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On international science tests, American students perpetually lag behind their peers in other developed countries. A logical response might be to beef up science programs in government schools, but logic is hard to come by in skin-deep-only-diversity-obsessed bureaucracies.

One school seeks to do the opposite, and for the most insulting of reasons. Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students, proposes to eliminate before- and after-school science labs at Berkeley High School (BHS) and divert resources to narrowing the intractable racial academic achievement gap. According to the East Bay Express, an alternate parent representative on the council said "information presented at council meetings suggests that the science labs were largely classes for white students," although black students take science classes. One teacher said she has 12 black male students in her Advanced Placement classes, and black and Hispanic students account for a third of her four environmental science classes.

BHS purportedly has the widest racial academic achievement gap in California, which the council deemed "unconscionable." Depriving students of science lab instruction because the labs benefit mostly white students apparently isn't unconscionable.

"The labs help the struggling students most," physics teacher Matt McHugh told the Berkeley Daily Planet, "because they're the ones who need the most help."

For those who frequently blog and write about racial preferences and lowered standards for blacks, this isn't surprising or shocking. Bureaucrats are embarrassed that blacks lag behind their peers, so taxpayers fork over millions to try to achieve the unattainable goal of equal outcomes.

Berkeley High's plan apparently was surprising and shocking to tech blogger and Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. Author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More and Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Anderson mentioned the story on Twitter, and other bloggers picked it up.

"I'm not necessarily opposed to race-based proposals," Anderson told me via e-mail. "I just think the premise of this one—'science is for white people'--is absurd and deeply counterproductive."

TechDirt blogger Mike Masnick saw Anderson's tweet. "It seems like there must be more to this story than what's being reported," Masnick wrote. "The concept of cutting science labs because more white students take them just seems too preposterous to make sense."

Unfortunately, there isn't more to the story, and yes, cutting programs because they benefit white students is preposterous and doesn't make sense. But that's what misguided social engineers do.

The school board will discuss the plan at its January 13 meeting. In the meantime, parents and guardians of BHS students are asked to sign a petition opposing the plan:

"The elimination of these labs would reduce instructional time by more than 21% (30% in AP classes). Such devastating cuts would force science teachers to eliminate many of the labs that enrich the experience for students by having them 'do science.' These cuts would result in the reduction in coverage of the state standards and the inability to effectively use instructional strategies that support student learning. This flies in the face of the current push for equity and the 2020 Vision. To close the achievement gap, students require more instruction, not less; more time with qualified instructors, not less."

Is the proposed elimination of the labs per se the problem, or the reason behind the proposal? No matter how much money the government spends trying to close the achievement gap, individuals will never, ever, perform equally, nor will outcomes between racial groups reach parity. Individuals have varying levels of interest, aptitude, motivation, and determination.

Bureaucrats need to get over the "unconscionable" gap, keep expectations high for all students, and stop defining achievement down.

H1B spat unites activists, xenophobes against common enemy

A New Jersey judge has ordered offline two anti-H1B sites that posted comments from H1B workers warning other Indians to stay away from the alleged IT sweatshop. ATG claims the posts were defamatory, but activists and workers say they give a glimpse into the way things really work.

To venture into the world of online anti-H1B activism is to enter a world of legitimate grievance mixed with outright xenophobia and racism. On the one hand, these sites do great work in bringing to light the ongoing abuses of the H1B program by American tech companies, but on the other hand, it takes a pretty twisted individual to openly gloat that the mass-fatality-causing collapse of an New Delhi bridge is evidence that Indian engineers are inferior to American engineers. Nonetheless, in the midst of all the rancor—rancor that's made worse by high unemployment—south Asian IT contractors and their American opponents have joined forces against an alleged IT sweatshop's attempt to silence its anonymous online critics. The unlikely allies are also united in opposing a New Jersey court's ruling that the critics' sites be taken offline and their identities disclosed.

The battle between New Jersey-based Apex Technology Group Inc. and a trio of anti-H1B sites began late last month, when EndH1B.com reproduced a posting from an Indian IT worker forum in which one Pankaj Jain warned his fellow H1Bs to beware of Apex's employment practices. Among Jain's allegations were that the Indian-run Apex was a "desi bodyshop" that treated Indians like "bond servants", delayed payment, and attached illegal riders to contracts compelling H1Bs to stay with the company lest they forfeit a paycheck.

Copies of an alleged employment agreement were linked by the anonymously run, anti-H1B site EndH1B.com, and from there the story spread to sites guestworkerfraud.com and ITGrunt.com. The sites were contacted by Apex's counsel and instructed to remove all content related to Apex, and, predictably, the sites told Apex where to stuff it.

The hostilities between Apex and the anti-H1B activists moved to the courts on December 11, and EndH1B.com was vindicated by a judge who ruled that the blog could continue to host the allegations about Apex and to report new facts as the legal battle unfolded. EndH1B.com was able to raise over $5,000 from supporters to support its legal effort,

After a series of appeals, Apex finally got a New Jersey judge to rule in its favor and order the three sites to take down all content related to Apex. The judge, whose ruling went out on December 23, also went a step further, though, and issued a series of demands to the providers of the services that EndH1B.com and ITGrunt.com were using for hosting and communication. Here's a rundown of the orders:

• Yahoo! and Comcast were ordered to turn over the identity of one of the activists, who had apparently been using a specific Comcast IP and Yahoo! email address to correspond with Apex.
• Facebook was ordered to give up personally identifying information for pseudonymous administrator of ITGrunt.com, information that includes "account application forms and billing address and name information."
• The three sites' "hosts" (DiscountASP.NET, GoDaddy.com, Network Solutions, and Domains By Proxy—the court appears to have conflated hosting and DNS providers) were ordered to pull the sites offline.

The newly issued ruling gives the site owners time to appeal, and at least one of the sites (GuestWorkerFraud.com) is still up. Of the remaining two, one looks misconfigured (EndH1B.com) and the other is fully down (ITGrunt.com). Computerworld is reporting that GoDaddy and DiscountASP.NET claim to have complied with the court order already, and Facebook acknowledges receiving it.

