WASHINGTON -- Nine years after the Supreme Court said colleges and universities can use race in their quest for diverse student bodies, the justices have put this divisive social issue back on their agenda in the middle of a presidential election campaign.
Nine years is a blink of the eye on a court where justices can look back two centuries for legal precedents. But with an ascendant conservative majority, the high court in arguments Wednesday will weigh whether to limit or even rule out taking race into account in college admissions.
The justices will be looking at the University of Texas program that is used to help fill the last quarter or so of its incoming freshman classes. Race is one of many factors considered by admissions officers. The rest of the roughly 7,100 freshman spots automatically go to Texans who graduated in the top 8 percent of their high school classes.
A white Texan, Abigail Fisher, sued the university after she was denied a spot in 2008.
The simplest explanation for why affirmative action is back on the court's calendar so soon after its 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger is that the author of that opinion, Sandra Day O'Connor, has retired. Her successor, Justice Samuel Alito, has been highly skeptical of any use of racial preference.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, a dissenter in the 2003 decision, probably holds the deciding vote, and he, too, has never voted in favor of racial preference.
As a result, said Supreme Court lawyer Thomas Goldstein, "No matter what the court does, it is quite likely that the UT program is going to be in big trouble."
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/08/3857648/high-court-looks-at-race-in-college.html#storylink=cpy
Broadcasting to the Latino Community in Kansas City and Worldwide
Monday, October 8, 2012
Alta Vista Charter High School's Principal receives the award from the Missouri Charter School Association.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
UN agency to stop calculating Chile poverty stats - KansasCity.com
SANTIAGO, Chile -- A prestigious U.N. agency will no longer help Chile calculate its poverty numbers after the government was accused of misrepresenting the data. Alicia Barcena directs the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, which has double-checked the math on Chile's economic surveys for 25 years, providing a stamp of approval that has reassured investors. Now Barcena says the commission will treat Chile just like every other country, and will no longer correct mistakes in the data. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera celebrated numbers in July suggesting a drop from 15.1 percent to 14.4 percent of Chileans living in poverty, but months passed before he released an error margin that cast doubt on the gains, and meanwhile the UN agency said it wouldn't use the government's criteria.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
..Calif. woman fatally shot after allegedly driving into border patrol agent
Calif. woman fatally shot after allegedly driving into border patrol agent
By REENA NINAN | ABC News
Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old woman in the suburban San Diego area after she allegedly hit a Border Patrol agent with her car.
Investigators said Valeria Alvarado ran down the agent with her car as border patrol agents were in a Chula Vista neighborhood to serve a felony warrant on Friday.
The agent said he had no choice but to defend himself and fired at Alvarado get her to stop the car.
Alvarado was hit by five bullets.
According to eye witnesses, the shooting left the mother of five with bullet holes in her face, arms, and chest.
"She literally ran our agent down, the agent actually was impacted, was hit by the vehicle and carried several hundred yards on the hood before fearing for his life did discharge his weapon to get the vehicle to stop," said Border Patrol Deputy Chief Rodney Scott.
Alvarado's husband, Gilbert Alvarado said he wants the shooting investigated.
"I want justice. Yes. Whoever shot my wife, that guy whoever that is, that guy needs to get shot," he said.
Alvarado's family called the killing senseless.
"Where's the evidence that my wife threatened a trained officer? You know? He's a trained officer to use lethal force, shoot my wife like that and just not even call an ambulance?" said Gilbert Alvarado.
The FBI and Chula Vista Police are investigating the shooting. Officials have not released the name of the agent involved in the incident.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Alta Vista students help combat graffiti at community center
KCTV 5
…KCTV5'S SANDRA OLIVAS WAS THERE AS ALTAVISTA HIGH STUDENTS PAINTED OVER GRAFFITI ……PAINTBRUSHES AND ROLLERS THESE STUDENTS FROM ALTAVISTA HIGH SCHOOL ARE GOING TO BATTLE AGAINST ……WESTSIDE CAN CENTER. ANNIE CRAFT, ALTAVISTA ART TEACHER
…KCTV5'S SANDRA OLIVAS WAS THERE AS ALTAVISTA HIGH STUDENTS PAINTED OVER GRAFFITI ……PAINTBRUSHES AND ROLLERS THESE STUDENTS FROM ALTAVISTA HIGH SCHOOL ARE GOING TO BATTLE AGAINST ……WESTSIDE CAN CENTER. ANNIE CRAFT, ALTAVISTA ART TEACHER
Expo Americas kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month in Kansas City - KCTV5
Hispanic Heritage Month starts Saturday in the U.S. and in Kansas City it has officially kicked off in a big way. The largest Latino expo in the Midwest is happening this weekend at Union Station.
Union Station has hosted big parties before, but this one is more like a fiesta.
The business and consumer expo is expected to draw an estimated 30,000 people of all ages, ethnicities and will encompass all of our surrounding communities.
