Free Republic

The organic farm shop is a paradise for wealthy Germans. Behind the scenes, we pick and chop vegetables until we’re on the point of collapse ... they guaranteed work for at least 10 hours a day and that I would be paid €6.20 (£5.27) an hour. I would have to pay the agency a fee of €200 and a one-off sum of €105 for my bed. I would buy and cook my own food. They also told me to bring boots and rubber gloves. ... The contract I sign on about day three probably corresponds to the German labour code....

SALINAS, Calif. - A California man accused of selling his 14-year-old daughter into marriage for $16,000, beer and meat has pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment. Marcelino de Jesus Martinez had pleaded not guilty in February to procuring a child for lewd acts, aiding and abetting statutory rape and child endangerment. If convicted of those charges he faced 10 years in prison.

WASHINGTON - Severe farmworker shortages that have left tons of fruits and vegetables unplanted or unpicked would get a fix under an immigration reform deal reached by senators Thursday. The immigration agreement includes a pilot legalization program for agriculture workers, said Scott Gerber, spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. Farmers say that as immigration enforcement has tightened in recent years, worker shortages have ranged from 10 percent to 30 percent across the labor-intensive produce industry and have also struck dairy farms and nurseries. In some cases crops have gone unharvested. In others, farmers have chosen not...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Tuesday for farmworker housing centers to be used as emergency homeless shelters for those affected by January's cold snap that destroyed more than $1 billion in crops and left thousands without jobs. Schwarzenegger also allocated an extra $100,000 to the United Farm Workers Foundation for reaching out to freeze victims. More than 20,000 field and packing house workers lost their jobs following last month's bout of subfreezing temperatures across the state. Last week another community group, La Cooperativa Campesina de California, received an additional $1.75 million in state emergency funds to help workers in Tulare, Fresno,...

/begin my translationChina: 77 Avian Flu Patients Dead in Liaoning Province...Victim's Name Published on Internet2005/11/21 In Liaoning Province of China, 6 people were infected with H5N1 Avian Flu and had died recently, according to Nov. 20 report by an overseas Chinese language news site, Boxun, quoting the article posted by a poster.Six victims were 4 students in Beining City, 1 epidemic-prevention worker, and another person whose identity is unknown. According to the post, the number of dead people from H5N1 Avian Flu in Liaoning Province has reached 77, including the six new victims. Furthermore, at one of domestic Chinese Internet site,...

<p>COACHELLA, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Gray Davis began a two-day swing through the state's rural reaches to rally farmworkers and voters in the southern deserts and coastal farmlands.</p> <p>The statewide tour is part of two busy final weeks of campaigning for Davis and GOP challenger Bill Simon, who spent Sunday lunching with Central Coast Republicans and seeking support in San Jose, the heart of high-tech Silicon Valley.</p>