Salvadoran fest expects more than 30,000 Originally published: May 24, 2012 7:41 PM Updated: May 24, 2012 9:12 PM By VÍCTOR MANUEL RAMOS victor.ramos@newsday.com Photo credit: Charles Eckert | "There are just so many of us," a local artist said. "We have our own style for everything, from music to food to art and entertainment.” (Aug. 7, 2011) Officers from four Salvadoran community organizations have announced plans for a sixth Salvadoran American Day Festival in August they expect will attract more than 30,000 people to the Village of Hempstead. The festival has been growing as the Salvadoran community has surged on Long Island. More than 66,000 Salvadorans live in the region, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, part of a community that ... Continue reading →

BUSINESS Babylon rally pushes for minimum wage hike Updated: May 24, 2012 10:04 PM By JAMES T. MADORE Supporters of raising New York 's minimum wage called on state senators Thursday to pass the bill before the regular legislative session ends June 21.About 45 people, some minimum-wage workers, rallied outside Babylon's Long Island Rail Road station and then walked along Main Street to the closed office of Sen. Owen Johnson (R- West Babylon ). They left him petitions and letters signed by about 1,000 local residents.The activists, from unions, immigrant rights groups, churches and liberal organizations, urged the Republican -controlled State Senate to join the Assembly's Democratic majority in hiking the hourly wage rate, from $7.25 to $8.50, on Jan. 1."I can barely afford the ... Continue reading →

Jessica Barba back to school after suspension Originally published: May 24, 2012 8:48 AM Updated: May 24, 2012 10:17 PM By KERY MURAKAMI kery.murakami@newsday.com Photo credit: James Carbone | Jessica Barba talks to reporters outside the Longwood Schools district offices on Yaphank Middle Island Road after finding out she could return to school. (May 24, 2012) A smiling Jessica Barba rejoined her freshman classmates Thursday at Longwood High School, a week after she said school officials suspended her for posting an anti-bullying video on YouTube that portrayed a fictional teenager who ultimately commits suicide."It was great to see all my friends," Barba, 15, said after school. "Being out for five days wasn't that fun, knowing I was missing out... Content Preview This content is exclusive ... Continue reading →

Salvadoran fest expects more than 30,000 Originally published: May 24, 2012 7:41 PM Updated: May 24, 2012 9:12 PM By VÍCTOR MANUEL RAMOS victor.ramos@newsday.com Photo credit: Charles Eckert | "There are just so many of us," a local artist said. "We have our own style for everything, from music to food to art and entertainment.” (Aug. 7, 2011) Officers from four Salvadoran community organizations have announced plans for a sixth Salvadoran American Day Festival in August they expect will attract more than 30,000 people to the Village of Hempstead. The festival has been growing as the Salvadoran community has surged on Long Island. More than 66,000 Salvadorans live in the region, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, part of a community that ... Continue reading →

Stony Brook University plans Marie Colvin center Originally published: May 23, 2012 6:42 PM Updated: May 23, 2012 10:24 PM By CANDICE FERRETTE candice.ferrette@newsday.com Photo credit: AP Photo/Sheila Masson | Marie Colvin, American-born, London-based British war correspondent, at the Books, Borders and Bikes festival at Traquair House, Innerleithen, Peebleshire, Scotland. (August 20, 2011) Stony Brook University plans to open a center for international journalism in memory of Marie Colvin, the acclaimed war reporter who was killed Feb. 22 in Syria.The Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting will pay tribute to the Long Island native by establishing a special curriculum intended to "nurture and grow the next generation of overseas reporters," said Howard Schneider, dean... Content Preview This content is exclusive for Newsday digital access and ... Continue reading →

Pete Souza/The White House In the photo that has hung in the West Wing for three years, President Obama looks to be bowing to five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia, his arm raised to touch the president’s hair — to see if it feels like his. WASHINGTON — For decades at the White House, photographs of the president at work and at play have been hung throughout the West Wing, and each print soon gives way to a more recent shot. But one picture remains after three years, its staying power testifying to the thousand words it seems worth to those who see it. In the photo, President Obama looks to be bowing to a sharply dressed black boy, who stands erect beside the Oval Office desk, his ... Continue reading →

With the Latino population growing a fast clip, harnessing a message that inspires young Hispanics to vote is vital if Republicans want to win the White House not only this year, but in decades to come. "If we don't get this right, we go the way of the Whigs," says Bill Greener, partner with Republican political consulting firm Greener and Hook, who believes that demographic shifts can mean voting shifts. By Greener's calculations, if John McCain—popular among non-Hispanic whites—had run in 1976, when non-Hispanic whites made up a far larger share of the population, he would have won the presidency. In the 2008 presidential race, Hispanics voted 2-to-1 in favor of President Obama. [See the video game that lets you take on unemployment.] Greener is ... Continue reading →

But one thing that Representative Charles B. Rangel almost never does is identify himself as a Hispanic man, even though he is half Puerto Rican — a fact that could benefit him politically as he seeks re-election in a Congressional district that, as a result of redistricting, now for the first time has a Latino majority. Even with his closest confidants, Mr. Rangel never brings up that part of his heritage. The reason, it seems, is that Mr. Rangel hated his Puerto Rico-born father, who, he said, hit his mother and left the family. “When he abandoned my mom as a kid, that ended it as far as the relationship,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s a painful relationship, and I don’t talk about it ... Continue reading →