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REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR HILLCREST ROAD WIDENING AND YERBA BUENA ISLAND MULTI-USE PATHWAY PROJECT (RFP 20/21-06)

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR HILLCREST ROAD WIDENING AND YERBA BUENA ISLAND MULTI-USE PATHWAY PROJECT (RFP 20/21-06)

Notice is hereby given that the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is requesting proposals from qualified respondents (proposers) to assist in engineering, Caltrans environmental, and right-of-way approval for the Hillcrest Road Widening and Yerba Buena Island Multi-Use Pathway Project. The full RFP is posted on the Transportation Authority’s website, www.sfcta.org/contracting. Proposals are due to the Transportation Authority electronically to info@sfcta.org by January 28, 2021, 2:00 p.m.

Mexican composer Armando Manzanero dies

Shared from Social Media

 

“I perceived as never before that Armando Manzanero was a man of the people, that is why I am very sorry for his death,” said President López Obrador, who thus canceled his morning press conference.

The Mexican singer-songwriter and composer Armando Manzanero, known as the king of romanticism and president of the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico, died this Monday (12.28.2020) of COVID-19 after several days intubated in a hospital, confirmed the secretary of Culture, Alejandra Frausto.

After the news was known, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had a few words of recognition for the artist and ended his morning press conference. “I perceived as never before that Armando Manzanero was a man of the people, that is why I am very sorry for his death. A great composer, also a representative of Mexican authors and composers,” said the president.

“We send to their family and friends, to all the singer-songwriters, our condolences for this unfortunate loss for the artistic world and I no longer want to continue with this press conference and nothing else ends,” continued López Obrador, who had the Manzanero’s song “Adoro” to conclude the press conference.

The author of classics of Mexican romantic music, such as “Somos novios”, “I’m going to turn off the light”, “With you I learned”, “This afternoon I saw rain” and “No”, was hospitalized last week in Mexico City after test positive for COVID-19 and intubated days later.

The last public appearance of Manzanero, president of the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico, was on December 11 in Mérida, capital of Yucatán, where he inaugurated the Casa Manzanero Museum. Manzanero (Mérida, Yucatán, 1935) leaves behind an unforgettable legacy in the history of music in Spanish, an endless number of albums sold out of thirty published and innumerable awards, such as the honorary Grammy Award in 2014. lgc (efe / afp )

¡Espiritu Navideño con Cache MKE! Virtual Performance Celebration

Compiled by the El Reportero‘s staff

 

Cecil Negron and Latin Musical Ensemble Cache MKE has been performing in the Midwest for over 20 years, making a major impact on the local and regional Latin music scene. With rich vocal harmonies, and a wide variety of navideño music with Latin American roots and flair, Cache will thrill audiences in this special holiday performance!

*Through our partner Anywhere seats, you can view the concert by clicking “tickets” where you will register to view and be able to select the concert package of your choice! Be sure to check your email for a confirmation code from Anywhere Seat, which you will receive in a separate email.

*Concert Premieres at 5:00 p.m. on December 11. Upon purchasing your household ticket, you can view the performance at a time that is convenient for you up until January.

Dec. 11 – Jan. 31.

Get tickets at: https://latinoartsinc.anywhereseat.com/access.php?event_id=10471

 

Playful People Productions offers free family game nights

Musical Theater-Themed Trivia and Games Online

 

San Jose, CA (December 16, 2020) – Playful People Productions, based in San Jose California, is offering its online Family Game Nights for free through March. Family Game Nights will be held the 3rd Friday of each month and require pre-registration. To register, visit https://bit.ly/3qUWfgW. For more information, visit https://playfulpeople.org or call (408) 878-5362.

“We want to engage families — especially those with children — in fun, positive, and theatrical endeavors,” said Artistic Director Katie D’Arcey. “While many of our programs require a registration fee to cover supplies and teacher reimbursement, we recognize that many families are feeling the economic pinch right now. Family Game Nights — whether it’s with your household, or “virtual family” — are a safe, easy, and free way to play with others and have a little fun!”

