Soccer at the centerline en español

Soccer at the centerline en español

Taylor & Francis Online :: Learning How to Dance with the Public Child Welfare System: Mexican Parents' Efforts to Exercise Their Voice - Journal of Public Child Welfare - Volume 4, Issue 3

Taylor & Francis Online :: Learning How to Dance with the Public Child Welfare System: Mexican Parents' Efforts to Exercise Their Voice - Journal of Public Child Welfare - Volume 4, Issue 3

Auto show promueve cura de cáncer de próstata

Por Alfredo Santana

El show ‘Cruisin’ For A Cure’, un desfile y exhibición de autos y trocas americanos de coleccionistas de los años 50s, 60s, y 70s se llevo a cabo el sábado 24 de septiembre en los terrenos del Orange County Fairgrounds, en Costa Mesa, California, con el propósito de recabar fondos para encontrar una cura contra el cáncer de próstata en los hombres adultos.

Los organizadores estimaron que unos 3,400 autos, entre ellos trocas Ford reconstruidas con motores y transmisiones General Motors, autos de policías usados por corporaciones en los años 60s, un auto Pontiac Firebird negro similar a los utilizados en la serie televisiva “Knight Rider”, carros Ford Falcon, LTDs, Ford Fairlines y Dodge Challengers estuvieron en exhibición.

Cientos de estos coches, incluyendo Camaros, Oldsmobiles convertibles, Chryslers, Dodge De Sotos, Chevrolets Bel Air, y otros, desfilaron por los caminos del centro de exhibición. Adicionalmente, se montó una clínica en la que todos los hombres mayores de 40 años interesados se sometieron a exámenes de sangre, y a exámenes rectales para saber si se encuentran libres de cáncer de la próstata.

El boleto de entrada costó $12 dólares, y $10 dólares a aquellos que mostraron credencial de miembro de la compañía de seguros y servicios automovilisticos AAA. El evento, que inició a las 7 a.m. y terminó a las 5 p.m., fue amenizado con música del grupo rockabilly “The Ravelers”.

Debbie Baker, presidenta y directora de 'Crusin' For a Cure", dijo que miles de hombres han salvado sus vidas por haberse sometido a exámenes de cáncer de próstata durante cada uno de los 12 eventos celebrados hasta este año. En septiembre 25 del 2010, 1,466 hombres mayores de 40 años fueron evaluados en el sitio.

"Pacientes con cáncer necesitan mejores opciones hoy, no la siguiente semana, o el año siguiente. Para muchas personas, City of Hope es el lugar donde ésta esperanza comienza", dijo Baker. "En el 2010 fueron exáminados un número record de hombres, y 141 de ellos supieron que necesitaban seguimiento médico".

Entre los participantes se encontraron decenas de hombres que portaron camisetas azules de “sobrevivientes” al cáncer de próstata. Los organizadores dijeron que “Crusin’ For a Cure”, es el evento para recabar fondos para la causa más grande de todo el planeta.

También se rifó una máquina GM ZZ-4 de 8 cilindros, con la compra de boletos con costo de $5. Adicionalmente, representantes de agencias de autos de Chrysler-Fiat, y de General Motors exhibieron carros nuevos, entre ellos el Fiat 500, Dodge Challengers, y el auto eléctrico Chevrolet Volt.

Los fondos colectados serán donados al centro de investigación para el tratamiento y cura del cáncer de próstata de City of Hope.

Esta enfermedad cuesta la muerte a unos 33,000 hombres mayores de 40 años cada año en los Estados Unidos. De las enfermedades que causan cáncer, es la número tres en muertes entre varones adultos. Los médicos expertos recomiendan un exámen al año a todos los hombres mayores de 40 años.

Si es detectada a tiempo, el pronóstico de sobrevivirla al somertese a tratamientos adecuados es de casi un 100 por ciento.

