against kindred, and our own country torn to pieces by civil war."

2011-07-20 (5771 Tamuz 18)
Lisa M. Krieger _Jewish World Review_
Simple life-style changes could help prevent Alzheimer's
"exercising, quitting smoking and losing weight.   It offers no magic bullet against the devastating disease, which kills brain cells and leaves people mute, incontinent and unable to care for themselves.   That's because no one has yet proven that changing these factors actually will reduce risk of the disease, which affects half of all people over age 85 -- an estimated 5.2M Americans...   the biggest changeable factor in the United States is physical inactivity -- accounting for 21% of the risk, followed by depression and smoking.   When added together, these risk factors account for about 50% of the cases."

2011-07-20 (5771 Tamuz 18)
Lydia Mulvany _Jewish World Review_
Now, the Arabs are also disillusioned with Obummer

2011-07-20 (5771 Tamuz 18)
Paul Richter _Jewish World Review_
US government backs off tough rhetoric against the Syrian government and Asad

2011-07-20 (5771 Tamuz 18)
Jack Cafferty _CNN_
federal government employees are more likely to die than lose their jobs
Dennis Cauchon: USA Today/Gannett

2011-07-20 (5771 Tamuz 18)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Education Is Worse Than We Thought
"Harvard University professor Stephan Thernstrom...was commenting on the results of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, saying that the scores 'mean that black students aged 17 do not read with any greater facility than whites who are 4 years younger and still in junior high...   Exactly the same glaring gaps appear in NAEP's tests of basic mathematics skills.'   Thernstrom asked, 'If we put a randomly-selected group of 100 eighth-graders and another of 100 twelfth-graders in a typical college, would we expect the first group to perform as well as the second?'   IOW, it reasonable to expect a college freshman of any race who has the equivalent of an eighth-grade education to compete successfully with those having a 12th-grade education?...   Given the black education disaster, [judicially mandated] racial preferences in college admissions will become a permanent feature, because given the status quo, blacks as a group will never make it into top colleges based upon academic merit.   The situation is worse than we thought.   U.S. News & World Report (2011/07/07) came out with a story titled 'Educators Implicated in Atlanta Cheating Scandal', saying that 'for 10 years, hundreds of Atlanta public school teachers and principals changed answers on state tests in one of the largest cheating scandals in U.S. history, according to a scathing 413-page investigative report released Tuesday by Georgia governor Nathan Deal.'   The report says that more than three-quarters of the 56 Atlanta schools investigated cheated on the 2009 standardized National Assessment of Educational Progress.   82 teachers have confessed to erasing students' answers.   A total of 178 educators, including 38 principals, many of whom are black, systematically fabricated test scores of struggling black students to cover up academic failure.   The governor's report says that cheating orders came from the top and that widespread cheating has occurred since at least 2001.   So far, no Atlanta educator has been criminally charged, even though some of the cheating was brazen, such as teachers pointing to correct answers while students were taking the tests, reading answers aloud during testing and seating low-achieving students next to high-achieving students to make cheating easier.   Teacher and principal exam cheating is not restricted to Atlanta; it's widespread.   The Detroit Free Press and USA Today (2011/03/08) released an investigative report that found higher-than-average erasure rates on tests taken by students at 34 schools in and around Detroit in 2008 and 2009.   Overall, their report 'found 304 schools where experts say the gains on standardized tests in 2009-2010 are so statistically improbable, they merit further investigation.   Besides Michigan, the other states (where suspected cheating was found) were Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and California.'   A Dallas Morning News investigation reported finding high rates of test erasures in Texas.   6 teachers and 2 principals were dismissed after cheating was uncovered."
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-21

2011-07-21 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 464,865 in the week ending July 16, a decrease of 9,022 from the previous week.   There were 502,065 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0% during the week ending July 9, a 0.2 percentage point increase from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,761,025, an increase of 226,332 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.6% and the volume was 4,562,782.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending July 2 was 7,325,198, a decrease of 159,696 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, 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, WA, and WV, during the week ending June 25.   States reported 3,153,982 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending July 2, a decrease of 80,133 from the prior week.   There were 3,509,073 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;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-07-21
Mary Pickett _Billings MT Gazette_
After decades of vastly excessive numbers of foreign students admitted to the USA, even more are heading to MSU Billings this Autumn

2011-07-21
Susan Olp _Billings MT Gazette_
Class helps people pull themselves out of poverty

2011-07-21
Eric Brown _Greeley CO Tribune_
Amnesty for illegal alien farm workers floated in Utah state legislature

2011-07-21
Sandra Bolan _York Region Canada_
Mexican workers are here more than they are at home

2011-07-21 09:00PDT (12:00EDT) (16:00GMT) (19:00Jerusalem)
Mitch Lies _Capital Press_
Farmers say that the H-2A guest-work visas are a necessary hassle

2011-07-21 09:26PDT (12:26EDT) (16:26GMT) (19:26Jerusalem)
Janell Ross _Huffington Post_
Executives of firms selling major American brands are silent on allegations of abuse at off-shore factories

2011-07-21 11:10:50PDT (14:10:50EDT) (18:10:50GMT) (21:10:50Jerusalem)
Tom Karst _Packer_
Alternative to E-Verify proposed
"Mandatory use of E-Verify could knock more than 50% of agricultural laborers out of work, industry sources have said...   The amendment would create a guest worker plan that would be administered by U.S. Department of Agriculture.   Currently the H-2A guest worker program for agriculture is run by the U.S. Department of Labor."

