FP: So how much do teachers get paid on an annual basis? And how much do they get paid on an annual basis if you factor in that they only work 10 months a year?
Greene: On an annual basis the average teacher in the United States is paid about $47,000 for 38 weeks of work. The equivalent for 50 weeks of work would be about $62,000.
But more to your point I think he addresses what you want to know in this quote later in the interview:
Some critics of the BLS figures argue that weekly earnings by teachers are understated because other professionals receive paid vacations while teacher vacations are counted as weeks not worked. First it is important to note that not all professionals receive paid vacations, especially self-employed professionals. Second, teachers have more paid days off, such as sick days, personal leave days, etc..., than do other workers. So, an apple-to-apple comparison of weekly pay still shows that public school teachers, on average, are better paid than the average white collar and professional worker.
It is true that teacher pay looks less impressive on annual basis, but most teachers are only paid to work about 38 weeks per year, which makes comparisons of annual salaries inappropriate. Teachers can use those weeks off to spend time with family, engage in other activities they enjoy, or take other employment to supplement their incomes. That time off is worth money and cannot simply be ignored when looking at teacher pay. If it were irrelevant, then teachers should be willing to switch to 12 month employment without additional compensation. But of course, most teachers (rightly) would expect to be paid more if they were expected to work all year.
Does the article take into account the time spent every night grading, writing lesson plans, and calling Johnnys mother about him farting in class?
Actually it does;
3) There are indicators that the "average" public school teacher in the U.S. earned about $ 34.00 dollars an hour in 2005.. Is this including the time spent after school grading papers, preparing grades, meeting with parents and the like?
BLS' National Compensation Survey, on which we rely, is designed to capture all hours actually worked, including time grading, preparing for class, meeting with parents, etc...But to be sure that our findings were not being distorted by how the BLS counts hours worked, we also compared earnings on a weekly basis.When we do that we still find that public teachers are, on average, still better paid that the average white collar and professional worker.
But, I think you're bring up a larger point that basically is, teaching is hard work and often times under-appreciated. This, I cannot disagree with. Just watching our child's Kindergarten teacher is a real eye-opener in terms of time management skills and organization.
The question here isn't weather a teachers job isn't important, nor that it's easy. The point I bring up with the article is that perhaps pay isn't the issue. By the data it appears that teachers are not underpaid but in fact paid quite well. In addition, higher levels of pay don't correlate to better student performance. So, paying more for better math and science teacher is perhaps working from a false premise. Perhaps, a more effective approach would be to address the issues you mention such as smaller classrooms and resources dedicated toward parent education and involvment?
1. You have recently released a report about teacher salaries. What was your MAIN finding?
There are two main findings. The first simply repeats a finding from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) - that public school teachers on average made $34.06 per hour in 2005. This is 36% more than the average non-sales white collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker, which are the categories in which teachers are placed by the BLS.
The second finding is that there does not appear to be a relationship between higher relative pay for teachers and higher student achievement.That is, areas with higher public teacher pay relative to white collar and professional workers do graduate a higher percentage of their students.This suggests that simply raising teacher pay across the board is not a promising strategy for raising student achievement.It doesn't mean that we shouldn't want to raise teacher pay for some other reason or that we couldn't use additional pay in more clever ways that actually would be more likely to contribute to student achievement.
I too was bullied as a kid and I'm not suggesting nothing should be done. Kids that are bullied need help but not in the form of isolation. They need the tools to thwart it. As you know, Bullies take many forms not just the overgrown slack-jawed arm punchers. I still have self confidence issues around people with very aggressive personalities but I think it's because I didn't get the right direction from my family. Ignoring it as I tried to do (and you did) was the wrong thing to do. I've learned in my adult life to be more assertive and proactive. Like you, I wish I had stood up for myself in grade school, even if I got a black eye for it. In my situation at home, I wasn't given that advice or direction. I think there needs to be a support system for kids at school so they know how to deal with it. I just don't think you can artificially shield kids from it. Physical confrontations are deffinately out of bounds but when you start to police the words people use you are going overboard. People have the right to act like jerks as much as we hate them for it.
