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February 8th  2010

..the heartbeat of the Riviera Nayarit 

Heavy rains predicted for Nayarit Coast on Thursday

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CNN
go to original
February 08, 2010

People wade through the flooded Valle de Chalco, on the outskirts of the Mexico City area, on Friday.

Mexico City - Heavy flooding in central Mexico in the past week has killed at least 33 people and left thousands homeless, the government said Monday.

Schools remained closed in five cities in Mexico's Michoacan state, where the flooding has killed at least 22 people and left more than 3,500 residents homeless, the state government said on its Web site.

Another 83 people still were missing Monday in Michoacan, a state in western coastal Mexico that has been beset by drug violence in the past few years.

A mudslide Saturday killed at least 11 people near the small town of Temascaltepec, in neighboring Mexico state.

Uncharacteristic heavy rain throughout Mexico also has led to flooding in the nation's capital, Mexico City.

Up to 35,000 people nationwide could have been affected, published reports said.

On Sunday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon toured Valle de Chalco, a city in Mexico state.

In Valle de Chalco, on the eastern outskirts of the Mexico City area, officials announced that contaminated water from a sewage network that overflowed Friday will continue to flood the town for at least another 48 hours. The number of affected houses in the city grew from 2,000 on Friday to about 3,000 on Monday, the government said.

Mexico state is bordered on the west by Michoacan and adjoins Mexico City on three sides - north, east and west.

In Mexico City, officials announced the reopening Monday of 165 of the 174 schools that were closed Friday because of the heavy rain and flooding.

Calderon and other Mexican officials have vowed to help displaced families, including offering them food, medicine, shelter and cash allowances to buy new furniture.

Become a Friend of Riviera Nayarit on Facebook click here

Headline News

Grupo Mexico Net Rises as Southern Copper Sales Surge

Grupo Mexico SAB, the country’s largest mining company, said fourth-quarter profit more than doubled after sales at its copper unit surged. ….Click here to read more

Slim’s Inbursa Plans 30% More Branches to Add Clients

Grupo Financiero Inbursa SA, the bank controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, plans to increase the number of branches by 30 percent in the first quarter to add more consumer and small-business clients.….Click here to read more

Greece: agree on legally binding deal in Mexico

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday emphasised that the world must agree on a legally binding deal at the next major U.N. climate talks in Mexico at the end of the year.….Click here to read more

Mexico's Alfa sees 2010 EBITDA up 5 pct year/year

Mexican conglomerate Alfa said on Thursday it sees 2010 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization growing 5 percent as the economy pulls out of a deep downturn.….Click here to read more

Value draws Americans to assisted living in Mexico

In the heart of Mexico, where poinsettias grow wild, Christine Pope and her dog Mitchie enjoy a morning walk. The Texas native moved to the San Miguel de Allende area a few months ago. Now age 91, her new home is an assisted living center — a new concept south of the border.….Click here to read more

Mexican wolf count drops by 10 from year ago

Federal wildlife officials overseeing a reintroduction program counted 42 Mexican wolves in the wilds of Arizona and New Mexico at the end of last year, a significant drop from the 52 reported one year earlier.….Click here to read more

NFL wants a return to Mexico

Arizona and San Francisco played the NFL’s first regular-season game outside the United States in Mexico in 2005, followed two years later by a game in London between Miami and the New York Giants.….Click here to read more

DIDX to Participate in EXPO COMM Mexico 2010

Super Technologies Inc., its registered and patented service, DID change, and Technistan, have announced they will be playing the role of press agents for a number of global IP communications conferences.…..Click here to read more

NAFTA trade slips in November

Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement partners Canada and Mexico was 2.9 percent lower in November 2009 than in November 2008, dropping to $58.9 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation.…..Click here to read more

Mexico's America Movil found dominant in cellular

Mexico's government for years has struggled to reduce the dominance of tycoon Carlos Slim's America Movil and his fixed-line operator Telmex, making rulings and implementing regulations that are often fought over in court.…..Click here to read more

"Twitteros" are Mexico's Latest Outlaws

Mexico has racked up its fair share of menacingly named outlaws in a three-year drug war: the Zetas, Aztecas and even a band of female assassins called the Panthers. …..Click here to read more

Davos 2010: Leaders vow climate deal in Mexico

Politicians at the World Economic Forum in Davos have vowed to reach a "substantial" deal on climate change.The world's leaders will meet in Cancun, Mexico, later this year - after a disappointing conclusion to talks in Copenhagen last month. ….Click here to read more

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Amigos de Lo de Marcos Annual Fundraiser Best Ever!