For the first time ever, Expo Americas comes to Kansas City and it's an expo like no other with a Latin flair.
"Union Station is a big deal, it's a beautiful place, it's a beautiful expo and I hope we do this every single year," visitor Luis Portillo said.
"It's great, very cool, I like it," visitor Anadela Molina said.
Marc Moreno is one of the founders of Expo Americas and said it was important to bring it back to Kansas City.
"Kansas City has a big influx of Latino population. People don't know that, but it's a big fast-rising part of our culture. We found this and want to embrace not only the Latino population, but the other cultures involved. So Kansas City's in the middle of the United States and this is where we will start and spread out," Moreno said.
It was a chance for local Latino businesses to show what they bring to the table. For young Latinas celebrating quinceañera, or a big coming out party at age 15, there was a fashion show with the latest trends. There was also amazing artwork from internationally known artists like Diego Rivera.
Organizers said it was all brought together at Union Station to expose others to the rich Latino culture – even young visitors like Oscar Garcia understand why the event is so important.
"I think many people should learn about our heritage and we should share it as much as we can with everyone. I think it's a great heritage and everyone should be a part of it," Garcia said.
The Expo Americas event runs until midnight Saturday and from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15.
Helping Hispanic Students Succeed in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Only 63 percent of Latino students graduate from high school in four years, compared to 78 percent of white students, that’s according to statistics from the National Council of La Raza. Closing that gap and getting Hispanic students into college was the focus of a town-hall meeting in Kansas City today that brought the Secretary of Education and Janet Murguia from La Raza into town. The meeting turned into a wide-spread discussion of education.
Gilbert Guerrero works with inner city kids at a charter school he helps run, called Alta Vista.
“A lot of times our kids are very insular. They only know their neighborhoods, also very few have had parents that have graduated from high school or college,” Guerrero explained.
Many of Alta Vista’s students are Latino, and they have unique challenges.
“We know that a lot of them didn’t participate in early childhood programming, so they’re coming from behind from that,” Guerrero said.
In fact, La Raza claims less than half of Latino four-year-olds attend preschool. Through small class sizes and personal connections, Guerrero says his students have the best math scores in the city, and a low drop-out rate, but it hasn’t been without the help of parents who are involved in the school. Marco Davis works for a White House initiative that spans several presidential administrations focused on helping Latino students. He believes educating families is a good way to help Latino students.
“There’s no question that there are challenges, but there are actually quite a number of resources and so on that we believe if more people knew about, we think more students could take advantage of.”
Back to the Alta Vista charter school, students there have had great success and strong leaders. That’s what Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says Kansas City, Missouri schools are missing consistent leadership.
“I can’t tell you how disappointing that is, how that perpetuates failure, how that is a recipe for disaster, that is not a badge of honor. I want to be explicitly clear, that is not a badge of honor,” Duncan said.
Duncan, appointed by President Obama, was in Kansas City on a multi-city tour called Education Drives America. He says students in Kansas City have been under-served by the district in the past, but he says in the future he’s confident the community is ready to come together to fix the school district and make it stronger.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Latino group asks court to stop Texas voting map - KansasCity.com
WASHINGTON -- A Latino civil rights group is asking the Supreme Court to stop Texas from using congressional districts drawn by a lower federal court in the November election because they discriminate against minorities. The League of United Latin American Citizens filed the request Friday. The group says the court-drawn map, intended for use only in this year's election, has the same flaws identified by federal judges in Washington who last month rejected political boundaries drawn by Texas lawmakers as discriminatory.
The interim congressional map was used in Texas' primaries in May and was devised to let the state hold elections while courts considered challenges to redistricting plans adopted by the legislature following the 2010 census. Last week, the judges who drew the interim map declined to change it.
The interim congressional map was used in Texas' primaries in May and was devised to let the state hold elections while courts considered challenges to redistricting plans adopted by the legislature following the 2010 census. Last week, the judges who drew the interim map declined to change it.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
DNC keynoter Castro follows mother's tougher path - KansasCity.com
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro is a rising star in the Democrats' firmament with a collection of mostly favorable media profiles, a landslide re-election last year and speculation about whether he'll become the governor of Texas or even the country's first Hispanic president.
Now the 37-year-old twin has a chance to shine in prime time Tuesday as the first Latino to deliver the keynote address at his party's national convention.
What hints Julian Castro has dropped about his speech suggest a script heavy on a defense of President Barack Obama's record along with a telling of the story of how he and his identical twin brother, Joaquin, grew up, raised by a single mother. Joaquin, a Texas state legislator now representing San Antonio and poised to win election to Congress in November, will introduce his brother at the convention opener Tuesday night.
"My family's story isn't special. What's special is the America that makes our story possible," Julian Castro was set to say, according to excerpts of his speech released Tuesday. "Ours is a nation like no other, a place where great journeys can be made in a single generation. No matter who you are or where you come from, the path is always forward."
