It turns out that there have been quite a few interesting articles since the last news summary. Several of these articles were significant enough to warrant a mid-December news summary.
In this issue, you will find an article from the Houston Chronicle reporting on charities that require proof of immigration status to determine whether a child is eligible to receive a Christmas toy. In a later article, the San Jose Mercury News reports that the Salvation Army changed it's policy after protests in Los Angeles. No word on whether any of the other charities mentioned in the Houston Chronicle have changed their policies regarding the eligibility of children to participate in toy programs.
NPR and other news outlets are reporting that police officials in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, have been arrested and charged with participating in a cover-up of evidence in the case involving the murder of a Latino resident of that small community. The media is also reporting about a pending civil action against the Shenandoah police for the 2004 death of a Latino prisoner. No criminal charges have been filed related to the custodial death.
And the Department of Justice has announced that it is opening an investigation of the New Haven, Connecticut Police Department. The purpose of the investigation is "to determine whether a pattern or practice of discriminatory police practices exists.” You may remember that Father James Manship was arrested by New Haven police after he attempted to video record a police visit with a Latino business owner.
As always, I hope you find the referenced news articles informative.
Best Wishes.
Prepared by
John Vasquez
Chair-Elect
Hispanic Issues Section, State Bar of Texas
johnvasq@gmail.com
PS: Happy Holidays.
NOTE: This News Summary is a service of the Hispanic Issues Section of the State Bar of Texas, Brian Hamner, Chair. If you would like to support HIS, visit
http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Sections and click “MyBarPage” (near the bottom of the page) to join online. For further information, contact the Sections Department at 1-800-204-2222 or (512) 427-1463 ext. 1420.
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Top News
Some toy drives check immigration status
They don't claim to know who's been naughty or nice, but some Houston charities are asking whether children are in the country legally before giving them toys.
In a year when more families than ever have asked for help, several programs providing Christmas gifts for needy children require at least one member of the household to be a U.S. citizen. Others ask for proof of income or rely on churches and schools to suggest recipients.
The Salvation Army and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department are among those that consider immigration status, asking for birth certificates or Social Security cards for the children.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6746254.html
See also the opinion blog “How the Immigrants Stole Christmas” at:
http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/inthepink/?p=13791
Protests prompt Salvation Army policy change
LOS ANGELES—The Salvation Army says it will no longer ask for a parent's social security number before giving Christmas toys to children at some local branches.
Juan Alanis, a spokesman for the Salvation Army's Houston branch, says the charity changed its policy Wednesday following a protest by Hispanic immigrants in Los Angeles.
Alanis says the Christian organization never wanted to give the appearance of discrimination based on legal status and decided to not require a social security number to register for its Angel Tree program.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13914448
Report Examines Civil Rights During Bush Years
WASHINGTON — When the Bush administration ran the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, career lawyers wanted to look into accusations that officials in one state had illegally intimidated blacks during a voter-fraud investigation.
But division supervisors refused to “approve further contact with state authorities on this matter,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office auditing the activities of the division from 2001 to 2007.
Congress is set to release that report, which did not identify the state in question, on Thursday as the House of Representatives takes up its first oversight hearing of the Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration.
The 180-page report, obtained by The New York Times, is densely packed with statistics about civil rights enforcement by the division’s sections. The accountability office also examined a sampling of matters that were closed without further action, finding several cases — including the curtailed voter intimidation inquiry — in which supervisors rejected the recommendations of career lawyers to go forward.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/us/politics/03rights.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Media Coverage of Hispanics
Hispanics are already the largest minority group in the United States -- accounting for 47.4 million people or 15.8% of the total population -- and that percentage is expected to nearly double by the middle of this century. As their population grows, so does the importance of how they are portrayed in the media.
A study of more than 34,000 news stories that appeared in major media outlets finds that most of what the public learns about Hispanics comes not through focused coverage of the life and times of this population group but through event-driven news stories in which Hispanics are one of many elements.
From Feb. 9 to Aug. 9, 2009, only a fraction of all news stories studied contained substantial references to Hispanics -- just 645 out of 34,452. And only a tiny number, 57 stories, focused directly on the lives of Hispanics in the U.S., according to a media content analysis done jointly by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Hispanic Center, both of which are projects of the Pew Research Center.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1432/media-coverage-hispanics-sotomayor-lead-newsmaker
To read the overview of “Hispanics in the News”, go to:
http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/hispanics_news
Pennsylvania Cops Accused Of Hate Crime Cover-Up
The federal government has charged three top police officers in Shenandoah, Pa., with covering up evidence in the fatal beating last year of a Mexican immigrant.
Two white football players are in jail now for the attack, although the most serious charges against them were thrown out by a jury.
Federal prosecutors say that's because police officers in the insular town knew the boys and altered evidence in the case. One police officer investigating the case was dating the mom of one of the accused. Another cop had a son on the same football team as the accused.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121576402&ps=cprs
Federal Charges Are Filed in Killing of Immigrant
The police chief of Shenandoah, Pa., and two of his officers were charged Tuesday with obstruction of justice in connection with their handling of the investigation of the beating death of a Mexican immigrant last year.
In addition, two teenagers who were acquitted in state court this year on most charges in the killing were indicted on federal hate crime charges.
The case became a cause célèbre for national Hispanic organizations, particularly after the trial in May. Brandon Piekarsky, now 18, was acquitted of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation and Derrick Donchak, 19, was acquitted of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation in the death of Luís Ramírez, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant. Both were convicted of simple assault, a misdemeanor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/us/16hate.html
Shenandoah police chief accused of '04 cover-up
SHENANDOAH, Pa. - A police chief, ordered held without bail yesterday on charges that he tried to cover up the fatal 2008 beating of a Mexican immigrant by white teenagers, was named in a 2006 lawsuit that said police had beaten to death a Hispanic teenager, then made it look like a suicide.
Police Chief Matthew Nestor, 33, was not charged in the teenager's death in November 2004, but the allegations in the lawsuit, in Tuesday's indictment, and in other civil claims depict a police department with hostility to minorities and a penchant for using excessive force.
Police "acted as feudal warlords in this coal town community that people were afraid of," said John Karoly, attorney for the parents of David Vega, 18, in the 2006 federal lawsuit against the borough. "I would not suggest they were not abusive to everyone and anyone, but I would say the pattern certainly starts to appear that minorities took the thrust of their abuse."
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/79477137.html
Latino Youths Optimistic, but Beset by Problems
Washington, D.C. - infoZine - They value education, hard work and career success. But they are more likely than other youths to drop out of school, live in poverty and become teen parents. They also have high levels of exposure to gangs. And when it comes to self-identity, most straddle two worlds.
This comprehensive report from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the nonpartisan, non-advocacy Pew Research Center, comes at a time when one in four U.S. newborns is Hispanic; never before in U.S. history has a minority ethnic group made up so large a share of the youngest Americans.
The study, "Between Two Worlds: How Latino Youths Come of Age in America," is based on new analysis of government demographic, economic, education and health data sets; a series of focus groups; and a survey conducted from Aug. 5 through Sept. 16, 2009, among a random national sample of 2,012 Hispanics ages 16 and older, with an oversample of 1,240 Hispanics ages 16 to 25. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish, on cellular as well as landline telephones. The report offers a generational analysis of the behaviors, values and experiences of Latino youth who are immigrants themselves (about one-third) and those who are the children and grandchildren (or higher) of immigrants.
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/39074/
To find a summary of the report “Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America” and a link to the entire report, go to:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=117
Feds Open Discrimination Investigation Into East Haven Cops
In a major development, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed late Wednesday that its civil rights division has opened a formal investigation into the East Haven police department.
Working off of allegations of racial discrimination by police, the investigation is "to determine whether a pattern or practice of discriminatory police practices exists," explained department spokesman Alejandro Miyar.
The DOJ's civil rights division typically opens fewer than a dozen of these investigations a year.
A boiling point came in February when the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven took out a video camera and started rolling on two officers allegedly harassing a town shop owner who is of Latino decent. The pastor, Father James Manship, was arrested because, according to a police report, an officer saw an "unknown shiny silver object".
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/breaking/Feds-Open-Discrimination-Investigation-Into-East-Haven-Cops-78354567.html
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Texas
Few Minorities Hold Positions as Court Law Clerks, Staff Attorneys in Texas
In the 10 years Jennifer Lewis Williams has worked at the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas, she has been the court's only African-American staff attorney.
"That's very disappointing," Williams says. "I do know some black attorneys who have applied."
Linda Thomas, the 5th Court's chief justice until Oct. 31, confirms that Williams has been the court's only African-American staff attorney since 1999. But Thomas says she received an application from only one other African-American during the 10-year period.
That lack of diversity persists throughout the state's appellate courts. The reasons for it, and possible solutions, remain in dispute.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202436038028&Few_Minorities_Hold_Positions_as__Court_Law_Clerks_Staff_Attorneys_in_Texas
Council opts for single-member districts.
Barring an unexpected ruling from a federal judge, Boerne’s 12-year experience with using cumulative voting to elect city council members is history and the city’s future council members will be elected from single-member districts.
Council members voted 3-2 Wednesday evening to reopen a 1996 court settlement with the League of United Latin American Citizens that City Attorney Mick McKamie said is likely to result in an agreement that will allow the election of council members from five geographically-defined districts, ending the cumulative voting system that has been used to elect council members in citywide elections since 1997.
http://boernestar.com/articles/2009/12/05/news/doc4b1ae07dc4414621464211.txt
Never one to wait for change, Manuel Benavidez ready to take on Irving school district in voting rights case
Manuel Benavidez spent years as an often lonely loud voice criticizing the political leaders in Irving for their treatment of Latinos.
He doesn't hesitate to call the city's power structure racist. He knows he's viewed as a troublemaker. He ran for the school board twice and lost.
But he finally tasted victory when U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis ruled in his favor in July, finding that the city's at-large system of electing City Council members violated the Voting Rights Act and denied representation to Hispanics. Solis ordered the city to implement single-member districts.
Benavidez – known as "Manny" to many – said while those in the city told him to wait for change, he watched both the City Council and school board continue to shut out Hispanics.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-benavidez_13met.ART0.East.Edition1.4ba72fd.html
Irving voting rights trial #2 begins....
