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AT&T’s Hispanic/Latino Association – announced today the return of its annual HACEMOS National High Technology Day on February 23, 2012. HACEMOS National High Tech Day is an annual event that engages teenage students in hands-on technical activities and interactive workshops to inspire them to consider careers in science and technology.

In its 14th year, HACEMOS National High Tech Day aims to reach and inspire more than 1,800 teens and at-risk high school students in 28 cities across the country through collaboration with the AT&T/Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide Job Shadow Initiative, which is a part of AT&T Aspire –a $100 million philanthropic commitment to improve high school success.

HACEMOS National High Technology Day is designed to give students insight into the many opportunities available in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields—areas where people of color have been historically underrepresented. The sessions and job shadow opportunities will give students close access to AT&T employees and help them experience a corporate environment firsthand.

Teens will also tour AT&T facilities, participate in technical demonstrations and workshops including intensive Arduino training, attend an interactive National Webcast, and participate in hands-on activities to learn about careers in technology.

The theme for this year’s National High Tech Day is Transform Your Future, a clear reflection on AT&T’s longstanding commitment to transforming the future of individuals and businesses through continued network investment and innovation. As the wireless carrier that leads the way in the creation of emerging products and technologies, we strive to train and inspire our very best future employees. By helping transform the future of these young students, we’re also helping meet our bottom line and fulfill our commitment to be an innovative company.

In addition to the interactive workshops, students will be able to connect with thousands of other high schools using AT&T Telepresence Solution®, an advanced, high definition videoconferencing service that gives the participant a virtual, face-to-face meeting experience with people across the country and the globe. Each student group will be able to virtually interact with other participating students in other cities as if they were in the same room with them.

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The Texas branch of the League of United Latin American Citizens has stepped up its efforts to get Latinos registered to vote and to have more women in the state running for public office.

According to Linda Chavez, state director of LULAC, in the last few months her organization has carried out a series of workshops and seminars specifically aimed at training women interested in politics.

“We’ve won a great deal of participation by women and particularly by organizations headed by Latino women who want to get involved in local politics…as a way of helping their respective communities,” Chavez said in an interview with Efe.

“At the same time we’re trying to boost the Latino vote in general from about 30 percent to 60 percent, and we’re specifically targeting people who are registered voters but don’t go to the polls,” she said.

LULAC has launched a plan of action to help Hispanic women interested in holding public office obtain all the tools they need to run an effective electoral campaign, Chavez said.

The goal, she added, is to prompt women across Texas to run for school boards and city councils, but also to continue with their higher education and become owners of their own companies.

“Our workshops educate candidates about the positions they can seek in the area where they will run, as well as training them in speaking techniques and the best way to collect campaign contributions,” she said.

She also said that the rules governing LULAC, a non-partisan organization, bar it from publicly supporting a candidate, but nothing stops candidates from connecting with an organization that can help them.

Chavez also said that LULAC has identified several metropolitan areas in Texas with large numbers of Latino voters - Houston, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio and McAllen - where it will focus its efforts in the months preceding the elections.

“And in this electoral year it’s important to get out the Hispanic vote because everything indicates that during the next legislative session more bills will be introduced that attempt to discredit the state’s immigrant community,” she said.

Chavez added that her organization supports comprehensive immigration reform and that her priority is education, an area about whose importance really strikes Hispanic women when they start doing community work.

With more than 5,000 members, the Texas branch of LULAC is the organization’s largest.

According to Census data, 37.6 percent of the Texas population is of Latin origin, but less than half is registered to vote.

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With the success of the film “Goats” at the Sundance Film Festival and the March 6 screening of “Cellmates” via Internet VOD and cable, Mexican siblings Olga and Juan Carlos Segura are moving forward at a firm pace toward their goal: increasing the Latino presence in Hollywood.

Juan Carlos, a producer, and Olga, actress and producer, believe firmly in the potential of Latino talent to bring to the screen stories relevant not only for the Hispanic community and also to touch on universal themes like racism.

“The power to tell stories is a very important tool that gives us the opportunity to change minds. If just a single person benefits from my work, that’s enough for me,” Olga told Efe during a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

The young filmmaker began her career as an actress in the theater production “Pizza man.” Later, she was presented with the chance to act in the film “Cellmates,” the story of a racist white American (Tom Sizemore) who is imprisoned with two Mexicans and discovers that, in the end, we’re not so different from one another.

