Fernando Fernande brought toilet paper, soap and food to the Palmasola prison, where his son has been locked up for the past two years.Other families waited outside the gates with wheelbarrows full of everything from sausages to blankets to charcoal for cooking. The supplies, Fernande said, were to

One of the "most critical and perhaps dramatic signs" of the times is "the tremendous growth of the Hispanic population," said Arturo Chavez, president and CEO of the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio.That growth presents a challenge to the Catholic Church to meet

The cross was created by Jesuit Father Luis Espinal, who was assassinated in 1980.

Catholic officials and observers expressed hope the pope's July 8-10 visit to Bolivia offers the opportunity to turn the page on nearly 10 years of mutual suspicions, public criticisms and the church losing its previously privileged position in a newly approved constitution.

'For now, people just hope to survive these truly terrible conditions.'

The primary sponsors of legislation legalizing physician-assisted suicide pulled the bill hours before a state Assembly hearing July 7, with its authors saying the bill was dead for this year.A group of Southern California Latino Democratic Assembly members broke ranks with their party to oppose the