2011-07-21 13:28:10PDT (16:28:10EDT) (20:28:10GMT) (23:28:10Jerusalem)
Christopher S. Rugaber _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Economists don't expect improvement this summer
"Economists are less optimistic.   They are forecasting a third straight month of feeble hiring in July, based on the latest round of data.   Expectations are the economy added somewhere in the range of 50K to 100K net new jobs this month.   [It requires about 150K to 250K net new jobs each month to keep up with population increase.]"

2011-07-21 14:05PDT (17:05EDT) (21:05GMT) (2011-07-22 00:05Jerusalem)
John Lantigua _Palm Beach FL Post_
congressman Ted Deutch urges probe of guest-work visa program, saying it costs US workers jobs
"Deutch, a Democrat, wrote to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Wednesday, asking her to investigate her department's H-2B visa program, which has allowed local resorts and country clubs to import the foreign workers, while the county suffers unemployment of over 10%.   At the same time, Republican Congressman Allen West of Plantation, in a letter to the leader of a Palm Beach County Hispanic organization, defended the rights of the hospitality employers to import the workers under the current guidelines and decried government interference with business.   Deutch's letter followed a series of articles in the Palm Beach Post, which revealed that in the past year resorts and country clubs in the country were approved for 1,552 H-2B visas for seasonal positions such as house-keepers, waiters, cooks, kitchen assistants and recreation facility assistants.   The county's Workforce Alliance, the agency that helps local residents find work, says it has 2,600 persons on its rolls looking for such positions."

2011-07-21
Marc Parry _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Teaching respect for intellectual property generates back-lash

2011-07-21
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
John Hite: Reveille by picket fire, and a cannon...

2011-07-21
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
At the 1st Manassas/Bull Run sesquicentennial event, today

2011-07-21 (5771 Tamuz 19)
Scott Farwell _Jewish World Review_
A Torah scroll's journey to a remote village in Uganda
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-22

2011-07-22 02:00PDT (05:00EDT) (09:00GMT) (12:00Jerusalem)
Elizabeth G. Olson _CNN_
Campaigning to bring jobs back to the USA
"American companies too often don't take into consideration all the costs involved in sending their manufacturing off-shore, says Moser, who was president for 22 years of machine tool maker GF AgieCharmilles.   Moser isn't just urging companies to bring manufacturing back.   He's providing them with free software, called the Total Cost of Ownership Estimator, which provides a broad range of factors to weigh when calculating whether to move manufacturing off- or on-shore...   GE recently opened a Louisville, KY, appliance park, and says it will create 830 jobs by 2012.   The company, which received more than $20M in state and local tax credits, invested $600M to produce energy-efficient electric water heaters that used to be assembled in [Red China], along with smart washing machines and dryers.   NCR returned its ATM manufacturing to Columbus, GA from [Red China] in late 2009.   It aims to add 900 full-time employees there, says Peter Dorsman, head of global operations."

2011-07-22 11:19:39PDT (14:19:39EDT) (18:19:39GMT) (21:19:39Jerusalem)
Pete Carey _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Sili Valley saw strong job growth in June
"the unemployment rate jumped to 10.5%...   The valley added 7,800 non-farm jobs across a broad range of occupations from technology and information to construction.   There were 875,750 people working, according to a household survey.   That was a gain of almost 1% from May.   At the same time, the number of unemployed people actively looking for work rose by 6,200 to 94,300."

2011-07-22 13:13PDT (16:13EDT) (20:13GMT) (23:13Jerusalem)
Ronald D. Orol _MarketWatch_
DC court of appeals opposes SEC rule which allowed share-owners the miniscule power to nominate 1 or 2 for election to corporate boards
"A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the SEC was 'arbitrary and capricious' in promulgating the controversial rule known as 'proxy access' that was seeking to allow share-holders to [merely] nominate a minority slate of 1 or 2 director nominees to company boards.   Specifically, the rule would have allowed institutional investors and others to easily and cheaply nominate a minority slate of 1 or 2 director candidates for election on corporate boards using a company's proxy card if they have held 3% of the company's stock for 3 years."

2011-07-22 13:38PDT (16:38EDT) (20:38GMT) (23:38Jerusalem)
_MarketWatch_
Caterpillar blocked by Red Chinese wall
"But things unraveled a bit in Asia, where [Red China's] booming mining and construction industries in particular have been major profit drivers for Caterpillar for years.   The 'softness' the company says it's now seeing in the region reflects in part [Red China's] efforts to keep its economy from over-heating, as well as increasing competition from home-grown manufacturers."

