Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- Might want to rethink buying that box of Franzia.

Some studies say that a glass of wine is good for your health, but according to a new lawsuit, it just may kill you. CBS reports that a class action lawsuit was filed today in California against some of the country's top winemakers over the high levels of arsenic in wine. The lawsuit claims that some of the most popular wines have "up to four and five times the maximum amount of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows for drinking water."

Many are upset that there are basically no federal requirements to tell customers what's really in wine. In fact, the wine lobby has been fighting government action to require alcohol companies to label what's in their wine. Biz Journal notes that a Denver laboratory called BeverageGrades started running tests last fall to uncover the calorie counts in bottles of wine. Kevin Hicks — who owns the company — says that he ran tests on 1,300 bottles and was shocked at what results showed. Nearly a quarter of the bottles had levels of arsenic higher than the EPA's maximum for drinking water. When scanning through the results, Hicks noticed a pattern: The lower the price of the wine, the higher the levels of arsenic were. Trader Joe's famous Two-Buck Chuck White Zinfandel had three times the EPA's limit, while Franzia Blush had five times the limit.

Arsenic is linked to many forms of cancer

Hicks says that when he tried to bring this information to the winemakers, they basically "hung up the phone." So, he filed a lawsuit accusing more than 24 California winemakers and sellers "of misrepresenting their wine as safe." Trader Joe's tells CBS that "they're investigating the matter" with many of their wine suppliers. A spokesperson for the Wine Group — another company named in the lawsuit — adds that the largest level of arsenic cited in the lawsuit is "only half of Canada's standard for wine, of 100 parts per billion."

Epidemiologist Allan Smith tells CBS news that arsenic can be fatal over time: "Arsenic is highly toxic," even at a parts per billion level. Smith adds, "[Arsenic] has many effects inside the body as cigarette smoking does" and that it is linked to many forms of cancer.

These new findings could have a negative impact on America's burgeoning wine industry: Last year, America officially dethroned France as the "number-one largest market for wine in the world." The news affects wine drinkers in other countries too. A report released in February shows that the U.S. is one of the largest exporters of wine in the world: In 2015, America exported just under $1.5 billion worth of wine.

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- The executive director of Positive Resource Center, the San Francisco nonprofit that provides comprehensive benefits counseling and employment services to people who are living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS, is taking a three-month break but says he'll be back.

The announcement this week from Brett Andrews, 50, who's starting a paid sabbatical April 1, follows the recent departure of two other San Francisco nonprofit heads who left their jobs after taking similar leaves.

Transgender Law Center Executive Director Masen Davis left that nonprofit earlier this year. Last summer, Carolyn Laub quit the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. Both Davis and Laub have been replaced.

Andrews, who's gay, insists he'll return to PRC, which he's led for 12 years.

"I am not thinking about leaving Positive Resource Center," he said. "It truly is the intention that I take a break that the board and I both feel I well deserve, and I'm looking forward to coming back."

While Andrews is away, Joe Tuohy, PRC's managing director of development, will have the "day-to-day decision making authority," according to Andrews. The senior management team will support Tuohy.

Andrews said during his sabbatical, which ends June 30, he will travel, rest, and write. There are no educational or professional development requirements, he said.

He plans to "reflect on my life and my body of work," he said. "That will have me prepared to come back and do more of it."

The break comes as the nonprofit has completed a strategic plan that includes giving staff opportunities for sabbaticals. It also includes discussion of the agency buying its own building and other topics.

"We're using it as a retention strategy," said Andrews. "The board is pleased with my work" and feels that "rest and rejuvenation would keep me here at the agency longer, and I agree."

His travel plans include Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Palm Springs, California; and the East Coast.

Board President Kent Roger said, "The board has been trying to get him to take [a sabbatical] for the past number of years but it was just never the right time."

Roger, who's led the group's board for five years, is stepping down next week. Gay attorney and San Francisco Police Commissioner Julius Turman is set to replace him. Turman didn't respond to a request for comment.

