Sunday, September 8, 2024
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Palo Alto Museum opens dinosaur exhibit, Chilean Artist José Basso

by Magdy Zara

Aiming to inspire young scientific minds, Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo’s (JMZ) California Dinosaur Garden opens a Dinosaur Exhibit, which will feature life-size dinosaur and animal sculptures, prehistoric plants, and interactive exhibits, including a fossil dig.

This exhibit is approximately 34,000 square feet and offers children hands-on opportunities to learn about science, the environment and the natural world.

The California Dinosaur Garden, located outdoors in JMZ’s Dawn Redwood Courtyard, will offer a glimpse of what life was like during the Cretaceous period, more than 66 million years ago, when many different dinosaurs lived in what is now California. .

John Aikin, director of the Palo Alto Junior Zoo and Museum, mentioned that this exhibition aims to encourage children ages 3 to 11 to increase their knowledge about dinosaurs and the evolution of life over time.

He added that the display will feature seven life-size animal sculptures, ranging in size from a small bird to a 32-foot-long hadrosaur, helping children imagine these animals in an ecosystem.

This exhibit debuts on October 7 with an opening celebration that will include a free tour of the gardens and advance ticket sales for special programming, beginning at 10:30 a.m. to noon, at the Rinconada Cultural Park, the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo.

For more information about the city of Palo Alto and the Dinosaur Garden, visit www.cityofpaloalto.org

Get to know the work of Yolanda López, with a tour in Spanish

The San José Art Theater presents the new exhibition of Yolanda López: Portrait of the Artist, and has scheduled a special day to take a guided tour, for families completely in Spanish.

The invitation is to register to take this free tour in Spanish, which will be led by Studio Arts educator, Ruby Morales, who will guide families to facilitate interpretation activities and a special artistic activity to take home inspired by the exposure.

Artist and activist Yolanda López (1942-2021) created portraits that have become icons of feminist and working class empowerment.

The exhibition will be open until Oct. 29, however, the guided tour in Spanish will be this Saturday, Oct. 7, starting at 11 a.m. At the San José Art Museum located at 110 Calle Mercado Sur, San José.

Chilean Artist José Basso presents: Southern Lights of the World

Within the framework of the festivities for the Independence of Chile, the Chilean artist José Basso opens his exhibition Lights of the South of the World, at the CK Contemporáneo gallery.

José Basso is a Chilean painter, who was born in Viña del Mar, on June 27, 1949. He studied at the School of Fine Arts of Viña del Mar in 1969 and in 1972 at the University of Chile based in Valparaíso where he graduated Professor of Fine Arts with a mention in Painting in 1977. In 1990 he began to paint his first Landscape paintings; In 1993 he was a guest professor at the Faculty of Art of the Pontifical Catholic University to teach the course Meaning in Painting.

Basso gained early recognition for his work and won the Painting Prize at the 1975 International Art Biennale in Valparisio.

José Basso’s landscapes are unique, serene and intense, the artist’s ability to reduce the natural world to its most essential elements, leaving only light, air, space and the few components that remind us of the human presence, is what which allows him to communicate extraordinary complexity.

Luces Del Sur Del Mundo, has its opening on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 5 to 8 p.m., at the headquarters of the CK Contemporáneo gallery, located at 246 Powell Street, San Francisco.

Exhibition of Folklore dresses from Mexico

From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, within the framework of Hispanic Heritage Month, a Mexican cultural exhibition will be held, which includes folklore dresses from many regions of Mexico.

The Family Place of the Centro Library is the place chosen for families to share and learn more about Mexican culture.

As is well known, Hispanic Heritage Month begins in the middle of the month because Sept. 15 marks the anniversary of the independence of five countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

It will be displayed in the Center Library, at 1044, Middlefield Road

Redwood City, until the 15th of this month. The activity is completely free, and is being sponsored by the friends of the Redwood City Public Library.

For more information contact Armando Ramírez through (650)780-7015 Or at aramirez@redwoodcity.org.

What’s coming to the 51st Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato

photo: Latin America’s biggest arts and culture festival welcomes artists from over 30 countries to Guanajuato’s stages, theaters and galleries for 17 days in October. (festivalcervantino.gob.mx)

by MND staff

September 27, 2023 – This year’s International Cervantino Festival (FIC) in Guanajuato promises an unexpected twist for a performing arts festival: the inclusion of sports. Baseball, flag football and boxing can be enjoyed in addition to the festival’s world-renowned program of arts and culture celebrations.

The reason? The United States is this year’s invited country of honor.

The 51st “Cervantino” will take over the city of Guanajuato from Oct. 13 to 29. Though a small part of the festival will include athletic clinics and demonstrations, the festival’s marquee offerings will still be the music, dance and theater performances that have put Latin America’s largest cultural festival on the map.

