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The president assured that the head of the Public Ministry “refuses to comply with the law.”

President of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León

by the El Reportero‘s wire services

The president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León, and the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, are involved in a new episode of confrontation after the president stated that the official “refuses to comply with the law.”

“I do not have any personal conflict with the prosecutor. She simply refuses to comply with the law that establishes that she has to coordinate with the President of the Republic in meetings of ministers,” Arévalo said at a press conference on Monday.

Likewise, he alluded to Porras’ actions “in the past.” “So, those will be the parameters with which we will be taking actions,” he stated.

Following these statements, the Public Ministry (MP) issued a statement in which it noted that the prosecutor is “the first interested in complying and ensuring compliance” with the laws.

New controversy

The text from the Prosecutor’s Office refers to the invitation that the president made to Porras at the end of January to attend a meeting of the Council of Ministers. However, she refused to participate and unleashed a new political and institutional controversy in the Central American country.

According to Tuesday’s statement, that meeting was made up “of people other than those established by law.” “Given this situation, the attorney general made the decision to record the legal irregularity,” they add in the communication.

Finally, the MP said that the prosecutor “sent an invitation to the president, in his capacity as representative of national unity, to hold a working meeting to coordinate inter-institutional efforts in favor of crime victims.”

Canada sanctions

Last week, Canada issued individual sanctions against Porras and three other senior officials, based on their alleged responsibility in the commission of “significant acts of corruption” and for “flagrant and systematic violations of human rights in Guatemala.”

Arévalo’s inauguration in January remained in question until the last moment due to various judicial investigations that the MP opened against him and his political party Semilla.

These actions were denounced by Arévalo, who alleged that the files created by the MP in the hands of the attorney general were due to political persecution, which sought to generate a coup d’état and prevent his takeover from being formalized.

What we are witnessing in the democrats’ administration of justice is totally corrupt weaponized law used as a weapon

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR”

The content in this article is solely the opinion of the author and does not represent the views or opinion of El Reportero newspaper or its editor. It is published for entertainment and exchange of ideas. – Marvin Ramírez.

by Paul Craig Roberts

The Democrats appear to be the New Stalinist Party. My conclusion is based on how they abuse law. President Trump has suffered eight years of legal abuse from Democrats and their corrupt prosecutors and judges.

It began with Russiagate led by the CIA, Justice (sic) Department, and FBI. It was a total orchestration long since disproved. Then there were a series of concocted nonsense allegations–strippergate, documents gate, insurrection gate and two concocted and failed impeachment attempts.

The Democrats then rescued their failed attempts by rolling them into indictments, which the Democrat controlled corrupt United States Justice (sic) Department and Soros-implanted Trump-hating Democrat state attorneys generals and district attorneys leveled against Trump. Some of these fake charges are falling apart, because the black female prosecutors are so stupid and incompetent that they have disqualified themselves and should actually face indictment for perjury. As US Senator J.D. Vance recently said, “It’s like every other two-minute clip I watch of this Fani Willis interview she admits to committing another felony.”

Of all the indictments, the most absurd is the one presided over by what must be the most corrupt judge in human history–New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron. The Trump-hating NY Attorney General, apparently another Soros implant, charged on her own with no civil complainants against Trump that he damaged unidentified people by overstating the value of his properties in his loan applications. She has zero evidence for the charge.

Indeed, all of the lenders and every real estate valuation expert said that there was nothing wrong with Trump’s valuations. Lenders said they didn’t care about the valuations, they just wanted Trump’s business. Regardless, the ideological black woman implanted into NY “justice” by Soros’ money indicted Trump for civil fraud.

The trial was arranged to go to Engoron, who would not be satisfied if Trump were drawn and quartered in public view on the courthouse steps. Engoron has made the most stupid rulings based on nothing but his own hatred 0f Trump. The corrupt fool stupidly ruled without evidence that Trump’s real estate was worth a small fraction of what independent real estate evaluators place as the value of the properties. He simply ignored the facts in order to rule as he wanted.

Engoron issued an order cancelling the Trump Organization’s business certificates. Apparently, he couldn’t make it stick. So now he has imposed a $350 million fine on Trump and his executives despite the fact that the NY Attorney General Letitia James, who is also busy at work trying to destroy a well-read website that documents the overrunning of the United States by recruited immigrant-invaders, has not a shred of evidence to support her hate-driven charge.

The American presstitute media hate Trump as much as Letitia and Engoron and have already ruled that Trump is guilty.

So again we have an American convicted, just like Derick Chauvin, despite the fact that all of the evidence shows that he is innocent.

This is America today. Law has no meaning. It is nothing but a weapon. We can have zero confidence it its application and zero confidence in its outcomes. American prisons are full of innocent people like the “insurrectionists” who could not afford to strand trial and who knew that if they did stand trial they would be punished for doing so. The way American “criminal justice” (sic) works is that a defendant, innocent or guilty, admits to a lessor offense, that is he admits to a crime that never happened, in order to avoid trial for a crime that he did not do, but conviction for which his sentence would be much longer.

“Law and Order Conservatives” have never caught on. Indeed, it was their outrage over “liberal judges” who let criminals off too easily that helped to produce a system in which everyone is guilty by accusation alone and self-incrimination. Where are all these liberal judges in Trump’s case, in the case of the 1,000 American patriots in prison because they attended a political rally in support of the President of the United States?

– To learn how the US Justice (sic) system really works, read my book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, 2000, 2008.