In an email, Tuohy said, "I think Brett's sabbatical can have nothing but a positive impact on PRC. With a solid management team in place to steer the ship in his absence, the organization is poised to benefit from renewed energy and enthusiasm upon his return."

Tuohy, who's 49 and gay, has been with the nonprofit for six months.

The group's 2013 tax filing lists Andrews' "reportable compensation from the organization" as $144,268. "Estimated amount of other compensation" from the nonprofit "and related organizations" was $17,586.

The agency's budget is $3.2 million. There are 32 paid staff, and the nonprofit serves about 2,200 unduplicated clients a year.

Agency's plans

Like many nonprofits, PRC has faced rising rents.

The strategic plan for 2015 to 2017, which was adopted at the board's retreat in January, includes the desire to raise money and purchase a building to ensure the stability of PRC's "occupancy and finances" by December 2016.

The nonprofit's current office is at 785 Market Street. Andrews wouldn't say what PRC's rent is, but the group's tax filing for 2013 lists occupancy expenses as $376,537.

In an email, Andrews said, "Our rent went up 25 percent, starting next month, and we were only offered a two-year lease."

The nonprofit "to date" has "been gifted with a seven-figure bequest" from a trust, he said.

"These funds have allowed us to think more broadly about our occupancy, including having exploratory conversations about the purchase of a building," said Andrews, who indicated he didn't know how much buying a building would cost.

"We are in the preliminary assessment phase of identifying our space needs," he said. "We will know more about that, when/if we do a feasibility study, potentially as soon as mid-2015."

The strategic plan also says that by 2017, the agency will "explore opportunities to support populations in need" and "continue to expand services beyond HIV/AIDS."

Among other projects, PRC is involved in developing a pilot project "to increase the employment of workers with disabilities in California, including workers with mental health issues," according to information Andrews provided.

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- Ricky Martin won’t be wearing Dolce & Gabbana any time soon. The Puerto Rican singer has added his voice to the growing celebrities supporting Sir Elton John in his outrage over the fashion pair’s use of the word “synthetic” to describe in vitro fertilization (IVF) babies.

They also said they are against gay adoptions.

Martin, who has twin boys born via surrogate, urged the fashion greats to think about their words, using the hashtag #BoycottDolceGabbana.

“@Dolcegabbana ur voices R 2powerful 2B spreading so much h8. Wake up. Its 2015 luv urselves guys,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who are both gay and were previously a couple, spoke to Italian magazine Panoramaabout their objections to non-traditional families, calling children conceived via IVF “chemical offsprings” and “synthetic children.”

“We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one,” the pair said in the interview. “No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.”

John, who has two children with husband David Furnish, called for a boycott of the fashion label in a scathing post on Instagram.

“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic.' And shame on you for wagging your judgemental little fingers at IVF — a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfil their dream of having children. Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana,” he wrote on Sunday.

In their interview, Dolce added that procreation “must be an act of love” and that “you are born to a mother and a father — or at least that’s how it should be.”

Gabbana added: “The family is not a fad. In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.”

The duo has previously spoken out against same-sex marriage.

Joining Martin and John in their outrage are tennis great Martina Navratilova, singer Courtney Love and fashionista Victoria Beckham.

“Sending love to Elton David Zachary Elijah & all the beautiful IVF babies x vb,” the mother of four wrote on Twitter.”

Responding to the call for boycott, Gabbana issued a statement, attempting to clarify or explain their comments.

"It was never our intention to judge other people's choices. We do believe in freedom and love," the designer said. "We firmly believe in democracy and the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that upholds it. We talked about our way of seeing reality, but it was never our intention to judge other people's choices.”

He said he grew up in a traditional Sicilian family and that he is “very well aware of the fact that there are other types of families” that are as “legitimate” as his own.

“But in my personal experience, family had a different configuration. That is the place where I learnt the values of love and family,” Gabbana continued. “This is the reality in which I grew up, but it does not imply that I don’t understand different ones. I was talking about my personal view, without judging other people’s choices and decisions.”

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- Location shooting for "Spectre," the latest film in the James Bond series, moves this week to Mexico City, where numerous street closings are planned.

