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Labor has extended its two-party-preferred lead over the Liberals in SA, the latest Newspoll shows.

South Australia's Labor government has capped off a strong year with a surge in voter support, the latest Newspoll shows.

The News Corp Australia poll, published on Wednesday, shows Labor has a two-party-preferred lead of 53 to 47 per cent over the Liberal opposition.

The Liberals' primary vote has plunged from 44.8 per cent at the March state election to just 33 per cent, with Labor claiming 35 per cent of the vote.

Voters overwhelmingly backed Premier Jay Weatherill, with 47 per cent of voters nominating him as preferred leader compared with 29 per cent for Steven Marshall.

The results will come as another blow to the Liberals, who had been widely expected to reclaim power at the March election after 12 years in opposition.

Despite claiming 53 per cent of the two-party vote, the Liberals failed to win key marginal seats, paving the way for Labor to form minority government with the support of independents.

Labor shored up its parliamentary numbers in May when former Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith made a shock defection, throwing his support behind the government as an independent cabinet minister.

The Liberals' woes deepened in December when Labor claimed a stunning win in a by-election for the southern suburbs seat of Fisher, once considered safe Liberal territory.

Labor's victory was driven partly by a strong negative campaign on federal issues, including Abbott government cuts to health spending and uncertainty about future submarines contracts.

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Strong support for Labor in SA: Newspoll

In a speech Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. House, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) declared immigration reform dead.

He chastised and baited Republicans in Congress for blocking reform, and declared that winning the White House without the support of a growing Hispanic population will become mathematically impossible. "The Republican Presidential nominee, whoever he or she may be, will enter the race with an electoral college deficit they cannot make up," said Gutierrez.

Gutierrez didn't mention the H-1B visa in the speech, but if he's right, and comprehensive immigration reform is indeed dead, so is raising the cap on H-1B visas.

Immigration reform advocates have successfully blocked any effort to take up the immigration issue piecemeal. They don't want support for broader reform to peel away.

For the next few weeks, the tech industry and other supporters of such legislation will continue to push ahead on immigration reform.

While tech lobbyists agree that the odds of passing immigration legislation are slim and shrinking, they still aren't ruling it out. So far, it's been mostly the Democrats who are declaring immigration dead. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has yet to say so definitively.

There really isn't that much time left.

The long August recess will soon be here, and post-recess lawmakers will be spending a lot time in their districts campaigning for reelection. It's not too early to start thinking about what the next Congress might do, and if the Republicans take control of the Senate, the tech industry will face a new obstacle: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

Grassley is the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the immigration issue. He is the leading critic of the H-1B program in Congress, and in line to be the committee chairman in a Republican victory. "The H-1B program is so popular that it's now replacing the U.S. labor force," he said in 2007.

Grassley has been a consistent critic of the H-1B program. One year ago this week, the Senate passed its bipartisan immigration bill that would more than double the H-1B cap, increasing it from 85,000 to 180,000 annually. "Let's peel back the onion and see how much this stinks," said Grassley, as his efforts to add H-1B restrictions to the bill failed.

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If immigration reform is dead, so is raising the H-1B cap

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We dont want our workers deported. Thats the bottom line.

Kim Shanahan, Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association

Welcome to the other side of illegal immigration.

Its the flip side of secure our borders first, the side that depends on the labor of folks from somewhere else to deliver products to Americans.

Like homes.

And restaurant meals.

And any number of services that used to provide the jobs that used to provide preparation for or membership in the countrys now-shrinking middle class.

Lets face it. Many Americans just wont work as carpenters, framers, drywall installers, bricklayers, roofers and painters. They wont pour concrete or lay adobe. Its honest work, and the pay is pretty good. But its just too hard. Its easier to collect government bennies, play video games and get subsidized insurance.

Thats the system weve allowed to develop, and weve filled the void with immigrant labor. No case better illustrates this than the need to import tens of thousands of mostly undocumented Hispanic workers to rebuild New Orleans after Katrina. And this need for immigrant labor has been in the face of high unemployment and record low workforce participation numbers in the U.S., especially among people under 35.

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Editorial: Immigration reform must factor in workforce needs

BOSTON Bostons mayor and police commissioner urged activists Tuesday to hold off on a planned die-in protesting police violence during the citys annual New Years Eve festivities.

Mayor Martin Walsh and Police Commissioner William Evans said the city will honor the protesters First Amendment right to demonstrate on Dec. 31. But they suggested the family-friendly First Night event is not the proper venue to address recent police killings of unarmed black men and boys in the U.S.

This isnt the event to do this, Evans said. If you walk down there, its all 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds. I dont think they have to see [that] behavior. They dont understand what is going on. They are still very innocent.

Walsh agreed: At some point, we have to have a dialogue about where we go from here. Protesting is great to get your point across. But the conversation has to happen around what are the answers people are looking for so that we can explain what we have done as a police department and as a city. Weve done some hard work around race relations, in particular.

Evans suggested many of the protesters are from outside the city trying to capitalize on recent events and do not reflect the relations between law enforcement and the community in Boston. The majority of the community is behind us, he said.

If activists decide to demonstrate as planned at Copley Square, Walsh and Evans said they should be respectful of police and First Night revelers.

Now in its 39th year, First Night draws tens of thousands with a mix of ice sculptures, music, fireworks and other family-friendly activities. Its emphasis on wholesome, non-alcohol-fueled fun has inspired hundreds of similar celebrations around the world.

The group First Night Against Police Violence has said it expects at least 100 people to participate in its New Years Eve die-in, in which activists lie down in the street pretending to be dead.

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Boston officials urge protesters to show restraint during First Night event

Hillary Clinton in 2016? James Carville States Large Support From Democrats: `This Week` Roundtable
James Carville says 90 percent of Democrats want Clinton to run.

By: news world

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Hillary Clinton in 2016? James Carville States Large Support From Democrats: `This Week` Roundtable - Video