Fiesta!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amigos de Lo de Marcos Annual Fundraiser held Saturday was a great success attracting Americans, Canadians and Mexican families to the town square in a wonderful celebration of community. It was an acknowledgment of what the entire population of Lo de Marcos has done in making it a better community for everyone, visitors and those who live there. Attendance was free which allowed many more Mexican families to attend and meet with the the foreign community during the fun filled evening.  Everyone, young parents, children and grand parents felt welcomed as organizers explained the benefits that the Amigos de Lo de Marcos were providing to the community.  Pollution, Litter control, recycling, education aid, seniors services ect, announcements were greeted by applause as it was delivered in both languages.  Food, raffles, auctions and rock and roll.  Check back Wednesday for more information on the event.

 

To view more Bill Bell pictures of the Fiesta click here

Letter to editor

Thanks so much for the wonderful coverage!!...Mitch Schilling

 

1st Annual Jaltemba Foundation   Home Tour: Seaside Living   9:00 am Sunday, February 28, 2010 All event proceeds go the Foundation’s long-term endowment fund and to support the member organizations’ programs. Each of these charities strives to address the community needs of the LaPenita/Guayabitos’ poorest and most vulnerable residents. The charities are: The Robert Howell Memorial Fund, Women for Women Fashion Show, Margarita Challenge, LaPenita RV Park Community Fund, and Fran Milski Education Fund. $250 pesos             Ticket price includes: ·      Guided tour of 8 luxurious private homes            ·       Transportation ·        Light lunch, bottle of water ·       Cash bar with beer, wine, soda View some of the La Penita/Guayabitos finest homes with breathtaking views, stunning décor, and unique architectural styles. See first-hand how locals and ex-pats of this amazing community blend north of the border flair with tropical Mexican art and colors…meet the owners of these exclusive homes to learn the history and architectural highlights of each residence. Participation by Advance Ticket Only!   More ticket Locations coming soon Contact: Shirley: email infinity.coach@yahoo.com   or George  322-181-7094   Tickets in advance only: Thursday Market:  (Anna Ibara Posada Las Flores) Xaltemba Restaurant, Petra's Deli, La Penita RV Park, Jaltemba Sol

 

El Famoso!

 

Guayabitos was filled with the sounds of ringers on Saturday as a huge and enthusiastic crowd came out.

First place in the A division went to Lionel and Allen (Bill Bell Photograph)

The Howell Brothers, David and Jim, once again put on a great fundraising tourney.  A special thanks to you for all your hard work in making this community, in your father's name, a better place to live. And having fun doing it is an added bonus!

Click here to view the great people who participated in the tourney..fans and players

Click here to vew the winners and dead ass last

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Xaltemba is open every night for dinner

including Mondays

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Saturday and Sundays too

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New Homes and Living Section

February 14th, the Sol will launch a new Homes and Living section.

"We expect there will be a great deal of interest," says Bill Bell, Editor in Chief. "We will feature homes in the area as well as building materials, techniques and a whole host of information pertinent to tropical living."

"Additionally, the Homes and Living section will focus on healthy lifestyles including recipes, diet and fitness and travel."

If you have a topic you think we would find interesting contact editor@jaltembasol.com

 

 

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Mother and Baby Humpback Whale Rescued Near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
PR Log
go to original
February 06, 2010

Liberating entangled Humpback whales (VallartaAdventures.com)

What started out as a normal morning of whale watching out on the Bay of Banderas turned into a rescue mission to release two whales entangled in an illegal fishing net.

Around 11:00 AM, on January 28th, 2010, a tour boat on the way to Islas Marietas spotted a humpback whale and her calf appearing to struggle and behave abnormally on the top of the ocean's surface. After approaching the whales cautiously, the boat crew confirmed that the whales were indeed entangled in a giant fishing net and would need to be rescued.

Vallarta Adventures, an eco-tour provider in Puerto Vallarta, heard the radio call about the distressed whales and their team of Marine Animal Rescue staff immediately sprang into action to assist in the rescue and recovery of the trapped whales.

En route, the Vallarta Adventure's team met up with the Mexican Navy, where Lieutenant Luis Vidal boarded the Vallarta Adventures' boat to assist in liberating the pair.

Once they reached the distressed whales they were able to asses that the mother was entangled from tip to tail in the illegal fishing net and that her calf was also becoming entangled as it swam closer to its mother.

With all hands and arms into the water at once, everyone began grabbing the fishing net, ropes and buoys that encompassed the pair. Once the whales started to get untangled from the net, they began to move about which made the effort to free them completely even more difficult and dangerous.

With persistence and quick action, the staff and Naval officer quickly removed the offending net from the whales and within an hour, the pair was safe and free, gloriously swimming off into the Bay.

Vallarta Adventures/Dolphin Adventures is the premier tour provider for Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Opened in 1994, Vallarta Adventures offers a vast variety of eco-tours and excursions as well as providing over 1000 dolphin assistance programs at no charge to special needs children and low income families each year. Additionally, Vallarta Adventures gives back to the community by working alongside with local government agencies in protecting local marine and animal wildlife, Humpback Whale rescue, conservation and sustainable development of the environment, education and various charities that benefit the local children and families.

