Police Interpreter Services

U.S. Border Patrol agents will no longer serve as interpreters when local law enforcement agencies ask for language help.
The new decree issued by Homeland Security says agents should refer any such request to a private service if it's solely for interpretation.
Immigration advocates in Washington state say Border Patrol agents who often interpret during traffic stops or other minor local law calls eventually end up asking immigration questions and in some cases arresting immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.
The use of interpretation is 1 of several contentious practices immigrant advocates have fought against in Washington since the Border Patrol agency expanded the number of agents in the state.
Border Patrol has said it's enforcing immigration laws and doing its job of securing the border.

New Ca. Drivers License

California drivers who make frequent trips to Mexico could get speedier border passage under a plan to offer special driver's licenses.
UT San Diego says a proposed state measure would allow Californians to have a background check and pay an extra $75 for an enhanced license.
That license would permit them to use special existing "Ready Lanes" to cross into the U.S. from Mexico rather than wait in regular lanes, where a crossing can take an hour or more.
The licensing program was created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which must approve its use by states. Several states, including Washington, already offer the licenses to those traveling to Canada.

Border Shooting Information Lacking from the U.S.A.

Border Journey: The Killing of Jose Antonio

What follows is a letter I received from Scott Nicholson, a community organizer who has been working on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. It is posted here in full with his permission.

Dear friends,
     Two months ago today, 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was killed by the Border Patrol here in Nogales, Sonora.  Today is also International Human Rights Day commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.  It seems like an appropriate moment to consider the impact of the United States’ militarization of the border.
     A Border Patrol agent in Nogales, Arizona fired at least 14 shots from his assault rifle into Nogales, Sonora on the night of October 10.  Jose Antonio was hit twice in the head and four times in the chest.
     The Border Patrol claims the agent fired in self-defense after rocks were thrown at agents who were pursuing two drug smugglers.  Their brief statement issued the following day notes that the agent “discharged his service weapon” and “one of the suspects appeared to have been hit.”
     “They ripped out a part of my soul” said Araceli, Jose Antonio’s mother, during a gathering of border organizations in Ciudad Juarez.  “He was and is part of my life.  I still hear his voice.  My son had a lot of dreams.  Why do they have to kill innocent people?”  
     I moved back to Nogales ten days after Jose Antonio was killed and I’ve been drawn to that site several times.  I went there the day after I returned here and my last visit was two days ago.  I’ve also walked along the U.S. side of the border wall near where the shots were fired.
     Jose Antonio was killed on the sidewalk in front of Dr. Luis Contreras’ home and clinic on International Street.  The agent placed the barrel of his rifle between the steel beams of the border wall and shot down into Nogales, Sonora.  That section of the wall is about 20 feet high and set on a hill that is 25 feet above the street.


     The initial shots were fired from at least 100 feet away and eight bullets hit the corner of the building.  The final shots were fired from about 50 feet away and three bullets hit that side of the building where Jose Antonio died.  It would have been extremely difficult to throw a rock from there and hit the agent who fired all those shots.
     The killing took place approximately 100 yards from a Border Patrol surveillance tower.  The video that was recorded by the cameras that night has not been released to the public or to Jose Antonio’s family.
     It would appear that the Border Patrol is able to get away with murder because the victim was Mexican.  Would the U.S. government show more concern if an agent on the northern border had killed a 16-year-old Canadian, or if the roles were reversed and Jose Antonio had shot into the United States and killed someone there?  
     “Why are they able to go out and kill here?” asked Araceli.  “Why are they covering them up?  I want to know who they are.  I want them arrested and I want justice.”
     “There have been very many young people, teenagers, who have been killed at the border” said Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.  “The reports reaching me are that there has been excessive force by the U.S. border patrols.”
     In love and solidarity,
     Scott

Mexican Reforms for Education System

President Enrique Pena Nieto is proposing sweeping reforms to a public education system widely seen as moribund, taking on an iron-fisted union leader who is considered the country's most powerful woman and the main obstacle to change.
Flanked by the leaders of Mexico's three major political parties, Pena Nieto said Monday that he would send the initiative to Congress within hours to create a professional system for hiring, evaluating and promoting teachers without the "discretionary criteria" currently used in a system where teaching positions are often bought or inherited.
The plan, with multi-party support, moves much of the control of the public education system to the federal government from the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers, led for 23 years by union president Elba Esther Gordillo, who under current law hires and fires teachers and has been accused of using union funds as her personal pocket book.
The proposal requires constitutional reform, meaning it would have to be ratified by Congress and at least 16 of Mexico's 31 states.
"It's time to open the door for the great educators of our country," Pena Nieto said. "The reform would give constitutional status to the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education and give it autonomy."
It was Pena Nieto's first major proposal since taking office Dec. 1 and is considered a political blow to Gordillo, who has played the role of
kingmaker with many Mexican politicians. She was conspicuously absent from the public announcement and did not respond immediately to an Associated Press request for an interview.
If it passes, it would be "the most important institutional change in the education system since the union was formed in 1943," said Javier Romero, education expert and researcher at the Autonomous Metropolitan University. It would give teachers educational incentives to do their jobs rather than political ones, he said.
The proposal would also establish a federal census of education data. Because the union controls the education system, no one knows exactly how many schools, teachers or students exist. The payroll is believed to have thousands of phantom teachers and once included the leader of a major drug cartel in the western state of Michoacan, who had last been in the classroom a decade earlier. The state later canceled his teacher checks.
Pena Nieto and the three major parties signed a Pact for Mexico last week with other education goals, including raising the level of Mexican students who complete middle school to 80 percent and the number who complete high school to 40 percent. High school only recently became mandatory in the country.
His proposal Monday would also extend learning hours in some 40,000 public schools.
The president said the change is crucial to make Mexico competitive in the new global technological market.
Jesus Zambrano, head of the rival Democratic Revolutionary Party who signed onto to Pena Nieto's accord, was widely quoted over the weekend saying it was designed to take power away from Gordillo, who is capable of delivering millions of votes and whose political support has been key to several presidents.
A pact she made with former President Felipe Calderon was considered the single factor that handed Calderon his 2006 victory in a very tight race.
She was elected to another six-year term as union leader in October. She was the only candidate and received not a single dissenting vote.
Gordillo has beaten back years of attacks from union dissidents, political foes and journalists who have seen her as a symbol of Mexico's corrupt, old-style politics. Rivals have accused her of corruption, misuse of union funds and even a murder, but prosecutors who investigated never brought a charge against her.
She was expelled from Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2006 for supporting other parties' candidates and the formation of her own New Alliance party.
Critics have accused her of amassing more than a dozen properties worth millions of dollars. She has acknowledged some of the wealth, saying part was inherited.
Education Secretary Emilio Chuayfett declined to interpret Gordillo's absence from the announcement.
"What we're clearly seeking, without specifying any certain people, is for the state to retake control of the education curriculum," ahe told reporters.