Juan Carlos, meanwhile, began his career as a producer in 2009, blindly founding the company Producciones along with actor Hector Jimenez.

In addition to “Cellmates” and “Goats,” featuring David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga, the company will screen several other productions this year, including “Hidden Moon” and “Todo un hombre,” starring Aaron Diaz, Jimenez and Olga Segura.

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The FBI is looking for an Idaho woman believed to have taken her three children while in the middle of a custody battle.

Bertha Sabala Guerrero, 35, has allegedly taken Ubaldo Guerrero-Lopez Jr., 9, Mirella Guerrero-Lopez ,7, and Esmerelda Guerrero-Lopez, 5.

Authorities say Guerrero lost custody of the children in December after she allegedly left them in the care of a woman she had just met. The boy and two girls were placed in foster care in Caldwell, Idaho.

The FBI has issued an Amber Alert, and says Guerrero may be taking the children to Mexico or Phoenix where she has family.

The children were reported missing after Guerrero failed to return them after being allowed a 24-hour visitation on Friday.

FBI reports say she and the children may be traveling in a gray or silver 4-door, 1986 Pontiac 6000 sedan with the Nevada license plate 389XPR.

A warrant has been issued against Guerrero for custodial interference.

Read more at Amber Alert →

A youth care specialist at a youth detention facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico has been arrested for allegedly choking and punching a 14-year-old boy in his care.

Eddie Aragon has worked with the troubled children and teens at the Youth Diagnostic and Development Center for two months, but it was he who was taken away in handcuffs.

On Saturday, a supervisor reportedly witnessed Aragon choking the teen, and when told to let go of the boy, hit him in the face with a closed fist.

The supervisor then contacted state police, who pursued a criminal investigation. Aragon was taken into custody form his home this week on charges of child abuse.

While being taken away, Aragon told local ABC affiliate KOAT 7 he did not hit the teen and that the 14-year-old was shouting from a cell.

The Children and Youth Families Department says the youth care specialists are trained to restrain, bu not strike those in the facility.

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Check this funny video by Pocho on Mexican Mitt Romney’s reaction to Sheriff Babeu and his illegal Mexican lover.  It appears the Mexican Mitt Romney is alleging Sheriff Paul Babeu wants to have a ‘GAYDAR’ border fence erected.

Check it out. 

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UPDATE:

Lauren Medina, 23, who was accused of stealing a $2 pumpkin for a New Mexico pumpkin patch has been convicted of a shoplifting charge under a directed verdict from the judge during Tuesday’s bench trial.

Medina was sentenced to serve 40 hours of community service and pay court costs.
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A New Mexico woman is facing theft charges and a jury trial for a $2 pumpkin she says he accidentally stole from a pumpkin patch in 2011.

Lauren Medina, 23, went to McCall’s Pumpkin Patch in Moriarty, NM in October. While there, she purchased about $75 worth of various things before heading to the back of the farm for a hay ride. After the ride, Medina’s sister Annette Atencio said her sister picked up a small pumpkin.

According to KOAT 7, with the unpaid-for pumpkin in hand, she then began to walk out. Antencio said her sister forgot she had not yet paid for the pumpkin, and when confronted by police, realized her mistake, apologize, and asked if she could just pay for it.

However, the officers did not allow her to simply pay for the $2 pumpkin, and put her in handcuffs. She was then given an order to appear in court.

Medina and Antencio believed she would arrive in court and the charges would be dropped, as she’s a college student who has never been in trouble, but that is not what happened and Medina was told she could plead guilty and receive probation.

Having refused the plea, Medina now faces a jury trial, and all for allegedly trying to escape with a pumpkin that has lost since rotted away.

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Though he once signed a $45 million contract with the Dodgers, slugger Manny Ramirez is now heading down to the minor league Oakland A’s team with a $500,000 deal.

In 2009, the Dominican outfielder and designated hitter signed a two-year, $45 million contract to play for the L.A. Dodgers, but in on May 7 was suspended for 50 games for violating the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program establish by Major League Baseball in 2004. Though Ramirez claimed his doctor had prescribed him a banned medication, he waived his right to challenge the suspension.

On July 3, 2009, Ramirez returned from his suspension, but less than two years later on April 8, 2011, after less-than-stellar seasons, Ramirez again tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. After he gave two separate samples for testing and both came out positive for banned substances, Ramirez chose to retire immediately.