Coverage of the controversy and of the newest ruling has appeared at Indian IT blog Techgoss.com, and the site's director has expressed support for the free speech rights of the anti-H1B activists to BrightFutureJobs.com.

Of course, the alignment of South Asian IT workers and anti-H1B activists on this issue isn't so much a kumbaya moment as it is a case of shared interests. It's allegedly common for the American-based H1B sweatshops who exploit Indian workers to themselves be run by Indians, where the latter use their social networks to attract H1B employees before attempting to establish a one-sided relationship of the kind that's legally enforceable in India but not in the US. In this case, Apex, an Indian-run IT shop, was trying to identify and silence an Indian commenter (Panjak Jain) on an Indian bulletin board (DesiCrunch.com); the anonymous American anti-H1B activists got caught in the middle by publicizing the comments, and the activists were then asked by Apex to surrender Jain's contact information, which they got by corresponding with him.

The incident has given some anti-H1B activists who could otherwise be credibly accused of xenophobia the chance to play the part of protector of an exploited Indian worker. BrightFutureJobs.com reports that the anonymous administrator of EndH1B.com stated in response to Apex's request for Jain's identity, "We are not in the business of helping exploitative Desi bodyshops target their H-1B victims for harassment, retribution, or violence."

Techgoss.com reports that the sites are appealing to the EFF for legal help in fighting the takedowns, but the organization has yet to weigh in on the case.

  Your Rights Online: Court Orders Shutdown of H-1B Critics' Websites on Tuesday December 29, @09:44AM

Morning News, 12/23/09

• December 23, 2009
• 11:04 a.m.
• Suggest removal
• Reply to this post

mabell writes:

Illegal Aliens Steal Billions Via Tax ID #s

Tucked discreetly away in the ‘Economy’ section of the New York Times:

Thousands May Incorrectly Be Using Stimulus Tax Breaks

By LYNNLEY BROWNING

December 22, 2009

Thousands of American taxpayers incorrectly claimed more than $500 million in tax benefits under the Obama administration’s tax break for first-time home buyers, a government watchdog report said Tuesday.

That finding was one part of a report by the inspector general for tax administration that said the Internal Revenue Service does not know whether the majority of the $312 billion in tax breaks available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are being claimed legitimately.

The report said that for businesses and individual taxpayers claiming tax relief under the 2009 act, “the IRS is unable to verify eligibility for the majority of Recovery Act benefits at the time a tax return is processed.” …

The report said that as of July 25, 73,799 taxpayers had incorrectly claimed $504 million in credits in the program for first-time home buyers…

The watchdog agency also said Tuesday in a separate report that an I.R.S. program that has issued more than 14 million taxpayer identification numbers to immigrants is plagued with fraud that costs the government billions of dollars in improper tax refunds.

The report found that nearly 70 percent of such numbers should not have been issued because their applicants provided murky documentation. The numbers, called individual taxpayer identification numbers, are typically used by immigrants who are not American citizens or by permanent residents who have entered the United States legally.

The identification numbers are valuable because they can be used to claim federal tax refunds and certain child tax credits. They cannot be used to claim social security payments or the earned income tax credit, a $49 billion federal program to low-income workers.

The numbers, first issued in 1996, do not change an immigrant’s legal status or permit employment.

The I.R.S. has said that between 1996 and 2003, the number holders reported owing taxes of $50 billion, though it has not disclosed the size of refunds claimed.

Based on nearly 1.2 million federal tax returns filed over 2008 and 2009, the report estimated that the fraud would cost the government more than $2 billion over five years.

In a written response to the report, the I.R.S. disputed its findings, saying that the sample base used was not indicative of the overall program.

What a lesson this is. As if we needed another.

Every single thing the federal government touches becomes encrusted with fraud and thievery.

So let’s put them in charge of still more.

Day reporter wins national award

COMMENTS ( 0 )

Montgomery-based Raycom settles age discrimination case

By Robert K. Gordon -- The Birmingham News

December 22, 2009, 10:47AM

From: jgo456 <jgo456@...>
Subject: [awcorg] Re: What do you think about this
To: awcorg@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 10:19 AM

 

> In awcorg@yahoogroups. com, char <rahcn@...> wrote:
> Had a job interview last week with a staffing agency.
>� I was applying for a full time permanent position as Office Admin.
>� The company is a Staffing Firm that provides Physical Therapist
> for home care.� The interviewer was looking over my resume and
> pointed out several skills she was in need of that I have posted
> on my resume.�

> As we chatted, I asked about her firm, I suggested she receives
> referrals from Hospitals, Doctors, and Insurance companies.�
> She said "No, none of them"

> She then turned white as a ghost and abruptly called our meeting
> to an end.� She escorted me out the door.

> As I walked out to my car, I wondered if I simply ask too many
> questions.� Or perhaps I ask the wrong questions.�� When I arrived
> home, I reviewed my research I had done before the interview.
>� the company is founded by 2 Filipinos.�� I searched the company
> for H1B, yes they do sponsor H1Bs

> MY QUESTION: Who is in need of physical therapy in their homes?�
> If this staffing agency does not get referrals from Nursing Home,
> Insurance Cos, Doctors, hospitals, how do they get their clients?
> What did I walk into?� And are there any legitimate businesses hiring?�

> I have my suspicions but I will wait to hear from all of you.

So, was there a sign saying ACORN or SEIU? :B-)

The line from "Thunderheart" is apt: Get tape (or DVD or chip).
But, of course, we tend to only realize we should have, after the fact.

I'd call the local crime-tip hot-line from a pay phone in some
other part of town, on suspicion of human trafficking.

The one person I knew, who got a degree in physical therapy,
was unemployed and under-employed for a long time. At one
point he was a nanny. He eventually went to law school in
England and was practicing in the Bahamas.

