Monday, August 19, 2024
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San Francisco Hispanic Chambers of Commerce hold toy drive

L-R: 1. Alex Maltez, President Nicaraguan American Chamber of Commerce Northern California, 2. Fati Samereie, wife of Masood Samereie, President, San Francisco Council of District Merchants Associations. 3. Tracey Sylvester, from EHS Pilates, board member Mission Merchants Association. 4. Rodney Fong. President, San Francisco Chamber. 5. Roalndo Prado, Small Business Manager, San Francisco Chamber, 6. Martha Vaughan, CEO, Nicaraguan American Chamber of Commerce Northern California. 7. Carlos Solórzano, CEO, Hispanic Chambers of Commerce of San Francisco. 8. Erick Arguello, President, Calle 24 Council. 9 Massod Samereie, President, San Francisco Council of District Merchants

by Olman Valle Hernández

With the aim of bringing happiness to children from low-income families in the Mission area of the city of San Francisco, representatives of the Hispanic Chambers of Commerce held a toy drive that will be delivered at Christmas.

L-R: Carlos Solórzano Cuadra and Erick Arguello

John Jacobo, Vice President of Street and Cultural District of Latinos of the Mission, expressed that this is an effort that year after year the different Hispanic chambers have been developing in order to help families that are just arriving to the city.

“This effort that is made together with community organizations, we know that there are many children and young people from families who have just arrived from other countries and that their parents make the greatest effort to survive in a very expensive country and city where Starting from scratch is very hard,” said Jacobo. “That is why the toy drive we deliver will help save parents’ pocket money.”

Everything collected will be managed by the different partner organizations, the chamber and mainly the MAPI foundation, which has worked with low-income children of the Mission since 1970,” said the vice president, during the event that took place at Amado’s club, located on Valencia Street. It was also about helping the establishment, which had recently closed its doors, to generate income.

Carlos Solórzano, general director of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco, expressed that there are other purposes and actions to help in the Latin Mission district and one of them is to support small businesses that have had difficulties since the pandemic. of Covid 19, theft problems and bicycle lines that have hindered access to parking that have decreased business clientele.

“We have decided to work together with the Association of Merchants of the Mission, The Council of the Mission and in total there are more than 36 organizations that we are supporting our people to continue promoting small businesses, and as well as all those street merchants. “They have had problems in the Mission squares,” said Solórzano.

It is estimated that the toys will be delivered through a census where the most humble sectors of the Mission District have been identified.

The activity was enlivened by the participation of a salsa and jazz music group, who made those present dance and delight, as well as serving the guests at the bar with cocktails and delicious food.

Amado’s is a vibrant bar and music venue on Valencia Street, which closed its doors last week and its owner, David Quinby, publicly blamed the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s controversial decision to implement a protected bike lane in downtown the street. The club closes after eight years.

A more trivial reason for the closure was declining sales, which were down 80 percent.

Moving the Valencia St. bike lane experiment to South Van Ness is the best option for everyone

Marvin Ramírez, editor

I love bicycles; however, the Valencia Street bike line must be moved to South Van Ness Avenue.

It is not necessary for bicyclists to use Valencia Street just to pass and on their way to damage the businesses that their owners are trying so hard to keep afloat after the devastating pandemic.

Let’s face it, bicycles do not contribute to businesses in the area, not even to feed the parking meters, much less to pay taxes. But the City is using drivers taxes to provide benefits that ultimately kill their businesses.

Bicyclists just need a path to ride safely from home to work and back, and South Van Ness is the perfect street. It is wide enough to create a safer path for them.

SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin and Board Chair Amanda Eaken wrote an op-ed Tuesday called “We all love Valencia Street. Let’s make sure it works for everyone.”

That “we love Valencia Street” doesn’t seem to be sincere to my opinion and perhaps others’ as well because it wasn’t until when several merchants associations organized a press conference and gathered together on Dec. 5, to denounce the abuse of businesses by the SFMTA with the installation of the bicycle way, that the issue was put in the front burner.

Those acculturated to the use of bicycles cry out for the lives of cyclists and criticize that the demand for more parking spaces do not consider the lives of those who circulate on two wheels.

