This past week I was reading Network Week and saw a story on using Skype on cell phones. This is a great story and I think we should all read it.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/033009-mobile-skype-the-end-of.html?page=1

When VOIP comes to our cell phones it will be one more opportunity to communicate in a cost effective manner.

If you are not using Skype yet at home or at the office you need to start now!  Free Calls To Skype Users, Free Video Calls, Download For Free.

www.Skype.com

 

Do you write a news blog for your site that keeps people coming back for more? If not, you’re missing out on the perfect opportunity to market your site or your product. When people sign up for a newsletter, they’re holding the door open for you.

Before you start your new blog, think through these ideas:

1.      What is your goal in writing the news blog? Do you want to market your site, or your services/product?

2.      Who will be reading the news blog? Do you have a list of people who have subscribed from your site? What demographic information do you know about them? Your attitude should depend on this.

3.      What can you say in your blog to achieve your goal? How do you connect your readers to your services/product?  

Writing a good newsletter - one that catches the reader’s attention and appeals to him/her in some way - isn’t a mysterious, difficult thing, but there are a few things to remember as you write.

·         First, forget about using exclamation points. Write in a friendly way; don’t sound like you are attempting to sell them something. Read your newsletter out loud, and if it sounds silly, it probably is.

·         Readers want to know what you’re talking about. Get straight to the point of what you want to say. Make room for a special tip or secret that they won’t find easily anywhere else - even on your site. This keeps up the interest and keeps you from losing subscribers.

·         Link to your site and don’t be shy about it. If what you’re saying interests people, they’ll want more of it. How many times do people read a blog or newsletter from top to bottom looking for a link to the meat the blog/newsletter promised, and give up?

·         Don’t give it all away, though, and don’t fill your blog with nothing but links. Give the reader a taste of what they will find on your site. The idea is to whet the appetite, not satisfy it.

·         Use a part of your blog to interest the reader, then give them the URL in a clickable form so they can go read the rest of it. Make it as easy as you can for your reader to get from your blog to your site.

·         Break up the text into paragraphs of two or three sentences. Long, run on paragraphs are hard to read and most readers will lose interest quickly. Your job is to keep them interested in what you have to say.

·         Never write anything that could possibly be construed to be an insult or demeaning in any way to anyone - gender, race, religion and politics included.

·         Include things like “Feel free to send/forward this blog to a friend.” If you want to encourage return email, include a clickable return address, thus: mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com

·         Spell check - proofread and edit thoroughly! Let it cool for a few hours and read it again. Be meticulous in grammar. If you can, have someone else proofread it. It’s hard to catch your own mistakes.

When you’re satisfied that you’ve done your very best, hit the ’send’ button. You’ve just impressed hundreds or even thousands of people. Isn’t the power of the internet wonderful!

So far 18 universities have pulled back from licensing deals with Russell Athletic over the company’s labor practices.  Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Michigan and Penn State are among schools that have ended licensing agreements with Russell over what they believe are unfair business practices related to a Honduras factory that had previously produced fleece products.  The factory has been shut down – for economic reasons says Russell, and not because of pro-union activity on behalf of the workers.

 

The link to the news story below explains how we got to this point. This controversy is quickly becoming an expensive PR black hole for Russell Athletic. 

 

From the Azcentral & AP

http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2009/03/19/20090319biz-RussellAthletic0319.html

 

Be sure and take a look at Russell’s CSR website, http://www.russellsocialresponsibility.com/ for their spin on the issue.

 

###

Consumers are abandoning traditional subscription plans, which may curb growth for AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile

By Olga Kharif

March 20, 2009 -  BusinessWeek

 

It looked, for a while, like the wireless industry might shrug off the worst of the recession. AT&T (T), the biggest U.S. phone company, in January reported a respectable 13.2% increase in fourth-quarter wireless sales, fueled by strong subscriber gains. Things were looking up this year, too. Surveys showed consumers would rather reduce purchases even of food and clothing before ditching cell phones.