A number of streets will closed on Thursday in the capital, where vehicular access from some thoroughfares into the Zocalo, Mexico City's largest plaza, will be restricted from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Location shooting for the 24th installment of the Bond series will also require street closings on March 20, March 21 and March 24, as well as from March 25 to April 1, when access to the Zocalo from certain streets will also be restricted.

Traffic will be allowed to circulate on streets being used for shooting by the Bond crew on Sunday, March 22, and Sunday, March 29.

The public transit system will offer regular service at Metro Line 2's Allende and Zocalo stations, but access to the plaza at the latter station will not be allowed.

"Spectre" stars Daniel Craig, who is appearing in his fourth Bond film, and features Monica Bellucci, Lea Seydoux and Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman as the latest Bond girls.

In the the film, Agent 007 will battle the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, or SPECTRE, and arch villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz plays Blofeld, whose character first appears in Ian Fleming's "Thunderball" and has been featured in several Bond films.

Craig also starred as 007 in "Casino Royale," "Quantum of Solace" and "Skyfall."

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- A group of around 50 demonstrators gathered outside the Mexican consulate in New York on Wednesday morning to demand justice for the 43 Mexican college students who disappeared last September and to call for the end of a security initiative between the United States and Mexico that they claim is partially responsible for widespread violence and corruption in the country.

Among the demonstrators was Felipe de la Cruz, a teacher from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College of Ayotzinapa in the Mexican state of Guerrero, which is the school the students attended before their disappearance. De la Cruz's visit to New York is part of a caravan of the missing students' parents and friends currently making their way through the U.S. to raise awareness.

"We're in the U.S. because there are many Mexicans here in this country and we want to get their support and the support of the international community for these human rights abuses," de la Cruz said during a press conference.

The 43 students disappeared after a clash with police in the town of Iguala, about 100 miles southwest of Mexico City, and were turned them over to a local drug gang, Guerreros Unidos, who later burned the bodies, according to the federal government's version of events.

The crime has shaken the country and drawn international criticism and protests over the involvement of municipal officials and police in the disappearance of the students.

Demonstrators in New York blamed much of the pervasive violence in Mexico on the U.S. weapons and funding given to that country under the Mérida Initiative, a security strategy signed in 2008 that among other things has provided $2.1 billion to Mexico to combat drug trafficking in the country.

It is dismissively referred to as Plan Mexico, after Plan Colombia, a similar U.S. drug war initiative in that South American nation. Many critics– citing widespread corruption throughout Mexico's civil police forces and a soaring murder rate since its implementation – claim that the Mérida Initiative is doing more harm than good.

"We're targeting both the Mexican government and the United States," Ekiwah Sanchez, one of the organizers of the demonstration, told Fox News Latino. "This is a global thing because the repression and the tactics used by the Mexican government were taught here in the U.S."

The violence related to the drug trade in Mexico escalated in 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderón declared an offensive against the drug cartels. More than 60,000 people were killed in the fighting that followed.

While many people hoped that President Enrique Peña Nieto would help lower the body count, the opposite has in fact happened with almost 13,000 people being slain in drug-related violence from December 2012, when he took office, through the end of July.

The caravan of parents and friends entered the U.S. on Monday in El Paso, Texas, where family members held a rally, then split into three groups, one heading to the West Coast, East Coast and central states.

"We want to wake up the consciousness of the people in the U.S. on what is happening in Mexico," Josimar de la Cruz Ayala, brother of survivor Angel Neri de la Cruz Ayala said, according to the El Paso Times. "We need their support to demand that Mexico find the students and other people who have disappeared and bring to justice the perpetrators."

The three caravans plan on converging in Washington, D.C. where parents of the missing students will present their case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

While in New York, de la Cruz is will attend Amnesty International USA's general meeting in Brooklyn this weekend. He is also hopeful that the group will be able to meet with United Nations officials

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- Costa Rica's main airport remained closed Friday due to drifting ash from the nearby Turrialba volcano, authorities said.

Aeris, the company that operates Juan Santamaria International Airport, located near San Jose, said 12 inbound flights had been diverted and 10 scheduled departures were put on hold.

