Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Qualcomm engineers get axed, then train foreign replacements
One of the Indians I worked with was so full of himself about his university back in India. I did some research and found it to be a “college” that had about 40 students for four years! The pictures I found of it were hilarious. Chickens running around overgrown weeds and students walking around without shirts or shoes in what looked like a projects apartment building. Higher education my arse. It has taken far too long for the mainstream media and the public to learn what an H-1B visa is. The visa's are like alphabet soup, there are so many abused visas that companies, universities and other use. They overstay (aka never leave) There are the J-1 or the L-1, which lets foreign companies, bring their workers over here and avoid our labor laws and taxes. If our leaders want to make a bold statement about supporting middle class Americans, they can start by shutting down all of the visa's except for tourists. (A lot of them don't leave either). The H-1B are not the best and brightest. Some are smart, some hard working, but none are superior. The best and brightest are still here in America. If companies continue to stagnate (and lower) wages with these visa scams, it’s no wonder less and less American youth will want to take STEM subjects. Why work so hard on math and science if your payoff is working with third-world grunts with fake educations. Even the H-1B’s don’t want to work in high tech for long. They want to move here to escape their overpopulated slum-countries and start their own business or just use our generous welfare system.— March 31, 2016 8:48 p.m.
Qualcomm engineers get axed, then train foreign replacements
I have been fighting the H-1B’s since 1989 at McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing. I started running into more of them in the 1990’s as the technology companies grew. When I lived in Seattle, I was given a Chinese H-1B who did not work out as a mechanical engineer in their engineering wing. Even though she claimed to have a master degree in engineering. She claimed she knew programming, but we ended up having her maintain web pages. Something a high school student could have done. In other words, we were giving on-the-job training to a foreign national rather than a local. The reason they could not fire her is that they didn’t have the stomach. In some cases, there is so much expense to firing them, which they just keep them busy until their time runs out. She was one of the many “two 4 ones” that I encountered in my career. Her husband worked at a biotech firm in Seattle. Somehow, maybe magic and divine intervention, both husband and wife gets H-1B visas and work in the same vicinity. Really, what is happening is one or both of them lie about their academic credentials and experience. China and India are filled with sham colleges and firms that create fake degrees, and falsified transcripts. It isn’t a little problem, it is epidemic. Later when I returned to San Diego, I worked for a firm that only had 200 employees but decided to hire a Chinese H-1B worker. Her husband worked for a pharmaceutical company in La Jolla. Another two-4-one! She was supposed to have a master degree in computer science. We had to train her. When the company had to let go 20 people, she remained. I objected and later left the company. I have run across many Indian and Chinese H-1B’s over the years. I am friendly with them, but not friends. They are here for the green card or to drop an anchor baby. Most don’t return to their homeland. Many eventually leave the technology field and open restaurants or other mom and pop businesses where they exclusively hire their own nationality. I know someone who came from India to work for a communications giant and now, with green card in hand, installs solar panels (and hire Indians to do the grunt work). It’s difficult to not be jaded about what I have witnessed over the years. The foreigner writes spaghetti code, they are no brighter than Americans and usually not very team oriented. Companies say they want people with “good communications skills” and then dump the people who are very difficult to understand into their teams. When I changed my modus operandi to consulting and contracting, I worked for many tech companies on short assignments. (I did this to escape the politics and unpredictability of working for a single company). There was one place I worked that smelled like curry all the time. -cont.-— March 31, 2016 8:47 p.m.
Trust is the issue
Penicillin is a cocktail with scotch, honey, ginger and lemon juice on the rocks. BTW, actually I did not have a Costco hot dog... it was the irony of spending 100 times more for dinner.— March 31, 2016 6:53 p.m.
Qualcomm engineers get axed, then train foreign replacements
Sun Aug 2, 2015 Reuters: "A Reuters analysis of U.S. government data reveals that this is business as usual in the New York property magnate's empire." "Trump owns companies that have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor data reviewed by Reuters. Most of the applications were approved, the data show." "Nine companies majority-owned by Trump have sought to bring in foreign waitresses, cooks, vineyard workers and other laborers on temporary work-visa programs administered by the Labor Department." "The candidate's foreign talent hunt included applications for an assistant golf-course superintendent, an assistant hotel manager and a banquet manager." "Two of his companies, Trump Model Management and Trump Management Group LLC, have sought visas for nearly 250 foreign fashion models, the records show." "Trump’s presidential campaign and a lawyer for the businessman declined to comment. The Mar-a-Lago Club could not be reached for comment." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-tr…— March 31, 2016 12:57 p.m.
Trust is the issue
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2016/m… Oh wait, I did have $1.50 hot dog and soda an hour later because I was still hungry.— March 31, 2016 12:12 p.m.
Traffic-signal experiment in Encinitas
These lights work great in El Cajon. But in pockets where you have self-important people barreling down the road in their Range Rovers, it might not work.— March 29, 2016 2:35 p.m.
Some things to check on Chargers' stadium plan
I had a good laugh after reading David Elgier's post. Who is the "San Diego Stadium Coalition" anyway? It says "Non-Profit Organization" but there is no records with the California Secretary of State or the IRS. The web site (sdstadium.org) registrant is an individual, Jason Riggs, of Encinitas. On their fundraising webpage, GoFundMe, they have raised $1,105 in donations, from 30 individuals and it shows the most recent donation was five months ago.— March 29, 2016 11:25 a.m.
Some things to check on Chargers' stadium plan
The Padres had a winning season before the vote on their stadium. Their second pennant was in 1998. That vote was sold on redeveloping the East Village. Well, the East Village is pretty well developed out and most of that was more due the the convention center expansion. Now what have the Chargers got to offer? A team with no championships, the last peek at a Super Bowl locker room was over two decades ago, and they want t demolish a massive public facility while creating a convention annex that nobody is going to want to book.— March 29, 2016 8:44 a.m.
Some things to check on Chargers' stadium plan
Search hits for simply "Spanos" and "scam" are in the millions.— March 28, 2016 10:01 p.m.
Some things to check on Chargers' stadium plan
In these times, the problem with bumper stickers is that your car may get keyed or worse (like getting road rage from a rabid Chargers fan).— March 27, 2016 4:40 p.m.