This IT Worker Had to Train an H-1B Replacement

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Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk (Creative Commons)This is the story of an IT worker who was replaced by a worker on an H-1B visa, one of a number of visa holders, mostly from India, who took jobs at this U.S. company. Computerworld is not going to use the worker’s name or identify the companies involved to protect the former employee from retaliation. For purposes of this story, the worker has been given initials — A.B. (They’re not the person’s real initials.)

At A.B.’s company, about 220 IT jobs have been lost to offshore outsourcing over the last year. A.B. is telling the story because, initially, there was little knowledge among fellow employees about H-1B visa holders and how they are used. They didn’t know that offshore outsourcing firms are the largest users of H-1B visas, or exactly how this visa facilitates IT job losses in the U.S.

“I think once we learned about it, we became angrier toward the U.S. government than we were with the people that were over here from India,” A.B. said, “because the government is allowing this.”

The IT workers at this firm first learned of the offshore outsourcing threat through rumors. Later, the IT staff was called into an auditorium and heard directly from the CIO about the plan to replace them. It would take months for the transition to be completed, in part because of some new system installations.

Many younger IT workers found jobs and left. Mainframe workers were apparently in demand and also able to find new jobs. But older workers with skills in open systems, storage and SAN faced a harder time. About half the IT staffers, mostly the older ones, would stay to the end.

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Obama Urges College Grads to Reject Climate-Change Skepticism

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Photo Credit: Luke Sharrett / BloombergPresident Barack Obama called on Americans coming of age to demand that politicians respond more aggressively to climate change, comparing those skeptical about man-caused alterations to the environment to a belief that the moon is “made of cheese.”

In a commencement address yesterday to graduates of the University of California at Irvine, Obama delivered one of his feistiest critiques of lawmakers who, in objecting to environmental regulations he’s pushing to reduce carbon emissions, question the need for such action.

Obama said rising temperatures and sea levels and intensifying storm patterns define “one of the most significant long-term challenges that our country and our planet face.”

He also used his speech at Angel Stadium of Anaheim to announce a new program in which states, communities and Native American tribes hit by natural disasters can seek money for projects to combat or prepare for climate change-related challenges.

Almost $1 billion will be set aside for the National Disaster Resilience Competition, according to the White House. Some of the money will be available to communities in any state with a presidentially declared major disaster from 2011-2013, while $180 million is reserved for states affected by 2012’s Hurricane Sandy.

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Dinesh D’Souza: Obama Mobilizes Resentment Towards America To Grow His Power (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore / flickrIf the questionable legal charges levied against Dinesh D’Souza by Obama’s Justice Department for exceeding campaign finance laws were to quiet his criticism of the President, it is not working. Yet, one gathers from D’Souza that he sees these charges as one more of the shameless ways this President is using the instruments of the state to attack his critics.

With a new book, “America: Imagine a World Without Her” and a movie, “America,” coming on July 2, D’Souza is a man with a message and he is on fire. His movie “2016” brought in 8 million viewers. His new movie, “America” is coming July 2 and he hopes to top “2016″ with this latest production.

In this 23 minute video interview, Dinesh D’Souza said, “In my opinion, President Obama believes in American exceptionalism. I believe America’s exceptionally good and he believes America’s exceptionally bad.”

He went on to say, “He doesn’t equate America’s sins with the rest of the world. If he did, he would be pressing the Chinese to use less energy resources. He would be demanding that they stop buying all the land and minerals in Africa. He would be demanding that they reduce their nuclear arsenal.”

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The Would-Be Peace President Will Leave Behind a Legacy of War

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Photo Credit: EPAPeople blame the new horrors in Iraq on the American-led invasion in 2003. But the exact reason why the country is in civil war today is because the Americans are not there. If US troops were still present, the fanatical ISIS, the “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham”, would not have swept through the north of the country and now be threatening Baghdad.

The US constitution forbids the President to have more than two terms in office. This may be a valuable restraint on power, but it also means that any two-term president stops governing quite soon after his re-election. Instead he tries to secure his “legacy”. The more he thinks about this, the more it trickles away.

Barack Obama had a legacy earlier than any other American president. He was the first black president before he was even inaugurated. Very shortly after that, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. From the start, he was supposed to go down in history as “the Peace President”. This has all turned into a tremendous disadvantage.

Mr Obama was right about the need to change tone after the presidency of George W Bush. Some of the fierce antagonisms of the Bush era dissolved in his rhetoric. Europeans, in particular, felt what it said on the poster – “Hope”. But in the Muslim world, the people who were bitterly anti-American for reasons way beyond the invasion of Iraq were not converted or even appeased. Nor did anti-Western wolves like Vladimir Putin want to lie down with the new American lamb. They watched and waited to see what Mr Obama would do.

