WASHINGTON, D.C. (Hispanic Link News Service) — Nationwide, the still unfolding foreclosure epidemic has crippled countless communities and drained the hard-earned wealth of many families. For an already economically fragile Latino community, this continuing financial meltdown has been nothing short of a catastrophe. States with large or rapidly growing Latino populations such as California, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida continue to lead the nation in the effects of this crisis.

These developments did not have to happen.

In 2006, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) published research that revealed Hispanic borrowers were more likely to pay for high-priced, riskier subprime loans than their white counterparts with the same credit scores1. In fact, more than 40 percent of the loans made to Latino borrowers in 2005 were in the form of riskier, high-priced loans2, the very type that sparked the surge in foreclosures over the last two years and resulted in the current recession.

Despite early warning signs, the subprime market grew in the Latino community as the financial appetite of Wall Street investors hungered for even more of the risky high-priced loans without accountability or regard for the future of these neighborhoods.

As marginalized borrowers with a historically documented lack of access to credit and financial literacy, Latinos were perfect prey for the flock of predatory lenders and resulting abuses.

Keep in mind that 90 percent of the high-priced loans that sparked this crisis were made to families who already owned a home. Doors to first-time homebuyers were not being opened by these toxic products, despite industry claims to the contrary. Now as millions of foreclosures continue to mount and a foreclosure filing occurs every 13 seconds, Latino families continue to be one of the groups affected the most by the crisis.

Hardest hit are states with large Latino populations: California, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. In New Mexico alone, Latino families accounted for more than 36 percent of the foreclosures in 2009. In the more densely populated states of California and Florida, Latino households accounted for more than 243,000 foreclosures last year alone.

Even relatively new epicenters for Latino activity such as Nevada are not immune from the recent collapse in the financial sector. In 2009, Latino families in the state faced an estimated 72,157 foreclosures, with many more projected for this year.

Most regrettably, no end is yet in sight. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization, CRL projects that in the next four years more than 1.3 million foreclosures will occur in the Latino community. In addition, adjustable interest rates will likely soon reset, putting more pressure on families already struggling to keep up with mortgage payments in a sluggish economy. Even as new federal loan modification programs begin to reach affected families, new foreclosures will likely far outpace any help now available.

But as bleak as the situation may appear, there is a silver lining for the Latino community. Efforts are underway to make the federal home loan modification program more accessible to troubled borrowers. More importantly for the long-term financial health of the nation, Congress is considering legislation that would create a new agency dedicated to passing and enforcing safeguards for all consumers on every financial front, from mortgages to bank fees and small-loan programs.

The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) would unify and streamline consumer protection powers that now are scattered across several federal agencies and largely ignored. The Latino community needs to voice support for this legislation to elected officials at every level of government. The CFPA would be a giant step to helping all families across the country keep more of their hard-earned money and obtain a better financial future for themselves, their children and future generations.

Despite the setbacks in recent years, one thing is certain for Latinos: the dream of homeownership and family wealth remains steadfast. Now more than ever these hopes must be protected from the abuses and deceptive tactics of predatory lenders. Hispanic Link.

Billions for the bankgsters and debt for the people

April 24, 2010

How we lost control of the Federal Reserve

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: This is the fourth part of a series of the article, “Billions for the bankers – debt for the people.” The first part started with history of the United States national debt in the beginning of 1900. The second of this series of several parts, will show you how the control of money has played a key role into the enslaving North Americans by depraving them of owning nothing, while the bankers own everything. The third part details the events from the Depression of the 1930s to later days. El Reportero is proud to publish this article, written by Pastor Sheldon Emry for learning purposes of the history of money in the United States.

by Pastor Sheldon Emry

Instead of the Constitutional method of creating our money and putting it into circulation, we now have an entirely unconstitutional system. This has brought our country to the brink of disaster, as we shall see.

Since our money was handled both legally and illegally before 1913, we shall consider only the years following 1913, since from that year on, all of our money had been created and issued by an illegal method that will eventually destroy the United States if it is not changed. Prior to 1913, America was a prosperous, powerful, and growing nation, at peace with its neighbors and the envy of the world. But in December of 1913, Congress, with many members away for the Christmas Holidays, passed what has since been known as the Federal Reserve Act. (For the full story of how this infamous legislation was forced through our Congress, read “Conquest or Consent”, by W. D. Vennard).