2011-07-22
_MarketWatch_
After hitting historic highs this spring, cotton prices are plunging. But will clothing makers cut prices as a result? (video)
Bill Conerly: Wall Street Pit (with graph)
Seeking Alpha

2011-07-22
_Family Security Matters_
UnExecuted Deportation Orders have almost Doubled Since 2008
Mark H. Metcalf: Miami FL Herald
"Since 2008, unexecuted deportation orders have increased from 558K to 1.1M.   From 1996 through 2009, 40% of all aliens the United States allowed to remain free pending trial -- 770K out of 1.9M -- vanished before their hearings.   In the 5 years following 2001/09/11, 50% of all aliens outside custody disappeared.   Courts are helpless to reverse this.   Courts are impotent -- so feeble, in fact, that they cannot enforce their own orders...   In 1987, courts were budgeted at $20.5M.   By 2010, Congress authorized $298M for them -- a 1,450% increase.   Despite this spending, enforcement softened and illegal populations climbed.   In 1989, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated 2.2M illegal aliens resided in the United States.   By 2007, the Census Bureau found 12M.   But softened enforcement has not produced softened costs.   In 1987, $265M in federal spending was committed to immigration enforcement.   By 2009, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) received $7.7G and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) got $4.3G for their security initiatives -- an increase of more than 4,500%.   Still, courts remain ineffective, borders unsecure and illegal entry unchecked."

2011-07-22
Harvey Rice _Houston TX Chronicle_
Illegal aliens sue city, claiming they're being discriminated against

2011-07-22
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Citizens enforcing E-verify and keeping an eye on government officials in GA
"As part of Georgia's new immigration legislation which went into effect July 1, an Immigration Enforcement Review Board comprised of citizen volunteers will be keeping an eye on local officials to see that they enforce the law and keep illegal aliens out of the work force, as well preventing illegal aliens from receiving welfare benefits.   The board will have the power to conduct investigations, subpoena witnesses and even levy fines against mayors, county commissioners and business-license clerks if they find those officials are not enforcing E-verify on local businesses or are failing to use the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements data-base."

2011-07-22
Suzanne Tindal _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Australia-based Telstra to off-shore 300 jobs to India

2011-07-22
William L. Anderson
Keynesians and Austrians agree: the economic depression will get worse
"If anything described the Keynesian mindset, it is this: Spend, spend, spend.   It is a simple thesis, one that certainly appeals to politicians, and even to much of the general public...   Second, the Krugman/Keynesian viewpoint is based on an extremely mechanistic interpretation of human action.   People within a market setting do not purchase goods they believe will meet their individual needs; no, they spend, as though the spending itself is the ultimate end of an economy."

2011-07-22
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
John Hite: "I go in search of brother Wm"

2011-07-22
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Their run to the guns...

2011-07-22
Suzanne Gamboa _AP_/_abc_
Traffic Crime, Drunken Driving Deportations Way Up (with graph)
"The U.S. deported nearly 393K people in the fiscal year that ended [2010 Sept. 30], half of whom were considered criminals.   Of those, 27,635 had been arrested for drunken driving, more than double the 10,851 deported after drunken driving arrests in 2008...   An additional 13,028 were deported last year after being arrested on less serious traffic law violations, nearly 3 times the 4,527 traffic offenders deported 2 years earlier, according to the data...   78% increase in people deported for immigration-related offenses...   drug-related crimes.   They totaled 45,003 [in FY2010], compared with 36,053 in 2008...   even though traffic offenses have more than doubled, they are just 7% of the total criminal deportations.   Meanwhile, dangerous drugs and drunken driving deportations comprised 23% and 14% of the criminal deportations, respectively...   Last year, 36,178 criminals were deported as a result of the Secure Communities program, now in place in more than 1,400 jurisdictions, up from 14 in 2008.   It's expected to be in more than 3K jurisdictions nationally by 2013."

2011-07-22 (5771 Tamuz 20)
Krisen Chick _Jewish World Review_
Egypt to ban foreign election observers in first "democratic" election
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-07-22

DJIA	12,681.16
S&P 500(SPX)	1,345.02
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,858.83
Nikkei	10,132.11
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	2.96%
crude oil(CL1U)	$99.87/barrel
natgas(NG11Q)	$4.40/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1Q)	$3.13/gal
heatingoil(HO1Q)	$3.13/gal
gold(GC1Q)	$1,601.50/ounce
silver(SI1U)	$40.12/ounce
platinum(PL1V)	$1,798.40/ounce
palladium(PA1U)	$806.4/ounce
copper(HG1U)	$0.275625/ounce
soybeans	$13.8825/bushel
maize	$6.855/bushel
wheat	$6.9225/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)	74.25
yenperdollar(USDYEN)	78.575
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)	$1.4344
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)	$1.6301
swissfrancsperdollar	0.8191
indianrupeesperdollar	44.36
mexicanpesosperdollar(USDMXN)	11.643
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	662.65

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-23

2011-07-22 22:04PDT (2011-07-23 01:04EDT) (20011-07-23 05:04GMT) (08:04Jerusalem)
Jason Hiner _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
The future of "IT" work will be reduced to 3 kinds of jobs

2011-07-23
Teri Figueroa _North San Diego county CA Times_
Illegal alien caught and sent back to Mexico 16 times and was never prosecuted
John W. Lillpop: Post Chronicle
Susan Shroder: San Diego CA Union-Tribune
"In each case, Carbajal was deported after being turned over to ICE officials under a program called Operation Joint Effort.   The program, launched in 2010 May, partners Escondido police with federal immigration-enforcement officers in an effort to help identify and arrest criminal illegal immigrants.   Since its inception, ICE officials have arrested 539 illegal immigrants who were previously deported, had a criminal history or were ICE fugitives at large.   Among those arrested, 70 had drug convictions, 49 had assault convictions, 13 had sexual assault convictions, 141 had DUI convictions, 43 had theft convictions and 19 had gang-related convictions.   20 have been arrested in Escondido multiple times."

