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Sandinista hero on hunger strike

by Tim Rogers

This article was first published in The Miami Herald

(Note: when this edition was going to the printer, the Supreme Electoral Council had ruled to disqualify the two main political parties in Nicaragua for which the hunger strike protest was started).

L-R: Efraín Payán, of the ALN party; Dora María Téllez, at center; and Dr. Vilma Nuñez de Escorcia, president of Nicaraguan: Center for Human Rights (CENIDH); members of CENIDH; and reporters. (photo by trinchera de noticias)L-R: Efraín Payán, of the ALN party; Dora María Téllez, at center; and Dr. Vilma Nuñez de Escorcia, president of Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH); members of CENIDH; and reporters. (photo by trinchera de noticias)

Former Nicaraguan guerrilla commander Dora Maria Tellez, cofounder of the Sandinista Renovation Movement, sits in a hammock near the Supreme Electoral Council in Managua to protest a government move to invalidate her political party.

A veteran guerrilla leader who helped spark a revolution here 30 years ago is again putting her life on the line to protest a government she claims is returning Nicaragua to its dark, dictatorial past.

Dora María Téllez, 52, started a hunger strike this week, plopping down in downtown Managua to ‘’sound the alarm bell’’ against what she says are President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian intentions.

The former rebel leader and ex-Minister of Health under the first Sandinista government in the 1980s says her protest is a continuation of the revolutionary struggle she started three decades ago against the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship.

In 1978, Téllez, then 22, captured the nation’s attention as the courageous ‘’Comandante 2’’ who, along with legendary guerrilla icon Edén ‘’Comandante Cero’’ Pastora, led a small band of Sandinista rebels in a daring takeover of the legislative National Palace.

That event exposed the vulnerability of the Somoza dictatorship and gave Nicaraguans hope  that revolutionary change was possible. The following year, she helped topple the Somoza dictatorship by leading the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to its first major military victories in the northern cities of León and Chinandega.

Thirty years later, the Sandinista Front has gone from a clandestine rebel movement to the government establishment, but Téllez says the threat of dictatorship remains.

‘’When we took over the National Palace we were fighting for the same thing because the politicians weren’t respecting the rights of everyone else,’’ Téllez told The Miami Herald Thursday while swinging from a nylon hammock set up under a makeshift plastic tarp where she’s camping out next to Managua’s main roundabout.

‘’Now, 30 years later, we have a group of people, a political elite, who want to (run government) as if it were a dictatorship,’’ she said.

Téllez, who is on a water and salt diet, says that Ortega and incarcerated former President Arnoldo Alemán who is still considered the ‘’maximum leader’’ of the opposition Liberal Constitutional Party — are in the process of reworking their infamous power-sharing pact to re-divide state institutions and  cut out minority parties. Political analysts have speculated that the final negotiation point of the new pact will be freedom for Alemán in exchange for constitutional reforms to allow Ortega to remain in power indefinitely.

Also upsetting to Téllez is a recent ruling by the Supreme Electoral Council, which Ortega’s party controls, to eliminate four minority parties — including Téllez’s Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) — from the ballot in municipal elections scheduled for Nov. 2. Téllez says that is further proof that the so-called pacto is still alive and well.

‘’Daniel wants to be alone on the electoral ballot; he wants to remain in power by making an arrangement with Alemán to stay in power indefinitely,’’ Téllez said, as she waved to passing cars that honked in support of her protest.

Yet some revolutionaries, even those who don’t identify with Ortega today, think it’s a mistake to compare the current government to the Somoza dictatorship.

‘’Ortega and Somoza are a thousand light years apart,’’ said Pastora, 71, who fought alongside Téllez during the takeover of the National Palace. “It is political error to say that the Ortega government is a dictatorship.’’­

Pastora, who also went on a 34-day hunger strike in 1998 to restore his Nicaraguan citizenship, said he thinks Téllez’s hunger strike is not the right move, and says the fact that she’s even allowed to protest civically against the government is proof that Nicaragua is not under a dictatorship. Pastora, who in the 1980s defected from the Sandinista Front to battle the government for being

‘’Marxists disguised as Sandinistas,’’ said the Ortega government in the 1980s was a dictatorship, and was one that Téllez and the rest of the MRS leaders supported at the time.

