Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Home Blog Page 602

California reinvestment coalition calls to protect homeowners from predatory lending

by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

Frank Ayala (centro) da la bienvenida al nuevo Cónsul de Nicaragua Denis Galeano, durante una recepción en su honor patrocinada: por la Cámara de Comercio Americana-Nicaragüense De izq-der: Martha Vaughn, Carlos Solórzano, Elsa Cristina Jirón (esposa del cónsul), el cónsul, y sus hijos Héctor y Anahely ( PHOTO BY MARVIN J. RAMIREZ )Frank Ayala (center) welcomes the new Consul of Nicaragua Denis Galeano, during a reception on his honor sponsored by the American-Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce. L-R: Martha Vaughn, Carlos Solórzano, Elsa Cristina Jirón (the consul’s wife), consul Galeano, and his son and daughter Héctor and Anahely (PHOTO BY MARVIN J. RAMIREZ)

The California State Senate Banking, Finance & Insurance Committee heard testimony this week from various experts across the state about the social and economic implications of foreclosures and how to prevent them, urging the state government to take action. California has had the most foreclosures in the nation, and six California cities were among the nation’s ten cities with the highest foreclosure rates in June.

“The loss of home ownership is just the first step in the economic and humanlending of this crisis. If homes go vacant, neighborhoods lose value,” said Alan Fisher, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) “There is a domino effect causing other­ homes become in danger of foreclosure as they lose value. All these homeowners become more financially stretched and retail sales drop. Cities lose revenue and employment decreases.”

Milestones made in Visitacion Valley initiative

Avenue, Visitacion Valley’s commercial district, and progress on negotiations for the development of a mixed-use community at the former Schlage Lock factory.Mayor Newsom announced grants totaling $4.1 million for improvements to Leland

“This substantial investment of public funds for our streetscape improvements, and the progress on the Schlage Lock site, are the result of the community’s unceasing efforts to improve this neighborhood,” said Mayor Newsom. “We are pleased to be working with merchants and residents to beautify Leland Avenue and contributing to the renaissance taking place in Visitacion Valley.”

 

­

spot_img

Rudy’s promise: he’ll end illegal immigration

by Andy Porras

What’s next, Rudy? Selling us the Brooklyn Bridge?

GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has promised a Southern group that he will end “illegal immigration.”

We have news for him and anyone else who thinks “illegal immigration” can be stopped.

It can’t.

Could this land afford the consequences? Hey, remember that the business of the United States is business. And the business of U.S. business is profit. By whatever means necessary.

Tack on disparity in global living standards. The chief cause of immigration is economic. Where are you gonna go when our worker-well runs dry? Anywhere, baby, and everywhere.

“Disgusting.” That’s the word white folk use to describe the tasks immigrants perform daily at a typical chicken processing plant in Southern states.

Is anybody out there in white America interested in taking a calf apart after it has been slaughtered in a typical beef processing plant? Or how about mixing assorted animal manure in huge outdoor tanks for feeding the fruited plains.

Don’t throw up, not yet. Aha, but can you do without a fried chicken dinner or a tender T-bone steak? Ask Rudy or any of his former wives if they’d do the tasks President Bush describes as “jobs Americans don’t wish to perform.”

The majority of us don’t approve of tsunamis, either, but can we stop them?

When U.S. residents (of all colors) talk about immigrants stealing jobs away from citizens, you can bet your last peso they’re not referring to jobs at Tyson’s or Swift’s. Almost everything we ingest on a daily basis will have an immigrant imprint on it – from fruits and veggies to meats and dairy products.

There is mucho dinero to be made in hiring immigrants, legal or otherwise – and from several countries, not just the Spanish-speaking ones.

Immigrants have become the perfect work models for many U.S. corporations. They seldom complain, they are extremely reliable and honest, too. The fear of being deported is so great that they force themselves to brandish an unusually strong work ethic.

Frequent and lucrative best describes illegal immigration. Coming herewithout an offi cial invitation will not end.