It was nice while it lasted. Fresh survey data show that U.S. consumers are rapidly switching to cheaper calling plans, often choosing so-called prepaid packages that give carriers smaller, less predictable revenue streams.

On Mar. 19, Washington think tank New Millennium Research Council (NMRC) released results of a survey showing that 17% of Americans have already switched from contract-based plans to cheaper prepaid services in the past six months due to concerns about their jobs and the recession. Those sticking with contracts are migrating to cheaper plans and cutting such extras as texting and e-mail. “Millions of Americans are on the verge of discontinuing expensive cell-phone plans,” says Graham Hueber, a senior researcher at the Opinion Research Corp., which conducted the study commissioned by the NMRC.

Fewer Minutes, Less Texting

Other evidence also suggests consumers are taking a closer look at their wireless bills. Of 2,151 U.S. cell-phone users surveyed online by JupiterResearch in November, one-third were considering cutting back on wireless spending and the number of minutes and texts they use. In February, Sprint Nextel (S) indicated that “economic uncertainty” was partly to blame for a sales decline and customer losses in the fourth quarter.

One maker of air cards, Sierra Wireless (SW), announced on Jan. 29 it would lay off 10% of its workforce amid a drop in fourth-quarter revenue. “We are going to see more and more of this in the U.S. and the rest of the world,” says Carrie Pawsey, senior analyst at researcher Ovum.

Of course, some carriers are faring better than others. “Despite the economic environment, we grew revenues in 2008, and I expect 2009 will be another year of overall revenue growth and solid progress for our company,” AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said during the company’s January earnings call. AT&T wouldn’t say whether it’s seeing an impact from the worsening economy now.

And Fewer Data Cards, Too

But consumer cutbacks are sure to catch up with carriers in the coming months, and those reductions could result in slower revenue and customer growth. Of U.S. consumers who have wireless contracts, almost 40%, or 60.3 million, are likely to curtail cell-phone spending to save money if the economy worsens in the next six months, according to the NMRC survey. Some 41% of survey respondents are considering paring back on extras like text messaging. Many already are scaling back on data cards for computers, which, according to wireless industry consultant Chetan Sharma, contribute about 12% of carriers’ data revenue.

Even smartphone users, typically among the most profitable customers, may soon trim usage. As professionals in finance and other industries continue to lose jobs, Sharma estimates that 10% to 20% of the people who own these souped-up, Web-surfing phones may downsize plans this year.

Smartphone users typically pay $70 to $200 a month for wireless service. As they reduce spending, U.S. wireless data revenue may grow only 15% this year, vs. 38% in 2008, Sharma estimates.

Carriers that specialize in prepaid calling may be among the few beneficiaries of cutbacks. Now, only about 15% of Americans use prepaid wireless plans, which can cost 50% to 75% less than contract-based plans. In contrast, 68% of Britons already use prepaid plans. “There’s clearly a lot of additional movement that could take place,” says Allen Hepner, a scholar at the NMRC. “Thanks to the recession, the U.S. marketplace is undergoing fundamental changes.” Indeed, prepaid may grow to 20% of the market by yearend, Sharma estimates. In the fourth quarter, prepaid customers accounted for 57% of new subscribers at T-Mobile USA, up from 23% a year earlier.

Widespread Defections

Some consumers are leaving the four largest carriers—AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile—for smaller, prepaid carriers. In the fourth quarter, MetroPCS (PCS) saw net subscriber additions surge 74%, to 519,519, from a year earlier. In the same quarter, Sprint Nextel lost 1.3 million customers, most of them postpaid. Sprint executives are hopeful that the industry will nevertheless fare better than other areas of the economy. “We believe wireless has become so important in people’s lives, we won’t see as much impact as other industries.”

Providers of prepaid calling, typically considered the domain of younger callers or those with bad credit, are taking steps to make their plans more alluring by adding features and better phones. Such services as MetroPCS and Leap (LEAP) are available in more markets. On Mar. 9, Leap expanded into Philadelphia. Nowadays, users can purchase not only voice but also data plans that permit texting and e-mail.

