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Astronaut Taking Raider Pride to Outer Space

You may have heard the inspiring story of Jose Hernandez, who grew up a migrant worker in San Joaquin County, didn't learn English until he was 12, and is now a NASA astronaut preparing to blast off in the Space Shuttle Discovery currently scheduled to launch at about 10 p.m. Pacific Time Tuesday night. What you may not have heard that the guy is a lifelong, die-hard Oakland Raiders fan. And he's taking a Raider flag with him to plant on the International Space Station, 220 miles above the fac
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'Right Stuff' restaurateur to see first shuttle launch

The story going around Boron these days is that a shuttle landing is not complete unless it ends with dinner at Domingo's. While Domingo Gutierrez is often telling the story, it isn't idle boasting by this eastern Kern County restaurateur. It's the truth. Within four to six hours of a shuttle spacecraft landing on Edwards Air Force Base's dry lake bed, the crew is in Domingo's Mexican restaurant on Twenty Mule Team Road, chowing down on fajitas and enchiladas, and knocking back Boron water -
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What your iPod playlist says about you

Who do you share your iPod playlist with? Your lover? Your lover's husband? Your colleagues at the office? The strangely smelling man who sits next to you on the bus? Well, researchers at the University of Cambridge have a message for you. It reads: "Don't." According to these flatland boffins, your values, your personality, even your ethnicity, and social class (well, it is England, after all) will be judged by what you slip onto your iPod. Jason Rentfrow, the chap who dreamed up this vita
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Despite the recession, a large number of companies—“especially consumer-product companies and financial-services firms”—are aggressively targeting the U.S. Hispanic market through advertising in Spanish-language media and sponsorship of community events, Beatrice E. Garcia writes for The Miami Herald. Quoting TNS Market Intelligence, a market research firm, Garcia explains that overall, “[m]ore than $5 billion was aimed at the Hispanic market in 2008.” As the fastest-growing minority group in
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Latinos flock to New Orleans

For the first time since it was a Spanish colony some 200 years ago, New Orleans is getting revitalized by Spanish speakers. One of the more dramatic and immediate impacts of Hurricane Katrina has been the influx of thousands of new Latinos who have moved to the city to detoxify, renovate and rebuild storm damaged roads, flood walls, businesses and homes. Following a mini-boom in Latinos has been a growing number of Latino-owned businesses, especially in the retail and service sectors. Two Me
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Mexico Eases Ban on Drug Possession

Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday, in a move that creates one of the world's most permissive narcotics markets and that opponents say could complicate President Felipe Calderón's war against illegal drug cartels. The law goes beyond what is allowed in many other countries by making it legal to possess small amounts of a wide array of drugs. For instance, the new law allows the equivalent of about five joints of marijuana or four lines of cocaine. T
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Martinez departure part of GOP schism

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez's resignation closes the latest chapter in the Republican Party's tumultuous, decade-long effort to woo the nation's Hispanic voters. The Cuban-American's impending departure could leave no Hispanic Republicans in the Senate and three in the House — compared to 21 Democrats in Congress — and a sense that the national GOP is at a major crossroads with the nation's fastest-growing demographic group. Although most Hispanics outside of Florida have long leaned Democratic
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Fidel Castro slams U.S. for battle over healthcare

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro criticized the United States on Wednesday for being willing to spend billions on its high-tech military but finding it difficult to approve healthcare reform that would protect its poor people. He wrote in a commentary published on a state-run Internet site that huge military budgets are approved easily by the U.S. Congress but U.S. President Barack Obama is struggling to convince federal lawmakers to pass a bill that would "deliver health services to 50 million
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Immigrant rights activists said Friday that a White House meeting this week to reaffirm support for immigration reform -- featuring a surprise appearance by President Obama -- had helped mollify growing frustration over what some perceived as backpedaling on reform promises. But many said that action will be needed to keep the faith among immigrants and their supporters, particularly Latinos who turned out in record numbers to help elect Obama last year. "We've heard all of the beautiful orato
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Unemployment in California hits post-World War II high

California's jobless rate reached a fresh post-World War II high in July, climbing to 11.9%, a sobering reminder that though the nation's deep downturn may be nearing its end, the state's employment woes are far from over. Golden State employers cut their payrolls by 35,800 jobs in July, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. That's a significant improvement over monthly losses that averaged 76,000 over the first half of the year. READ FULL STORY
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What Health Care Reform Means for Latinos

