Latino

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7/18 tag latnx

SEE TWO

see renta-tamale

NO MERRI

better than avg legis on climate? 5/15 steyer

fastest growing minority, UC

trump wall rapists

html patrick.george

apostates

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (born Ileana Ros y Adato; July 15, 1952) is the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida, representing Florida's 27th congressional district.

libre is koch

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kushner pal?

mma

On MSNBC, former Univision president slams the network's Trump town hall as an “infomercial”

10/17/24

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JUNE 22, 2018

UPDATED 3 YEARS AGO

Big Oil eyes U.S. minority groups to build offshore drilling support

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The largest U.S. oil and gas lobby group is seeking to convince Hispanic and black communities to support the Trump administration’s proposed expansion of offshore drilling, arguing it would create high paying jobs, including for storm-displaced Puerto Ricans.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) launched its “Explore Offshore” campaign earlier this month to counter offshore drilling foes in coastal southeast states from Virginia to Florida, where lawmakers and governors on both sides of the aisle have expressed fear an oil spill could ruin tourism.

“We want to build support in minority communities because the message that increasing the supply of affordable energy and good paying jobs will resonate,” said Erik Milito, API’s director of Upstream and Industry Operations.

As part of the campaign, API has partnered with a number of black and Hispanic business groups, including the Virginia, Florida and North Carolina Hispanic Chambers of Commerce and the Florida Black Chamber of Commerce and South Carolina African American Chamber of Commerce.

A Pew Research poll published in January showed that 56 percent of Hispanics and 54 percent of blacks opposed offshore drilling, compared to 48 percent of white people.

The Interior Department in January announced a proposal to open up nearly all U.S. offshore waters to drilling, triggering a backlash from coastal states that rely on tourism.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told a Senate panel in April that he is likely to scale back the proposal following meetings with coastal governors. Shortly after he unveiled his offshore drilling proposal, Zinke offered an exemption for Florida after he held a private meeting with Republican Governor Rick Scott.

The oil and gas industry is keen to pursue seismic testing in areas they believe hold the largest reserves along the southern Atlantic coast and to Florida’s eastern Gulf shorelines.

The API campaign published op-eds in local newspapers this week, including one by Stephen Gilchrist, chair of South Carolina’s African American Chamber of Commerce. In it he touts API’s major talking point that oil and gas exploration jobs offer locals an average salary of $116,000 without requiring a college degree.

“It’s a myth that communities of color are not interested in supporting offshore exploration,” he wrote in South Carolina’s Post and Courier. “I’ve personally attended town hall meetings up and down South Carolina’s coast where there has been significant support for the economic opportunity offshore exploration holds - especially in communities that have been historically disenfranchised.”

JOBS OUTWEIGH ENVIRONMENT

API, however, acknowledged it needs to hold community meetings and improve local outreach to sway minority communities that have been inclined to oppose offshore drilling.

Miriam Ramirez, a co-chair of the API’s Florida campaign and a former Puerto Rico state senator said she thinks the lure of higher-paying jobs, especially for victims of 2017’s Hurricane Maria, would create economic opportunities that outweigh environmental concerns.

“We have an influx of thousands of Puerto Ricans in Florida, including doctors and engineers who plan to relocate permanently,” Ramirez said.

A study released in March by Oceana, an Ocean conservancy group, found Interior’s offshore drilling plan would put more than 2.6 million jobs and nearly $180 billion in gross domestic product at risk for only two year’s-worth of oil and just over one year’s-worth of gas at current consumption.

“Jobs that come from offshore drilling do not guarantee local good paying jobs compared to the tourism industry, which can keep jobs local,” said Pricey Harrison, a North Carolina state representative and president of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.

Julio Fuentes, president of Florida’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said he is reaching out to new Puerto Rican evacuees, as well as existing local communities that are skeptical of offshore drilling, by hosting roundtables with business leaders and community organizations.

“I always like to talk about the safety aspect of it,” Fuentes said.

“Since the BP oil spill, there have been over 100 new industry standards put in place,” he said, referring to the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 that caused tremendous damage to beaches and coastlines in Gulf coast states.

But environmental justice advocates counter that there is no way to guarantee safe offshore drilling.

Marce Gutierrez-Graudins, president of conservation group Azul, said it takes only one spill or accident to deprive lower-income Hispanic communities access to the shore, which she argues is an important form of escape from the stress of urban areas where many minorities live.

Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/trump-base/

How do we know anything at all about the 74 million people who voted for Trump in 2020? Are they mostly racist? Sexist, homophobic, xenophobic? Are they white working-class males who suffer from status anxiety as the U.S. population grows more diverse? Are Trump supporters wealthier voters or poorer? Are they anti-elites, or elites themselves? Are working people becoming the core of the Republican Party, as Senator Josh Hawley proclaimed on election night? Or did Joe Biden bring them back into the Democratic fold?

Answers to these questions traditionally come from exit polls supplemented by what we hear from political commentators, labor union officials, and community leaders. An NBC poll (February 21, 2021) reported that the news is not good for labor progressives:

The GOP is rapidly becoming the blue-collar party.

In the last decade, the percentage of blue-collar voters who call themselves Republicans has grown by 12 points. At the same time, the number in that group identifying as Democrats has declined by 8 points.

Are working people really flocking to the party of their bosses? Or are the polls really screwed up? Given the massive polling errors during the Trump elections, there is reason to be skeptical. Just recall the pre-election polling of the critical "Blue Wall" states. On the morning of November 3, 2020, Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight poll-of-polls had Biden up by 8.4 percent in Wisconsin, 7.9 percent in Michigan and 4.7 percent in Pennsylvania. That forecast was off by 3.5 percentage points in Pennsylvania, 5.1 points in Michigan and a whopping 7.8 points in Wisconsin, thereby underestimating the Trump vote by 16.4 points in these three key states alone. And in the Senate race in Maine, the poll-of-polls had Susan Collins losing by 8 percent the day before the election. She won by 10.6 percent. Exit polls, which analyze who voted for whom demographically, are even less accurate.