And prepaid phones have turned from clunky to cool. On Mar. 10, MetroPCS introduced Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone, which features a Qwerty keyboard and rich multimedia capabilities, in many of its markets. For only $50 a month, without a contract, users of the device can talk, text, browse the Web, and send multimedia messages and e-mail. Steps like that are helping foster loyalty. Leap’s monthly subscriber turnover declined to 3.8% in the fourth quarter, from 4.2% a year earlier.

Developing War in Price Cutting?

Contract carriers are responding by updating and rolling out new prepaid plans and lowering prices. This year, T-Mobile USA began offering a $50-a-month unlimited voice plan to longtime subscribers to prevent them from leaving.

But the recent flurry of cheaper, unlimited plans from T-Mobile, Boost Mobile, Alltel, and Zer01 Mobile raises a red flag for Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. “As growth slows, pricing [war] risk rises,” he wrote in a recent report. As more carriers start offering unlimited voice calling and data plans, they increasingly will have to compete on price.

The hope for some within the industry is that when economic prospects improve, “people will go back to postpaid” calling plans, Sharma says. But the more attractive prepaid plans become, the harder they will be to shake.

Kharif is a senior writer for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore.

 

This article and others published in USA TODAY this week are based on 355,334 telephone interviews conducted throughout 2008 by the Gallup Poll and Healthways, a Tennessee-based health management company.

 

The surveys of about 1,000 people a day for 351 days measured Americans’ physical, emotional and economic well-being.

 

Go to well-beingindex.com for more analysis and to ahiphiwire.org/wellbeing/ for data from your state and congressional district.

 

               

 WHO WORRIES ABOUT MONEY

Americans 30-49 years old were most likely to say they worried about money the day before.

 

18-29                                     41%

30-49                                     43%

50-64                                     35%

65 and older                         19%

 

Source: Gallup/Healthways Well-Being Index

 

 

By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Allison Busch says her anxiety about the economy began to rise in September: The stock market careened, and she watched the collapse of Lehman Bros., a financial giant.

 

By November, she says, her hopes lifted when Barack Obama was elected president. But they dimmed as Christmas approached. In January, her worrying rose again.

 

 

So although her husband has a good-paying job as a real estate developer, Busch is planning for the day he does not.

 

“I told my husband, when he calls me to say he was fired, I’ll probably cry and fall apart for 24 hours,” says Busch, 39, a lawyer who lives in South Orange, N.J. “Then I’ll calm down, and we’ll figure it out.”

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Barack Obama | New Jersey | Tennessee | Christmas | St. Louis | Social Security | Medicare | Disney | Brookings Institution | University of Southern California | Airlines | Latinos | Gallup | Anheuser-Busch | Jennifer | William Frey | Holy | South Orange | Belgium-based InBev | Healthways | Jim Harter | Society for Consumer Psychology

 

The year 2008 gave Americans an unending supply of dizzying and jaw-dropping events that affected jobs, businesses, personal fortunes and nearly every facet of our lives.

 

A year-long poll conducted by Gallup and Tennessee-based health management company Healthways, taking the daily pulse of Americans’ physical, emotional and economic well-being, found that worries about money grew sharply as 2008 progressed: 14 million more people worried about money at the end of the year than at the beginning, says Jim Harter, a chief scientist for Gallup who oversaw the research on workplace and well-being.

 

“It’s moved from about 3 in 10 to about 4 in 10 over the course of the year, so … it’s a pretty significant finding,” Harter says.

 

Worries grew steadily in 2008 before a sharp drop in December, likely due to the holiday season, he says: “I imagine people did worry less because they were with family and friends… They probably took some time off from their worry.”

 

The poll shows those ages 30-49 — often raising young children while assisting aging parents — were the most likely to worry. Those 18-29, just starting to build their financial futures, followed.

 

Americans 65 and older worried the least, their senior years cushioned by traditional pensions and government benefits such as Social Security and Medicare, says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

 

Among ethnic groups, Latinos were the most anxious, just ahead of blacks.