En caso de que los exámenes muestren que pacientes tienen la próstata inflamada, o muestren residuos dudosos en la sangre, los médicos recomiendan una biopsia de la próstata para confirmar, o desechar cualquier duda sobre un posible mal. Los resultados de las muestras capturadas en 'Cruisin' For a Cure' serán enviados por correo a cada participante unas tres semanas después que las muestras de sangre sean estudiadas en laboratorios.

“Cruisin’ For a Cure” se ha realizado una vez por año los últimos 12 años en varios sitios de la región. A partir del 2007, el evento se ha llevado a cabo en los terrenos del Orange County Fairgrounds.

N.Y. State Settles Jonathan Carey Wrongful-Death Lawsuits - NYTimes.com

N.Y. State Settles Jonathan Carey Wrongful-Death Lawsuits - NYTimes.com

New ADA rule to improve train travel

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that individuals with disabilities will have greater access to intercity, commuter and high-speed train travel as a result of a new rule requiring new station platform construction or significant renovation to enable those with disabilities to get on and off any car on a train.

“This will help give passengers with disabilities better access to rail travel across the country,” said LaHood. “By putting this protection in place, passengers with disabilities will be able to get on and off any accessible car that is available to passengers at a new or altered station platform.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is amending its Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations to require intercity, commuter and high-speed passenger railroads to ensure, at new and significantly renovated station platforms, that passengers with disabilities can get on and off any accessible car of the train.

Passenger railroads must provide level-entry boarding at new or altered stations in which no track passing through the station and adjacent to platforms is shared with existing freight rail operations.

For new or altered stations in which track shared with existing freight rail operations precludes compliance, passenger railroads will be able to choose among a variety of means to meet a performance standard to ensure that passengers with disabilities can access each accessible train car that other passengers can board at the station. These options include providing car-borne lifts, station-based lifts, or mini-high platforms.

The Department will review a railroad’s proposed method to ensure that it provides reliable and safe services to individuals with disabilities in an integrated manner.

The rule also requires that transit providers carry a wheelchair and occupant if the lift and vehicle can physically accommodate them, unless doing so is inconsistent with legitimate safety requirements.

In addition, it codifies the existing DOT mechanism for issuing ADA guidance and makes minor technical changes to the Department’s ADA rules.

Climate Reality

Climate RealityLondon Project.

Mexico City | Climate Reality

Mexico City | Climate RealityThe Climate Reality Project, from Al Gore.

California poverty rate rises in 2010 for fourth year in a row

California poverty rate rises in 2010 for fourth year in a row

Angel Stadium Workers Fight for Fair Pay - El Nuevo Sol

Angel Stadium Workers Fight for Fair Pay - El Nuevo Sol

Prosecutor Turns On Crusading Journalism School : NPR

Prosecutor Turns On Crusading Journalism School : NPR

Murders in Mexico generate shock, confusion(1)

A Mexican journalist wrote on her Facebook page after the murder of two of her colleagues in Mexico City: "And how do you escape this anxiety, this sensation that nothing we do does any good?"

The brutal murders of Marcela Yarce, 48, and Rocío González, 48, rocked Mexico when their bodies were found Thursday.

Yarce was one of the founders of Contralínea, a political news magazine that regularly reports on government corruption, which has suffered constant harassment in recent years.

The two women were the first female journalists killed in the capital since the government of conservative President Felipe Calderón declared "war" on the drug trade and put the army on the streets shortly after taking office in December 2006.

"Mexican journalists are in mourning, not only because of these killings, but because of all of the murders committed against us," the "Los Queremos Vivos" (We Want Them Alive) collective that organizes protests against attacks on journalists, wrote in an open letter to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.

The United Nations considers Mexico the third-most dangerous nation in the world for reporters.

The murders of Yarce and González also drew howls of outrage from other groups of reporters and women's organizations, as well as politicians of all stripes. But, unlike in 2010, when indignation over the kidnapping of four reporters prompted the largest protest demonstration by journalists ever held in Mexico, what has prevailed this time is a sense of shock.

