Goodwill Disabled Workers Get Less Than 25 Cents An Hour In 13 Franchises

Goodwill executives make more than six figures while disabled workers are paid less than 25 cents an hour, not even a cost of living wage available to disenfranchised workers with disabilities.

August 11, 2013

Milwaukee, WI (HNNUSA) - U.S. disabled workers are paid 25 cents or less an hour while executives get 6 figures in 13 states of Goodwill Franchises including Wisconsin under Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, NBC News reported. Disabled workers have been discriminated for years, even in modern day America.

The vintage act should be repeal or revoked, act now! What a shame that the GOP and Democrats in Congress, including the Obama administration look the other way.

Convicted Druglord Who In 1985 Ordered DEA Agent Camarena's Murder Freed From Mexican Prison

Rafael Caro Quintero and Enrique "Kiki" Camarena

Quintero won an appeal and a federal court overturned his conviction and 40 year sentence for the 1985 murder of DEA Agent Camarena in Jalisco.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 10, 2013

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico - On Friday, Rafael Caro Quintero, 58, a reputed druglord and former founder of the Guadalajara Cartel walked out a free man from prison after a federal court overturned his 40 year prison sentence and conviction for the 1985 murder of DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in Guadalajara, Jalisco. After serving 28 years in prison, the court found that Quintero should have been prosecuted in a state court and not a federal court. The court's decision and Quintero's released was kept secret until Quintero had been released indicating the three judge panel was bought off. 

Media outlets were notified after his release and the U.S. government (DEA) learned of Quintero's release from the Mexican media.

Also, Mexican lawyers representing two other men convicted for Camarena's murder have submitted the same appeal arguments used in Quintero's release. Both Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, known druglords in Nothern Sinaloa are also expected to be release from prison after their appeals are processed. 

The U.S. has indicted Quintero for drug laundering, but it is not clear yet, if the U.S. will seek extradition.

Quintero and the other suspects ordered Camarena killed after their $10 billion dollar marijuana and drug manufacturing ranch called the Baffalo was raided and confiscated by Mexican federal authorities. Camarena and his pilot were kidnapped in Guadalajara and then their bodies were discovered in a shallow grave a month later. Both Camarena and his pilot's bodies showed signs of torture before being killed. 

Chicago Mexican Consulate Has A Two Month Backlog To Get Documents

Carlos Martín Jiménez Macías, Consul General of the Chicago Mexican Consulate

Photos: HNG/HNNUSA

Mexican nationals residing in Wisconsin advocating for Mexico's Secretary of Exterior Relations (SRE) to open a Consulate in the state.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 9, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Friday, hundreds of Mexican nationals and non-nationals gathered at South Division High School to meet the newly appointed Consul General Carlos Martín Jiménez Macías to the Chicago Mexican Consulate. Consul General Macías said that he supports the Milwaukee's Mexican community need to have a Consulate in Wisconsin and backed his statement by confirming that the Chicago Consulate has a two month waiting period for any Mexican national seeking documents, including passport requests.

Macías also confirmed that the Consulate staff is now facing another major work load for processing thousands of requests for the Matricula Consular (MX ID). More than 250,000 Mexican nationals residing in Illinois are expected to apply for a license or state ID this year and will most likely need a Matricula Consular as a form of ID.
In January, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) signed into law a bill allowing more than 250,000 of non-citizens to become eligible for state driver's licenses. The law takes effect in November and non-citizens can begin to apply for licenses.
Some other concerns that Macías heard from Wisconsin Mexican nationals, were the long waiting periods at the Consulate when someone goes for an appointment, the lack of respect and unwarranted treatment that some Consulate staffers give clients and the extortions that some Mexican nationals face when returning to Mexico without the proper Mexican government legal documents due to the backlogs of Consulates.

Salvador Sánchez, a Milwaukee community advocate and former U.M.O.S. Director told  Consul General Macías that some of the Mexican Consulate staffers in Chicago should be trained by taking sessions on how to treat people with repect. Sánchez's adviced drew major applause by those attending the gathering. Other people allowed to speak supported Sánchez's allegations. Sánchez has advocated for opening a Consulate in Milwaukee for years.