The musical theater-themed Game Nights are hosted by MaryTheresa Capriles, and range from trivia to dance-offs, bingo to musical chairs. Occurring on the 3rd Friday of each month via Zoom, these Game Nights can be attended individually, with family and/or friends, from anywhere in the county (or the world) from 7:00-8:30 p.m. PST.

Normally performing out of the Historic Hoover Theatre in San Jose, the company immediately sprung into action in March, 2020 to create POP (Playful Online People) programming, converting all its theatre experiences to virtual formats and continuing to make arts and theatre opportunities available to kids and families during the pandemic.

Mother and daughter team Barbara Galiotto and Katie D’ Arcey are Positive Discipline trained; both have worked as early Childhood Educators; and as professional directors with children’s theater. The pair have approximately 50 years experience between them in the musical theater world and, together with a small team of permanent staff and an array of talented directors, teachers, and support personnel, offer beginner through advanced theatre experiences for the whole family.

 

Join professional dancer Ava Apple

A Free 30 Minute Salsa & Latin Dance class for the kiddos!

Class is FREE, donations appreciated but not required.

WE will stream LIVE every Friday at 3 p.m. on our studio FB page

https://www.facebook.com/symbolicdance/

DONATE here (those who can) Venmo @ava-apple Paypal.me/avaapple

IF YOU are an existing class card holder at our studio, let us know if we can mark a class off of your card?
YOU CAN also support us by purchasing a gift certificate for a friend (or yourself) – go here symbolicdance.punchpass.com/passes

 

The story behind José Feliciano’s Christmas classic

How ‘Feliz Navidad’ Became a Christmas Classic & Latin Music Groundbreaker

 

by the El Reportero‘s news services

Read the story behind José Feliciano’s Christmas classic in this excerpt from “Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music,” written by Billboard’s Leila Cobo

José Feliciano’s classic “Feliz Navidad” turned 50 years old this year, a milestone that was celebrated with the first major reimagining of the song, a merchandise line, a children’s book and an upcoming Christmas special. This week, “Feliz Navidad” rose to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart — its first top 10 appearance on the chart ever (last holiday season it went to No. 12), a breathtaking achievement for a 50-year-old track in its original version.

So important is “Feliz Navidad” to the history of Latin music overall that it’s the opening chapter of my upcoming book Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music, to be published by Vintage Books in English and Spanish on March 2, 2021. The book features 19 songs that have shaped the history of Latin music, their stories told by the artists, the songwriters, the producers, the managers, the executives, the arrangers, and sometimes the wives and husbands who brought them to life.

 

Mexican newspaper pays tribute to Cuban singer Omara Portuondo

La Jornada newspaper paid tribute to Cuban singer Omara Portuondo in an lengthy article in which it recalled that the diva turned 90 in October.

The feature included a brief interview with the famous singer who reemerged to the world with the legendary Buena Vista Social Club band, where she showed that neither her voice nor her vocal chords have given way over the years.

Healthy, attractive and Cuban, that is how Omara describes herself when she turned 90. The legend of Cuban music, born on October 29, 1930, in Havana, said she feels very young when referring to her birthday, La Jornada reported.

The singer of ‘La era esta pariendo un corazon’ (The era is giving birth to a heart) announced her tour ‘Omara Siempre en movimiento’ in Asia, Europe and Oceania, but as it was her alleged farewell from stages, she called it ‘El ultimo beso’ (The Last Kiss), but she had to cancel her performances due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite her age, when many are in retirement or absent, Portuondo continues her lively artistic life. ‘I still have a long way to go,’ and said that so far, she would like to continue doing what she does.

Winners Announced for Fall 2020 SFFILM Westridge Grant

Final Westridge Grant Cycle Awards $100,000 to Support US-Based Independent Filmmakers Developing Narrative Feature Screenplays

 

SFFILM, in partnership with the Westridge Foundation, announced today the projects that will receive a total of $100,000 in funding in the sixth and final round of SFFILM Westridge Grants. Five filmmaking teams have been granted funding to help support the screenwriting stage of their narrative feature films.

One of the five teams awarded is a Hispanic, Robert T. Herrera, writer/director/producer – received $20,000 for his film Pink Casa,

The story evolves at the industrial neighborhoods of South Texas, where a Tejano oil refinery worker raises his orphaned and selectively mute 12-year-old niece.