Just in case you missed it, I had a story about the plaintiff in the voting rights cases against the city and Irving ISD on Sunday, Manuel Benavidez (pictured).
This morning at 9 a.m. marked the opening of the case, in federal court in Dallas, with Judge Sidney Fitzwater presiding. Benavidez' attorney Wendy Wang opened by arguing that Irving ISD's at large elections system effectively discriminates against Hispanics, since none recently have been elected to the school board.
"Despite the dramatic changes in demographics there has been no meaningful Hispanic representation on the school board," she said. "A lack of Hispanic representation is not for a lack of trying."
http://irvingblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/irving-voting-rights-trial-2-b.html
Judge Mireles dies with family at his side
Someone else will have to turn on the lights at the Bexar County Courthouse.
At least that’s what many friends and colleagues of District Court Judge Andy Mireles said Tuesday upon hearing of the hard-working jurist’s death from a heart attack suffered Sunday night.
He was 59.
Described as a brilliant legal mind, a fighter for youth headed down wrong paths and the father of the county’s juvenile justice system, Mireles was praised not just as a dedicated judge, but a professional with high ethical standards, who showed no mercy to ill-prepared lawyers and was both tough and compassionate to juvenile offenders.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/obituaries/79373602.html
ECISD, CRUCIAL hold meetings
ECISD’s ongoing dispute with plaintiff CRUCIAL over the district’s compliance with a desegregation lawsuit consent agreement will soon move to a facilitator.
Both the district and CRUCIAL have met four times without a facilitator, primarily in October, to discuss specific areas of disagreement with how ECISD has performed in complying with the consent order. ECISD Superintendent Hector Mendez said no dates have been set, but both sides should come together with the facilitator in January, one year after the district became eligible in January 2009 to request dismissal of the case.
At the same time, court filings have continued the debate over whether ECISD has complied with the consent agreement. If the federal court in Midland finds the district has complied, the district can be released from court supervision in the desegregation case brought by CRUCIAL.
http://www.oaoa.com/news/ecisd-40652-crucial-hold.html
ECISD changes
Some ECISD teachers moved around shortly after the Thanksgiving break continue to get used to their new surroundings after being transferred to help the district meet terms of a 2006 consent agreement that essentially declares how many minority teachers must be at each school.
These sudden transfers were made to get ECISD into compliance with the 2006 consent agreement. The school district’s court filing in early November stated ECISD would have the required teacher racial percentages by Nov. 30.
http://www.oaoa.com/news/ecisd-40651-consent-agreement.html
Commentary: Michele Valdez: Eradicating the new N-word
Years ago I moved from Denver to North Texas and found a sophisticated mecca of do-gooders, symphony-goers and retail elite. Dallas was a social smoothie of Oprah, Anna Wintour and Nelson Mandela.
I found bedroom communities, urban villages and wealthy haunts like Highland Park and Preston Hollow. Most are family-oriented communities composed of God-fearing folks always willing to lend a hand. Occasionally, though, racism peeks through the suburban blanket of bliss or the trendy subterfuge of urban culture. There's nothing newsworthy, just the trite whisper if an African-American family moves to the area or the kindly warning when "Mexicans" are spotted driving through the neighborhood.
Recently, something changed. I first noticed it at our tennis club. Teenage boys were watching the U.S. Open. They were tossing insults like they were tennis balls. In an attempt to hurl a foul attack, one red-headed, freckle-faced boy called to another, "You're a Mexican." The other boy looked stunned. Like a hunter out of ammunition, he shot back feebly, "No, you're a Mexican."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-valdez_05edi.State.Edition1.1983cbd.html
Kyle, TX Gains Allies in Housing Discrimination Lawsuit Appeal
The City of Kyle, TX, facing a legal challenge to its minimum development standards, which critics contend would discriminate against minorities, has gained support from the Texas Municipal League and the state and international associations of city attorneys, as well as four other Central Texas cities. The case is being watched closely by cities nationwide, because the appellate court decision may serve as a precedent and affect many other cities that have enacted similar ordinances, legal experts say.
Austin, TX (PRWEB) December 9, 2009 -- The City of Kyle, TX, facing a legal challenge to its minimum development standards, which critics contend would discriminate against minorities, has gained support from the Texas Municipal League and the state and international associations of city attorneys, as well as four other Central Texas cities.
The case is being watched closely by cities nationwide, because the appellate court decision may serve as a precedent and affect many other cities that have enacted similar ordinances, legal experts say.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/kyle-tx-gains-allies-in-housing-discrimination-lawsuit-appeal,1081332.shtml
13 workers file discrimination lawsuit against Dallas water department
Thirteen Dallas Water Utilities employees filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against City Hall on Wednesday, alleging a pattern of racial discrimination and retaliation dating back years.
The suit paints a picture of the city's water department as a racially divided institution where discrimination is a normal practice.
The plaintiffs include 11 blacks, one Hispanic and one Asian.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/121709dnmetcitysuit.39afcac.html
Lawsuit says Hispanics taunted black employees at Dr Pepper Snapple warehouse in Chicago suburb of Northlake
On his first day of work in 2005 at a beverage warehouse in west suburban Northlake, Germaine Benson said he immediately felt tension between black and Hispanic workers.
But by 2007, conditions had grown much uglier as Hispanic supervisors repeatedly subjected black employees to racial insults such as "donkey," "monkey" and the n-word, said Benson, who is African-American.
Some of the black employees said they were paid based on the number of pallets of soda, juice and water they load onto trucks. Under the company's "one man-one truck" rule, only a single employee can work on a truck at a time.
But the black workers contended Hispanic workers were not subjected to the same rule and, as a result, were able to make more money.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-warehouse-plant-racial-lawsudec18,0,5507770.story
Peeling back the pages of time: In a small silver trailer at Discovery Green, 150 Hispanic Houstonians are recording the stories of their lives for a nonprofit initiative
Historias — Spanish for “stories” — kicked off earlier in the fall in Washington and with recording studios in New York and San Francisco. A mobile recording studio will travel the U.S. for a year, starting in Houston.
The response from Latino families has been “off the charts,” said Dave Isay, StoryCorps founder and president.
“The commitment and the desire to honor other family members is extremely strong in the Latino community,” Isay said.
November's stop in Houston was the first for the trailer converted into a recording studio. The Historias trailer will be at the park through Dec. 19.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6768402.html
White worker accuses Hispanic supervisors of discrimination
GALVESTON - A Galveston County man claims he was terminated from his welding position with a maritime repair company because he is white, recent court documents say.
In a lawsuit targeting Gulf Copper Dry Dock and Rig Repair, Michael McCarrell explains that his foremen, both Hispanics, said racist things to him and dismissed him from their crews.
"The defendant failed to comply with the duty to take all reasonable and necessary steps to eliminate discrimination from the workplace and to prevent it from occurring in the future," the suit says.
The case was filed Dec. 17 in Galveston County Court No. 3.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/223782-white-worker-accuses-hispanic-supervisors-of-discrimination
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USA
Miguel Alexander Pozo Installed As President Of Hispanic Bar Association Of New Jersey
Miguel Alexander Pozo, member of the law firm Lowenstein Sandler PC, has been installed as the 30th president of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey (HBN-NJ). The 30th annual installation ceremony was conducted on October 29, 2009, at the W Hotel in Hoboken. The Honorable Julio M. Fuentes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit administered the oath of office before an audience of federal and state court judges, elected officials including Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, business leaders, and many others in the legal profession.
An attorney in the firm's Litigation Department, Mr. Pozo has ten years of experience representing Fortune 500 corporations, businesses, and non-profit organizations in a broad range of federal and state court litigation matters. His work has included all phases of fact and expert discovery, motion practice, trials, arbitrations, and mediations.
http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/current.php?artType=view&artMonth=December&artYear=2009&EntryNo=10446
Rutgers settles lawsuit that alleged racial bias
Rutgers University has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by four groundskeepers who in 2006 accused the school of denying them promotions and ignoring a noose hung on a campus building.
The workers -- three African-Americans and one Hispanic -- held maintenance jobs at the Cook/Douglass campus in New Brunswick for at least 12 years. In October, Rutgers agreed to pay each of the men $71,875 in lost wages and other damages, while also reimbursing their attorneys $300,000 in legal fees, according to court papers.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1259634306285220.xml&coll=1
San Jose to pay $97,500 to settle police brutality claim
Amid mounting allegations of excessive police force, San Jose officials have agreed to pay a tire store owner and his nephew $97,500 to settle a lawsuit stemming from a 2006 confrontation that escalated from a minor traffic incident into an international dispute over officers' treatment of Latinos.
The incident drew little attention until March 2007, when Bruno Figueroa, the Mexican consul general at the time, cited it as an example of police mistreatment and demanded that San Jose police show more accountability and respect toward Latinos.
"This unfortunate sequence of events ... shows that when dealing with the Latino community, some San Jose police officers will not hesitate to use force, no matter how unjustified it may be," Figueroa wrote in a statement to the Mercury News.
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13895376
"Ringleader" Pleads Guilty in LI Bias-Attack Slay
For Joselo Lucero, it was a nightmare revisited.
The Patchogue man sat quietly in a Suffolk county court and listened to details of how his brother, Marcelo was hunted down and murdered by a gang of seven teens last November -- simply because he was Hispanic.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Ringleader-Pleads-Guilty-in-LI-Bias-Attack-Slay-78330012.html
Landmark Port Chester Cumulative Voting Election to Be Set for June 2010
PORT CHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Port Chester Mayor Dennis G. Pilla, on behalf of the Village Board of Trustees, has announced that members of the Port Chester Board of Trustees will hold a press conference TODAY, Thursday, December 17, 2009 in front of the Hon. Charles L. Brieant Jr. Federal Building and Courthouse located at 300 Quarropas Street, White Plains (NY), immediately following the Village's appearance before U.S. District Judge Stephen C. Robinson at 3:30 p.m. to present a consent decree detailing the Village's plans for a Cumulative Voting Trustee election system and Voter Education Plan, as previously requested by the Judge.
