In the five years she has lived in Fort Myers, attorney Kristyn Whitlow has seen myriad black professionals come and go.
Advertisement.
Whitlow said black professionals typically leave Fort Myers two or three years after relocating here.
"They look around, and they don't see any other black professionals and they leave," Whitlow said. "It's not uncomfortable for me because I'm used to being the only black, but I know it bothers other black professionals."
Many local black professionals claim there are few minorities in high-paying jobs, and data back that up. READ FULL STORYRead more…
The Hispanic population is growing rapidly, and census figures estimate that by 2025, Hispanics in Illinois will make up nearly 17 percent of the state’s population, a surge of more than 1.2 million people since 1995.
With that growth comes a demand for Hispanic businesses, as second and third generation families choose products and services that complement their culture.
Adrian Soto sees this shift first-hand. His parents were immigrants and he, like many other young Hispanic professionals, had the opportunity to go to grow up here, attend college and, in turn, has adapted to an English-speaking business environment. It is a demographic that is growing both in numbers, and in economic power. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Lecturing a conscript conclave of Justice Department bureaucrats, Attorney General Eric Holder called America a "nation of cowards" last week for not spending more time talking about race.
Reading his speech, however, one recalls the sage counsel of Pat Moynihan to President Richard Nixon in 1970: This whole subject might benefit from a long period of "benign neglect."
One point Holder did allude to, without specifics, was this: "It is not safe for this nation to assume that the unaddressed social problems in the poorest parts of the country can be isolated and will not ultimately affect the larger society."
Fair point. And what are some of those social problems?
A 70 percent illegitimacy rate in black America, an incarceration and crime rate seven times that of white America, a 50 percent dropout rate in many urban high schools, African American graduates reading and computing on average at eighth-grade levels. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Arizona State University was cited several times among the top 25 institutions in the United States in “The Condition of Latinos in Education: Fact Book 2008” by Excelencia in Education.
ASU was ranked number 24 among the top 25 colleges and universities enrolling Latinos during the 2006-07 academic year. The university also came in at number 24 for the top 25 institutions awarding bachelor’s degrees to Latinos.
In engineering, ASU was ranked 17th for the top 25 institutions awarding engineering bachelor’s degrees to Latinos. Excelencia in Education regularly benchmarks strategies used in high-performing Hispanic serving institutions. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Open almost any urban newspaper to the foreclosure notices and you’ll find the list heavy with Hispanic names. Times are tough for Americans of every demographic, but for Latinos they are grimmer still.
Is this the end of the Latino-American Dream? The answer, in Spanish and English, is “no.”
President Obama has unveiled a $75 billion plan that includes helping homeowners who are behind in their monthly payments but could keep up if their mortgage terms were eased a bit. Many Latinos would fit this category. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Creating trust and assuring confidentiality are the biggest challenges facing the U.S. Census Bureau in gathering an accurate count of Latinos for the decennial population count next year.
Those were among the key points raised at a briefing on the 2010 census organized Wednesday by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Washington, D.C. Latinos have been under-counted in previous census counts and efforts by LULAC and other national Latino organizations are aimed at making the next population count more accurate. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Today's economy is putting a strain in many people's pocket books. Several Latino families are finding themselves cutting back on many expenses including their regular check ups at the doctor's office.
Maria Gonzalez watches her spending very closely. "It's a drastic change," said Gonzalez. READ FULL STORY & VIDEORead more…
A controversial new policy at the University of California will open the country's premier public university system to a wider array of applicants, creating campuses that could be less Asian and more white, with a few more blacks and a modest climb in the number of Latinos.
In overhauling its eligibility requirements, the UC has eliminated SAT "subject tests" and agreed to consider lower-ranking students. The plan would broaden the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the applicant pool and offer admissions offices more flexibility in creating a freshman class. READ FULL STORYRead more…
When the economy goes sour, certain minority groups suffer at the hands of criminals more than others, a new study finds.
National crime statistics from 1973 to 2005 show an increase in violent, non-lethal crime against blacks and Latinos during and after periods of recession, according to research that was scheduled for presentation Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Chicago. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Vote paves the way for the Venezuela president to run again in 2012
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez won a referendum to eliminate term limits Sunday, enabling him to run again in 2012 and beyond in what critics fear is an attempt to become president-for-life.
Fireworks exploded in the sky and caravans of supporters celebrated in the streets, waving red flags and honking horns. Thousands of people gathered outside Miraflores Palace, where the former paratroop commander appeared on a balcony to sing the national anthem and address the crowd. READ FULL STORYRead more…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT Marie Watteau
(202) 785-1670
STIMULUS PLAN BRINGS NEEDED RELIEF TO LATINO FAMILIES BUT NO PROMISE OF GOOD JOBS
Washington, DC – The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today thanked the U.S. House of Representatives for passing a $789 billion economic stimulus package, but emphasized that effective implementation of this legislation will be critical to reaching Latino workers and families.
“Congress did the right thing by acting quickly to approve a bold economic stimulus plan,” said Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR. “Expanded tax credits for families with children, better access to unemployment insurance, and boosts to vital programs such as Medicaid and nutritional assistance are essential to helping families weather the economic storm.”