The airport was closed at around 4:00 p.m. Thursdays and crews have been working since then to clear the runways and shore up safety measures.

Turrialba, some 43.5 miles east of San Jose erupted three times on Thursday, sending columns of smoke and ash 3,300 feet into the sky, the Costa Rica Vulcanology and Seismology Observatory said.

Strong winds pushed the ash clouds over San Jose and other cities.

Authorities have reported no casualties or serious damage from the eruptions, though farming and ranching on the slopes of Turrialba have been affected and classes were canceled at some schools.

The volcano entered a more active phase in October, with several eruptions of ash, gases and minor volumes of magma.

Welcome to WSD 2015. The slogan for 2015 expresses a desire that comes true for only 1/3 of the world population. Sound sleep is a treasured function and one of the pillars of health, along with a balanced diet and adequate exercise. When sleep fails, health declines. Poor sleep and bad health decrease the quality of life and take happiness away.

World Sleep Day is an annual event sponsored by the World Association of Sleep Medicine, to raise awareness of sleep disorders and highlight the burden that they place on society. World Sleep Day 2015 will be held on Friday, March 13th, 2015. Most sleep disorders are preventable or treatable, yet less than one-third of sufferers seek professional help. Sleep problems constitute a global epidemic that threatens health and quality of life for up to 45% of the world’s population. Better understanding of sleep conditions and more research into this area of medicine will help reduce the burden of sleep disorders on society.

The three elements of good quality sleep are:

a. Duration- The length of sleep should be sufficient for the sleeper to be rested and alert the following day.
b. Continuity- Sleep cycles should be seamless without interruption.
c. Depth- Sleep should be deep enough or sufficiently sound to be restorative and refreshing.

World Sleep Day 2015 offers a world stage to interested parties to join forces and reach their audiences. Sleep centers around the world are invited to teach their constituents that sleep hygiene is the science conducive to the preservation of high quality, sound and sufficient sleep. The World Association of Sleep Medicine has issued rules of hygiene that are contained in the 10 Commandments of Sleep. These rules aim to maintain or restore natural, refreshing and healthy sound sleep. Environmental conditions, such as temperature, noise, light, bed comfort, and electronic devices may modify sleep and thus play a significant role in the ability to get proper sleep—and, subsequently, in overall sleep-related wellness.

Sleep centers are also invited to tell the public that breathing regularly during sleep is critical to well-being and health. Frequent interruption of the breathing function during sleep is a pervasive and common disorder called sleep apnea, that affects 17 % of men and 9 % of women in middle and old age. Sleep centers offer diagnostic procedures and provide recommendations to control sleep apnea.

Sound sleep facilitates the preservation of mental health. Sleep disturbances are a risk factor for mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. In turn, control of these disorders improves the quality of sleep.

Failure to obtain quality sleep may lead to poor alertness, lack of attention, reduced concentration, and decreased academic productivity, while increasing the risk of motor vehicle accidents.

Thus, we return to the original slogan
‘When sleep is SOUND, health and happiness ABOUND’.

I encourage you to join World Sleep Day 2015 and contribute to improve and facilitate health and happiness around the world.

Antonio Culebras, Co-chair WSD2015Liborio Parrino, Co-chair WSD2015

Many people say that an involving melody is the best fellow to walk into Morpheus arms.

The right Music at the right moment can raise a wall between the corrupted noise of the world and the pure silence of mind, favouring the passage through the dream gates.
At the same time, the first moments of waking need the help of another musical frame, which can turn the first sound heard into the most beautiful melody across the whole new day.
If you want to see how it works, Stay Tonight.

Francesco Parrino(composer of “Stay Tonight”)

To download Stay Tonight part one Click HERE and part two HERE.

More music from Francesco ParrinoWebsite: http://youtubesheetmusic.com/artists/francesco-parrino/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/francescoparrinoF
acebook: https://www.facebook.com/Francesco.Parrino.Officia
lTwitter: https://twitter.com/FraPar_piano

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- Emmy-winning host and fashion expert Rodner Figueroa is apologizing to Michelle Obama for the racist comments he made about her during a show on the Spanish-language network Univision on Wednesday.