A resident from Waukesha, Eulogio Longoria said, that hundreds of Mexican nationals returning to Mexico through the bordertowns of Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros face extortion by Mexican officials for not having the legal documents required to be allowed to continue into the interior of Mexico. Longoria says, people have to pay between $20 to $100 to corrupt officials at checkpoints near the Mexican border.
A woman also said, that co-nationals take a risk to drive to Chicago from Milwaukee without documents and then have to wait long hours for services from the Consulate. Consul General Macías adviced people to leave their children home because the Chicago Consulate is small and can't acommodate space or daycare for children.

Consul Luis Angel Castañeda Flores for Community Affairs for the Chicago Consulate said, that last year, more than 16,000 documents including passports were issued to Wisconsin Mexican nationals and so far this year, more than 13,000 documents have been issued and they expect to break their record for 2013. 

Several years ago, the Mexican Consulate in Chicago generated more than $5 million dollars in revenue from Mexicans nationals paying for services and document requests, according to Consulate sources. Consul Flores or Consul General Macías would not give an actual estimate of how much revenue it has generated per year, since Macías confirmed that the Chicago Mexican Consulate falls between second or third in generating the most revenue from nationals living in the U.S. The Mexican Consulate in Chicago serves the tri-state area in the Mid-West, which includes Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

Also Franciso De La Torre Galindo, the executive director for the Mexican Institute of the Exterior said, that New Jersey Mexican nationals had been advocating for a Consulate in their state for the last twelve years and that Mexican nationals residing in North Carolina had advocated for a Consulate for almost twelve years and finally opened one in Raleigh about seven years ago. 

The time line to get a Mexican Consulate open in Milwaukee seemed very remote, but Consul General Macías believes it can be done sooner. Macías acknowledged a two month backlog to get any type of documents from the Consulate in Chicago. The estimated revenue alone generated by the Consulate per year, which is not easily made public indicates that Consul General Macías has a big task to reconstruct and provide innovative ways and services to correspond with the millions of dollars in revenues generated by the Consulate. Which today, some Consulate services seem to be slacking, according to the Mexican nationals that pay with U.S. dollars instead of pesos for services not easily made available to them on a timely manner.

Husband Gets Life With Eligibility For Parole For Wauwatosa Officer Sebena's Murder

Jennifer Lynn Sebena and Benjamin Sebena

Husband gets life in prison with possible parole after 35 years for killing his wife, a Wauwatosa Police Officer on Christmas Eve.

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 9, 2013

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Friday, Benjamin Sebena, 30, of Wauwatosa was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving 35 years in prison by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski for the homicide of his wife, Wauwatosa Police Officer Jennifer Lynn Sebena, 30, on Christmas Eve 2012. Benjamin will be at least 65-years-old when he is eligible for parole. 

Benjamin received a light sentence by Judge Borowski, because he claimed that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress when he in cold blood ambushed his wife while she was coming out from a firehouse after her break.

The criminal complaint states, that Benjamin had waited for almost two hours at the Wauwatosa Fire Station One for his wife on December 24. He spotted her squad nearby the station and when Officer Sebena emerged from her break at the fire station, Benjamin got close and pulled out a 9MM Cal. handgun and shot her twice in the back of the head from a distance. Sebena tried to reach for her service weapon, but Benjamin disarmed her and then shot her three times in the face (head) with her .40 Cal. service handgun. Police confirmed, Sebena was shot five times.

Her body was found outside the fire house at Underwood Avenue around 4:28 a.m. by another officer.
Benjamin told police, he shot Sebena in the head because he wanted to make sure that she was dead and wouldn't suffer. He then took her service weapon, including his gun and hid them in the attic of their residence where authorities recovered them.
Benjamin actually went to the police station asking about his wife because he was worried. On Christmas Day while being questioned by police, he broke down and was detained after stating, "How could I do that to her." He then confessed to police that he killed her.
Officer Sebena who was seeking a divorce from her husband, on December 6, apparently told another officer that she was a victim of domestic violence when her husband took out a handgun during an argument and then put it to her head, according to the criminal complaint. There is no indication that the officer alerted other officers or the Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD) command about Sebena's abuse by her husband and that she might be in danger. Chief Weber indicated, the domestic abuse was never reported by the officer or Officer Sebena.
Benjamin's outburst resulted from a jealousy rage brought upon his believe that his wife was seeing other men. He admitted of stalking Officer Sebena for days leading to her murder.
It was never determined that Officer Sebena was actually cheating on her husband.
Benjamin is a Marine Iraq War Veteran who received a Purple Heart for his injuries during his tour of military service. He served two tours in Iraq and was severely injured.
He met Sebena on MySpace and later married her. Officer Sebena is the first to be killed in the line of duty in the 96 year history of the WPD.
She had served in the WPD for several years and had no children. 