Here in Colorado there are still strict rules against wearing trenchcoats and numerous suspensions, counciling sessions etc... to deal with bullying. All of this is of course the Columbine effect. A thred like this one can't exist for long with out the mention of the tragedy. Bullying is not what drove Harris and Klebold to mass murder, it's a myth that simply will not die. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/09/23/colum bine/print.html
Bullies are part of growing up. It's part of growing up for the persons being bullied and the bullies themselves. It is not evil behavior that must be erradicated because another Columbine could happen again. It's natural behavior that occurs in all human cultures and many in the animal kingdom as well. Those that are the victims of bullies have great lessons to learn that will serve them well later in life. Those that are bullies also have lessons to learn. I can't imagine anything more destructive that taking kids in their learning years and secluding them from this natural behavior. Sometimes kids need to touch a hot stove to understand cause and effect.
So the exit poll results are more accurate than the actual counted ballots. That's the premise of this book. Call me crazy but I'd go with the opposite. I'm zany like that.
Sounds like a Truther to me. We need to believe that there was a conspiracy of a magnitude that spanned numerous people who were able to coordinate illegal and treasonous actions. People who planned and coordinated a coup of 10 million votes....secretly. Pass the cool aid.
Who's fault is this "pay check to pay check" situation? Most of us know and work with these people that live paycheck to paycheck. They drive $600/mo leased vehicals, have the latest cell phones and go home to watch their cable programming on their big screen TV. A lot (if not majority) of these people create their own problems.
I don't believe these "peons" that work for corporations (ie, they have jobs) need to work pay check to pay check, they simply don't know how to help themselves. Even those making six figures have abysmal savings rates.
I guess I don't see the difference in my CEO making 2 million or 20 million. It doesn't effect me. If my company can't pay me competitively because they expense too much of their salaries to the top brass then I leave.
They don't have to engage in price fixing technically. They can play the same game that other services and retailers do and just play the one-up game on costs. Cable already does this with satellite.
I'm searching for where SANS has recommended the Heise Security Offline update script and cannot seem to find this information anywhere on the SANS site.
If I can find this evidence it would go a long way towards convincing my security group that my IT organization can use this to develope iso cds.
I still don't understand why there's a push to go to an electronic voting system. Why not use touch screen voting machines to print paper voting records. You can then verify your vote and you have a physical document for recounts. No fucking chads, no conspiracy theories, handicap friendly, and it encourages the voter to double-check their entries. It's an effort to go from the horse drawn carraige to teleportation. Let's not try to make the quantum leap and stick with a god damn car.
This should come as a suprise for absolutely no one who is familiar with corporate business.
Sony's quarterly earnings release was at the end of last week (Oct. 12th, http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/info/SEMC/200610.h tml#block0). The talking heads will not give any negitive outlook prior to an earnings release and the quarterly investor conference calls. Also, unless it's a slip-up corporate communications will not voice "lower than expected" earnings, growth, results or whatever unless it's at the end of the business week towards close of the market. This is a tried and true practice of letting bad news simmer over the weekend so it can be often offset with good news sometime next week. So, expect some sort of positive communications from Sony next week sometime.
eToyChest is reporting on a response that Running With Scissors (the makers of the ultraviolent game Postal) has released in response to Jack Thompson's latest rantings. From the article:
"There are no missions based on slaughtering innocent bystanders. You play in a detailed environment and are given simple tasks such as buying milk and cashing a paycheck. As in the real world, the player may find weapons in that environment if they seek them. And, just as in the real world, the choice of what to do with those weapons is yours. Misuse results in severe consequences, in Postal you're always held accountable. In our opinion that makes Postal 2 the most politically correct game ever made."
Does anyone know if the PS3 can play DVD media as well as Blu-Ray?
It seems hard to believe that Blu-Ray media won't take a bite out of either the profit or the consumer's wallet at retail. So either these initial titles aren't really on Blu-Ray disks or Sony is going to eat some profit (more than Microsoft anyway) on game sales. Wouldn't lower profit margin on sales dissuade game developers from the PS3?
I got in to this habbit of internet gaming on the PC and upgrading my video card every two years. This has been on going since getting my second Voodoo card to get SLI performance for Quake 2. I've frankly avoided the console market for a long time, I was one of those PC gaming snobs. However, I finally got off the upgrading crack and now smoke from the console opium tent. I took the plunge on a 360. You fellow husbands out there know how this works. I laid out a very convincing rationalization for this purchase, short of a PowerPoint presentation to my better half, why this just made financial sense.
