Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Home Blog Page 447

Zoe Saldaña to be nominated at Late Night Awards

­por Annalis Flores

Zoe SaldañaZoe Saldaña

Dominican-Puerto Rican American actress, Zoe Saldana will be honored at the fourth annual Midnight Awards presented by the Film Society. Saldana has appeared in films such as Vantage Point, The Terminal, Drumline, and NBC’s Law & Order. She is currently the face for Calvin Klein Underwear and the Calvin Klein Envy campaign. Her most infamous role was that of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek and Neytiri in James Cameron’s Avatar.

The late night talk show style ceremony presents the award to two young faces in Hollywood and independent cinema. The actor and actress “bring intelligence, talent, and depth of character to their roles.”

Saldana represents the category with her long standing in Hollywood and her work in the film Colombiana which is set to be released this September.

No more Latin Jazz at the Grammy’s

A recent press conference by Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow, Vice President of Awards Bill Freimuth, Academy Board Chair Emeritus, and GRAMMY winner Jimmy Jam announced a cut in various categories as well as an increase in entries. Among the categories cut by the Academy, ‘Best Latin Jazz Album.’ Artists of this category have now integrated into ‘Best Jazz Intrumental Album’ or ‘Best Jazz Vocal Album.’

This outrage has upset many artists who consider Latin Jazz an art form and a separate category from regular jazz. A petition against the Academy’s changes is underway for many who feel the same way. As John Santos, producer, bandleader, and composer, proclaims, “While our country is in an unprecedented state of Latino demographics and multi-culturalism, NARAS and the GRAMMY’s are moving backwards and embracing anti- immigrant sentiment that is being promoted by certain sectors.” Santos goes on to claim that due to mainstream artists, Latinos will not get the same chances and will be overshadowed by other artists.

Fernando Noriega nominated for best actor

At the WorldFest International Film festival, Fernando Noriega presented “Where the Road Meets the Sun” for the fi rst time in the great city of Houston, Texas.

The Mexican actor is well known for his series “Morir en Martes,” televised on the hit channel Televisa. Noriega was among the nominated for the fi lm “Where the Road ­Meets the Sun.” Although he did not win the category his fellow castmate, Will Yun Lee, won the prize. The fi lm took three prizes for the six it was nominated for, including ‘Best Director,’ ‘Best Actor,’ and ‘Special Jury Prize REMI.’

“Where the Road Meets the Sun” revolves around four individuals living in a Los Angeles, California hostel. Noriega is among the main characters in the fi lm, which also stars Eric Mabius, Will Yun Lee, Luke Brandon Field, and Laura Ramsey. Although the fi lm is hoped to be released in the summer, it will currently make its rounds among festivals such as the Asian Pacifi c fi lm festival. Noriega continues his hit series “Morir en Martes” which begins filming in the next coming months and other projects in store. The first season is already out in stores.

spot_img

The first 100 days of the nation’s first-ever Latina governor

by José Armas

Hispanic Link News Service

A L B U Q U E R Q U E , N.M. — New Mexico Latinos turned out in unprecedented numbers to vote Republican last fall, making Susana Martínez the first Latina governor in U.S. history. She certainly captured our imagination, especially since she branded herself as the “bold education reform” candidate. So after her first 100 days, what’s the report card on this charismatic leader? First, let’s set the stage:

• New Mexico is the only Latino-majority state in the union. Latino children make up more than 60 percent of its students, outnumbering whites nearly two-to-one. • Our state’s public education system ranks as one of the nation’s very worst. Fewer than half of its high school students graduate in four years.

•Last year Latinos helped outgoing Gov. Bill Richardson pass the Hispanic Education Act, the only law in the country that specifically addresses the nation’s Latino education crisis. Its initiatives have yet to take hold. So, with Latino achievement so dismal, we’ve been waiting anxiously for our bold new governor to act.

After completing her first legislative session, here’s her report card, from a Latino perspective:

• Governor Martínez fought for and was granted a 1.5 percent cut in the state education budget. Then days after the legislative session ended this month, her education secretary Hanna Skandera dropped the bombshell that new cuts were in fact going to more than double the original amount.

