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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, May 6, 2015,
Vol.
15, No. 88
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 Municipalidad
de Palmares photo
The bandstand in the
Palmares park is getting a makeover to markits 80th year. To celebrate, city officials plan a display of old photos at the location Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Police note ease of stealing cell phones By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Fuerza Pública said that its officers recovered 52 cell phones that had been stolen in the first three months of the year in downtown San José Centro. Most of the cell phone recoveries took place because police were near the site where the theft took place, the agency said. Meanwhile dozens of persons lose their cell phones each day as they work or visit the center of the city, according to the Fuerza Pública. The agency said that most of these thefts take place when the phone owner is not paying attention. Crooks have been known to snatch cell phones from a table where an owner is sitting and eating. Of course, some are taken in armed robberies. Rodrigo Alfaro, chief of the police in central San José, said that a stroll downtown shows how easy it is to steal a telephone. People do not realize that dozens of pairs of eyes are upon them, he said. Crooks have been known to take a telephone even as the owner is holding a conversation with it. They just grab it and run. Alfaro noted that many of the crimes take place during the day when there are crowds on the street to hide the fleeing crook. The crimes are aided by the existence of many shops that sell stolen telephones. Rapist still on the run in Limón By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police agents are seeking Javier Flores Pastrán, a 27-year-old convicted rapist who scaled a wall and escaped from the Sandoval prison in Limón. The man entered the prison with a 10-year sentence a year ago. He escaped about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, said the Ministerio de Justicia y Paz, which operates the prisons. He still was believed to be free early today. Dramatic work will test language By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Here's a real test for expats who are proud of their abilities in the Spanish language. The Teatro Nacional is presenting the Spanish version of "Waiting for Godot" May 21, a Friday, and May 23, a Sunday. The Samuel Becket play is of two acts. The absurdist tragicomedy is hard to follow in English as is the situation. The play was written in French. The actors are Oscar Castillo, Luis Fernando Gómez León and Rodrigo Durán Bunster, who are well known in Costa Rica dramatic circles. Gómez also is the director. Our reader's opinion
Some suggestions for keeping propertyDear A.M. Costa Rica: I'm sure that you've been inundated with mail on this subject, property thefts. Really, the whole thing comes down to a few principals. They are not that difficult, and normally come under the heading of due diligence. Principal #1: understand the area, the business climate, and the opportunities for fraud or other crimes. This should be fairly easy here. The laws that exist obviously are not designed to protect the rightful owner. The reason for this is actually historical, and goes back to the era of a single, great landowner who permitted peasants to live on his property and were required to work and produce a profit for the landowner. They were called peasants in English. The word exists today in Spanish: peon. That word exists in English also, but the meaning has changed. Today, in Spanish, a peon is a common worker, construction, farm work, things like that. When the inevitable breakup of the large haciendas began, laws were enacted permitting those peons to remain on the land that they had occupied and worked on for generations. Only just, one would think. I would too. But today that law has morphed into a tool for legal theft of property. The people who actually go out and occupy the subject property are known as precaristas. This is translated as someone who has nothing, really the same as desamparado. Basically, homeless. That's a short form due diligence. Actually, the more comprehensive is a law, the more opportunities exist for abuse of that law. Look at white collar crime in the U.S. Principal #2: Once a likely property has been found, understand how this property has been held and guarded. This is more important than one would think. First, there are two types of property here: titled and concession. Concession actually pertains to beachfront property coming under the maritime law. First and foremost, understand that with titled property, you will own it with whatever is on the property. With concession property, you will not own the property, but will pay the municipality in which it exists for the use of that property. You will own whatever exists on the property. However. I would counsel people not to participate in concession property, as everything regarding that property, except the color of your house, is decided by the municipality. And they may eventually get involved with that. Regarding the actual guarding of your proposed residence: verify that you are actually talking to the owner of the property. That might seem basic, but there are a lot of people who forget to verify identity. If it has been guarded by someone, verify that that person has a valid contract with the actual owner. That is so important that I cannot stress it enough. That person may turn out to be one of the precaristas, and it will take you years to extract him from the property you just paid for, if you can even do it. Read the law: after two years, a precarista has rights regarding a property. After 10 years, he owns it. Read it. Principal #3: This is the most difficult of the bunch. You will not be able to transfer ownership of property without the services of a lawyer/notary. The notary part is more important in Costa Rica. The choice of this person will make or break your entire deal, and may bankrupt you. There are only