Figueroa, who was fired that same day, broke his silence in a letter released Thursday, offering his most sincere apologies and saying his comments were misinterpreted. During the live broadcast, the 42-year-old said the First Lady “looks like she was from the ‘Planet of the Apes,’

“I would like to clarify that I am not a racist and my comments were in no way directed toward you, but toward the characterization made by the makeup artist,” he wrote in Spanish.

“I am embarrassed, I ask for forgiveness, because there is no excuse for a professional like me to make comments like this that can be misinterpreted as offensive and racist during such a volatile time in our country.”

He continued: “I take responsibility for this error in judgment on my part, but I cannot accept being called a racist and fired like this, humiliated by Univision, after 17 years there.”

“I come from a bi-racial Latino family, with family members like my father, who are Afro-Latino. I am the first openly gay host on Spanish-language television and I have been an activist for causes to help minorities, who like me have been discriminated against,” Figueroa explained.

Figueroa made his comment during a segment of “El Gordo y la Flaca,” when the hosts were talking about make-up artist Paolo Ballesteros, who has been making headlines recently for transforming himself into celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lawrence, Cher and the First Lady.

It was while showing Ballesteros' transformation of himself turning into Obama that Figueroa made his comment.

On Thursday, Univision issued a statement confirming Figueroa's departure from the network.

“Yesterday during the entertainment program ‘El Gordo y La Flaca,’ Rodner Figueroa made some comments about First Lady Michelle Obama that were completely reprehensible and in no way a reflection of the values and opinions of Univision. As a result, Mr. Figueroa was fired immediately,” statement read.

Figueroa no longer appears on Univision's talent page.

In his letter, the Venezuelan-American host wrote that Univision gave him a verbal notification of his departure. He claimed network executives leaked the news and “condemned me on social media, trying to destroy my career in an unjust manner, without even officially notifying me in writing nor without a proper investigation of the situation.”

Soon after the news of Figueroa’s departure was made public, Lili Estefan and Raul de Molina, hosts of “El Gordo y la Flaca” defended their ex-co-host saying that calling him a racist is “ridiculous.”

“I think Rodner was definitely wrong (in what he said), but calling him a racist is ridiculous,” Estefan told People En Español. “Rodner is someone who makes fun of himself. For those who don’t know it, his father is Black.”

De Molina said: “I’ve known Rodner since we worked together in Telemundo… Although we have our conflicts in front of the camera, I love him dearly. I don’t think his comment had a racist undertone, of that I am sure. Rodner is indispensable to ‘El Gordo y la Flaca.’”

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- A dog trained by U.S. scientists has learned to detect thyroid cancer in undiagnosed individuals, according to a study presented at the 97th annual meeting of the U.S. Endocrine Society held over the weekend in San Diego.

The canine, a German shepherd called Frankie, nailed the diagnosis in 88.2 percent of the cases just by smelling the urine of the 34 participants in the experiment.

Dogs have a sense of smell 10 times keener than man, the reason the team believes that "scent-trained canines could be used by physicians to detect the presence of thyroid cancer at an early stage and to avoid surgery when unwarranted," endocrine oncology expert Donald Bodenner at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, or UAMS, the lead author of the study, said.

While Bodenner does not suggest taking decisions for treating patients based on the canine technique, he said the dog's diagnostic precision was only slightly inferior to that achieved by extracting cells with a needle for a biopsy, the usual method.

To do the study, the team first trained Frankie to recognize the scent of cancerous thyroid tissue from samples extracted from multiple patients.

The researchers than had him sniff urine samples from 34 untested patients before taking a biopsy of their thyroid nodules, in which 15 people were diagnosed with cancer and 19 tested negative.

Frankie, who was trained to lie down when he identified thyroid cancer in a sample and to move on if the urine was clean, made the correct diagnosis in 30 of the 34 cases.