• Under another Republican governor 40 years ago, our education budget made up 55 percent of state expenditures. Today Martínez slashed that budget to nearly 39 percent, the lowest in recorded history. This revelation is creating outrage among school districts throughout the state. And others…

• Skandera, an outsider who is white, was brought in by Martínez to design her bold education reform plan. Skandera, in turn, brought in eight other white hired guns, none of whom are educators, to fix us. She’s been bold all right.

• The Hispanic Education Act called for an annual education status report as well as establish an advisory council made up of Latino education experts to help provide the state direction. The first report was posted on the department of education’s web site before Richardson left office.

But days after becoming governor, Martínez had that report pulled. Members of the advisory council, who have never been asked for their counsel, decided to convene on their own. They informed Skandera that they wanted to provide their input before the reform plan is finalized. Another plan, being put together by Skandera and blessed by Martínez with no input from the Latino council, is expected to be unveiled any day now. The council now awaits the possibility of being fired for its own bold initiative.

The New Mexico state constitution calls for “perfect equality” for everyone and mandates that education must be “adequately funded.” Martinez’s budget will now be 25 percent below what experts have determined to be “adequately funded.” Latinos are now, ironically, looking at the real possibility of filing a civil rights case against a Latina governor. Remember, 75 percent of all New Mexico’s students are Latino, Indian or African American. We are among the country’s poorest states due in major part to our  broken education system.

Bringing in white noneducators to fix things promises turmoil. “Bold education reform” is not going to happen by slashing this state’s education to its lowest levels ever. Our dream of “perfect equality” is being relegated to the back of the bus. In another slap at Latinos, Martínez fought to repeal a law that allowsundocumented residents to

apply for driver’s licenses.

­When Martínez’s repeal act was rejected, she immediately began a very public campaign to continue her assault on the law that makes driving safer here by requiring everyone to have insurance and pass a driving test. Martínez did recently receive much attention for signing into law a bill that permits dogs to go into restaurants. Presumably, to eat with the rest of us uneducated masses.

S o w h a t ’ s h e r r e p o r t c a r d ?

While the GOP nationally is preparing to make Martínez their “affirmative action” poster girl, our Latino community’s dream of an  education reform to give our children a fair chance to succeed in life is now shoved to the back of the bus. After 100 days, our freshman governor needs to join the rest of us back here and share the view.

(José Armas, a resident of Albuquerque for 40 years, is an award-winning writer and publisher. Email him at armas@swcp.com)

spot_img

3 x 1 for deportees

Jorge Mújica Murias

mexicodelnorte@yahoo.com.mx

I had the chance last week, as a member of the Advisory Council of the institute of Mexicans Abroad, to visit that strange country between México and México del Norte, also known as “La Línea”, the “border.” It is not wider than some 200 miles, and it is divided by two by an artificial line, a wall and a river. The border crossing known as Puerta México (México’s Gate) in Tijuana, according to the Commissioner of the National Migration Institute, INAMI, is the exit gate for one out of every three Mexicans deported by the U.S government, some 100 thousand just last year.

They are “welcomed” by the good guys of the Mexican version of La Migra (the bad guys are usually in the southern border and their function is to harass Central American immigrants,) part of a program called “Human Repatriation.” They are given a list of shelters who also provides them with free bedding and meals, they are offered between 50 and one hundred percent of bus or airplane fare to go back to their states of origin, and they are issued a “Deportation Certificate” printed in regular Bond paper that breaks after folding four times to pocket it.

Unfortunately, the “certificate” is useless to board either a plane or passenger bus because it is not a legal “identification”, since it is issued “in good faith”, without real proof of identity and not based on other identification documents, since deportees normally don’t have time to pick up their passport or Matrícula Consular once La Migra arrests them in the U.S. Obviously, their lack of papers does not allow them to obtain an electoral card, the most useful Mexican ID, because they would have to show not only other ID’s but also proof  of residency and so on.