AMLO criticized for doxing New York Times journalist who reported on alleged cartel ties

El presidente López Obrador enfrenta una investigación del INAI y críticas de organizaciones de libertad de prensa luego de compartir públicamente el número de teléfono de un periodista. - President López Obrador is facing an INAI investigation and criticism from press freedom organizations after publicly sharing a journalist's phone number. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro.com)

MND Staff

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s disclosure of a journalist’s telephone number last Thursday triggered a range of repercussions, including an investigation by the national transparency agency INAI and the leaking of the telephone numbers of the two women vying to become Mexico’s first female president.

At his widely-watched morning press conference, López Obrador displayed and read aloud the telephone number of the New York Times’ bureau chief in Mexico, Natalie Kitroeff, when responding to questions put to him by the newspaper about an inquiry in the United States into allegations that people close to him, including his sons, received drug money during his presidency.

The president denied all the allegations before the Times had even published them in an article headlined “U.S. Examined Allegations of Cartel Ties to Allies of Mexico’s President.”

The Times’ report noted that the “the United States never opened a formal investigation into Mr. López Obrador, and the officials involved ultimately shelved the inquiry.”

Nevertheless, it gave further ammunition to critics of AMLO, who were quick to label him a #narcopresidente after three media outlets last month published allegations that his 2006 presidential campaign received millions of dollars in drug money. The president’s disclosure of Kitroeff’s telephone number was widely criticized in a country where violence against journalists — and women — is a major problem.

Here is an overview of the key events following López Obrador’s doxing of the NYT’s Mexico bureau chief at his morning presser.

The NYT denounces the president 

The Times — which the president had slammed as a “filthy rag” — responded to López Obrador in a post to its public relations account on the X social media platform.

“This is a troubling and unacceptable tactic from a world leader at a time when threats against journalists are on the rise. We have since published the findings from this investigation and stand by our reporting and the journalists who pursue the facts where they lead,” said the statement posted to the @NYTimesPR account.

INAI announces a probe

The National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and the Protection of Personal Data (INAI) announced in a statement on Thursday that it would commence an investigation into López Obrador’s disclosure of Kitroeff’s telephone number in order to determine whether he had violated Mexico’s personal data privacy laws.

AMLO stands by his actions and responds to INAI

At his Friday morning presser, López Obrador doubled down on his decision to divulge Kitroeff’s phone number, denying the suggestion that he had made a mistake in doing so and declaring that he would do it again.

When a reporter noted that “anyone” could call the journalist and “anyone” could threaten her, AMLO asserted that “absolutely nothing” would happen, even though aggression toward members of the press is a major problem in Mexico.

Probed about his alleged violation of the law, López Obrador claimed that his “moral authority” and “political authority” are “above that law.”

“We’re not criminals, we have moral authority,” he said, adding that neither The New York Times nor anyone else had the right to “put us in the dock.”

The head of INAI — one of the autonomous government agencies López Obrador would like to get rid of — subsequently said that “absolutely no one” is above the law.

In a post to X, Adrián Alcalá also underscored “the seriousness” of the president disclosing the personal details of any person, “especially” those of a journalist.

Press groups denounce the president

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Article 19 both denounced the president for disclosing Kitroeff’s phone number.

“It is unacceptable and dangerous that Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador reveals the contact information of a reporter in response to critical questions asked of his administration by her outlet,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative.

Article 19 called the president’s actions “a serious attack on freedom of expression rights and on the privacy of the journalist,” adding that he was seeking to “intimidate” The New York Times.

White House spokesperson: “Obviously not something we support” 

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about López Obrador’s doxing of Kitroeff at a press conference on Friday.

“I’ve not seen that. Obviously, that’s not something we support. We believe in the freedom of the press, obviously, which is why we do this on [an] almost on a daily basis,” she said.

Telephone numbers of Sheinbaum, Gálvez and AMLO’s son all leaked 

The telephone number of José Ramón López Beltrán, the president’s oldest son, was leaked on social media in the wake of his father’s widely-criticized disclosure last Thursday. The online publication of the numbers of ruling Morena party president candidate Claudia Sheinbaum and opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez followed.

“Today I have been receiving non-stop calls and messages of hate … because someone published my cell phone number on social media,” Sheinbaum said on X on Saturday.

“It’s clear what they want to do [but] again their attacks are as crude as they are inoffensive. The numbers they should worry about are those from the polls,” she wrote, acknowledging that she is the clear frontrunner in the contest to become Mexico’s next president.

Sheinbaum published one of the messages she had received and indicated she would change her telephone number.

Gálvez said in a video message that her number was also leaked as a “result of the terrible example set by López Obrador.”

She said that she too had received many messages, but highlighted that many of them were to express support. Gálvez, who will represent a three-party opposition alliance in the presidential election, said she wouldn’t change her number and even read it aloud in her video message.

For his part, López Beltrán asserted that the leaking of his number was “a form of revenge and an attempt to do harm,” adding that it put his family in danger.

“This situation began with a letter that contained threats and lies directed at the president of Mexico and his sons. What happened afterwards was a consequence [provoked] by the journalist herself, who exposed her telephone number thinking that the president would respond to her libel by calling her,” he wrote on X. “… What do I have to do with all this?”

López Obrador described the leaking of his son’s telephone number as “shameful.”

AMLO: Mexico doesn’t allow “the interference of any foreign government”   

In a video posted to social media on Saturday, López Obrador declared that, “we don’t allow the interference of any foreign government in our country.”

