Musings: August 2006 Archives

And now a counterbalance to my last post...

Today's Mercury News has a great article about Hector Vega, a San Jose valedictorian who has come forward as an illegal alien. He came to the US just 5 years ago speaking no English, and not only got out of remedial language classes within a year, he recently graduated with a 4.0.

Kudos to Santa Clara University who grants scholarships to worthy students regardless of immigration status, and to Coca Cola who did not have a standing policy but stood behind their scholarship as well.

While Vega's visibility is building support for his eventually becoming a citizen, it has raised his profile in a country where an Immigration and Customs official will state "Anyone who's in this country illegally is in violation of our immigration laws and is subject to arrest." Meanwhile, it would be nice to see the DREAM Act passed. After all, the contribution one has already made to an adoptive country should be at least as important as having tidy paperwork.

A few days ago, my Mercury News 60 second business break e-mail listed three companies restating earnings—two in response to formal or informal regulatory investigations.

Half the time when I log into the Wall Street Journal there's yet another mention of options back-dating. These were cases where executives were miraculously granted options on days the price took a dip, such as these to one CEO. The Journal crunched this as 1 in 300 billion odds but the CEO called it "blind luck":

One of the columns I read regularly in the Wall Street Journal is McCartney's "Middle Seat" about the airline industry. He writes today "With liquids banned from passenger cabins..."

WHAT???

I'm high maintenance, I admit it. Not only am I picky about my toiletries, I'm also a vegetarian which means I'm schlepping food on flights. This means that I pack a lot of gels, lotions, and liquids when I travel. If it's a short business trip, I'm doing my best to get everything in a (barely) allowed pair of carry-on bags because in most airports checking will add 15+ minutes to check-in and 45+ minutes to exit.

Right now the TSA is listing this as an "enhanced security" measure so I hope they get carry-on screening sorted out soon. I figure I have a better chance of that happening (slim) than airports developing efficient checked baggage handling for 50% more load than they're currently managing (none).