G’s Place

I hear them all

So, the people across the street from us decided to dump like 5 sets of mattresses in their yard.

Then we found out, the apartments were getting inspected the next day. I just don’t feel sorry for the landlords. The really bad ones charge poor people $200 a month for a thrown-together basement cubicle that only fits a twin mattress (that one is around the corner from us). The sucky ones don’t live in the same neighborhood as their buildings, so they don’t care that their tenants don’t move their cars during snow storms, park their cars any damn place, play music as loud as they want, drive their work trucks (tow trucks) at all hours, etc. As long as they get the rent on time and don’t have to pay $50 to the town to be sure they are not screwing over poor immigrants.

Yeah, the mattresses disappeared from the hiding place (they eventually covered them with brush) after the inspection. I would bet they are back in the boarding house across the street. Boo!

So, between yesterday and today, I have canned sugar-free strawberry preserves, bigmama pickles (known to the rest of the world as bread and butter pickles), cherries, and put some squash casserole in the freezer.

I also have some grated carrots that I am probably going to make carrot cake batter and freeze for the fall. Or maybe I will just make carrot and raisin salad. We’ll see.

Here are some pics:

I did 4 pints of cherries

11 half-pints of sugar-free strawberry preserves:

7 pints of bigmama pickles

Senators Grassley and Durbin are opening an inquiry into the L-1 visa program. On Senator Grassley’s website, you can view the list of companies here. I believe the list is only for 2006 L-1 visas, so my guess is the numbers may be higher. Senator Grassley commented:

“‘This information certainly makes one wonder if companies are using the L visa to circumvent the worker protections required under the H-1B program. I’d like to know how many American workers these companies hire compared to the number of foreign workers they bring in,’ Grassley said. ‘American workers deserve the best chance at jobs in this country, and this data makes one question if they are too often overlooked.’”

Top 20 L-1 Users:

1. Tata: 4887

2. Cognizant: 3520

3. IBM: 1237

4. Satyam: 950

5. Wipro: 839

6. HCL America: 539

7. Deloitte & Touche: 512

8. Patni: 440

9. Intel: 394

10. Kanbay: 329

11. Honeywell: 320

12. HP: 316

13. Infosys: 294

14. Accenture: 291

15. Caritor: 231

16. SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORP: 214

17. ORACLE USA INC: 176

18. SYNTEL LTD: 171

19. PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP: 168

20. MICROSOFT CORPORATION: 168

This is a  list of the companies with the most H1B visas, along with the L-1 usage.