Posts Tagged ‘California’
After elections, California city has all Latino council
5:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Politics · 1 Comment
9 Nov 2006
After the successful election bids of a couple of local Latino politicians, Santa Ana, California (Orange County) is now the largest U.S. city to have an all-Latino City Council, reports the LA Times:
On Tuesday, three Latino candidates won seats on the city’s seven-member council, joining four other Latino incumbents.According to the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, no other city with a population over 300,000 holds that distinction. Santa Ana is the 51st-largest city in the nation, and the ninth largest in the state, with a population of nearly 350,000.
According to the LA Times, Latinos gained majority of the Council in 2002.
Santa Ana has also been declared the “most Spanish-speaking city in the U.S.”, and boasts the “Nation’s #1 Neighborhood”.
Via / LA Times and Hispanic Tips
Arnie’s our governor…again
11:57 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Politics · 4 Comments
8 Nov 2006
The Governator just won’t go away. After hitting the polls last night, the only thing I had a really sinking feeling about was my state’s gubernatorial race. Arnold’s opponent — a man who makes John Kerry seem edgy — milktoast Phil Angelides, didn’t stand a chance in hell. He didn’t have the charisma, that was clear, but apparently he also didn’t have Arnie’s money. Reports say Angelides blew most of his bank in the primaries and didn’t have much to spend closer to election day. No wonder I can’t remember even seeing one ad for him, but I guess he figured that the San Francisco Bay area was a given for him. He was wrong, as the Bay ended up pretty much split between him and Arnie, though (not surprisingly) the city and county of San Francisco voted 63% in favor of Angelides.
So, here in California we’re preparing for a full term of bad pronunciation, xenophobic/racist comments and feet in mouths as we assimilate the sad fact that we’ll begin another year with a rich washed up actor as our leader.
Image via San Francisco Chronicle (Carlos Avila Gonzalez)
“I voted” in pictures + a plea
7 Nov 2006
Here in wacky San Francisco — where we’re voting on a measure proposed by my local politicians to make calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney city policy — I’m off to the polls. To echo Mala, have you voted? Tons of people withhold their vote year after year because they are jaded. I used to do that. I don’t anymore. Like Mala says, it’s a weapon at our disposal. I’m still jaded, but not as dumb.
Other not-so-dumb people have been documenting their adventures in voting today in photos on my favorite website, Flickr. Check out this blog post about all the happy voters on the site, and have a look at some photos to get psyched up.
Get out and vote. Don’t make excuses. There’s still time — polls don’t close for hours. And I guarantee you it will make you feel better.
To the polls I go!
Via / Flickr Blog
Villaraigosa and Bustamante threatened
9:24 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Controversia|Immigration|Politics · 1 Comment
25 Apr 2006
Hate rears its ugly head again in the immigration debate, with two prominent Latino politicians en la mira of anti-immigrant elements who threaten their lives. LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Lt. Governor (California) Cruz Bustamente have both been on the receiving end of threatening correspondence. Governor Schwarzenegger announced this news, but the two Latino politicians are playing down the incidents, according to Reuters:
Villaraigosa, son of a Mexican immigrant, said threats “come with the turf” and has also not increased his security.“There is nothing to worry about. … You can see by my face that I’m not concerned about that,” Villaraigosa told reporters.
The threats have taken on various forms, with Reuters pointing one out in particular that read “The only good Mexican is dead Mexican”. Not very original, I must say.
Via / CNN.com
Photo via USA Today (Dan MacMedan)
6 out of 10 Californians say ‘yes’ to legalization
4:33 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Immigration · Comments Off
3 Apr 2006
From the San Jose Mercury News, a new San Jose State University poll has found that 6 out of 10 California residents favor legalization for undocumented immigrants currently residing in the country:
Nearly six out of 10 Californians support allowing illegal immigrants to become legal residents and continue living and working in the state, according to a new poll released Sunday by a San Jose State University research center.With the issue of illegal immigration roiling the nation and Congress, a broad spectrum of California residents backs legal status for undocumented workers — 59 percent of all adults polled support the controversial idea, the Survey and Policy Research Institute found. Registered voters also support allowing illegal immigrants to become legal, 54 percent to 36 percent.