Mariana Aymerich Ordóñez, Mexico’s new general director of Promotion and Cultural Festivals, explained that as the country of honor – following South Korea last year and Cuba in 2021 – the U.S. wanted to provide a sample of activities that are a fundamental part of the American experience.

According to Aymerich, the initial plan was to have a baseball tournament with teams from the U.S., Sonora and Guanajuato, two Mexican states where baseball is big. Sonora is this year’s Mexican state of honor.

Though things didn’t work out in that regard, “a series of [sports] clinics were organized, as well as [two flag football] workshops at the José Aguilar y Maya baseball stadium,” Aymerich said.

The 69-year-old ballpark happens to provide one of the most picturesque stadium views in all of Mexico, but this story can’t dwell on sports forever.

The real stars of the show at this year’s Cervantino are the international roster of artists that will descend on Guanajuato for 17 days, filling the city’s theaters, concert halls and public squares.

More than 2,800 artists from Colombia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India and 29 other countries will participate.

The opening night show, “Broadway Goes to Hollywood,” is already sold out, as is the closing show with jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill, the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Son Jarocho Conga Patria Collective, all of whom combined to create the 2023 Grammy-winning Latin jazz album “Fandango at the Wall in New York.”

Other sold-out shows include a concert by La Santa Cecilia paying tribute to the iconic Mexican singer José Alfredo Jiménez, who died 50 years ago, and concerts by Mexican-American opera singer Arturo Chacón, Sonoran reggae-indie singer Caloncho, the band Orquesta Aragón from Cuba and the Venice Baroque Orchestra from Italy.

Several high-caliber folkloric ballet shows are also sold out.

Tickets remain available for many performances, including a concert by the 18-piece U.S. Army Blues band on Oct. 16 in the gorgeous, 120-year-old Juárez Theater.

In a push to provide more options for young people, an open-air stage in Pasitos park will be set up for aerial shows, street theater from France and a diverse lineup of music genres: hip-hop, pop, rock and the music of Indigenous peoples.

Tickets can now be purchased at convenience stores around the country, as well as online.

For details, visit festivalcervantino.gob.mx (click on “English” as needed) or download the Cervantino app.

Left-wing groups call push to change Constitution ‘risky’; right wings want balance budget

United States Constitution with Flag in background

by Suzanne Potter

Left-wing groups are speaking out against the idea of a constitutional convention, warning it could be used to impose conservative policies on things such as civil rights, guns, voting rights and abortion.

Right-wing groups such as the Federalist Society have said they want to require a balanced budget and limit the power to tax, moves critics say would lead to huge cuts in Medicare, Social Security, education, Medicaid, and environmental protection.

Nancy MacLean, professor of history and public policy at Duke University, noted Article Five of the Constitution requires consent from just 34 states to call for a convention.

“The organizers of the convention effort have made clear the votes taken would not be based on population but on one vote per state, so as to grossly underrepresent the majority of Americans,” MacLean pointed out.

It would give outsize influence to states with tiny populations such as Wyoming at the expense of huge states such as California. Over the years, many states have called for a constitutional convention on specific topics. Golden State lawmakers just called for one on gun control. Conservative groups argued the requests could be aggregated to reach the 34-state threshold and force a convention.

Russ Feingold, president of the American Constitution Society and a former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, just wrote a book, warning a convention is likely if Republicans win full control of Congress next year.

“They’re asserting that you can just mix and match these and that meets the constitutional requirements,” Feingold emphasized. “It’s not right. And the Supreme Court doesn’t appear to have the authority to step in and stop it.”

Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause, said the risk of a runaway convention is too great, because there are very few rules in place.

“We would have no idea who’s seeking to influence the members of the constitutional Convention,” Stein pointed out. “What lobbying would be happening behind the scenes? Would there be public-records requirements? Would there be transparency requirements? We just have no idea.”

Health care open enrollment season is here

It’s open-enrollment season for most health-care plans – meaning within the next month and a half, you can make changes to your health plan.

Open enrollment starts today for more than 1.5 million public employees in California. Deb Reyman is the health benefits spokesperson for the California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS.

“The most common mistake people make during open enrollment is they do nothing,” said Reyman. “They don’t look at any of the information. So for example, they might not know how their premium is going to change come January of 2024. And they see a change and it’s too late to change health plans.”

People with employer-sponsored health plans should check the plan’s website for important dates. The Medicare Open Enrollment Period runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.

Open enrollment for people on the state’s marketplace for health plans – CoveredCA – runs Nov. 1 through Jan. 31, but you have to sign up by the end of December for coverage to start Jan. 1.