After she is discovered by national art media for painting every inch of their house pink and for showcasing prodigious creative talent, a renowned 80-year-old New York art icon and his daughter make contact. Their visit prompts the two disparate families to unearth their losses and confront their coupled futures.

The crack-up is coming

by Ron Paul

 

Some Federal Reserve officials are calling for tougher banking regulations in order to prevent the Fed’s low interest rate policy from leading investors to take “excessive” risks that will create asset bubbles. The Fed is understandably worried that these bubbles will burst leading to another market meltdown. However, the boom-and-bust cycle will not end because regulators stop investors from taking “excessive” risks. Almost every bubble and economic downturn America has experienced over the past 107 years was caused by the Federal Reserve’s manipulation of the money supply.

The Federal Reserve’s actions artificially lower interest rates, thus distorting the signals sent by the rates, which are the price of money. Artificially low interest rates cause investments to be made in projects that are not supported by the real underlying market conditions. This results in a boom, inevitably followed by a crash, then by a new round of money creation and government bailouts restarting the cycle.

Increased regulations will not just fail to head off the next crash, they will make the next recession worse. Federal regulators are not capable of determining what is “excessive” risk. Instead, that determination is best left to market participants. Regulators are subject to having the same Fed-induced distorted view of the marketplace as nearly everyone else. Thus, regulators may mistake a growing asset bubble as a thriving sector of the economy that will serve as a long-term source of growth. This is especially the case if, as with the housing bubble, government policies such as the Community Reinvestment Act encourage the malinvestments. Also, regulators may impede the growth of businesses that are actually responding to real economic conditions instead of Fed-created illusions.

Support among the people, if not among the financial and political elites, for auditing and even ending the Fed, as well as for cryptocurrencies and precious metals, suggests we may soon reach what Ludwig von Mises referred to as the “crack-up.” The crack-up occurs when enough people realize that continuous expanding of the money supply, and the accompanying decline in a currency’s purchasing power, is a feature of central banking. Therefore, they spend their money as soon as they get it, accelerating the rise of hyperinflation.

Concerns over the effects of the US government’s debt, the precarious American economic condition, and growing resentment of US foreign policy have led to a decline in the dollar’s international value. Eventually, these factors will lead to a rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status.

Rejection of the dollar’s reserve currency status abroad and the crack-up at home will cause an economic meltdown worse than the Great Depression. Among the problems this will lead to is increased violence as some Americans who believe they are entitled to live off the stolen property of others cut out the government middleman and start stealing from their fellow citizens.

The only way to avoid this fate is to spread the ideas of liberty among the people. A strong liberty movement that can pressure politicians to cut spending, audit and end the Fed, legalize competing currencies, and stop promoting divisive identity politics is the key to peacefully transitioning away from the Keynesian welfare-warfare state to a free society.

When false flags go virtual

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

 

Dear readers:

 

This week, James Corbett brings us to the world of false flags, which is when the government creates an scenario with all the components that will produce fear among the population in order to expand its control over the population.

The following article will take you on that world, which many don’t know how those false flags work The Corbett Report is an independent, listener-supported alternative news source.

It operates on the principle of open source intelligence and provides podcasts, interviews, articles and videos about breaking news and important issues from 9/11 Truth and false flag terror to the Big Brother police state, eugenics, geopolitics, the central banking fraud and more. – Marvin Ramírez

 

by James Corbett

 

November 29, 2020 – Imagine this: you wake up to the blaring of your alarm clock and immediately reach for your smartphone to scroll your Insta feed before getting out of bed. But instead of the usual delightful and informative Instagram posts, today you’re greeted by a “server not found” error.

Deciding that it’s too early in the morning to deal with this, you hop in the shower . . . but for some reason Alexa won’t play your Spotify playlist through your bathroom smart speakers. You have to shower in silence like a luddite.

Getting frustrated, you head downstairs for breakfast. You prop your iPad up next to you and go to check your email while stuffing your face with your morning bowl of Cheeri-GMOs (now with extra HFCS!) but you’re not getting any new messages. You turn on your smart TV and navigate to YouTube so you can catch up on all the latest news from MSNBC, but all you get is the never ending spiral of the spinning “loading” wheel.

