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Environmental groups challenge federal regulations on ballast water

­by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

The San Francisco Bay-Delta is the most invaded aquatic ecosystem in North America, with one new non-native species established in San Francisco Bay every 14 weeks. Arguments were heard last week in Federal Appeals court in a case challenging Environmental Protection Agency rules exempting the discharge of vessel ballast water containing invasive species from regulation under the Clean Water Act.

“Each day 10,000 species are transported throughout the world in ballast water,” said Tim Eichenberg, Pacific Region Director of Ocean Conservancy.“EPA’s exemption of ballast water from the Clean Water Act has resulted in tremendous costs to the economy, the environment and to public health.”

New ad campaign highlights marketplace accessibility for disabled and others

The Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco (ILRCSF) launched a series of print ads last week focusing on the universal benefits of making public marketplaces accessible to all.

“These ads should be of interest to business owners because the needs of customers with disabilities are shared by a wide range of consumers: seniors, parents with small children, people with temporary injuries, and shoppers loaded down with packages,” said ILRCSF Executive Director Herb Levine.“If potential customers can’t get in the front door of a shop or restaurant, there’s a good chance they’ll move on to a business that’s more user-friendly.”

State Chancellor gives grant for multimedia-based nurse training

The Evergreen Community College District’s Institute for Business Performance has been awarded $800,000 by the State Chancellor’s Office to develop a multifaceted education program for nurses at Kaiser Permanente in San José. The grant will fund a simulation lab at San José City College, with Kaiser providing technical assistance.

Kaiser’s San José Director of Education, Katherine Ricossa, who is developing the training, said the grant will help nurses “access state-of-the-art training that reflects their day to day medical experiences. The project will create 4 four-hour modules of multimedia training using human simulator offering reality without risk.”

Gov. Schwarzenegger Joins Fight Against Early Release of Prisoners

Governor Schwarzenegger joined a major push by state and local officials to prevent the early release of dangerous criminals due to prison overcrowding. In federal court, the Governor filed a motion to support 31 Republican Assemblymembers, 15 county district attorneys and 23 county sheriffs and chief probation officers who have requested to get involved in the case against the state.

“These officials know precisely how an early release order will impact our criminal justice system,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “We intend to fight to ensure that dangerous criminals are not released into our communities.”

In May, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 900, a plan that aims to solve the overcrowding crisis by building 53,000 new prison and jail beds and reducing California’s high recidivism rate through an increased focus on rehabilitation.

Telemundo and Mun2 honored

Telemundo, a leading U.S. Spanish-language television network, and mun2, the first cable network to offer bilingual programming for Latino youth, have been selected to receive the prestigious NAMIC Excellence in Multicultural Marketing (EMMA) Awards.

The direct mail campaign that won the award promoted one of Telemundo’s marquee news properties, Al Rojo Vivo con Maria Celeste. Telemundo produced and distributed DVDs featuring a compilation of Al Rojo Vivo segments.

The award-winning mun2 campaign consisted of posters featuring network VJs with the tagline “mun2 is TV for Latino Youth.”

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The wonderful lie my teachers told me

by John Flórez

“You can become president!”

That’s what my grade school teachers told me. If I studied and worked hard, they said, I could become president.

So I did what they told me. But it turns out what they promised me wasn’t the truth, although I’m pretty certain they didn’t know it at the time.

Here we are, months before the Democratic and Republican parties’ presidential primaries and well over a year away from the general election itself and it’s clear to me that without millions of dollars stuffed in my pockets, I won’t be able to get out of the campaign starting blocks.

The latest campaign finance reports show that among Republican contenders Mitt Romney has already raised $34.5 million. Near behind him are Rudy Giuliani, $29.6 million, and John McCain, $23.5 million.

Barack Obama has rung up nearly $57 million on the Democratic cash register, trailed by Hillary Clinton, $31.5 million, and John Edwards, $21.6.

