May 2008 – Paloma Cruz

in Pasadena, history gets funded

Award will fund teacher training, pique student interest in history
— Houston Chronicle²

Pasadena students could soon receive a better education in history after the school district was awarded the Teaching American History Grant.

The Pasadena school district is the newest recipient of the grant aimed at simultaneously improving students’ history knowledge and teachers’ classroom skills.

The $949,434 grant will fund training with expert historians in cutting-edge techniques to develop teacher knowledge and appreciation for American history, encourage dynamic instruction and make history an interesting subject.

The curriculum is geared toward developing the classroom strategy of teachers and to help them bring American history alive for students.

Teachers in this program gain a deeper understanding of history.

[snip]

Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.

nude photos on cell phone

Students’ phones seized over girls’ nude photos
‘It’s child pornography,’ superintendent says
— Houston Chronicle²

Police in the Santa Fe school district have confiscated dozens of
phones as they search for nude images of two junior high school girls
that were forwarded to numerous students, the district superintendent
said Tuesday.

“Those students forwarded the images and the circle opened up and got wider and wider,” Superintendent Jon Whittemore said.

The two Santa Fe Junior High School students took nude photos of
themselves and sent them to their boyfriends, Whittemore said. The
boyfriends forwarded the photos to others, who in turn forwarded them
again, he said.

“It’s child pornography, is what it is,” Whittemore said.

[snip]

Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.

would you wait our a hurricane at home?

According to this article by the Houston Business Journal, 39% of Houstonians will not evacuate in case of a hurricane. Will you?

Business and political leaders in Harris County should be prepared for unprecedented change during the next 20 years as Hispanics become the dominant demographic group in the region.

That was the message delivered at a Houston conference Thursday morning presented by the Greater Houston Partnership and Hispanic business groups.

The focal point of the conference was a report issued by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute titled “Increasing Wealth in the Latin Community.”

Harry Pachon, the institute’s president and CEO, said an affluent Latino middle class is growing at a rapid pace. Nationwide, 37 percent of Hispanic households have incomes of more than $50,000 and 10 percent are above $100,000, he noted.

[snip]

I didn’t evacuate during Rita, but everyone in my family did. I still think that was the right idea.

Hispanic growth an economic factor

Report: Houston should prepare for Hispanic growth
— Houston Business Journal

Business and political leaders in Harris County should be prepared for unprecedented change during the next 20 years as Hispanics become the dominant demographic group in the region.

That was the message delivered at a Houston conference Thursday morning presented by the Greater Houston Partnership and Hispanic business groups.

The focal point of the conference was a report issued by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute titled “Increasing Wealth in the Latin Community.”

Harry Pachon, the institute’s president and CEO, said an affluent Latino middle class is growing at a rapid pace. Nationwide, 37 percent of Hispanic households have incomes of more than $50,000 and 10 percent are above $100,000, he noted.

[snip]

undocumented workers bring $1.8 trillion in spending

Price put at $1.8 trillion
Study: That’s what U.S. would lose if undocumented immigrants vanished
— Houston Chronicle²

If the 8.1 million undocumented immigrants who cut lawns, bus tables and perform other jobs disappeared overnight, the nation’s economy would lose nearly $1.8 trillion in annual spending.

Texas, the second-hardest-hit state after California, would lose 1.2 million undocumented workers and $220.7 billion in expenditures.

These are just some of the findings from a study done by the Perryman Group, a Waco-based economic analysis firm, whose work was commissioned by Americans for Immigration Reform, a group spearheaded by the Greater Houston Partnership.

[snip]