In The News

Wait for US Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span

Nina Bernstein April 6, 2004
The time to approve green cards and formal travel documents has quadrupled in the US as a result of September 11. The main reason: thousands of personnel who formerly processed applications are now being used for security checks. As a result, a document that once took two months to process now takes seven. While the Bush administration has promised to cut down the wait time, results have been few...

Big Pay Luring Military's Elite to Private Jobs

Eric Schmitt March 30, 2004
Fears that US military Special Operations members will depart in droves for higher paying civilian security jobs have come to light. While the departures are minimal at this stage, the possibility that their pace will accelerate has caused Gen. Bryan D. Brown, head of Special Operations Command, to meet with senior Special Op's members to discuss ways to stem the exodus. To train a Green...

Kerry's Solution to Offshoring

Sam Zuckerman March 27, 2004
Under the US tax system, companies that produce goods abroad wait until the capital reenters the country to pay taxes. According to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, this "tax holiday" structure has led to an increase in foreign investment at the expense of domestic business. In an effort to rebuild domestic industry and bring back jobs, Senator Kerry has proposed to...

Europe vs. America's Operating System

Grant R. Mainland March 26, 2004
"Europeans and Americans talk trade or antitrust when the real issue is the legitimacy of American power," writes Grant Mainland, a research specialist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In this commentary, Mainland compares Microsoft's monopoly position in software to the US monopoly on global military power. Just fined US$613 million under European antitrust...

American Democracy May Taste Indian Voting Machines

March 26, 2004
As the US presidential election approaches (and memories of the 2000 election's complications remain fresh), the question of how US citizens will vote – by machine or by paper – has become unusually heated. Now an Indian company, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), enters the fray by marketing its own voting machine designed for India' parliamentary elections. Importing electronic voting...

Political Shades of Green Clash

Miguel Bustillo March 24, 2004
Immigration has once again spurred a divisive debate among environmental conservationists in the USA. Even the 112-year-old Sierra Club is facing an 'insurgent' campaign aimed at getting the group to come down hard for immigration restrictions. For decades, population control has featured prominently in the agenda of most environmental groups. Some environmentalists argue that the...

In Florida Groves, Cheap Labor Means Machines

Eduardo Porter March 22, 2004
In Florida citrus groves, where most of the crop is still harvested by hand, machines are still a rare sight. As technological improvements take hold, however, Florida growers are seeing less need for the Latin American migrants who currently do much of the work. Facing increasingly fierce foreign competition, US growers view cost saving machines like canopy shakers as the best way to stay...