Judge Robinson had requested that the Village work with the plaintiffs to develop a detailed bilingual voter education and outreach plan as part of his November 6, 2009 decision granting Port Chester their preference for a Cumulative Voting trustee election system to remedy a Section 2 violation of the Voting Rights Act, from a matter that was initially brought against the Village by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2006. The jointly developed consent decree sets an election for all six Village Trustee seats to be held on June 15th, 2010.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/landmark-port-chester-cumulative-voting-election-to-be-set-for-june-2010-79549122.html
Hispanics claim racial profiling by officers: U.S. Border Patrol, 3 departments named
Three times in two months, Jose Calderon and Belinda Vega were stopped by a police officer and an immigration officer in Plymouth, Ohio, and their identities questioned - each time with their two young children present and each time with no ticket or citation given.
The stops, according to lawyers with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, were not a result of Mr. Calderon's driving but because of the color of his skin.
The couple was among 12 individuals and two organizations that filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Toledo Thursday alleging racial profiling practices by agents of the U.S. Border Patrol and three northwest Ohio police departments.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091211/NEWS16/912110357/-1/SRMAIN
Family sues police
A Hispanic family has filed a federal lawsuit against Prince William County police, lawyers for the family announced this week.
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 23 at U.S. District Court in Alexandria, alleges that county police used excessive force when they entered Juan and Esperanza Guerrero's Manassas area home in November 2007.
According to the lawsuit, Prince William police officers went to the Guerreros' home on Nov. 24, 2007, to serve a truancy summons on one of their relatives.
Esperanza Guerrero told the police officer that the relative did not live at their house.
The officer then "continued to force his way into the home," Guerrero's attorney said in the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that the police officers then "dragged Esperanza Guerrero outside the house, arrested her and pepper sprayed her husband, Juan Guerrero, who was in his home," the attorney said in a news release.
http://www2.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/family_sues_police/48549/
Colo. court: immigrants tax records are private
DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that authorities violated the constitutional and privacy rights of suspected illegal immigrants when they used tax returns to try and build hundreds of identity theft cases against them.
The 4-3 ruling affirmed a decision by a Weld County district judge who suppressed evidence against one of the defendants. In that case, investigators raided a tax business that catered to Latinos in Greeley, an agricultural city on the northern plains of Colorado with a heavily Hispanic population.
The investigation, dubbed "Operation Numbers Game," marked the first and only time in the U.S. that authorities used tax returns, which are confidential under federal law, to prosecute suspected illegal immigrants.
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/colo-court-immigrants-tax-records-are-private-127572.html
N.C. judges heading to Senate nomination hearing
RALEIGH, N.C. — Two North Carolina judges are heading to Capitol Hill for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on their nominations to the nation's most conservative federal appeals court.
The committee is scheduled to hear the nominations Wednesday afternoon of Judge Jim Wynn and Judge Albert Diaz. President Barack Obama nominated the two judges last month to serve on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/6627268/
Albertsons settles lawsuit claiming racism at Aurora facility
AURORA | Albertsons will pay $8.9 million to 168 current and former employees at its Aurora distribution center to settle a discrimination lawsuit that claimed black and Hispanic employees were subjected to swastikas and lynching drawings.
The settlement, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, covers three separate lawsuits, all filed by workers at the Aurora facility and all claimed racist harassment and discrimination.
“Employers simply cannot overlook or tolerate this kind of outrageous discrimination and retaliation. The EEOC certainly won’t,” EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru said in a statement. “We will aggressively pursue employers who violate the laws we enforce. And we’ll insist on substantial and meaningful relief for the victims before settling these cases.”
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2009/12/16/news/metro_aurora/doc4b27eae2e0cd4473644047.txt
As wage theft rises, states and cities crack down
CHICAGO — Fabian Gutierrez logged more than 60 hours a week slicing meat and stocking shelves with cheeses and milk at a neighborhood grocery for less than minimum wage and no overtime.
The 32-year-old Mexican immigrant said he put up with the situation for months because he was desperate to support his wife and young daughter. And like many co-workers, he was afraid to challenge his boss.
"All of us took abuse. We were disrespected," said Gutierrez, who found help at a workers' rights center, joined with other workers to sue the owner of La Fruteria and now works at another grocery store that he says treats him better.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-R4WzSaR5wqLl95V7kTz-efaEZwD9CL6OV83
East Greenbush fires teacher
EAST GREENBUSH -- School district officials have fired high school gym teacher Bernard ''Bernie'' Watt, who is accused of touching a female student's breasts and uttering a racial remark to a student.
Watt, 48, has been on administrative leave since February after he was criminally charged with endangering the welfare of a child and forcible touching for the Feb. 2 incident that allegedly occurred during a basketball drill in the Columbia High School gym.
District Attorney Richard McNally said the case will now go to trial.
Watt was not criminally charged but was found guilty by state Education Department hearing officers for a separate incident during a soccer practice in September 2008.
He allegedly yelled ''Hey Hispanic kid, run like you are running to the border,'' according to a copy of the minutes and decisions of a state Education Department teacher tenure hearing.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=878815&category=RENSSELAER
Third Staffer Joins Suit Against Post
Ikimilusa Livingston has joined Austin Fenner's lawsuit against the Post, Gawker reports. Fenner's suit follows Sandra Guzman's opening sally last month. Livingston, who's black, says that she was removed from her courts beat, taken off stories, and basically banned from the newsroom because of discrimination. And she echoes previous complaints of a pervasively racist atmosphere at the paper.
http://www.observer.com/2009/daily-transom/third-staffer-joins-suit-against-post
In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap
Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.
But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.
A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did.
The discrimination is rarely overt, according to interviews with more than two dozen college-educated black job seekers around the country, many of them out of work for months. Instead, those interviewed told subtler stories, referring to surprised looks and offhand comments, interviews that fell apart almost as soon as they began, and the sudden loss of interest from companies after meetings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html
N.J. Attorney General will review state police stop of N.Y.C. students on Turnpike
MERCER COUNTY -- The trooper in an unmarked cruiser circled the parking lot at the New Jersey Turnpike rest stop near exit 7A. He scanned for a black Mercedes van matching the description provided by a 911 caller who reported it carried three armed men, authorities said.
But instead of weapons, the troopers found 11 frightened Queens teenagers returning from an overnight trip to Washington, D.C.
The students — all black and Hispanic, ranging from 16 to 19 years old — were returning from a trip to Howard University, a historically black college. They toured the campus and visited classes, then visited landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.
The students said a helicopter circled overhead and they were led out of the van by troopers with the guns drawn. They were handcuffed and placed on the side of the road, they said.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/state_police_may_face_discrimi.html
Two civil rights lawsuits in Stanislaus County bring kudos, criticism
Few blame the poor or downtrodden for wanting to improve their lot in life.
But when they lawyer up, that's something else. And when their attorneys swoop in from The City, demand big change and cost taxpayers several millions of dollars, that's something else again.
People might not realize that agencies up and down California are looking at Modesto, whispering and pointing fingers, wondering how two civil rights test cases here might affect them. Some say they too have fallen victim to big-city lawyers emboldened by Modesto's loss.
Some Latino leaders, however, see the San Francisco lawyers as heroes, similar to out-of-town civil rights activists who took on Deep South injustice in the 1960s. Finally, they say, after decades of neglect, someone with the law on his side championed Modesto's overlooked and underserved.
And won.
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/961285.html
Latinos scramble to ensure a ride after licenses canceled
OHIO - The signs are popping up at Latino markets throughout Columbus.
"Necesitas ride?" one asks in a mix of English and Spanish. "I'll take you wherever you want."
For a fee, the impromptu taxi services offer transportation to undocumented immigrants who were forced to park their cars because they could not prove legal U.S. residency.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/12/21/plates.ART_ART_12-21-09_A1_OHG2HSU.html?sid=101
More details emerge on Target's probe of immigrant workers
WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA — Almost a month after an internal probe pushed 50 immigrant workers out of their jobs at a downtown Target store, interviews with former and current store employees portray a mass firing that was selective, planned in advance and confusing to many of those forced out.
Sparked by an allegation that illegal immigrants worked on the night shift, the Walnut Creek store last month attracted the attention of the Minneapolis corporate headquarters of the 1,700-store chain. The company sent a team to investigate, according to several people close to the incident.
By the end of the second week of November, 50 Latino employees — at least half of whom say they were given no warning of what was coming — were out of their jobs. It was not a layoff, Target said last week.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_14012468?nclick_check=1
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General Interest
In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap
College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.
Various academic studies have confirmed that black job seekers have a harder time than whites. A study published several years ago in The American Economic Review titled “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” found that applicants with black-sounding names received 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names.
A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?th&emc=th
An undesirable inheritance: U.S.-born kids of illegal immigrants twice as likely as others to face poverty
Of all the disadvantages that U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants might confront, none is more significant than being raised by parents who are in the country illegally.
Forty percent -- or 3.3 million of these children -- have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant, mostly from Mexico or Central America, according to a recent analysis of census data by demographer Jeffrey S. Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center. And researchers warn that the long-term consequences for the country could be profound.
"The fact that so many in this population face these initial disadvantages has huge implications in terms of their education, their future labor market experience, their integration in the broader society, and their political participation," said Roberto Gonzales, a professor at the University of Washington who has studied this generation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120804446.html
Hard Times Even Harder For Migrant Laborers
Nearly a million migrant children crisscross the U.S. with their families, from harvest to harvest and from job to job. In North Carolina, migrant families struggle to find work, and many rely on schools for food and clothing. The people who run the state's migrant program say living conditions and financial hardships for laborers are the worst in memory.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121274651
Lyons: Forum a step backward
Alabama - Albertville Mayor Lindsey Lyons said he felt Monday’s mayor’s forum was a “step backward” in building relationships with the Hispanic community and he was still looking for ways to bridge the gap between the two cultures.
“We tried to build trust with the legal Hispanic community last night and to bridge the divide we currently have,” Lyons said, a day after the meeting. “We provided translators and listened to all concerns but it was apparent that it wasn’t mutual.”
