Cholera Still a Threat in Caribbean Areas

Cholera a waterborne disease can kill victims through dehydration,
however is treatable if found early.

Cholera has killed one person and sickened nine in central Mexico per the Mexican Health Ministry.

Mexico's Health Department says two cases were detected in Southern Mexico at Mexico City and nearby state of Hidalgo, where one person died.    
The department on Friday declared a health emergency for Hidalgo. Authorities said it's the same cholera strain that is sickening hundreds of people in Caribbean countries, including Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Mexico City health authorities say they have intensified their surveillance of water treatment plants and water tanks and have launched a campaign to educate people about preventing getting infected.
  

Mexico City Famous Smells

For many, the first experience of Mexico City is a sprawling airport and an appalling stink.

It wafts from the manholes and leaves the morning air smelling fresh as a septic tank.
On bad days, it hits travelers as they step off airplanes and follows them through the terminal. It can overpower a pleasant bike ride along the cobblestone streets of the capital's downtown, or interrupt an alfresco meal in the trendy Condesa neighborhood.
Anna Sloan, a 68-year-old tourist from California who arrived at the Mexico City airport one recent afternoon, noticed a foul odor while waiting to pick up her luggage.
"What's that smell? That's horrible!" she told a group of friends traveling with her. "That's no way to welcome visitors."
The odor problems are a result of poorly managed wastewater and trash in a sprawling metropolis whose population - 20 million by official count - outgrew its infrastructure decades ago. Authorities have sought for years to find a solution.
Now, it's new Mayor Miguel Mancera's turn to try to deodorize the city's B.O. This month he announced plans to control the foul odors that waft from the city's only compost plant at a landfill near the airport and to more aggressively recycle trash citywide. The ambitious $135 million plan calls for construction of three bio-gas plants to produce electricity from compost. It will include more recycling programs so that by the time it's completed in 2018 all 12,500 tons of trash produced daily is recycled, Mancera said.
Experts agree the main source of the fetid air that blows into some areas of Mexico City intermittently is from an overwhelmed sewage system.
The city's sewage pipes and an underground drainage tunnel, which has to accommodate sewage and storm water, were built more than 50 years ago, and the population in the metropolitan area has doubled since then and the system can't keep up.
To make matters worse, the city pumps so much water from underground aquifers that some neighborhoods sink by up to a foot a year, which further disrupts the draining of sewage, said Sergio Palacios Mayorga, a professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University, who studies solid-waste management.
"What's happening is that the sewage system has less pressure because the city is sinking, and that makes wastewater move slowly or completely get stuck in some places," he said.
Mexico City advocates note the odor problems come and go and do not affect all areas of the city equally. And for such a huge metropolis in a developing country where boiling grease from thousands of food stalls crackle along many streets, things could be worse.
"There are smells in the city, definitely, but they are in certain areas where the sewage system doesn't work very well," said Ricardo Estrada, deputy director for recycling at the city's Development Services Department.
Sewage pumps have been built throughout the city and work constantly to suck sewage-laced water out of the rapidly sinking, mountain-ringed lakebed on which the city was built more than 600 years ago. The pumps have venting stacks that spew foul-smelling gas into the sky, including from a large yellow horse figure that doubles as a piece of public art.
The huge sculpture known as "El Caballito," or "The Little Horse," sits on the leafy, elegant Reforma Avenue and is a venting stack for the city's underground drainage tunnel.
The sewage system in the metropolitan area currently processes more than 13,000 gallons (50,000 liters) of sewage water every second, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool every minute.
City officials are also looking for help with bad odors and, more importantly, the risk of major flooding from a 39-mile (62-kilometer) long and 7-meter (7.5-yard) wide sewage tunnel that is being built by the federal government. So far, 6 miles (10-kilometers) of the underground project, which will cost at least $15 billion, have been completed.
Mexico City residents have learned to live with the smells.
Some joggers and bike riders wear surgical masks that protect them against pollution and rancid air. Restaurant owners, food vendors, shoe shiners and anyone else who works on sidewalks cover manholes with pieces of tarp, carpet or trash bags. Patrons at sidewalk cafes wrinkle their noses at the fetid fumes and simply change tables indoors.
Jose Garcia, a 48-year-old shoe shiner with a prime spot on Reforma Avenue, uses a plastic bag and a piece of carpet to try to conceal the smell emanating from a manhole near his work station, but his clients still notice.
"They tell me they can smell feces," Garcia said. "I can smell it, too, from time to time, but what else can I do? There are other corners where the smell is worse."
Garcia said he has worked on the same corner for 33 years and the whole time he has caught whiffs of rancid air.
"We are thousands and thousands of people with a bad drainage system. Imagine!" he said. "I have already gotten used to it."

