Fake...

The Supreme Court made it easier for states to prosecute immigrants who use fake Social Security numbers to get a job.

The issue for the court was whether states could pursue the immigrants in court or had to leave those choices to the federal government, which typically has authority over immigration.

The court ruled 5-4, with conservatives in the majority, that nothing in federal immigration law prevents states from going after immigrants who use phony documents and numbers.

The Kansas Supreme Court had ruled that the federal government has exclusive authority to determine whether an immigrant may work in the United States. It threw out state convictions for three immigrants, but the high court reversed the state ruling, in an opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. “The mere fact that state laws like the Kansas provisions at issue overlap to some degree with federal criminal provisions does not even begin to make a case for" the state having to forgo prosecution, Alito wrote.

Kansas prosecuted the cases at issue by relying on information that is on a required federal work authorization form, the I-9. Kansas was backed by the Trump administration and 12 states in arguing that it can prosecute because the same information also appears on state work forms.

Fidel...

Alive...

 
Biden may not make it today. It will be shared.

New...

Above...

World Economy...

Buttons

The party is running away from Sanders and landing in Biden camps. But the overall is doubtful.

Economy...

More than a month and a half into the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, the country's economy is still largely in lockdown mode.

As the crisis continues, businesses big and small are struggling with the disruption the pneumonia-like illness has caused, with effects reaching across the globe.

Restaurants and stores have been forcibly shut, many with paper seals to prevent owners from covertly reopening. Factory production lines are at a standstill. Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, has twice extended its holiday break, keeping tens of millions at home in an effort to contain the virus.  

"If this [outbreak] drags past March, that really becomes quite bad," says Tom Rafferty, China research head at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Then you're talking about long-term dislocation in supply chains. You're talking about a negative impact on the consumer sector, which is not temporary. And when you factor all these things and perhaps a cooling housing market, you get some pretty nasty economic data."

The dire labor shortages have been even more worrying. China's factories normally ramp up production right after the Lunar New Year, but this year few workers have returned. Most of China's migrant workers, who number some 300 million, remain cloistered in sealed-off villages and towns. Those who do manage to leave find themselves barred from renting places to stay near their workplaces by landlords fearful of travelers.

In Kunshan, a city that is home to many migrant workers near Shanghai, labor shortages are glaringly evident. The city is home to massive factories operated by Foxconn and Pegatron, the titans of global electronics manufacturing and key suppliers for companies such as Apple.

Go...

Pete Buttigieg, who rose from relative obscurity as an Indiana mayor to a barrier-breaking, top-tier candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Sunday.

The decision by the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency — and among the youngest ever came just a day after a leading rival, Joe Biden, scored a resounding victory in South Carolina. That sparked new pressure on the party’s moderate wing to coalesce behind the former vice president.

Pete didn’t endorse any of his former rivals. Buttigieg has spent the past several weeks warning that nominating progressive leader Bernie Sanders to take on President Donald Trump would be risky.

Migal...

Israel is only weeks away from developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The Jerusalem Post  credited MIGAL (the Galilee Research Institute) for the breakthrough.

Israel got a jump on the coronavirus crisis because researchers had already created a vaccine against avian coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV), which affects poultry, according to the Jewish Press. 

By "pure luck," the MIGAL team  realized it was genetically similar to IBV and that the infection mechanism was the same. 

The new vaccine, which would be orally administered, faces pre-clinical trials and clinical trials before mass production begins.