A “Minor” Problem

We had the chance to give a hand to a group of deportees waiting for help under the shadows of the only tree at the gates of the Mexican Migra offi ces, by giving them a simple piece of information. We never saw a sign offering them that information, and the INAMI commissioner did not tell us when we asked, but a simple line workers told us that the DIF (Comprehensive Family Development office, similar to the U.S.’s DCFS), could provide them with a real ID plus the equivalent of a Social Security card, which would enable them to board planes and passenger buses.

What the Mexican authorities did tell us was that their “minor” problem is the big one, meaning the unaccompanied minors deported by the U.S., over 47 thousand last year. The number started growing after President Bill Clinton started Operation Gatekeeper, breaking the “normal” immigration cycle of millions of people going back and forth each year

between México and the United States, thus separating families for many years.The numbers are bad. Some 65 per cent of these children were caught while traveling to reunite with their parents in the U.S. Among those older than 14 years old, about 55 per cent finished junior high school, and 16 per cent fi nished baccalaureates. About 85 per cent of them were born in Michoacán, Jalisco, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

According to the information we received in La Puerta México, between direct help (half or full fares, shelter and food) and indirect help (administrative cost including the ink for the almost useless “deportation certifi cate,) México would need between 180 and 220 dollars per deportee. In round numbers, some 22 million dollars, a budget no agency dealing with them have. They simply can’t help everyone and they can’t pay full fares for everyone. And then the authorities dropped a bomb on us. The Mexican Migra Commissioner suggested starting a 3×1 program for deportees.

The 3X1 are programs where migrants put one dollar, then matched by ­the federal, State and County governments for productive enterprises in México to create and develop local communities. They want our help with their expenses, at the rate of at least 5 million dollars a year.

But 22 million dollars is what Mexico donated to Jamaica after the earthquake; is what the Mexican government returned to Nextel last year because of “wrongful charges” to operate the cellular phone towers; is what the Mexican police “invested” buying Skystar 300 surveillance equipment from the Aeronautics Defense Systems from Yayeh, Israel and dedicated to the war on drugs I think there is money available and we do not need a 3X1 for deportees. What we need is not to help Mexicans when they are deported, but way before they have to leave their communities to emigrate to the United States.

spot_img

What is HAARP?

­by Marvin Ramíre­z­

­­Marvin J. Ramírez­Ma­rv­in­ R­­­a­­m­­­­í­r­­­ez­­­­­­­

FROM THE EDITOR: ­Given the latest tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes that have stricken several nations in the world, leaving many deaths and destruction, there are beliefs – based on scientific analysis – that those events might have been manmade.

El Reportero found the following article, which due to its length, it will be published in six parts.

What is HAARP?

(A series of six parts)

HAARP FACT SHEET “HAARP”, an acronym for “High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program”, is a project having the goal of studying fundamental physical principles which govern the region of the earth’s atmosphere known as the ionosphere. It is through this region that earth-based communications and radar transmissions must travel to reach satellites or to probe solar and planetary bodies; and conversely, for radio signals from outside the immediate environment of the earth to reach its surface. It also is from these ionized layers that radio waves reflect to achieve over-the-horizon communication and radar systems.

The proposed research will be undertaken using high power radio transmitters to probe the overhead ionosphere, combined with a complement of modern scientific diagnostic instruments to investigate the results of the interactions.

HAARP would be constructed at auroral latitudes in Alaska. A unique feature of the research facility would be a high power high- frequency radio transmitter with the capability of rapidly steering a narrow beam of energy toward a designated region of the sky. Similar, though less capable, research facilities exist today at many locations throughout the world and are operated routinely for the purpose of scientific investigation of the ionosphere. In the US such systems are located at Arecibo, Puerto Rico and Fairbanks, Alaska. Other installations are at Tromso, Norway; Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Apatity, Russia; Kharkov, Ukraine and Dushanbe, Tadzhikistan. None of these existing systems, however, have the combination of frequency capability and beam steering agility required to perform the experiments planned for HAARP. A congressionally initiated effort, HAARP is being managed cooperatively by the Air Force and Navy.