Lyons held a mayor’s forum Monday night and answered a number of questions, most of them pertaining to immigration and multicultural issues.
http://www.sandmountainreporter.com/story.lasso?ewcd=b473fcb47701503d
Official: Too few minority doctors
ATLANTA - New U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin called yesterday for stepped-up efforts in increasing the number of minority physicians.
In one of her first speeches to a large crowd since being sworn in Nov. 3, Benjamin noted that the proportion of U.S. physicians who are minorities was only 6 percent - the same as a century ago. "There's something wrong with that," Benjamin said, addressing a conference on health disparities.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/78497932.html
Jail sees fewer detained for ICE: Many would never have faced jail if they had paid tickets on time.
Tulsa - State and local law enforcement officials have sent more than 900 people to the Tulsa Jail this year who were also suspected of being illegal immigrants, but their numbers appear to be decreasing.
Since January, the number of Tulsa Jail arrestees suspected of being illegal immigrants decreased 16 percent compared with the same period in 2008, according to a World analysis.
And while all but a small fraction of those held for immigration officials were jailed for nonviolent offenses, many of those would never face deportation had they just paid their traffic ticket on time, officials say.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20091206_11_A1_Tieilp711777
Sonia Sotomayor has grown supremely popular
WASHINGTON - Apparently, no one told Sonia Sotomayor that Supreme Court justices are supposed to be circumspect, emerging from their marble palace mainly to dispense legal wisdom to law schools, judges' conferences and lawyers' meetings.
Since becoming the first Hispanic justice, Sotomayor has mamboed with movie stars, exchanged smooches with musicians at the White House and thrown out the first pitch for her beloved New York Yankees. A famous jazz composer even wrote a song about her: "Wise Latina Woman."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2009/12/08/20091208sotomayorceleb1208.html
Best & worst for Latinos in 2009
The last year of the first decade of the third millennium might as well be called the Year of the Latina. While this is by no means a New York phenom, city Latinas have been at the helm of the movement, with the obvious número uno being our very own Sonia from the Bronx.
Though some guys did us proud, the mantle of “worst” falls on a handful of Latino politicians who were in the news way too much and never for good reasons — Hiram Monserrate, Miguel Martínez and Pedro Espada Jr.
Here’s our fourth annual list of events and people that made 2009 the year in which all of us wised up to the fact that being Latino means what you make of it.
http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/12/09/2009-12-09_oh_yes_its_ladies_might.html
Brothers who died in service to the country remembered at plaque dedication ceremony
Two Kingsville brothers who gave their lives for this country while serving in World War II and the Korean Conflict are being remembered as heroes here and as heroes for this nation.
Their legacy will forever be remembered with these words etched on a bronze plaque: “Los Hermanos Flores Park; In Memory of Brothers “Enrique “Henry” Flores and Manuel “Kino” Flores Jr.”
These memorable statements were among the many commendations expressed at the permanent plaque dedication held Dec. 5 at the Flores Park, located at the intersection of E. Santa Gertrudis Avenu and 12th St. in Kingsville.
http://kingsvillerecord.our-hometown.com/news/2009-12-13/Front_Page/Brothers_who_died_in_service_to_the_country_rememb.html
Interpreters required to make justice system work
AVON PARK - Sgt. Sally Vega's ability to speak Spanish makes her an asset to the Avon Park Police Department, whether in gaining the confidence of suspects who can't speak English or catching those who only pretend that they don't.
"That's the upper hand on being Spanish," Vega said.
It always depends on the circumstances and the case, but Vega has different techniques or tricks to find out whether a Hispanic suspect truly can't speak English or if they're faking it.
Making a comment about going to jail will usually get the truth to come out, she said.
http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2009/dec/13/la-interpreters-required-to-make-justice-system-wo/
Cops Tried to Cover Up for Assailants, Federal Prosecutors Say, in Town Where All Hispanics are Considered "Dirty Mexicans"
(CBS) A small Pennsylvania town is at the center of a hate crimes case. It began with the beating death of a Mexican immigrant last year. Now, two teenagers convicted in the attack are facing additional, federal charge. And three police officers have been indicted for allegedly orchestrating a cover-up, as CBS News chief national correspondent Byron Pitts reports.
As 25-year-old Luis Ramirez lay fighting for his life about 18 months ago, racial tensions in blue-collar Shenandoah, Pa. - population 5,000 - came to light. For many, an emerging Mexican immigrant population was not welcome.
After Ramirez died, former high school athletes Brandon Piekarski and Derrick Donchak were convicted of simple assault, but acquitted of more serious charges.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/16/eveningnews/main5988073.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea
Latino in America: 'The Mexican in Town'
The following is an excerpt from "Latino in America" by Soledad O'Brien with Rose Marie Arce. Published by arrangement with Celebra, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. Copyright (c) Soledad O'Brien, 2009.
(CNN) -- The morning I drove to Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the air was crisp with the end of winter. The mountains were brown and the trees were bare. Few mining towns are what you'd call beautiful, but it's especially hard when the earth is cold and colorless. Enormous metal windmills punctuate the empty landscape as you drive into Shenandoah and you realize you're not entering one of those picturesque American towns that sells taffy and still has rotating barbershop poles on Main Street.
Everywhere you look in Shenandoah there are signs of a better past: an arrow pointing toward a defunct Tastee Freez, a shuttered shop for precious antiques, out-of-date announcements for places where you used to be able to dance. Today's town feels almost vacant. Empty front porches face empty front porches with broken stairs, there are few open businesses and much of the town seems to have been painted and repainted in industrial white.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/12/16/latino.in.america.ch.4/
Subpoenaed Kansas reporter refuses to reveal sources
WICHITA | The attorney for a Dodge City reporter ordered to reveal confidential sources and to testify about a jailhouse interview of a murder suspect plans to challenge the judge's ruling, arguing that the court misinterpreted long-standing precedent.
The legal maneuvering comes as his client vows she is willing to go to jail in an unfolding drama with First Amendment implications for Kansas media and the public they serve. At the heart of the subpoena is material relating to a story published in the Dodge City Globe following a jailhouse interview with Sam Bonilla, the man charged with second-degree murder in the Labor Day shooting death of Steven Holt and the attempted murder of Tanner Brunson in Dodge City. Bonilla, who is Hispanic, reportedly told O'Brien that he acted in self-defense after the two victims, both white, tried to run him down while he was jogging with two children along the Arkansas River.
The Globe story alluded that the incident has stirred up anti-Hispanic sentiment. It quoted Rebecca Escalante, the bails bondsman who got O'Brien into the jail, as saying she would have bonded Bonilla out of jail by now if she were not concerned for his safety. It also cited confidential sources saying that one of the shooting victims has a "base of support that is well-known for its anti-Hispanic beliefs" and has a supply of semiautomatic weapons.
http://www.kansascity.com/116/story/1639303.html?storylink=omni_popular
Feds To Probe Racial Profiling Claims
Following an official racial-profiling complaint by a New Haven church, the U.S. Department of Justice has decided that police practices in East Haven deserve a closer look.
That development was triumphantly announced on Wednesday night by Angel Fernandez, a parish leader from Fair Haven’s St. Rose of Lima Church. He said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has decided to launch an investigation into allegations of race-based police harassment in East Haven.
The federal investigation is the latest development in an ongoing story involving alleged police discrimination against the town’s Latinos.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/12/ehpd_to_be_inve.php
Lower income women report more insurance-based discrimination during pregnancy, delivery
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- According to an analysis of statewide data taken from 1998-2001, women in Oregon who made less than $50,000 a year were more than three times likely to report they were discriminated against by health providers because of their insurance status during pregnancy and delivery.
In addition, reporting of insurance-based discrimination was also three times more likely among mothers with Medicaid coverage, and four times more likely among women who did not have Medicaid or employer-sponsored health insurance.
The survey did not ask detailed questions about the nature of the discrimination, but Thorburn was able to draw more out of the data. For instance, women with employer health insurance who reported insurance-based discrimination reported much less breastfeeding support in the hospital. In addition, Hispanic women, regardless of income level, were much less likely to report insurance-based discrimination than other women.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/lower-income-women-report-more-insurance-based-discrimination-during-pregnancy-delivery-27915.html
Theater review: Crystal City 1969
DALLAS — Crystal City 1969, a play written by Dallas' own David Lozano and Raul Treviño, delivers an important story that I don't believe was taught in many years of Texas history in public schools. It's clear the events in Crystal City in 1969 left an indelible mark on the hearts of those involved, and it was enlightening to hear their story.
Crystal City pre-1969 was populated by a majority of Chicano people ruled by an oppressive white government and school board. The students were beaten for speaking Spanish in the classroom and yet their parents, many of who didn't speak English, didn't know what to do to fight back. The true story follows several stand-out high school students and their teacher Jose Angel Gutierrez (Ivan Jasso) who protested the discrimination in their town and took the issue to Washington, D.C. The school board in Crystal City was forced to stop the discrimination on January 4, 1970, and Gutierrez was later elected to the school board. The story was a major victory for Mexican Americans, for bilingual education, and for democracy, the writers say.
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/dec/11/theater-review-emcrystal-city-1969em/
State Latino leaders warm to Ritter, dismiss top Republicans
DENVER — Gov. Bill Ritter shored up support with the state’s growing number of Latino voters Tuesday, appearing with a group of roughly 40 of the community’s leaders, who came to the downtown Auraria campus to endorse him as the best choice for governor in 2010. In discussions with The Colorado Independent, Latino leaders at the event made it clear that Ritter has been working hard to smooth relationships with the community and to address grievances. They also made it clear that Ritter’s Republican rivals have moved in the opposite direction, their recent efforts further alienating Colorado Latinos.
Ritter emphasized that he would continue to work toward establishing greater equity in the Colorado education system in order to provide greater access for Latino students. The move, he said, was part of drive to create a better more highly skilled workforce across the state. He also underlined the benefits brought by last year’s Health Care Affordability Act, which he said added 100,000 more people to the ranks of the insured.