However, why did they pick Valencia Street in the first place, knowing they would be destroying trendy shops and restaurants when parking was lost, which would result in closing businesses and loss of jobs? I don’t understand.

Also, look at the majority of bike riders, they are mostly young people who don’t need cars, unlike those who have families and need a vehicle to transport them. Those drivers are the ones who support the local businesses, not the bike riders.

The advocates for bike lanes don’t even mention the alternative lanes at South Van Ness as an option; they only argue about how to make it work on Valencia Street, despite that the Van Ness option was mentioned and suggested at the press conference.

You can’t take away revenues from the business sector just to please the bicycle culture – just because they have a strong lobby due to their numbers that translate into voting power.

I went to the toy drive organized by the SF Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (SFHCC) on Tuesday at Amado’s, vibrant bar and music venue on Valencia Street, which closed its doors last week and its owner, David Quinby, publicly blamed the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s controversial decision to implement a protected bike lane in the middle of the street. The club closed after eight years in business. A more trivial reason for the closure was declining sales, which were down 80 percent.

Carlos Solórzano Cuadra, SFHCC’s CEO, said that despite the good intentions of the San Francisco Metropolitan Authority, there is a problem that has been created with the now infamous middle lane on Valencia Street, because what it has done is affect business, especially the loss of regular parking. Although, he said, a requirement for commercial parking was made by the merchants previously, it showed that they do not work. Yellow zone commercial parking spaces remain empty most of the time, and drivers who need to park get a parking ticket when they have to use them.

“At the moment the priority we have is to protect the small businesses that are still open and those to come in the future so that people can visit local businesses, increase tourism, improve the economy,” Solórzano said to El Reportero.

Solórzano said that something important in this is that you have to take businesses into account and pay a visit to local businesses. He said “there was a plan with the main chambers of San Francisco, together with Calle 24 Council and the Commission of Merchants of the Mission to see where bicycle traffic is best so that it does not affect small businesses.

But, as I mentioned before, Valencia Street should not be an option for bicycle lanes, because, you either save and promote businesses – with plenty parking spaces available – or destroy them by ceding the reign of the street to bicycles, which don’t pay taxes nor contribute to the economy of this commercial corridor.

And, I strongly suggest, move the bike lane to South Van Ness. Why haven’t you thought about it before? Why haven’t you foreseen how it would have affected business at Valencia Street before you went on to change the whole ball game?

And besides, the SFMTA is a separate government within the government, and its managers are nonelected officials, who are not accountable to the people. But they get to do what they want with the approval of the elected politicians and change our lives as they please with our tax-payer dollars. They should be fired and the agency disbanded.

Say hello to Santa and Mrs. Claus in Redwood City

by Magdy Zara

Like every year, Redwood City presents its Christmas light show and attractions, which is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy with the family.

This majestic spectacle is powered by Epic Lights, Redwood City’s parks, recreation and community services. The organizers explained that they are between 20 to 30 minutes of energetic festive vibes: Christmas melodies, thousands of twinkling lights and a laser-lit sky.

Two shows are performed each night, one at 6:30 p.m. and another at 8 p.m., on the Valota Road side of Red Morton Park, with 752 Valota Road the main attraction.

Families will also be able to enjoy a dazzling tunnel of light, a light show synchronized to music and a huge Christmas tree at Red Morton Park. The show is family-friendly and the view is from the park.

December 23 will be a special night, since there will be the special presence of Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, with whom attendees will be able to share and take photos.

The light show is from Dec. 16 to 31, and begins at 6:30 p.m. at Red Morton Park-Valota Road 752 Valota Road Redwood City.

San Francisco Children’s Choir present at “The Nutshell” 2023

If you want to enjoy the entire world of dance in one show, you can’t miss this year’s The Nutshell, the immersive celebration of the Nutcracker that includes all dancers and all cultures.

This will be a show featuring classical Chinese and Indian dance, flamenco, folk, jazz dance and more, all to the familiar music of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, adapted by guest artists who specialize in each style of dance.

This year there will be the special participation of the San Francisco Children’s Choir, who with their joy and festive program will contribute to celebrating these festivities.

The nutshell! It’s more than just watching dance. Brave audience members, young and old, will be recruited as mice and soldiers for the battle scene, and everyone who remains on the sidelines will receive a lesson in how to dance the flower waltz with their favorite partner.