The Air Force is responsible for oversight of the environmental process, site acquisition, and implementation of scientific instruments associated with the facility. The Navy is responsible for procurement of the primary contract to design and construct the high power, high-frequency radio transmitter. Users of the HAARP research facility would include civilian entities such as universities and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as military agencies such as the Air Force, Navy, and Advanced Research Programs Agency (ARPA).

Value of Ionospheric Research

The layer of earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere begins approximately 35 miles above the surface and extends out beyond 500 miles. In contrast to the atmosphere close to the earth which is composed of neutral atoms and molecules, the ionosphere contains both positively and negatively charged particles known as ions and electrons. These ions and electrons are created naturally as a result of the action of the sun’s radiation.

This ionized gas of the ionosphere behaves much differently from the neutral atmosphere closer to the earth. A major difference is that radio signals passing through the ionosphere may be distorted, totally reflected or absorbed. For example, communication links from the ground to earth-orbiting satellites can experience fading due to ionospheric distortion; an AM radio signal sometimes can reflect, or “skip , from the ionosphere and be heard at locations hundreds of miles distant from the broadcasting radio station; the characteristic fading on the high-frequency (HF) or “shortwave” band is due to ionospheric interference. ­Because of its strong interaction with radiowaves, the ionosphere can interfere with communications and radar surveillance systems, which depend on sending radiowaves from one location to another.

Investigations to be conducted at the HAARP facility are expected to provide significant scientific advancements in understanding the ionosphere. The research facility would be used to understand, stimulate and control ionospheric processes that might alter the performance of communication and surveillance systems. This research would enhance present civilian capabilities because it would facilitate the development of techniques to mitigate or control ionospheric processes. Ionospheric disturbances at high latitudes also can act to induce large currents in electric power grids: these are thought to cause power outages. Understanding of these and other phenomena is important to maintain reliable communication and power services. Other civilian applications from the program’s research could lead to improved local and world-wide communication such as satellite communication.

Furthermore, and possibly more significant, is the potential for new technology that could be developed from a better understanding of ionospheric processes. IT WILL CONTINUE IN THE NEXT WEEK’S EDITION.

spot_img

Minor crimes to be dealt with by the Community Court

­por Marvin Ramírez

El nuevo Fiscal de Distrito de San Francisco George Gascón (de pie),: el Supervisor Scott Wiener, un asistente de fiscal y el supervisor David Campos durante la inauguración del proyecto Corte Comunitaria. (PHOTO BY MARVIN RAMIREZ)The new District Attorney de S.F. George Gascón (standing), Sup. Scott Wiener, an assistant District Attorney and Supervisor David Campos at the Community Court event.  (PHOTO BY MARVIN RAMIREZ)

At a community gathering at Centro Latino of San Francisco, the District Attorney’s Office launched the Community Court Initiative, a pilot project that will try minor-criminal cases outside the traditional court system. Originally, according to news reports, the project is a U.S Justice Department pilot project initiated in November of 1998.

Mayor Gavin Newsom brought a fresher idea about the program during a trip to the Big Apple and copied it for San Francisco starting it in the Tenderloin District. This was back in 2005, but actually started running in 2007, according to records.

The new City District Attorney George Gascón has re-launched it and expanded it to operate in the Mission and the Bayview/ Hunter’s Points Districts San Francisco, as in the past it was first used to prosecute crimes committed in the Tenderloin and South of Market neiborhoods. A neighborhood-based mini-court set up, the project is staffed by volunteers and designed to handle misdemeanor offenses. In the last fi ve years, the San Francisco model has become an outstanding example of how a Restorative Justice program can reduce crime in inner-urban areas, according to the D.A.’s offi ce. The program was established as a collaborative of city departments, neighborhood residents and merchant associations. Starting with two courts, there are now eleven courts in 10 of the 11 San Francisco districts.

As the D.A.’s office describes it, the plan is to discourage criminal violation that impact our City’s neighborhood by helping heal victims, the community and the offenders.