After the first Ortega government was voted out of power in 1990, Téllez, along with a large group of Sandinista intellectuals, led the FSLN brain drain by defecting from the party on the grounds that it had been hijacked by Ortega. The MRS, founded in 1995, currently holds three legislative seats in the National Assembly and has become a leading opposition voice from the left.

The political right is also raising concerns about Ortega’s dictatorial intentions. Eduardo Montealegre, the Liberal Party’s candidate for mayor of Managua who finished second to Ortega in the 2006 presidential elections, says he thinks Ortega is trying to ­‘’eliminate me politically.’’ The former banker says he fears Ortega’s recent public accusation that he stole $600 million in the 2000 banking-system collapse is now going to be used against him to remove him from the race.

Public opinion is also leery of Ortega. A poll released in May by M&R Consultants showed that 64 percent of those surveyed describe Ortega as an authoritarian ruler who wants to implement a dictatorship. Even self-described Sandinistas are having a hard time with the Ortega government.

‘’Like many Sandinistas, Ortega wasn’t an ideal candidate, but we saw him as an option after three neoliberal governments,’’ said Cecilia Espinoza, a social worker involved in Nicaragua’s feminist movement.

“But after assuming power, I could see that there was a great difference between Ortega’s discourse in favor of the poor and his politics that don’t respect people’s rights, especially women’s.’’

A disgruntled Téllez says she’s had enough of the Ortega government and plans to strike indefinitely, unless the CSE rules to reinstate the minority parties on the election ballot.

‘’The role of a revolutionary in Nicaragua is to oppose attempts to install a dictatorship,’’ Téllez said. “If I were born again, I would choose the same path in life.’’

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Chávez: armed revolution in Latin America is over

by David Usborne World News

Hugo ChávezHugo Chávez

The armed revolutionary has no place in modern Latin America, the Venezuelan President has declared. Catching his critics off guard, Hugo Chavez called on the Marxist rebel army in neighbouring Colombia to lay down its arms and release its hostages, declaring that guerrilla armies are now “out of place”.

Adopting the mantle of international statesman, the Venezuelan President appeared to be stepping forward finally to turn a page of history for a continent that for decades has been blighted by eruptions of insurgent violence, not just in Colombia but also Nicaragua and El Salvador. As most of those conflicts have come to an end, Colombia has been alone in failing to end its own internal strife.

“At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place,” Chavez said. “The guerrilla war is history,” he asserted in his weekly television address, prompting expressions of both surprise and welcome among government leaders in Colombia. They have recently accused Venezuela of running a clandestine campaign of support for the Marxist rebels.

Chavez is no stranger to the revolutionary mantle. In 1992 his Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement – inspired by the 19th century independence guerrilla Simon Bolivar – made a doomed attempt to overthrow the government. Even now, having made the transition from rebel to politician, Chavez is still the staunchest of supporters of the world’s most famous revolutionary, Fidel Castro. Whether his latest comments represent a profound change of heart or not, they may help open a path to long-term peace in Colombia after 40 years of bloodshed.

It is a time of deepening difficulties for Farc, the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which recently confirmed that its founder and top commander, Manuel Marulanda, also known as “Sureshot”, had died of a heart attack at a jungle base in March. It has lost several other members of its top leadership in recent months.

“I think the time has come for the Farc to free everyone they have in the mountains. It would be a great, humanitarian gesture in exchange for nothing. That is what I propose to the new [Farc] leader.”

Parapolitical reform dies in Colombia

On 10 June the reform aimed at purging congress of politicians and parties with links to paramilitaries collapsed. Until recently congress considered the reform as the only opportunity to restore its credibility in the wake of the parapolitical scandal. However, the legislature’s commitment to the reform has since waned considerably, largely because President Alvaro Uribe turned against the bill. It is likely that Uribe’s change of heart is linked to his increasingly obvious ambitions to run for a third term.