Go to your favorite video outlet, Rudy, and check out “A Day Without Mexicans.”

The message of this simple flick is clear: End immigration today and mañana you ain’t got most of the stuff you need to make it through the day. No breakfast burritos, no Marías to take care of junior or iron your favorite button-down oxford shirt, no fresh OJ.

Oh heck, you know what we mean. Stealing our jobs?

If there’s honor among thieves, imagine the deference among immigrants?

But don’t forget the problem of magnet “illegal employers” who continue to hire unauthorized workers. In 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle a federal investigation that found hundreds of illegal immigrants cleaning its stores.

Wal-Mart used subcontractors and claimed it was “unaware that they were employing illegal immigrants” as janitors.

In December 2006, in the largest such crackdown in U.S. history, federal immigration authorities raided Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six states, arresting about 1,300 immigrant employees.

Because Swift uses a government Basic Pilot program to confi rm whether Social Security numbers are valid, no charges were filed against it. Company officials questioned the program’s ability to detect when two people are using the same number.

Tyson Foods has also been accused of actively importing illegal labor for its chicken-packing plants.

A jury acquitted the company after evidence was presented that Tyson went beyond mandated government requirements in demanding documentation for its employees. Tyson also used its enrollment in the Basic Pilot and EVP programs (voluntary employment eligibility screening programs) as part of its defense.

Then there is the dishonor among those hired to protect our borders, especially the Mexican frontier.

Corruption thrives along the cactus curtain.

Wikipedia notes that in September 2005, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service reported 2,500 cases of its employees facing misconduct charges involving exchanging immigration benefi ts for sex, bribery and infl uences by foreign governments, with another 50 such cases re-ported weekly.

Any way you look at it, Rudy, curbing illegal immigration is a tough row to hoe. The bridge deal is probably more doable.

(Andy Porras is pub-lisher of the Sacramento  area bilingual monthly Califas. He may be reached at califasap@yahoo.com). -c 2007

spot_img

Immigration debate rancor threatens everyone

by Janet Murguía

It was hard not to notice the tone of the uproar which led to the demise of immigration reform legislation earlier this summer. Immigrants were accused of everything from crime to loose morals to bringing leprosy to our shores.

But when concerns are raised that the air was becoming ugly and dangerously anti-Latino, talk-show hosts and legislators took pains to say that their problem is with illegal immigrants, that they have nothing against those here legally or with the larger ethnic groups that they are a part of.

In short, they insisted that this is not about race but about the problem of illegality.

As the feedback we’ve received at the National Council of La Raza since that time and at our national conference last month clearly demonstrate, Latinos aren’t buying that explanation.

What started out as a debate on immigration has turned into something far larger and far uglier.

Everyone in this nation should heed what is occurring. Less than a month went by after immigration reform failed for majorities in both the House and Senate to vote for proposals that attacked not illegal immigrants, but those legally in the United States and even those who have become naturalized citizens.

The most egregious of these was an amendment offered on the Senate floor in July by Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada) which was framed as a restriction on Social Security benefits to anyone who was once undocumented; yet it would have made every foreign-born person (think Madeleine Albright, or Henry Kissinger, or every refugee from the second world war, Southeast Asia or Cuba) prove their immigration status for every moment of their work history in order to receive Social Security benefits.

If they were out of status for one single day, the fact that they paid into the system would be irrelevant. The government would keep the money they contributed over the years and, of course, they would be rendered ineligible for Social Security.

This shocking amendment received 57 votes — more than enough to pass. Fortunately, a procedural requirement prevented it from becoming law, at least for now.

This is not an isolated case. Similar amendments have already been proposed in the House and Senate affecting housing programs, food stamps and other social policies. Many have already passed. Documentation requirements recently added to the Medicaid program – aimed at immigrants but requiring paperwork from every person seeking to use the program – have resulted in delays and denial of services to elderly U.S. residents who are eligible but may not have the documents readily available to prove it.

The argument in favor of these proposals is entirely without merit. Legislators are placing restrictions on programs already off limits to undocumented immigrants. These proposals just affect legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.