“Latinos and Latinas are disproportionately uninsured” in Colorado, he said. So although the act is designed to lift up all of the citizens of the state, “there is disproportionate benefit oftentimes for communities of color.”
http://coloradoindependent.com/44311/state-latino-leaders-warm-to-ritter-dismiss-top-republicans
Big Ideas: America's racial divide is still not bridged
Some 145 years after the United States made slavery unconstitutional, 59 years after freedom riders took desegregation into America's deep south, 43 years after Thurgood Marshall became the first black man to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, 42 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King and 26 years after Jesse Jackson first ran for president, an African-American has reached the pinnacle of the American establishment.
A black man is running the White House.
Even a few years ago, that sentence would have seemed like a corny line lifted from a Hollywood film. In fact, for generations there have been dozens of movies and TV shows -- often comedies or disaster flicks -- dwelling on the improbable prospect of an African-American president.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/America+racial+divide+still+bridged/2344563/story.html
NOTE: This News Summary is a service of the Hispanic Issues Section of the State Bar of Texas, Brian Hamner, Chair. If you would like to support HIS, visit
http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Sections and click “MyBarPage” (near the bottom of the page) to join online. For further information, contact the Sections Department at 1-800-204-2222 or (512) 427-1463 ext. 1420.
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Top News
Some toy drives check immigration status
They don't claim to know who's been naughty or nice, but some Houston charities are asking whether children are in the country legally before giving them toys.
In a year when more families than ever have asked for help, several programs providing Christmas gifts for needy children require at least one member of the household to be a U.S. citizen. Others ask for proof of income or rely on churches and schools to suggest recipients.
The Salvation Army and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department are among those that consider immigration status, asking for birth certificates or Social Security cards for the children.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6746254.html
See also the opinion blog “How the Immigrants Stole Christmas” at:
http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/inthepink/?p=13791
Protests prompt Salvation Army policy change
LOS ANGELES—The Salvation Army says it will no longer ask for a parent's social security number before giving Christmas toys to children at some local branches.
Juan Alanis, a spokesman for the Salvation Army's Houston branch, says the charity changed its policy Wednesday following a protest by Hispanic immigrants in Los Angeles.
Alanis says the Christian organization never wanted to give the appearance of discrimination based on legal status and decided to not require a social security number to register for its Angel Tree program.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13914448
Report Examines Civil Rights During Bush Years
WASHINGTON — When the Bush administration ran the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, career lawyers wanted to look into accusations that officials in one state had illegally intimidated blacks during a voter-fraud investigation.
But division supervisors refused to “approve further contact with state authorities on this matter,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office auditing the activities of the division from 2001 to 2007.
Congress is set to release that report, which did not identify the state in question, on Thursday as the House of Representatives takes up its first oversight hearing of the Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration.
The 180-page report, obtained by The New York Times, is densely packed with statistics about civil rights enforcement by the division’s sections. The accountability office also examined a sampling of matters that were closed without further action, finding several cases — including the curtailed voter intimidation inquiry — in which supervisors rejected the recommendations of career lawyers to go forward.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/us/politics/03rights.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Media Coverage of Hispanics
Hispanics are already the largest minority group in the United States -- accounting for 47.4 million people or 15.8% of the total population -- and that percentage is expected to nearly double by the middle of this century. As their population grows, so does the importance of how they are portrayed in the media.
A study of more than 34,000 news stories that appeared in major media outlets finds that most of what the public learns about Hispanics comes not through focused coverage of the life and times of this population group but through event-driven news stories in which Hispanics are one of many elements.
From Feb. 9 to Aug. 9, 2009, only a fraction of all news stories studied contained substantial references to Hispanics -- just 645 out of 34,452. And only a tiny number, 57 stories, focused directly on the lives of Hispanics in the U.S., according to a media content analysis done jointly by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Hispanic Center, both of which are projects of the Pew Research Center.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1432/media-coverage-hispanics-sotomayor-lead-newsmaker
To read the overview of “Hispanics in the News”, go to:
http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/hispanics_news
Pennsylvania Cops Accused Of Hate Crime Cover-Up
The federal government has charged three top police officers in Shenandoah, Pa., with covering up evidence in the fatal beating last year of a Mexican immigrant.
Two white football players are in jail now for the attack, although the most serious charges against them were thrown out by a jury.
Federal prosecutors say that's because police officers in the insular town knew the boys and altered evidence in the case. One police officer investigating the case was dating the mom of one of the accused. Another cop had a son on the same football team as the accused.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121576402&ps=cprs
Federal Charges Are Filed in Killing of Immigrant
The police chief of Shenandoah, Pa., and two of his officers were charged Tuesday with obstruction of justice in connection with their handling of the investigation of the beating death of a Mexican immigrant last year.
In addition, two teenagers who were acquitted in state court this year on most charges in the killing were indicted on federal hate crime charges.
The case became a cause célèbre for national Hispanic organizations, particularly after the trial in May. Brandon Piekarsky, now 18, was acquitted of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation and Derrick Donchak, 19, was acquitted of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation in the death of Luís Ramírez, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant. Both were convicted of simple assault, a misdemeanor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/us/16hate.html
Shenandoah police chief accused of '04 cover-up
SHENANDOAH, Pa. - A police chief, ordered held without bail yesterday on charges that he tried to cover up the fatal 2008 beating of a Mexican immigrant by white teenagers, was named in a 2006 lawsuit that said police had beaten to death a Hispanic teenager, then made it look like a suicide.
Police Chief Matthew Nestor, 33, was not charged in the teenager's death in November 2004, but the allegations in the lawsuit, in Tuesday's indictment, and in other civil claims depict a police department with hostility to minorities and a penchant for using excessive force.
Police "acted as feudal warlords in this coal town community that people were afraid of," said John Karoly, attorney for the parents of David Vega, 18, in the 2006 federal lawsuit against the borough. "I would not suggest they were not abusive to everyone and anyone, but I would say the pattern certainly starts to appear that minorities took the thrust of their abuse."
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/79477137.html
Latino Youths Optimistic, but Beset by Problems
Washington, D.C. - infoZine - They value education, hard work and career success. But they are more likely than other youths to drop out of school, live in poverty and become teen parents. They also have high levels of exposure to gangs. And when it comes to self-identity, most straddle two worlds.
This comprehensive report from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the nonpartisan, non-advocacy Pew Research Center, comes at a time when one in four U.S. newborns is Hispanic; never before in U.S. history has a minority ethnic group made up so large a share of the youngest Americans.
The study, "Between Two Worlds: How Latino Youths Come of Age in America," is based on new analysis of government demographic, economic, education and health data sets; a series of focus groups; and a survey conducted from Aug. 5 through Sept. 16, 2009, among a random national sample of 2,012 Hispanics ages 16 and older, with an oversample of 1,240 Hispanics ages 16 to 25. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish, on cellular as well as landline telephones. The report offers a generational analysis of the behaviors, values and experiences of Latino youth who are immigrants themselves (about one-third) and those who are the children and grandchildren (or higher) of immigrants.
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/39074/
To find a summary of the report “Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America” and a link to the entire report, go to:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=117
Feds Open Discrimination Investigation Into East Haven Cops
In a major development, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed late Wednesday that its civil rights division has opened a formal investigation into the East Haven police department.
Working off of allegations of racial discrimination by police, the investigation is "to determine whether a pattern or practice of discriminatory police practices exists," explained department spokesman Alejandro Miyar.
The DOJ's civil rights division typically opens fewer than a dozen of these investigations a year.
A boiling point came in February when the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven took out a video camera and started rolling on two officers allegedly harassing a town shop owner who is of Latino decent. The pastor, Father James Manship, was arrested because, according to a police report, an officer saw an "unknown shiny silver object".
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/breaking/Feds-Open-Discrimination-Investigation-Into-East-Haven-Cops-78354567.html
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Texas
Few Minorities Hold Positions as Court Law Clerks, Staff Attorneys in Texas
In the 10 years Jennifer Lewis Williams has worked at the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas, she has been the court's only African-American staff attorney.
"That's very disappointing," Williams says. "I do know some black attorneys who have applied."
Linda Thomas, the 5th Court's chief justice until Oct. 31, confirms that Williams has been the court's only African-American staff attorney since 1999. But Thomas says she received an application from only one other African-American during the 10-year period.
That lack of diversity persists throughout the state's appellate courts. The reasons for it, and possible solutions, remain in dispute.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202436038028&Few_Minorities_Hold_Positions_as__Court_Law_Clerks_Staff_Attorneys_in_Texas
Council opts for single-member districts.
Barring an unexpected ruling from a federal judge, Boerne’s 12-year experience with using cumulative voting to elect city council members is history and the city’s future council members will be elected from single-member districts.
Council members voted 3-2 Wednesday evening to reopen a 1996 court settlement with the League of United Latin American Citizens that City Attorney Mick McKamie said is likely to result in an agreement that will allow the election of council members from five geographically-defined districts, ending the cumulative voting system that has been used to elect council members in citywide elections since 1997.
http://boernestar.com/articles/2009/12/05/news/doc4b1ae07dc4414621464211.txt
Never one to wait for change, Manuel Benavidez ready to take on Irving school district in voting rights case
Manuel Benavidez spent years as an often lonely loud voice criticizing the political leaders in Irving for their treatment of Latinos.
He doesn't hesitate to call the city's power structure racist. He knows he's viewed as a troublemaker. He ran for the school board twice and lost.
But he finally tasted victory when U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis ruled in his favor in July, finding that the city's at-large system of electing City Council members violated the Voting Rights Act and denied representation to Hispanics. Solis ordered the city to implement single-member districts.
Benavidez – known as "Manny" to many – said while those in the city told him to wait for change, he watched both the City Council and school board continue to shut out Hispanics.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-benavidez_13met.ART0.East.Edition1.4ba72fd.html
Irving voting rights trial #2 begins....
Just in case you missed it, I had a story about the plaintiff in the voting rights cases against the city and Irving ISD on Sunday, Manuel Benavidez (pictured).
This morning at 9 a.m. marked the opening of the case, in federal court in Dallas, with Judge Sidney Fitzwater presiding. Benavidez' attorney Wendy Wang opened by arguing that Irving ISD's at large elections system effectively discriminates against Hispanics, since none recently have been elected to the school board.