Omitting the burdensome details, it simply authorized the establishment of a Federal Reserve Corporation, run by a Board of Directors (The Federal Reserve Board). The act divided the United States into 12 Federal Reserve “Districts.”

This simple, but terrible law completely removed from Congress the right to “create” money or to have any control over its “creation”, and gave that function to The Federal Reserve Corporation. It was accompanied by the appropriate fanfare. The propaganda claimed that this would “remove money from politics” (they did not say “and therefore from the people’s control”) and prevent “boom and bust” economic activity from hurting our citizens.

The people were not told then, and most still do not know today, that the Federal Reserve Corporation is a private corporation controlled by bankers and therefore is operated for the financial gain of the bankers over the people rather than for the good of the people. The word “Federal” was used only to deceive the people.

More Disastrous than Pearl Harbor

Since that “day of infamy”, more disastrous to us than Pearl Harbor, the small group of “privileged” people who lend us “our” money have accrued to themselves all of the profits of printing our money — and more! Since 1913 they have “created” tens of billions of dollars in money and credit, which, as their own personal property, they can lend to our government and our people at interest (usury).

“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” had become the secret policy of the Federal government. An example of the process of “creation” and its conversion to peoples “debt” will aid our understanding.

Billions in Interest Owed to Private Banks

We shall start with the need for money. The Federal Government, having spent more than it has taken from its citizens in taxes, needs, for the sake of illustration, $1,000,000,000. Since it does not have the money, and Congress has given away its authority to “create” it, the Government must go to the “creators” for the $1 billion.

But, the Federal Reserve, a private corporation, does not just give its money away! The Bankers are willing to deliver $1,000,000,000 in money or credit to the Federal Government in exchange for the government’s agreement to pay it back — with interest. So Congress authorizes the Treasury Department to print $1,000,000,000 in U.S. Bonds, which are then delivered to the Federal Reserve Bankers.

The Federal Reserve then pays the cost of printing the $1 billion (about $1,000) and makes the exchange. The government then uses the money to pay its obligations. What are the results of this fantastic transaction? Well, $1 billion in government bills are paid all right, but the Government has now indebted the people to the bankers for $1 billion on which the people must pay interest!

Tens of thousands of such transactions have taken place since 1913 so that in 1996, the U.S. Government is indebted to the Bankers for more than $5,000,000,000,000 (trillion). Most of the income taxes that we pay as individuals now goes straight into the hands of the bankers, just to pay off the interest alone, with no hope of ever paying off the principle. Our children will be forced into servitude.

But wait! There’s more!

You say, “This is terrible!” Yes, it is, but we have shown only part of the sordid story. Under this unholy system, those United States Bonds have now become “assets” of the banks in the Reserve System which they then use as “reserves” to “create” more “credit” to lend. Current “reserve” requirements allow them to use that $1 billion in bonds to “create” as much as $15 billion in new “credit” to lend to states, municipalities, to individuals and businesses.

Added to the original $1 billion, they could have $16 billion of “created credit” out in loans paying them interest with their only cost being $1,000 for printing the original $1 billion! Since the U.S. Congress has not issued Constitutional money since 1863 (more than 100 years), in order for the people to have money to carry on trade and commerce they are forced to borrow the “created credit” of the Monopoly bankers and pay them usury-interest!

Seniors, low-income advocates to protest Muni cuts

April 24, 2010

por reportes de prensa

Brothers, film director Peter and actor Benjamin Bratt, pose for media reporters during a roundtable interview about their film La Mission, which releases in the Bay Area theaters on April 16. The Bratts, who are from the Mission District, are a pride of the Latino community, and deserve to have your support. (PHOTO BY MARVIN RAMIREZ)

Determined to preserve the bus service they depend on, residents from the City’s low-income communities of color plan to turn out en masse or the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)’s April 20 budget meeting.

The SFMTA Board will meet to approve the MTA Budget for the next fiscal year. Residents will demand that SFMTA prioritize bus service, not policing, as it decides how to allocate scarce resources.

The SFMTA responded to this year’s deficit of $16.9 million dollars with a 10 percent cut in service. These cuts increase wait times for riders by 1-2 minutes on lines with high ridership, and decreases the number of buses.