The problem is even worse in local jurisdictions as the vacuum in congressional action on immigration reform is filled by state and local governments looking for ways to address the issue.

Prince William County in Virginia recently passed a law which requires local police to act as immigration agents. County officials are meeting now to determine whether to check documents of people using public libraries, parks and swimming pools. In Georgia, sheriffs’ departments regularly set up roadblocks for the sole purpose of stopping persons who look Mexican and scrutinizing their documents.

This pattern is repeating across the country at an alarming rate.

Add to this a wave of hate and mean-spiritedness on the airwaves and you begin to understand why we don’t believe the concerns have to do with illegality. Numerous verbal attacks on the radio have led to or accompanied a well-documented resurgence in hate groups and crimes.

Hispanic Americans are increasingly outraged that we are suspect everywhere we go, constantly asked to prove we belong in our own home. We see our beloved country in danger of becoming something we hardly recognize – a place so eager to hound those whose “crime” is coming to the United States to work, that the country seems to be rushing to undercut every other value we hold dear. A poll conducted last year by the Pew Hispanic Center found more than half of this country’s Latinos reporting that discrimination against them has increased because of the immigration debate.

Latinos are extremely upset at being singled out as targets, but we sense urgency. We are the canary in the coal mine, sending a warning to our country that it is teetering on something that harms us all. Those who think the rancorous immigration debate does not affect everyone are sorely mistaken. For Latinos, it is obvious that we cannot stand on the sidelines. The sooner that becomes obvious to the rest of the country, the better.

(This is the first in a series of monthly commentaries written for Hispanic Link News Service by Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic advocacy and civil rights organization in the United States).

spot_img

The state must and should assist homeowners

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

The damage is done now, after greed and excessive ambition hit its highest levels. The ‘get a real estate license and become a millionaire overnight or buy a home at ridicule, illusionary price, and wait for a couple of y­ears for the price to go up,’ it’s over.

Predatory lending is to blame. Lenders got their money from the bank, and while everyone else in the business chain got their huge profits, innocent people got stuck with a debt not even five working families together could afford to pay. And all of this was done without governmental supervision and protection to consumers.

However, a California reinvestment coalition is calling upon state leaders to protect homeowners, and families from predatory lending.

“I am here out of concern for the 500,000 or more Californians who may lose their homes as a result of irresponsible lending. California has had the most foreclosures in the nation and six California cities were among the nation’s ten cities with the highest foreclosure rates in June,” said Alan Fisher, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC).

The statement was made on Aug. 21 at the California State Senate Banking, Finance & Insurance Committee’s informational hearing on homeownership preservation in today’s mortgage market.

“The loss of home ownership is just the first step in the economic and human impact of this crisis. If homes go vacant, neighborhoods lose value. There is a domino effect causing other homes become in danger of foreclosure as they lose value. All these homeowners become more financially stretched and retail sales drop. Cities lose revenue and employment decreases,” said the statement.

If the state doesn’t assist homeowners during this crisis, then it can be accused of being an accomplice in this crime. The Governor and the Legislature must help families, which consequently will help the economy of the state.

 

spot_img

Emeryville orders Woodfin Hotel to pay workers back wages

by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

Workers score a win: Workers and labor activists celebrate after a judge ruled in their favor against Woodfin HotelWorkers score a win – ­Workers and labor activists celebrate after a judge ruled in their favor against Woodfin Hotel (photo courtesy of working East Bay)­

The Emeryville City Council voted unanimously in a special hearing on August 27th, ordering the Woodfin Suites Hotel to pay about $300,000 in fines and back wages to workers. In a milestone for the protracted battle between the hotel and its housekeeping staff which has brought immigrant and living wage issues to the forefront of city politics, the Council’s rejection of the Woodfinís appeal of an earlier decision is final.

After a rally outside the city hall, over 200 workers, supporters and activists packed the hearing, crowding both of the hall’s chambers and the overflow basement. For months, workers and activists have picketed the hotel, demanding that the company pay back wages to housekeepers who were illegally underpaid under the Cityís living wage law.

