Foreign H-1B visa workers received starting salaries about 10 percent less than their American counterparts at Deloitte, a multinational accounting firm whose wage data was hacked and published. The H-1B visa program, created by former President George H.W. Bush, allows companies to import hundreds of thousands of foreign workers — primarily from India and China — to take white-collar American jobs under the guise that there is a “labor shortage,” particularly in STEM occupations. For years, Breitbart News has chronicled the abuses against white-collar American professionals as a result of the H-1B visa program. Americans are often laid off in the process and forced to train their foreign replacements, as highlighted by Breitbart News. Research, published in the September issue of the Journal of Business Ethics, reviewed wage data that was hacked from Deloitte to compare starting wages for foreign H-1B visa workers with their American counterparts. Deloitte paid foreign H-1B visa workers about 10 percent less than Americans doing the same line of work, the results showed. “We observe that relative to U.S. citizen new hires — matched on office, position, and time of hire — newly hired accountants with H-1B visas receive starting salaries that are lower by approximately 10%,” the researchers found: We find, in line with the cost savings argument, that a Big 4 firm pays H-1B visa holders in tax and audit lower starting wages than U.S. citizen peer hires. There are several other explanations besides a desire to save on wage costs that could drive this wage discount (such as a difference in English communication skills or an attempt to recoup the considerable filing fees involved in hiring an H-1B worker). We are unable to identify the exact driver of this discrepancy, but our results are at least consistent with the pattern predicted by H-1B critics. In our secondary tests, we find no evidence that H-1B workers are substitutes for U.S. citizens in accounting, but rather some weak evidence of complementarities. That is, controlling for office size and growth, U.S. citizen new hires are paid slightly more in offices that have recently hired an H-1B visa holder in a peer role. [Emphasis added] The wage data confirms accusations that the H-1B visa program is used across several industries to cut labor costs for companies while crowding American professionals out of jobs that would otherwise go to them. About a year ago, laid-off American professionals — who say they were replaced with Indian H-1B visa workers — scored a $4.65 million settlement against Indian outsourcing firm Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI). The initial lawsuit brought by the laid-off Americans said LTI deployed a “four-pronged policy” of anti-American discrimination to ensure that jobs went to Indian H-1B visa workers: First, LTI allegedly maintains an “inventory” of “visa ready” workers from India to fill positions at the company by petitioning the federal government’s lottery program to obtain a large amount of H-1b visas , and preferences hiring from this pool of applicants over U.S. citizens and visa-ready individuals not from South Asia (in particular, India). [Emphasis added] ... Second, LTI’s internal and third-party recruiters in the United States disproportionately select South Asian and Indian applicants located in the United States over non-South Asian, non-Indian applicants located in the United States, even if applicants are less qualified. [Emphasis added] Third, LTI promotes South Asian, Indian, visa holders at disproportionately high rates, in particular by giving these workers higher scores on their quarterly and annual employee appraisals. [Emphasis added] Fourth, and finally, LTI terminates non-South Asian, non-Indian, and non-visa holders at disproportionately higher rates , in part because these workers are relegated to the “bench” more often and then are not staffed on more projects. [Emphasis added] Most prominently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) settled with Facebook over its lawsuit that the tech corporation had discriminated against qualified Americans for jobs, preferring to hire foreign H-1B visa workers. Recently, Americans detailed to Bloomberg News how Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation discriminated against Americans using the H-1B visa program. One such insider at Cognizant was Abby Israel, who was hired to ensure that federal anti-discrimination laws were being followed. What she discovered was shocking: In 2018, Israel’s team produced an internal report that found large racial disparities in rates of “involuntary terminations” at Cognizant over the first eight months of the year. Black employees were let go at a rate 23 times that of Asian [mostly Indian] workers, the data showed. For Hispanic or Latino employees, the rate was 16 times the rate of their Asian counterparts. For White workers, it was eight times as high. (The Asian workers were overwhelmingly from India and were working on [H-1B and other] visas, according to the report.) Israel told the jury that those were some of the most extreme racial disparities she’d ever seen. She also said that when she reached out to Cognizant’s hiring managers with those findings, her supervisor told her to stop sharing the data beyond HR leaders. [Emphasis added] In December 2022, the DOJ announced a settlement with Secureapp Technologies, whose Fortune 500 clients include Pfizer, Comcast, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, FedEx, and Nike, after the firm was found to have discriminated against qualified Americans, hiring foreign H-1B visa workers from India instead. Another infamous case involved the defunct biotech corporation Theranos, whose founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy. Holmes, along with her partner and former boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, had raked in billions in investments from 2003 to 2015 by claiming that Theranos’s nanotechnology could retrieve tiny blood samples from patients and test them for a myriad of illnesses and diseases. Holmes and Balwani used the H-1B visa program to keep their employees quiet and compliant, even as the fraud scheme unraveled, according to John Carreyrou’s bombshell reporting. “For the dozens of Indians Theranos employed, the fear of being fired was more than just the dread of losing a paycheck. Most were on H-1B visas and dependent on their continued employment at the company to remain in the country,” Carreyrou reported in his book. “With a despotic boss like Sunny holding their fates in his hands, it was akin to indentured servitude,” Carreyrou reported. “Sunny, in fact, had the master-servant mentality common among an older generation of Indian businessmen. Employees were his minions.” John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here .jiliko 。