2011-07-23
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Maryland unionists address the matter of federal "interference"

2011-07-23
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
The call for a (Western) Maryland Home Brigade
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-24

2011-07-24
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
Late start planting means uncertainty for Hi-Line farmers
"Over 6 weeks, some farmers had only 5 workable field days.   They spent the rest of their time dislodging farm equipment from the soupy soil.   Consequently, a lot of valuable spring and durum wheat went unplanted or was planted so late it might not be harvest-ready before fall’s killing frost.   That disrupted planting season has cast uncertainty over the Montana's $1.4G wheat economy, the state's biggest industry.   In 2010, winter wheat represented $589M of total sales, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.   Spring and durum wheat delivered up the bulk of the profits.   Schock planted the last of his spring wheat in the middle of June; a full seven weeks after his first seeds were sown during a brief calm before May storms that dropped more than 12 inches of rain.   That's more water than dryland Vida farmers typically see in a year.   North of Vida, in counties hugging the Saskatchewan border, farmers who normally plant in May were still seeding land this month.   That's a gamble because depending on the weather, spring grains can take 100 days or more to mature...   Last week, farmers were telling NASS that only 26% of their spring wheat had formed a head by July 1, a stage that more than half the state's crop typically reaches by that date."

2011-07-24
"Krishnapalagummi"
State Dept. Report Highlights Fraud Statistics from US Consulates in India
"A report from the U.S. Department of State sheds light into the fraudulent activities by applicants at U.S. Consulates in India.   Key statistics from Fiscal Year 2008: Total Non-Immigrant Visa Applications: In excess of 756K.   States with more fraudulent cases than others: Gujarat and Punjab.   Total Non-Immigrant Fraud cases: 3596 (Chennai: 1237, Mumbai: 809, Hyderabad: 523, Kolkata: 78, and New Delhi: 949) Chennai and Hyderabad Consulate Fraud cases: Primarily from Andhra Pradesh.   B1/B2: Peak region with most fraudulent documents -- Hyderabad. (Documents include false passport copies of relatives, fake document packages, bogus financial documents, and affidavits of support).   H-1B Fraud: Of the 150 companies investigated, 77% of them turned out to be fraudulent or highly suspect.   F-1 visas: Even legitimate F-1 applicants are drawn into 'visa agencies' duping them with preparation of false financial documents among other papers."

2011-07-24
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Where do I want to go today?
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-25

2011-07-25 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT) (13:00Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
House Republicans circulating discussion draft of a bill that would eliminate the per-country caps on green cards
"Among those due to testify are Robert Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq OMX Group; David Skorton, president of Cornell University; Brad Smith, MSFT's general counsel; and Puneet Arora, vice president of Immigration Voice, an advocacy group for increased skills-based immigration."

2011-07-25
_South Asia Mail_
650K Indians traveled to USA in 2010, up 18% from 2009
"For the past 4 years, Indians have received about half of all H-1B visas issued worldwide, and more than 44% of all L1 intra-company transfer visas...   India has historically been one of the largest sources of international students in the US colleges and universities with over 100K students coming here to study last year, under-secretary Robert Hormats said...   2,700 Americans studied in India last year."

2011-07-25
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
Student (F) visa fraud commonly comes in several forms

2011-07-25
James Ritchie _Cincinnati OH Business Courier_
Why do Cincinnati firms fail to lure STEM workers?
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-26

2011-07-25 18:00PDT (2011-07-25 21:00EDT) (2011-07-26 01:00GMT) (2011-07-26 04:00Jerusalem)
Mike Pare _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Wacker Chemical may hire 700; thousands apply for jobs
Chattanooga TN Times Free Press

2011-07-26
Martin Kidston _Billings MT Gazette_
Yellowstone bat study looks for signs of deadly white-nose disease
"The infection was first detected in a New York cave during the winter of 2006.   It has since spread across much of New England and has slowly moved south and west.   One suspected case appeared recently in Oklahoma, while several confirmed cases have been documented in Indiana.   Biologists estimate that the disease has killed more than 1M bats since 2006...   The park is home to about 10 species of bats.   Areas around the Bighorn Canyon on the Montana-Wyoming border have 13 known bat species, Treanor said...   According to Science magazine, the animals contribute $22.9G annually to the agricultural industry through insect control and pollination.   The flying mammals also are integral to Yellowstone's ecosystem as both predators and prey.   It's estimated that some bats can eat between 3K and 7K mosquitoes a night."

2011-07-26
_Washington Times_
Conference Board: consumer confidence index rose from a revised 57.6 in June to 59.5 in July
Albany NY Times-Union
Seattle WA Times/AP
FNN
CBS/AP
Murray Coleman: Barron's
Street
Andrew Kirk: Park city UT Record
"Those claiming jobs are 'hard to get' increased from 43.2% to 44.1% "

2011-07-26
Grant Gross _PC World_/_IDG_
Senators push for more low-skill immigation
IT World
CIO
TechWorld

2011-07-26 09:41PDT (12:41EDT) (16:41GMT) (19:41Jerusalem)
Josh Flory _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
people coming from Orange and Broward counties in FL, Fulton county GA and Los Angeles and San Diego counties CA to Knox county TN, and going to Knox county GA, Mecklenburg county NC and Chicago, IL
more

2011-07-26
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
3 bright spots in otherwise depressing senate sub-committee hearing

2011-07-26
William L. Anderson
Krugman in denial about spending and borrowing

2011-07-26 (5771 Tamuz 24)
Dennis Prager _Jewish World Review_
What will it take to wake Jews up?

