Scholarships Grants

New York, NY, United States (AHN Sports) – NBA players filed an unfair labor practices charge against the league Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board.

In the complaint the players accuse the league of “harsh, inflexible and grossly regressive ‘takeaway’ demands.”

The National Basketball Players Association is seeking an immediate investigation by the NLRB, plus an injunction to stop the league’s threatened lockout of players when the current collective-bargaining agreement expires June 30.

The league responded by saying it is working toward putting a new deal in place.

“There is no merit to the charge filed by the players association as we have complied, and will continue to comply, with all of our obligations under the federal labor laws,” The NBA said in a statement. “It will not distract us from our efforts to negotiate in good faith a new collective bargaining agreement with the players association.”

Players association head Billy Hunter sent out a memo to players earlier this month that stated that the league is seeking a hard salary cap that would be a 22% reduction from the current $58-million soft-cap figure.

The union argued in its NLRB claim that the NBA has engaged in “classic ‘take it or leave it’ bargaining that is “intended to delay action on a renewal [collective bargaining agreement] until the NBA locks out the employees in order to coerce them into accepting the NBA’s harsh and regressive demands.”

The league and players have a bargaining session scheduled during the NBA Finals in Dallas or Oklahoma City.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce as soon as next week whether it will hear an appeal involving California’s controversial law that grants illegal immigrants in-state tuition at public universities.

The immigrants say they could not afford college if they paid the higher out-of-state tuition rates.

Opponents of the law say taxpayers should not have to subsidize lawbreakers like illegal immigrants.

The controversy extends beyond California to 10 other states that grant reduced tuition to illegal immigrants. Out-of-state tuition can be triple in-state rates.

Courts took up the case of Martinez vs. Regents of the University of California in 2005 when students who paid out-of-state tuition sued the Board of Regents.

They accused the university of violating a 1996 federal law that prohibits public institutions from giving benefits to illegal immigrants.

The University of California’s attorneys argued the state law, AB540, was narrowly written to avoid conflicts with the federal law.

Illegal immigrants can get in-state tuition only if they attend a California high school for three years and graduate.

The same benefit is granted to any graduates of the state’s high schools, thereby eliminating legal U.S. residency as the issue in getting in-state college tuition, attorneys for the University of California argued.

The trial court agreed with the university and dismissed the lawsuit.

However, the California Court of Appeal for the Third District reversed the trial court, saying the state law is preempted by federal law. In other words, illegal immigrants cannot receive in-state tuition.

On appeal in November, the California Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal.

Now, it’s the U.S. Supreme Court’s turn to decide the dispute, this time with a likelihood of influencing debate in Congress over how to reform immigration laws.

The Supreme Court justices this week discussed whether to grant the case a hearing or let the California Supreme Court decision stand.

Just before the California Supreme Court accepted the case, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote a letter to the state’s highest court saying the dispute reaches “into the heart of the national debate about illegal immigration.”

Utah, along with New York and Texas, is among the states that allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition.

Other states, such as Arizona, are strongly opposed to granting any benefits to illegal immigrants.

They have been joined by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law group, which filed an amicus brief that supports cutting off in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

If the state law granting in-state tuition is upheld, “overburdened state taxpayers, who are suffering under California’s devastated economy, will be forced to continue subsidizing the college education of adult illegal immigrants,” the Pacific Legal Foundation said in a statement.

The foundation says in-state tuition gives the equivalent of a taxpayer-subsidized scholarship worth between $43,884 to $80,872 at a four year college.

However, LatinoJustice, a civil rights organization that filed an amicus brief in the case, said in a statement that the lawsuit against AB540 “threatens to erect an insurmountable barrier for high-achieving high school graduates from pursuing higher education in hopes of bettering themselves and benefiting their communities as a whole.”

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new york, ny, United States (AHN Sports) – Count New York Giants defensive tackle Chris Canty among those who feel that there will be NFL football this fall.

Canty for one feels that the labor impasse will be over soon enough and the season will get started when it is supposed to on Sept. 8.