Community courts order offenders to pay restitution to victims when there have been monetary loses o property damage, so creating an atmosphere of inclusion and responsibility in the part of the accused. It also orders those with addictions and anger problems to rehabilitation.

Each community court establishes a fund of their own through fi nes from various misdemeanor offenses. Once the fi nes accumulate in each separate account, the Mayor’s Offi ce of Criminal Justice issues an RFT (Request for Proposal) Request, usually three times a year. ­Any non-profit organization in any of the communities can apply to do neighborhood improvements and other activities that fi t the criteria of the RFP.

San Francisco’s Community Courts are organized and staffed by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and CaCDS. The program has drawn increasing collaborative support from The Superior Court, San Francisco’s Mayor’s Offi ce, Board of Supervisors, The Public Defenders Offi ce, the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Inc.

 

spot_img

Strawberries may prevent esophageal cancer

by S. L. Baker

Natural News

According to the National Cancer Institute, about 16,700 new cases of esophageal cancer were diagnosed last year — and about 14,500 people died from the disease. Obviously, there’s no easy cure for this often fatal malignancy. So, as with any disease, it’s much better to prevent getting it in the first place.

But how? Mainstream medicine pushes Big Pharma drugs called H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to calm gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in hopes of preventing Barrett’s  esophagus, a complication of GERD that ups the risk  for esophageal cancer. But these meds are loaded with potential side effects and there’s no strong evidence they really prevent cancer.

However, a new study provides evidence there may be a natural and tasty way to not only lower the odds of developing esophageal cancer but to halt and perhaps reverse the progression of precancerous lesions.

The powerful and delicious substance? Strawberries, especially the freeze-dried variety.These fi ndings were just presented for the fi rst time at the American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held in Orlando.

“We concluded from this study that six months of eating strawberries is safe  and easy to consume. In addition, our preliminary data suggests that strawberries can decrease histological grade of precancerous lesions and reduce cancerrelated molecular events,” said lead researcher Tong Chen, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, division of medical oncology, department of internal medicine at Ohio State University. Dr. Chen is also a member of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program in Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

She pointed out that esophageal cancer is the third most common gastrointestinal cancer and the sixth most frequent cause of cancer death in the world. Dr. Chen and her research team are zeroing in on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) which accounts for 95 percent of cases of esophageal cancer worldwide.

In earlier research, Dr. Chen’s research team discovered that freeze-dried strawberries significantly inhibited esophageal tumor development in rats. For the new study, the scientists launched a trial which included participants with esophageal precancerous lesions who were at high risk for developing fullblown esophageal cancer.

The research subjects consumed 60 grams of freeze-dried strawberries every day for six months. Freeze-dried strawberries were used because, by removing the water from the berries, the natural cancer-preventive substances in the strawberries soared by nearly 10-fold, according to Dr. Chen. Biopsies were taken before and after the six months of strawberry consumption. The results showed that 29 out of 36 participants experienced a decrease in the histological grade of their precancerous esophageal lesions during the time they ate the strawberries.

“Our study is important because it shows that strawberries may slow the progression of precancerous lesions in the esophagus. Strawberries may be an alternative or work together with other chemopreventive drugs for the prevention of esophageal cancer,” Dr. Chen stated.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031981_strawberries_esophageal_cancer.html#ixzz1K5eU5g9n.

In other related news:

California delivers on toxic strawberries

by Kim Evans

In a time of intense propaganda about food safety, California recently approved the use of a chemical regularly used to create cancer in lab animals for use on strawberries that will be shipped around the world. The chemical is methyl iodide and some scientists call it the most dangerous chemical known to man. Scientists use protective gear when using it in the lab because of the cancer risk and the chemical’s easy ability to damage our DNA. Of course, damaged DNA leads to problems for the holder of that DNA, and for all future generations that inherit it too. The chemical is also known to cause brain and reproductive damage, so it’s a move that California has made to ensure strawberries will be about as unsafe as possible.

