Samantha Garvey wins Hispanic Hero Award

By Kristina Puga |

NBC LATINO - Samantha Garvey, the former homeless high school student who defied all odds to become a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Search, is the youngest recipient of the Hispanic Hero Award. The 6th Annual Hispanic Hero Award Gala presented by U.S. Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education (USHYEE) took place last night in the BWI Airport Marriot in Linthicum Heights, MD.  Garvey is celebrating not only her award, because tomorrow, she will also be graduating from Brentwood High School in New York.

Source: NBC LATINO>>>

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Topic: Education

Rubio Says Obama Didn’t Reach Out to Him on Immigration Move

By Kathleen Hunter |

Senator Marco Rubio said President Barack Obama showed he was only “interested in a talking point” by not consulting congressional Republicans on a directive halting the deportations of some young people brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.

The first-term senator from Florida, who declined to discuss reports that he is being vetted as a running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, said Obama’s June 15 directive “injected election-year politics into an issue that privately I thought we were making progress on.”

Source: Bloomberg >>>

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Topic: Politics

Is Hispanic the New Black?

By Francis Wilkinson |

Bloomberg - The importance of the Hispanic vote to President Barack Obama’s re-election chances is practically impossible to overstate. Yet the significance of the Hispanic vote to the long-term prospects of the Republican Party is arguably greater still.

A Latino Decisions poll of 5 swing states released June 17 revealed that Obama’s executive action to ease the pressure on young illegal immigrants, enabling them to avoid deportation and apply for work permits, has resonated with Hispanic voters.

Source: Bloomberg >>>

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Topic: Politics

The Latino Coalition's Annual Small Business Economic Summit Generates Procurement Results for Members and Receives National Press Attention

WASHINGTON (Wall Street Journal) - The Latino Coalition's Small Business Week events - its participation in America's Small Business Summit, an event organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, held May 21-22, and its Annual Economic Summit, held May 23 - were enormous successes by all measures. 

The Latino Coalition, the leading Latino non-profit small business organization founded in 1995 with a commitment of "building communities and partnerships for a stronger America," brought together policy-makers, political leaders, leading national and international business figures, hundreds of business delegates from throughout the United States as well as international small business delegations from Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia. 

Source: Wall Street Journal >>>

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Topic: Economy, Small Business

Latinos Must Sign Ethnic Affidavit To Qualify For New York City Business Program

NEW YORK (Huff Post Latino Voices) - Do Brazilians count? What about Spaniards?

Defining exactly who is "Hispanic" and who is not, when the label should be applied and when it should not, is a matter on which academics, Census-takers, and even those who identify themselves as part of the ethnic group, sometimes disagree.

Those debates have intensified as cities, corporations, and universities expand, contract, and otherwise change diversity and affirmative action programs. In New York, Latino entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of a city program designed to give businesses owned by women and minorities access to information and guidance, must first swear that they are Hispanic, in the way that the city defines it.

Before Latino applicants can qualify they must sign an affidavit confirming their ethnic identity.

Source: Huff Post: Latino Voices >>>

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Topic: Small Business

Mitt Romney’s newly announced Hispanic Steering Committee includes a half dozen supporters of the DREAM Act he opposes

By Callum Borchers |

BOSTON (The Boston Globe) - Mitt Romney’s newly unveiled Hispanic Steering Committee includes a cosponsor and at least five other supporters of the Development, Relief and Education for Minors (DREAM) Act, the proposed legislation that would pave the way to citizenship for some illegal immigrant youths, which Romney opposes.

The Romney campaign on Wednesday announced the members of the committee, called “Juntos con Romney,” which means “Together with Romney.” The formation of the committee represents one of Romney’s most concerted efforts to date to reach out to Hispanic voters, with whom he trails President Obama by 34 points, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll.

Source: The Boston Globe  >>>

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Topic: Politics, Vote 2012

Jeb Bush praises Obama on education, worries that GOP is shortsighted

By Hal Boedeker |

ORLANDO (Orlando Sentinel) - Jeb Bush says he doesn't "have to play the game of being 100,000 percent against President Obama," although the former Florida governor has "a long list of things" that he thinks Obama has done wrong.

In an interview on "CBS This Morning," Bush cited the selection of Arne Duncan as education secretary as an Obama success. "I think Arne Duncan has done a good job," Bush told Charlie Rose. "And he clearly has the unmitigated support of the president."

Source: Orlando Sentinel >>>

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Topic: Politics

Putting an Employee on Payroll Cost $30.69 an Hour in March

By Diane Stafford |

Hispanic Business - The average cost for a U.S. employer to employ an employee was $30.69 an hour in March.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday that employers paid an average of $21.27 in wages and salaries per hour worked at the end of the first quarter 2012.

The cost of that compensation accounted for 69.3 percent of total employee costs, while the cost of employee benefits averaged $9.42 and represented 30.7 percent of the total.

This figure doesn't represent average employee earnings; rather, it's the average cost to employers of having a worker on payroll. Total costs vary widely among industries and occupations. Also, many benefits are discretionary.

Source: Hispanic Business >>>

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Topic: Economy

How to prevent summer learning loss

By Eric J Cortes |

Being Latino - Congratulations! It’s June and your child has been promoted.

Now after a year of working hard, doing tons of homework assignments and sitting in an overcrowded classroom, your child gets to enjoy that little slice of heaven called summer vacation.

Now that summer has arrived, your youngster will get to enjoy two straight homework-free months of fun in the sun, youthful adventure and letting their mind rot away slowly. This summer, your child is at risk of falling behind intellectually.

As a New York City public high school teacher who has taught all levels ranging from 9th-grade special education to advanced placement 11th grade, I’ve noticed a trend that takes place over the summer: students get weaker academically.

Source: Being Latino >>>

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Topic: Education

On the rise: Immigrant entrepreneurs

By Jose Pagliery |

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Working for a new company? There's a more than one-in-four chance your new boss wasn't born here.

Immigrants created 28% of all new firms last year. They were also twice as likely to start a new business when compared to those born in the United States.

It's a notable shift. Nearly all new firms are small, and many are hiring new workers, seeking small business loans and shaking up established industries.

Source: CNNMoney >>>

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Topic: Small Business

Can Romney count on Hispanic entrepreneurs?

By Jose Pagliery |

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- For some Hispanic entrepreneurs, Mitt Romney forces a tough decision.

As small business owners, they like Romney's call for fewer regulations and lower taxes. But some are turned off by his embrace of hardline Republican Party views on illegal immigration.

One of those is Al Preciado, a real estate broker who, by most standards, would be a prime target for Republicans.

Preciado has long leaned right on taxes and regulation. He strongly supported Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Source: CNNMoney >>>

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Topic: Politics, Small Business

American Dream: Hispanic Home Buyers On The Rise

Marcelle Sussman Fischler |

Forbes - Buying a home has long been a way for immigrant groups to signal that they have “made it.” For Hispanic Americans, a mega-boom in homeownership is revving up.

With U.S. Census data reporting that more than half of all infants born in the United States last year were minorities or multiracial, with whites having 1.1 births for every death and Hispanics counting 8.9 births for every death, it stands to reason that the profile of home buyers is also undergoing a change that may accelerate in years to come. The folks at Movoto.com, a full service real estate brokerage based in San Mateo, CA, decided to figure out just how much.

Source: Forbes >>>

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Topic: Economy