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Raising kids in California? They may have college savings accounts you don’t know about

Los estudiantes graduados caminan por los pasillos para recibir sus títulos en la Celebración de Graduación Chicana/Latina del Estado de Fresno en el Centro Save Mart en Fresno el 18 de mayo de 2024. - Student graduates walk through the aisles to receive their degrees at the Fresno State Chicano/Latino Commencement Celebration in the Save Mart Center in Fresno on May 18, 2024. (Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)

The state is directly investing money for low-income students and all newborns to attend college. After two years, the program is still not widely known by the students who need the most financial assistance

by Jacqueline Munis

May 31, 2024 – Nearly 3.7 million students and 667,000 newborns in California have money invested in a savings account to help pay for college. But most families don’t know the money is there.

Citlali Lopez, a second-year psychology student at Sacramento State, found out a few months ago she had $500 sitting in a California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program (CalKIDS) account. Although she’s been eligible to use the funds since she graduated high school in 2022, she had no idea until her sister, who works at a nonprofit that supports low-income students with scholarships and financial aid, told her to check her eligibility. Lopez was skeptical at first, but found she was eligible and registered her account.

“I was just really surprised that I was able to get some extra help,” she said.

Financial aid had been top of mind for her and guided her decision to go to Sacramento State. She plans on using the money to finish general education classes over the summer if financial aid will not cover it.

So who gets money? Under CalKIDS, all babies born in California receive a sum. Babies born between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023 received $25 deposits, and all babies born after July 1, 2023 receive $100 deposits.

As part of the program, all low-income first grade students receive a one-time deposit of $500. First-graders who are in foster care receive an extra $500  and homeless first-graders receive $500 more, totalling $1500 for some students. All the accounts are tax-free, and the money is invested whether or not families claim their accounts.

Additionally, the state spent $1.8 billion in the 2021-22 budget to provide a one-time deposit to all low-income students in grades 1 through 12 in 2022.

Yet, of the 4.3 million student accounts created, only 313,445 accounts have been claimed by families, meaning they have registered online and seen the amount in their accounts. Only 6.3 percent of newborn accounts have been claimed and 7.4 percent of student accounts have been claimed as of March 2024.

The state is slowly building awareness about college savings

CalKIDS is run by a three-person team led by Julio Martinez, the executive director of the Scholarshare Investment Board, an agency within the State Treasurer’s Office. It administers the state’s 529 college savings accounts, which allow families to invest money tax free to cover education related expenses in the future. The team is responsible for creating the accounts, notifying families about the accounts and explaining what CalKIDS can provide to families.

“With these programs, it takes time to kind of build brand awareness, and also to break down the skepticism that often exists when you get a letter in the mail that says you have free money,” Martinez said. CalKIDS staffers go to college fairs and financial aid nights and host online informational sessions to reach families and students.

The state allocated $22 million in the 2022 and 2023 budgets to market the program. In Los Angeles, Riverside, Fresno, and Sonoma counties, CalKIDS program info is sent to all families that request a birth certificate, according to Joe DeAnda, the director of communication at the State Treasurer’s Office. During the first three months of this year, registration in the newborn program has more than doubled, from 20,608 to 42,312 newborns.

In April, CalKIDS began targeting high school seniors, through social media, email and direct mail, according to DeAnda. By May, the number of claims among high school seniors increased by 74 percent. They have partnered with school districts, such as Hawthorne School District in Los Angeles County, where 87 percent of seniors have claimed their accounts.

Still, most of the funds for marketing CalKIDS remain unused. The 2023-24 California state budget reappropriated $8 million to CalKIDS for a statewide media campaign, and the Scholarshare Investment Board is currently soliciting proposals for marketing services, which were anticipated to start on April 1, but have not begun.

“If families are not aware of this program, then it’s not going to have the impact that we think it’s going to have,” Martinez said.

The fact that many families don’t start thinking about college until high school is one cultural obstacle that college savings programs like CalKIDS run up against, says Willie Elliott, a professor of social work and founder of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion at the University of Michigan.

“So, we can’t expect that we put one of these programs in place, and, instantly, people get it and start functioning in that way,” Elliott said.

Elliott has helped develop state and local college savings programs in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C. He says that enrollment is not the best measure of success of programs like CalKIDS, especially this early on in the program.

“What you have in place in California is the infrastructure and now you have to do the work of making communities aware,” Elliott said.

He suggests that creating a culture around college savings through programs like CalKIDs will lead to positive outcomes. Those include increased account enrollment, more family conversations about going to college, and generally less stress for families who will be hopeful for their children’s future.

