Currently viewing the tag: “U.S.”
The U.S. Senate has passed a Boxer/Feinstein-sponsored resolution honoring Elizabeth Taylor. It reads, in part:
Whereas Elizabeth Taylor used her fame to raise awareness and advocate for people affected by HIV/AIDS;
Whereas, at a time when HIV/AIDS was largely an unknown disease and those who were affected by HIV/AIDS were ostracized and shunned, Elizabeth Taylor called for and demonstrated compassion by publicly holding the hand of her friend and former costar, Rock Hudson, after he had announced that he had AIDS;
Whereas Elizabeth Taylor testified before Congress saying, “It is my hope that history will show that the American people and our leaders met the challenge of AIDS rationally and with all the resources at their disposal, for our sake and that of all humanity.”;
Whereas, in 1985, Elizabeth Taylor became the Founding National Chairman for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (commonly known as “amfAR”);
Whereas, in 1991, Elizabeth Taylor founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation to provide direct support to those suffering from the disease;
Whereas the extensive efforts of Elizabeth Taylor have helped educate the public and lawmakers about the need for research, treatment, and compassion for those suffering from HIV/AIDS;
Resolved, That the Senate recognizes and honors the courageous, compassionate leadership and many professional accomplishments of Elizabeth Taylor; and offers its deepest condolences to her family.
(Via – LGBTPOV)
Subscribe to Joe.My.God.
Editor’s note: Gloria Borger is a senior political analyst for CNN, appearing regularly on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” “AC360°,” “John King, USA” and “State of the Union.”
Washington (CNN) – To recap: The United States and its allies are scrambling to defeat Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in Libya. There’s a no-fly zone, a freezing of assets, threats about prosecution in international courts and an arms embargo. We’re trying to get Gadhafi to surrender – and, hopefully, leave.
And, by the way, the president has secretly ordered the CIA to try to figure out just who the rebels are – and whether they’re a dependable enough crew, worthy of our money or our arms. “We haven’t ruled out arming the rebels,” a senior administration official tells me. “But there are a lot of questions that need to be answered first – including whether they are even trained to use what we might give them.”
Full story
The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent in March as America added 216,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported this morning.
The new jobs continued the nation’s struggling return from recession, but still fell short of the level needed to put a significant dent in the unemployment rate. The rate fell slightly from February’s 8.9 percent.
Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing and mining. The public sector was again a drag on growth, having shed 416,000 jobs since its peak in September 2008.
The numbers are slightly higher than forecasters’ expectations. Economists polled by Bloomberg had predicted an average gain of 200,000 jobs, and a separate survey of private sector job growth by Automatic Data Processing had clocked in Wednesday at 201,000 jobs added.
Though a significant improvement from the middling job growth last fall, Friday’s numbers still fall short of levels needed to bring down the unemployment rate over the long-term. Because of population growth, it takes at least 150,000 jobs added a month, and more than 200,000 per month over a sustained period, to bring the job market closer to normal.
The recent decline in the official unemployment rate doesn’t factor in the millions of people who have simply left the labor force and aren’t included in the Labor Department’s calculation of unemployment. But as demand for workers picks up, economists expect many of these discouraged unemployed to slowly reenter the workforce and look for jobs again. That often leads to a paradoxical increase in official unemployment at the same time that more workers are getting jobs.
The Labor Department also revised job gains for December and January. February’s were revised up from 192,000 to 194,000 jobs added. January’s increase was revised to 68,000 from 63,000.
Extreme weather disasters, especially floods, are on the rise (see Two seminal Nature papers join growing body of evidence that human emissions fuel extreme weather, flooding). Last year, we had Tennessee’s 1000-year deluge aka Nashville’s ‘Katrina’. And Coastal North Carolina’s suffered its second 500-year rainfall in 11 years.
Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in December, “The term ‘100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year” (see Munich Re: “The only plausible explanation for the rise in weather-related catastrophes is climate change”).
A couple weeks ago, I asked how many U.S. nuclear plants are vulnerable to a tsunami and/or a 500-year 100-year flood? Here a very initial treatment of the flood vulnerability issue.