Gun Buy Back SAN LUIS, Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico

City of San Luis Rio Colorado in Mexico (Across from San Luis, Az.)  is offering food vouchers for residents who turn in guns in a form of Gun Buy Back Program.

 

Would be interesting to see just how many have been Stolen from the U.S. Is that like being rewarded for theft and Crime?

 

No questions asked. People who turn in guns, receive food vouchers worth between 100 and 1,000 (about $ 75. U.S) pesos, depending on the Value, Worthiness, Condition and Killing power or type of weapon.

 

They did not say, what they will do with the Weapons.

 

To Date 31 handguns and 47 long Guns have been turned in.

 

The program will end on September.30, 2013.

 

 

 

 

Deportations of Parents to Continue

Obama: Suspending Deportations Of Parents 'Not An Option'

With immigration legislation held up in Congress, advocates have called for President Barack Obama to expand the suspension of deportations he offered to undocumented children last year.

On Tuesday, the president said he would back a more piecemeal approach toward swiftly passing immigration reform. But, he added, offering deportation protection to undocumented parents of immigrants brought here illegally as children was “not an option.”

The president told tells Spanish-language TV network Telemundo that broadening the policy would essentially be ignoring the law. And he says he would have a tough time defending it legally.

Immigration advocates have lauded the Obama's administration's Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals or DACA, which in a little more than a year has granted permission to nearly 300,000 young adults, previously living illegally in the United States, to stay and work through the program. Some 200,000 more undocumented youth have submitted applications. (half a Million).

However, advocates point out that DACA does not protect those who arrived to the U.S. after their 16th birthday or those who are 31-years-old or older – leading to the deportation of about 200,000 parents of children who are U.S. citizens between 2010 and 2012, according to immigration experts. Advocates say the continued deportation of parents leaves thousands of children in foster care.

A study by the Applied Research Center estimated that 15,000 more children would end up in foster care by 2016 if high numbers of detention and deportation continued under the Obama administration.

A new little-noticed directive by the Obama administration in August does call on immigration authorities to exercise discretion when dealing with undocumented immigrants who have minor children.

A record 1.5 million people were deported under Obama's first term in office from 2008 to 2012 - including an unprecedented 409,849 last year.

Obama said in the Telemundo interview that he backed a piecemeal approach to immigration reform. But he said reform legislation had not passed because of House Speaker John Boehner's refusal to put a Senate-passed overhaul to a vote.

"The only thing that's preventing it is – you know, Speaker Boehner's decided that – he doesn't wanna call it right now," he said. "I'm happy to let the House work its will as long as the bill that ends up on my desk speaks to the central issues that have to be resolved."

Obama said he is less concerned about process, and more concerned about getting it done – as long as the bill "speaks to the central issues that have to be resolved" including stronger border security, pathway to citizenship for immigrants who live in the country illegally, and penalties for employers who hire and take advantage of undocumented workers.

Boehner’s spokesman said he welcomes a piecemeal approach to immigration reform.

"If immigration reform is going to work, it is essential that we have the confidence of the American people that it's done the right way," Brendan Buck told Reuters. "That means a deliberate, step-by-step approach, not another massive Obamacare-style bill that people don't understand."

 

Mexico 2013 Fall Storm Flour

 worst storm seen in years if not ever.

47 Dead tropical storm and a hurricane hitting Mexico at nearly the same time. stranded tourists cutoff in resort city of Acapulco.

roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges.
Acapulco cut off from road after Tropical Manuel made landfall. The terminal at airport closed.

Emergency evacuations of 40,000 mainly Mexican tourists stranded, the streets were raging rivers. .

most Acapulco hotels operating close to normal. Rest of area neighborhoods had no water, electricity, with floodwaters two and a half foot deep inside the airport lobby.

Government says two or more days get the highway back open. So food, water and supplies can be brought into more than 800,000 people.

Aeromexico and Inter-jet, are operating limited flights in and out of swamped international airport.
ticketed passengers first priority, then travelers with small children and the elderly and disabled.

40,000 tourists stuck in the city, but the local chamber of commerce and business owners said reports from hotels indicated the number could be as high as 60,000.

Thousands of stranded tourists lined up outside an air force base north of Acapulco to try to get a seat on one of a handful of planes flying to Mexico City. Many said they've been waiting at the base for hours after they were unable to return to Mexico City by road.

The main boulevard is open most hotels have power, water and food. But being stuck with the problems in Acapulco is not a picnic.

probably a bad holiday. like being an inmate and  being incarcerated.