"Despite the dramatic changes in demographics there has been no meaningful Hispanic representation on the school board," she said. "A lack of Hispanic representation is not for a lack of trying."
http://irvingblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/irving-voting-rights-trial-2-b.html
Judge Mireles dies with family at his side
Someone else will have to turn on the lights at the Bexar County Courthouse.
At least that’s what many friends and colleagues of District Court Judge Andy Mireles said Tuesday upon hearing of the hard-working jurist’s death from a heart attack suffered Sunday night.
He was 59.
Described as a brilliant legal mind, a fighter for youth headed down wrong paths and the father of the county’s juvenile justice system, Mireles was praised not just as a dedicated judge, but a professional with high ethical standards, who showed no mercy to ill-prepared lawyers and was both tough and compassionate to juvenile offenders.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/obituaries/79373602.html
ECISD, CRUCIAL hold meetings
ECISD’s ongoing dispute with plaintiff CRUCIAL over the district’s compliance with a desegregation lawsuit consent agreement will soon move to a facilitator.
Both the district and CRUCIAL have met four times without a facilitator, primarily in October, to discuss specific areas of disagreement with how ECISD has performed in complying with the consent order. ECISD Superintendent Hector Mendez said no dates have been set, but both sides should come together with the facilitator in January, one year after the district became eligible in January 2009 to request dismissal of the case.
At the same time, court filings have continued the debate over whether ECISD has complied with the consent agreement. If the federal court in Midland finds the district has complied, the district can be released from court supervision in the desegregation case brought by CRUCIAL.
http://www.oaoa.com/news/ecisd-40652-crucial-hold.html
ECISD changes
Some ECISD teachers moved around shortly after the Thanksgiving break continue to get used to their new surroundings after being transferred to help the district meet terms of a 2006 consent agreement that essentially declares how many minority teachers must be at each school.
These sudden transfers were made to get ECISD into compliance with the 2006 consent agreement. The school district’s court filing in early November stated ECISD would have the required teacher racial percentages by Nov. 30.
http://www.oaoa.com/news/ecisd-40651-consent-agreement.html
Commentary: Michele Valdez: Eradicating the new N-word
Years ago I moved from Denver to North Texas and found a sophisticated mecca of do-gooders, symphony-goers and retail elite. Dallas was a social smoothie of Oprah, Anna Wintour and Nelson Mandela.
I found bedroom communities, urban villages and wealthy haunts like Highland Park and Preston Hollow. Most are family-oriented communities composed of God-fearing folks always willing to lend a hand. Occasionally, though, racism peeks through the suburban blanket of bliss or the trendy subterfuge of urban culture. There's nothing newsworthy, just the trite whisper if an African-American family moves to the area or the kindly warning when "Mexicans" are spotted driving through the neighborhood.
Recently, something changed. I first noticed it at our tennis club. Teenage boys were watching the U.S. Open. They were tossing insults like they were tennis balls. In an attempt to hurl a foul attack, one red-headed, freckle-faced boy called to another, "You're a Mexican." The other boy looked stunned. Like a hunter out of ammunition, he shot back feebly, "No, you're a Mexican."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-valdez_05edi.State.Edition1.1983cbd.html
Kyle, TX Gains Allies in Housing Discrimination Lawsuit Appeal
The City of Kyle, TX, facing a legal challenge to its minimum development standards, which critics contend would discriminate against minorities, has gained support from the Texas Municipal League and the state and international associations of city attorneys, as well as four other Central Texas cities. The case is being watched closely by cities nationwide, because the appellate court decision may serve as a precedent and affect many other cities that have enacted similar ordinances, legal experts say.
Austin, TX (PRWEB) December 9, 2009 -- The City of Kyle, TX, facing a legal challenge to its minimum development standards, which critics contend would discriminate against minorities, has gained support from the Texas Municipal League and the state and international associations of city attorneys, as well as four other Central Texas cities.
The case is being watched closely by cities nationwide, because the appellate court decision may serve as a precedent and affect many other cities that have enacted similar ordinances, legal experts say.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/kyle-tx-gains-allies-in-housing-discrimination-lawsuit-appeal,1081332.shtml
13 workers file discrimination lawsuit against Dallas water department
Thirteen Dallas Water Utilities employees filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against City Hall on Wednesday, alleging a pattern of racial discrimination and retaliation dating back years.
The suit paints a picture of the city's water department as a racially divided institution where discrimination is a normal practice.
The plaintiffs include 11 blacks, one Hispanic and one Asian.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/121709dnmetcitysuit.39afcac.html
Lawsuit says Hispanics taunted black employees at Dr Pepper Snapple warehouse in Chicago suburb of Northlake
On his first day of work in 2005 at a beverage warehouse in west suburban Northlake, Germaine Benson said he immediately felt tension between black and Hispanic workers.
But by 2007, conditions had grown much uglier as Hispanic supervisors repeatedly subjected black employees to racial insults such as "donkey," "monkey" and the n-word, said Benson, who is African-American.
Some of the black employees said they were paid based on the number of pallets of soda, juice and water they load onto trucks. Under the company's "one man-one truck" rule, only a single employee can work on a truck at a time.
But the black workers contended Hispanic workers were not subjected to the same rule and, as a result, were able to make more money.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-warehouse-plant-racial-lawsudec18,0,5507770.story
Peeling back the pages of time: In a small silver trailer at Discovery Green, 150 Hispanic Houstonians are recording the stories of their lives for a nonprofit initiative
Historias — Spanish for “stories” — kicked off earlier in the fall in Washington and with recording studios in New York and San Francisco. A mobile recording studio will travel the U.S. for a year, starting in Houston.
The response from Latino families has been “off the charts,” said Dave Isay, StoryCorps founder and president.
“The commitment and the desire to honor other family members is extremely strong in the Latino community,” Isay said.
November's stop in Houston was the first for the trailer converted into a recording studio. The Historias trailer will be at the park through Dec. 19.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6768402.html
White worker accuses Hispanic supervisors of discrimination
GALVESTON - A Galveston County man claims he was terminated from his welding position with a maritime repair company because he is white, recent court documents say.
In a lawsuit targeting Gulf Copper Dry Dock and Rig Repair, Michael McCarrell explains that his foremen, both Hispanics, said racist things to him and dismissed him from their crews.
"The defendant failed to comply with the duty to take all reasonable and necessary steps to eliminate discrimination from the workplace and to prevent it from occurring in the future," the suit says.
The case was filed Dec. 17 in Galveston County Court No. 3.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/223782-white-worker-accuses-hispanic-supervisors-of-discrimination
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USA
Miguel Alexander Pozo Installed As President Of Hispanic Bar Association Of New Jersey
Miguel Alexander Pozo, member of the law firm Lowenstein Sandler PC, has been installed as the 30th president of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey (HBN-NJ). The 30th annual installation ceremony was conducted on October 29, 2009, at the W Hotel in Hoboken. The Honorable Julio M. Fuentes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit administered the oath of office before an audience of federal and state court judges, elected officials including Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, business leaders, and many others in the legal profession.
An attorney in the firm's Litigation Department, Mr. Pozo has ten years of experience representing Fortune 500 corporations, businesses, and non-profit organizations in a broad range of federal and state court litigation matters. His work has included all phases of fact and expert discovery, motion practice, trials, arbitrations, and mediations.
http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/current.php?artType=view&artMonth=December&artYear=2009&EntryNo=10446
Rutgers settles lawsuit that alleged racial bias
Rutgers University has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by four groundskeepers who in 2006 accused the school of denying them promotions and ignoring a noose hung on a campus building.
The workers -- three African-Americans and one Hispanic -- held maintenance jobs at the Cook/Douglass campus in New Brunswick for at least 12 years. In October, Rutgers agreed to pay each of the men $71,875 in lost wages and other damages, while also reimbursing their attorneys $300,000 in legal fees, according to court papers.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1259634306285220.xml&coll=1
San Jose to pay $97,500 to settle police brutality claim
Amid mounting allegations of excessive police force, San Jose officials have agreed to pay a tire store owner and his nephew $97,500 to settle a lawsuit stemming from a 2006 confrontation that escalated from a minor traffic incident into an international dispute over officers' treatment of Latinos.
The incident drew little attention until March 2007, when Bruno Figueroa, the Mexican consul general at the time, cited it as an example of police mistreatment and demanded that San Jose police show more accountability and respect toward Latinos.
"This unfortunate sequence of events ... shows that when dealing with the Latino community, some San Jose police officers will not hesitate to use force, no matter how unjustified it may be," Figueroa wrote in a statement to the Mercury News.
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13895376
"Ringleader" Pleads Guilty in LI Bias-Attack Slay
For Joselo Lucero, it was a nightmare revisited.
The Patchogue man sat quietly in a Suffolk county court and listened to details of how his brother, Marcelo was hunted down and murdered by a gang of seven teens last November -- simply because he was Hispanic.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Ringleader-Pleads-Guilty-in-LI-Bias-Attack-Slay-78330012.html
Landmark Port Chester Cumulative Voting Election to Be Set for June 2010
PORT CHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Port Chester Mayor Dennis G. Pilla, on behalf of the Village Board of Trustees, has announced that members of the Port Chester Board of Trustees will hold a press conference TODAY, Thursday, December 17, 2009 in front of the Hon. Charles L. Brieant Jr. Federal Building and Courthouse located at 300 Quarropas Street, White Plains (NY), immediately following the Village's appearance before U.S. District Judge Stephen C. Robinson at 3:30 p.m. to present a consent decree detailing the Village's plans for a Cumulative Voting Trustee election system and Voter Education Plan, as previously requested by the Judge.
Judge Robinson had requested that the Village work with the plaintiffs to develop a detailed bilingual voter education and outreach plan as part of his November 6, 2009 decision granting Port Chester their preference for a Cumulative Voting trustee election system to remedy a Section 2 violation of the Voting Rights Act, from a matter that was initially brought against the Village by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2006. The jointly developed consent decree sets an election for all six Village Trustee seats to be held on June 15th, 2010.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/landmark-port-chester-cumulative-voting-election-to-be-set-for-june-2010-79549122.html
Hispanics claim racial profiling by officers: U.S. Border Patrol, 3 departments named
Three times in two months, Jose Calderon and Belinda Vega were stopped by a police officer and an immigration officer in Plymouth, Ohio, and their identities questioned - each time with their two young children present and each time with no ticket or citation given.
