por Deepak Bhargava

One of the most corrosive effects of our toxic political environment is the decline of belief in democratic possibility. Whether of the left, right and center, most all of us share the sense that Washington is an impenetrable bubble where politics has been captured by special interests, and ordinary people are not capable of making a difference.

The events of the past two months have proven that wrong. Thousands of the newest and most vulnerable of U.S. residents have demonstrated that we   still live in a nation where “people power” can have an impact. Back in January, the conventional wisdom was that immigration reform was going nowhere this year. Despite the immense costs and human suffering created by our broken system, despite President Obama’s promse to make reform a priority, despite the fact that both parties have a positive stake in change, the wise men told us the us the issue was off the table.

I was too complex, too controversial for a weary and divided Congress.

The message to immigrant communities was clear: “Sorry about that, be realistic, wait ’til next year – or maybe 2013.”

Then an astonishing thing happened. Rather than accept the summary judgment of the political class, immigrants pushed back. They organized marches and demonstrations in their local communities. They sent tens of thousands of emails and text messages to their representatives in Congress. They launched a young people’s pilgrimage, the “Trail of Dreams,” from Florida to Washington.

They called on allies in the civil rights and labor movements to stand behind them and insist that this urgent issue could not be deferred. They had the audacity to believe that our political system could be responsive to our common values and shared needs.

And the system did respond. The President invited immigrant leaders for a chat at the White House. Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham revived discussions on a comprehensive reform bill, and this past week unveiled the framework for their legislation. The issue was covered on talk shows and editorial pages. Now the pundits are saying that immigration reform might just have a chance this year, if all the ­stars align and supporters of reform continue to press their case The latest chapter in this remarkable story is being written this weekend in the form of the largest march of the Obama era. People from nearly all 50 states converged on the National Mall to call on Congress to pass a comprehensive reform bill that:

• Honors families: Immigration policy that keeps families together is good for the country. Families help their relatives get jobs, get housing, and get started.

• Protects democracy: Our democracy is betrayed by having 12 million people who work, pay taxes, and are part of our communities, but are excluded from the full American family.

•Protects U.S. workers: Decades without immigration reform have created a second class of workers who are exploited by

­by Marvin Ramírez

Thousands marched in Washington last Oct. 13.

Just days before the first largest immigration march of the year would take place, rumors promise to be larger that the one held in Oct. 13, 2009, and for that the nation Latinos were getting ready to rally.

Latinos and immigrants nationwide would convene in Washington, D.C., on March 21 to push for the long-awaited amnesty for the tens of millions of undocumented immigrants who reside in the U.S.

Despite of his promise to have in place a just and fair immigration reform that would fix the broken immigration system within his first 100 days in the presidency, Obama is still not keeping his promise.

But Latinos and other immigrant groups don’t want to wait sitting down.

They wanted to tell the president in one voice to act now in Washington.

“We are faced with a choice. We can do nothing, and watch as our families and communities continue to be torn apart by the broken immigration system; watch as profiteers continue to take advantage of people desperate for work; watch as due process is taken away from our understanding of justice; and watch as our leaders work on economic solutions that simply aren’t bold enough to turn this country around. Or we can stand up for our families and our communities,” said a Reform Immigration for America written statement.­

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The muscle-building abilities of hormones known as insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are legendary. Just do an online search, and you’ll find not only scientific papers discussing the effects of IGFs on the cells that give rise to muscle tissue, but also scores of ads touting the purported benefits of IGF supplements for bodybuilding. But in spite of widespread interest in these potent molecules, key details about how IGFs work on muscle cells have been lacking.

Now, a research by a team led by University of Michigan molecular biologist Cunming Duan has cleared up a longstanding mystery about the workings of IGFs. The team’s findings, scheduled to be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to new treatments for muscle-wasting diseases and new ways of preventing the muscle loss that accompanies aging. And because IGFs also are implicated in the growth and spread of malignant tumors, the new insights may have implications in cancer biology. Like other peptide and protein hormones, IGFs work by binding to receptors on the cells they target.

The binding then sets off a cascade of reactions that ultimately direct the cell to do something. You might think that a given hormone, binding to a particular receptor, would always elicit the same response from the cell, but that’s not what happens in the case of IGF and myoblasts (immature cells that develop into muscle tissue).

