WASHINGTON (AP) ? Prospects for a Senate deal on an ambitious rewrite of the nation's immigration laws improved markedly as business and labor appeared ready to set aside their differences over a new low-skilled worker program holding up the agreement.
The AFL-CIO and U.S. Chamber of Commerce had been fighting over wages for tens of thousands of low-skilled workers who would be brought in under the new program to fill jobs in construction, hotels and resorts, nursing homes and restaurants, and other industries. But on Friday, officials from both sides said there was basic agreement on the wage issue, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said a final deal on the low-wage worker dispute was very close.
That likely would clear the way for Schumer and seven other senators in a bipartisan group to unveil legislation the week of April 8 to overhaul the U.S. immigration system ? strengthening the border, cracking down on employers, allowing in tens of thousands of new high- and low-skilled workers and providing a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
"We're feeling very optimistic on immigration: Aspiring Americans will receive the road map to citizenship they deserve and we can modernize 'future flow' without reducing wages for any local workers, regardless of what papers they carry," AFL-CIO spokesman Jeff Hauser said in a statement. "Future flow" refers to future arrivals of legal immigrants.
Under the emerging agreement between business and labor, a new "W'' visa program would bring tens of thousands of lower-skilled workers a year to the country. The program would be capped at 200,000 a year, but the number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and data collected by a new federal bureau pushed by the labor movement as an objective monitor of the market.
The workers would be able to change jobs and could seek permanent residency. Under current temporary worker programs, personnel can't move from employer to employer and have no path to permanent U.S. residence and citizenship. And currently there's no good way for employers to bring many low-skilled workers to the U.S. An existing visa program for low-wage nonagricultural workers is capped at 66,000 per year and is supposed to apply only to seasonal or temporary jobs.
The Chamber of Commerce said workers would earn actual wages paid to American workers or the prevailing wages for the industry they're working in, whichever is higher. The Labor Department determines prevailing wage based on customary rates in specific localities, so that it varies from city to city.
There was also disagreement about how to deal with certain higher-skilled construction jobs, such as electricians and welders, and it appears those will be excluded from the deal, said Geoff Burr, vice president of federal affairs at Associated Builders and Contractors. Burr said his group opposes such an exclusion because, even though unemployment in the construction industry is high right now, at times when it is low there can be labor shortages in high-skilled trades, and contractors want to be able to bring in foreign workers. But unions pressed for the exclusion, Burr said.
The low-skilled worker issue had loomed for weeks as perhaps the toughest matter to settle in monthslong closed-door talks on immigration among the senators, including Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida. The issue helped sink the last major attempt at immigration overhaul in 2007, when the legislation foundered on the Senate floor after an amendment was added to end a temporary worker program after five years, threatening a key priority of the business community.
The amendment passed by just one vote, 49-48. President Barack Obama, a senator at the time, joined in the narrow majority voting to end the program after five years.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/business-labor-close-deal-immigration-bill-185315130.html
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Instead of going large, the 26-year-old speedster made what appears to be a sensible decision with the purchase of a $1.65 million home in Tarzana, Calif. The 3,800-square-foot home features mature updated decor that gives the 1951 house a tasteful feeling of luxury. But with its San Fernando Valley locale, Jackson's new home is not the kind of nouveau riche palace that other NFL and pro athletes like to show off on MTV "Cribs."
Egyptian authorities arrested three men off the coast of Alexandria for attempting to sever an undersea Internet cable. The SEA-ME-WE 4 main line was part of a cable network that spanned the Mediterranean and connects Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe and has 39 landing points, including Alexandria. Seacom, a cable operator, said that the attacks reduced network speed in Egypt. The line belonged to Telecom Egypt. “The armed forces foiled an attempt and arrested three divers while they were cutting a submarine cable,” said an Egyptian spokesperson. Lines off the coast of Egypt have been cut multiple times, most notably in 2008 when three lines were ostensibly cut by ship anchors. “SEACOM can confirm that at 06:20 GMT 27 March, the SMW4 cable system suffered a cable cut off the coast of Egypt. Earlier this morning, SEACOM had restored all services on both SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems,” read an announcement on Seacom’s news page. Egyptian authorities are interrogating the men, who remain unnamed.
iOS calendar app Sunrise received its first update a month after its release, bringing more info and flexibility to your calendar. The team has pushed the LinkedIn integration a step forward by bringing the entire profile into the app. Now you can check previous work experiences and education from Sunrise’s interface. “The feedback we got from our launch is that Sunrise really changes your calendar,” co-founder Pierre Valade said in a phone interview. “Using your calendar becomes a true pleasure,” he continued. During its initial development, the team really focused on the user experience because they found that other apps were lacking in this area. But the company also received two other pieces of feedback regarding Facebook Connect and event features. Users didn’t want to use their Facebook account to create a Sunrise account. So it added the ability to log in with Google — Sunrise only works with Google Calendar for now. Heavy calendar users also requested two new features that come with today’s update. You can now create recurring events directly from your phone and you can add notes to your events. This data is synchronized with your Google Calendar. “There are still a lot of features that we want to implement,” Valade said. “This update shows that we are still adding value to your calendar by using existing data from LinkedIn and other services,” he continued. Now, when you create an event and invite someone, you’ll get LinkedIn information, links to Facebook, your address book and LinkedIn, and the ability to text, call or email someone very easily. The app also uses Facebook profile pictures and cover photos. While Sunrise is not an address book, that contact info is very informative yet doesn’t require any effort on your part. The New York-based company now plans to release regular update addressing top feature requests more or less every month. It remains to be seen whether they’ll port the app to other platforms in the future as well.