Visit the website at VallartaAdventures.com

 

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Father and Sons Armando's Joyerua y Relojeria on the Avenida in La Penita, Always friendly service

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HOMEMADE CHILI with CORN BREAD  & A BEER

FOR ONLY 100 pesos !!!!!

 DON’T MISS OUT!

We’re gonna have fun!

@ Crazy Nelly’s on Monday Feb. 22^nd at 5 pm

 MOST WANTED playing from 6 to 8pm

 ALL proceeds to Ana’s Girls’ home

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What Time Is It, Sayulita, Lo de Marcos, San Pancho?   By: Julia Caranci   Starting in April, visitors to Sayulita won't have to worry about missing their flights or being late for appointments because the time changes between here and Puerto Vallarta. According to an official decree posted on the Mexican Federal Government's website last month, Bahia de Banderas county will switch from Mountain time to Central Time on the first Sunday in April of this year, when the switch to Daylight Savings Time is made. More-> Thanks to Sayulita Life

 

Announcing the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Byron & Ginger Payne Married February 20, 1960 San Jose, California Derek and Jon want to invite family and friends to join in the 50th Anniversary Celebration Party in Mexico on February 20, 2010.  The Party will be held on the street of Gaviotes, next to the Beach and Bay of Rincon De Guayabitos Mexico. Dancing, Food and Fun with the 50th Anniversary Couple!! Located 47miles north of  PuertoVallarta Mexico. For travel and lodging information contact Derek at d.ps@sbcglobal.net or Ginger at bryon776@hotmail.com. Also please send Ginger emails about good times past and present and memories that can be added to their 50th Anniversary Album. Hope to see you in Rincon in February. NO GIFTS PLEASE!

Amid Drug War, Mexico Less Deadly than Decade Ago
Nakia Cooper - khou.com
go to original
February 07, 2010

	In terms of security, we are like those women who aren’t overweight but when they look in the mirror, they think they’re fat. - Luis de la Barreda

Mexico City — Decapitated bodies dumped on the streets, drug-war shootings and regular attacks on police have obscured a significant fact: A falling homicide rate means people in Mexico are less likely to die violently now than they were more than a decade ago.

It also means tourists as well as locals may be safer than many believe.

Mexico City’s homicide rate today is about on par with Los Angeles and is less than a third of that for Washington, D.C.

Yet many Americans are leery of visiting Mexico at all. Drug violence and the swine flu outbreak contributed to a 12.5 percent decline in air travel to Mexico by U.S. citizens in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, a blow to Mexico’s third-largest source of foreign income.

Mexico, Colombia and Haiti are the only countries in the hemisphere subject to a U.S. government advisory warning travelers about violence, even though homicide rates in many Latin American countries are far higher.

“What we hear is, ‘Oh the drug war! The dead people on the streets, and the policeman losing his head,”’ said Tobias Schluter, 34, a civil engineer from Berlin having a beer at a cafe behind Mexico City’s 16th-century cathedral. “But we don’t see it. We haven’t heard a gunshot or anything.”

Mexico’s homicide rate has fallen steadily from a high in 1997 of 17 per 100,000 people to 14 per 100,000 in 2009, a year marked by an unprecedented spate of drug slayings concentrated in a few states and cities, Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said. The national rate hit a low of 10 per 100,000 people in 2007, according to government figures compiled by the independent Citizens’ Institute for Crime Studies.

By comparison, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have homicide rates of between 40 and 60 per 100,000 people, according to recent government statistics. Colombia was close behind with a rate of 33 in 2008. Brazil’s was 24 in 2006, the last year when national figures were available.

Mexico City’s rate was about 9 per 100,000 in 2008, while Washington, D.C. was more than 30 that year.

“In terms of security, we are like those women who aren’t overweight but when they look in the mirror, they think they’re fat,” said Luis de la Barreda, director of the Citizens’ Institute. “We are an unsafe country, but we think we are much more unsafe that we really are.”

Of course, drug violence has turned some places in Mexico, including the U.S. border region and some parts of the Pacific coast, into near-war zones since President Felipe Calderon intensified the war against cartels with a massive troop deployment in 2006. That has made Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, among the most dangerous cities in the world.

“The violence, homicides and cruel and inhuman assassinations, which fill the pages of our media, make us feel that there has been much more violence since this war against drug trafficking,” said Bishop Miguel Alba Diaz of La Paz, a vacation city at the tip of the Baja California peninsula.

Mexico’s violence is often more shocking than elsewhere in Latin America because powerful cartels go to extremes to intimidate the government and rival smugglers.

In just one week in December, the severed heads of six police investigators were dumped in a public plaza, kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva died in a two-hour shootout with troops at a luxury apartment complex in a resort city and gunmen slaughtered the family of the only marine killed in that battle.