During muscle formation, the binding of IGF to its receptor can prompt either of two very different responses in myoblasts, said Duan, a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Some of the cells are stimulated to divide, while others interpret the very same signal as an order to differentiate (become specialized).

“These are opposite and mutually exclusive ­cellular events—once a muscle cell divides, it can’t differentiate, and once it differentiates, it can never divide again,” Duan said. How activation of the same receptor by the same hormone can elicit two such distinctly different responses has been one of the most puzzling questions about IGF, but Duan and colleagues have found the answer.

The myoblasts’ response is controlled by oxygen availability,” said Duan. When oxygen levels are normal, IGF promotes muscle cell differentiation; when oxygen levels are below normal, IGF promotes muscle cell division. Teasing out the molecular details, the researchers discovered that low oxygen activates an intermediary called the HIF-1 complex, which reprograms the cascade of steps that ultimately controls the cell’s response.

The findings not only reveal how muscle cells respond to varying oxygen levels during normal development, but also have implications for human disease, Duan said. “For example, a major reason that muscle atrophy occurs as people get older is that the IGF signal gets weaker. If we can fi nd a way to affect IGF signaling, we may be able to stop or reverse the loss.” Although manipulating the oxygen levels in living cells could be diffi cult, it may be possible to manipulate HIF-1 in ways that would mimic changing oxygen levels.

The work also could help scientists better understand the processes involved in cancer progression and spread. It’s known that IGF can promote tumor cell division and survival and also that oxygen levels are often lower in tumor tissue than in normal tissue. Finding the link between IGF activity and oxygen levels may lead to new strategies for cancer treatment.

Duan’s coauthors on the paper are former graduate student Hongxia Ren, now a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, and Domenico Accili, professor of medicine at Columbia.

by the El Reportero’s staff

Mauricio Fumes

El Salvador’s President Mauricio Funes asserted his leadership credentials within Central America this week. Funes, the first elected head of state representing the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN) to visit Washington, requested that the US either enhance its security-cooperation initiative Plan Mérida to assist Central America, rather than predominantly Mexico, or design a new bespoke package for the sub-region. He also spearheaded calls for the full reincorporation of Honduras into regional institutions.

Peru’s García facces another scandal

President Alan García has said that he will decide whether or not to dismiss his justice minister by midday today (March 16). The justice minister, Aurelio Pastor, is under heavy criticism after an anti-corruption judge issued an arrest warrant on March 12 for José Enrique Crousillat, a local TV magnate. In December 2009 Pastor had supported a presidential pardon for Crousillat (77), on health grounds, following Crousillat’s conviction in 2006 for his links with Vladimiro Montesinos, the intelligence chief under the former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).

Felipe Calderón

Earthqueke shatters illusions as as infrastructure

The powerful earthquake, measuring 8.8 on the Richter Scale, which struck south-central Chile on Feb. 27, led to a severe breakdown in law and order in Concepción and major questions about the authorities’ emergency planning. The recriminations and finger pointing marred the final weeks of President Michelle Bachelet’s administration, though not her opinion poll ratings, which are still around 84 percent. She hands over to Chile’s first elected right wing president for 52 years, Sebastión Pióra, on 11 March.

President Felipe Calderón, lame duck

Porfirio Lobo

President Felipe Calderón’s authority is weakening almost by the day. Usually, Mexican presidents manage to avoid becoming complete lame ducks because of their power to influence the choice of their successor. Calderón’s tragedy is that he may not even possess this power.

­U.S. will restore aid to Honduras

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States will restore aid to Honduras that was suspended after a coup and urged Latin American states to recogniSe new President Porfirio Lobo’s government.

Clinton announced the move on a visit to Costa Rica, which tried to mediate a deal between deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, who in the end organized new elections without Zelaya. U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration condemned the June 28, 2009 army-backed coup and suspended more than 30 million dollars in aid in a bid to force Zelaya’s reinstatement. But the efforts failed and the United States ultimately recognized the elections last November that resulted in victory for Lobo. However, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Venezuela and other countries in the region refuse or are reluctant to recognize the results because the elections were sponsored by a government that came to power in a coup.