The enlightened folks down in Dayton, OH have done a stunning thing - they've decided to go full bore with Immigrants and rebuilding their city!

What better proof that there's hope!  That's what this site is all about - our future being rebuilt with teh help of Immigrants - from ALL over the world!

And the rest of the country is noticing the Dayton Plan. This is called 'leadership'.  Taking the risks necessary for change!

“Immigrants cross many lands and seas carrying on their shoulders the hopes and dreams of so many others left behind,” said Festus Nyiwo, an immigrant from Nigeria. “This great city of Dayton is called upon at this moment to act with a sense of diversity, prosperity and posterity.”

It's fantastic to see Dayton, OH reaching out to immigrants - to help repopulate it's city!

Plan to make Dayton immigrant friendly: wdtn.com

Here's a great article by Rey Ramsey on innovation and immigrants. The facts say it all.

Next week President Obama will speak on jobs.  Immigrants can help create jobs.  There have been all sorts of articles written on the subject, including this article in Newsobserver.

Turns out - Marc Canter - will be in D.C. next week - at the same time POTUS is speaking.

Here in Cleveland - a new organization named "GlobalCleveland" has just named C. Lawrence Miller to be president. Miller is a former Lubrizol head of HR.  This position staffing will now get GlobalCleveland moving towards meeting its goals of helping to place 500 new jobs in the Cleveland area over the next 12 months.

More than half of the 30,000 open jobs [which exist in the region today] require at least a bachelor's degree and pay more than $50,000 annually on average, said Baiju Shah, chairman of Global Cleveland and president and CEO of BioEnterprise Corp., the nonprofit that nurtures biomedical businesses. Mr. Shah said many of the jobs are engineering-related and are in the health care and biomedical fields, information technology and financial services.

These are typically jobs that can't easily be developed locally. The need is too immediate to be solved through training programs for the existing unemployed or underemployed in the region.

This effort has nothing to do with immigrants per se and leaves Cleveland's immigration efforts - a bit way laid.  But there are other efforts afoot, specifically in the guise of a nascent organization called WIN-Cleveland which is focusing on fostering inter-cultural interaction between ethnic groups and the Black community.

Last week President Obama made a key political move in trying to court the Latino vote. He announced a policy change in the way that America deports undocumented immgirants --- instilling a new "posecutorial discretion" standard to the 300,000 removal cases currently pending in the Immigration Courts.

The problem is twofold:

1.) this is a 3% solution. it only potentially covers the 3% of the undocumented population --- those currently in deportation proceedings. it does NOTHING for the over 10 million people currently out of status, out of luck, and with no work authorization or future to speak of.

2.) Obama already said that he has no administrative authority to change policy. this current action runs counter to what he said recently at La Raza convention.

Obama needs to stop playing politics, and to pass administrative action on immigration. The economy can't wait.

In the Huffington Post article, an immigration expert said, "That would indeed be a positive form of relief, not only for the applicant and his/her family, but also to the country. Those with the right to work will no longer be working under the table, will pay taxes, and contribute to Social Security."

We're delighted to see this article in the Albany Herald - supporting Immigration Reform!

Thanks Cokie and Steve!

This is further proof that our economic situation is FORCING people to consider alternative forms of economic growth.  All roads lead to Immigration Reform.  There's no turning back.

This is a true bi-partisan issue!