Because these buses usually run late, the added delays and service cuts could increase wait times by as much as 20 minutes. These delays and cuts will fall hardest on low-income communities of color who depend on MUNI to get to work and school, to go to the doctor and go shopping—to carry on their lives, according to advocates.

Riders from the Mission, Chinatown, and Southeast San Francisco will call on the MTA Board to take service cuts off the table, and balance the budget by cutting SFPD work orders and instituting progressive revenue measures. They also want to see an end to police involvement in the Proof of Payment program, which has lead to the harassment and intimidation of immigrants, people of color, and youth on the bus.

Expected at the hearing are low-income riders from communities of color, specifically residents of the Mission, Chinatown, and Southeast San Francisco, will be testifying at the MTA Board meeting to demand that the budget is not balanced by service cuts, but instead by reducing work orders and instituting progressive revenue measures.

Organizers of the event include seniors, families and youth from the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), Chinatown Community Development Corporation (CCDC), Community Tenants Association (CTA), and People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER).

The event will take place on Tuesday, April 20 at 2 p.m. in Room 400 of San Francisco City Hall.

For more information in Spanish or English call Beatriz Herrera (POWER) at 646-400-3537 (cell).

Melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer, does not fit the model

April 24, 2010

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— One of the most promising new ideas about the causes of cancer, known as the cancer stem-cell model, must be reassessed because it is based largely on evidence from a laboratory test that is surprisingly flawed when applied to some cancers, University of Michigan researchers have concluded.

By upgrading the lab test, the U-M scientists showed that melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer—does not follow the conventional cancer stem-cell model, as prior reports had suggested.

The findings, to be published as the cover article in the Dec. 4 edition of Nature, also raise questions about the model’s application to other cancers, said Sean Morrison, director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the U-M Life Sciences Institute.

“I think the cancer stem-cell model will, in the end, hold up for some cancers,” Morrison said. “But other cancers, like melanoma, probably won’t follow a cancer stem-cell model at all. The field will have to be reassessed after more time is spent to optimize the methods used to detect cancer stem cells.”

The cancer stem-cell model has steadily gained supporters over the last decade. It states that a handful of rogue stem cells drive the formation and growth of malignant tumors in many cancers. Proponents of the controversial idea have been pursuing new treatments that target these rare stem cells, instead of trying to kill every cancer cell in a patient’s body.

But in a series of experiments involving human melanoma cells transplanted into mice, Morrison’s team found that the tumor-forming cells aren’t rare at all. They’re quite common, infact, but standard laboratory tests failed to detect most of them.

Scientists previously estimated that only one in 1 million melanoma cells has the ability to run wild, exhibiting the kind of unchecked proliferation that leads to new tumors. These aggressive interlopers are the cancer stem cells, according to backers of the model.

But after updating and improving the laboratory tests used to detect these aberrant cells, Morrison’s team determined that at least one-quarter of melanoma cells are “tumorigenic,” meaning they have the ability to form new tumors. The laboratory tests are known as assays.

“The assay on which the field is based misses most of the cancer cells that can proliferate to form tumors,” Morrison said. “Our data suggest that it’s not going to be possible to cure melanoma by targeting a small sub-population of cells.”

Melanoma kills more than 8,000 Americans each year. The human melanoma cells used in the mouse experiments were provided—with the patients’ consent—by a team from the U-M’s Multidisciplinary Melanoma Program, one of the country’s largest melanoma programs and part of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“People were looking to the cancer stem-cell model as an exciting new source for the development of life-saving cures for advanced melanoma,” said Dr. Timothy Johnson, director of the U-M melanoma program and a co-author of the Nature paper. “Unfortunately, our results show that melanoma does not strictly follow this model.

Telefónica challenges mexican government

April 24, 2010

by the El Reporter’s news services

Rafael Correa

On April 8, Telefónica Movistar, one of the main mobile operators in Mexico, announced that it would not cut off subscribers who had failed to register their phones with the government agency, Renaut. The deadline for registering phones with the Registro Nacional de Usarios de Telefonía Móvil (Renaut) is April 10.

Around 25m mobiles (of a national total of 83.5m) still have to be registered. Telefónica’s move is a clear challenge to the federal government’s authority. The whole issue of Renaut illustrates the disfunctionality of Mexican political life.