From: char <rahcn@...>
Subject: [ChristiansAgainstJobDestruction] 90 Older Former Allstate Workers to Share Funds in Case Against Insurance Giant
To: "NewAmericanIndependent_ImmigrationReform@yahoogroups.com" <NewAmericanIndependent_ImmigrationReform@yahoogroups.com>, TechsUnite@yahoogroups.com, awcorg@yahoogroups.com, AmericanWorkersCoalition@yahoogroups.com, ChristiansAgainstJobDestruction@yahoogroups.com, NewAmericanIndependent_AmericanWorker@yahoogroups.com, "H1B_GO_HOME@yahoogroups.com" <H1B_GO_HOME@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 11:21 PM

 

Court Approves Distribution of $4.5 Million Settlement in EEOC Age Bias Suit Against Allstate Saturday, December 19, 2009 :: Staff infoZine Class of 90 Older Former Workers to Share Funds in Case Against Insurance Giant   St Louis, MO - infoZine - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that Judge E. Richard Webber of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri has granted final approval for distribution of a $4,500,000 monetary award to 90 claimants identified during the litigation as part of an EEOC litigation settlement with Allstate Insurance Company under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). In its lawsuit against the Illinois-based insurance giant, filed in October 2004, the EEOC alleged that a class of older workers at Allstate was adversely impacted based on age during a companywide reorganization. Specifically, the EEOC charged that in the year 2000 Allstate adopted a hiring moratorium for a period of one year, or while severance benefits were being received, that applied to all its employee-sales agents who were part of its Preparing For The Future Reorganization Program. The program was part of Allstate’s reorganization from employee agents to what the company considered independent contractors. The EEOC had alleged that Allstate’s policy, which was implemented from 2000 to 2002, had a disproportionate impact on employees over the age of 40 because more than 90 percent of the agents subjected to the hiring moratorium were 40 years of age or older. Allstate denied that its hiring moratorium violated the ADEA. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Smith v. City of Jackson that a facially neutral policy (such as Allstate’s hiring moratorium) which disproportionately affects those age 40 and over will violate the ADEA unless the policy is based on a reasonable factor other than age. This case was one of the first to apply the holding in City of Jackson, although no decision was made whether or not Allstate’s policy violated the ADEA. “We at the EEOC are now bringing more and more lawsuits like this one to challenge company-wide policies or practices which discriminate against a large number of workers,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. “Make no mistake: As this settlement shows, we will insist on significant compensation and meaningful injunctive relief to resolve these cases.” As provided in the Stipulated Order resolving the EEOC litigation (Civil Action No. 4:04CV01359 ERW), Allstate will pay former older employees who sought employment -- or would have sought employment with the company in the absence of its policy -- a total of $4.5 million to be divided among the class via a settlement fund. The order also provides for discrimination prevention training, posting of notices, reporting and monitoring, and other relief designed to educate Allstate managers in order to prevent future violations of the ADEA. EEOC Regional Attorney Barbara A. Seely of the agency’s St. Louis District Office, which handled the litigation, said, “Regardless of age, these sales agents would have made good employees in other positions for Allstate had it not been for the company’s no-rehire policy, which we believe had an adverse impact on older workers. City of Jackson makes clear that even though an employer may not intentionally discriminate because of an employee’s age, it can still violate the ADEA if it has a policy that has a disproportionate impact on employees age 40 and over.” In July 2009, the Commission held a public hearing on age discrimination and barriers to the employment of older workers. Additional information about the hearing can be found on the EEOC’s web site at http://www.eeoc. gov/eeoc/ meetings/ 7-15-09/index. cfm. According to Allstate’s web site, the Northbrook, Ill.-based company “is the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer. A Fortune 100 company, with $130 billion in total assets, Allstate sells 13 major lines of insurance. Allstate was founded in 1931 and became a publicly traded company in 1993. The Allstate Corporation encompasses more than 70,000 professionals.”

Guardsmen fight new battles for old jobs in hard economy

Leigh Herring of Peoria plays with his daughter Janessa, 5, on his back with son Bradley, 6, nearby. (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune / December 13, 2009)

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By James Janega Tribune reporter

December 20, 2009

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Spec. Leigh Herring is back from Afghanistan, nursing the lingering wounds from a car bomb. With his savings and vacation days running out, the Illinois Army National Guardsman is about ready to return to his civilian job.

But the job isn't ready for him. While Herring was deployed, his Peoria employer, Caterpillar, eliminated the assembly-line shift he joined in 2007.

"They haven't technically laid me off yet, but I don't know what they'll do when I come off leave," said the 28-year-old factory worker. Many positions were eliminated, including some held by guardsmen, a Caterpillar spokesman said in response to a Tribune inquiry; the company is reviewing each case to be sure it has followed employment laws for returning service members.

About 3,000 Illinois National Guard members returned this fall from Afghanistan after the state's largest deployment since World War II. As they wrap up their end-of-tour leaves and take their first steps toward returning to work, they're running into some harsh realities at home, including an unemployment rate of more than 10 percent.

According to the law, members of the guard and reserves who return to work from active duty are entitled to be treated as if they had never left. If their job still exists, they are supposed to get it back. But equal treatment means equal peril: If others with the same job description have been laid off, the returning guard members may be out of luck.

The Illinois Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve, a liaison agency between the military and civilian employers, recorded at least 21 complaints in November under the law protecting the jobs of deployed citizen soldiers. That's four times the monthly average from recent years. But of course, this is not an average time.

Veterans groups and judicial training clinics have added education sessions on the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. And defense officials have stepped up publicity for the law governing civilian jobs for reservists.

"We've got some real near-term problems that we've got to be ready to address," said Dennis McCarthy, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. McCarthy who spoke to business leaders in Chicago in December about building relationships between reserve components and their civilian employers. "We know we've got some areas that are hit harder than others, and that there's really a devastating impact," he said.