 

Excessive worry can affect not only individuals, and families, but the entire economy, analysts say.

 

“Life stressors such as losing a job can really lead to emotional states such as depression,” says Joseph Priester, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Southern California and former president of the Society for Consumer Psychology.

 

“But then there’s a second aspect where being indirectly affected or just hearing about it in the news a lot can shift you into a defensive stance.

 

“That, in turn, influences how we consume, which, in effect, reinforces the recession.”

 

Anxiety and second jobs

 

Joe Cuker, 33, a father of three in St. Louis, became his family’s sole breadwinner when his wife, Jennifer, was laid off by Anheuser-Busch in December.

 

A bank manager, he works seven days a week, selling furniture on weekends to supplement his income.

 

“There’s definitely anxiety,” says Cuker, whose employer is cutting his salary by 5% this year.

 

His worrying began last summer, when economic tremors had begun to ripple across the country.

 

In May, Disney said it would close nearly 100 stores. American Airlines became the first airline to charge passengers for checking a single piece of luggage on trips. In June, the average price of a gallon of gas topped $4 for the first time in U.S. history.

 

And in St. Louis, rumors began to swirl that Anheuser-Busch might be taken over by another company.

 

Cuker grew more concerned in the fall, as financial institutions such as Lehman Bros.filed for bankruptcy or were taken over by federal regulators or other banks.

 

“I remember sitting there and … thinking to myself, ‘Holy cow. This isn’t good,’ ” he says.

 

In October, Cuker got the second job that brings in an extra $5,000 a year. It came just in time. In November, Belgium-based InBev completed its takeover of Anheuser-Busch. By Christmas, Jennifer’s job was gone.

 

The family’s income dropped from about $93,000 to $47,000 a year. After paying their $1,700 mortgage and some of their roughly $50,000 in credit card debt each month, Cuker says, there’s barely $200 left.

 

So they tap their savings, and weigh every expenditure — from an ice cream cone to a haircut.

 

“Sometimes you can’t afford to get food,” he says. “We just scrape whatever’s in (the pantry).”

 

Jennifer remains unemployed, but is searching for a job.

 

In February, Joe tried to get food stamps and make payment arrangements with his credit card companies. But he was turned down for both — because he earned too much money to qualify for food aid, and he already had the lowest interest rates offered on his cards.

 

“What’s most stressful is trying to be proactive and responsible,” he says, “and that doesn’t get you anywhere.”

 

Joe Cuker is part of the age group that worried about money the most. About 43% of people 30-49 who were surveyed throughout last year said they had worried about money the day before, according to the poll.

 

“They’re planning for their families’ futures,” says Frey. “They’re going to be the mainstay of people older and younger than them. And they’re just scared.”

 

Latinos feel the strain

 

Among ethnic groups, Latinos were the most likely to be concerned, with 42% saying they worried about money the day before. Blacks were close behind, at 41%, while 35% of whites and 35% of Asians said the same.

 

“Latinos are probably the most aspirational of all the groups in the U.S.,” Frey says.

 

During the last decade, “They got a foothold into the suburbs. They got a foothold into the housing market, and now it’s all crashing down around them.”

 

From 2000 through 2006, the unemployment gap between Latinos and non-Latinos virtually disappeared, says Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C.

 

As the recession has deepened, however, the gulf has returned.

 

In February, the unemployment rate among Latinos was 10.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only the rate among black workers was higher, at 13.4%.

 

“A lot of the job losses have come in construction and … among foreign-born Hispanics,” Lopez says. “I think this uncertainty about jobs is partly what’s driving this uncertainty about finances.”

 

In July, as Starbucks said it would close 600 of its shops and Congress began steps to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Marta and Alberto Torres of St. Louis began to have troubles of their own.

 

At the factory where Alberto Torres worked, bosses started cutting overtime that added at least $400 a month to the family’s income. By October, workers were being laid off.

 

Marta Torres was relieved when her husband was spared. But she cannot keep her worries at bay.

