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Fronteras: The Changing America Desk is a collaborative regional news service that explores the changing culture and demographics of the American southwest. Specifically, reporting will bring emphasis to Latino and Native American life and border issues affecting American politics, social order, economics and the environmental landscape. Fronteras reporters are dispatched throughout the American southwest. They seek to investigate hidden stories and identify emerging trends in order to help southwestern communities understand the complex changes taking place in border states from Texas to California, while increasing representation of the Latino and Native American communities across the media landscape. More at fronterasdesk.org. Program Archive:Program #031, October 5, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The spread of poverty hits an all time high for Hispanic children, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center. Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: International child abductions are on the rise, and Mexico is the number one destination. Ruxandra Guidi has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: A study by the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law finds that even though the majority of SB 1070's provisions were never enacted, it cause some migrants to move out of Arizona and they often left their children behind to finish school in the U.S. From Phoenix, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Less than a month after being sworn in, the United States Ambassador to Mexico is visiting San Diego and Tijuana to talk about his priorities. From our Fronteras Desk, Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: For the first time in decades, the Navajo and Hopi tribes have agreed to come together to advocate for one new Congressional district representing the tribes. From the Changing America Desk in Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: A native of Mexico and long-time naturalized U.S. citizen was confirmed as a new federal judge in South Texas. Hernán Rozemberg has more. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: Southern California was once a critical manufacturing center for the defense and aerospace industry. As costs have risen, much of that production has now moved right across the border to Tijuana. According to the Mexican government, the amount of aerospace parts that Mexico manufactures and exports has grown more than 15 times in the last 10 years. That output is expected to double again by 2015. In the Fronteras special series "Border Business," Ruxandra Guidi reports from our Fronteras Desk. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: New Mexico has a pretty lousy business relationship with Mexico. Despite its ideal location right on the border, the state ranks 38th among U.S. states in trade with its neighbor. That's a fact not lost on the business community in southern New Mexico, where an industrial revolution of sorts is slowly taking shape. In our third installment in our series on the maquila industry, Monica Ortiz Uribe reports on a growing industrial hub that's at the heart of New Mexico's plan to boost trade with Mexico. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #030, September 28, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Segment #1 A report released this week by the Texas Agriculture Commission and authored by two retired generals states that the Texas Mexico border is increasingly dangerous for the farmers and ranchers who live there. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: While many of the people who live along the border dispute the claims that it’s a literal war zone, there is mounting evidence that the Mexican drug cartels are a growing threat to public safety on the U.S. side of the border. Sylvia Longmire has written a book about that; "Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars" was released this week. She is a retired Air Force captain and special agent with extensive experience investigating Mexico's drug trafficking organizations. She writes that as long as billions of dollars in annual illegal drug sales are available in the United States, the Mexican drug cartels will be on the attack. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: In the latest twist to Washington's immigration debate, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to clarify some deportation rules. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Congress is pushing ahead with a bill that would mandate the use of E-Verify by all U.S. employers. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Maquiladoras are American-owned manufacturing plants in Mexican border cities. They have been around for more than four decades. Business has not been great in recent years with low-wage jobs shifting over to Asia and the U.S. recession devastating sales. Now many maquiladoras that survived this downturn are on the rebound, adding new jobs all along the U.S.-Mexican border. TPR’s Fronteras correspondent Hernán Rozemberg has more on the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Record high temperatures, severe dust storms and catastrophic wildfires have plagued much of the Southwest this year. Climatologists predict there won’t be much relief any time soon. From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: The spectacular failure of the American solar company Solyndra has focused attention on the struggle of renewable energy to compete in a global marketplace. Yet, there may be a bright spot in Arizona. The manufacturer First Solar makes those iconic photovoltaic panels more cheaply than anyone else. As Peter O’Dowd reports from Phoenix, the solar titan is trying to stay ahead of an industry in turmoil. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #029, September 21, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The best way to manage illegal Immigration is a divisive issue in America. Nearly all sides agree reform is desperately needed and that reform is stuck. One area of illegal immigration reform that’s getting some traction is the Dream Act. It’s a pathway to citizenship for those who were smuggled into the country as children and then pursued a college education or served in the military. To encourage a public dialog on the issue, Texas Public Radio held a Fronteras Town Hall meeting last night on the Dream Act. David Martin Davies reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: For decades, the Tijuana-San Diego area was one of the busiest human-smuggling crossings along the southwest border. In the 1990s, more than 1,500 people were smuggled through there each week. Rising violence and increased border security have drastically changed the illegal business and changed the role of those who look to help immigrants on both sides of the border. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Mexican drug cartels have threatened a high school football team. The potential violence has forced the team’s opponent in the United States to cancel an upcoming game. KSTX’s Fronteras correspondent Hernán (air-NUN) Rozemberg reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: The investigative arm of Congress has released a report saying that the United States military’s efforts on the Mexican border haven’t been managed efficiently despite the millions of dollars spent. Fronteras correspondent Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Elderly Latinos in Southwestern states would have the most to lose from potential cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Earlier this year a controversial Mexican American studies program in Tucson was banned. The Arizona state superintendent of schools, John Huppenthal says the program, which students could take instead of standard American history was out of compliance with state laws which prohibit courses from fostering resentment. Tuscon's school district is appealing the ban, but this means many teachers across the state are reevaluating the way they teach history. From Phoenix, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: When there’s snow in northern Arizona, people from around the region flock to Flagstaff for a winter wonderland in the middle of the desert. But in the desert, that snow is unpredictable. That’s been an ongoing problem for the local ski resort, the Arizona Snowbowl, until now. After years of planning and fighting in the courts, the ski resort is finally laying the pipelines to make snow out of reclaimed waste water. Local Native American tribes still bitterly oppose the project, as they believe the mountains are sacred. In Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports on this issue that’s polarized a community. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #028, September 14, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The lights are back on across the Southwest after a massive blackout last week that left five million people in the dark. What's now been dubbed "The Big Blackout" and "Black Thursday" took all of San Diego and Imperial Counties, parts of Arizona and Northern Baja, by surprise. Now, there are questions about whether the region was really prepared for a shutdown of this scale. