Most modern businesses have experienced the tremendous frustrations caused by spam messages.  Unsolicited emails clog inboxes, crash servers, and cost companies billions.  In 2003, Congress enacted the CAN Spam Act (the “Act”) with the goal of drastically reducing or eliminating spam.  However, the Act has been heavily criticized, and many believe it does little to eliminate the problem.  Experts argue that the Act serves as a “how to legally spam” guide for e-marketers, rather than a serious legal deterrent.  Others insist that spam has actually increased since the Act’s passage.

On September 27, 2010, President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs Act (the Act) into law. The Act will benefit small businesses in several ways, including extensions of Small Business Administration (SBA) lending programs and tax breaks. 

Unlike previous years, employers hiring specialized foreign workers now have it easy in some ways. For example, the number of petitions received by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for H-1B specialty occupation visas is well below the established cap for fiscal year 2011, allowing for new filings even as the fiscal year starts. With some good news, however, comes some bad.