“[The labor dispute] will definitely be settled. There will be a football season,” Canty told the New York Post Tuesday at the 18th annual Gridiron Gala at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, where he and Jets fullback Tony Richardson received awards for their commitment to community service.

“The fans don’t have to worry about that,” Canty added. “We’re going to have football this fall, and we’re going to try and put the quality product on the field that they are used to seeing come September.”

Canty is disappointed in Monday’s court ruling that froze a lower court’s injunction and allows the owners to continue the lockout at least until the players’ appeal begins June 3.

“It’s tough because you’d like to have the opportunity to prepare for the season in the offseason,” Canty said. “You’d like to be able to get with your teammates in the confines of the facilities and work with the coaches, to try and improve your football team and try to get ready to play your best football in the fall.”

Richardson feel the lockout has not affected him as much as a 16-year veteran of the league as it will younger players.

“I’m more concerned for guys who were just drafted,” he said. “They need to be in there working. They need to learn the lingo.”

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a $65.7 billion budget on Friday that continued to rely on slashing thousands of teaching positions despite opposition.

The budget aims to fix a record a $4.58 billion deficit deficit and a $6.1 billion decrease in state and federal funding without increasing taxes. The mayor stood firm on education cuts, proposing to lay off 4,278 teachers and remove 1,500 more through attrition.

Bloomberg said his administration had shown “continued, strong financial commitment” in education, increasing spending from city funds from $5.9 billion in 2002 to $13.6 billion in 2012. He said there was no recourse but to eliminate jobs, an argument the United Federation of Teachers shot down by saying the city had alternatives such as paring down contracts by 20 percent or ending bank subsidies.

The mayor backtracked on a plan to eliminate 16,000 child-care slots. He said his revised budget will ensure that all children will continue to receive care services. The slots will be maintained by using $40 million in city funds to compensate for reductions in state and federal aid.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew dismissed the revised proposal, saying, “Same smoke, same mirrors, same attempt to blame others for his decision to lay off thousands of teachers, despite increased state aid, hundreds of millions in new revenues and a surplus that has grown to more than $3.2 billion.”

The group this week proposed an alternative budget that identifies savings worth $1.5 billion. Apart from reducing contracts with J.P. Morgan Chase and other banks, the group proposed to close tax loopholes for the wealthy and for private equity firms.

City Comptroller John Liu similarly urged the mayor to focus reductions on contracts.

“While the Mayor’s Budget presents a picture reflective of the lingering effects of the recession, it should be noted that throughout the economic crisis, City agencies have spent billions of dollars on high-priced outside consultants resulting in runaway spending on technology-related

contracts. Unfortunately, the Executive Budget offers no respite,” Liu said.

Before we commit critical funding towards more technology contracts, we must consider the necessity of these projects when compared to the proposed service and personnel cuts the Mayor has put forth,” the comptroller added.

The budget requires approval from the city council. It is due on July 1.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Toyota said on Friday it would maintain limited production until the end of the year. The automaker is working to resolve supply chain issues and a crisis triggered by a tsunami in Japan.

Production levels in domestic plants are currently at 50 percent, while operations outside Japan are at 40 percent. The company plans to begin restoring normal production in local facilities in July. Overseas operations will ramp up a month later due to the time it takes to deliver parts abroad.

Regular operations are set to resume November and December.

President Akio Toyoda apologized to consumers in a press conference and assured them of “unprecedented customer service.” He told dealers and suppliers, “I feel terribly sorry for the hardships we may have caused you.”

Toyota will continue obtaining parts from its usual suppliers but is considering substituting parts from other companies. There are about 150 parts affecting assembly lines for new cars. The parts are mostly electronics, rubber and paint-related.

The North America unit, which is operating at 30 percent, said there are no plans for layoffs in plants. Production in North America was not suspended after the March 11 quake in Japan. But the unit took steps to conserve parts. It also suspended overtime work and stopped operations for five days last week.

Parts for the dozen Lexus and Toyota models built in the United States are sourced from 500 suppliers in North America. The automaker last month resumed shipments of parts to the United States and began production in Japan of Prius and Lexus hybrids, for which U.S. demand is high.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) – After a five-year hiatus, a revived regional dialogue on human rights of migrant workers worldwide resumed in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Tuesday.

