“No party should take for granted the votes of any group tied together by race, ethnicity, gender or religion. And yet for all the focus they’ve put on diversity in recent years, Democrats appear to be doing just that as they gather virtually beginning tonight for the party’s four-day online convention.
Latinos, part of a voting bloc that is expected to play a large role in determining the outcome of the election, are all but shut out of the prime speaking spots. In fact, Texas itself, where Latinos are an especially big factor and helping to make the state competitive for the first time in decades, is nearly absent from the podium. That’s a big mistake on both fronts…”
“…During Garcia-Ruiz’s tenure, The Post became one of the largest digital-news sites in the world, with monthly traffic regularly exceeding 80 million U.S. visitors and surpassing 100 million during the coronavirus pandemic. Digital-only subscriptions to The Post grew to more than 2.5 million this summer.
Garcia-Ruiz will join the Chronicle, long the San Francisco Bay area’s largest newspaper, next month. He succeeds Audrey Cooper, who left the newspaper this summer after five years leading its newsroom to become editor in chief of WNYC, the public-radio station in New York City…”
“..Similarly in Northeastern Michigan, Microsoft is working with internet service provider Allband Communications to put equipment on buses that harness TV white space (TVWS) to provide an internet connection. TVWS can deliver broadband internet over broadcast signals that are no longer in use, with a reach up to 18 miles, according to the WhiteSpace Alliance…”
https://www.educationdive.com/news/homework-gap-continues-to-impact-18-of-nations-students/556583/
“In a hillside shantytown of Lima, Peru, Delia Huamani’s school day starts not with the bustle of classmates, but with the flicker of a television. With physical schools closed indefinitely, she gets her lessons at home, from the country’s brand-new library of slickly made educational broadcasts.
As a substitute, it’s far from perfect. Delia, 10, says her parents cannot afford books — she misses reading about animals in the school library — and she has no one to check her work. She leans on her friend Katy Bautista, 12, who wishes she could ask the television presenters to slow down during difficult lessons…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/world/coronavirus-television-schools.html
“As K-12 officials in many states close schools and shift classes and assignments online due to the spread of the new coronavirus, they confront the reality that some students do not have reliable access to the internet at home – particularly those who are from lower-income households.
…”A quarter of lower-income teens do not have access to a home computer. One-in-four teens in households with an annual income under $30,000 lack access to a computer at home, compared with just 4% of those in households earning over $75,000, according to the 2018 survey. There are also differences by race and ethnicity. Hispanic teens were especially likely to say they do not have access to a home computer: 18% said this, compared with 9% of white teens and 11% of black teens…”https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/16/as-schools-close-due-to-the-coronavirus-some-u-s-students-face-a-digital-homework-gap/
“…The COVID-19 pandemic and national demonstrations against the deaths of Black Americans have shed light on the brutal manifestations of systemic racism. Across humanity’s collective history, stories have elevated marginalized voices and breathed life into once broken structures. Through “In My Words,” community members and Daily Bruin staffers share their own experiences with racial identities and perspectives on the current state of race at UCLA and across the nation…”
“…The still surging COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected marginalized communities nearly anywhere you look. That disparity is marked in northern Santa Barbara County, where a vast majority of positive cases have been recorded among its populations of Indigenous migrants and undocumented residents.
The Latinx and Indigenous Migrant COVID-19 Response Task Force —conceived by Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, director of the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health, and helmed by physician Melissa Smith, director of health equity initiatives at UC Santa Barbara — is working to help these individuals by focusing on their experiences, health education and equitable treatment in the face of the pandemic…”
“Time for some more security theater from the Trump administration. They don’t have a plan to deal with COVID-19, but they’re queuing up some more empty gestures, so get ready to please clap.
The New York Times was first to report that Trump’s helpful minions are debating a plan to fight the virus by excluding American citizens and legal US residents from entering the country if border agents believe they may have been exposed to the virus. Never mind that we’re arguably the worst hotspot on earth, with endemic community spread. Forget about the big, beautiful wall around the country since no one else will let us in anymore. Ignore the fact that the president is now scream-tweeting a demand that college football players risk their longterm health for our amusement…”
https://www.wonkette.com/stephen-miller-not-saying-americans-in-mexico-cant-come-home-yet
“Maria Palacio had made it.
She grew up on a coffee farm in Colombia. She knew how little money coffee farms and their workers made. When she came to the U.S. in 2010, she wanted to change that, so she founded Progeny Coffee in Palo Alto to help bring growers out of poverty.
Soon, she began supplying Google, Facebook, Microsoft and LinkedIn, providing coffee for the tech companies’ huge campuses, which allowed her to bring awareness to the coffee farmers she started all of this for.
