by the El Reportero’s news services

Adolfo Zaldívar

Adolfo Zaldívar, a lagging presidential candidate, withdrew on Sept. 14, from the presidential election. Zaldívar’s last minute withdrawal leaves five candidates in the race for the presidency. Nominations closed on Sept. 14 and the campaign starts, officially, today (Sept. 15).

The first round of the presidential election and the entire congressional election is on Dec. 13. The elections are shaping up as the closest since democracy was restored after the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990. Since then, the centre-left, quadripartite Concertación de Partidos por la Democracía has ruled the country.

Bachelet moves to end Pinochet-era copper funding for military

Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet sent a bill to congress this week calling time on an entrenched feature inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship: the appropriation for the military of 10 percent of copper export earnings.

The timing of the move is astute. It serves a dual purpose.

On the domestic front, it should boost Eduardo Frei, the presidential candidate for the ruling Concertación, who is lagging in the polls with just three months until general elections.

Resistance announces new protests in Honduras

The National Front against the coup d’état in Honduras announced that today they they will continue the protests in demand of restitution of the constitutional order and the return of President Manuel Zelaya.

The demonstrations of this Wednesday continue the multitudinous marches of yesterday around the country for independence day and constitute the 81st consecutive day against the military coup of last June 28.

The general coordinator of the Front, Juan Barahona, said yesterday that the protests will continue up to achieving the call to a national constituent assembly for the refoundation of the country.

In a proclamation read by Barahona before a multitude assembled in the Central Park of Tegucigalpa, the Front underlined that the new Magna Carta that should approve must “settel the bases of the real independence of the nation.”

Our Homeland is in a nonviolent insurrection against the usurper regime that assaulted with weapon the institutions of the State on June 28, underlines the text. (Latin Press).

Peruvian government after threads Abimael Guzmán’s book

The lawyer of the veteran chief of Luminous Footpath (Sendero Luminoso), Abimael Guzmán, is today on the verge of being processed judicially for the crime of apology of terrorism, after the presentation of a self-critical book of his imprisoned client.

The complaint was announced by the minister of Justice, Aurelio Pastor, and ­comprises both to the defender, Alfredo Crespo, and to Camen Hualla, for this one to have read in the launching of the book a letter of Elena Iparraguirre, also senderista leader and partner of Guzmán.

The text, “By hand and letter”, was presented last Friday and it reproduces manuscripts of Guzmán with part of his memoirs and a self-critical evaluation of the armed actions initiated by the Senderismo in May, 1980.

The activity of the group began to decline with the apprehension of Guzmán on Sept. 12, 1992, and at present it only produces a limited group of remnants that desobeys the boss’s order to leave the arms struggle.

The split, repudiated by Guzmán, has caused in less than one year, more year 50 casualties, mainly military, in a rural territory of the center of the country.

The book of Guzmán ratifi es his differences with the remnants, on having raised a conciliation from which the State admits that  there was a political war and approves an amnesty both for those up in arms, and for military men condemned for violations of human rights.

by Michael Coleman

The U.S. economic recession is hitting Hispanic households harder in the pocketbook than it is affecting other ethnic or racial groups, according to a new U.S. Census analysis.

Overall, there were 39.8 million persons living in poverty in this country last year (13.2 percent) vs. 37.3 million the year before (12.5 percent).

For Hispanics, the rate jumped 1.7 percent, up to 23.2 percent, more than double that percentage increase for any other group.

Overall, the plunge deeper into poverty revealed that for the first time in three years that our national income didn’t increase across the board.

Real medium household income fell 3.6 percent for all groups — $52,163 to $50,303. Hispanics suffered the greatest decline at 5.6 percent, dropping to $37,913. Their tumble rate was double that of whites as well as blacks.

Changes in health care statistics offered little more room for optimism. The number of persons without health insurance coverage rose from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008. The percentage of persons in the country without coverage — 15.4 — remained unchanged.

The percentage of uninsured Hispanics actually decreased. It dipped to 30.7 percent from 32.1 percent in 2007 to 30.7 last year. The total of uninsured Hispanics, at 14.6 million, however, was not statistically different in 2008 over the year before.

These and other findings were revealed Sept. 10 in a Census Bureau report titled “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008.”

Whites lost ground in the health insurance indicator, with 10.8 percent, and 21.3 million (10.8 percent) claiming no insurance in 2008, compared to 10.4 percent and 20.5 million (10.4 percent) in 2007. The uninsured rate and number for blacks comparing the two years were not statistically different.

The report also showed that in 2008 the poverty rate among the foreign-born population was 17.8 percent vs. 12.6 for the native-born, For naturalized citizens, it was 10.2 percent while for those who were not U.S. citizens is was more than double that, 23.3 percent For all children younger than 18 it was 19.0 percent.

Carmen Delgado Votaw, longtime children’s advocate both working on the Hill and serving on national culboards, expressed particular concern for Latino children, who make up a disproportionately high percentage of this group’s population.

The voices of young people are seldom heard, she said. In many states, including New York, those under 21 cannot legally serve on corporate boards, even with organizations devoted to addressing children’s needs, she pointed out.

The CPS ASEC is subject to sampling and nonsampling errors. All comparisons made in the report have been tested and found to be statistics.­

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by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Michigan.— As Congress and the White House explore ways to encourage Americans to conserve energy, a new study by the University of Michigan shows that the average individual energy demand for heating and cooling has decreased over the past 50 years.

The reason? The country’s population shift to the more moderate and warm climates of the American West and Southwest, says Michael Sivak, a research professor at the U-M Transportation Research Institute.

The study, published in Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, found that the U.S. population shift has resulted in an 11 percent reduction in combined energy demand per person for heating and cooling since 1960.

“The relative increases in population in more moderate climates and, at the same time, in warmer climates imply a reduction in the combined energy per person—the shift to more moderate climates because of narrower ranges between winter and summer temperatures, and the shift to warmer climates because it is more energy-efficient to cool than to heat,” Sivak said.

Sivak performed three analyses based on 1960 and 2006 population data for the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, which account for 54 percent of the U.S. population.

ALMAcool buildings [one heating (cooling) degree day occurs for each degree the average daily outdoor temperature is below (above) 65 degrees Fahrenheit]; 2) effective energy demand, based on heating and cooling degree days and incorporates the energy efficiencies of heatingThe three approaches included: 1) nominal energy demand, based only on “heating and cooling degree days”—units that relate to the amount of energy needed to heat and and cooling appliances; and 3) practical energy demand, based on degree days and appliance efficiencies, as well as the efficiencies of power-generating plants.

Based on climatological considerations only, Sivak found that while the energy demand for cooling (air conditioning) increased by 23 percent from 1960 to 2006, the demand for heating (which dominates the combined demand) decreased by 14 percent.

Overall, the nominal energy demand for both heating and cooling dropped 6 percent.

Using the effective energy demand approach, which accounts for energy used by furnaces, boilers, electric heaters and air conditioners, Sivak found a 12 percent reduction in energy demand since 1960.

The most comprehensive practical energy demand measure, which also incorporates the energy used by power plants, yielded the 11 percent figure reported above.

For more information on Sivak, visit ­www.umtri.umich.edu/people.php?personID=40.