He said last week that the allegations published by the NYT wouldn’t affect Mexico’s relations with the United States, although he indicated last month that the previous drug money allegations could have an impact on bilateral ties. He also accused the United States government of involvement in their publication.

Speaking from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, on Saturday, López Obrador said that “Mexico is an independent, free, sovereign country” and “the president of Mexico cannot be slandered.”

“… It must never be allowed. … I’m not going to accept anyone’s calumny. … I don’t accept calumny without proof [from] foreign governments and their agencies, nor do I accept it from newspapers no matter how famous they are,” he said.

YouTube removes videos of president’s press conference, AMLO accuses it of “censorship”   

YouTube took down videos of last Thursday’s press conference that had been posted to government channels and López Obrador’s personal channel, which has over 4.2 million subscribers. The video sharing platform said the footage was removed because it violated its policy on harassment and bullying. The footage was later reposted to YouTube after the president’s disclosure of Kitroeff’s number had been edited out.

On social media, López Obrador accused YouTube of “censorship” and declared that it had demonstrated “an arrogant and authoritarian attitude.”

“… The Statue of Liberty has become an empty symbol,” he added.

History repeats itself 

At his Monday morning press conference, López Obrador once again presented the letter in which Kitroeff sought responses about the allegations people close to him received drug money. The journalist’s telephone number was once again displayed, albeit just for a brief period before the president asked for it to be removed.

López Obrador subsequently described Kitroeff’s telephone number as “institutional” and “public,” effectively asserting once again that he had done nothing wrong by disclosing it to his large online audience.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

Narcan at California colleges: Are students getting overdose medication?  

The Campus Opioid Safety Act required colleges and universities to put the power of reversing fentanyl overdoses directly into the hands of students. Some campuses are giving out the life-saving nasal spray Narcan, while others are not

by Li Khan

When Mel McKernan moved in with her new roommate Braedon Ellis, they bonded quickly. Every night she would stay up until 1 a.m. just waiting for Ellis to get back from her job so they could watch TV together. McKernan, 19, was a second-year student at Seattle University. Ellis was 20 and working as a Domino’s delivery driver.

“She genuinely was the light of my life,” recalled McKernan, who has since transferred to UC Berkeley. “She had this beautiful purple hair. I felt like that was just an aura that she carried around with her.”

McKernan thought she had made a friend for life. The two young women lived with two other roommates in a beautiful waterfront house in Kenmore, Washington. But behind the walls, a darkness lurked. Their other roommates were addicted to fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid.

McKernan had braced herself for the possibility of losing a roommate. But she never expected it to be Ellis. Their magnetic connection severed when Ellis overdosed from a combination of drugs that included fentanyl.

“It completely changed my view on opioids,” McKernan said. “Because I was like, this could hit anyone. It can hit literally anyone.”

Fentanyl is now the leading cause of drug-related deaths nationwide. After a new wave of deadly overdoses among Californians 15 to 24 started to rise in 2019, lawmakers turned to California’s public colleges and universities to offer life-saving resources to its students.

The Campus Opioid Safety Act, which took effect Jan. 1, 2023, required campus health centers at most public colleges and universities to offer students free Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose. Some colleges and universities have since armed students with Narcan, but not all have followed suit.

The rise of fentanyl deaths 

Today, when someone in the United States dies of a drug-related overdose, it’s usually linked to fentanyl. That’s a change from 20 years ago, when prescription opioids like OxyContin were the leading killer, according to Theo Krzywicki, founder and CEO of End Overdose, a national nonprofit based in Los Angeles aimed at eliminating drug-related overdose deaths, especially among teens and young adults.

“Fentanyl is a very different drug than OxyContin,” Krzywicki said. “The way people use it has changed.” Because fentanyl delivers a stronger and shorter-lived high than other opioids, people often use more of it, he said, and build up a tolerance to it quickly.

For years, the opioid epidemic hit middle-aged Californians harder, but the new wave brought on a rise in death rates for teens and young adults. By 2021, teens 15 to 19 were five times as likely to die from an opioid overdose compared to 2019. For 20- to 24-year-olds, they were over three times as likely. Rates for adults between 25 and 75 years old, meanwhile, roughly doubled in the same time frame.

Recently, opioid-related fatalities among the state’s young people have started to reverse. While death rates for adults 25 and over continue to rise, rates have declined for people under 25. Since 2021, per-capita rates for opioid-related overdose deaths dropped by over a third for Californians 15 to 19 and 20 to 24.

Rising awareness could be what’s driving the recent decline, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. College-aged students increasingly use social media to spread information about the risks of fentanyl and where to find life-saving resources such as Narcan. Young people also tend to have stronger support systems and are less likely to use drugs alone, according to the statement.

Lawmakers require colleges to combat the crisis

Melissa Hurtado, a Democratic Central Valley state senator, introduced the Campus Opioid Safety Act, or SB 367, in February of 2021. She said she chose to target college campuses after hearing story after story of young people overdosing in her district.

“It was just such a serious threat,” Hurtado said. “And it still is.”

This January, another law, AB 461, went into effect that added fentanyl test strips to the requirements. The small paper strips can be used by drug users to check if their supply contains fentanyl. Counterfeit prescription pills, made to look like OxyContin or Adderall, often contain fentanyl, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The act requires campus health centers at California State University campuses and community colleges to order free Narcan through a state program called the Naloxone Distribution Project. Schools also must educate their students about preventing overdoses, and let them know where they can find opioid overdose reversal medication. The law “requests” the University of California system to do the same, stopping short of a requirement because of the system’s constitutional autonomy.