Nationally, liaisons between civilian employers and reservists say support from employers for reservists and guardsmen was never higher. But complaints and calls for assistance also climbed nationwide. Surveys last summer suggest that job woes for guard and reserve troops go underreported.

"We're just capturing about 20 percent of service members with problems," said Maj. Melissa Phillips, a spokeswoman for the national office of the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve. "The other 80 percent, they may just be living with it."

Army Lt. Col. Dan Fuhr, 45, of Park Ridge, commander of the 1/178th Infantry, returned to Motorola to find his previous position had been filled while he was away. The new job they gave him on return was roughly equivalent, he said, though it paid less.

"As soon as we identified the discrepancy, they immediately fixed my pay grade back to where it was," Fuhr said.

"Re-employment issues can happen even in companies that are wonderful supporters," he said. "Having an employee deployed for a year or more, sometimes multiple times, is a real hardship."

The weakness of the economy puts the companies and the guard members in a state of uncertainty.

"I think it's an epidemic," said Abel Moreno, 31, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and deputy director of the Tucson-based Vets for Vets, which hosted a seminar this month in Chicago.

Life is likewise pulling Herring in several directions. While he sees doctors for the lingering effects of a Kabul suicide blast, the Illinois guard has kept him on temporary orders at a Peoria Army recruiting office. He and his pregnant girlfriend have just learned she will be having a baby girl, Herring's third child.

After several calls to Caterpillar's human resources department, he still doesn't know what will happen with his civilian job. He hasn't complained to the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve, but he is close to making the call, he said.

"I'm pretty worried about it. If I get released from orders and the checks stop coming in, the bills don't," Herring said. "What am I going to do next? It's always on my mind."

jjanega@...

Copyright � 2009, Chicago Tribune

Cartel ‘spies’ infiltrate U.S. customs agency

Mexican drug traffickers step up efforts to corrupt border agents

By Randal C. Archibold

updated 3:46 a.m. CT, Fri., Dec . 18, 2009

SAN DIEGO - At first, Luis F. Alarid seemed well on his way to becoming a customs agency success story. He had risen from a childhood of poverty and foster homes, some of them abusive, earned praise and commendations while serving in the Army and the Marines, including two tours in Iraq, and returned to Southern California to fulfill a goal of serving in law enforcement.

But, early last year, after just a few months as a customs inspector, he was waving in trucks from Mexico carrying loads of marijuana and illegal immigrants. He pocketed some $200,000 in cash that paid for, as far as the government could tell, a $15,000 motorcycle, flat-screen televisions, a laptop computer and more.

Some investigators believe that Mr. Alarid, 32, who was paid off by a Mexican smuggling crew that included several members of his family, intended to work for smugglers all along. At one point, Mr. Alarid, who was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in February, told investigators that he had researched just how much prison time he might get for his crimes and believed, as investigators later reported, that he could do it “standing on his head.”

Mr. Alarid’s case is not the only one that has law enforcement officials worried that Mexican traffickers — facing beefed-up security on the border that now includes miles of new fencing, floodlights, drones, motion sensors and cameras — have stepped up their efforts to corrupt the border police.

They research potential targets, anticorruption investigators said, exploiting the cross-border clans and relationships that define the region, offering money, sex, whatever it takes. But, with the border police in the midst of a hiring boom, law enforcement officers believe that traffickers are pulling out the stops, even soliciting some of their own operatives to apply for jobs.

“In some ways,” said Keith Slotter, the agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s San Diego office, “it’s like the old spy game between the old Soviet Union and the U.S. — trying to compromise each other’s spies.”

Infiltration
James Tomsheck, the assistant commissioner for internal affairs at Customs and Border Protection, and other investigators said they had seen many signs that the drug organizations were making a concerted effort to infiltrate the ranks.

“We are very concerned,” Mr. Tomsheck said. “There have been verifiable instances where people were directed to C.B.P. to apply for positions only for the purpose of enhancing the goals of criminal organizations. They had been selected because they had no criminal record; a background investigation would not develop derogatory information.”

During a federal trial of a recently hired Border Patrol agent this year, one drug trafficker with ties to organized crime in Mexico described how he had enticed the agent, a close friend from high school in Del Rio, Tex., who was entering the training academy, to join his crew smuggling tons of marijuana into Texas.

The smuggler, Diego Esquivel, who is not related to the agent, said he told her that her decision to enter the academy was a good career move and, he said, “I thought it was good for me, too.”

Under the Bush administration, the United States has spent billions of dollars — $11 billion this year alone for Customs and Border Protection — to tighten the border between the United States and Mexico, building up physical barriers and going on a hiring spree to develop the nation’s largest law enforcement agency to patrol the area.

But the battle for survival among cartels in Mexico, in which thousands of people, mostly in the drug trade or fighting it, have been killed, has only led drug traffickers to redouble their efforts to get their drugs to market in the United States.

Exploiting ties
Along the border, many residents have family members on both sides. Generations of residents have been accustomed to passing back and forth relatively freely, often daily, and exchanging goods, legal or not.

Federal officials believe that drug traffickers are seeking to exploit those ties more than ever, urging family and friends on the American side to take advantage of the hiring rush for customs agents. The majority of agents and officers stay out of crime. But smuggling can be appealing. The average officer makes $70,000 a year, a sum that can be dwarfed by what smugglers pay to get just a few trucks full of drugs into the United States.

Right now, only a fraction — 10 percent or so — of Customs and Border Protection recruits are given a polygraph screening that federal investigators say has proved effective in weeding out people with drug ties and other troublesome backgrounds. Officials say they do not have the money to test more recruits.

In years past, new hires rarely served in the areas where they had grown up, but recently that practice has been relaxed somewhat to attract more recruits, said Thomas Frost, an assistant inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Frost and other internal affairs veterans say that has made it easier for traffickers.

Mr. Tomsheck said that several prospective hires had been turned away after investigators suspected that they had been directed to Customs and Border Enforcement by drug trafficking organizations, and that several recent hires were under investigation as well, though he declined to provide details.