The following article by Sean Pool, Elaine Sedenberg and Matt Woelfel is cross-posted at Science Progress.
As the situation at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility continues to worsen, policymakers in the United States are taking the opportunity to review the safety policies for our aging nuclear reactors.
Japan’s recent 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it caused together killed 9,737 people and left an additional 16,501 missing. The destruction left millions homeless and caused almost $ 200 billion in damage.
These natural disasters caused severe damaged to 4 of the 6 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leaving them without functioning primary, secondary, or tertiary cooling systems. The resulting partial meltdown of the core at one reactor and of a waste fuel rod storage tank in another has resulted in the release of radioactive material into the atmosphere, soil, and water, forcing the evacuation of what was at first a 12-mile radius and now a 19-mile radius surrounding the facility.
Though reactors in the United States are built to strict safety standards, they are nevertheless vulnerable to any number of natural and manmade disasters, from earthquakes and tsunamis to flash floods, droughts, and hurricanes. U.S. reactor safety standards have been effective in preventing catastrophe, though a recent report highlights 14 “near misses” where improperly implemented safety protocols nearly caused major problems. More troublingly, many of these standards were based on an understanding of our climate system that is now 40 years out of date. Today we know that climate change is making floods, droughts, and hurricanes stronger and more frequent, which means we must ask whether our safety standards, even when followed perfectly, are enough to prevent disaster.
As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducts its review of U.S. nuclear safety in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown, they need to be sure they are doing a thorough review of all possible risks, and should not ignore recent science about how climate change could increase those risks.
Current state of US nuclear plant safety
The United States currently has 104 functioning power reactors at 65 sites around the country, roughly a quarter of which use the same “Mark 1” containment vessel design used in the failing Japanese reactors. They supply roughly 20 percent of the country’s total electricity needs. Nuclear plants demand large sources of water in order to cool and control the core temperatures of the reactors that power them. To meet this inevitable requirement, nuclear plants are situated in low-lying areas near rivers and lakes, and many others are built on the coasts. This proximity leaves these plants vulnerable to floods and other water-related disasters. (See our map below.)
(click for a high res version.)
Many regulations are already in place to ensure that nuclear energy remains safe from floods, surges, tsunamis, and droughts. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, oversees licensing applications, reactor specifications, and radioactive waste disposal. The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, or ACRS, also reviews the adequacy of proposed safety standards and creates individualized specifications to withstand the projected worst-case disasters for each plant location. Nuclear facilities are initially granted a 40-year license that must be renewed after 20 years. They then have the opportunity to extend their license for additional 20-year increments.
The problem is that our nuclear reactors are all old. Thirty years old on average in fact, since political will for new nuclear reactors has weakened since the 1979 Three Mile Island incident. Seven operating reactors have eclipsed their original 40 year lifespans and been permitted to operate for another 20 years. This makes them vulnerable to problems, like stronger floods caused by climate change, about which we had considerably less knowledge three to four decades ago when the plants were built.
Climate change will increase certain risks
Climate change will compound existing weather-related risks. In the years since most of our nuclear reactors were built, we’ve learned that climate change is increasing the risk profile of many kinds of extreme weather. Two scientific studies published this year in Nature have supported this. Large and destructive floods once thought likely to happen only once in 100 years on average are now expected to happen every 20 years: a five-fold increase. Similar trends hold for droughts, hurricanes, and wildfires. Droughts and heat waves can impact nuclear reactors because they use large amounts of water in the power generation process. If water levels drop too low, or the temperature of adjacent water bodies rises too high, the ability of the reactors to operate can be impaired. Sea-level rise is also of particular concern, since many of our nuclear facilities are located on the coast.
In response to this growing awareness of disasters that can result from climate change, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, released a safety guide in 2003 detailing flood-related hazards to nuclear power plants on coastal and river sites. The safety guide suggests that newly constructed plants should account for several consequences of climate change over the lifespan of the plant:
- Rise in mean sea level: 35-85 cm
- Rise in air temperature: 1.5-5 ⁰C
- Rise in sea or river temperature: 3 ⁰C
- Increase in wind strength: 5-10 percent
- Increase in precipitation: 5-10 percent
Higher sea levels, in combination with the warmer air, water, and sea temperatures will produce larger, stronger waves, increase the flow rate of rivers, and alter the dominant wind patterns, according to the report. The IAEA recommendations offer a good framework for assessing siting of new nuclear facilities, but current safety standards at the 104 operating nuclear reactors in the United States remain in question. Are they sufficient to deal with the increased risks caused by climate change?
