HispanicVista Columnists & Guest Columns

Week of August 29, 2005

Business Section

Commentary & News

Week of August 29, 2005

Real Estate development investment and home ownership in Baja California peninsula is one hot market.

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

   August 22, 2005

 

The U.S., or any nation, has to be able to control its borders; has to know who enters and can demand that those entering must be by permission. And it follows that if there are illegal entries into a sovereign nation’s territory, the nation has the right, indeed the obligation, to arrest and deport those entrants, and to seal its borders to prevent reoccurrences. There are those who suggest that the US Hispanic community does not agree. In fact, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center survey report, a significant majority of US Hispanic citizens agree with these principles.

The friction and seeming disparity of opinion attributed to the Hispanic community on these issues have and continue to be the inflammatory and insulting rhetoric and accusations aimed at Mexicans and Central Americans in an effort to force public opinion against, not their acts of illegal entry, but against them as human beings.

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

   August 22, 2005

Writing articles on Mexican real estate brings a lot of questions from readers. Since the Metro is the prime business magazine in the San Diego-Tijuana region, it stands to reason that a fair share of its readers are interested in both buying and investigating the potential for investing in Baja provided it’s safe. Readers demonstrate an understanding that risk is an inherent part of investment typically controlled by the laws of supply and demand that may drive upward or downward investments, profits or both.

But what is meant by “is it safe” has to do with Mexican laws, business climate, land and construction costs, land use designations, environmental requirements and all the other details that can facilitate or impede projects. This type of information is mainly asked by real estate developers who want to get into the action.

By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com

   August 29, 2005

 

FROM MEXICO

 

   In 1992, México entered their first Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Prior to that time, México operated as a closed and "protected" economy that led to a country with a heavily government owned economy and a largely noncompetitive private economy that was stagnant.

The 1992 FTA was with Chile was followed by the 1994 NAFTA agreement. That was the biggie. Since that time México has become the country with the largest number of FTAs in the entire world. As of 2001, there were 41 FTAs on file in México. Since that time, we have made more including a Persian Rug FTA with Iran and even with countries in North Africa for products that I can't even guess. But how has all of this affected the Mexican economy and its people?

Commentary from California Chamber of Commerce

Californians Have Chance to Fix State’s Broken Budget, Political Systems

With little more than 10 weeks remaining before the November 8 special election, it is time to move beyond all the rhetoric and begin discussing the issues that will be going to a vote of the people.

Two priorities for the California Chamber of Commerce are giving Californians an opportunity to repair California’s broken budget and political systems, both elements of the Governor’s reform package.

Opponents of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are spending a great deal of time and money trying to impugn him rather than discussing the merits of his reform proposals because they can’t defend the status quo. In any credible debate, nobody could assert that California’s budget system is fine just the way it is, or that a November general election without competitive seats is real democracy.

By Domingo Ivan  Casañas/HispanicVista.com

   August 29, 2005

  

   In our community there are still parents suffering because their children are out of control.  It happens in the Latino family just as well.   There is an organization that believes that drug and alcohol abuse, family violence, teen pregnancy, suicide, family dissolution, school dropouts, and runaways are problems created and maintained by the culture in which we live.  TOUGHLOVE goals are to change the conditions of the culture by empowering people through a community based self-help programs. 

Too many parents are guilty of abdicating their parental authority.  Why is it that more and more teenagers are getting their way at home without any consequences for their actions?  Our society has made some parents, whether single; divorced or married, act as if the child is the boss.  Unfortunately, some of these parents feel as if they can no longer get the respect needed. 

By Ben Kelly and Ben Baeder

San Gabriel Valley Tribune Staff Writers 

 

Eileen Olson has a bone to pick with Wells Fargo bank.

Despite being a longtime customer, the 80-year-old plans to take her business elsewhere if the bank does not stop allowing Mexican immigrants to open accounts using a matricula consular identification card.

Olson and about 20 others gathered Saturday morning outside the Wells Fargo branch on Barranca Avenue in West Covina, protesting the bank's recent practice.

"They give illegals advantages they don't give some citizens," Olson said. "It's not right. It encourages more illegal aliens to come."

A spokeswoman from Wells Fargo & Co. said the bank decided to start accepting matricula consular identifications in 2001, after police agencies in Texas reported too many Mexican immigrants were walking around with all their savings in cash.

Latino Education and the New SAT

By Manuel Hernandez/HispanicVista.com

            The key to a higher education is changing dramatically, and the education of Latinos needs to make concise and specific adjustments to enhance the academic opportunities of its teens. According to John Cloud’s essay “Inside The New SAT”, “an exhaustive revision” of the SAT’s is meant to “mold the U.S. secondary school system to its liking”(Time, October 27, 2003). These changes are being implemented for the SAT’s this year. The new SAT will have three sections: reading, writing and math. The changes will provoke spontaneous and widespread curriculum changes in the United States that will without a doubt affect the education of Latinos and other American teens as well.