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More than 1,100 immigration bills flood state legislatures

­by Alex Meneses Miyashita

State legislatures have introduced more than 1,100 bills related to immigration this year, confirmed by a National Conference of State Legislatures tally.

The council identified 1,106 bills in 44 states during the first quarter of 2008. The level of state activity on immigration continues a trend that surged last year when more than 1,500 bills were introduced. So far 26 states have passed 44 of these bills, along with 38 resolutions.

“This is an unprecedented level of activity at the state level,” said Dirk Hegen, NCSL policy associate.

“We believe that we will see similar activity as last year. Some legislatures Between then and 2004, these fluctuated annually from 50to 100. In 2005, there were 300, in 2006 there were 570, and last year 1,562.

States with large Hispanic populations, particularly California, Florida, New York and Arizona, were classified as “high activity states,” having introduced at least 21 bills related to immigration. Texas did not hold a legislative session this year.

Immigration experts from both sides of the debate attribute the rising trend to the lack of federal action to pass reforms.

“It’s emblematic of the frustration that states are feeling with respect to the federal government’s failure to solve this problem,” assessed Marshall Fitz, American Immigration Lawyers Association advocacy director. AILA supports a comprehensive solution that addresses security and regularizing the status of the undocumented.

Bryan Griffith, spokesperson for the Center for Immigration Studies, agreed that a “unified federal response would be the best way to approach this policy issue.

“Anytime there’s a federal void, and state and local politicians are hearing that their constituents are complaining about an issue, they’re going to try to solve it,” he said.

The center supports enforcement policies that would gradually reduce the size of the undocumented population. Griffith added that so long as the federal government does not act, states are making the right decision by taking up the issue.

AlLA’s Fitz said it is a “disastrous way to approach it.” He noted that a number of “very punitive and counterproductive measures” have already passed and been enacted.

Recently the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law which Latino advocates say will disenfranchise large segments of voters.

In Pennsylvania, a state legislator introduced a similar bill this month.

The Louisiana House passed bills that criminalize transporting and harboring undocumented immigrants.

The county of Suffolk, N.Y., passed a law that requires all contractors to verify the immigration status of employees.

In Missouri, the state legislature approved legislation May 16 that will require proof of citizenship or legal status in order to access state benefits.

The legislation also punishes employers for hiring undocumented workers and requires state highway patrol officers to seek immigration training.

The state’s governor supports the bill, and had earlier threatened to call a special session if the legislature did not wrap up work on the issue before it adjourned.

In Arizona, House legislators tried unsuccessfully to override a veto by the governor to require police to get involved in immigration law enforcement.

Fitz said “most of the states and localities that have undertaken these efforts are finding that it is extremely costly, it’s extremely painful and divisive.”

The NCSL does not classify these bills as either “restrictive” or “expansive.

The most common policy areas identified by the conference that are tackled by states in relation to immigration are law enforcement, employment and identification documents.

While many of the bills address undocumented immigration, others address the integration of immigrant communities.

Hegen, from the NCSL, said that states have always been active in offering services and addressing the needs of new immigrants, adding that “it’s only lately in the absence of a federal solution that states are looking at other policy arenas, like law enforcement and most notably maybe the employment arena.

Experts predict active state involvement with immigration matters will continue in the foreseeable future.

“We certainly hope the federal government steps up to the plate in 2009,” Hegen said. Hispanic Link.

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The food free market and becoming slaves to the owners of the world food

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

It’s hard to say anything when we see food prices skyrocketing to levels never seen in the world history. A loaf of bread has increase from $2 to 4.50 in less than a year? The same for milk, eggs, and most of our basic food staples.

The recent skyrocketing cost of food staples around the world is making national and international headlines, according to Catholic Relief Services.

The crisis is prompting economists, agronomists, finance ministers and heads of state to come up with immediate and long-term solutions so that more widespread price increases are averted and increasing discontent is mitigated.

