To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Sat Feb 2 15:27:04 PST 2013 H-1B and STEM green cards are back in news, no doubt about it. The Seattle area is a case in point. On Thursday, Seattle radio station KIRO did a segment on the topic, and this coming Monday, KUOW will do one at 12:20 p.m. You can listen to the KIRO piece at http://kiroradio.com/listen/9951718 Unfortunately, it was just a wee bit unbalanced: They ran a prerecorded statement by Professor Ron Hira, a prominent critic of H-1B, for 30 seconds, and then countered it with a live interview with Professor Ed Lazowska that ran nearly 6 minutes. Lazowska has taken a very active, public pro-industry stance for years now. As was mentioned several times in the broadcast, he holds the Bill and Melinda Gates Chair. He sits on several board seats for industry firms and his department, which he chaired for a number of years, has received very generous funding from Microsoft and other major industry firms. So one would not expect him to be a critic of H-1B. I should add that as far as I know, his support of H-1B is sincere. But still, I would expect his statements to be more nuanced, rather than reading like a list of industry lobbyist talking points. And, of course, I'd expect KIRO to strive for at least a modicum of balance in broadcasting a show on this topic. Hopefully, KUOW, as a publicly funded radio station, will present a more informative show, with equal time for the two sides of the issue in its show on Monday. The two speakers will be Kim Berry of the Programmers Guild on the anti- side, and Maria Cardona on the pro- side. Ms. Cardona heads a PR firm whose purpose appears to be to lobby for expanded tech foreign worker programs; see http://inspirestemusa.org Norm