Oakland rendezvous 'a success,' participants say

By Lupita Figueiredo 

Oakland Tribune

At the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce Convention, held the last few days in Oakland, more than 2,200 business owners had the opportunity to network and meet high-ranking politicians — who did not pass up the timely platform for their agendas.

"It was a success," said Julian Canete, president of CHCC. "Hispanic business owners got the recognition they deserve as a driving force in California's economy."

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown hosted the welcome reception Wednesday night. Then came Thursday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as keynote speaker at the Latina Recognition Luncheon. His visit, a surprise to some of the convention's organizers and to others present, is an indication he is courting the Latino community — at least the Latino business community, participants said.

History

By John P. Schmal/HispanicVista.com

From 1962 to 1985, the Chicano community of California had witnessed a revival of its political representation, this following a period of many decades during which Hispanic Americans had little or no representation anywhere in the State. In 1985, seven Chicanos were seated California State Legislature, making up 6% of the total membership of that political body: Chacón, Alatorre, Calderon and Molina served in the Assembly, while Montoya, Ayala and Torres occupied seats in the Senate. At the same time, three Chicano Congressman continued to serve as delegates from California in the House of Representatives.

Arthur K. Snyder and the 14^th Council  District

The most important events affecting Chicano representation in California

A tax on U.S. corn sweeteners is deemed a violation of NAFTA laws. The move deals a blow to an industry that employs 2.4 million.

By Chris Kraul

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The World Trade Organization has ruled that a Mexican tax designed to protect sugar producers against imports of cheap U.S. corn sweeteners violates trade laws, a decision that could cost Mexico jobs and spark political turmoil.
Although the decision has not been formally announced, Mexico's Economy Ministry confirmed Tuesday that the global trade body sided with the United States in its claim against the tax Mexico has imposed since 2002 on soft-drink bottlers who use U.S. corn sweetener.

By Raoul Lowery Contreras/HispanicVista.com

   August 22, 2005

"This country is not worth fighting for,” says American left-wing "iconnette," Cindy Sheehan. Further, she has been recorded as saying that the United States is in Iraq fighting Israel’s illegitimate war. 

In Texas, she prances in front of cameras surrounded by others like her spouting anti-Bush chants, anti-war bromides and taking left wing whining to a new level, a very low level. She demonstrated in support of a homegrown terrorist lawyer when she was convicted of supporting terrorism.

Cindy Sheehan’s son, Casey, died in Iraq.  This is the only reason we know who Cindy Sheehan is.

Casey wasn’t a draftee, he was not drafted to fight a war against his will; he volunteered.  He didn’t seek his mother’s approval, he volunteered

The Gringo Gazette North, long known for it's commitment to exposing  illegal and unethical behavior of Baja businesses has turned it's attention to the ongoing poor business practices of Coldwell Banker in Rosarito.  Unknown to much of the American community there has constant complaints to the office, located at Costa Bella, due to Mr.  Forral's agenda of promoting that development against the advice of every real estate professional in Rosarito.

Mr. Forral has repeatedly stated that there are no problems with Costa Bella that would keep it form obtaining title, bank trust and eventually title insurance and finance.  This seems unlikely when, as the Gringo Gazette reports, there is not even a sewage plant. The raw sewage empties into the ocean behind the property.

Newsletter monitoring extremism and the anti-immigration movement

[TX] Day labor site "observers" will pack guns
[AZ] Salvadoran immigrants awarded Ranch Rescue compound

[NC] Politicians leap aboard anti-immigration bandwagon

[CA] Hundreds of Californians support border police initiative

[VA] Fight over day labor site intensifies

[TX] Texas Minutemen face rough ride

[USA] Expert: Vigilante groups resemble 1990s militias

 

LEARN MORE
Want to learn more about the anti-immigration movement? Read these
articles from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report:
Blood on the Border
A survey of anti-immigration activity and groups.

The Puppeteer
An investigative profile of America's most important anti-immigration activist (John Tanton)
Open Season
A feature on vigilantes in Arizona

The world's biggest financial companies have talked with several presidential hopefuls.

BY Nayeli Cortes Cano/El Universal
August 24, 2005

The world's biggest financial firms have contacted a number of presidential hopefuls to get a better grasp of how the country might be run after President Vicente Fox steps down in 2006, according to campaign officials who spoke with EL UNIVERSAL.

Representatives from the campaigns of Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN) all confirmed that international financial companies have contacted them to learn about their economic proposals.

