http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/29/news/economy/2018-minimum-wage-increases/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

Across the country, many Americans will ring in 2018 with a raise.
On December 31 and January 1, the minimum wage will go up in 18 states and about 20 cities and counties, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Project.

In some cases, the increases put employees closer to a $15 an hour minimum wage, or what workers' rights advocates call the "living wage."

In New York state, the minimum wage for fast food workers outside New York City will rise from $10.75 to $11.75 over the weekend. It will hit $15 an hour by July 2021.

Nyiasha Colon, a 20-year-old who works at a Dunkin' Donuts in Rochester, New York and currently makes $11.50 an hour, said she's looking forward to the increase, even if it's small.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/h1-b-visa-regime-is-likely-to-get-tougher/articleshow/62236418.cms

BENGALURU: In further bad news for Indian professionals looking to work in the US, the Department of Homeland Security is readying a proposal that will make getting an H-1B tougher. It is looking to impose stringent restrictions on the H-B petitioners' selection process.

International immigration firm Fragomen's latest update on its website said the DHS has indicated it may revive a 2011 proposal that would require H-1B petitioners to preregister for the H-1B cap lottery and to submit cap petitions only after they have won cap numbers. "The DHS also plans to propose a priority system for allocation of H-1B cap numbers which would give priority to the most highly-paid and highly skilled, consistent with President Trump's 'Buy American, Hire American' executive order," it said in its update.

DHS announced the proposals in an update to its semi-annual regulatory agenda. It may also consider changes to H-1B wages.

Scott J Fitzgerald, partner in Fragomen Worldwide, said changes to the H-1B cap lottery system are not scheduled to be announced till February 2018. If such changes are announced under the standard process that allows for 'Notice and Comment', which typically takes several months, then the changes won't go into effect in time to cover the upcoming cap, under which filing begins in April 2018, he said.

Fitzgerald said if these provisions are introduced as an emergency rule — which waives the notice and comment requirement — then it could be covered in the next cap filing season. "This would be a real disaster for many companies as they either may not need to file cases already prepared (if there is a new "pre-registration" system) or they may not want to file many such cases, as many would be very unlikely to be selected under the new selection system," he added. Indian IT firms are the largest users of H-1B visas and non-immigrant visas that allow US firms to temporarily employ foreign workers. The US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) triggers a lottery system to select petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 for general category and 20,000 for advanced degree exemption.

Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, said the USCIS had done a lot already in the past few months to make it harder to qualify for H-1B visas. "The percentage of H-1B cases receiving a request for evidence has doubled to 41%. The USCIS is questioning whether some computer positions require a bachelor's degree," he said.

Yale-Loehr said the USCIS is taking longer to approve H-1B petitions and State Department consulates are screening H-1B visa applications more carefully than before. "All in all, it is harder than ever to get an H-1B these days," he said.
The Trump administration claims its immigration overhaul targeting H1-B visa holders is to deter H-1B visa fraud and abuse. This, experts believe, will restrict free movement of talent due to fiery protectionist policies. Vivek Wadhwa, distinguished fellow at Carnegie Mellon University Engineering , said there is little doubt that Trump is determined to keep immigrants, both skilled and unskilled, out.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-teens-murder-charges-deadly-interstate-75-overpass-sandbag-toss/

Four Ohio teens face murder charges after allegedly throwing a sandbag from a highway overpass. The bag smashed through the windshield of a car that Marquise Byrd, 22, was riding in last week on Interstate 75 in Toledo. Byrd died from severe head injuries on Friday.

Three of the boys charged are 14 years old, and the other is 13. They had already been charged with felonious assault, reports CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan.

Around 10 p.m. last Tuesday, a woman was driving with her friend, Byrd, under an overpass when something came crashing through the passenger-side windshield. She pulled over and called 911.



"I don't know what happened! My friend, I don't know what happened, he's not moving!" she told the dispatcher. "Something hit my car. And hit my friend. And he is not moving!"

"OK, you don't know what hit him?" the dispatcher asked.

"No, my windshield is, like, smashed up. … He is laid out on my seat. I think the windshield might have smacked his head," the distressed woman responded.

Police arrested four juveniles after seeing them leave the area near the overpass. They're accused of throwing objects off the interstate bridge. It was a sandbag that broke the windshield and hit Byrd in the passenger seat. He leaves behind a 2-year-old son and was reportedly engaged to be married.

The arrests come nearly two months after a similar incident near Flint, Michigan. Five teens there are facing charges of second degree murder after throwing rocks off an overpass, hitting a vehicle and killing 32-year-old Kenneth White.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/22/technology/facebook-russian-ads-tool/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

Facebook rolled out on Friday a tool to let users see whether they liked or followed any Facebook pages or Instagram accounts created by the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm with links to the Kremlin that has sought to spread chaos in U.S. politics.