As one exasperated investigator at the border put it, “There is so much hiring; if you have a warm body and pulse, you have a job.”

The F.B.I. is planning to add three multiagency corruption squads to the 10 already on the Southwest border, and the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, the department’s primary investigative arm, has also added agents. But such hiring has not kept up with the growth of the agency they are entrusted to keep watch over.

Over all, arrests of Customs and Border Protection agents and officers have increased 40 percent in the last few years, outpacing the 24 percent growth in the agency itself, according to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office. The office has 400 open investigations, each often spanning a few years or more.

Most corrupt officers gravitate to smuggling illegal immigrants, rationalizing that is less onerous than getting involved with drugs, investigators say.

But Mr. Byers and others point to a string of drug-related cases that make them wonder if the conventional wisdom is holding.

Margarita Crispin, a former customs inspector in El Paso, pleaded guilty in April 2008 and received a 20-year prison sentence in what the F.B.I. considers one of the more egregious corruption cases.

Through a succession of boyfriends and other associates with ties to major drug trafficking organizations in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Ms. Crispin helped smuggle thousands of pounds of marijuana over three years, almost from the time she began working for the agency.

She waved off drug-sniffing dogs in her lane, complaining she was afraid of them, although investigators later learned she had had dogs as pets.

“She is someone who from the beginning said this would be a good job to help the people I am associated with,” Mr. Byers said.

Mother, daughter team
Just last month, Martha Garnica, a 12-year Customs and Border Protection employee near El Paso, was charged with bribery and marijuana smuggling in concert with traffickers in Ciudad Juárez.

Mr. Alarid’s history in the military probably made him seem like a good candidate for the customs job. But he had a tangled family history. According to court papers, both his parents were drug addicts.

Mr. Alarid was born in Tijuana, Mexico, but raised largely in foster homes in Southern California. He emerged from high school a track star and, over the next 10 years, did stints in the Marines and the Army, drawing praise from commanders for his dedication and service.

“I would willingly trust Luis with my life,” Sgt. Maj. Michael W. Abbey of the Army wrote in a letter to the judge before Mr. Alarid was sentenced in February.

Mr. Alarid began working at the border in San Diego in October 2007. In his guilty plea, he admitted that he had started smuggling in February 2008. He was arrested three months later.

Mr. Alarid would wave in vehicles that should have raised suspicion, either because their license plates were partly covered or because the plates did not belong to the vehicle, something he would have seen on the computer screen in his inspection booth.

Before reporting to his lane, he would go out to the employee parking lot to use his cellphone, which federal agents believe was his way of telling the smugglers which lane to approach.

Driving factors
At his sentencing, all involved — the prosecutors, the judge, his lawyer — expressed bewilderment at the turn in Mr. Alarid’s life. But in an interview, a family member who was not part of the case said Mr. Alarid had mounting gambling debts and, despite it all, had always sought a bond with his biological mother.

Interactive: Mexican drug cartels      Learn more about how Mexican drug cartels are extending their reach farther into the U.S.

“I do think that the public, for a while at least, needs to be assured that who we have at the border are 100 percent individuals of integrity,” she said. “I think you were at one time. I don’t know what went wrong for you, sir, and I hope that you attain that again.”

This story, "Hired by Customs, but Working for the Cartels," originally appeared in The New York Times.

The Jobs Search

Vaiden woman wins lawsuit

By Charlie Smith
News Editor

Investigation: Illegal Workers On Elmendorf AFB

Cities Where Americans Are Getting Richer

Incomes for educated workers are growing fastest in these metros

The news coming out of dusty border city El Paso, Texas, is usually pretty grim. The metro suffers from 9.5% unemployment, declining high-school graduation rates and inadequate infrastructure. But a closer look reveals an employment picture that, at least in one way, is improving. In the past four years, incomes for college graduates there have steadily grown more than any other major metropolitan area.

Several factors, like increased border patrol activity requiring jobs in intelligence and other white-collar work, and recent expansions of both Fort Bliss, one of the country's largest military bases, and the local University of Texas campus, have boosted pay for educated Texans. Couple that with El Paso's relative protection from the battered housing economy and it's easier to see why pay is inching up.

"Under most circumstances, it would be surprising for El Paso to rank so highly on any type of income gauge," says Tom Fullerton, economics professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. "But there has been some really fortunate timing in terms of expansion in the local economy."

Indeed, it's not always the most affluent or economically robust cities where incomes for professionals have jumped the most, according to data provided by Seattle-based Payscale, an online provider of employee compensation data with a database of 18.5 million employee profiles. Median pay rose in El Paso by 19.4% to $49,100 since 2005, handily outpacing the 8% national growth for college grads.

Closely following El Paso are Bakersfield, Calif., an oil town packed with engineers, where incomes are up 18.5%; Omaha, Neb., a national center for large insurance carriers like Mutual of Omaha, which saw an 18.4% jump; and Virginia Beach, Va., home to U.S. military bases including Naval Air Station Oceana, where the median rose 17.3%.

This list offers a different view of the economy than the national jobs landscape with which Americans are all too familiar: 15.4 million are unemployed, 135,000 jobs are lost each month and incomes for many are stagnant. But in some urban areas where growth industries like government, health care and education are prevalent, college graduates have seen modest, but steady, income growth.

Behind the Numbers

Payscale.com studied the compensation of college graduates for which it had data--about 1.5 million people--in the 100 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas (regions defined by the U.S. Office of Management and budget that the federal government uses to collect statistics) in the country. It ranked metros on the compounded income growth between December 2005 and December 2009 to arrive at the cities where Americans are getting richer.

Metros in the top 10 are scattered throughout the Northeast, Midwest, South and Hawaii, showing that income growth has more to do with what you do than where you live. Incomes in the best-performing metros are heavily influenced by the dominant industries there--and in particular, whether those industries pay well for college graduates.