Ministers from Asian labor-sending countries are holding three days of business about endorsing protections for migrant workers, Human Rights Watch, Migrant Forum in Asia, and CARAM Asia said in a briefing paper. The protect should give priority to protecting migrant domestic workers, who are at especially high risk of abuse, and to ending recruitment-related exploitation, the organizations said.

The gathering marks the fourth round of the “Colombo Process,” a series of regional consultative meetings on Asian contractual migrant workers. Under the theme “Migration with Dignity,” delegates from 11 Asian countries that send large numbers of workers abroad are discussing strategies to improve coordination, optimize benefits from migration, and prevent worker abuses at home and abroad.

Several labor-receiving countries from Asia and the Middle East will attend as observers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday underscored the need for establishing an international regimen to administer cross-border migration and internal displacements, the outcomes of adversities caused by climate change.

“We need an international regime under the United Nations as our country is likely to have huge human displacements due to climate change,” she said.

Some 3 million Asian men and women migrate each year, a large proportion working in domestic service, construction, manufacturing, and agriculture in other Asian countries and the Gulf states. In 2010, Asian migrants sent home an estimated US$175 billion in remittances.

Gulf countries in particular rely heavily on Asian contract labor; for example, there is approximately one migrant domestic worker for every two Kuwaiti citizens. Migrants from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have fueled construction booms in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

“Abuses against migrants are often linked to gaps in information, poor coordination, and competition for jobs, so it’s a big deal for these governments to sit around the table and address these problems together,” said Nisha Varia, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Dhaka meeting is also a chance to share information about successful reforms with other countries in the region.”

The briefing paper “Protecting Asian Migrants’ Rights” prepared by New York based Human Rights Watch, urged delegates to pledge support for a proposed international convention on labor standards for domestic work, increase civil society participation in future regional dialogues, promote increased multilateral cooperation, and take measures to eliminate recruitment fees charged to migrant workers.

But inadequate protections mean migrants also risk an array of abuses, the groups said, including recruitment-related deception and debts, unpaid wages, hazardous working conditions, physical and sexual abuse, and forced labor, including human trafficking. Unlicensed recruiters often operate with impunity, migrants have limited information about their rights and channels to seek help, and immigration policies can trap workers with abusive employers.

“When high, and often inflated, recruitment fees leave migrants heavily indebted, they are especially vulnerable to abuse,” said Dr. Chowdhury Abrar, chairman of the international relations department at the University of Dhaka. “Cracking down on excessive fees and unethical recruitment practices will be a key ingredient to any reform.”

“Even though migrants from Asia confront similar abuses while working abroad, their governments have typically addressed these bilaterally, and the results have been far weaker protections than if they negotiated together,” said Mohammad Harun Al Rashid, regional coordinator for CARAM Asia.

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Rochester, NY, United States (AHN) – Authorities are expected to confirm on Monday whether remains found in New York are those of a missing Rochester Institute of Technology student.

New York State Police were due to hold a press conference just before noon about the discovery of human remains Sunday night in the town of Cohocton in Steuben County. The body may be that of George Delany, a 21-year-old student who has been missing for more than a month.

The Leader reported that two hikers found the body in a wooded area. The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office is performing an autopsy.

According to state police, Delany was last seen on the evening of March 12 walking away from his car in Wayland, another town in Steuben County. His car was found near the area the next day.

Delany was a junior political science major from Maryland. He lived off-campus with fellow students, who have held rallies and canvassing events since he disappeared.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The number of jobless Americans filing first time claims for unemployment compensation benefits fell by 6,000 to 388,000 for the week ending March 26, the Labor Department said Thursday.

While the weekly number fell, the four-week moving average rose slightly by 3,250 claimants to 394,250, from the previous week’s revised average of 391,000. The jobless rate bounces around slightly from week-to-week, but it has generally been trending downward since the beginning of the year.