Twitter? Down.

Facebook? No luck.

Reddit? Forget it!

Increasingly desperate, you try in vain to remember how to turn on your regular terrestrial TV. Then you recall you have something collecting dust in a closet somewhere: a radio. You turn it on, fumble with the dial, and find a station just in time to hear the announcement:

“. . . is claiming responsibility for the outage. Once again, widespread outages across a range of internet services is sweeping the globe this morning, as a shadowy new terror group emerges to take responsibility . . .”

Suddenly, your phone starts making a strange sound. You don’t know what it’s doing at first, until you realize it’s ringing. One of your friends is calling you. On the phone. Not texting, tweeting, messaging or snapchatting. Actually calling you.

“Hello?”

“Hey Norm! You hear about the big news? Internet’s down!”

“Yeah.”

“They say it’s some kind of new terror group. Cybeterrorists In Action. C.I.A. for short. Sounds pretty scary.”

. . . Oh, OK, I’ll stop teasing. Of course this doesn’t describe you or your daily routines, dear reader. I know you’re the clued-in, switched-on sort who peruses The Corbett Report and avoids normie internet sites like the plague (the real plague, not this ginned-up COVID cold).

But don’t scoff at the scenario. A scene like this one could play out one day for billions of Normie McNormesons around the world. And when it does, there will already be a plan in place for changing the internet as we know it.

As I know you know, the transition from the homeland security state to the biosecurity state that I documented in COVID-911 raises the specter of false flag bioterrorism. But there are other vectors for false flag attacks that could cause massive disruption to our lives, and, like every spectacular false flag event, increase the power and control of the deep state. In this case, I’m thinking of false flag cyberterrorism.

The idea of a “cyber 9/11” coming along to disrupt the internet has been around since the actual 9/11 occurred. Back in 2003, even as the Pentagon was feverishly drafting its plans to “fight the net” as if it were “an enemy weapons system,” Mike McConnell, the ex-director of the National Security Agency (NSA), was fearmongering over the possibility of a cyber attack “equivalent to the attack on the World Trade Center” if a new institution were not created to oversee cybersecurity. In the following years, report after report continued to use the horror of 9/11 as a way of fueling public hysteria over cyberterrorism until just such a US Cyber Command was created.

But the creation of CYBERCOM did not end the cyber threat anymore than the creation of the Department of Homeland Security ended the terror threat, and for precisely the same reason: the real terror threat doesn’t come from the cave-dwelling terrorists that the politicians tell us to be afraid of. No, the real terror threat comes from the very agencies that have been tasked with “saving” the public from the terrorist bogeymen.

Case in point: Stuxnet. As you might recall, Stuxnet was a military-grade cyberweapon co-developed by the United States and Israel that specifically targeted Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz. As we later learned, Stuxnet was only one part of a full-scale military cyberattack against Iran codenamed Nitro Zeus.

Keep in mind that the Richard Clarke who told Lessig about the iPatriot Act is the same Richard Clarke who came out after the death of Michael Hastings to note that intelligence agencies have ways to remotely hijack cars, steer people to their deaths and disguise their tracks well enough to “get away with it.” Also keep in mind that Joe Biden likes to brag about having written the [regular] Patriot Act in 1994.

So what kinds of things might be contained in such an iPatriot Act? Once again, we don’t have to speculate. Various government officials have talked about their wish list for an internet clampdown in recent years.

– In March of 2009, Senator Jay Rockefeller opined during a subcommittee hearing that the internet is proving to be such a threat to America’s national security that it would have been better if it had never existed.

– In June of 2010, Senator Joe Lieberman stated that he believed the US needed the same ability to shut down the internet as China currently has.

– Also in 2010, Microsoft Senior Advisor and Bilderberg attendee Craig Mundie called for the creation of a “World Health Organization for the internet” and suggested creating government-issued licenses to authorize internet usage.

– In 2011, Bill Clinton advocated the idea that the US government create an agency for “fact-checking” websites on the internet.