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In Today’s America, “Mainstream” Means Left

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Photo Credit: TownHall Just when Tea Party obituaries were being sounded around the country, Washington fixture of 42 years, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, loses to upstart Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel.

And one week later, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, in the blockbuster of this year’s political season, is booted out of office in the Virginia Republican primary by an economics professor from Randolph-Macon College, total undergraduate enrollment – 1,312 students.

Turns out that reports of the death of the Tea Party are greatly exaggerated.

According to the New York Times editorial page, writing about Cantor’s defeat, the Tea Party is “producing candidates who are light-years from the mainstream.”

Many continue to harbor and sell the illusion, nurtured by media sources like the New York Times, and reaching sometimes to even the Wall Street Journal, that somehow there is a “mainstream” in American politics today and that anyone with strongly held conviction, who actually cares about that conviction, is an “extremist” or “ideologue” and not part of this “mainstream.”

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DC ROCKED: David Downs Goliath

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Photo Credit: AP / Steve HelberHouse majority leader Cantor defeated in primary

By Alan Suderman and David Espo.

In an upset for the ages, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, the second-most powerful man in the House, was dethroned Tuesday by a little-known, tea party-backed Republican primary challenger carried to victory on a wave of public anger over calls for looser immigration laws.

“This is a miracle from God that just happened,” exulted David Brat, an economics professor, as his victory became clear in the congressional district around Virginia’s capital city.

Speaking to downcast supporters, Cantor conceded, “Obviously we came up short” in a bid for renomination to an eighth term.

The victory was by far the biggest of the 2014 campaign season for tea party forces, although last week they forced veteran Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran into a June 24 runoff, and hope state Sen. Chris McDaniel can prevail then.

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Photo Credit: Mark Wilson / Getty ImagesGOP Leadership in ‘Chaos’ After Eric Cantor’s Loss: “We’re absolutely stunned.”

By Billy House.

Befuddlement hit and lingered within the House GOP leadership ranks as Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s election fate was unwinding on Tuesday. Cantor lost in a major upset to primary challenger Dave Brat.

Speaker John Boehner, in a statement from his office late Tuesday night, said, “Eric Cantor and I have gone through a lot together.”

“He’s a good friend and a great leader, and somone I’ve come to rely upon on a daily basis as we make the touch choices that come with governing,” added Boehner, who said his thoughts Tuesday night were with Cantor, his wife Diana, and their kids.

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Democrats claim credit for helping Tea Party topple Eric Cantor

By Paul Bedard.

Tea Party Republicans upset with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s immigration push helped to torpedo his reelection Tuesday night, but Virginia political sources also give credit to Democrats who worked to undermine the No. 2 House leader by voting in the open primary.

Sources said the Democrats, some upset with the House GOP’s stonewalling of President Obama’s agenda and others mad the state Republicans took control of the state Senate this week, organized a get-out-the-vote effort to side with challenger Dave Brat, who beat Cantor.

“Some people who think the president is doing a reasonable job have argued back to me that Dave Brat will be even worse than Cantor. No. Dave Brat will be an inconsequential one-term backbencher howling against the oncoming tide,” said an email from a key Democratic anti-Cantor organizer Monday. “Leader Cantor losing because Obama supporters turned out to vote against him, will be the lead story in the national news on Wednesday,” it added.

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The 10 Most Corrupt States in the U.S.

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Photo Credit: Jimmy Emerson, DVM / Creative Commons When we think of government corruption (as one tends to do), our biased minds often gravitate to thoughts of military juntas and third world governments. But, of course, corruption is everywhere, in one form or another. And it’s costing U.S. citizens big time.

A new study from researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Indiana estimates that corruption on the state level is costing Americans in the 10 most corrupt states an average of $1,308 per year, or 5.2% of those states’ average expenditures per year.