This is why we have been searching for another way to determine whether or not the political inclinations of white working-class voters are radically different from their Black and Brown brothers and sisters. Is it possible that the polls are missing critical features that bind working-class people together rather than divide them by racial and ethnic identities?

Asked another way: Is there an alternative to polls?

Yes. Political polling can be avoided by examining the actual election results, precinct by precinct, and then linking those precincts to the census tracts that contain those precincts. This approach doesn't rely on any political questions and therefore is not subject to misleading subjective responses to hot-button issues. It also doesn't depend on whether someone tells the pollster the truth, or doesn't recall their vote correctly, or if the poll sample is skewed. The Census doesn't ask people their political preferences or their stances on various issues, or even their religion. It just gathers information on hundreds of demographic features like race, ethnicity, age, gender, income, occupation, housing, and the like.

Since we know the actual results in each election district and since we know the demographic information of the neighborhoods connected to each voting district, we are able to determine (to a high degree of certainty) if neighborhoods with more white working-class people disproportionately support Trump. To do this, we use a statistical method called multiple regression.

A Few Notes on Methodology

How multiple regression works: Imagine an average neighborhood in Pennsylvania with a given percentage of old, young, Black, white, Hispanic, working class folks and a certain median income. Now what would happen to the Trump vote if we moved to a new neighborhood with exactly the same demographics except that the percentage of white people increased? Our guess is that the Trump vote would go up and in fact it does. A multiple regression does that with each characteristic at the same time. So we can say what happens to the Trump vote if we increase the percentage of white working class men in the neighborhood and change nothing else.

There are limitations using this approach to be sure. Polling, while imperfect, does have the benefit of tying individuals and their characteristics to their individual behaviors (how they say they voted). This provides a more fine-grained analysis assuming that the responses and polling samples are reasonably accurate. Using census data is constrained by the fact that we are looking at how groups (neighborhoods), not individuals, are voting, and therefore there will be more uncertainty since neighborhoods are not demographically coherent. So pick your poison: Use polls that may be skewed due to the passions Trump engenders, or focus on neighborhood census data which is less precise, but free from the Trump phenomena. We're going with the neighborhood approach.

Lastly, the independent variables are income or education or working class occupations plus gender, Black, Hispanic, Asian and size of the precinct vote. The dependent variable is the percentage of the Trump vote in the precinct. The model explains 70 to 80 percent of the variation in the Trump vote depending on which definition of working class is used. All the independent variables are highly significant (all p values smaller than 0.000).

What the Study Found

Our study focuses on 3,058 voting precincts and their surrounding neighborhoods in the all-important swing state of Pennsylvania.

Finding #1: The Pennsylvania white working class in general shows significant Trump support.

We didn't want this answer, but there it is: White working-class neighborhoods strongly support Trump. This is the case no matter how working-class is defined: by education (high school or lower); by income (below the median); or by occupation (non-management service and blue-collar occupations). Pennsylvania neighborhoods with a preponderance of these white working-class groups lean significantly towards Trump.

Finding #2: The Pennsylvania white working-class neighborhoods do not form a coherent political entity. They are divided politically by higher and lower paying occupations.

Our findings show significant splits among white working-class neighborhoods, including among white working-class men.

Overall, white neighborhoods strongly support Trump while Black neighborhoods do not. But that homogeneity breaks down when white working people are defined by different types of working-class occupations. To see this clearly, we focused on neighborhoods with lower-paying service jobs (Low Service Neighborhoods), and higher-paying blue-collar construction and production neighborhoods (Blue-collar Neighborhoods). Low Service jobs, which make up approximately 16.4 percent of all Pennsylvania occupations, consist of four census-defined occupations (with May 2019 median Pennsylvania wage estimates noted in parenthesis):

Healthcare support occupations ($13.53/hr.)
Food preparation and serving related ($10.72)
Personal care and service ($11.58)
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($13.60)

Blue-collar job categories (23.3 percent of the state's occupations) include:

Natural resources (($15.21)
Construction ($23.91)
Maintenance ($22.60)
Production ($18.17)
Transportation and moving, ($15.61)

Our statistical method allows us to focus in on the white workers in these occupations.

The Results:

Read the above chart as follows: For every one standard deviation increase in the neighborhood variable in the demographic column, what is the percentage increase or decrease in the Trump vote, holding all the other variables constant? For example, if the percentage of Black residents in an average neighborhood goes up by one standard deviation (about 21%), the Trump vote would go down 11.5% holding constant all the other independent demographic variables.

And to be clear:

At the neighborhood level, we find that an increase in white blue-collar males has about seven times the positive impact on the Trump vote as the same increase in white blue-collar women. [Note: The regression shows that if the percent of white blue-collar men and women is increased by one standard deviation, the rise in the Trump vote would be 9.2% for these men and only 1.4% for these women.]
At the neighborhood level, an increase in Low Service white women correlates with an increase in the Trump vote. But there was no impact at all from a similar increase in Low Service white men. (That an increase of women in any occupation would have bigger impact than a similar increase of white men is a counter-intuitive surprise that deserves more careful study.) [Added note: With the gracious assistance of Oberlin politics professor Michael Parkin, we tested and retested this result. The finding remained: Women in lower paid service occupations had a small but positive impact on the Trump vote whereas the men in those same occupations did not.]
Overall, the neighborhood increase in the percentage of white blue-collar workers has a much larger impact on the Trump vote than a similar increase in white Low Service workers.

The blue-collar occupations in our study earn wages that are near or above the median hourly wage for the state, which is $18.99 per hour. While Trump has modest support from Low Service and Blue-Collar white women, the guts of his white working-class support seems to be centered with more middle-income blue-collar white men.

