Page B2 B lack H istory M Feeling discouraged lately? Wondering when things will finally get better foryou? Or Maxed out all your credit cards on Christmas gifts? Here is the solution: Certas Direct can consolidate all your credit cards and loans into one monthly payment. Call Certas Direct now @ (866) 856-7035 STARTFRESH! • • • • • Collections-judgments Bankrupt (discharged/undischarged) Bad credit-No credit Credit counseling Mortgage Loans, Personal Loans, Business Loans, Consolidations Loans Being debt free; it could happen to you. Let our Certas Direct certified agents show you how with just one call 1(866) 856-7035 [ P u b lic N o t ic e ] New Government Loan Program For Seniors 62 & Older Eliminates your mortgage payments & pays you while you own & live in your home! Benefits of New Government Reverse Mortgage Program: Call me TO D AY for • No mortgage payments m ore inform ation or • Tax-free money • You own your home sem inar dates. • Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid not affected FREE recorded Hotline: • No income or credit l-(8 8 8 ) 208-7945 qualifications ext. 84 • Use money any way you choose ■p For more information on this exciting new government program, call me directly at: TOLL-FREE: 1 (8 7 7 ) 723-3828 ext. 116 Website: www.ReverseMortgageFacts.info Email: quickloan@hotmail.com Carolyn Corthell, MSW Reverse Mortgage Specialist s p e c ia f coverage. February 9. 2005 Gonzales First Hispanic Attorney General Torture memos fail to derail senate decision ( A P)— The Senate voted Thurs day to confirm W hite House coun sel Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, setting aside complaints he helped craft questionable U.S. policies on the treatment of foreign prisoners. Gonzales, 49, a longtime friend who was President Bush’s legal counsel when he was governor of Alberto Gonzales Texas, becomes the first Hispanic A m e ric a n s ,” said Sen. M el to be the nation’s top law officer. Martinez, R-Fla., calling Gonzales His 60-32 vote confirmation came “a role model for the next genera after opponents said they would tion” of Hispanics in this country. not tie up the nomination with a Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said filibuster. he expected Gonzales, a former "This is a breakthrough of in Texas judge, “to help lead the way credible magnitude for Hispanic- for the creation of an America that despises hate and bigotry and recog nizes that every hu man being deserves a governm ent that will fight for the dig nity and equality of all.” During his confir m a tio n h e a rin g , o th e r D em o crats c h a rg e d th a t G onzales’ January 2002 memo as White House counsel led to the abuse of sus pected terrorists in Iraq and A fghani stan. The memo argued that the fight against terrorism "renders ob solete [the Geneva Conventions’] strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions. “1 simply cannot support the nomination of someone who, de- spite his assertions to the contrary, obviously contributed in large mea sure to the atrocious policy failures and the contrived and abominable legal decisions that have flowed from this White House over the past four years,” said Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the senior senator. G onzales defended the memo and said the treaty’s protections did not extend to al-Q aida and other suspected terro rists, but he declared, "T orture and abuse will not be tolerated by this ad m inistration.” He told senators that as attorney general he would “ensure the De partment o f Justice aggressively pursues those responsible for such abhorrent actions.” Salazar said Gonzales made his position on torture clear. “Torture is illegal and wrong, and that will be the position of Judge Gonzales as attorney gen eral," Salazar said. Race ’Goes Beyond’ Skin Color for Many “W hite” also was more popular among the U.S.-bom grandchildren of immigrants than among the U.S. - bom children o f foreign-bom His panics. Sonya Tafoya, the Pew research (AP) — Hispanics who identify associate who wrote the report, themselves as “white” tend to be said, for Latinos, “race goes be better educated and less likely to be yond physical characteristics and in poverty than those who con skin color.” sider themselves “some other race,” The census results showed that according to a report by a private race among Hispanics appeared "to research group. be a measure of belonging or of The Pew Hispanic Center ana political enfranchisement. ...Those lyzed data from the 2000 census feeling more belonging to the and its own survey in 2002 and American mainstream are more found foreign-bom Latinos who likely to feel white,” she said. became citizens were slightly more The government considers “His likely to consider themselves white panic” an ethnicity instead of a than noncitizens. race; people of Hispanic ethnicity Study shows how Latinos view themselves give payday advances checks cashed Post-dated checks cashed and held until payday - Checks cashed (any kind -- no ID required) fast service&no lines & low rales ASH C onnection 5 _____________________ I 3 . 