Deaf Mexican Officers

Violent crime in Mexico has pushed Mexican law enforcement to find new ways to fight crime, and one of the most innovative experiments is taking place in Oaxaca: According to local news reports, a team of 20 deaf police officers monitoring 230 security cameras scattered throughout the city’s historic downtown.
The deaf officers, nicknamed the “Angels of Silence,” are considered an asset because of their ability to read lips, to detect visual cues that might suggest nervousness or suspicious activity, and to pay attention to the visual periphery as they stare at a wall of monitors displaying different camera feeds.
The idea echoes the 2003 Ben Affleck movie “Daredevil,” in which the title character’s remaining senses grow to superhero proportions after he is blinded by toxic waste. It has a precedent in real life, too: In Belgium, a visually impaired man named Sacha van Loo uses his acute hearing and knack for identifying foreign accents to help police.
Though there is no specific data available, the Oaxaca project has been judged a success. Last month the first corps of deaf police officers began training new recruits who soon will sit behind security cameras trained on other parts of the country, including tourist-intensive destinations like Puerto Escondido and Huatulco.
A flowing airport wall
In recent years a number of airports around the world have begun hosting large-scale art installations, and one of the most striking is Textscapes, a wall of ever-shifting type near a security line at the Vienna International Airport (a detail is show above). Constructed by Ars Electronica Futurelab, Textscapes depicts an endless stream of alphabet letters fluttering down to the ground like snowflakes, where they pile up across a wall of monitors in an evocative, shifting topography of words and phrases. The volume of falling letters changes according to the number of people passing by, and the contours of the accumulated text shift to reflect air traffic patterns: Hills develop in response to takeoffs, valleys in response to landings.
Besides being innovative as art, Textscapes would seem to serve a more practical end as well—as a salve to security line stress, and a reminder to single-minded travelers that airports are complex places where sometimes you just have to accept your place in the flow.
Being Alan Kwan
We’ve all wondered what it would be like to see the world through someone else’s eyes. It is by all accounts a hopeless fantasy, but that hasn’t dissuaded 22-year-old Hong Kong filmmaker Alan Kwan from trying.
In November 2011 Kwan attached a small, custom-designed video camera to the frame of his glasses to record the world as he moved through it. At the end of each day Kwan uploaded the footage into a video game environment he’d built to store his memories. The result is Bad Trip, a surreal virtual reality experience that lets users navigate with a joystick through all—as in, basically every single one—of the visual experiences Kwan has had in the last year.
Bad Trip is a startling aesthetic experience; a six-minute demo online reveals a stark, spectral black-and-white world dotted with “memory blocks” that look like piled freight crates. Approach the memory blocks and suddenly the empty world of Bad Trip explodes with all the scenes from Kwan’s life: a plate of food at a restaurant, a girl sitting across the table, footage from a video game that Kwan had played. It feels like dipping your head beneath the surface of a pool and into another world.
Of course, we don’t see the world the same way that a video camera attached to our eyeglasses does, and memories are much thicker constructions than pure visual data. After watching (or playing or experiencing or encountering…it’s hard to say what the appropriate verb is here) Bad Trip, you won’t necessarily feel like you understand Alan Kwan’s memories any better than you did before, but you might leave with a new way of imagining the weird, peripatetic terrain of your own mind.

Mexico and Obesity

Mexico faces diabetes 'disaster' as lifestyle changes boost obesity

A fifth of all Mexican women and more than a quarter of men are believed to be at risk for diabetes now. It's already the nation's No. 1 killer, taking some 70,000 lives a year, far more than gangster violence.

By Tim Johnson

McClatchy Newspapers

HERIBERTO RODRIGUEZ / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Patrons wait at a Mexico City McDonald's. Experts blame lifestyle for Mexicans' No. 2 obesity ranking, after the U.S.

MEXICO CITY — With each bite into a greasy taco and slurp of a sugary drink, Mexico hurtles toward what health experts predict will be a public-health crisis from diabetes-related disease.
A fifth of all Mexican women and more than a quarter of men are believed to be at risk for diabetes now. It's already the nation's No. 1 killer, taking some 70,000 lives a year, far more than gangster violence.
Public-health experts blame changes in lifestyle that have made Mexicans more obese than people anywhere else on Earth except the United States. They attribute changes to powerful snack and soft-drink industries; newly sedentary ways of living; and a genetic heritage susceptible to diabetes, a chronic, life-threatening illness.
The results are evident at public hospitals, where those needing treatment for diabetes-related illness, such as blindness and kidney failure, clamor for help.
"The first time we came, we had to wait 12 days for my husband to get dialysis," said Marta Remigio Jasso, who spoke on the grounds of the General Hospital of Mexico, a public unit of the Secretariat of Health. "I slept under my husband's hospital bed."
Already, some 150,000 Mexicans receive kidney dialysis, but nearly the same number are denied treatment for lack of insurance, said Dr. Abelardo Avila Curiel, a physician and expert in population studies at the Salvador Zubiran National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, one of Mexico's most prestigious medical centers.
"When we project the increase in diabetes and the costs associated with it, the Mexican health system will be overwhelmed. It can't be paid for. By the year 2020, it will be catastrophic. By 2030, it faces collapse," Avila said.
Between 6.5 million and 10 million Mexicans now have diabetes, the Health Secretariat says. While that's fewer than the 20 million who suffer from diabetes in the United States, Mexico carries the seeds of an unfolding tragedy linked both to soaring obesity and shifting demographics that will heavily burden health systems.
"Diabetes is the primary cause of blindness in Mexico. It's also the main reason for amputations," said Carmen Reyes de Ortega, executive director of the Mexican Diabetes Association, a nonprofit advocacy and educational group.
"The panorama is not good," Reyes de Ortega continued. "We'll have a lot of people suffering blindness, with mobility problems and needing dialysis."
The once-languid pace of Mexican life has undergone radical transformation in recent decades. Crowded urban areas force long commutes on workers, and security concerns keep them cooped up at home.
Workers who once would return to their homes for long lunch breaks, eating freshly prepared foods, no longer can do that.
"It is practically impossible to go home to eat lunch now," said Dr. Gabriela Ortiz, a department director at the National Center for Preventative Health and Disease Control. "We ask for food to be delivered to our office. Some employees go out to the taco stands on the corner or to the street markets."
Since tap water is widely considered unsafe, and public drinking fountains are rare, most Mexicans down a sugary drink with their meals. The average Mexican consumes 728 8-ounce sugary drinks from Coca-Cola per year, an average of two a day, far more than the 403 8-ounce drinks consumed per person annually in the United States.
"Coca-Cola is a great villain, but it is not the only one," Avila said, adding that some 30 of Mexico's 500 largest businesses produce snacks or other types of junk food, carbonated or sugary beverages. He said their total annual sales top $80 billion and their advertising and lobbying budgets easily trump public-health campaigns.
A 2012 federal health and nutrition survey found that 64 percent of men and 82 percent of women in Mexico were overweight or obese. Obesity levels have tripled in the past three decades.
"I'm looking out my window," said Dr. Stan De Loach, a U.S.-certified diabetes educator who has lived most his life in Mexico, "and I see two, three, four, seven, eight people out of maybe 20 people who are obese."
Mexico now has higher obesity rates among children ages 5 to 11 years than any other country. According to a 2012 health survey, 34.4 percent of children are obese, Ortiz said. The comparable figure in the United States is 16.9 percent, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
"Diabetes 10 years ago was a problem mainly among people 55 years and older. But now we see cases even in young people 12 and 13 years old," said Reyes de Ortega of the Mexican Diabetes Association.
In Mexico, some 400,000 youth suffer from diabetes Type 1 (which requires insulin injections) or Type 2 (which is associated with obesity, inactivity and family history).
Amid worries about rising childhood obesity, lawmakers in 2010 limited the kinds and quantities of food and drinks that could be offered at public schools. But vendors still congregate outside school gates at the end of each day to peddle fried snacks, sweets and sodas.
"Why do they keep selling potato chips and ice cream at the school where my son goes?" asked Fabiola Balbuena Torres, a 31-year-old professional wrestler who goes by the ring name Faby Apache. Torres is one of scores of pro wrestlers taking part in "Fight Against Obesity," a program to encourage youngsters to consume healthful foods.
Many of the alarm bells sounding about diabetes and its long-term impact come from experts outside government.
"It's a bomb. It's an extremely urgent problem," Reyes de Ortega said.
Health Secretariat officials say the government will do what it can to treat diabetes-related illnesses, acknowledging that kidney dialysis eats up as much as half of the budget earmarked for diabetes.
But pledges of universal health coverage do not match reality.
"The health system in Mexico operates with smoke and mirrors," said Dr. Joel Rodriguez, a nephrologist. "If you have social security, they give you an appointment in eight months or a year. You end up going to a private clinic because you can't get in to see the doctor."