two types of lawyers in ANY country: those who are honest, and those who profess honesty. Those who profess honesty are relatives of snake oil salesman, and are difficult to separate from those honest types. Here in Costa Rica, the professional organization (Colegio de Abogados) will not do you any good for recommendations. I have found only one way to qualify a person in that profession: Initiate contact, explain your intent, and ask for a contact list of former, or preferably, current clients, and their contact information. Then, you also have to qualify at least some of those references, as they may be relatives or friends. If you have the time, it would be better to use your prospective lawyer on something small and see if he performs as you want and see if you get your moneys worth. Don't be afraid to move on and find another. Last, after all this, if you need to leave your property, hire a guard. Have your lawyer write a binding, renewable contract with a reliable individual, who you have checked. This includes that persons references. Without this contract, you may have hired a precarista, who will take your money and not leave the property when the job is over and you want to use your property. And, that person may take all the contents including the windows and roof, if you can get him out of there. Above all, don't be in a hurry. I bought beachfront property here years ago, without a problem. That took almost a year. I've had a lawyer for 20 years who has always given me my moneys worth or more. He spoke English back when my Spanish was sufficient to buy me a cold beer, and that was it. He has proven to be honest. I stress "proven." They exist. They are most important here. I conducted my affairs in the U.S. for years without one. Don't try it here. Joe Sullivan
Puntarenas Cuba-U.S. ferry
services get approval
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Obama administration has taken another step forward in its efforts to normalize relations with Cuba by restoring commercial ferry services between the former Cold War rivals. The U.S. Treasury Department has issued licenses to at least four companies to ferry passengers and cargo along the 150 kilometer route from the southern tip of Florida to Havana. Three of the companies are based in Florida. In a related story, U.S.-based airliner Jet Blue announced Tuesday it would provide charter flights between New York City and Havana beginning in July. Ferry service between the U.S. and Cuba was commonplace in the years before the 1959 communist revolution led by Fidel Castro that overthrew the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista. U.S. citizens who wish to travel to Cuba can only do so under limited guidelines, including educational and cultural tours. Washington and Havana have held a number of high level talks since U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced last December the two countries were renewing diplomatic ties after more than five decades. Obama and Castro held face-to-face talks at last month's Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama. Days after the meeting, President Obama said he intended to take Communist Cuba off the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism. Open government committee decreed by Solís By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Luis Guillermo Solís has signed a decree to create a commission to promote transparency and open government. The committee will have as members politicians, academics and individuals from private industry, said Casa Presidencial.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, May 6, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 88 | |
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| Turrialba expected to continue its ups and downs, expert says |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The prediction for the Turrialba volcano is not what air travelers want to hear.  Red
Sismológica Nacional photo
Guillermo Alvarado Induni fields
a volcano question. |
A volcano
expert said Tuesday that the mountain will be having its ups and downs
over the next few months. That raises the possibility of more dustings of the Juan Santamaría airport with volcanic ash and the chance that the Alajuela facility will be closed down again. This already has happened three times in the last two months, much to the dismay of travelers. The expert is Guillermo Alvarado Induni, who is with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad and the Red Sismológica Nacional at the Universidad de Costa Rica. He said he did not expect lava flows outside the volcano's crater, although fragmented lava is contained in the ash that continues to pour out of the mountain. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad summarized the talk. Alvarado said that the eruptions Monday and Tuesday were expected because the volcano was resting for a week. He said that historically the mountain continues its periodic activity of rest and activity. That is why he predicts similar conditions for the next few month. The area most affected by the ash and acid rain is an oval with a five-kilometer radius around the mountain, he said, The Toro Amarillo and Sucio rivers that flow into the Caribbean also are affected, he said. The twin Turrialba-Irazú volcanoes have had six major eruptions in the last 3,600 years, the telecom provider noted. The firm keeps and eye on volcanoes and earthquakes as part of its maintenance of the telecom and electrical networks, it noted. |
| Report sought by Monday on problems with the arts festival |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
When the issue is the shortcomings of the Festival Internacional de las Artes the buck does not stop at the president's desk. The president, Luis Guillermo Solís issued a directive, he said Tuesday, for a report from the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud by next Monday. Casa Presidencial noted that the festival had been characterized by many canceled or reprogramed activities, low attendance by the public and a series of developments that impeded the development of the event. The report of the festival is to come from the minister, Elizabeth Fonseca, the vice ministers Alfredo Chavarría and Luis Carlos Amador as well as the director of the Centro de Producción Artística y Cultural, Inti Picado. The festival ended Sunday, and one major problem was the |
