In Spanish: Seat Belts in School Buses are Necessary

Sin cinturones de seguridad

La Opinion - Los Angeles

Los estudiantes no están obligados a usarlos aunque los buses los provean

Documentary of BP Oil Spill tonight on PBS - October 26, 2010

"A ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE investigation. “The Spill 
[1],” a PBS FRONTLINE documentary drawn from this reporting, airs [on some stations] tonight. Check local listings."


The Houston PBS Station has no listing for the film.  However, Frontline posts a link so you can see it from your computer - click here to see "The Spill."

Introducing new DREAM Act Texas blogger - Aurora

Please welcome Aurora. to DREAM Act Texas.  She has been helping me out with articles for the past two years.  Aurora is a well known activist in California.  Very informed and a great writer, she will be an excellent addition to the DREAM Act Texas team.

Check out her websites:


http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/


http://hladc-sf.blogspot.com/


http://elrinconcitodeaurora.blogspot.com/

What are people really thinking about immigration reform?

If the poll cited by today's LA Times is accurate, in California many people think its time for immigration reform that allows people who have been here a number of years to regularize their immigration status.

This could very well be true (although many say you should never believe a poll).  The people who have told me that they are against immigration reform are those that feel they paid a lot for what they have and that others should do this too.  The only thing I can say to this is that the folks who want all the undocumented people to go back to their home countries don't really know what it is to be hungry.

-------

Grass-roots immigration reform

• Tim Rutten - Los Angeles Times
• 
• Nearly half of California's likely voters have a favorable view of immigrants, including those without papers.

"when it comes to immigration reform. As a Times/USC poll reported Sunday, nearly half of California's likely voters have a favorable view of immigrants, including those without papers. Fully 59% said that undocumented immigrants who have lived and worked here for at least two years should be allowed to remain. That's particularly significant because California is home to more immigrants than any other state."

"On Monday, during an interview with the popular Spanish-language radio personality Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, Obama blamed Republicans for blocking comprehensive immigration reform. That's partly true. When congressional Republicans recently frustrated passage of the so-called DREAM Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for some undocumented young people who attend college or serve in the armed forces, pollsters measured a steep increase in the enthusiasm of likely Latino voters.

It's also true, though, that this administration's enforcement of our broken immigration laws has been nothing short of draconian. This month, Obama's Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, proudly announced that we deported a record number of people in the last fiscal year — some 1,080 men and women a day, or nearly 393,000 in all. Less than half of those people will have committed any crime other than being here without papers." more

Chuck D: "Tear Down That Wall"

 Chuck D:  "Tear Down That Wall"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeyQ9SdiOs

When Public Enemy broke their contract with Def Jam/Universal all those years ago, they knew they'd never sign on again with the major labels.  It used to annoy me when folks would approached Chuck and ask, "so when are you guys gonna put a new album out?"  or "you guys haven't done anything in a looooong time."  But I soon became schooled in the politics of the music business, and came to understand that there's a reason folks believe that PE broke up, or that PE hasn't done any music in a long time, even though they've never stopped, and have been putting out album after album:  the music business as most people know it is saturated by what the majors choose to promote.  And since PE (and Chuck as an individual artist) refuses to associate with the majors (even though they share royalties on some songs), the difference in the promotion and distribution of a conscious group like PE vs. Lil Wayne or Gucci Mane is very distinctive.  

The music business, as the majors continue to present it, is dead.   But the creative industry is stronger than ever, due to the ability of artists to record, edit, mix, master, and shoot video all from their own home studios.  Too many of us still drink the kool-aid, though, when we unconsciously think about what's popular and "successful" music:  it's all constructed, promoted, funded by majors.  And it's like the wizard of Oz:  the power is smoke and mirrors.  No wonder, then, that people don't know that PE is in their 23rd year of touring, and have visited, in that time, 64 countries. Between Chuck's own projects and PE, they've put out 9 albums since they left Universal.  All of them are available for free on publicenemy.com.