This suggests that millions of white male working people in low-paying service industry jobs—from waiting tables to cleaning building—did not support Trump. And there is only weak support for Trump among white women in the same occupations.

Finding #3: Pennsylvania neighborhoods with increased percentages of Hispanic residents between 2010 and 2019, increased their support for Trump between 2016 and 2020.

This is a shocker.

We compared 2016 and 2020 election precincts in Pennsylvania: 1280 precincts showed percentage increases in the Trump vote, and 1760 precincts showed percentage decreases. Next we calculated the change in demographic factors between the last census in 2010 and the latest data for 2019 in the "more-for" and "less-for" Trump precincts. As we would expect, the "more-for-Trump" neighborhoods, showed, on average, increased percentages of blue-collar workers, of those with lower educational levels, and of those with lower incomes. Also, there were fewer Black and Asian residents. But much to our surprise, the percentage change in the Hispanic population in the last decade was significantly higher in the "more-for-Trump" neighborhoods than in the "less-for-Trump" neighborhoods.

Why?...

ca lost seat 1st 1x? NY by 89 ppl tx gets 2

evidence of Trump's final act of 'sabotage'

Igor Derysh Salon

April 28, 2021

Democratic lawmakers and election experts expressed concerns that Monday's release of the Census Bureau's congressional apportionment data reflected a systematic undercount of Latino residents that may be linked to former President Donald Trump's efforts to change census rules.

The Census Bureau that Texas would gain two House seats after the latest population count, while Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Oregon and Montana would each gain one. California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia will each lose a seat. But those numbers were well short of the projected changes, particularly in states with fast-growing Latino populations like Texas, Florida and Arizona. All three of those states were projected to gain one additional seat apiece, sparking concerns that Latino residents were undercounted, which could have important effects on political power and the distribution of federal funds.

"There is a serious issue with undercounting of Hispanics in this Census," warned Sam Wang, a professor who runs the Princeton Election Consortium and Princeton Gerrymandering Project. "The states that underperformed relative to July 2020 population estimates included Texas, Florida, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada — all Hispanic-rich states. A real risk of poor representation."

Dave Wasserman, an election data expert at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, agreed that lower-than-expected counts in Arizona, Florida, Texas and California may suggest a "larger-than-expected, systemic undercount in heavily Hispanic areas."

It will be months before the Census Bureau releases more detailed data in August, and only after that can the congressional redistricting process begin.

"The initial results are surprising enough that once more details are released, we will be able to better determine to what extent the Latino population was fairly and accurately counted," Arturo Vargas, president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, told The Los Angeles Times.

Myriad factors undoubtedly affected the census count, not all of which are political. "The census numbers as a whole have been shaped by a lot of negative and positive forces," Thomas Wolf, senior counsel at Brennan Center for Justice, told Mother Jones. "We had wildfires, COVID, displacement, hurricanes."

But many were quick to blame Trump's failed attempt to add a citizenship question to the census for a potential undercount of Latino voters after accusing the administration of trying to "sabotage" an accurate count. The Supreme Court ultimately rejected the attempt and advocacy groups spent months on outreach to traditionally undercounted communities, but some fear damage may already have been done.

"It caused people to not respond to the census," Kimball Brace, president of the redistricting consulting firm Election Data Services, told the Arizona Daily Star. "And, as a result, they were all lower than what they were anticipating. … If you got all of those press reports and commentary and everything else talking about how much Trump doesn't want people to respond if they're Hispanic, you don't necessarily have to have a question on the survey."

The reapportionment data stunned political observers in Arizona, which saw its population grow by 11% over the last decade but failed to gain a House seat. Some lawmakers faulted Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who invested nearly $2 million to boost response rates, for not doing enough to counter Trump's impact on the count.

Arizona state Sen. Martín Quezada, a Democrat from Phoenix, faulted Trump's census efforts for costing the state an additional seat but said Ducey deserves blame too after Quezada's bill to fund census efforts in areas heavily impacted by COVID-19 was rejected by the Republican-led legislature.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said in a statement that "Ducey refused to stand up for Arizona and instead followed former President Trump's strategy to intimidate Latinos and discourage their participation."

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said on Twitter that he had helped lead the effort to extend the census deadline "because we *knew* Latinos, Native Americans, and Arizonans in rural & hard-to-reach areas weren't being counted. This undercount is an intentional part of Trump's legacy."

A spokesperson for Ducey pushed back on the claims, telling KPNX-TV that the state's rates were similar to other states and that response rate from tribal communities was high.

Census Bureau officials also told NPR they are confident in the accuracy of the population number.

But the missed projections were evident in other states with large and growing Latino populations, including California, which lost a House seat for the first time in history. Democrats widely blamed Trump.

"The Trump administration did everything it could to prevent an accurate count in the #2020Census, and now Californians are paying the price," tweeted Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif. "The culture of fear he instilled within our communities jeopardizes billions in funding that our state deserves."

Though Texas emerged as the big winner with two additional seats, state Democrats slammed Republican officials for failing to counter Trump's efforts to "manipulate" the census.

"Knowing we were at risk of a considerable undercount, Gov. Greg Abbott and our Republican leaders did nothing," Rep. Chris Turner, chairman of the state House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement. "Last session, House and Senate Democrats filed bills and attempted to amend the budget to ensure Texas invested in counting every resident. All these efforts were blocked by the Republican majority," he added.

Monday's release was largely touted as a win for Republicans, with states carried by Trump seeing a net gain of three seats while states won by President Biden lost three. While red states will see a slight boost in their Electoral College power, it's not entirely clear how the data will affect redistricting.

"Reapportionment itself means little compared to the redistricting fights to come. The bigger shift in House seats are likely to come from how districts are drawn, not how many districts each state gets," Wasserman, of the Cook Political Report, told Axios. "On balance, I think this reapportionment offers a small boost for Republicans, but the bigger boost is likely to come from how Republicans draw these seats in Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Georgia."