The Woodfin has until September 14th to pay the wages and the fines, though they have announced that they wonít accept this decision. If the hotel refuses to obey, Emeryville would have to sue to make them pay.

The saga at the hotel began last Dec. 11 when the hotel put 21 immigrant workers on two-week paid leave after workers demanded that the hotel comply with Emeryville’s 2005 living wage ordinance. It then fired the workers, claiming that their Social Security numbers did not match government records. Earlier this year, the city of Emeryville conducted an investigation of the workers’ claims that they were retaliated against and that they are owed a substantial amount of back wages.

“This is not charity these are wages that the workers earned for themselves and deserve to be paid,” said Brooke Anderson, Organizing Director at the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, speaking to KTVU news.

Luz, who worked at Woodfin for 3 years and has become a spokesperson on the issue, said that for years the hotel never questioned her immigration status, until the workers began to ask that the hotel comply with the city wage regulations. When Woodfin fired the 21 workers, it justified the action by saying that they were afraid of Immigration, though it was later revealed that the hotel had used its influence with the Republican party to call in the immigration authorities themselves. Woodfin’s lawyer Bruno Katz, who was escorted out of the hearing at one point for speaking out of turn, made a statement backing up the hotel’s actions as an effort to comply with Immigration and C  For the past two decades employers have threatened, and often implemented, similar terminations across the nation.

“Firings for no-match discrepancies are a misuse of the Social Security database,” reported David Bacon in The Nation. “Employers have used those efforts as pretexts to discharge employees when they organize unions, demand better wages and try to enforce labor standards, or simply to replace higher-paid workers with lower-paid ones.”

“We do not have the workers our economy needs to keep growing each year,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said at a recent press conference. “The demographics simply are not on our side. Ultimately, Congress will have to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”­

­

spot_img

Chávez unveils constitutional reform in Venezuela

by the El Reportero news services

Hugo ChávezHugo Chávez

After months of speculation since his decisive electoral triumph in December 2006, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez finally presented the details of his proposed constitutional reform last week.

The reform, drawn up under the enabling law he passed at the turn of the year, which granted the executive full powers to legislate in key areas, is designed to enshrine the concept of 21st century socialism into a new constitution by 2008.

Chávez presented the constitutional reform to the 167-seat national assembly, which unanimously approved it in the first of three readings on 21 August. It will then be presented to the Venezuelan people in the form of a referendum.

Chavez’s largesse unprecedented in Latin America

TOOLS CARACAS, Venezuela – Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs back, Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans and Bolivian mayors can afford new health clinics, all thanks to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Bolstered by windfall oil profits, Chavez’s government is now offering more direct state funding to Latin America and the Caribbean than the United States.

A tally by the Associated Press shows Venezuela has pledged more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing and energy funding so far this year. While the most recent figures available from Washington show $3 billion in U.S. grants and loans reached the region in 2005, it isn’t known how much of the Venezuelan money has actually been delivered. And Chavez’s spending abroad doesn’t come close to the overall volume of U.S. private investment and trade in Latin America. But in terms of direct government funding, the scale of Venezuela’s commitments is unprecedented for a Latin American country.

Opposition swings again at Ecuador’s Correa

On 23 August the supreme court asked congress to strip President Rafael Correa of his immunity so that he could be tried for criminal libel. Congress is unlikely to give the supreme court permission to try the president but it may well use the threat to force President Correa not to dissolve congress as soon as the constituent assembly is elected. The constituent assembly elections are on 30 September, and Correa as become increasingly outspoken about congress, calling it a sewer that needs to be shut down. Even some of Correa’s supporters fear that without congress there will be no checks of the executive.

Realignment in the Mercosur

The past month saw a realignment in the Mercosur, the South American customs union with ambitions of becoming a political alliance. It all started with the successive visits of the Argentine and Brazilian Presidents, Néstor Kirchner and Lula da Silva, to Mexico.

