Latinos at greater risk of Alzheimer's

Hispanics at greater risk of Alzheimer's
High rate of Type 2 diabetes makes them much more susceptible
April 30, 2007
BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Staff Reporter ecepeda@suntimes.com
After Fatima Salmeron found herself wandering the street, disoriented and unable to find her way home, it didn't take her long to connect the dots between her late father Nicolas' Alzheimer's disease and her own frightening experience.

"I was two blocks away and had no idea where my house was," said Salmeron, of Humboldt Park. "I got so scared, I just sat down in the middle of the street and cried."

After the incident, she learned her recently diagnosed Type 2 diabetes -- in addition to the Alzheimer's her father had lived with -- placed her in a double risk category. There is a high rate of Type 2 diabetes among Hispanics. Salmeron, 45, is just one of the millions of Hispanics who have it and are therefore more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

According to a study in this month's Archives of Neurology, of a sample of 918 patients, the risk of mild cognitive impairment -- the transitional state before Alzheimer's -- was higher for patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The risk for Hispanic patients is almost three times as high as for non-Hispanic whites -- 11 percent vs. 4.6 percent, the study said. It's made worse by the Hispanic cultural characteristics of caring for the elderly at home and reluctance to seek health care, combined with a lack of Alzheimer's awareness.

"We didn't know my father had Alzheimer's until he was hospitalized right before his death. We just couldn't get him to go to the doctor," said Salmeron, recalling many times he left food cooking on the stove, wandered off and was missing for days.

Salmeron is being cared for by doctors and gets in-home checkups by a trained "health promoter" from the Greater Illinois Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association's Hispanic Outreach team.

For information, call (800) 272-3900 or visit www.alz .org/illinois.

Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo Crusades Against Bigoted Jersey Shock Jocks

April 20, 2007

Mr. Jon Luther

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Dunkin' Brands
130 Royall Street
Canton, Mass. 02021

Dear Mr. Luther:

Dunkin Donuts is among the list of companies that provide advertising for a New Jersey radio program that has a long record of mocking and insulting ethnic groups and people with disabilities. The show is called “The Jersey Guys” and features two shock jocks named Craig Carton and Ray Rossi.

In February, the program initiated a “public service” campaign called “Operation Rat-a-Rat/La Cucha Gotcha” that has offended New Jersey’s growing Hispanic population. The Jersey Guys contend their campaign is intended to help authorities identify and process illegal aliens. But in carrying out their campaign, Carton and Rossi made comments and employed devices to clearly target it at the Latino community – regardless of whether an individual was a United States citizen, a legal alien, or an undocumented resident.

The campaign’s slogan intentionally insults the Hispanic community through word play on the Spanish word for cockroach – “cucaracha.” The hosts further promoted their so-called campaign using Mexican music. Finally, they originally scheduled the end of their publicity stunt for May 5 – Cinco de Mayo – a significant day of celebration for the Mexican community.

I have repeatedly called on Millennium Radio to end this stereotyping of Hispanics. To date, all the station has done is take down a reference to “La Cucha Gotcha” on the Jersey Guys’ Web page and the show hosts have stopped using Cinco de Mayo as the deadline for reporting illegal aliens. They recently said they will continue their campaign indefinitely. Correspondence I have sent to the station owners, however, has gone unanswered.

This is not the first time that the “Jersey Guys” have set out to insult or offend an ethnic group or a minority of New Jersey residents.

The record shows both Mr. Carton and Mr. Rossi have hurled juvenile and hurtful invectives at the mentally ill, Asian-Americans, and Polish-Americans. Earlier this month, the public firestorm created by Don Imus’ insulting and condescending reference to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team led advertisers to pull their investments his program – a major factor in the show’s cancellation and Mr. Imus’ ultimate firing. By any standard of measure, the intolerance and hatred regularly aired by the “Jersey Guys” rates as a comparable breach of decency.

I have been contacted by numerous state and regional Latino organizations -- including the New York State and New Jersey Hispanic chambers of commerce, ASPIRA, and the Hispanic Directors Association of New Jersey, among others - who are willing to join with me in calling on the Hispanic community to refrain from patronizing all Dunkin’ Donuts franchises unless your company stops providing financial support for the “Jersey Guys” program.

The alarming trend in broadcasting toward displays of hyper-insensitivity in search of ratings must end. It must be demonstrably counteracted by elected officials, community leaders, and advertisers. AT&T already has cancelled its advertising on the “Jersey Guys.” Similarly, Dunkin’ Brands must stand as a corporate leader by sending the strong message that ethnic and racial remarks can never be countenanced.

Sincerely,
Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo

78% of Americans Favor Citizenship for the Undocumented

78% in poll call for giving illegal immigrants path to citizenship (USA TODAY - 4.19.07)

While Congress and the White House remain divided over what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now living in the United States, a new poll shows the American public appears to have reached a consensus on the question.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken last weekend of 1,007 people found that 78 percent of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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Undocumented Immigrants Pay Taxes, Too!

Tax Returns Rise for Immigrants in U.S. Illegally (by Nine Bernstein, NYTimes - 4.16.07)

"...[I]llegal immigrants are sending in federal returns in what appear to be record numbers despite fears heightened by recent immigration raids around thecountry."

Mr. Lima said that he had been a police officer for 16 years in Ecuador, before the country’s economic crisis left him unable to support his wife and three daughters on his wages. He sent them about half the $12,000 he made last year, he said. “I’m not afraid,” he added. “I really don’t feel I’m doing anything wrong. I’m working and I’m paying taxes.”