In the new year, it’s become even more grotesque. Three weeks ago, a victim’s face was peeled from his skull and sewn onto a soccer ball. Days later, the remains of 41-year-old former police officer were divided into two separate ice chests.

Authorities say the vast majority of victims are drug suspects, but bystanders, including children, sometimes get caught in the crossfire.

Mexico has the same problems with corrupt police, gang violence and poverty as other Latin American countries with higher homicide rates. So why the decline in murders?

Experts say while drug violence is up, land disputes have eased. Many farmers have migrated to the cities or abroad and the government has pushed to resolve the land disputes, some centuries old.

During the height of the Zapatista uprising in the mid 1990s—a rebellion fueled by land conflicts—southern Chiapas state had a rate of nearly 40 per 100,000 people with 1,000 homicides a year. By 2008, that fell to 8 per 100,000 people with 364 killings.

De la Barreda attributes the downward trend to a general improvement in Mexico’s quality of life. More Mexicans have joined the ranks of the middle class in the past two decades, while education levels and life expectancy have also risen.

Critics of Calderon’s drug war say his frontal assault on cartels is giving Mexico a reputation as a violent country but doing little to stop the drug gangs’ work.

“It’s a bad international image that affects foreign tourism and foreign investment,” said Jose Luis Pineyro, a sociologist at Mexico’s Autonomous Metropolitan University who has studied the drug war.

Drug violence has encroached on the resort towns of Zihuatanejo, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun. The millions of foreign tourists who visit each year are almost never targeted, but a handful have gotten caught in the crossfire. In 2007, two Canadians were grazed by bullets when someone fired into a hotel lobby in Acapulco. In January, a Canadian couple was shot and wounded in a robbery attempt just outside Zihuatanejo.

The U.S. State Department travel alert says dozens of U.S. citizens living in Mexico have been kidnapped over the years, and warns Americans against traveling to the states of Chihuahua and Michoacan.

Chihuahua, home to Ciudad Juarez, had a horrifying homicide rate of 173 per 100,000 in the city of 1.3 million, or more than 2,500 murders last year.

Michoacan, famed for its Monarch butterfly refuge, Day of the Dead celebrations and picturesque colonial capital, is now also widely known as the place where five heads rolled across a dance floor. Drug violence is blamed for many of the state’s 660 killings last year.

But in many parts of Mexico, villages are more tranquil than ever—a fact that retired nurse Marilyn Wells struggles to drive home with her American friends back home in LeMars, Iowa.

“’We’re OK, there’s no problem,”’ Wells said she tells friends about the home she bought four years ago in Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. “I don’t feel any less safe down here than I did before.”

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Gay Marriage Puts Mexico City at Center of Debate
Elisabeth Malkin - New York Times
go to original
February 06, 2010

Ivonne Cervantes, left, and Angela Alfarache with their daughter, Constanza. A Mexico City law will recognize both as parents. (Jennifer Szymaszek/New York Times)

Mexico City — Angela Alfarache and Ivonne Cervantes met at a party 16 years ago and have been a couple ever since, filling their lives with books and writing and friends. After their daughter, Constanza, was born six years ago, they became a family.

Mexican law never saw it that way. Only Constanza’s biological mother — the pair will not say which one gave birth to her because, as they explain, they are both her mothers — is her legal parent. The law does not recognize the other mother.

In a few weeks, that will change. A new Mexico City law goes into effect March 4 that will allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, propelling the city to the forefront of the global gay rights movement.

“We want society to change its chip that says there is only one kind of family,” said Ms. Alfarache.

But fierce opposition erupted almost as soon as the law was passed on Dec. 22. In his final homily of the year in Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera said, “Today the family is under attack in its essence by the equivalence of homosexual unions with marriage between a man and a woman.” Roman Catholic groups asked the conservative federal government to intervene.

President Felipe Calderón said the Constitution defined marriage as between a man and a woman, although legal experts disagree. His attorney general filed a challenge before the Supreme Court, arguing that the law violates a constitutional clause protecting the family.

Under its left-wing mayor and city assembly, Mexico City has stretched the nation’s limits in acknowledging just how much the conceptions and realities of family have changed here. The city legalized abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, untangled its cumbersome divorce laws and recognized civil unions.

But while many families have been fractured by migration, teenage pregnancy, divorce and abandonment, most Mexicans still cherish the ideal of a nuclear family.

“The same word cannot have two different meanings,” said Mariana Gómez del Campo, the Mexico City leader of the president’s National Action Party, or PAN. “It will weaken the legal definition of marriage.”

More important, she said, is protecting children’s rights. “One of their rights is to have a family,” she said. “A child does not get to decide what kind of family it is.”

In an unscientific poll taken and cited by the party, just over half of the respondents disapproved of gay marriage and about three-quarters opposed adoption by same-sex couples.