CoveredCA executive director Jessica Altman said premiums are rising quite a bit for 2024, but more than 90 percent of enrollees get a state subsidy to soften the blow – and many people in the standard Silver Plan will pay no deductible.

“The statewide average increase for Covered California for premiums is 9.6 percent, and that’s high,” said Altman. “There’s the impact of inflation. We’re also still seeing people using more health care coming out of the pandemic.”

Dr. Rhonda Randall – the chief medical officer for UnitedHealthcare’s commercial operations – advised people to pay close attention to the coverage for specialty benefits such as dental, vision, hearing, critical illness, and mental health.

“You want to know what specifically you’re going to have access to,” said Randall. “How big is the network of therapists and psychiatrists, mental health professionals? Some employers offer navigation or advocacy services to help you find a good fit.”

UnitedHealthcare sponsors a website called Just Plain Clear that explains the difference between terms like monthly premium, co-pay, co-insurance, and deductibles. They also have a page to help people understand the various Medicare plans.

Guatemala deploys soldiers on the border with Mexico due to cartel threats to its population

Guatemalan colonel Alex Tuyuc assured that the intention is to “provide security” to the neighbors

by the El Reportero‘s news services

The Guatemalan Army deployed a military unit after the threats suffered by Mexican cartels to the residents of the municipality of Tacaná, in the department of San Marcos, bordering Mexico.

According to Guatemalan Colonel Alex Tuyuc, a Mountain Operations brigade was deployed “with the intention of regaining control in the area of jurisdiction.”

The reason for the deployment, the official explained, is “the threats that some of the communities have been suffering, such as the Cheguate Village, Las Tablas, La Esperanza, San Antonio and San Rafael.”

“The intention is to provide the security that our population needs in the face of the threats they have received from Mexican cartels, which today are operating in the area of Motozintla, Chiapas, and that at some point they could move to Guatemalan territory,” Tuyuc added.

The Mexican press reported that the residents of Tacaná denounced the presence of armed men, who allegedly demanded that they collaborate with them.

Likewise, local media claim that the increase in violence in recent weeks in the Chiapas area is due to clashes between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), for control of the border.

Last Saturday, amidst applause and ovations, a group of armed men from the Sinaloa Cartel was received by hundreds of residents in Chiapas, after three weeks of road blockades.

Given the migration crisis that is occurring in the country; Mexico will call a meeting of Foreign Ministers of countries that expel people to analyze this problem.

In a press conference, López Obrador said that in the meeting with the foreign ministers a review of the immigration situation will be carried out and thus prevent the flows from continuing to occur.

He noted that this situation is not just a matter for Mexico, but also for other nations.

The president emphasized that the meeting will take place in 10 days.

Finally, he explained that a proposal for development will have to be made and announced that the United States will be present at this meeting.

López Obrador announced that the meeting will be in 10 days and all nations that expel migrants will be called.

Given the migration crisis that is occurring in the country; Mexico will call a meeting of Foreign Ministers of countries that expel people to analyze this problem.

In a press conference, López Obrador said that in the meeting with the foreign ministers a review of the immigration situation will be carried out and thus prevent the flows from continuing to occur.

He noted that this situation is not just a matter for Mexico, but also for other nations.

The president emphasized that the meeting will take place in 10 days.

Finally, he explained that a proposal for development will have to be made and announced that the United States will be present at this meeting.

The future of ‘electronic signatures’

by Jon Rappoport

In 1961, while discussing movies with a friend, I proposed that one day people would walk into a theater, sit in the dark for 13 seconds, receive an impulse, and walk out into the lobby with the distinct impression they’d just watched a movie. They’d feel as if they’d gotten the point and the impact, even though they wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about the movie.

Electronic signature. Transmitted to create the sensation of actual experience.

I still think it’ll happen someday.

In many areas.

You’ll sit at a restaurant under the stars, order from the menu, and a minute later you’ll be hit by a wave that conveys the sensation of steak, lobster, baked potato, champagne, chocolate cake.

You’ll book a vacation to Fiji. Never leaving your couch, you’ll absorb the electronic signature of the trip. The whole works. The cottage on stilts above the beach, the salt air, the scuba diving, the fish dinners, the walks on the beach…

Simulation. Instant.

And unless Presidents are hamstrung and kept from issuing whole hog executive orders, a Prez will be able to declare a state of emergency because a ‘new virus’ has just entered the country—he’ll issue it as an electronic burst—and people from coast to coast will feel the urgency, the fear, the necessity, the sense of security accompanying lockdown orders, the enthusiasm for a vaccine.

The Internet itself will have many shortcuts. Go to a news site, enter your account password, and you’ll be hit with an electronic shot that imparts the impression that you just received the important news of the day. No content. Just impression.

