Free Republic

New York state is failing to ensure that children and teenagers who come from families who don't speak English as the first language don't fall behind, according to a coalition that advocates for educational opportunities for people of color. A newly released report from the LEAD coalition, a group of 30 organizations, points out that the state has the nation's second lowest graduation rate among multilingual learners (MLLs) and English Language Learner (ELLs), as well as higher dropout rates and lower rates of proficiency in math and English as compared to the rest of the student population. In just the...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled on Saturday that he remains committed to troubled U.S.-backed peace talks, saying that any unity government agreed with the militant group Hamas would recognize Israel. Abbas’s comments appeared aimed at soothing U.S. concerns about the unity deal he reached on Wednesday with Hamas, an Islamist faction sworn to Israel’s destruction and designated by the West as a terrorist organization. […] Hamas’s opposition to Israel does not necessarily contradict Abbas’s position, as both sides have agreed that the unity government will not include Hamas members but be comprised of technocrats. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

A Texas state senator is under fire for telling a man that his Spanish-language testimony was "insulting" during a committee hearing earlier this week. Republican Chris Harris interrupted Antolin Aguirre of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition just minutes into his statement against the Lone Star State's new sanctuary cities bill. The legislation, which was passed by the Senate Wednesday, allows police officers to verify the immigration status of detained suspects. Harris told Aguirre that he "should be speaking in English." "Did I understand him correctly that he has been here since 1988?" Harris asked. "Why aren't you speaking in English...

WASHINGTON - Estados Unidos deberá responder en dos meses la querella presentada por un abogado puertorriqueño ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) en reclamo del voto presidencial. Santiago Cantón, director ejecutivo de la CIDH -que responde a la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA)-, notificó al abogado Gregorio Igartúa que a partir del 22 de abril el gobierno de Estados Unidos tendrá dos meses para exponer sus puntos de vista. Igartúa denunció en 2006 ante la CIDH el hecho de que los residentes de Puerto Rico no tienen derecho a votar por el presidente de Estados Unidos. Cantón le...

The price: 20 cents per word. The project: 30,000 words. The total expenses: $25,669.50 The goal: Translate civil and self-represented litigant forms into Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic to help eliminate language barriers new Americans face when dealing with Nebraska’s court system. The project, Nebraska Efforts to Ensure Equal Access to Justice, will help the court system serve those who don’t speak English — or those who speak limited English — in civil and self-represented court issues, said Liz Neeley, a project organizer. Before this project, perhaps a dozen court documents were translated into Spanish, said Neeley, project director for the...

Insulting British callers make operators sick By Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi Last Updated: 1:43am GMT 06/01/2008 British callers may be infuriated when they discover that the company they are telephoning has moved its customer service centre to India. But their frustration is as nothing compared with the heart attacks, ulcers and insomnia afflicting those on the other end of the line. Staff in call centres say they have been shocked at the ferocity of the verbal attacks they encounter Research carried out by India's booming call centre industry has found the 1.6 million people who work in them, mostly...

FReep This Poll! Are Spanish-language media helpful or harmful to English-learning Latinos? More Helpful Harmful Don't Know

LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America. "I'm proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it," he said of Bush during a "Cafe con Clinton" breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group. Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic...