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Aleksandra Kulczuga
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Employee verification program could renew immigration battle
Published: Aug 23, 2009
President Barack Obama pushed back his immigration reform agenda until 2010, but a little-known initiative requiring employers to verify the legal status of their workers may ignite a political powder keg.
The E-Verify system was established as a pilot program in 1997 to allow employers to quickly check the immigration status of prospective workers against federal databases. It is now a Web-based system that checks the identities of perhaps 10 percent of all new hires and is mandatory for all federal contractors.
With unemployment continuing to rise, many lawmakers are backing an expansion of the program in an effort to reduce competition from low-wage, illegal immigrants. Rep. Heath...
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California GOP race: 'Only masochists need apply'
Published: Jul 22, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in solving California's budget debacle without a tax increase has buoyed the hopes of Republican gubernatorial hopefuls running on platforms of fiscal responsibility.
In the face of a veto threat from Schwarzenegger, the state's Democratic legislature agreed to deep cuts in spending and a handful of accounting tricks to close the $26 billion dollar shortfall. But experts expect that the crisis will resurface later this year as tax revenues continue to fall amid mounting unemployment.
The Republicans looking to succeed the term-limited Schwarzenegger have swooped in on the budget crisis, citing their own low-tax solutions to stimulate the world's...
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New York special election will test party recruiting efforts
Published: Jul 14, 2009
A special election in upstate New York will test Republican and Democratic approaches to recruiting the right candidates for the coming electoral campaigns of 2010.
When President Barack Obama nominated Republican Rep. John McHugh to be secretary of the Army, the president also gave his party a chance to pick up the one of the last GOP strongholds in the Northeast.
The sprawling, mostly rural district on the Canadian border still leans Republican, despite Obama’s narrow win there in 2008. The district is home to Fort Drum and the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. With McHugh’s Senate confirmation hearings expected to begin soon, local party leaders are scrambling to choose candidates for...
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Banks back regulatory push that could pinch industrial lenders
Published: Jul 08, 2009
A central plank of the Obama administration’s proposed financial overhaul — creating a single regulator to oversee diverse financial institutions — has pitted traditional banks against retailers and other commercial entities, which argue the regulations will hurt them....
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