Like now.

How many people really remember the news they read or watch every day online? They only remember the feeling of satisfaction, the feeling of knowledge, the feeling of having been informed.

So why waste time? Just hit those people with an electronic shot that produces the same effects in a second. Bang.

Produce an effect without the traditional cause.

You want the kind of adrenaline rush that comes from playing a sport on a field? Instead, gamble on sports online. It’s quicker.

Make it even quicker. You can pay $50 and absorb the sensation of having won a bet without betting.

You want to be the CEO of a major corporation? No problem. Here’s an electronic signature that hits your skull and produces that sensation. You didn’t have to work your way up in the company for 27 years and risk your time and energy. You can feel like the CEO right now. For 5 minutes. That’s all you need anyway, right?

Of course, these electronic signatures don’t impart the full experience you could have in real life. They give you an approximation. In order to satisfy the customer, his level of expectation has to be lowered. What could accomplish that goal?

A pathetic level of education. That works. For example, upon graduation from college, a student will not be able to read a piece of fiction or a novel. He’ll never be able to immerse himself in language. He’ll need a summary. Which is an approximation of the real thing, which conveys the impression of having read the real thing.

So why not short cut that process and deliver an electronic signature? Boom, you just read Moby Dick. You feel as if you have. That’s good enough.

Right now, a person hates Trump. The news delivers him the impression he understands why. A person loves Trump. The brand of news he reads gives him the sensation of knowing why.

If we could cut to the chase, electronic signatures would deliver either sensation on demand.

If a reader wanted to “absorb” this article you’re reading right now without actually READING IT AND THINKING ABOUT IT, he could press a key and receive a pop of electronic transmission and feel as if he just understood it.

“Damn, that was a great article.”

“What did it say?”

“Lots of things.”

“You took the electronic signature?”

“Yeah. It was a nice pop. I felt I had a few new ideas in my head.”

“What ideas?”

“Not anything specific. The sensation of new ideas.”

“Sounds good. Send me the link to the pop and I’ll try it.”

“You should. It’s pretty unique.”

“Like a fishing trip in Alaska?”

“No. More like exploring a cave underneath an ice sheet in the Arctic. My wife and I took that pop last year…”

Convoy of cartel gunmen arrives in Chiapas town as turf war intensifies

photo: Presumed members of the Sinaloa Cartel entered the town Frontera Comalapa, Chiapas on Saturday. (Screen Capture)

by Mexico News Daily

A contingent of Sinaloa Cartel gunmen made an audacious and ostentatious entrance to southern Mexico on Saturday, arriving in a region on the border with Guatemala in a convoy made up of more than a dozen vehicles, including ones specifically equipped for armed combat.

The convoy – captured in video footage that was widely shared on social media – drove into Frontera Comalapa, Chiapas, a municipality that is part of a border region where the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) are involved in a long-running turf war that has disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Hundreds of residents lined the highway and cheered as pickup trucks filled with heavily armed men and other vehicles arrived in Frontera Comalapa after passing through the neighboring municipality of La Trinitaria.

According to a report by the news website Aristegui Noticias, men and women were “forced” to stand next to the highway in the town of San Gregorio Chamic to welcome the Sinaloa Cartel operatives, who reportedly arrived in Chiapas from Zacatecas and Durango.

The newspaper El Universal reported that locals shouted messages of support for the criminal organization, whose members declared their allegiance to Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and assured residents they were coming to help.

The arrival of the cartel convoy in Frontera Comalapa came after weeks of highway blockades and unrest in the border region of Chiapas. The Sinaloa Cartel gunmen also reportedly moved into the nearby municipalities of La Grandeza and Siltepec, where they were said to be searching for their CJNG adversaries on Sunday.

El Universal reported that the CJNG has recently maintained control over the town of Frontera Comalapa, the administrative center of the municipality of the same name. The CJNG also controls the municipal administrative centers of Siltepec and Motozintla, but the Sinaloa Cartel has surrounded those towns and Frontera Comalapa, according to Aristegui Noticias.

According to El Universal, the Sinaloa Cartel controls almost 300 communities near the border with Guatemala.

The CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel – and local gangs affiliated with Mexico’s two most powerful criminal organizations – are competing to control routes along which narcotics, weapons and migrants are transported north after entering the country from Guatemala.

Blockades they have set up have impeded the entry of essential products such as food, water and fuel in recent weeks, creating shortages in some parts of the southern border region. The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has been unable to get into communities where cartel members allegedly cut supply, while schools have canceled classes in recent weeks due to blockades and security concerns.

Trucks transporting foodstuffs including pork and eggs were able to get through to border communities after the arrival of additional Sinaloa Cartel members on Saturday, El Universal reported, but President López Obrador said Monday that the CFE still hadn’t been able to get into communities to restore electricity service.