2011-07-26 (5771 Tamuz 24)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Israeli government has been lobbying congress for Palestinians and the UNRWA

2011-07-26 (5771 Tamuz 24)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Debt-Ceiling Chicken
"there is a whole country outside the Beltway -- and the time is long over-due to start thinking about what is best for the rest of the country, not just for right now but for the long haul...   Too many policies, programs and institutions are judged by what they are supposed to do, rather than by what they actually do and the consequences of their actions.   The United Nations, for example, survives as a glorious idea, despite how corrupt, counter-productive and even dangerous its actions are.   The national debt-ceiling law should be judged by what it actually does, not by how good an idea it seems to be.   The one thing that the national debt-ceiling has never done is to put a ceiling on the rising national debt.   Time and time again, for years on end, the national debt-ceiling has been raised whenever the national debt gets near whatever the current ceiling might be...   what the national debt-ceiling actually does is enable any administration to get all the political benefits of runaway spending for the benefit of their favorite constituencies -- and then invite the opposition party to share the blame, by either raising the national debt ceiling, or by voting for unpopular cut-backs in spending or increases in taxes.   The Obama administration is a classic example.   When all its sky-rocketing spending bills were being rushed through Congress without even being read, the Democrats had such overwhelming majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives that Republicans had all they could do to get a word in edgewise — even though their words had no chance of stopping, or even slowing down, the spending of trillions of dollars.   Now that the bill is coming due for all that spending and borrowing, Republicans are suddenly being invited in to share the blame for either raising the national debt ceiling or for whatever other unpopular measures will be legislated.   Many years ago, someone said, 'If you didn't invite me to the big take-off, don't invite me to the crash landing.'   This was Obama's big spending spree, but 'bipartisanship' requires Republicans to either split the bill or be blamed if the government shuts down or defaults.   What would happen if there were no national debt-ceiling law? Those who got the political benefits from handing out trillions of dollars of the taxpayers' money (plus borrowed money) would also get the clear and sole blame for the resulting skyrocketing national debt and all the unpopular consequences.   Those people who want serious and substantial spending cuts are absolutely right in what they want.   There are not only government programs that need to be cut but whole government agencies, including Cabinet-level Departments, that are not merely useless but positively harmful on net balance.   There are a lot of things that could be cut, and should be cut, instead of defaulting on the nation's debts.   But that is not likely to happen, if Obama and his media chorus can instead blame the Republicans for forcing a government shut-down or a credit default."
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-27

1791-07-27: preliminary meeting at Old Redstone Fort in Fayette county PA to oppose the evil whiskey excise extortion

2011-07-27
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Mahoning Valley unemployment rate rose to 10%

2011-07-27 05:34PDT (07:34EDT) (11:34GMT) (15:34Jerusalem)
Martin Crutsinger _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Durable goods orders fell 2.1% in June
Greg Robb: MarketWatch

2011-07-27
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Newspaper ads as a peaceful moment in a world of chaos

2011-07-27 (5771 Tamuz 25)
Jonathan Tobin _Jewish World Review_
US government pays salaries to Palestinian terrorists
"more than 5,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are getting salaries from the Palestinian Authority.   Though Palestinians held by Israel on charges of terrorism have always received stipends from the Palestinian Authority, the practice was formalized this past April when a new law to that effect was promulgated.   The law was reported in the Palestinian official press but went unnoticed by the international media.   Given that the United States gives more than $600M to the Palestinians each year, including $225M that goes directly to the Palestinian Authority, the payment of these salaries is a violation of U.S. law."

2011-07-27 (5771 Tamuz 25)
Jeffrey Fleishman _Jewish World Review_
upcoming Hosni Mubarak trial is a prism for Egypt's contending passions

2011-07-27 (5771 Tamuz 25)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Technological advancement and employment
GOP USA
"Let's see whether technological innovation causes unemployment.   In 1790, farmers were 90%, out of a population of nearly 3M, of the U.S. labor force.   By 1900, only about 41% of our labor force was employed in agriculture.   By 2008, fewer than 3% of Americans were employed in agriculture.   Through labor-saving technological advances and machinery, our farmers are the world's most productive.   As a result, Americans are better off.   In 1970, the telecommunications industry employed 421K workers as switch-board operators, annually handling 9.8G long-distance calls.   Today the telecommunications industry employs only 78K operators.   That's a tremendous 80% job loss.   What happened? The answer: There have been spectacular labor-saving advances in telecommunications.   Today more than 100G long-distance calls a year require only 78K switch-board operators.   What's more is the cost of making a long-distance call is a tiny fraction of what it was in 1970.   Can we say these technological innovations made the nation worse off?...   today just a couple of workers can manage the egg-laying operation of nearly 1M chickens laying 240M eggs a year, through a highly mechanized and computerized process.   Thousands of toll collectors are replaced by E-ZPass machines.   Auto-workers are replaced by robots.   50 years ago, a typical textile worker operated 5 machines capable of running thread through a loom 100 times a minute.   Today machines run 6 times as fast, and 1 worker can oversee 100 of them...   If there hadn't been the kind of labor-saving technical innovation we've had since the 1950s -- in the auto, construction, telephone industries and many others -- where in the world would we have gotten workers to produce things that weren't heard of in the 1950s, such as desktop computers, cellphones, HDTVs, digital cameras, MRI machines, pharmaceuticals and myriad other goods and services?   What technological innovation does is reduce the value of some jobs, raise the value of others and create many more jobs...   we can always count upon an infinite number of potential jobs.   The reason is that human wants are insatiable.   People always want more of something.   That want will create jobs for someone else."
Russell Roberts: Wall Street Journal
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-28