The conversations about college are as important as the amount of money actually in the account, Elliott said. Elliott’s research has shown that low-income students with a college savings account are three times more likely to attend college and four times more likely to graduate than students without an account.

Amanda Cook, a mother of six who has four children eligible for CalKIDS, is the homeless student advocate at Marysville Joint Unified School District in Yuba County, where she works to support homeless students and help them graduate. She said a lot of the families she works with don’t have college at the top of their mind because they’re thinking about urgent concerns like where they will sleep.

She said if schools were able to register students, it would be helpful for the families she supports. She also said training for school staff and counselors on the program as well as outreach from California Health and Human Services would help build awareness for schools and families.

CalKIDS joins local programs investing in students’ education

For many students, CalKIDS can be coupled with one of more than a dozen local child’s savings account programs in California. Launched in 2010 by then-mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newson, Kindergarten to College was the first program in the country to include automatic and universal enrollment.

Over the last 14 years, the program has been able to refine its outreach efforts to meet the needs of San Franciscans, said Amanda Fried, the chief of policy and communications at the San Francisco Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector. Students are eligible no matter their documentation status and can easily make cash deposits into their accounts.

“People have so many things on their plate, and so many competing priorities, and I think a huge mistrust of the financial system, which is totally warranted,” Fried said. “So this program just kind of eliminates so many barriers for families.”

The program’s five-person team hosts weekly online office hours in English and Spanish, texts resources and reminders to parents and trains teachers and counselors as school ambassadors to explain the program and answer questions. Students take field trips to Citibank to make deposits into their accounts, so they can physically contribute to their futures.

“We really have an intentional focus on schools where typically students are much less likely to go to college. That’s where we focus our in-person resources,” Fried said. ”We’re on the ground at those schools, talking to families constantly.”

Oakland Promise has a child’s savings program that starts in kindergarten, also called Kindergarten to College, alongside a program for newborns for Medi-Cal eligible families called Brilliant Baby. Veena Pawloski, the chief program officer at Oakland Promise, said they use community-based organizations to act as enrolling partners.

Can college savings accounts help combat poverty?

The aim of college savings programs like CalKIDS is not for money deposited by the state to grow enough to pay for college entirely. Rather, the program intends to ease some of the burden of college costs and help students create a college-bound identity.

Last year, UCLA opened the CalKIDS Institute in partnership with the state to boost outreach as well as research the program’s reach and which demographics they should be targeting based on enrollment. The institute’s director, Nayiri Nahabedian, said that, ultimately, the point of all these programs is to make college seem like an attainable goal for students and show them that the state, their community and their family believe that they can pursue higher education.

“CalKIDS made me realize more how much people are willing to help students,” said Lopez, the Sacramento State student.

“For a lot of students [the money] can make the difference between deciding to go and not deciding to go. It can be the difference between having a laptop and not having a laptop, having WiFi at home and not having WiFi at home,” Martinez said.

In addition to registering, students can connect their CalKIDS account to a ScholarShare 529 account where families can contribute their own money, which is invested. Six percent of claimed student accounts and 35 percent of claimed newborn accounts have been connected  to a ScholarShare 529 account. According to Martinez, families have, on average, $2,890 in their Scholarshare 529 account connected via their CalKIDS account.

Evelyn Garcia Romero, a senior at Calistoga Junior-Senior High School, did not know before talking to CalMatters that she could add her own money into a Scholarshare 529 that has accrued $32 in addition to the original $500 deposit.

“I feel like every cent counts and makes a difference,” said Garcia Romero, who plans on using her CalKIDS money and future savings to go to law school. “So, having an extra $500 would be so helpful and will definitely encourage me to attend college even more.”

Munis is a fellow with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

PG&E Safety Tip for Graduates: Celebrate Safely by Tying Balloons to a Weight

Power Outages Caused by Lost Balloons Can Ruin Graduation Ceremony

Corporate News

OAKLAND, California — It’s graduation season in California and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has an important reminder for the public about the safety risks associated with helium-filled metallic balloons. If your graduation celebration includes balloons, make sure they are weighted. Otherwise, they can become loose and come into contact with overhead power lines, posing a public safety risk.

In the first four months of 2024, there have been nearly 112 power outages in the PG&E service area alone due to metal balloons hitting power lines, affecting service to more than 47,000 customers. This represents a 30 percent increase over the same period last year.

