musician's body is headed for Indiana

By Carol Druga
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- Those who knew popular Mexican-American musician Sergio Gomez from his many visits to Spanish-language radio station WEDJ-FM cannot understand how he got caught up in the wave of entertainment-related murders in Mexico.

The 35-year-old singer was killed last weekend after performing with his top-selling group, K-Paz de la Sierra, in Morelia, Mexico.



During the past few years Gomez lived in suburban Avon with his wife, children and other relatives, said WEDJ programming manager Manuel Sepulveda, who met the singer many times.

"Family man, loved by the people," Sepulveda said yesterday. "Good friend to those who were his friends."

His Duranguense music got its start in Chicago, where K-Paz made its first recordings, and was popular in both Mexico and the United States. Five of the band's al***s have reached the Top 10 on Billboard magazine's Latin music chart.

Gomez's remains are being returned to Indiana. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Stevens Mortuary on Indianapolis' west side. His body will be cremated after the visitation, said funeral director Sarah Arnold.

Hundreds of people mourned Gomez on Tuesday in his native Ciudad Hidalgo. About 200 more also gathered in Mexico City, where Gomez's body was transported Tuesday night. People sang the group's best-known songs, and some cried while holding flowers and photographs.

Gomez moved from Mexico years ago to Chicago before settling in Avon, Sepulveda said. He said Gomez's parents and brother were among family members also living in Avon.

A steady stream of listeners has called the station to talk about Gomez's death, and WEDJ aired a tribute to him.

"Our morning-show guy ... that's all he's been talking about for the past few days," Sepulveda said.

K-Paz's music had not crossed over to the pop charts, but in its Latino genre, the group was as popular as Garth Brooks or Shania Twain in country music, Sepulvedo said. Duranguense music is a style from the Mexican state of Durango.

The murders of Gomez and singer Zayda Pena has entertainers worrying they might become targets by becoming identified with one or another of Mexico's warring drug gangs.

Although not known for songs glamorizing the drug business, Gomez had reportedly received death threats urging him not to appear in the capital of the western state of Michoacan, a hotbed of the drug trade, where he was tortured before being strangled on Sunday.

Sepulveda said Gomez did not have a reputation for being involved in drugs, and he sang mostly love songs and about events in Mexico.

"That was what was so shocking to the Latino community," he said.

Some singers, whether they have links to drug cartels or not, are "adopted" by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members torturing and executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.

(Three Photos)
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712070456

Deputies probe singer’s death
Mexican police suspect possible love triangle cause of slaying

By JOSÉ BORJÓN/The Brownsville Herald

BROWNSVILLE — The Cameron County Sheriff’s Department has joined the investigation into the death of a Mexican singer who was killed at a Matamoros hospital early Saturday.

Sheriff’s deputy Alvaro Guerra, who is the liaison between county lawmen here and the Tamaulipas State Police, confirmed Monday that he was contacted by Mexican investigators about the death of Zayda Peña.

Peña, 28, was the vocalist for the Mexican group Zayda y Los Culpables.

Guerra said Mexican investigators told him that the man who killed Peña, whose name had not been released as of Monday night, recently bought a car in Brownsville.

“That’s all the information we have so far,” Guerra said. “They are suppose to get back to me with more information. I haven’t heard from them again.”

The Tamaulipas enlinea Web site reported Monday that Peña was shot in the face early Saturday at El Hospital Alfredo Pumarejo where she was being treated for a gunshot wound to the back that she received Friday after she was caught with the suspect’s ex-girlfriend, Ana Bertha Gonza***.

The suspect found Peña and Gonzales, who was also her presumed lover, at the Monaco Motel on La Carretera Matamoros Reynosa.

Tamaulipas State Police believe that Gonza***’s ex-boyfriend killed her and Peña in a rage over a ******* affair.

Leonardo Sanchez, an employee at the motel, was also killed Friday night, Tamaulipas enlinea reported.

Multiple calls made to Mexican investigators for the Tamaulipas State Police were not returned Monday night.

Mexican president asks Mexican consuls in U.S. to 'neutralize' attitudes toward migrants

By E. Eduardo Castillo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:51 a.m. December 7, 2007

MEXICO CITY – President Felipe Calderón on Friday told Mexican consuls to the U.S. and Canada that they must work to “neutralize” anti-immigrant attitudes north of the border.
Calderón's instructions came two days after he accused U.S. presidential candidates of “swaggering, macho and anti-Mexican” posturing. He also warned the U.S. Congress not to impose conditions on a $1.4 billion anti-drug aid package.

On Friday, the Mexican leader asked his diplomatic representatives in the U.S. to participate in the public debate on immigration by appearing at public events, talking more to the media and working with nonprofit groups to promote Mexican immigrants' role in supporting the U.S. economy.
“The key is to neutralize this strategy of confrontation and discrimination that forms part of U.S. society's mistaken perception, and be able to newly focus arguments on the complimentary aspects of our economies,” he said.

Calderón complained about “the seeds of animosity, or in some cases even hate and discrimination, that are being planted are not only against immigrants, but sometimes against Mexicans in general.”

He said the increasingly hostile attitude toward Mexicans was “affecting our bilateral relationship” with the U.S.

“The worst mistake that we can make, both in the U.S. and in Mexico, is make our respective people feel that the other nation is the enemy,” he said.