– In 2015, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (yes, that NIST) unveiled the “Trusted Identities Group,” part of a national strategy for standardizing online identification systems.

Given all of this, it is not hard to imagine how a cyberterror event may play out: A cataclysmic attack on the internet’s infrastructure massively disrupts people’s online lives for a period of days or weeks. Social media is inaccesible. Online banking and shopping is halted. All news and information during the internet blackout comes from the old, controlled dinosaur media. A shocked and distressed public learn that the Russians (or whatever bogeyman du jour is convenient) are being blamed for the attack. In order to prevent such a thing from reoccurring, emergency legislation is passed in the US (and, coincidentally, in all other Western nations) requiring proof of identity to use any and all internet services.

In one fell swoop, not only would the last vestiges of internet anonymity be eliminated, but a key part of the erection of the social credit control grid would be in place. Now, just like in China, all of your online activity would be tied directly to your social credit score. Lieberman must be wetting his pants in anticipation.

Of course, this is not to say that the internet as we’ve known it would be gone altogether if such a scenario were to play out. In a network that was literally designed to be accessible and usable in the wake of any cataclysm, even nuclear holocaust, there will always be alternative ways of getting online access. There will be pirate internet and mesh networks and dweb sites and peer-to-peer protocols like LBRY that will be accessible to anyone able and willing to put in the effort to learn about such technologies. But the Normie McNormieson we met in the imaginary tale at the beginning of this article would be forever cut off from the free and open internet of old. (Good thing we’re not Normie McNormieson, huh?)

As ever, it is important to know about these false flag possibilities so that when a spectacular cyberterror event takes place we are not railroaded into a phony solution that will serve only to increase the power and control of the real terrorists.  And, in the meantime, it is important to be researching and preparing ourselves for just such an event so that, regardless of whether it happens as predicted or not, we will be less dependent on the systems of control that are increasingly defining the normie internet.

This weekly editorial is part of The Corbett Report Subscriber newsletter.

How to grow gorgeous garlic from a clove indoors and out

by Joanne Washburn

 

12/10/2020 – Garlic’s pungent nature elevates it as an aromatic staple in the kitchen. Its strong flavor mellows down once it hits the pan or pot, infusing foods with a mild sweetness like no other.

Considered a superfood, the powerful compounds behind garlic’s assertive flavor profile can also confer some impressive health benefits, from clearer skin to better protection against certain cancers.

The good news is that garlic is one of the easiest vegetables to grow, whether outdoors in an expansive garden or indoors in pots and containers on the kitchen windowsill.

 

Reasons to grow garlic

 

So what keeps gardeners planting garlic cloves whenever the temperature starts to drop? Here are a few good reasons:

– Garlic confers health benefits – Garlic is known for its wide range of health benefits, which it owes to powerful compounds. For one, garlic can help lower the risk of heart disease. It also has antibacterial and antiviral properties for better protection against infections.

– Homegrown garlic is clean – Homegrown food is guaranteed cleaner and safer than the ones you’d find in groceries. You know what went into the soil the food was grown in, as well as whether or not the food was treated with pesticides and other harmful substances used in conventional farming.

– Garlic is low-maintenance – You don’t have to do much until the harvest once the cloves have been planted. You’ll just need to water it often and control for weeds, which shouldn’t be a problem if you use containers or raised garden beds.

– Garlic thrives in the winter – Garlic is one of the few vegetables that survive in the garden through winter, which is often too harsh for most crops.

– Few pests attack garlic plants – Garlic has an easier time than most garden crops when it comes to pests and plant diseases. In fact, garlic can be planted next to other plants to ward off their pests.

– You can plant several cloves in one plot – Small garden plots make it difficult to grow significant amounts of vegetables. But that isn’t the case with garlic, which can be sown just six inches apart on all sides. This is a much smaller space requirement than that of most vegetables.

– Garlic can be stored for a long time – Some garlic varieties are ideal for long-term storage. If you want to have a steady supply of garlic year-round, just plant the right varieties.

– Garlic plants produce edible scapes – Garlic scapes are the long shoots that some garlic varieties put out in the spring. They can steal nutrients from the bulbs themselves, so it’s important to cut them when they appear. Young scapes are edible and make for a great addition to raw salads.