The presentations will be on Dec. 21 and 22, at 7 p.m. at the Mannakin Theater and Dance, iMPACt Center for Arts and Dance 1625 Bush St Suite 4, San Francisco.

Christmas Eve Concert in Mexico

In Mexico, Christmas is not just one day, but an entire season of Christmas-related celebrations that combine indigenous culture, Spanish heritage and many other influences, which is why a concert with Mariachi music and dance has been designed. folklore.

On Christmas Eve, it is tradition for Mexican families to attend midnight mass before returning home to enjoy an evening feast that includes foods such as cod, ham, turkey, tamales and mole, with punch to drink and lots of music.

Gifts are generally not given at this time, but this is changing with the growing cultural influence of the United States.

In this concert, the Los Angeles Folkloric Ballet and Jaime Cuéllar’s Mariachi Garibaldi embrace some of the traditions that people in Mexico celebrate during the Christmas season, but keep in mind that many of these customs and celebrations vary from region to region. other.

The concert will be next Dec. 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Gallo Center for the Arts. 862 10th St, Modesto. Tickets start at $25.

How did the ancient Maya build their pyramids?

Las pirámides se utilizaron no sólo como templos y puntos focales para las prácticas religiosas mayas. -- Pyramids were used not only as temples and focal points for Maya religious practices. (Unsplash)

by Mark Viales

Mexico News Daily

For over 3,000 years, the city-states that made up the Maya civilization dominated southern Mesoamerica, building majestic cities and towering pyramids in a hostile jungle habitat. Perhaps even more amazing is that they did so without using metal tools, wheels or beasts of burden to transport large limestone blocks from quarries in distant mountains to building sites. Instead, they did this with pure manpower.

“The Maya did not use the wheel nor draft animals, so they transported the building materials using person-power from the quarries to the building site,” Judith Maxwell, Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at Tulane University told the Daily Herald in 2016.

Smaller blocks were carried by individuals with a tumpline, a backpack attached to the forehead with a leather strap, which places pressure on the spinal column rather than muscles, allowing people to bear heavier loads. Without the smelting techniques needed to forge iron, they devised chisels from jadeite and obsidian, which artisans used to create facade designs and to chunk out the stone blocks that supported awe-inspiring architecture.

A sophisticated network of causeways known as sacbeob (white roads, were intricately woven through the jungle and stood as symbols of immense political influence. They connected major cities and greatly increased the speed of transport of people and goods to support the rapid growth of the empire. Functioning as royal processional pathways connecting kingdoms – some stretch up to 60 miles in length – the sacbeob represented a remarkable engineering achievement comparable to the roads built by the Roman Empire. The ancient Maya strategically positioned sizable rocks on either side of the causeway, filling the intervening space with cobbles and smaller stones. The entire surface was then coated with stucco, a robust and sleek white plaster.

“Blocks were cut using stone tools only,” writes British historian Mark Cartwright. “Burnt-lime cement was used to create a form of concrete and was occasionally used as mortar, as was simple mud.”

The Maya also altered the landscape to navigate challenging terrains by elevating the ground with stones to maintain a level road. Traci Ardren, archaeologist and University of Miami professor of anthropology, told Miami media outlet News@TheU in 2020 that the Maya concocted a similar formula as the Romans used for concrete in the third century B.C. “[They] would have been a beacon through the dense green of cornfields and fruit trees,” Ardren said of the sacbeob. Archaeological evidence suggests the sacbeob likely played a pivotal role in fostering migration and prosperity through trade across the Yucatán Peninsula.

The ancient Maya were fascinated by the concepts of space and time, diligently studying the stars and aligning their cities with the intricate geometry of the heavens. Despite using basic tools, they demonstrated impressive precision in tracking stars and planets. The Caracol observatory in Chichén Itzá is perfectly aligned with the movements of Venus and solstices at the time. Seemingly irregularly placed windows in the observatory at the world-famous archaeological site capture the solar cycles of the closest planet to Earth. This enabled the creation of their highly accurate astronomical calendars, unparalleled in the ancient world. The Maya learned to predict eclipses, which they understood as illnesses among heavenly bodies and saw as dangerous to humans, employing rituals and talismans to protect themselves during these events.