Advertisements on government radio and television have been urging Mexicans for weeks to register their cellphones by sending their personal details as a text message.

The idea of a national registry of mobile phones, both contract and prepaid, is part of an anti-crime drive. The advocates of the registry argued that it would help the police to trace criminals, particularly kidnappers who used mobile phones to communicate with their victims’ families.

Correa reshuffles cabinet as indigenous groups prepare unified protest action

There is something happening in Ecuador and it is not President Rafael Correa’s carefully choreographed cabinet reshuffle he portrayed as radicalising his “citizens’ revolution”.

The entire indigenous movement, which Correa has skilfully divided since coming to power in 2007, is uniting against his government. Any process of change will have its detractors but two recent developments have driven Ecuador’s fragmented indigenous movement – once the making and breaking of heads of state – to moot nationwide protest action. The bones of contention are mining and water reforms.

Venezuela guarantee its defense, Chávez

President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela is preparing to guarantee defense of the national sovereignty in times when aggressions against the South American nation have been intensified.

Chavez announced that the country would create militias with students, farmers and workers who will join that task.

Chavez expressed gratitude on Saturday for the Russian government support to Venezuela to increase its military capacity and its firm stance against US pressures.

Chavez confirmed that about 34,000 members of the Bolivarian Militias, a body encouraging the people take part in defensive tasks, will swear in Tuesday.

The act will take place at the Bolivar Avenue, Caracas, where Venezuelans from the capital and other parts of the country are expected to attend.

There will be many persons there, Chavez foretold during his Sunday program Aló Presidente, held at the Miraflores Palace yesterday to recall the coup on April 11, 2002 and the prompt civic-military response that neutralized it.

Unions question Obama’s school plan

April 24, 2010

by Luis Carlos López

President Barack Obama’s reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, an overhaul of George W. Bush’s 2002 No Child Left Behind initiative, is raising some concern from the nation’s powerful education unions.

Pointing out the United States now trails many developed nations in key areas of public schooling, Obama delivered his administration’s broad vision March 13 with the message, “Our competitors understand that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.”

Both unions provided prompt critiques. National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel told Weekly Report that while he lauds Obama’s “step in the right direction,” the proposal needs to improve the way it deals with teachers before NEA, with its 3.2 million members, can fully back the Administration’s “Blueprint for Reform.”

He stated that a successful education needs three components: (1) collaboration between management and school boards and the employees and their unions, (2) assessments that use growth models and multiple measures, and (3) all schools receive the resources needed to make them work.

Proposed high-stakes testing to determine which are the challenged schools, making them “winners and losers — we don’t support this,” he said.

American Federation of Teachers spokesperson John Cee added that a system that gives teachers “zero authority” is a flawed strategy.

“The blueprint places 100% of the responsibility on teachers,” Cee said. “It can’t be just teachers, or just principals, or just parents. It has to be all of us working together to give our kids the schools they need and deserve.” AFT has 1.4 million members.

Meeting privately with Latino journalists March 26, Education Secretary Arnie Duncan said academic growth has “flatlined” the last two decades and this administration is placing major emphasis on reaching the underserved.

Juan Sepúlveda, director of White House Initiatives on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, said focusing on teachers and evaluating their performance is key to bridging the gap in academic success.

College/career readiness is a key component in expanding that success, he said.

“There’s one thing about NCLB that we want to continue, and that is a focus on equity: seeing how subgroups, not just schools in general, are doing,” Sepúlveda told Weekly Report. “We want to take it a step further, however, by giving states a common set of standards while also allowing fl exibility.”

The transformation approach outlined in Obama’s blueprint would require schools in the lowest 5 percent to choose one of four turnaround models.

Some require dismissal of the principal and half of the staff should schools fail to improve.

Critics see this as a disruption unfair to some good staff and their pupils, just adding to the problem.

The dropout rate for Hispanics and blacks is double that of the 30 percent for whites. A 2009 report by the Alliance for Excellent Education shows black and Hispanic high school dropout rates to be 69% and 63 percent, respectively. Hispanic Link.

Boxing

April 20, 2010

Saturday, April 17 — at Atlantic City, NJ (HBO)

WBC/WBO middleweight title: Kelly Pavlik vs. Sergio Martinez.

