Atlanta Politicians Propose Banning Sagging Pant

Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs are becoming a "major concern" throughtout the United States and should be banned in Atlanta, according to a proposed amendment to the city's indecency laws.

"I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future," the amendment's sponsor, city councilman C. T. Martin said Wednesday.

Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, said the law could not be enforced in a nondiscriminatory way because it targets something that came out of the black youth culture.

"This is a racial profiling bill that promotes and establishes a framework for an additional type of racial profiling," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for its Thursday editions.

The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, Seagraves said.

The proposed ordinance states that "the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments" would be unlawful in a public place. It would go in the same portion of the city code that outlaws sex in public and the exposure or fondling of genitals.

The penalty would be a fine in an amount to be determined, Martin said.

Any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge, Seagraves said.

Martin, who is black, said he plans to hold public hearings and vet the proposal through churches, civil rights groups and neighborhood organizations.

"The purpose of the paper is to generate some conversation to see if we can find a solution," Martin said. "It will be like all the discussions we've had around the value of the hip-hop culture. We know there are First Amendment issues ... and some will say I'm just trying to put young black men in jail, but it's going to be fines."

Atlanta would not be the first city to take on sagging pants.

Earlier this year, the town council in Delcambre, Louisiana, passed an ordinance that carries a fine of up to $500 or six months in jail for exposing underwear in public. Several other municipalities and parish governments in Louisiana have enacted similar laws in recent months.

The researchers said Indian immigrants founded more companies than those from the next four countries -- Britain, China, Taiwan and Japan -- combined.

Wed Aug 22, 12:53 PM ET

The huge backlog in US immigration visas is leading to a "reverse brain-drain" that will force skilled workers to return to their home country, a report released Wednesday concludes.

The study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that more than one million potential immigrants, including scientists, engineers, doctors and researchers, are competing for 120,000 permanent US resident visas each year.

The report said some applicants must wait several years, in part because the number of employment visas issued to immigrants from any single country is fewer than 10,000 per year.

"The United States benefits from having foreign-born innovators create their ideas in this country," said Vivek Wadhwa, a Harvard Law School fellow and co-author of the report.

"Their departures would be detrimental to US economic well-being."

The study by researchers at Duke, New York and Harvard universities is the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants' contributions to the US economy.

In this study, "Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain," the researchers concluded that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the United States.

"This imbalance creates the potential for a sizeable reverse brain-drain from the United States to the skilled workers' home countries," the foundation said.

The report said a majority of immigrant company founders, including many in the tech sector, came to the United States as students. Many ended up staying in the United States after graduation, with a number founding new companies.

It said 31 percent of the startups in tech centers had an immigrant key founder, including 52.4 percent in California's Silicon Valley.

The researchers said Indian immigrants founded more companies than those from the next four countries -- Britain, China, Taiwan and Japan -- combined.

They also concluded that foreign nationals living in the United States were inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 percent of international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006.

The total number of applicants and their family members waiting for permanent residence in the United States in 2006 was estimated at 1,055,084. Additionally, there were some 126,421 residents abroad waiting for visas, making a worldwide total of 1,181,505.

"Given that the US comparative advantage in the global economy is in creating knowledge and applying it to business, it behooves the country to consider how we might adjust policies to reduce the immigration backlog, encourage innovative foreign minds to remain in the country, and entice new innovators to come," said Robert Litan, vice president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation.

(http://news.yahoo.com/)

Saving for Banks Rainy Day

(http://www.thestreet.com/)

Largest Military Expenditures, 2005

(Military expenditure: in MER¹ dollar terms)

Rank	Country	Spending level2 ($ billions)	Per capita ($)	World share (%)
1.	United States	$478.2	$1,604	48%
2.	United Kingdom	48.3	809	5
3.	France	46.2	763	5
4.	Japan	42.1	329	4
5.	China3	41.0	31.2	4
6.	Germany	33.2	401	3
7.	Italy	27.2	468	3
8.	Saudi Arabia	25.2	1,025	3
9.	Russia3	21.0	147	2
10.	India	$20.4	$18.5	2%
11.	South Korea	16.4	344	2
12.	Canada	10.6	327	1
13.	Australia	10.5	522	1
14.	Spain	9.9	230	1
15.	Israel	9.6	1,430	1
	Subtotal, top 15	$839.8		84%
	World	$1,001.0	155	100%