 

How to grow garlic

 

Here’s a simple 2-step guide to growing garlic:

  1. Choosing the right garlic

You can choose from either of the following main garlic varieties:

– Hardneck – Hardneck varieties have strong and complex flavors. The bulbs themselves are large but form few cloves. Hardneck varieties are ideal for regions with colder climates. Some examples of these varieties include purple stripe, porcelain and rocambole.

– Softneck – Softneck varieties are suited for regions with milder climates. These can store for a longer time than hardneck varieties. Examples of softneck varieties include California white and silver rose.

  1. Planting garlic

Each clove will turn into a full bulb in about six months. Garlic cloves prefer loose, fertile soil that has few or zero weeds. You can sow garlic in the fall for a spring harvest or in winter for a summer one.

To plant garlic, insert cloves root-side down in holes at least three inches deep. Keep them at least six inches apart from each other to avoid overcrowding. Once the cloves are in, cover them with soil. Water every three days or so. Take care not to pour water into the crowns of the plants. Remove any weeds that appear.

FTC’s “Operation Income Illusion” targets get-rich-quick scams 

by Mark Hedin

Ethnic Media Services

 

In the midst of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, criminals are brazenly floating “get-rich-quick” schemes to fleece unsuspecting people seeking financial security for themselves and their families. Speaking at a mid-December ethnic media conference call, the Federal Trade Commission issued urgent warnings that people need to be on their guard to avoid being robbed.

Kati Daffan and Rhonda Perkins, two lawyers in the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices, spotlighted a variety of scams promoted in advertisements online or in TV, radio and newspapers and even within religious communities.

In a year’s time, Daffan said, there was a 70 percent increase in this kind of crime. “In the first nine months of 2020 alone,” she said, “people reported losing at least $50 million.”

And those victims are just the ones who came forward. Most people don’t, Daffan said, so “it’s a tiny fraction of what’s going on in the marketplace.”

To combat the scams, the FTC has launched “Operation Income Illusion.”

Both speakers urged everyone to contact the FTC with any suspicions. You can do so at www.ReportFraud.ftc.gov, or www.ReporteFraude.ftc.gov or by phone at (877) 382-4357.The FTC receives thousands of reports every week, Perkins said, making individual responses difficult to guarantee, but the reporting is a key driver of both domestic and international enforcement efforts. “It’s a real public service for people to let us know what they’re seeing,” she said.Besides alerting ethnic media directly, the FTC has posted examples of criminal schemes and tips about how to protect yourself from being victimized on its website in more than a dozen languages (www.ftc.gov/languages) including English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Amharic, Arabic, Dari, French, Russian, Haitian Creole, and Somali.

New in 2020 are COVID-related schemes. The FTC has seen phony cures, phony vaccinations, phony home test kits, and phony research schemes seeking people’s personal information. Now, with real vaccinations starting to become available, the FTC expects new scams (https://tinyurl.com/FTCvaccinescams) and is warning people not to pay out of pocket, put their names on lists, pay for early access, or provide a caller with Social Security or bank account numbers to get a vaccine.

Some scammers mimic traditions from specific communities. One type of ripoff Operation Income Illusion is fighting are savings clubs (https://tinyurl.com/FTCfakeclubs), modeled after West African and Caribbean “sou sous,” in which people who know each other will pool their money and take turns getting a payout. In the Filipino community, the name is “paluwagan.”

Another is phony coaching deals (https://tinyurl.com/FTCcoachingscams), where victims pay for things like real estate seminars, or help in making money on the stock market or online selling.

Investment scams (https://tinyurl.com/FTCinvestmentscams) have been the most-costly, but the most common are the work-from-home propositions (https://tinyurl.com/FTCsellingandpyramids), which sometimes include the victim getting a check in the mail. In these, the fraud is only revealed some time later, after the victim has sent a portion of that money back, or bought and distributed products or gift cards, only to find that the check to pay for them ultimately bounced.

“It’s incredibly important to watch out for any kind of money-making opportunity that involves putting money in and recruiting other people to join. Those people are likely to get hurt,” Daffan said.