“What we are seeing is unprecedented,” says Catholic Relief Services food aid expert Lisa Kuennen-Asfaw in a statement. “If immediate needs are not met, and if resources and policies supporting increased agricultural production are not put in place soon, we are heading for a cascade of hunger in the world.”

They say prices are increasing sharply in every region of the world for some of the most basic food stuffs traded on international commodity markets. The price of wheat has doubled in less than a year, while other staples such as corn, maize and soy are trading at well above their 1990s levels. Rice, which is the staple food for about 3 billion people worldwide, has tripled in cost in the last 18 months. In some countries, prices for milk and meat have more than doubled.

But we don’t need to go that far. Let’s take a look at the prices at Safeway and check the prices.

Why are big corporations such as Safeway, are way so much more expensive than small grocery stores around the corner, when Safeway buys more wholesale than these small family-owned businesses in the neighborhood? Why do we keep buying there?

Maybe the answer is in the stock market. When we enter in the stock market, I mean when we allow our food supplies to be sold in the stock market, multimillion dollar investors capitalize in buying all the food supply in the world, and then they increase the price at their will. Can you imagine that a few people might now own all the food in the world, in the name of ‘free market?’

Maybe it’s time to take a look at where free market should stop, or we are going to end up being the slaves of those who own all the food. Or maybe we already are their slaves. What are the politicians doing about it?

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Political empathy and political suicide

by José de la Isla Hispanic Link News Service

José de la IslaJosé de la Isla

HOUSTON – University of California, Berkeley, linguistics professor and progressive guru George Lakoff has an interesting way to explain why we don’t get it about immigration.

Lakoff has completed a new book with a long title, The Poltical Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Mind. In it, he goes a long way in explaining why this nation’s politics became so polarizing and dysfunctional during the past quarter century.

Basically, it has to do with the framework of values that we have in our minds and the words we use to illustrate them.

We met and talked when Lakoff was in this city in late February to address the Progressive Forum. I submitted that the history of the inner-city core was a story about a wave of immigrants who came to live in places that others were abandoning — places that had become slums or nearly so. In Houston, first men, then whole families, moved into parts of the East End and the second and third wards and downtown. This happened despite many failed efforts and maybe hundreds of millions of urban anti-poverty funds to create and maintain a social infrastructure for livable communities.

Urban pioneers, often immigrants, created neighborhoods that were later “discovered” for their urban potential, right before city living became a growing trend. As they settled in, investments, banks and strip centers returned to the neighborhood landscape.

In many parts of the country, a mindset took hold that negated immigrant contributions and instead portrayed people who only use up public services, who depleted education resources, populated emergency rooms and were portrayed not as not law abiding contributors. No matter how many studies showed this was not true, the facts didn’t matter. They still don’t.

Lakoff makes the explanation that about 98 percent of thought is not conscious. That’s why facts, unless they have a frame around them, don’t matter. Frames are the worldview going into the words we use. Our morality and politics come from what our brains are doing below the conscious level.

Everyone has mirror neurons that fire up when you do something or see someone doing something, he explained. That’s why we can have feelings of fear, anger and happiness when we see it in others. It is how we empathize. Also,those neurons fi re up more when we cooperate, he says. And so we are biologically wired for cooperation.

Now here’s the astounding part. Lakoff says that empathy has to be developed and used or it will atrophy.

“So that means the bleeding heart liberal. . .” I started to say.

Lakoff fi nished my sentence, “is the true American. The bleeding heart liberal is what the American is. What it means is that you care about other people and you act responsibly on that care.”

In his book, Lakoff describes how conservative frames — like “it’s your money and the government wants to take it away” and “cut and run” — have become a mindset that can be hard to break. Mostly, these notions run counter to our very nature as empathetic beings. He hypothesizes that before long reserarch will show non-empathtic brains atrophy.

Lakoff helps explain why it is that some conservatives — should we say regressives — don’t get it.

Meanwhile, progressives argue with facts. But that 18th century form of reasoning doesn’t connect, either.