Health care reform plans don’t include any kind of public coverage for undocumented immigrants. President Barack Obama has even said that including the undocumented would create "a lot of resistance." But this hasn’t stopped opponents, including anti-immigrant lobbyist groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), from denouncing supposed "loop holes" in the proposals that they say would benefit the undocumented. "Many Americans have used town hall meetings to express the
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WH Tailors Health Reform Message for Hispanics

The White House is expanding its push for health care reform to Hispanics with a Spanish-language version of its "Reality Check" health care Web site. The site provides all of the videos featured on the English version, with the option of adding Spanish subtitles. There is one more video from Luis Miranda, the director of Hispanic media for the White House, who in Spanish introduces the site and lays out President Obama's arguments for comprehensive reform. Earlier this month, the White House
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Ted Cruz: A GOP bid in Texas to win the Hispanic vote

If a golden résumé meant automatic election, Ted Cruz could start measuring the drapes in the Texas attorney general’s office. The son of a Cuban immigrant, Mr. Cruz, 38, has degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He was a champion college debater, clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and has argued eight cases before the US Supreme Court. Among his victories in the high court, he defended the constitutionality of Texas’ Ten Commandments monument and congressional re
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Reasons Minority Test Scores Lag Behind

A recent AP article showed that a gap in achievement scores still exists between whites and blacks. This is true for all minorities, including Hispanics. According to the Education Department report cited in the article, unprecedented efforts to improve minority achievement have failed. Experts say the problem stems from entrenched familial factors such as skipping breakfast, watching too much television, and reading less. Growing up in a poor family and working in an underprivileged area for t
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A nationwide freight management company violated federal law by refusing to hire non-Hispanics, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged in a lawsuit filed this week. According to EEOC, from around Oct. 1, 2002, through June 30, 2004, Fort Smith, Ark.-based Propak Logistics Inc. engaged in unlawful employment practices by refusing to hire an entire class of people for non-management positions at its Shelby, N.C., facility because of their non-Hispanic national origin. The compla
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A group of Hispanic parishioners stopped a Catholic priest from saying Mass at a North Carolina church because “he doesn’t treat Mexicans well,” The Fayetteville Observer said Monday. The Rev. Walter Ospina, who is from Colombia, was unable Monday to enter St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Red Springs, where most of the Hispanics are Mexicans drawn to the area by jobs in the pork-processing industry. Around 150 parishioners closed the church doors and posted a sign asking for “justice” and that
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Hispanics' roles add to social studies debate

Scratch Henry Cisneros, but add Dolores Huerta, Dr. Hector P. Garcia, Sandra Cisneros, Henry B. Gonzalez and Irma Rangel to the list of important Hispanic figures that Texas school children might be discussing in the future. State education leaders are still in the early stages of writing new curriculum standards for social studies that will shape future history and geography books. And by the time those new textbooks arrive in fall 2013, a majority of the children attending Texas public schoo
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Latinos tackle Alzheimer’s

When Eugenio Ramirez heads out to the Latino Geriatric Center each morning, he says he's going to the capital, San Juan, for the day. In the afternoon he says he's going home to Vega Alta, the small coastal village where he grew up. Eugenio Ramirez Jr., the son he lives with in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, can't tell whether his father really thinks that he's still in Puerto Rico, the same way he can't tell whether he really thinks that he's 42 years old, or that Junior isn't his son, b
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Lawrence mayoral race draws field of 10

Who should lead the city over the next four years has become a central question in Lawrence as 10 candidates are battling to succeed incumbent two-term mayor Michael J. Sullivan. Sullivan is prohibited from running again by a city term-limits rule. A Sept. 22 preliminary will cull the field to two for the Nov. 3 city election. The size of the field, the open seat, and the prospect that Lawrence could become the first Massachusetts community to elect a Latino mayor are all drawing a spotlight t
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Nike mentors give Latino youth a career boost

Seven Latino students at Portland Community College’s Rock Creek campus are getting a jolt of business savvy from Nike workers, one meeting and piece of advice at a time. As part of a mentoring program that partners the Nike Latino and Friends Network with students from the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), each of the students – all first-generation college scholars from migrant-worker backgrounds – work with a Nike employee at honing crucial job skills and creating networking opport
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