What happens when 'The Simpsons' join 'Monday Night Football'? Find out during Bengals-CowboysStock market today: Wall Street hits records despite tariff talk

Joanne Harris, author of the bestselling novel Chocolat , has begun adding content warnings to her books after comparing them to “wheelchair ramps”. Readers are now told that Harris’s 1999 hit novel contains “spousal abuse, mild violence, death of parent, cancer, hostility and outdated terms for travelling community and religious intolerance”. The 60-year-old announced the plans in April after a social media poll which asked her followers if they agreed that trigger warnings should be included at the start of books. • Matt Smith: ‘I’m not sure about trigger warnings. Isn’t being shocked the point?’ “It makes a lot of sense,” she said at the time. “Trigger warnings are like wheelchair ramps. They exist because some people need them. “The fact that some people don’tKEY FACTS The four pillars of Māori health are taha wairua/spiritual wellbeing, taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing, taha tinana/physical wellbeing and taha whānau/family and social wellbeing. Hauora is to be fit, well, healthy, vigorous, in good spirits. Many of the causes of Māori morbidity and mortality such as obesity, heart disease and mental health problems have their origins in early life. Mere Rangihuna (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Manu, Te Uri-o-Hau) is the Māori participation manager at Aktive, which supports youth through healthier living. OPINION As Māori, our health and wellbeing are inherently linked to community, culture and identity; yet for many urban Māori, finding spaces to celebrate these connections can be challenging.

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What happens when 'The Simpsons' join 'Monday Night Football'? Find out during Bengals-CowboysJackson State tops Southern 41-13, wins SWAC Championship and berth in Celebration Bowl

NoneRacing was abandoned in the Track Champions League at Lee Valley VeloPark in London after British Olympic champion Katy Marchant and another rider crashed over the barriers into the crowd. Marchant and German rider Alessa-Catriona Propster left the track at speed along with their bikes and collided with spectators. British Cycling said the two riders and four supporters were treated by event medics and Marchant was taken to hospital. In a statement, British Cycling added: "WBD Sports, British Cycling, Lee Valley VeloPark, and the Union Cycliste Internationale unanimously decided to suspend all further racing for the evening and want to extend their best wishes for a speedy recovery to both riders and all affected spectators. "We are working closely with all parties to review the incident before taking appropriate action." At the same venue at the 2022 Commonwealth Games a high-speed collision involving several riders resulted in England's Matt Walls being catapulted over the barriers into the crowd with his bike. The London venue costing £250,000, around the track this year. Thirty-one-year-old Marchant, who won Team Sprint gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, was competing in the second heat of the women's keirin.‘Disgusting’: Storm erupts over ‘joke’ ban

Watson shot 3 for 15 (2 for 8 from 3-point range) and 6 of 8 from the free-throw line for the Ramblers (8-0). Kymany Houinsou scored 12 points while finishing 5 of 7 from the floor and added seven rebounds and five assists. Jalen Quinn had 12 points and shot 4 of 8 from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line. The Ramblers extended their winning streak to eight games. The Bulls (5-4) were led by Jayden Reid, who recorded 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Kasen Jennings added 13 points for South Florida. Jamille Reynolds had 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Justin Moore scored six points in the first half and Loyola Chicago went into the break trailing 38-35. Watson scored a team-high nine points for Loyola Chicago in the second half, including their game-winning shot in the final minute. NEXT UP Loyola Chicago next plays Sunday against San Francisco at home, and South Florida will visit Utah State on Saturday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Stock market today: Wall Street hits records despite tariff talkKari Dziedzic, former Minnesota Senate majority leader, dies at 62