Saturday, April 17 — at Montreal, Canada (HBO)

IBF super middleweight title: Lucian Bute vs. Edison Miranda.

Saturday, April 24 — at Herning, Denmark (Showtime)

WBC super middleweight title: Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler.

Simple Ensemble in Berkeley

April 20, 2010

by thte El Reportero’s staff

Simple Ensemble rides again into Art House Gallery & Cultural Center after a lively and well-received first show last Autumn. Tunes from the upcoming CD “Trouble In Paradise” will be featuring interpretations and influences of Thelonius Monk, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Jessica Williams, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Turtle Island and Richard Bona, and some original compositions by mandolinist Pat Fahey.

Bringing three centuries of musical experience together on one stage, Bay area music lovers have seen the members of Simple Ensemble for the past 25 years in various stage performances. Come take an intimate journey with us once again, as we grace Art House Gallery’s canvasses with dreams of ancient and modern times.

Saturday April 17, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. doors open at 7:00 p.m.) at Art House Gallery, 2905 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705. Donation $10.00. For information call Harold Adler at 510-472-3170. Wheelchair Accessible.

Spanish Civil War veteran lecture and film

Anti-Fascist Lincoln Brigade Fighter Speaks Out. Nathan Thornton, a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade fighting Franco in the Spanish Civil War and lifelong activist, recollects the resistance against fascism and lessons for today. With documentary film footage and additional commentary by Corine Thornton. Sunday, April 18, at 1:00 pm.

A spring lunch with vegetarian option for $8.00 served at 12:15 pm. New Valencia Hall, 625 Larkin Street, Suite 202, San Francisco (located five blocks from the Civic Center BART station, and on the #19, 31, 38, 47 & 49 Muni bus lines). Sponsored by the Freedom Socialist Party. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. For more information or childcare, call 415-864-1278, or email bafsp@earthlink.net.

Farewell for popular radio personality

April 20, 2010

Antonio López Navarro: PHOTO BY ISABEL ESCOBAR

Veteran radio announcer, Antonio López Navarro, leaves San Francisco for a few months to organize the new radio Montesol in the city of Managua, property of Engineer Reinerio Montiel.

Navarro López, who has worked in local radio for 22 years, will be missed in the radio and journalistic world of San Francisco, especially in the newspaper El Reportero. His colleagues and friends would give him a farewell reception on Sunday, April 11th, to wish him a happy trip and a prompt comeback.

Mexican tenor returns after vocal chord surgery

April 20, 2010

por Antonio Mejías-Rentas

Rolando Villazón

TENOR RETURNS: Critics praised Rolando Villazón for his March 23 performance in Vienna in the lead role in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, his first appearance on an opera stage in over a year.

The 38-year-old Mexican tenor had been recovering from vocal chord surgery. The performance was his second return to the opera world. He had taken a break in 2007 to give his voice a rest.

Villazón had been a rising opera star when he made his debut some ten years ago. His powerful voice was often compared to that of a young Plácido Domingo. But critics noticed that his power dimished as he took on more challenging roles.

He has several other performances scheduled this year.

ONE LINERS: Rita Moreno, now 79, is expected to tell her life story in a review being staged at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and set to open in May 2011… actor and TV host Mario López told People he and actress Courtney Mazza are expecting a child; the unmarried couple met while performing on Broadway in A Chorus Line… Dominican singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra has been added to the program of next month’s New Orleans Jazz Festival

Ricky Martin revela lo que ya se sabía

OUT AND PROUD: Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin won overall praise and support last month when he admitted that he’s gay, something fans have suspected for years.

Rita Moreno

Martin made his confession in a letter he posted March 29 on his web page and followed with a message on the popular Twitter social network. The letter, later confirmed by a publicist, ended with the statement: “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.”

Martin, 38, said he decided to come out of the closet after working for several months on his memoirs. “From the moment I wrote the first phrase I was sure the book was the tool that was going to help me free myself from things I was carrying within me for a long time. Things that were too heavy for me to keep inside,” he wrote. Martin began performing as a child, as a member of the group Menudo, and was a top-selling recording artist in Latin America before the release of his 1999 self-titled album in English, a multiplatinum hit.

In 2008 Martin revealed ”also through Twitter” that he had become the father of twin boys born via surrogate. … Hispanic Link.

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