“Buildings were constructed on precise plans according to such events as the winter and summer solstices and equinoxes,” writes Cartwright. “In addition, the outline of structures, when seen from above, was also deliberate and could form or resemble Maya glyphs for, for example, completion and time.”

He describes Maya sites as displaying evidence of deliberate urban planning, while monuments are often laid out on a radial pattern incorporating wide plazas. Topography usually determined where larger buildings were constructed. In contrast, buildings themselves were oriented along, for example, a north-south axis, and were positioned to take advantage of solar and other celestial events or sight lines.

Carving magnificent cities in one of the most inhospitable environments, numerous untouched Maya sites and their secrets remain concealed in the jungles stretching from Mexico to Honduras. The ancient city-state of Palenque in Chiapas has pyramids with hidden passageways and trap doors. One of them, the tomb of King Pakal, conceals an 80-foot stairway leading down inside. In a crypt measuring 30 feet in length and 23 feet in height, Pakal’s tomb held a massive 20-ton sarcophagus carved from a single piece of limestone.

“Pyramids were used not only as temples and focal points for Maya religious practices where offerings were made to the gods,” writes Cartwright. He writes that another function was as gigantic tombs for deceased rulers, their partners, sacrificial victims, and precious goods. Pyramids were also periodically enlarged so that their interiors, when excavated, sometimes reveal a series of complete but diminishing pyramids, often still with their original coloured stucco decoration. “In addition, individual shrines could be amalgamated into a single giant complex over time as Maya rulers attempted to impress their subjects and leave a lasting mark of their reign,” writes Cartwright.

Mark Viales writes for Mexico News Daily

Experimental studies, number 1: automatic machinery and the spirit

by Jon Rappoport

This is the idea: when souls come to Earth to be born physically, there is a great deal of invisible machinery here.

In the body, of course. And possibly elsewhere.

One of the primary aspects of that machinery is ORGANIZATION. Functions are arranged and processes are arranged so they work together. Well, that’s what a machine does.

The soul becomes entangled in the machinery. He believes he has to participate in it, in order for it to work.

But in the course of his life, if a moment occurs when, for any reason, he lets go of his participation, the machinery works quite well without him—and at that point, he experiences a MAJOR uplift of well-being. Very noticeable. By him.

His “interior problems” vanish.

He doesn’t know what happened. He just knows how he feels. And he feels very fine.

He doesn’t feel “separate from machinery.” He just walks down the street in a completely different mindset.

He’s not expending the tremendous amount of effort “contributing to the working of the machinery”—which didn’t need his contribution in the first place.

You could imagine it this way: you’re invited to take a tour of a factory. During the tour, you look at all sorts of marvelous equipment that carries out various aspects of “production.” It’s quite a complex and exciting scene. But somewhere along the line, you get the idea that you should “help the machinery along.” How weird. So you begin to grunt and sweat as you “get involved.” By the end of the tour, you’re hooked. You’re now, in your estimation, YOU PLUS THE MACHINE.

This is your life. Even after you leave the factory, you’re hooked.

Until and unless you have that moment when the connection breaks.

Otherwise, most people spend their lives learning how machinery works. How it should be built and maintained and repaired and organized and polished and refined.

I had “my moment” in the fall of 1962, when I was doing an experiment with music. I was living in a small New England town and playing the piano every day—I had no absolutely no training or technical knowledge. For reasons I won’t go into, I was interested in so-called dissonant sounds—the kinds of sound we’re told make no sense, are offensive, and so on.

Every day, I would play random sounds on the piano and listen to them, with the goal of making no judgments about what I was hearing.

Eventually, the more I listened, the less I was aware of what my hands were doing. And the less it seemed the sounds I was hearing were unpleasant. They seemed like a different kind of music.

After one session, I traveled to New York, and late in the afternoon I walked along a street near Washington Square Park. And it happened:

I felt terrific. Much different than usual. I was relaxed, happy, and whatever problems I’d thought I had were gone. I walked along looking at the street and the people and the trees. I ran into a friend and we chatted for a few minutes.

For an hour or so, I was probably happier than I’d been since I was a child on a summer day without a care in the world.