31-year-old Miami Man Fatally Shoots Wife In Kitchen, Then Posted Photo And Confession On FB

Derek Medina and Jennifer Alfonso

Photos: Facebook

Miami man kills wife claiming repeated abuse by her and posted confession, including a photo of murdered wife on Facebook.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 9, 2013

Miami, Florida - On Thursday, WUSA 9 dot com reported that Derek Medina, 31, turned himself to police after fatally shooting his wife, Jennifer Alfonso, 26, and then posting a confession, including a photo of her body on Facebook (FB). The FB page was removed about five hours after the murder.

Medina claimed that Alfonso had repeatedly abused him and got tired of it and just shot her. 

Medina posted around noon on Thursday, "I'm going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife. Love you guys miss you guys take care, Facebook people, you will see me on the news...My wife was punching me and I am not going to stand anymore with the abuse so I did what I did I hope u understand me."

On Alfonso's dead body photo, Medina added, "RIP, Jennifer Alfonso." When police investigated Medina's claim that he killed his wife, police found her body in the kitchen floor at their townhouse located at 5555 SW 67 Avenue in South Miami.
Medina after the homicide had gone to his father's home and told him that Alfonso had argued with him and began to repeatedly hit him. She then pulled a knife on him and he fatally shot her. The father took Medina to a police station where he turned himself in. His father told police that Medina had previously married Alfonso and had an abusive relationship, which ended in a divorced, but last year they got married again.
Medina married Alfonso in 2012 and his FB profile indicated he was a small time actor who landed an extra role with Burn Notice in 2009. His 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage was at home when police arrived, but she was reported unharmed.

Medina is facing first-degree murder, according to police.

Decal Permits To Hunt Illegal Immigrants In U.S.A. Sold At Local Germantown Mobil Station

Photo: Courtesy of Sachin Chheda

Steven Krieser

Steven Krieser, the assistant deputy Secretary of the Department of Transportation fired by Governor Walker over Facebook comment comparing illegals to Satan.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 8, 2013

Germantown, WI - On Thursday, Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) contacted the Mobil Gas Station in Germantown, which is allegedly selling decal permits to hunt illegal immigrants in the U.S.A. A Mobil gas station employee who wouldn't identify himself would not confirm, if the decal was still being sold or taken off the shelves. The owner could not be reached for comment. The Mobil station is located at N96 W17500, County Line Road in Germantown. 

The decal is a novelty, but tasteless and feeds into racial hate, profiling and suggests that illegals can be hunted (killed) in the country. Someone with a lack of commonsense could actually believe it's legal to hunt illegals (undocumented immigrants).

The decal image was first posted in State Representative Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) Facebook account and then it was linked to State Representative Joshua Zepnick's (D-Milwaukee) Facebook account. Sahchin Chheda, the Chair of the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County shared the hunting permit photo with HNNUSA. Chedda wrote, the photo was "taken from State Rep. Gordon Hintz' page. State Rep. Josh Zepnick has been very outspoken in raising awareness and calling for action to get people to stop selling these."

Zepnick on Thursday in his FB page wrote, "please check out the awful if not illegal selling of stickers, at a Germantown gas station, encouraging basically the hunting and "bagging" of "illegal immigrants"....another byproduct of the lousy Republican Party's arrogant, narrow minded, selfish push of being "patriotic" and an American...absolutely unacceptable/wonder if we can yank this station's license for endangering the public???!"