Sign of the Times

A San Diego real estate mogul who appeared on the reality show "Secret Millionaire" is making no secret of his deepest desires.
KGTV-TV in San Diego reports that 63-year-old Marc Paskin has paid to have a billboard that sits above Interstate 5 and reads "All I Want for Christmas is a Latina Girlfriend."
Beneath that it reads: Email Marc: ChristmasLatina(at)aol.com.
The billboard is in Barrio Logan, a mostly Latino neighborhood.
UT San Diego reports that Paskin's wife of 28 years died in 2002 of diabetes-related illness.
Last year he appeared on ABC's "Secret Millionaire" and quietly handed out $125,000 on a Detroit street.
Paskin declined comment when reached by KGTV. He did not reply to an after-hours message left at his company by The Associated Press.

Most of Mexico Considered Safe

The U.S. State Department's Nov. 20 update to its travel warning on Mexico was notable more for the lack of hue and cry that has attended every alert since 2008, when the effects of escalating violence among the country's drug trafficking organizations became obvious beyond its own borders, than for its contents.
The new update doesn't spring any surprises or add any new tourist destinations to its list of no-go zones, which might account for the uncharacteristically calm reception. Or it U.S. travelers might be so used to seeing the travel warnings by now that they treat them like storm reports during hurricane season, using them as a guide to where to go and which places to avoid.
But the crucial factor could be one that readers might not even be conscious of. Continuing a trend that began with the Feb. 8, 2012 update, the State Department has gotten more specific about where travel is dangerous in Mexico – and where it is not. The vagueness of earlier alerts led wary travelers to conclude that all of Mexico was going up in flames. The state-by-state evaluations produced this year, clearly outlining areas to stay away from and places that call for caution, are finally informative enough to encourage travelers to make intelligent decisions.
Good to go
Beginning with the same reassurance that "Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year," the State Department's updated warning lays out a cogent overview of Mexico's problems with drug-related violence, kidnappings and carjackings and offers some useful general advice. It also details when and where U.S. government employees' travels in Mexico are restricted, which could serve as a guideline for cautious U.S. leisure travelers.
Nearly every one of the destinations that draw the vast majority of U.S. tourists to Mexico gets the green light. (Acapulco is the glaring exception.) These include the entire Yucatan Peninsula, including Cancun and the Riviera Maya, the Costa Maya, Chichen Itza, Merida and Campeche state. Baja California Sur, which has suffered by association with the northern state of Baja California, is also free and clear; the update singles out Los Cabos and La Paz, but other popular destinations include the town of Todos Santos on the west side, the rugged East Cape coastline and the gray whale calving lagoons such as San Ignacio.
The state of Guanajuato, including Guanajuato City, San Miguel de Allende and Leon, also gets a clean bill of health. Other states remaining entirely safe for travel are Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, Tabasco and Tlaxcala.
Mexico City is exempt from the warnings, though some municipalities in the eastern portions of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area – most of which few tourists have heard of – require caution. Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit are also exempt from warnings that affect other areas of their respective states.
Here is a closer look at the trouble spots, the majority of which are still in the northern states.
Northern Mexico
Travelers in Baja California (not to be confused with Baja California Sur) should be cautions, especially at night. Tijuana is the main high-crime area, though Mexicali's crime increased in the year ending in July.
Chihuahua state, not surprisingly, should be avoided. Ciudad Juarez is infamous for its surreal numbers of drug-related murders, and though it has settled down in the past couple of years, it still has one of the highest homicide rates in Mexico. Violence in Chihuahua City has increased recently, and even the once-safe Copper Canyon has seen incidents of drug-related violence.
Coahuila state is another one to avoid. The cities of Torreon and Saltillo, in particular, have seen escalating violence crimes and narcotics-related murders. The warning also advises against travel in Durango, where homicides more than doubled in 2011 and several areas remain volatile and unpredictable.

Don't Buy Hewlett-Packard Printers

Problem with Hewlett-Packard Windows 8, software not up to speed, no drivers yet for some Printers, no Drivers no Work on Window 8 systems. They have just been shining people on.

Green Revolution in Mexico

CIUDAD OBREGÓN, Mexico–The Green Revolution sprang forth from this valley of wheat farms in Sonora State, producing the food required to feed a rapidly expanding population. But the water that has nourished crops here for decades and sustained the Yaqui people for centuries is threatened.
The federal and Sonora State governments are building an aqueduct to take water from the Yaqui River to supply the mushrooming manufacturing hub of Hermosillo, 175 miles south of the Arizona border at Nogales. There, burgeoning automotive and aerospace industries and a booming population have put demands on water destined for agricultural purposes.
The aqueduct itself has pitted industrial interests and politicians against previously privileged farmers and the Yaqui.
“They’re taking water from one river valley to supply another,” said Francisco Ramos, a wheat farmer and one of the more than 21,000 members of the Yaqui Valley irrigation district. “If you do this in a semi-arid state, there are going to be problems.”

The conflict in Sonora raises water management questions that are common across Mexico, parts of which recently experienced the worst drought in decades. Those questions include the wisdom of moving water from one basin to another, as already happens in Mexico City and is being proposed for other industrial cities like León, Querétaro and Monterrey.
Other issues include whether industry should take priority over agriculture, especially as manufacturing expands in central and northern Mexico and Mexican-made goods gain an increasing share of the United States market.
Building the aqueduct, Mexico’s outgoing president, Felipe Calderón, said last week in Sonora, propels economic development in Hermosillo “by having a secure supply of water for industrial and commercial activities.”
The Independence aqueduct will draw 75 million cubic meters of water from the Yaqui River at a dam known as El Novillo to supply Hermosillo, where the population has grown 20 percent, to more than 700,000, since 2000.
The availability of water has decreased 25 percent over the same period, according to the National Water Commission, or Conagua. Local observers and aqueduct opponents attribute this to waste, including the loss of as much as 40 percent of Hermosillo’s water as a result of leaky pipes.
“The management problem is worse” than the problems posed by the actual supply of water, said Nicolás Pineda Pablos, a professor of public policy at the Colegio de Sonora in Hermosillo who takes a neutral stance on the aqueduct.
Local politics and Mexico’s political culture, in which municipal planning for projects seldom stretches from one three-year administration to the next, compound the problem. Politicians, Mr. Pineda suggests, also prefer undertaking highly visible projects like aqueducts rather than replacing leaky pipes.
Conagua’s director, José Luis Luege Tamargo, said that Hermosillo had no other water sources to tap and that wells to the west, near the Gulf of California, were contaminated by saltwater intrusions.The Yaqui River had water to spare, he added.
But the Yaqui Valley farmers’ irrigation district has been one of the few in Mexico to be in equilibrium, Alejandro Olea, a lawyer for the farmers, argues.
The farmers lost the 2003 season as a result of drought and have to cede water to residential users in Ciudad Obregón. This contrasts, Mr. Olea said, with the situation in Hermosillo, where agriculture receives about 90 percent of the region’s water and residents are subjected to water rationing.
The farmers have fought back through the courts, winning early legal challenges to the environmental reviews, which Mr. Olea contends were hastily done and did not adequately assess the area downstream from El Novillo dam, where the aqueduct will withdraw water.
The Yaqui also have rights to water and the land in the valley and won a decision against the aqueduct after discovering documents saying that no such group as theirs existed in the area – the latest indignity for a tribe never conquered by the Spanish and expelled to the Yucatán Peninsula in the early 1900s by Porfirio Díaz, then Mexico’s president.
The tribe also points to past problems with diverting water from the Yaqui Valley, where construction of an aqueduct in the early 1990s for the purpose of supplying coastal communities caused the water table to drop from one meter to 25 meters and oak trees to wither.
Mr. Luege insists that the aqueduct will draw only 3.4 percent of the water destined for agriculture and will not affect the flow below the Novillo dam or the supply promised to the Yaqui.
Rodrigo González, a researcher at the Sonora Technology Institute in Ciudad Obregón, rejects those assertions, including the suggestion that sucking water from the Yaqui River will have no downstream impact.
The proposed withdrawal for the aqueduct “appears like a small amount when you have lots of water,” Mr. González said. But that is seldom the case, as the region has become drier over the past two decades, he said. Its reservoirs also take longer to recharge, and farmers now forgo planting summer crops, he added.
Mr. González estimates that the Yaqui Valley, located on the cusp of arid and tropical zones, will lose more than 18,000 acres of wheat-growing land in the valley, where some 500,000 acres are used for agriculture.
“This will guarantee Hermosillo’s future, but not ours,” he says.
Several researchers at the Colegio de Sonora, while not endorsing the aqueduct or water management practices in Hermosillo, say the Yaqui Valley farmers are using water for unproductive activities like growing durum wheat, for which the Mexican market is limited, and derive their profits from subsidies.
“A good part of the wheat farmers in Sonora do not reach the levels of efficiency necessary to be competitive,” Álvaro Bracamote, a professor, and Rosana Méndez Barrón, a graduate student, wrote in a book on wheat farming in the state. They suggested that the abundance of water “has operated as a sort of disincentive for advancing the process of modernizing agriculture.”
Hermosillo farmers, they add, diversified after the North American Free Trade Agreement was put into effect in the mid-1990s and now grow crops like nuts, table grapes and Asian vegetables, making more than three times as much money per hectare (equivalent to 2.5 acres) as Yaqui Valley wheat farmers.
These farmers have shared little of their allotted water with residential customers in Hermosillo, however, leaving the region with a decision – one that other cities in Mexico also will have to face.
“If you want to have big-city growth, you can’t also have agriculture,” Mr. Pineda says.

As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.

Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.�

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.


When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.�

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line every day for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.


Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi.'�

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.


The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.�

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.�


When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it..�

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.�


As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.�

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.�


We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many American, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of Americans supports our troops.�

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.�


By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.�

The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is...We need your support and your prayers.

Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

Tucson to Mexiico Bus Service

The head of a luxury bus company is hoping a new service between Tucson and Mexico will foster better border relations.
Tap Royal CEO Sergio Barragan Colina tells the Arizona Daily Star the Old Pueblo seemed like a natural destination for his bus line.
The bus caters to Mexican travelers and makes stops in Mexico City and Hermosillo, Sonora.
Service in Tucson, which started last week, will include four pickups and four returns each day from the Placita del Rio Shopping Center near Interstate 19 and Irvington Road.
Fares range from $25 to $200.
Amenities on the luxury vehicles include two bathrooms, Wi-Fi and electrical outlets.
Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild says the company's presence will help boost tourism to his city.

Mexico’s Prospects

Mexico’s Prospects: The Economist features a largely sanguine report on Mexico. “Many of the things the world thinks it knows about Mexico are no longer true,” it says. Economic growth is strong as higher global shipping costs and rising Chinese wages boost Mexico’s manufacturing competitiveness. Social services are expanding; as the report says, “free universal health care became more or less a reality this year.” Education spending is also up, though opaque teachers unions seem to swallow much of the money. Perhaps the darkest cloud is governance. The report says Mexico’s ban on reelection makes politicians more accountable to “party bosses” than to voters, and some of the country’s states remain hotbeds of corruption. On her blog, CFR’s Shannon O’Neil weighs the record of President Felipe Calderon, who left office on Saturday; she also wrote on Mexico last week in USA Today.

Measuring the MDGs: As the debate over what should succeed the Millennium Development Goals heats up, a World Development article considers how progress against the MDGs should be measured. Evaluations of progress by the UN and others, the authors write, focus on “absolute achievement” while ignoring the question of whether the MDGs have driven any faster progress than was happening before. To rectify this, the authors offer a new approach that asks “whether the pace of progress has improved since the 2000 commitments.” On only five of twenty-four indicators is this the case for the majority of countries. In other words, “there is no convincing evidence” that global development progress has accelerated since the MDGs came along. Interestingly, though, progress has sped up in many African countries, with Nigeria, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and Rwanda leading the way. The post-2015 debate has featured recently on CFR’s Development Channel, including in posts by Yanzhong Huang and Terra Lawson-Remer.

Protecting India’s Prostitutes: Cellphones are the ultimate double-edged sword for India’s prostitutes, the New York Times reports. By allowing prostitutes to meet clients on their own and not in brothels, phones allow them to “get the full cash in my hand,” as one says in the piece. But in so doing, phones make “prostitutes far harder for government and safe-sex counselors to trace.” And this means higher rates of HIV. As brothels in Mumbai and Delhi decline, India’s successful approach to HIV/AIDS, which focused on red-light districts, is faltering. “Experts say it is too early to identify how much HIV infections might rise,” the piece reports.

African Issues: Two recent pieces analyze two African woes: tribal politics and bad statistics. First, Harvard professor Calestous Juma calls tribalism—”the use of identity politics to promote narrow tribal interests”—a major threat to African democracy. For many leaders, he writes, “tribal politics is a zero-sum game, so they are prone to using hate speech and inciting violence.” What is needed are “modern political parties and associated think tanks” to fuel debate over policies, not identity. Meanwhile, Morten Jerven of Canada’s Simon Fraser University writes that many African countries cannot accurately calculate their GDPs. They use rarely updated “base years” to make estimates for subsequent years, potentially leading to wild inaccuracies. Nigeria has not updated its base year since 1990, Jerven writes; when it changes to 2008 as planned, its GDP figure could double. Jerven urges efforts to boost countries’ statistical abilities. Today’s data generate “more confusion than enlightenment,” he says.

