Latest News

Ever since Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood held a press conference on Thursday to tell the world that the in-custody death of 33-year-old David Silva was ruled “accidental” and that the father of four died of a heart attack and did not die from baton blows at the hands of Kern County and California Highway […]

This just in from AZ Central: The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has engaged in racial profiling and must not use Hispanic ancestry as a factor when making law-enforcement decisions, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow issued the ruling Friday, more than eight months after a seven-day trial on the subject concluded. […]

Earlier today on The Michael Slate Show out of KPFK in Los Angeles, the father of David Sal Silva blamed police for murdering his son. In an emotional interview packed with honesty and outrage (segment recording below—the full show can be accessed here), Sal Silva discussed the his son’s May 8 in-custody death in Bakersfield, […]

This week, Philadelphia’s Al Día News held a forum with Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett (R). During that forum, Corbett was asked by Sabrina Vourvoulias, Al Día’s managing editor, if he had any Latinos on his staff. Corbett responded by saying, “No, we do not have any staff members in there. If you can find us […]

Yesterday in Bakersfield a group of civil rights organizations, including the Dolores Huerta Foundation, NAACP, American GI Forum and the California Civil Rights Coalition, held a press conference calling for a new citizens review board to be formed in Kern County, in light of the recent in-custody death of David Sal Silva. Here is what […]

This afternoon in Bakersfield, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood held a press conference to say that the in-custody death of David Sal Silva on May 8 was ruled accidental and that Silva’s cause of death was “hypertensive heart disease, acute intoxication, chronic alcoholism, severe abdominal obseity, chronic hypertension and acute pulmonary caridovascular strain.” Sheriff Youngblood […]

Slowly but surely, the in-custody death of 33-year-old father David Sal Silva on May 8 in Bakersfield is gaining more online attention. A Change.org petition created last week is beginning to get noticed, after a local Bakersfield columnist wrote about it. However, the petition has garnered only about 500 signatures, and it has a target […]

Before we begin this piece, we will say this about the story of Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett and his admission that he can’t find qualified Latinos to work in his office or his administration. The story is starting to go viral, with posts in Think Progress and the HuffPost, yet both these outlets did a […]

Rep. Raúl Labrador, a Republican from Idaho, is one of three voting members of Congress to be born in Puerto Rico. Labrador was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, while Democrat José Serrano was born in Mayagüez and Democrat Nydia Velázquez was born in Yabucoa. Since Labrador is the only Republican in Congress with birth ties […]

Last week, we shared one part of Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood’s press conference discussing the cell phone videos seized the night of the May 8 in-custody death of David Silva in Bakersfield. LiveLeak has also run another video of the Youngblood conference. In that conference, there were questions about one of the missing cell […]

Gradually the in-custody death of David Sal Silva on May 8 in Bakersfield is beginning to get more and more attention through alternative media and online communities. For example, a new online forum called Justice for David Sal Silva has been formed. The forum contains links to news articles and discussion threads about the case. […]

Earlier in the spring, our publisher wrote a piece about the irony of Rick Santorum hoping that an undocumented German homeschooling family would win an asylum case and not get deported back to Germany. Looks like Santorum’s pleas and the pleas of many U.S. homeschooling families didn’t get heard. Last week the 6th U.S. Circuit […]

This past Sunday, the New York Post printed an article about a company called Real Bronx Tours and how its tour guides promised tourists “a ride through a real New York City GHETTO.” The article detailed how a tour guide, Lynn Battaglia, led tourists through the South Bronx, ridiculing its neighborhoods, defaming its history and […]

UPDATE (from the Los Angeles Times): Rodriguez told ABC23 that “the more incriminating video was one on the other cell phone.” He said that video was shot “while the batons were swinging.” Rodriguez added the second phone was returned to his client with no video. If a video was erased from that phone, he said, […]

Several outlets have reported tonight that the genocide conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt has been annulled. This is what Reuters reported: “Guatemala’s constitutional court on Monday overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, throwing out all proceedings in his case since a dispute broke out last month over who […]

Watch. Just watch. For more information, go to Deport The Hate.

Today, Puerto Rican governor Alejandro García Padilla (D), the leader of the island’s status quo commonwealth party, wrote a piece for The Hill in response to a statehood bill submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives on May 15 by Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, the leader of the island’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party. Here is […]

On May 15, Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi (D), a non-voting member of the U.S. House of Representatives, submitted the following bill to Congress:   PUERTO RICO STATUS RESOLUTION ACT Full Text Below is a simple rendition of Congress’ official bill text. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act. […]

With reports that new developments surrounding the in-custody death of David Sal Silva on May 8 in Bakersfield will possibly be made public next week, we wanted to take a moment today and summarize what we know so far about Silva’s death and what we don’t know. It has been a fast-moving and developing story, […]

Earlier this week, attorney John Tello, the lawyer representing the witnesses who had taken cell phone videos of the alleged police beating death of David Silva at the hands of Kern County and California Highway Patrol officers, had said that he was hoping to release one of the videos yesterday. However, instead of releasing the […]

The local news coverage about the alleged beating death of 33-year-old David Silva at the hands of Kern County and California Highway Patrol continues to provide timely updates of the incident. The latest story describes how eyewitnesses on May 8 believe that law enforcement officials are trying to cover up what happened that night. Here […]