At least 100 public colleges in California have Narcan somewhere on campus, according to data from the state distribution project that included a list of all applications from colleges and universities. Although not required by law, some private universities like Stanford also offer Narcan to students.

Every UC and Cal State has ordered Narcan from the state distribution project in the last two years, with the exception of CSU Maritime Academy. However, CSU Maritime said in an email statement that Narcan is available through their student health center.

Fourteen of California’s 72 physical community college districts were not represented in the data, but Narcan could still be on those campuses. Victor Valley College, in San Bernardino County, ordered Narcan through its police department, so the request was categorized as law enforcement. DeAnza College in Santa Clara County received its supply of Narcan from the county health department, according to college spokesperson Marisa Spatafore.

Cal State Bakersfield gets the word out

Hurtado represents much of Kern County, one of the deadliest counties for opioid-related overdoses among young people. In 2022, 15- to 19-year-olds in Kern County fatally overdosed on opioids at a rate three times higher than the statewide rate for the same age group, according to the California Department of Public Health. For 20- to 24-year-olds, the rate was twice as high.

The county is home to Cal State Bakersfield, whose health education department has given out about 60 boxes of Narcan to its students since January 2023. After completing a short online training, students can drop by the campus health clinic to pick up the opioid reversal drug.

Lauren Hedlund, a health educator at Cal State Bakersfield, said her team gets the word out to students through tabling, activities, and flyers. They also bring Narcan directly to classrooms if an instructor requests it. The instructor shows the training video beforehand, then the health education team visits the class to answer questions and hand out Narcan.

“It’s just making sure that I can reach as many students as possible so that they’re aware,” Hedlund said. She added that even if a student never needs the resources, they could know someone who does.

Some colleges lag behind

More than a year after the law went into effect, some colleges have yet to put Narcan in the hands of students. Elsewhere in Kern County, community colleges in Taft, Ridgecrest, and Bakersfield do not have a program for distributing Narcan to students. Bakersfield College is currently working on setting up a vending machine that would stock Narcan, menstrual products, and other health items, according to Marissa Perez, a medical assistant at the college.

In the East Bay Area, Peralta Community College District received Narcan from the state early last year, but until recently, no efforts were made to make it available through the student health center. The district initially distributed the Narcan to its security staff. No Narcan trainings have been held for students, although the safety department held a training this year at an event for college employees.

Students can request a single packaged dose of Narcan through the district’s public safety office, according to a Feb. 14 announcement sent by associate director of public safety Amy Marshall. The email was sent to employees, but not to students. Marshall informed CalMatters via email that the health center received Narcan on Feb. 20. However, the district’s associate vice chancellor of educational services, Tina Vasconcellos, clarified in an email to CalMatters that the Narcan would be for health center staff to use within the clinic, and that they would not distribute Narcan to students.

A spokesperson from Hurtado’s office confirmed that even if a college has Narcan somewhere on campus, the school needs to offer it to students to comply with the law.

UC Berkeley students steer efforts 

Crushed after losing her close friend, McKernan dropped out of Seattle University and took a year off college to stay home in Sacramento. Now 21, she’s finding her footing as a transfer student at UC Berkeley, where she majors in social welfare. She’s fervent about spreading harm reduction resources like Narcan, destigmatizing addiction, and addressing the deeper systemic issues that lead to addiction.

At her former university, McKernan had tried to organize her fellow students around overdose prevention, but struggled to find enough volunteers. So when she saw students from End Overdose’s UC Berkeley chapter handing out fentanyl test strips in Sproul Plaza on a recent afternoon, she asked immediately if she could join, offering to share infographics she’d made for social media.

Before her roommate’s death, she knew her household would benefit from Narcan, but she didn’t find out where to access it in time. “A lot of people, including myself, just learn about it too late,” McKernan said.

Tyler Mahomes, a legal studies major at UC Berkeley, founded the chapter of End Overdose last year. It’s one of the organization’s many college chapters across the United States, where students spread overdose prevention awareness and resources to fellow students. Mahomes’ team brings Narcan directly to fraternities and other student groups, and works with his university to patch holes in their harm reduction efforts. For example, he notified the university when his dorm hadn’t been restocked with overdose safety kits containing Narcan.

The students can even go where the university cannot. Last fall, the chapter volunteered at the Portola Music Festival in San Francisco to hand out Narcan to festival-goers.

Students are receptive to End Overdose’s peer-to-peer, non-judgemental approach. “They don’t see us as this administrative force,” Mahomes said. “We’re students like them […] so they feel very comfortable.”

The approach has already seen some results. According to Mahomes, one student at a frat party recovered from an overdose after someone used Narcan provided by End Overdose.

The spark that went out

Ellis, the purple-haired light of McKernan’s life, left behind her mother and an 8-year-old brother when fentanyl took her life. Her mother, Dionne Waltz, would find out two days later, while driving to pick her son up from school.

Ellis was a “fireball,” Waltz recalled. She still misses her daughter’s kind and generous spirit. When they went out for coffee, Ellis would insist on covering the tab, even paying for the car behind them. Even though she didn’t make a lot of money, she’d always save up to buy her little brother something nice for Christmas.

Two years later, the initial shock has faded. Waltz still grieves her only daughter. But she sees flickers of her spark everywhere: in the sunsets, in the birds, and in anything bright pink, one of Ellis’ favorite colors.