Already poor John admits having to spend $400 or more for a haircut to look presentable to unpretentious Democratic primary voters in states like Iowa and New Hampshire. No telling what it’ll cost him to primp up for the sophisticated electorate in California and New York. Or even Texas.

I wonder what the grade school teachers of today are telling Mexican kids like me the costs about becoming president? If they’re using Bill Richardson as a model, his ante to date is $13.1 million.

Dang those grade school teachers of mine. There I was, a poor Mexican kid with missing teeth, striped bib overalls and worn-out shoes being told the big lie by my Riverside Elementary teacher.

Later, my Jefferson Elementary teachers even read to me from books that anyone could become president.

I remember seeing pictures on the classroom wall of a white guy with wavy, silver hair. They said he was the first president of the United States. I later found out he wore a powdered wig. When you are a kid, history can be confusing.

My teachers taught me the pledge of allegiance to our flag and made me feel proud to be a United States citizen. I was especially honored to pull the ropes that raised the fl ag on the pole in front of the school in the morning. They talked about “our” forefathers and encouraged me to read books about U.S. history.

I gazed at the forefathers’ pictures, looking for any brown faces like mine. I learned not to take things too literally.

My teachers taught me about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Though my immigrant parents taught me to be proud of my Mexican heritage, they helped bolster my pride in being an “American,” too.

My public schools did something else that is often overlooked. They taught me how to live, learn, work and play with others, and to discover the common values that bind us.

As I look at today’s roster of formidable presidential candidates — a female, a black and a Hispanic among them — now I can accept what my teachers told me. While we may never realize all the dreams our teachers had for each one of us, we won’t forget the gift they gave us — believing that we can make a difference and we are part of something larger than ourselves.

(John Flórez writes a regular column for the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City. He has founded several Hispanic civil rights organizations and served with more than 45 state, lo- cal and volunteer groups. E-mail: jdfl orez@comcast.net). © 2007.

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Elvira Arellano put a face on ‘illegal alien’

by Salome Eguizabal and Charlie Ericksen

Elvira Arellano her son SaúlElvira Arellano her son Saúl

Just as Elián González put a fresh human face on “Cuban refugee” nearly eight years ago, Elvira Arellano has gone and done it to the derisive term “illegal alien.”

There are many parallels to their stories. Each centered on a young, single mother and her son.Each mother took incredible risks to build a better life for her child. Both mothers dreamed the “American dream.” And both lived a nightmare.

There are differences in their dramas, too, as large as the Florida Straits that swallowed Elián’s mother and almost ended his own life. Elízabeth Rodríguez died at age 28 along with all 11 others aboard their Florida-bound small craft. Elvira was torn away from the clinging arms of her son and quickly deported.

Five-year-old Elián was found bobbing in an inner tube by a pair of Florida fisherman on Thanksgiving Day 1999. Instantly the child won this nation’s collective heart with his story and his smile. His arrival also ignited a political battle that stretched through seven months.

Mexico native Elvira is 32 now and her struggles are reflected in the lines in her face.

Her happy years seem past. She set out with dreams but no documents ten years ago.A lengthy romance included the birth of her lone joy, Saúl, now 8, but eventually ended in separation from the child’s father.

In December 2002, while employed as a maintenance worker at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Arellano was caught in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep. After all her appeals failed, she defied her deportation order last year and sought sanctuary with Saúl inside the city’s Adalberto United Methodist Church.

The pair became national spokespersons against U.S. immigration policies that separate mother and child. Over the past year, their situation became symbolic of the struggles facing the many mixed-status U.S. families, those made up of both undocumented and legal residents. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are 3.1 million children born here to an undocumented parent.

“Congress must act in September to stop the separation of families, the torture of four million U.S.-citizen children, the raids and deportations,”

Arellano said the day she announced her plans to leave the church’s protective walls after a year in the sanctuary and travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby.