“Metallic balloons have a silver coating that is a conductor of electricity. If balloons escape and come into contact with power lines, they can short-circuit transformers, cause blackouts, and melt power lines, creating risks to public safety. We call on everyone to celebrate responsibly and secure the metal balloons with a weight,” said Peter Kenny, Senior Vice President of Electrical Operations for PG&E.

A few years ago, more than 6,000 San Francisco customers were left without power after metallic balloons came loose during a graduation ceremony and came into contact with overhead power lines. During graduation season, PG&E tends to see an increase in outages caused by balloons.

Here is a sobering example of what can happen when metallic balloons become loose and collide with utility power lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jzefJfBbNA

In order to significantly reduce the number of outages caused by balloons and ensure that everyone can safely enjoy Father’s Day celebrations, PG&E reminds customers to follow these important safety tips for metallic balloons:

–  “Look up and stay safe!” Be careful and avoid celebrating with metallic balloons near overhead power lines.

–  Make sure helium-inflated metallic balloons have a heavy enough weight attached to them to prevent them from floating away. Never take the weight off them.

–  When possible, keep metallic balloons indoors. Never allow metallic balloons to be released into open spaces, for everyone’s safety.

–  Do not tie metallic balloons together.

–  Never attempt to recover any type of balloon, kite, drone or toy that becomes caught in a power line. Leave it there and immediately call PG&E at 1-800-743-5000 to report the problem.

–  Never go near a power line that has fallen to the ground or is hanging in the air. Always assume that downed power lines are energized and extremely dangerous. Keep your distance, keep others away, and immediately call 911 to alert the police and fire departments. Other tips can be found at pge.com/beprepared

–  Visit our Safety Action Center for balloon safety graphics and more safety tips: https://www.safetyactioncenter.pge.com/articles/44-celebrate-safely

The panorama in Mexico prior to the presidential election

Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the 2018 presidential race to become the 67th president of Mexico and six years later, Mexico is ready to elect either the 68th president this Sunday, June 2

by Xochitl TC

In Mexico, three possible scenarios are outlined after Sunday, June 2, the day on which 98.9 million citizens will go to the polls to cast their vote and elect a total of 20,708 positions at the federal, state and municipal level; The president of the republic being the most relevant, since everything indicates that Mexico will have its first female president in history.

The greatest election in history

There are 629 federal positions and 20,079 state positions, which will be voted on next Sunday in Mexico and, below, we present what the panorama is prior to the largest election in the neighboring country, where for the first time two women and a man They face occupying the presidential seat.

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo

She graduated with a degree in Physics from the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), she has a Master’s degree in Energy Engineering and also a Doctorate in Energy Engineering from the same university. Since her beginnings as a politician in Mexico, she has held various positions in the country’s capital as head of delegation (county) and was a key player in the 2018 elections, serving as AMLO’s campaign spokesperson, in his race for the presidency.

Among the proposals of the standard-bearer of the Let’s Keep Making History coalition, made up of the MORENA, PVEM and PT parties, stand out scholarships for students from basic to university level, free access to the IMSS-Bienestar health system, strengthening of the National Guard to surveillance and security tasks, substantive equality in public positions for women and attention to gender violence and violence against women through the SOS Women Program.

Another of her campaign promises is the increase in the minimum wage, especially for personnel in the militia, the health system and the teaching system. In addition, she will support the current government’s proposal on the Welfare Pension Fund. Said public trust will take 40 billion pesos from unclaimed accounts by older adults holders of AFORES that are considered inactive, with the objective of creating a pension fund, whose trustee will be the Bank of Mexico.

Regarding environmental and mobility matters, she presents the proposal for the transition to clean energy, in addition to building renewable energy generators, without leaving aside the work carried out by PEMEX and CFE, as she expressed that she seeks to strengthen them as public companies. Likewise, she will continue the projects started with AMLO, such as the Maya Train, the Interoceanic Train, the Felipe Ángeles Airport (AIFA) and the Dos Bocas Refinery.

Xóchitl Gálvez Ruíz

She is a computer engineer graduated from the highest educational institution in Mexico, UNAM, and in her political career she has served as senator, head of delegation (county), secretary of dependency of the federal government during the government of Vicente Fox, being at the head of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples.

She is a candidate for the Strength and Heart Coalition for Mexico (PRI-PAN-PRD), she seeks to strengthen the sports infrastructure in Mexico, to provide better resources to the country’s sports talent. The security plan is, without a doubt, the most solid, since she has proposed a total fight against organized crime to completely put an end to President AMLO’s “hugs, not bullets” policy.