This is why it's so important that we circulate a video like this one.  It's a testament to our power as creative collectives and individuals.  This video wasn't done with a lot of money behind it. Eclectic Method did a fabulous job of putting these messages about dignity and humanity into video format.  PE videographer David Snyder (C-DOC), who does 99% of all PE videos, shot Chuck performing the song on a hill and on a bridge near our house in California.  Chuck recorded this song in our home studio in NY, and it was engineered and produced by the legendary DJ Johnny Juice.

The inspiration for this song came from conversations we've been having about the physical terror of the border wall, and about the literal and discursive exclusion of Brown bodies from national membership, and by extension human membership.  As the song took shape, so did the public side of SB1070.  Now we see scores of other states trying to follow this precedence that has taken most visible form in Arizona's racist and inhumane treatment of the people who built that region of the country and so much more.  Chuck's message has always been about illuminating the places where racism tries to hide.  TEAR DOWN THAT WALL is his latest endeavor in that regard.  It's meant to reveal the racism that pervades our debates about citizenship and human rights, but it's also meant to testify about the relevance of all aggrieved communities to this issue.  It's not just a Brown issue.  It's all of us. 

We're incredibly proud of this...please circulate!

Chuck D:  "Tear Down That Wall"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeyQ9SdiOs

Voting in the U.S.A. - money and the vote

With the elections coming up the airwaves are full of campaign advertisements.  We stopped answering our phone at our house because all the calls are now recordings about someone running for office.  A few people close to me are saying they won't vote this time.  Some say its not new, ever since Gore 2000, they have lost faith in our system of electing our leaders.

Another perspective I was told is that if voting really counted, it would be outlawed.  Something worth thinking about.  Power these days is corporate money.  As our Supreme Court decided, corporations can give just about anything to sway a campaign.  There is so much control over who really has power in the U.S. that if we really could anything with voting, they would find a way to say our votes wouldn't count.  That is why we continue having elections.... because they don't matter.

What really matters are the deals made in the back room, the money given by PACS.... and the dictates of a powerful lobby.

Sorry if this sounds pessimistic.  But if the government really wanted to do something they would find ways to get more people back to work; plus reduce the number of foreclosures.

Really wise and foresighted leaders know that you can't let too many people in your population feel economic deprivation.  Revolutions start this way... Just take a look at history.

While I don't agree with the Tea Party tactics or objectives, I can certainly understand why so many people are angry.  Only thing is, the way our system works, the TP is already being taken over by moneyed interests.....

more on this later. p.s. I will vote this time.  While the big guys have already sown up the Texas gubernatorial election, I am praying to St. Jude (the saint of the impossible) that our next governor is one who won't want Texas to secede from the Union.

--

Voting with little joy

Members of the columnist's informal panel of independents find little to like as they head for the polls

By Steve Lopez

October 24, 2010

Five months ago I began a conversation with a toy designer, a doctor, an engineering company executive and an online soccer reporter who had some things in common:

They had all been turned off by both major political parties, they considered themselves independents, and they hadn't decided whether to vote for Republican Meg Whitman or Democrat Jerry Brown for governor of California.

"I'd just like someone to answer a few questions that don't make my b.s. detector shriek," toy designer Randall Gwin of Newport Beach told me five months ago...more

A few things on Immigration from the L.A. Times

Immigrant veterans facing deportation fight to stay in the US, and try to change the law

---

Californians hold positive views of immigrants; most oppose deportation

A New Silent Majority Exists & It's Sick of the Tea-Bagger Noise

by David Zephyr [Subscribe]
Sun Oct 24, 2010 at 04:47:07 PM PDT

"Oops, maybe they have awakened a sleeping giant that would have otherwise ignored this election and just sat it out. Oops, maybe the tea-baggers got too loud, you know, like an alarm clock."

David Zephyr's diary :: ::

Remember the "Silent Majority"? Well, it's back in 2010, but it's not the old Richard Nixon voting base anymore. No, there's a new Silent Majority in America. Oh, it's still silent. And it is the majority. But make no mistake, there's been a tectonic shift culturally, racially and demographically from the America of the 1950's and 1960's. And that's not good news for the Republican Party. Why?

Because America's new Silent Majority is growing sick and tired of the of crude, loud right-wing, tea-bagging minority and their vulgar antics. You can take this to the bank.

