Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to be unemployed and underemployed, Stephen Barr reports in the Washington Post.  Many end up in "protective services" in part because of a built-in assumption by employers that returning soldiers can’t do much else beyond stand guard.  Barr notes that "many employers are not aware of the skills, especially in technology, held by former military personnel."  The DOD is looking for ways to match up skilled servicemembers with employers looking for the best.  Read Stephen Barr here.   EH

If you are reading this, it may already be too late to apply for the government’s H-1B work visa program for highly-skilled immigrant labor. Julia Preston of the New York Times reports that today hundreds of thousands of foreigners are expected to apply for 65,000 available spots.

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services ended applications after the first day. A computerized lottery held two weeks later determined the lucky applicants.

The limited number of available visas has been attacked by U.S. software companies for helping to foster a national shortage in computer scientists and engineers. On the other hand, some lawmakers say the applicants who do eventually qualify are often working for the U.S. offices of foreign-owned companies.  Read Preston here.   MB

When Republicans and Democrats, industry and consumer groups attack a proposed restructuring of the financial regulatory system, it might signal a far-sighted compromise. Or, as the New York Times’s Stephen Labaton explains, it could just be a lame solution that’s going nowhere fast.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson’s 218-page proposal Monday to rearrange the federal financial bureaucracy was the panned the minute people had time to read the abstract. Congressional Democrats said it would provide no relief to homeowners, consumer groups claimed it would weaken the Securities and Exchange Commission, and banks said it would give unwarranted powers to the Federal Reserve. Actually, almost everyone said it would strengthen the Fed in harmful ways.

The Bush administration has never been great at taking a little constructive criticism. But Paulson must have some awareness that the administration’s response to the credit crisis may be dead on arrival.  Read Labaton here.  MB

The Washington Post’s Dana Hedgpeth does the work for us of reading a Government Accountability Office report that details the $295 billion in excessive costs the Pentagon ran up last year. These costs were spread over 95 weapons systems that Congress had asked the GAO to investigate. Overall, the costs of these behind-schedule projects are $1.6 trillion dollars.

The article gives a lot of other great numbers to throw out at the next government watchdog cocktail party. Hedgpeth also examines the issue of culpability – whether it should be primarily placed on policymakers, the military, or the private contractors entrusted to build the national defense structure. Read Hedgpeth here.   MB