Before departing, she told Hispanic Link News Service that if ICE wants to arrest her, it should do so in Washington “in front of the men and women who make the big decisions and who are ignoring the millions of families who are shouting that we need changes in the immigration laws.”

She also built in a brief speaking engagement in Los Angeles and it was there she was arrested Aug. 19 outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church after meeting with reporters. Within hours she was deported to Mexico.

The National Immigrants Solidarity Network calls her deportation “a shameful move, a clear signal from the government to terrify people who dare to speak up and fight injustice.”

Elvira, now staying in the border city of Tijuana, says she plans to continue her fight from Mexico. She promised her tearful son they will be reunited soon.

Until that happens, Emma Lozano, president of Centro Sin Fronteras, an immigrant advocacy group in Chicago, is caring for Saúl. The boy has traveled the country extensively, pleading for his mother’s future and is likely to continue to do so.

“He has met other children who are also living  under difficult situations because of their parents’ deportation, and he wants to be a part of this struggle,” Arellano told Hispanic Link a few days prior to her deportation.

In Cuba, Elián González is an apparently well-adjusted high school student now. He was permitted in June 2000 by the U.S. government to rejoin his father there despite huge public clamor to allow the boy to remain with relatives here.

There’s another difference in the two families’ stories. Cuban Elián is still beloved by millions here. A news photo of him screaming as he was dragged from his Miami family’s house by federal immigration agents sealed that image.

ICE was careful not to make the same public relations blunder with Saúl. They waited until he and his mother were being driven away from the Los Angeles church before surrounding their car and seizing Elvira.

(Salome Eguizabal and Charlie Ericksen report for Hispanic Link News Service, based in Washington, D.C. Reach them at editor@hispaniclink.org.) © 2007.­

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Property tax should be abolished

by Marvin J. Ramírez

Marvin J RamirezMarvin J. RamírezTo talk about the American Dream is to talk about owning a home – for most people. Many immigrants from all over the world come to North America to reach that dream, which in many instances is more than just owning a home. It’s about working hard and be able to have the basic needs of life, including to own a home, provide their children with a quality education and raise them healthily, and when is time to retire from a long, hard working life career, not to be worried about the essentials.

But instead of seeing people living the American Dream happily without worries, what I see is despair and struggle in their lives, especially those who have engaged in buying a home on the false assumption and promises that the property would increase in value, so later be able to earn a profit and then buy something more affordable.

Instead, entire families, probably in the millions nationwide, are seeing their lives torn apart now, by an injustice system that capitalizes on the property, on the basic need of people to put a roof over their heads, by monopolizing all forms of funding assistance and so abusing the so called “homeowners.”

But really, are they really homeowners? How can they be with a tax imposed on one’s own home? It really becomes a state rental property.

How can it be owned if the state says you have to pay every year to own it, or you will lose it?

The taxpayers should make our local government reduce their dependency on property taxes. One way would be increasing sales, corporate, and gas taxes.

For God’s sake, politicians, liberate your constituents. Let them own their home without penalty.

Make laws that protect one family’s own dwelling against any tax debt or lawsuits by health providers. Let them get old graciously without fearing that some government entity will evict them for lack of money to pay taxes or a debt. One’s home should be the last sacred sanctuary where a family holds together.

To rescue badly needed taxes, you yo got to be creative. Tax second homes or additional properties owned by the family. Do not tax the sanctuary, the only home the family has to inherit to their siblings. Because without having home security, there is no American Dream.

If you, politicians, do not do anything after reading this writing, then you are not working for your constituents, rather for other interests.

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Insurance coverage for communities of color to increase under proposed reforms

­by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

According to a report released last Thursday by statewide coalition of more than 30 organizations, a majority of the newly insured under the health reform proposals being debated in Sacramento would be immigrants and people of color. Entitled “Health Care Reform Proposals Hold Promise for Diverse Communities: Getting California Ready,” the report analyzed the impact of proposed health care reform on immigrants, communities of color, and the poor.

