Education is an important issue and nowhere more so than in Kansas City

There’s no better way to start your week than with a party!

Join hundreds of students, teachers, parents, and neighbors in the beautiful Sprint Festival Plaza of Union Station in Kansas City as we commemorate National School Choice Week 2013. People of all ages are welcome! Join us as we celebrate the great schools of choice that are working for our children, and help us raise awareness of the need for even better educational options for all kids in Missouri.

Kansas City is one of 14 stops along the route of the National School Choice Week ‘Special,’ a cross-country, whistle-stop train tour supporting school choice.

National School Choice Week Event

Education is an important issue and nowhere more so than in Kansas City.

For decades, those with means have expressed school choice with their feet, moving across the state line or contributing to the city's thriving private school community. It is in recognition of this--and the need for greater parental choice that the Show-Me Institute has partnered with National School Choice Week.

Where: Sprint Festival Plaza at Union Station

When: Monday, January 28 from 4:30PM to 6:30PM

Speakers include:

· James Shuls, Show-Me Institute
· Vonelle Middleton, CEO, Hope Academy Charter School of Kansas City
· Douglas Thaman, Executive Director, Missouri Charter Public Schools Association
· Joe Trippi, FOX News Contributor and Democratic Strategist
· Lisa Graham Keegan, Education Reform Pioneer
· Lisa Snell, Education Director, Reason Foundation
· Andrew Campanella, National School Choice Week President

Surgery kept Gilbert Guerrero from personally receiving the 23rd Evelyn Wasserstrom Award Sunday afternoon. It did not stop others from praising his work.

 

Surgery kept Gilbert Guerrero from personally receiving the 23rd Evelyn Wasserstrom Award Sunday afternoon. It did not stop others from praising his work.

The founder and superintendent of the Alta Vista Charter School gained recognition for more than two decades as a mentor, educator, dreamer and doer, said Uzziel Pecina, who accepted the award on Guerrero’s behalf.

“Gilbert always believed that education is a civil rights issue,” Pecina said during the presentation at the Community Christian Church in Kansas City.

Pecina credited Guerrero for his own success, for example, in earning a doctorate degree in education that he dedicated to his late father and to Guerrero.

The award presentation was one of a number of area celebrations this week to commemorate the work of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

In Raytown on Sunday, Mayor David Bower congratulated finalists of an “MLK Today” essay contest as part of the city’s 16th annual MLK celebration. The event included performances by Maxine “Queen Mother” McFarlane, Bryan Austin and Hawaiian dance groups.
The Wasserstrom award presentation was the third in a weeklong schedule of events by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City. The organization created the award to honor Wasserstrom, who was director of the Kansas City branch of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, shortly after her death in 1984.

Sunday’s events included presentation of the award by the SCLC of Greater Kansas City and the Jewish Community Relations Bureau/American Jewish Committee.

Guerrero acted on his dream 22 years ago to start a Latino education program that became Alta Vista, a college preparation charter school, said Juan Rangel, director of the Institute for Workforce Innovation-Community Engagement at Metropolitan Community College and a prior recipient of the Wasserstrom Award. Guerrero fought to correct a 50 percent drop-out rate among Hispanic students locally.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/15/4009329/wasserstrom-award-honors-founder.html#storylink=cpy

UN rings alarm over conditions of domestic workers

By JOHN HEILPRIN

Associated Press

At least 52.6 million people worldwide are employed as domestic workers, most of them women vulnerable to abuse and without adequate legal protection, the U.N. said Wednesday in its first snapshot of the often invisible workforce that cares for other people's families and households.
The sum is roughly equivalent to all the workers employed in countries such as Mexico, Nigeria or Vietnam, said the U.N.'s International Labor Organization in Geneva. It completed the survey in conjunction with an international accord for equal treatment between domestic and general workers that will come into force in September.

The research found that 83 percent of all domestic workers were women, many of them vulnerable to exploitation, physical and sexual violence and other abuses because of their lack of knowledge of local languages and laws or because they are often paid a flat fee that does not reflect hours worked.
"From caring for children, to caring for elderly and persons with disabilities, to performing a wide range of household tasks, domestic workers are an indispensable part of the social fabric," Sandra Polaski, the ILO's deputy director-general, told reporters in Geneva.

The agency also found that 90 percent of the domestic workers are not covered by general labor protections to the same extent as workers in the mainstream economy. Some 30 percent were completely excluded from all national labor laws.

The U.N. warned that the number of domestic workers is likely to be tens of millions higher than the official figure of 52.6 million due to underreporting by countries and a lack of information.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/09/4001360/un-at-least-52-million-domestic.html#storylink=cpy

President Barack Obama will push for immigration reform within the next few weeks

President Barack Obama will push for immigration reform within the next few weeks, according to Fox News Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry.

On America's Newsroom on Fox, Henry said that Obama is well aware that he can become a lame duck president "pretty quickly."

Obama made an initial pledge just a week after being re-elected.

"We need to seize the moment, my expectation is that we get a bill introduced and we begin the process in Congress very soon after my inauguration," Obama said on November 14th.
But skeptics point out that Obama pledged to get immigration reform done by the end of his first year in office in 2008 and failed.