"Every day, something happens that is more appalling than what happened the day before," one radio journalist wrote on Facebook. "We look at this with a sick stomach, thinking of our loved ones, of our country. Grief and rage. What do we do with this sad combination?"

By flinging the armed forces into the crackdown on drug trafficking cartels, Calderón has only worsened the spiral of violence. In the past four years, more than 40,000 people have been killed in increasingly grisly drug-related murders, 10,000 have been "disappeared", 700,000 have been forced to flee their homes, and growing numbers of people have been injured, mutilated, widowed or orphaned.

In the last few weeks, however, the violence has spread to areas that until now had been relatively untouched by the horror.

On Aug. 20, a firefight outside a stadium in the northern state of Coahuila during the live broadcast of a football game led to a suspension of the match. On Aug. 25, 61 people were killed when the Casino Royale in the northeast city of Monterrey was set on fire by unidentified armed men. And now, two women reporters were killed in Mexico City.

Neither of the two was actually involved in reporting work at the time of their deaths. Yarce was head of public relations in Contralínea, and González, a former reporter for Televisa, Mexico's largest television broadcaster, had a currency exchange business.

Their naked, bound and gagged bodies were found in a park in the poor neighborhood of Iztapalapa, on the southwest side of the city, hours after their families had reported them missing. The two women had been beaten and strangled.

Clemencia Correa, a professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico City who specializes in the issue of fear management, said a "policy of terror" is being used to terrify society.

"It is very complex to talk about Mexico today. What we see is that a policy of terror is being implemented, at different levels, and that unlike in the past, when there were state policies against human rights defenders or social movements, now these things are happening to the population in general, in the context of structural impunity," he said.

Murders in Mexico generate shock, confusion(2)

The consequences of the violence can be devastating for communities, because fear and despair cause a breakdown of the social fabric, said Verónica Martínez, who works at the Institute for Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and is also a member of the board at the International Organization for Victim Assistance (IOVA).

"The logic of fear is a very powerful form of domination and social control, because it aggravates the loss of individual and social identity and causes paralysis, isolation and segregation," she said.

"This favors authoritarianism and legitimates the violation of human rights in the name of security," Martínez added.

This has already started to happen. On Aug. 25, false information about members of an organized crime group allegedly shooting schoolchildren was posted on Twitter, causing panic in the Gulf of Mexico city of Veracruz and prompting 22 schools to send the children home early.

A day earlier, four women waiting to pick up their children were injured in an exchange of gunfire outside a school in Ciudad Juárez, a city on the U.S. border.

For that reason the rumor, which spread the next day on at least 17 Twitter accounts, caused chaos.

The day after the false information was spread, the authorities arrested two of the people who tweeted the rumor of possible attacks against children: Gilberto Martínez and María de Jesús Bravo.

On the same day she posted the rumor, Bravo, a journalist, clarified that the information was false.

Both are in prison accused of "terrorism and sabotage", charges that bring sentences of between three and 30 years in jail.

On Wednesday Aug. 31, the legislature of the southern state of Tabasco followed the same route and approved a reform establishing prison sentences of six months to two years for spreading, by telephone or social networking sites, false rumors that cause panic and social chaos.

The International Centre Against Censorship issued a statement saying "before attacking twitterers, we encourage the governor to respect human rights, especially freedom of expression.

"The severe security crisis in Veracruz is not caused by Twitter posts, but by the incompetence of the authorities," added the organization, which is named after Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines collective violence as "the instrumental use of violence by people who identify themselves as members of a group, whether this group is transitory or has a more permanent identity, against another group or set of individuals, in order to achieve political, economic or social objectives."

"The problem is that in Mexico, there are no studies yet on the social effects of this violence," said Martínez.

Correa said the government's position that society's condemnation and demands for justice should be directed against criminal groups, rather than at the government, is aimed at confusing people.

"It would be absurd to demand justice from the criminals, because that would be like denying the rule of law," he said.

"Demilitarization doesn't just mean pulling the army off the streets; it means dismantling a policy of terror that is causing great damage to society," Correa said.