Hispanic News Briefs From New England Newspapers

By Pedro Pizano, FI2W contributor

Siglo 21 newspaper

BOSTON, Mass. — The state Senate is seeking $130 million in savings by kicking “aliens with special status” out of Commonwealth Care, a subsidized insurance program for low-income residents, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis. The program will save an additional $63 million by no longer automatically enrolling new low-income residents.

The “aliens with special status” are 28,000 documented immigrants who have had a green card for less than five years. They will be left without health coverage from Commonwealth Care after August 1.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association says the $130 million cut will bring additional costs to the hospitals that provide free care to people with low incomes. They say those hospitals would need to spend an additional $87 million in 2009 to treat those who lose their coverage, according to the NCPA.

Although Gov. Deval Patrick approved the budget cut for the 2010 fiscal year on July 1st, he also submitted separate legislation to restore $70 million to Commonwealth Care. This program is central to the nearly universal health care law enacted here in 2006 that achieved the nation’s lowest percentage of uninsured residents: 2.6 percent compared to a national average of 15 percent.

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By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

While the whole nation will be watching to see if New York-born judge Sonia Sotomayor becomes the third woman and first Latina on the U.S. Supreme Court, Hispanics will be paying special attention to Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearings set to begin Monday.

“It is expected the hearings will send the first Hispanic woman to the highest American court,” wrote Univision.com on Sunday.

“Despite the importance of an event that happens few times throughout the country’s history, tempers are calmer than could be expected,” wrote Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión.

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By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

President Barack Obama finally sat down with legislators from both parties last week to talk about immigration reform and the news media saluted the meeting with editorials and op-ed pieces on how to proceed.

The meeting, said Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión, was “the first step toward immigration reform. In itself, the start does not guarantee that new legislation will be feasible this year despite the urgent need, but the fact that it has begun is hopeful.

“The cards are now on the table –the newspaper said–. We hope that they will be well played.”

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By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

Photo: Leo Kan/Flickr

In the relentlessly grim landscape of today’s news industry, ethnic media — while affected by lower revenues and cutbacks– seems to be the brightest spot. According to a new poll released by New America Media, in the last four years ethnic media “have picked up 8 million new readers, viewers and listeners, and now regularly reach 57 million people in the U.S.”

82 percent of African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American adults are regularly reached by ethnic media, said NAM executive director Sandy Close in a press release.

The survey, conducted by Bendixen & Associates, a Miami-based polling firm specializing in Hispanic audiences, polled 1,329 African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American respondents. NAM released the results during its National Ethnic Media Expo in Atlanta last week.

“The poll results demonstrate significant penetration for the ethnic media,” Close said.

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A pro-Sheriff Arpaio demonstrator in Phoenix on Saturday. (Photo: Nick Oza)

PHOENIX, Arizona — Conservative talk-radio commentators were faster than a virus in spreading the idea that undocumented immigrants are a hazard to public health by bringing a new flu virus across the country’s “porous border.”

But one national media organization is trying to keep the anti-immigrant fervor out of newsrooms.

On Wednesday, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) called for the mainstream media to “resist the baseless blame of immigrants” in connection with the spread of influenza A-H1N1.

“This virus should not be characterized as a Mexican disease,” said Iván Román, NAHJ’s executive director. “We should also resist covering it in a way that furthers anti-immigrant rhetoric.”

Román pointed out that while there may be a temptation to link Mexican immigrants to the spread of the disease in the United States, it is necessary to keep in mind that this community is no more responsible for it than American spring-breakers traveling to Mexico.

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By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

MEXICO CITY — Even before he landed in Mexico City today to begin a two day visit, President Obama had already sent a strong message to Mexicans via one of the capital city’s most influential newspapers.

“Years of Progress, At Risk: Obama”  That was the headline this morning on the cover of El Universal, announcing an op-ed article penned by Obama, which ran simultaneously in several countries in newspapers belonging to the Grupo de Diarios de América consortium.

In the piece, the president acknowledges that the U.S., distracted “by other priorities,” has on many occasions “neither sought nor maintained relationships with its neighbors.”

…our progress is directly linked to progress in the whole American continent. My government has committed to the promise of a new day. We will renew and sustain more extensive relationships between the United States and the hemisphere.

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By Eduardo A. de Oliveira, EthnicNEWz.org

Michael Fondacaro and his wife, over Noticias y Notas. (Photo: Courtesy Fondacaro/EthnicNEWz.org)

There’s no question: Web sites and blogs are a part of American life for sharing information.

For Latinos in New England and New York, Michael Fondacaro is bringing news-sharing to another level. The former National Public Radio reporter in Albany, NY, compiles news about their communities, which he distributes weekly by e-mail.

The idea started in 2000 as a directory about Latino groups for New York state Senator Olga A. Mendez. Back then, Fondacaro worked in communications for Democrats in the New York Senate. Around the same time, he also was e-mailing 200 friends electronic links to stories about Latinos communities in cities like Pittsfield, Mass., and Hartford, Conn.

Soon enough, he thought, why not check out Vermont and its Latino festival?

In July of 2004, Noticias y Notas (“News and Notes”) was born, which now reaches 1,150 community leaders and ethnic journalists all over New York and New England, according to Fondacaro.

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