Shutdown puts businesses, foreign workers in limbo

WASHINGTON (AP) — The partial government shutdown has left high-skilled immigrant workers and the companies that employ them in limbo.

The Labor Department's Office of Foreign Labor Certification is closed and applications for job changes, new hires or any other adjustments for foreign workers are on hold until the government reopens.

Laura Foote Reiff, a Northern Virginia immigration attorney, said while the Labor Department remains closed any business in the process of hiring foreign workers who already have a valid visa may also be missing various filing deadlines, which could force companies to start the complicated hiring process over again.

"It can be costly and time consuming," Reiff said.

The Labor Department said Friday that it could not answer questions about the issue because the shutdown had closed the Office of Foreign Labor Certification.

Reiff said government contractors whose projects are on hold during the shutdown face a dilemma: to furlough or fire foreign workers.

Because of the conditions on the high-skilled visas, even furloughed foreign workers have to be paid. If a company decides to fire the worker, that firm is then faced with starting the arduous hiring process over again.

And for the foreign worker, taking a temporary unpaid furlough or losing the job altogether means they are violating the terms of the visa, which could cause problems in the future if they try to renew a visa or change immigration status. There is no grace period for immigrant workers to be unemployed and they could face deportation or be denied visa extensions.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes the immigration paperwork for such workers, said it will evaluate future renewal and status change applications of workers furloughed or fired on a case-by-case basis.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-10-11-Budget%20Battle-Immigrant%20Workers/id-b332552c94dc4cae804b4ccbc855bd8d
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Mid-range Acer Liquid E2 headed to Three UK

Three UK has announced that it'll be carrying Acer's latest mid-range Android offering, the Liquid E2. The 4.5-incher, which comes with a qHD (960x540) display resolution and a quad-core MediaTek 1.2GHz processor, will be arriving "soon," the network said in a media release today. Three says the Liquid E2 will run on Three's 42Mbps DC-HSDPA network, though it looks like support for the carrier's upcoming LTE support is out of the question.

Other notable specs include an 8-megapixel camera, stereo speakers, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage, expandable via microSD. No release date has been given for the Acer Liquid E2 on Three, though with the device appearing on Three's "Coming Soon" page today, a retail launch probably isn't too far off.

More: Three UK

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/VAhMzezkbBU/story01.htm

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Kanye West Proposes To Kim Kardashian?

Kanye West Proposes To Kim Kardashian?

Kanye West reportedly proposed to Kim Kardashian after they welcomed their daughter, North “Nori” West. Sources said the 36-year-old rapper popped the question just days after they welcomed their first child together. An insider said Kanye and Kim are planning to wed in September in Paris. We agree that the couple would probably marry in ...

Kanye West Proposes To Kim Kardashian? Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/06/kanye-west-proposes-to-kim-kardashian/

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Fire rages, Colo. town braces for long evacuation

Wildfire smoke masks the sun as it sets over a ridge Saturday, June 22, 2013, near South Fork, Colo. A massive wildfire threatening a tourist region in southwestern Colorado has grown to nearly 60 square miles, but officials said Saturday that the erratic blaze had slowed and they were optimistic they could protect the town of South Fork. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Wildfire smoke masks the sun as it sets over a ridge Saturday, June 22, 2013, near South Fork, Colo. A massive wildfire threatening a tourist region in southwestern Colorado has grown to nearly 60 square miles, but officials said Saturday that the erratic blaze had slowed and they were optimistic they could protect the town of South Fork. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Two horses graze on a ridge as smoke from area fires fills the sky Saturday, June 22, 2013, near Monte Vista, Colo. Fire crews with tankers and hoses at the ready stood guard Friday night as a massive and fast-burning wildfire threatened a popular mountain tourist enclave in southwestern Colorado, forcing the evacuation of more than 400 people. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Firefighters from the San Juan Hotshots based in Durango, Colo, clear brush from around structures Saturday, June 22, 2013, in South Fork, Colo. Fire crews with tankers and hoses at the ready stood guard Friday night as a massive and fast-burning wildfire threatened a popular mountain tourist enclave in southwestern Colorado, forcing the evacuation of more than 400 people. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Firefighters from the San Juan Hotshots based in Durango, Colo, clear brush from around structures Saturday, June 22, 2013, in South Fork, Colo. Fire crews with tankers and hoses stood guard Friday night as a massive and fast-burning wildfire threatened a popular mountain tourist enclave in southwestern Colorado, forcing the evacuation of more than 400 people. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Firefighter Cole Ingram, of the San Juan Hotshots based in Durango, Colo, walks with a chainsaw as his crew clears brush from around structures Saturday, June 22, 2013, in South Fork, Colo. Fire crews with tankers and hoses stood guard Friday night as a massive and fast-burning wildfire threatened a popular mountain tourist enclave in southwestern Colorado, forcing the evacuation of more than 400 people. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

DEL NORTE, Colo. (AP) ? A colossal wildfire near a popular summer retreat in southern Colorado continues to be driven by winds and fueled by dead trees in a drought-stricken area, authorities said Sunday.