For instance, the public in most reputable national surveys says it wants immigration reform and a path to legalization. In 2006, Latino voters turned out in record numbers with other U.S. Americans across the board to throw out of office 30 Republican members of the House of Representatives and six members of the Senate, all but one of whom supported HB 4437, which proposed to criminalize undocumented immigrants.

Running as unreformed regressives was those Republicans’ first attempt at political suicide.

Unless they don’t watch out, the next Republican attempt could fi nish the job. If Lakoff is right, these folks need to start thinking a lot more empathetically, and not with that part of their anatomy next to their wallets.

[José de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. He is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (Archer Books). E-mail joseisla3@yahoo.com]. ©2008

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Two beautiful Nicaraguans celebrate their birthday

by the El Reportero’s staff

Tatiana Gutiérrez G.Tatiana Gutiérrez G.

Miss Margine Quintanilla, native of Rivas, Nicaragua, celebrate her birthdate in the beautiful city of San Francisco on June 2.

A veteran and graduated journalist, who also holds a postgrade in marketing and publicity, Quintanilla was until the end of last year, the producer of the television program from Channel 2 in Nicaragua, Primera Plana, a writer of the prestigious newspaper La Prensa, and a sociology professor at a University in Managua.

Margine Quintanilla R.Margine Quintanilla R.

Arrived to San Francisco in the middle of March and now is going on a tour of studies and business in the state of Minnesota, wherefrom she will depart temporarily to Nicaragua.

El Reportero newspaper, and especially its, Marvin J. Ramírez, sends her warm congratulations.

­Also of Nicaragua

In the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the young woman Tatiana T. Gutierrez born in Nicaragua, celebrates her 23rd birthdate.

An English student with aspirations to graduate with a Bacherlor’s Degree in Hotel and Restaurant, Gutiérrez came to the USA nine months ago, to reside with her husband in Minneapolis.

After finishing her studies, she wants to obtain a job with the prestigious Hilton Hotel. Congratulations from the personnel of El Reportero newsaper and its editor Marvin J. Ramirez.

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Opening of new museum

by Margine Quintanilla

The new building that houses the Contemporary Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind opened on Saturday June 8, 2008. Unique opening expositions will be on display. Location, Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

History of Chicano Movement

Learn the history of the Chicano movement in the United States. Informative sessions will be held every Tuesday, beginning June 10th and will run to August 5th, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at el Cafetazo, 3087 16th Street/Mission St. also in Berkley from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at 382 Pasillo Boalt, open to the general public. Come to one session or to all. For more information Call 415-864-1278.

‘Fondo Popular de la Mision’ opens its doors to the community

An innovative organization whose mission is to help families of low income facing immigration issues has just opened its doors to the community.

The mission of the organization is to increase access to financial services, savings and opportunities for investment as a tool for the residents of the Mission to construct a strong economic future for the individual and the community.

Information about programs available at grand opening of “Fondo Popular , will be Wednesday June 11th, from 10:00am-5:00 p.m. at the following location 1500 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 200. For more information call 415-738-2559, or visit the Internet website at www.fondopopular.org.

Health Care, Yes! Insurance Companies, NO!

Hundreds of persons of all walks of life will conduct a protest against medical insurance companies. This event will be held during the insurance companies convention in SF. It will be held Thursday June 19th at 12:00 p.m. at Moscone 4 on Howard Street in San Francisco, for more information call 415-695-7891.

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Latino musical receives 13 nominations

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

BROADWAY BOUNTY: The most successful Latino musical on Broadway received 13 Tony nominations last week, more than any production this year.

In the Heights earned two nomina­tions for its 28-year-old nuyorican creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda -in score and acting categories as well as a nod for its Iyricist Quiara Alegría Hudes and for two of its cast members, Robin De Jesús and Olga Merediz (both in the supporting actress category).

It also earned nominations in directing, choreography, orquestration, scenic design, costume, lighting and sound categories.