I had no idea why. Except I knew it had something to do with the music and the piano. It had something to do with the fact that we’re all programmed to enjoy certain kind of harmonics and organizations of notes and reject others. We’re taught to appreciate a certain kind of machinery of music. And I had left that behind.

The result wasn’t chaos. Far from it. It wasn’t organization, either. It was something much simpler that doesn’t really have a name.

It was what I am. And what anybody is. Minus a fixation on machinery.

Green cities: A matter of life and death

by Selen Ozturk

Ethnic Media Services

As humankind grows increasingly urban, planting trees and parks — far from merely beautifying cities — increasingly becomes a matter of life and death.

As humankind grows increasingly urban, planting trees and parks — far from merely beautifying cities — increasingly becomes a matter of life and death.

At a Friday, Dec. 1 Ethnic Media Services briefing, Los Angeles Forestry officials and urban greening experts discussed the city as a case study of the link between green space and human health, and explained how adding nearly a million years of life expectancy in LA County through urban greening could serve as a model for other cities.

Green space and life expectancy

The more parks and trees there are in a given neighborhood, the higher the area’s life expectancy, said Michael Jerrett, referring to a July 2023 UCLA study he co-authored, which found that bringing green space in LA County to median levels could add up to 908,800 years of collective life expectancy to residents in under-resourced communities.

While the study found that life expectancy in wealthy and verdant Beverly Hills was 90, the median in south LA communities less than 15 miles away was 77. The total expectancy ranged countywide from 68 years in poorer south-central areas to 93 in affluent places like Malibu, said Jerrett, a UCLA environmental health professor and Center for Healthy Climate Solutions co-director.

In already “very leafy areas, like Brentwood, or parts of West LA, there’s not a lot of impact in adding more green space,” he added, but in disproportionately less green areas in the east, south and far north — where two-third of LA County’s Black and Latino population resides — merely expanding parks to county medians would add 164,700 years of life expectancy to the region, with Black and Latino residents receiving 72 percent, or 118,000 of these years.

Healthy trees, healthy people

The health benefits that come from more parks and trees depend on more than just planting, said Rachel Malarich, the first City Forest Officer for the City of Los Angeles. “In order to achieve those benefits, we need to have healthy trees, regularly maintained to live their own full lifespan in the neighborhoods which most need them.”

The city’s Urban Forest Management Plan has four pillars, she continued: planting new trees, maintaining existing trees, preserving these trees amid new construction and development, and engaging the communities who live with these trees.

“When we talk to community members, there is often frustration because the trees haven’t been maintained,” Malarich explained. “The industry standard is to inspect trees and trim them as needed every five to seven years; the city’s current cycle is closer to 18 years … we’re now holding community engagement workshops and feedback surveys both to improve inequity of access to green spaces, and inequity in how these spaces are maintained.”

Greening on-the-ground

The most sustainable urban forests are planted and supported by members of their own communities, said Marcos Trinidad, Senior Director of Forestry at TreePeople.

Now in its 50th year, the urban greening nonprofit has been shifting from an all-volunteer model of planting, maintenance and community education to a hybrid model which includes “workforce development,” particularly training youth interested in environmental careers to work with community organizations to green “neighborhoods which need trees the most,” like northeast and southeast LA, he explained.

Though TreePeople is based in LA County, Trinidad said that its model of community investment in “what is needed to have sustainable, sustainable urban forests” — namely planting, maintenance, preservation and education — is meant to be shared well beyond LA: “We’re currently in the Inland Empire and Antelope Valley … and want to share our process with the rest of the world.”

Green equity as green stewardship

To invest in more green space for underserved communities means investing in those communities as caretakers of this space, said Bz Zhang, Project Manager of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust (LANLT) — which, since its inception in 2002, has created about 30 parks and gardens across 21 acres of green space for over half a million LA County residents.

Since majority non-white communities “have 64 percent less access to park space than those in white neighborhoods, and lower income communities have 66 percent less,” greening LA County best means “doing so explicitly from an equity lens,” Zhang explained. Most crucial to this equity is community-centered stewardship: LANLT maintains the parks they plant by “hiring part-time stewards from within the neighborhood they’re located.”