Many scams are targeted to specific ethnic communities, such as Moda Latina, which advertised that you could make big money working from home selling jewelry and other luxury products. Victims were sometimes threatened that if they didn’t have a money order ready when a delivery driver showed up with the merchandise, they could be reported and face severe consequences.

But when the boxes were opened, the contents were far from luxurious: shoddy, not fit to be re-sold, not even worth the cost of the initial purchase.

Some con artists set their sights on specific groups, such as the “Raging Bull” investment scam that targeted seniors, or MOBE, a scam in 2018 that robbed students and veterans of $300 million before it was shut down.

Then there are “pyramid schemes” (https://tinyurl.com/FTCsellingandpyramids). The FTC has identified a few by name, such as: “The Circle Game,” “Blessing Loom” and “Money Board.”

The FTC works with numerous law enforcement agencies in pursuing scam thieves, both domestically and internationally. In some cases, it can recover some of the money victims have lost, but Rhonda Perkins advised that the better strategy is to avoid being scammed (https://tinyurl.com/FTCavoidandreport) in the first place.

If you’re concerned about the wisdom of making a deal someone is offering you, she said, do some research on the company, its reputation, a record of complaints against it.

“Do your research, check out that company’s reputation and talk to other people, people you trust in your community,” Perkins said.

Rail corridor between Mexico, Canada represents US $1.6bn investment in MX

Caxxor Group also plans projects in the south

 

by Mexico News Daily

 

A Mexican company that is planning to develop an ambitious North American trade corridor between the Pacific coast port city of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and Winnipeg, Canada, is also preparing infrastructure projects in Mexico’s south.

Caxxor Group announced in October that it was aiming to raise US $3.3 billion in initial investment to build a new port and shipyard in Mazatlán, industrial parks in an undisclosed number of locations in Mexico, a Mexican exports logistics center in Winnipeg and 87 kilometers of railway tracks in Sinaloa that will connect with more than 7,000 kilometers of existing railroads in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The project is called the USMCA corridor, named after the new trilateral North American trade agreement that took effect July 1. It is slated to run through industrial regions of Sinaloa, Durango and Monterrey, Nuevo León, before reaching the United States. In the U.S., it will run to Chicago, Illinois, via Dallas, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Caxxor CEO Carlos Ortiz told a press conference Monday that the investment in Mexico is expected to be about $1.6 billion. Between $650 million and $700 million will go to the rehabilitation of 167 kilometers of existing railroad and the construction of 180 kilometers of new tracks, he said.

Ortiz said the project will start with the construction of the $900-million port in Mazatlán, adding that its exact location will be announced at the end of January.

Route of the rail corridor between Mazatlán and Winnipeg.

He said that Caxxor and its investment partner, United States-based National Standard Finance, will seek environmental approval and other required permits later in 2021. Ortiz said the project is backed by 50 institutional investors in the U.S.

Ortiz said previously that after agricultural, automotive, manufacturing and energy sector goods leave the Mazatlán port and move along the Mexican section of the USMCA corridor they will be transformed at newly-built factories and plants that will add value to them.

The transformational nature of the trade corridor will be a point of difference with other logistics routes such as the Panama Canal, he said in October.

In a new interview with the newspaper Milenio, Ortiz said that Caxxor is also planning a $600-million USMCA “southern border” corridor in the south of Mexico, although it won’t include development of a rail network.

He said that projects planned for the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo will be on a smaller scale than those along the Sinaloa-Winnipeg route.

The largest project of the southern border corridor will be a $250-million multiple use maritime terminal in Puerto Chiapas, a port town on the Pacific coast about 30 kilometers southwest of Tapachula.

Caxxor’s Carlos Ortiz said a $600-million southern corridor is also being planned.

Expected to be completed in 2021, the terminal is to be used by auto sector companies that export to countries in Central and South America. Asian shipping companies will use it as a freight center, Ortiz said, and part of the facility will handle agricultural goods for export.

The Caxxor CEO said that smaller projects including industrial parks and port terminals are planned for the Gulf coast states of Tabasco and Campeche and Quintana Roo, which has an extensive Caribbean sea coastline.

