Archive | James H MaGee

Chinese Curriculum: Plenty of math and science – with English taught from the first grade.

Thanks to DAvid Barboza of the NY Times for his December 30, 2010, article, page A4 "Shanghai Schools’ Approach Pushes Students to Top of Tests".

Zhou Han, age 14, studies the erhu (pronounced R-hoo), a classical chinese instrument something like a large violin. She has a math tutor. She entered writing and speech making competitions. She started studying English language in the first grade.

Her school operates from about 8:20 a.m. to 4 p.m., and attends extra credit courses after school or on Saturdays.

She attends Jing’An middle school, affiliated with Jing’An Teachers’ College in Shanghai, China. This is arguably the best middle school in China.

It a test of math, reading comprehension and science ability, 5,100 Shanghai 15 year olds outperformed students from 65 other countries. American students came in between 15th and 31st out of the 65 countries in these catagories.

"Discipline is rarely a problem", said Ding Yi, vice principal at the Jing’An middle school.

There is a complaint that the Chinese public schools emphasize wrote learning and preparing for tests, according to Jiang Xueqian, deputy principal at Peking University High School in Beijing, writes the NY Times’ David Barboza. Mr. Jiang would like to see more emphasis on critical thinking, curiosity and independent thinking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/world/asia/30shanghai.html?scp=1&sq=Shanghai%20Schools’%20approach%20pushes%20students%20to%20top%20of%20tests&st=cse

Am I going to be outsourced to Mumbai? Thomson Reuters sells BarBri and buys Pangea3

I think I am safe for now, but we will see!

Here are the players: Thomson Reuters is a large legal publisher. They own the dominant "Westlaw" computerized legal research program. They print lots of materials used by lawyers such as guides and manuals and annotated code books.

BarBri charges money to help new law graduates pass the bar exam to get a legal practice license. I took a BarBri course for about $500 or so (maybe it was $750, can’t remember precisely) back in June and July 1993. It worked. I passed all portions of the bar exam on the first try!

Pangea3 is a company that has lots of lawyers in Mumbai. Some companies like American Express, GE, Sony, Yahoo! and Netflix have used Pangea3’s Mumbai based legal staff for some routine document review and tasks with repetitive elements.

The Economist December 18, 2010 article "Offshoring your lawyer" page 132, reports that some large companies are approaching their lawyer’s directly and demanding that the American based law firm work with Pangea3’s Mumbai based staff.

Legal outsourcing to India is still small. Of the estimated $180 billion spent on lawyers each year by Americans, only about $1 billion goes to outsources, but it is growing at the rate of 20-30% per year according to The Economist.

It is reported that big law firms’ hourly rates have jumped by 65% per hour between 1998 and 2009.

1959 Cadillac tail fins, chrome and post-war exhuberance – GM designer Chuck Jordan dies at 83

In this dark and ongoing recession, or lukewarm recovery (whatever you want to call it) perhaps a revisit of 1959 would be a welcome diversion.

1959 marked the huge tail-fins of the Cadillac. Chuck Jordan was the designer. He just passed at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., the General Motors patriarch, had hired the first design director of General Motors in 1927, Harley Earl. Mr. Earl was a confidant of movie stars and like his close friend Cecil B. DeMille, favored Jodhpurs.

Mr. Jordan was the third successor to Mr. Earl as G.M.’s vice president of design, and his boldness echoed that of Mr. Earl. The tail fins on the 1959 Cadillac El Dorado was “letting the tiger out of the cage” in the words of Mr. Jordan.

Mr. Jordan also designed the “wide track” Pontiac, the baby boomers’ cherished muscle cars. Other designs included the 1963 Buick Riviera, the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, and the 1973 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. His vision was that of longer, lower, wider–and intended to excite.

At age 30, Mr. Jordan was named to one of G.M.’s most prestigious posts, chief designer for Cadillac.

He also worked on the 1990s design team for the Chevrolet Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds.

He did have one dog…or rather “whale”…which was the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice, which was derided as “Shamu the Whale”.

So long, Mr. Jordan. Thank you for something so wonderfully American. Thank you for the tail fins.

