I will be ramping up the blogging in the next few days, but I thought that I would share some articles that I have been reading and pondering the last few days before delving into more detail and commentary in the coming weeks:

1. Everyone should read this article in today’s Washington Post about how there has zero net job creation in the last decade. This part is particularly worth highlighting:

“There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.”

Part of this problem involves the exportation of manufacturing and the reality that the United States has transitioned into more of a service economy, while capital was funneled into the housing industry that went bust.

2. The Pew Hispanic Center came out with a report a few weeks ago revealing that more Latinos are using the internet, so the digital divide is lessening. This will have implications for blogs like this and the dissemination of content online and how Latinos use it. I’m hoping that more of our people will start reading news from different sources and digesting information from different blogs from all ends of the political spectrum.

3. Drug violence in Mexico kills an up and coming community leader from El Monte, California. Right now people are saying that this was a random act of violence, but it will be interesting to see what the investigations reveal in coming days. I do believe that as violence escalates and is perpetuated that there will be more serious consideration of legalizing certain “drugs” like we are seeing in California with marijuana right now, as a case can be made for reducing violence and increasing tax revenue.

If you have any other blog post ideas or articles you would like to explore, please post links and share your thoughts.

Considering how quickly information moves on the internet, the conveniences, and even cost savings of purchasing certain items on-line, the Latino community, as a whole, is at a clear disadvantage in not getting up to speed with current technology. Additionally, Latino school children could suffer for not growing up in homes where technology is available to access the internet to complete homework assignments, learn how search databases, and even communicate with instructors and classmates. 

The digital divide is clearly an issue that the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus should address, and it seems that they already are atempting to do so with a Task Force to focus on Corporate America/Technology, Communications, & the Arts. I certainly hope that the Caucus reads this study and summons some of the experts in access to technology to devise policies to tackle the digital divide in our communities. Congressman Joe Baca is heading this task force, and from the looks of his own website… well you be the judge.