Learn more: ­http://www.naturalnews.com/030958_strawberries_pesticides.html#ixzz1K5wBOgKp.

spot_img

Ex president Zelaya might return to Honduras

­by the El Reportero’s news services

Manuel ZelayaManuel Zelaya

Former President Manuel Zelaya plans to return to Honduras in May, in the wake of efforts started this month with the mediation of Venezuela, Deputy Coordinator of the National People’s Resistance Front (FNRP) Juan Barahona announced.

Barahona said that the FNRP fully trust the mediation of President Hugo Chavez so that institutional order can be restored in Honduras.

Leaders of the resistance front participated along with Zelaya in a meeting on Saturday in Caracas with Chavez, who expressed his willingness to contribute to restore peace and democracy in Honduras. Zelaya’s return is a main demand made by the international community to Honduran President Porfirio Lobo so that the country can be readmitted into the Organization of American States.

Mexico Rercovers stolen archeological pieces

Authorities in Hessen locality, Germany, returned a lot of 49 Pre-Columbian pieces to Mexico, which were seized at Frankfurt airport in 2004, local press reported on Saturday.

A joint text of the General Attorney of the Republic and the Foreign Affairs Secretariat says that among the stolen objects are a stone-carved mask and another 42 pieces made of gray and green granite rock.

Mexican and German investigations revealed that the lot is directly linked to operations staged by Leonardo Augustus Patterson, internationally known as an alleged smuggler of Pre-Columbian pieces.

Patterson is also linked with the robbery in Spain of an important lot of archeological pieces coming from different Latin-American countries, which is already saved in Munich for returning to their countries of origin.

The joint note also expresses the appreciation of the Mexican government for the cooperation offered by Hesse’s authorities, who especially made possible the checking of the lot and preserved it in peak condition.

Fernández divides and rules

President Cristina Fernández announced on April 18, a series of new benefits for Argentina’s pensioners and extended the child benefit program, Asignación Universal por Hijo (AUH), to include pregnant women in their second trimester. Government critics slated the move as a preelectoral and populist stunt by the government ahead of the Oct. 23 general election.

Likewise, the opposition has cried foul over the revised (and reduced) allocation of media air time for the 2011 campaign, arguing that it puts the government, which is not affected by the new regulations, at a clear advantage. However, while the opposition complains (and bickers internally), the (undeclared) Fernández is making full use of the state machinery to boost her image.

Peruvians opt to live life on the edge

Two candidates at either extreme of the political spectrum will contest the second round of Peru’s presidential elections on 5 June.

After the first round on 10 April, many Peruvians will be puzzling over how they have been left to choose between two options which 40 percent of voters apiece consider unpalatable: a left-wing ethnic nationalist, Ollanta Humala, and a right-wing populist, Keiko Fujimori, ­the daughter of a former president who ran an authoritarian kleptocracy and has been convicted of corruption and human rights abuses.

The run-off will be very closely contested and could hinge on which way the centre-right, urban middleclasses in Lima, who distrust both candidates, sway.

spot_img

Amid global meltdowns, what is the U.S. gov. fiscal solvency?

by Mike Adams

Natural News

Thanks to the recent (and laughable) “largest annual spending cut in history” announced by Obama and Boehner, it is now abundantly evident that the U.S. government is headed toward a complete economic meltdown that will make Fukushima look chilly by comparison. While cesium- 137 may have a half-life of 30 years, and iodine-131 a half-life of 8 days, if the U.S. government continues on its current path of spending trillions of dollars it doesn’t have, the half-life of the value of a dollar may soon be measured in hours.

Want to buy a loaf of bread at the store? Bring a bucket load of cash, because by the time you get there to buy it, the price may have doubled yet again, Zimbabwe-style. Such absurdities are now headed our way, and they will arrive sooner that you’ve been led to believe.

The downward spiral of the debt addiction

That’s because in order to avoid a government shutdown, the U.S. government has recently decided to go bankrupt instead. Already drunk from the freewheeling spending of other people’s money, the feds have now resorting to the intravenous mainlining of new debt just to take another “hit” that will get them by for another week or two.