“On the inside there’s that hollow echo all the time,” Waltz said. “I think about her every single day.”

When Ellis’ spark went out, another was lit. McKernan vowed not to lose another friend to an overdose. She believes that just starting a conversation about Narcan could save others.

“Because if you’re educated and you’re prepared, it’s so much less likely that you’re going to lose a life to overdose,” McKernan said.

Khan is a fellow with the CalMatters College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.

The Peralta Community College District (PCCD) is calling for sealed Bids

NOTICE INVITING BIDS

The Peralta Community College District (PCCD) is calling for sealed Bids from qualified firms to provide General Contracting services for the Laney College Fabrication Lab Relocation Project (Bid No. 23-24/06).  Bids are to be submitted electronically (via Vendor Registry), by 3:00 PM, on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.

Follow the link below for the bid opening:

https://peralta-edu.zoom.us/j/82946237420

This project consists of Relocation of the existing Fabrication Lab from the South Side of the Theatre Building by the Outdoor Work Area to the Art Center Building. The scope of work includes but is not limited to demolition of existing partitions, and providing new framing and partitions in the new Fabrication Lab space in the Art Center Building as well as Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Structural work.  Also included is providing a new DSA-Approved Steel Canopy at the outside courtyard area of the Art Center Building.

The District is asking experienced and proven General Contracting firms to have been pre-qualified through Quality Bidders prior to bid submission. To become pre-qualified, please go to the Pre-qualification for Public Works Projects page on the Peralta website, and click on the “Click here to sign up” link to get started with the prequalification process.

In order to perform the work, Bidders at the time of the Bid Opening and for the duration of the project shall possess a valid California Contractor’s license and certifications in order to qualify to perform the Work: Class B General Contractor.

A Mandatory Pre-Bid video conference meeting will be held on Wednesday February 21, 2024, at 10:00A.M. via Zoom: Conference Meeting ID 841 9056 3906.

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android:

https://peralta-edu.zoom.us/j/84190563906

A Mandatory Pre-Bid site walk will be held at Laney College located at 900 Fallon St., Oakland, CA 94607, on Thursday, February 22, 2024, at 11:00AM. We will meet at meeting at the existing Fabrication Lab space (South Side of the Theatre Building) and eventually walking over to the Art Center Building.

Copies of the bid documents may be obtained by clicking on the following links:https://build.peralta.edu/vendorregistry

https://vrapp.vendorregistry.com/Bids/View/BidsList?BuyerId=4d041f6c-7568-4c8a-8878-c82684292a3c

Governing Codes:

GC 53068

EC 81641

Publication Dates: February 9, 2024, and February 16, 2024

 

San Francisco home to the best Lowrider art exhibition — Santos: Skin to Skin opens Watsonville Film Festival 2024

by Magdy Zara

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is home to the most extraordinary exhibition of Lowrider art to come to the Bay Area.

Striped, with sleek exteriors, lush and upholstered interiors, lowriders are designed to be seen and admired.

This multisensory exhibition, by artists Mario Ayala, Rafa Esparza and Guadalupe Rosales, began on Aug. 5, 2023 and ends next Monday, Feb. 19. In this exhibition, the artists interact with the visual language of lowriders, and explore cruising as a practice of resistance and community visibility.

Reflecting on their own early experiences roaming the streets of Los Angeles, Ayala, Esparza and Rosales have transformed four galleries on Floor 2 through vibrant multi-sensory installations. Celebrating and disrupting the lowrider, the exhibition begins with a newly commissioned mural by the three artists, followed by immersive galleries featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs, archival materials and a sound installation. Each space engages the senses to evoke the experience of lowriding while examining themes of memory, stories of authorship, queer experiences, issues of surveillance, and the relationship between humans and machines.

Sitting in Chrome, it will culminate on February 19 and shows how these personalized cars are modified over time by drivers, their families and communities for the sake of joy and visual pleasure.

You still have time to witness this wonderful and creative exhibition, which will be on display until February 19, on the second floor of the SFMOMA, located at 151 3rd street, ft².

The museum hours are:

Monday to Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Wednesday: closed

Thursday: 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Friday to Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SJMA presents talk on “environmental racism”

With the title “If Toxic Air is a Monument to Slavery, How Do We Tear It Down?”, the San José Museum of Art presents an exhibition and a talk on what could be called environmental racism, by the chief curator Lauren Schell Dickens.

Investigative agency Forensic Architecture uses cutting-edge technologies to investigate human rights violations, working on behalf of communities affected by police brutality, border regimes and environmental violence.

At SJMA, they present their research on the “Death Alley” petrochemical corridor, Louisiana, and offer tools to help combat a three-hundred-year continuum of environmental racism.

This will be on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, starting at 12:30 p.m., free with admission to the museum, located at 110 Calle Mercado Sur, San José.

Santos: Skin to Skin opens Watsonville Film Festival 2024

Santos: Skin to Skin is a cinematographic work that can be defined as a powerful portrait of the community activist and seven-time Grammy nominee, John Santos; who is known as the “keeper of the Afro-Caribbean flame.”

With the screening of this film production, the 2024 Watsonville Film Festival will be inaugurated.

Rich in musical performances, Santos: Piel a Piel links the rhythms of its ancestors with contemporary struggles of identity, resistance and social justice.

Director Kathryn Golden and producer Ashley James will participate in a post-film discussion facilitated by UCSC film professor Gustavo Vásquez.