California is expected to lose a Democratic seat while West Virginia will lose a Republican seat, presumably canceling each other out. Illinois and Ohio already have heavily partisan maps so Illinois' Democratic majority and Ohio's Republican majority are each expected to lose a seat, also canceling each other out, according to Wang, the Princeton University professor. Pennsylvania is expected to lose a Democratic seat, but since Democrats control the map-drawing process in New York, they are likely to cancel that out by eliminating a seat that favors Republicans, Wang predicted. New "fair map" laws and independent redistricting commissions in Ohio and Pennsylvania may lessen the partisan impact.

Michigan's new independent redistricting commission is expected to reverse the state's heavily partisan Republican gerrymander, but it's not clear how that state's map will shake out. Colorado also has an independent commission that will likely add a Democratic seat, according to Wang, but Oregon's bipartisan process is expected to cancel that out with an additional Republican seat. Montana's new seat (doubling the state's House delegation from one to two) will almost certainly favor Republicans, and North Carolina's Republican-led legislature is also likely to add a favorable seat, although the state's districting maps have faced numerous legal challenges in recent years.

That means few changes to the makeup of Congress across those states, leaving Republican-led Texas and Florida as the major question marks.

Texas's all-Republican state government will almost certainly try to draw two new favorable seats, but Wang warned that may prove challenging. The Lone Star State's map is already heavily tilted toward the GOP, while rapid demographic changes increasingly threaten to unseat Republicans in previously favorable districts.

Florida's Republican government is expected to try to add a favorable seat but that effort could be challenged under Florida's new "Fair Districts" requirement approved by voters. Since the state's Supreme Court is all Republican, however, advocates have been skeptical that law will actually be enforced.

"Republicans seem likely to get a net advantage from redistricting. But it's mainly because of single-party redistricting in states like Florida and North Carolina," Wang wrote on Twitter.

The Cook Political Report projects that Republicans will gain three to four additional House seats from the next round of redistricting.

"The most predictable effect of redistricting is that red states' delegations are likely to get redder and blue states bluer," Wasserman wrote on Twitter, "meaning the nation's political conditions are likely to continue to deteriorate."

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The Spanish-language network Univision delivered a softball interview segment with the leader of the far-right street gang the Proud Boys, allowing him to go unchallenged on his claims about the organization, amid increased media attention after President Donald Trump told the group to “stand back and stand by” at the first presidential debate in September.

“We are a group that is anti-communist, anti-authoritarian,” said leader Enrique Tarrío, speaking in Spanish. “They say we are fascist. I think that fascism and communism are the same thing.”

The Proud Boys is a far-right organization with links to white supremacist movements, including the violent “Unite the Right” white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and 2018. The Anti-Defamation League also pointed out, in the wake of Trump’s comments at the debate, that some Proud Boys members “espouse white supremacist and antisemitic ideologies and/or engage with white supremacist groups."

[vid]

"They accuse you of provoking political violence,” news anchor Sandra Peebles asked. “Are you violent?

“We don't practice unjustified violence,” Tarrío said. “But if we are talking about defense, then yes we are violent.” Peebles did not push back on Tarrío’s claim.

Last year in New York City, two members of the Proud Boys were sentenced to four years in prison for an attack against counter-protesters outside a 2018 event at the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan. At the event, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes had brought a samurai sword to reenact the 1960 assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japanese Socialist Party, at the hands of a teenage ultranationalist. During his speech to the group, McInness also described the Proud Boys as“foot soldiers” for the right. In the wake of the brawl outside, McInnes exited the building and waved his sword in the air as he went to his car.

And just this week, a man was arrested in North Dakota for allegedly sending an anonymous email to a local newspaper, threatening to blow up a voting location. The message was signed, “The Proud Boys.”

Other mainstream media have also bungled their coverage of the Proud Boys, with CNN describing the group as being “a political fight club,” while Fox News has actively promoted McInness and the group for years.

Spanish-language media have also become vulnerable to disinformation campaigns. NBC News reported in September: “Conspiracy theories around the ‘deep state,’ billionaire Democrat philanthropistGeorge Soros and QAnon have become a constant fixture on Spanish-language YouTube programs, WhatsApp clips and pro-President Donald Trump Facebook groups aimed at a Latino audience.”

EnvironmentLocal BusinessLocal NewsLocal PoliticsNorthwest

Flyer citing Latino businesses’ opposition to carbon fee ignites campaign controversy

Originally published October 31, 2018 at 6:00 am Updated October 31, 2018 at 11:01 am

Javier Torres Jimenez, left, speaks inside his store, Mi Ranchito, during a Tuesday news conference in Seattle. Jimenez said he didn’t know the name of his business would be included in a No on 1631 mailer.

From left Jimenez, his daughter Andrea Gutierrez and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)

A flyer mailed out by the No-on-1631 that businesses that the opposition campaign says are against the carbon-fee initiative. (Courtesy of No on 1631)

A flyer mailed out by the No on 1631 campaign, written in Spanish and English, urges voters to join a coalition opposing the measure. (Courtesy of No on 1631 )

Javier Torres Jimenez’s store was the site of a news conference Tuesday, (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)

1 of 4

Proponents of Initiative 1631, on the Nov. 6 statewide ballot, allege misleading tactics, and some business owners say they did not expect their enterprises to be listed on the flyer. No on 1631 says it got signed consents for the endorsements.

By Hal Bernton and Agueda Pacheco-Flores

Seattle Times staff reporters

A Spanish-language flyer mailed by the No on 1631 campaign urges voters to “join our coalition and more than a hundred Latino owned businesses” to defeat the statewide November ballot measure that would put a carbon fee on fossil fuels.