“The data clearly show that health care reform proposals being discussed by Governor Schwarzenegger and state legislators will have a very direct effect on communities of color in California,” said Ninez Ponce, PhD, co-author of the report. “Our data indicate that an additional 2.5 million people of color would be insured, which is a positive step forward.”

According to the study, approximately fifty percent of the newly insured would have limited English proficiency.

At a press conference discussing the issue, experts on the proposed reform advised lawmakers to include increased training and resources for healthcare providers to ensure that they were ready to accommodate the diverse languages and cultures of these new patients.

Currently, there are three proposals being discussed by lawmakers, and only one of the proposed bills requires language services.

Dr. Alice Chen, Medical Director of the General Medicine Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital, asserted that language services should be “at the core of new policies,” pointing out that California already has a good foundation for culturally diverse healthcare that can be built upon.

“California has a momentous opportunity to be a national leader by finding solutions that work for all communities in the state,” said Ellen Wu, Director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, “which means we must support linguistically and culturally appropriate services to make reform meaningful.” She stated that the newly insured would reflect the diversity of California, and that reform should create a system that serves everyone.

“I speak English, but my wife and I feel more comfortable with a Spanish-speaking doctor, especially with all of the technical and medical terms,” said Enrique Barrera of Los Angeles, who is employed but recently decided he couldn’t afford the $560 monthly insurance co-payment. “We were looking for a Spanishspeaking doctor, but had to make an appointment so far in advance, and then when we arrived the doctor was on vacation. I prefer going to the community clinic: I feel more comfortable because you don’t need an appointment, and the doctor speaks my fi rst language.”

At the press conference, heathcare reform advocates emphasized that resources for community-based clinics– often the best option for linguistically appropriate care for low-income patients– should be prioritized under the new plan.

“The clinics care more about the community, they’re not always thinking about money,” Barrera added. “But because they’re underfunded, they have problems with adequate supplies.”

The Healthy San Francisco program, launched July 2, reflects a similar need for services geared toward culturally diverse populations. The program is designed to cover as many as 82,000 San Franciscans who don’t have health coverage through work or elsewhere.

“San Francisco can provide a good model for statewide reform,” said Dr. Chen. She highlighted the fact that trust is a key issue between doctors and patients, and that trust is often based on care provided in the patient’s native language.­

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Emergency teams deploy to Peru

by the El Repartero news services

Relief International is deploying emergency relief and assessment teams to Peru to provide immediate assistance to survivors of this week’s powerful earthquake. The 8.0 magnitude quake struck in the evening of Wednesday, August 15, killing hundreds, injuring thousands and destroying homes, businesses and critical infrastructure. Harsh winter temperatures are making the situation even worse as survivors, afraid to return to their houses, sleep in the streets and wait in long lines for food and medical care.

Relief International’s Rapid Emergency Deployment (RED) Team went into action hours after the quake struck. The first team members – two medical doctors and an emergency medical technician (EMT) with search and rescue expertise will arrive in the disaster area on Sunday. They will collaborate with local officials, determine the most appropriate course of action, and begin delivering medical treatment to those in need.

RI emergency teams have responded to the world’s worst humanitarian disasters since 1990. RI’s response will begin with immediate emergency relief, but will soon transition into longer term efforts including shelter, infrastructure reconstruction, livelihood rebuilding, education and more. To do this, we need your help!

HOW DO YOU HELP

To help provide relief to victims of the earthquake in Peru please make monetary donations by phone, 1mail or online. 95 percent of all private contributions directly benefit the survivors through direct aid on the ground. Contributions of relief items and pharmaceuticals are also accepted.

Online:www.ri.org/Peru.

Phone: 1-800-573-3332 or 1-310-478-1200.

Mail: Make Check Payable to: Relief International – Peru Earthquake Relief, 1575 westwood Blvd., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90024. IRS Tax Exempt ID: 95-4300662.