Other politicians gunning for their parties' candidacies, such as the PAN's Santiago Creel and Alberto Cárdenas and the PRI's Arturo Montiel, have yet to hear from the banking groups.

GUEST

The Whiteness of Wi-Fi

By Roberto Lovato

 

W.E.B. DuBois wrote at a time of breathtaking social change, a time not unlike our own. The black social critic, activist and writer documented how African Americans fled the bitter roots of sharecropping in the Jim Crow South only to find themselves at the margins of the bustling industrial economy of cities in the North like Philadelphia.

The railroad ushered in dramatic change and Philadelphia, a mercantile and industrial powerhouse, had taken its place as the center of the U.S. railroad industry. In books written in the 1890s and early 20th century, DuBois captured how railroad barons and white labor union leaders forced African Americans into densely populated brick row homes on sewage-filled streets on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, away from the commerce and economic development on the other, whiter side.

Weapons: A Trillion-Dollar Trade
Spending on Arms Continues to Rise

Armaments remain a big business worldwide. On June 7 the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released its annual report on the arms industry. According to the "SIPRI Yearbook 2005: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security," world military expenditure in 2004 is estimated to have been $1.03 trillion in current dollars.
The average annual rate of increase in military expenditure during 1995-2004 was 2.4% in real terms. This period, however, can be divided into two: first, the post Cold War reduction in military spending which culminated around 1998; second, an increasing trend since 1998, accelerating to an annual average increase of around 6% in real terms over the three-year period 2002-2004.
The report notes that as a global average, 2004 military expenditures correspond to $162 per capita, or 2.6% of the world's gross domestic product. But there is a wide variation between regions and countries.

GUEST

Mounting Border Problems are Cause for New Migration Policy

By Talli Nauman

 

Americas Program, International Relations Center (IRC) 

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s pledge Aug. 24 to strengthen law and order on the U.S.-Mexico border was a response to recent demands for a more rational approach to migration problems. But it was a slap in the face to protagonists of the authentic resolution of U.S. conflicts over migration policy.

More than 350 human lives have already been lost in what could be the deadliest year on record for migrant families, thanks to inappropriately popular enforcement mechanisms, which have contributed to a climate of tension.

Common in China, Kickbacks Create Trouble for U.S. Companies at Home

By Peter S. Goodman

Washington Post Foreign Service

 For multinational companies grappling with stagnant sales, China has become a magnet for investment and a huge potential market beckoning with growth. Yet the lure of China profits combined with pervasive local corruption is tempting foreign companies and managers and bringing them into conflict with U.S. anti-bribery laws.

In interviews, China-based executives, sales agents and distributors for nine U.S. multinational companies acknowledged that their firms routinely win sales by paying what could be considered bribes or kickbacks --

GUEST

Immigration: Ten Points to Ponder

By Doug Bower

 

1. Why is it that no one seems to notice, much less ever mention, that the World Bank and the IMF have implemented economic measures that have left large sections of their populations unemployed and destitute? (The illegals are not doing this, you see, but this population is easier to attack and is more defenseless than the World Bank and the IMF.)

2. Why is it that no one seems to notice, much less ever mention, that the effects of NAFTA have backfired driving more than six million Mexican farmers off their land?

"The powerful have insisted on trade policies that allow capital to go wherever it will generate more profit. But there has not been a parallel change in the rules regulating the movement of labor. Circumstances force tens of millions to try to emigrate, but they are not allowed to do so legally. Having no choice, they do so anyway."[

Mexican Maquiladora Industry fears CAFTA will hurt – textiles the most

Mexico's assembly-for-export industry, which has struggled to compete with China, will likely be hurt further by the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement, officials said Wednesday.

Enrique Castro, president of Mexico's maquiladora association, said the new trade agreement still awaiting final approval would likely affect Mexico's textile industry the most.

Some companies may prefer to move their factories to Central America, which generally has cheaper labor than Mexico and a growing clothing industry, he said at a news conference.

"These are emerging nations that have a great need to develop," Castro said.

GUEST

IRC Americas Program Commentary

Appropriate and Inappropriate Foreign Policy in Latin America What to Do About Hugo?

By Tom Barry

 

What to do with Hugo? That’s a question that is bedeviling the Bush administration, which sees its centuries-old hegemonic hold on Latin America and the Caribbean slipping.

As President Hugo Chavez adeptly leverages Venezuela’s oil wealth to forge an array of regional alliances that leave the United States out in the cold, U.S. – Venezuela tensions are heating up. Boosted by the rising prices of oil and the deepening regional anger over U.S. imperial arrogance, Chavez has proved able not only to construct a counter-hegemonic constituency in Venezuela among the country’s poor majority but also to piece together a regional network that is challenging U.S. political and economic dominance. Uncle Sam is becoming the odd man out in the hemisphere claimed as U.S. domain since the early 19th century.