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: On Sunday, the nation turned its eyes back to where the World Trade Center once stood, the Pentagon and Flight 93’s crash site in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The 10th commemoration of the 9/11 terror attacks gave us reason to pause, remember and reflect on how things have changed. And while the 9/11 terrorists entered the country legally, the attacks forever changed public attitudes toward our nation’s borders and in many cases toward immigrants. Border security became a rallying cry. Now, a decade after the Twin Towers fell, U.S. borders are much more protected, but experts believe they can never be absolutely secured. TPR’s Fronteras correspondent Hernán Rozemberg has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Everyday life has changed since 9/11. The most obvious sign of that might be in the front flap of your wallet. Most state drivers licenses have changed dramatically. Some of the 9/11 hijackers had drivers licenses and state IDs, which were illegally obtained. They used them to board the planes they ultimately crashed. That discovery galvanized state officials and federal lawmakers to make licenses more secure. From the Changing America Desk in Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: New mothers in one of the most violent cities in the world now have a peaceful space to bond with their babies. A new support center for breastfeeding moms called the Baby Cafe just opened up in the Mexican border city of Juarez. It's the first of its kind in Latin America. From the Changing America Desk, Monica Ortiz Uribe reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: It sounds intuitive, but the numbers are stark. The unemployment rate last month for people with a college degree stood at a modest four percent. Of course, it gets worse, a lot worse, for workers without a high school diploma. A report from the Brookings Institute shows that group’s jobless rate is 15 percent. From Phoenix, Peter O’Dowd reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: It has been three years since the U.S. economy took a nose dive. From 2008 to early 2010, nearly two million small businesses across the country closed their doors. Overseas, there are businesses that rely on the U.S. market and are easily affected by its downturn. Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez traveled to a town in the western region of Guatemala, where a group of indigenous women launched a cooperative during the U.S. recession and found success because of it. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: Arizona's Petrified National Forest is expanding due to the acquisition of land previously held by a private owner. As Terry Ward reports from Phoenix, researchers are eager to explore the 26,000 acres that, until now, have remained largely untouched. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #027, September 7, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The issues of birthright citizenship, and so-called anchor babies, have a way of flaring tempers. For now, anyway, the children of illegal immigrants born in this country are allowed to live here with the same rights as any other citizen. But it often happens that the children don’t live here once their parents are caught and sent home. In a joint report, Peter O’Dowd and Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez visited a small town in Guatemala, where more than a dozen American children live. It’s the the final part in our series, "Life After Deportation." Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Some DUI checkpoints throughout California have been criticized for profiting by targeting undocumented immigrants. A new state bill aims to regulate the practice. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: In this economy, retirement plans can unravel when adult children lose jobs, and there are grandchildren to support. In this installment of our special series "Retiring Retirement," we look at how, for many seniors, their golden years are more crowded than they anticipated. From Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Senior officials in the Obama administration pledge their support for renewable energy on Tuesday. But federal funds that subsidize the budding industry are threatened. In Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Wildfires burn thousands of acres across the west every summer. Those blazes destroy timber and grasslands but they also help the ecosystem. KJZZ’s Al Macias reports about some of those unexpected changes after the state’s largest wildfire. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Government agencies, scientists and environmentalists are entangled in a predicament more complex than a thicket of tamarisk. It all started in the mid-1800s when a pink flowering shrub was brought to the United States to control erosion. The tamarisk seedlings dug their roots in deep and flourished along the banks of rivers in the west. For the past few decades land managers have been trying to eradicate the non-native plant, most recently using another non-native species – a leaf beetle. And that’s where things get complicated. From the Changing America Desk in Flagstaff, Laurel Morales breaks it down. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: For the first time in Mexico’s decade-long drug cartel wars, Mexicans have begun to speak openly about the violence. People credit two poets for fostering that change. The first, Javier Sicilia led a march after his son died as an innocent bystander. The second wrote a poem that prompted two Los Angeles writers to try and convey the pain Mexico’s new poetry expresses to English speakers. From Los Angeles, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #026, August 31, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Mexico is still recovering from the shock of last week’s fire bombing of a casino in Monterry. Fifty-two people were killed. Police have arrested five of seven suspects who have been implicated in the attack. As Michel Marizco reports, unlike nearly every other crime scene, Mexico’s president called this one an act of terrorism and that changes the political undertones of Mexico’s cartel wars. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: President Calderon called the casino attack terrorism, and Robert Mazur agrees with him. Mazur is a former undercover federal agent, and he’s the author of the book "The Infiltrator: My Secret Life Inside the Dirty Banks Behind Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel." Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: In the wake of that massacre in Monterrey, a UCLA professor has an idea of how to reduce drug violence on both sides of the border: focus on violence rather than the drugs. From our Fronteras Desk, Jill Replogle reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: The U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke submitted his resignation to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, and the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was reassigned. Both men were tied to an operation aimed at major gun-trafficking networks on the Arizona-Mexico border. From Phoenix, Steve Goldstein reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere. The people who live there face a constant question. Should I risk leaving? Many already have. About a million Guatemalans live in the United States. And last year, the US government captured and sent home more than 31-thousand. In part two of our series, “Life After Deportation,” Peter O'Dowd reports from one Guatemalan town, where the question of leaving has a way of hanging in the air. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Longer life expectancies have helped catalyze what many are calling a new life stage between middle-age and old-age. In part three of our ongoing series "Retirement Redefined," we look at a growing number of older Americans who are putting off true retirement and finding second, or third careers to fill and finance their later years. Correspondent Devin Browne reports from Phoenix. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: A judge indicted three men in New Mexico last Thursday for fraudulently obtaining driver's licenses for illegal immigrants in New York. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports it's the latest case in a series of fraud investigations. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: A study released last week by Arizona State University finds that the widespread perception that Phoenix and Tucson are facing a water crisis may be overstated. From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 9: Over the past year, Latino enrollment has surged in colleges and universities. A Pew Hispanic Center report shows young Latinos in college outnumber all other minority groups. From Phoenix, Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #025, August 24, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Last week, the Obama administration announced important changes to its current enforcement of immigration law. The changes will impact the lives of 300,000 people, many of them from the Southwest. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: The effects of this Obama administration policy change will be far reaching. Clearly, those who’ve committed crimes, other than crossing the border illegally, will be the first to go. But as Fronteras reporter Peter O’Dowd found out while on a recent deportation flight to Guatemala, the new deportation policy could make a difference in the way immigrants are perceived when they get home. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: In New Mexico, Governor Susana Martinez has launched a residence verification program to make sure everyone who has a New Mexico driver’s license actually lives in the state. The real target here is illegal immigrants from out-of-state, taking advantage of New Mexico’s more liberal driver’s license laws. The governor’s office sent out 10,000 letters last month to foreign nationals with driver's licenses asking them to verify their residence. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports those who don't comply will have their license canceled. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: As baby boomers reach retirement age, many are facing diminished 401(k)s, dwindling entitlements and growing medical bills. With these new economic realities, some are wondering if it might be time to retire the concept of retirement. The Changing America Desk is exploring the idea of how retirement is being redefined in an ongoing series. From Prescott, Laurel Morales has the first installment. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Hate crimes against Latinos in California have grown by almost 50 percent between 2009 and 2010. Meanwhile, attacks against other groups continue to go down. From our Fronteras Desk, Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: University budgets across the United States are bleeding. From California to Texas, administrators are looking for ways mop up the mess. Arizona State, outside of Phoenix, is no exception. More than 1,000 people have lost their jobs since the financial crisis began. On the first day of the new school year, Peter O’Dowd reports on the way budget cuts and layoffs have changed one ASU community. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: The Interior Department announced this week it will be cleaning up tribal schools across the country. The agency will have to invest millions of dollars to comply with environmental violations. From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: Connoisseurs of the Sonoran hot dog slather their buns with everything imaginable, but now the mess is getting harder to clean up. A hot dog entrepeneur faces federal charges for trying to extort a rival. From the Changing America Desk, Michel Marizco brings us the story of Tucson’s dog wars. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #024, August 17, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Schools across the Southwest are opening this month with smaller budgets and fewer resources -- forcing districts to come up with creative ways to make up for huge losses. In this story, we visit three places with three different solutions to the problem. We start in Phoenix with Devin Browne, continue to Las Vegas with Jude Joffe-Block, and end in San Diego with Ruxandra Guidi. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: As students head back to school, some parents will sign them up for free school lunch for the first time. Across the country, the hard economic times mean the demand for the federal meal program has been growing. In Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Here in Texas during the recent legislative session, law makers chopped away at the state education budget. Now that schools are opening for a new academic year that budget chopping is becoming evident. The Texas Education Agency spokesperson Debbie Ratcliff told Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies what some of those changes will mean for Texas school children. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: A migrant education program in San Diego's North County has been named one of the top 10 in the nation. As KPBS Reporter Marissa Cabrera explains, it may fall victim to recent budget battle in Washington. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Newly-released stats from the 2010 Census in Texas show a skyrocketing influx of Central American immigrants over the last decade. The typical household is not so typical anymore. Fronteras Desk reporter Hernán Rozemberg explains. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: During an era of budget cuts and stricter immigration enforcement, many immigrants wonder whether getting public assistance can affect their ability to stay in the US. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: For many people, they got their first glimpse at the life of a jockey through the book or film "Seabiscuit." Marissa Cabrera introduces us to a real-life jockey whose dream of racing at Del Mar has come true. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: Property owners along the Texas-Mexico border are considering hiring a highly-armed private security company to defend themselves from spillover violence. Hernán Rozemberg of our Fronteras Desk has more. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 9: Port of entry construction projects along the California-Mexico border are facing challenges due to federal budget cuts. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 10: There's a new clinic in Tijuana offering free care to anyone who walks in the door. Medical students from both sides of the border work at the clinic. For the Fronteras: Changing America Desk, Kenny Goldberg tells us how a med student at the University of California-San Diego came up with the idea. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 11: Chocolate was considered a magical food by the Aztecs. When they consumed it, it wasn’t loaded with sugar but with chilies. They may have known something about nutrition that we are only figuring out now. New research shows chocolate could help your workouts. KPBS Reporter Marissa Cabrera explains the research from U-C San Diego. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #023, August 10, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Law enforcement agencies say the intensified cross-border crackdown on drug cartels is forcing them to fight for every drug load. Hernán Rozemberg from our Fronteras Desk explains. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Construction for the largest rail facilities along the U.S. Mexico border has officially begun in southern New Mexico. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: It was just over a year ago that three men escaped a private prison in Kingman, Arizona. Since then, there has been much debate over whether private prisons are worth the millions of dollars states are spending on them. At a time when many states are looking to prisons to save money, some say the costs outweigh the benefits. From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Remember Biosphere Two? It started out as a grand experiment in the early 1990s. Part of its purpose was to serve as a prototype space colony, enclosing humans, plants and animals in the largest ecology lab in the world. It failed. Now the University of Arizona is taking over Biosphere Two. Michel Marizco reports that the new research focus is climate change. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: An update on a special report we featured last week on "Fronteras": the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug to treat scorpion stings. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports it's believed to be the first FDA approved drug developed in Latin America. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: A Texas judge has reversed a recently enacted law giving the state power to deny or limit driver’s licenses to legal immigrants. Hernán Rozemberg reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: Two major gun rights groups filed lawsuits against the United States Wednesday to stop a new federal firearms reporting requirement. The new rules only affect the 8,500 retailers in the four border states. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: Police in the Mexican state of Baja may be getting security training from a law enforcement agency across the globe: Israel. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 9: "Terror on the Border" is the newest book by novelist Ernie Hunt. He claims it’s a riveting story so steeped in realism of the devastation wreaked by Mexican drug cartels that it is hard to believe it’s fiction. It features Jack Cassidy as the hero who takes on a drug cartel, headed up by an egotistical madman. Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies spoke with Hunt about the book and his portrayal of the border. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #022, August 3, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: To toxicologists the American Southwest is known as the Venom Belt — home to thousands of venomous animals, some of which can be extremely dangerous to humans. Scorpion stings alone affect thousands of people each year, but only about 250 cases are severe. Most of those are children who, without treatment, can die. Nearly a decade ago, the United States ran out of its supply of scorpion anti-venom. In a special report, Fronteras reporter Monica Ortiz Uribe explains how a Mexican drug company could come to the rescue. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: A Texas judge has reversed a recently enacted law giving the state power to deny or limit driver’s licenses to legal immigrants. From our Fronteras Desk, Hernán Rozemberg reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: There are almost 40,000 people in immigration detention around the country on any given day. About 15 percent suffer from mental illness; that’s the same percentage seen in the wider prison population. But unlike in federal or state prisons, there’s little oversight or regulation of medical treatment in immigrant detention facilities. That has led to some people being lost in the system. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Chevron USA is the latest in a series of companies asked to clean up uranium on the Navajo Nation. From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: An accused drug lord extradited to the United States has filed a motion in federal court alleging that he worked with U.S. agents. He claims federal federal agents had been working with a second cartel member and granted him immunity. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: The California State Bar is considering whether to admit a new lawyer to its ranks: an undocumented immigrant who passed the exam in 2009. From our Fronteras Desk, Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: Texas is turning into a hotbed for Hispanic conservative activism. In particular, there’s an expanding grass-roots effort to diversify the mostly Anglo Tea Party ranks in the state. Our Fronteras correspondent Hernán Rozemberg reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #021, July 27, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The fight for Latino votes in the next presidential race has begun, and it is playing out on Spanish language TV. On Friday the Democratic National Committee released an ad targeting Latinos in swing districts, including several western states. It is a response to an ad in Spanish that attacks Obama's economic policies. From the Changing America Desk in Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: The National Council of La Raza, the nation’s leading Latino civil rights organization, held its national conference this week in Washington D.C. President Barack Obama pulled away from the debt ceiling controversy long enough to speak to the attendees. He didn’t get the warmest of receptions. Conference attendees let it be known they wanted more from the president on immigration reform, and they want executive orders to make the reforms happen now. A survey of the NCLR conference attendees shows immigration is their top concern. Ellie Klerlein is the spokesperson for the National Council of La Raza. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: A government oversight committee’s investigation into whether a federal agency allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico grew no closer to a conclusion. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: For years, Arizona's illegal-immigration-enforcement charge has been led by senior lawmakers like Senate President Russell Pearce. This year, many of the most aggressive immigration bills were crafteda little known freshman state senator, Steve Smith. He introduced legislation that would have taken immigration enforcement into hospitals and schools. He’s now spearheading a fundraising campaign to use private donations and inmate labor for a new fence along the US-Mexico border. From Phoenix, Devin Brown Reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Police in the Mexican border city of Juarez are investigating a jail riot that happened Monday night. From the Changing America Desk Monica Ortiz reports 17 people were killed. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Governor Jerry Brown has signed the lesser of two bills that will grant financial aid for undocumented immigrant students throughout the state. From our Fronteras Desk, Ruxandra Guidi has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: Police in the Mexican border city of Juarez conducted a massive raid in search of missing people and victims of human trafficking. From the Changing America Desk, Monica Ortiz Uribe reports it's the largest such raid in recent history. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: Mexican and American health officials are trying to find the origins of an infection that’s now sickened 22 people on both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border. In the more severe cases, officials believe it’s left some people paralyzed. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 9: Texas history began at the Alamo, right? Not according to a group of Mexican-Americans in South Texas who say history books have it all wrong. As our Fronteras reporter Hernán Rozemberg explains, the group has been on a decade-long quest to honor the original pioneers, the Tejanos. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #020, July 20, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: A federal drug taskforce has made the largest seizure of methamphetamine in Nevada state history. The bust disrupted a Mexican drug trafficking organization operating in Las Vegas. Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: We are going to drill deeper into the meth problem. It’s the number one drug problem in much of the Southwest, and it’s been that way for the last decade. To combat the scourge, policy makers have made it harder to buy the ingredients to manufacture the highly addictive drug. As Jude Joffe Block reports, though, it hasn't done much good; meth trafficking organizations constantly manage to adapt. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Meth production in domestic labs may be creeping up again, according to some Southwest law enforcement. Five years ago, the number of meth labs here, both small and large, fell dramatically when it got harder to buy the ingredients — mainly psuedoephedrine in cold medicine. Now, criminal rings are finding ways to get around laws to restrict psuedoephedrine purchases. In part two of her special report, Jude Joffe Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Fifty-eight people have been arrested in Baja California, in connection with the largest marijuana plantation ever found in Mexico. From our Fronteras Desk, Ruxandra Guidi has more. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Federal officials are refining their plan to speed up solar energy development on public lands in six western states. The Interior Secretary announced recently the approval of four new projects. From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: The growing Latino population means more potential voters both, nationally and locally. The question for political leaders is whether that potential can become reality. From Phoenix, Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: Families covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, are concerned about potential cuts currently up for debate in Washington. A significant portion of minority communities are at risk of losing health coverage. In Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: Arizona State Senator Steve Smith has launched a website that takes donations to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill that allows for the site becomes law today. From Phoenix, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 9: In Nevada, the first new candidate for Congress officially announced his campaign on Monday. But no one knows which district he is running in. That is because the state legislature couldn't agree on redistricting, and the process is now tied up in court. Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 10: Rural areas and many parts of the Southwest are missing out on the internet revolution. But New Mexicans statewide can expect to have better access to faster internet connections in the coming years. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports a large communications company is making a $20 million dollar investment in the state. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 11: It’s become almost common place for the U.S. State Department to issues travel warnings about Mexico. But on July 15th the State Department issued a strangely specific warning that Mexican drug cartels may target a consulate office or a port of entry in the coming days. Warnings of this magnitude are only rarely disseminated to U.S. Citizens. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 12: Gun sales are up across the country. In Arizona firearm sales are especially high this year. In Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 13: Tijuanas biggest and most important art museum has been the target of a boycott by local artists and writers for the past three years. At the center of it is a politician turned museum director accused of corruption. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #019, July 13, 2011 An encore presentation of Program #013, June 2, 2011. Program #018, July 6, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: In northern Mexico's smallest towns, cartel violence has led to an exodus as people flee to larger cities. Along the US border, villages in Sonora, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas are emptying out, leaving lawless ghost towns. Fronteras Desk reporter Michel Marizco traveled to some of these towns in Sonora where residents say the government can no longer protect them. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: In the last 5 years, customs and border protection or CBP has added almost 10,000 employees to beef up border security. That's nearly 2,000 new employees each year. But with that boost in personnel, there's also more people vulnerable to the temptations of corruption. Currently nearly 300 border officials are under investigation for various forms of corruption. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: About 40% of the people who live on the Navajo Nation don’t have running water. That’s nearly 70,000 people. The tribe has been struggling for decades to get more drinking water. Now they are on the verge of a historic agreement that will help them get a share of the Colorado River. From the Changing America Desk in Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: The first ever bi-national, pro-life conference took place recently in Phoenix. Prominent Catholics are looking to build a Hispanic pro-life leadership base across the Southwest. In Phoenix, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Just before the 4th of July weekend, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Webb County Sheriff’s Department issued a warning against traveling to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, about 150 miles to the south of San Antonio. The warning said there was a creditable threat that the ultra-violent drug cartel the Zetas were going to target Americans who crossed the border. The travel warning received national press, but frequently the Nuevo gets left off the Laredo, and Laredo, Texas, which is across the Rio Grande from Nuevo Laredo, gets some very bad publicity. Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas wants people to know that his border city is safe, and there is no spill over drug cartel violence. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #017, June 29, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: A massive wildfire outside Los Alamos in northern New Mexico has grown to over 60,000 acres. Officials say the town and the nearby federal nuclear weapons laboratory are safe. Sarah Gustavus from KUNM reports for the Fronteras: Changing America Desk. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: As fires continue to rage in New Mexico, the Nationl Weather Service has issued a Red Flag fire warning for Southern Nevada and Northern Arizona, citing heavy winds and low humidity. Meanwhile, the upcoming holiday poses an added fire risk. From the Changing America Desk in Las Vegas, Jude Joffee-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: The U.S. Forest Service is studying whether the consequences of using air-dropped fire retardant outweigh the benefits. On the one hand, the retardants help put out fires like the massive Wallow Fire. On the other, critics say delivery is risky for pilots and damages the environment. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: State and county officials are encouraging residents whose homes or businesses have suffered substantial wildfire damage to let them know so that the state can potentially apply for federal help. From Phoenix, Mark Brodie reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: The Wallow Fire has burned more than half a million acres in eastern Arizona. Ongoing research shows as forest fires become larger and more intense, they emit more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and cause more global warming. In Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: A border-area lawmaker in Texas wants state troopers to help the federal government to stop southbound weapons and funds boosting Mexican drug cartels. Fronteras Desk reporter Hernán Rozemberg explains. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: The repercussions of a busted Mexico gun-running sting run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are being felt from the southern border to Washington, D.C. The operation collapsed earlier this year after a federal agent was killed on the Arizona border. As Fronteras Desk reporter Michel Marizco reports, the blame for the operation may scatter to several federal agencies. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: There’s something terribly rotten about the modern day super market tomato; that’s according to Barry Estabrook, author of the book "Tomatoland." Estabrook reveals shocking truths about the tomato industry, telling the story of modern-day slavery, dangerous pesticides and old-fashioned greed. He uses the tomato as a key into the U.S. agri-business that runs on illegal labor. Estabrook reminds us that we owe a debt to the mysterious civilizations of new world for giving us the tomato. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #016, June 22, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Texas and the Southwest are being plagued with wildfires. Currently, Texas fire officials are pouring efforts into battling dozens of wildfires statewide today. One of their top priorities is a fast-moving blaze in Grimes County. It has blackened thousands of acres and forced residents to flee at least nearly 2,000 homes and business. Since fire season started, fire officials say Texas Forest Service and area fire departments have battled over 12,000 fires that have burned over 3 million acres. In Arizona strong winds and a forest leached by drought drove wildfires into areas this week populated with many homes and ranches. Some animals panicked and were injured by the flames. Michel Marizco reports on a horse rescue operation on the border is now in trouble. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: New Mexico is also dealing with wildfires. At least three major fires are charring thousands of acres, including the big Wallow fire in Arizona which crossed the state line. Aggravating the fire season this year is a severe drought, especially in southern New Mexico. So far, the number of acres burned statewide has already more than doubled the yearly average. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports that, so far, New Mexico has done a fair job of managing the blazes. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: The trial for anti-SB10-70 activists continues in Phoenix. The activists made national headlines last year when they chained themselves to a Maricopa County Jail. From Phoenix, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: More than 21,000 Mexicans have sought asylum in the United States since President Felipe Calderón initiated a head-on war against drug cartels in 2006. Yet, in that time, less than 4% of applicants have been approved. Now, more asylum seekers stand a better chance thanks to a little-known legal case out of Texas. Hernán Rozemberg of our Fronteras Desk has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced on Monday that he will extend a temporary ban on any new uranium mining claims surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. During the next six months, his agency will complete an environmental review and recommend a 20-year moratorium. In Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: There is a terrible legacy of mining uranium in the Grand Canyon area. As the world entered the nuclear age, the United States searched for deposits of uranium to be mined, and a large one was found near the Navajo reservation in southeast Arizona. Navajos were hired to work the mine, but they were never told about the dangers of the radiation and given inadequate protection. Judy Pasternak has investigated this environmental disaster and wrote the book "Yellow Dirt: A Poisoned Land and the Betrayal of the Navajos." It is published by Simon and Shuster. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #015, June 15, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: In Mexico, the sight of a police officer doesn't always inspire a sense of security. On the contrary, many Mexicans distrust their local police force. This is the case in Ciudad Juarez where authorities have failed to control an eruption of drug-related violence that's left more than 8,000 dead. Yet, the city's new police chief promises to change that. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports the new chief plans to restore order and win the public's confidence. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: The United States is working to design a scanner that could pick criminals out of a crowd before they act. The Homeland Security department says Future Attribute Screening Technology or FAST is years away, however, some experts who've worked on the program say the technology already exists and would be used at airports and ports of entry. Fronteras: Changing America Desk reporter Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Since September 11, the government has compiled names of suspected terrorists and of people affiliated with them. This terror watch list has grown exponentially in the last decade, and some people, who have no terrorist connections, end up on list and can’t find their way out. From our Fronteras Desk, Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: A recent advertisement in "The New York Times" features an open letter from 50 prominent political figures, scholars, celebrities and environmentalists urging President Obama to extend a ban on uranium mining on land surrounding the Grand Canyon National Park. From Flagstaff Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: It's estimated that some 15 million Americans smoked marijuana last month. Are those pot smokers supporting Mexican drug cartels? What are Americans smoking, and where is it grown? From the Changing America Desk in Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block report. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: The U.S. government has granted asylum to a Mexican human rights activist who claimed she was threatened by the Mexican military. From the Changing America Desk, Monica Ortiz Uribe reports the announcement was made during a bi-national peace march in El Paso. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: Over the last decade forests in the Southwest have seen more catastrophic fires, like the one burning right now in Eastern Arizona. Scientists say it’s a result of unhealthy forests. A new effort aims to restore the landscape. And if it works in Arizona, it could be used on the 180-million acres of ponderosa pine forests across the west. From the Changing America Desk in Flagstaff Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: A new youth orchestra in the Mexican border city of Juarez made its debut this week. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports the orchestra is part of an effort to steer the next generation away from violence. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #014, June 8, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: 2011 was supposed to be the year of immigration crackdown at statehouses across the Southwest. In fact, nationwide, state legislators filed more than 15-hundred immigration bills. Many followed Arizona’s tough enforcement approach. But very few of these bills actually made it into law. Hernán Rozemberg explains why. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Interview with Adriana Cadena, director of the Border Network for Human Rights – which fought against the Texas anti-sanctuary cities bill in the recent legislative session – and plans to do so again now that Gov. Perry has added the issue to the special session. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Arizona’s chamber of commerce wants E-Verify to go national. After last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld Ar izona’s Employer Sanctions Law, the business lobby says everyone should have to check the immigration status of its employees. Some federal lawmakers agree. From Phoenix, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: More Arizona sheriff deputies have been charged with drug trafficking. This week, the accused worked in Southern Arizona. Fronteras Desk reporter Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Former Tijuana mayor and larger-than-life business tycoon, Jorge Hank Rhon is in custody for allegedly stockpiling weapons. Ruxandra Guidi has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: The Department of Homeland Security has come under fire for a program meant to get rid of undocumented immigrants who are dangerous criminals. Some states say the Secure Communities program is making their own policing efforts more difficult. Ruxandra Guidi reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: A southern Arizona wildlife refuge will open some of its historic trails to motorcycles and All-terrain vehicles this summer, a decision that conservationists say will further degrade old areas better left alone. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 8: The Colorado River begins high in the Colorado Rockies, and flows through majestic canyons in Utah and Arizona, all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. As summer temperatures rise and snow melts, boaters downstream are anticipating a big year. In some places they’re predicting the biggest and possibly most challenging rapids on record. In Flagstaff Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #013, June 2, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Illicit drugs arrive in the United States mainly through the southwest border. The drugs are destined for many places thoughout the north and east -- Las Vegas, Omaha, Denver, Detroit. It’s the drug traffickers’ job in places like South Texas and Arizona to get them started on their journey. Fronteras reporter Devin Browne profiles one particular drug route to the north. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon looks to reassure tourists that his nation is safe for a vacation and for medical care. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: An investigation by U.S. authorities found that between 2004 and 2007, one large U.S. bank allowed nearly a half trillion dollars of drug money to be wired through its systems. No questions were asked. The biggest depositors of that money include Mexico's cartels. Michel Marizco traveled to Culiacán in Mexico to explain how it works. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Drug cartels are now using ultralight aviation to drop marijuana into the United States, a few hundred pounds at a time. Peter O’Dowd reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Drug cartels are expanding their reach north of the border, trapping many U.S. public officials in a web of corruption. KSTX’s Fronteras correspondent Hernán Rozemberg traveled to Sullivan City, a tiny hamlet in the Rio Grande Valley now mired in drug trade controversy. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Border states are the first stop for drug trafficking organizations moving their products -- drugs and illegal immigrants north. Law enforcement here is working hard to stop this movement. The latest target is leasing agents who provide houses to cartels and their employees. Fronteras reporter Devin Browne has the story Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #012, May 25, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Illicit drugs arrive in the United States mainly through the southwest border. The drugs are destined for many places thoughout the north and east -- Las Vegas, Omaha, Denver, Detroit. It’s the drug traffickers’ job in places like South Texas and Arizona to get them started on their journey. Fronteras reporter Devin Browne profiles one particular drug route to the north. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon looks to reassure tourists that his nation is safe for a vacation and for medical care. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: An investigation by U.S. authorities found that between 2004 and 2007, one large U.S. bank allowed nearly a half trillion dollars of drug money to be wired through its systems. No questions were asked. The biggest depositors of that money include Mexico's cartels. Michel Marizco traveled to Culiacán in Mexico to explain how it works. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Drug cartels are now using ultralight aviation to drop marijuana into the United States, a few hundred pounds at a time. Peter O’Dowd reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Drug cartels are expanding their reach north of the border, trapping many U.S. public officials in a web of corruption. KSTX’s Fronteras correspondent Hernán Rozemberg traveled to Sullivan City, a tiny hamlet in the Rio Grande Valley now mired in drug trade controversy. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Border states are the first stop for drug trafficking organizations moving their products -- drugs and illegal immigrants north. Law enforcement here is working hard to stop this movement. The latest target is leasing agents who provide houses to cartels and their employees. Fronteras reporter Devin Browne has the story Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #011, May 18, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Is America’s appetite for drugs fueling the drug war? Top levels of the federal government say it’s our demand for marijuana and cocaine that has sparked deadly turf battles at the border. Fronteras reporter Peter O’Dowd explores just how much Americans love to get high. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: The Drug War is pushing Mexico to the breaking point. South of the border, journalists are killed, families are wiped out, and cities are overrun. Government officials are working against, with, and for the drug cartels. John Gibler writes about these people in his book “To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War.” Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Once drug traffickers smuggle their product across the southwest border, their next stop is usually a stash house in a U.S. city like Phoenix, San Diego or San Antonio. Couriers then pick up smaller loads to deliver to cities all over the country. Jude Joffe-Block reports on the folks who hunt for illegal drugs on American highways. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Alejandro Junco de la Vega, President and CEO of the Mexico newspaper chain Groupo Reforma spoke in San Antonio to the World Affairs Council. Junco used newspaper headlines to lay out the plague of violence that has befallen his homeland only 150 miles from San Antonio. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Program #010, May 11, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: President Barack Obama traveled to El Paso to hit the reset button on immigration reform. Yet, he provided an outline for revamping the immigration system that is not substantially different from the failed plan of President George W. Bush. That 2007 proposal was torpedoed by Republican opposition as an amnesty plan. Undeterred and apparently feeling the pressure to rebuild Latino support for his reelection, Obama traveled to the border city to explain how his plan will link immigration reform and security along the U.S. southern border. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: As Obama delivered the speech, he was not very far from one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Fronteras reporter Monica Ortiz Uribe has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: The Federation for American Immigration Reform is a nonprofit group advocating for changes in U.S. immigration policy that would lead to significant reductions in immigration, both legal and illegal. We spoke to FAIR's spokesperson Christen Williamson from her office in Washington D.C. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: As President Obama delivered his speech in El Paso, the group Border Network for Human Rights held a nearby rally demanding action from the White House to mend immigration now. Cristina Parker is the spokesperson for the Border Network for Human Rights. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: After Obama delivered his speech, he met briefly with border officials, mayors of Texas border cities and other Hispanic leaders, including Eddie Aldrete, President of San Antonio’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Aldrete believes Obama’s plan is a practical approach to getting immigration reform passed. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Program #009, May 4, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: Long known as Arizona's beach town, tourists and business owners in Rocky Point, Mexico, say a recent State Department travel warning about this place is unfair. As reporter Michel Marizco finds, hoever, cartel violence in Mexico has quietly crept in and goes mostly unreported. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: The Alamo is remembered for the battle in 1836 and the fate of the brave defenders who became martyrs for Texas freedom. Now, there’s a new battle of the Alamo underway, and it’s over the fate of the San Antonio Spanish mission. At stake is the future of the landmark. Fronteras reporter Hernan Rozemberg has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: During the 19th century, gold mining fueled the expansion into the so-called Wild West. Today, rising gold prices have led to a new gold rush with ten old mines reopened in the last decade, drawing multinational companies to remote mountain and desert areas in the Southwest. Ruxandra Guidi has our story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: A recent report by a government watchdog reveals a hole in border security. Fronteras reporter Amy Isackson says that most southbound border lanes, headed into Mexico, lack license plate readers. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: A program aimed at increasing student achievement among Latino students has spread across the state of Nevada. “Beat the Odds” first launched four years ago as a research project. Today, it’s an institute working with dozens of K-12 schools with minority students and making a difference. From the Changing America Desk in Phoenix, Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Federal land managers are testing a new horse contraceptive. They’re trying to develop a drug that will keep wild horses sterile for longer. Peter O’Dowd reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 7: We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the results of the 2010 Census, but a lesser known census also took place last year. It was the first-ever Dog Census, conducted informally online. It confirmed something we’ve known for many years: America’s favorite family dog is the mutt. Owners spend billions of dollars a year to care for them. Now, Gillian Ferris Kohl reports from Flagstaff, a growing number of people are investing in dog DNA tests to find out a little more about what their mutt is made of. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #008, April 27, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The census numbers are in, and as we’ve reported, the Southwest has experienced huge growth in its Latino population. Now, we’ll see how those numbers will change the politics of the region. From city councils to congressional seats, more and more political districts in the Southwest could become Latino-majorities. From the Changing America Desk, Al Macias and Jude Joffe-Block have this joint report to explain the process of political redistricting. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Extreme drought continues throughout New Mexico and Texas. The dry conditions are causing dangerous wildfires and are hurting farmers and ranchers across the region. In New Mexico, less water equals higher costs. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports that as a result, farmers are having to adapt the way they farm. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: As U.S. Customs agents are on the lookout for drugs heading north of the border, Mexico’s agents are looking for the firearms and cash proceeds of the U.S. drug trade. The San Ysidro border crossing into Tijuana is the busiest in the world; an average of 40,000 vehicles travel through it each day. Ruxandra Guidi brings us the story of a young Mexican customs official who monitors the border six days a week. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Chiles are the state treasure of New Mexico, and now its authenticity is protected by law. If you lie about selling the real thing, you could go to jail. Governor Susana Martinez signed the legislation into law earlier this month. That's welcome news for chile growers throughout the state. Fronteras reporter, Monica Ortiz Uribe traveled to Hatch — the center of the universe for New Mexico chili. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: The Southwest is the nation’s leader in urban and residential rooftop solar technologies. This green energy boom, however, has left many working-class Latinos behind. Ruxandra Guidi has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: Back in 2007, the Hualapai Native American tribe of Northern Arizona divised a way for tourists to walk above the Grand Canyon's western rim — the Skywalk, a glass horseshoe-shaped walkway that juts out, above the canyon. The attraction was built with the help of a Las Vegas businessman who invested millions, and it opened with great fanfare. Now, four years later, the management of the attraction is on shaky ground. Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #007, April 20, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The quiet Mexican farming town of San Fernando has achieved a new and horrible notoriety in Mexico’s drug war. Around 150 corpses have been recovered from mass graves there, believed to be the work of warring drug cartels. The nearby city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, is where the bodies were taken. Hundreds of mourning families from across Mexico have come to the Matamoros morgue hoping to identify their disappeared relatives. Hernán Rozemberg has the story from Matamoros. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Thirty reporters have been killed in Mexico's drug war during the last four years. This week, three media summits in San Diego address press freedom and safety south of the border. Though the crisis has received more attention lately, Fronteras reporter Amy Isackson says little in Mexico has improved. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: After Arizona signed its controversial immigration bill last summer, the Mexican border state Sonora saw a surge of enrollment in their schools. Kids born or raised in the U.S. were coming back to Mexico and many did not read, write, or even speak Spanish. Now, Sonoran schools are faced with a problem all too familiar to many American school districts — the task of educating students who don't speak the language and don't know the culture. From the Fronteras: Changing America desk, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: The new 2010 census shows a steady growth in the Native American population over the past ten years across the southwest. But, the country’s largest Indian reservation, the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region, actually saw its population shrink by 3%. In the final installment of our Fronteras series "Sensing Change," Daniel Kraker visited the small reservation town of Ganado, Arizona to find out where the people are going. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: The Mission San Xavier del Bac in southern Arizona was built by Franciscan Monks in 1797. The White Dove of the Desert, it's called. It glows like balefire amid the mesquite, but the mortar of its adobe brick walls is dry and cracking. So, for five generations, a single family has been using an ancient recipe to repair and restore the mission. Fronteras reporter Michel Marizco spent some time with the family to bring us the process. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #005, April 6, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: A group of Hispanic lawmakers has filed a preemptive lawsuit against the state of Texas over redistricting. The Mexican American Legislative Caucus filed the suit Tuesday to prevent the use of 2010 census--data which they say is flawed. David Martin Davies spoke to Representative Trey Martinez Fisher a Democrat from San Antonio and the Chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: In Nevada, there is also a debate about how to give the growing Latino population its political due in redistricting. The population of Nevada grew by 700,000 last decade, and almost half of that new population is Latino. That growth means one out four people in the state is Latino. It also means Nevada qualifies for a fourth congressional seat. Some political players are now wondering whether that new congressional district may hold a Latino majority. Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: As the 2010 census is tallied, we are getting a clearer picture of the Latino population in the United States. A recent report from the Department of Labor focuses on Latinos in the labor force and how they are faring in the slow economic recovery. Betsy Stevenson the Labor Department’s chief economist said Latinos are falling behind. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said that while the economic recovery is improving the nation's employment prospects, Hispanics need more help finding jobs. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: The 2010 census numbers confirm just how dismal the housing market is in much of the Southwest. In southern California, the numbers show people flocked inland; that sparked building fever. But, in the latest in our series, "Sensing Change," Fronteras reporter Amy Isackson found many of these dream homes have become a nightmare. She traveled to the city of Brawley in Imperial County, about 150 miles east of San Diego. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Ten years ago, Maricopa, Arizona was an unincorporated town south of Phoenix with just a little more than 1,000 people. Today, according to the 2010 Census, it is a city boasting more than 43,000 residents. Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez reports how Maricopa made its mark on the state map and how its boom and bust has become the quintessential image of the nation’s economy. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #004, March 30, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The census figures released over the past few weeks show that the Southwest is home to three of the fastest-growing states in the country. This is especially good news for people here in public and non-profit sectors who use those numbers to lay claim on new sources of funding. Fronteras reporter Devin Browne explains how census numbers translate into money. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: The nation as a whole is getting older. The 2010 census numbers show the percentage of people over age 40 is growing faster than those under 30. In New Mexico the median age is 35, just under the national average. But at least one county in this state is not average. Monica Ortiz Uribe visited the county to experience a community where young people are largely absent. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Inside a strip mall, next to a retirement community in Oceanside, California, sits a small family-owned restaurant. It’s called Grandma’s, and in many ways, it’s your typical mom-and-pop joint. But it’s also something else: proof of the demographic changes that the 2010 census results show are sweeping inland San Diego County and much of the rest of California. Ruxandra Guidi has more. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: When census figures for Texas were released last month, they revealed that Hispanics accounted for two-thirds of the state’s growth in the last decade. They now comprise nearly 40% of the Texas population. But as Hernán Rozemberg of our Fronteras: Changing America Desk reports, the many communities on the border called "colonias" were not counted in the census. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: The biggest story from the 2010 census in the Southwest is that Hispanics led the population's growth. Yet, another statistic jumps out: the fastest growing population in the region? Asians. In Nevada, their numbers doubled in the past decade. Reporter Jude Joffe-Block takes us to one street that has been transformed by Asian businesses. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #003, March 23, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The Border Patrol in San Diego detained 13 undocumented immigrants all wearing U.S. Marine uniforms and riding in a white van with altered U.S. government license plates. Fronteras reporter Amy Isackson says officials will not say why the news has not come out before now. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Three people are accused of trying to buy anti-tank weapons in Arizona for a drug cartel in Mexico. Federal indictments were unsealed this week in Phoenix. Court documents show the three also tried to buy a Stinger missile. Michel Marizco reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: It is clear that the U.S. southern border is an increasingly dangerous place. To get an update on what is being done to counter the instability on the border, David Martin Davies speaks with the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: In the last two decades, the Bureau of Land Management has distributed more than 74,000 permits to drill for oil and gas on public land. Solar companies, on the other hand, have received nine permits. The Obama administration is now trying to even the field. It is proposing solar zones across the southwest. From the Changing America Desk in Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Ray Suarez is the senior correspondent for "The News Hour" on PBS; it airs weekdays at 7:00 p.m. on KLRN. Suarez is also a former host of NPR’s "Talk of the Nation." And, he’s the author of the book "The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America." Suarez will be in San Antonio on Saturday to discuss the role of the church in our shared public life. He will be at St. Marks Episcopal Church at 315 Pecan Street. More information is online at stmarks-sa.org. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript
Program #002, March 16, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: The ATF is under fire for a controversial program allowing weapons to be smuggled in Mexico. At the same time, the ATF is Arizona says they are seeing an alarming increase in high caliber guns and military weapons like grenades being smuggled south. Michel Marizco has the story. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: The United States says it will do it’s best to stop the flow of firearms into Mexico. Here’s President Barack Obama speaking to the issue in a recent White House press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: To the American public it is a 2,000-mile-long, multi-billion dollar project designed to keep illegal immigrants, narcotics and terrorist outside of the United States. It's the Border Fence. But is it working? Robert Lee Maril is a professor of sociology and the founding director of the Center for Diversity and Inequality Research at East Carolina University. He has writing the book "The Fence," published by Texas Tech University Press. David Martin Davies spoke to Maril. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: Researchers at Arizona State University are trying to reduce colon cancer deaths among Latinos. But they’re having trouble convincing Hispanic men to join the study. Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez reports Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: In the Southwest, children who are deficient in speaking English are sent to special classes to teach them the language. But in Arizona the number of kids in these classes has shrunk considerably over the last five years, faster than in both California and Texas. Arizona’s Department of Education says this is because their English program is working. Others claim the drop has more to do with a testing process that is designed to push students out of English classes before they’re really ready. From Phoenix, Devin Browne reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: This recession has net been good to the gambling industry. Revenues are down for the third year in a row. Everybody is struggling to bring in new customers. In Primm, Nevada, along the California border, one casino cluster is playing the Latino card. From Las Vegas Jude Joffe Block reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Program #001, March 9, 2011 Full Program Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 1: This week the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the International Day of the Woman. In San Antonio last Saturday the event was marked with a protest march through the downtown streets. Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies was there. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 2: Other than what to do with them, few debates surrounding illegal immigrants cause as many arguments as what we should call them. Reporter Michel Marizco spent some time talking to border residents to see what language people use to describe illegal immigrants. Some of the answers may surprise you. We want to warn you ahead of time; there is some language that you may find offensive. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 3: Curanderismo is a mind-body healing approach which utilizes a merging of Catholic prayer rituals, massage, and psychic healing. Although the traditional beliefs associated with curanderismo are common in Hispanic-American communities, particularly in the Southwest, the changing face of America and the burgeoning populations of especially Mexican Americans throughout the United States see a concomitant pervasive growth of this healing system in places as distant from the American Southwest as the Pacific Northwest. Joanne B. Mulcahy chronicles the life of one such curandera in the town of Nyssa, Oregon in her book, Remedios: The Healing Life of Eva Castellanoz., published by Trinity University Press. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 4: $140 billion: that’s the combined budget deficit states are facing when federal stimulus dollars dry up this summer. Many state lawmakers are eyeing their swollen Medicaid programs to help balance those budgets. In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer has proposed cutting about a quarter million people from its rolls. And some in the state government want to go even further, as Daniel Kraker reports from Flagstaff. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 5: Traversing the Grand Canyon has become the ultimate challenge for extreme runners around the world. The fastest known time for the epic trail run is just under seven hours. But an athlete from Flagstaff, Arizona, plans to beat it this spring. in Flagstaff Laurel Morales reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript Segment 6: There's a sport played by many Mexicans and Mexican Americans in towns along the border. Some people call it "Mexican Rodeo." But despite its popularity, it's increasingly hard for its unique and colorful riders to find a place to practice their sport. Ruxandra Guidi reports. Audio Player Requires Flash and JavaScript  |
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