2011-07-28
Erik Sherman _BNET_/_CBS_
Tech executives "desperately" demand more H-1B visas they're already not using
"Say, you don't think that the high tech companies might be trying to pull a fast one, using a much higher legal availability of foreign workers to help depress wages in the U.S.A. even though demand for the visas has fallen off dramatically, do you?   Especially when there are already IT workers suing a former employer for allegedly laying off domestic workers and replacing them with people on H-1B visas?"

2011-07-28 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 366,578 in the week ending July 23, a decrease of 103,503 from the previous week.   There were 413,679 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0% during the week ending July 16, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,735,896, a decrease of 47,420 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.6% and the volume was 4,554,316.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending July 9 was 7,645,601, an increase of 320,152 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, 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, WA, and WV, during the week ending July 9.   States reported 3,172,428 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending July 9, an increase of 18,427 from the prior week.   There were 3,285,271 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;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

211-07-28 09:45PDT (12:45EDT) (16:45GMT) (19:45Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
ThyssenKrupp Waupaca foundry in Etowah TN to re-open, hire 250
"The operation's startup will begin with the production of gray iron used for auto parts like disc brake rotors and brake drums in the first quarter of 2012.   Production of ductile iron used to make other auto parts like differential cases and crank-shafts will begin in the second quarter of 2012."

2011-07-28 10:33:13PDT (13:33:13EDT) (17:33:13GMT) (20:33:13Jerusalem)
_San Jose Mercury News_
Sili Valley economic indicators for 2011 May

2011-07-28
Patrick J. Buchanan _V Dare_
What "big deals" did to the USA
"Because of Tea Party intransigence and threats against [the RINOs'] leader John Boehner, the speaker had to reject [Obummer's] 'grand bargain', the 'big deal' of $3T in budget cuts for $1T in 'revenue enhancement'...   Reagan was persuaded to sign on to a bipartisan big deal to cut spending 3 dollars for every dollar he accepted in new taxes.   And the Gipper forever believed he had been lied to, as he got 3 dollars in tax hikes for every dollar in spending cuts...   George H.W. Bush agreed to break his pledge of 'no new taxes', and raised the top rate from Reagan's 28% to 35%...   The biggest of big deals came when the GOP establishment arrived in Bill Clinton's East Room to endorse NAFTA, GATT and a World Trade Organization that stripped America of her right to make and enforce her own trade laws.   Economic patriots fought the surrender of sovereignty and were dismissed as protectionists.   How did NAFTA, GATT and the WTO work out?   Since 1992, the United States has run a total of $7T in trade deficits.   6M manufacturing jobs disappeared in the last decade, along with 50K factories.   This year's trade deficit just returned to an annual rate of $600G...   Anyone heard any Republican candidate advance a credible plan to reindustrialize America and leave [Red China] in the dust? Anyone heard a Republican candidate call for America to give the WTO 6 months' notice and get out, so we can go about rebuilding our country rather than babbling on about some New World Order?   The biggest deal-maker of them all was George W. Bush [a.k.a. the Shrub]."

2011-07-28
Michelle Malkin _V Dare_
Obummer's waivers for George Soros

2011-07-28
Genevieve Maul _U of Cambridge_/_Eurekalert_/_AAAS_
Neanderthals displaced 40K years ago by high numbers of new Homo sapiens immigrants
"All of these new and more complex [technologies] can be shown to have developed first among the ancestral African Homo sapiens populations, at least 20K to 30K years before their dispersal from Africa, and progressive colonisation (and replacement of earlier populations) across all regions of Europe and Asia from around 60K years onwards."

2011-07-28
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
More facts for gaia worshippers to ignore: New NASA data blow gaping hole in warmist hysteria

2011-07-28 (5771 Tamuz 26)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Obummer's "balanced" approach
"Barack Obama's political genius is his ability to say things that will sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail -- regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says may be to those who have.   Shameless effrontery can be a huge political asset, especially if uninformed voters outnumber those who are informed.   President Obama's big pitch in his Monday night televised talk was that what is needed to deal with the national debt crisis is a 'balanced' approach -- not just spending cuts but revenue increases as well.   What could sound more reasonable -- especially to those who have not been following what Obama has actually been doing and not doing? This is the same Barack Obama who, earlier this year, called for a 'clean' increase in the national debt ceiling.   In this context, the soothing word 'clean' referred to an increase in the national debt ceiling without any provisos.   That is, no spending cuts at all.   In other words, a blank check to keep spending.   How balanced is that?"
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-29

2011-07-29
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Technology impresses some visitors at GM Lordstown open house
"It was the first open house at Lordstown since 1986, said Tom Mock, plant spokesman.   United Auto Workers Local 1112 President Jim Graham said he was thrilled to have a chance to show off the plant and its blue-collar staff of nearly 4,500, which produces the #1 selling car in America, the Cruze...   The open house is one of 54 scheduled nationwide..."

