patrick.net

Clara says

People are still underestimating the buying power of the immigrants

China Urges Western Nations to Enter Extradition Treaties (NYT)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/world/asia/29china.html

Senior Chinese officials routinely warn that rampant corruption is one of the biggest threats to Communist Party rule, and the authorities have mounted a series of sweeping crackdowns in recent years.

But many suspects, including government officials and managers of state-owned businesses, have fled to developed nations that do not have extradition treaties with China, including the United States, Canada and Australia.

The China Daily reported that about 800 suspects wanted for economic crimes were at large overseas, according to officials from the country’s Public Security Bureau.

In earlier reports, state media said that as many as 4,000 officials have pocketed a total of $50 billion and escaped overseas in recent years.

The most celebrated Chinese fugitive is Lai Changxing, accused of being a smuggling boss, who has been living under a form of house arrest in Canada for seven years while he fights in the Canadian courts to avoid being returned to China. The Canadian government has agreed that Mr. Lai should be repatriated, but his case has been tied up in a series of challenges and appeals.

Last month, a judge in Canada’s Federal Court ordered judicial review of an earlier ruling that Mr. Lai and his wife would not be executed if returned to China. The court-ordered review effectively delayed any decision to deport them.

An extradition treaty would streamline the return of suspects to China, but the absence of one does not automatically bar the return of suspected or convicted criminals. This month, Japan, which lacks such a treaty with China, for the first time repatriated a Chinese official accused of corruption, according to a Xinhua report on May 12.

Yuan Tongshun, the former manager of a state-owned enterprise in Dalian, a northern port city, who was suspected of embezzling public funds, was returned to China after a Japanese court ruled he should be extradited, Xinhua said.

The United States also cooperated with China to return Yu Zhendong, a fugitive wanted for his part in the embezzlement of at least $485 million from 1992 to 2001 from a branch of the Bank of China in Guangdong Province.

In April 2004, Mr. Yu pleaded guilty in Las Vegas to racketeering charges arising from the embezzlement and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But, as part of a plea bargain, he agreed to return to face charges in China providing he was not jailed for a longer term, tortured or executed.
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not sure if the link was broken but all of those houses are in San Jose not Cupertino.

Clara says

People are still underestimating the buying power of the immigrants. [facepalm]

I have told you many many times they are the reasons why BA is so goddamn expensive.

The BA has always been expensive.

Protip: Except for a couple micro markets, prices are still dropping across the BA.

Clara says

People are still underestimating the buying power of the immigrants. [facepalm]

I have told you many many times they are the reasons why BA is so goddamn expensive.

I think that people also make the incorrect assumption that non-white people that speak a language other than English at open houses are immigrants. Lots of citizens/permanent residents probably look & sound like "immigrants" to native US folks.

I rented in 95129 for one year, and don't feel the Cupertino Schools are somehow exceptional for anything THEY do. It's all about the parents. My daughter was in Kindergarten, and was a typical kindergartner. We didn't send her to outside tutors and did not put any pressure on her. Her teacher essentially taught nothing. Everything those kids learned it seemed they learned outside of the actual school.

My son was in second grade, and was an average to perhaps slightly-above average student. Again, no outside tutoring, and no pressure. The work I saw him do at school was not necessarily that impressive compared to the school he attended the prior year, which was certainly not anywhere near the test score level of the Cupertino school.

It was readily apparent to me that there was nothing magical about Cupertino schools. What they benefited from was a large community of parents with high expectations, and parents that would tutor or place higher expectations on their children.

My children are now not in a "10" school, but rather an "8". I am far more impressed with the level of actual teaching that goes on in the "8" school versus the Cupertino "10".

To buy in the likes of 95129 is to buy into like-minded parents. The school itself makes absolutely no difference.

generallyfd says

To buy in the likes of 95129 is to buy into like-minded parents.

baaaaa. baaaa.

I am new to the Bay Area and sent my kids to Cupertino schools after moving fom the mid-west. There are many visible cuts to education here. It's the high parental involvement and expectations which are motivating the kids to high test scores. Nothing special about the staff and schools.

I always have the these misgivings about parents paying a premium for the school district.

Many friends who buy houses at Palo alto and Cupertino only have one goals, sending kids to Stanford, but college is only the beginning. And, ones should not pave too smooth of a road for the kids

SFace says

Cupertino Monta Vista High teen wins 100K national science award:

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP27e6b4fd88bf44e49660ba127407d5f4.html

17 year old Cancer research designing nanoparticle targeting cancerous tumors. this girl probably knew more than her teacher as a 16 year old teenager. That is why Cupertino is coveted.

"I contacted a professor at [Stanford University] when I was 14 to see if I could work in their lab," If my kid was 14 and have that kind of self-motivation and desire, I don't need to worry anymore.

" Top team honors went to a pair of students from Oak Ridge, Tenn."
I wonder how much an average house cost in Oak Ridge, Tenn.... maybe the Magical Chinese immigrants should move there.

Just because one kid who's had heavy parental guidance from an early age (and probably inside connections to the Stanford Lab) won a science contest, it doesn't mean someone can drop a kid in the same school and turn him/her into little Einsteins.

I don't care how smart the kid is, you don't get to research in Stanford without inside connections at age 14.