LA PAZ, BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR; OCTOBER 14, 2006: The greedy grab by international hotel chains and real estate speculators, among other industries, for the more than 3,000 kilometers of coastline along the Baja California Peninsula has placed its human residents and nature itself under daily attack. Pristine beaches have turned into expensive tourist traps with skyscraping buildings rising higher each day, condos and waterfront parcels sold in English with prices set in dollars, big plans for golf courses, proposals for casinos, corrupt government functionaries and politicians that steal the lands from the poor and sell them to the rich, while bays and inlets that once counted 217 edible species of seafood are turned into open sewers where the dying fish wash up on shore daily."

—The Narco News Bulletin

BP in March reported the largest-ever oil spill on Alaska's North Slope, and last month the company partially shut Prudhoe Bay, the largest U.S. oil field, after discovering pipeline leaks and corrosion.

BP, the world's third-biggest oil company, neglected its Prudhoe Bay oil pipelines for years and may have suppressed worker complaints, U.S. lawmakers said at a Sept. 7 hearing in Washington. Senate Republicans who support expanded drilling in Alaska last week said BP's problems may set back efforts to tap Alaska's resources.

—bloomberg.com

Juarez, Mexico, Oct 13 (Prensa Latina) Condemnation of the North American Free Trade Agreement for its serious consequences on the continent´s poorer sectors was among the main aspects of the First Social Bordering Forum Friday.

Activist Cipriana Jurado, of the Labor Solidarity Research Center in Juarez, told Prensa Latina NAFTA has brought disastrous consequences to the poor communities on both sides of the frontier.

For the Mexican farmers, it meant economic ruin, due to the unfair competition of open inflow of highly-subsidized US products, she pointed out.

—Mexicans at Border Condemn NAFTA, Prensa Latina

WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to support three measures cracking down on illegal immigrants, including a bill to criminalize the financing and construction of border tunnels between the U.S. and Mexico.

The widely popular legislation, based on a measure introduced in May by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is almost certain to be signed into law this year.

—House backs crackdown on illegal immigration - Bipartisan support greets bills on tunnels across border, detention, deportation, www.presstelegram.com

TIBU, Colombia -- Hundreds of Bari Indians, most clad in loincloths and carrying bows and arrows, came down from the hills Thursday in their first march, demanding that the state-owned oil company stop drilling on sacred land abutting their reservation.

The 700 protesters rallied in one of Colombia's most war-ravaged regions on Columbus Day to tell the world that they have been decimated by oil drilling.

—Colombia's Indians protest drilling, Chicago Sun Times, Oct 13

'I wouldn't have my baby adopted by anybody, however rich they may be,' said Angela, 18, who was sitting exams when the Madonna circus was in town.

'Planting a black boy from a poor background into a white rich family will have a disastrous effect on the baby's psyche later in life.'

Elina, who was listening as the girls studied for the exams in the central district of Mchinji, where Baby David was 'discovered' by the pop diva, disagrees.

'A one-year-old will not be affected by this,' she reasoned.

'At that age he knows nothing. It would even be great if he does not come to know where they got him from.'"

—BBC.CO.UK

What few people -- at least, outside of Mexico -- have bothered to notice is that while all the nannies, cooks and maids have been heading north to tend the luxury lifestyles of irate Republicans, the gringo hordes have been rushing south to enjoy glorious budget retirements and affordable second homes under the Mexican sun.

Yes, in former California Gov. Pete Wilson's immortal words, "They just keep coming." Over the past decade, the State Department estimates that the number of Americans living in Mexico has soared from 200,000 to 1 million (or one-quarter of all U.S. expatriates). Remittances from the United States to Mexico have risen dramatically, from $9 billion to $14.5 billion in just two years. Although initially interpreted as representing a huge increase in illegal workers (who send parts of their salaries across the border to family), it turns out to be mainly money sent by Americans to themselves to finance Mexican homes and retirements."

—San Francisco Chronicle Online, sfgate.com

'What I say to Mexicans is you have got to go immerse yourself and assimilate into American culture and become part of the American fabric. That's how Americans will embrace you. The secret -- if there is one -- to success, I was embraced by the American people because I love America, I learned the language and I made every effort to become American.'”

www.californiaprogressreport.com