Free Republic

LA MISION, Mexico -- Every weekend, Carmen Tetelboin joins the Baja boom. After work on Fridays, the Los Angeles resident drives four hours across the border to Baja California, where life is so good and living so cheap, it beats the other California, she contends. Owning a condo on the coast, she and her husband are part of an American colony exploding during the past five years along 75 miles of pristine beaches, cliffs and towns south of Tijuana. What's drawing them are oceanfront homes at a fraction of the multimillion-dollar prices on the U.S. side. A native of Chile...

A meeting of civic, business and government leaders from both sides of the border yesterday was intended to foster economic integration of San Diego County and Baja California. But participants in the Forum Fronterizo soon found themselves addressing a very different topic: illegal immigration and the proposal for a new border fence. “Building a wall is an anachronism,” said Jessie J. Knight Jr., president and chief executive of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Nobody can possibly believe that this is the solution. . . . There are other ways to ensure security.” The Forum Fronterizo, sponsored by the...

THE assembly for the Mexican state of Baja California has declared movie star California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger "persona non grata" over his stance towards Mexican immigrants working in the US. "The Terminator has forgotten that he too arrived in the United States as an immigrant and he now backs racist policies against immigrant workers," deputy Arturo Pena Valle said after the vote, referring to Mr Schwarzenegger's most famous screen role. The regional assembly also denounced proposals in the US Congress to construct a fortified wall on the US-Mexico border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. Mr Schwarzenegger has opposed...

M7.0 quake hits N. America An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 jolted North America at around 5:32 p.m. Wednesday Japan time, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The focus of the quake was some 30 kilometers under the seabed around the Gulf of California, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The quake may cause small tsunamis around its epicenter, but they will not bring about any damage, the agency said.

BULLETIN HURRICANE OTIS ADVISORY NUMBER 9 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 2 AM PDT FRI SEP 30 2005 ...OTIS BECOMES A HURRICANE.... A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF THE BAJA CALIFORNIA PENINSULA...FROM SANTA FE SOUTHWARD ON THE PACIFIC COAST AND FROM LA PAZ SOUTHWARD ON THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA COAST. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS. INTERESTS ELSEWHERE...

MEXICO CITY — A coalition of shipping and freight concerns announced plans Friday for a $1-billion port on deserted seaside farmland about 150 miles south of Tijuana on the Baja peninsula. They hope to link the Mexican port to California with a new rail line connecting to the Imperial Valley and compete with the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports for a share of the multibillion-dollar West Coast shipping business. If it materializes, the Punta Colonet facility would be one of the largest public works projects undertaken in Mexico, requiring the construction of roads, housing, public buildings and other infrastructure...

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) -- Hurricane Marty barreled toward the southern tip of Baja California on Monday, the second hurricane to threaten the popular resort region in less than a month. Residents who had barely finished cleaning up after Hurricane Ignacio hit in late August found themselves stocking up on emergency water and food supplies. Many nailed plywood over their windows, and residents living in low lying shantytowns were evacuated from their cardboard homes to shelters. Forecasters predicted the storm would hit land sometime early Monday near Cabo San Lucas, a resort town known for its golf courses,...

(La Paz, Mexico-AP) Aug. 24, 2003 - Authorities on the Mexican Pacific coast are scrambling as Hurricane Ignacio moves north. Ignacio appeared to side-swipe the resort of Cabo San Lucas. Authorities in the area had closed down the airport and evacuated hundreds of people. The storm is moving north along the Baja California peninsula and could be heading toward the Mexican state capital of La Paz. The governor there has ordered the evacuation of low-lying areas around the city and is urgently telling all vessels to leave the harbor. It's not clear if the eye of the storm will...

New power plants south of the border are generating controversy. JEFFREY KAYE: In the northwest Mexico state of Baja, California, construction workers are completing two huge power plants three miles south of the U.S. border. One belongs to Sempra Energy, the largest energy distributor in the U.S. The bigger plant a mile away is owned by Intergen, a partnership controlled by shell oil. The plants are expected to start generating electricity-- enough for a million and a half homes-- next summer. But they're already generating a cross-border dispute between environmentalists and big power companies. Donald Felsinger, chairman of san Diego-based...

Anticipating a growing need and lucrative returns, companies gamble billions on LNG projects worldwide Cross-border neighbors California and Baja California are emerging as a crucial testing ground in a global gamble by energy companies to rekindle widespread use of liquefied natural gas. Although it's in limited use today, the fuel is expected to gain wider acceptance when businesses start bringing the precious commodity from far-flung locations to fuel-scarce regions like California and Baja California. For now, only about 1 percent of the natural gas consumed in the United States is LNG. Some analysts predict that will increase to as...