Dear Friends,

To begin, I apologize for not getting with all of you sooner. In truth I have been busy with the repairs to my home (Yes my insurance check finally arrived) and I find myself with more work than time.

There is so much going on in our community that we should all be concern with that I don’t see where to start.

In his first week in office, President Obama is working with congress to have his stimulus plan approve and signed before February 16th. What would this mean to our community? Well from what I have been able to find out public school grades K-12 would received fund to help with the budget short fall that is causing a number of school to close. Collage and Universities would have a second program that would assist with their needs and concerns. (Not a bad start if you ask me.)

Stace “Dos Centavos” Medellin tells us of the Houston Area Latino Summit that will be held from 10 am to 1 pm, Saturday, February 14, 2009 in the Champions Pavilion at Minute Maid Park. With the growing population of Latino residents in our community (myself included) this summit will provide an opportunity to discuss issues and policies that will greatly affect all residents in Houston.

Charles Kuffner of “Off the Kuff” tell us of the continued battle over the CHIPS program with his article,” IT’S 2009 and we're still arguing about CHIP “He is clear that certain state representatives (members of the GOP) continue an on going debate for a program that provides medical care for low income Texas children (which by the way, is also matched dollar for dollar by the federal government.)

This arrogances stance is being lead by Gov. Perry and Lt. Dewherst and to be frank this is the same GOP leadership ideology has put our country into a rescission.

As you all know I believe that CHIP is desperately need to assist our children and can not except the position that the GOP has taken regarding this issue. Today with the economy faltering, job lost at a record number and the market in a decline programs to assist our struggling families are needed.

The fact is that the GOP state leadership practice of party politics are completely in appropriate.

As some of you may know I am a member of several organization one of which is the Hispanic Executive Society International (HESI). This organization main goal is to promote education and community awareness and I have been honored to be a member of the organization since the beginning.

Mr. Joe Ramirez the president of HESI announce that at their monthly meeting on February 3rd their guess speaker will be newly elected Sheriff Adrian Garcia. I look forward to speaking with Sheriff Garcia and discussing issues such as juvenile crime, the red light camera program, patrol officer for the community and the future of the Harris County Sheriff office.

Congratulation to him and his family, may they continue to have great success.

As always, I welcome your comments.


Joe A. Montemayor