The musical is set in the New York neighborhood of Washington Heights and tells the story of its young bilingual residents to a score inspired by salsa and hip-hop. Miranda began working on the musical nearly a decade before it became an off-Broadway hit last year and moved this season to the Richard Rodgers Theater, where it’s earned rave reviews -a feat never before accomplished by a musical with a Latino author and mostly Latino cast.

Coincidentally, nominations were announced on a Tuesday the 13th or martes 13, an unlucky day in Latino culture.

In the Heights is the latest work set in Washington Heights by a young Latino author to win great recognition.

Earlier this year was the 3711novel The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by 39-yearold Dominican writer Junot Díaz. The Tony Awards will be announced June 15.

‘BETTY’MOVES: TV’s only current successful Latino series is set in New York and now production of the comedy is leaving Los Angeles for the Big Apple.

Production of the third season of Ugly Betty will be filmed in Manhattan and Queens, ABC Studios announced last week. The show is adapted from the Colombian telenovela Yo soy… Betty la fea and stars América Ferrera, an Emmy winner for her role as Betty Suárez. The series is also produced by Salma Hayek’s company, Ventanarrosa.

Ugly Betty is this season’s only Latino prime-time series that will return to television in the Fall.

ONE LINER: TV network MTV Tres has launched a six-week campaign for Julieta Venegas which will include six new vignettes of the Mexican singer-songwriter and will culminate with the June 5 premiere of the Julieta Venegas MTV Unplugged special and the June 17 release of the same titled CD and DVD. Hispanic Link.

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Mexican Consulate installs “Window of Health”

by Rigoberto Hernández

The Mexican community will be provided with the “Health of Window” of free medical attention that was recently inaugurated at the San Francisco Mexican Consulate.

Through this office the community will be able to freely solicit complete information about their health, medical insurance, family planning, detection of diabetes and hypertension.

Additionally they will be able to insure their family members living in Mexico. This can be done through the Mexican Institute of the Social Insurance (IMSS). The consulate’s offi ces are locate at 532 Folsom St. San Francisco, 94105.

Homelessness project turns 22

Project Homessless connect carried out its 22 installment today at pier 48. The event provided service to San Francisco’s homeless community that included, housing opportunities and resource, medical and dental assistance, mental health and substance abuse services, eye care and glasses, food stamps legal assistance, free voicemail and resources to re-connect with the family members through the cities homeward bound program.

“Since 2004, these programs have collectively resulted in more than 7,600 individuals leaving the streets for permanent supportive housing and over 25,000 individuals connected to vital resources needed to attain self-suffi ciency. This is a remarkable achievement that all San Franciscans can be proud of, “ San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

PHC was sponsored by accountnig and consulting firm Deloitte, which also provided volounteers.

Better Street Plan introduced

Mayor Newsom introduced the “Better Streets Plan” aimed at improving San Francisco streets to more safe and enjoyable public spaces.

The plan’s goal is to retain families in san francico and making the city more attractive for tourism and shopping.

The plan contains detailed guidelines for improvemnts including: crosswalk treatments to landscaping.

“Multiple agencies have jurisdiction over San Franscio’s Streets and sidewalks, tending to result in piecemeal changes that often don’t meet our needs for public spaces,” said Newsom’s Greening Director Strid Haryati.

Members of the public can comment on the plan in a series of community meetings held in different neighberoods through June 30.

Immigration Rights Nework unveils wepage and emergency line

Immigrants right network Alianza Latinoamerican por los Derechos de los Immigrantes has created a web page and established an emergency phone num- ber on what to do in case of a immigration Customs Enformcemnt raid.

The website www.alianzalatinoameriac.org contains legal information on what to do in these circumstances and the emergency line –415 3368-8481- is also available in case of emergency.

The network is urging the community to pass on this information to others.

Pollution group puts Bulingame hills and Hillsborough on legal notice

Pollurion watchdog group, baykeeper puts Burlingame hills and Hillsborough on notice for legal action for violation of the Clean Water Act for sewage spills.

The notice comes after an investigation revealed that the sewer systems of both cities causes high rates of spills to nearby creeks and the bay, according to statement by the Baykeeper.