The percentage of unemployed Americans covered by unemployment compensation insurance remained stable at 3 percent for the week ending March 19, unchanged from the previous week.

The number of people filing ongoing claims for jobless benefits dropped by a modest 51,000 claims to 3,714,000 during the week ending March 19, the most recent week that data is available.

A total of 8,770,443 Americans claimed benefits in all jobless programs for the week ending March 12, the latest week for which such data is available.

In addition, extended benefits were available in 35 states and the District of Columbia for the week ending March 12. That number has remained stable since last year.

Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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Sacramento, CA, United States (AHN) – California’s community colleges could turn away more than 400,000 students next year because Republican lawmakers refused to let voters decide in a June ballot whether to temporarily extend taxes.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a budget cutting spending by $12 billion, including $400 million for the state’s 112 community colleges.

The plan also called for tax extensions, which under the state constitution requires the approval of two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the Senate before a special election.

The governor, a Democrat who served two terms as governor three decades ago, had been in negotiations with the GOP about the tax extensions since announcing his budget two months ago. Talks broke down on Wednesday, after what Brown said was “an ever changing list of collateral demands” from Republicans.

Without a June ballot to approve the revenue-generating extensions, Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott quickly warned that an “all-cuts budget” would “devastate our ability to train th[e] workforce.”

A budget that does not continue 2009 taxes expiring this year will double the cuts for community colleges to $800 million. This reduction would force some districts to offer fewer classes in the summer and fall and deny access to 400,000 students, the same number enrolled in the state university system.

The state has already increased fees at community colleges for the fall from $26 to $36 per unit. Fees could rise to $66 if an all-cuts budget is approved, preventing even more students to attend a community college.

Brown continued to seek support from Republicans while calling them out for demands that he said would undermine the budget, such as giving a $1 billion tax break to out-of-state corporations so the companies would bring jobs to California.

In a letter to state Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton on Wednesday, he said, “Democrats have swallowed hard and done their part—they have approved painful cuts… I was very surprised (and frankly, disappointed) that you came today with a very long list of demands (53 separate proposals), many of which are new and have no relationship whatsoever to the budget.”

The demands included moving the U.S. presidential primary to March and extending taxes for only a year and a half instead of five years.

California, the world’s eighth-largest economy and the nation’s most populous state, is facing a $26.6 billion deficit. Last month, Brown slashed the number of state-owned vehicles and cell phones by 50 percent and ordered a hiring freeze to help end the budget crisis.

Republicans say the governor’s budget plan actually has only $7 billion of cuts, a small sum compared to the $60 billion from tax extensions, and far from a balanced proposal.

“Gov. Brown and the Dems can’t have it both ways,” GOP state chair Tom Del Beccaro said in a statement. “They asked for ideas — and then complained there were too many. They wanted specific budget solutions — and then complained there were too many details.”

“The list that Republican leadership gave the governor… included a number of proposals to which Brown has publicly agreed — but obviously angered the public unions that control our state government,” Beccaro added. “Not coincidentally, Brown, unlike Democrat Andrew Cuomo of New York, is refusing to reduce the state bureaucracy — demonstrating that he values bureaucracy more than essential services.”

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Both the number of Americans filing first time jobless claims and the number filing ongoing claims have dropped, the Department of Labor announced Thursday.

Initial unemployment claims filed during the week ending March 12 were 385,000, representing a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 401,000.

The four-week moving average dropped to its lowest rate since July 2008. It was 386,250, a decrease of 7,000

Ongoing jobless benefits claims dropped by 80,000 to 3,706,000 during the week ending March 5, the most recent week for which data is available. That was below the 3,750,000 continuing claims economists had expected and it was the lowest number of continuing claims since September 2008.

Although the amount of time that individuals can claim jobless benefits varies by state, the maximum benefit period in 99 weeks. In addition, not every jobless American qualifies for unemployment benefits. The percentage of Americans covered by the unemployment insurance compensation program remained unchanged at 3.0 percent for the week ending March 5.

For the week ending Feb. 26, the number of people claiming benefits in all jobless programs was 8,953,610.

Extended benefits were available for the jobless in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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