Castro also criticized the economic policies of Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
"We all understand that freedom isn't free. What Romney and Ryan don't understand is that neither is opportunity. We have to invest in it," Castro was to say.
Some would say the mayor has had a swift and charmed ascent. But his mother, whose own political activism on behalf of Hispanics when her boys were young drew hate mail and, she says, the attention of the Justice Department, knows her sons' rise is evidence of Hispanics' growing and long overdue political power.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/04/3795296/dnc-keynote-castro-follows-mothers.html#storylink=cpy
Monday, September 3, 2012
Mexico pres seeks to cement legacy in last address - KansasCity.com
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
Calderon delivered his final state-of-the-nation speech on Monday, trying to cement his legacy as the president who stabilized the economy and took on the country's entrenched organized crime groups, putting Mexico on the road to rule of law.
He boasted of expanding and cleaning up the federal police, putting nearly $160 billion in international reserves and creating more than 2 million jobs, twice the number during the term of his predecessor, Vicente Fox.
"It's been our generation's job to assume the costs and risks of making urgent changes in politics and security," he said in the speech at the National Palace. "The reform has begun to bear fruit, but real results will only be seen in the future."
Still, the short-term verdict on the Calderon administration is decidedly mixed, starting with the fact that violence-weary voters in the July national elections were so weary of his tenure that they kicked his party out of the presidency and brought back the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
"Mexico is a long way from having strong rule of law still, and a solid economic base has not necessarily led to the kind of jobs that people hope to have," added Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute, a Washington-based think tank. "It's a well-managed economy but it's not a dynamic economy. And that's the legacy."
The sale of armored vehicles in Mexico has at least doubled since Calderon took office and the homicide rate has soared, with decapitations and mass slayings so common they often no longer make the front pages of national newspapers - and with local papers often too intimidated to cover them at all.
Government statistics show 21,500 homicides in the first half of 2012, compared to about 25,000 for the entire year of 2007, Calderon's first full year in office.
No one knows if drug slayings have tapered in the last few months, as his administration claims, because the government stopped providing the official statistics a year ago. Public corruption persists and the economy for everyday Mexicans is sluggish.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/03/3794518/mexico-pres-seeks-to-cement-legacy.html#storylink=cpy
Commentary: How Romney could help himself with Hispanic voters - KansasCity.com
One of the key things to watch in this week’s Republican national convention in Tampa is whether the Romney-Ryan ticket will be able to connect with Hispanics and improve its dismal approval ratings among Latino voters. There are some things they could do — but I doubt they will.
According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll of Hispanic voters released last week, the first that was conducted after presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney picked congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) as his running mate, President Barack Obama leads Romney by a whopping 63 percent to 28 percent among Latino voters.
To make things worse for Romney, the Republican platform scheduled to be approved at the convention has adopted a hard line on immigration, calling among other things for a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, ending in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, and prohibiting so-called sanctuary-cities that accept people without immigration papers.
While the platform will include language supporting a guest-worker program, anti-immigration extremists persuaded the Platform Committee to use the term “illegal alien” instead of “illegal immigrant” throughout the document, according to an Oct. 22 Tampa Bay Times article. “Illegal alien” is a term that many see as dehumanizing undocumented immigrants.
In an effort to win over more Hispanics — and get closer to the 40 percent of the Hispanic vote that former President George W. Bush got in 2004, or the 31 percent that former Republican candidate Sen. John McCain got in 2008 — the Republican campaign is scheduled to feature an impressive lineup of Latino politicians at the convention.(There will be not one single Latino performer, though, according to the convention’s entertainment lineup announced Friday.)
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/30/3781312/commentary-how-romney-could-help.html#storylink=cpy
According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll of Hispanic voters released last week, the first that was conducted after presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney picked congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) as his running mate, President Barack Obama leads Romney by a whopping 63 percent to 28 percent among Latino voters.
To make things worse for Romney, the Republican platform scheduled to be approved at the convention has adopted a hard line on immigration, calling among other things for a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, ending in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, and prohibiting so-called sanctuary-cities that accept people without immigration papers.
While the platform will include language supporting a guest-worker program, anti-immigration extremists persuaded the Platform Committee to use the term “illegal alien” instead of “illegal immigrant” throughout the document, according to an Oct. 22 Tampa Bay Times article. “Illegal alien” is a term that many see as dehumanizing undocumented immigrants.
In an effort to win over more Hispanics — and get closer to the 40 percent of the Hispanic vote that former President George W. Bush got in 2004, or the 31 percent that former Republican candidate Sen. John McCain got in 2008 — the Republican campaign is scheduled to feature an impressive lineup of Latino politicians at the convention.(There will be not one single Latino performer, though, according to the convention’s entertainment lineup announced Friday.)
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/30/3781312/commentary-how-romney-could-help.html#storylink=cpy
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