The conflict between the CJNG and Sinaloa Cartel in border region municipalities including Motozintla, Mazapa de Madero and Siltepec has flared up periodically during a period of over two years. An outbreak of violence earlier this year forced thousands of Frontera Comalapa residents out of their communities and into the nearby municipality of Chicomuselo.

More recently, the CJNG was blamed for the murder of four men on Friday who apparently betrayed that cartel by switching allegiances.

Aristegui Noticias reported that more than 280,000 residents of several border region municipalities have become “trapped” due to the worsening dispute between the powerful cartels. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center and others have highlighted cases of forced recruitment of locals by the criminal organizations.

Meanwhile, state and federal authorities “have denied the seriousness of what the population [of the border region] is suffering,” Aristegui Noticias reported.

Teachers and principals have denounced the absence of security forces to combat the criminal organizations, while in a statement issued over the weekend the Catholic Church’s Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas described the situation as a “crisis.”

Isaín Mandujano, a journalist in Chiapas, said on X (formerly Twitter) that colleagues from other states had contacted him “to report from the narco-violence ground zero.”

“My response is categorical: NO. No authority of any level can offer the [necessary] security guarantees to do our work,” he wrote.

Mandujano, a correspondent for the Proceso news magazine, said that cartel violence has caused the displacement of thousands of border region residents since 2021 as well as the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of citizens, including “a lot of innocent people.”

He said that both the army and the National Guard have a presence in the region but “do nothing to stop the violence.”

“… Due to the absence of the state, each sector of the population applauds their favorite cartel, [the one] that has them subjugated,” Mandujano wrote on X.

“Journalist colleagues from the area have kept quiet, left or dedicated themselves to other activities that have nothing to do with journalism. At the roadblocks, [the cartels] check all cell phones – the chats, contacts, photos, videos, they don’t miss anything,” he said.

Speaking at his morning press conference on Monday, López Obrador said that the Sinaloa Cartel gunmen’s entrance to Frontera Comalapa was part of a propaganda campaign.

In the border region of Chiapas, “there are organized crime groups that are allegedly fighting for territory in order to have space to … [move] drugs that come in from Central America, to have control over that territory,” he said.

“And unfortunately they clash [but] there haven’t been a lot of murders in Chiapas in general,” López Obrador said.

“… There has been a lot of propaganda,” he said, making an apparent reference to material posted online by cartels to demonstrate their strength.

“So they brought out a video in which 20 pickup trucks are going into Frontera Comalapa and people on both sides of the highway are apparently welcoming them,” López Obrador said before asserting that opponents of his government – “the conservatives” – are responsible for disseminating the footage and making it go “viral.”

He conceded that crime groups have “support bases” in parts of Chiapas and the rest of Mexico because they distribute groceries to locals or “threaten them,” but asserted that the problem is “very limited.”

The government is attending to the situation in the border region of Chiapas, López Obrador said, noting that the National Guard is there and that citizens benefit from social and welfare programs.

“I already ordered a greater presence of the National Guard in that entire region and we’re going to continue helping,” he added.

With reports from El País, El Universal, Aristegui Noticias and Reforma 

Has Trump already been tried before the trial?

President Trump has been the top of the news from the time he declared he was running for a second presidential term – after, what he claims, his second term chance was stolen by the Democrats, fearing that he would dismantle what he calls the Deep State. The Deep State is said to be the government behind the government – the bureaucracy.

Some reports have described the DS as the federal bureaucracy comprised of over 10,000 unelected federal employees who are the real runners of the government, bureaucrats whose federal jobs are almost perpetual.

“The presidents change, but nothing really changes,” some say, “because those bureaucrats who are settled in their jobs protect the status quo set by the powerful elite.”

Of several ongoing criminal cases that have been cooking to jail or stop Trump from becoming president again, this one will be the first one to go the front burner, attracted me for containing elements that for me, don’t go with reality.

“On Monday, Oct. 2, President Trump’s New York fraud trial will start, court says—after judge rules he inflated his assets,” read the headline of Forbes, the American business magazine.

This headline prompted me to write about it, given that my understanding is that a judge should be impartial, not biased.

If the judge declared that Trump was guilty before a trial, why then will he be tried if he has already been tried by the judge statement?

As I followed the story on YouTube and read on the comments below, I found many that made really sense and made me understand better, that this charges against Trump are nothing more than an intent of breaking a true believer who really believes that the United States is being destroyed and that he has to intervene to save it. No matter the consequences to his person and his wealth.

