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Fed H-1B Visa Probes May Help American Engineers
An angle to consider on the H-1B abuse is from the foreign worker perspective. They are de facto indentured servants of their employers in many (if not most) cases. They want to be ehre and have the jobs they do that qualify for that. In that pursuit, they will work enormous uncompensated overtime, ignore any observed or endured abuse, and maintain fanatic loyalty to their employers. The employers know this full well and choose them over Americans because of it all, not because they categorically possess higher talent, education, or morale. Employers who quite routinely recruit through H-1B should be indicted as potential criminal abusers of the program. They offshore to unregulated labor markets and then, where work must be condicted oon our shores, bypass the locals for easil abused and cheap foreigners. This is not just among engineers and technicians but also look at places like HMOs.— February 12, 2012 5:55 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
This is but one of a hundred symptoms of the overall disease. Through the tight integration of corporation in government, at all levels, there has been an institutionalization of an underchallenged claim. The claim is that the fiduciary mandate for public companies to operate solely in the best interests of shareholders' value is the ultimate virtue of feee enterprise AND that this perversion of the free market is consistent with the founding principles of this nation. I think the problem in dscrediting it is that there is little overall coordination on the central problem. The efforts are myopically focused as if we are still busting the trusts of the late 19th century and exposing single threads of politcal corruption. You cannot slay the beast by cutting its toenails. The other problem is that the second you raise an objection to any aspect of this juggernaut's practices and principles, you are labeled a Socialist or a Communist by the Fox loonies or even more interesting the actually virtuous labels of Progressive or Liberal.— March 12, 2011 3:08 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
When I taught in one of a local university's science departments in the 1980s, there were an obvious admission bias toward foreign students, particularly in the graduate programs. Well, it wasn't entirely clear how much was a genuine bias though as a lot of American students were drawn to studying law (thanks a lot LA Law) and finance as trendy majors. Out in the private sector (government contractor), there was a gradual insurgence of H-1Bs in the wake of Reagan's SDI contract frenzy. They were even rolling the dice trying to get security clearances for some of the hired foreigners. Good old boys were being pushed to the side or up through the management chain (when retention was considered favorable) to make way for the cheap and dedicated H-1Bs. People have to realize that the foreign students come often at their governments' expenses (paying much higher tuition and fees that the colleges adore) and are dedicated to what appears fanatical to American students who, in turn, look lazy with poor priorities (often actually an accurate assessment). The foreign students don't have failure as an option. Likewise, I do suspect that some of the H-1Bs in the workforce operate in a similar mode, perhaps with similar motivations sometimes. They do work like indentured servants with a high tolerance for massive uncompensated overtime. There are also odd dynamics when you have one on a team as opposed to a majority of H-1Bs on a project, particularly form the same nation. We do definitely need more engineers and scientists in this country than we have today. That doesn't mean we do not have any that are quite qualified and good workers who are unemployed. I know a good number who are unemployable or underemployed simply because of their ages and levels of experience. If you are an American scientist or engineer over 40 with a PhD, it is a VERY rough market right now.— March 11, 2011 7:42 p.m.
NFL owners’ arrogance sinking football
I don't watch spectator sports at all, not a virtue just a fact. That gives me a perspective that is untainted by self interests. The Chargers do not have any case for legitimately claiming a net positive investment for the City of San Diego, period. People have to seriously consider the costs, and sacrifices we need to make to offset them, in order to have a team locally that really does not represent the city. You have to recognize that the team is nothing but the carrot dangling from a stick in front of you. The enterprise holding the stick is the Chargers organization (Spanos) and the City is the stupid horse focused on the carrot taking the enterprise where they want to go.— March 6, 2011 4:03 p.m.
NFL owners’ arrogance sinking football
I agree they are not worth it. However, if take any guidance from boxing, where such risks are well established and acknowledged, we know that the big money in sports will outrank that consideration. If gladiator games were big money, we'd have lions on deck at Qualcomm Stadium.— March 6, 2011 3:54 p.m.
Walmart's All-Out War Against San Diego City Hall; Bridgepoint Leases New Space
The clipboard militia they have hired to gather referendum petitions are largely misleading the people who are signing them. I have noted that with the exception of the Kearney Mesa Walmart location, they are not mentioning it being about Walmart or the bigbox Council decision. About a mile west of there, I noted the claims at two grocery-centered malls. At the Von's at Clairemont Square, the line was they were collecting signatures to save the local schools. Target in the Balboa & Genessee shopping center had the guy saying it was to sign to help the city solve the unemployment crisis. I confronted that individual and made him publicly reveal the truth behind his petition. Might have impacted perhaps a half dozen potential signers. Regardless of how you feel about the overall issue, we should agree that this outright misrepresentation for folks' compromising their signatures is wrong and should be unwelcomed in our community. Please challenge these people on the issue in civilly approrpiate ways and get the word out regarding this blatant activity.— December 17, 2010 3:30 p.m.
