GAO officials noted software programs that assist Census officials in the field are still experiencing "significant performance difficulties."

Read more...

Lawmakers are worried the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal will kill jobs in their districts. Read more...

An Internet-based program that checks employees' immigration status only catches illegal workers about half of the time, according to a little-noticed report.

That dismally low success rate could spell trouble for the White House's much-touted E-Verify system, a Department of Homeland Security program in place at thousands of companies across the country.
 

According to Westat, which conducted the analysis for DHS, "many unauthorized workers obtain employment by committing identity fraud that cannot be detected by E-Verify."

Consequently, the system's inaccuracy rate for catching unauthorized workers towered at 54 percent, according to the study, released in December but only first discovered by reporters on Thursday.

However, E-Verify did correctly clear legal workers about 99 percent of the time, the study concluded.

Nevertheless, federal officials were quick to stress on Thursday that they were already making key upgrades to the E-Verify system, which former President George W. Bush began expanding in 2008.

"The Westat report shows that E-Verify's accuracy continues to improve, with the vast majority of all cases automatically found to be work-authorized," explained Bill Wright, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Among those leading the charge for reform is Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who told The Associated Press that Westat's report only underscores the immigration system's inadequacies.

"This is a wake-up call to anyone who thinks E-Verify is an effective remedy to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants," Schumer said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said on Thursday that a tentative agreement has been reached in the long-running battle over patent reform.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman specifically said he's reached a tentative agreement "in principle" with the Patent and Trademark Office and other senators to push a patent reform bill forward. 

The sticking point in patent reform legislation, which has put tech companies and the pharmaceutical industry at loggerheads, has been over damage awards for infringements.

"We are close to a compromise that will address these issues," Leahy said during an executive business meeting Thursday. "No one will think this is a perfect bill, but we are close to a comprehensive patent reform bill that benefits all corners of the patent community."

Leahy said details of the compromise bill will be finalized in the coming days after discussions with the House.

"Intellectual property is the engine of our economy," he said. "Reforms to our patent system will protect inventors and promote innovation."

Ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said, "We're pretty close to having it right."

Leahy gave a shout-out to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), his "longtime partner on intellectual property issues."

"I look forward to working closely with all members of the committee who have probably spent more time on patent law than we would like," he said.

Pharmaceutical companies, joined by small manufacturers, have argued against limiting damages in patent infringement cases, while technology companies, burned by lawsuits, have pushed for a reform bill with limits on damages.

Congressional leaders will take to YouTube after Thursday's bipartisan healthcare summit to answer viewers' questions about the debate.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) will participate in the discussion, fielding a selection of questions approved by YouTube's users.

"As Democrats and Republicans discuss a compromise on health care legislation, they want to hear directly from Americans about what health care options might mean for you," wrote the event's creators. "What are your questions or ideas on healthcare in America?"

So far, only about an hour into the summit, nearly 1,000 users have submitted more than 500 questions and cast well over 12,000 votes. 

Nevertheless, the entire project is reminiscent of the 2008 presidential election, during which YouTube teamed up with reporters to produce two debates comprised entirely of user-submitted videos. 

But it isn't the only online effort complementing Thursday's televised healthcare talks at the Blair House, led by President Barack Obama and including top lawmakers from both chambers of Congress.

While Democrats defend their case for healthcare reform, stressing their merits of their latest bill, Republicans are firing back in an online, participatory "fact checking" live blog.

"We will offer real-time fact-checking of the claims made by President Obama and Congressional Democrats regarding health care reform, and will promote ideas from both House and Senate Republican leaders to lower costs, improve quality and increase access," GOP leaders wrote.

China’s military is the victim of hackers and is not perpetrating cyber attacks, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Read more...

A leading tech group on Wednesday urged lawmakers to adopt legislation that would allow immigrants to remain in the United States if they proved to be skillful entrepreneurs.

That bill -- the StartUp Visa Act of 2010, introduced this week -- would enable foreign workers in the United States to obtain two-year visas if they "can demonstrate that a qualified U.S. investor is willing to dedicate a significant sum -- a minimum of $250,000 -- to the immigrant's startup venue," explained the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) in a letter of support on Wednesday.

Ultimately, those workers would have to maintain a businesses that created at least five new American jobs in its early years, ITIC emphasized.

The group later predicted more job creation was possible, given foreign workers' previous successes at incubating new, innovative firms, especially those in the tech sector.

"Foreign-born entrepreneurs have developed thousands upon thousands of new innovations, technologies, and start-up companies in America.  Many went on to create such high tech companies as Intel, E-Bay, and Sun Microsystems, to name only a few," wrote Dean C. Garfield, president and CEO of ITIC.
Read more...

Google and Verizon became unlikely allies of sorts when they found some "common ground" in the net neutrality debate.

But Google's head telecom counsel, Rick Whitt, pointed out some key differences that remain in the companies' views toward the controversial issue (while Verizon lobbyist Link Hoewing was sitting right beside him, I might add). Verizon argues that, in the "Internet ecosystem," all parts should be treated the same.

Google disagrees.  Here are Whitt's opening remarks from the Tuesday panel held by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Read more...

Google’s plans to build ultra-fast Internet networks have sparked a citizen-lobbying effort on Facebook.

Several hundred groups have cropped up on the social network in the two weeks since Google announced it would choose a few testbed markets around the country for its broadband experiment. Google promised its networks would have speeds of one gigabit-per-second, about 100 times faster than the typical broadband connections.

The group called “Google Fiber for Kirksville (Mo.)” has more than 1,600 fans who discuss the city’s application on the site.

Another, “Google Fiber for Grand Rapids,” has 5,200 fans who are trying to spread the word about the community nomination process, drumming up support from other residents. All in all, about 350 groups and pages for cities from Miami to Seattle have joined the grassroots effort to bring Google’s broadband to their town. Read more...