But even if that accurately represents Mexican sentiments, the law’s backers in the city assembly as well as among gay men and lesbians argue that their vote was aimed at expanding rights, a decision that cannot be based on opinion polls or referendums.

“Politically, the federal government is declaring that the Constitution only protects heterosexual families,” said David Razú, the city legislator who proposed the new law. “It’s a government that discriminates against its own citizens.”

The federal government says that Mexico City’s 2007 civil unions law gives same-sex couples the rights they have been seeking. But in practice — when it comes to including a partner in public health insurance plans, applying for state bank loans or recognizing a parent — the law has not worked, said Judith Vázquez, a gay rights activist.

In positioning himself as a defiant social liberal, Mexico City’s mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, is taking a political gamble. He wants to run for president in 2012, and his views may find little resonance outside the capital, where the Roman Catholic Church holds much greater sway.

“We are looking at the recognition of rights and liberties, and in this there is a big difference between conservatives and those of us with a liberal or different or advanced ideas of rights,” Mr. Ebrard told reporters in response to the federal government’s court challenge in January.

The city will not wait for the Supreme Court ruling, which could take as long as a year, Mr. Ebrard added. Once they marry, same-sex spouses will be able to adopt openly as a couple in Mexico City.Elisabeth Malkin The city’s decisions — along with the election of two national presidents from the conservative PAN since 2000 — have emboldened the Catholic Church to speak out and even lobby politically in the past few years. Mexico has a long history of anticlericalism, going back to laws in the mid-19th century. Even after Mexico restored full rights to religious groups in 1992, the Catholic Church was at first careful not to be seen as involving itself directly in politics.

Elsewhere in Latin America there have been steps toward approving gay marriage. In Argentina, the debate over gay marriage is making its way through the courts, although the southernmost province, Tierra del Fuego, welcomed Latin America’s first gay wedding there on Dec. 29. Uruguay allows civil unions and is moving toward allowing same-sex couples to adopt. Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia all recognize some form of civil unions.

For the gay rights movement, Mexico City’s law was the result of 30 years of activism. Ms. Cervantes, 44, a fiction writer, and Ms. Alfarache, 50, an anthropologist who works on women’s rights issues, have been able to raise their daughter in the open-minded environment of the capital’s university-educated minority. Working-class couples or those outside the city face many more barriers, they say.

Several members of Ms. Cervantes’s family are conservative Catholics who are struggling to reconcile their faith with their uncomfortable acceptance of her family. “Once you know what scares you, it begins to break down what you believe in,” Ms. Cervantes said.

Even in their liberal enclave, the couple contend that they and their daughter should be assured of their rights.

“Our families, our doctors, the teachers — they all know that there are two mothers,” said Ms. Alfarache, nodding at Constanza. “But you can’t leave rights to people’s good will. We want the whole package, the rights — and the responsibilities.”

 

 

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Roberto drives them wild every Friday night at Hinde and Jaime's Restaurant in La Penita de Jaltemba

 

Activists Protest Bullfighting in Mexico
Agence France-Presse
go to original
February 07, 2010

 

Members of the Anima Naturalis organization protest against bullfighting in front of the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico City. The sign reads "No bullfights!". (AFP/Alfredo Estrella)

Mexico City – Some 200 activists soaked in fake blood and with colorful banderilla stakes attached to their backs staged a symbolic "die-in" Saturday demanding a ban to bullfighting in Mexico.

"We want to symbolize the approximately 150 bulls that will die during the current season in the Plaza Mexico," Leonora Esquivel, head of the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis that organized the protest, told AFP.

Plaza Mexico, the world's largest bullring, has enough room for 48,000 spectators.

The male and female protesters, who wore only black underwear, collapsed on the ground face down outside an art institute in the Mexican capital.

Bullfighting is legal in Mexico, as well as in Colombia, Ecuador, France, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and Venezuela, although some regions of France and Spain have banned the spectacle.
 

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Submitted by Our Wonderful French Yvonne

 

Buy a ticket for this beautiful knit afghan

 

A hand-made Afghan, knitted by Micheline Bédard, will be raffled off with proceeds going to the primary school ''Sebastian of La Colonia de La Penita''. 
 
Tickets are selling for 50 pesos for 3 tickets and can be purchased at the Hotel & Bungalows Guayabitos, 15 Sol Nuevo, apartment 215.  I will also have tickets available.  Draw will be held February 15, 2010. 
 
Hope your readership supports this activity.  