She proposes creating full-time public schools where students have artistic, sports and cultural activities, and giving free Internet access to educational institutions.

Her environmental proposal is based on reactivating the fund for the protection and prevention of natural disasters, fully moving Mexico towards clean energy and reusing wastewater in urban areas. In that sense, she seeks to create more infrastructure spaces for pedestrian and bicycle mobility throughout the country.

Jorge Álvarez Máynez

He is running for the Citizen Movement party and has a degree in International Relations from the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Studies (ITESO), he also has a Master’s Degree in International Studies from the Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and also a Master’s Degree in Constitutional Law and Human Rights from the Carbonell Center for Legal Studies.

The focus of his campaign has been to restore their right to happiness, providing environments where they have access to sports and the promotion of a healthy life. His political campaign has focused on attracting the vote of young people, who represent 27 percent of the voters, 26 million young people between 18 and 29 years old, who will be in charge of choosing on Sunday.

It should be noted that, despite Máynez’s attempts to obtain the youth vote, the electoral contest is in dispute between the candidates Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez. According to Demoscopía Digital, Sheinbaum has a voting intention of 52.6 percent while Gálvez Ruíz has 29.7 percent and Álvarez Máynez only 14.6 percent.

The Mexico that AMLO leaves

The management of President Andrés Manuel was based on the social policy of “For the good of all, the Poor first.” However, some studies reveal that the poor bore the brunt of this six-year term, since the increase in poverty occurred among the most vulnerable population. In that sense, the NGO Mexicans against corruption and against impunity indicates that in 2018 there were 8.7 million poor people in Mexico and by 2020 there was an increase of 2.1 million, in other words 10.8 million people were in the range of extreme poverty in Mexico just two years after AMLO began his term as president.

In addition to the increase in poverty rates, the perception of insecurity is worrying among citizens, because the increase in intentional homicides has been considerable, registering a 28.20 percent increase compared to the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, a percentage that represents 176 thousand homicides so far in AMLO’s mandate.

Given the campaign promises that AMLO made six years ago, voters in Mexico are hours away from deciding a new course for the country or the continuity of the Fourth Transformation, a transformation that may be overshadowed because by the end of this “humanist” administration  by AMLO there will be 50.4 million people who do not have access to health services.

Sweet potato flour: A healthy, gluten-free alternative to wheat flour

by Olivia Cook

If you are looking for a healthy, gluten-free alternative to wheat flour, look no further than sweet potato flour.

Sweet potato flour is made from dried or dehydrated sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) tubers, which are then finely ground. It has a a slightly sweet taste that complements many cuisines. Its low protein content makes it more suitable for tender baking applications, such as cakes, muffins, pie crusts or some cookies.

It is a good source of resistant starch, which is excellent for digestive health and blood sugar management. Because of its high starch content, it is best used in batters and coatings, or as a thickener for gravies and sauces. You can replace wheat flour with its equivalent weight of sweet potato flour.

Moreover, the versatile sweet potato flour is naturally gluten-free. It also has more nutritional content than traditional wheat and soy flours. In fact, a study published in the International Journal of Food Properties (IJFP) expounded on sweet potato flour’s nutritional value.

The authors of the IJFP study from Wolkite University in the East African nation of Ethiopia said consumption of sweet potato flour is connected with good health and improved human nutrition. Sweet potato flour contains various vitamins, minerals, antoxidants, choline, protein and fiber.

“Individuals who [suffer] from celiac illness and gluten intolerance are looking for wheat-free products. Sweet potato flours partially swap cereal flours, which display benefits for people diagnosed with celiac disease,” the researchers mentioned. They ultimately concluded that sweet potato flour could address both health-related problems and food security issues in some countries where I. batatas is grown.

How to use sweet potato flour

While you can definitely use sweet potato flour to make bread, here are some other ways you can use this ingredient.

Use as breading for meat

Sweet potato flour is light and fluffy so it crisps nicely when fried or when baked in the oven. It works out amazingly well when you need a coating base for chicken or fish, plus the nice orange color can give your finished products that golden goodness appearance you want with a table-ready appetizing entree. You can easily season your breading recipe with crushed red pepper, garlic, onion powder, paprika and other organic spices for some zing.

Add sweet potato protein to a smoothie

You can add a bit of sweet potato flour to your morning smoothie or afternoon pick-me-up smoothie if you want to add just a dab of natural protein. The flavor is generally mild so it won’t overpower the most desirable ingredients in your smoothie mix.