Patch of California cracks down on Illegal Immigrants – even they do much of the work in that area.

The NY Times on January 5, 2011: By Ian Lovett “Patch of California Cracks Down on Illegal Immigrants”

Why is this post relevant on a bankrutpcy attorney blog? Bankruptcy gives a chance to reflect on the past and on the future. No longer are creditors calling. There is time to think. There are no garnishments. One can breath again.

Here is what I ask people to think about: In every economic crisis, there is a human tendency to blame and seek out a group to single out as if not causing, at least contributing to the misery of the moment.

Undocumented central and south Americans have not caused the recession. Nor are they contributing to the prolongation of the recession, my my estimation.

Nevertheless, 50 miles east of Los Angeles, Murrieta, California, became the fifth Inland Empire city to require all businesses to check the legal status of new employees with E-Verify, an online federal government system designed to confirm employment eligibility. Business in Murrieta that do not comply, can lose their licenses.

Temecula, California also recently enacted similar legislation into its city code.

Unemployment is around 15% in Murrieta, and anglo locals complain that immigrants are inundating industries like fast food and construction, leaving citizens unable to find jobs. The county in which Temecula and Murrieta are located, Riverside County, have latino populations of about 40%.

In California, Latinos make up about 37% of the population.

The Republican state assemblyman who represents that portion of Riverside where Temecula and Murrieta are located does not support the mandatory use of all employers by E-Verify, noting that the loss of laborers could be an unwelcome economic shock: “A lot of industries here have run on illegal immigration…work is here and available, and that’s a magnet for illegal immigrants. But I would like to see a more comprehensive approach, which also involves securing our border, and dealing with people who are already here whether we like it or not.”

Riverside is also a large agricultural area. Many immigrants work in the backbreaking harvesting of food and processing of food industries.

During the “boom” years in the middle of the 2000’s the immigration complaints were not as loud – when we needed them to build and remodel our overpriced houses to try to flip.

If bankrutpcy is giving you a fresh start to think a bit…please try to think a bit broadly and equitably, is all that I ask.

Your Coffee Table Means Your Child Harm – NY Times, December 30, 2010 – If kids visit your home, save yourself an emergency room bill and dump your coffee table in the dump

Avoid an expensive emergency room visit. Send your coffee table to live somewhere else until your children are into their teens, suggests the NY Times See: NY Times, Thursday, December 30, 2010, page D1, Michael Tortorello "There’s Danger Lurking"

Last year, 143,700 children age 5 and younger visited emergency rooms after table accidents, according to estimates fromt he United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. Coffee tables, in particular, turn up in more than a quarter of the accident reports, in the commission’s sample count.

The safety commission recommends that parents install foam bumpers on the edges.

The 12 month old is the most dangerous. When they start walking, they fall once in every 50 steps, after three months its once in every 150 steps, says Dr. Karen Adolph a developmental psychologist at New York University and a researcher on infant locomotion.

Bruce Hanna, a professor of industrial design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and a writer on accessible, or universal, design, says that a coffe table is like a deadly weapon in your home.

He says that the way manufacturing works, it is cheapera and easier to make an especially dangerous coffee table.

Table saws like cutting out square or rectangle type shapes. Most manufacturers start with chipboard, and the apply a veneer. It is difficult to wrap a wood veneer around a "safer" rounded edge, so you end up with square edges.

Glass coffee tables are the worst. Glass is hard to see. A faceted cut in the glass creates a kind of "broken" double edge, a detail that seems designed for maximum bloodletting.

Anti-immigrant pogroms – be careful of what you preach – you may regret it in the future.

Historically, it seems that many economic downturns have been accompanied by a good dose of anti-immigrant sentiment.

I ask that before you say, write, post, preach or think things for which you may someday be embarrassed, that you take a short moment to pause about the reasons for and origins of immigration.

People migrate. Every continent except Antarctica had natural migration. From wherever the craddle of homo sapien is ever found to be, we have moved and dispersed. Humans are very adaptable. As immigrants come to the United States, no amount of hate, border security or legislation is likely to dislodge them. Yes, they can adapt…but we can do.

With immigration comes a great opportunity. If you have a good or service, consider learning the immigrant’s language and reach out. You may be enriched both personally and financially.