Tijuana Las Memorias shelter Takes Dporties with HIV

Mexican Shelter Takes In Deported Immigrants with HIV

Immigrants with HIV virus deported from the United States are finding refuge at the Las Memorias shelter in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, the only one in Baja California state to deal with AIDS patients.
Founded 14 years ago with the idea of helping HIV/AIDS victims with little money and nowhere to live, Las Memorias is currently home to 90 people, about half of them deported from the U.S.
Among its services the shelter provides medicines, transport to health-care centers and informative sessions on the disease.
As its founder, Jose Antonio Granillo, told Efe, the shelter was started because the border area needed a specialized refuge that would not reject people with HIV.
It’s very sad to see how many people are left to die on the streets of Tijuana without having been attended with dignity.”
In the majority of cases, the illness is related to addiction problems, for which the residents at the shelter have to follow a treatment there to overcome their dependences.
“Disinformation is a huge obstacle,” he said. “That’s what keeps us working to raise awareness in the community and in that way, teach new generations.”
Las Memorias has attended 2,250 carriers of the virus and victims of addiction since the day it opened its doors. Most of them have been able to improve and readjust to society, Granillo said.

Mexico Saltillo Truck Plant

Daimler Trucks North America opened their Saltillo plant in the North Mexican state of Coahuila in 2009. The plant has just seen production of its 100,000th heavy duty Freightline truck Cascadia which denotes that the location is just right and demand is at its peak. The Mexican plant was built at an investment of $300 million, covers a total area of 120,000 sq meters and has an annual production capacity of upto 30,000 Freightline Cascadia trucks per annum which make up domestic and export to Latin American countries, US and Canada.
The plant is in close proximity to suppliers, availability of raw material, transportation facilities of both road and railway networks as well as to an extended range of customers.
The 100,000th heavy duty long distance Freightliner Cascadia was delivered to "Group Mon-Ro" a specialist in national and international freight operations. The Daimler Saltillo plant houses a production plant, logistics centre, administration building and training centre. Besides the Saltillo plant, Santiago Tianguistenco is the second production location for Daimler Trucks North America in Mexico.

2013 Taxes may rise in the U.S.

celebrating a new year, yet there's a lot of uncertainty about the amount of taxes we'll pay in 2013.
Filers could see a considerable increase unless Congress and the president agree to extend tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of December. Experts say it's unlikely that lawmakers will let all the scheduled hikes take effect. Even so, you should expect some changes for next year.

• The personal exemption will increase, reportedly to $3,900, in 2013 from $3,800 this year.
• The maximum earnings subject to the Social Security tax will increase to $113,700 in 2013 from $110,100 in 2012.
• Contributions to defined contribution plans will climb to a maximum $23,000 — $17,500 in regular contributions, up from $17,000 in 2012, plus $5,500 in catch-up contributions for those 50-plus, same as in 2012.
• There will be a higher threshold on medical deductions, meaning it will be harder to qualify. You'll only be allowed to deduct medical expenses that exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income (up from 7.5 percent in 2012). However, if you are 65 or older, the threshold will remain at 7.5 percent. Beginning in 2017, everyone will be subject to the 10 percent limit.
• On a related note, the maximums on deductions for long-term care insurance premiums will rise. This is a tax break that many people don't know about. But if you're age 50 to 60, the maximum you'll be able to deduct will rise to $1,360 (up from $1,310 in 2012); age 61 to 70, the maximum will increase to $3,640 (from $3,500); after 70, the limit will climb to $4,550 (from $4,370).

"That extra couple of thousand dollars you pay for premiums could push you over the limit so you can deduct your medical expenses," says Gil Charney, principal tax researcher with the H&R Block Tax Institute.
• There will be a new 3.8 percent tax on investment income for upper-income filers, as a provision of the Affordable Care Act. If you're single and earning at least $200,000 or married, filing jointly, with an income of $250,000 or more, your unearned income (interest, dividends, annuities, investment gains and the like) will be subject to the 3.8 percent tax.
• The Medicare-funding Hospital Insurance Tax, currently at 1.45 percent, will increase by 0.9 percentage point for higher earners, another provision of health reform. The increase will apply only to income that's in excess of $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for those married and filing jointly.
• Flexible Spending Accounts will have federally required contribution caps for the first time in 2013. These pre-tax accounts, used to pay for family medical expenses, will have a $2,500 annual cap. (Though there were no federal caps previously, most employers had imposed a $5,000 cap).

Calexico Toy Run 12 01 12 0830 AM

1st Annual Poker Run & Toy Drive

The 1st Annual Poker Run & Toy Drive will be from noon to 9 p.m. (registration will be at 8:30 a.m.) Saturday, Dec. 1 at Rockwood Plaza, Fifth Street and Heber Avenue in Calexico. There will be music, food, vendors, bike show and competition. Bring a new unwrapped toy. For more information call Enrique at 760-595-1773 or Maritza at 760-791-0530. This event is sponsored by Southwest Border Bikers and Adrian C. Cordova Foundation.

Mexico and USA

The neighbor Americans believe they have to the south, and the Mexico that has developed over the last 20 years, are two different places. As Mexico's incoming president Enrique Peña Nieto meets with President Obama this week, the biggest challenge facing relations today may be our skewed perceptions.
In Americans' psyches, drugs dominate. When advertising firm GSD&M and Vianovo strategic consultants asked Americans to come up with three words that describe Mexico, nearly every other person answered "drugs," followed by "poor" and "unsafe." Other questions reveal Americans see Mexico as corrupt, unstable and violent, more problem than partner. Americans had more favorable views of Greece, El Salvador and Russia.
These perceptions reflect the Mexican reality that dominates headlines: soaring crime rates and gruesome murders in a war against drug traffickers. But this window into Mexico overlooks an economic transformation and deepening ties with the United States that reflect a dramatically different country.

Canada on the Rio Grande

In the past two decades, Mexico has become one of the most open and competitive economies in the world, with trade to GDP (a common measure of openness) reaching 63 percent, surpassing both the United States and China. This trade is dominated by manufactured goods (not commodities), leading to a stronger and more diverse economic base than many of its emerging economy competitors.
Though the poll found that over half of Americans still see Mexico as a developing country, it is now a middle-class nation. Over the last 15 years, Mexico's middle class has grown to encompass roughly half the population. These families own houses and cars, send their two children (on average) to the best schools they can afford and buy the newest products.
This transformed economy is also now profoundly integrated with the United States. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that imports from Mexico are, on average, 40 percent "made in America," far more than the 4 percent in Chinese imports. This back-and-forth of parts and products across the U.S.-Mexico border through the expansion of North American supply chains has been good not just for Mexico but also for the United States, revitalizing companies and supporting the jobs of some 6 million U.S. workers.

Mexicans are us

With all the recent focus on illegal immigration, people forget that there is a lot more linking Americans and Mexicans. In addition to some 5 million legal Mexican immigrants, there are 30 million more Americans who claim Mexican heritage. The Latino political heft, pushing President Obama over the top in many swing states, is largely Mexican.
If there is a silver lining in the poll results, its skewed view stems from the fact Americans do not know much about their neighbor. And we know it. Just as many of us admit we don't know when asked questions about Mexico as venture a positive or negative opinion.
That acknowledgment from Americans provides an opportunity for newly elected and re-elected presidents, policymakers and businesses to fill that void with a fuller understanding of Mexican realities and the importance of our nations' growing together.
Shannon O'Neil is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the forthcoming "Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States,
and the Road Ahead."

New Mexican Oil Reserves Found Biggest in Ten Yrs

Mexico City: State-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said it found reserves of up to 500 million barrels of crude in southern Mexico, a discovery that President Felipe Calderon hailed as the "biggest find" of petroleum on land in the past decade.

H.R. Human Remains

Letter from an airline pilot:

He writes: My lead flight attendant came to me and said, "We have an H.R. On this flight." (H.R. Stands for human remains.) "Are they military?" I asked.

'Yes', she said.

'Is there an escort?' I asked.

'Yes, I've already assigned him a seat'.

'Would you please tell him to come to the flight deck. You can board him early," I said..

A short while later, a young army sergeant entered the flight deck. He was the image of the perfectly dressed soldier. He introduced himself and I asked him about his soldier. The escorts of these fallen soldiers talk about them as if they are still alive and still with us.

'My soldier is on his way back to Virginia ,' he said. He proceeded to answer my questions, but offered no words.

I asked him if there was anything I could do for him and he said no. I told him that he had the toughest job in the military and that I appreciated the work that he does for the families of our fallen soldiers. The first officer and I got up out of our seats to shake his hand. He left the flight deck to find his seat.

We completed our pre-flight checks, pushed back and performed an uneventful departure. About 30 minutes into our flight I received a call from the lead flight attendant in the cabin. 'I just found out the family of the soldier we are carrying, is on board', she said. She then proceeded to tell me that the father, mother, wife and 2-year old daughter were escorting their son, husband, and father home. The family was upset because they were unable to see the container that the soldier was in before we left. We were on our way to a major hub at which the family was going to wait four hours for the connecting flight home to Virginia .

The father of the soldier told the flight attendant that knowing his son was below him in the cargo compartment and being unable to see him was too much for him and the family to bear. He had asked the flight attendant if there was anything that could be done to allow them to see him upon our arrival. The family wanted to be outside by the cargo door to watch the soldier being taken off the airplane. I could hear the desperation in the flight attendants voice when she asked me if there was anything I could do. 'I'm on it', I said. I told her that I would get back to her.

Airborne communication with my company normally occurs in the form of e-mail like messages. I decided to bypass this system and contact my flight dispatcher directly on a
Secondary radio. There is a radio operator in the operations control center who connects you to the telephone of the dispatcher. I was in direct contact with the dispatcher. I explained the situation I had on board with the family and what it was the family wanted. He said he understood and that he would get back to me.

Two hours went by and I had not heard from the dispatcher. We were going to get busy soon and I needed to know what to tell the family. I sent a text message asking for an update. I
Saved the return message from the dispatcher and the following is the text:

'Captain, sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. There is policy on this now and I had to check on a few things. Upon your arrival a dedicated escort team will meet the aircraft.
The team will escort the family to the ramp and plane side. A van will be used to load the remains with a secondary van for the family. The family will be taken to their departure area and escorted into the terminal where the remains can be seen on the ramp. It is a private area for the family only. When the connecting aircraft arrives, the family will be escorted onto the ramp and plane side to watch the remains being loaded for the final leg home. Captain, most of us here in flight control are veterans.. Please pass our condolences on to the family. Thanks.'

I sent a message back telling flight control thanks for a good job. I printed out the message and gave it to the lead flight attendant to pass on to the father. The lead flight attendant was very thankful and told me, 'You have no idea how much this will mean to them.'

Things started getting busy for the descent, approach and landing. After landing, we cleared the runway and taxied to the ramp area. The ramp is huge with 15 gates on either side of the alleyway. It is always a busy area with aircraft maneuvering every which way to enter and exit. When we entered the ramp and checked in with the ramp controller, we were told
That all traffic was being held for us.

'There is a team in place to meet the aircraft', we were told. It looked like it was all coming together, then I realized that once we turned the seat belt sign off, everyone would stand up at once and delay the family from getting off the airplane. As we approached our gate, I asked the co-pilot to tell the ramp controller we were going to stop short of the gate to
make an announcement to the passengers. He did that and the ramp controller said, 'Take your time.'

I stopped the aircraft and set the parking brake. I pushed the public address button and said, 'Ladies and gentleman, this is your Captain speaking I have stopped short of our gate to make a special announcement. We have a passenger on board who deserves our honor and respect. His Name is Private XXXXXX, a soldier who recently lost his life. Private XXXXXX is under your feet in the cargo hold. Escorting him today is Army Sergeant XXXXXXX. Also, on board are his father, mother, wife, and daughter. Your entire flight crew is asking for all passengers to remain in their seats to allow the family to exit the aircraft first. Thank you.'

We continued the turn to the gate, came to a stop and started our shutdown procedures. A couple of minutes later I opened the cockpit door. I found the two forward flight attendants crying, something you just do not see. I was told that after we came to a stop, every passenger on the aircraft stayed in their seats, waiting for the family to exit the aircraft.

When the family got up and gathered their things, a passenger slowly started to clap his hands. Moments later more passengers joined in and soon the entire aircraft was
clapping. Words of 'God Bless You', I'm sorry, thank you, be proud, and other kind words were uttered to the family as they made their way down the aisle and out of the airplane.

They were escorted down to the ramp to finally be with their loved one.

Many of the passengers disembarking thanked me for the announcement I had made. They were just words, I told them, I could say them over and over again, but nothing I say will bring back that brave soldier.

I respectfully ask that all of you reflect on this event and the sacrifices that millions of our men and women have made to ensure our freedom and safety in these USA, Canada, Australia New Zealand, England.
                                                  
Foot note:

I know everyone who has served their country who reads this will have tears in their eyes, including me.

Please offer a short prayer for our service men and women.

They die for me and mine and you and yours and deserve our honor and respect.

'Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us..bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need.. In Jesus Name, Amen.'

Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, & others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one.  

GOD BLESS YOU!!!       

3000 U.S. Troops Heading to Africa To Protect Oil

Army Times news service reported that the U.S. is expected to deploy more than 3,000 soldiers to Africa in 2013. They will be assigned to every part of the continent. Major General David R. Hogg mused: “As far as our mission goes, it’s uncharted territory.” But the presence of U.S. soldiers in Africa is nothing new, and even though Hogg is unwilling to admit it, the obvious mission is to lock down the entire continent.
The U.S. military has at least a dozen ongoing major operations in Africa that require hands-on involvement by U.S. troops. By ensuring that U.S. troops will be found in every corner of Africa, there will be little risk that any regions where U.S. interests are threatened will be left uncovered. For example, Mali has oil reserves and is strategically located, but it has been destabilized by a growing secessionist movement in the north. Conveniently, Mali has also been the site of a U.S. military exercise called “Atlas Accord 12” which provided training to Mali’s military in aerial delivery.
During this year, there have been other operations in other parts of the continent that were comparable in scale if not in substance.
*“Cutlass Express” was a U.S. naval exercise that focused on what is purported to be “piracy” in the Somali Basin region.
*“Africa Endeavor 2012” was based in Cameroon and involved coordination and training in military communications.
*“Obangame Express 2012” was a naval exercise designed to ensure a presence in the Gulf of Guinea, an area that is in the heart of West Africa’s oil operations.
*“Southern Accord 12” was based in Botswana and its objective was to establish a military working relationship between southern African military forces and the U.S.
*“Western Accord 2012” was an exercise in Senegal that involved every type of military operation from live fire exercises to intelligence gathering to combat marksmanship.
There have been a number of other comparable exercises with names like: “African Lion,” “Flintlock,” and “Phoenix Express.” In addition, U.S. National Guard units from around the country have been rotating in and out of countries that include, among others: South Africa, Morocco, Ghana, Tunisia, Nigeria and Liberia.

