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Fernando Mendoza path to Week 1 Raiders starting job still open

NY Post
1 month 3 weeks ago
Maybe it’s coach speak. Maybe Klint Kubiak is using the Raiders’ unsettled quarterback situation to send a message throughout the locker room: Nobody should get comfortable. Every job must still be earned. Or perhaps Kubiak truly believes rookie Fernando Mendoza has a path to overtake Kirk Cousins and become the Raiders’ starting quarterback. And maybe...
Vincent Bonsignore

Trump Admin Proposes New $100K H-1B Fee To Offset Immigration Enforcement Costs

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
Trump Admin Proposes New $100K H-1B Fee To Offset Immigration Enforcement Costs

The Trump administration plans to charge employers a fee of $103,265 for H-1B skilled foreign workers, according to a proposed regulation posted on Monday. Revenue from the fee would be used to offset the costs of running the federal immigration system - including courts and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

A similar $100,000 fee was shot down in June by an Obama-appointed federal judge in Massachusetts, after Trump attempted to implement it via presidential proclamation and 20 blue states went apeshit. The administration's argument is that the H-1B program has been used to take jobs from Americans, and the additional fee would cause employers to consider the cost of just hiring Americans.

Citing a working paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research, the new proposed regulation argues that the new fee would make employers "less likely to hire an H-1B worker over a qualified and highly-skilled American." The paper found that H1-B workers make on average around 15% less than American counterparts. 

The program, passed by Congress in 1991, lets employers hire 65,000 skilled foreign workers per year - with an additional 20,000 visas available for workers who hold advanced degrees from US universities. 

The new proposed regulation is set to publish in the Federal Register today - and would exempt some groups such as most US colleges, universities and nonprofit hospitals associated with academic institutions. Unlike last year's proposal, this one would apply to many people already living in the US - not just new applications submitted from abroad.

The new rule would also restrict a major pathway used by tech companies. In recent years, Amazon has received the most H-1B visas - with over 9,300 approved petitions in FY2026 through June 30, the Washington Post notes - citing US Citizenship and Immigration Services data. Other companies using the H-1B program are India-based IT and outsourcing firms such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, followed by American companies Apple and Microsoft.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 11:40
Tyler Durden

"This Is My Place Of Business": How Cakes And Coffee Continue To Be Groundzero In An Age Of Rage

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
"This Is My Place Of Business": How Cakes And Coffee Continue To Be Groundzero In An Age Of Rage

Authored by Jonathan Turley via Jonathan Turley,

"This is my place of business."

Those words from Jim Sheehan, owner of the Wydaho Roasters coffee shop in Driggs, Idaho, have sparked the latest controversy over the right of businesses to refuse service on the basis of religious or political views.

Sheehan has drawn national attention after throwing out a group of pro-life teenagers, calling them the equivalent of a Ku Klux Klan meeting in his shop. Sheehan clearly caters to those who want their lattes with an added shot of rage.

However, this and a number of other cases have exposed the hypocrisy of many regarding the service businesses must provide customers with opposing views. From cakes to coffee, shops remain ground zero for an age of rage.

Years ago, politicians and pundits rallied around the effort to force Jack Phillips, a cakeshop owner, to create cakes celebrating same-sex marriages. Phillips objected that it violated his religious beliefs. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court in what many of us hoped would be a final resolution of this conflict.

I had long criticized the framing of the case (and other similar cases) under the religious clauses rather than treating it as a simple matter of free speech. In the end, the Supreme Court punted in a frustrating 2018 decision.

In 2023, however, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory for free speech in 303 Creative v. Elenis. It ruled that Lorie Smith, a Christian website designer, could refuse to provide services for a same-sex marriage. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that "the framers designed the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to protect the 'freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think.' ... They did so because they saw the freedom of speech 'both as an end and as a means.'"

But notably, in cases like Masterpiece Cakeshop, Phillips insisted that he would always sell cakes to any couple, including same-sex couples. He only refused to make cakes specifically celebrating same-sex marriages, due to his religious views.

The case of Wydaho is different. Sheehan refused the same general accommodation offered to all customers because he opposes pro-life causes. In the confrontation, Sheehan declared that "in my world" pro-lifers are no different from the Ku Klux Klan.

"This is my place of business," he declared. "I did a lot of work to get people on the ballot so women would have the right to choose in the state of Idaho, and this is something I do not support, nor does my wife, and it's our business. So we have that choice."

In my view, they do have that choice. Yet it must also be acknowledged what Sheehan is doing is far more extreme than what Phillips did in Masterpiece Cakeshop. He is not being asked to create a coffee concoction opposing abortion, like a Cafe Au Life specialty drink. He acknowledges that other groups might use the shop - he just does not want these teenagers to use it to support pro-life causes.

The same controversy arose the same week across the country in Virginia. In Alexandria, Fatana Karimi, owner of the Karimi Salon, threw out a woman after she revealed that she was Israeli. Jessica Walton posted an account of the encounter, and a video was later posted on social media.

In the video, the person identified as Karimi says that she declared on Instagram that she would not serve those who support Israel. (She also adds that she got Walton to sign a release for the video.)

The Virginia Human Rights Act states that businesses cannot engage in "unlawful discrimination in employment because of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or military status." Karimi will likely argue she refused service not due to Walton's religion or national origin, but due to her support for Israel - a political position.

The case is reminiscent of the abusive treatment afforded to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz at Martha's Vineyard by a pierogi stand. He was also refused service over his political views.

The line between national origin and religious discrimination versus political discrimination can be tenuous and unclear. However, in the video, the owner states that it is her national identity that is causing the action: "Get out of my shop. I can't provide service to an Israeli. It's against my political beliefs. You need to leave immediately."

Back in Idaho, Sheehan's bizarre analogy to the KKK outraged many, to the point that he later apologized for it. However, it is fascinating that liberals are now celebrating the right to exclude others for political or religious reasons, even when they are not asked to engage in any expressive act or make any creative product that contravenes their beliefs.

If that is now the case, many owe individuals such as Phillips an apology for years of costly lawsuits, even after the Supreme Court gave him his first nominal victory.

Sheehan could be prosecuted if he were refusing general service or accommodations to the teenagers due to their race or religion. But he is refusing service on the basis of his own political views. Wydaho Roasters does not appear to want business from people who are pro-life, of whom there might be quite a few in Idaho. Karimi appears not to want either Israeli or possibly Jewish customers. It is a curious business plan to exclude such a large segment of the market, but some owners are sure to put their political views before their profits.

However, those on the left cannot have it both ways. They cannot reject the free speech rights of some owners to decline service while celebrating others' refusal to do the same thing. None of this is likely to make society any more civil. No one wants a black eye to go with the red-eye espresso.

Of course, recognizing the free speech rights of an unhinged coffee shop owner does not require patronizing his establishment. Sheehan clearly does not want to serve pro-life citizens, and I expect the feeling is mutual.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution." He is a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 11:20
Tyler Durden

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