This is a question we must answer, and soon. As we have written at Science Progress before, climate change creates considerable uncertainty for businesses and governments who must make difficult decisions that will affect the way we do business over the next 10, 20, or 40 years. In making long-term decisions about policy and business, decision makers need to have all the data they can get. The problem is that extremely rare events by definition provide us with little opportunity for study, even though their impacts can be catastrophic.
The seawalls at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor complex, for example, were designed to withstand an 18-foot wave, though the tsunami that caused the eventual nuclear meltdown was estimated to have been more than 40 feet high. Japanese engineers simply didn’t have enough data to accurately predict just how big a tsunami could be. Could this happen in the United States? For reference, the San Onofre reactor in California is built right on Pacific coast, with a sea wall of only 23 feet.
The bottom line is that sometimes, what we think to be a “worst case” scenario is not really the worst case. Just because there is uncertainty about how climate and weather will affect our nuclear reactors does not mean we should ignore the issue. Quite the opposite; it would be negligent to ignore this uncertainty as we continue to assess our nation’s nuclear safety standards.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken some steps to incorporate current climate science into its standards, but it has not gone far enough. In 2009, the NRC released an information notice that suggested plants re-evaluate flood protection measures, but they did not require action. To make matters worse, the guidelines in use were established in 1977, with the latest updates occurring in 1984. As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducts its review of U.S. nuclear safety in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown, they need to be sure they are doing a thorough assessment of all possible risks, and should not ignore recent science about how climate change could increase those risks.
Countries around the world have already begun to take increased risks from climate change into account in their nuclear safety protocols. It’s high time the United States follows suit. The United Kingdom has insisted that new nuclear plants demonstrate countermeasures taken to prevent damage from more extreme floods, France has begun reviewing all 58 of its reactors to check how much flooding they can handle, and Austria has even called for nuclear “stress tests” similar to those banks undergo. Germany has even ordered all reactors built prior to 1980 (all American reactors would qualify) to be shut down for three months.
The disaster in Japan has afforded the United States the opportunity to re-examine the safety of its own fleet of nuclear reactors. Given how often we underestimate the “worst-case” scenario, this is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.
– Sean Pool is Assistant Editor for Science Progress, Elaine Sedenberg is an Intern with Science Progress, and Matt Woelfel is an Intern with CAP’s Energy Opportunity team. The authors would like to thank Kate Gordon, Richard Caperton, and Valeri Vasquez, and Evan Hansleigh for their invaluable contributions to the article.
Related Posts:
- Northern Territory Chief Minister on Carlos’s deluge: “So a really one in 500 year event; nobody’s experienced anything like this before”
- Russian Meteorological Center: “There was nothing similar to this on the territory of Russia during the last one thousand years in regard to the heat.”
- In other UK news: “Rain like this happens once every 1,000 years”
- The year of living dangerously. Masters: “The stunning extremes we witnessed gives me concern that our climate is showing the early signs of instability”
- Yes, “human-induced increases in greenhouse gases have contributed to the observed intensification of heavy precipitation events” over much of the NH
- Conservatives oppose adaptation, too
- The Nukes of Hazard
- NY Times: “It Could Happen Here”
 |
||||
|
||||
Gladys Cisneros from the Solidarity Center reports on the Working Youth Committee of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA-ITUC) support for U.S. workers.
Last week, the Working Youth Committee of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA-ITUC) released a statement of support and solidarity for workers in the state of Wisconsin.
During the committee’s last meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, delegates representing unions from 13 countries throughout the Americas and the Caribbean unanimously supported joining the global “We are One” campaign.
“We thank our sisters and brothers from the labor movement in the Americas for their support in this critical time,” said César Moreno of AFT and an AFL-CIO delegate to the Youth Committee.