rejection
by the Contraloría General de la República of a contract
for sound and
lights. That pretty well doomed concerts and performances outside San
José Centro. But there was another problem. The festival was designed for the first time to bring culture to the people. The events were supposed to take place in four cantons, Desamparados, Aserrí, Acosta and Alajuelita. In past years, the festival was in Parque la Sabana. So the logistics were complex. Bands were well received when they ended up performing in the Central de la Cultura, the ministry facility on Avenida 7. Although the audience was thin April 27, by the next day and following evenings the young crowd was noisy and entertained. Solís promised to make the autopsy report on the festival public. The government and private sources invested about $1.4 million in the festival. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, May 6, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 88 | |||||
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| Researchers document major generational shifts in attitudes
about sex |
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By the San Diego State University news staff
Acceptance of premarital sex is at an all-time high along with an acceptance of homosexuality, said researchers at San Diego State University. The researchers analyzed data from the General Social Survey, a nationally representative survey of more than 33,000 U.S. adults taken between 1972 and 2012. They found substantial generational shifts in attitudes toward non-marital sex and the number of sexual partners. The results were published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. "The changes are primarily due to generation, suggesting people develop their sexual attitudes while young, rather than everyone of all ages changing at the same time," said Jean M. Twenge of San Diego State, who is also the author of "Generation Me." "This has caused a large generation gap in both attitudes toward premarital sex and number of sexual partners," she said. The biggest change was between the Greatest Generation born in the early 1900s and the Boomers born in the 1940s to 1950s, though 1980s to 1990s born Millennials are more |
accepting of
premarital sex than their 1960s-born GenX parents.
After barely changing at all during the 1980s and 1990s, acceptance of
premarital sex increased from 42 percent in 2000 to 58 percent in 2012. Acceptance of same-sex sexual relations more than tripled from 13 percent in 1990 to 44 percent in 2012. Number of sexual partners (controlled for age) also shifted substantially, from 2.16 for the Greatest Generation to 11.68 for 1950s-born Boomers and 8.26 for Millennials. "Millennials are more accepting of premarital sex than any previous generation, yet have had fewer sexual partners than GenX'ers. This is consistent with their image as a tolerant, individualistic generation accepting others' choices and making their own," Professor Twenge said. She said she theorizes that these shifts in sexual attitudes and behavior are linked to growing cultural individualism in the U.S. "When the culture places more emphasis on the needs of the self and less on social rules, more relaxed attitudes toward sexuality are the almost inevitable result," Professor Twenge said. Also participating were Ryne Sherman from Florida Atlantic University and Brooke E. Wells from Hunter College. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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| Role of Islamic State uncertain in Texas cartoon event attack By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States is not ready to credit the Islamic State terror group with carrying out Sunday's attack on a convention center outside Dallas, Texas. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday that it was too early to say whether the gunmen had any ties to the terror group, but he credited law enforcement with foiling what appears to be an attempted terrorist attack. "This is still under investigation by the FBI and other members of the intelligence community to determine any ties or affiliations that these two individuals may have had with ISIL or other terrorist organizations around the world," Earnest said, using an acronym often applied to the Islamic State group. Islamic State claimed credit for the attack Tuesday on its radio station, saying two of the soldiers of the caliphate carried out the attack in the Texas town of Garland, where a contest for cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad was taking place. "We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and more bitter," the Islamic State said in its statement, the first time it has claimed responsibility for an attack on U.S. soil. Police in Texas identified the assailants in the attack as Elton Simpson, 31, and Nadir Soofi, 34, who shared an apartment in Phoenix. The pair opened fire on the conference center, wounding a security guard before they were shot and killed by a Garland police officer. Court documents show that Simpson had been under surveillance since 2006 and was convicted in 2010 of lying to FBI agents about his desire to join violent jihad in Somalia. For now, Islamic State's claim of responsibility is being met with a degree of skepticism. "The Islamic State is an interesting terrorist group in the sense that it's not fussy over claiming credit for attacks or accepting members into the group," said Max Abrahms, a terrorism expert at Northeastern University in Boston and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. "This is why Islamic State appears to be everywhere, because it claims credit for any possible attack that could be connected to the group." Abrahms said the rush to claim responsibility pointed to the group's overall weakness and lack