The stops, according to lawyers with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, were not a result of Mr. Calderon's driving but because of the color of his skin.
The couple was among 12 individuals and two organizations that filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Toledo Thursday alleging racial profiling practices by agents of the U.S. Border Patrol and three northwest Ohio police departments.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091211/NEWS16/912110357/-1/SRMAIN
Family sues police
A Hispanic family has filed a federal lawsuit against Prince William County police, lawyers for the family announced this week.
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 23 at U.S. District Court in Alexandria, alleges that county police used excessive force when they entered Juan and Esperanza Guerrero's Manassas area home in November 2007.
According to the lawsuit, Prince William police officers went to the Guerreros' home on Nov. 24, 2007, to serve a truancy summons on one of their relatives.
Esperanza Guerrero told the police officer that the relative did not live at their house.
The officer then "continued to force his way into the home," Guerrero's attorney said in the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that the police officers then "dragged Esperanza Guerrero outside the house, arrested her and pepper sprayed her husband, Juan Guerrero, who was in his home," the attorney said in a news release.
http://www2.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/family_sues_police/48549/
Colo. court: immigrants tax records are private
DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that authorities violated the constitutional and privacy rights of suspected illegal immigrants when they used tax returns to try and build hundreds of identity theft cases against them.
The 4-3 ruling affirmed a decision by a Weld County district judge who suppressed evidence against one of the defendants. In that case, investigators raided a tax business that catered to Latinos in Greeley, an agricultural city on the northern plains of Colorado with a heavily Hispanic population.
The investigation, dubbed "Operation Numbers Game," marked the first and only time in the U.S. that authorities used tax returns, which are confidential under federal law, to prosecute suspected illegal immigrants.
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/colo-court-immigrants-tax-records-are-private-127572.html
N.C. judges heading to Senate nomination hearing
RALEIGH, N.C. — Two North Carolina judges are heading to Capitol Hill for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on their nominations to the nation's most conservative federal appeals court.
The committee is scheduled to hear the nominations Wednesday afternoon of Judge Jim Wynn and Judge Albert Diaz. President Barack Obama nominated the two judges last month to serve on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/6627268/
Albertsons settles lawsuit claiming racism at Aurora facility
AURORA | Albertsons will pay $8.9 million to 168 current and former employees at its Aurora distribution center to settle a discrimination lawsuit that claimed black and Hispanic employees were subjected to swastikas and lynching drawings.
The settlement, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, covers three separate lawsuits, all filed by workers at the Aurora facility and all claimed racist harassment and discrimination.
“Employers simply cannot overlook or tolerate this kind of outrageous discrimination and retaliation. The EEOC certainly won’t,” EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru said in a statement. “We will aggressively pursue employers who violate the laws we enforce. And we’ll insist on substantial and meaningful relief for the victims before settling these cases.”
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2009/12/16/news/metro_aurora/doc4b27eae2e0cd4473644047.txt
As wage theft rises, states and cities crack down
CHICAGO — Fabian Gutierrez logged more than 60 hours a week slicing meat and stocking shelves with cheeses and milk at a neighborhood grocery for less than minimum wage and no overtime.
The 32-year-old Mexican immigrant said he put up with the situation for months because he was desperate to support his wife and young daughter. And like many co-workers, he was afraid to challenge his boss.
"All of us took abuse. We were disrespected," said Gutierrez, who found help at a workers' rights center, joined with other workers to sue the owner of La Fruteria and now works at another grocery store that he says treats him better.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-R4WzSaR5wqLl95V7kTz-efaEZwD9CL6OV83
East Greenbush fires teacher
EAST GREENBUSH -- School district officials have fired high school gym teacher Bernard ''Bernie'' Watt, who is accused of touching a female student's breasts and uttering a racial remark to a student.
Watt, 48, has been on administrative leave since February after he was criminally charged with endangering the welfare of a child and forcible touching for the Feb. 2 incident that allegedly occurred during a basketball drill in the Columbia High School gym.
District Attorney Richard McNally said the case will now go to trial.
Watt was not criminally charged but was found guilty by state Education Department hearing officers for a separate incident during a soccer practice in September 2008.
He allegedly yelled ''Hey Hispanic kid, run like you are running to the border,'' according to a copy of the minutes and decisions of a state Education Department teacher tenure hearing.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=878815&category=RENSSELAER
Third Staffer Joins Suit Against Post
Ikimilusa Livingston has joined Austin Fenner's lawsuit against the Post, Gawker reports. Fenner's suit follows Sandra Guzman's opening sally last month. Livingston, who's black, says that she was removed from her courts beat, taken off stories, and basically banned from the newsroom because of discrimination. And she echoes previous complaints of a pervasively racist atmosphere at the paper.
http://www.observer.com/2009/daily-transom/third-staffer-joins-suit-against-post
In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap
Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.
But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.
A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did.
The discrimination is rarely overt, according to interviews with more than two dozen college-educated black job seekers around the country, many of them out of work for months. Instead, those interviewed told subtler stories, referring to surprised looks and offhand comments, interviews that fell apart almost as soon as they began, and the sudden loss of interest from companies after meetings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html
N.J. Attorney General will review state police stop of N.Y.C. students on Turnpike
MERCER COUNTY -- The trooper in an unmarked cruiser circled the parking lot at the New Jersey Turnpike rest stop near exit 7A. He scanned for a black Mercedes van matching the description provided by a 911 caller who reported it carried three armed men, authorities said.
But instead of weapons, the troopers found 11 frightened Queens teenagers returning from an overnight trip to Washington, D.C.
The students — all black and Hispanic, ranging from 16 to 19 years old — were returning from a trip to Howard University, a historically black college. They toured the campus and visited classes, then visited landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.
The students said a helicopter circled overhead and they were led out of the van by troopers with the guns drawn. They were handcuffed and placed on the side of the road, they said.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/state_police_may_face_discrimi.html
Two civil rights lawsuits in Stanislaus County bring kudos, criticism
Few blame the poor or downtrodden for wanting to improve their lot in life.
But when they lawyer up, that's something else. And when their attorneys swoop in from The City, demand big change and cost taxpayers several millions of dollars, that's something else again.
People might not realize that agencies up and down California are looking at Modesto, whispering and pointing fingers, wondering how two civil rights test cases here might affect them. Some say they too have fallen victim to big-city lawyers emboldened by Modesto's loss.
Some Latino leaders, however, see the San Francisco lawyers as heroes, similar to out-of-town civil rights activists who took on Deep South injustice in the 1960s. Finally, they say, after decades of neglect, someone with the law on his side championed Modesto's overlooked and underserved.
And won.
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/961285.html
Latinos scramble to ensure a ride after licenses canceled
OHIO - The signs are popping up at Latino markets throughout Columbus.
"Necesitas ride?" one asks in a mix of English and Spanish. "I'll take you wherever you want."
For a fee, the impromptu taxi services offer transportation to undocumented immigrants who were forced to park their cars because they could not prove legal U.S. residency.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/12/21/plates.ART_ART_12-21-09_A1_OHG2HSU.html?sid=101
More details emerge on Target's probe of immigrant workers
WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA — Almost a month after an internal probe pushed 50 immigrant workers out of their jobs at a downtown Target store, interviews with former and current store employees portray a mass firing that was selective, planned in advance and confusing to many of those forced out.
Sparked by an allegation that illegal immigrants worked on the night shift, the Walnut Creek store last month attracted the attention of the Minneapolis corporate headquarters of the 1,700-store chain. The company sent a team to investigate, according to several people close to the incident.
By the end of the second week of November, 50 Latino employees — at least half of whom say they were given no warning of what was coming — were out of their jobs. It was not a layoff, Target said last week.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_14012468?nclick_check=1
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General Interest
In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap
College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.
Various academic studies have confirmed that black job seekers have a harder time than whites. A study published several years ago in The American Economic Review titled “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” found that applicants with black-sounding names received 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names.
A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?th&emc=th
An undesirable inheritance: U.S.-born kids of illegal immigrants twice as likely as others to face poverty
Of all the disadvantages that U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants might confront, none is more significant than being raised by parents who are in the country illegally.
Forty percent -- or 3.3 million of these children -- have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant, mostly from Mexico or Central America, according to a recent analysis of census data by demographer Jeffrey S. Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center. And researchers warn that the long-term consequences for the country could be profound.
"The fact that so many in this population face these initial disadvantages has huge implications in terms of their education, their future labor market experience, their integration in the broader society, and their political participation," said Roberto Gonzales, a professor at the University of Washington who has studied this generation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120804446.html
Hard Times Even Harder For Migrant Laborers
Nearly a million migrant children crisscross the U.S. with their families, from harvest to harvest and from job to job. In North Carolina, migrant families struggle to find work, and many rely on schools for food and clothing. The people who run the state's migrant program say living conditions and financial hardships for laborers are the worst in memory.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121274651
Lyons: Forum a step backward
Alabama - Albertville Mayor Lindsey Lyons said he felt Monday’s mayor’s forum was a “step backward” in building relationships with the Hispanic community and he was still looking for ways to bridge the gap between the two cultures.
“We tried to build trust with the legal Hispanic community last night and to bridge the divide we currently have,” Lyons said, a day after the meeting. “We provided translators and listened to all concerns but it was apparent that it wasn’t mutual.”
Lyons held a mayor’s forum Monday night and answered a number of questions, most of them pertaining to immigration and multicultural issues.
http://www.sandmountainreporter.com/story.lasso?ewcd=b473fcb47701503d
Official: Too few minority doctors
ATLANTA - New U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin called yesterday for stepped-up efforts in increasing the number of minority physicians.
In one of her first speeches to a large crowd since being sworn in Nov. 3, Benjamin noted that the proportion of U.S. physicians who are minorities was only 6 percent - the same as a century ago. "There's something wrong with that," Benjamin said, addressing a conference on health disparities.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/78497932.html
Jail sees fewer detained for ICE: Many would never have faced jail if they had paid tickets on time.
