During this economic recession, many recent college graduates are wondering what industries are paying top-dollar for Generation Y. It just so happens that the U.S. Census Bureau has a database, Quarterly Workforce Indicators, that provides local employment information and can answer questions like “What are the best paying jobs?”

With help from economic blogger Brian Kelsey, I was able to navigate the QWL database and find the top paying industries for newly hired males and females between the ages of 22 and 24 in five metro areas across the country.

Austin-Round Rock (Texas)

1. Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing $43,884
2. Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments $34,488
3. Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods $33,312
4. Machinery Manufacturing $31,944
5. Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction $31,104

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta (Georgia)

1. Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries $39,948
2. Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments $36,072
3. Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing $35,700
4. Telecommunications $35,436
5. Utilities $34,680

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (California)

1. Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing $49,032
2. Information Services $44,688
3. Support Activities for Mining $43,620
4. Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments $41,808
5. Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction $41,736

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet (Illinois)

1. Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction $45,936
2. Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries $44,064
3. Utilities $43,440
4. Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments $42,756
5. Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles $38,088

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (New York)

1. Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments $62,760
2. Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction $52,824
3. Water Transportation $42,012
4. Utilities $41,196
5. Hospitals $40,848

Many of these fields require a specific academic degree, and are clearly not for everyone. But if you have a penchant for numbers, computers, or science, you should do well even in this economy. How are you finding the job market in your city?

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Savana Redding, now 19, had been accused by a friend, Marissa, of having given her ibuprofen, which is against the policy of her school in Safford, Ariz. Assistant Principal Kerry Wilson called Savana to his office, where he questioned her about the drugs he had found on Marissa. Savana told him that she didn’t know about any pills and, to prove her innocence, gave Wilson and Helen Romero, an administrative assistant, permission to search her backpack. Finding no contraband, Wilson ordered Romero and the school nurse, Peggy Schwallier, to search Savana’s clothes for any pills.

“They asked me to pull out my bra and shake it from side to side,” Savana said. “They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear.” This embarrassing event caused such distress that Savana developed stomach ulcers and eventually transferred to another school. “I never wanted to see the secretary or the nurse ever again.”

Believing the strip search violated her daughter’s rights, April Redding sued the school district. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, ruled that school officials had violated Savana’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, since Wilson had acted too aggressively on vague allegations. Without legal immunity, Wilson, Romero, and Schwallier were open to a personal lawsuit by Savana. On April 21, that case went to the Supreme Court.

In Safford Unified School District v. Redding, the Supreme Court agreed with the appellate court that Savana’s Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. However, the Court also held that Wilson, Romero, and Schwallier had qualified immunity and were therefore not liable for their wrongdoings. At the time of the strip search, “clearly established law [did] not show that the search violated the Fourth Amendment,” Pearson v. Callahan.

So what does this mean? The Supreme Court’s decision didn’t provide clear guidelines on when schools can strip search. Rather, in the future, school personnel should consider the type of contraband in question and whether there is reason to believe it’s hidden in an intimate place. Perhaps this will put an end to strip searches in schools. Or at the very least, give school personnel pause before asking students to reveal sensitive areas.

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And Monday’s decision by the Guardian Council, a 12-member panel of Shiite Muslim clerics and jurists who oversee elections and certify results, to validate a landslide victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hasn’t quelled the rioting. In response, Mousavi posted a message on his Web site on Wednesday, urging his supporters to keep working for the rights of the people in a peaceful way, without engaging in bloodshed.

Meanwhile, it’s been reported that clashes between demonstrators and security forces have caused at least 20 deaths since the contested election results were announced on June 12. The government has detained and/or arrested about 2,000 people, several of them opposition leaders and members of the press. Social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, which have played major roles in reformists’ communication, have been repeatedly shut down.

In the midst of the unrest in Iran, people around the world have been looking to the U.S. government for its reaction. So far, responses by officials and experts have been quite divergent. Only the split isn’t along the traditional Democratic/Republican lines. President Obama has voiced “deep concerns about the election,” but believes that direct involvement by the U.S. would not be “productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations,” which has often been strained.

On the other hand, Obama’s former rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has criticized the president’s non-intrusive stance, saying that he instead “should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election.” Further, “[T]he Iranian people have been deprived of their rights.” But not all Republicans support McCain’s position. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, supports Obama’s hands-off approach. Henry Kissinger, who served as secretary of state under Richard Nixon, said in an interview on Fox News he too thinks Obama has taken the “proper position.”

So what should America do? Should we meddle in Iran’s political affairs like international policemen or should we ignore the chants for justice by the Iranian people? Well let’s take a look at who those chants are intended to influence. The Iranian people are calling on their own government, not the U.S. government, to re-evaluate the results of their presidential election. Protesters are rallying to publicly condemn their own political and religious leaders who they believe are complicit in election fraud.

Of course, American citizens don’t need an official U.S. statement before they can support or ignore the cause of the Iranian protesters. It’s like Obama said: “The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching.” His statement has proven true, as thousands of people around the world have rallied to show support for the Iranian protesters who have put their lives on the line in hopes of political reform.

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The unrest continues today, as demonstrators continue to rally in the country’s capital in defiance of a government ban against protesting the election results. Mousavi, who earlier declared himself the true winner of the presidential race, has told supporters he would run again should a new election be called.

The possibility isn’t so fantastical, as Iran’s supreme religious and political leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, backtracked on his earlier edict for opposition leaders to support Ahmadinejad as the election outcome was a “divine assessment.” Now, he is ordering officials to look into the fraud allegations.