So, just who is this Silent Majority? I'll tell you.

They are the quiet men and women in the grocery line when the right-wing cranky woman starts gassing her lunacy out loud about President Obama being a Muslim, being born in Kenya, or hating white people, or that he is cozy with terrorists.

They are parents, who attend school sports events with their kids, and are forced to endure hearing that same old, cranky man in the bleachers talking loudly -- and always loud enough so everyone can hear him -- about that "god-damned Nancy Pelosi" and the Democrats for socializing our health-care" and "taking away our constitutional rights".

This new Silent Majority of Americans includes not just whites, blacks, asians, latinos, but also families that are blessedly mixed racially, and who have a gay child, brother, sister, aunt or uncle that they love dearly. These Americans may not speak up in that grocery line or at the sports event, for not wanting to embarrass their children or because it's just not how they behave. But, believe me, their silence is deadly.

Americans are not fooled. They know that every town has these cranks, who are always the usual suspects, the same ones who quote Rush Limbaugh, who always get "worked up" about this or that, who harangue city council meetings with their right-wing crap. They know them.

The American People remember.

The American People know good and god-damned well who caused the great financial collapse, and who caused the national wave of home foreclosures. They know it was George W. Bush and his Republican Party.

The American People know good and god-damned well who caused the horrific unemployment in our nation, who cheer-led the outsourcing of their jobs to cheap foreign labor. No amount of Republican television advertising can make them forget who ran the Titanic into the iceberg.

The American People know good and god-damned well who started these two multi-trillion dollar wars that returned young boys and girls back to their hometowns in caskets or permanently maimed physically and mentally. And Americans know exactly who to blame for it.

And this Silent Majority, normally apathetic, typically apolitical has been holding their collective tongue for the last 12 months, as the right-wing rabble began their shouting, whipping up their pathetic, puny "loud minority" into harassing Democratic candidates at public forums, seizing town-hall meetings, stirring up hatred for immigrants and minorities. And they have not liked what they have seen. More...

In Spanish: The Death of Luis Ramirez

Asesinos de Luis Ramirez allados culpables - La Opinion - Los Angeles

For President Obama

There are lots and lots of Progressives(?) clamoring "Barack Obama has not done anything", No, I'm not exaggerating, that's what many, many are saying -- while some of them may be parroting Republican Operatives' 'Talking Points", some of these voices are actually Republican Operatives in our midst, including many who infiltrated or sold out in the pro-immigrant rights movement; their goal? Well,  not to difficult to figure out, isn't? Bottom line is, many gullible folk are believing them.

 

So, after reading "ThisIsMyTime" Post with a list of some of President Obama and Dems' accomplishments in spite of vicious attacks and blatant obstructionism, do you think these voices are telling the truth to us all?

 

Most of us know someone who is repeating the Right Wing lies, send them this information, ask them to read it and then ask them to repeat what they've been saying.

 

Millions of us worked very hard to elect President Obama and we accomplished this historic and revolutionary act, take credit for your hard work and foresight, but let's not slip into complacency, the work is far from done, there is so much that needs to be corrected/changed, let's continue with our pledge to work for change, to pressure our Representatives to act, after all, this is the bargain we entered with then Candidate Barack Obama, just to be clear, this is what we agreed on "That we were going to help/make him do it", for,

 

"WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR" And,

 

That "YES, WE CAN - SI SE PUEDE"

 

Aurora

Obama Will Triumph -- So Will America by Frank Schaeffer

---

by ThisIsMyTime [Daily Kos]
Wed Oct 13, 2010 at 08:56:57 AM PDT

 

As the battle for control of Congress has tightened and the so called enthusiasm gap is evaporating, we must continue speaking to voter about what Democrats in Congress have accomplished.

 

If you are a democrat and you have an enthusiasm gap, I am hoping that this could change your lack of enthusiasm.

 

The facts are in the last 23 months, the following are things that I think are worth keeping scores about what President Obama and the Democratic congress have accomplished that get over looked without an ounce of credit by some who are always disappointed about something.