 
Yvonne
 

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                                          2010 SAN PANCHO MUSIC FEST

                                                          PLAZA DEL SOL

 

                                               FEB   26TH   27TH   28TH

                                                        FRI    SAT     SUN

 

                                               "a  celebration of international music"

 

FRIDAY FEB 26TH

 

2-5     Open mic

5          Carlos (traditional)

6          Beto y Carlos  (traditional)

7           Julio's sister/duo (varitey)

8          Julio Cabrera  (extraordinary mix of trad., jazz, gypsy, flam.,)

9           Galaxia (young mexican pop/rock)

 

 SATURDAY FEB 27TH

 

2-5     Open mic

5          Paul Swan  (american folklore)

6          "Juan-Ted" and the Amazing rhythm roosters (r&r, blues)

7          Jeff Oster/Chas/Andy   (smooth jazz trumpet/piano/bass

8           Will Ackermann (guitar)

8:30     Sarah  (fire dance)

9          San Pancho Jam

 

 SUNDAY FEB 28TH

 

 5          Dave Fisher  (american folk)

6          Japhlet   (electronic stick)

7          Adriana ( incredible Indian dance )

8          Tikkilyches ( r&b, blues, jazz, alt )

9          El Comobo (faby, shoe, chaz, tom....Blues/Jazz)

10        Gallo

  

*all performances and times subject to change.....

U.S., Mexico Closer to Resolving Trucking Dispute
Mica Rosenberg - Reuters
go to original
February 08, 2010

Union drivers protest the Bush/NAFTA project at a border crossing in 2007.

Mexico City - Congress could be moving closer to allowing Mexican trucks to haul cargo through the United States, helping to end a trade dispute hurting some exporters, the U.S. Trade Representative said on Monday.

In March 2009, U.S. lawmakers canceled funding for a test program begun by the Bush administration that allowed Mexican long-haul trucks to circulate in the United States, citing safety and security concerns.

The truck ban prompted Mexico to slap retaliatory tariffs on a long list of U.S. exports, including fruit and industrial goods, worth an estimated $2.4 billion.

But U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, visiting Mexico this week, said President Barack Obama had pushed Congress to remove the clause cutting funding for the program in recent legislation, a first step toward resolving the dispute.

"We have been able to work with Congress and Obama is very pleased that the language in the 2009 appropriations bill - that essentially cut off the funding for the demonstration safety program - was not included in the 2010 appropriations bill," Kirk told Reuters in an interview.

"By removing that prohibitory language, we just now have a green light to engage Congress again more thoughtfully."

Some U.S. businesses - like paper producers, potato farmers and grape growers - say they are suffering lost sales because of the duties Mexico imposed and they are pushing the Obama administration to find a quick solution.

"I can tell you that those industries in the United States, our farmers, our ranchers, our other exporters that have been subject of the retaliation, have made their displeasure known to Congress and so there is a sense of urgency," Kirk said.

He said his office's discussions with lawmakers and Mexico will "intensify" over the next weeks and months.

The United States had agreed to allow Mexican trucks to start using U.S. highways by 1995 after signing the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

But Mexican trucks were confined to border zones where they must offload goods to be carried by U.S. companies. In 2007, the U.S. government launched a pilot program that allowed a limited number of trucks full access to U.S. roads, while American trucks were also allowed to operate in Mexico.

U.S. organized labor, led by the largest trucking union, the Teamsters, along with highway safety and consumer groups, fiercely opposed the initiative, which was backed by former President George W. Bush.

(Editing by John O'Callaghan

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The Pope says pollution is a sin!

paid advertisement

 

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Drug Violence Spurs Music-Warning Bill in Mexico
Leila Cobo - Billboard
go to original
February 08, 2010

Video de Julio Beltran. (DonCleto1)

When the Mexican Navy gunned down notorious Mexican drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva in December, tribute videos started popping up on YouTube almost immediately. They showed pictures of Beltran Leyva, aka "el Jefe de Jefes" (the Chief of Chiefs), with stacks of money, guns and bags of cocaine as the backdrop to catchy corridos (narrative ballads) exalting his life and times.

Such exhibitions of adulation, coupled with the staggering social and human toll the drug trade has taken on Mexico, prompted the country's ruling National Action Party to propose legislation in January to regulate narcocorridos, the danceable songs that recount tales of drug dealers and their exploits.

Surprisingly, many in the music industry are privately hailing the action, even as they acknowledge that narcocorridos have never been as massively popular as today.

"As a label executive, I'm against any type of censure," said one record executive who, like everyone else interviewed for this piece, asked to remain anonymous, due in large part to security concerns. "But as a Mexican I totally agree with this proposal. It's reprehensible that music - which is a means of communication - is used to praise this lifestyle."

It has been widely misreported that the proposal could punish artists and media executives with up to three years in prison for producing and airing narcocorridos. Instead, the proposed legislation, introduced January 20 by Congress member Oscar Martin Arce, seeks to regulate the mass diffusion of narcocorridos or other related material - like videos or film - by requiring that they be labeled with a warning, akin to what's required for tobacco, alcohol or ads for age-restricted movies. The warning label would be required only on content that calls for the commission of a crime.

"We aren't limiting liberty of expression," Martin Arce says. "We're referring exclusively to when there's a call to commit a specific crime."

