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.Report: Bush surveillance program was massive - Yahoo! News
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."
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