CHICAGO (AP) — (AP) — Des Watson led Loyola Chicago with 14 points and sealed the victory with a 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining as the Ramblers knocked off South Florida 74-72 on Saturday. Watson shot 3 for 15 (2 for 8 from 3-point range) and 6 of 8 from the free-throw line for the Ramblers (8-0). Kymany Houinsou scored 12 points while finishing 5 of 7 from the floor and added seven rebounds and five assists. Jalen Quinn had 12 points and shot 4 of 8 from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line. The Ramblers extended their winning streak to eight games. The Bulls (5-4) were led by Jayden Reid, who recorded 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Kasen Jennings added 13 points for South Florida. Jamille Reynolds had 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Justin Moore scored six points in the first half and Loyola Chicago went into the break trailing 38-35. Watson scored a team-high nine points for Loyola Chicago in the second half, including their game-winning shot in the final minute. NEXT UP Loyola Chicago next plays Sunday against San Francisco at home, and South Florida will visit Utah State on Saturday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Jackson State tops Southern 41-13, wins SWAC Championship and berth in Celebration Bowl

The champion Boston Celtics' victory lap continued Thursday as the team visited the White House for the traditional celebration with the president. President welcomed the team at the mansion's South Lawn to commemorate , calling the team among the deepest ever, and noting they "dominated Dallas at both ends of the floor." "My Secret Service name is Celtic," Biden pointed out, adding, "everybody behind me is Irish in their heart." After he and Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck spoke, Biden walked a ceremonial basketball the team presented him down to the gathered crowd and passed it to Sen. Ed Markey, before giving it a couple of bounces. Ahead of the event, the Celtics shared a sneak peek at the ball and the jerseys they gave Biden, Vice President and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. Biden's is No. 46, since he's the 46th president, while the jerseys for Harris and her husband sport 18s, for the team's NBA record 18th title. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCo4GODve4J Among those who attended the ceremony were Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and the state's congressional delegation. "It's something that’ll last a lifetime," C's star Jayson Tatum . The last time the Celtics visited the White House as NBA champions, in 2008, George W. Bush was president. The Celtics are on a quest to be the first team to repeat as champions since the 2018 . They're in Washington for a game against the Wizards Friday night, an that tips off at 7 p.m. ET on .

BOSTON (AP) — Donald Hand Jr. scored 15 of his career-high 29 points in the first half and grabbed 10 rebounds to help Boston College beat Fairleigh Dickinson 78-70 on Saturday. Chad Venning scored a season-high 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting for Boston College (8-5). Ahmed Barba-Bey was fouled on a 3-point shot and made all three free throws before Terrence Brown converted a three-point play to cut FDU's deficit to five points with 2 minutes left and Barba-Bey’s 3 with 39 seconds left made it 74-70. Hand answered with a layup 10 seconds later and followed with two free throws that capped the scoring with 18 seconds to play. Barba-Bey, a graduate transfer from Division-II Jefferson, hit eight 3-pointers and led Fairleigh Dickinson (4-11) with a career-high 31 points on 10-of-12 shooting. Brown added 20 points and Bismark Nsiah scored 10, all in the second half. Hand hit a 3-pointer that gave Boston College the lead for good with 17:17 left in the first half and scored 13 of the game's first 24, including a three-point play that gave the Eagles a 17-7 lead with 11:58 left before the intermission. Barba-Bey hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut FDU's deficit to four just over a minute later but Boston College scored the next eight points and the Knights got no closer until the second half. Boston College won for just the second time since beating Boise State 63-61 on Joshua Beadle's late 3-pointer to win the Cayman Islands Classic on Nov. 26 and improve to 6-1. The Knights have lost four games in a row overall and are 0-10 away from home this season. Boston College won the lone previous meeting between the programs 72-54 on Dec. 10, 1992. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketballThe Albanese report card: A grim year but don’t write him off