According to the Mercury News, the strong opposition to legalization was found on the part of Republican voters, which is no surprise. Meanwhile, in the “real world” (as George Clooney puts it) or the rest of the country, nationwide polls showed:
…support across the country for the narrower — but equally explosive — proposal to give undocumented workers temporary legal status to remain in the United States. But that Associated Press poll also found Americans divided over whether illegal immigrants help or hurt the country.
Via / MercuryNews.com
A “sanctuary” in the city of angels
8:05 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Los Angeles · 1 Comment
24 Mar 2006
In response to recent proposed legislation which would require local law enforcement to act on illegal immigration, a 97% Latino suburb of L.A. has declared their town a “sanctuary” for immigrants:
…attracting fierce criticism from opponents who say it is encouraging lawlessness.
Maywood, a tiny urban pocket of Los Angeles county, has abolished its traffic police because of complaints that they were unfairly picking on Latino drivers.
Previously drivers without licences – almost all illegal immigrants – had their cars impounded. The city council has also passed a resolution opposing some of the toughest government measures against illegal immigration in recent times.
Guest worker programs debated
12:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Immigration|Labor|Politics · 1 Comment
2 Mar 2006
The San Francisco Chronicle talks today about California senator Dianne Feinstein’s beef with the current guest worker bill:
“I do not believe you can have a guest worker come for three years, renew it for another three years, bring their family, settle in, put children in schools, and then they’re going to turn around and go back at the end of six years,” Feinstein said. “It doesn’t happen. They disappear. And that’s the problem. That’s the rub. That’s the magnet.”
So Feinstein is splitting with her party, and wants immigrants to truly be “guests”…meaning they’ll leave forever at some point.
Morales: Intervention, for now
12:52 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Justice · Comments Off
21 Feb 2006
Michael Morales was set to become the first Latino executed in California since the death penalty was reinstated in the 70s. Last night, he had what he believed would be his last meal, and probably didn’t sleep through what he thought was to be his last night on earth. Today, he was to take a lethal injection and die. But that didn’t happen. Anesthesiologists who were to assist in the execution claimed that there was too great a possibility that Morales return to consciousness during the procedure, prolonging suffering:
Doctors said the ruling raised serious questions about the possibility of having to intervene in the execution “if any evidence of either pain or a return to consciousness arose.”
Latinos to take the vote left in CA
6:22 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Politics|States · 2 Comments
7 Feb 2006
That’s what a new survey is saying.
Seventy percent of Californians who have registered to vote since 1990 are Latino, providing a growing benefit to Democrats and posing a threat to Republicans, according to a new voting report.
The Field Poll on election trends also said that there is partisan split between coastal and inland counties that favors Democrats but is slowly shifting in favor of the GOP as the more Republican inland population grows.
Latino Enrollment at UC Berkeley Increasing
15 Dec 2005
The number of Latino freshman enrolled in UC Berkeley this year reached its highest level since 1997, according to the latest figures, which also show black students posting modest year-over-year gains.
The selective university has been struggling to boost enrollment of those students, whose lagging college-going rates led campus Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to suggest last month that California is approaching “educational apartheid” because of a 1996 voter initiative that banned affirmative action programs.
It seems that at UC Berkeley, even without the assistance of affirmitive action, there has been an increase in Latino enrollment. That doesn’t mean that the same can be said about all of the the schools in the University of California system. The news may sound positive but in reality it is negative because in 2005 Latinos are just getting to the levels that they were at back in 1997. I am positive that if affirmitive action programs were still in place the number of Latinos at UC Berkeley would be significantly higher.
Final enrollment numbers released Wednesday show that 426 Latino freshman attended University of California, Berkeley in the fall. That is up from 340 last year and is the most since 1997, the last year affirmative action was used and 469 Latino and Chicano freshman enrolled. In 1998, 271 Latino freshmen enrolled at UC Berkeley, according to UC data.
Via / Inside Bay Area
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