Mexico's Foreign Direct Investment Falls
Mexico's Foreign Direct Investment Falls During First Half of 2005

MEXICO CITY (AP) - August 19, 2005 - Foreign direct investment in Mexico was US$7.46 billion (euro6.13 billion) in the first half of this year, the Economy Department said Friday.

The amount was below the US$10.29 billion (euro12.73 billion) reported in the like 2004 period, when the equity buyouts of local bank BBVA-Bancomer and cement company Holcim Apasco by their parent companies boosted investment.

By excluding those inflows from the comparison, FDI was 8.3 percent higher than in the first six months of 2004, the Economy Ministry said in a statement.

GUEST

Central America's Street Gangs Are Drawn into the World of Geopolitics
Drafted By: Adam Wolfe

Over the course of the past year, the Bush administration has begun to shift its focus in Latin America away from asymmetrical threats, such as terrorism, and toward the more traditional power politics of the region: containing the left-leaning governments bent on curtailing Washington's influence in the region. Threats previously espoused by the administration -- Hezbollah's presence in the tri-border region and in Chile, Venezuela's Margarita Island serving as a terrorist resort and Islamic groups working with the drug traffickers in the region -- have all seemingly been knocked down in their threat level in public declarations. However, in Central America, Washington is getting serious about a problem it helped to create -- and not simply because the region's street gangs and vast criminal networks are making their presence known in the United States.

 

Mexican growth forecast lowered after report second quarter did not meet expectations

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse First Boston, Santander Central Hispano SA and ING Groep NV cut their forecasts for Mexican growth this year after a government report showed the economy expanded less than expected in the second quarter.

JPMorgan reduced its growth forecast to 2.4 percent from 3.2 percent while Credit Suisse First Boston cut its forecast to 3 percent from 4 percent and Santander lowered its estimate to 3.2 percent from 3.5 percent. ING cut its estimate to 2.8 percent from 3.6 percent.

Latin America's largest economy expanded 3.1 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, below the 4 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 12 economists, as the agricultural industry...

COMMENTARY

THE BEST FROM THE NET

August 29, 2005

Borderline policy

More patrols are needed but so is a policy for immigrants already here

L.A. Daily News Opinion

 

The governors of New Mexico and Arizona declared a state of emergency last week over the illegal-immigration problem and demanded that the federal government help them cope with the rising tide of people flooding across the board with Mexico and the resulting violence, accidents and injuries.

U.S. Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff responded to the appeals by promising he would increase border patrols and surveillance of the border and immigrants. He said he was working on a strategy that would also aid in the deportation process so immigrants didn't get set free by accident.

Closing the Achievement Gap

By Roger Wilkins

TomPaine.com

More than 40 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of a war on poverty, minority and poor students—in rural areas and cities alike—continue to consistently fall behind in basic math and reading skills.  It would be wrong and unfair to assume that the reason for these students’ poor achievement lies largely within them.  The children on the wrong side of the achievement gap often come from devastated neighborhoods where unemployment, poor health care and crowded sub-standard housing are common.  These difficulties, often experienced for generations, reduce the likelihood of parents providing the preparation and support for...

America's illegal immigration dilemma can't be deported

By John Hughes

Christian Science Monitor

JACKSON, WYO. – In the big Albertsons supermarket in this resort area, a genial cashier with a heavy accent serves me. "Where are you from?" I ask. "Poland," he replies.

He's here on a special student visa that allows young Europeans to work in the US for a summer and perfect their English. Has he had a good experience? "Oh, yes. But I am sad because I must go home at the end of August, and I love America."

A few days later, my cashier is a smiling young woman, who also has a marked accent and is here on the same program. From Russia, she, too, loves America.

Both are here legally on a program that has tremendous friendship-building benefits for the US. Both must go home.

Revisiting welfare reform 

Opinion/The New York Times

 

For three years, Congress has been staring ostensible success in the face - the 1996 reform of the old welfare system - and dithering about what to do next. The tough-edged "workfare" plan, which cut welfare cases in half, has expired but has been temporarily extended 10 times as lawmakers clashed over how much of a balance to strike between toughness and humaneness. A showdown for two million marginal families is approaching, with hard-line Republicans in the House insisting on a measly $1 billion increase over five years in child care support.

Fortunately, the Senate has a better plan. Olympia Snowe, the Maine Republican who is a champion of child care, is fervidly defending a proposal for $6 billion more in child care money over five years. That is the minimum, she wisely argues, to realize the goal of guiding people on welfare into the workplace.

EDITORIAL – Orlando Sentinel

OK guest-worker plan

Our position: It's overdue for Congress to rescue the borders from further chaos.