The visits brought Mexico closer to the Mercosur, but also revealed differences between Argentina and Brazil. Lula also embarked on a tour of Central America and the Caribbean, prompting the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, to take a counter-tour to strengthen his position in South America. Chávez had a clear advantage over Lula in their struggle for infl uence in the region. Yet a Venezuelan link to an Argentine scandal has offset this balance.

spot_img

Boxing

Saturday, September 8 – at Los Angeles (HBO PPV) –

  • 12 rounds, super middleweights: Fernando Vargas (26-4, 22 KOs) vs. Ricardo Mayorga (28-6-1, 23 KOs);
  • 12 rounds, light middleweights: Luis Collazo (27-3, 13 KOs) vs. Sharmba Mitchell (57-6, 30 KOs);
  • 12 rounds, light middleweights: Daniel Santos (30-3-1, 21 KOs) vs. Jose Antonio Rivera (38-5-1, 24 KOs);
  • 12 rounds, light heavyweights: Paul Briggs (26-3, 18 KOs) vs. Hugo Hernan Garay (28-2, 15 KOs).

Saturday, September 15 – at Las Vegas (HBO)-

  • 12 rounds, WBC super featherweight title: Juan Manuel Marquez (47-3-1, 35 KOs) vs. Marco Antonio Barrera (63-5, 42 KOs);
  • 10 rounds, middleweights: Kassim Ouma (25-3-1, 15 KOs) vs.Sergio Mora (19-4, 4 KOs).

Saturday, September 22 at Munich, Germany –

  • 12 rounds, heavyweights, Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) vs. Jameel McCline (38-7-3, 23 KOs).

Saturday, September 29 – at TBA (Showtime) –

  • 12 rounds, WBC heavyweight title: Oleg Maskaev (34-5, 26 KOs) vs. Samuel Peter (28-1, 22 KOs).

Saturday, October 6 – at Vancouver –

  • 12 rounds, super featherweights: Manny Pacquiao (44-3-2, 35 KOs) vs. Humberto Soto (42-5-2, 26 KOs).
spot_img

Scholars tell PBS: disclose new Burns’ footage

by Salome Eguizabal

Several organizations and distinguished scholars have added their voices to the Defend the Honor campaign to press the Public Broadcasting Service and Ken Burns to disclose what additional footage has been 5included in his World War II documentary.

This, they say, is essential for them to evaluate the TV documentary’s representation of Latinos.

The first episode in the series of seven programs is scheduled to air Sept. 23, coinciding with Hispanic Heritage month.

Eleven Latino organizations and 52 individuals— 18 of whom hold Ph.D.s—released a public statement Aug. 20 emphasizing that the issue is far from resolved and they will continue pressing for a solution The campaign expects the list of supporters to grow in the upcoming weeks.

The list includes prominent Latino figures such as author Sandra Cisneros, former FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani and former California Congressman Esteban Torres.

Besides requesting a meeting with PBS and Ken Burns to discuss the new material, the advocates are demanding an explanation as to how the network plans to incorporate Latino perspectives in future projects.

Burns’ documentary initially excluded any mention of Hispanic participation in the war.

In response to constant public pressure, Burns says he has added 28 minutes to the series, featuring interviews with two Hispanics Marines and one Native American.

“We want to see how the Latino experience is depicted,” Gus Chávez, co-chair of the Defend the Honor campaign, told Weekly Report. “We do not know how an add-on piece of less than 25 minutes of footage covering Latinos can be representative.”

Burns said in early May he would include the additional footage following talks with the American Gl Forum and the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. The Forum chapter in San Antonio now has joined with the Defend the Honor campaign.

“Ken Burns cannot choose to make a secret deal with only two of the many Latino groups that were involved in discussion with him and PBS, and then claim that the matter is resolved,” stated Marta Garcia, a co-founder of Defend the Honor.

Jess Quintero, president of the Hispanic War Veterans of America—another advocacy group in the forefront of this issue— told Weekly Report that PBS’s World War II project has so far failed Hispanic and Native American veterans.