That he inflated his assets in order to get better loans, is a matter of interpretation by experts, some say, and here go some of those comments:

– @kathymayberry8830
I never knew that a person could go in and tell the bank the amount their assets were worth and the bank would take you at your word. We are talking huge amounts here and I doubt the bank loaned PRESIDENT TRUMP money on these assets unless the did their win research. If they loaned money on hearsay, that is their problem.

– @waynepaschall2603
I know every loan that I believe ALL people have requested or applied for had to be approved by the lender and they control the entire process. You will only get what a independent appraisal will allow

– @johngallegos8655
Lét hope the Attorney General is ready to go after every business that inflate their business at time of sale.

– @covercalls88
The average person out there does not really understand how the property appraisal value can be altered especially if it used for business. It takes a CPA to really explained it. In CA many houses bought and transferred under the Prop. 13 rules can be worth millions, yet be assessed at one quarter their value.

– @DavidJames.82
I guess some appraisers from the bank are going to jail.

– @ssvsssjs
Don’t lenders do due diligence before they make loan? Wouldn’t they be in a position to know whether the valuations were appropriate? Was anyone harmed by these supposed over valuations. Why did the DA even feel the need to investigate?

– @skylarc6063
I love how they claim beachfront property Mar A Lago is only worth $18 million. Other mansions of 1/10th the size go for $40 million. Even if you take into account the fact that Trump signed an agreement to prohibit the development of the property and only use it as a country club, 18 million is a joke.

– @benproffitt5957
How can a judge make a ruling before the case begins? Kind of skipping due process isn’t she?

– @ericeandco
Gotta say inflating assets was a pretty common practice for lots of business people, especially developers, for quite a number of years. Why is it an issue now? Did he default on the loans? Why didn’t the bank do the most basic confirmation of the information or require a certified appraisal?

How California lawmakers greenlit ‘any flavor of affordable housing you could possibly want’

photo: Casa Sueños, an affordable housing complex at 3500 E. 12th St. in Oakland on Aug 7, 2023. Photo by Semantha Norris, CalMatters

A patchwork of bills are giving housing developers and local governments more options to reduce red tape for housing projects

by Ben Christopher

You may not have seen the headlines (there weren’t any). You may have missed the raucous debate (there wasn’t much of one). But with the end of the legislative session last week, California is now on the verge of laying down a welcome mat for most major affordable housing projects across the state.

That’s not because of a single bill, but a patchwork of current and former legislation that, taken together, “basically covers any flavor of affordable housing you could possibly want to build,” said Linda Mandolini, president of Eden Housing, an affordable housing development nonprofit.

Homes designated for low-income occupants, like all housing projects, face a gauntlet of potential challenges and hold-ups that add to the already exorbitant cost of affordable housing in California. Those hurdles include lawsuits filed under the wide-ranging California Environmental Quality Act, extensive public hearings and other forms of opposition from local government.

Now, affordable housing projects — in most places and most of the time — may soon be exempt from all that, fitted out in a suit of procedural armor made up of some half a dozen bills and laws.

A bill now sitting on the governor’s desk would cover up one of the last chinks in that armor. Assembly Bill 1449, authored by two Democratic Assemblymembers, David Alvarez of San Diego and Buffy Wicks of Oakland, would exempt certain affordable apartment developments from review under CEQA. To qualify, projects would have to be located in dense urban areas, set aside each unit for someone earning less than 80% the area median income and abide by stricter labor standards, among other requirements.

Though modest and technical-sounding, that’s unusually broad for new construction in California.

“I do think it’s gonna be very consequential but it’s kind of flown under the radar,” Alvarez said. His explanation why: “The politics of where Californians are and certainly where the Legislature is — we want to see results. We want to see housing being produced.”

Taken together with a handful of other bills and current laws, said Mark Stivers, a lobbyist with the California Housing Partnership, which co-sponsored AB 1449, the new legislation “effectively make it possible for affordable housing providers to develop nearly all viable sites in California by-right and exempt from CEQA review.”

Speeding up approval for these projects comes with a trade-off. Environmental justice organizations, labor unions and various opponents of new development see CEQA as a vital tool to weigh in on what gets built, where and and under what terms.

“Our communities rely heavily on CEQA to be able to get more information about proposed developments that might be contributing to further pollution,” said Grecia Orozco, a staff attorney with the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.

Local activists also often flood the public meetings of city councils and planning boards to pressure elected officials to block unpopular projects or extract concessions from developers.

Whether AB 1449 and a handful of similar bills become law is now up to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Supporters have reason to be optimistic. The Newsom administration is pushing local governments to approve an unprecedented 2.5 million additional homes by 2030, he called the CEQA process “broken” and in the spring he rolled out a package of bills aimed at speeding up environmental challenges to projects — though housing was not included.

He has until Oct. 14 to sign or veto the bills now sitting on his desk.