2 B 7 . M 6 0 6 N 6 Y 0 Hm.'ii; jmimntnrninMi loans • fax service • 2-day tax refund loans • electronic tax filing free money orders i .W E l O bservador Cash Connection Supports Martin Luther King Jr, celebration, and Black History Month open monthur, 9am-7pm fri, 9am-epm sat, 9am-7pm sun, ioam-4pm onth The 2000 census counted 35 million Hispanics. Since then, Hispanics have passed blacks as the nation s largest minority group. can belong to any race. Cubans were most likely to identify The 2000 census counted 35 themselves as white (85 percent), million Hispanics. Since then, His while Dominicans most often se panics have passed blacks as the lected “some other race” (58 per nation’s largest minority group. cent). The last census found the two In most groups, naturalized citi most popular responses to the race zens were slightly more likely to question among Hispanics were choose white than noncitizens. 47 white (48 percent, or 17 million percent of naturalized Mexican- people) and “some other race” (42 Americans said they were white, percent, or nearly 14.9 million). compared with 44 percent of M exi Among H ispanic subgroups. cans who were not U.S. citizens. Doll’s Storyline Upsets Neighborhood Character leaves ‘dangerous’ city for a better life (A P) — Som e resid en ts o f Chicago’s largely Hispanic Pilsen section are upset over a new doll in the popular American Girl series because her storyline says the Mexican-American youngster and her family left the "dangerous" neighborhood fora better life in the suburbs. Many in the neighborhood say the characterization is insulting and inaccurate. “It’s very offensive and it’s re ally a slap in the face to the hardworking people of the Pilsen c o m m u n ity ,” said A lv a ro R. Obregon, who lives near where the doll, M arisol, supposedly lived before setting out for the suburbs. According to the biography that accompanies the doll, which was Marisol Luna, the newest character in the American Girl doll maker's line. introduced just after Christmas, she is the daughter of a transit worker and an accountant. One day her mother tells Marisol the family is leaving their apartment for a house in the suburbs. The old neighborhood “was no place for me to grow up,” the doll’s story says. “It was dangerous, and there was no place for me to play.” American Girl officials said that they never intended to insult the community. Although crime was down 6 per cent last year in Pilsen, the neigh borhood still grapples with gang violence and high dropout rates. “It’s a community that doesn't give up and doesn’t run from its problem s,” said O bregon, who works with the community group The Resurrection Project. “It’s a community o f faith, of hardworking people, and that’s why when this comes out I’m sort of taken aback.” American Girl dolls were intro duced in 1986. The dolls, which have become a must-have for many girls, also feature otherethnic char acters, including a Hispanic girl liv ing in colonial New Mexico, a black girl during the Civil W ar and an American Indian girl. Chevez Pledges Support to Poor (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pledged to deepen his “revolution” for the poor as he marked his governm ent’s sixth an niversary, saying he intends to win another six-year stint next year. Chavez was inaugurated on Feb. 2,1999. He swiftly oversaw the draft ing of a new constitution that called foreleetions in 2(XX). and won a six- year term. Ahead of next year’s elections, Chavez has pledged a new push to fight poverty and ex pand social programs. “One day we will no longer speak of class here,” Chavez said, blam ing accumulated poverty on “a cen tury of exploitation, o f hegemony, imperialism." In his six years, Chavez has sur vived a short-lived coup in 2002, a two-month strike in 2(X)3 and recall referendum last August. Critics argue his policies have done little to improve the lives of the 25 million Venezuelans, most of whom live in poverty despite the country's oil wealth. “Venezuelan society has become poorer and, in addition, divided," said Anibal Romero, a political sci ence professor at Simon Bolivar University. Money Goes Home to Mexico W ESTER N U N IO N t o wy to send money " (AP) — Mexicans living and remittances became the country's working in the United States sent second-most-important source of $ 16.6 billion to their homeland dur revenue after oil. ing 2004, an increase of 24 percent Such increases in remittance fig over 2003, the B ankof Mexico said ures may he a result of better record Monday. keeping by authorities and not nec It was the second year in a row essarily a large increase in money that remittances were greater than shipments. Bank ofMexicoGuillermo direct foreign investment. In 2003 Ortiz warned in early January. “Now nearly all of the remittances are passing through the financial system and we are recording them," Ortiz said. “These spectacular in creases o f 20 percent and 30 per cent in many ways reflect simply a better collection of the information and not necessarily an increase in the shipments.”