Add fiber to yogurt

If you want to eat yogurt for a healthy gut microbiome but need more fiber, stir in a tablespoon or two of sweet potato flour. One serving of this alternative flour gives you a full 13 grams of fiber, and the flour will make your yogurt a little richer and thicker so it will even be more filling.

Whip up some biscuits for a fueling breakfast

Sweet potato biscuits can provide you with enough protein and fiber to keep you satiated and hold you over from breakfast until lunch. Check out this sweet potato biscuit recipe, which involves no wheat-based flour at all. Food.news.

Study: Eating an avocado a day can help improve overall diet quality

by Zoey Sky

05/09/2024 – As a superfood full of “healthy” fat, avocados are popular among health enthusiasts or those trying to support their overall well-being. According to a study published in Current Developments in Nutrition, consuming one avocado per day may also help “improve overall diet quality.”

The study was led by a team of researchers from Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Nutritional Sciences. The team included Kristina Petersen, associate professor of Nutritional Sciences, and Penny Kris-Etherton, retired professor of Nutritional Sciences.

For the study, the research team investigated how food-based intervention, specifically one avocado per day, can affect overall diet quality. The findings are important because poor diet quality is a risk factor for many diseases, including heart disease.

Additionally, many American adults have poor diet quality and do not meet key dietary recommendations provided by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

A closer look at avocados and dietary habits

According to Petersen, avocados are a nutrient-dense food and they contain a lot of fiber and other important nutrients.

While conducting the study, the researchers tried to find out if the regular intake of avocadoes would result in “an increase in diet quality.

Petersen said previous observational research suggests that avocado consumers have higher diet quality compared to non-consumers. As a result, the research team developed the study to find out if “there is a causational link between avocado consumption and overall diet quality.”

Petersen explained that because only two percent of American adults are regular avocado consumers, the researchers tried to confirm if including avocados in someone’s daily diet could significantly increase their diet quality.

Before the study, researchers conducted phone interviews with participants. Interviews were also conducted throughout the study to find out what their dietary intake was like in the previous 24 hours.

The researchers also evaluated their diets using the Healthy Eating Index to measure how well they adhered to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The researchers worked with 1,008 participants divided into two groups. One group continued with their usual diet and limited their avocado intake during the 26-week study. The second group incorporate one avocado a day into their diet.

Petersen said the participants who consumed one avocado per day “significantly increased their adherence to dietary guidelines.” This suggests that some strategies, like eating one avocado per day, “can help people follow dietary guidelines and improve the quality of their diets.”

In the study, the researchers classified avocados as a vegetable and they observed an increase in vegetable consumption attributed to the avocado intake.

Some participants also used avocados to replace some unhealthier options. Petersen warned that having poor diet quality significantly increases one’s risk for conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes and other preventable diseases.

She advised that improving people’s adherence to dietary guidelines is an effective way of helping reduce their risk of developing chronic conditions and “prolong healthy life expectancy.”

Petersen has conducted similar studies about the impact of food-based interventions, including the link between pistachios and diet quality. However, she added that more research is needed to find out what other food-based strategies can be used to improve people’s adherence to dietary guidelines.

Healthy ways to incorporate avocados into a balanced diet

Avocados can easily be incorporated into diets through making green smoothies or adding them to scrambled eggs. Avocados can also be used as a substitute for dips like mayo and sour cream. Here are some tips on how to incorporate an avocado into nutritious meals:

Seasoned

Keep things simple by sprinkling avocados with a bit of salt and pepper. Other flavorful seasonings to try include balsamic vinegar, cayenne pepper, lemon juice or paprika.

Cut an avocado into chunks and add your preferred seasonings and spices before serving.

On toast

Start the day with avocado on toast, a healthier substitute for regular spreads like butter and margarine. Avocado can also be pureed as a spread on toast and sandwiches for a more nutritious meal.

In salads

Studies also suggest that the extra calories from fat and fiber in avocados may help keep people fuller for longer. This can then help reduce calorie intake at subsequent meals.

Because salads can be light in calories, adding avocados can make them a more filling meal.

In soups

Avocados can be used as the main ingredient in avocado soup. Chunks of the superfruit can also be added into other soups. Food.news.

Open dance floor with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra

Pacific Mambo Orchestra

by Magdy Zara

If you want to dance to live music, to the sound of one of the most recognized Latin music orchestras in the Bay Area, we recommend not missing the opportunity that Freight & Salvage offers you, by presenting the great band Orquesta in its facilities of Pacific Mambo (PMO).