Spanish is beautiful, and just a fun blast of a language to speak. Learn it…and embrace the inevitable hispanicization of America. Try it Mikey, you might like it!

This post focuses on The Economist artice at page 39 of the Decembert 18, 2010 edition covering the time period 12/18/10-12/31/10, entitled "Field of Tears". Economist articles are written and published without author attribution. However, whoever wrote these articles "gets it".

The story is of Teresa Vega and Marco Lopez, a married couple from Oaxaca, Mexico. They came to the United States illegally in 2005 when their oldest son died after a flood contaminated their town. They had no money to hire a doctor, so they watched their two year old son die as he vomited, got diarrhoea and ran a high fever. They left a child behind with his grandfather (little Erminio), as that child was too small to make the journey. It has not been nearly six years since either Ms. Vega or Mr. Lopez has seen Erminio.

Ms. Vega and Mr. Lopez failed three times before finally being able to cross the border on their fourth try. Ms. Vega endured the hardships of trying to cross notwithstanding her pregnancy.

On one try they were intercepted by bandits and stripped naked. Ms. Vega’s fear of rape was great, but with great relief, it never came to pass.

The hostile vastess of America provides its own challenge. 80% of America’s crop workers are Hispanic, and more than half are undocumented workers.

In contrast, however, Rob Williams director of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project (which represents farmworkers in court) estimates that 90% of farmworkers are undocumented "illegal aliens".

It is not against the law in a criminal sense to be an illegal alien, so that term "illegal alien" is incorrect. It is a crime to cross the border illegally, but to be in the US without visa or "papers" is actually just a civil infraction, according to The Economist.

Many Americans are convinced that undocumented workers take jobs that American nationals would otherwise perform.

To disprove this notion, the United Farmworkers Union ran a promotion called "Take Our Jobs".

I have had the humble and sobering experience of being of assistance to families and singles as far north as Snohomish County and Whatcom County, and as far south as Clark County, Washington and Skamania County, Washington. Some of my clients speak Spanish. I have with pleasure helped many stressed-out people in Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Gray’s Harbor County, along with the Kitsap County area and the Key Penninsula; Tukwila, Washington; Lakewood, Washington; University Place, Washington; Puyallup, Washington; and Olympia, Washington; Federal Way, Washington; Bremerton, Washington; Gig Harbor, Washington; Silerdale, Washington; Bangor, Washington; and Tacoma, Washington. I have even had clients in and around Port Townsend, Jefferson County.

I have helped thousands of people since the mid-1990s.

It doesn’t matter where you are in Western Washington. I regularly help stressed-out people in a diverse number communities in and around the Puget Sound area of Washington, including but not in any way limited to Seattle, Washington, Everett, Washington; Renton, Washington, Kent, Washington and Auburn, Washington.

Don’t forget that it does not matter where the property is located in Western Washington, be it Bellevue, Olympia, Chehalis, Aberdeen, Olympia, Lacey, Graham, Puyallup, Orting, Fife, Milton, Edgewood, Pe Ell, Raymond, Onalaska, Tenino, Tumwater, Chehalis, Centralia, Gig Harbor or Tacoma., I can often be of foreclosure and/or short sale assistance. I offer a brief, thirty minute no obligation/no cost obligation. You have nothing to lose!

Remember, in Western, Washington, I am here to help you, regardless of where you are facing a foreclosure or short sale, be it Federal Way, Washington; Lakewood, Washington; University Place, Washington; Puyallup, Washington; Graham, Washington; Orting, Washington; Spanaway, Washington; Lacey, Washington; Burien, Washington; Seatac, Washington; Des Moines, Washington; Bremerton, Washington; Silverdale, Washington; Tacoma, Washington; Renton, Washington; Auburn, Washington; Tukwila, Washington; Federal Way, Washington; Renton, Washington; Auburn, Washington; Tukwila, Washington; Kent, Washington; Bremerton, Washington; Silverdale, Washington; or Olympia, Washington.

What are “bounce” loans?

Bounce loans are something to avoid. Be particularly aware if your bank uses a "high to low" system detailed below.

