As we reported earlier this year, some nonprofit organizations are helping out by providing on-the-ground training and survival tips. But if journalists scattered around Mexico can't make it to class in the flesh, they can sign up for an online course the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is running.
Mexican nationals will now need a visa to travel to Canada, that country's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, announced Monday. Canada decided to stiffen the requirements due to what officials said has been a surge in claims for refugee status by Mexicans.
In a news release, Canadian immigration officials said that for the first 48 hours after the new rules go into effect today, Mexican citizens can apply for entry on arrival in Canada. But as of Thursday, a visa will be required:
Refugee claims from Mexico have almost tripled since 2005, making it the number one source country for claims. In 2008, more than 9,400 claims filed in Canada came from Mexican nationals, representing 25 per cent of all claims received. Of the Mexican claims reviewed and finalized in 2008 by the Immigration and Refugee Board, an independent administrative tribunal, only 11 per cent were accepted.
Activists in the United States are pushing for a California ballot initiative that would end public benefits for illegal immigrants, cut off welfare payments for their children and impose new rules for birth certificates.
Ken Ellingwood and Tracy Wilkinson report on the progress made so far by President Felipe Calderon's 2 1/2-year offensive against Mexico's drug traffickers.
Calderon launched the military offensive 10 days after assuming office in December 2006, saying it was necessary to restore government authority in parts of the country. Today, 2 1/2 years later, Calderon and Mexico face a stark reality: The longer and harder the war is prosecuted, the more complex and daunting it becomes.
The offensive has exposed corruption so widespread that key institutions, from police forces to city halls, appear rotten to the core. And a battered society has grown increasingly worried about the effects of the massive military deployment on its democracy.
As California lawmakers struggle with a budget gap that has now grown to $26.3 billion, one of the hottest topics for many taxpayers is the cost to the state of illegal immigrants, write Anna Gorman and Teresa Watanabe.
"The question of whether taxpayers should provide services to illegal residents became a major political issue in California's last deep recession, culminating in the ballot fight over Proposition 187 in 1994. That history could repeat itself in the current downturn, as activists opposed to illegal immigration have launched a campaign for an initiative that would, among other things, cut off welfare payments to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Those children are eligible for welfare benefits because they are U.S. citizens.
"State welfare officials estimate that cutting off payments to illegal immigrants for their U.S.-born children could save about $640 million annually if it survives legal challenges."
Mexico City blogger Chilangabacha writes this morning about a Sonoran Norteño group, Los Picadientes del Caborca, coming up with a purely Mexican version of Michael Jackson's classic, “Billy Jean.”
The cover was, of course, crafted as a homage to Jackson, whose memorial service took place in Los Angeles yesterday.
"Since I couldn’t be in Los Angeles to pay my respects, this is how I will thank the man who inspired my first awkward gabacha dance moves," writes the former Los Angeles resident in a blog post entitled "Guillermo Jean."
"They hail the Salvadoran immigrant as a reformed gangster turned peacemaker and believe he is incapable of betraying the community's trust," she writes.
One of Sanchez's supporters, former state Sen. Tom Hayden, said outside court at Tuesday's bail hearing, during which Sanchez, head of the anti-gang group Homies Unidos, was denied bail: "If they wanted my house, they could have it."
You can read Hayden elaborating more about what he describes as a "weak case" from the prosecution in The Nation, and watch him speaking outside the courthouse on the video below.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Carpenter says that Sanchez's supporters have "been duped by his public face."
In response to those posts, Jared Wilkerson, one of the authors of a recent study on that subject, got in touch with us about the findings he recently made with his colleagues at Brigham Young University.
The study, called "Effects of Husbands’ Migration on Mental Health and Gender Role Ideology of Rural Mexican Women," found that those women generally have a poorer state of mental health than a comparison group. The study attributes this condition largely to the nontraditional gender roles that are forced upon the women because of their husbands' absence.
"One of the gentle souls in the movie business is Guillermo del Toro, and I always look forward to my interviews with him," writes Geoff Boucher on our Hero Complex blog.
Boucher wrote about Mexican fiction mastermind Del Toro in today's Calendar section, and an extended version of the article runs on the blog.
Fantasy and horror fans, prepare yourself for the Decade of Del Toro.
On the far side of the globe, in New Zealand, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is now in his seventh month of labor on “The Hobbit,” a $300-million epic that will be told over two films in 2011 and 2012. But you can also find the Guadalajara native on the shelf of your local bookstore with his just-released debut novel, “The Strain,” the opening installment of a vampire trilogy he already has mapped out.
That’s only the beginning. The 44-year-old Del Toro, who was nominated for an Oscar for the dark fairy tale “Pan’s Labyrinth” and showed his crowd-pleasing sensibilities with the “Hellboy” films, also has plans to reanimate some musty and monstrous literary classics. He plans to make a “Frankenstein” film as well as an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s epic “At the Mountains of Madness,” a project he breathlessly refers to as "my obsession."
Remittances from Mexicans living and working in the United States are continuing to fall.
"Money sent home by Mexicans working abroad fell by 19.9 percent in May, the biggest monthly decline on record as the U.S. recession slashed jobs," reports the Associated Press in Business Week.
"Remittances dropped to $1.9 billion from $2.4 billion in May 2008, the central bank said on Wednesday. The amount of money sent home in the first five months of 2009 fell 11.3 percent to $9.2 billion compared with the same period last year.
"Remittances are the second-biggest source of foreign currency after oil exports in Mexico, and their decline has contributed to the country's own economic downturn."
Chris Kraul
Mexico City:
Deborah Bonello
Ken Ellingwood
San Diego:
Richard Marosi
Washington:
Nicole Gaouette