Fed up with federal inaction to stem illegal immigration and other crime along their states' borders with Mexico, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico recently declared law-enforcement emergencies. That's so they can throw even more resources at protecting their borders. California's governor is considering a similar declaration.

Clearly, it is past time for Congress to fix this country's broken immigration system.

There are at least 10 million immigrants living in this country illegally, including some 850,000 in Florida. More are slipping across the border every day, despite huge increases in money and manpower intended to stop them.
Yet the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come north in search of work and a better life for their families. They fill low-wage jobs shunned by Americans and help keep the economy humming. Immigration quotas are much too low for them to enter lawfully.

Regime Change By Assassin? Easier Said Than Done.

By Lynne Duke

Washington Post Staff Writer
So Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, thinks the United States should assassinate Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president.

Let's see. What are our options? The 30-year-old Senate reports of the Church committee give us some options.

How about a vial of poison, as ordered up for a proposed U.S. assassination in 1960 of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Or perhaps supply some weaponry to a local hit squad, as Washington did for those who bumped off Dominican leader Rafael Trujillo.

And let us not overlook Fidel. Oh Fidel, that tough Castro case in Cuba. Through the 1960s, there were eight -- count 'em, eight -- separate U.S. plots to kill him. MOs included a mob hit, poisoned cigars, an exploding seashell and a skin diving suit contaminated with deadly fungi, not to mention various rifles and explosives in the hands of Castro-hating Cuban exiles.

The Rise Of The Anti-Immigrant Right

By Bill Berkowitz

TomPaine.com

 

David Horowitz, the former left-wing anti-Vietnam War activist turned right wing provocateur and entrepreneur will be taking a hiatus (albeit brief) from bashing anti-Iraq war activists and making America’s college campuses safe from anti-patriotic liberal academics. Horowitz will, instead, be turning his attention to the politics of immigration. On Friday, August 26, his Center for the Study of Popular Culture will be co-sponsoring—along with the Washington D.C.-based anti-immigration Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Coalition for Immigration Reform of California—a day-long conference on immigration and related issues. 

The conference, which “will focus on the impact of Illegal Immigration on America relating to issues of: national security, the economy, society and politics,” will be held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.   

Time to redefine Canada’s ties with US

By Lloyd Axworthy

Toronto Star

 

Outrage over the duplicitous diplomacy used to avoid treaty obligations on Devil's Lake is not enough.

Canceling a meeting of trade bureaucrats in defiance of a NAFTA trade ruling on softwood lumber is blowing smoke in the wind.

Telephone tag between the Prime Minister and President George Bush is a sop, not a solution. Huffing and puffing will neither impress nor influence the Bush administration in Washington, nor their regional allies like the governor and senators of North Dakota.

The reality is that we are dealing with an American political system currently steeped in the ideology of "empire." It recognizes few rules, adheres only to those treaties that are expedient to basic interests, and believes that the only political currency that counts is the exercise of raw power.

Pat Robertson's Gift

Washington Post Editorial

WE WON'T even pretend to have given television evangelist Pat Robertson's latest obnoxious utterance much thought, considering his long history of pious bloviations that have made him come across to most Americans as, well, witless. Were it not for the widespread attention being given in Latin America to Mr. Robertson's call on Monday for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, we would have preferred to allow the Christian Coalition's founder to continue his slide from America's mainstream into the obscurity he has so richly earned. But his latest bit of foolery is worth a comment or two -- if for no other reason than Mr. Robertson, in an act of stupidity only he could outdo, has handed Fidel Castro's acolyte a propaganda gift of immeasurable value.

Mr. Chavez, who, like Mr. Robertson, is infatuated with the absurd, fancies that the United States is out to kill him. It so happens that Mr. Chavez, when not meddling in the affairs of his neighbors and spawning anti-democratic movements, seems to enjoy portraying himself as a target of U.S. assassins -- a charge that he makes without evidence and that has been strongly denied by the Bush administration.

Jobs and Immigrants - America needs more, not fewer, workers from overseas.
Wall Street Journal Opinion Page

Political pressure for an immigration crackdown seems to be building, with allegedly serious people even debating a 2,000-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Meanwhile, in the U.S. economy, the demand for foreign workers continues, as shown by the collapse of the H-1B visa program. Since the restrictionists won't tell you about this, allow us to explain.

Each year, the U.S. issues a set number of H-1B visas to educated foreign professionals with specialized skills. Earlier this month the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program, announced that the annual H-1B cap of 65,000 already has been reached for next year. In fact, it was reached in record time, or 14 months prior to the fiscal year in which the visas would be used.

What this effectively means is that any number of fields dependent on high-skilled labor could be facing worker shortages: science, medicine, engineering, computer programming. It also means that tens of thousands of foreigners--who've graduated from U.S. universities and applied for the visas to stay here and work for American firms--will be shipped home to start companies or work for our global competitors.