Menem defeated in Argentine local elections

ARGENTINA – Local elections which took place in two provinces on 19 August produced victories both for the President Kirchner’s Frente para la Victoria (FV) and for Peronists opposed to Kirchner.

With 93 percent of votes counted in the province of La Rioja, incumbent governor and Kirchner candidate, Luis Beder Herrera, gained 42 percent of votes, followed by Ricardo Quintela with 28 percent, who was also running on the FV ticket. Dissident (“anti-K”) Peronist and former president Carlos Menem, came third with 22 percent.

In other related news in Argentina, Cristina launches candidacy amid corruption probe in Argentina The government launched its official presidential ticket, the “Cristina-Cobos” partnership, in a large political rally in Buenos Aires this week. Senator Cristina Fernández, and the governor of Mendoza, Julio Cobos, made much of the fact that they represented different political parties but shared the same vision: a united Argentina.

President Néstor Kirchner, who attended the rally with his entire cabinet, created the cross-party alliance in 2005 to provide a contrast with the “corrupt” administrations of the 1990s. This now rings hollow. Fernández is trying to steal back the political momentum less than eight weeks before the elections after the emergence of yet another official corruption case, which has the added twist of complicating relations with Venezuela.

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The seizure and deportation of Elvira Arellano in Los Angeles

by Salome Eguizabal

Elvira Arellano, the 32-year-old undocumented woman who a year ago took refuge with her U.S.-born son inside a Chicago church to avoid deportation to Mexico, was arrested Aug. 19 outside a California church and removed from the country shortly afterwards.

Arellano and her son Saul, 8, had become spokespersons against U.S. immigration policies that separate mothers and children. She was arrested outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church in Los Angeles after talking with reporters.

The National Immigrants Solidarity Network called her arrest and deportation “a shameful move,…a clear signal from the government to terrify people who dare to speak up and fight injustice.”

The Associated Press has reported that Arellano has pledged to continue her campaign for immigration reform from Mexico.

In an interview with Weekly Report a few days before her arrest, Arellano deflected questions about what would happen to Saul if she were detained or deported.

Emma Lozano, president of Sin Fronteras, an immigrant advocacy group in Chicago and Arellano’s top ally, will take care of Saul, according to the Associated Press.

On Aug. 15, when Arellano announced her plans to leave the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, she spoke of holding a prayer vigil in Washington, D.C., Sept. 12 to urge Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform before the upcoming presidential elections.

Arellano’s supporters state they will go ahead with the vigil as scheduled.

Arellano had declared that she was not afraid of being taken into custody and that traveling outside of the Chicago church would not increase her chances of being detained.

“From the time I took sanctuary, it’s been a possibility that they would arrest me in the place and time of their choosing,” Arellano said. “If immigration wants to arrest me, then [they should] arrest me there [in Washington] in front of the men and women who make the big decisions and who are ignoring the millions of families who are shouting that we need changes in the immigration laws.”

Over the past year, her situation became symbolic of the struggles facing the many mixed-status families – those made up of both undocumented and legal residents currently living in the United States.

“Congress must act in September to stop the separation of families, the torture of four million U.S.-citizen children, the raids and deportations, [and] the no-match sanctions,” Arellano said the day she announced her plans to lobby in Washington, D.C.

In December 2002, while working as a janitor at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, Arellano was caught in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep. After her appeals failed, she defied her deportation order last year and sought sanctuary with Saul inside the Adalberto United Methodist ­Church, where she had lived ever since.

Religious sanctuary has no legal basis for protection under U.S. Iaws. ICE had maintained it would arrest Arellano at a time and place of its choosing.

Saul has traveled the country extensively and even addressed Mexico’s Congress, pleading for his mother’s future.

“He has met other children who are also living under difficult situations because of their parent’s deportation, and he wants to be a part of this struggle,” Arellano told Weekly Report.

Hispanic Link.

