Insider Report
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Poll: Legalizing Illegals Will Spur More Immigration
2. Dick Morris Lands New Radio Show
3. Regulatory Agencies Employ 283,615, Cost $51 Billion a Year
4. Buffalo Is America's 'Oldest' City
5. French City Honors Palestinian Terrorist
6. More Americans Moonlighting to Make Ends Meet
1. Poll: Legalizing Illegals Will Spur More Immigration
Most Americans would prefer to send illegal immigrants back to their home countries rather than give them legal status in this country, a new poll reveals.
The poll by Pulse Opinion Research also found that Americans largely believe that politicians who push for giving illegals a path to citizenship are "pandering" to Hispanic voters.
In the survey of likely voters, divided fairly evenly among Republicans, Democrats, and persons of other affiliations, 52 percent said they wanted illegal immigrants to return to their home countries, while just 33 percent would like to see them receive legal status.
But those who oppose legal status feel much more strongly about their position — 73 percent said they felt "very strongly" about that view, while just 35 percent of those who prefer legal status feel strongly about that.
"One reason the public may prefer that illegals head home is a strong belief that efforts to enforce immigration laws have been inadequate," according to Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. He noted that 64 percent of respondents believe enforcement has been "too little," compared to 10 percent who believe it has been "too much," and 15 percent who said it is "just right." The rest were unsure.
The poll also found that 69 percent agree with the statement: "Giving legal status to illegal immigrants does not solve the problem because rewarding law breaking will only encourage more illegal immigration." Only 26 percent disagree.
Other results of the poll:
- Asked if they had confidence that immigration laws would be enforced after legalization, 70 percent of respondents said they were not confident.
- Fifty-three percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for a political party that supports enforcing immigration laws, compared to 32 percent who say they would support a party that backs legalizing illegals.
- Sixty percent believe that politicians who push for legalizing illegal immigrants are pandering to Hispanics to get votes, while just 25 percent think they are "generally concerned" about the immigrants.
- Twenty-three percent say America needs large numbers of immigrants to fill low-wage jobs because there aren't enough citizens willing to do them, but nearly three times as many — 67 percent — say there are plenty of Americans willing to do those jobs if employers paid them more and treated them better.
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2. Dick Morris Lands New Radio Show
Veteran political analyst and conservative commentator Dick Morris will host an afternoon talk show on CBS Radio's WPHT-AM in Philadelphia.
Morris announced his new job from the stage of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, where he delivered an address on Thursday. His show will air from 2-6 p.m. beginning on April 15.
The show can also be heard online at www.cbsphilly.com or via the Radio.com app for a variety of mobile devices, according to CBS Philly, which calls Morris "one of America's most prominent political consultants."
CBS Radio Senior Vice President/Market Manager Marc Rayfield said: "Dick is a great addition to our lineup of live and local personalities, and provides a voice that will raise the audience's interest in what's happening in politics today.
"As someone who isn't afraid to express his opinions or make bold predictions, his show won't just be a win for Philadelphia and WPHT — it's a win for radio."
Morris, once called "the most influential private citizen in America" by Time magazine, is a former Fox News commentator and adviser to President Bill Clinton. He is also the co-author along with his wife Eileen McGann of a dozen New York Times best-selling books.
"Dick is one of the most recognizable names in political commentary," said WPHT Operations Manager Andy Bloom.
"I have not been this excited about introducing a new show to the industry in a long time. The show will be provocative, intelligent, and a must-listen."
Said Morris:"I love radio, which provides the time necessary to discuss the important issues. The calls are from real people — and you get to do the interrupting."
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3. Regulatory Agencies Employ 283,615, Cost $51 Billion a Year
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's new proposals to gauge the impact of federal regulations on the economy could be long overdue. Regulatory-agency spending has surged 1,700 percent in the past half-century.
Federal regulations cover everything from pollution limits on power plants to health standards for school lunches, and they are compiled in the Code of Federal Regulations and published in the Federal Register.
The Register's first volume, published in 1936, contained 2,620 pages. In 2012, it contained 77,249 pages, an increase of 2,848 percent. Over the past decade, it averaged 75,413 pages a year, according to The American, the journal of the American Enterprise Institute.
Its largest editions were in two years of the Obama administration — 2010 and 2011 —with 81,405 pages and 81,247 pages, respectively.
Administrative rules that have an anticipated economic impact of at least $100 million a year totaled 106 during the first three years of the Obama administration, for a total estimated cost of $46 billion a year, compared to 28 major regulations during the first three years of the George W. Bush administration.
What's more, hundreds of new administrative rules will be enforced during Obama's second term under the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform laws.
Sen. Rubio told Newsmax that his two proposals are The Regulatory Cost to Small Business Act — which would require the Small Business Administration to do an annual study to determine the total cost of federal regulations to small businesses and the American economy — and the Regulation Cost to America Act, requiring a determination of the impact on the general economy.
While the overall economic impact of federal regulations may be unclear, the cost to the taxpayers is easier to gauge.
The American cites research estimating that total spending by regulatory agencies on social and economic regulations, in 2005 dollars, rose from $2.7 billion in fiscal 1960 to about $51.6 billion in fiscal 2012, a 1,700 percent increase.