Bakersfield, Calif., suffers from a 14.5% unemployment rate and a sharp loss of housing industry jobs. But the engineering profession has a strong presence there, as do the oil and gas extraction industries, all of which require highly skilled workers.

"Bakersfield has a high unemployment rate, but what we're seeing is not affecting college grads," says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at Payscale. "So if you have a college degree and you're working as a petroleum engineer, you're doing fine."

A city like Phoenix, whose economic fortunes have changed dramatically for the worse in the past three years, is a surprising member of the top 10. But the tumbling housing industry, while it cost many building jobs, had less of an impact on college graduates. Some of the few jobs that remain are top-earning ones. Cynthia Kroll, senior regional economist at the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, compares it to the trimming of low-wage jobs in Silicon Valley after the dot-com bust early in the decade.

"When the crash comes, and you lay off 75%, you tend to keep the higher-paid jobs. So your salary base goes up," says Kroll. "It's not that highly skilled people don't also get laid off, but the mix is going to be weighted toward the more experienced, more skilled workers that you're going to need when growth comes back."

Cities like Charlotte, N.C., benefit from one of the country's strongest industries, and one that counts highly skilled workers among its ranks: Education. Charlotte is home to a half-dozen universities, Johnson & Wales University among them.

These trends are another indicator that the country is in the midst of a significant and in many places painful transition from a manufacturing economy to one driven by service and technology jobs. The change has mixed implications for educated workers. Jobs have been lost in industries that were often unionized, which raised salaries, and fewer union jobs may drag incomes down on the whole.

"As those industries have shorn jobs, the proportion of families with middle incomes has declined," says Douglas Hall, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Institute at the Economic Policy Institute, an economics-based think tank in Washington, D.C. "Manufacturing's role in the economy has changed, and we haven't wrapped our heads around what the implications are."

The lack of strong regional patterns in the metros becoming richest reveals more than anything how varied local economies are. Only a close look at the mix of industries in every city, and its political and economic underpinnings, explains the direction in which incomes are moving.

"Bakersfield and El Paso are really different from Virginia beach and Honolulu. That in itself is interesting" says Kroll. "It may well be a different story in each place."

Photos: Cities Where Americans Are Getting Richer

1. El Paso, Texas

Median Pay, 2005:$41,100

Median Pay, 2009:$49,100

Median Pay Trend:19.39%

Unemployment Rate:9.5%

2. Bakersfield, Calif.

Median Pay, 2005:$51,300

Median Pay, 2009:$60,900

Median Pay Trend:18.52%

Unemployment Rate:14.5%

3. Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA

Median Pay, 2005:$45,500

Median Pay, 2009:$53,900

Median Pay Trend:18.39%

Unemployment Rate:4.8%

4. Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC

Median Pay, 2005:$44,500

Median Pay, 2009:$52,200

Median Pay Trend:17.28%

Unemployment Rate:6.5%

5. Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA

Median Pay, 2005:$44,800

Median Pay, 2009:$52,500

Median Pay Trend:17.27%

Unemployment Rate:5.7%

Source: Payscale.com

Idea of the Day: Enhancing U.S. Competitiveness

December 16, 2009

The basic goal of our high-skilled immigration regime should be to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. employers by enabling them to tap top-flight international talent and workers with specific skill sets. The goal is not to provide a limitless pool of entry-level workers who, in the aggregate, can drive down the native born workforce’s wages. But companies who identify specific needs that they cannot fill with the native workforce should be able to access foreign workers while guaranteeing wages that protect against wage deflation for all workers.

Congress should adopt the following restrictions to ensure that the H-1B program promotes the goal of enhancing U.S. competitiveness:

• Prohibit the use of visas by staffing companies. Companies filing an H-1B petition should be required to attest that the H-1B worker will be supervised and controlled by the H-1B employer, thus preventing so-called “job shops” or “body shops” from participating in the H-1B program.
• Bar companies with more than 50 employees whose workforce is comprised of more than 50 percent foreign workers from the H-1B program unless they can establish to the satisfaction of the Department of Labor that they pay all of their employees more than 125 percent of the prevailing wage and can establish a recruitment program for U.S. workers that exceeds industry standards.
• Prevent temporary work visas, such as H-1B visas and L-1 visas, from being made available to foreign nationals who will use those visas to “shadow” U.S. workers in order to allow the jobs performed by those U.S. workers to be moved offshore.

Why Not 'Cash For U.S. Jobs'?

The last time I made a trip to Home Depot was for a space heater for my bedroom, and I did what I suspect many people are doing on purchases like this: In addition to comparing the price tags, looking for the "Energy Star" label and asking whether this heater is any better than the one that's now on its way to its eternal home, I looked to see if any of the products had the "Made in the U.S.A." label.

Unfortunately, none did, and I can't say I was surprised.

And there lies a major flaw in President Obama's trip to a Home Depot in a Washington suburb today to tout his "cash for caulkers" program. It is a well-intentioned program to get people to invest in making their homes more energy efficient, and in the process getting more dollars flowing through the economy. But, as the Alliance for American Manufacturing notes in its statement today, what's missing is a stimulus for American manufacturing and the jobs in that sector.

If the federal government provides homeowners with incentives to purchase products stamped "Made in Mexico" or "Made in Japan" or "Made in China," will factories workers in America be called back to work? In most cases, energy-efficient appliances and retrofitting products manufactured overseas do not rely on American-made steel, rubber, glass, and other key inputs.

Recently, AAM took a more detailed survey of a Home Depot to get a sense of just how much benefit the economy would actually get as a typical homeowner uses the "cash for caulkers" credit to retrofit their home.

We were glad to see that some products are made in America, including:

• DAP caulks and sealants
• Certainteed and Owens Corning insulation
• GAF ventilation systems

Unfortunately, many of the high-value energy efficiency products we saw were not made in America.