This isn't the first time the Mexican government tried to put a lid on explicit narcocorridos. Since 2001, 71 Mexican radio stations have been sanctioned for airing the music, citing a 1961 federal law that prohibits "exaltation of violence or crime."

And yet, narcocorridos have grown increasingly explicit in their praise for specific drug lords and in their adulation for the narco lifestyle. And, they've become more popular, in part due to exposure on YouTube, which doesn't censor or criticize the content.

Moreover, drug-related violence in Mexico has risen, claiming the lives of popular musicians like Valentin Elizalde, who was gunned down in 2007, and Sergio Gomez, who was kidnapped, tortured and shot the same year.

And while the government's motion might not curb the violence or reduce narcocorrido production, it could heighten awareness that there's real-life violence behind material that is treated as mere entertainment.

"Look at the message: 'I was no one until I got into the business,'" one concert promoter says, citing the lyrics of many a narcocorrido. "There are a lot of poor people out there. But they know that someone with a gun can take anyone who is rich and educated and make them get on their knees."

 

 

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Mexico Works on Climate Change ‘Roadmap’
The News
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February 08, 2010

Madrid, Spain - Mexico is preparing a “roadmap” to ensure that the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Cancun (COP16) achieves an agreement that the international community is calling for, said Mexican Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Juan Rafael Elvira.

At a meeting in New Dehli, India on Sustainable Development, Elvira focussed his participation in preparation for the COP16 to be held in Cancun, Nov. 29 to Dec. 10, in order to propose a negotiation scheme that is “innovative and flexible.”

“We believe that the traditional method has not produced the desired results in the proposed time period, and this compels us to forge new methods, strategies, ideas and contributions,” he said.

For the time being, the work is based on getting to know the opinions and positions of other countries, institutions and leaders, in regards to what failed at COP15 in December in Copenhagen, and how to take up again the Copenhagen Accord to continue negotiations.

Mexico's PAN and PRD: Love Letters in the Making?
Ken Ellingwood - Los Angeles Times
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February 05, 2010

 

Mexican President Felipe Calderon's conservative PAN party is considering a series of alliances with the leftist PRD in July elections. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

Mexico City - They are oil and water, Mars and Venus, cat and dog. And they might be the hottest pair in Mexican politics this year.

The political world is abuzz with the possibility of an election year alliance between the conservative National Action Party of President Felipe Calderon and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, whose members are so miffed over Calderon's disputed win in 2006 that they still refuse to recognize him as president.

The two parties, which clash over everything from tax policy to abortion rights, are talking seriously about forming a series of alliances in time for gubernatorial elections in July.

It would be a loveless marriage bound by a practical goal: to defeat the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The party was toppled from power a decade ago, but it has reemerged as the 800-pound gorilla of Mexican politics two years before a presidential vote it seems well positioned to win.

The idea under discussion is for Calderon's party, known as the PAN, and the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, to unite behind the same gubernatorial candidate in states where the PRI has long ruled and is favored to win again. By combining forces, the thinking goes, the two parties could assemble enough votes to dislodge the PRI.

This year's main prizes are governorships in 12 of Mexico's 31 states, but the maneuvering also has much to do with the 2012 presidential vote. Capturing governors' spots from the PRI might slow its recent momentum and neutralize its expected advantage in those states in 2012, analysts say.

The first alliance took form in the northern state of Durango last week, when the parties and two smaller ones agreed to assemble a shared slate for governor, mayors and state legislators.

The parties are also thinking about joining hands in Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Puebla states, all PRI strongholds.

Shared fear of a PRI sweep is at work. The party sailed to victory last summer, recapturing the lower house of Congress amid an economic crisis that has hobbled the PAN and infighting that severely weakened the PRD.

Of the 12 state governorships up for grabs in July, nine are already held by the PRI. Enrique Pena Nieto, the PRI governor of the state of Mexico, sits atop most polls as the current favorite for president.

The idea of a PAN-PRD alliance has been controversial, touching off a sharp debate over whether it would be good or bad for Mexico's still-evolving democracy 10 years after the PRI lost its 71-year monopoly on power.

Not surprisingly, PRI leaders have assailed the proposed alliances as "perverse" and say they will fail at the ballot box.

"Alliances between enemies that don't respect each other are contrary to nature," said Manlio Fabio Beltrones, the party's leader in the Senate.

The proposed alliances have also prompted queasiness within the PAN and the PRD.

Former President Vicente Fox, of the PAN, scoffed at joining with the leftists, saying it "doesn't have principles."

Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont, also of the PAN, dismissed such alliances as "political marketing" that could end up leading to fraud. (Gomez Mont later backtracked, saying that alliances can work if the parties agree on a platform.)

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who as the PRD candidate lost to Calderon in 2006 and refers to himself as Mexico's "legitimate president," said it made no sense to team up against the PRI since the two parties are "the same."