1. MER = market exchange rate.

2. Spending figures are in U.S. dollars, at constant (2003) prices and exchange rates.

3. Estimated figure.

Source: SIPRI Yearbook 2006, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Windows reboot caused Skype glitch

FRANKFURT: A two-day outage that left millions of Skype users unable to use the popular Internet phone service was caused by an abnormally high number of restarts after people had downloaded a Windows security update, the company said. The worldwide outage, which began on Thursday and ended on Saturday, left millions of Skype users unable to log on to make phone calls or send instant messages. Luxembourg-based Skype Ltd, part of online auction giant eBay Inc, has more than 220 million users in total but typically has 5 million to 6 million users online at any given time. In January, Skype reported that it had counted 9 million users online at one time. In an update to users on Skype's Heartbeat blog, employee Villu Arak said the disruption was not because of hackers or any other malicious activity. Instead, he said that the disruption "was triggered by a massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update," Arak wrote. Microsoft Corp released its monthly patches, and many computers are set to automatically download and install them. Installation requires a computer restart. "The high number of restarts affected Skype's network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact," Arak wrote. Arak did not blame Microsoft for the troubles and said the outage ultimately rested with Skype. Arak said Skype's network normally has an ability to heal itself in such cases, but a previously unknown glitch in Skype's software prevented that from occurring quickly enough. In a statement, Microsoft described its patch as routine and reiterated that the disruption resulted from a bug in Skype software. Users from Vietnam to Brazil to Germany to the United States had complained they could not log on and make phone calls or send instant messages. The outage was a critical moment for the company, founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, and was the first major outage since October 2005 when its service was down only for a few hours. "This disruption was unprecedented in terms of its impact and scope," Arak wrote. "We would like to point out that very few technologies or communications networks today are guaranteed to operate without interruptions." (http://http://infotech.indiatimes.com/)

Foreclosures: No relief in sight

July foreclosures nearly double from last year; industry group raises forecast for more.

(Reported by NBC Nightly News on Aug 23)

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

August 21 2007: 8:11 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The flood of foreclosure filings showed no sign of let-up in July, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosure properties.

179,599 foreclosure filings, which include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, were reported nationwide for a 9 percent rise over the previous month and a 93 percent jump compared with July, 2006.

This past winter, RealtyTrac had forecast a 33 percent increase in U.S. foreclosures for the year but now it's raised its outlook. "It's trending to close to 2 million now, 60 percent more than last year," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president for marketing.

Moody's Economy.com is even more pessimistic with its forecast of some 2.5 million defaults for the year.

"While 43 states experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, just five states - California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia - accounted for more than half of the nation's total foreclosure filings," James J. Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac said in a statement.

Nevada, at one filing per every 199 households, had the highest rate of any state, but California where one in every eight Americans lives, had the most numerically - a total of 39,013 and one for every 333 households. That was nearly four times higher than a year ago.

California had six of the top 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates led by Stockton, which was second only to Detroit among metro areas, Merced was third, Modesto fourth, Vallejo-Fairfield fifth, Riverside-San Bernardino eighth and Sacramento ninth.

Florida had the next highest total among the states, 19,179, or one for every 431 households. Georgia, at one for every 299 households, had the second highest rate.

Seven states, led by Utah, recorded year-over-year declines in filings. Utah had just 485, one for every 1,800 households and 58.3 percent fewer than in July, 2006. Oklahoma, down 34.4 percent, New Mexico, down 26.9 percent, and Rhode Island, down 18.8 percent, also had substantial drop-offs.

Saccacio said, "Some of these states could be benefiting from increased interest from real estate investors who have pulled out of more volatile markets where home price appreciation seems to have hit its peak."

(http://money.cnn.com/)

Long-term budget view may surprise you

When was the peak of military spending? Not this year or last