 

“Of course, whenever he tells me someone got laid off, we feel fear,” says Torres, 39, who works as a program coordinator for Catholic Charities. “What if the next one is him?”

 

Together, the couple bring home roughly $50,000 annually. They have bought groceries for friends who have lost their jobs. And they are helping struggling relatives in Mexico, including her father, who was diagnosed with cancer in December.

 

“When things are bad here in the United States,” Torres says, “they are worse there.”

 

Black workers losing ground

 

For more than a generation, black workers have struggled to gain financial parity. Now, the economic downturn threatens to erode what gains have been made.

 

“African Americans make on average only about two-thirds as much as non-Hispanic whites,” says David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that focuses on policy issues of particular concern to blacks.

 

“Now you have real fears of losing jobs, so under those circumstances, it’s not at all surprising that the feeling right now is of great economic anxiety.”

 

Less than two years ago, Verna Weeks, 41, and her husband, Abdullah, 37, of Wilmington, Del., earned more than $160,000 a year.

 

He was a church administrator. And her real estate appraisal business was doing so well, she eventually cut back her hours at State Farm Insurance, where she’d worked for 17 years.

 

Then, at the end of 2007, Abdullah lost his job. He found work in late February 2008 as a repair specialist for Apple, but Verna says her anxiety has lingered.

 

“There were times when you went to sleep thinking about it,” Weeks says of their money woes, “and I would wake up, and that would be the first thing on my mind.”

 

The fallout from the faltering economy was all around her throughout 2008. She received fewer requests for appraisals, and her dream of becoming a full-time entrepreneur began to evaporate.

 

In August, with their household income cut nearly in half, the Weekses chose not to buy their children new school uniforms.

 

By October, Verna Weeks was asking to again work full time for State Farm, but “because of the economy,” she was told no.

 

Her worries go beyond her front door: Her sister is facing foreclosure.

 

Yet it was in December, when Weeks’ in-laws said they no longer could give an allowance to her children, that Weeks became outright fearful about the future as well as the present.

 

“To see them. .. start saying no to even their grandkids … it’s frightening,” she says. “When I’m 60, am I … going to be able to do anything for my grandkids?. .. Will we even be able to retire when we want to?”

 

Rakia Clark, 30, of Manhattan stands on the cusp of the two generations most likely to be nervous about the economy.

 

She remembers a moment in September that seemed especially ominous, when Republican presidential nominee John McCain suspended his campaign to focus on the financial crisis.

 

“It just seemed more urgent,” says Clark, who was then an editor at Kensington Publishing, earning more than $50,000 a year.

 

When some of her friends began to get pink slips in October, “I made it a point to pay off all the remaining debts I had,” she says. “I knew if necessary, I could live off of Ramen noodles and Pop-Tarts, but I didn’t want … to owe anybody money.”

 

Her angst eased around Christmas, when instead of layoffs, her company handed out yearly bonuses. But a month later, she and three others were let go.

 

Her spirits sagged during those first days, but soon she began to pursue freelance editing. The work has flowed in since.

 

“If it continues to be this steady,” says Clark, “I will be better off financially than I was as a full-time employee.”

 

So, for now, she is not worried.

 

“In one way it was a bad thing to lose my job,” she says.

 

“But it’s created room for all these other things that so far have proven very fruitful and fulfilling.”

 

Seniors not as stressed

 

The worry gap between those younger than 65 and those entering their senior years was stark. Only 19% of those 65 and older were stressed about money the day before.

 

“In retrospect, (it) makes sense,” Harter says of the relative calm among seniors. “They may have been less invested in the markets … and that group may be less susceptible to all of the things that happened in the last year with the economy.”

 

Frey added that the oldest Americans have lived through many national crises and may be more stoic.

 

“They’ve seen the ups and the downs,” he says.

 

Floyd Schultz, 75, of Coral Springs, Fla., was a child of the Depression. Born in 1933, he faintly recalls his parents receiving aid so they could buy food.