The screening will be on Saturday, Feb. 24, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the CineLux Green Valley Cinema, located at 1125 South Green Valley Road, Watsonville. The ticket price is $10.

Gala and auction to benefit the San Francisco Children’s Choir

Like every year, the gala and auction will be held soon to benefit the San Francisco Children’s Choir’s Summer Music Camp, as well as to raise funds for tuition assistance.

This year during the elegant evening, attendees will be able to enjoy a pleasant time and contribute to a good cause.

The invitation is to participate in the silent and live auction, enjoying local wine with a 3-course dinner and wonderful music in a 5-star atmosphere.

Bid on local favorites and unique items during the fabulous auction program and enjoy performances by the San Francisco Boys Chorus and special guest artists. The evening raises tuition assistance funds for the San Francisco Children’s Choir’s music education and training program.

Tickets are now on sale. If you are unable to attend, please contribute a scholarship donation. This annual Choir gala will take place on March 2 starting at 6 p.m., admission is $250 and will be held at the St. Regis San Francisco, 125 Third Street, San Francisco.

Art Week in Mexico City: The hottest local galleries in CDMX

De las colonias más cool de la Ciudad de México, aquí hay siete recomendaciones de la Semana del Arte para las mejores exposiciones del centro de la ciudad. (RGR) - From Mexico City's coolest colonias, here are seven Art Week recommendations for the best city center exhibitions. (RGR)

by Bethany Platanella

Art Week in Mexico City officially kicked off on Wednesday with Zona Maco, Salon ACME, and Material open to the public through Sunday, Feb. 11. And while big name artists like Mexico’s Romeo Gómez López and Brazil’s Gretta Sarfaty will be front and center at Latin America’s biggest art fair, boutique galleries are also showcasing incredible talent — both emerging and veteran — from all over the world.

For those who want to spend a sunny, leisurely day gallery-hopping under the leafy trees of Mexico City’s coolest colonias, like Juarez, Roma, and San Miguel Chapultepec, pin the following seven locations to your virtual map. Many are within walking distance or can be easily accessed by bike or Uber, and all are close to charming cafes to relax between visits over a cafe de olla and delicious pan dulce. When in Rome, right?

Arróniz 

Tabasco 198, Roma Norte

Immerse yourself in the delightful confusion that is Dutch artist Matthias Schaareman’s Brick, Window, Paper series, exploring the tension between dimensions. His manipulation of lines and angles is easy to get lost in and his drawings are reminiscent of M.C. Escher, with colors akin to Kandinsky.

Showing through April 4.

Kurimanzutto

Gob. Rafael Rebollar 94, San Miguel Chapultepec

Jalapa-born Gabriel Orozco was part of a three-person team that brought to life one of Mexico City’s first contemporary galleries. It started as a traveling market, posting up to sell pieces in parking lots and shipping containers, and quickly became one of the most well-known galleries in the art world. The current exhibit showcases Orozco’s Tokyo-inspired leaf series and sculptures carved in volcanic stone.

Showing through March 23.

Le Laboratoire 

Gral. Antonio León 56, San Miguel Chapultepec

In the gallery’s White Box situated inside the verdant courtyard of Hub G.56 is Horizon, an exhibition that brings together Georgina Bringas, Alois Kronschlaeger, and Luis Felipe Ortega. Horizon interprets linear stability through geometric expression and utilizes mediums such as acrylic, yarn, and aluminum.

Showing through March 3.

Galería RGR

Gral. Antonio León 48, San Miguel Chapultepec

Photography, humor, textiles, painting, and sculpture make up the eclectic exhibit, Jugar con los ojos cerrados (play with your eyes closed), displaying pieces from at least 25 international artists. It’s the only gallery that made me laugh out loud (Kati Horna’s photo series of an egg) and rethink my apartment decor (Vincente Forte’s Paloma tapestry).

Showing through April 6.

Patricia Conde Galería

Gral. Juan Cano 68, San Miguel Chapultepec

Patricia Conde’s gallery was at the top of my list because of all the artistic mediums, photography is my favorite. It did not disappoint. The salon’s exhibit features the black-and-white photos of 14 Mexican artists that examine life and society through tradition, interaction with nature, and the foundation of the daily habits we, as humans, all share.

Showing through March 2.

Fundación Casa Wabi

Sabino 336, Atlampa

Emerging artist exhibitions are as carefully crafted as one would expect from Casa Wabi, playing on texture, color, light, and natural elements. The building itself is both fluid and stark, vacillating between stark, concrete walls and lush green gardens. The real star of the show, however, is the incredible view from its rooftop from which a smoky Popocatépetl is visible on a clear day.

This show is ongoing at the time of publication.

Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City.

Hearing on CA retail theft draws diverse views

close up consumer thief’s hands putting the new gadget in the pocket in the store

by Suzanne Potter

California lawmakers are considering a range of options to combat a rise over the last two years of felony retail theft – large-scale shoplifting – and held the latest in a series of hearings in West Hollywood on Friday. The State Assembly Select Committee on Retail Theft heard from residents, business owners and social-justice groups.

Tinisch Hollins, executive director of the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice, said everyone agreed on one thing.

“The retailers and folks who patronize stores deserve safety. People should be able to do business. That’s not up for debate,” Hollins said, “But relying on incarceration, jail and prison and arrests are not going to get us out of this problem, because it’s far more complex.”