The weather has prevented fire crews from making progress on the blaze, which grew overnight to 108 square miles, up from 100 on Saturday. The speed with which the fire has spread is exceptional: It was just below 50 square miles Friday evening.

No structures have been lost in the fire, and no injuries have been reported.

It is doubtful fire crews could establish any containment lines until there's a break in the weather, possibly Tuesday, officials said. They remained optimistic they can protect the town, however.

As of Sunday, officials firefighters remained focused on protecting South Fork, the Wolf Creek ski area and homes along Highway 149.

Crews hoped to get aircraft up to drop water over the fire before afternoon winds of 30 to 40 miles an hour returned Sunday. Pete Blume, a commander with the Rocky Mountain Type 1 Incident Command Team, said the wildfire is the worst ever known to hit the Rio Grande National Forest.

"It's not typical to have these kinds of fires here," said Blume. "But beetle kill and drought is also not the norm."

Firefighters are hoping for a break in the high winds as well as the anticipated July monsoons to help them fight back the flames. Until then, Blume said, "with that much beetle kill and drought we could have every resource in the country here and still not put in a containment line."

Still, fire officials believe portions of the blaze will likely burn all summer in forested, nonresidential areas, with full extinguishment probably months away.

The lightning-sparked blaze started June 5, but its rapid advance Friday prompted the evacuation of hundreds of visitors and the town's 400 permanent residents.

Residents and tourists were settling in for a long wait before they can return to their homes, cabins and RV parks.

"They just said they had no idea how long it would be before we could be back in South Fork," said Mike Duffy, who owns the South Fork Lodge.

Duffy said he and his wife, Mary, were able to get their personal possessions before fleeing fast-advancing flames that officials initially feared would overtake the town. But with the fire still within three miles of South Fork, they are worried about the long-term impact of a prolong evacuation and news reports about the fire raging around the tourism-dependent town.

Summer visitors include many retirees from Texas and Oklahoma who come to the mountains to flee the heat.

South Fork Mayor Kenneth Brooke estimates that between 1,000 to 1,500 people had to flee, including the summer visitors and permanent residents.

More than 600 firefighters were battling the blaze, and more are coming every day. They also focused on newest arm of the fire as it crept through beetle kill toward the historic mining town of Creede, the last silver boom town in Colorado before the industry went bust in the late 1800s.

Elsewhere in Colorado, about a dozen fires also continued to burn. Firefighters were making progress on a 19-square-mile wildfire near Walsenburg in southern Colorado. The fire was 10 percent contained.

And a wildfire in foothills about 30 miles southwest of Denver was expected to be fully contained Sunday evening. That fire burned 511 acres and forced 100 people to leave their homes.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-23-Colorado%20Wildfires/id-547b922577b54803951599230a91453a

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Stanley Cup Finals 2013: Blackhawks Top Bruins In Game 5, 3-1

CHICAGO ? Chicago's top line has been too much for the Boston Bruins to handle.

Patrick Kane had two more goals in Saturday night's 3-1 victory over the Bruins in Game 5, bringing the Chicago Blackhawks one victory from their second Stanley Cup title in four years. Since Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville tinkered with his top line before Game 4 to reunite his two best players, Kane and Jonathan Toews, the two have combined for four goals and seven points.

And, most important, two wins.

But the star-studded line ? including Bryan Bickell at left wing ? may not be intact for Game 6 on Monday night in Boston. Toews spent the entire third period on the bench, though Quenneville said he is hopeful Chicago's captain will be able to play in the potential clincher.

Kane and Toews have spent most of their young careers playing alongside one another, often with dazzling results. They've already won one Stanley Cup, and helped the Blackhawks set an NHL record for season-opening points earlier this year.

With the Blackhawks facing Boston and its bruising tandem of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg in the Stanley Cup finals, however, Quenneville decided to split up his young stars. If Boston was going to shut down both Kane and Toews, it would need someone besides Chara and Seidenberg to do it.

The experiment failed. Pretty miserably.

With no goals from either Kane or Toews in the first three games, the Blackhawks found themselves trailing the Bruins 2-1. Needing a spark, Quenneville put Kane and Toews back together again for Game 4.

Such a simple switch, yet it's turned the series around.

Toews scored his first goal in almost a month ? May 25, to be exact ? in Game 4, while Kane got his first goal of the series. It was more of the same Saturday, with Kane's quick reflexes putting Boston on the ropes.

With 2:33 left in the first period, Johnny Oduya's slapshot hit Seidenberg's stick and shattered the blade. The puck trickled behind Boston goalie Tuukka Rask and Kane scooped it up and tucked it into the net to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

He doubled the score just over five minutes into the second period, getting help from both Toews and Bickell.

Bickell picked up a pass from Toews and took a shot from the left side, along the goal line. He got his own rebound and circled around the net, looking like a shark searching for prey. He finally spotted an opening, but the puck caromed off the side of the net.