He said that new port terminals in those states will be “very modest” and service ships traveling between Mexican ports.

“They will be joined to a logistics park, each one for different industrial sectors,” Ortiz said.

He said that Caxxor will act as the manager of the southern border project and will seek investors to support it. The investors will form a trust that will have responsibility for obtaining the required permits and licenses to execute the project, Ortiz said.

The different projects in the four states are expected to be built over the next 18 months, he said, adding that a master plan for Caxxor’s projects in Mexico will be presented next month.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Economista (sp) 

 

Pemex rescinds contracts awarded to president’s cousin

Contracts worth 365 million pesos were signed over the past two years

The state oil company Pemex has rescinded four contracts awarded to a company owned by President López Obrador’s first cousin.

Litoral Laboratorios Industriales (LLI), a company owned by Felipa Guadalupe Obrador Olán that provides chemical and microbiological testing of oil products, won four Pemex contracts last year. Three of them were awarded after Pemex became aware of Obrador Olán’s relationship to the president and ordered her to abstain from participating in its tendering processes.

The state oil company said Sunday that in addition to canceling the contracts it would carry out an exhaustive investigation into the tendering processes in which LLI participated.

The aim will be to determine who was responsible for awarding the contracts and decide the consequences for not following the company’s regulatory processes and López Obrador’s instructions not to do business with any of his relatives.

Source: El Universal (sp), Bloomberg (en)

Mexico today grants permission to use the Pfizer anticovid vaccine

by the El Reportero‘s wire services

 

MEXICO – The Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) will grant Pfizer today the registration of emergency use of its vaccine against Covid-19, making Mexico the sixth country to approve that formula.

The first to approve it were the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada and Saudi Arabia, and yesterday it was pre-authorized in the United States. The decision of the Cofepris will be given after the recommendation in the neighboring country.

 

Mexico, the US to keep the border closed for another month

MEXICO – Mexico and the United States renewed the deal to keep the common border closed for another month in non-essential steps of its over 2,000 kilometers of extension, unfolded the local Foreign Affairs Ministry on Friday.

On Twitter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that, after reviewing the development of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and due to the fact that several entities are in the orange of the epidemiological traffic light, Mexico proposed to the United States the extension for another month of the restrictions to non-essential land transit on their common border. The measure will surely be of great commercial impact due to the Christmas season and once again causes discomfort for Mexican border citizens, because they assure that it applies mainly to them and not to those coming from the United States.

In its statement, the Secretariat reiterates that the restrictions will remain in the same terms as they have been since their implementation on March 21, 2020.

Both countries will coordinate health measures in the region, which will be in effect until 23:59 local time on Jan. 21, 2021.

 

Latin America analyzes sports panorama and elects its leaders

MEXICO, Dec 15 – The 58th General Assembly of the Pan American Sports Organization (Panam Sports) begins today its two-day virtual session, to analyze the activity of the last year and elect its leaders.

Based in Mexico, Panam Sports brings together representatives of the 41 National Olympic Committees of the Olympic Movement of the Americas, and members of numerous regional and international institutions.

The delegates will hear and debate more than twenty reports and accountability of commissions in a sports season marked by the continuous suspension and postponement of athletic jousts due to Covid-19.

Intense sessions are expected that, on this occasion, will be coordinated from the city of Miami, United States, by the president of the continental group, Chilean Neven Ilic, who, according to consultations, will maintain the position for which he has no candidate against.

After the message of the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, the marathon of reports will begin, including that of Ilic himself and those of the organizing committees of the Cali 2021 Youth Games, Santiago 2023 Pan American Games and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Cuba will be represented by Roberto León Richards, head of the island’s Olympic Committee (COC); Ruperto Herrera, Secretary General of the COC; María Caridad Colón, invited as a member of the IOC; and José Peláez, president of the Pan American Cycling Confederation.

It will be in tomorrow’s session when the elections for the positions of president and members of the Executive Committee are held.

The speakers will also provide updates on the progress made over the last year and throughout the term of the current leadership of Panam Sports.

The new Executive Committee, including its re-elected president, will carry out its functions in the 2020-2024 period starting Wednesday, Dec. 16.