NEWS  

Of interest you may have missed for

Week of August 29, 2005

High School Reform strongly supported by Latinos

Washington, DC – August 24, 2005 - A new poll by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington-based policy, research, and advocacy organization that works to make every child a graduate, prepared for postsecondary education and success in life, found strong support among Latinos for greater investment in our nation's high schools. Janet Murguia, NCLR President and CEO, spoke today at a news briefing to release the Alliance's National Poll on High Schools, a comprehensive public opinion survey on high schools, held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

It was only a matter of time: Florida State University Launches first cent for Hispanic marketing.

By Doreen Hemlock

Marketing to U.S. Hispanics has become such big business that you can now get a college education in it.
Florida State University is launching the country's first center for Hispanic marketing communication, directed by Felipe Korzenny, a specialist in Hispanic marketing and an FSU professor of advertising and marketing.
 

Latinos Feel Brunt of Job-Based Insurance Drop

Pacific News Service, News Analysis, Hilary Abramson, Aug 25, 2005

Editor's Note: The "crumbling" of California's employer-based health insurance hits working Latinos harder than any other group, according to a new study.
SAN FRANCISCO--If every working California adult is "headed over the cliff" for lack of affordable health insurance, as the co-author of a new statewide study contends, then Latinos will be the first to go.
California has no racial/ethnic majority, but according to the report by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the burden from "crumbling" employer-based insurance is shared unevenly. Non-Hispanic whites continue to have the highest -- and Latinos the lowest -- rates of job-based health insurance coverage.

Nonprofit group helps college-bound Hispanics

HUEYAS aims to assist high-achieving Hispanic students get financial aid or college entrance, regardless of immigrant status.
By Yvonne Carey
Special to The Herald
Susanna Hernandez, a Colombian-born student at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, had a 4.8 grade-point average yet found herself considering dropping out because she did not have a green card.

The immigration attorney her family had hired six years ago to help them failed, and Hernandez found herself in the process of reapplying for the green card, unable to obtain any type of financial assistance for college because of her legal limbo.

Law Targets Student Aid for Drug Crimes

Provision Rescinding Financial Packages Criticized for Affecting Only Non-Affluent

By Sanhita Sen

Special to The Washington Post
One graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, the other from Princeton University. Both used drugs including marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Both were caught.

But where these students' paths diverge -- the first lost his financial aid package and was suspended, the second got a slap on the wrist and continued his studies uninterrupted -- demonstrates how a little-known 1998 federal law exacts serious consequences for some students but leaves others unscathed.

How Marriage Is Faring
Study Compares U.S. and Scandinavia

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey, AUG. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- In July the National Marriage Project, based at Rutgers University, released its annual report on marriage. This year's edition is titled "The State of Our Unions: Marriage and Family: What Does the Scandinavian Experience Tell Us?"
Authored by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and David Popenoe, the report presents a variety of statistical information on family and the marriage in the United States. The report also contains an essay by Popenoe comparing family policies in the United States and Sweden.

Outsider Gutierrez Helped by Old Bush Hands

By Brian Faler

Special to The Washington Post

When Carlos M. Gutierrez took over the Commerce Department in February, he was new to government and without a stable of federal associates to draw from to help him run the sprawling agency.

Many of the advisers he brought on board did not have any connection to either the agency or the secretary -- but nearly all had long-standing ties to the White House, through President Bush's two presidential campaigns, his governorship in Texas or his father's administration.

Democrats Split Over Position on Iraq War

Activists More Vocal As Leaders Decline To Challenge Bush

By Peter Baker and Shailagh Murray

Washington Post Staff Writers

Democrats say a long-standing rift in the party over the Iraq war has grown increasingly raw in recent days, as stay-the-course elected leaders who voted for the war three years ago confront rising impatience from activists and strategists who want to challenge President Bush aggressively to withdraw troops.

Núñez: Declare border crisis

He urges governor to join Arizona, New Mexico in asking U.S. to help defray cost of illegal immigrants.

By Alexa H. Bluth

Sacramento Bee Capitol Bureau

As he prepares to meet next week with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez is pressuring Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to join his counterparts in New Mexico and Arizona in declaring a state of emergency to help defray the costs of illegal immigration.

"We have to protect and patrol our borders more effectively," Núñez said Friday in an interview on Fox News Channel, but he added, "The federal government needs to do its fair share to reimburse the states for housing illegal immigrants in our jails."

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, both Democrats, declared emergencies in their states to free up federal money and help combat smuggling and violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

CA Assembly Speaker Nuñes visits Mexico to attempts to ease Schwarzenegger’s remarks – has to explain his own.