Several hot water heaters were stamped “Made in Mexico” and “Made in Japan.” ... Most fluorescent bulbs we saw were “Made in China”

In a separate post, our research director Eric Lotke points out the other side of today's good news about an increase in capacity utilization at our nation's factories—that we still have more than a quarter of our manufacturing capacity lying idle.

AAM cites one piece of good breaking news, General Electric's announcement that it is planning to make a new line of energy-efficient washers and dryers at a Louisville plant that will employ 400 workers. But we need a lot more companies stepping up to the plate.

It's one reason why President Obama's jawboning of the banks—however unnecessary it should have been if the government bailout of the financial sector had been handled properly in the first place—was an important step in what should be a comprehensive policy to restore manufacturing to its rightful place in the economy. Banks have an obligation to invest prudently but aggressively in the firms that can get those factories humming again. If these firms are producing the goods needed in the new green economy, then a "cash for caulkers" program will not just be a boon for the big-box hardware chains and for homeowners who shave a few dollars of their utility bills, but they will get a skilled American worker off the unemployment line and into a good-paying job. That is a smart taxpayer, and consumer, investment.

The biggest political issue today and in the 2010 election is that one in six Americans are jobless. The political party that offers a solution has the best chance of victory -- but, so far, both parties just don't seem to get it.

We are told that the unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, but that's only part of the problem. When you add discouraged Americans who have quit looking for a job, plus the underemployed (i.e., working only part-time while seeking full-time work), the figure rises to at least 17.5 percent.

President Obama plunged America into incredible debt by telling us that his $787 billion stimulus bill would "save or create" 3.5 million jobs. To borrow a phrase from an earlier campaign, that was just "campaign oratory."

In arguing for his stimulus, Obama promised "shovel-ready" jobs, which gave us the mental image of construction workers in hard hats repairing our highways and bridges. But while four out of five who lost their jobs were men, more than half the jobs created by the stimulus were for women in education or government, where no hard hats are needed.

Two reasons explain this disconnect. The feminists had a tantrum and demanded stimulus jobs, and Obama wants to make more people dependent on government rather than the private sector (aka, socialism).

Many stimulus jobs went to keep state and local jobs from succumbing to budget cuts. That was a payoff to public sector unions such as SEIU (whose president is now the most frequent White House guest), but does nothing to increase jobs in the real economy.

Young people voted for Obama for President by 66 percent to 32 percent, but they made a bad bargain because 3 million of them now have no jobs. According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, the percentage of young men actually working is the lowest in the 61 years of recordkeeping.

Among men ages 20 through 24, only 65 of every 100 are employed on any given day, and among males ages 16 through 19, only 28 of 100 are working. John Podesta's answer to this problem is to give a few thousand of them government jobs in AmeriCorps.

These figures were detailed by The New York Times' African-American columnist, Bob Herbert. He tactfully refrained from stating the obvious, that the ones hurt the most by this unemployment are young black men.

It's refreshing that some are waking up to how Obama has used but not helped his biggest constituency, the African-Americans.

A more biting criticism was leveled at Obama by the left-wing journal Rolling Stone in its Dec. 10 issue, which lambasts the president in an eight-page attack article called "Obama's Big Sellout." Rolling Stone is in shock at discovering that Obama's socialism means payoffs to his rich friends and Wall Street contributors while spreading the poverty around (instead of the wealth).

The health care bill is another direct attack on the young people who voted for Obama. The Democrats' plan will force young people to buy insurance they don't want in order to subsidize expensive care of seniors. Of course, young people will be stuck with a staggering debt hanging over them for the rest of their lives.

Obama's promise to allow 20 million illegal aliens to stay in the United States is another broadside attack on the job prospects of young American men. Obama's immigration policy betrays our own black and white high school dropouts who desperately need entry-level and other minimum-wage jobs to start building a life.

The Center for Immigration Studies reports that there are an additional 18.7 million native-born Americans with only a high-school diploma or less who are not in the count of unemployed/underemployed because they are not even looking for a job. The current employment of 7 million to 8 million illegal aliens is a major cause of unemployment for our ample supply of native-born high school dropouts.

Only the private sector can create useful jobs that offer hope for the future. Small business, which has the capacity of creating good jobs, hasn't been hiring since Obama was elected because he is threatening them with tax increases plus a mandate to provide health insurance for their workers that employers can't afford.

If Obama continues with his current financial, immigration, international trade and globalist policies, he will give us a repeat of the 1930s Great Depression. To understand and reverse Obama's attack on American jobs, which is dashing hopes and opportunities for the young, all congressional candidates should read Jerome Corsi's newest book, "America for Sale."

Rewarding communism to celebrate the
birth of Jesus Christ

By: Devvy
December 10, 2009

It's Christmas time and once again, tens of millions of Americans will spend tens of billions of dollars buying junk from India and communist countries like China. All to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Millions of dollars will be spent on clothing items made in India.  Americans are employing millions of people in India to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, while roughly 15.7 MILLION Americans have no job. While 37.2 million Americans are on food stamps. Think about it.

Let me give it to you straight as to just what Americans are supporting when they buy products made in communist countries like China.

The 'Cold War' was about stopping the spread of communism. How many died in that "war"? How many died trying to escape East Germany (Soviet sector of Berlin) by going over the wall, only to be shot in the back?

How many humans were killed and died horrible deaths to keep communism in place as a system of brutal governments under dictators like Mao, Stalin and Lenin?  110 MILLION

How many Americans died in the Korean war to stop communism from spreading? 54,246 Americans were killed and 103,284 injured at a cost to our treasury of $50 BILLION dollars. Today, South Korea trades with Communist North Korea while the toxic, insane political games continue.What about POWs: "Of the 7,190 who were captured (mostly in the first nine months of the war), approximately 3000 died in captivity, a mortality of 43%, largely of starvation over a six month period (Nov 1950- April 1951)."