“Burlingame Hills and Hillsborough cannot continue to ignore their sewer systems and pollute our Bay shores,” said Sejal Choksi, of the Baykeeper in a stament. “The City of Burlingame has a signifi cant sewage overfl ow problem, but the City itself may not be the sole cause. Our citizen enforcement actions will bring about a comprehensive solution.”

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Puerto Rican stew: corruption or political revenge?

by Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo

Four thousand delegates at Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party’s convention have endorsed by acclamation Governor Anibal Acevedo Vilá’s bid for a second four-year term.

“Cuatro años más,” Four more years, chanted some 4,000 delegates, plus other supporters, who packed a the baseball stadium in the U.S. commonwealth’s capital of San Juan two weeks ago. (April 27) That could happen, or Acevedo Vilá could be preparing to serve as many as 20 years in federal prison.

The worst thing that happened recently to the governor was his March 27 indictment on 19 charges of corruption by a federal prosecutor. The best thing that happened to him was that the same day, Governor Dan Siegelman of Alabama was set free from prison after an appeals judge all but dismissed his conviction on similar charges.

Why the connection?

In both cases, a Republican Party-nominated prosecutor has pressed the case against a sitting governor who belongs to the “wrong” party. This is the unfortunate legacy of the long-gone Attorney General Alberto Gonzáles, who resigned in disgrace over the apparent politicizing of his office to favor Republican Party interests.

Siegelman was convicted on a list of financial irregularities with campaign funds and of listening to lobbyists who had supported him with campaign funds. They call this “pay-to-play” and it was taken to its zenith as an art form by Republicans in Washington who disguised it as the “K Street Project.”

The mixing of personal expenditures with campaign spending or of accepting money that is tainted is often more a matter of faulty accounting than malice. In the case of Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis of California, we will never  know because the Republican White House just shut down the investigation of one of their own.

These factors affect Puerto Rico. Acevedo Vilá was indicted for unreported funds when filing his income tax forms some seven years ago. But as a resident of Puerto Rico, he does not pay federal income taxes. As is well known by people who live in New Jersey but work in New York, you pay taxes on the money you make in the state where you work but that place has no claim on money you make where you reside. The federal indictment claims that the governor failed to include income made in Puerto Rico on the taxes he filed when working in Washington, D.C., as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. The prosecutor, a favorite of island Republicans, says that the federal courts gained jurisdiction because the governor used the internet, which crosses state lines.

Clearly, campaign fund bundlers in Philadelphia gathered money in  questionable ways from the pay-to-play culture that existed in the City of Brotherly Love. But Mayor John Street, who sat on top of this pyramid, was never found guilty of any wrongdoing, so it is hard to see how Acevedo Vilá can be blamed for anything more than sloppy accounting. The same goes for other charges to campaign used in Puerto Rico for family expenses or clothing purchases. The prosecutor wants to make a federal case out of all this – because the governor sent an email.

The governor claims that the charges have been formulated in an election year to force him off the ticket and open the way for a Republican statehooder, Louis Fortuño, who has served as the island’s non-voting representative in the U.S. Congress since 2005, to waltz into the governor’s mansion.

Acevedo Vilá, who thanked his supporters in an hour-long speech, points to his vigorous protest against the FBI’s high-handed arrest of a radical Puerto Rican leader that resulted in the man bleeding to death a few hundred feet from the agents who refused to save the life of the helpless target.

That case, as this one, concerns jurisdiction. The United States maintains that federal laws and law enforcement supersede the laws of its Puerto Rican colony even though – unlike the states – Puerto Rico has no role in making the federal laws. Acevedo Vilá has challenged that federal control and says the indictment is the price to pay.

Of course, the Puerto Rico governor could be guilty of corruption AND the United States of imperial interference. In the tangle that is Puerto Rican status politics, both sides are often wrong. Hispanic Link News Service.

(Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo is Professor Emeritus of Puerto Rican & Latino Studies at Brooklyn College. Author and scholar, he serves as a member of the Pennsylvania State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights. Email him at stevensarroyo@ptd.net). ©2008­

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