However, not playing baseball was not sitting well with the aging ball player and in 2011 Ramirez asked to come back to the MLB. He was told that if he wished to return, he would have to serve the 100-game suspension he had been given before he chose to retire. In September, Ramirez was arrested on domestic violence charges for allegedly hitting his wife.

On Monday, Ramirez and the MLB agreed to a 50-game suspension and he signed a minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics. The deal calls for $500,000 salary if he makes the MLB roster. The 50-game suspension will be complete on May 30, 2012, his 40th birthday.

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During a 15 minute rambling news conference speech attempting to promote his two boxers, the legendary boxing promoter, Don King, 80, left the room aghast with a racial slur.

King entered the news conference dressed in a sparkling Mount Rushmore denim jacket with miniature Texas, U.S. and México flags waving in his hands.  His purpose was to boost boxers, Eric Molina and IBF World Lightweight Champion, Tavoris “Thunder” Cloud, before Saturday’s big event.  Among other topics, King quoted Queen Elizabeth and touched on important Texas history in an attempt to inspire the crowd.  He predicted his boxer, Eric Molina, the self described underdog with an 18-1 record would quickly defeat opponent Chris Arreola. 

“We even brought in a Mexican-American to give him a chance to get out and be at the front of the forefront. No more wetbacks running up and down picking the fruits and things. Now, we’re rolling, you know what I mean,” said King. 

The Mexican American opponent with a 34-2 record, with two world title fights under his belt responded to King’s ‘speech’ by saying, “I do take offense on that wetback thing because both of my parents are wetbacks and I’m proud of being a wetback myself. I am honored to be Mexican, 100 percent.”

His reference offended more than just the media attending the news conference.  The opposing boxer, Chris Arreola, son of Mexican immigrants, left with a new impression of the legend.  In an interview after his ‘easy’ victory over Molina, Arreola expressed that he had looked up to King as a child, but now realizes he is a “racist asshole.”

Realizing that Arreola had taken offense to his comments, King attempted to respond by saying, “Chris you may have gotten the wrong intent . . . because we’re all wetbacks, baby.”

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Last week, the Clear Channel media company was criticized for comments made on one of its radio stations, which said it would “deport someone to Mexico every Friday” in a promotion for vacation giveaway.

Some were offended by the ad after hearing it on WRNW-FM (97.3) February 14 and 15 and brought it to the attention of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

LULAC then contacted Clear Channel, saying that “making light of the practice of deportations that have been going on” is insensitive, and the promotion “was in bad taste”.

According to Milwaukee’s Journal-Sentinel, Clear Channel’s Vice President and Market Manager Jeff Tyler has since released a statement saying, “WRNW FM (97.3) apologizes to any listeners and fans we may have offended with the recent flyaway promotion to Mexico that ran on our station. This goes against everything WRNW stands for. Please be assured that we take matters of this nature very seriously, and we removed it from our program as soon as it was brought to out attention. Again, we deeply apologize.”

Tyler said the deportation ad was taken off the air Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.

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A 17-year-old Argentine woman set on fire by her boyfriend died after agonizing for six days in a hospital with burns over 75 percent of her body, authorities said Tuesday.

Maira Torchelli died of “multiple organ failure,” the Buenos Aires provincial government said.

She had been admitted in a critical state a week ago to San Martin Hospital in La Plata, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the Argentine capital.

Her death intensifies the criminal case against her boyfriend, Juan Franco, 23, in police custody since the day of the crime and whom prosecutors will now undoubtedly charge with aggravated homicide, which carries a possible sentence of life in prison.

The incident occurred in the town of Wilde, when neighbors of the couple heard a fierce argument and later saw Torchelli being consumed by flames.

She managed to tell them that she had poured alcohol over herself but it was her boyfriend who set her on fire with a lighter.

Read more by HS News Staff →

At around 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning, authorities say Joseph Cararra drunkenly plowed his vehicle into a set of gets at the Volusia County Jail.

The Port Orange, FL man was not about to stop however, and continued his early-morning drunk drive. After the jail incident, the 22-year-old reportedly took of at a high rate of speed on the aptly named International Speedway Boulevard.

Less than an hour later, at 4:20 a.m., Cararra, still driving his maroon Toyota pick-up truck, nearly killed a Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Gering. Deputy Gering stated that the suspect’s truck was coming right at him and his cruiser, but that the driver of the vehicle turned the wheel at the last second, avoiding a collision with the deputy.

Gering was able to stop the driver and that’s when he realized it was Cararra, the man he had just heard a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) about.