NCLR is pleased that the stimulus package:
· Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for larger families—a proposal NCLR has long supported
· Lowers the income threshold needed to qualify for the Child Tax Credit, from $8,500 to $3,000, allowing more needy families to receive a larger credit and reaching 13 million children, including 2.9 million children whose families will be eligible for the credit for the first time
· Provides $2 billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to help governments and nonprofits buy and rehabilitate foreclosed and vacant properties, improving the quality of life in communities
· Encourages states to expand eligibility for unemployment insurance to part-time and low-wage workers, a significant portion of the Latino labor force
These measures will not help the economy recover if Americans are not employed. The prospects for the nation’s 22 million Latino workers are especially troublesome. Latinos currently face a 9.7% unemployment rate, compared to 7.6% for the nation overall. Projections by the Economic Policy Institute show that without a robust recovery package, the unemployment rate for Latinos could rise to 13.1% by 2010.
Congressman Raul Grijalva (D–AZ) and Senator Robert Menendez (D–NJ) recognize the importance of helping Latinos become better prepared for employment, and they have worked tirelessly to include adult education and training provisions targeted to limited-English-proficient workers. Unfortunately, their proposals were not included in the final package. NCLR will continue to work with these members of Congress on legislation that provides more job opportunities for Latinos.
“Sound implementation will determine whether this package will deliver good jobs for Latino workers. We are confident that Congress, as well as President Obama’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Labor, Hilda Solis, will be vigilant in ensuring that all Americans have access to safe jobs with decent wages and benefits,” Murguía concluded.
The Senate vote is expected later today or tomorrow. The bill will then go to President Obama to sign into law.
Read more…
During the 14 months after Oklahoma toughened its stance on illegal immigration, 2,441 illegal aliens in the state were turned over to federal authorities for possible deportation.
That's a fraction of the number of Hispanics who fled the state just before the law went into effect on Nov. 1, 2007, some say, with anecdotal estimates saying there was an exodus of 25,000 from Tulsa alone. READ FULL STORYRead more…
It has long been a truism here that if you didn’t have a job you weren’t looking too hard.
“It used to be in Dalton you could quit a job at 10 o’clock and have another job at 11,” said Rodger Keeter, a longtime barber downtown. In the 1980s, Dalton drew residents from Kentucky looking for work after the coal mines closed. The past 15 years have seen an influx of Hispanics. READ FULL STORYRead more…
A new interactive online tool can help older Americans assess their risk for developing colon cancer. The catch is that it only works for whites.
That’s too bad, since blacks are at higher risk than whites for colorectal cancer, developing it and dying of it at higher rates, and recent reports suggest the racial gap is widening.
The new screening tool, developed by the National Cancer Institute and available at www.cancer.gov/colorectalcancerrisk, asks roughly 20 questions, the first two about race and ethnic background. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Jasmine Rocha learned a valuable budgetary lesson when planning her quinceañera, the 15th birthday celebration that represents a rite of passage from childhood to womanhood for Latinas.
"It was very hard because sometimes the stuff that I wanted, it wasn't able to come through," said the teen from Dallas, Texas.
Jasmine's mother, Grace Grimaldo, sometimes has a tough time even paying the family's phone bill, but balked at the suggestion that her daughter's quinceañera was not a financial necessity. READ FULL STORYRead more…
While teenage Latinas have three times as many babies as their non-Hispanic counterparts nationwide, Utah's birthrate among young Hispanic women is almost four times the statewide average.
A study released Wednesday by the Utah Department of Health shows that 6.6 percent of local Latinas ages 15-17 give birth, compared with just 1.8 percent of the general population in that age group. READ FULL STORYRead more…
With the unemployment rate of the Hispanic population in the United States nearing 10 percent, now is the time to start thinking about sectors that are defying the dismal trends.
Carlos Sanchez, a manager with the Hispanic-bilingual job site Saludos.com, said even though this is the worst economy he has seen in 40 years, there are a few bright spots.
But finding them, he adds, might take some sacrifice on the part of job seekers.
"There are amazing opportunities out there for people who have skill sets and tools," he said. "Especially bilingual people. . . . But people have to look for these opportunities. You can't put your head in the sand and feel sorry for yourself." READ FULL STORYRead more…
The Washington Attorney General's Office is alerting residents about a phone scam in which Spanish-speaking callers claim to be representatives of an insurance company. In some cases, the callers also provide the names of actual insurance companies and/or agents.
Hispanic residents from Seattle to Yakima have reported receiving phone calls from Spanish-speaking callers who claim to be from "the insurance company." The female callers ask for bank account information they claim is needed to process insurance payments. The callers have left messages if owners aren't home, along with phone numbers that start with 800, 877 and 752 area codes. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), the findings demonstrate that blacks and Asians with terminal cancer use end-of-life services less frequently than do whites and Hispanics.
According to senior author Ellen McCarthy, PhD, of BIDMC's Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, the researchers studied the records of 41,000 terminal cancer patients over age 65. All received their health insurance coverage through Medicare. After accounting for a number of other factors including income and physical health their findings showed that compared with whites and Hispanics, black and Asian patients were more likely to be hospitalized frequently, to be hospitalized for prolonged periods, to receive care in an intensive care unit (ICU), and to die in the hospital. Compared with the other patients, black patients were nine percent less likely to enroll in a hospice program and Asian Americans were 24 percent less likely to do so. These same two population groups were also 26 percent and 17 percent more likely, respectively, to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit at least twice during their last month of life. READ FULL STORYRead more…
A six-year, $61 million multicenter study is seeking to gather data on the health of Hispanics to expand current research on the group, the Miami Herald reports. The Hispanic Community Health Study -- funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute -- will take place at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine and three other field centers in San Diego, the Bronx in New York City and Chicago. The University of North Carolina will serve as the data coordinating center. READ FULL STORYRead more…