 

That experience shaped him, making Schultz a conservative investor. A pharmacist, he still works part time, and his 67-year-old wife, Marcia, works full time as a psychologist.

 

Having a job has helped keep his worry in check.

 

“We’re basically living off current income, plus Social Security,” says Schultz, noting that they have been able to leave their retirement funds untouched. “If we had to dip in, we’d be in trouble.”

 

Perhaps more than worry, he feels anger.

 

“Frankly, I would like to see some people in jail,” says Schultz, of the government officials and bankers whose actions, he believes, helped precipitate the current crisis. “It’s unconscionable.”

 

With at least 25% of their retirement savings gone in the slumping market, Schultz says his wife probably will have to postpone her plans to retire this year. Still, he remains an optimist.

 

“You have to believe our country … will come back,” he says.

 

“If it doesn’t, none of this is going to matter.”

In March 15 articles, the Politico and the Associated Press forwarded the false Republican talking point that President Obama’s proposals to let the Bush tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers expire and reduce the tax rate at which families making more than $250,000 could take itemized deductions to 28 percent would increase taxes on a large percentage of small businesses. Politico staff writer Carrie Budoff Brown reported, “Whenever Republican criticize [sic] Obama’s tax-hike plans, the group they push front-and-center as bearing the brunt is small-business owners.” She later wrote: “Republicans, in turn, say that it’s Obama’s tax-plan that is providing a double-whammy to these businesspeople, not just the recession but policies that would roll back the Bush tax cuts in 2011 and fall heavily on business owners who earn more than $250,000 a year.” Likewise, the AP’s Hope Yen reported, “Republicans say Obama’s budget proposal to raise taxes, starting in 2011, on individuals earning more than $200,000 and on households earning more than $250,000 will hurt small businesses which face higher dividend taxes and limits on itemized deductions.”

Neither Brown nor Yen pointed out, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, that according to the Tax Policy Center’s table of 2007 tax returns that reported small business income, 481,000 of those returns — about 2 percent — are in the top two income tax brackets, which include all filers with taxable incomes that would be affected.

By. Senator Mario Gallegos (D) 6th District

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLS&R) has long been recognized as one of Houston’s most active charitable organizations.  Since the group’s beginnings in 1931, the HLS&R has reflected the western spirit and cowboy heritage that this community so proudly maintains. A lot of things have changed in this city over the 78 year history of the HLS&R.  For example, when the Rodeo began in the 1930’s in downtown Houston, the city covered only 72 square miles, had a population of 290,000, the average home price was $6,790, and the Galveston-Houston Electric Railway speedily carried passengers from Houston to Galveston before we built the Gulf Freeway to relieve the old two lane Galveston highway.

Today Houston has a population of over 2.2 million people, covers over 600 square miles, and according to the latest census figures, nearly 60 different languages are spoken in neighborhoods, restaurants, and businesses throughout our city.  Like many of our city’s leaders, I believe that diversity among our citizenry is an asset that should be appreciated and embraced by all of us. Diversity does not, however, mean affirmative action or hand-outs; it means being smart about recognizing and understanding growing demographic groups and including them in your planning, execution and then the delivery of your product or service to the community. It means INVOLVEMENT.

As a child growing up in Houston’s East End, attending the Rodeo’s annual downtown parade with my mother and father became a family tradition and remains a fond memory not only for me, but for hundreds of thousands of Houstonians as well.  During my 22 year career with the Houston Fire Department, it was my privilege to spend my off-duty time serving as part of the HFD medical response team to ensure the health and well-being of millions of rodeo and concert attendees.  I have also had the honor of being a calf scramble sponsor for the past 12 years, and will continue that commitment to our state’s youth in future rodeos.