Stripping workers of their right to collective bargaining isn’t the solution to the fiscal crises.
“Young workers in Latin America know too well the devastating effects of government and corporate attacks on labor rights, and their solidarity with U.S. workers is invaluable,” said Gladys Cisneros, another AFL-CIO delegate to the Youth Committee.
The Working Youth Committee is an advisory group to the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, comprised of young trade unionists from across the hemisphere. The TUCA is the Americas regional body of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
For the full text of the statement, click here.
Washington (CNN) – Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said Thursday that we should not arm rebels in Libya as “we got burned” in previous wars by doing so.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the California Democrat said, “We did in Afghanistan; we got burned by it. We did in Iraq; we got burned by it. In other words, those weapons cropped up later being used against us, and I don’t think that’s something we ought to do.”
U.S. and British officials say no decision has been made about whether to arm the opposition. “We’re not ruling it out or ruling it in,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement Wednesday. “We’re assessing and reviewing options for all types of assistance that we could provide to the Libyan people, and have consulted directly with the opposition and our international partners about these matters.”
The CIA does have operatives working in Libya, sources tell CNN.
The full interview with Feinstein will be on “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer which airs between 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. ET Thursday.
Radiation from the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan continues to spread around the world:
Washington (CNN) — There is no health risk from consuming milk with extremely low levels of radiation, like those found in Washington state and California, experts said Thursday, echoing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“When we have a disaster like we’ve had with a nuclear power plant in Japan, we’re probably going to find things that are truly not a public health risk, but I think it’s very difficult for the public to assimilate this information and understand the risks,” said Dr. Wally Curran, a radiation oncologist and head of Emory University’s Winship Cancer Center.
The federal agency said Wednesday it was increasing its nationwide monitoring of radiation in milk, precipitation, drinking water, and other outlets. It already tracks radiation in those potential exposure routes through an existing network of stations across the country.
Results from screening samples of milk taken in the past week in Spokane, Washington, and in San Luis Obispo County, California, detected radioactive iodine, or iodine-131, at a level 5,000 times lower than the limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, officials said.
At that level, a person would have to drink 1,000 liters of milk to receive the same amount of radiation as a chest X-ray, said Dr. James Cox, radiation oncologist at Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center.
So, nothing to worry about. Still, I’m sure some people will panic.
That detail mentioned in passing in the story below, but certainly deserves a wider hearing in the broader discussion of our undeclared war in Libya. “Bahrain hardliners to put Shia MPs on trial,” by Adrian Blomfield for the Telegraph, March 31 (thanks to Zulu):
The kingdom’s parliament effectively stripped 11 MPs from the Wefaq party – a quarter of the legislature’s sitting members – of their immunity from prosecution, signalling a further hardening of the ruling family’s position.
Western human rights activists also accused the regime of torturing wounded protesters being held in a hospital in the capital Manama.
Bahrain has declared martial law and called in troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to quell protests that have left at least 24 people dead.
Saudi officials say they gave their backing to Western air strikes on Libya in exchange for the United States muting its criticism of the authorities in Bahrain, a close ally of the desert kingdom.
Ali Salman, the Shiite opposition head has warned Iran and Saudi Arabia against using his country as a “battlefield” in a proxy war.
“We don’t want Bahrain to turn into a conflict zone between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” he said. “That’s why we object to the Saudi intervention. We call for immediate withdrawal of the troops, and we reject Iranian interference.”
Obama ramps up U.S. intelligence efforts in Libya
Top story: Small groups of CIA operatives are active in Libya, gathering intelligence for Western airstrikes and making contact with Libyan rebels. The CIA presence is complemented by dozens of British special forces and intelligence officers, who are also gathering information about the location of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi’s military forces. President Barack Obama had previously insisted that there was no American presence on the ground in Libya.
In addition, Obama signed a secret finding several weeks ago that authorized the CIA to provide weapons to the Libyan rebels. However, they have not yet been shipped into the country because the Obama administration is still debating the wisdom of arming the rebels.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers came out against arming the rebels, and said that Obama had not yet asked him for permission to take that step.
