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The nation's scientists see H1-B visa issues as a major barrier to scientific achievement, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Some 56 percent surveyed felt that issues with the visa process for foreign students and scientists represented a massive impediment, second only to the 87 percent who saw lack of funding as a “very serious” or “serious” problem.
U.S. Scientists See H1-B Visas as Major Issue Against Progress, Says Survey
E-Verify is a free Web-based system operated by DHS in partnership with the Social Security Administration.It lets employers compare information from I-9 forms against federal government databases to verify employees' eligibility for employment in the United States.The Bush administration met with considerable opposition when it tried to extend E-Verify to federal contractors and subcontractors.The Obama administration is now moving forward with a requirement that will take effect on September 8 and apply to federal solicitations and contract awards. It will also cover businesses that receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
E-Commerce News: Law: Obama Administration Plows Ahead With Controversial E-Verify Program
“This report leaves no doubt that the warrantless wiretapping program was blatantly illegal and an unconstitutional assertion of executive power,” Feingold said. “I once again call on the Obama administration and its Justice Department to withdraw the flawed legal memoranda that justified the program and that remain in effect today.”
Bush’s Secret NSA Spying May Have Tainted Prosecutions, Report Warns | Threat Level | Wired.com
The report says too few relevant officials knew of the size and depth of the program, let alone signed off on it. They particularly criticize John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general who wrote legal memos undergirding the policy. His boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft, was not aware until March 2004 of the exact nature of the intelligence operations beyond wiretapping that he had been approving for the previous two and a half years, the report says.
Most of the intelligence leads generated under what was known as the "President's Surveillance Program" did not have any connection to terrorism, the report said. But FBI agents told the authors that the "mere possibility of the leads producing useful information made investigating the leads worthwhile."
Report: Bush surveillance program was massive - Yahoo! News
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, sent letters yesterday to the federal agencies overseeing communications and antitrust, calling for an investigation and for action on several regulatory proposals that could give smaller carriers and software firms a better shot at competing.
Sen. Kohl Demands Investigation of Wireless Carriers - washingtonpost.com
National Aeronautics and Space Administration researchers, including Assaf Anyamba, a remote sensing scientist with the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, used a blend of NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration measurements of sea surface temperatures, precipitation and vegetation cover to predict when and where an outbreak would occur.
NASA predicted Rift Valley fever outbreak
Originally Google had considered acquiring Facebook—a prospect that held no interest for Facebook's executives—but an investment was another enticing option, aligning the Internet's two most important companies. Facebook was more than a fast-growing social network. It was, potentially, an enormous source of personal data. Internet users behaved differently on Facebook than anywhere else online: They used their real names, connected with their real friends, linked to their real email addresses, and shared their real thoughts, tastes, and news. Google, on the other hand, knew relatively little about most of its users other than their search histories and some browsing activity.
Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet
One, HB1405, would require Internet vendors to collect the Hawaii gross excise tax (GET) on purchases from Hawaii. 1405 would treat “advertising associates” in Hawaii as the “substantial nexus” required by Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case.The other, SB1678, would call for Hawaii to join 23 other states in adopting a cooperative “streamlined” (euphemism) national Internet sales and use tax. 1678 could not be effective until Congress passes a law to authorize this bill under the Commerce Clause.
ThinkTech | ThinkTech blog, ThinkTech Hawaii | honoluluadvertiser.com | Honolulu, Hawaii
In a memo to senior military leaders, Gates said he will recommend that President Obama designate that the new command be led by the director of the National Security Agency, the world's largest electronic intelligence-gathering agency. The current NSA director, Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, is expected to be awarded a fourth star and to lead the cyber-command.
Gates Establishes Cyber-Defense Command - washingtonpost.com
Free Press, a group that advocates the idea of an open internet — that is, one in which consumers have the right to browse the web and run internet applications without restrictions — is the latest of several organizations to call out Apple for its inconsistencies. Free Press alleges that Apple crippled SlingPlayer, a TV-streaming application for iPhone, so that it would only work on a Wi-Fi connection; the initial version worked with a 3G cellular network connection as well as Wi-Fi. The SlingPlayer restriction is inconsistent with Apple’s approval of the Major League Baseball application, which provides live-streaming of sports events on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections, the group said.
How Apple, AT&T Are Closing the Mobile Web | Epicenter | Wired.com
The NYSE Euronext said that BlueNext, its majority-owned environmental trading exchange, is partnering with the China-Beijing Environmental Exchange, to set up an international carbon-trading related information platform. The two firms signed a deal that includes: a cross-marketing partnership; and, a comprehensive data sharing agreement that will promote investment- and buyer information of Clean Development Mechanism projects in China.
Investment Executive : U.S. exchanges expand presence in carbon market
The new clearing house, New York Portfolio Clearing, will combine the NYSE Euronext's U.S. futures exchange and DTCC 's Fixed Income Clearing Corp. to offer risk management, clearing and settlement efficiencies for U.S. fixed income securities and derivatives.
CME has rival in new NY clearing house | Crain's Chicago Business