“In these communities we create stewardship training programs … particularly for youth, through our Garden Apprenticeship Program, which has worked with over 350 high school students in south LA since 2013 to arm the next generation with the skills to tend to these spaces which are so crucial to their health … We can always build parks, but we also have to make sure those most impacted by green inequity have access to them,” Zhang added.

‘A matter of life and death’

This access to urban greenery is ever-more crucial as humankind becomes an increasingly urban species, said Jon Christensen: “As of 2007, over half of us live in cities, and that’s expected to go up to 70 percent by 2050. Cities are our habitat and our resilience to climate change — the resilience of our own health as a species — requires that we invest in cities, which means remedying the inequities which have shaped our urban environment. It’s a matter of life and death.”

In its efforts to remedy green inequity, “Los Angeles is a model of global concern for understanding urban ecosystems,” said Christensen, adjunct assistant professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment, Luskin Center for Innovation, and Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies.

In California alone, he continued, “$100 billion dollars will be spent on green infrastructure, urban greening and climate resilience over the next several years — half of it from the federal government and half from the state.” As governments worldwide begin to implement similar measures, “We need to recognize that planting trees is not enough; we need to ensure that the communities which most need them can thrive with them.”

Nutrient in meat, dairy found to fight cancer – just make sure it comes from clean animals

by Ethan Huff

12.11.2023 – New research out of The University of Chicago has found that meat and dairy are much more nutritious than many people think.

Rich in a nutrient called trans-vaccenic acid, or TVA, meat and dairy products can actually be beneficial for cancer patients because of TVA’s anti-cancer properties.

According to the findings, TVA infiltrates tumors and kills cancer cells. Cancer patients with high levels of TVA in their blood were found to respond much better to treatment than cancer patients without it.

Vegans and vegetarians consume very little TVA, which makes these diets not as effective, at least in this particular sense.

Interestingly, fattier cuts of beef and lamb were found to contain much higher levels of TVA than lean cuts, suggesting that the anti-cancer power of meat and dairy is found in their saturated fat, which has been demonized by the government for decades.

“The anti-cancer power of the dairy-derived fatty acid comes from its ability to turbocharge certain immune cells known as T cells, which recognize foreign invaders and prompt the immune system to kill them,” a report about the study explains.

“Researchers said that eating foods rich in this compound or giving it to cancer patients as a supplement could have measurable benefits in decreasing the size of tumors.”

(Related: Check out these 14 American cities that are planning to ban meat and dairy by the year 2030.)

Just make sure your meat and dairy is clean and unprocessed

Commenting on the findings, study author Dr. Jing Chen noted that she and her team combed through a database of around 700 different meat and dairy metabolites – these are the substances the body produces when breaking down food. They then compiled a library of “blood nutrient” compounds consisting of 235 different molecules derived from food nutrients.

Chen et al. then analyzed each one of these blood nutrient compounds to identify its ability to influence the activation of CD8+ T cells, narrowing it down to just six candidates in both human and mouse cells showing that TVA is the most effective at giving a jumpstart to immune cells.

After zeroing in on TVA, Chen et al. fed test mice a diet rich in the compound. They discovered afterwards that TVA helped reduce the potential for melanoma and colon cancer in the rodents compared to mice fed a control diet.

“By focusing on nutrients that can activate T cell responses, we found one that actually enhances anti-tumor immunity by activating an important immune pathway,” Dr. Chen said.

To learn how TVA does all this, the team conducted a series of tests using a new genetic sequencing technique. This test showed that TVA can deactivate a receptor on the surface of a cell called GPR43.

“GPR43 is activated by short-chain fatty acids that are produced by bacteria in the gut when fiber is fermented in the colon,” reports explain.

“TVA was able to inactivate GPR43 and instead activate the CREB pathway which is involved in a variety of physiological processes including cell growth and the function of different genes.”

In addition to TVA, meat and dairy are loaded with many other nutrients such as complete protein, choline, creatine, taurine and various other vitamins and minerals that are not easily obtained, if at all, from “plant-based” foods.

Trans-vaccenic acid (TVA), a long-chain fatty acid found in the meat and dairy products of grazing ruminants such as cows and sheep, promoted the destruction of certain types of cancer cells in a series of laboratory and animal studies. People with lymphoma cancer who have higher levels of TVA in their blood also tend to respond better to immunotherapy than those with lower levels.