To call the U.S. political leaders “debt junkies” is an insult to heroin addicts. After all, heroin addicts mostly destroy only themselves and their loved ones, not entire nations. But Washington’s new policies — endorsed by both the Democrats and the Republicans — are based on the street drug equivalent of snorting five lines of cocaine while mainlining heroin while riding a double hit of meth chased down with the desperate chugging of unfiltered Russian vodka smuggled into the country in used gasoline cans.

Like a drug addict passed out face-down on the sidewalk in a pool of his own vomit, wearing nothing but a ragged pair of underwear soaked with his own urine, the United States federal governmentis now beyond the window of opportunity for rational intervention. It is now a basket case of “schizonomics” where key economic decisions are made by leaders who, instead of following the laws of economics, follow the persistent voices in their own heads. And those voices keep repeating the same disturbing mantra: Spend! Spend! SPEND!

There is no medication strong enough to quell this chorus of fi scal insanity, either, because these voices are not based in reality but rather a kind of economic mental illness that has infected the minds of nearly every lawmaker in America today. Strangely, the CDC offers no statistics on this unsightly epidemic, perhaps because the White House has named this insidious disease “Economic Policy.”

IMF declares USA is headed straight into a dead end

As if to underscore the chilling degree of derangement in Washington D.C., the IMF has issued one of the strongest statements yet about U.S. debt spending, declaring that the USA lacked a “credible strategy” to stabilize its debt (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc1aadea-…). Furthermore, it warns that runaway debt spending from Washington threatens to cause a global financial crisis.

So far, all we’ve seen from Washington is financial sleight of hand and trickery.

Most of the recent $38.5 billion in cuts — which were already puny compared to the total debt spending — were achieved by using accounting tricks and claiming to have cut programs that were already slated to be cut anyway (http://apnews.myway.com/article/201…).

­Even then, Democrats screamed as if they were having their fingernails plucked out. If they can’t stomach a miniscule $38.5 billion in cuts, how on Earth are they going to fi nd a way to stomach the trillions of dollars in spending cuts that must be made to keep the government solvent?

Huge 15.7 percent increase in budget deficit in just one year

Almost as if to underscore the insanity of the situation, recently-released fi gures from the U.S. Treasury reveal that the budget defi cit has shot up 15.7 percent in just one year. The deficit for just the October-March period (half a year) was $829 billion. (http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsb…)

What we’re seeing here is the U.S. government burning through nearly a trillion dollars in new debt every six months. This is beyond the bounds of everyday, crazydude-on-the-street insanity. It is very rapidly approaching a level of economic terrorism on the part of our national leaders. To continue to drive America’s fi nances into such unbearable depths of debt is very nearly an act of economic warfare against America — a “fi nancial dirty bomb,” if you will. A bomb that, when it goes off, will sadly injure America’s economy in a way that will absolutely dwarf the economic fallout of 9/11.

spot_img

Estudiantes latinos find selves in the spotlight

por Bianca Fortis

Hispanic Link News Service

President Obama officially launched his re-election campaign today with a strategy to engage super-rich supporters, but he has already started efforts to court the three constituencies that helped ignite early fires under his 2008 presidential bid — Latinos, youth and immigrants.

Obama roped in all three during a forum March 28 at a high school established in 1979 to serve immigrant students in the heart of the capital’s biggest barrio.

The president’s message rang like a dinner-bell: “The Latino community in this country will be a key for our future success,” he told the assemblage of 300 students, parents and community members in the gymnasium of Bell Multicultural High School, one of two public institutions located on the Columbia Heights Educational Campus.

“And all of the young people who are sitting here are going to be a key to our success.” He pressed the point, “It is critical for all American students to have language skills…Make sure you don’t speak just one language. You speak a bunch of languages. That’s a priority.”

The forum was hosted and telecast nationally that evening by Univisión, the Spanish-language TV network, as part of its threeyear- long “Es El Momento” initiative to inspire academic achievement among Latino students.

It followed by only three weeks Obama’s first diplomatic venture into Latin America since his election nearly two and a half years ago..