Kane pounced on the rebound, and Rask never had a chance.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/stanley-cup-finals-game-5_n_3484855.html

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Google Launches Android Studio And New Features For Developer Console, Including Beta Releases And Staged Rollout

Today, during Google’s I/O developer conference, the company announced a group of tools for app developers, including a new developer suite called Android Studio. It’s an IDE based on IntelliJ. This was a popular announcement, as the crowd “ooh’d” and “ahh’d” as screenshots were shown on stage. This tool has more options for Android Development, making the process faster and more productive. A “live layout” was shown that renders your app as you’re editing in realtime. Additionally, you can switch over to different layouts and screen sizes, such as 3.7 inch phone and 10-inch tablet. The team noted that this might be useful for internationalization, allowing you to quickly see what things look like without having to package up your app and install it on a device. The company says that it has “big plans” for Android Studio. Developer Console Updates and Beta/Staged Rollouts After the Studio announcement, new features to help developers get their apps in the hands of beta testers were announced. This is something that hasn’t been easy before, but the console now lets you manage both beta users and a staged rollout process. Ellie Powers, Product Manager at Google, shared these new features, including ways to make money. The console will now have optimization tips, such as assistance for translation. The app translation service allows you to get professional translations directly in developer consoles; just select russian – it will show a list of different translation vendors, then Google will play middle man. Your results will be delivered within the console. You can invest in a campaign to promote your app with new referral tracking. It will tell you where installs are coming from, let you track effectiveness of each referral channel and then what happens in the app from the first time it’s opened on a device by a user. Those usage metrics will also be show in the console.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/6iofrZ-KTm8/

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Benetton agrees to sign Bangladesh safety pact

NEW YORK (AP) ? Benetton has become the latest global retailer to agree to sign a one-of-a-kind pact to improve safety at Bangladesh factories following a building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers in the country last month.

The move, confirmed by a spokesman at the Italian fashion brand, comes after H&M, a trendy Swedish fashion chain that is the largest clothing buyer in Bangladesh, said Monday that it would sign the same five-year legally binding factory safety contract.

Within hours, C&A of the Netherlands, British retailers Tesco and Primark, and Spain's Inditex, owner of Zara, followed.

The announcements come ahead of a Wednesday deadline imposed by worker rights groups that said they would increase pressure on brands that did not sign the agreement.

The spokesman at Benetton Group said the company would be making a formal announcement later Tuesday.

The agreement requires that the companies conduct independent safety inspections, make their reports on factory conditions public and cover the costs for needed repairs. It also calls for them to pay up to $500,000 annually toward the effort, to stop doing business with any factory that refuses to make safety upgrades and to allow workers and their unions to have a voice in factory safety.

The six companies join two other retailers that signed the contract last year: PVH, which makes clothes under the Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Izod labels, and German retailer Tchibo. The agreement has since been expanded to five years from two.

Among the holdouts, Wal-Mart, the second-largest clothing buyer in Bangladesh, said through spokesman Kevin Gardner on Monday that it had nothing to announce. And Gap, which had been close to signing the agreement last year, said late Monday that the pact is "within reach," but the company is concerned about the possible legal liability involved.

Labor groups applauded the retailers that agreed to the pact. They say the agreement goes a long way toward improving working conditions in Bangladesh's garment industry, which long has been known to be dangerous.

The agreement comes as the working conditions of Bangladesh's garment industry have come under increased scrutiny. Since 2005, at least 1,800 workers have been killed in the Bangladeshi garment industry in factory fires and building collapses, according to research by the advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum.

The two latest tragedies in the country's garment industry have raised alarm. The building collapse at Rana Plaza on April 24 was the industry's worst disaster in history. And it came months after a fire in another garment factory in Bangladesh in November killed 112 workers.

Following the latest tragedy, Walt Disney Co. announced that it is stopping production of its branded goods in Bangladesh. But most retailers have vowed to stay and promised to work for change. H&M and Wal-Mart both have said they have no plans to leave. Other big chains such as The Children's Place, Mango, J.C. Penney, Gap, Benetton and Sears have said the same.

But the pressure has increased for those that stay. Since April's building collapse, Avaaz, a human rights group with 21 million members worldwide, has gotten more than 900,000 signatures on a petition pushing Gap and H&M to commit to the proposal. And in the U.S., university chapters of United Students Against Sweatshops are helping to stage demonstrations against Gap in more than a dozen cities including Seattle, Los Angeles and New York.

The safety agreement comes two years after a fire and safety proposal drawn up by labor unions was first rejected by many clothing companies as too costly and legally binding. The latest agreement is a revised version of that proposed pact.

Forty companies, including Wal-Mart, H&M, and J.C. Penney, met in Germany with labor rights groups days after the building collapse. They discussed how the industry could improve safety conditions in Bangladesh.

Only a few companies, including Britain's Primark and Canada's Loblaw Inc., which owns the Joe Fresh clothing line, have acknowledged that suppliers were making clothes for them at the Rana Plaza site and have promised to compensate workers and their families. Loblaw's CEO said suppliers were making clothes for as many as 30 brands and retailers at the site.

Benetton labels were found at the site, and the Italian fashion brand acknowledged that one of its suppliers had used one of the factories. The company said that before the collapse, the factory had been removed from its list of approved factories.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-14-Bangladesh-Benetton/id-81187e20748e425ab0390fb18dce482d

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