Project Economic Refugee

• Major League Baseball Player’s Association condemned Arizona’s misguided, mean-spirited new immigration law.
• David Frum, former assistant to President W. Bush actually argues that Latinos are inferior immigrants in a piece published by CNN.
• More proof that the people behind Arizona’s authoritarian immigration law have extremists tendencies: Group behind Arizona Law SB1070 Endorses Armed Militia.
• The Marietta Daily Journal asks the following question on an online poll: “Should Georgia enact an immigration reform law like Arizona’s?”  Last time checked, the responses were 54% “no” and 46% “yes”.  To vote, visit their site here.
• DIGG this story: Republican Senator John Cornyn from Texas is open to working on immigration reform;  ”he told La Opinion that he is open to discussing the bill with Schumer and other Democrats, so long as the White House makes a commitment to leading on the issue”.
• President Obama told a White House reception Wednesday that he wants “to begin work this year” on comprehensive immigration reform, warning the audience that securing the legislation will be difficult but possible.  Read the analysis on America’s Voice’s DailyKos Diary.
• Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, joining the City Council in registering strong objections to the tough new immigration laws in Arizona, said [...] that he will consider canceling city contracts with firms based in the state that agree with the crackdown.
• New York Senator Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer asking her to delay Arizona’s new authoritarian immigration law until U.S. Congress addresses immigration reform.  Brewer flatly denied Schumer’s request.
• In a piece [published on The Progressive magazine] that connects Asian Americans, college students, and people with disabilities to the issue of immigration reform, Angela Kim writes from the perspective of a student leader at AKASIA, a group organized at the Korean Resource Center as part of a growing movement of directly impacted people who would benefit from changes in immigration law and from a better national understanding of how the current policies damage us as individuals, families and communities.

This will be the 3rd annual event that the Heal the Bay staff will have pulled off in L.A. County.  I remember my first “A Day Without A Bag” event like it was yesterday, being assigned to an El Monte site.  I was interviewed by the L.A. Times in 2007 and again in 2008 by La Opinion; my most recent interview with them was about Heal the Bay’s Summer Beach Report Card 2009; of course, this time around I hope that both press outlets will show up for this year’s event to cover the story unfolding at the Downtown L.A. giveaway site in 7th Street & Figueroa Shopping Center.

This year is going to have a pretty cool event: Heal the Bay staff will be doing three live segments with Gayle Anderson (7:50, 8:30 and 9:10) on the Day Without a Bag hoopla on Thursday morning on the KTLA Morning News; for the press release in Spanish, visit this site here.  This year, Heal the Bay will be proud to feature four of its South L.A. community partners as part of its brand-new Healthy Communities Initiative to put the issue of protecting the environment against cronic toxic pollution front-and-center at four different giveaway locations:

Youth Opportunities High’s at 1PM

(Superior Super Warehouse) Superior Super Warehouse 10211 Avalon Blvd. Watts, 90003.

Washington Elementary School’s starting at 9AM

1421 N. Wilmington AVE, Compton 90222.

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists’s starting at 9AM

706 E. Manchester AVE, Los Angeles, CA 90001.

A.C.U.S.L.A.’s at 9AM (Association of Communities United for South L.A.)

(Numero Uno Market) 9127 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90044.

Personally, I will be going to the Downtown L.A. event just to watch the Thriller Dancers in action … what about you? (well, besides going to the South L.A. events):

Update: for a recap of the day, please visit Heal the Bay’s President’s Mark Gold’s blog here.  To view the video of the “Thriller Dancers” performing at the actual A Day Without A Bag press conference, click here.

The December 2008 freeze on bond funds has meant that all "California Clean Beach Initiative" projects that were underway last year have been put on hold until funding can be freed up.

So it’s that time of the year again, when Heal the Bay releases its annual “Beach Report Card” that grades California’s beaches from a scale of A to F.  For this awesome occasion, I worked my ass off for almost most of last week and the beginning of this one to help Heal the Bay get the word out to the various Spanish media outlets doing in-Spanish press releases, executive summary, and contacting members of the Spanish media (attention Spanish-speaking media folks, if you haven’t reported on Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card and need information in Spanish, visit this site).

In addition, I was fortunate enough to be at this morning’s press conference at the Santa Monica Pier of Southern California; at one point one of the reporters pointed to the beachgoers that were already out on the beach so early in the morning (it was around 11 a.m.) and asked “is it safe for them to go into the water?” (the reporter was referring to people on the part of the beach that is located on the north side of the Santa Monica Pier, which typically has a better water quality compared to the south side of Pier, according to Heal the Bay’s online Beach Report Card; in fact, the south side is usually sporting a big ol’ “Do Not Swim” warning sign).  I couldn’t help but notice how the majority of the people on the beach were mostly young and Latino.  This is no surprise, being that many of them come from farther “inland” communities that get extremely hot around this time of year … and of course Santa Monica Beach, for those of you that don’t know, is a major makeout dating spot-it can actually be quite romantic in the evening. 

I was not the only one to make the observation that most people in the water were Latino though: well-respected and public health expert Dr. Aliza Lifshiftz (she is often featured on the local Univision station and La Opinion), who was kind enough to join and speak at the press conference, also noticed the demographic makeup of those that were going in the water.  For us Latinos, water quality and its condition is extremely important and personal to our health (it can cause serious health problems) because we are the ones that are more likely to go swimming in those  polluted beaches because of lack of monitoring programs, failure of agencies to post notices, or simply because we dont’ have the access to information or political levers that other racial groups have.  To make matters worst, the state budget crisis has forced many agencies throughout the state to either scale back or completely suspend their beach water quality monitoring programs that aim to keep us all safe. 

Amid all these bad news, you may ask yourself, “well what can I do about it? how can I help?”  Well for starters, you can help by checking out the Beach Report Card Annual Report  and look up your favorite beach and demand of the local officials in charge of that beach to do something about it to repair the condition of the water.  You can also do your small part: join one of Heal the Bay’s beach cleanups (which is especially important, being that the Beach Report Card itself identifies only fecal bacteria and does not take into account actual street trash that ends up in the ocean).

Update: we received quite a few coverage in the local media:

Some television stories:

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-beach-report,0,5432753.story

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=6824983

http://www.ktvu.com/news/19523064/detail.html

Some of the many newspaper articles:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beaches21-2009may21,0,6689209.story

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12411408?nclick_check=1

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_12415846

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/20/bn20beaches-report-card/  

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/may/20/county-gets-incomplete-grade-in-annual-water/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/20/MN0H17OAB8.DTL&tsp=1

http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_Polluted_Beaches_407921C.shtml

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/may/21/state-budget-crisis-could-endanger-beachgoers/