The intelligence for the U.S. bombing campaign in Libya has mainly been gathered by a number of spy planes. However, if Qaddafi’s forces enter the cities along Libya’s eastern coast, ground operatives would be particularly helpful in pinpointing the location of military units.
Libya’s top diplomat defects: Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa defected to London. The British government said that he was not offered any legal immunity in return.
Asia
The U.N.’s nuclear agency advised Japan to widen the evacuation zone around its stricken nuclear plant.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in China, called for an international system to streamline global exchange rates.
A Chinese white paper described the U.S. military buildup in Asia, and a rise in anti-China operations.
Middle East
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad delivered a speech that blamed foreign conspiracies for the unrest in his country.
Israel released a map that allegedly shows almost 1,000 Hezbollah military sites in Lebanon.
Yemeni opposition leaders plan to escalate their protests in a bid to force President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign.
Africa
Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluck appeared alone in a presidential debate after his rivals boycotted the event.
Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara captured a key cocoa port in the Ivory Coast.
Namibia declared a flood emergency after rising waters displaced roughly 10,000 people.
Americas
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, on a visit to Cuba, criticized the U.S. trade embargo and travel ban on the country.
U.S. and Guatemalan agents captured Guatemalan drug lord Juan Ortiz Lopez.
Canadian officials arrested a man suspected of trying to travel to Somalia to join the al-Shabaab militant group.
Europe
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on a visit to the island of Lampedusa, pledged that the thousands of African migrants who arrived there would leave within days.
A bomb exploded at a lobbying group representing Swiss energy companies, injuring two people.
Ireland is poised to release the results of its latest round of stress tests on its banking system.
MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images
You never know. Maybe he’ll claim his prayer “In the name of Allah The Beneficient, The Merciful. Nitro [urea] explosive is more powerful than T.N.T.” was really just part of his Interior Spiritual Struggle. An update on this story. “Student pleads not guilty to bomb plot,” by Betsy Blaney for the Associated Press, March 29:
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) – A Texas college student from Saudi Arabia accused of buying chemicals and equipment to build a weapon of mass destruction has pleaded not guilty.
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari entered his plea at his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koenig at the federal courthouse Monday in Lubbock. Koenig set a May 2 trial date.
If convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, he faces up to life in prison.
Court documents allege he hatched plans to attack various U.S. targets, including New York City and former President George W. Bush’s Dallas home.
Authorities arrested Aldawsari on Feb. 23.
Court records indicate authorities traced his online purchases, discovered extremist online posts he made and secretly searched his apartment, computer and e-mail accounts and read his diary.
Excerpts can be found here, including his deliberate efforts to be placed in the U.S. in a study-abroad program.
You never know. Maybe he’ll claim his prayer “In the name of Allah The Beneficient, The Merciful. Nitro [urea] explosive is more powerful than T.N.T.” was really just part of his Interior Spiritual Struggle. An update on this story. “Student pleads not guilty to bomb plot,” by Betsy Blaney for the Associated Press, March 29:
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) – A Texas college student from Saudi Arabia accused of buying chemicals and equipment to build a weapon of mass destruction has pleaded not guilty.
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari entered his plea at his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koenig at the federal courthouse Monday in Lubbock. Koenig set a May 2 trial date.
If convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, he faces up to life in prison.
Court documents allege he hatched plans to attack various U.S. targets, including New York City and former President George W. Bush’s Dallas home.
Authorities arrested Aldawsari on Feb. 23.
Court records indicate authorities traced his online purchases, discovered extremist online posts he made and secretly searched his apartment, computer and e-mail accounts and read his diary.
Excerpts can be found here, including his deliberate efforts to be placed in the U.S. in a study-abroad program.
You never know. Maybe he’ll claim his prayer “In the name of Allah The Beneficient, The Merciful. Nitro [urea] explosive is more powerful than T.N.T.” was really just part of his Interior Spiritual Struggle. An update on this story. “Student pleads not guilty to bomb plot,” by Betsy Blaney for the Associated Press, March 29:
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) – A Texas college student from Saudi Arabia accused of buying chemicals and equipment to build a weapon of mass destruction has pleaded not guilty.
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari entered his plea at his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koenig at the federal courthouse Monday in Lubbock. Koenig set a May 2 trial date.
If convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, he faces up to life in prison.
Court documents allege he hatched plans to attack various U.S. targets, including New York City and former President George W. Bush’s Dallas home.
Authorities arrested Aldawsari on Feb. 23.
Court records indicate authorities traced his online purchases, discovered extremist online posts he made and secretly searched his apartment, computer and e-mail accounts and read his diary.
Excerpts can be found here, including his deliberate efforts to be placed in the U.S. in a study-abroad program.
There are increasing signs that the United States and our coalition partners are getting closer to shifting the mission in Libya from the ‘protection of civilians’ authorized by UNSCR 1973 to openly siding with the rebels. In the last two days, for example, both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have stated that the U.S. is considering arming the rebels in the face of news that the Libyan Army has defeated them so soundly that the retreat is turning into a rout. More important, though, is the CNN report that the U.S. is preparing to completely change its ‘war strategy’:
This comes as evidence continues to mount of the ties between the Libyan rebel fighters and al Qaeda:
A former leader of Libya’s al Qaeda affiliate says he thinks “freelance jihadists” have joined the rebel forces, as NATO’s commander told Congress on Tuesday that intelligence indicates some al Qaeda and Hezbollah terrorists are fighting Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
Former jihadist Noman Benotman, who renounced his al Qaeda affiliation in 2000, said in an interview that he estimates 1,000 jihadists are in Libya.
(…)
Outside observers generally estimate the number of trained Libyan fighters to be about 1,000.
Mr. Benotman told The Washington Times that al Qaeda’s North African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb, has tried without success to co-opt the leadership of Col. Gadhafi’s opposition. But Mr. Benotman said the interim council leading Libya’s opposition is seeking democratic elections, not an Islamic republic.
“We have freelance jihadists,” he said. “But everything is still under control of the interim national council. There is no other organization that says, ‘We are leaders of the revolution with this emir,’ like al Qaeda would. Everyone is afraid to do this; they would be labeled as undermining the people.”
These are the people we’re proposing to go to war to help, and while Gaddafi may be a horrible person and a dictator, I don’t see the value in replacing him with people who look up to the likes of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.
As I wrote in April 2009 and in July 2010, “The Obama Administration’s worksite audit policy is resulting in illegal immigrants simply moving to different jobs elsewhere in America.” In today’s Wall Street Journal, that outcome is confirmed in spades.
The story details what happened to the roughly 1,200 illegal immigrants terminated in Minnesota after a worksite audit occurred at two companies, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Harvard Maintenance. A representative of the union that covered most of the workers noted that “most workers stayed in the area and began hustling for other work.” A survey of 200 terminated illegal immigrants found that “only 6% were seriously considering returning to their countries of origin.” Equally troubling: During their time in the United States, the 200 illegal immigrants gave birth to a total of 760 children subject to birthright citizenship.
The story notes that the Obama Administration has roughly 1,000 active audits across the United States. That means more terminated illegal immigrants who simply remain in America during a time of heightened unemployment, more children born here, and less attrition through deportation.
And that is what President Barack Obama considers a “tougher” immigration policy. A wiser approach would include: 1) increased and robust support provided for state and local collaboration through the 287(g) and Secure Communities programs; 2) enhanced workplace enforcement through the promotion of E-Verify; and 3) implementation of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and the REAL ID Act of 2005.
by Javier Manjarres
The 2012 U.S. Senate race in Florida is beginning to come into sharper focus in the wake of Congressman Connie Mack’s announcement last week which removed himself from consideration in the race. We’ve also learned that another potential ‘wild card” candidate, Nick Loeb, will not be running as well- a close source to Loeb has told the Shark Tank. The field as it now stands includes the already announced Mike Haridopolos and Mike McCalister as well as potential candidates George LeMieux and Former House Majority Leader Adam Hasner. While Hasner and LeMieux have yet to formally announce, both appear to be very close to making their candidacies official.
Who do you think is the strongest Republican candidate out there (announced or otherwise) that can defeat incumbent Senator Bill Nelson? Weigh in on the poll below, and tell us why you think they’re the best positioned to become Florida’s next Senator.