I understand and appreciate the commitment and dedication that the HLS&R volunteers contribute to our community. Their selfless sense of volunteerism makes Houston the great city that it is.  However, until recently it has gone unnoticed by many in this city that the HLS&R’s Board and executive staff have slowly yet steadily turned the HLS&R into their exclusive enclave and sent a not so thinly veiled message to many of us, especially people of color, that those who question or scrutinize their operations or policy will not only remain unacknowledged, but will also be vilified and ridiculed.  As Houston progresses into the 21^st century, the HLS&R seems stubbornly committed to holding on to the reigns of a rickety chuck wagon. Even though Houston Hispanics and African Americans consistently break attendance records year after year and spend millions of dollars at the Rodeo, when we ask questions regarding how funds are spent on vendors, scholarships or on its operations, we are told that as a private non-profit organization the Rodeo does not have to disclose any of their operations to us, in other words, its none of our business and go away.

 

The current controversy that we now find ourselves in was sparked last year by a simple inquiry regarding the selection of musical entertainers.  Now, more than a year later, after numerous meetings with Rodeo officials and countless hours spent trying to find middle ground, we find ourselves no closer to answers than when we began. There are still questions about alleged inside dealings between HSL&R board and committee members and no-bid contracts; possible fundraising activities using public agency employees; and how scholarships are granted. These are simple questions being asked from Houston’s largest ethnic communities, without any real answers from the leadership of the HLS&R.

 

When it comes to protecting the interests of my constituents, I do not back down from a fight.  When I see a problem, I take the bull by the horns.  The HLS&R and its board members should be above reproach.  It is time for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to welcome increased transparency and inclusion within the organization, and join the rest of the 21st century.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6310480.html

This forwarded from one of our Worldcom Group partners:

Social networking has overtaken e-mail as the most popular Internet activity, according to a new study by Nielsen, and the gap is growing rapidly.

According to the latest figures, one in every six minutes of the average web user’s online time is spent at a social site, notably Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the major blogging networks. Active reach in what Nielsen defines as “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67% to 65%. The reach of social networking and blogging venues is growing at twice the rate of other large drivers of Internet use such as portals, e-mail and search. For those marketers trying to advertise online, the shifting measurement of time spent, rather than pages viewed, will require a new model which joins the conversation instead of interrupting it.

 

I was so excited last year when I became a lifetime member to the HLSR, paid my Coral Club dues, and joined one of the hard working committees as a Rookie for the 2009 Rodeo.  I am a third generation Texan, second generation Houstonian and I happen to be of Mexican descent.  I grew up attending the rodeo each year and remember Elvis Presley, cotton candy and my boots with fond memories.

 

I have met some of the most wonderful and hardest working people in my first year and I hope they become long-standing friendships.  I believe in learning the process and earning my stripes, moving up the chain of commitment and believe me it is a commitment of time and money. 

 

It is unfortunate that the dark side of the recent controversy has appeared and has moved down to the rank and file volunteers of the rodeo.  The emails sent to the 21,000 volunteers from Butch Robinson, HLSR Chairman along with other HLSR notifications attempting to set the record straight has only sparked inflammatory and venomous responses from rodeo volunteers and non-volunteers.

 

Hallway discussions at Reliant Park range from “Which side are you on?” to comments like “What is the penalty for hitting a protester?”  The emails and blogs that have been circulated depict such hatred for “Mexicans” that I am just blown away. What did Butch Robinson think he was doing by sending out emails with Senator Mario Gallegos and Ben Mendez’s name under the title “A Public Message from HLSR”.  What it created was an army of hate mongers who believe they are right and that “Mexicans should go home.”

 

I have never been one to shy away from a fight and I am ready to stand up for my rights; however this controversy has nothing to do with the rank and file volunteers and everything to do the decision makers in the HLSR boardroom.  This matter should have been settled at the board level and not driven down to the volunteers in this manner.  When I signed up as a volunteer it was not to fight the battles created, it was to raise scholarship money.

 

The only message that the HLSR leadership should have communicated to the 21,000 volunteers is be the best Ambassadors for the HLSR.  This role includes greeting attendees, encouraging participation, and adhering to the mission of the Rodeo, because at the end of the day it is about scholarships for deserving kids. 