As we remember, Freight & Salvage is a non-profit community arts organization dedicated to promoting public awareness and understanding of traditional music, music that is rooted in and expressive of the wide variety of regional, ethnic and social cultures of the people of everyone.

For its part, the PMO, for its acronym in English, is a Grammy Award-winning orchestra and its repertoire is loaded with contagious energy and excellent musicianship.

Tonight before starting the rhythm wheel show, a free session will be offered. Event organizers remind that with an open dance floor, a ticket guarantees entry but not seats.

Freight & Salvage is located at 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley. Advance tickets are $32 and $37 at the door.

This night of music and dance is scheduled for May 24 starting at 8 p.m.

Cinema and music come together in the Davies Symphony Hall

The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra merges in a single presentation the impressiveness of the seventh art with the majesty of classical music.

On this occasion, the Disney film Encanto will be projected on a giant screen while the San Francisco Symphony performs the scores live.

You cannot miss the opportunity to enjoy with your family the magical story of an extraordinary family in the city of Encanto, with completely new songs by the Emmy, Grammy and Tony award winner, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The presentations will be this Friday, May 24, starting at 7 p.m., and Saturday, May 25 at 2 p.m.

The Davies Symphony Hall is located at 201 Van Ness Av San Francisco; tickets start at $59.

Redwood City begins summer activities with tribute to Santana

From May 31 to August 30, Redwood City carries out its usual summer activities, which this year reach their eighteenth anniversary, which include concerts, movies, and many outdoor activities that are completely free.

The summer kicks off with a tribute to Santana, which seeks to faithfully recreate the drive and sound that have made Santana’s music a pillar in the history of rock music over the last five decades.

The artists that make up the band are veteran musicians who have spent decades perfecting their craft to bring you the legendary sounds of Santana. You’ll hear all the hits from Santana’s early years to today’s new favorites, and it’s all played with the same instrumentation, soul, and passion.

Among the activities scheduled for this summer, live music of various musical genres is planned every Friday night for fourteen weeks.

The tribute to Santana will be this Friday, May 31, starting at 6 p.m. at Courthouse Square, 2200 Broadway, Redwood City.

Colombia requests Spain to return the Quimbaya pre-Hispanic collection

The request was sent through a letter signed by the Colombian Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Culture, addressed to their Spanish counterparts

by the El Reportero‘s wire services

The Government of Colombia formally requested Spain to return the ‘Quimbaya Collection’, comprising more than 120 archaeological assets of pre-Hispanic origin found in the Museum of America in Madrid, the Spanish capital.

The request was sent through the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia through a letter addressed to the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares; and the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun Domènech, according to local media from both countries.

W Radio detailed that the letter is signed by the Colombian Foreign Minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, and the head of Culture, Juan David Correa, who explained in the letter the importance of the aforementioned archaeological collection for the country, and that its return represents one more step towards decolonization.

The El Diario de España, which had access to the letter sent by Bogotá to Madrid, indicated that the also called ‘Treasure of the Quimbaya’ arrived in that European country at the end of the 19th century, when the then Colombian president Carlos Holguín gave these pieces to Queen María Cristina, to thank her for her mediation in a border conflict with Venezuela.

However, Holguín’s luxurious gift was widely criticized because he delivered it to Spain without the Colombian Congress giving it its approval, an act considered irregular, which violated Colombian sovereignty and laws.

“This gift that was made to Spain was made by an illegitimate person who, although he represented the Government of that time, in 1892, did not comply with the rules that existed then or those that exist now regarding consulting the true owners,” said the Colombian Minister of Culture to El Diario, who also pointed out that this incident was a “brutal act for heritage.”

Endorsement of the Court of Colombia

The request of the Government of Gustavo Petro to Spain also has the endorsement of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, which in 2017 indicated in a ruling that “the transfer of the Quimbaya Collection violated clear norms of the political Constitution of 1886 then in force.”

For this reason, the constitutional court indicated, the Colombian Government should initiate the processes for the repatriation of these ancestral assets that are part of the historical heritage of Colombia and its sovereignty.

“The collection is made up of archaeological goods (ceramics, goldsmiths, lithics and organics) associated with the Quimbaya Classic period that were looted by local guaqueros and delivered by the Colombian Government to the Kingdom of Spain in 1893, ignoring their cultural value for our nation,” indicated the Colombian ministers in the letter sent to their Spanish counterparts, dated May 9.