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Bomba and Plena from Puerto Rico hit the Mission

by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

Los Pleneros de Severo, de Puerto RicoLos Pleneros de Severo, de Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s Los Pleneros de Severo Quiñones (PSQ), a dynamic Bomba & Plena group, will be playing the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts on August 24.

Pleneros de Severo Quiñones is Charlie (dir. & Congas), Tony (singer), Bandy (Quinto), Raul (Guiro) & Agustin (Bas). Jose Nogueras, one of the main characters in Puerto Rico’s folkloric representations says: “PSQ has taken Plena to another level.”

Angel Alvarado, director of Grupo Esencia, the main Plena group in Puerto Rico”When PSQ is on stage – everything else just stops, is like if your inner self says -listen, watch, and dance.” Tickets are available through www.MissionCulturalCenter.org.

City College Rams host football scrimmage

The Rams, City College’s football team, will host a scrimmage match against San Joaquin Valley College at 4:00 P.M. at Rams Stadium on Wednesday, August 22, 2007. San Joaquin Delta was one of the top five teams in the Valley Conference last year and is traveling out to play the Rams for their fourth annual face-off.

Led by Coach George Rush, the Rams were the top team in the NorCal Conference last year and remain a prime source for Division I recruiters. In 2006, 15 team members transferred to prominent college football programs, including Penn State and Nebraska. Rush described the scrimmage as “a valuable opportunity to provide a competitive atmosphere while protecting our players and getting to see them perform together as a team.”

The two teams will meet at CCSF’s Rams Stadium, located on City College’s main campus at 50 Phelan Avenue in San Francisco.

37th Annual Millbrae Labor Day Festival brings music, crafts and food to the streets

Every year for the past 37 years, the last unofficial weekend of summer brings throngs of festival lovers to Millbrae for one of the Bay Area’s biggest Labor Day weekend events, transforming the downtown streets into a vibrant street fair with two days of live music, arts and crafts, and food and wine. This year the festival is expanding its green initiative, encouragingrecycling and composting and running a shuttle service from the Milbrae BART/Caltrain station to the south end of the festival.

­The music lineup this year highlights bands that pay tribute to history’s great rock and roll. It will feature Zoo Station (U2), Who Too (The Who), Evolution (Journey), The Gator Alley Band (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Replica (80’s rock bands), along with talented teenage sensations Lane Four, fan favorites in the KFOX Last Band Standing Competition. String ensemble HeartStrings Music, jazzy r&b trio Emerson & The Growiser Band, and woodwind/keyboard duo Dreamroad round out the stellar lineup of music. The festival will also feature performances by the Chinese Folk Dance Association, the Mills High School Dragon Team, and the Shinnyo Temple Taiko Drum Group.

Presented by the Millbrae Chamber of Commerce, this year’s festival runs September 1-2 (Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend) on Broadway (1 block west of El Camino Real) between Victoria and Meadow Glen. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Admission is free.

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Juanes to release new single, Beyancé Knowles sings bilingual

by Salome Eguizabal

JuanesJuanes

NEW MUSIC: Juanes, the internationally renown crooner famous for his love songs, will release a new single Sept. 4 entitled “Me enamora.” Juanes is set to release his fourth album, La vida es un ratico, later this year after an absence since his last release, Mi sangre, in 2004.

CROSSING OVER: R&B singer and actress Beyoncé Knowles, who recently recorded several of her English-language hits in Spanish and collaborated with Colombian megastar Shakira in the hit single “Beautiful Liar,” plans to release the tracks as part of a special compilation for her Latino fans. The eight-track CD which showcases Beyoncé’s Spanish proficiency goes on sale Aug. 28 exclusively through Wal-Mart.

NORTENO CONCERT: Some lucky California residents will be a treated to a concert so exclusive that tickets won’t go on sale. Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. will host the second annual “Viva La Raza” mega concert at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena in Whittier, Calif, Aug 26 Tickets to the event will be available only to the KLAX-FM “97.9 La Raza” audience through on-air giveaways, at sponsor locations and during special station appearances.