 

My message to Butch Robinson and the HLSR Board is if you can’t resolve this situation at your level, then maybe we need to clean the boardroom and bring in people who will. The HLSR Board needs to be open and above reproach, not acting disrespectful of elected officials and dismissive of a community that accounts for over 40% of the regional population. I plan to continue my volunteer services for as long as I am alive, for I believe in the mission of the HLSR.

 

Sincerely,

 

Liz Lara-Carreño

Lifetime Member HLSR

I saw this story today and I felt others need to read this great news:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Roughly one-fourth of the nation’s kindergartners are Hispanic, evidence of an accelerating trend that now will see minority children become the majority by 2023.

 

Census data released Thursday also showed that Hispanics make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. Hispanics’ growth and changes in the youth population are certain to influence political debate, from jobs and immigration to the No Child Left Behind education, for years.

 

The ethnic shifts in school enrollment are most evident in the West. States such as Arizona, California and Nevada are seeing an influx of Hispanics due to immigration and higher birth rates.

 

Minority students in that region exceed non-Hispanic whites at the pre-college grade levels, with about 37 percent of the students Hispanic. Hispanics make up 54 percent of the students in New Mexico, 47 percent in California, 44 percent in Texas and 40 percent in Arizona.

 

In 2007, more than 40 percent of all students in K-12 were minorities — Hispanics, blacks, Asian-Americans and others. That’s double the percentage of three decades ago.

 

In colleges, Hispanics made up 12 percent of full-time undergraduate and graduate students, 2 percent more than in 2006. Still, that is short of Hispanics’ 15 percent representation in the total U.S. population.

 

“The future of our education system depends on how we can advance Hispanics through the ranks,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “In many cases it’s going to be a challenge, because they are the children of immigrants, and their English is not as strong. Many have parents without a high school or college education.”

 

Minorities are projected to become the majority of the overall U.S. population by 2042. For minority kids, that shift is seen coming in 2023, seven years earlier than the previous estimate, from 2004. The accelerated timetable is due to immigration among Hispanics and Asians, and declining birth rates among non-Hispanic whites.

 

Hispanics account for more than 23 percent of kindergartners in private and public schools, according to 2007 data. That is more than triple Hispanics’ percentage in the 1970s, the height of white baby boom enrollment in elementary and high school.

 

More Hispanic kindergartners in 2007 were U.S.-born than foreign-born, assuring them of citizenship that will make them eligible to vote by 2020.

 

The changing demographics offer opportunity and political risks for Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, and emerging Republicans such as 37-year-old Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the first Indian-American elected to statewide office.

 

Obama, who took two-thirds of the Hispanic vote, is channeling billions of federal dollars to improve schools, reduce the dropout rate and make college more affordable by increasing the maximum Pell Grant for low-income students to $5,550.

 

Yet his administration has been sketchy when it comes to improving classroom performance and overhauling the No Child Left Behind Act. It sets goals for schools so every student can read and do math on grade level by 2014.

 

The education law has major implications for both black and Hispanic students, including those who speak English as a second language, because they tend to lag whites in reading and math scores.

 

Obama has been largely quiet on immigration reform, which could pave the way for citizenship for nearly 12 million illegal immigrants. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she was not notified when federal agents conducted an immigration raid in Bellingham, Wash.

 

Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center, said Hispanic growth cannot be ignored in policy debates for too long. While in recent elections Hispanics have only cast 6 percent of the total ballots, “Latinos’ electoral power and participation levels clearly are going to grow,” he said.

 

Other findings from the data:

 

_About 58 percent of children enrolled in grades K-12 are non-Hispanic whites, a group that represents 66 percent of the U.S. population. After Hispanics, blacks were the second-largest minority group enrolled in K-12 (15 percent), followed by Asians (4 percent).

 

_Fifty-three percent of Hispanic 4-year-olds were enrolled in nursery school, compared with 43 percent in 1997 and 21 percent in 1987.

 

The census data was based on the Current Population Survey. Data on U.S. regions and states came from the 2007 American Community Survey, the government’s annual survey of about 3 million households.

 

AP Education Writer Libby Quaid contributed to this report.