Overdraft or "bounce" loans are a form of overdraft coverage whereby banks or credit unions charge penalty overdraft fees when consumers overdraw their accounts by check, at automated teller machines or using a debit card.

Unlike traditional overdraft protection, these services do not require consumer consent and do not provide cost of credit disclosures under the federal lending laws, and do not guarantee that the bank pays the oerdrafts.

The bank pays the amount of the overdraft and charges the customer a fee that ranges from $20 to $35. Some banks also charge a daily fee until the "loan" is paid in full.

These high fees are triggered regardless of whether the overdraft his $5.00 or $500.00, and the bank will generally not notify the customer of the overdraft nor give the option to cancel the transaction.

Borrowers pay triple and even quadruple digit interest rates as a "real" effect of these "bounce" loans.

From the National Consumer Law Center’s publication "Foreclosure Prevention Counseling", pages 68-70, here is an example:

For example, if teh overdraft loan fee was calcualted as an Annual Percentage Rate, a $22.50 fee for an $80 overdraft loan translates into a 1,467% APR for a loan paid back in a week and a 733% APR if the loan is repaid in two weeks.

Even worse, some banks ratchet up the fee income intentionally by using a "high to low" method of honoring checks and debits to the account, as opposed to paying them (and applying deposits) in a chronological order. In other words, according to the NCLC, the bank will pay the largest obligation first each day and sometimes apply deposits AFTER debits. This abusive practice can trigger a cascade of overdrafts if the account does not have sufficient funds to cover all of the small checks.

Budget Deficits foreseen: President Dwight (“Ike”) D. Eisenhower lamented rise of military-industrial complex

From the Arizona Republic, December 11, 2010, page A6, John Milburn of the Associated Press:

For nearly two years, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his aides searched for the right words to describe at the end of his presidency his fear that the nations burgeoning miliary power was driving its foreign policy, newly released papers show.

The papers show that Eisenhower and his staff spent two years preparing his final speech to the nation. One document features a typewritten note from the president, lamenting that when he joined the military in 1911, there were 84,000 Army soldiers, a number that ballooned roughly tenfold by 1960.

“The direct result of this continued high level of defense expenditures has been to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions, where none had existed before” he had written in a draft section of his final speech.

The speech was delivered on January 17, 1961.

Born in 1890, Ike died in 1969. He grew up in Kansas and graduated from West Point, commanding Allied forces in Europe, including the D-Day invasion of France.

The Eisenhower Presidential Library on Friday, December 10, 2010, unveiled these previously undisclosed documents.

Ike was an interesting fellow. Maybe a true American hero. The military-industrial complex related deficits are now hurting our economic recovery.

I am NOT anti-military. I am just being reflective…as was Ike.

Never be unemployed again – Spanish speaking Anglos (caucasians) are always in demand.

Over 40% of New Mexico’s population is hispanic, with many speaking Spanish as their primary language, according to The Economist magazine, September 11, 2010, pg 35 "The law of large numbers: the hispanicisation of America"

Similarly, 30% to 40% of the population of California, Arizona and Texas is latino.

Suprisingly, 10% to 20% of the population of Washington, Illinois, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey is also hispanic.

Many hispanics tend to prefer Republican politics as of late, but anti-immigration sentiment is pushing many back towards Democratic candidates.

Now, human migration is something that is difficult to contain. Eventually, people just migrate. Fences, attack dogs, barbed wire, guard towers and infrared equipped helicopters may slow down migration, but eventually, if people have to move they just move, is my take on the matter (you are free to disagree!).

In late 2005 (contemporaneous with the birth of my first child) I decided to "fix" my Spanish abilities. Learning Spanish will make you "recession proof", I believe. I think that a bi-lingual person will always be able to find employment, even if not "translator" fluent.

Spanish is a wonderful language. I often now prefer to speak Spanish. It is logical and regularly follows its own gramatical rules. It is straightforward to spell and write in Spanish. I like to say that Spanish promotes literacy, whereas English almost discourages literacy.

Here is my recipie for Spanish:

Spend one month in either Antigua, Guatemala or Granada, NIcaragua, studying four to six hours per day, one on one with a teacher at Ixchel Spanish School (Antigua, Guatemala) or Roger Ramirez’s One-on-One Tutoring, in Granada, Nicaragua.