But some who advocate the unlikely partnership this year say it may be the only way to advance Mexico's emerging democracy, by breaking the PRI's continued widespread dominance at the state and municipal levels.

Although the presidency changed hands in 2000 when Fox won, states such as impoverished Oaxaca remain solid PRI fiefdoms.

And as presidential clout has ebbed, that of governors has grown, some analysts say.

Jesus Ortega, the president of the PRD, was pragmatic. "Politics," he said, "is not a matter of hatreds and loves."

Seasonal alliances in Mexico have cropped up for 20 years, but they haven't produced lasting governing coalitions and distract from the task of building an electoral majority from the ground up, said Daniel Lund, an analyst and pollster in Mexico City.

"It's an easy way out," Lund said. "To build your party, to build your voter base, that takes a lot of work."

ken.ellingwood(at)latimes.com

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Tiger's Golf Course Still on Track
Sandra Dibble - San Diego Union-Tribune
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February 07, 2010

 

Punta Brava sales team member Ryan Osterdorf teed off at what would be the location of the golf course’s 10th tee. (John Gibbins/Union-Tribune)

Punta Brava developers expect to break ground this year.

Tiger Woods has been on leave from professional golf, but his widely reported personal problems are not the reason for delays in launching a luxury development outside Ensenada where he is designing a golf course, say promoters and government officials with knowledge of the project.

Developers of Punta Brava, located on a peninsula about 65 miles south of San Diego, say the permitting process has moved more slowly than they expected, but they count on breaking ground this year and opening in 2012.

Developers say they have maintained their close working relationship with Woods, who has not said when he will resume golfing professionally.

“No matter what, Tiger Woods is the best golfer in the world, and there is nobody else that we would rather have design our golf course than the best golfer in the world,” said Brian Tucker, founder and principal of Punta Brava and a vice president of The Flagship Group, the project’s development company.

When Punta Brava was announced Oct. 7, 2008, “the world was a different place,” Tucker said. While the economic downturn has brought coastal real estate development in Baja California to a virtual standstill, Tucker said Punta Brava is moving forward. Since the launching, 167 prospective buyers have been flown down to tour the site, he said, and have shown enthusiasm for the project.

Sales won’t begin until next February, said Susan Wise, spokeswoman for The Flagship Group.

“We’re not selling 600 units of condos,” Tucker said. “This is to be one of the singular golf clubs in the world.”

With views of the ocean at every tee or green, the Tiger Woods golf course is the centerpiece of the development planned at the tip of the Punta Banda peninsula overlooking Todos Santos Bay. The project includes 120 units, with prices starting at $3 million for a lot and $3.5 million for a condominium, according to information released at the project’s unveiling.

Punta Brava’s financial backer is Red McCombs, co-founder of Clear Channel Communications and former owner of the San Antonio Spurs, the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Vikings. McCombs is a principal of The Flagship Group, headed by the Austin-based developer Brady Oman. The project’s estimated cost is $100 million.

Construction was scheduled to begin in early 2009 and be completed in 2010, according to the Tiger Woods Design Web site. The site lists Punta Brava as one of three designed by Woods; the others are in North Carolina and Dubai.

Baja California Tourism Secretary Oscar Escobedo Carignan said the project is an important step in projecting the state as a “sand and sea” destination, a term for oceanfront resorts that feature natural beauty. While Punta Brava would have no beaches, it is a dramatic natural setting with views of the ocean on three sides.

The developers say they are taking care to minimize the project’s environmental impact. A group of opponents to the project, the Viva Punta Banda Coalition, says the development threatens one of the few remaining areas of marine coastal sage scrub in Baja California and will require large amounts of water in an area where water supplies are scarce. The opponents say the project’s desalination plant will discharge brine sludge into the ocean, threatening marine ecosystems.

Tucker said that it has taken “way longer” than expected to get permits. The proposal passed a key hurdle late last year when Mexico’s Environmental Ministry gave a green light to the project, said Escobedo, the tourism secretary.

The area still needs a land-use change to allow for a tourist development. Linda Salazar, an official with Ensenada’s Urban Administration Secretariat, said federal environmental officials are expected to act in the next two weeks.

Another hurdle that the project must clear is a detailed review by Mexico’s National Institute for Anthropology and History, or INAH. Archaeologists familiar with the region say the site holds important remains of groups from as far back as 10,000 years ago.

INAH conducted a preliminary study last year, but needs to conduct a more extensive review before the project can move forward, according to the institute’s Baja California office. The study would be paid by the developer, but conducted by INAH.

Julia Bendimez, INAH’s director in Baja California, said the institute is prepared to conduct its review of the archaeological sites on the property, an area known as La Lobera.

“The salvage effort will begin when the company needs it,” Bendimez said.

Sandra Dibble: sandra.dibble(at)uniontrib.com

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