Scott Kessler works with FBI investigating Marco Li Mandri
First, Don, I am amazed that none of these guys' friends haven't tried to whack you yet. You've written truthfully with keen observations on so many important things for which many of us are grateful. The thing that really boils my blood is when public servants refuse to answer questions and return calls. It should never have been an option while working under the auspices of our government at any level. What we need is an initiative, statewide or citywide or whatever, that requires a cogent response from any government worker or office within the covered jurisdiction within, say, 72 hours of such a request. It probably should be limited to requests from registered (however that would be accomplished if there isn't some present licensing or registration that could be used) press agencies to cut down on potential abuse. The citizens who are their ultimate bosses in their collective deserve this. Government offices should never have the individual's rights against self-incrimination. And if one does plead the fifth and respectfully chooses to not make a public statement the voters should remember that person or (if it is not an elected individual) the elected person who appointed or chose to keep hired that person.— March 24, 2010 7:30 p.m.
Face value of derivatives floating around the world is $1.14 quadrillion
I think Grant deserves to be solidly on that list too, paul. Arguably Eisenhower as well.— September 18, 2008 9:55 a.m.
Plastic bags block La Jolla kelp beds
When I read the bit at the head of the "What’s Being Done About the Plastic Plague?" section of this article I was incensed. This is buried in an article that will be lost and should itself be a cover story. Get the most unflattering photo of Sanders and throw it on a future cover and dig into it as tenaciously as possible. It has always gotten under my skin when public servents and government-paid workers decline comment on their job performance perpetually. Public officials need to be required to answer to ALL of its citizenry on ALL issues related to their jobs to ANY news media that asks for it and in a timely and unrehearsed manner. Imagine being called into your boss' office and telling him you decline to answer his questions ABOUT YOUR JOB! What unmitigated gall and chutzpah we allow from these guys. They work for us and are not our Lords. It about damned time they get to knowing it. I am sure Sanders and his attorneys canvas everything here. That is why they disallow any contact with the Reader for their staff and employees....ultimately OUR EMPLOYEES. Declare war on them and their developer bedfellows. Everyone should expose them for what they are every time they slip up and show their dirty underwear. Hold them accountable. I applaud the Reader, Don Bauder specifically, for not backing off and maintaining the right focus on the marginal criminality of our local government. So go to war too as you can. Call your talk radio. Write letters to the editors. Protest when there is an organized protest. It's time to take back America's Finest City for its finest citizens not the developer scum.— September 17, 2008 5:27 p.m.
Face value of derivatives floating around the world is $1.14 quadrillion
Nicely presented article on something many of us understood and also something that you, Don, had warned about a number of times in the past. As for the politics some like to front on this, it runs across the aisle. It is not exclusive to a party but is in the very essence of our current political system. Politics is the a mix of the dog and pony show misdirection and the legal aparatus of criminal-level wealth redistribution. I know such talk has traditionally been dismissed as "commie" talk, as if speaking against Corporate culture is an affront to flag waving American free enterprise. That's why we continue to struggle with where we set the line for monopolies. Anyway, you have the money running politics. We all know it and some are better tuned into the depth that money control is than others. You also have the finance sector greed. It is aligned with corporate greed and corruption but does differ with it too on monumental scales. At the micro level, nearly every entity in the sector is a predator looking for a scheme or angle to skim more for himself. There are plenty who do nothing more than economically unproductive repackaging of securities, arbitrage trading, currency trading, etc. The veneer of the industry is a enormous collage of obfuscation. It is the natural gradient money takes. Go as far as you can in your self interest without getting into personal trouble. The metric for success in the industry is that in a nutshell. The problem? The repackaging of securities and, as put int he article, gambles on gambles (or something like that), somewhere in the rushed tangling of this web, the sharks involbed got their necks and limbs caught in the tangles and getting cut to pieces as it tightens up. But the problem continues in that the economy is bound to them AND they have redistributed the load onto the lesser involved chumps: mom and pop and the littler and "less sophisticated" institutions. This will meet the defining conditions of an epidemic, absolutely no doubt about it. You cannot put out a skyscraper fire with a garden hose. (Enough metaphors?) You, me, most people we know, the corner stores that still exist and others will all be pinched hard in the end. What will suffer ultimately is your and my personal standards of living. The guys in control know it and are looking out for themselves to make sure they have their soft landings with their golden parachutes. Get informed and look out for you and yours. (Apologize, in advance to my typos which I know I always make.)— September 17, 2008 4:21 p.m.