• "Although President Obama has put off an immigration overhaul until next year, the federal agency in charge of approving visas is planning ahead for the possibility of giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants," the New York Times reported in its October 2 edition. Alejandro Mayorkas, director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the agency's goal is to be ready to expand rapidly to handle a gigantic increase in visa applications if comprehensive immigration reform legislation passed Congress.
• Hispanic farmers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are expected to meet next month with a judge to discuss the possibility of a settlement in the case of Garcia v. Vilsack. The nine-year-old case pertains to the Department of Agriculture's long history of discrimination. A decade ago black farmers won $1 billion from the federal government. - HispanicBusiness.com, October 14, 2009
• Latino Power on Capitol Hill was a featured analysis in the October 16 issue of HispanicLink Online. Although only five percent of the 111th Congress, Hispanics claim two chairs and two vice chairs, as well as several subcommittee chairs. U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas chairs the Permanent Select Intelligence Committee and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez of New York chairs the Small Business Committee.
• "After years of courting the European and Asian markets, the NBA is trying to build up its fan base among Hispanics," according to an October 19 edition of AOL Money & Finance. A Spanish-language web site www.nba.com/enebea includes news and features on Hispanic players. The league will also plan events to renovate basketball courts in Latino neighborhoods.
• "Brazil's president promised (October 19) to battle drug traffickers who launched a weekend of bloody chaos that killed 21 people in Rio de Janeiro just two weeks after the city won the 2016 Olympic games." An hours-long firefight between rival gangs in one of the city's slums saw a police helicopter shot down and eight buses set on fire. - Chicago Sun-Times, October 20
• A court convicted former Costa Rican President Rafael Calderón of embezzlement and sentenced him to five years in prison. Calderón, president from 1990 to 1994, was accused of receiving at least $520,000 in 2004 from a loan by the Finnish government to Costa Rica's social security system. - New York Times, October 6, 2009
• Former President Carlos Ménem of Argentina was charged October 1 with obstructing an investigation of the 1994 bombing of the offices of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300. - New York Times, October 2, 2009