But the legitimacy of those endorsements erupted Tuesday into a volatile campaign controversy, as I-1631 proponents accused the opposition campaign of misleading tactics, while some business owners said they did not expect their enterprises to be listed on the flyer.

Cesar Lara, owner of Seattle’s Taqueria las Delicias, told The Seattle Times, “I don’t have any knowledge that they were using the name of my company … We need to put a stop to this.”

Here’s a guide to learn more about what’s on the ballot »

“We don’t know about those politics. We don’t do any of that,” said Carlos Vasquez, co-owner of La Conasupo Restaurant and Market in Seattle. “People are free to vote for what they want.”

Dana Bieber, spokeswoman for No on 1631, said owners of all businesses listed on the flyer signed consent forms. Those forms, copies of which were reviewed by The Seattle Times, laid out a case against the initiative and asked permission to publicly identify the businesses as opposing the ballot measure.

I-1631 proponents said they learned late last week about the flyer. They said they contacted business owners and about a dozen told them they did not expect the names to appear on a flyer.

“They were upset their names were included in the flyer,” said Nick Abraham, a spokesman for Yes on 1631. “They were trying to rush and grab folks without properly explaining what they were doing.”

The campaign held a Tuesday news conference where Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who has appeared in a TV ad endorsing the initiative, made an appearance.

How much would I-1631’s carbon fee cost you at the gas pump and to heat your home?

Oil refiners invest millions to fight carbon-fee initiative — and would see big payoff if their campaign wins

If Washington voters OK a carbon-pollution fee, who decides how to spend all that money?

“I am not sure how low a campaign can go but this is pretty low,” Ferguson said. He urged the Washington Public Disclosure Commission to investigate for possible violations of campaign rules that regulate the use of endorsements.

The campaign mailer listing the Latino businesses against the initiative described how I-1631 would be a new energy tax that would be paid by families and workers in agriculture.

The news conference was held at Mi Ranchito, a South Seattle market that was one of the businesses listed on the No on 1631 flyer.

After the news conference, Bieber sent The Seattle Times a copy of a consent form signed by Mi Ranchito owner Javier Torres Jimenez. The consent form called the measure a “deeply flawed unfair energy tax” and included this line: “You may publicly list our organization as a member of No on 1631.”

The No on 1631 campaign later on Tuesday allowed The Seattle Times to view consent forms for the 96 businesses named in the flyer.

“Mr. Jimenez — like each and every business listed on our flyer — signed a form joining our coalition,” Bieber said in a statement. “We are appalled the Yes campaign has chosen to harass and vilify businesses and individuals who have spoken out against I-1631.”

Jimenez said a representative of the opposition campaign telephoned him Tuesday morning, and told him not to hold the news conference and not to “believe anything he was being told.”

He said an opposition representative then came to his business before the news conference and showed him the document he had signed.

Jimenez told a reporter he thought it was about a tax on sugar and other food, and would not have signed it if he understood better.

The Seattle Times also reviewed a copy of a consent form signed by a co-owner of La Conasupo. Co-owner Pablo de Vesos Doroteo told The Seattle Times he thought the measure was about a sugar-drink tax and he didn’t realize the business would be listed as part of the opposition campaign.

Lara, owner of Seattle’s Taqueria Las Delicias, said he remembered someone coming to his business to get his signature on a form. But he thought the document he signed was against sugar, rent and city taxes.

Lara said his business is open six days a week, 12 hours a day, and he hasn’t had much time to pay attention to initiatives.

“Sincerely, we aren’t very aware of the news and the taxes and the laws that are on the way,” Lara said.

I-1631 has emerged as the costliest ballot measure in state history, with the oil industry accounting for most of the more than $31 million that has been raised by the No on 1631 campaign.

The ballot measure would put an escalating pollution fee on most state fossil-fuel emissions, and use the money to invest in programs and projects to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that scientists say are driving climate change. Some of the money would be set aside to try to reduce the effects of rising fossil-fuel costs on low-income Washington residents.

Opponents have labeled the carbon fee a regressive tax that would hit hard at low-wage workers who have to drive long distances to work.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @hbernton.

Agueda Pacheco-Flores: apacheco@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @AguedaPachecOh.

https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-june-13-2018/

https://kpfa.org/program/against-the-grain/

6/13/18

Struggles Across Borders

From at least the Haitian Revolution to the present, black and brown people in the Western Hemisphere have linked arms in solidarity with each other. Historian Paul Ortiz discusses how we can’t understand the United States and its past without looking beyond its borders. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Paul Ortiz, An African American and Latinx History … Continued

Paul Ortiz, An African American and Latinx History of the United States Beacon Press, 2018

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/california-targeted-latinas-forced-sterilization-180968567

In 1942, 18-year-old Iris Lopez, a Mexican-American woman, started working at the Calship Yards in Los Angeles. Working on the home front building not only added to the war effort, but allowed Iris to support her family....Iris’ participation in the World War II effort made her part of a celebrated time in U.S. history, when economic opportunities opened up for . :{However, before joining the shipyards, Iris was entangled in another lesser-known history....At the age of 16, Iris was committed to a California institution and sterilized.:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:

Iris wasn’t alone. In the first half of the 20th century, approximately 60,000 people were sterilized under U.S. eugenics programs. Eugenic laws in 32 states empowered government officials in public health, social work and state institutions to render people they deemed “unfit” infertile.

California led the nation in this effort at social engineering. Between the early 1920s and the 1950s, Iris and approximately 20,000 other people—one-third of the national total—were sterilized in California state institutions for the mentally ill and disabled.

To better understand the nation’s most aggressive eugenic sterilization program,&...our research team tracked sterilization requests of over 20,000 people. We wanted to know about the role patients’ race played in sterilization decisions. What made young women like Iris a target? How and why was she cast as “unfit”...Racial biases affected Iris’ life and the lives of thousands of others. Their experiences serve as an important historical backdrop to ongoing issues in the U.S. today....Eugenics was seen as a “science” in the early 20th century, and its ideas remained popular into the midcentury. Advocating for the “science of better breeding,” eugenicists endorsed sterilizing people considered unfit to reproduce.

