by the El Reportero’s staff
The Council on Foreign Relations, one of the oldest and most respected nonpartisan foreign policy think tanks in America, issued on July 8, a sweeping report on U.S. immigration policy.
Developed by an independent task force comprised of bi-partisan leaders, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty, the report finds that the passage of comprehensive immigration reform is vital to the national interests of the United States.
The report offers a number of specifi c recommendations to reform current policy, but most notably insists that the time is now to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Failure to do so, argues the task force, “threatens to weaken America’s economy, to jeopardize its diplomacy, and to imperil its national security.”
Legislation against mortgage scams
Supervisors David Campos and Sophie Maxwell introduced legislation today initiated by Asses- sor-Recorder Phil Ting and District Attorney Kamala D. Harris to put an end to loan modifi cation scams in San Francisco, according to a news release.
The Board of Supervisors ordinance would require a written contract outlining proposed services, prohibit loan modification consultants from collecting a fee before helping a homeowner obtain a favorable loan modifi cation, and provide for enforcement with criminal penalties and a private cause of action for aggrieved homeowners.
UC Berkeley workers and students to convene emergency town hall meeting
UC President Mark Yudof has proposed to slash the pay of 150,000 workers at the University of California system, impose up to 21 furlough days, or implement some combination of these two options in order to cover a funding shortfall from the State. Additionally, students at UC will face a minimum 9.3 percent increase in student fees this coming year, even as programs will be cut and class sizes increased.
Reactions to the president’s proposal from staff, students, and faculty at the University have been anger and distrust. In response, workers and students at UC Berkeley have come together to combat the atmosphere of fear and dread that UC has created: The Student Worker Activist Team, or SWAT, has announced an Emergency Town Hall Meeting on the campus for Thursday, July 9, to discuss alternatives and organize resistance to UC executives’ proposals.
With the mantra that we must all “share the pain”, UC boasts that 30 of its top executives have already taken a 5 percent salary cut. What they fail to mention is that seven of those executives had already received an average of 22 percent more in salary hikes over their predecessors in the past few years.