ESPN ranks Celtics' Big 3 as best in the NBA | Sporting NewsBy Anura Gunasekera About 20 years ago, I used the same title, in a writing dealing with Mahinda Rajapaksa’s triumphant ascent to power, published in an issue of the Sunday Island. In that I expressed my deep apprehensions of a Rajapaksa dispensation. As the years unfolded, the grim realities of years of misrule, with the younger Rajapaksa outdoing the elder brother in criminality, corruption and incompetence, exceeded the worst fears of my imagination. In between, not to be forgotten, there was also the crushingly disappointing “yahapalanya” farce, perpetrated by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe collaboration. But I am an eternal optimist. At an year short of eighty, there cannot be either space or time for pessimism, despite decades of despair, disappointment and disillusionment, over the country’s political trajectory since 1956 when, as a ten year old, I was made acutely aware by adult discussions around me, and the screaming headlines of newspapers then, of the magnitude and the implications of SWRD Bandaranaike’s election victory. The 1956 election victory of the “Pancha Maha Balavegaya” , was the so-called ushering in of the “Era of the common man”, engineered by a cynical aristocrat -as uncommon as they come – who leveraged the clear gulf between the anglophilic, feudalistic UNP regime of a decade, and the aspirations and frustrations of the majority, largely rural, Sinhala-Buddhist polity. That this social and political revolution also heralded the marginalization of the minority groups within the polity, institutionalized through subsequent legislation, is now a matter of history. There is no space in this writing for a discussion of the tragic consequences. In the recent demolition of all opposing parties by the NPP-JVP, led by the charismatic Anura Kumara Dissasnayake (AKD) , I see the “Era of the common man”, ushered in by an uncommon man of genuinely common origin. Despite the repetitive use of the word “common”, the latter is a statement made with great respect, and hope, that the overpowering political and social transformation commencing on September 21 and culminating on November 14, realistically signals the “Dawn of a New Era”; that it will usher in national ethnic and religious consensus, corruption-free governance, the re-establishment of the rule of law, a more equitable re-distribution of wealth, a state education system specially geared to meet the needs of development, a state medical service in which drugs are designed not to kill but to cure, and the empowerment of the long-neglected agricultural sector. These are but a few from the long list of critical national needs, for a “richer nation and a beautiful life”, which the NPP-JVP election manifesto has promised. AKD’s victory in the presidential election and the NPP-JVP victory in the subsequent general election, have been analyzed in all possible ways. The statistics of the victory are mind-boggling but not incomprehensible. 1.1 million voters who went to the presidential election in September, boycotted the general election in November. Sajith Premadasa’s (SP) SJB lost 3.4 million votes and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s (RW) NDF lost 1.7 million votes ( 78% and 75% respectively) within the space of six weeks, whilst AKD’s 42% increased to 61 % for his party. Despite critics and defeated opponents trivializing AKD as a minority president, on that showing alone the NPP-JVP was still assured of a simple majority at the general election. However, it may not have obtained the two-thirds majority at the general election, almost unimaginable within a proportional representation system, if not for mass voter abstention. But the obsession with the statistics of that victory is to ignore the qualitative aspects, reflected by the aspirations of the people. The SJB and the NDF fielded tainted candidates with long histories of alleged corruption, most of them from the Rajapaksa dispensation. Neither Sajith nor Ranil understood that ordinary people wanted a clean political culture, accountability by the legislature, the elimination of impunity for the privileged and the ruling elite, the answerability for abuse of privileges and a host of allied issues. Sajith persisted in delivering verbose analyses of AKD’s alleged bungling of the IMF programme, and the non-delivery of the assurances given to the nation in his manifesto. RW, despite an ignominious relegation to third place in the presidential race, resorted to belittlingnAKD as a “minority president”, accompanied by sick, insensitive jokes, unacceptable even from a schoolboy. Neither had a compelling vision or programme which could attract the polity, as an alternative to a more decent, fulfilling life within a clean administration, which was the essence of AKD’s philosophy. As a direct outcome of the election loss, the door has been firmly shut in RW’s face, despite his pathetic subsequent attempts at regaining political relevance. As for the SJB, if it is to regain any kind of political traction, it would need to seriously reconsider leadership options. Waiting for the present government to falter, or fail, is not an option. Sajith, a serial loser within a short span of time, is more ineffective than his elder clone, and perhaps one-time mentor, Ranil. The latter, over a couple of decades, presided over the gradual disintegration and disappearance of the UNP, once dominant in local politics. Under Sajith the SJB is certain to suffer the same fate, but much, much, quicker. The party, if it is to survive, needs to unceremoniously jettison a man who has proved, quickly and convincingly, to be an incompetent leader. Hopefully, by the time this is published, the mechanism for his eviction would have been set in motion. The outstanding, and most refreshing feature in the NPP-JVP election result is its performance in the North. For the first time since Independence in 1948, the northern polity rejected traditional, ethnic politicians, and responded to a leader of a different ethnicity from the South. One reason for the NPP-JVP success in the North is that AKD, from the very outset, fought a campaign based on equality for all races and religions, with national needs at the forefront, but totally free from ethnically divisive sentiments, customarily the primary weapons in the campaign armory of politicians of all ethnicities. The other is that despite decades of insular political representation, minority leaders have achieved very little on behalf of the polity they represented. People in all parts of the country share the same socio-economic problems, but those in the North, the victims of a brutal war, fought across the very lands they lived on, have deeper grievances awaiting resolution. AKD had already demonstrated good faith by the people of the North, by opening the Palaly-Atchchuvely road, after 34 years. In his campaign speech in Jaffna on November 10, he gave the assurance that Tamil political prisoners held in jails in the South, would be released. This drew a quick and detailed response from former minister of justice, Wijedasa Rajapakse, who stated that the use of the term, “political prisoners”, would compromise Sri Lanka’s position in Geneva, in regard to related issues. President AKD also promised to release formerly privately owned land, now held by the military. Reportedly, around 70,000 acres have already been released, although there is no clarity on the exact extent still held by the forces. There is also the accusation that acquired land has been leveled, and pre-existing boundaries and markers, such as trees, rocks and buildings, obliterated, thus making identification and restoration to original owners, impractical. Land, especially to a citizenry, for centuries heavily reliant on cultivation as a means of sustenance, is fundamental to existence. Therefore, this is a primary concern for immediate government attention. Another need is for Tamils in the North to be given the total freedom to commemorate their dead, whether they be civilians, or LTTE activists and combatants. To the kith and kin of those who died in battle against the largely Sinhala-Buddhist forces, the dead are not terrorists who waged war against an elected government, but, simply, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and husbands and wives, still remembered with love by the living. Their right to grieve is indisputable. If the Sinhalese of the South are permitted to commemorate JVP activists, eliminated largely through extra-judicial means by state-sponsored forces, the Tamils of the North have an equal right to publicly mourn the LTTE dead. An important issue the government must be aware of, is that establishing accord between the Tamil North, and the Sinhala South, will be resisted by extremist politicians on both sides, to whom racial and religious divisions have always been the means of inciting public sentiment, and securing and maintaining political power. In recent decades, the Rajapakse clan, especially Mahinda and Gotabhaya, elevated racially divisive rhetoric to an art form, tirelessly inventing enemies, from which only the family could deliver the Sinhala-Buddhist nation. A succession of racist politicians have drummed in to the minds of the Sinhalese, that a concession to the Tamil North, is a threat to the Sinhala-Buddhist South. In fact, already, there have been thinly veiled references by known extremists, suggesting that the NPP-JVP election victory win in the North, could be the result of a secret pact with one or more of the minority parties. For politicians and parties with no vision to offer the citizen, it is inconceivable that voters would respond to decent, sincere propositions with no strings attached. The people have given the NPP-JVP an overwhelming mandate, much more than the strong government that AKD requested during his campaign. The election result does not reflect a nation-wide ideological shift on the part of the voter, although the government, by delivering on its promises, can certainly stimulate one. If a government, with its roots in left-oriented, Marxist doctrine, becomes the engine of deliverance, to a nation in deep want in every aspect of its existence, then the whole nation will automatically turn Left. The nation now waits, impatiently, for the NPP-JVP to deliver. Failure may result in an eruption and the release of darker forces, in the face of which the “Aragalaya” would pale in to insignificance.