I get a little satisfaction each time I see these announcements because I know I'm locked in to a console that will stay the same for the next five years or so. But at the same time it's killing me that I can't go play FEAR because I know it will translate to a slide show on my computer. In gaming terms is the PS3 really that expensive in comaprisons to newly released video cards that are over $500? I understand it doesn't really offer a good analogy when you consider the targeted volume of sales for each tech. But, even two purchases of $250 video cards over four years puts you in that high dollar console market in my mind..or at least I could convince my wife of such a thing with stunning a PowerPoint!
You seem to attibute "improved" with "unique". For my money as long as it's fun and has enough new features to enchance my interest then it's worthwhile.
My wife (a mom) is relatively addicted to many things on the arcade. Lately she's been soaking up some hours with Zuma. Great game with fun sound and addictive qualities. I'm at the point where we may just need to buy a second one so I can waste away on Oblivion. When I showed her that Galaga was on the arcade I knew I was in trouble. The $60 new games? Absolutely no interest but the arcade is a perfect fit for her.
The popular belief that bullies are what drove Harris and Klebold to mass murder is a myth that will never die.
FBI after incident report done with the input of psychiatrists and psychologists reached a totally different conclusion http://www.slate.com/id/2099203/.
Harris is the challenge. He was sweet-faced and well-spoken. Adults, and even some other kids, described him as "nice." But Harris was cold, calculating, and homicidal. "Klebold was hurting inside while Harris wanted to hurt people," Fuselier says. Harris was not merely a troubled kid, the psychiatrists say, he was a psychopath.
In popular usage, almost any crazy killer is a "psychopath." But in psychiatry, it's a very specific mental condition that rarely involves killing, or even psychosis. "Psychopaths are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders," writes Dr. Robert Hare, in Without Conscience, the seminal book on the condition. (Hare is also one of the psychologists consulted by the FBI about Columbine and by Slate for this story*.) "Unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why. Their behavior is the result of choice, freely exercised." Diagnosing Harris as a psychopath represents neither a legal defense, nor a moral excuse. But it illuminates a great deal about the thought process that drove him to mass murder.
The article goes on in more detail and is a very good read.
Bullies aren't why Columbine happened. I've suffered bullies as have most people in their lives and we've yet to go on some killing spree. There are millions of examples of people who've played video games and not turned violent, the same is true of those that have been subjected to bullies.
I'm no expert when it comes to coding up a web page. The page I'm responsible for in my little corner of my organization I just update with straight HTML edits in notepad. I can't vouch for the technical expertise of this author but I for one appreciate technical material that is easy to read and God forbid, a pleasant experience.
What is AJAX?
As stated previously, AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, but what exactly does that mean? Is the developer limited to only those technologies named? Thankfully, no, the acronym merely serves as a guideline and not a rule. In some ways, AJAX is something of an art, as with cooking. Consider, for a moment, the dish called shrimp scampi; I've had it in restaurants up and down the East Coast of the United States, and it was different in every restaurant. Of course, there were some common elements, such as shrimp, butter and garlic, but the plethora of little extras added made each dish unique.
The same can be said of AJAX. Starting with a few simple ingredients, such as HTML and JavaScript, it is possible to cook up a Web application with the feel of a Windows or, if you prefer, a Linux application. You might have noticed earlier that my ingredients list omitted XML; the reason for that omission is that XML is one of those optional ingredients. This might sound strange because the x in AJAX stands for XML, but it is also useful in those instances when a particular client does not support XML or doesn't support some of the more "mad scientist" methods of communicating with the server.
I don't recall Norton having this issue before, I thought the previous culprit was Mcafee. I had to do quite a few manual fixes to replace applications until Mcafee released the EPO update to correct this. It was a mess.
The case involved stories written in 2001 by Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon that revealed the government's plans to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation.
Prosecutors claimed the reporters' phone calls to the charities seeking comment had tipped the organizations off about the government investigation.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asked the Times for information about the source of the reports in 2002, then threatened to subpoena phone company billing records in 2004.
The newspaper sued to block any such effort, saying prosecutors might use the records to fish for information about the Times' sources for a long list of stories.
There is of course a line in the sand with the press in which the 1st amendment reaches the yelling fire in a theatre threshold. I think the question here is this equivalent to the NY Times tipping off the Germans prior to Normandy? Or is this something they should be able to do, in this case tipping off possible sources of terrorist funding right after 9-11 no less. The government is rightly seeking to find the sources of the original leaks to the reporters rather than looking to prosecute the reporters themselves. The reporters, in my view were irresposible but because freedom of the press is a sacred cow (rightfully so in most cases) they are pretty untouchable. However, the source of the leak should rightfully be given up when it comes to a matter of national security. Once that source is discovered they should be prosecuted.