Artists scheduled to perform include Norteño superstars Los Rieleros del Norte, Chapo de Sinaloa, El Coyote y su Banda and La Banda Pequeños Musical, among others.

For more information and to enter ticket giveaway contests, visit www.9791araza. com­.

VISUALIZING EL BARRIO: To keep up with the area’s increasingly Hispanic population, the University of Maryland, College Park, minutes away from the nation’s capital, is hosting an art gallery event depicting the lives of Latinos from across the D.C. metropolitan area. It features the works of eight local Latino artists. They include photographs of daily life in Latino communities as well as watercolors and paintings infused with Latin culture.

The exhibit, open to the public at Adele Stamp Student Union, began Aug. 6 and runs through Sept. 13, with a reception Sept. 6 from 5-7 pm.

For more information, call (301) 314-8493 or visit www.union.umd.edu/gallery.

Hispanic Link.

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Supervisor Daly introduces legislation to regulate “push” polls

by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

A type of telephone polling called persuasion or “push” polls, whose purpose is more to plant information rather than measure public opinion, have been increasingly used to influence voters with misleading or false language.

Supervisor Daly’s bill, co-sponsored by Supervisors Ammiano and Mirkarimi, wouldrequire disclosure of these polls when conducted within 60 days of an election and related to candidates for a San Francisco elective office.

The legislation would require the persons conducting to poll to identify the call as “a paid political advertisement” and require that person authorizing the poll file with the Ethics Commission.

“I’m concerned about the corrupting influence push polling has on elections,” said Supervisor Daly. “The City has a responsibility to ensure that are elections are as fair and open as possible and that voters have the most accurate information on which to base their decisions when they vote.”

New Intercity Bus Service offers $1 fares

San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose are part of a new express bus with services to L.A., San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas with fares that start at $1.

Megabus.com, a subsidiary of Coach USA, offers a limited number of $1 seats on each route so passengers are encouraged to book early via the internet. After all $1 tickets have sold, prices increase incrementally. The Web site is available in English and a Spanish version is being developed.

The megabus.com San Francisco stop is located at the bus shelter in front of the San Francisco Caltrain station on 4th Street; the San Jose stop is located on the west side of Cahill Street, just south of the entrance to the Caltrain Station; and the Oakland stop islocated behind the West Oakland BART Station.

While being cost-efficient, bus travel is environmentally friendly as well. If one megabus.com coach was filled to capacity, thereby removing 56 cars from the road, the result would be 3,850 fewer pounds of carbon emissions for every 100 miles traveled.

South Bay Union charged with violating Union laws

A case against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) alleging that the organization did not pay overtime to its workers will draw to a close this month at the California State Labor Commission.

The decision could set a precedent for other SEIU staff to pursue similar ­claims, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay. The workers were quick to point out the irony of the situation, as unions were responsible for the legislation that created the eight hour day and overtime protections for workers.

“I am embarrassed and hurt that an organization that is supposed to defend workers’ rights and uphold laws that protect workers is denying us the right to be paid farily for the amount of work that we have provided them,” stated Phuong Tran, a former SEIU employee.

San Francisco welcomes first California-based airline

Virgin America and the City of San Francisco celebrated the airline’s new local headquarters and operations base at SFO by lighting monuments red throughout the city this past week.

“We wanted to paint the town red to show our excitement over our hometown airline,” Newsom said during a welcome event. “…It brings thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in business revenue and millions of dollars in state and local taxes.”

Virgin America is the only airline based in California and the first to have its headquarters in Northern California. Effective today, Virgin America will start with five daily flights to Los Angeles and two daily flights to New York City. A third San Francisco-New York flight will be added on August 19 and a fourth on September 9. Within the next two months, Virgin America will add flights to Washington D.C. (Dulles) and Las Vegas.

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