 

More below the fold...
ThisIsMyTime's diary :: ::

 

Crossposted at The People's View

 

I think it is important to not only speak to voters about the fact we are moving forward together but remind activists to see what they have been resisting.

 

I don't know about you but I am ready to go and these are the reasons why I have more Enthusiasm than ever:

 

Health Care Reform:
 Coverage can’t be denied to children with pre-existing conditions.
 Adults up to age 26 can stay on their parents’ health plans.
 Freepreventive care.
 Rescinding coverage is now illegal.
 Eliminating lifetime limits on insurance coverage.
 Restricting annual limits on insurance coverage.
 More options to appeal coverage decisions.
 $5 billion in immediate federal support to affordable Coverage for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions.
 $10 billion investment in Community Health Centers.
Create immediate access to re-insurance for employer health plans providing coverage for early retirees.
Made an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors reduce the size of the "donut hole" in the Medicare (Part D) Drug Benefit.

 

Economy:
 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has worked. The Economy Has Been Growing - take a look at the graph of GDP growth between 2007 thru 2010.
 US auto industry rescue plan -- Detroit making profits again and at least 1 million jobs saved.
 Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 that extended Unemployment benefits up to 20 weeks and more.
 Provided $14.7 billion in small business loans increasing minority access to capital.
The $26 billion aid to states package preventing large-scale layoffs of teachers and public employees.

 

Banking and Financial Reform
 Signed a sweeping bank-reform bill (the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act)into law
 Managed the $700 Billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that Banks have repaid 75% of TARP funds, bringing the cost down to $89B as of June 2010.
Cuts Salaries For 65 Bailout Executives
Closed offshore tax safe havens, tax credit loopholes on companies that use the tax laws to ship American Jobs oversees. HR 4213.
Signed into law the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act to fight fraud in the use of TARP and recovery funds, and to increase accountability for corporate and mortgage frauds.
Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act

VETOED Big Banks' notarization sweetheart deal

 

Education
Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 that increased the amount of federal Pell Grant awards and enabled the stripping of banks privileges as intermediaries for student loan servicing.
Created the Race to the Top Fund, a $4.35 billion program to reward States that submit the best proposals for change.
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funded over $100 Billion for reforms to strengthen Elementary and Secondary education, early learning programs, college affordability and improve access to higher education, and to close the achievement gap.

 

Jobs
The $787 billion economic stimulus package has created or saved nearly 2 million jobs slowing the bleeding
Jobs for Main Street Act (2010)injected $27.5 Billion for Highways, $8.4 Billion for Transit into the country’s transportation system to create jobs and spur economic activity.
A $33 Billion Jobs Package that will allow Small businesses to get $5,000 tax credit for new hires.
A $26 billion State Aid Package Jobs Bill saving 300,000 teachers and public workers jobs from unemployment.
The Auto bailout saved 1 million jobs.

 

Green Energy
Implemented renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022, four times what we currently consume.
Automakers will be required to meet a fleet-wide average of New Gas Mileage Standards at 35.5 MPH by 2016.
A $60 billion investment in renewable and clean energy.

 

Housing
$275 billion dollar housing plan - $75 billion dollars to prevent at-risk mortgage debtors already fallen victim to foreclosures and $200 billion to bring about confidence to offer affordable mortgages and to stability the housing market.
Established "Opening Doors" to end the homelessness of 640,000 men, women, and children in the United States in 10 years.
Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing. ref
Provided $2 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization Program to rehab, resell, or demolish in order to stabilize neighborhoods.
Provided $5 billion for Weatherization Assistance Program for low income families to weatherize 1 million homes per year for the next decade.
Provided grants to encourage states and localities to take the first steps in implementing new building codes that prioritize energy efficiency.

 

Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security
giving $250 economic stimulus check to 55 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients in 2009.
Cutting prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients by 50% and began eliminating the plan’s gap ("donut hole") in coverage.
Passing as part of H.R.3962 (Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010) a $6.4 billion measure reversing a 21 percent cut in physician payments that would have started a flood of rejections by some doctors of seniors covered by Medicare.
Expanded eligibility for Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,400 per year for an individual).