By John Rice

MEXICO CITY – Associated Press - August 26, 2005 - California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez met Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday on a trip he said was meant to ease Mexican anger at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s remarks about immigrants.

But Nunez also found himself explaining his own call for a state of emergency along the border – a declaration made by other states that has irritated Mexican leaders.

Nunez’s meeting Thursday with Fox wasn’t mentioned on the president’s daily schedule of public events.

Heading into the meeting at the presidential residence of Los Pinos, the speaker said the emergency decree was a matter “between the states and the Bush Administration” meant to seek resources to solve border region problems.

Mexico and California agree on the need to strengthen the political dialogue at the highest level.

Press Release 158, Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs: http://www.sre.gob.mx/

August 25, 2005

Today the speaker of the California State Assembly, Fabián Núñez, began a two-day visit to Mexico. His program includes meetings with government officials, businessmen, scholars and Mexican legislators.

This afternoon in the presidential residence Los Pinos, President Vicente Fox met with the assemblyman. They exchanged opinions on the importance of creating new mechanisms so that the migratory flows between the two countries are legal, safe, orderly and respect the migrants’ rights. They agreed that the new mechanisms would be a key component in improving safety on the border.

Bill would let Arnold call border emergency

By Harrison Sheppard and Lisa Friedman,

L.A. Daily News-Sacramento Bureau 

A group of Republican legislators introduced a bill Thursday that would allow the governor to declare a state of emergency over illegal immigration in California.

The bill follows statements by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that he does not plan to declare an emergency in California - as Arizona and New Mexico have - because he does not believe he has the authority and does not believe it is necessary.

"We have drafted this measure and taken this action today because of the problem that illegal immigration presents to the residents of California," said Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrietta.

Robertson Calls for Chavez Assassination

By Alan Cooperman

Washington Post Staff Writer
 Pat Robertson, the television evangelist and Christian Coalition founder, has set off a diplomatic fracas with Venezuela by calling for the assassination of its populist president, Hugo Chavez.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on his Christian Broadcasting Network. "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Pope Proposes "Fruitful Collaboration" to Chávez Government
Receives Venezuela's New Envoy
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 25, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI proposed that tensions between Hugo Chávez's government and the Catholic Church be surmounted by promoting mutual collaboration for the benefit of Venezuela's people.
As he greeted Venezuela's new ambassador to the Holy See today, the Pope said: "I very much hope that the present difficulties in church-state relations will be dissipated and that there will be a return to a fruitful collaboration in continuity with the noble Venezuelan tradition."

Rev. Pat Robertson: Hugo Chavez is a ‘Terrific Danger’ to the US, assassinate him.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Associated Press - (August 22, 2005) - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson called on Monday for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, calling him a "terrific danger" to the United States.

Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, said on "The 700 Club" it was the United States' duty to stop Chavez from making Venezuela a "launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous.

Help for Venezuela strains Cuban health care 

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan

The Boston Globe

Free universal health care has long been the crowning achievement of this socialist state, but the system is now under fire from Cubans who complain that quality and access are suffering as they lose tens of thousands of medical workers to Venezuela in exchange for cheap oil, which this impoverished country desperately needs.

 The close friendship between the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, and the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has netted Venezuela a loan of 20,000 Cuban health workers - including 14,000 doctors, according to the Venezuelan government - who work in poor barrios and rural outposts for stipends seven times higher on average than their salaries at home. Castro has vowed to send Chávez as many as 10,000 additional medical workers by year's end.

Bush Pledges Action on Borders

Southwest Is Promised Agents, Jail Space for Illegal Immigrants

By Peter Baker

Washington Post Staff Writer
 EL MIRAGE, Ariz., Aug. 29 -- President Bush flew into the heart of the nation's volatile debate over illegal immigration Monday and defended his administration's efforts to control the nearby border with Mexico after a surge of criticism from across the political spectrum.

Two weeks after the Democratic governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency along the border, Bush used a Medicare speech here to promise residents an increasingly robust federal campaign that will deploy more agents and provide more detention space to stop those trying to sneak into the country.

Chertoff assures Arizona of help on border

By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times

 The Department of Homeland Security, responding to a state of emergency declared last week by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano because of illegal immigration, says it wants to help Arizona combat alien smuggling, ease related prison overcrowding and train state police officers.
    "We are moving forward quickly and aggressively to fashion a comprehensive plan with real solutions," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the governor in a letter delivered Monday. He said the agency wants to "build a partnership with Arizona."

City adopts resolution to keep Minutemen out

By David Crowder

El Paso Times

Stepping into the border fray over the Minutemen, the El Paso City Council
adopted a resolution inviting them to stay out of town.
East-Central city Rep. José Alexandro Lozano cast the sole vote against the
measure, saying he has spent time with them in Arizona.
"If the law allows them to do their thing, let it be," Lozano said. "We
should totally find a way of closing our borders, not only for the sake of
illegal immigration, but also for the sake of lives."