The tool, which Facebook had promised users in November, is available through the site's Help Center.

Facebook joined Twitter and Google in front of Congress last month to answer tough questions on how Russia used its platform to spread misinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The social network also with Congress shared more than 3,000 ads purchased by accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency. The company estimates about 10 million people in the U.S. saw the ads.

In all, Facebook (FB) estimates, as many as 150 million Americans may have been exposed to content from the Internet Research Agency. The majority of them may still never know that, however. Facebook's new tool only lets users know if they liked or followed a page associated with the group. It will not tell them if one of the page's posts appeared in their News Feed because a friend shared it, or if Facebook served them one of the ads that the IRA purchased. And the tool will only work for users on desktop, though many people access Facebook either primarily or solely on mobile devices.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609773/a-contraceptive-gel-for-men-is-about-to-go-on-trial/

It’s expected to deliver hormones more effectively than injections or pills.
by Emily Mullin December 20, 2017

After more than a decade of work, government researchers in the U.S. are ready to test an unusual birth control method for men—a topical gel that could prevent the production of sperm.

And no, gentlemen, you don’t rub it on your genitals.

The clinical trial, which begins in April and will run for about four years, will be the largest effort in the U.S. to test a hormonal form of birth control for men.

Currently, men’s only options for birth control are condoms or a vasectomy. In the last major study of a hormonal male contraceptive, which took place in Europe from 2008 to 2012, participants received injections of hormones every two months. The shots suppressed sperm production and prevented the men’s female partners from getting pregnant, but they also gave men severe mood swings and other serious side effects (see “Why We Still Don’t Have Birth Control Drugs for Men”).

The new gel contains two synthetic hormones, testosterone and a form of progestin. Progestin blocks the testes from making enough testosterone to produce normal levels of sperm. The replacement testosterone is needed to counteract the hormone imbalances the progestin causes but won't make the body produce sperm.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/19/investing/tax-plan-jobs-trump-ceo-yale-survey/index.html

CEOs may like the idea of a big tax cut for businesses, but that doesn't mean they'll use the savings to create American jobs.

Just 14% of CEOs surveyed by Yale University said their companies plan to make large, immediate capital investments in the United States if the tax overhaul passes. Capital investments, like building plants and upgrading equipment, can lead to hiring.

Only a slim majority of the CEOs, 55%, said the Republican tax package should be signed into law. The Yale CEO Summit surveyed 110 prominent business leaders of Fortune 500 and Fortune 50 companies last week.

The findings, along with other surveys, suggest that the tax plan may not have the dramatic impact on jobs that President Trump and Republicans in Congress have promised.

Trump tweeted over the weekend that "TAX CUTS" will lead to "higher growth, higher wages, and more JOBS!" The GOP tax overhaul would slash the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and offer incentives for companies to bring foreign profits back home.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who leads the Yale CEO Summit, said in an interview that it's "astounding" how few companies plan to reinvest their tax savings.

He called the idea of a jobs boom from the tax plan "a lot of smoke and mirrors," especially because the unemployment rate is just 4.1% and companies already have plenty of cash to make investments.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/former-dc-area-police-officer-found-guilty-of-attempting-to-back-islamic-state/2017/12/18/0bbca6b2-e40c-11e7-833f-155031558ff4_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_young-128pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory



By Rachel Weiner December 18 at 5:00 PM
A former police officer for the D.C. Metro system was found guilty Monday of trying to help the Islamic State, making him the first law enforcement officer nationwide to be convicted in a terrorism case.

Nicholas Young, a 38-year-old Muslim convert from Alexandria, Va., faces up to 60 years in prison. After only a few hours of deliberation, a jury in federal court in Alexandria found he obstructed justice and offered financial support to a friend he thought had joined the terrorist organization.

In fact, the man was an undercover informant who befriended Young as part of an FBI sting operation.

“Nicholas Young swore an oath to protect and defend, and instead violated the public’s trust by attempting to support ISIS,” U.S. Attorney Dana Boente said in a statement.

Young was under scrutiny by the FBI for six of the 13 years he patrolled the public transportation system of the nation’s capital. He used his vacation time to join the civil war in Libya in 2011, leaving the FBI wondering whether he fought with a terrorist group, and watched Islamic State videos while on break. He was commended by one U.S. attorney’s office for his work as a police officer, only to be put under grand jury investigation by another.



He is probably the first person convicted of backing the Islamic State to consider himself a conservative, venerate former congressman Ron Paul, and express interest in joining the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

But the paradox at the heart of the trial was Young’s interest in both Islamic radicalism and Nazism. Young dressed up as an SS officer in World War II reenactments and had a tattoo on his arm celebrating his unit. He also collected literature advocating violent jihad and watched Islamic State videos.