2011-07-29 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT) (13:00Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
A guide to H-1B and green card reform and perversion proposals
InfoWorld

2011-07-29 09:06PDT (12:06EDT) (16:06GMT) (19:06Jerusalem)
Mike Pare _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
VW hired 2000th worker at Chattanooga plant
Chattanooga TN Times Free Press

2011-07-29
Anna Sanclement _Examiner_
NASA satellite data contradicts warmist hysteria
Mario Loyola: Naional Review
Jackie Hicken: Deseret News
Allan Ramsay: Associated Content
UPI
Fox
Daniel Horton: PhysOrg
Jason Mick: Daily Tech

2011-07-29
Suzanne Lucas _BNET_/_CBS_
Coping with rampant age discrimination

2011-07-29
_The Economic Collapse_
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, the head of Obummer's jobs council, is moving jobs and infrastructure to Red China at a blistering pace
InfoWars

2011-07-29
_FAIR US_
Obummer regime implementing amnesty for illegal aliens unilaterally
"Fortunately, this abuse of power is not lost on the chairman of the House Judiciary committee, representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) who has introduced the 'Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation Act' or the 'HALT Act' (HR2497).   The bill would prevent the administration from further abusing its prosecutorial discretion to grant administrative amnesty to large classes of illegal aliens.   Specifically, it would suspend the Obama administration's ability to: Grant deferred action to illegal aliens; Grant parole or extended voluntary departure to illegal aliens who do not meet narrowly defined criteria; Cancel the removal and adjust the status of illegal aliens ordered deported; and Grant work authorization to illegal aliens.   While passing the HALT Act won't stop this president from pursuing a massive and costly amnesty for 13 millions illegal aliens, it will force him to do so legislatively, with transparency, and within the context of the Constitution.   Most importantly, it will allow the American public to participate in the process."

2011-07-29 (5771 Tamuz 27)
Carline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Breivik and totalitarian democrats
"There's an increasingly popular tendency by many to pick and choose which sorts of terrorism are acceptable and which are unacceptable in accordance with the ideological justifications the terrorists give for their actions."

2011-07-29 (5771 Tamuz 27)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
How the AWOL Muslim solder accused of plotting to kill Fort Hood troops was foiled

2011-07-29 (5771 Tamuz 27)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Ideals vesus Realities
"Despite the widespread notion that raising tax rates automatically means collecting more revenue for the government, history says otherwise.   As far back as the 1920s, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon pointed out that the government received a very similar amount of revenue from high-income earners at low tax rates as it did at tax rates several times as high.   How was that possible? Because high tax rates drive investors into tax shelters, such as tax-exempt bonds.   Today, as a result of globalization and electronic transfers of money, 'the rich' are even less likely to stand still and be sheared like sheep, when they can easily send their money over-seas, to places where tax rates are lower.   Money sent over-seas creates jobs over-seas -- and American workers cannot transfer themselves over-seas to get those jobs as readily as investors can send their money there."

2011-07-29 (5771 Tamuz 27)
Patrick de Haan _US News & World Report_
no new petroleum refineries have been built since 1976, but capacity has increased
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-07-29

DJIA	12,143.24
S&P 500(SPX)	1,292.28
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,756.38
Nikkei	9,833.03
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	2.78%
crude oil(CL1U)	$95.70/barrel
natgas(NG11Q)	$4.15/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1Q)	$3.11/gal
heatingoil(HO1Q)	$3.10/gal
gold(GC1Z)	$1,631.20/ounce
silver(SI1U)	$40.11/ounce
platinum(PL1V)	$1,785.30/ounce
palladium(PA1U)	$827.70/ounce
copper(HG1U)	$0.28/ounce
soybeans	$13.5725/bushel
maize	$6.6875/bushel
wheat	$6.725/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)	73.75
yenperdollar(USDYEN)	76.84
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)	$1.4411
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)	$1.6426
swissfrancsperdollar	0.7857
indianrupeesperdollar	44.19
mexicanpesosperdollar(USDMXN)	11.737
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	634.97

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-30

2011-07-30
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
followup on S&E work-force work-shop, July 11
 
Earlier I reported on a conference held on July 11 at Georgetown University on the science and engineering work-force, which included much discussion of H-1B and other foreign worker issues.   One of the organizers of the conference, my UCD colleague Phil Martin, has placed some of the presentations and a summary of the conference on the WCPSEW [Sloan West Coast Program on Science and Engineering Workers] web page.
 
I archive many of the posts I make to this e-news-letter, and my report on the conference.   I'm mentioning that here for 2 reasons:
 
1.   I have added some new material to my report, consisting of various points that I recalled later after posting my analysis.
 
2.   I have removed the names of agencies of participants.
 
As someone who has done research on security and privacy in statistical data-bases, I am especially sensitive to the privacy issue.   The conference operated under Chatham House Rules, meaning that one could quote what was said but not who said it.   Actually, I learned later that those rules also exclude giving affiliations, which I didn't realize at the time.   I've thus removed affiliations from my updated e-news-letter report above; if you made a copy of my posting at the time, I'd appreciate your replacing it with the new one.
 
