Scholarship: Congresssional Hispanic Caucus Institute Scholarships

Sponsor/Organization: Congresssional Hispanic Caucus Institute

Scholarship Amount: $2500 over four years for four-year institution, $1000 for community college

-- from L.A. Now, in the Los Angeles Times:

Community leaders and celebrities announced a new multimedia campaign in Los Angeles on Wednesday aimed at getting young Latinos to participate in the U.S. Census.

During the news conference at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, speakers invited students to download an interactive mobile application, to participate in a texting campaign (text “LA” to 738674) and to spread the word to family and friends about the importance of the census.

-- from Poder 360:

Univision Communications Inc. announced it is realigning news and entertainment with a new management structure, organizing its news operations on a company-wide basis and coordinating more closely the current and future entertainment programming for the Univision Network.

-- by Steve Raabe, The Denver Post:

A growth boom in the Latino grocery-store sector could be poised for a slowdown in the next decade.

The development surge is set to level off as population changes make those stores less critical to Latino shoppers, industry experts are predicting.

-- by Jane O'Brien, BBC News:

Thirty per cent of Americans are getting fewer than six hours sleep a night, far short of the recommended eight hours that doctors say are optimal for good health.

Now a new survey reveals that sleep times vary among different ethnic groups, with African-Americans getting at least 34 minutes less sleep than Asians, Hispanics or Caucasians.

-- by Reeve Hamilton, The Texas Tribune:

Texas is changing, and few Texans know the details better than Steve Murdock. The professor of sociology at Rice University in Houston has twice been listed among the most influential Texans — by now-defunct Texas Business in 1997, and by Texas Monthly, which dubbed him “The Prophet” in 2005. He was appointed the first State Demographer of Texas in 2001. In 2007, George W. Bush tapped him to be the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

-- by Rudy Ruiz, Special to CNN.com:

Despite all the talk about a tide of pessimism surging in our country, optimism isn't dead. It's just in hiding.

The economy is struggling. The deficit is looming. Unemployment is hovering at about 10 percent. China is nipping at our heels for global economic dominance. Our housing, automotive and banking industries are on life support. The health care system is falling apart.

-- by Simmi Aujla, Businessweek:

Lawmakers voted down a bill Monday that would have required employers to screen workers using a federal background check system amid concerns it would add another burden to business owners.

The Senate State Affairs Committee defeated the measure on 7-2 vote. The bill was aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigrants into the state, and would have put employers who accepted false identification at risk of losing their business licenses.

-- by Jennifer Medina, The New York Times:

For the fifth year in a row, New York City students’ on-time graduation rates have increased, showing small but steady gains, rising to 59 percent last year from 46.5 for the class of 2005, according to figures that state and city education officials released on Tuesday.

In 2008, 56.4 percent of the city’s students graduated within four years...

-- by James Wagner, The Contra Costa Times (CA):

For years, America's most popular sport, professional football, has sought to spread into more Latino households.

At the same time, a local billionaire, Ed Roski Jr., has been hoping to end Los Angeles' NFL curse by buying and moving an existing team here.

So is heavily Latino Los Angeles County an ideal place for this expansion?