 

Military Veterans and Families
Implemented a strategic plan to increase the hiring of Veterans and Military spouses throughout the Federal civil service.
Provided for the expenses of families of to be at Dover AFB when fallen soldiers arrive.
Passed the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009 increasing the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans.
Declared the end of the war in Iraqi bringing back nearly 100,000 U.S. troops home to their families.
Donated 250K of Nobel prize money to Fisher House, a group that helps provide housing for families of patients receiving medical care at military and Veterans Affairs medical centers

 

LBGT
Extended  benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation's largest employer)
Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover Gay employees taking unpaid leave to care for their children of same-sex partners
Lifted the HIV Entry Ban.
Implemented HUD Policies that Would Ban Discrimination Based On Gender Identity

 

Well, there is more but you see we have done a lot. We have the tools to shape the message. We need to move forward together and focus on what we will accomplish forward in the coming years. That is why we have to work hard for the next three weeks to GOTV.

 

These are my kids at the One Nation March about a week ago. They are fired up as I am. Are you?

 

 

 

Yes indeed, there is more, check out this list:

 

Accomplishments by the Administration and Congress on LGBT Equality

No one should rest until we have full LGBT equality.  But after eight years of Republican disrespect, progress is being made.  In its first 20 months, the Obama Administration has...

1. Reversed an inexcusable US position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
2. Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees in 2009 and, further, in 2010
3. Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide FULL partnership benefits to federal employees
4. Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
5. Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010
6. Released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamations since 2000
7. Hosted the first LGBT Pride Month Celebration in White House history
8. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King, joining past recipients such as Rosa Parks
9. Appointed the first ever transgender DNC member
10. Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees
11. Committed to ensuring that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity 
12. Conceived a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders -- the nation's first ever -- funded by a three-year HHS grant to SAGE
13. Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA
14. Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability -- the first positive federal LGBT legislation in the nation's history
15. Hired and appointed a record number of qualified LGBT Americans (like these), including more than 20 Senate-confirmed appointments
16. Sworn in Ambassador David Huebner
17. Changed the culture of government everywhere from – among others – HUD and HHS to the Export-Import Bank, the State Department, and the Department of Education
18. Appointed Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, instead of conservatives who would have tilted the Court even further to the right and virtually doomed our rights for a generation.  To wit (quoting McCain): "I've said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I've said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts.  I worked as hard as anybody to get them confirmed. I look you in the eye and tell you I've said a thousand times that I wanted Alito and Roberts.  I have told anybody who will listen. I flat-out tell you I will have people as close to Roberts and Alito [as possible]."
19. Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
20. Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation's largest employer)
21. Emphasized LGBT inclusion in everything from the President’s historic NAACP address (“The pain of discrimination is still felt in America.  By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender.  By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country.  By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God.  By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”) . . . to the first paragraph of his Family Day proclamation (“Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things”) and his Mothers Day proclamation ("Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by two parents, a single mother, two mothers, a step-mom, a grandmother, or a guardian.  Mother's Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate these extraordinary caretakers") . . . to creating the chance for an adorable 10-year-old at the White House Easter Egg roll to tell ABC World News how cool it is to have two mommies . . . to including the chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce along with the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of Goldman Sachs in the small audience for the President’s economic address at the New York Stock Exchange . . . to welcoming four gay couples to its first State Dinner
22. Recommitted, in a televised address, to passing ENDA . . . repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell  . . . repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act
23. Spoken out against discrimination at the National Prayer Breakfast ("We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are -- whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.")
24. Dispatched the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call on the Senate to repeal Don't Ask / Don't Tell, in the meantime dialing back on discharges
25. Launched a website to gather public comment on first-ever federal LGBT housing discrimination study
26. Appointed long-time equality champion Chai Feldblum one of the four Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
27. Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept our relationships from being counted, encouraging couples who consider themselves married to file that way, even if their state of residence does not yet permit legal marriage
28. Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons.
29. Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
30. Appointed Retired Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, an early public champion of open service in the military, to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services
31. Required all grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals.
32. Adopted transgender recommendations on the issuance of gender-appropriate passports that will ease barriers to safe travel and that will provide government-issued ID that avoids involuntary "outing" in situations requiring ID, like hiring, where a gender-appropriate driver's license or birth certificate is not available
33. Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims
34. Publicly invited shunned MIssissippi high school prom student to the White House 
35. Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employees taking unpaid leave to care for the children of same-sex partners
36. Issued guidance specifically to assist LGBT tenants denied housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
37. Issued a National HIV/AIDS Strategy praised as "long-overdue" by the Task Force, Lambda and others
38. Successfully fought for UN accreditation of IGLHRC (the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission) -- against Republican attempts to block it
39. Convened the first-ever anti-bullying summit to craft a national strategy to reduce bullying in schools.
40. Awarded $13.3 million to the LA Gay & Lesbian Center to create a model program for LGBTQ youth in the foster care system.