Under California’s eugenic law, first passed in 1909, anyone committed to a state institution could be sterilized. Many of those committed were sent by a court order. Others were committed by family members who wouldn’t or couldn’t care for them. Once a patient was admitted, medical superintendents held the legal power to recommend and authorize the operation.

Eugenics policies were shaped by entrenched hierarchies of race, class, gender and ability. Working-class youth, especially youth of color, were targeted for commitment and sterilization during the peak years.

Eugenic thinking was also used to support racist policies like anti-miscegenation laws and the Immigration Act of 1924. Anti-Mexican sentiment in particular was spurred by theories that Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans were at a “lower racial level.” Contemporary politicians and state officials often described Mexicans as inherently less intelligent, immoral, “hyperfertile” and criminally inclined.

These stereotypes appeared in reports written by state authorities. Mexicans and their descendants were described as “immigrants of an undesirable type.” If their existence in the U.S. was undesirable, then so was their reproduction...

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/california-targeted-latinas-forced-sterilization-180968567/ Smithsonian magazine}:

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/tucker-carlson-unleashes-racist-broadside-fox-news-against-latino-immigrants

https://kpfa.org/episode/upfront-february-8-2018/

https://www.amazon.com/Human-Targets-Schools-Police-Criminalization/dp/1541402065

Human Targets: Schools, Police, and the Criminalization of Latino Youth

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/latinos-in-the-us-and-the-road-to-prison-a-historical_us_594799bce4b0d188d0280003

Sofía Espinoza Álvarez, Contributor

Director, Empower Global Foundation

Latinos In The U.S And The Road To Prison: A Historical Reminder

https://www.target.com/p/latino-young-men-and-boys-in-search-of-justice-testimonies-paperback/-/A-51080507

In “Message to My Seventeen-Year-Old Self,” Roberto Martínez, a California Correctional inmate, writes that he wishes he would have taken school more seriously. “Prison ain’t anything like the thug life lies romanticize it to be; it doesn’t make you a man.” In this compelling collection of first-person testimonials—essays, poetry and letters—Latino men and boys who have been or are incarcerated write movingly about their past and future. The book also incorporates essays by community advocates seeking criminal and juvenile justice system reform. Leaders of organizations including Barrios Unidos, Homeboy Industries, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice and National Compadres Network contribute pieces that address issues such as culture-based healing and violence prevention. Many use artistic expression as a form of healing, and this volume includes a wide variety of art, from poetry to drawings, tattoos and murals. Acclaimed author and former gang member Luis J. Rodríguez writes in his foreword that the disproportionate number of young men of color in the justice system is rooted in economic, political and historical factors. He asserts that the United States’ punitive laws and practices—including three-strike laws, gang and gun enhancements, zero tolerance and school removals—have fueled a massive prison industrial complex, and ultimately, more gangs and violence. With the publication of this collection of first-person testimony and articles by system reform advocates, editors Frank de Jesús Acosta and Henry A.J. Ramos seek to humanize disadvantaged Latino young men and call attention to the need for a restorative rather than punitive justice system. This volume confirms that—for both the Latino community and the country as a whole—the “school-to-prison pipeline” must be closed now.

fla coc

http://www.fshcc.com/fshcc-programs-balance-energy

clean coal

As a peninsula, Florida is unfortunately more exposed and susceptible to natural and manmade disasters. Over reliance on any one energy source could lead to disastrous situations. Over half of Florida’s electricity is generated by natural gas. There is a need for the state to explore alternative energy sources that enhance reliability and ensure access to affordable energy. Clean coal, nuclear, and cost-effective energy efficiency are readily available alternatives that can provide for enhanced reliability and affordability.

By providing a reliable, affordable, and environmentally compatible source of electricity, clean coal and nuclear energy keep Florida businesses competitive. Clean coal and nuclear plants also are engines of local job growth, and keep businesses operating expenses predictably low for the life of the energy facility.

Most concerning for our members is that Florida may be 70% reliant on natural gas by the end of 2020, and our members are concerned about relying on one fuel that experienced a peak price of $13.69 per million British thermal units on July 2, 2008. This overreliance on one fuel could undermine recent growth in our economy and burden Florida families with high electricity prices. To combat this overreliance, BEF suggests Florida policymakers embrace alternatives to natural gas that promote and achieve reliable and affordable electricity.

dodger stadium

history AA latino urban renewal

http://www.alternet.org/economy/4-most-shocking-times-rich-people-displaced-poor-people-profit-america

Presidential Hopefuls Who Deny Climate Science Can Forget About Winning the Latino Vote

Mike Gaworecki / DeSmogBlog

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/magazine/how-do-you-define-a-gang-member.html

Steyer said latino vote key in beating prop 23?

In ways that might be unexpected, voter suppression, too, has become a climate issue.Al Jazeera reported [19] earlier this week that climate is a high-priority issue for voters of color, in no small part because communities of color have been some of the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change and extraction. Harry Enten at FiveThirtyEight.com found that non-white voters were almost twice as likely [20] to see climate change as a “top priority,” skewing traditional perceptions of climate as a white issue. Unfortunately, voters of color, who tend to vote for Democrats, are also those most likely to face challenges getting to the polls. The Supreme Court’s repeal [21] of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 last summer opened the floodgates for even more brash gerrymandering and voter suppression [22] by conservatives this election cycle. [23]

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Ruben Barrales (born 1962) is the former Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush, and was also the Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.^[1][2][3] He then served as the CEO of the San Diego RegionalChamber of Commerce. He is currently the President and CEO of GROW Elect, apolitical action committee that recruits, endorses, trains, and funds Latino Republican candidates for public office.^[4] He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Public Policy Institute of California. Barrales has also run as a candidate for the state government post of California State Controller.