Minister Correa told El Diario that he seeks to start talks with his Spanish counterpart, Urtasun, who months ago spoke of “decolonizing” Spain’s museums.

“We do not demand anything. We are not a Government that wants to move by force. Only a conversation about the position of the Ministry of Culture, the minister and the Spanish Government on the possible return of the Quimbaya collection,” he said.

Feds: Grocery chain profits soared during and after pandemic

Unrecognizable woman checking a long grocery receipt leaning to a full shopping cart at store.

Consumer groups allege price gouging

per Suzanne Potter

Consumer groups are accusing major grocery retailers – like Amazon, Kroger and Walmart – of price gouging, both during and after the pandemic.

The allegation of corporate greed comes after a new report from the Federal Trade Commission found profits for grocery chains jumped sharply, at rates that could not be justified by supply chain disruptions.

Angela Huffman is president of the nonprofit Farm Action.

“It’s one thing to raise your prices to cover higher expenses, but what these companies did is use the pandemic as an excuse to exploit the American people who needed to put food on their tables,” said Huffman. “And the FTC report shows that they’re still doing it, here in 2024.”

The report found that retailer profits rose to 6 percent over total costs in 2021, and 7 percent in the first three quarters of 2023 – compared to 5.6 percent in 2015.

According to a report from Help Advisor, California households pay the highest grocery costs in the country, averaging almost $300 a week – about $27 more than the national average.

The Food Industry Association blames today’s high prices on high labor costs and credit card payment fees.

Huffman said she thinks the feds should take anti-trust action to increase competition – and consider forcing the grocery behemoths to break up.

“That would be the ideal outcome is to take away their excessive power,” said Huffman. “But other than that, these companies can be fined for this kind of price gouging. And that’s another action we would support. There needs to be some kind of consequences.”

The FTC staff report recommends “further inquiry by the commission and policymakers,” but doesn’t propose specific remedies.

Noboa reluctant to hand over Glas to reestablish ties with Mexico

The Ecuadorian president commented that he wants to have a fluid and peaceful dialogue, “without intervention on one side or the other”

by the El Reportero‘s wire services

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, expressed his disagreement that the reestablishment of relations with Mexico, which were broken after the assault by the Ecuadorian public force on the Mexican Embassy in Quito last April, is conditional on the surrender of the former Ecuadorian vice president. Jorge Glas, arrested in that raid when he was taking refuge in the diplomatic headquarters and who is currently in La Roca prison in Guayaquil, province of Guayas.

“It does not seem to me personally or to the Government that the only condition and the only way to re-establish a relationship with Mexico is to give them a criminal,” said the president, in an interview with AFP in Paris, France, within the framework of his tour of Europe.

According to the president, his administration wants to have with Mexico “a fluid dialogue and a dialogue of peace, without intervention on one side or the other”; and he mentioned that they are “willing to talk about many things” and even promoted a free trade agreement with that nation for a long time.

“I think it would be better if we once again have diplomatic relations with Mexico for the fight against drug trafficking, since one of the groups that operate in Ecuador are Mexican cartels,” he said in this regard.

But he insisted that “if there are convicted criminals,” they will not allow “justice to be flouted in that way”; pointing out that Glas, who had already received asylum from Mexico at the time of his capture, “is a person who has been convicted of two criminal offenses, according to Ecuadorian laws in past governments” and “was someone who had been given measures alternatives so that he has house arrest”.

“He went to hide in an embassy. It is the equivalent of someone being in prison, escaping and from there going to take refuge in an embassy. It’s that simple,” he added.

Trust in the ICJ

On the other hand, he was confident that they will be “right” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in The Hague, where Mexico filed a complaint against Ecuador and Quito responded with a counter-complaint later.

In that instance, in response to Mexico’s demand, public hearings were held on April 30 and May 1, where both countries presented their arguments.

“I believe that it will end up being clarified within the Court, if the embassy itself was denatured. We trust that we will be right. The moment a criminal is granted asylum, things begin to become intervention in national affairs, especially in national justice, and we do not agree,” he said in this regard.

At the beginning of May, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, mentioned that if Ecuador gives “safe conduct” and hands over Glas, they could “start” talking to de-escalate the conflict.

In that instance, in response to Mexico’s demand, public hearings were held on April 30 and May 1, where both countries presented their arguments.

“I believe that it will end up being clarified within the Court, if the embassy itself was denatured. We trust that we will be right. The moment a criminal is granted asylum, things begin to become intervention in national affairs, especially in national justice, and we do not agree,” he said in this regard.

