Latinos

Costa Mesa police on Tuesday released a sketch of a rapist who tried to kill a prostitute at Harbor and MacArthur boulevards last week. The woman told investigators that the man, whom she said appeared to be Latino and in his late 20s, picked her up in a maroon Toyota-type pickup truck at about 10:45 p.m. Thursday. When she suggested going to a hotel room he pulled into an empty parking lot by a hotel, pulled out a knife and threatened her as he made her choose between giving him money or sex, police said.

Hate crimes overall decreased significantly across Orange County in 2007, but crimes targeting certain populations rose, according to a report released by the county Thursday. Latinos, who were central to national discussions last year regarding immigration, were targeted significantly more than in 2006, the study shows. The group pointed to public debate over immigration last year for potentially triggering a backlash against Latinos. Blacks continue to be the most targeted for hate crimes, despite comprising only a fraction of the county’s population and seeing a drop-off in instances this year, the Orange County Human Relations Commission found.

UCI broke ground on a $40.5-million medical building Friday that will host programs geared toward underserved communities and enable doctors to consult with patients statewide. One of the programs prepares students to work in predominantly Latino communities. The University of California’s five medical universities are each focusing on a different underserved population, said David Bailey, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the school of medicine at UCI. For example, UC Davis is focusing on bringing advanced medicine to rural communities, and the University of San Francisco is focusing on the urban homeless, Bailey said.

Ana Avila bagged a small sugar molded skull giving the couple purchasing it an unexpected, yet welcome lesson on the proper practices during Dia de los Muertos as she rang them up. Fuchsia is the color of happiness and purple the color of mourning, not orange and black, Avila said. It is commonly confused with Halloween since they fall so close together. The “day of the dead” falling every year on Nov. 1 is a celebration of the entrance into a new state of existence, not the belief that death is the end. Families erect colorful alters clad with candy skeletons, and other items for their dead ancestors.

I wonder if recently resigned Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales is as irritating to conservatives as he is to Latinos. I think he must be an embarrassment to all of us who believe in the structure of our government and the importance of keeping the powers balanced and actions constitutional. With all the brainy and ethical Republicans out there and with all the brainy and ethical Latinos out there, they couldn’t find one who wouldn’t make decisions that could break the public’s faith in the government?

ORANGE — Members of the local Latino community joined the fray Thursday in the bus drivers' strike, picketing outside the Orange County Transportation Authority and voicing support for the drivers. At 4:30 p.m. at the authority's headquarters on Main Street, about two dozen people took up signs, noisemakers, a drum and a megaphone to show their solidarity with the Teamsters union, which has been negotiating with the authority since the strike began Saturday. Representatives for the organizations present said they sided with the drivers because they felt the authority's demands were unfair.

UC Irvine reported a drop in freshman admissions from a year ago on Thursday, but the campus reported increases in the number of Latino and underrepresented minority students accepted. A year ago, UCI admitted a record 23,167 first-year students, of which around 4,800 ended up enrolling for the fall. The number of students admitted this year was slightly lower at 22,153. Nevertheless, UCI admissions director Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth said she was pleased with the total and that the campus should have no problem reaching the 4,600 seats it expected to fill for September.

UC IRVINE — Administrators and professors celebrated the founding of UCI's new Department of Chicano/Latino Studies on Wednesday evening, as the campus held an inaugural reception at the campus' University Club. During the two-hour event, Vice Chancellor and Provost Michael Gottfredson, social sciences Dean Barbara Dosher and department chair Louis DeSipio were among those making remarks to the four dozen attendees. The department received official status as a department in June, but Wednesday's event formally recognized it for the first time.

The talk inside Alicia Andrade's herbal shop on West 19th Street on Wednesday afternoon was about the reelection of Mayor Allan Mansoor to the Costa Mesa City Council. Inside her small aromatic store, Andrade and a male customer wondered if Mansoor's reelection meant that his controversial plan to train police officers to check the immigration status of suspected felons would go into effect soon. "We're going to have to wait and see what he does," Andrade said in Spanish. The small-business owner said she has experienced the effect of Mansoor's plan since it was approved by the Costa Mesa City Council last December.