Tulsa - State and local law enforcement officials have sent more than 900 people to the Tulsa Jail this year who were also suspected of being illegal immigrants, but their numbers appear to be decreasing.
Since January, the number of Tulsa Jail arrestees suspected of being illegal immigrants decreased 16 percent compared with the same period in 2008, according to a World analysis.
And while all but a small fraction of those held for immigration officials were jailed for nonviolent offenses, many of those would never face deportation had they just paid their traffic ticket on time, officials say.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20091206_11_A1_Tieilp711777
Sonia Sotomayor has grown supremely popular
WASHINGTON - Apparently, no one told Sonia Sotomayor that Supreme Court justices are supposed to be circumspect, emerging from their marble palace mainly to dispense legal wisdom to law schools, judges' conferences and lawyers' meetings.
Since becoming the first Hispanic justice, Sotomayor has mamboed with movie stars, exchanged smooches with musicians at the White House and thrown out the first pitch for her beloved New York Yankees. A famous jazz composer even wrote a song about her: "Wise Latina Woman."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2009/12/08/20091208sotomayorceleb1208.html
Best & worst for Latinos in 2009
The last year of the first decade of the third millennium might as well be called the Year of the Latina. While this is by no means a New York phenom, city Latinas have been at the helm of the movement, with the obvious número uno being our very own Sonia from the Bronx.
Though some guys did us proud, the mantle of “worst” falls on a handful of Latino politicians who were in the news way too much and never for good reasons — Hiram Monserrate, Miguel Martínez and Pedro Espada Jr.
Here’s our fourth annual list of events and people that made 2009 the year in which all of us wised up to the fact that being Latino means what you make of it.
http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/12/09/2009-12-09_oh_yes_its_ladies_might.html
Brothers who died in service to the country remembered at plaque dedication ceremony
Two Kingsville brothers who gave their lives for this country while serving in World War II and the Korean Conflict are being remembered as heroes here and as heroes for this nation.
Their legacy will forever be remembered with these words etched on a bronze plaque: “Los Hermanos Flores Park; In Memory of Brothers “Enrique “Henry” Flores and Manuel “Kino” Flores Jr.”
These memorable statements were among the many commendations expressed at the permanent plaque dedication held Dec. 5 at the Flores Park, located at the intersection of E. Santa Gertrudis Avenu and 12th St. in Kingsville.
http://kingsvillerecord.our-hometown.com/news/2009-12-13/Front_Page/Brothers_who_died_in_service_to_the_country_rememb.html
Interpreters required to make justice system work
AVON PARK - Sgt. Sally Vega's ability to speak Spanish makes her an asset to the Avon Park Police Department, whether in gaining the confidence of suspects who can't speak English or catching those who only pretend that they don't.
"That's the upper hand on being Spanish," Vega said.
It always depends on the circumstances and the case, but Vega has different techniques or tricks to find out whether a Hispanic suspect truly can't speak English or if they're faking it.
Making a comment about going to jail will usually get the truth to come out, she said.
http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2009/dec/13/la-interpreters-required-to-make-justice-system-wo/
Cops Tried to Cover Up for Assailants, Federal Prosecutors Say, in Town Where All Hispanics are Considered "Dirty Mexicans"
(CBS) A small Pennsylvania town is at the center of a hate crimes case. It began with the beating death of a Mexican immigrant last year. Now, two teenagers convicted in the attack are facing additional, federal charge. And three police officers have been indicted for allegedly orchestrating a cover-up, as CBS News chief national correspondent Byron Pitts reports.
As 25-year-old Luis Ramirez lay fighting for his life about 18 months ago, racial tensions in blue-collar Shenandoah, Pa. - population 5,000 - came to light. For many, an emerging Mexican immigrant population was not welcome.
After Ramirez died, former high school athletes Brandon Piekarski and Derrick Donchak were convicted of simple assault, but acquitted of more serious charges.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/16/eveningnews/main5988073.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea
Latino in America: 'The Mexican in Town'
The following is an excerpt from "Latino in America" by Soledad O'Brien with Rose Marie Arce. Published by arrangement with Celebra, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. Copyright (c) Soledad O'Brien, 2009.
(CNN) -- The morning I drove to Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the air was crisp with the end of winter. The mountains were brown and the trees were bare. Few mining towns are what you'd call beautiful, but it's especially hard when the earth is cold and colorless. Enormous metal windmills punctuate the empty landscape as you drive into Shenandoah and you realize you're not entering one of those picturesque American towns that sells taffy and still has rotating barbershop poles on Main Street.
Everywhere you look in Shenandoah there are signs of a better past: an arrow pointing toward a defunct Tastee Freez, a shuttered shop for precious antiques, out-of-date announcements for places where you used to be able to dance. Today's town feels almost vacant. Empty front porches face empty front porches with broken stairs, there are few open businesses and much of the town seems to have been painted and repainted in industrial white.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/12/16/latino.in.america.ch.4/
Subpoenaed Kansas reporter refuses to reveal sources
WICHITA | The attorney for a Dodge City reporter ordered to reveal confidential sources and to testify about a jailhouse interview of a murder suspect plans to challenge the judge's ruling, arguing that the court misinterpreted long-standing precedent.
The legal maneuvering comes as his client vows she is willing to go to jail in an unfolding drama with First Amendment implications for Kansas media and the public they serve. At the heart of the subpoena is material relating to a story published in the Dodge City Globe following a jailhouse interview with Sam Bonilla, the man charged with second-degree murder in the Labor Day shooting death of Steven Holt and the attempted murder of Tanner Brunson in Dodge City. Bonilla, who is Hispanic, reportedly told O'Brien that he acted in self-defense after the two victims, both white, tried to run him down while he was jogging with two children along the Arkansas River.
The Globe story alluded that the incident has stirred up anti-Hispanic sentiment. It quoted Rebecca Escalante, the bails bondsman who got O'Brien into the jail, as saying she would have bonded Bonilla out of jail by now if she were not concerned for his safety. It also cited confidential sources saying that one of the shooting victims has a "base of support that is well-known for its anti-Hispanic beliefs" and has a supply of semiautomatic weapons.
http://www.kansascity.com/116/story/1639303.html?storylink=omni_popular
Feds To Probe Racial Profiling Claims
Following an official racial-profiling complaint by a New Haven church, the U.S. Department of Justice has decided that police practices in East Haven deserve a closer look.
That development was triumphantly announced on Wednesday night by Angel Fernandez, a parish leader from Fair Haven’s St. Rose of Lima Church. He said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has decided to launch an investigation into allegations of race-based police harassment in East Haven.
The federal investigation is the latest development in an ongoing story involving alleged police discrimination against the town’s Latinos.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/12/ehpd_to_be_inve.php
Lower income women report more insurance-based discrimination during pregnancy, delivery
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- According to an analysis of statewide data taken from 1998-2001, women in Oregon who made less than $50,000 a year were more than three times likely to report they were discriminated against by health providers because of their insurance status during pregnancy and delivery.
In addition, reporting of insurance-based discrimination was also three times more likely among mothers with Medicaid coverage, and four times more likely among women who did not have Medicaid or employer-sponsored health insurance.
The survey did not ask detailed questions about the nature of the discrimination, but Thorburn was able to draw more out of the data. For instance, women with employer health insurance who reported insurance-based discrimination reported much less breastfeeding support in the hospital. In addition, Hispanic women, regardless of income level, were much less likely to report insurance-based discrimination than other women.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/lower-income-women-report-more-insurance-based-discrimination-during-pregnancy-delivery-27915.html
Theater review: Crystal City 1969
DALLAS — Crystal City 1969, a play written by Dallas' own David Lozano and Raul Treviño, delivers an important story that I don't believe was taught in many years of Texas history in public schools. It's clear the events in Crystal City in 1969 left an indelible mark on the hearts of those involved, and it was enlightening to hear their story.
Crystal City pre-1969 was populated by a majority of Chicano people ruled by an oppressive white government and school board. The students were beaten for speaking Spanish in the classroom and yet their parents, many of who didn't speak English, didn't know what to do to fight back. The true story follows several stand-out high school students and their teacher Jose Angel Gutierrez (Ivan Jasso) who protested the discrimination in their town and took the issue to Washington, D.C. The school board in Crystal City was forced to stop the discrimination on January 4, 1970, and Gutierrez was later elected to the school board. The story was a major victory for Mexican Americans, for bilingual education, and for democracy, the writers say.
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/dec/11/theater-review-emcrystal-city-1969em/
State Latino leaders warm to Ritter, dismiss top Republicans
DENVER — Gov. Bill Ritter shored up support with the state’s growing number of Latino voters Tuesday, appearing with a group of roughly 40 of the community’s leaders, who came to the downtown Auraria campus to endorse him as the best choice for governor in 2010. In discussions with The Colorado Independent, Latino leaders at the event made it clear that Ritter has been working hard to smooth relationships with the community and to address grievances. They also made it clear that Ritter’s Republican rivals have moved in the opposite direction, their recent efforts further alienating Colorado Latinos.
Ritter emphasized that he would continue to work toward establishing greater equity in the Colorado education system in order to provide greater access for Latino students. The move, he said, was part of drive to create a better more highly skilled workforce across the state. He also underlined the benefits brought by last year’s Health Care Affordability Act, which he said added 100,000 more people to the ranks of the insured.
“Latinos and Latinas are disproportionately uninsured” in Colorado, he said. So although the act is designed to lift up all of the citizens of the state, “there is disproportionate benefit oftentimes for communities of color.”
http://coloradoindependent.com/44311/state-latino-leaders-warm-to-ritter-dismiss-top-republicans
Big Ideas: America's racial divide is still not bridged
Some 145 years after the United States made slavery unconstitutional, 59 years after freedom riders took desegregation into America's deep south, 43 years after Thurgood Marshall became the first black man to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, 42 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King and 26 years after Jesse Jackson first ran for president, an African-American has reached the pinnacle of the American establishment.
A black man is running the White House.
Even a few years ago, that sentence would have seemed like a corny line lifted from a Hollywood film. In fact, for generations there have been dozens of movies and TV shows -- often comedies or disaster flicks -- dwelling on the improbable prospect of an African-American president.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/America+racial+divide+still+bridged/2344563/story.html