The researchers studied more than 25,000 convictions of public officials for violation of federal corruption laws between 1976 and 2008 as well as patterns in state spending to develop a corruption index that estimates the most and least corrupt states in the union. Based on this method, the the most corrupt states are:

1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
3. Tennessee
4. Illinois
5. Pennsylvania
6. Alabama
7. Alaska
8. South Dakota
9. Kentucky
10. Florida

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Video: ‘Let Joe Do It’

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Let Joe Do It the people say
You know he can make a difference today
When Alaska needs anything done
They say get Joe to do it, Joe Miller’s the one

Like a good neighbor livin’ right next door
He’s a true conservative and so much more
Returning power to the states is his plan
And repealing Obamacare fast as he can

Let Joe Do It the people say
You know he can make a difference today
When Alaska needs anything done
They say get Joe to do it, Joe Miller’s the one

He’s Alaska’s only true conservative choice
Proclaims the right to life at the top of his voice
Protects the 2nd amendment with all his might
Let Joe Do It, he’s back in the fight

Let Joe Do It the people say
You know he can make a difference today
When Alaska needs anything done
They say get Joe to do it, Joe Miller’s the one

The Last Frontier’s his life long dream
Alaskans by choice, both him and Kathleen
Support from the Grassroots to make a stand
And restore liberty to this great land

Let Joe Do It the people say
You know he can make a difference today
When Alaska needs anything done
They say get Joe to do it, Joe Miller’s the one

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Let Joe Do It
EMI Music, NY (BMI)
Writers Jim Dale, Doug Lockwood
Sung by Jim Dale
Produced by Rick McClintic at Song Crafters Studio
Video Produced by Jason Waller

Seal Southern Border, Enforce Immigration Laws

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Photo Credit: Marjorie Kamys CoteraCornyn: U.S. Should Help Mexico Seal Its Southern Border

By Julián Aguilar.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Wednesday said U.S. aid that has helped return Mexican cities like Ciudad Juárez to normalcy after years of violence should also be used to help Mexico secure its border with Central America and stem the growing tide of undocumented immigrants arriving in Texas.

In recent weeks, the Rio Grande Valley sector of the U.S. Border Patrol has been overwhelmed by a surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America breaching the Texas-Mexico border. About 47,000 have been apprehended along the entire southwest border so far this fiscal year, Cornyn said, and the the final count could be more than 60,000 by the end of the fiscal year in September.

“That 500-mile border between Guatemala and Mexico is a sieve,” Cornyn said during a conference call with reporters. “Once these unaccompanied minors or other adults get in to the hands of the gangs that smuggle them through areas controlled by the Zetas or other cartels, this is not a benign situation. This is a dangerous and deadly … journey.”

The U.S. aid package known as the Mérida Initiative, which was passed in 2008 under the administration of President George W. Bush, earmarked more than $1.4 billion for training and equipment for the governments of Mexico and Central America, though most of that has gone to Mexico. Cornyn said that U.S. officials are already helping Mexico undertake the task of securing its border, but it is obvious that authorities there are overwhelmed.

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Children flooding across the southern border

By O’Reilly Factor.

O’REILLY: “Impact” segment tonight. We continue our reporting on the southern border chaos. In the past eight months the border patrol says nearly 50,000 minors have entered the USA without any adult supervision at all. Little kids are showing up. Getting across the border now being warehoused by the federal government.

Joining us from Tucson Art Del Cueto, border patrol agent and president of the union down there. So what’s going on right now with these kids? I guess a lot of them are being bused from Texas to Arizona because Texas can’t handle the numbers? Is that what is happening?

ART DEL CUETO, LOCAL 2544 TUCSON, BORDER PATROL UNION PRESIDENT: Correct. What’s going on is they are being actually flown from Texas to Arizona. The issue is here in Arizona down near the border there is a town called Nogales. And we have a processing center there that’s more able to handle the volume, you would say of these individuals.

O’REILLY: All right so they are being flown on, what, chartered airlines? Military? Who is flying them over from Texas to Arizona?

DEL CUETO: My understanding it was chartered airlines. But I’m not positive on how it is. I just know they are being flown here to Arizona.

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Watch: Costner at ‘Field of Dreams’ 25th Reunion – Film’s Lesson, ‘Conventional Wisdom’ Isn’t Always Right

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ABC NewsDyersville, Iowa — This weekend’s emotional reunion in Iowa showed why “Field of Dreams” still resonates with so many after so many years.

The site of the Oscar-nominated film about an Iowa farmer who hears a voice whisper “If you build it, he will come” and follows through on his vision by building a baseball diamond over a corn field has itself become a tourist destination since the movie’s release in 1989.

So it was only natural for the farm in northeast Iowa to host a three-day celebration of the film that made it so famous.

Stars such as Kevin Costner and Timothy Busfield joined celebrities like Colin Egglesfield, past American League Cy Young award winner Bret Saberhagen and thousands of fans from all over the Midwest at the remote locale.

Costner played the role of Ray Kinsella, the farmer whose diamond lured both the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” and his own long-gone father out of the cornstalks beyond left field.

Twenty-five years later, Costner brought his wife and kids back to Iowa to reminisce about his role in one of the most beloved sports movies of all time.


ABC US News | ABC Celebrity News

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