"The White House privately believes they have a much different political climate now, they think they have a better shot of getting this done," Henry said on America's Newsroom on Thursday.

A political climate that now includes overwhelming Latino support for Obama and the sudden realization of the Latino sleeping giant awakened in November. Fox News exit polls show that 71 percent of Latino voters chose Obama, compared with just 27 percent who picked his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. That marks the widest gap in Latino support between two presidential candidates in history.

Senior administration officials privately said to Henry that they believe the bill will have to have some key elements to the deal in order to win over Republican support.
Provisions added by the White House to a potential immigration reform bill to shore up Republican support include:

- Stronger border security
- Penalties for purposely hiring undocumented workers
- Pathway to legal status after paying back taxes and any possible fines
- Requirement to learn English
Unable to secure immigration reform in his first term, Obama has used his own power to help undocumented immigrants.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/01/03/obama-plans-to-push-immigration-reform-by-end-january/#ixzz2GyJZ7e5O

Las Voces de Mexico Episode 3

Las Voces de Mexico Episode 3 by Radiolatinodekansascity on Mixcloud

Broadcasting Live from Alta Vista High School-Conexión Azteca TV Episode 2

Latin Americans rank as happiest people on planet - KansasCity.com

MEXICO CITY -- The world's happiest people aren't in Qatar, the richest country by most measures. They aren't in Japan, the nation with the highest life expectancy. Canada, with its chart-topping percentage of college graduates, doesn't make the top 10.

A poll released Wednesday of nearly 150,000 people around the world says seven of the world's 10 countries with the most upbeat attitudes are in Latin America.

Many of the seven do poorly in traditional measures of well-being, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war followed by waves of gang-driven criminality that give it one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations' Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions.

"In Guatemala, it's a culture of friendly people who are always smiling," said Luz Castillo, a 30-year-old surfing instructor. "Despite all the problems that we're facing, we're surrounded by natural beauty that lets us get away from it all."

Gallup Inc. asked about 1,000 people in each of 148 countries last year if they were well-rested, had been treated with respect, smiled or laughed a lot, learned or did something interesting and felt feelings of enjoyment the previous day.

In Panama and Paraguay, 85 percent of those polled said yes to all five, putting those countries at the top of the list. They were followed closely by El Salvador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Guatemala, the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/19/3973831/poll-says-latin-americans-most.html#storylink=cpy

Jenni Rivera given tribute in KC - KansasCity.com

Jenni Rivera given tribute in KC - KansasCity.com

Jenni Rivera Tribute

With the tragic news of her death Radio Latino de Kansas City will pay tribute to Mexican-American Superstar Jenni Rivera by broadcasting her greatest hits and more all day Friday starting at 8am ending Saturday morning. You can tune in by logging on at www.radiolatinokc.org Any requests can be made at info@radiolatinokc.org

Jenni Rivera presumed killed in a plane crash

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Mexico's music world mourned Jenni Rivera, the U.S.-born singer presumed killed in a plane crash whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles had made her a Mexican-American superstar.

Authorities have not confirmed her death, but Rivera's relatives in the U.S. say they have few doubts that she was on the Learjet 25 that disintegrated on impact Sunday in rugged territory in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico.

"My son Lupillo told me that effectively it was Jenni's plane that crashed and that everyone on board died," her father, Pedro Rivera told dozens of reporters gathered in front of his Los Angeles-area home. "I believe my daughter's body is unrecognizable."

He said that his son would fly to Monterrey early Monday to identify her presumed remains

Messages of condolence poured in from fellow musicians and celebrities.

Mexican songstress and actress Lucero wrote on her Twitter account: "What terrible news! Rest in peace ... My deepest condolences for her family and friends." Rivera's colleague on the Mexican show "The Voice of Mexico," pop star Paulina Rubio, said on her Twitter account: "My friend! Why? There is no consolation. God, please help me!"

Born in Long Beach, California, Rivera was at the peak of her career as perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated regional style influenced by the norteno, cumbia and ranchero styles.

A 43-year-old mother of five children and grandmother of two, the woman known as the "Diva de la Banda" was known for her frank talk about her struggles to give a good life to her children despite a series of setbacks.

She was recently divorced from her third husband, was once detained at a Mexico City airport with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and she publicly apologized after her brother assaulted a drunken fan who verbally attacked her in 2011.

Her openness about her personal troubles endeared her to millions in the U.S. and Mexico.

"I am the same as the public, as my fans," she told The Associated Press in an interview last March.

Rivera sold 15 million records, and recently won two Billboard Mexican Music Awards: Female Artist of the Year and Banda Album of the Year for "Joyas prestadas: Banda." She was nominated for Latin Grammys in 2002, 2008 and 2011.

Transportation and Communications Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said "everything points toward" the wreckage belonging to the plane carrying Rivera and six other people to Toluca, outside Mexico City, from Monterrey, where the singer had just given a concert.

"There is nothing recognizable, neither material nor human" in the wreckage found in the state of Nuevo Leon, Ruiz Esparza said. The impact was so powerful that the remains of the plane "are scattered over an area of 250 to 300 meters. It is almost unrecognizable."