Then tech companies began sending workers home, closing their campuses in Silicon Valley and their towers in San Francisco in the weeks before the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic. Sales at the company, now based in Berkeley, dropped by 97% after shelter-in-place hit, Palacio said…”
“…A South Bay family is mourning the loss of a beloved husband, father, veteran and longtime corrections officer. 55-year-old Gilbert Polanco died at a San Jose hospital Sunday morning after a long battle with COVID-19.
“Everything I have is because of him.. all the positivity he brought, all the hard work he’s done,” said daughter Selena Polanco.
She said her dad was an Army Veteran and started working at San Quentin when he was just 21. The novel coronavirus pandemic has caused a mass outbreak inside the prison, 24 inmates have died, 2,000 inmates infected. Selena was worried for her father’s safety.
“I was scared he would get sick and this would happen,” said Polanco.
Gilbert Polanco tested positive for COVID-19 in late June, he was admitted to the hospital on July 2.
Last month, Polanco was on life support in the ICU.
Selena and her mom also contracted the virus and recovered…
“…While U.S. citizens barred from most of Europe in what would be prime travel season as COVID-19 cases here continue to grow by the tens of thousands, Mexico has flung open its doors, making it one of the few foreign destinations to which cooped up American tourists can fly for some R&R.
To be clear, Mexico hasn’t conquered the pandemic within its own borders. The country added more than 12,000 confirmed cases and 829 deaths Wednesday to bring its totals to nearly 450,000 and almost 50,000, respectively. Some experts fear the numbers could be much higher, as the country has only conducted about 1 million tests…”
“Our brown brothers and sisters have suffered the same discrimination in a lot of ways that reflect the same system that has created such inequality in wealth across the board for black and brown people,” Popovich said to local reporters during a Zoom teleconference. “The population that is the brown community has suffered no less systemic type racism in many ways.”
https://www.facebook.com/mexicanamericans/posts/2606823516233270
“…Members of the COP Bureau unanimously agreed with the re-appointment, highlighting the Executive Secretary’s excellent leadership and commitment to the climate change agenda and her dedication to ensuring the continuous guidance and support of the UNFCCC Secretariat to Parties and the UNFCCC process in general.
Ambassador of Mexico to Germany from 2001 to 2002 and from 2012 to 2016, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at highest levels in international relations, specialized in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights…”
https://unfccc.int/news/unfccc-executive-secretary-patricia-espinosa-appointed-for-second-term
“…This state, and the rest of the country, have plenty to worry about. A runaway pandemic and ebbing economic life are rightly the top focus of lawmakers. But take a look at what’s happening to a crucial panel charged with designing state Assembly and Senate districts, plus all of California’s congressional boundaries…”
“SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Independent School District officials confirmed Friday that one of their elementary school teachers died after a battle with COVID-19.
Carmen Canales, 48, taught at Ogden Academy. SAISD officials said she tested positive for the virus this summer and had been hospitalized. It’s the first death of a district employee due to COVID-19…”
“…I’m an immigrant, after all. My family fled by foot and bus to the U.S. in the 1980s as right-wing death squads were killing and torturing thousands across El Salvador, including several of my relatives.
The trauma of those dark days shaped everything about me.
I figured I might recognize some part of my story in Cummins’ book, which follows an immigrant mother and son on their harrowing escape north from Mexico…”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-01-24/american-dirt-book-latino-response
“…Victor Rios knows this all too well. A UC Santa Barbara associate dean of social science and a professor of sociology, he has both lived through and deeply studied the ways police treat people of color…”
“..Freshman admission offers to African-American students increased by more than 40 percent, and offers to Chicanx-Latinx students increased by 45 percent. In addition, we saw gains in various measures of greater socio-economic diversity among students offered admission. Further, this exceptionally talented admitted class maintains the high academic accomplishment seen in admitted classes from prior years…”
https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/16/berkeley-admits-most-ethnically-diverse-class-in-over-30-years/
“Traci Martinez is a member of the firm’s Global Board and is the deputy office managing partner of the Columbus, Ohio, office. She is an experienced civil litigation and labor and employment lawyer. Traci has a unique and broad practice that focuses on the business objectives of her clients, whether through counseling, litigation or transactional matters. Traci is also a demonstrated leader in the Central Ohio community.”
https://www.squirepattonboggs.com/en/professionals/m/martinez-traci-l
“Gil has served as managing partner of Vasquez & Company since its founding in 1981 and oversees the firm’s direction, strategic planning, administration, marketing and major account management. He has led successful practices in public accounting, auditing, taxation and financial consulting for nearly five decades. Gil guided the firm’s growth from a one-person consultancy into the largest Latino-owned CPA firm in California. In 2017, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) ranked Vasquez & Company among the top 1 percent of the 400 largest firms in the country..”
https://www.vasquezcpa.com/gilbert-r-vasquez.html