Ranbaxy recalls generic Lipitor doses

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. has recalled dozens of lots of its generic version of cholesterol drug Lipitor because some may contain tiny glass particles, the latest in a string of manufacturing deficiencies that once led U.S. regulators to bar imports of the Indian company's medicines.
Ranbaxy, a subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., India's biggest drugmaker, is operating under increased scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because of quality lapses at multiple Ranbaxy factories over the past several years. The FDA also has alleged the company lied about test results for more than two dozen of its generic drugs several years ago.
On Friday, Ranbaxy posted a notice on its U.S. website, saying it's recalling 10-, 20- and 40-milligram doses of tablets of atorvastatin calcium. That's generic Lipitor, the cholesterol fighter that reigned for years as the world's top-selling drug.
The recall includes 41 lots of the drug, nearly all with 90 pills per bottle, but three lots contain 500 pills per bottle. It's unclear how many bottles are in each lot, but medicine batches typically contain many thousands of pills. The 80-milligram strength tablets are not affected.
Ranbaxy spokesman Chuck Caprariello did not answer questions or provide any additional information beyond the statement on the company's website.
"Ranbaxy is proactively recalling the drug product lots out of an abundance of caution," the website statement read. "This recall is being conducted with the full knowledge of the U.S. FDA."
The company also filed a two-sentence statement with the Bombay Stock Exchange stating Ranbaxy's investigation would be completed within two weeks, but that after that temporary disruption to the U.S. supply, the company expected to resume shipments here.
Patients who've filled a prescription can contact their pharmacy to determine whether it was made by Ranbaxy or another generic drugmaker and, if it's from Ranbaxy, whether it came from a recalled lot.
Ranbaxy's manufacturing deficiencies, dating to 2006, led to a lengthy investigation and sanctions by the FDA. During the probe, federal investigators found Ranbaxy didn't properly test the shelf life and other safety factors of its drugs and then lied about the results.
In mid-2008, the FDA barred Ranbaxy from shipping into the U.S more than 30 different drugs made at factories in India. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice demanded Ranbaxy turn over internal documents, alleging the company lied about ingredients and formulations of some medications.
In early 2009, the FDA said it would not consider any new applications from Ranbaxy to sell in the U.S. any products made at the troubled factories.
As FDA discussions with Ranbaxy continued, it appeared Ranbaxy would lose its shot at a revenue windfall when Lipitor's generic U.S. patent expired last Nov. 30. At the time, Lipitor brought in almost $8 billion a year in U.S. sales.
As often happens when patents first expire, for the first six months only one generic rival could compete with brand-name Lipitor. Ranbaxy had that right, although an authorized generic from Lipitor maker Pfizer Inc. and partner Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. went on sale on Dec. 1. With competition so limited, the generic prices only declined a bit from brand-name drug's price of about $115 a month — until several other generics entered the market six months later.
The FDA finally ended the suspense, deciding just before midnight on Nov. 30 to let Ranbaxy sell generic Lipitor made at the company's Ohm Laboratories factory in central New Jersey. It was unclear Friday whether the recalled Ranbaxy pills were made there or elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Ranbaxy is operating under a settlement with the FDA, called a consent decree, signed on Dec. 20, 2011. It requires Ranbaxy to improve manufacturing procedures, ensure data on its products is accurate and undergo extra oversight and review by an independent third party for five years. Ranbaxy at the time set aside $500 million to cover potential criminal and civil liability stemming from the Justice Department investigation.

Buttercup Dunes-

Buttercup Dunes--The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has their hands full this weekend making sure dune enthusiasts are safe while enjoying the great outdoors.
BLM park rangers stress the importance of being properly strapped in with a seat belt both on and off the road because it could help save your life.
They also said duner's should pay very close attention to shifting sands.
"Sometimes they're quite steep..cliff like and so the dune just drops off," Joya Szalwinski, BLM interpretive ranger said. "Going over that too fast, that can result in serious injury."
Officials take safety very seriously at all the Imperial Valley Sand Dunes.
Szalwinski said they expect about 150,000 visitors this holiday weekend.
She said over the last five years, accidents have been cut in half.
"We attribute this to aggressive safety campaign that we put out annually," she said. "We do a lot of visitor contacts going camp to camp and enforcement efforts to keep people safe while recreating."
New safety laws will also go into effect next year.
Starting January 1st, California law will require anybody in a recreational off-road vehicle to use a seat belt and helmet. The driver has to be at least 16 years of age.
"If they are younger and they're learning how to drive it, there's has to be an adult supervising them," she said. "They have to be sitting right next to them. They can't be following along on a quad or another vehicle."
Szalwinski said the Buttercup Ranger Station will offer ATV certification classes Saturday, November 24th and Sunday, November 25th at 9 a.m.
All ages are welcome to attend.

Mexican Cherry Tomatoes recalled

A Mission-based produce shipper is recalling more than 800 cartons of cherry tomatoes imported from Mexico folllowing a salmonella scare. Inspectors with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) detected the bacteria in a shipment of cherry tomatoes sent from Rio Queen Citrus in Mission. According to and FDA recall warning, the tomatoes were imported from Mexico and packaged in "Karol" brand boxes. The 840 cartons all say "Distributed by Interstate Fruit & Vegetable Co" and sold in stores in Texas and South Carolina starting back on November 10th. A source of the bacteria has not been found but distribution of the tomatoes has been suspended while FDA and company officials continue their investigation. Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Children, the elderly, the frail and those with weak immune systems are the most vulnerable. Consumers who have purchased Mexican cherry tomatoes are asked to contact their retail store or place of purchase to determine if they were among the facilities to receive this product. Anyone with questions may contact Rio Queen Citrus at (956) 205-7400, Monday-Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm (Central Standard Time).

Question Mexico Name Change

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose six-year term comes to an end next week, said he’s sending Congress a constitutional amendment to change the nation’s name to one that reminds people less of the United States.

Calderon proposed shortening the official name to Mexico from the United Mexican States during a speech Thursday in Mexico City. The decision in 1824 to adopt its current name was based on the example of the United States of America, and the name is outdated because it’s used only for formal occasions, he said. The name Mexico comes from the Nahuatl indigenous term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire of the 15th and 16th centuries that once included the nation’s present-day capital.

“The current name of our country is the result of a historical moment,” Calderon said in a speech at the presidential residence of Los Pinos. “It was a product of circumstance that no longer exists. Mexico doesn’t need a name that emulates another country and that none of us use on a daily basis.”

Calderon’s National Action Party is set to leave power after 12 years following its loss to Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party in a July 1 election. While Calderon has worked with the U.S. on initiatives from trade to security, his relationship with Washington at times has been strained.

Last year, Calderon criticized then-U.S. ambassador Carlos Pascual for complaining about Mexican security forces in a secret cable divulged by the WikiLeaks website. Calderon’s rebuke came after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in September 2010, said that rising drug violence in Mexico was beginning to resemble Colombia 20 years ago.

Pascual resigned in March 2011 and was replaced by Anthony Wayne, whose previous posting was in Afghanistan.

Calderon renewed his criticism of the U.S. in August 2011 after 52 people were killed in an arson attack on a casino in Monterrey allegedly perpetrated by members of the Zetas drug gang.

