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As expected, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cleared the way for the Soros-backed Latino Media Network’s (LMN) purchase of 18 Televisa Univision radio stations, among them Miami’s Radio Mambí. Inside Radio reported this on Monday:The FCC decision clears the way for the closing of the sale that involves 18 stations including 10 AMs and eight FMs in the largest U.S. markets, including eight of the top 10 Latino markets. Markets included are Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, McAllen, Fresno, and Las Vegas. LMN, a new company founded by social entrepreneurs Stephanie Valencia and Jess...

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The nation’s eyes are on key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Florida but it turns out one New Mexico county holds the longest streak for picking the president. The answer to who will win in the 2020 presidential election may be found in Valencia County. Voters there have voted for the winner since 1952. According to Politico, Valencia County has the longest streak out of any county in the country.

Spain's new socialist government promised on Friday it would restore free healthcare for undocumented migrants, a right removed by the former administration as part of cost-cutting. The move is the latest migrant-friendly initiative by the government of Pedro Sanchez, who offered on Monday to take in a rescue ship that was drifting in the Mediterranean sea with 629 migrants on board. Italy and Malta had refused to let it dock. The government will draw up a draft law with the proposal, it said, which must be approved by parliament. Although the Socialists have a minority of 84 seats in the...

Following a major Spanish city’s vote to boycott Israel, the leader of Spain’s third-largest party called the Jewish state a “criminal country” during an interview aired by public television broadcaster. Pablo Iglesias Turrión, leader of the Podemos far-left party, said this in an interview earlier this week on RTVE. “We need to act more firmly on an illegal country like Israel,” said Iglesias Turrión, whose party in 2015 won 20 percent of the votes in the general election just one year after its creation. Last week, a motion promoted by a local fraction of Podemos on the city council of...

A Spanish actor who has played Jesus in a city’s Easter parade for 20 years has been kicked out of the role — and says it is because he is gay. Ramon Fossati has been a longtime fixture in the Valencia ceremony, but has been banned from participating until 2019 after wearing a one-shoulder frock and giving fake “blessings” as the risen Christ last year. The Junta Mayor Semana Santa Marinera, which oversees organization of the parade, also accused the actor of “ostentation and parody” while throwing kisses to the crowd. …

An Arab sheikh who parked his massive car in a public square in front of the town hall of the Spanish city of Valencia has escaped punishment because the vehicle was too large to be towed away. Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahya of Abu Dhabi parked his custom “Black Spider” in the square during a recent visit to the city. … But Sheikh Hamad escaped a parking fine because he didn’t have European Union number plates. …

...The discovery, together with all other discoveries made in recent years, reaffirm that the city was the most advanced settlement in Europe in political and military terms during the Bronze Age (ca. 4,200 years ago -2,200 BCE-), and is comparable only to the Minoan civilisation of Crete... The fortification consisted of a wall measuring two to three metres thick, built with large stones and lime mortar and supported by thick pyramid-based towers located at short distances of some four metres. The original height of the defensive wall was approximately 6 or 7 metres. Until now six towers have been discovered...

(Reuters) - Hundreds of unemployed Spaniards who had walked hundreds of kilometres (miles) to Madrid joined protests on Saturday against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government and its handling of an economic crisis. Demonstrations have swollen across Spain since the centre-right government announced 65 billion euros in new spending cuts two weeks ago to cut its deficit and avert a full-blown bailout, with firefighters and police joining a mass protest on Thursday. Several hundred people journeyed on foot from the southern region of Andalucia, which has one of the worst unemployment rates in Spain, and from northern Catalonia and other areas...

A 21-year-old man shot and killed at a party in the city's Logan Square neighborhood was a "standout student" at DePaul University who was recently named as a recipient of a prestigious statewide honor, officials said. Chicago police continued their search for a gunman who killed Francisco "Frankie" Valencia and wounded fellow DePaul senior Daisy Camacho early this morning at a party in the 1700 block of North Rockwell Street.

Note: The following news brief is a quote: - In cooperation with various other countries, Dutch authorities have rounded up a big cocaine gang that had links with Hezbollah. Seventeen suspects were arrested on Curacao, the biggest island of the Netherlands Antilles, the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) has revealed. International cooperation between police and judicial services of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles, Belgium, Colombia, Venezuela and the US led to the arrest of the 17 suspects by the Curacao police. They are believed to be part of a drugs and money-laundering organisation with international branches, thought to be responsible...