When questioned, the intoxicated young driver told Gering admitted he had been drinking at a bar, and said though his friends were with him when he left the bar, he dropped them off on the side of the road at some point and continued to drive. He also admitted he drove on the prison grounds, but denied he slammed into the property’s northern gate.

In the end, Carrara was arrested and taken to the very jail he drove into. He’s charged with criminal mischief with damage to property, reckless driving, DUI, and trespassing.

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After 24 years of exemplary teaching and two ‘Teacher of the Year’ awards, Shirley Bunn found herself suspended with pay after telling a disruptive eighth grader to “Go Back to Mexico.”  Bunn, 63, a math teacher at Arlington, Texas’ Barnett Junior High School will face the school board and a possible dismissal later this month after her “moment of frustration” occurred in the classroom.

While passing out Title 1 forms to her eighth grade students, one student, described as disruptive, requested a form in Spanish.  Stating several times that he was Mexican, Bunn retorted back, “Go back to Mexico.”  “It was almost instantaneous. I thought, ‘God, I don’t believe that came out of my mouth,’” Bunn told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It was just an extremely bad day.”

After being reviewed by an independent hearing examiner, they have requested that Bunn be reinstated as a teacher in the district.  The report states that the school does not have sufficient evidence for dismissal.  “Under the circumstances when taken in the context of the moment and the lack of intent for ‘Go back to Mexico’ to be a racially or nationality-based pejorative remark, I find it was not a remark of an egregious nature,” the independent examiner told the Fox affiliate.

Although this previous ‘Teacher of the Year’ has had many exceptional reports from both teachers and students, in a private conversation with a counselor she was also reported as describing a group of disruptive students as the “Mexican Mafia.”

Bunn’s future teaching career will be in the hands of the school board.  They will be meeting later this month to decide on her reinstatement or possible dismissal after this incident. 

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Brazil is providing more than $2.3 million to support a new local food purchase program to be set up by two United Nations entities for the benefit of farmers and vulnerable populations in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal, the UN agencies reported today.

Under an agreement signed in Rome, Brazil will fund the project to be set up by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN World Food Program (WFP).

The program will also draw expertise from Brazil’s own national Food Purchase Program, known as PAA, which buys agricultural products from smallholders and delivers them to vulnerable groups, including children and youth through school feeding programmes. The PAA is a cornerstone of the country’s Zero Hunger strategy.

Under today’s agreement FAO, which is to receive $1.55 million will look after the production side of the new project, providing seeds and fertilizer and boosting the capacity of small-scale farmers and farmers’ associations to grow, process and sell their produce. FAO will also mobilize Brazilian expertise in support of local purchase initiatives.

WFP, which will receive $800,000, will be responsible for organizing the purchase and delivery of the food to schools and vulnerable groups.

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Roselyn Sanchez, star of the upcoming film, ‘Act of Valor,’ welcomed the chance to work alongside real servicemen instead of actors.  “What surprised me was how unaffected and cool they were,” Sanchez told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column of the SEALs. “I didn’t see any diva behavior. It was new for me to work with guys that even if they were waiting around for eight hours and didn’t have a trailer, they were content. It was refreshing.”

The movie, opening this Friday, stars a group of active duty United States Navy SEALS in a portrayal of real anti terrorism operations.  According to directors from Bandito Brothers, Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh, the film never would have come together without the work of the SEALS.  Several portions of the script were written by the servicemen as well.  “(w)hen we really connected with these men, and learned about the real acts of valor that have happened on the battlefield over the last ten years, they were more mind-blowing than anything a Hollywood screenwriter could write… And all the operational planning was done by the SEALs, every op you see go down in the movie, it was written by the SEALs so it is 100 percent legit,” said McCoy.

The directors also hope that the film not only showcases the impressive skills and bravery of the SEALS but also the sacrifices that their families have made.  They believe the film will appeal to both men and women. 

Sanchez hopes that the film shows Americans what goes on beyond the country’s borders as well as why it happens.  She hopes that the public will have a better appreciation for what these brave men do every day. 

According to the actress, “America is already in love with, and fascinated by the Navy SEALS, and I think after watching this movie that love affair is going to be even stronger. You leave loving them and really respecting what they do.”

Read more at Fox News →

Mexico received $19.44 billion in foreign direct investment last year, an increase of 9.7 percent over 2010, the economy ministry said Monday.

The United States accounted for 55 percent of the figure and Spain contributed 15 percent, with the remainder coming from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada and other countries.

