1	In the News From politics to art, the headlines of Hispanidad. read more...
2	UPFRONT Ruben Navarrette, Jr. Columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. profiles a Mexican man of peace. read more...
3	Up Front Dr. Eduardo Padrón Columnist Dr. Eduardo Padrón examines the contributions of young people. read more...

Panorama

law
A Questionable Honor
In an embarrassing misstep, The American Bar Association (ABA) selected former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as their 2007 Lawyer of the Year. The ABA’s journal cited him for being “the most newsworthy lawyer” and “clearly influential.” Gonzales’ accomplishments in 2007 include a disgraceful exit from his post in August, following a nearly yearlong scandal about the political motivations behind the firing of nine federal prosecutors. And let’s not forget a congressional investigation into charges of perjury, running an illegal federal wiretapping program and his questionable position on torture. Runner ups for the award included former Dick Cheney staffer Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice after being investigated for leaking the identity of a former CIA operative, and former Anna Nicole Smith hubby Howard Stern. The recognition, given by a magazine published by the ABA, the organization that bills itself as the national representative of the legal profession, appears have used criteria you’d expect from E! Entertainment. Following an outcry, Edward Adams, the editor and publisher of the American Bar Association Journal, issued a statement clarifying that Gonzales was selected on the basis of his ability to command media attention. Gonzales’ title was subsequently changed from Lawyer of the Year to Newsmaker of the Year.

charity
Service with a smile
Television and film star Roselyn Sánchez and actor Eric Winter joined Operation Smile during a recent medical mission to Managua, Nicaragua to treat children with facial deformities, primarily cleft lips and cleft palates. The mission, one of 40 simultaneous projects in 25 countries around the world, took place at Hospital La Mascota in Managua, where Sánchez and Winter assisted the organization’s screening team prepare about 250 children for free life-changing surgeries. “To have been able to see all those children and their families, with their faces filled with hope for a better future, was incredible,” says Roselyn Sánchez. Puerto Rican-born actress Sánchez is known for her work on the television show Without a Trace and the recently released Disney film with The Rock entitled The Game Plan. Actor Eric Winter is best-known for his television work on Brothers & Sisters, CSI, Charmed, and the soap opera, Days of Our Lives.

youth achievement
Demography is not destiny
Amid growing concerns about the preparedness of the future workforce, an Arizona nonprofit has launched an educational initiative to increase Latino student achievement in the Phoenix area. The Beat the Odds program is based on findings of the 2006 research report, Why Some Schools with Latino Children Beat the Odds ... and Others Don’t. The study, a joint project of the Center for the Future of Arizona and Arizona State University, notes that while many Latino students have lower achievement scores and higher dropout rates, demography is not destiny. “Improving Latino students’ academic performance is crucial to our state’s future economic vitality and the quality of life of its citizens,” says Dr. Lattie Coor, chairman and CEO of the Phoenix-based Center for the Future of Arizona. “Arizona’s large minority student population is a valuable resource that we must cultivate.”

education
Latina tapped as president of nation’s
sixth-largest university
Following a nationwide search, Dr. Elsa Murano was selected to take the helm as president of Texas A&M University. A noted researcher and academician, Murano is a first generation Hispanic American, having fled Cuba with her family at a young age in the early 1960s. Her family lived in several Latin American countries before moving to Miami, where she spent her formative years. Murano, 48, was the first Hispanic American and first woman to be named the vice chancellor and dean of Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences when hired in 2005. Prior to that, she was the first Hispanic American to serve as undersecretary for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a position she held from 2001 to 2004. She was selected as the sole finalist for the job after a year-long search by the university’s board of regents. Dr. Murano is married to Dr. Peter S. Murano and they reside in Bryan, Texas.

Buzzwords

“I feel it is extremely important to generate elevated consciousness within Colombia of the importance of peace and the ways to achieve it.”

Singer and songwriter Juanes , on the new alliance between his charitable organization and the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University. The objective of the alliance is to support the pursuit of peace in Colombia by further mobilizing the country’s society.

"There are a lot of young people in this country who don’t know much about the war and this is an opportunity for them to learn."

Francisco Pérez , head of development at Legend Studios, which produced controversial video game Shadows of War that has been criticized for trivializing Spain’s devastating civil war in
the 1930s.

“The ratings for these historic forums measure more than viewers, they are a measure of Hispanic America’s eagerness to fully engage in the nation’s political dialogue.”

Joe Uva CEO, Univision Communications, on Nielsen television ratings that showed the Spanish-language Republican presidential candidate forum in December significantly out-delivered
viewers compared to English-language debates.

"Until Americans get over their hysteria about giving young people access to birth control, we will continue to have the highest teen pregnancy rates in the western world. It’s really that simple."

Victor C. Strasburger, MD, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, as quoted on CoolNurse.com, a health and sex education website for teens. Strasburger was responding to federal statistics showing that for the first time in 14 years, the number of teenagers having babies in the United States rose last year.

“The Hispanic Forum demonstrates the commitment GE has made to engaging and increasing the number of Hispanic employees in leadership roles.”

John Rice, GE vice chairman and CEO of GE Infrastructure speaking the company’s GE Hispanic Forum Leadership Summit in Los Angeles in November 2007. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez spoke at the gathering of more than 600 people about the benefits of open markets to the economy.

jobs
Harsh new Arizona law targets illegal workers
Barring a last-minute federal court ruling, Arizona officials have promised to start enforcing a new state law against employing undocumented immigrants this month.
The law, described by many as the harshest effort by any local or state government to tackle the issue of illegal immigration, actually went into effect Jan. 1. But prosecutors, who are battling a lawsuit seeking to strike down the law, said they would not bring enforcement actions before Feb. 1, according to the Arizona Republic. State officials are seeking to curb illegal immigration by choking the supply of jobs with the law, which threatens to pull the business license of any employer that knowingly hires an undocumented worker. It is a two-strike law, suspending a business’s license on the first offense and revoking it on the second. As an example of the scores of state and municipal laws aiming to address immigration on the belief that the federal government has not done enough, the Arizona law may test states’ ability to crack down on businesses that rely on illegal workers. Arizona is estimated to have one of the largest and fastest growing populations of undocumented immigrants in the country, with 500,000 workers comprising between 9 and 12 percent of the work force, mostly in low-skill jobs in the service, construction and landscaping industries. Economists worry that with an unemployment rate of 3.3 percent, Arizona may not have enough workers to take up the slack.