Diet can have substantial effects on our health, says Jing Chen at the University of Chicago. However, studying the extent of those effects is complicated given that such a wide variety of food is available, with variations in how it is prepared.

To home in on these effects, Chen and his colleagues created a library of 255 nutritional compounds, including different proteins and fats.

They then turned their attention to the compounds that might specifically support or enhance the activation of certain T-cells, immune cells involved in the body’s response to cancer. The researchers tested the effects of the top six candidates on various kinds of T-cells extracted from mice, which resulted in them homing in on a particularly potent nutrient – TVA.

Just remember that the best meat and dairy comes from animals that roam on clean pasture lands and that are not fed genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or given vaccines. When consuming dairy, it is also best to have it raw if milk or cream, or cultured like yoghurt and kefir from an organic source. Food.news.com

Hispanic congressmembers ask Biden to reject ‘Trump 2.0’ Immigration Plan

by Jesus García/La Opinión

Via Ethnic Media Services

Hispanic Congressmembers are pressuring President Joe Biden to reject the immigration plan proposed by Republicans which emulates Trump-era policy.

Senator Alex Padilla, D-California, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security, and Representative Nanette Barragán, D-California, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), issued a joint statement, saying the proposed legislation would modify asylum application rules, reduce deportation protections and increase deportations.

Asylum Ban

“We are deeply concerned that the president is considering promoting Trump-era immigration policies that Democrats fought hard against (and that he himself campaigned against),” wrote Padilla and Barragan. “Caving in to demands for these permanent and damaging policy changes as the ‘price to pay’ for a one-time, unrelated spending package would set a dangerous precedent.”

The reference is the $106 billion that President Biden has requested as complementary aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific, which also includes about $14 billion to reinforce border security.

“President Biden knows that this is not what Democrats defend,” Padilla and Barragán noted. “During his 2020 campaign, promised to restore our nation’s ‘moral standing in the world and our historic role as a refuge for refugees and asylum seekers.’ It is inconceivable that the president would consider breaking his word by enacting what amounts to a ban on seeking asylum.”

Immigrant Persecution

Padilla and Barragán insist that the Republican plans would expand the persecution of immigrants in the United States.

“Terrorizing communities across the United States by expanding expedited deportation and ignoring our international obligations to provide asylum to those fleeing persecution, violence and authoritarianism is unprincipled,” they said.

The congressmembers say they recognize that immigration reform is urgent, but they described the Republicans’ positions as “extremist.”

“We unequivocally agree on the need for Congress to act to reform our immigration system and address the challenges at our border, but extreme Republican demands to cut off legal avenues and deport long-term residents will not reduce migration. authorized, will only exacerbate the challenges of our current situation,” they wrote.

Mexico suspends migrant deportations, leaving thousands stranded

Migrantes bloquean la carretera durante su caravana a través de Huixtla, México, el miércoles 8 de noviembre de 2023. Unos 3.000 migrantes, en su mayoría de Centroamérica, están protestando para que el gobierno les emita documentos temporales que les permitan continuar hacia el norte hasta la frontera con Estados Unidos. -- Migrantes bloquean la carretera durante su caravana a través de Huixtla, México, el miércoles 8 de noviembre de 2023. Unos 3.000 migrantes, en su mayoría de Centroamérica, están protestando para que el gobierno les emita documentos temporales que les permitan continuar hacia el norte hasta la frontera con Estados Unidos. (Photo AP/Edgar Clemente)

photo2 online: Mexican checkpoints at the U.S.-Mexico border have struggled to meet operational demands during a record year for migration. As a result, the government has taken the decision to suspend border checks for the foreseeable future. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)

by Mexico News Daily

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) has suspended deportations of undocumented migrants due to a lack of resources, following a year of record-breaking transit of migrants through the country.

INM head Francisco Garduño ordered the suspension on Dec. 1, in an internal memo that was seen and verified by the Associated Press and later by Mexican news media.

In Mexico’s northern border cities, the newspaper Milenio spoke with several officials who confirmed the halt of deportations, adding that Mexican border guards no longer even approach people who appear to be migrants.

