2:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism| Justice| language · Comments Off
19 Jun 2008Sadly, this is how many Spanish speaking Latinos get their legal help.
Enter as a solution Legal Match, an online attorney referral website that has begun the process of translating a few of the 4,000 pages on its legal matching website into Spanish with the goal of targeting Spanish speaking Latinos searching for legal advice, especially for immigration issues.
So far the company has translated its homepage, intake processes for each category of law and some pages of its law library. Plans are in place to translate the remaining pages in the coming months.“Finding the right lawyer in the United States is difficult enough if you speak English and know something about the law,” said Anna Ostrovsky, general counsel and co-founder of LegalMatch. “If you are not familiar with the United States legal system, and don’t speak English, it’s even harder. We created LegalMatch to empower consumers seeking the right attorney for their legal needs. Making LegalMatch available in Spanish was a logical next move for us.”
I can’t say if Legal Match is a good service or not, and apparently they have had some issues, pero it has to be better than the above alternative.
Via / Hispanic MPR
12:56 pm By Maegan La Mala · Justice| World| mexico · Comments Off
19 Jun 2008
The lives of 5 Mexican citizens are hanging in the balance as the United Nations’ top court hears a plea from Mexico to help save their lives. Mexico is accusing its neighbor to the north of disregarding a U.N. ruling which found that the 5 Mexican citizens, currently in prison, were denied assistance from their consulate. In his argument, Mexico’s top attorney Juan Manuel Gomez-Robledo spoke some chilling words before the court:
Mr. Gomez-Robledo said that without urgent action now, five Mexican citizens “will be executed before the conclusion of these proceedings.”
What’s making all of this so difficult is that U.N. decision applies to countries, not individual states, or so alleges Texas, the state that is holding the 5 Mexican nationals. George W. Bush, as president, has recognized the U.N. ruling but the state of Texas has not. I wish I could say I am surprised, but in state known for thinking it’s a country unto itself and — even worse — for refusing to consider evidence that appears in death penalty cases, executing potentially innocent people, this is no bigs news to me.
Via / Globe and Mail
10:32 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · DNC| US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off
19 Jun 2008
Looks like I’ll have to pack some anti-pepper spray gear for the Democratic National Convention because the Denver Police are stocking up. From Democracy Now:
Denver Police Department is stocking up on pepper spray guns ahead of the Democratic National Convention. The city has ordered eighty-eight projectile launchers that fire plastic balls filled with cayenne pepper and other substances. Denver is purchasing the weapon from SWAT, Security with Advanced Technology. The news comes just weeks after SWAT announced plans to merge with the company Pepper Ball Technologies. Meanwhile, some residents of Denver are questioning why a half-dozen military helicopters flew over parts of the city on Monday as part of a secret security drill.The Denver Post reported the military aircraft buzzed above the Pepsi Center, the site of the Democratic Convention. A military spokesperson denied the drill was connected to the convention. Lt. Nathan Potter said,“It’s routine preparation for the global war on terrorism.”
Yeah sure. I am randomly selected for those secondary security checks at the airport.
8:32 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment
19 Jun 2008
I have personal beef against Rudy Giuliani. From my years working with families who have lost their children to police brutality, the Giuliani years aka Giuliani time in NYC was the worse. Young men of color were killed with impunity and Giuliani made it a point to smear these victims, even to their grieving mothers. For example:
In 1995, two young Puerto Rican men Anthony Rosario and Hilton Vega were shot in the back and killed by two New York City detectives in the Bronx. Evidence showed that when they were killed, they were laying face down on the floor and an independent autopsy revealed that Rosario was shot fourteen times in the back and Vega was shot eight times in the back.“One of the detectives, was Rudy Giuliani’s former bodyguard Patrick Brosnan. So what did Giuliani do? First, he had the audacity to call the police officers to commend them on their actions and then when Anthony Rosario’s mother Margarita called in to his radio show, Rudy talked over her, insisting that gunfire was exchanged and that her son had a criminal record. Both of these statements were lies. Giuliani also told the dead man’s mother that perhaps she should look at her parenting skills to help explain why her son died. Is this the kind of person we want as president?”
Well thankfully we don’t have to worry about him as president, but if John McCain were to choose Rudy as his running mate and if anything happened to McCain, well then we would have to deal with King Rudy. And yet, Giuliani’s name is being thrown around alot, perhaps more times than he can say 9-11 in a single breath.
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by 2 Mujeres Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse and influential Latino and Latina community in the U.S.
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