Of the $51 billion, $42.4 billion was spent on regulations related to health, safety, security, and the environment.
Regulatory agencies enforcing those rules employed 283,615 full-time federal workers last year, an increase of 397 percent from 1960.
The American concludes: "What is clear from the explosive growth in America's regulatory burden — measured by the significant increases in pages of regulatory rules at the federal level, spending by regulatory agencies, and the number of federal employees administering regulations — is that the notion of a 'cowboy capitalist' America with minimal regulatory interference from the federal government is clearly inaccurate."
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4. Buffalo Is America's 'Oldest' City
Buffalo, N.Y., is the oldest large city in the United States, based on the age of its housing units; Las Vegas and Phoenix easily are the newest.
Demographer Wendell Cox used the percentage of pre-1940 dwelling units, both owner- and renter-occupied, to determine the ages of America's 51 major metropolitan areas — those with a 2010 population of more than 1 million — and their core cities.
Overall, 14 percent of U.S. homes in those metro areas were built before 1940, Cox wrote in an article for NewGeography.com.
Boston is the nation's oldest metropolitan area, with 35.7 percent of its residences built before 1940. In the city of Boston itself, the figure rises to 55.6 percent.
Nearby Providence, R.I., is the second-oldest metro area, with 33 percent of its housing units built before 1940, and is the second-oldest after Buffalo, with 58.8 percent of residences built before World War II.
Buffalo is the nation's third-oldest metro area, with 30.5 percent of residences built before 1940, and its core municipality has 62.8 percent of housing units built that are pre-war.
The city's population has fallen sharply in recent decades, reducing the need for new housing construction. Buffalo's population was 261,000, according to the 2010 Census, down from a peak of 580,000 in 1950 and 328,000 as recently as 1990.
New York is the nation's fourth-oldest metro area, at 28.9 percent. Suburbs have accounted for almost all of the growth in the metro area.
Next comes the Rochester, N.Y., metro area, followed by Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago, and Philadelphia, according to Cox, a visiting professor at Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris and author of "War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life."
At the other end of the scale, Las Vegas is the youngest metropolitan area. Its population has soared from less than 20,000 in 1940 to nearly 2 million today, and only 0.3 percent of the housing there was built before 1940.
Phoenix also has enjoyed robust population growth, with just 1 percent of its residences built pre-war. The city of Phoenix has a pre-1940 housing stock of only 1.9 percent.
Orlando is next at 1.7 percent, followed by Miami and Austin.
Cox adds: "In most of America, the detached house predominates, and virtually all development since 1940 has been suburban."
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5. French City Honors Palestinian Terrorist
The French city of Bezons has granted honorary citizenship to an imprisoned Palestinian convicted of planning the assassination of an Israeli minister.
In October 2001, Majdi Rahima Rimawi and three other Palestinians gunned down Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi at the Jerusalem Hyatt hotel.
Rimawi was sentenced to life in prison plus 80 years for his role in the assassination and is currently incarcerated in Israel.
Last month Bezons, a suburb of Paris, held a meeting at city hall dealing with "solidarity with the Palestinian people." Mayor Dominique Lesparre is a member of the French Communist Party and Bezons has a sister-city agreement with Bani Zeid, the West Bank town where Rimawi's family lives, the newspaper Israel Hayom reported.
An inscription on a plaque prepared by Bezons refers to Rimawi as a "political prisoner," and Lesparre called him a "victim."
Zeevi is the only Israeli government minister killed in an Arab terrorist attack.
Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, called the move by Bezons "an outrageous and horrific decision. The honoring of Rimawi in France demonstrates that murder and terrorism is being glorified when it should be condemned in all forms."
And Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman said: "This award is an insult to the French concept of justice and liberty and a perversion of French values.
"The city of Bezons is callously encouraging more violence against Jews and it is important for all sectors of French society to counter this message and condemn the award."
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6. More Americans Moonlighting to Make Ends Meet
Last month about 340,000 Americans took a second job, the largest monthly gain in nearly 16 years, as workers struggled to pay their bills in the Obama economy.
Almost 7.26 million people collected two paychecks in February, up from 6.92 million in January, according to data from the Labor Department.
And the proportion of total employment made up of workers holding more than one job rose to 5.1 percent, from 4.8 percent the previous month.
The increase came shortly after a hike in the payroll tax left many workers taking home smaller paychecks, MSN Money observed. Congress allowed the temporary payroll tax break to expire, sending Social Security taxes back to 6.2 percent from the temporary 4.2 percent.
The tax increase will cost Americans $120 billion more this year than last year, Roberton Williams, a tax economist and the Sol Prince Fellow at the Tax Policy Center, told MSN. That's nearly equal to the full-year sales of Procter & Gamble, J.C. Penney, and McDonald's combined.
Most moonlighters work as food-service employees, retail workers, personal-care professionals, bookkeepers, computer technicians, and office administrators, according to the New York Post.
More Americans also are relying on part-time jobs as they have trouble finding full-time work in the still-struggling economy, The New York Times reports.
Part-time positions have risen by 2.8 million since December 2007, when the recession began, but 5.8 million fewer Americans are working full-time.
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