A patchwork of carve-outs

The Alvarez-Wicks bill isn’t the first legislative effort to grease the skids for new affordable housing.

Two others, both authored by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, would force local governments to automatically approve apartment buildings in housing-strapped parts of the state and most affordable housing projects on the properties of houses of worship and nonprofit colleges, so long as they comply with a list of zoning, affordability and labor requirements.

A third piece of legislation by San Jose Democratic Sen. Dave Cortese exempts the decision by local governments to fund affordable housing projects from environmental challenges, too. Newsom already signed it.

Still awaiting the governor’s pen are a handful of bills that make it more difficult to stall housing projects through environmental lawsuits in general. That includes a bill by Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat, that would make it easier for courts to toss out environmental challenges they deem “frivolous” or “solely intended to cause unnecessary delay.” Another by Assemblymember Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, would give local officials a deadline by which to approve or deny a project’s environmental review.

The Ting proposal was fiercely opposed by many environmental activists and the State Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella group that represents many unionized construction workers. The bill would also make it more difficult for courts to award legal fees to groups that sue to block projects through CEQA.

J.P. Rose, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which regularly brings such suits, called that provision “the largest weakening of CEQA in recent history.”

The fact that this long list of bills passed the Legislature — some by healthy margins — amounts to a notable political shift, said Christopher Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis who advised Ting on the bill.

“I think it illustrates that a sea change is underfoot in how people are starting to think about these environmental review laws,” he said, though he noted that the shift in California is still modest compared to those underway in other states.

Earlier this year, the Washington legislature nearly unanimously passed a law to exempt virtually all new urban housing from that state’s environmental protection law.

The grand bargain continued

Many of the California bills build on a law passed last year that streamlines affordable housing construction along commercial corridors.

In cobbling together the law, its author, Wicks, struck a compromise: In exempting certain housing projects from environmental challenge and other local hurdles, developers would pay workers a higher minimum wage, provide them with health care benefits and abide by other stricter labor standards. That trade was the key to winning the support of the state carpenters’ union and breaking up a legislative logjam that had stymied housing production bills for years.

It also provided a template for Wiener’s two streamlining bills this year, along with the Alvarez-Wicks CEQA exemption proposal.

“That really laid the foundation for those of us who did work in the housing space this year,” said Alvarez.

Not every pro-housing advocate or CEQA critic is so content with the bargain.

“A lot of these bills help a little,” said Jennifer Hernandez, a land use attorney at the law firm Holland & Knight, who has catalogued CEQA challenges to housing projects for years. But she notes that swapping out the threat of environmental litigation with higher payroll expenses just replaces one cost with another.

In practice, she said, these exemptions are only likely to clear the way for substantial new housing construction in higher cost areas where developers can make up the difference by charging higher rents to non-subsidized residents. “You really need premium rentals to pay for those higher labor standards,” she said.

But for many affordable housing developers, it’s still a trade worth making.

“You’ve got really strong laws, clear exemptions, and an attorney general who’s willing to step up and say you got to build it,” said Mandolini with Eden Housing, who has been working on housing in the state for more than two decades. “This is the best it has been in California…If this had all existed 20 years ago, we might have built a lot more housing a lot faster.”

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with JPMorgan Chase’s Silvana Montenegro

Silvana Montenegro

Content sponsored by JP Morgan Chase

Comprising over 19 percent of the U.S. population, and with 5 million businesses and increasing purchasing power, Latino and Hispanic communities are a vital part of the country’s economy. To celebrate this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, we sat down with Silvana Montenegro, Global Head of Advancing Hispanics & Latinos at JPMorgan Chase, to hear how her family’s heritage influenced her career, discuss the community’s challenges and opportunities and get her advice on what young professionals can do to grow their careers.

How did your family’s heritage influence your life and ultimately your career?  

Growing up surrounded by family and community in São Paulo, I learned the value of hard work and persistence to achieve my dreams. My father and grandmother were role models who inspired me to pursue a career where I could voice the needs of others and create opportunities for all. The values they instilled in me ultimately helped me to relate and advocate for others. As a person of Brazilian and Latin American heritage, I am most proud of the resilience and humanity of the Latino and Hispanic communities across the world, positive and optimistic despite obstacles, and the relentless pursuit of dreams through hard work and helping others along the way. I am proud that through these values, Hispanics and Latinos have made and continue to make tremendous contributions to the world – from driving economic growth through business, to science, music, and education, just to name a few. I think it’s important to show up with determination and authentically to overcome obstacles and create your own vision of success.

What would you want people to know or understand about being Hispanic or Latino?