SNIPPET: ""Spanish police suspect terrorism links in arrests," from the Associated Press, February 3 (thanks to all who sent this in): The Spanish police arrested 13 people on Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups. A police statement said the detainees — 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian — are suspected of belonging to an international criminal gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and the smuggling of people." SNIPPET: "The police statement said the group is suspected of having contacts in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Thailand. The group allegedly stole passports in...

"We're dead." That's what I said to my wife as a mushroom cloud from a "suitcase" nuclear bomb rose over Valencia, our hometown. .....In Valencia? Hey, we practically invented soccer moms.

Spanish villages are abandoning the centuries-old tradition of burning effigies of the Prophet Muhammad for fear of offending Muslims. The annual festivals...feature locals donning medieval costumes to re-enact battles between "Moors and Christians" during the Reconquista period. The fiestas celebrate events in 1492, when the Catholic kings of northern Spain defeated and expelled Islamic forces, ending more than 800 years of Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula. Traditionally the festivities have culminated with the burning of mannequins of the Mahoma, a figure based on the Prophet Muhammad, to represent the final defeat of Islam in the region.

VALENCIA — A Tracy man stopped Thursday afternoon for not wearing his seat belt in Southern California was found carrying about 400 kilograms — about 880 pounds — of cocaine in the back of his pickup, California Highway Patrol officials said. Juan Alvarez, 31, was arraigned Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on two felony charges: possession for sale of a controlled substance and transportation of a controlled substance, according to court documents. Both charges carry an enhancement for exceeding 80 kilograms and could net Alvarez a maximum of 50 years in prison. Alvarez did not enter a plea...

Monday, July 10, 2006 As the whole world surely knows, Pope Benedict XVI was in Valencia this weekend. What you might not know is the significance of what he said: people cheered for him when he was the least “politically correct.” Spain’s Socialist government legalized same sex marriage by an act of Parliament. Every time Benedict said, “the family, based on the indissoluble marriage of a man, and a woman,” the audience of a million went wild. The importance of this statement is that the Spanish Socialist government foisted same sex marriage, including adoption by same sex couples upon this...

Pope Benedict XVI talks with an unidentified prelate before the Santo Caliz, Holy Chalice, foreground, in Valencia's Our Lady of the Forsaken Basilica, Spain, Saturday, July 8, 2006. VALENCIA, Spain (CNS) -- King Arthur and his knights and Indiana Jones looked for it, and most recently Dan Brown's sleuth, Robert Langdon, hunted it down in "The Da Vinci Code." But these legendary and fictional characters might have saved a lot of trouble in their hunt for the Holy Grail by just going to Valencia. The host city of Pope Benedict XVI's third pastoral journey abroad July 8-9 is home...

Valencia, Spain, Jul 8 (EFE).- Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Pope Benedict XVI, who has been critical of some of the Socialist premier's policies, held a meeting Saturday in this eastern city that a government spokesman described as "extraordinarily cordial." The pope met for a half hour with Zapatero, who was the target of whistles and boos by a few spectators when he arrived at Valencia's archbishop's palace Saturday evening for the gathering.

The first day of Benedict XVI's 26-hour jaunt to Spain for the Fifth World Meeting of Families has already seen several public engagements. Luckily, word is that everything is quite organized, moreso than on the usual papal visit. Much of the trip's subtext derives from the Spanish government's plans to fast-track divorce and legalize gay marriage. During an impromptu press conference on the papal plane, Benedict replied to a question on the marriage issue by beginning that, while it was important to first emphasize the positive before addressing the negative, "There are certain things that Christian life says 'No'...

MADRID, Spain, JULY 7, 2006 (Zenit.org).- When Benedict XVI is in Valencia on Saturday, he will stop to venerate the chalice that is traditionally considered the one Christ used at the Last Supper. According to author and professor Salvador Antuñano Alea, the Last Supper's holy chalice, kept in the cathedral of Valencia, bases its probability on tradition and "very reasonable archaeological and historical evidence" but for Christians what is most important is "its condition as a sacred icon." The Christian people venerate it because it "represents for them and takes them back to the sublime moment in which the Son...

The Pope leaves tomorrow for his whirlwind trip to the V World Meeting of Families in Valencia. For our Spanish-speaking readers, the spiritual itinerary of the trip is posted under the signature of none other than the Master himself (yes, he's still there). In tomorrow's edition of The Tablet, Robert Mickens presents the backdrop: When the [Pontifical Council for the Family] began planning the weeklong conference nearly three years ago, it focused the 1-9 July gathering on ways families could successfully pass on Christian faith to their children. But over the last few months, a number of bishops, led...