How can a 'state agency' use the Patriot Act to subpoena a Facebook profile?
It probably depends on the agency and the particular job he's applying for as well. The authors of this piece are carefull to limit the description to "a state agency".
Also, this is not a criminal investigation. It is an interview. Employers can and will do detailed background checks, drug tests and due diligence in their interview processes. Is this a case of a rogue state power abusing the Patriot Act to invade a person's privacy? Perhaps, but the authors of this piece do not give us many details. You can for example have your blood examined by an employer. Of course we agree to this in a more direct manner by not only filling out the lawyer's paperwork but when we take the needle. When he filled out his application was this possibility disclosed?
Why? Well, because Bungi is owned by Microsoft. They can afford to make it exclusive and in no uncertain terms Microsoft has said they will use that for leverage against Sony. No pressure on Bungi employees or anything.
Slashdot Mirror
Excellent question. In seperate interview at http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?I D=26818 Mr. Greene answers the following:
FP: So how much do teachers get paid on an annual basis? And how much do they get paid on an annual basis if you factor in that they only work 10 months a year?
Greene: On an annual basis the average teacher in the United States is paid about $47,000 for 38 weeks of work. The equivalent for 50 weeks of work would be about $62,000.
But more to your point I think he addresses what you want to know in this quote later in the interview:
Some critics of the BLS figures argue that weekly earnings by teachers are understated because other professionals receive paid vacations while teacher vacations are counted as weeks not worked. First it is important to note that not all professionals receive paid vacations, especially self-employed professionals. Second, teachers have more paid days off, such as sick days, personal leave days, etc..., than do other workers. So, an apple-to-apple comparison of weekly pay still shows that public school teachers, on average, are better paid than the average white collar and professional worker.
It is true that teacher pay looks less impressive on annual basis, but most teachers are only paid to work about 38 weeks per year, which makes comparisons of annual salaries inappropriate. Teachers can use those weeks off to spend time with family, engage in other activities they enjoy, or take other employment to supplement their incomes. That time off is worth money and cannot simply be ignored when looking at teacher pay. If it were irrelevant, then teachers should be willing to switch to 12 month employment without additional compensation. But of course, most teachers (rightly) would expect to be paid more if they were expected to work all year.
3) There are indicators that the "average" public school teacher in the U.S. earned about $ 34.00 dollars an hour in 2005.. Is this including the time spent after school grading papers, preparing grades, meeting with parents and the like?
BLS' National Compensation Survey, on which we rely, is designed to capture all hours actually worked, including time grading, preparing for class, meeting with parents, etc...But to be sure that our findings were not being distorted by how the BLS counts hours worked, we also compared earnings on a weekly basis.When we do that we still find that public teachers are, on average, still better paid that the average white collar and professional worker.
But, I think you're bring up a larger point that basically is, teaching is hard work and often times under-appreciated. This, I cannot disagree with. Just watching our child's Kindergarten teacher is a real eye-opener in terms of time management skills and organization.
The question here isn't weather a teachers job isn't important, nor that it's easy. The point I bring up with the article is that perhaps pay isn't the issue. By the data it appears that teachers are not underpaid but in fact paid quite well. In addition, higher levels of pay don't correlate to better student performance. So, paying more for better math and science teacher is perhaps working from a false premise. Perhaps, a more effective approach would be to address the issues you mention such as smaller classrooms and resources dedicated toward parent education and involvment?
Perhaps the entire premise is incorrect. Could it be true that "teachers are underpaid" is a fable to begin with?
w -with-Jay-P-Greene-About-Teacher-Salaries/Page1.ht ml ) with Jay P. Greene who co-authored a report called "How much are teachers paid"( http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_50.htm )
Here is question one from an interview ( http://www.ednews.org/articles/7535/1/An-Intervie
1. You have recently released a report about teacher salaries. What was your MAIN finding?
There are two main findings. The first simply repeats a finding from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) - that public school teachers on average made $34.06 per hour in 2005. This is 36% more than the average non-sales white collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker, which are the categories in which teachers are placed by the BLS.