“I earnestly ask you to end once and for all the criminal sales of assault weapons to the criminals that operate in Mexico,” Calderon said in a speech following the attack.

In past years, Mexico has raised concerns that companies drilling on the U.S. side of the Gulf near Mexico’s border may extract oil that belongs to Mexico.

Guillermo Marquez Reyes, DDS

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Mexicali Cab Stoppage over Security issues

MEXICALI- Mexican taxi cab drivers are protesting as a way to pressure their government to do something about the growing violence against them.

Dozens of cab drivers blocked the West Port of Entry in Mexicali.

The protest started around 7 Wednesday morning causing a closure to the port.

It ended just after 11 when they came to an agreement with the governor.

The taxi drivers are requesting more security because they've been victims of kidnappings, assaults, and homicides recently.

A meeting is scheduled with the drivers and governor.

Five Free Things to do in Mexico, City

For many foreigners, Mexico City invokes images of urban chaos, choking air pollution and pervasive street crime. And it can be an intimidating place for tourists, with maddeningly heavy traffic, a confusing public transportation system and neighborhoods cut off from each other by multi-lane highways plowed through the center of the city.
But the capital has changed radically in recent years, and almost entirely for the better. Street crime and air pollution are down and the city's central neighborhoods and parks are bustling, offering visitors days, even weeks, worth of sightseeing and attractions, much of it free.
This time of year, Mexico City also makes a good jumping-off destination for travelers heading to sunny beaches for winter getaways.
THE ZOCALO
The Zocalo was the center of the Aztec island empire that became Mexico City after the Spanish conquest, and it remains the heart of the capital. The massive open plaza is bounded by Mexico City's main cathedral, along with the National Palace, which houses some federal government offices, and the ruins of the Templo Mayor, which was the central temple of the ancient Aztecs. Entrance to the cathedral and part of the National Palace are free, and the Zocalo itself is filled with open-air entertainment, with street vendors, painted Aztec dancers, traditional healers and the occasional political demonstration all competing for attention. Much of the surrounding historic center has been renovated and rehabilitated in recent years, with good window-shopping, architectural sightseeing and cafes offering a break from the clamor of the Zocalo.
SOUMAYA MUSEUM
Another Mexico City can be seen in the ritzy Polanco neighborhood, home to gleaming office towers, high-end restaurants and luxury boutiques. On the northern edge of the neighborhood, billionaire Carlos Slim has erected the mirrored, mushroom-shaped Soumaya museum, home to six floors of Impressionists, Old Masters, Mexican muralists, anonymous Mesoamerican craftsmen and hundreds of other works. Open daily, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
CHAPULTEPEC PARK
One of Mexico City's recent changes for the better is a growing system of bike and pedestrian trails. The longest, an old railroad track known as the Ferrocaril de Cuernavaca, stretches from the Soumaya Museum into Chapultepec Park, Mexico's Central Park. It's a long walk and stretches remain incomplete, but the energetic can make their way by foot into Chapultepec, a park divided between shady stretches of forest and more-developed plazas, fountains and sculpture gardens. On weekends, the northern end is crammed with vendors, entertainers and families out for the day. If you're lucky, you'll see a special patrol of Mexico City policemen mounted on horseback, wearing broad sombreros and toting revolvers. Open daylight hours, every day except Monday.
COYOACAN
A former village south of central Mexico City, this charming neighborhood of cobblestone streets, brightly painted colonial houses and tree-shaded plazas was home to Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and hundreds of other artists over the decades. Easily reachable by public transport, including the Viveros stop on the green No. 3 line (a ticket costs 20 cents), Coyoacan offers hours of walking and drifting in and out of art galleries and craft stores. Its central square, the Plaza Hidalgo, is packed on weekends but still well worth a stop. Throughout Coyoacan are kiosks offering free bicycle rentals; just leave an ID as a deposit.
VIVEROS DE COYOACAN
Less developed than Chapultepec Park, Viveros is a combination tree nursery and public park, with a popular jogging track around its edge. Cool and lushly green, it's a great place to stroll, look at beds of trees and flowers and people-watch. The eastern edge of the park features an open-air gym and boxing area, with people sparring and performing feats of strength like climbing ropes and lifting cement blocks. Open daily 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Up Dated Mexico Travel Warnings 112112

No Problems Noted in Los Algodones B.C., Mexico
2:58PM EST November 21. 2012 - The U.S. State Department has updated its February 2012 travel warning to Mexico, making few essential changes but in an extremely detailed rundown getting even more specific about what to worry about where.
The good news for tourists is that, as in the past warning, most popular areas (including Cancun, the Riviera Maya, Mexico City, Los Cabos, Riviera Nayarit, Puerto Vallerta, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Merida, Chichen Itza, Huatulco and Oaxaca) are exempted. Caution is urged at certain places or times outside the tourist zones of Acapulco and Mazatlan, as well as in Cuernavaca. You can read the text of the travel warning on the State Department website. It says it is designed to "consolidate and update information about the security situation." And it places additional restrictions on where government employees can go.
Peter Velasco, a State Department press officer, tells USA TODAY that the warning was updated because of the department's "no double standard policy," meaning that citizens should get the same updated travel info given government employees. "Obviously, Mexico is a big country," he adds, and "we're trying to make the information as accurate and balanced" and updated as possible.
The state-by-state summary opens with a calming statement that "millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day. The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations, and there is no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) have targeted U.S. visitors and residents based on their nationality. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major trafficking routes."
However, it says the criminal groups are battling with each other and the government and "crime and violence are serious problems throughout the country and can occur anywhere. U.S. citizens have fallen victim to TCO activity, including homicide, gun battles, kidnapping, carjacking and highway robbery." It adds that "the number of U.S. citizens reported to the Department of State as murdered under all circumstances in Mexico was 113 in 2011 and 32 in the first six months of 2012."
It recommends driving only if necessary, during daylight hours and to use toll roads when possible.
Some cautionary highlights:
    Be careful in border cities such as Tijuana and Mexicali, especially at night.
    Defer non-essential travel to the state of Chihuahua, including Ciudad Juarez and the Copper Canyon area.
    Don't travel unnecessarily to Monterrey and its state of Nuevo Leon, where violence and gun battles occur and U.S. citizens have been murdered.
    Mazatlan is exempt from the travel warning for its state, Sinaloa, but the State Department advises Americans to "exercise caution particularly late at night and in the early morning. One of Mexico's most powerful TCOs is based in the state of Sinaloa. ... We recommend that any other travel in Mazatlan be limited to Zona Dorada and the historic town center, as well as direct routes to/from these locations and the airport."
    The Nuevo Laredo area has seen armed robberies and carjackings, and a U.S. family was forced off the road after crossing the border from Texas in August, resulting in injuries and a death.
    Guerrero, which includes Acapulco, Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo, is a trouble spot. In those cities, "you should exercise caution and stay within tourist areas. You should also exercise caution and travel only during daylight hours on highway 95D (cuota/toll road) between Mexico City and Acapulco and highway 200 between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa. In Acapulco, defer non-essential travel to areas further than 2 blocks inland of the Costera Miguel Aleman Boulevard, which parallels the popular beach areas. In general, the popular tourist area of Diamante, just south of the city, has been less affected by violence."
    In Cuernavaca, "numerous incidents of narcotics-related violence have also occurred in the city ... a popular destination for U.S. students," the warning says
    Caution is advised in the state of Veracruz