Cuba Travel Ban: Will the White House Fight to End It?

<p style="text-align: justify;">After it looked a couple of months ago as if a bill lifting the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba had the momentum to pass Congress, it now appears stalled in the House of Representatives. The bill, which would also make food sales to Cuba easier, cleared the House Agriculture Committee but still needs a vote in two other committees - Financial Services and Foreign Affairs - and it may not even come up for a full vote this year. Read More

---

MH/Tamayo: New Mexico governor in Cuba, may seek release of U.S. con

<p style="text-align: justify;">Should Gov. Richardson seek the release of Alan Gross while he's on the island,that would not be surprising nor unreasonable for Richardson to do. Read More

---

PROGRESO WEEKLY: Dress me slowly; I'm in a hurry

<p style="text-align: justify;">Wednesday, 18 August 2010 22:27. The text can be read quickly. "The Council of Ministers agreed to expand the practice of self-employment [...] eliminating several existing prohibitions to the granting of new licenses and the commercialization of some products, making the hiring of a labor force more flexible." Read More

---

Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., announces furloughs for state workers during at 2009 news conference

<p style="text-align: justify;">SANTA FE (KRQE) - Gov. Bill Richardson will be in the nation of Cuba for the week. Richardson left for Havana Sunday to strengthen trade and cultural partnerships between the caribbean nation and New Mexico, according to the governor's office. Read More

---

The blockade against Cuba and the banks

<p style="text-align: justify;">The Guardian, Monday 23 August 2010. Cuba is not the object of any "international sanctions" (Barclays faces $298m fine for breaking sanctions, 17 August). It has been the target for 50 long years of a unilateral US government policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade – as your article illustrates – but one that the international community has overwhelmingly condemned for 18 consecutive years at the UN general assembly. Read More

---

Loosening U.S. sanctions on Cuba long overdue

<p style="text-align: justify;">San Francisco Chronicle August 23, 2010 04:00 AM.Monday, August 23, 2010. The need to overhaul our draconian and counterproductive Cuba policy is so overdue that it is hard to get too excited over reports that the Obama administration plans to loosen the sanctions ever so slightly. Read More

---

Charges of cronyism dog Radio-TV Martí

<p style="text-align: justify;">Charges of nepotism have dogged the two stations since they moved from Washington to Miami in 1996, the article says, highlighting the case of program director Christina Sanson, daughter of a director of the Cuban-American National Foundation. She got her job in the 1990s at the recommendation of Jorge Mas Canosa, the Foundation's powerful chairman. Read More

---

Cuban-American politicians against loosening travel, aid rules

<p style="text-align: justify;">Five Cuban-American members of Congress ask Obama to reconsider loosening the embargo. Read More

---

Global Sugar Surges as U.S. Helps Imports

<p style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday said it will give foreign sugar producers a bigger window to send sugar to the U.S. over the next two months. Read More

---

Visiting Gerardo Hernandez in prison, California

From the Ontario California airport some 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles we drove north on Highway 15, the road to Las Vegas. Cars with expectant amateur gamblers and loaded big rigs climb and descend the mountains where the Angeles and San Bernadino National Forests meet. Read More

---