This Sunday: The Obama Inagural Celebration

Bono(U2), Beyonce have united with Bruce Springsteen to participate in the inagural celebration of president elect Barack Obama. They will offer a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial in  Washington D.C. next sunday January 18 at (7:00-9:00 p.m. ET/PT) televised exclusively by HBO. Besides Bono, Beyonce, and Springsteen other musical performers scheduled for the event include Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, James Taylor, Will.i.Am, and Stevie Wonder.  Among those reading historical passages will be Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington. The event will be free and open to the public, kicking off the most open and accessible Inauguration in history. We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration is the theme of this historical event.

Councilman Mike Garza hosts shopping spree for kids

Times are tough, but they will be tougher for some of our fellow Laredoans this year. That’s why we’re glad to see our politicians doing something good for our kids, and are willing to help them in these tough economic times. Thanks to the donations and fundraising  by Friends of Council Member Mike Garza,  needy students from his district will get new shoes and a jacket for the holidays. The children have already been selected, but this Saturday December 20, they will be embarking on a shopping spree at Wal-Mart. If you’re at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on HWY 83 between 10am-noon on Saturday, make sure you stop by to shake Council Member Garza’s hand and thank him for caring for these kids. Mike Garza helped students at the beginning of the school year with a shopping spree for school uniforms too, and hopefully he’ll do it again in 2009.

Mayor Salinas received a Key to the City of Lazaro Cardenas

City of Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas recently returned from a trip to Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico, where he, City Secretary Gustavo Guevara, Mayor Pro Tempore Jose A. Valdez, Jr. and City of Nuevo Laredo Mayor Ramon Garza Barrios met with the Mayor of Lazaro Cardenas, Mariano Ortega Sanchez, and other city and port offiicials to discuss the pending Sister City’s agreement between Laredo and Lazaro Carenas.  The Sister City Agreement will be officially signed here in January, during the Laredo International Sister Cities Festival & Exposition.

“Lazaro Cardenas is such an important city for the City of Laredo, in terms of future trade opportunities,” said Mayor Salinas.  ”Its position to service the Pacific Rim, and to be able to bring goods and imports from the Far East and Mexico into the United States via Laredo is going to be such a positive impact to our economy, it is important that we capitalize on all aspects of our relationship now, so that we are in a position to really maximize those opportunities when they come,” he concluded.

Mayor Salinas received a Key to the City of Lazaro Cardenas from Mayor Ortega Sanchez as Mayor Garza Barrios looks on.  A trade route leading from Lazaro Cardenas to Laredo and beyond highlights the future trade possibilities.

Drug gangs resort to random shootings in Mexico to instill fear

This is definitely not the type of stuff I like posting on this site, but I just came across this article on Reuters about the new scare tactic drug gangs are using in Tijuana.  Apparently, masked gunmen are randomly shooting innocent people at bars, restaurants, and shopping malls in Tijuana and so far they have killed at least 50 people, including 10 children. These so-called “hit squads” are part of the Arellano Felix cartel who’s using violence to show security forces and rival gangs it is still a force to be reckoned with. It’s sad to see what’s happening in Mexico during these drug wars.

Anyway, just wanted to give you guys a heads up in case you hadn’t heard about this new low in the bordertown drug war. Here’s a excerpt from the article:

In one recent attack, gunmen in body armor and armed with assault rifles stormed into Tijuana’s popular Crazy Banana pool hall and opened fire on customers, killing four men and a woman.

“We were playing pool and these masked men came in shouting and started firing at everyone,” said day laborer Juan Miguel at the scene, wiping blood from his head after the attack. He declined to give his surname.

“Anyone close to them was immediately killed,” he said.

Via Reuters

Photo via Flickr

Results are in!

Palin in a Bathing Suit?! Biden Plagiarizing?!

Obama or McCain? Palin or Biden?

The presidential race increasingly shifts from Obama to McCain to Palin to Biden. I’ve never before seen a race like this where the vice-presidential nominees are such an integral part of our election. Although typically these two fade in the shadows of our presidential nominees, this year, both are vital to the election and interesting too.

The vital part is possibly because of our two presidential nominees, obviously, one is a minority whom the United States may not be exactly ready for, and the other is a bit on the older side, so there’s always the concern for his well-being. Thus, we hope to ensure that we can trust our Vice-President to assume office if need be.

If you’ve kept up with CNN and other popular news channels for the last two days, they have not stopped reporting on Sarah Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, during which she condoned spoofs of herself by Tina Fey. She has been widely criticized by the media for allowing this, and some are even worried that her disposition to such ridicule actually hurt the Republican ticket. A former beauty pageant contestant, I’m not sure that Palin has much more to offer than her looks. If you are not convinced and are interested, you may view a video of the potential female VP in a bathing suit here.

On the other hand, upon planning a lesson for a class on avoiding plagiarism, I accidentally stumbled upon a plethora of articles accusing our Democratic Vice-Presidential Candidate Joseph Biden of once plagiarizing both in past campaign speeches and in school.

Plagiarism, in case you don’t know, is considered an exceedingly serious offense that scholars must work diligently to avoid because of the serious consequences that could arise from copying another’s written or spoken words or ideas. It is perfectly avoidable if one does not fail to cite the sources of their information.

Joseph Biden has a history of being amid important presidential elections. Little did I know that he was actually a front runner for the 1988 Democratic nomination which he lost to Michael Dukakis. Eventually, Dukakis lost the nomination to the first George Bush, then-V-P to Ronald Reagan.

Biden did not lose the 1988 Democratic nomination, however, without first winning the embarrassment of being accused of stealing words from a British Labor leader- a certain Kinnock. Dukakis’ campaign team at the time launched this video of Biden and eventually, he was forced to withdraw from the Democratic nominee race. The video exposes that not only did he plagiarize various campaign speeches, but also that Biden was accused of plagiarizing papers in law school.

 With so much to consider about our candidates, how will Laredo vote this November?

Vice-Presidential Debate Stirs Controversy

It’s an exciting time in politics, and tonight Americans will witness the first and only vice-presidential debate expected to have more viewers than last week’s presidential debate between Obama and McCain. The reason: two very controversial VP candidates.

On the one hand you have Governor Sarah Palin,  the hockey mom from Alaska who has drawn a lot of criticism because of her lack of experience, and recent high-profile media interviews; and on the other hand, you have Democratic Senator Joe Biden,  known for his gaffes and cringe-inducing remarks.

Both candidates will battle it out tonight at 8PM (CDT) , so set your TiVO or check out one of the many sites streaming the debate liveLive Debate. Check our chatroom too, where we will be chatting live as the debate goes on. So what questions would you ask the VP candidates if you could? Let us know in the comments below.CNN

What Gwen fFill thought of the debate :

Race to the White House

In Laredo, Hispanics are the majority, and it is beyond realistic to fathom that in the nation, we are still a minority.  So, what better year, Laredo, than this to participate in the historic presidential election whose theme appears to be “Minorities”? The Democrats’ picks would surely yield a minority candidate with Hillary’s gender and Obama’s race.  The Republicans ensued pursuit by surprising everyone with their female vice-presidential candiate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who more than anything has stirred up (and with just cause) much controversial discourse about her qualifications to step up to the plate if need be.  After all, John McCain is not the youngest pea in the pod, and no matter how look he goods for his age, we all know that his health is not in the greatest state at the moment.

All the circus and drama aside, Obama being the Democratic candidate, it is no secret that race is definitely an issue in the upcoming presidential election.

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