A mangled California driver's license with Rivera's name and picture was found in the crash site debris.

No cause was given for the plane's crash, but its wreckage was found near the town of Iturbide in Mexico's Sierra Madre Oriental, where the terrain is very rough.

Productive U.S.-Mexico relations should be a foreign policy priority - KansasCity.com

On Saturday, Enrique Pena Nieto will take office as the new president of Mexico. I had the pleasure of meeting briefly with President-elect Pena Nieto during his short visit to the United States this week, and I am hopeful that his tenure can represent an opportunity to continue and expand on the good relations we have enjoyed with his predecessor Felipe Calderon.

Mexico's longstanding economic, social and cultural ties with the United States have always made our relations with Mexico important. However, since the inauguration of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the dramatic increase in cross-border commerce that resulted, Mexico's economy has grown to become the second largest in Latin America, and it is now the United States' third-largest commercial partner and second-largest market for U.S. exports. For 22 U.S. states, Mexico is the first- or second-largest export market.   Clearly, the need for a positive, productive U.S.-Mexico relationship is driven by far more than the immigration and transnational crime issues that dominate the headlines. A strong, prosperous Mexico is good for the United States. It represents a large, growing market for a wide variety of U.S. exports. It offers a convenient, economically competitive alternative to China and other Asian countries for foreign corporations looking to manufacture and export to the United States. And a strong Mexico that produces good, legitimate jobs for its growing population will undermine the appeal of criminal organizations and the enticement of undocumented employment in the United States.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/30/3941268/productive-us-mexico-relations.html#storylink=cpy

Young Immigrants Say It’s Obama’s Time to Act

NEW HAVEN — It has been a good year for young immigrants living in the country without legal papers, the ones who call themselves Dreamers.

Their protests and pressure helped push President Obama to offer many of them reprieves from deportation. So far about 310,000 youths have emerged from the shadows to apply, with numbers rising rapidly.

 

Door-knocking campaigns led by those immigrants, who could not vote, mobilized many Latinos who could, based in no small part on the popularity of the reprieve program. After Latinos rewarded Mr. Obama with 71 percent of their votes, the president said one of the first items on his agenda next year would be a bill to legalize 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, which would offer a path to citizenship for young people.

 

Behind the political momentum, administration officials and advocates say, is an extensive and surprisingly adroit movement of youthful immigrants. Because of their illegal status, however, they have often been more influential than they have been visible. In the past two years, they pursued their goal of legal recognition through a calibrated strategy of quiet negotiations, public “coming-out” events where youths declared their status, and escalating street protests.

Now, movement leaders say, it is payback time. When Congress last debated broad reform, in 2007, populist energy was on the side of those opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants. Angry resistance from Republicans defeated a legalization proposal by President George W. Bush.

This time the young immigrants are the rising force, and they seek legislation to give them a direct and permanent path to citizenship. But recalling that Mr. Obama also promised at the start of his first term to move swiftly on immigration overhaul, they say their attitude toward him is wait-and-see.

 

Read more here

After Obama’s re-election, what are the possibilities for immigration reform in 2013?

IMMIGRATION EDITION: A NEW PANORAMA. After Barack Obama’s re-election, what are the possibilities for immigration reform in 2013? Immigration attorney Rosalba Piña hosts this edition from Chicago, interviewing policy analysts and answering listeners’ questions about the do’s and don’ts of applying for residency and naturalization.

Guest: Marielena Hincapie , Executive Director, National Immigration Law Center (NILC), Los Ángeles, CA, www.nilc.org.

Listen to the program

Un mensaje especial para la comunidad latina del Presidente Obama

Realizing the importance of the Latino vote and with knowledge that is favorable in the polls , President Barack Obama recorded a message in Spanish to ask that segment that next go to the polls Tuesday.

Obama should also know that Latinos are the group that has less participation in elections, so his message becomes relevant.

Latinos must move from being "the sleeping giant" a giant asset to make their voices heard and their rights.

This Tuesday will be a golden opportunity for Latinos to force Democrats and Republicans to show how much they want to meet the demands of this large minority.

Now, we invite you to discuss the proposals of both candidates, to better know Obama and his rival, Republican candidate Mitt Romney , to take a decision, but especially to participate in the elections this November 6th

Another look at Latinos is needed - KansasCity.com

Twenty-four years ago, a study put facts and figures to one of the most diverse and too often miscategorized local communities: Latinos.

The 1988 Hispanic Needs Assessment detailed population and historical information and surveyed opinions about needs and perceptions. The long-overdue second study of the nine-county region is about to get under way.The community has grown dramatically, from 39,500 in 1988 to 204,280 in 2010.The greatest need highlighted by the past study — educational attainment — is probably going to emerge again. Nothing will move Latinos forward more than lower dropout rates and higher numbers of people with college degrees and/or competitive job skills. The Latino Civic Engagement Collaborative commissioned the study and raised $70,000 to complete it by early 2013. The University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Institute for Human Development will oversee surveying 500 people on a range of issues, including local government, police, voting and civic engagement.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/05/3744929/study-aims-to-show-assets-needs.html#storylink=cpy