The second finding is that there does not appear to be a relationship between higher relative pay for teachers and higher student achievement.That is, areas with higher public teacher pay relative to white collar and professional workers do graduate a higher percentage of their students.This suggests that simply raising teacher pay across the board is not a promising strategy for raising student achievement.It doesn't mean that we shouldn't want to raise teacher pay for some other reason or that we couldn't use additional pay in more clever ways that actually would be more likely to contribute to student achievement.
I too was bullied as a kid and I'm not suggesting nothing should be done. Kids that are bullied need help but not in the form of isolation. They need the tools to thwart it. As you know, Bullies take many forms not just the overgrown slack-jawed arm punchers. I still have self confidence issues around people with very aggressive personalities but I think it's because I didn't get the right direction from my family. Ignoring it as I tried to do (and you did) was the wrong thing to do. I've learned in my adult life to be more assertive and proactive. Like you, I wish I had stood up for myself in grade school, even if I got a black eye for it. In my situation at home, I wasn't given that advice or direction. I think there needs to be a support system for kids at school so they know how to deal with it. I just don't think you can artificially shield kids from it. Physical confrontations are deffinately out of bounds but when you start to police the words people use you are going overboard. People have the right to act like jerks as much as we hate them for it.
Here in Colorado there are still strict rules against wearing trenchcoats and numerous suspensions, counciling sessions etc... to deal with bullying. All of this is of course the Columbine effect. A thred like this one can't exist for long with out the mention of the tragedy. Bullying is not what drove Harris and Klebold to mass murder, it's a myth that simply will not die. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/09/23/colum bine/print.html
Bullies are part of growing up. It's part of growing up for the persons being bullied and the bullies themselves. It is not evil behavior that must be erradicated because another Columbine could happen again. It's natural behavior that occurs in all human cultures and many in the animal kingdom as well. Those that are the victims of bullies have great lessons to learn that will serve them well later in life. Those that are bullies also have lessons to learn. I can't imagine anything more destructive that taking kids in their learning years and secluding them from this natural behavior. Sometimes kids need to touch a hot stove to understand cause and effect.
So the exit poll results are more accurate than the actual counted ballots. That's the premise of this book. Call me crazy but I'd go with the opposite. I'm zany like that.
Sounds like a Truther to me. We need to believe that there was a conspiracy of a magnitude that spanned numerous people who were able to coordinate illegal and treasonous actions. People who planned and coordinated a coup of 10 million votes....secretly. Pass the cool aid.
Who's fault is this "pay check to pay check" situation? Most of us know and work with these people that live paycheck to paycheck. They drive $600/mo leased vehicals, have the latest cell phones and go home to watch their cable programming on their big screen TV. A lot (if not majority) of these people create their own problems.
I don't believe these "peons" that work for corporations (ie, they have jobs) need to work pay check to pay check, they simply don't know how to help themselves. Even those making six figures have abysmal savings rates.
I guess I don't see the difference in my CEO making 2 million or 20 million. It doesn't effect me. If my company can't pay me competitively because they expense too much of their salaries to the top brass then I leave.
They don't have to engage in price fixing technically. They can play the same game that other services and retailers do and just play the one-up game on costs. Cable already does this with satellite.
I M5G1.htm
Oh, here's your price hike Verison customers. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8LR
I'm searching for where SANS has recommended the Heise Security Offline update script and cannot seem to find this information anywhere on the SANS site.
If I can find this evidence it would go a long way towards convincing my security group that my IT organization can use this to develope iso cds.
As a kicker, I bet all of these titles are NOT on BluRay media but dvd media.
"Are modern console hardware designers getting sloppy?"
correction
Is this modern console hardware designer getting sloppy?
I still don't understand why there's a push to go to an electronic voting system. Why not use touch screen voting machines to print paper voting records. You can then verify your vote and you have a physical document for recounts. No fucking chads, no conspiracy theories, handicap friendly, and it encourages the voter to double-check their entries. It's an effort to go from the horse drawn carraige to teleportation. Let's not try to make the quantum leap and stick with a god damn car.