How many Americans died in the Viet Nam war to stop the proliferation of communism? 58,159 killed. 303.685 injured. The average age was 23.11 years dead. 2,255 missing or unaccounted for at the end. You can thank Sens. John Kerry and John McCain for their disgraceful actions in killing efforts made to bring home our own. Today, Viet Nam is a communist country. McCain and Kerry also led the way to "normalize" trade with commie Viet Nam.

Do you know the Chinese government monitors female workers menstrual cycles to keep track of pregnancies?

Do you know the Chinese government forces the murder of unborn babies right up to full term under their one child policy? Witnesses who have escaped report forced sterilization of women.

Do you know Chinese "business" men skin dogs and cats alive? The fur is woven into sweaters, parkas and doll clothes and sold illegally here in the U.S. In collusion with other morally bankrupt, Godless "businessmen" in other countries, the practice is done through deceit and these putrid garments go on store shelves. Here, go ahead and watch the video. I cried for two days.

This is what Americans condone and support when they spend their consumer dollars on Made in Communist China.

How many toys have been shipped to this country by the commies that are tainted with lead or dangerous chemicals?

Toys linked to a date-rape drug recalled. WASHINGTON - "A mother said Thursday she knew something was terribly wrong when her 20-month-old son began to stumble and started vomiting. He had just ingested a popular toy that contains a chemical that turns into a powerful “date rape” drug when eaten. It was the latest Chinese-made toy pulled from shelves in North America."
How does a date rape drug get "accidentally" onto items in a children's toy factory? Or, lead paint:

As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China. WASHINGTON, June 18 — "China manufactured every one of the 24 kinds of toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States so far this year, including the enormously popular Thomas & Friends wooden train sets, a record that is causing alarm among consumer advocates, parents and regulators.

"The latest recall, announced last week, involves 1.5 million Thomas & Friends trains and rail components — about 4 percent of all those sold in the United States over the last two years by RC2 Corporation of Oak Brook, Ill. The toys were coated at a factory in China with lead paint, which can damage brain cells, especially in children. < style="font-family: georgia;">"Just in the last month, a ghoulish fake eyeball toy made in China was recalled after it was found to be filled with kerosene. Sets of toy drums and a toy bear were also recalled because of lead paint, and an infant wrist rattle was recalled because of a choking hazard."

Will your child be a victim this year?

The communist Chinese government celebrated the attacks on September 11, 2001, by producing a state video that reveled in the spilled blood and deaths.
Made in America is too expensive

Baloney. I do it all the time and have since the unconstitutional NAFTA was signed into law some 15 years ago. There is a difference between need and want. There are things I want, but I refuse to buy them if it means selling out my country. I haven't owned a toaster since 1996 because I can't find one Made in America and I will NOT buy one made in Communist China.

I just purchased an item on line for a dear friend. A beautiful sweatshirt made in Pennsylvania: $28.50. Go to Macy's or Dillard's and see the same style and colors made in Communist China and it will be the same price or more. I have price compared women's clothing and many times the import is more expensive than the Made in America item. Except for China Mart (Wal-Mart) where virtually nothing is sold that is made by American workers. Wal-Mart supports communism.

Communist China is not our friend and every time you spend your consumer dollars on products made in China, you continue to fund our own economic destruction. Harsh as that sounds, that is the bottom line. The more we buy Made in America, the more competitive prices will become and we will create jobs. The more jobs created, the more factories will be reopened. Companies that sold us out will eventually return to manufacturing here in America because their products made in foreign countries don't sell.  A tough transition, but we are talking about the long term survival of this republic. For our children's future and their children.

NAFTA cost America almost 2.3 MILLION good paying textile jobs. Only you and I as consumers can bring them back home by using the power of our purse.

In 2008, Americans spent $360 billion dollars during the Christmas season. Keep that money home this year. Create jobs through growth by spending Made in the good old US of A.

Does it make any sense to cash your unemployment check to buy Christmas gifts that employ people in other countries? Why, you're firing yourself! Think about it.

If you can't find it in a store in your area, please go to the Made in USA section on my web site. I have purchased from this list more in the past several years than I have from stores. It does take a little extra time, but in my mind, it is worth it. I invest in America. My America.

My husband has a grand daughter who will be two in a couple of weeks. He buys toys made in America;  see this site.

Invest in America by purchasing toys that are safe and fun.

Do children really "need" violent video games, dolls who are "pole dancing" and other trash? I give my nieces and nephew memories. Tickets for the zoo, museums, the aquarium and other activities and attractions in their home town areas. My gift to them every year is a family affair they will remember. Not some junk toy made by our enemies that will end up broken on the floor in a few weeks. I also give books. Children who read succeed.

I know things are very difficult for millions of families this year. Might I recommend combining and just give one gift to mom and dad (or the grandparents) from all the kids? Share the cost. Maybe they need a new coffee maker. BUNN makes the best; I love mine. "Today BUNN continues to design and manufacture innovations in commercial beverage equipment and home coffee brewers from its headquarters in Springfield, Illinois."

This year I hope we all can remember to respect the dignity of our family members if things are financially tough. Remember the reason for the season and tailor things down. You know what I mean.


Related links:

Where are the jobs congressman? I'll tell you

How the Cold War Caused Millions of American Deaths
Through Medical Practice: A Story of Intended
and Unintended Consequences

(Note: Please don't send me email about December 25, 2009 and the real birth date of Jesus. Every year I get a thousand of them; I know all the arguments and respect your opinion. However, it is the date America celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Thank you.)

Devvy Kidd authored the booklets, Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty; 2 million copies sold. Devvy appears on radio shows all over the country. She left the Republican Party in 1996 and has been an independent voter ever since. Devvy isn't left, right or in the middle; she is a constitutionalist who believes in the supreme law of the land, not some political party.

Visit Devvy's web site at: http://www.devvy.com. You can also sign up for her free email alerts.

- Keep America At Work - http://keepamericaatwork.com -

Copyright © 2009 Keep America At Work. All rights reserved.

- Keep America At Work - http://keepamericaatwork.com -

Copyright © 2009 Keep America At Work. All rights reserved.