Mitchell Street Sun Fair Attracts Thousands To 3-day Festival In Milwaukee's South Side

Photos by HNG

Street festival drew an estimated 15,000 Sun Fair participants.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 5, 2011

Milwaukee - On Sunday, the Sun Fair, a three day festival along W. Historic Mitchell Street between S. 8th St. to S. 10th St. ended at 8:00 p.m. The event was sponsored by the Mitchell Street Business Improvement District BID 4 and provided an array of music, food and beverage vendors, rides, games, and a carnival.The event is a first time the street festival has been organized, since the last Mitchell Street Days festival took place about 15 years ago. Tony Garnica, one of the organizers, owner of Tasos Hair Studio and a member of the BID estimated the three day crowds at about 15,000 people including teenagers and kids of all ages. Garnica was in charged of the mainstage where everyday had an open microphone for amateurs to perform their best or attempted to sing. The music at the mainstage ended by 7:15 p.m.
The business BiD plans to continue the Sun Fair for next year. Police reported no major incidents within the festival area.

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Mexican Military Arrest Tijuana's Former Mayor Hank Rhon For Possession of Illegal Weapons

Jorge Hank Rhon

Photo: Terra

Illegal arsenal of weapons discovered at the home of a former Tijuana mayor.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 5, 2011

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico - On Saturday, the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) and  the Secretary for National Defense (Sedena) reported that former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon, 55, a self-proclaimed billionaire who served in office between 2004 to 2007 for the PRI political party had been arrested in connection with possession of illegal weapons. Sedena confirmed that, military personnel investigating a citizen complaint registered on early Saturday at 2:00 a.m. of three armed suspects near the Palacio Hotel resulted with a tip of illegal guns at a local home. When a military unit caught several suspects with guns, they confessed that more weapons could be found at a residence in the Hipódromo Agua Caliente neighborhood. The information led the military to a residence at 3:30 a.m. owned by Rhon where they found 88 weapons. Rhon was present at home when he was taken into custody for federal violation of possession of weapons reserved for the military only. The military confiscated 40 rifles, 48 handguns, 9,298 cartridges, a gas grenade and 70 magazines for ammunition, according to Sedena.
La Jornada Newspaper reported that Rhon during the investigation by the Baja California Attorney General's Office interview, he thought, that one of his sons was playing a joke on him, but quickly realized it wasn't a joke when Rhon saw one of his bodyguards under arrest. Rhon's wife, María Elvia Amaya de Hank and some of his children were at home when their home was searched for at least four hours. Rhon has 19 children from different relationships.
Along with Rhon, 10 of his employees were also arrested. They are Luis Alfonso Guerrero, Ramón López Apodaca, Juan Ignacio Parra Santos, Marco Antonio Trinidad Gómez, Javier Marco Polo,
Rubén Muñoz Nava, Pablo Gonzalo Pérez Contreras, Rigoberto Sánchez and Víctor Manuel Orta. Rhon and his employees were transported to Mexico City for their processing by the Federal PGR.
In 2007, Rhon ran an unsuccessfully for governor of Baja California. He owns the soccer Club of the Xolos de Tijuana, which just qualified for the first division play-offs, has multiple casinos and one of the largest Zoo's in Mexico, which has 20,000 animals in exhibition.

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Gunfire Interrupts Neighborhood Outdoor Cookouts In Milwaukee's South Side

Photo by HNG

Police investigating shooting after 8 to 10 shots fired.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 4, 2011

Milwaukee - On Saturday, police responded to a report of gunfire around 8 p.m. in an alley at the 1500 block between S. 15 Street and S. 15 Place. Police recovered about 8 to 10 spent castings (cartridges) in the alley.
An officer said, that no one was reported injured, but neighbors alleged a person was injured.
When the shooting occurred, adjacent neighbors from both sides of the alley were enjoying family cookouts. Some of the children said, they heard multiple gunshots and ran for cover, while others became curious and watched police officers recover evidence. They were happy to see police at the scene.

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Edwards Charged By Feds For Using Campaign Funds To Hide Mistress During Presidential 2008 Bid

John Edwards charged and facing six felony counts

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 3, 2011

Greensboro, North Carolina - On Friday, John Ewards, (D) former U.S. Senator and a two-time candidate for U.S. President has been charged in a federal indictment of using campaign funds to keep mistress and affair quite. The unseal indicted alleged Ewards spent about $925,000 to keep his mistress Reille Hunter and his son hidden from the public.
Edwards is charged with six counts, including making false statments, conspiracy and illegal campaign contributions, according to the indictment.
The indictment states, Edwards enagaged in a scheme to hide his extramarital affair during his bid for president in 2008 and exposure of the affair would have cost his campaign huge amounts of funds to control damage to the campaign.
An arrest warrant was issued for Edwards, but he turned himself in.

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Protesters Taken Out From Wisconsin State Joint Committee On Finance For Disrupting Hearing

Voces de la Frontera from Milwaukee and student members of Youth Empowered in the Struggle were in Madison to defend public education and in-state tuition rights.