As in most cases, the poor suffer the most. being away from the better built areas.
The shill people have a bad time with the running water into the Casa's and earth be washed away or into the residence.funneled rainwater into neighborhoods of  adobe or cinderblock homes damaging and killing.  Landslides and flooding damaged an unknown number of homes.

the run on Stores was  fast and furious,  nearly emptied by the people who could afford to  stock up on basic goods..
                 
Coyuca de Benitez on the Coast,  and beach resorts further west of Acapulco, including Ixtapa and Zihuatenejo, were cut off after a river washed out a bridge on the main coastal highway.

A number of people have no clean, dry clothes or bedding, as everything is wet or muddy.                 

some are lucky to be in shelters and they're begging for aid, food, water, shelter.
reported in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, where 12 people died when a landslide smashed into a bus traveling through the town of Altotonga, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of the state capital, Was one of the biggest single death tolls.

Over 23,000 people fled their homes in Veracruz state due to heavy rains spawned by Ingrid, and 9,000 went to emergency shelters. 20 highways, 12 bridges damaged.

Storm warnings for Mexico

Hurricane Ingrid to Hit Tampico Mexico on Monday September 16, 2013
and it will bring up to 50+ mm or rain and the winds will be very strong and it will cause flooding Conditions and the Hurricane Ingrid is going to turn to the West Direction then it is on its way for Tampico Mexico on Monday September 16 , 2013 and People in Tampico Mexico Be Prepared have your Rubber Boots and your Rain Coats and your Rain Suits Ready and it is going to be stormy Conditions and it will have Big Waves at the Beach and Stay Away from the beaches and Shores of Tampico Mexico and When the Hurricane Gets Real Bad Get inside of your House so you can be Safe and Don't Drive your Car Through the Flood or your Car will get Stalled and when you go for a walk Don't Walk through the Puddles and Have your iPads Charged, iPhones Charged, iPods Charged, Cell Phones Charged and Tablets Charged and Have your Extra Batteries, Candles, Flashlights and Crank up Radio Ready and also Have your Board Games Ready so you can be safe inside of your House during the Hurricane Ingrid and the winds will be damaging and it will have flooding rains as well and the Gulf of Mexico is Very Warm and the Wind Shear is Very Low too. Don’t forget  water, food and Medical supply for a week. Canned soups Beans and the like.

Pot legal vs. Medical in Mexico

Mexico Backs Medical Marijuana, But Not Recreational

 

Politicians who want to change Mexico’s marijuana policies must face an uncomfortable reality: An overwhelming majority of the country’s population opposes the legalization of weed.

A poll published this week, however, does offer some good news to those who would prefer a less prohibitionist stance towards the herb.

It suggests that 65 percent of Mexicans favor the legalization of marijuana for medical use. Only 29 percent of the country’s residents oppose medical marijuana, according to the poll, which was conducted in August by the Parametria research group.

The findings come as Mexican politicians discuss new approaches to marijuana policy. Current laws strictly prohibit the sale and production of the plant.

In Mexico City, the local legislature has held several hearings on marijuana policy this summer, with some officials backing plans to legalize cannabis clubs, where the herb could be grown and smoked, for recreational purposes.

Meanwhile in the Mexican Congress, a group of legislators has drafted a bill that would regulate the production and sale of marijuana. The bill would also allow Mexicans to buy weed at state-sanctioned distributors, or grow up to four plants at home.

Congressman Fernando Belaunzaran, who is leading efforts to get this bill approved, says that legalizing marijuana would reduce the incomes of violent drug cartels who currently traffic the drug, and are responsible for thousands of murders in Mexico.

“To take that market away from them, would be a big hit on their finances. They are only as strong as their resources,” Belaunzaran told local news site Animal Politico.

But Belaunzaran’s argument does not seem to fly well with most Mexicans.

In polls conducted over recent years by different firms, at least 75 percent of Mexicans have said they oppose the legalization of weed, while support for legalization hovers between 10 to 20 percent of the population.

The poll that was published this week seems to confirm these findings. It asked people if they would support the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, and only 10 percent of respondents agreed.

Polls suggest that Mexicans oppose legalization because they think it will lead to greater consumption of the drug. In a poll conducted by Parametria last year, 64 percent of respondents said that legalization would lead to greater consumption of marijuana amongst kids.

Still, such opposition might not necessarily block efforts to legalize weed. In Uruguay, legislators recently approved a bill that regulates the sale, consumption and production of marijuana, even though polls showed that only 25 percent of the country’s population was in favor of the law.

In that country though, marijuana legalization was strongly backed by the country’s president, José Mujica.

In Mexico, President Peña Nieto has said that he is against the legalization of weed, although he also believes that the subject should be up for debate.