of support in the U.S. "The perpetrators were well-armed, but luckily they were very incompetent, and I think that just shows how desperate the group is to try to claim even foiled attacks as successes," he said. FBI agents and police searched the Phoenix apartment Simpson and Soofi shared, cordoning off the complex and evacuating residents for several hours. Still, the White House said Tuesday that the nation's intelligence agencies were still trying to determine whether the two men got any instructions from Islamic State or another group, or whether they simply were inspired by propaganda on social media. In some ways, whether Simpson and Soofi had orders from a terror organization like Islamic State or were acting as so-called lone wolves may not matter, according to former U.S. ambassador Mark Wallace, now chief executive officer at the Counter Extremism Project, a nonpartisan policy group. "Social media has changed the relationship between extremist groups and those that are inspired by extremist groups. They have much broader reach," he said. "That's the new normal, and it's a normal that we can't live with." Other experts also see another worrying trend: radicalized individuals who wait years before they take action, almost as if they were part of a so-called sleeper cell. U.S. offers fat rewards for Islamic State figures By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States is offering rewards of up to $20 million for information leading to the capture of four top Islamic State leaders. They include Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, official spokesman for the group. The State Department calls him the main conduit for Islamic State messages, including those calling for attacks against Westerners. The other three on the rewards list are Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, a former Islamic State deputy leader; Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, who ran an Islamic State prison where foreign hostages may have been held, and Tariq Bin al-Tahar Bin al Falih al-Awni al-Harzi, whom the State Department calls one of Islamic State's first members and a fundraiser for the terrorists. The money is being offered thorough the U.S. Rewards for Justice program, which has paid out more than $125 million for information on wanted terrorists since it began in 1984. Award to Charlie Hebdo prompts literary dissent By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A literary organization's award for courage to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has split the usually harmonious and left-leaning U.S. literary elite, with some of the country's best-known writers exchanging accusations of cowardice and blindness to racism. Best known for its cartoons that bluntly, sometimes lewdly mock organized religions and political figures, Charlie Hebdo was targeted in January by two Islamist gunmen who forced their way into the magazine's Paris offices and opened fire. Twelve people were killed and 11 others were wounded. Four years earlier, in 2011, Charlie Hebdo was firebombed after publishing an issue with a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover with the caption "100 lashes of the whip if you don't die laughing." Scathing, blasphemous, even obscene satire is bedrock in French political and literary culture, dating at least to Voltaire's savaging of Catholicism in the 18th century. But after the attacks, some American writers expressed discomfort with Charlie Hebdo's caricatures, suggesting that some were culturally insensitive or even racist. And days after the American chapter of PEN said it would give the first PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo at its annual fundraising dinner in New York, six prominent members wrote a letter of protest, saying they were withdrawing from the event. The letter, by writers Francine Prose, Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi, called the killings sickening and tragic and said no expression of views, however disagreeable, should be met with violence. But it said that some expressions should not be enthusiastically rewarded. Describing France's Muslim population as marginalized, embattled and victimized, the writers asserted that "Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Prophet must be seen as being intended to cause further humiliation and suffering." "PEN is not simply conveying support for freedom of expression, but also valorizing selectively offensive material: material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the Western world," the writers said. More than 200 other PEN members have since added their names to the protest, even as others, including Salman Rushdie, rose to defend the award and attack the critics. Rushdie, who lived in hiding for years because of Islamist death threats for his novel "The Satanic Verses," said "This issue has nothing to do with an oppressed and disadvantaged minority. It has everything to do with the battle against fanatical Islam, which is highly organized, well-funded and which seeks to terrify us all, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, into a cowed silence." In New York to receive the award for Charlie Hebdo, editor-in-chief Gerard Biard and film critic Jean-Baptiste Thoret spoke at a PEN panel about the controversy. The magazine's critics also were invited to participate but declined. Biard said the magazine had fought since its founding in the 1960s "against all discriminations against minorities, discrimination against women, against gay people, against weak people, poor people. And we are always fighting the right wing and the extreme right wing, even more than Catholics or religions," he said. "We have nothing against religion. We fight against political use of religions." Thoret said of the cartoons, "If you make the effort to understand what the cartoon is about, you won't be offended. It's more than a question of pushing the limit, or to be provocative. It's to make people think harder, to be a little more intelligent after a cartoon than before." Only a small minority of Charlie Hebdo's cover cartoons have caricatured Muslim figures. Many more have graphically satirized Catholic and Jewish leaders and political figures. Cartoons that depicted the Prophet, the editors said, were not anti-Islam, but were meant to scathe extremist, violent factions like the cartoon showing the Prophet himself about to be beheaded by a jihadi. The caption for that cartoon was "If Muhammad came back." Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN American Center, also defended the award at the panel. "Courage was really the word that came to mind, their courage in going on after the firebombing in 2011, and then earlier this year, after the attack on their staff," she said. Huckabee joins GOP fray with pitch to working class By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee jumped into the Republican presidential race Tuesday, launching his second bid for the White House. Huckabee kicked off his campaign with an elaborate event in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. If that town sounds familiar it's because former President Bill Clinton also grew up in Hope and famously ended his 1992 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in New York with, “I still believe in a place called Hope.” Huckabee launched his second White House campaign with an indictment of the Obama administration and a pitch to working class Americans worried about their jobs and social conservatives who share his opposition to abortion and gay marriage. “America’s leadership in the world is completely evaporated and the country is more polarized than ever in my lifetime. We were promised hope but it was just talk. And now we need the kind of change that really could get America from hope to higher ground!” On foreign policy, Huckabee vowed closer relations with Israel and a strong U.S. response to the threat of radical Islam. Huckabee said that if elected, he would not merely try to contain jihadism but vowed to, in his words, conquer it. “We will deal with jihadis just as we would deal with deadly snakes,” Huckabee added. “Let there be no doubt that Israel will know, as will the whole world that we are their trusted friend and the ayatollahs of Iran will know that hell will freeze over before they get a nuclear weapon!” Huckabee is 59 and last ran for president in 2008. He won the Iowa caucuses with help from social conservatives and eventually won eight state primaries. But he ran out of money and finished behind eventual nominee John McCain. During that campaign many analysts noted that Huckabee seemed to have trouble broadening his message beyond social conservatives to other factions of the Republican Party. In his second run, Huckabee is expected to emphasize a national consumption tax plus social issues popular with evangelical Christians, especially his opposition to abortion and gay marriage. But analysts said that like other Republican contenders he will talk a lot about foreign policy and national security issues. “I think when all is said and done and we get to the general election in 2016, you're going to have three issues: economic mobility, jobs and national security. And while they do overlap the ability for Republicans to distinguish themselves with the Republican primary on national security is going to be very, very important,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. Huckabee becomes the sixth officially announced Republican candidate. His announcement came one day after former tech executive Carly Fiorina and surgeon Ben Carson joined the Republican field. Three Republican senators announced last month: Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul from Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida. The latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found former Florida governor Jeb Bush leading the field with 23 percent, followed by Rubio at 18 percent, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 14 percent and Paul and Cruz both at 11 percent. Huckabee was well down the list with only 5 percent. Mrs. Clinton backs efforts to give illegals citizenship By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says the U.S. needs to fix its broken immigration system, and that any legislation needs to include a path to full and equal citizenship for the country's illegal population. At a campaign stop Tuesday at a high school in Nevada, Mrs. Clinton singled out her potential Republican rivals, saying that not a single Republican is clearly and consistently supporting a pathway to citizenship. With an increasingly large pool of Republican candidates who oppose legislation leading to citizenship for some or all of the estimated 12 million illegals, Democrat Clinton is hoping to get the attention of immigration activists and Latinos, a voting bloc both parties are courting ahead of the 2016 election. But to convince voters, she will need to be specific about how she would change the system if elected, analysts say. “The voters who care about this want details,” Darrell M. West, vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution said. And to win over the coveted Latino voter cohort, candidates need to back full immigration reform, he added. Nevada doesn't have the largest undocumented population in the country. It's not even in the top 10 states. But it had the largest share of unauthorized workers in 2008, according to a Pew Hispanic Center study, with 12 percent of its labor force working without legal documents, more than double the national rate of 5.4 percent and topping traditional immigrant hubs like California, Arizona and Florida. It's also a swing state. Both parties are looking to attract Nevada voters. The Republican party has not been successful in courting Hispanics in recent elections. But West said that if one candidate in the GOP pool takes a firm pro-immigration stance, that could be successful strategy, leaving the other hopefuls to carve up the remaining votes. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican presidential candidate, has backed off the notion of comprehensive immigration reform that he failed to push through Congress as part of the bipartisan Gang of Eight group. The son of Cuban immigrants now backs piecemeal legislation to address reform. Dividing up the legislation concerns some reform advocates, who worry that some immigrants will be left behind with the fractured approach. Florida's former Republican governor Jeb Bush, who also has announced his candidacy, said he supports a way for undocumented immigrants to work legally in the country. But he has not called for creating a path to citizenship. Cheryl Little, head of the Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice, believes Democrats and Republicans need to lay out exactly what they intend to do for the millions of immigrants living illegally in the country. "Someone can say 'path to citizenship' - but if it's enforcement first, then many folks will likely die before they get their green cards," says Ms. Little. Despite bipartisan efforts at immigration reform on Capitol Hill in recent years, the only substantial change, despite calls for an overhaul to the system, was a 2012 executive order by President Barack Obama. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals grants a temporary reprieve from deportation to younger immigrants with no legal status. On a visit to Nevada in November, Obama announced an expansion that would cover a wider age range of immigrants, as well the illegal parents of U.S. citizens. The rollout for that plan, set for early 2015, has been stymied at the state level. It's also where he touted comprehensive immigration reform in January 2013, fresh off a successful reelection campaign. Lynn Tramonte, of the immigrant advocacy group America's Voice, says the "immigration voter community is pretty skeptical of promises being made during campaigns." Part of that hesitancy comes from promises Obama made during his first run to prioritize immigration reform. The issue's importance slipped during his tenure, overtaken by health care, and Ms. Tramonte says voters who believe in pro-immigrant reform remember that. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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 Doggi Divino
Grooming Salon
photo
Petunia in full regal glory
There she goes . . . a canine queen By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Petunia is not only a canine beauty queen, she is bilingual, said her owners, because she answers to Spanish and English commands. The 10-year-old miniature schnauzer won the distinction of Doggi Divino Grooming Salon's Favorite Dog in a contest at a recent Newcomer's Club event. Petunia's favorite activities are going for a ride in the car, chasing birds and cats in her yard, eating assorted things like broccoli and Viennese sausages, waking her owners up in the mornings with a shlurpy kiss, warning of any untoward activities near her gates, putting her toys away when asked, and getting groomed at Doggi Divino, said organizers, noted that the dog tolerates getting wet for the sake of beauty. California broker admits he took the cash Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The former president and CEO of the Sherman Oaks-based Morgan Peabody, Inc. brokerage and investment firm has pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges stemming from a real estate investment scam that resulted in about five dozen investors losing nearly $4 million. The man, David Williams, 54, of Studio City, California, a licensed securities dealer and investment adviser, pleaded guilty before U. S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer. Williams pleaded guilty in the midst of a jury trial to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of tax evasion. In a plea agreement filed with the court, Williams admitted that he directed Morgan Peabody representatives to sell securities in a fund that Williams personally had created, purportedly to invest in real estate. The Sherwood Secured Investment Fund, LLC, a Studio City business that Williams owned, offered a 9 percent annual return on investments. However, as he admitted in the plea agreement, Williams used the majority of investor money from the Sherwood Fund to pay for personal expenses, including a lease on a $6 million residence. Between June 2007 and April 2008, Williams fraudulently obtained more than $3.75 million from approximately 60 investors as a result of the Sherwood Fund offering, the government said. In his plea agreement, Williams admitted that he used investor money for personal purposes and committed tax evasion by failing to file returns with the Internal Revenue Service for tax years 2007 and 2008, and failing to report the more than $2.3 million in income he received. Williams has agreed to pay additional taxes of $777,881 for those tax years, as well as the civil fraud penalty and interest. Williams is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Fisher Sept. 28. At sentencing, Williams faces a statutory maximum sentence of 70 years in federal prison. |
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Page 7: U.S. firm to market cannabinoid extracts Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Latteno Food Corp. of Bridgeport, Connecticut, said Tuesday that it will begin using high value cannabinoid extracts from Central America to sell to pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cosmeceutical industries. These cannabinoids will be used for health, and wellness products, the firm said without saying exactly where the products would originate. In addition, Latteno Science will begin building an e-commerce site for sale of Latteno products in legal states. "According to data from Euromonitor International, the sector witnessed sales of approximately $774 billion in 2014, and will have growth in 2015," said John Pinheiro, the CEO. With the quality of cannabinoid extracts from Central America, Latteno Science will have a competitive edge in the health, and wellness industry. We believe we are positioned to make a run at it by the 4th quarter of 2015. Latteno Food Corp. is an investment portfolio company that acquires food products, medical marijuana edibles and related products and services. |
