Orange County Dream Team's official logo.

A coalition of Orange County Dream Act advocates will hold the first-annual Immigrant Youth Empowerment Forum at the University of California Irvine this Saturday. The forum consists of a series of workshops dedicated to educating immigrant high school students about how to apply for financial aid as they transition to college.

Johanna Perez, a fifth-year double major in Chicano/Latino studies and political science and forum organizer, said there are many resources available for high school students who might be unaware that they qualify for AB 540, which allows students who meet certain criteria to qualify for in-state tuition rates. The coalition includes the Orange County Dream Team, Dreams at UCI and other Dream Act proponents at neighboring community colleges. 
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A federal grand jury has indicted a Rancho Santiago Community College District official for allegedly operating a scam that stole federal funds designed to aid students who were migratory or seasonal farm workers, OC Weekly has learned.

Authorities today arrested Anna Catalan, who now faces a six-count fraud indictment in U.S. District Judge James V. Selna's Santa Ana court.

According to the indictment, Catalan misused her position as the college district's director over the administration of the College Assistance Migrant Program, a federal-funded project designed by the U.S. Department of Education.
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Did Big Momma catch a Buena Park-tied terrorist plot?

A lawyer representing an Orange County CVS pharmacist accused in 2011 of lying to the FBI about her role in funding international terrorism claims the government's case is weak and that prosecutors are abusing foreign intelligence secrecy rules.

Defending Oytun Ayse Mihalik against the charge when the government has sealed alleged evidence against her "is the equivalent of inviting the defense counsel into a boxing match with the caveat that the defense counsel must be blindfolded before entering the ring," according to Alan Eisner, Mihalik's Van Nuys-based lawyer.

Eisner is asking U.S. District Court Judge Josephine Staton Tucker to order the unsealing of a series of records the government filed under seal in connection with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
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Davan Maharaj: "Thank you very much, please come again."

The Ford Foundation has bestowed a $1 million, no-strings-attached grant to the Los Angeles Times, which reports the money will be used to bolster coverage of immigrant communities, California prisons, Brazil and, presumably, Brazilian immigrants in California prisons.

"These are vital coverage areas that have been affected by our need to make tough choices in the past decade," writes Editor Davan Maharaj, in an email to staff. "Although the grant is for two years, we intend to continue with these beats beyond that period. We will immediately start our search for reporters."
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This is Gabriel San Roman with your morning traffic report: Activists with the Orange County DREAM Team and ACLAMO have dropped three banners along the 5 freeway in Anaheim, Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano at different rush hour times between 6-10 a.m. The coordinated effort is part of the 'Right to Dream' national day of action campaign taking place on the anniversary of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling.

It also marks two years since undocumented students and activists staged a sit-down civil disobedience action inside the Tucson, Arizona offices of Senator John McCain.
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President Gary Johnson?

Saying that he'd rather die than vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama in November, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson today won the Libertarian Party nomination to be the next president of the United States.

An energetic Libertarian crowd huddled in Las Vegas at the Red Rock Resort and chose the articulate, knowledgeable Johnson over Ron Paul, Lee Wrights, Jim Libertarian Burns and Carl Person.

Though there was happy talk about the Civil War Confederacy, Libertarians hope that Johnson can impress American voters enough to get at least one third of the vote in November, an accomplishment that would be a substantial political earthquake for the disgusting cesspools of corruption and incompetence that are the Republican and Democratic parties.
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All of Orange County engaged in a simultaneous shrug of indifference when longtime Aztlanista Nativo Lopez announced earlier this week he was retiring from public life and becoming a mere private citizen...where he would continue to agitate for the hot Mexican cause of the month. Huh? It was a fitting sorta-end for someone who once was a titan of Latino rights in Orange County, who helped to organize apartment renters around a tenant's strike that brought slumlords to their knees, who helped defeat Bob "B-1 Baboso" Dornan, who successfully advocated for immigrant parents as a trustee at the Santa Ana Unified School District...only to see his legacy largely erased by corruption, bad choices, and the stupidest political mouth this side of Dana Rohrabacher.

To wit:
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All the talk about Mexico's rampant drug-related violence bleeding into the U.S., along with the threat of terrorists creeping in from the southern border, is overblown, according to a new study.

The Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes itself as a group focusing on human rights, democracy and social justice (sounds liberal, don't it?), says Mexico's violence is not spilling over the border, and the security policies designed to fight terrorism and drug trafficking are causing a humanitarian crisis that places migrants in the crosshairs of organized crime and abusive authorities. More >>

The American Civil Liberties Union caravan stopping in Santa Ana at high noon Monday to draw attention to the damage done by immigration laws like Arizona's is sure to include a hippie van with stickers all over it. Only some messages will be in Spanglish, and Jerry Garcia's Dead head will be replaced by Joe Arpaio's. Find out at Centro Cultural, 313 N. Birch St., where the cross-country Estamos Unidos campaign caravan is expected two days before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Arizona v. United States, appealing a lower court decision blocking much of SB 1070.
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Jim Gilchrist's Minuteman Project--think the American Revolution, only the British have been replaced by desperate brown people looking for work--makes an appearance on tonight's Comedy Central masterpiece, The Colbert Report.

Can we expect an appearance by Esteban Colberto?
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