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Dear Readers:Meet Alejandrina. She was 11 when Los Angeles Times journalists first began reporting her story. Alejandrina, a little girl who likes lip gloss and longs to go to back to school, works 14 hours a day picking chile peppers for a farm that supplies a U.S. distributor.

Mexican law requires workers to be at least 15, but Alejandrina is among an estimated 100,000 children younger than that who work the fields. As she told The Times: “I work because we don’t have any money and we need money to eat things.”

Times reporter Richard Marosi and photographer Don Bartletti tracked Alejandrina’s nomadic existence for a year. Read her story, which is also the story of so many others: Children harvest crops and sacrifice dreams in Mexico’s fields

This marks the fourth and final piece in our Product of Mexico series, an investigation into conditions on Mexican farms that supply Americans with much of our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other produce.

We’ve told readers about unbearable conditions at labor camps and taken them into Bioparques, a supplier to Wal-Mart and one of Mexico’s biggest tomato exporters, where Mexican officials found workers held captive. We’ve examined company stores, where a lack of price tags and big mark-ups leave many farmworkers trapped in a cycle of debt.

I want to thank all of you for reading this important series and sharing it with others. Here’s a sneak peek at a video coming Monday that features Marosi and Bartletti talking about the reporting behind this eye-opening series.

Davan Maharaj, Editor

P.S. We’ve created some extra content available only to our subscribers. Bartletti, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist whose interest in photography dates back to his service in Vietnam, has covered Mexico for decades. He shares some of his best photos and memories of what it took to capture the images.

~ FDA/USDA ~~ Alerts & Safety, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Keep Frankenfish Out of Our Food Chain …

02/15/2013 Nativegrl77

The FDA is moving toward approving genetically-engineered fish for human consumption. Please help us ensure our native fish populations are protected! Take Action Today!

Earthjustice, Protect Northwest Orcas Campaign
What do you think would happen if our precious and vulnerable native salmon came face-to-face with fast-growing, genetically-engineered salmon? Not sure? Unfortunately, you’re not the only one.

During the holidays, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) took a controversial step toward approving the first-ever genetically-engineered fish made for human consumption. These fish are the spawn of a company called AquaBounty Technologies and are engineered in foreign laboratories to grow twice as fast as natural Atlantic salmon.

And if that’s not scary enough, the FDA isn’t planning on thoroughly studying all the environmental risks presented by these Frankenfish before giving the green light to AquaBounty. This means these Frankenfish will be produced on a commercial scale before anyone knows what damaging impacts they may have if they invade our most sensitive natural marine environments. The FDA wants to be able to save these crucial questions for a later time, but we think the questions need to need to be answered now, before it’s too late.

If you agree, join us in calling on the FDA to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the full range of potential environmental impacts of these genetically-engineered fish.

We have until April 26, 2013 to submit comments. Please help us ensure our native fish populations are protected!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Official Google blog …

02/15/2013 Nativegrl77

RISE Awards 2013: A global effort

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 01:48 AM PST

“I am standing in a partial enclosure made of sticks and plant fronds. This is the school for roughly 35 students, ranging in age from three to about 20 years old. There are no desks. There is only a single shared chalkboard, and it has gaping holes.” — David Rathmann-Bloch from the 21st Century Chalkboard Project, writing from rural Haiti.

These are just some of the many challenges faced by education organizations who applied for this year’s Google RISE Awards. The RISE (Roots in Science and Engineering) Awards program funds and supports organizations around the world that provide science and technology education at a grassroots level.

This year we’re delighted to give awards to 30 new organizations from 18 different countries. Combined they will reach more than 90,000 children in 2013, helping inspire and teach the scientists and engineers of the future.

Some, such as Haiti’s 21st Century Chalkboard Project and the Uniristii Association (site in Romanian) in Romania, help those from underserved communities gain access to computing resources.
Others, like the U.K.’s Code Club and the U.S.’s CodeNow, offer extracurricular activities that help interested children, especially those from underrepresented minority backgrounds, to learn programming.
A few, such as the Middle East’s MEET and iLab Liberia, seek to use technology education as a platform to bridge wider social and cultural divides.
Some, like Girlstart in the U.S. and New Zealand’s Programming Challenge 4 Girls, aim to empower girls to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In addition to receiving funding and support to continue their outreach, RISE Award recipients will be brought together for a global summit this June in London.

To paraphrase an old saying, from small seeds, great things can grow. The recipients of the 2013 RISE Awards have already made a difference. Connecting with other like-minded organizations will help spread valuable and practical expertise, and spark opportunities for global collaboration and expansion.

Posted by Roxana Shirkhoda, Education Outreach Specialist

~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

2ND Term Inaug2013

01/22/2013 Nativegrl77

You and I, as citizens

bywhitehouse

“You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time — not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.”