The Administration will continue to make steady progress on our issues whether we help strengthen its hand or not.  But the stronger it is, the faster that progress will come.  

Georgia to Imitate Arizona...

Five Public Colleges in Georgia Ban Illegal-Immigrant Students

By ROBBIE BROWN

Published: October 13, 2010  ATLANTA —

 Education officials in Georgia voted Wednesday to bar illegal immigrants from attending the state’s five most selective public colleges, a decision that immigrant rights groups threatened to challenge in court.

Georgia is the second state, after South Carolina, to enact such a ban. The policy requires colleges to check the legal residency of all applicants and prohibits illegal immigrants from enrolling at any college with a selective admissions process. The ban takes effect next fall and applies to the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology and three other colleges.

...But D. A. King, a Georgia-based anti-immigration activist, said the ban was only the first step. Republican state lawmakers are expected to introduce bills next session to extend the ban to all state colleges and to institute an anti-immigration policy similar to one in Arizona.    

• •  ATLANTA — Education officials in Georgia voted Wednesday to bar illegal immigrants from attending the state’s five most selective public colleges, a decision that immigrant rights groups threatened to challenge in court.
    Georgia is the second state, after South Carolina, to enact such a ban. The policy requires colleges to check the legal residency of all applicants and prohibits illegal immigrants from enrolling at any college with a selective admissions process. The ban takes effect next fall and applies to the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology and three other colleges.ATLANTA — Education officials in Georgia voted Wednesday to bar illegal immigrants from attending the state’s five most selective public colleges, a decision that immigrant rights groups threatened to challenge in court. Georgia is the second state, after South Carolina, to enact such a ban. The policy requires colleges to check the legal residency of all applicants and prohibits illegal immigrants from enrolling at any college with a selective admissions process. The ban takes effect next fall and applies to the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology and three other colleges.       

...

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  • PermalinATLANTA — Education officials in Georgia voted Wednesday to bar illegal immigrants from attending the state’s five most selective public colleges, a decision that immigrant rights groups threatened to challenge in courtGeorgia is the second state, after South Carolina, to enact such a ban. The policy requires colleges to check the legal residency of all applicants and prohibits illegal immigrants from enrolling at any college with a selective admissions process. The ban takes effect next fall and applies to the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology and three other colleges.        

In Spanish: Undocumented Workers

Difícil evadir el uso de mano de obra indocumentada

La Opinion - Los Angeles

Dudamel and Domingo

Jay L. Clendenin, Los Angeles Times

Plácido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel together for the first time

By David Ng, Los Angeles Times

October 11, 2010

The general director of the Los Angeles Opera and the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic meet for a conversation before fans.

As the sun went down Sunday evening, two of the biggest stars in the classical music world shone bright to an adoring audience of fans who gathered to bask in their radiance. Plácido Domingo and Gustavo Dudamel have been next-door neighbors on Grand Avenue for more than a year, but on Sunday they shared the stage for the first time.

No music was made (except a glimmer of … Paul Anka) and the lingua franca was English, not their native Spanish. The maestros, who have an age difference of 40 years but who share the ability to charm even the most cynical audiences, participated in a Los Angeles Times Roundtable conversation at the Music Center during which they spoke about their careers, shared anecdotes from their private lives and even promised a more formal stage collaboration in Los Angeles.

A good portion of the conversation focused on the musicians' Latino heritage...more