The scientists said they plan to expand their study in collaboration with Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine, given that the canine detection of odors has the advantage of being non-invasive and low in cost.

Puerto Vallarta, Jal. – On Saturday, Southwest Airlines Flight 2207 did not just mark Southwest’s first flight between Aruba and Houston; it also marked the carrier’s first international arrival into Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport. Now Houston is one of a handful of cities in the U.S. to have two international airports.

Back in 1971, Southwest Airlines started flying between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio with three Boeing 737s, and over the years, the airline rapidly expanded its reach from coast to coast. Up until it acquired AirTran Airways in September 2010, Southwest only flew within the continental U.S., but since AirTran flew to a dozen cities outside the U.S., this meant that Southwest would too.

Now that Southwest would have international access thanks to its AirTran acquisition, Southwest started looking into starting international flights in and out of Houston, but the airline would have to win over the city’s approval to build an international terminal at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport where has build up a large presence.

To try to get the city of Houston on-board, Southwest launched the “Free Hobby” campaign in 2012, which almost sparked a war in Houston. Many in northern Houston were concerned that this would cause significant changes to United’s presence at Intercontinental Airport, but for those in south Huston, they would be able to fly out of an airport closer to their home.

Over the next few months, the city council, along with city leaders, held many debates about building an international terminal at Hobby Airport before it would go the city would make a final decision. Plus, United was very vocal about preventing Hobby from becoming an international airport.

Ultimately, Southwest won approval from the city of Houston to build the international terminal. The new $156 million, five-gate international concourse is still under construction. The new facility will increase capacity for all airport functions and add a Federal Inspections Services (FIS) facility to streamline U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) screening and baggage processing for arriving international passengers.

An airport spokesperson says that opening day is expected sometime mid-October. He also explained that Southwest will get preferred treatment at four of the five gates, and the airport is actively looking to add another international airline at Hobby once the new terminal opens

Southwest has big plans for international expansion in Houston, and back in December, the carrier announced it filed applications with the U.S. Department of Transportation to start flights to six international destinations this fall once the new international concourse opens.

Pending government approval, Southwest plans to launch new international flights from Houston to Cancun, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, and San Jose del Cabo in Mexico. Plus, Southwest also plans to launch flights to Belize City, Belize and San Jose, Costa Rica from Houston.

“This is an exciting first step in achieving our goal of establishing regional international air service at Hobby Airport,” said Houston Aviation Director Mario C. Diaz. “We are making dramatic progress on the new international concourse building and have a definitive route map now available from the team at Southwest Airlines. The importance of strong connectivity with Latin America and the Caribbean cannot be overstated in Houston and these flights will undoubtedly strengthen those business and cultural ties.”

Mexican agricultural officials spent several days last week meeting with a group of their countrymen living in California over a matter that had nothing to do with the typical reasons immigrants turn to their former homeland’s authorities — to reclaim or protect land back in Mexico.

Under a program that began last year, Mexico is trying to help its citizens who live in the United States resolve issues relating to farm parcels of communal land known as "ejidos," that people could lose if they do not pay dues, appear to neglect the land, or if relatives who remain in Mexico and owned the property die, leaving the land at risk of being possessed by others, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The ejidos system is an old one, started after the Mexican Revolution.

The system entailed granting peasants communal rights to farm parcels. It was part of a larger agrarian reform, the Times said.

But the rules for retaining those rights are strict, and more people have been at risk of being stripped of their ownership privileges as immigration, particularly without proper documents, from Mexico to the United States has grown since the ejidos system was put into place.

Mexican officials who have been assisting immigrants living in the United States say many do not know what their rights to land back in their homeland are, particularly when that parcel was in the name of a deceased relative, the Times said.

Catalina Rodriguez, who helps resolve disputes and ambiguity involving ejidos, has helped many Mexicans in California sort out their cases.

That has sometimes entailed research into who has ownership rights to a parcel, and other times the help is in the form of putting together the paperwork to document ownership and ensuring that the right people inherit the rights to the ejido.

Mexico also has arranged for officials there to represent immigrants in cases where the land ownership is in question, Rodriguez told the Times.

