By Daniel Arellano

Seems like not everyone is on the same page as we were made to believe.

The vote is in  228-to-205 and the House of Representatives rejected a compromise plan that would have allowed the Treasury Department to buy up toxic debt from struggling banks.

Read it here Courtesy of  Reuters

Photos Courtesy of Santafe.com

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Alliance Helps Needy With School Supplies

Albuquerque Journal: Alliance Helps Needy With School Supplies
By Polly Summar
“My kids are Catholic,” said the man answering the door at a La Loma Vista Apartments unit late Monday afternoon.
But that’s not a problem for Daniel Arellano and his youth volunteers with Hope for Youth Alliance. Canvassing the apartment complex, the group is simply looking for kids who are going to need backpacks and school supplies when school starts. It doesn’t matter what faith they or their parents are.
“Their faith is not a wall for us,” said Arellano, founder and president of the alliance and an associate pastor at The Rock Christian Fellowship.
The Hope for Youth Alliance has targeted five lower-income neighborhoods in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties and is going door to door this month finding the names, ages and schools of kids who need backpacks, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Six area banks have pledged their help — Century Bank in Española, Bank of America in Española, Community Bank in Española and Santa Fe, Zia Credit Union in Los Alamos and Española, Los Alamos National Bank and Valley National Bank in Española — and the alliance is also looking for individual donations of money and supplies.
“One local bank has an anonymous angel who has provided most of our needs for kindergarten through fifth grade,” Arellano said. “She’s dropped by over eight bags filled with supplies.”
Arellano knows that a filled backpack won’t solve all of a kid’s problems but said the alliance’s mission is to help kids succeed emotionally, spiritually and academically. He believes that being prepared with the right supplies for school is a start. Arellano said he’s read figures that a third of American families will not be able to afford school supplies this year.
His wife, Esperanza, operates the private academy at The Rock and has helped prepare lists for the various grades of what a backpack should hold, and the alliance has also contacted various schools for information.
Arellano comes by his interest in kids naturally.
“I have a heart for troubled kids,” said Arellano, 29, “because I was a troubled kid myself. I’m a graduate of the New Mexico Boys School.”
He describes bouts with truancy, drug use and incarceration.
“At the age of 13, a probation officer introduced me to Christ, and I started attending church and from there I started a whole new journey.”
Gradually working with kids at The Rock, Arellano was selected to attend a 15-month leadership initiative.
“That’s where my vision and my calling solidified to working with at-risk youth,” he said. With the creation of the Hope for Youth Alliance, a 501c3, Arellano now speaks to juvenile probation officers, local church and works with “some of their most incorrigible kids.”
The Hope for Youth Alliance has no paid staff, but Arellano’s salary is covered by the church as an associate pastor.
“Alongside my work as a pastor, I am doing this,” he said. “All our monies are generated for specific programs. Potentially, we’d like to be a premier mentoring organization.”
With many members of the group wearing T-shirts saying, “Got Mentors?” they say they like canvassing the neighborhoods.
“It’s pretty nice because we’re helping people,” said Daniel Martinez, 14.
In just 20 minutes of work on Monday, the some 25 volunteers had a list of 58 kids at the apartment complex who need backpacks. Arellano estimated that among the five neighborhoods, some 400 kids will need the filled backpacks.
The Alliance members will distribute the filled backpacks on Saturday and Sunday during parties in the various neighborhood with hot dogs, sodas, games and puppet shows.

See the Article as seen online here @ Santafe.com

I received an honorary invitation to participate in this Leadership New Mexico program. Check it out here

The Core of the program:

Core Program sessions are held in communities all over the state in order to expose participants to the different regions of New Mexico and the local issues important to each region. In addition, program participants experience the unique culture of each community, weaving for themselves a broad-based and comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing a state with many cultures and geographic diversity.

Each program year includes a two-day retreat and orientation, followed by educational sessions on topics such as:

* Health and Human Services
* Economic Development
* Education
* Environment and Natural Resources
* Government, Crime and Justice, and Leadership

Participants are selected using the following criteria:

* Commitment, motivation, and interest in serving New Mexico.
* History and demonstrated voluntary leadership in community activities.
* Record of accomplishments within his or her own company or organization.
* Interest in seeking future key volunteer and/or appointed leadership roles.

* An occupational commitment to remain in the state.

* Commitment to play a personal role in helping to shape New Mexico?s future.

Study finds 8.4 percent unemployment for Mexican immigrants

Nicole Gaouette | Los Angeles Times

6/4/2008 -
WASHINGTON — Unemployment among Hispanics, and particularly Hispanic immigrants, jumped in the past year, wiping out many of their economic gains, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Amid an extended housing and construction slump that has claimed hundreds of thousands of jobs, the Pew findings alarmed Hispanic leaders. They also indicated aggressive new enforcement raids by immigration officials might be having an effect.
Read more here

They shift blame, don’t have a response to explain all their profits. In my humble opinion, they (oil executives) are trying to stock up on as much green before the the global market goes green.

This one was just released 3 hours ago.

Interesting Article please read if you are at all concerned about the rise in gas prices.

By Steven Mufson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 2, 2008; Page D01 It’s becoming a rite of spring. Gasoline prices climb. Members of Congress fume. And oil executives make the trek to Capitol Hill to do battle over who’s to blame.

Facing unhappy members of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, executives from five giant oil companies yesterday sought to portray their firms as part of the energy solution, not the energy problem. And they put part of the blame for high oil prices on the federal government, lamenting obstacles to offshore drilling.

Read the full article here

Quote of the Day-

“The price is totally dependent on the world market for crude oil, and the demand for crude oil is insatiable,” Domenici said.
He said Americans can help stabilize gas prices in the longer term by using less gas and pushing federal policymakers to open domestic oil reserves— such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and shale oil deposits in Colorado— to drilling.
“If we really believe we have a crisis, then we ought to produce more homegrown product,” Domenici said. “We are leaving a lot of oil and gas unattended in the United States.”

Read the article here