“We feel that by not including the contributions of Latinos and Native Americans, Mr. Burns and PBS are practicing media exclusion,” said Quintero, adding that, “We are intent on continuing to press the issue even after the so-called documentary airs.”

Quintero called on PBS in the future to: 1) Make a commitment to projects that are inclusive and equal, 2) to tell the truth, and 3) to implement review boards to assess the fairness and inclusion of their planned programming.

“If the history of the United States is to be told’ let it be told inclusively of those Hispanic and Native American warriors who fought so bravely,” Quintero said.

Other advocates expressed the hope that regardless of how the current issue with “The War” concludes, the Latino protests over exclusion will force PBS to adhere to better standards for future projects.

“PBS will never again exclude Latinos when it comes to making programming of this magnitude because they continue to be criticized by the Latino community at large,” Chávez said. “This has become the core issue of the year.”

Chávez said Defend the Honor continues to write letters to companies that are promoting the documentary.

“We want to let them know what they’re being accomplices to.”

Hispanic Link.

spot_img

The Key to the City for Barry Bonds

by Edgar Martínez

Homage to Barry Bonds: Barry Bonds receives the Key to the City from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at Justin Herman Plaza. ( PHOTO BY MARVIN J. RAMIREZ )Homage to Barry Bonds Barry Bonds receives the Key to the City from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at Justin Herman Plaza. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

In the middle of a day of a radiant summer sun in the Justin Herman Plaza, the greatest home runner of history, Barry Bonds, was honored majestically and delivered the Keys to the City of San Francisco by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom before almost a thousand people.

Newsom, praised and stood out the 15 years of Bonds with the San Francisco Giants and his prowess breaking the record with 755 home runs that Hank Aaron held for 33 years.

Holding with mu­ch effort, Larry Bear, the vice-president of the Giants, delivered him – without giving it to him, since it weight very much – the home plate that Bonds trod when he batted his home run 756 last August 7 at the AT&T Park of San Francisco.

Bonds, considered by some a hero and for others a “a suspect” of reaching glory using prohibited substances – although nothing has been proved yet – and being in the middle of an investigation that still does not end – walked amid applauses to the podium to thank for the homage.

Un niño fanático de Bonds lleva una camisa de Bonds y toma una foto con su cámara en la Plaza Justin HermanA child Bonds fun wears a Bonds shirt and gets a shot with his camera at Justin Herman Plaza. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

“Fifteen years my friend, 15 years in this beautiful city, ” he said to the Giants team owner, Peter Magowan.

It was the way of Bonds of reminding him the passed time since he blessed him with a multimillionaire contract criticized by the press at the time, but with support from his deceased father Bobby Bonds and his godfather Willie Mays, two ex-giants of weight.

>Bonds, who remains divorced from the press, was per moments between sarcastic and haughty, especially when, after receiving the key, said to have had the keys all the time.

His teammates, Omar Vizquel and the New York-Rican Rich Aurilia gave the best support to their partner and friend with a good applauded speech.

The two baseball players backed him up qualifying him as an excellent partner, a simple person as there is no other one so tenderly that he loves cartoons on TV.

Among the present personalities were the ex mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, the legends of the Hall of Fame Willie Mays and Willie Macovey, and ex-pitcher and now commentator of radio KNBR for The Giants, Mike Krukow.

spot_img

Guess whose birthday

Salvador Durán, Gerente General y CEO de la Cooperativa de Crédito Federal del: Área de la Misión, celebra su cumpleaños con miembros de su personal el 9 de agosto.Holding the cake, Salvador Durán, General Manager and CEO of the Mission Area Federal Credit Union celebrates his birthdate with co-workers on August 9. From left-right: Raquel Parra, Angelica Lozoya, Leidi Sanabria, Jessica Lozoya, Margaret Libby, and Dan Collins. In the back members of the Youth Credit Union Program. (photo by Marvin J. Ramírez)

spot_img