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Undocumented Workers are a Gift to America

I hear a lot of complaining these days about undocumented workers. But frankly, I'd trade the complainers for the undocumented any day.

Undocumented workers in the U.S. are a phenomenal people. Consider the following:

1) Undocumented workers are our hardest working people--and that by itself should be given some measure of respect in "free market" America.

2) Undocumented workers contribute disproportionately to America's economic success. Reports from California and Texas confirms this truth--although basic economic sense should have made that crystal clear.

3) Nativist propaganda aside, undocumented workers demand and receive less in governmental services. It's always been a myth that the poor in America receive a disproportionate share of government spending--the well-situated are the biggest beneficiaries. Undocumented workers are the lightest users of government services--and what they use is more paid for through the economic benefit of their labor.

4) Undocumented workers are bolstering the U.S. Social Security coffers--and while their U.S. citizen employers seek to avoid paying payroll taxes, many of the immigrants are actually making tax payments on their own.

5) Most admirably, while receiving a fraction of what typical Americans make, undocumented workers still find ways to send upwards of 50% of their pay to their impoverised families back home.

The truth is that some Americans resent people that are as hardworking and as self-less as are so many of the undocumented workers. It makes them look bad. However, if we were fair we'd be honoring these phenomenal workers and looking for ways to protect them from the exploiters and harassers.

Americans Frosty Towards Hill

In yet another indication that Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate has not been embraced by the American public, the latest Gallup Poll shows that an astounding 52% of Americans hold an unfavorable view of the senator.

By comparison, Barack Obama and John Edwards each have unfavorable ratings of just 30%.

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Undocumented Workers Bolstering Social Security

Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security With Billions (by Eduardo Porter, NYTimes - 4.5.07)

Since illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States six years ago, Ángel Martínez has done backbreaking work, harvesting asparagus, pruning grapevines and picking the ripe fruit. More recently, he has also washed trucks, often working as much as 70 hours a week, earning $8.50 to $12.75 an hour.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Martínez, 28, has not given much thought to Social Security's long-term financial problems. But Mr. Martínez - who comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hiked for two days through the desert to enter the United States near Tecate, some 20 miles east of Tijuana - contributes more than most Americans to the solvency of the nation's public retirement system.

Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits.

He belongs to a big club. As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year.

While it has been evident for years that illegal immigrants pay a variety of taxes, the extent of their contributions to Social Security is striking: the money added up to about 10 percent of last year's surplus - the difference between what the system currently receives in payroll taxes and what it doles out in pension benefits.

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New York's Ed Reforms Deny Immigrant Students Equal Educational Opportunity

New York's shameful practice of denying immigrant students the same level of access to its newest schools (small academies and chartered schools) continues unabated.

In School Records on Special English Classes Are Called Works of Fiction by Critics (NYTimes - 4.11.07), reporter Samuel G. Freeman logs yet another entry into the record regarding this unconscionable denial of equal educational opportunity to immigrant students.

Here are excerpts:

“Why do we have this problem, and why is the current response so wrong?” said Chung-Hwa Hong, the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, a group that follows educational issues, among others. “The problem is too pervasive to be dismissed as a school-specific one. In every major reform initiative, like small schools, the English language learners come up only as an afterthought. The reforms that should be lifting the most vulnerable students make them into collateral damage.”

Nina Chanpreet Singh, an E.S.L. teacher at Sports Professions, characterized the school's treatment of immigrant pupils more as a result of neglect, poor facilities and inadequate funds than of any deliberate bias. She said she considered the school to be “friendly” to E.S.L. students, about 30 of its 260 pupils. But she, too, drew broader conclusions from its performance.

When English language learners' needs are not met and “they do not receive the education they are mandated -- one of their most basic human rights -- it is a citywide and nationwide problem,” she said. “Entire generations of immigrant Americans are kept in a cycle of poverty. They do not have a means to move up in society, participate fully in society or fulfill their life's dreams.”

U.S. Latino Purchasing Power? $900 Billion!

Latino buying to shape future (by Brent Hopkins, Whittier Daily News - 4.13.07)

Latinos work hard, have money and spend it, and their vast buying power - close to $900 billion nationally this year - will shape the future of American society, including the housing market, panelists at a business forum said Thursday.

"This is a very hard-working community," said Henry Cisneros, who chaired the program presented by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization headquartered at USC. "No one surpasses the foreign-born Latinos when it comes to work ethic."

That work ethic translates into serious dollars. According to data from a recent University of Georgia study cited at Thursday's conference, Latinos will account for $863.1 billion in buying power this year. By 2011, that will swell to $1.2 trillion.

The trick for the businessmen and academics in attendance at the two-day forum, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is to turn that buying power into things like homeownership and future economic development.

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Interracial Marriages Surge

Interracial Marriages Surge Across U.S. (by David Crary, AP - 4.12.07)

NEW YORK (AP) - The charisma king of the 2008 presidential field. The world's best golfer. The captain of the New York Yankees. Besides superstardom, Barack Obama, Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter have another common bond: Each is the child of an interracial marriage.

For most of U.S. history, in most communities, such unions were taboo.

It was only 40 years ago—on June 12, 1967—that the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down a Virginia statute barring whites from marrying nonwhites. The decision also overturned similar bans in 15 other states.

Since that landmark Loving v. Virginia ruling, the number of interracial marriages has soared; for example, black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005, according to Census Bureau figures. Factoring in all racial combinations, Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld calculates that more than 7 percent of America's 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970.

Coupled with a steady flow of immigrants from all parts of the world, the surge of interracial marriages and multiracial children is producing a 21st century America more diverse than ever, with the potential to become less stratified by race.

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