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Haynes' 18 help George Mason defeat Mount St. Mary's 64-56'Fun-filled family entertainment' - Pantomime to take place at village hall

BEREA, Ohio (AP) — The Cleveland Browns have again restructured quarterback Deshaun Watson's massive contract to create salary-cap space and give them future flexibility, a person familiar with the move told The Associated Press on Friday. Watson has been limited to just 19 games in three seasons because of an NFL suspension and injuries with the Browns, who signed him to a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract in 2022. The restructuring allows the team to spread out the salary-cap hit after the 2026 season, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team does not disclose contract specifics. The 29-year-old Watson has two years remaining on his contract with an average of $46 million a year. The move to restructure his deal will not preclude the Browns from adding talent at the quarterback position in 2025, the person said. Watson played in only seven games this season before suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon. He's 9-10 as a starter with Cleveland. The Browns (3-12) have been a major disappointment this season after making it to the playoffs a year ago behind Joe Flacco, who was signed as a free agent after Watson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. Watson had surgery in October and is expected to make a full recovery. While the team hasn't disclosed its plans at quarterback, it's assumed Watson will be in the mix to be the starter next season. It's also possible the Browns will draft a quarterback in the first round. The team hasn't had a first-round pick the past three years after trading three to the Houston Texans to acquire Watson, who was once considered one of the league's elite QBs. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Tom Withers, The Associated Press