Fewer Arizona families going to Mexico during Christmas break
PHOENIX Fewer families seem willing to take their annual Christmas trek to Mexico if they aren’t in the U-S legally.
And that means fewer children are missing school when classes resume in January.At most schools, the break starts Friday and ends January 9th.Three years ago, principals could expect to be missing as many as 30 children after winter break. Now, they say it likely will be fewer than a dozen.Sean King of the Border Patrol in Tucson says fewer families seem to try to cross illegally at Christmas because tightened security at the Arizona-Mexico border.
Soure: kpho.com
Mexico steps up control over imports of foreign Christmas trees
Mexico is stepping up control over imports of American and Canadian Christmas trees to avoid foreign plant bugs, the Environmental Department said Friday.
Nearly 100 special inspectors will be positioned along Mexico's 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border with the United States, scrutinizing the leaves and branches of the 800,000 Christmas trees it expects to flow south this season, said Hector Gonzalez, Assistant Attorney General of Natural Resources.
"We have to protect our rich forests and woodlands from exotic plagues," Gonzalez said.
Any trees found with disease will be turned back or burned, he said.
South of the Border, the Christmas Bonus Is Sacred
As a gardener, Carlos Bonilla Torres endures a series of indignities much of the year.
Clients order him to scoop dog droppings, tote furniture and wash their cars for no extra pay. Some never speak to him except to complain that the grass needs mowing. He bears it all for $134 a week.
But December is payback time. That's when even Bonilla's most imperious customers hand over envelopes stuffed with cash. The extra $512 he received this year will allow him to buy new clothes for the family and treat them to
Almaden Minerals Ltd. and Horseshoe Gold Mining Inc.: Drilling Confirms Fuego Vein System, Mexico and Will Recommence in January 2006
Almaden Minerals Ltd. ("Almaden") (TSX:AMM)(AMEX:AAU) and Horseshoe Gold Mining Inc. ("Horseshoe") (TSX VENTURE:HSX) are pleased to announce that Horseshoe will restart a diamond drill program after a Christmas break, on Almaden's wholly owned Fuego gold-silver prospect located in Oaxaca State, Mexico. The drill program will still consist of a minimum of 2,500 meters designed to test along the strike and dip of a quartz vein system identified and staked by Almaden in 2003. Horseshoe is currently working to earn a 60%
Company says Mexico to allow pipeline for Arizona refinery
The Mexican government will permit construction and operation of a pipeline to deliver crude oil to a proposed new Arizona gasoline refinery that would be the first such project built in the United States in nearly 30 years, the company behind the project said Tuesday.
Arizona Clean Fuels Yuma said it has reached an understanding with a Mexican ministry, the Secretariat of Energy of Mexico, regarding the pipeline, an offloading facility for tanker ships and a tank farm for temporary storage of oil.
David Traenor, a spokesman for Scottsdale-based Arizona Clean Fuels, called
Fewer Gray Whales Migrating to Warmth of Mexico
The number of gray whales making a yearly migration from the icy North Pacific to breed in Mexico's warm lagoons has dropped this year, possibly because of changing weather patterns, scientists say.
Whale food shortages near Canada and Alaska mean that some of the thousands of whales that make the 5,000-mile journey have departed late or even stayed behind this year, researcher William M. Megill said.
Other researchers said Thursday that varying temperatures in the Bering Sea could be changing migration patterns.
Megill, a lecturer at the University of Bath in Britain, said
Mexico searching trees for illegal bugs
Mexican officials are searching pine trees to keep some unwanted immigrants from crossing the border from the United States.
Mexico has strengthened controls on imports of U.S. and Canadian Christmas trees to avoid foreign plant bugs such as gipsy moths and pine shoot beetles, the BBC reports.
More than 100 agents are to be posted along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The crackdown comes as Mexico's own Christmas tree-growing market is blossoming thanks to government subsidies.
Mexican trees cost half the price of their U.S. counterparts. The Mexican government hopes to dominate the domestic market and eventually
Arizona Fugitive Detained in Mexico
Mexican authorities have detained and begun deportation proceedings against an Arizona man formerly on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Gary Edward Lasher, 28, was arrested Wednesday in the Caribbean resort city Playa del Carmen, said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Lasher is wanted in Oxnard, Calif., for allegedly beating his mother-in-law unconscious and placing her in his car trunk before she was able to escape. He has been charged with kidnapping, kidnapping for ransom, and false imprisonment with violence in a California state arrest
Mexico plans tax break for tourists
Mexican vacations would be a little bit cheaper next year under a measure approved by the lower house of Congress.
The bill would allow allows tourists a refund of Mexico's 15 percent value-added tax as of July 1, 2006.
Following passage in Congress on Monday, it now goes to the Senate. The federal Tourism Department is promoting the measure, which is similar to a practice used in Europe.
Only tourists arriving by air or sea would be eligible for the refund, which would apply only to products purchased and taken out of Mexico. The total
Two more busted gun trafficking to Mexico
Two more men were arrested in Arizona, part of an ongoing investigation of a gun trafficking operation selling arms in Mexico, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
The arrests of Antonio Moran, 20, and Francisco Coronado, 28, bring the number of detainees to seven in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation.
ATF agents in Arizona said some 84 assault rifles were sold to Mexican nationals over the last few weeks. Officials said they thought the weapons were being used by Mexican drug smugglers or those helping illegal aliens enter the United States.
Mexico's Suarez equals record
Veteran defender Claudio Suarez made a record-equalling 173rd international appearance as Mexico beat Hungary 2-0, their first win over a European side since the 2002 World Cup.
Striker Francisco Fonseca and defender Joel Huiqui scored in each half before a 25,000 crowd at the Chasefield stadium in Phoenix, Arizona, against opponents who played almost the entire game with 10 men.
Mexico gave four players - goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, defender Antonio Olvera, midfielder Andres Guardado and striker Alonso Sandoval - their international debuts as they tried to break their duck against European opposition under coach Ricardo La Volpe.