Some in law enforcement have suggested in recent years that Proposition 47, passed a decade ago, has contributed to the uptick. Prop 47 raised the threshold for felony theft to $950 – so if the amount stolen is more than that, it would be a felony with jail time.

The law addressed overcrowding in the jails and has saved $750 million since 2015 in incarceration costs, diverting it to programs that address drivers of crime, including poverty, addiction and mental illness.

Hollins says fear-mongering should not be allowed to undermine criminal justice reform and notes that just 8 percent of people who participate in Prop 47-funded programs end up back behind bars.

“There are many who are really capitalizing off the fact that people are scared that businesses are being impacted, and that there’s this perception that there’s lawlessness, but the truth is, there are ways for us to intervene in this crisis, and we should be using them,” Hollins said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed cracking down on resellers of stolen goods and clarifying that law enforcement can combine the value of multiple thefts to reach the threshold for felony grand theft.

Community health leaders press Congress for more stable funding

Community Health Center leaders are pleading with Congress to pass a budget deal by March 8 to avoid a partial government shutdown – arguing that the uncertainty around funding makes it difficult to function.

Funding issues are expected to dominate discussion at the annual National Association of Community Health Centers Policy and Issues Forum in Washington D.C. – which starts today.

Kimberly Chang is a family physician at Asian Health Services in Oakland, who also serves as the Speaker of the House for the NACHC’s executive board.

“Well, when you don’t have a stable funding path and you’re relying on Continuing Resolutions,” said Chang, “it’s so challenging to make plans for hiring additional staff and employ those initiatives to support the increased demand for our services. And we would never turn a patient away.”

Community Health Centers are clinics that see patients no matter their insurance status or ability to pay.

They also face a shortage of primary care doctors, plus inflation and a fluctuating patient population as people are dropped from the Medicaid rolls after the pandemic.

The U.S. House and Senate both have bills that would increase funding for the centers, but they’re tied up in budget negotiations that have dragged on since last fall.

Paloma Hernández is president and CEO at Urban Health Plan, and is the chair of the NACHC’s board. She pointed out that Community Health Centers are the country’s largest primary care network.

“Many of us provide oral health, behavioral health, pharmacy services, specialty services,” said Hernandez, “and then, we provide lots of related services that address some of the social drivers of health.”

Community Health Centers helped more than 31 million people in 2022 – at 15,000 clinics that employ close to 300,000 people.

California alone has more than 2,300 clinics, serving 5.6 million patients.

50 major companies join coalition to hire migrants in Mexico

by the El Reportero‘s wire services

Amazon, Chedraui, Bimbo and Walmart are among 50 companies that have joined a coalition of major businesses committed to hiring refugees and migrants “at scale” in Mexico.

The coalition is an initiative of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network of large companies committed to hiring and training people who have been displaced from their countries of origin.

Tent México, which was officially launched on Wednesday, is the network’s “first national coalition to launch in Latin America, adding to existing coalitions in Canada, France, Spain and the United States,” Tent said in a statement.

Among the other companies that have signed on to the project in Mexico are:

  • Hotel chains Accor, Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott.
  • Food and beverage companies Chobani, Kellanova, Pepsi and Femsa.
  • Retailers H & M and Coppel.
  • Paint manufacturer Comex.
  • Telecommunications company AT & T.
  • The bank HSBC.
  • The recruitment companies Randstad and Manpower.
  • The tech firms PayPal and Microsoft.

Tent, founded by Turkish billionaire and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, said that the 50 companies are “committed to hiring refugees and migrants at scale, as well as providing them with job preparation support, in Mexico.”

“… In recent years, Mexico has welcomed more than 600,000 displaced people from countries such as Venezuela, Haiti, and Cuba — yet many have been unable to find formal employment,” the organization said.

“At the same time, 75 percent of employers in Mexico say they struggle to find workers and Coparmex, the Mexican Employers Association, reports between 1.2 and 1.6 million vacancies in Mexico’s labor market,” it said.

“Today, Tent is launching a first-of-its-kind coalition of Mexico’s largest employers to bridge this gap — helping Mexican businesses fill acute labor shortages by harnessing the talent of refugees and migrants who are eager to build new lives in Mexico.”

While most migrants who come to Mexico hope to enter the United States, a growing number are choosing to stay here, at least temporarily. Applications for asylum in Mexico reached a record high last year.

Gideon Maltz, CEO of Tent, said that companies in Mexico “have an incredible opportunity to meet their labor needs by hiring refugees and migrants.”

“By doing so, companies will see incredible dividends, they will gain loyal and dedicated workers, all while helping refugees and migrants become self-sufficient and contribute to their new community,” he said.

Just under three-quarters of respondents to a Tent-commissioned survey of more than 800 adults in Mexico — 74 percent — said they are more likely to buy from a company that hires refugees.

“Notably, this percentage is higher than any of the other eight markets where Tent has conducted similar research, including the United States, Spain, and Germany, underscoring Mexican consumers’ strong support for companies helping refugees,” Tent said.

José Antonio Fernández, chairman of Coca-Cola bottler and OXXO owner Femsa, said that Femsa has “hired thousands of refugees and migrants over the years, and … seen firsthand the tremendous impact they have made on our company, our employees, and our community.”

“We look forward to building upon this success and deepening our work with Tent to welcome even more refugees and migrants into the Femsa workforce,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether more migrants will choose to remain in Mexico as a result of the launch of the Tent project, which will be supported by the International Organization for Migration.