She said she is struck by how important it is to Mexicans in the United States to own land in their native homeland.

"It's their patrimony," she said.

It certainly was extremely important to Maria Gonzales, who left Mexico 25 years ago. Her parents stayed home, on their four-acre farm.

Although she had built a life here, she envisaged someday going back to Mexico and to the farm. But her parents died, and Gonzales learned that someone else had taken possession of the farm, the Times said.

Gonzales, whom the Times described as undocumented, could not return to Mexico to investigate the matter because she would risk not being able to return to Los Angeles.

Her husband, Ezequiel Becerril, said to the Times: "They're taking advantage because we can't be there.”

But she found hope when she went to see one of the Mexican government’s agricultural officials who was visiting California last week. The official found that the farm was, indeed, still under her deceased mother’s name.

"Legally, it's your mother's," the official said, according to the Times.

She got a copy of the deed from the official, which could pave the way to getting local authorities in her former hometown of Jalisco to evict the person who is there now from the farm.

"Amazing," said an emotional Gonzales, the Times reported. "Amazing."

Mexican agricultural officials spent several days last week meeting with a group of their countrymen living in California over a matter that had nothing to do with the typical reasons immigrants turn to their former homeland’s authorities — to reclaim or protect land back in Mexico.

Under a program that began last year, Mexico is trying to help its citizens who live in the United States resolve issues relating to farm parcels of communal land known as "ejidos," that people could lose if they do not pay dues, appear to neglect the land, or if relatives who remain in Mexico and owned the property die, leaving the land at risk of being possessed by others, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The ejidos system is an old one, started after the Mexican Revolution.

The system entailed granting peasants communal rights to farm parcels. It was part of a larger agrarian reform, the Times said.

But the rules for retaining those rights are strict, and more people have been at risk of being stripped of their ownership privileges as immigration, particularly without proper documents, from Mexico to the United States has grown since the ejidos system was put into place.

Mexican officials who have been assisting immigrants living in the United States say many do not know what their rights to land back in their homeland are, particularly when that parcel was in the name of a deceased relative, the Times said.

Catalina Rodriguez, who helps resolve disputes and ambiguity involving ejidos, has helped many Mexicans in California sort out their cases.

That has sometimes entailed research into who has ownership rights to a parcel, and other times the help is in the form of putting together the paperwork to document ownership and ensuring that the right people inherit the rights to the ejido.

Mexico also has arranged for officials there to represent immigrants in cases where the land ownership is in question, Rodriguez told the Times.

She said she is struck by how important it is to Mexicans in the United States to own land in their native homeland.

"It's their patrimony," she said.

It certainly was extremely important to Maria Gonzales, who left Mexico 25 years ago. Her parents stayed home, on their four-acre farm.

Although she had built a life here, she envisaged someday going back to Mexico and to the farm. But her parents died, and Gonzales learned that someone else had taken possession of the farm, the Times said.

Gonzales, whom the Times described as undocumented, could not return to Mexico to investigate the matter because she would risk not being able to return to Los Angeles.

Her husband, Ezequiel Becerril, said to the Times: "They're taking advantage because we can't be there.”

But she found hope when she went to see one of the Mexican government’s agricultural officials who was visiting California last week. The official found that the farm was, indeed, still under her deceased mother’s name.

"Legally, it's your mother's," the official said, according to the Times.

She got a copy of the deed from the official, which could pave the way to getting local authorities in her former hometown of Jalisco to evict the person who is there now from the farm.

"Amazing," said an emotional Gonzales, the Times reported. "Amazing."

A sure sign that spring's on the horizon: One hour less shut-eye Saturday night no matter when you turn out the lights.

Most people in the U.S. are supposed to push the clock forward by 60 minutes before heading to bed Saturday night. Daylight saving time officially begins at 2 a.m. Sunday local time.

You may have lost a bit of sleep, but in the months ahead you'll gain an extra hour of sunlight in the evenings.

It's also a good time to replace batteries in warning devices such as smoke detectors.

The time change isn't observed by Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.

Daylight saving time ends Nov. 1.