But Ahmadinejad is not without his supporters, as tens of thousands of them took part in a victory rally on Sunday, where they heard the president dismiss the complaints, saying elections in Iran had never been healthier.

It seems this election has unleashed anger in many Iranians, particularly the younger ones. Almost 60 percent of Iran’s 70 million citizens are younger than 28. With unemployment topping 30 percent by some accounts, the youth are unhappy with Ahmadinejad’s response to the economy. They believe that Mousavi represents a real departure from the current regime in addressing the economy as well as other issues. While the president calls the Holocaust a myth, Mousavi has condemned the killing of Jews. While Ahmadinejad forces women to cover their hair in public, Mousavi has pledged his support for women’s rights.

In response to the current unrest, authorities have jammed text messages, blocked pro-Mousavi Web sites and Facebook, and cut off mobile phones in Tehran. Thankfully there’s Twitter. The social networking site has been instrumental in helping voices on the ground reach the outside world. An aggregator for real-time updates on Iranian-related tweets can be found here.

Amid the chaos and turmoil, President Obama has taken a “wait and see” approach. On Sunday, Vice President Biden told NBC News that there were “real doubts” about the announced results, but said the administration would “withhold comment until we have a thorough review of the whole process and how they react in the aftermath.”

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These bonuses were handed out only months after the U.S. government rescued the beleaguered insurance company from collapse with a bailout package that began at $85 billion and soon surged to $150 billion. So far, AIG has received about $170 billion in government funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, also known as TARP. To top it off, the retention bonuses were given to executives in the financial products section — the birthplace of the company’s downfall.

Needless to say, taxpayers across the country are infuriated that their tax dollars are funding lavish bonuses while individuals are left to deal with the brunt of the financial crisis. Lawmakers like Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, are outraged that AIG executives had the nerve to issue bonuses soon after they were rescued from bankruptcy. In a March 16 radio interview, Grassley advised AIG executives to follow the examples of Japanese corporate leaders who mismanaged their companies and do one of two things, “resign or go commit suicide.”

So what does the company have to say for itself? AIG’s chief, Edward M. Liddy, said that while the bonuses were “distasteful,” the company had a legal obligation to honor employee contracts. Speaking of contracts, in exchange for the government bailout AIG had to hand over 80 percent of its equity to the U.S. government. Most people would assume having control over 80 percent of a company would give the government the right to step in and refuse to deliver bonuses to employees who should be thanking taxpayers for their jobs. Such an assumption, however, would be incorrect.

Not to worry. The public outcry of disapproval has pushed elected officials to confront the issue. In the immediate aftermath, President Barack Obama said his administration would pursue every legal avenue to recover the bonuses given to over 400 AIG employees. But since, he has seemed to back off, asking the public not to criticize investors who are needed to buy up billions of dollars of bad mortgage securities.

And Congress, who practically demanded AIG executives’ heads on a stick, also appear to have backed down from its initial outrage. On March 19, the House of Representatives passed HR 1586, which would impose a 90 percent tax on bonuses given to employees with family incomes above $250,000 who work at AIG or any company that has received at least $5 billion in government bailout money. That bill is currently stalled in the Senate.

On April 2, the House passed another bill aimed at making sure bailed-out businesses don’t over-compensate their employees with taxpayers’ dollars. This version, however, isn’t as strong as its predecessor. It would allow the bonuses if the Treasury Department and financial regulators determine they are not unreasonable or excessive. But this bill, too, remains stalled in the Senate, where Democratic leaders say they will wait to act on any bonus legislation until Congress returns on April 20 from its two-week break.

Trying to stave off the growing public outrage, and fearing for their safety, some of the bonus recipients have agreed to return their bonuses, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Fifteen of the top 20 recipients from AIG’s financial products unit agreed to give back about $50 million. That sounds like a good start.

At the end of the day, should people be so surprised at the greediness AIG executives are displaying? These are the same people who spent over $440,000 on a weeklong retreat less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to the company’s bailout last September. How to prevent such avarice from seeping into our financial institutions in the future will certainly be a major topic for quite some time.

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As for me, I have a few things I want Obama to do when he becomes my president and here they are:

1. Boost the economy – I don’t expect Obama and his cabinet to fix all of the problems the global economy is facing, but I do expect him to fulfill the tax cuts he promised for the middle class.  Hopefully putting money back into our hands will give the economy some relief.
2. End the war in Iraq – There is a lot of controversy about why our soldiers are still in Iraq and even why we went there in the first place.  I don’t think we need to have thousands of soldiers in Iraq trying to protect people who don’t necessarily want protection.  I think terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan need more of our attention.
3. Border security – The immigrant population reached 37.9 million in 2007 and nearly one third of them are illegal immigrants.  I work at a place where almost half of the students enrolled are illegal immigrants and I fear that their parents don’t pay taxes.  I want more U.S. border security and am in favor of Obama’s plan that will require “undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.”
4. College student tax credit - When I read about Obama’s plan to give college students a tax credit, I got pretty excited. Obama promised to provide a $4,000 tax credit for college students who conduct 100 hours of community service.  I volunteer for community service every now and then, but not as much as I would like.  This tax credit would be a great incentive to volunteer more!

These are the issues I want Obama to deal with immediately, but there are several other issues that also need attention, such as making more energy green, Social Security reform, and improving veterans’ benefits.  So, after reading my to-do list, what are the main issues you want Obama to take on?

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