Undocumented migration to the United States reached record levels last year, prompting the U.S. government to ask Mexico to do more to stop the flow of migrants to its northern border.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last month attributed a decrease in migrant encounters all along the 3,145-kilometer-long border with Mexico to enhanced enforcement actions by Mexico; Mexico moving migrants along the country’s northern border to the southern border; and Mexico reinstating deportations of Venezuelans.

President López Obrador, who has offered Central America migrants work on government infrastructure projects, believes that the key to reducing migration to the United States is to invest in development and employment projects in the main source countries, such as Guatemala and Honduras in Central America and Haiti in the Caribbean.

The United States has zero national security

Paul Craig Roberts

by Paul Craig Roberts

In his newly published book, Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse, Steven Starr shows that all it takes is one nuclear explosion to shut down  the United States and throw the population back into the Dark Ages.  The electric power grid would be destroyed along with the communications system, the cooling systems at nuclear power plants and all electronic devices.  The reason is that civilian infrastructure is not protected from ElectroMagneticPulse (EMP). The military has taken steps to shield its weapon and communication systems, but nothing has been done to protect civilian infrastructure.  Bills mandating EMP protection have been defeated in Congress.

Starr reports that only 4 percent of the US military budget is required to shield the power grid and civilian infrastructure.  Instead, the Washington idiots waste trillions of dollars in pointless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Serbia, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and Ukraine.

American cities would suffer no effects from blast and fire, such as would be produced by ground level detonation, but the consequences would be just as dire.  Starr describes them in a summary on his website:  https://nuclearfamine.org/connect/

Effects of a single high-altitude nuclear detonation over the Eastern U.S.

“105 miles above Ohio, a single nuclear warhead explodes. Because it is far above the atmosphere, there will be no blast or fire effects felt on Earth, however, this high-altitude nuclear detonation will create a gigantic electromagnetic pulse or EMP.

“In one billionth of a second, the initial EMP E1 wave will cause massive voltages and currents to form within power lines, telecommunication lines, cables, wires, antennas, and any other electrically conductive material found beneath the nuclear detonation in a circular area covering hundreds of thousands of square miles.

“Within this region, under ideal conditions, the E1 wave will produce 2 million volts and a current of 5,000 to 10,000 amps within medium distribution power lines. Any unshielded modern electronic devices that contain solid-state circuitry, which are plugged into the grid, will be disabled, damaged, or destroyed. This includes the electronic devices required to operate all critical national infrastructure.

“Unshielded electronic devices within ground, air, and sea transportation systems, water and sanitation systems, fuel and food distribution systems, water and sanitation systems, telecommunication systems, and banking systems would all be simultaneously knocked out of service – and all these systems would be disabled until the solid-state electronics required to operate them could be repaired or replaced.

“The E1 wave will also instantly destroy millions of glass insulators found on 15 kilovolt-class electric power distribution lines. 78 percent of all electricity in the US is delivered to end users (residential, agricultural, commercial) through these 15 kV power lines. The loss of a single insulator on a line can knock out power distribution on the entire line.

“At the same instant, the massive voltage and current induced by the E1 wave will damage and destroy the relays, sensors, and control panels at 1783 High Voltage Substations, knocking out the entire electric power grid in the eastern half of the United States.

“One to ten seconds after the nuclear detonation, the following EMP E3 wave would induce powerful current flows in power lines including lines that are both above and below ground. E3 would damage or destroy many – if not most – of the Large Power Transformers and Extra High Voltage Circuit Breakers required for the long-distance transmission of about 90 percent of electrical power in the United States.

“The loss of Large Power Transformers and Extra High Voltage Circuit Breakers would mean that entire regions within the United States would be left without electric power for up to a year or longer. This is because Large Power Transformers are not stockpiled and the current wait time for their manufacture is 18 to 24 months; they must be custom designed and manufactured and about 80 percent are made overseas. They each weigh between 200 and 400 tons and must be shipped by sea and moving them to their final destination is quite difficult even under normal circumstances.

“Because nuclear power plants are not designed to withstand the effects of EMP, the solid-state electronics within their backup electrical and cooling systems would also be damaged and disabled. The failure of their Emergency Power Systems and active Emergency Core Cooling Systems will make it impossible to cool their reactor cores after emergency shutdown; this will quickly lead to reactor core meltdowns at dozens of nuclear power plants.

“To summarize, a single nuclear high-altitude electromagnetic pulse can instantly take out most or all of the US power grid while simultaneously destroying the solid-state electronic devices required to operate US critical national infrastructure – including the safety systems at nuclear power plants. Following a nuclear EMP, the people of the US would suddenly find themselves living in the conditions of the Middle Ages for a period possibly as long as a year – most Americans would not be able to survive such circumstances.

“For less than 4 percent of the US national defense budget, the US power grid and critical infrastructure can be shielded from EMP. However, the political will to implement this protection has not yet been found, so Americans remain very much at risk.”

The book is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kindle. If you read it, you will be amazed and disgusted at the negligence and stupidity of the US government.  Thanks to the fools who govern us, we have zero national security despite the massive expenditures year after year, decade after decade.

People do not realize that the convenience and entertainment provided by their cell phones comes at great cost when measured by risk.  Nothing is secure in the digital age, not your identity, your privacy, your bank account, or your independence. The expansion of the digital revolution into money will mean that you can be denied access to your money for any reason including the exercise of free speech.  All accumulated knowledge in digital form can be erased by one EMP. Try to imagine the consequences of such a loss.  These are new risks never before experienced on Earth.

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