Barrales identifies as a Mexican American and is recognized as the first Latino person to serve on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.^[5] Barrales has also appeared in the Hispanic Business Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics” list on three occasions within the last ten years^[6] ^oC ^b2 ^dept ^int

After years of boycotting this racist, sexist, and homophobic company on a national level, National Council of La Raza (NCLR) helped broker an agreement to put an end to the boycott. It was signed by the directors of the GI Forum, NCLR and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The agreement called for Coors to provide sponsorship money to these organizations and help Chicanos become distributorship owners, i.e. Tom Flores in CA, for which these organizations agreed to increase Coors' "market share" of Latino drinkers. That means the promotion of drinking Coors beer and increasing the number of drinkers and alcoholics in our communities.

Eyeing potentially restive Hispanic voters in 2012, GOP operative Dan Garza is launching an “economic freedom” message campaign aimed at Latinos, and hiring big name business and religious figures to help in key states.

Garza told iWatch News he hopes to raise $1 million by the end of 2011 for his campaign, dubbed the Libre Initiative, which will tout such core Republican values as less economic and business regulation. Among the big name donors he has approached are “representatives of the Koch family,” said Garza, who worked in the White House’s public liaison office under George W. Bush and then did stints with Spanish language media. Garza declined to say, however, whether Koch interests have committed any funds yet to the initiative, a 501 (c) (4) which is permitted to keep donors names secret.

Two GOP operatives familiar with the initiative say Garza told them he has already secured commitments for about $1 million — including funds from Koch family interests.

Charles and David Koch control the nation’s second largest privately owned company, Kansas-based Koch Industries, with big interests in oil and gas, paper products and derivatives trading. The two Koch brothers are each reportedly worth about $21 billion. Over the last few decades the brothers and Koch family foundations have been financial angels for numerous conservative think tanks, grassroots groups and politicians.

A spokesman for Koch declined to comment.

Garza’s fledgling effort is but the latest example of GOP drives to win the hearts, minds and votes of the fast- growing Hispanic community — efforts that in the 2012 elections could be crucial in swing states like Florida and New Mexico.

On Friday and Saturday in Albuquerque, the Hispanic Leadership Network, run by Jennifer Korn, another alumnus of the Bush public liaison office, is hosting a conference featuring several prominent Latino officials as part of its drive to build a Hispanic grassroots political network. Korn’s group was created earlier this year by the Republican-affiliated American Action Network; the network is chaired by former Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican.

And this summer the Republican State Leadership Committee — chaired by GOP super-consultant Ed Gillespie —announced plans to spend $3 million in 2012 recruiting 100 Hispanics to run for state legislative office and boosting GOP support for women and other minority candidates.

“Voters would like to have someone they can identify with,” Gillespie told iWatch News, noting that currently there are only 39 Republican Hispanic state legislators nationwide. “The immediate perspective is to increase our share of the Hispanic vote in 2012, which would be significant,” Gillespie said.

Hispanics are the nation’s fastest growing minority: there are some 50 million living in the U.S., about 16 percent of the nation’s population, according to the 2010 census. One in five voters in 2012 is expected to be Hispanic in states such as California, New Mexico and Texas.

The GOP’s stepped up drive to woo Hispanics may be complicated by the get-tough stances of many leading Republicans on the issue of illegal immigration — and the sometimes harsh rhetoric of conservative Tea Party activists.

But Republicans see new opportunities in part because of the impact of the recession. Unemployment in Hispanic communities has been running at more than 11 percent, compared to the latest national figure of 9.1 percent.

In 2008, the Obama campaign reportedly spent about $20 million on a robust Hispanic outreach effort, and was rewarded with 67 percent of the Hispanic vote. The President’s overall job approval rating dropped to 48 percent among Hispanics, according to a recent Gallup survey, down from 60 percent in January. The drop in support is usually attributed to the impact of the struggling economy and disappointments about the failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

Democrats know they can’t take the Hispanic vote for granted. In mid-August, the White House hosted 160 Hispanic leaders for two days of meetings that included access to cabinet officials and key presidential advisers, according to The Washington Post. The get-together seems to be part of a stepped-up drive by the White House and President Obama’s reelection campaign to revive Hispanic enthusiasm before next fall. .

“I think both sides are going to spend a lot of money to win the Hispanic vote,” said Jose Mallea, the campaign manager in 2010 for GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

Mallea, who worked for White House chief of staff Andy Card while Garza was at the public liaison office, said he “offered to help Dan” with the Libre Initiative . “I think it’s a great idea. He told me he had funding,” Mallea said.

The gist of the Libre Initiative, based in Mission Texas, is simple: “By increasing awareness of economic freedom, people will vote accordingly,” said Garza. “Our effort is to expand the conversation from just immigration to issues of the economy, jobs and small business.”

To achieve these goals, the Initiative has hired Michael Barrera, the former president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and John Mendez, a Southern California evangelical minister. Garza, who left the White House in 2006, also boasts media skills that could help: he did a stint in 2008 as host of Agenda Washington, a Sunday morning show on Univision, the Spanish language cable network. Garza previously was president of Hispanicand Poder magazines.

The Colorado-based Barrera will focus on reaching out to small business and entrepreneurs in the Southwest, while Mendez will be doing “outreach to mostly faith-based groups,” Garza said.

Garza said the initiative plans to target three big states California, Florida and Texas, plus the Southwest and Northeast. To spread its message widely, the initiative will “align with organizations that support economic freedom,” such as the American Enterprise Institute, CATO and the Mercatus Center, Garza said. “We want to be a partner and a resource.”

Other groups are taking different tacks.

Korn of the Hispanic Leadership Network, toldiWatch News that this weekend’s conference in Albuquerque will explore a range of issues affecting Hispanics, including jobs, housing and education. The meeting will feature New Mexico’s Governor Susana Martinez, former attorney general Alberto Gonzales — whose Justice Department Korn once worked for—and several other Hispanic political figures.

