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<p>&nbsp;Dos horas en el asfixiante calor… y la fila que no avanza, extendiéndose en cientos de latas metálicas atrapando a sus tripulantes que intentan pasar por apenas unos cuantos carriles.</p>
<p>&nbsp;No, esto no es una crónica del cruce a San Diego por la garita de San Ysidro, sino del intento de miles de tijuanenses por cruzar desde San Diego a Tijuana que se ha vuelto una tortura igual que el viaje Sur-Norte, pero sin los vendedores ambulantes de aguas y burritos de machaca.</p>

<p>New America Media</p>
<p>&nbsp;Frustrated by their inability to win construction contracts made available by President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, a new coalition of California’s minority contractors has decided to shift its focus to large engineering firms, which minority contractors accuse of ignoring small businesses.</p>
<p>&nbsp;“We’re sick of hearing the same thing over and over again,” said Ruben Guerra, who chairs the Los Angeles-based Latin Business Association.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;The impact of the economic crisis on the University of California has been in the headlines over the last two weeks.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;Last Saturday’s Union Tribune article on the UC budget meltdown drew heavily on a letter that was signed by 23 department chairmen at UC San Diego. Unfortunately, this has been the only public proposal from UCSD faculty and so all of us who teach there have been tainted with its self-serving recommendations.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;Higher Education in California is facing the greatest challenge in its history. But Latino youth will pay a disproportionate share of the consequences for the crisis in the next few years. The impasse between Governor Schwarz-enegger and the state legislature have created the conditions for an ever further worsening of the economy of this state.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;With this year’s unprecedented drop in state revenues, policymakers were forced to confront the problem of preserving programs and services that the public values – like affordable higher education and state parks – using the extremely limited resources at our disposal.</p>
<p>&nbsp;We recognize the need to reduce spending; however, we do not believe it is in the state’s best interests, either financially or morally, to eliminate entire programs.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;Foreign travel can be quite frustrating if you don’t know the language. Ordering food can resemble a game of charades, replete with wild hand gestures and grunting noises. Simply getting directions from a local can become an exercise in futility.</p>
<p>&nbsp;The frustration associated with an overseas trip is generally worth it, though.</p>