Usually, it is about $100 per week for twenty hours weekly of one-on-one teaching, or about $150 weekly for six hours daily totaling 30 hours per week. This is really the best way to learn.

You can arrange (sponsored and arranged by the school) for room and board with a local family, wherein meals are usually provided six days per week, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The cost for room and board is usually $75-$100 per week, room and board (no joke! it really is that inexpensive!). However, you should tip your homestay family and your teacher at the end of your stay maybe 10% to 25% of your expenditure, but tips are not required.

If you are a big eater, or want a bit more meat, you can arrange to pay a little more to your family, or supplement a bit by eating out.

After you return home, you should search out a local tutor for weekly two hour sessions for about a year. I would write short stories in Spanish, and then my teacher and I would correct and re-write the stories.

You should also subscribe to National Geographic in Spanish, and force yourself to read every issue and define the words you do not know, writing the definitions in the margins.

For fun, you can pick up "people en espanol" magazine.

Pike Place Market in Seattle has a newstand which usually carries a nice selection of foreign newspapers. ISimilar my use of "people en espanol" magazine, I used to buy one every month and read it – looking up and writing in the margins the definitions to unfamiliar words.

I know that many of the readers of this blog might find this far-fetched – after all, there are mortgages and car payments to pay and if facing unemployment, funds can be thin.

However, I can think of no schooling course or training course which will help you to better "stand out from the crowd".

Anglos (caucasians) who can speak Spanish do so well in the workplace and interview process because they are not "immigrants" to the American way of doing things. Spanish speaking Anglos fit well into business organizations and understand employers’ expectations and can provide nuanced service. Clearly, an immigrant speaking Spanish as a first language and later learning English can learn to fit well into an enterprise, but Enlish is so darn complicated and hard to read/write that immigrants struggle with English.

Spanish is a great language – it has a huge and rich vocabulary, and can express many things better than can English.

Challenge yourself to meet the demographic demands of a changing America – learn Spanish – you will never regret it….and say goodbye forever to the unemployment line.

“Anchor Babies” – Some higher thoughts.

With every recession or crisis seems to come increased anti-immigrant sentiment.

I have blogged my thoughts on being careful about such sentiments – examining why we would come to wish to exclude members of our community.

When times were booming, the anti-immigrant sentiment seemed lower…now it seems higher.

Here are some more thoughts from the August 21, 2010 edition of The Economist, page 24:

Only about a sixth of the countries in the world practice "birthright citizenship". The US adopted it originally to end slavery, making anyone born in the country "subject to the jurisidiction thereof". Sadly, this was also a clause also then meant to exclude sovereign Native-American tribes and is today still used to exempt the children of foreign diplomats from becoming American citizens.

By 1982, the US Supreme Court had ruled that people who entered illegally were still subject to the "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" language and standard. A recent Pew Hispanic Centre study found taht 8.0% of the births in America are to illegal immigrant parents.

The "Anchor Baby" syndrome may be a false alarm. ONly about 4,000 people per year escape deportation because they ahve children who are citizens; the foreign parents of Americans can only be considered for citizenship once their child turns 21.

Many wealthy Asian and Latin American women do have "Anchor Babies" – but do it legally with a Visa. A firm in China charges $14,750 for three month stays in America to give birth – but the mother has to arrange her own Visa – per the WAshington Post.

Changing the rules to exclude Anchor Babies could be difficult. It may require an amendment to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. A majority of two-thirds of the House and Senate must ratify a constitutional amendment along with three-quarters of the state legislatures.

Legislation by Congress to exclude from citizenship babies born to illegal immigrants would conflict with 1982 US Supreme Court precedent.

The anti-"Anchor Baby" provisions seem unlikely to go anywhere.

But this debate is potentially socially damaging. Do we want to futher talk about creating two classes of citizens?

Has anybody read Dr. Suess recently? Ever heard of the Star-Bellied Snitches?

James MaGee Attorney | Call James H MaGee, Attorney at (253) 383-1001 to Start Fresh and Begin Building Your Financial Future Now!

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