Last year’s result brought Mexico’s total FDI for the 2007-2011 period to $113.8 billion, the ministry said.

Just over 44 percent of last year’s foreign direct investment went into manufacturing, while finance and insurance took 18 percent, 9.5 percent was channeled into the retail sector and 5.7 percent flowed to mass media.

More than 41 percent of 2011 FDI was in the form of “new investments” and 39.3 percent consisted of re-invested profits, the economy ministry said.

Mexico took in nearly 49 percent more FDI in the fourth quarter of 2011 than in the same period of the previous year.

Gross domestic product grew 3.9 percent last year, Mexico’s state-run National Institute of Statistics and Geography said last Thursday.

Mexico, Latin America’s second-biggest economy, saw its GDP expand by 5.5 percent in 2010 over the previous year, when the country was just beginning to emerge from its worst slump since the 1930s.

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A musical troupe that sets Beatles tunes to Brazilian beats on Monday drew 60,000 people to a Carnival street party in Rio de Janeiro.

Sargento Pimenta (Portuguese for Sgt. Pepper) was created last year by a group of musicians who love the quartet from Liverpool and who wanted space to perform at the Rio Carnival.

The first presentation by the group at Carnival last year at which they played Beatles tunes using Brazilian rhythms of samba, frevo and maracatu, jammed a small street in the Botafogo neighborhood with some 5,000 people, an unexpectedly large number, who were interested in seeing and hearing the novelty.

The success of the group forced the authorities this year to transfer the block party to Aterro do Flamengo, a broad and important avenue linking the city’s downtown with its southern neighborhoods.

Sargento Pimenta set up its powerful sound equipment on the back of a truck and on Monday afternoon headlined a gigantic street party.

Once again, the public attendance exceeded all expectations - 10,000 people had been anticipated but six times that number showed up - and the block could not hold the parade that had been planned to the Museum of Modern Art but rather the party was held at a convenient spot where the band could be seen and heard in all directions.

Many of the locals and tourists who attended the performance, most of them in typical Carnival costumes, had taken note of requests made by the block on the social networks to enliven the party with colorful parasols.

The participants followed the posted instructions to shake the parasols when they heard the song “Here Comes the Sun,” as well as to display paper fans in the shape of hearts when they heard “All You Need Is Love.”

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Dominican singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra several years ago ended his affiliation with the congregation where he was baptized as a Christian because of his wife’s jealousy of the pastor who had guided him on that new road, the clergywoman revealed.

Pastor Lucy Cosme, who heads the evangelical Villa Bendicion ministry, said that Guerra‘s wife Nora accused her of being in love with her husband and taking his money, and she spoke with the much-honored artist and asked him to leave Cosme’s congregation.

The pastor said she had baptized Guerra when he decided to become a Christian and she confirmed that she was his spiritual guide for about four years, during which time the star was voluntarily retired from the stage.

Cosme acknowledged in her remarks, which were aired on the television program “El especial con Colombia Alcantara,” that Guerra’s withdrawal from her ministry caused her “great sadness,” but given the situation that had arisen with his wife, they mutually decided to permanently distance themselves from one another.

Guerra is the best-internationally-known Dominican artist and currently the local press is reporting that in April he will offer three concerts in Australia as part of his “Asondeguerra” world tour.

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The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today condemned the murders of two Brazilian journalists earlier this month and called for thorough investigations of the killings.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), issued a statement deploring the murders of Paulo Roberto Cardoso Rodrigues on February 12 and Mario Randolfo Marques Lopes on February 8.

“These killings are an intolerable attack on the profession of journalism and on an individual’s basic human right to free speech,” Ms. Bokova said, adding that thorough investigations of the deaths were needed “to enable journalists to continue reporting without having to fear for their lives and for the safety of their relatives.”

At least 11 journalists or media professionals have been killed in Brazil since 2002, and a UNESCO-backed research project is currently examining the issues facing community media operating in violent or difficult areas in Rio de Janeiro.

Mr. Cardoso, also known as Paulo Rocaro, served as the editor of Jornal Da Praça, a daily newspaper, and the website Mercosul News. He was driving home in Ponta Porá, close to Brazil’s border with Paraguay, when two men on a motorcycle shot him dead.

Mr. Marques was the editor-in-chief of the Vassouras na Net website when he was abducted and shot dead with his girlfriend in Barra do Piraí in Rio de Janeiro state.

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