Border Patrol wins control of Homeland Security aircraft

The largest law enforcement air force in the world

By Katherine McIntire Peters

GovExec.com

 Under an evolving plan to streamline the management of aviation assets within Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection bureau, Border Patrol sector chiefs along the land borders with Mexico and Canada will assume tactical control of aircraft in their sectors.

(SIC)…Most field directors will now report to Border Patrol sector chiefs.

Day Laborers, Cities Seek a Way That Will Work

By Anna Gorman,

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

They've been part of the Southern California landscape for close to four decades: immigrant laborers waiting for work on sidewalks and street corners, swarming drivers as they pull up, ready to move furniture, paint walls, pull weeds, do whatever needs doing.
But now, as the housing boom increases the demand for cheap labor and workers become more organized, the sites where they gather have become a battleground in the widening debate over illegal immigration.

Cities throughout California and around the nation are struggling to cope with the sheer numbers of day laborers, or jornaleros. Critics say the sites not only encourage people to come to the U.S. illegally, but also create traffic jams and are eyesores. Supporters say the workers are simply trying to make an honest living and are crucial to local economies.

Richardson wants Mexican town razed

Migrants use town as staging ground before crossing

By Louie Gilot & Walter Rubel

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will use his meeting with his Chihuahua counterpart this week to press for the demolition of Las Chepas, the semi-abandoned hamlet used as a staging area for hundreds of undocumented immigrants who cross daily into the United States near Columbus, N.M.

Richardson is scheduled to meet with Jose Reyes Baeza, the governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, on Friday in Las Cruces. It will be their first meeting since the New Mexico governor declared a state of emergency earlier this month because of unchecked immigration on the state's border.

Dismissed trespassing charges against illegal immigrants will not be appealed

CONCORD, N.H., - Associated Press - Aug. 23 - The state attorney general's office will not appeal a ruling that dismissed trespassing charges against a group of illegal immigrants arrested by two police chiefs who said they were frustrated by lax federal enforcement.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R) has written to the state's police chiefs, saying her office will not appeal and instructing them not to use the trespassing law to take undocumented immigrants off the street.

Homeland Security Chief Tells of Plan to Stabilize Border

By Eric Lipton

New York Times

Acknowledging public frustration over illegal immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday that the federal government's border control efforts must be significantly strengthened.

"We have decided to stand back and take a look at how we address the problem and solve it once and for all," Mr. Chertoff said at a breakfast meeting with reporters. "The American public is rightly distressed about a situation in which they feel we do not have the proper control over our borders."

U.S. to Beef Up Border Force

ICE to Help More in Areas with High Illegal Immigration

By Darryl Fears

Washington Post Staff Writer
A week after Arizona's governor declared a state of emergency in counties bordering Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed yesterday that it agreed to strengthen its law enforcement presence in areas that are experiencing high levels of illegal immigration.

In a letter sent Monday to Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said Immigration and Customs Enforcement will train local investigators to deal with human trafficking in Phoenix.

Split Policy Considered on Illegal Immigrants

By Ron Fournier   

PHOENIX – Associated Press - August 27) - Struggling to pacify his party's warring wings, President Bush is moving toward allowing illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before February 2004 to qualify for guest-worker visas. People smuggled in after then would be deported.

State leaders in Arizona and New Mexico have stepped up pressure on the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress to better police U.S. borders and deal with an estimated 10 million people who are living illegally in this country.

Uncivil Defense

The Minutemen stumble into instant opposition in Texas

By Dan Malone

Ft. Worth Weekly

We are not vigilantes, and we are not anti-immigration.”

Chris Simcox was talking to a fresh group of recruits for the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. The organization, which has made headlines nationwide in recent months for its armed “citizen patrols” along the Arizona border, is branching out into Texas. The meeting at a ranch near Hillsboro on Saturday was the first of several training sessions scheduled across the state this week, and a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram dutifully recorded Simcox’s statement.

New coalition discusses police, immigration issues

By Diana Washington Valdez

El Paso Times

El Paso and Southern New Mexico residents voiced concerns during a town-hall-style meeting Tuesday about local police conducting immigration enforcement, alleged abuses by police and the presence of civil patrols at the border.

The Border Community Alliance for Human Rights, a newly formed collaborative that includes advocacy organizations in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, sponsored the public meeting in Central El Paso.

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive E-book on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The E-book is also an in depth primer on Mexican culture and protocol for better understanding that allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals. Literally this book has been on immense help to thousands, you too can gain from Mr. Osio's lifetime experience.