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JS) writer Daniel Bice reported on Thursday that, a heated discussion caused by Hintz's posting the decal on his FB brought a response by Steven Krieser, the assistant deputy Secretary of the Department of Transportation. Krieser a Republican, who earned more than $96K a year. Krieser compared  illegals to Satan. The JS reported that Krieser wrote that a "stream of wretched criminals" is crossing the border without obstruction. These individuals, he said, "completely ruined" entire states and industries, breeding "the animus that many American citizens feel toward them."
Krieser's posting on FB cost him his job, he got fired by Governor Scott Walker (R) for his inappropriate comment. The JS also reported a statement from Walker's spokesperson, that "These comments are repugnant, completely unacceptable, and have no place in Governor Walker's administration," said Tom Evenson, spokesman for Walker. "Governor Walker condemns his views, and they do not represent the governor or his administration in any way."
Krieser since getting fired by Walker has apologized for his comments in FB and regrets doing so. He has removed his comments.
Apparently, the Mobil gas station in Germantown sold the last decal to a JS reporter for $6.00, Bice confirmed.
In May 2011, The same hunting stickers were sold at a Citgo Auto-Truck Stop Plaza in Sturtevent on Hwy 20 and I-94 for $4 to $5.00 a piece. To some the stickers are a form of speech, novelty, comical and to others it promotes hate and violence towards immigrants.
After a local immigrant rights group, Voces de la Frontera (VDLF) threatened to hold a protest at the business, the Citgo Truck Stop Plaza owner pulled the decals. Instead the owner was recognized by VDLF for being a good business owner for removing the decals.
The "Illegal Immigrant Hunting Permit" decals are distributed by Central States Novelty, LLC.

Togo's Ivory Smuggling Trade Boss N'bouke Arrested

Emile Edouwodzi N'bouke

N'bouke allegedly helped smuggle tons of ivory out of Togo.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 8, 2013

Lome, Togo - On Tuesday, Emile Edouwodzi N'bouke, 58, aka, "The Boss" of the illegal ivory trade in Africa was arrested in Lome by the Togo Anti-trafficking police, according to BBC. N'bouke is considered the kingpin of the ivory smuggling trade in Togo, according to Col Yao Kondi, the head of the Anti-trafficking Squad. The Togo's Environment Minister Dede Ahoefa Ekoune confirmed N'bouke's arrest and says, the government is taking the illegal ivory smuggling trade seriously. N'bouke has been connected to the slaughter of more than 10,000 elephants, since 1970 through his illegal trade, according to Ekoune.

N'bouke was part of an investigative program aired on Wednesday by ABC News Nightline titled "White Gold in the Black Market." N'bouke owns a shop that had at least 500 pounds of ivory from 30 elephants for sale. He told undercover investigators that he got it legally before 2008 and that he could smuggle ivory to China and other parts of Asia without being detected by customs.

One of the investigators included Ofir Drori, a self-made wildlife crime fighter and founder of an organization called the Last Great Ape, which is attributed of providing undercover video and surveillance of illegal trafficking of ivory, birds, apes and large cats that led to 900 arrests. Drori says, N'bouke's arrest was the first of its kind in the West African country. He began investigating N'bouke in late 2012.

N'bouke had been hiding after he was alerted by corrupt officials from the Ministry of Environment that he was going to be busted. It took some time, but the anti-trafficking police discovered five elephant ivory tusks in N'bouke's shop. N'bouke has denied the charges, but says that he only deals with legal ivory and bones that are carve into items to sell.

In 2008, the ivory trade was outlawed in Togo and today about 60 elephants remain alive in a protected national park refuge in the country. Suspects caught trafficking ivory can face between 10 months to three years in prison. 

Drori has been fighting corrupted officials, police and military that look the other way while the illegal ivory smuggling trade flourish in the area.

Togo officials say, that the ivory is smuggled into Togo from the West African sub-region, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, according to BBC.

The going rate per pound of ivory in the black market is $1,300, but a large carved piece can cost between $13,000 to $30,000 or more.

In July, Hong Kong customs officials seized $2.2 million (2 tons of ivory tusks) hidden in a cargo from Togo. Another shipment of illegal trafficking netted $12 million of ivory (6 tons of tusks from more than 700 elephants) hidden in a container of mahogany wood that was found by Malaysian customs. The ivory shipment was headed to China.

Nightline in its undercover investigative report also showed a poacher that claimed he killed his 500th elephant. The elephant suffered for hours before it died because the poacher didn't have enough bullets to spare, according to Nightline.