At the beginning of May, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, mentioned that if Ecuador gives “safe conduct” and hands over Glas, they could “start” talking to de-escalate the conflict.

The official then said that Ecuador miscalculated and showed “a lot of inexperience” with the assault on the Embassy and described it as “very poorly done” if Quito understood the granting of asylum to Glas as a provocation by the Mexican authorities.

She recalled that both nations had been talking about it before her country granted the benefit to the former vice president.

“Glas arrived at our embassy on Dec. 17 and requested asylum on December 21. We did not grant it to him without dialogue with Ecuador. It was not a unilateral act by Mexico; we spoke with the Ecuadorian authorities, they themselves sent us the legal files so that we could analyze the request. We studied them and continued with the bilateral dialogue,” he said then.

Lawmakers urge U.S. action to halt China’s organ trade

by Tyler Durden

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

A group of leading China critics in Congress is urging the State Department to step up its efforts to curb Beijing’s gruesome $1 billion forced organ harvesting trade, which targets ethnic and religious minorities, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners.

Six members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, or CECC, sent a letter last week to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to utilize existing agency reward programs to provide monetary incentives for information that will “deter and disrupt the market for illegally procured organs” in China. Rep. Chris Smith, who chairs the CECC, and Sen. Marco Rubio, the commission’s ranking member, joined Democrat Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia and GOP Reps. Michelle Steel of California, Zach Nunn of Iowa, and Ryan Zinke of Montana in signing the letter.

The State Department manages two programs that offer awards of up to $25 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of members of significant transnational criminal organizations. One focuses on violators of U.S. narcotics law, and another targets other crimes that threaten U.S. national interests, including human trafficking, wildlife trafficking, cybercrime, money laundering, and trafficking in arms and other illicit goods.

“We strongly support the Department of State’s efforts to issue rewards for wildlife and narcotics trafficking in the [People’s Republic of China],” the lawmakers wrote. “However, given the global demand for organ transplants and the evidence of the illegal trafficking of organs in the PRC, there is a pressing need to uncover first-hand information from those who witnessed or engaged in the practice.”

The State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Communist China has long harvested prisoners’ organs, even though the government in Beijing initially asserted that all their organ extractions were from voluntary donors. But as far back as 2005, the top transplant doctor in China, then serving as the nation’s vice minister of health, admitted that roughly 95 percent of all organ transplants came from prisoners.

In recent years, leading researchers have documented a reprehensible aspect of these life-ending extractions: Prisoners of conscience – religious minorities and political dissidents are the main victims. There’s now extensive evidence that Chinese surgeons first honed their murderous organ harvesting practices on practitioners of Falun Gong, a meditation and exercise movement. In recent years, the regime expanded its pool of victims to China’s imprisoned Uyghur population as part of its systematic oppression of the Muslim minority group.

China has vehemently denied these claims, but in 2019, the China Tribunal, a non-governmental, independent commission in the U.K., concluded otherwise. The Tribunal investigated accusations of organ harvesting in China and found that some of the more than 1.5 million detainees in Chinese prison camps are being killed for their organs to serve

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a booming transplant trade worth an estimated $1 billion a year. The Tribunal also found that the Chinese organ trafficking industry is harvesting organs from executed prisoners and political prisoners at an industrial scale, actions that constitute crimes against humanity.

In response to the Tribunal’s findings, more than a dozen United Nations human rights experts said they were extremely alarmed by reports that organ harvesting was targeting “specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, and Christians” detained in China. The experts, who operate under United Nations mandates but do not speak on the international organization’s behalf, called on China to respond to the allegations of illegal organ harvesting promptly and to allow international human rights monitors into hospitals and other areas to monitor the country’s organ extraction practices. China has ignored those requests.

In 2022, the American Journal of Transplantation, the leading medical transplant publication in the world, published a peer-reviewed article that uncovered compelling evidence that Chinese surgeons are systematically removing organs from prisoners while they are still alive, providing on-demand supplies for China’s organ export industry.

The practice violates the internationally accepted “dead-donor” rule that holds that organ procurement “must not commence until the donor is both dead and formally pronounced so.”

“Forced organ harvesting is an atrocity, and the disruption and deterrence of this practice should be a priority of the State Department,” the group of lawmakers wrote.

“Getting the PRC to account and fully address evidence of forced organ harvesting will be critical in ending this horrific practice and promoting, long term, the establishment of a truly voluntary organ donation system,” they continued. “With effective enforcement mechanisms, we can work towards ensuring organs are procured safely and ethically.”

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.

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