Of course, the above WCPSEW site now shows both names and affiliations of some of the speakers.   Moreover, I'm aware of at least 2 participants who posted full lists of the speakers on their web pages.   However, I would note that there were a number of non-speaker participants at the conference as well.   (All participants, speaker and non-speaker, sat around a table and listened to presentations and then discussed them.)   In the case of government agencies there was typically more than one participant from a given agency, so one really can't deduce who said the things quoted in Phil's report or mine.
 
Named or not, the conference participants did include a number of people who are in very influential positions concerning H-1B and related issues.   Thus Phil's summary and mine, along with the selected presentations, give you, the reader, a rare window into just what these influential people are thinking on this topic.
 
Norm
jgo comments:
Henderson's comments and graphs seem beside the point.   They don't focus on US citizen STEM students and workers.   The soaring numbers of post-docs suggest an on-going glut.
 
Marschke's presentation is internally inconsistent.   His graph contradicts his assertions, e.g. he shows GDP and R&D investments bottoming out at the start of a recession and rising through the recession.
 
Matloff's comments seem to overlook the fact that many large "main-stream" US firms have large bodyshopping operations, but is correct to point out that they also abuse guest-work visas.   Interestingly, he found that green card applicants in software and electrical engineering, and employed/sponsored by MSFT, Moto, Oracle & Qualcomm are under-paid.   And it is interesting that NACE's new-grad average salary offers are up only 3%, while Dice's figures for offers to all tech workers are up even less at only 1%, while the Murk says Sili Valley wages increased 3% from 2009 to 2011.   This supports his assertion about older workers being squeezed out.
 
The Hal Salzman & Leonard Lynn presentation has a nice Venn diagram based on SESTAT data: 12.4M with highest degree in S&E; but only 3.9M with highest degree in S&E are working in S&E occupations; and a total of 4.8M people are working in S&E occupations, so there are 900K people with highest degree in other than S&E field, who are working in S&E occupations.   [They also mention that] 1997 to 2007, the USA shut down 680 miles of navigable channels, and 4,030 miles of rail.
 
Snyder of USCIS's presentation illustrates how student visas drive demand for work visas via work on campus and OPT, mentions that those applying for guest-work visas get automatic OPT extensions.   They blather about form numbers.   He reports that there are 10,271 certified schools, and they estimate there are a grossly hideously excessive 847,529 active F-1 and M-1 students, 81,820 F-2 and M-2 dependents, 1,447 exchange visitor programs, 186,049 J-1 visas, 49,293 J-2 dependents.   530,290 OPT approvals since 2005, 17K OPT extensions just since 2008 April, 79,890 OPT approvals in 2010 and 7,669 approvals so far in FY2011.   He repots 19,146 STEM OPTs approved just since 2008, 92 petitions were withdrawn, 2,347 were requested as of 2010 September, 276 were pendng, 356 denied, 16,636 approved just since 2008.
 
Stephan shows decreasing fraction of biologists going on the tenure track since 1973 (only 15% now), slightly higher percentage in non-tenure-track positions, slightly increasing percentage in post-docs, a similar increase employed in private industry, with a very tiny drop in the proportion in government employment, and an increasing proportion either not in the labor force or only employed part-time, and still others are out of the field.   Employment of guest-workers is up.   "Employment opportunities are relatively bleak for newly-trained in biological sciences."
 
Voytuk looks only at biomed, focusing on foreign students educated abroad vs. educated in the USA and doesn't seem to consider US citizens at all.
 
jgo
---30---

2011-07-30
_Freedom Fighter Radio_
Larry Pratt, president of GOA and Quartzite mayor Ed Foster

2011-07-30
_Freedom Fighter Radio_
Gross federal government debt
graphs

2011-07-30
William L. Anderson
Stagnation and stagflation
graphs
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-07-31

2011-07-31
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
Farmers disappointed as South Korea, Colombia and Panama markets remain closed to their products
"Baucus has found cuts to other programs to off-set the costs of Trade Adjustment Assistance.   However, some House members have indicated they oppose the worker retraining on principle as much as cost and may still object.   TAA was also presented earlier as a package deal with the trade agreements, but House leaders have agreed to peel Trade Adjustment Assistance from the trade bills and vote on it separately in committee as a way of getting the trade votes moving.   Senate Democrats initially balked at peeling off TAA before House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-MI, indicated that Trade Adjustment Assistance and the trade bills would be moved together but voted on separately.   That's no assurance that Trade Adjustment Assistance will pass through committee, but die on the House floor.   The White House said this week that it won't approve the free trade agreements without the Trade Agreement Assistance program passing also.   Senate Democrats are equally insistent the program needs to pass.   Raska said it's frustrating that Trade Adjustment Assistance has become a wedge issue.   Voting history indicates the last time the program was passed, it received more support from Republicans than Democrats in both the House and Senate.   This time, politics have congealed over Trade Adjustment Assistance, and America's trade partners have found new partners with whom to sit."

2011-07-31
Phyllis Schlafly _Eagle Forum_
NIGHTMARE act is under-handed amnesty for illegal aliens

2011-07-31
Tony Paradiso _Nashua NH Telegraph_
It's the jobs, stupid
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011 July
Paola Scommegna _Population Reference Bureau_
More are on track to reach age 10: genes, habits and baboons examined for longevity clues

2011 July
_Migration News_
labor, immigrants, H-1B and "prevailing wage"

Proposed Bills 2011

USA Over-Population Clock
World + USA Over-Population Clocks
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on World Over-Population
 

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