“It is the responsibility of [Mexico’s] federal government to address the migration issue,” said Oscar Ibáñez, the Chihuahua governor’s representative in Ciudad Juárez. “Resources need to be allocated in the budget, and this lack of resources needs to be declared a crisis.”

Several officials expressed alarm that the halt to deportations would trigger even greater migrant arrivals at the northern border, and possible closures of international bridges into the United States. The state of Texas and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have already ordered several border crossing closures this year, causing heavy financial losses. In Piedras Negras, Coahuila, the Eagle Pass International Bridge has currently been closed for more than a week.

Los puntos de control mexicanos en la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México han tenido dificultades para satisfacer las demandas operativas durante un año récord para la migración. Como resultado de ello, el gobierno ha tomado la decisión de suspender los controles fronterizos en el futuro previsible. — Mexican checkpoints at the U.S.-Mexico border have struggled to meet operational demands during a record year for migration. As a result, the government has taken the decision to suspend border checks for the foreseeable future. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)

“There is no intention in the Customs offices to reopen the bridge,” one INM official told Milenio. “Every day, about 2,000 people arrive who want to cross the border.”

Meanwhile, the suspension of deportations has left thousands of migrants who have already been served deportation orders in limbo – a situation exacerbated by the closure of many publicly-funded migrant shelters.

“These are desperate people who would like to go back to their home countries, but there are no more federal resources,” said Gladys Cañas, a representative of a pro-migrant organization in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where an estimated 3,000 migrants are stranded.

Mexico’s government had been frequently moving migrants from points north near the U.S. border to locations in the south in part to relieve pressure on border cities, but also to exhaust migrants, according to advocates.

Mexico has already deported far fewer migrants this year than in recent years. From January to October, the government deported 51,000 migrants, compared to nearly 122,000 in all of last year and more than 130,000 in 2021.

Deportations had precipitously dropped in April following a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Deportations had just picked up again in October, when Mexico began sending migrants back to their countries, including flights to Cuba and Venezuela.

The INM has a budget of 1.7 billion pesos (US $98 million) for 2023. Legislators have asked to increase this to 1.9 billion pesos (US $109 million) for 2024, given this year’s historic arrivals of migrants.

In the first ten months of the year, 588,626 migrants were detained in Mexico – 25 percent more than in all of 2022, and 90 percent more than in all of 2021. Asylum applications are expected to reach at least 140,000 by the end of the year  – 15 percent more than the record 130,000 set in 2021. Venezuelans make up a large proportion of these migrants, and many of them are children.

With the halt to funding, “Mexico is likely to rely more heavily on National Guard soldiers for migration management, a mission that they are barely prepared to fulfill,” said Adam Isacson, an immigration analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America.

These unprecedented numbers are causing huge strain not only in Mexico’s northern border cities, but also further south. Overflowing migrant shelters in Mexico City have pushed many migrants to sleep in the streets, while growing numbers of migrants are moving into Mexico’s southern tourist towns to find work.

Diana Chavolla, head of one migrant shelter in Oaxaca, told Milenio she expected the suspension of deportations to increase migrant flows by up to 60 percent.

“Without resources, INM agents cannot carry out operations,” she said. “Hopefully this doesn’t get out of hand.”

With reports from Milenio and Animal Político

A special day has just passed for a gifted young birthday boy

Happy 14th birthday to Isaiah Espinoza on Dec. 14, wished him his father: “Big hug and many blessings to you my son. You’re the greatest.”

Isaiah is not a regular kid. At his early 14 years of age, he had told his father: “Dad, here’s my cell phone, I don’t want it anymore.”

His father, Jesse Espinoza, amazed by his action, answered: “Why, son?”

“Because it distracts me and makes me waste my time, Isaiah replied, who at his early age, has read intensely about history.” Jesse shared this story with this reporter.

Contrary to other kids who might not know much, and are usually busy with the cell phones of video games, “(Isaiah) doesn’t waste any time. He knows much of the history of the world,” his father, who wanted to publish his son’s birthday in El Reportero, said.

“He knows about much of the history of world wars in detail and much more,” he said proudly of his son, and added that his son is always reading, is his habit, so he believes his son will be a great man when he grows up.

El Reportero newspaper and its staff, congratulates Isaiah on his birthday, and to his father for raising such great and intelligent young man.

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