Korn, who was national Hispanic director for President Bush’s reelection drive in 2004, said her group has a budget of about $1 million annually, and plans to hold two conferences a year to help build a grassroots network that will include Hispanic leaders who want to be media surrogates. The group hosted a similar get-together in Florida early this year — which drew former Gov. Jeb Bush — and plans another one in the Sunshine State in early 2012.

Coleman of the American Action Network told iWatch News that the critical issue for the Hispanic network group is how best to “mobilize voters on the ground. It’s getting email and identifying organizations. It ranks as one of our top priorities.”

The Republican State Leadership Committee’s drive to recruit 100 Hispanic candidates for state legislative offices is “the first step on the escalator” to higher office, said Gillespie, noting that Sen. Rubio came out of the Florida legislature. “The Southwest,” Gillespie said, “is an area where we have a real opportunity and ready candidates.”

American Crossroads, the Karl Rove-linked group that Gillespie helped launch, also is trying to make inroads in the Hispanic vote in 2012. This summer, the group’s affiliate, Crossroads GPS, spent about $158,000 on Spanish language television spots hammering President Obama’s economic policies. The ads ran in nine markets with substantial Latino populations, including Denver, El Paso, Miami and Reno.

Crossroads declined to say what they’d spend next year on ads aimed at Hispanic voters. But Steven Law, the group’s president, said that “Hispanics are a huge priority for us… Hispanics are also becoming a crucial voting bloc in a number of states, and we need to be communicating with them on our issues.”

Social Issues, Politics, Karl Rove, Republican Party, Bush family, George H. W. Bush, Ed Gillespie, Jeb Bush

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koch ass kick 2012 leads to Among those groups receiving money from the Koch donor network, GOP operatives say, are Concerned Women for America and the Libre Initiative, which was launched by Dan Garza, a former White House aide under President George W. Bush.

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Mercury, ozone, and Latinos

A 2000 study by the CDC found that, on average, Latino children have higher levels of mercury in their bodies compared to non-Hispanic white children. According to a 2004 study by the League of United Latin American Citizens, 39 percent of Latinos live within 30 miles of a power plant. Latinos are also less likely to have health insurance than any other racial or ethnic group: nearly one in every three (32.4 percent) lack health insurance.^[12]

A 2008 analysis of several studies on Latinos – based largely on previously unreleased data from the polling firm Bendixen & Amandi's 2008 National Survey of Latinos on the Environment – found that they face disproportionate risk from toxic mercury pollution because of a combination of cultural, economic and linguistic factors.

One of the biggest threats was from fishing: mercury poisoning occurs by ingesting contaminated fish and, according to the survey, 31 percent of Latinos fish regularly, with 76 percent of those eating and sharing what they catch with their families. These families include young children and women of childbearing age, the two most vulnerable population sectors to mercury poisoning. Another study conducted by the University of California-Davis titled, "Fishing for Justice or Just Fishing," revealed that Hispanic anglers fish close to their urban communities because of a lack of transportation options. The fish caught in urban areas tend to contain the highest concentrations of mercury contamination.

This exposure is already showing high levels of mercury contamination among Hispanic anglers. According to another University of California-Davis study, Hispanic anglers in California on average ingest 13.9 micrograms of mercury per day via fish they catch, mostly in local waters--almost twice the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe limit. The "Fishing for Justice or Just Fishing" study also found that this problem is compounded by several factors, such as fish advisories and warning signs rarely posted in Spanish.^[13]

A 2011 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, the Center for American Progress and the National Wildlife Federation, "U.S. Latinos and Air Pollution," found that nearly one out of every two Latinos lives in the most ozone-polluted cities in the country.^[14]

The California Latino Water Coalition (CLWC) describes itself as "a statewide coalition of influential Latino leaders that supports development of San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta environmental, conveyance and sustainability solutions along with additional water resources in California. With actor-comedian Paul Rodriguez as chairperson, the organization's goal is to demonstrate the need for a comprehensive statewide water infrastructure plan, a program that includes groundwater and surface water storage capabilities, conservation and water resources stewardship, water recycling and desalinization." ^[1]

Contents [hide]

Personnel

From the CLWC website: ^[1]

Paul Rodriguez, Chair
Mayor Victor Lopez, Co-Chair, Central Valley, City of Orange Cove
Ruben Guerra, Co-Chair, Southern California, Latin Business Association
Tony Estremera, Co-Chair, Director, Santa Clara Valley Water District

Contact information and Burson-Marsteller connections

Website: gotwater.org

Patrick George, cell phone number 310-487-3001, is listed as the CLWC contact on the group's press releases. ^[2] George is a director of Burson-Marsteller's media practice, working out of the public relations firm's Sacramento, California office. ^[3] The same phone number, along with Patrick George's name and sometimes his Burson-Marsteller email address (patrick.george AT bm.com), is listed on press releases for Accenture ^[4], the newsletter of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations ^[5], and announcements for the Friant Water Users Authority. ^[6]

Articles and resources

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 "About CLWC," California Latino Water Coalition website, accessed July 2009.
↑ "News," California Latino Water Coalition website, accessed July 2009.
↑ "Our office key contact: Patrick George," Burson-Marsteller website, accessed July 2009.
," Accenture, January 3, 2008.
," Volume XX, Issue 4, April 2009.
," U.S. Bureau of Reclamation website, September 12, 2006.

External resources...Lloyd G. Carter, "The PR Firm from Hell," as published in the Fresno Community Alliance newspaper, June 30, 2009.- Dan Bacher, "Westlands Hoards Surplus Water While Farmworkers Suffer: CSPA demands investigation into water hoarding by Westlands and others," IndyBay.org, August 19, 2009.

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