Photo by HNG

People protested education cuts and the repealing of in-state tuition.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 2, 2011

Madison - State legislators from the Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance had to order State and Capitol Police to remove at least ten people who disrupted their budget cuts hearing to finalize fiscal spending for the next two years. Two protesters were arrested. They vowed to continue the protests in the coming days.
The committee finally met late on Thursday after changing their meeting time several times in the afternoon, trying to diminish crowds. The prostesters were against educational cuts and the proposed repeal of in-state tuition in Governor Scott Walker's budget cuts.
The state joint finance committee is holding a two year spending proposed budget hearing and their version once approved heads for the full Senate. State Representatives have their own budget cuts version and both the Assembly and the Senate would have to agree on a joint version to pass it.
The Republican controlled legislature is moving forward to repeal in-state tuition for undocumented students attending public colleges and universities.
In a press release statement, Voces de la Frontera states that fifty concerned Wisconsinites engaged in an organized, non-violent civil disobedience to halt passage of the state budget, demanding restoration of the cuts to education and in-state tuition for immigrant youths.
Kicking off the action were four prominent community leaders, Jesus Salas, former University of Wisconsin Regent; Larry Miller, Director on the Milwaukee Public School Board; Al Levie, Racine high school teacher and REA union member; and Christine Neumann-Ortíz, Voces de la Frontera executive director.
The disruption stopped the committee for an extended period of time as police carried off speaker after speaker, who refused to let injustice and austerity become law without resistance. Each speaker read a statement before being removed from the hearing.
They have disregarded widespread opposition to their proposed cuts to education, environment, workers, healthcare and other vital public services. Today, the Republicans on the committee delayed the hearing for 5 hours, afraid to face the public backlash, according to Voces de la Frontera.

VDLF video of actual protest at link: http://bit.ly/mS390r

Related article: Voces del Frontera And Students At Joint Committee On Finance Hearing To Protest Repeal Of In-state Tuition http://bit.ly/k2atOu

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Voces del Frontera And Students At Joint Committee On Finance Hearing To Protest Repeal Of In-state Tuition

Voces de la Frontera and Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES) were in Madison to defend public education and in-state tuition rights.

Photos by HNG

Students protest repeal of in-state tuition at Senate finance committee hearing, but meeting time to convene changed several times.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 2, 2011

Madison - On Thursday, members from Voces de la Frontera (VDLF) from Milwaukee and students went to Madison to address the proposed intent by the Republican controlled legislature to repeal in-state tuition in Wisconsin. The state Senate Joint Committee on Finance scheduled meeting to debate Governor Scott Walker's budget including a proposed repeal of in-state tuition for undocumented students in the state was delayed several times. The meeting was delayed for more than four hours forcing people and some students with limited time to leave and return to Milwaukee.
Republican legislators are pushing to eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students, despite the parents of the students effected are taxpayers. The parents considered undocumented do pay property taxes, sales taxes and there income is taxed as required by state law. But, they don't get tax refunds or reimburse at the end of the year. How much has accumulated and what happens to the tax contributions that undocumented immigrants have paid for the last ten years? The state budget office or both the Representative and Senate finance committees have yet to address the issue and make public the actual tax contributions undocumented immigrants and their families including Hispanic businesses do contribute to the economic growth of the state.
The Senate committee scheduled 1:00 p.m. budget meeting for Thursday was delayed until 3:00 p.m., then again delayed to 5:00 p.m., but most people and students continued to wait for it to convene. VDLF reported at 6:30 p.m., that the meeting hadn't started as previously announced.
State Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milw.) came in to the hearing room and told those waiting for hours that the Republican senators might not convene until they are ready to do so. Some of the people responded by saying, the Senate Republicans know that students who will be effected by repealing in-state tuition are present and are delaying the meeting hoping to diminish the crowds.
A VDLF press release stated that, in 2009, Wisconsin became only the eleventh state in the U.S. to pass this historic educational civil rights legislation. Under Governor Scott Walker's (R) current budget proposal, undocumented students who have graduated from Wisconsin high schools will no longer be eligible to receive in-state tuition rates.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera stated, "The public hearings of the Joint Committee on Finance were a joke- they did not allow genuine and democratic input by the public. Senator Alberta Darling has repeatedly ignored requests to meet with diverse youth who will be affected by the education budget and repeal of in-state tuition rights. We are coming to the hearings to highlight the devastating inequities in Governor Walker's budget, which forces taxpayers to pay for the children of wealthy families to attend private schools while attacking the quality of education for working class families and the poor."
Several days ago, the state of Illinois passed an In-state tuition bill.

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Mexican Military Found Arsenal From Russia, China And U.S. Buried At Seven Sites In Coahuila

Photo: Sedena

Authorities investigating which criminal organization owned the arsenal composed of weapons.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 2, 2011

Nadadores, Coahuila, Mexico - On Tuesday, the Mexican Secretary of National Defense Department (Sedena) reported that members of the military regiment in zone 7 discovered 161 weapons and ammunition buried in seven sites. General Dagoberto Espinoza Rodríguez confirmed that military personnel during a routine search at an area in Ejido de Sardinas within the municipality of Nadadores reported the discovery of a large arsenal.
The arsenal included grenades, 4,627 magazines, 23 military camouflage uniforms, a grenade launcher and 92 thousand rounds of ammunition for different type of high caliber weapons. The weapons including the rest of the arsenal are believed to come from Russia, China and the U.S., according to Sedena.

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