It is important to understand that Hispanics and Latinos are a growing demographic full of rich experiences and cultures representing over 20 Latin American countries. Our community is a powerful socioeconomic engine within our society globally. Our historic contributions and recent data tell a beautiful story of resilience and growth: as an example, we are the youngest demographic in the U.S., with $2.8 trillion in GDP and an increasing purchasing power — representing nearly one-quarter of all U.S. businesses. Ancient civilizations like the Incas and the Mayans were amongst the most advanced in history. Some of the important world inventions like color TV and the hot air balloon came from Latin America. Telling the full story is key to build together and tackle the historical headwinds we face as a community.

Tell us about your work and impact of Advancing Hispanics & Latinos at JPMorgan Chase. What are some of the ways in which this initiative is helping the community?

The work of JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Hispanics & Latinos centers on helping students, employees, entrepreneurs and communities access opportunities to grow and succeed. We do this by providing career growth support, financial health education, as well as resources and tools to scale minority-owned businesses and advance communities. As an example, this year we partnered with the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation to host a series of financial health education workshops for high schools and college students through live and virtual sessions. We also launched a partnership with the Latino Business Action Network to provide Latino entrepreneurs with in-person and virtual programming including workshops on how to leverage corporate supplier diversity programs and business roundtables. Our efforts support the firm’s $30 billion Racial Equity Commitment to help close the racial wealth gap by investing in promoting a pathway to homeownership, affordable housing, entrepreneurship and more. We are proud of the milestones we have achieved and look forward to the work ahead to support our community.

What are some of the role models that influence your career and what advice would you give to aspiring young professionals who are working to grow and defy barriers?

Throughout my life I had many role models, all of them with some important traits in common – resilience, persistence and courage. Someone that always inspired me was Frida Kahlo. Talk about overcoming adversity, embracing her roots and expressing herself authentically through her colorful art. Like Frida, it is important that we know what is true and meaningful to ourselves and embrace it. We need to be attuned to what drives and motivates us at different stages of our career, and whatever we choose to do we need to work hard and perform with excellence. Persistence and being open to feedback are also important, no career is a straight line to the top. There are ups and downs, and the more we learn from our mistakes, the better prepared we will be for future challenges. Last but not least, it is important to ask for what we want and have the courage to take on challenges that may seem ‘scary’ at first. In my mind, there is no real failure – every challenge is an opportunity to grow.

How is JPMorgan Chase celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month this year?      

We are hosting events and programming throughout the month and all year round focused on supporting financial health for students, parents and communities. We are also sharing stories of inspiring Latinos(as) executives, employees, customers, clients and community members working to make a difference. Additionally, we are providing employees with opportunities to make a difference in the community through volunteerism. I look forward to celebrating our collective impact, joining the events to come later this month and continuing the work ahead.

For information about JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Hispanics & Latinos initiatives, visit jpmorganchase.com/AHL.

Sponsored content from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Video: Black bear joins family picnic at park in Nuevo León

photo: The hungry bear ate a table full of tacos before leaving. (Screen capture)

MND Staff

September 27, 2023 – Maybe the Tigres professional soccer team that plays in Monterrey should change its name to the Osos Negros.

After all, interactions with black bears in the capital and other cities throughout the northern state of Nuevo León have become so frequent in recent years that one newspaper declared, “the inhabitants of the region consider it part of their identity and regionalism.”

Videos of the sightings often end up on social media, such as the most recent encounter: a black bear cub atop a wooden picnic table, scarfing down tacos and enchiladas from disposable white plates.

During a 90-second video clip, a woman and child remain seated in silence on the picnic table bench while the bear — less than a foot away from them at times, and seemingly sniffing the child — can be heard chewing and swallowing.

The incident occurred at Chipinque Ecological Reserve, near the San Pedro Garza García municipality of Monterrey, and the video went viral, with viewers wondering if the woman was petrified, cool as a cucumber or too afraid to run.

The family was reportedly enjoying their meal near a playground in the nature reserve, about 2 km outside the city, when the animal appeared and jumped on the table.

Reports put the bear at more than 3 feet tall, and it apparently was hungry, finishing all the food from all three plates.

The incident occurred less than a week after the headline “They are looking for a bear that was seen wandering the streets of Monterrey” appeared in a newspaper.

Citing urban expansion and the search for food and water as the main reasons why the bears have come down from the mountains, the report noted that the wandering bear was spotted near Plaza Mayor in the Satélite neighborhood. Emergency units were sent to search for it.

“It’s two blocks from my house,” said a man who recorded a video of the bear from his car.

Sightings of black bears in Nuevo León have become increasingly frequent in recent years. There have been intrusions into homes, schools and shopping malls, the report said. Earlier this year in Monterrey, one bear walked between cars that were in traffic on a busy street.

With reports from Infobae

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