Sony's quarterly earnings release was at the end of last week (Oct. 12th, http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/info/SEMC/200610.h tml#block0). The talking heads will not give any negitive outlook prior to an earnings release and the quarterly investor conference calls. Also, unless it's a slip-up corporate communications will not voice "lower than expected" earnings, growth, results or whatever unless it's at the end of the business week towards close of the market. This is a tried and true practice of letting bad news simmer over the weekend so it can be often offset with good news sometime next week. So, expect some sort of positive communications from Sony next week sometime.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/18/ 174224
eToyChest is reporting on a response that Running With Scissors (the makers of the ultraviolent game Postal) has released in response to Jack Thompson's latest rantings. From the article:
"There are no missions based on slaughtering innocent bystanders. You play in a detailed environment and are given simple tasks such as buying milk and cashing a paycheck. As in the real world, the player may find weapons in that environment if they seek them. And, just as in the real world, the choice of what to do with those weapons is yours. Misuse results in severe consequences, in Postal you're always held accountable. In our opinion that makes Postal 2 the most politically correct game ever made."
It seems hard to believe that Blu-Ray media won't take a bite out of either the profit or the consumer's wallet at retail. So either these initial titles aren't really on Blu-Ray disks or Sony is going to eat some profit (more than Microsoft anyway) on game sales. Wouldn't lower profit margin on sales dissuade game developers from the PS3?
I get a little satisfaction each time I see these announcements because I know I'm locked in to a console that will stay the same for the next five years or so. But at the same time it's killing me that I can't go play FEAR because I know it will translate to a slide show on my computer. In gaming terms is the PS3 really that expensive in comaprisons to newly released video cards that are over $500? I understand it doesn't really offer a good analogy when you consider the targeted volume of sales for each tech. But, even two purchases of $250 video cards over four years puts you in that high dollar console market in my mind..or at least I could convince my wife of such a thing with stunning a PowerPoint!
Kind of like taking my gamecube controller and doing the same thing while pressing a button?
My wife (a mom) is relatively addicted to many things on the arcade. Lately she's been soaking up some hours with Zuma. Great game with fun sound and addictive qualities. I'm at the point where we may just need to buy a second one so I can waste away on Oblivion. When I showed her that Galaga was on the arcade I knew I was in trouble. The $60 new games? Absolutely no interest but the arcade is a perfect fit for her.
FBI after incident report done with the input of psychiatrists and psychologists reached a totally different conclusion http://www.slate.com/id/2099203/.
The article goes on in more detail and is a very good read.Bullies aren't why Columbine happened. I've suffered bullies as have most people in their lives and we've yet to go on some killing spree. There are millions of examples of people who've played video games and not turned violent, the same is true of those that have been subjected to bullies.
AJAX, yummy.
http://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2006/03/13/mc afee-samenuk-microsoft-cx_cn_0313autofacescan11.ht ml
The case involved stories written in 2001 by Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon that revealed the government's plans to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation.
Prosecutors claimed the reporters' phone calls to the charities seeking comment had tipped the organizations off about the government investigation.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asked the Times for information about the source of the reports in 2002, then threatened to subpoena phone company billing records in 2004.
The newspaper sued to block any such effort, saying prosecutors might use the records to fish for information about the Times' sources for a long list of stories.
There is of course a line in the sand with the press in which the 1st amendment reaches the yelling fire in a theatre threshold. I think the question here is this equivalent to the NY Times tipping off the Germans prior to Normandy? Or is this something they should be able to do, in this case tipping off possible sources of terrorist funding right after 9-11 no less. The government is rightly seeking to find the sources of the original leaks to the reporters rather than looking to prosecute the reporters themselves. The reporters, in my view were irresposible but because freedom of the press is a sacred cow (rightfully so in most cases) they are pretty untouchable. However, the source of the leak should rightfully be given up when it comes to a matter of national security. Once that source is discovered they should be prosecuted.
It probably depends on the agency and the particular job he's applying for as well. The authors of this piece are carefull to limit the description to "a state agency".
Also, this is not a criminal investigation. It is an interview. Employers can and will do detailed background checks, drug tests and due diligence in their interview processes. Is this a case of a rogue state power abusing the Patriot Act to invade a person's privacy? Perhaps, but the authors of this piece do not give us many details. You can for example have your blood examined by an employer. Of course we agree to this in a more direct manner by not only filling out the lawyer's paperwork but when we take the needle. When he filled out his application was this possibility disclosed?
Why? Well, because Bungi is owned by Microsoft. They can afford to make it exclusive and in no uncertain terms Microsoft has said they will use that for leverage against Sony. No pressure on Bungi employees or anything.