Linking last month’s trip with a First Family vacation, he visited Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. Only days prior to that, he hosted Mexico President Felipe Calderón for talks at the White House while First Ladies Michele Obama and Margarita Zavala paid a photo-op visit to Oyster Elementary, a model Spanish- English bilingual school nearby.

Both Bell and Lincoln Multicultural Middle School embrace diversity and focus on multiple languages as a cornerstone of their curricula. Together, they enroll 1,300 students, predominantly from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Two-thirds are Hispanic and nearly onethird black, with a sprinkling of students from Asia.

At the Town Hall-style session, President Obama acknowledged that the U.S. public education system is failing the Latino community, which new 2010 Census Bureau data show has exceeded the 50-million threshold. In nearly every major urban community, the Hispanic dropout rate exceeds 50 percent.

Univisión news anchor Jorge Ramos led the questioning, calling on some students and parents in the gym and playing video submissions by others from the community. Bell senior Kenrry Alvarado, 17, whose family emigrated from El Salvador, asked the President about funding for Pell Grants.

­Obama said his administration has boosted their level of funding by $800 per recipient. Afterwards, Alvarado said that while he liked the additional funding, he wished the President had addressed the program’s cost, whichcould reach $20 billion.

“I wanted to find out how he’s going to reduce the deficit for that program.”

A parent asked what the President what he was doing to support Head Start. Obama answered that his administration increased its funding during the past two years, but more still needs to be done.

Head Start director Yvette Sánchez Fuentes told Hispanic Link that the budget passed by the House would cut its funding by $2 billion. She added that children make better progress academically when taught in their first language.

“Clearly we do want kids to learn English, but it is not the be-all, end-all to being academically prepared to go into the public school system,” she said. “Being bilingual plays a huge part in how the brain develops and the skills that kids pick up.”

José Rico, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Education Excellence for Hispanics, added that the administration’s plan to improve Latino education involves three steps: 1) improve the Head Start program’s quality and funding 2) raise high school graduation rates and 3) guarantee access to higher education.

He called the educational status of Latinos “terrible,” pointing out that only 13% of its adult population has a bachelor’s degree.

“That rate has been about the same for the past 30 years.”

In his closing remarks, Obama assured the students, “I’m confident that not only is the Latino community going to succeed, but the American family is going to thrive and succeed in the 21st century.”

(Bianca Fortis is the editor of Hispanic Link Weekly Report. Email her at biancafortis@gmail.com.)

spot_img

Prepare for the upcoming earthquake – part 2

­by Marvin Ramíre­z­

­­Marvin J. Ramírez­Ma­rv­in­ R­­­a­­m­­­í­r­­­ez­­­­­­

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Dear readers, while navigating the internet, I ran into this interesting article, which conveniently, at this time when we have been threatened with a major earthquake in the West Coast of the United States, most of us lack important information to help us survive. The following article, which is an extract from Doug Copp’s article on ‘The Triangle of Life,” contains valuable information that could be used in case we have a natural or man-made catastrophe. Due to its length, I will share it with you in two parts. You may access www. elreporteroSF.com in old editions to read Part one of this article.

­Where to go during an  earthquake (part two)

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different ‘moment of frequency’ (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads – horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn’t collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible. It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper,  that paper does not compact.

Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper. Spread the word and save someone’s life…

The entire world is experiencing ­natural calamities so be prepared!

‘We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly’ In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct.

The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did ‘duck and cover,’ and ten mannequins I used in my ‘triangle of life’ survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the ‘triangle of life.’ This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

spot_img
1...446447448...627Page 447 of 627

SELECTIONS

POPULAR TICKETS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

Welcome to our Marvin J. Ramirez website! We are an innovative newspaper located in the heart of San Francisco. With a relentless passion for telling powerful stories, we inform our community with truthful news, insightful analysis, and compelling reporting.

Contacto: lreportero@aol.com

FOLLOW US

© Copyright 2023. AMAYCOM.NET. All rights reserved.