Mexico has pushed for an immigration accord and better treatment of its estimated 11 million citizens who live in the U.S. Some 6 million are believed to be there illegally.

Free the Cuban Five event on Friday night

December 7, 8 and 9
Hotel Palacio Azteca
Boulevard Cuautemoc Sur,
#213 Col. Davila
Tijuana, Mexico

Irma Sehwerert, mother of René Gonzá***, one of the Cuban Five wrongly imprisoned in the United States will speak at a forum in Tijuana, Mexico on Friday, December 7 at 6PM in the Ambar Hall of the Hotel. Ms Sehwerert is coming directly from her homeland, Cuba.

The forum is part of a three day Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/North America Labor Conference that will bring together union leaders from Latin America, including also from Nicaragua, Bolivia and Colombia. Workers and activists from the United States will have the opportunity to meet with workers in these countries and discuss the important political developments in Latin America and its impact on the workers in the U.S.

The event is being held in Mexico due to the hostility of the United States government towards Cuba which prevents Cubans from visiting U.S. territory, a fact that is exemplified by the refusal of the government to grant visas to the relatives of the Five.

The program includes plenary sessions on Saturday from 9am to 7PM and Sunday from 10AM to 3PM.

Speakers include Raymundo Navarro, Director of Foreign Relations of the Cuban Confederation of Workers; Jacobo Torres, National Coordinator Bolivarian Force of Workers in Venezuela, Pedro Montes, General Secretary of Bolivian Workers’ Federation, Maritza del Socorro Espinales, General Secretary Federation of University Unions and many more leaders. They will be joined by Elvira Arellano, from La Familia Latina Unida.

The event is sponsored by the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas, the Coalición 25 de Marzo, International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five and other organizations.

Share this page with a friend
International Action Center

5C - Solidarity Center
55 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011
email: mailto:iacenter@action-mail.org
En Espanol: iac-cai@action-mail.org
Web: http://www.iacenter.org
Support Mumia Abu-Jamal: http://www.millions4mumia.org/
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
Make a donation to the IAC and its projects

I commend President Calderon for his initiative in directing diplomatic representatives to take a more active role in countering the bigoted anti immigrant (documented and undocumented) retoric that is so obvious in our country. Silence is the most dangerous response to the anti immigrant agenda.

Miami Immigration Debate

Wall Street Journal
By SUSAN DAVIS
December 8, 2007; Page A2

With less than four weeks to go before the first presidential contests, Republicans face a precarious test on immigration Sunday.

For months, the candidates have largely been trying to outdo each other on who would take a harder line cracking down on illegals. This weekend, they'll be asked to elaborate in a debate hosted by Spanish-language network Univision at the University of Miami.

"Look, this is going to be a painful experience for the Republican Party to stand up to a Hispanic audience and explain themselves on immigration," said Frank Sherry, executive director of the pro-immigration National Immigration Forum. "The jujitsu is going to be fascinating to watch."

"Most importantly, we'll be watching for consistency," said Dan Stein, president of the anti-immigration Federation for American Immigration Reform.

It is the first Republican debate before a predominantly minority audience, and the candidates will be in the hot seat before one of the most scrutinizing audiences on the topic. It comes as new surveys show Republicans rapidly losing support among the growing Hispanic population -- voters President Bush and his chief strategist, Karl Rove, saw as an essential element of the 21st-century Republican coalition.

Seven of the eight contenders will participate in Sunday's forum. Immigration-foe Rep. Tom Tancredo (R., Colo.) said he wouldn't join a debate not conducted in English. The candidates will be speaking English, but the event will be broadcast through simultaneous translation in Spanish.

Most of those appearing are doing so reluctantly. The original debate was slated for September but was canceled after Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) was the only major candidate who agreed to participate. Others cited scheduling conflicts. Meanwhile, Democratic candidates participated in a Univision debate in September that was watched by 2.2 million viewers.

Among the leading Republicans, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Mr. McCain share more moderate views on the creation of a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the country. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney advocate a tougher approach and oppose any "amnesty" proposals.

Mike Huckabee -- the field's fast-rising dark horse -- has been attacked by rivals for taking a tolerant attitude toward illegal immigration during his time as Arkansas governor. On Friday, he decided to unveil a nine-point plan that includes one of the toughest proposals yet. Mr. Huckabee would require all illegal immigrants to register with the federal government and leave the country within 120 days before applying to return.

The candidates will be walking a fine line between appealing to the party's conservative base while not further alienating the fastest-growing minority group in the country that is increasingly trending Democratic.

In the three early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, immigration ranks as a greater issue of concern for Republican voters than Democrats, according to a Pew Research Center poll released last week. Likely Republican Iowa caucus goers cited immigration as their No. 1 concern over terrorism.

On the other hand, the Pew Hispanic Center released new data Thursday that showed 57% of registered Hispanic voters now align themselves with the Democratic Party. Only 23% identified with the Republicans. The 34-point gap in party affiliation is up from the 21-point gap reported in July 2006.

Write to Susan Davis at susan.davis@wsj.com

Mexico's Slim Wants to Shed More of CompUSA Chain, Journal Says

By David Altaner

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim wants to get rid of more of his CompUSA consumer-electronics chain, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Slim's executives approached Circuit City Stores Inc., Micro Electronics Inc. and Systemax Inc. about taking over stores and other operations, the newspaper said. The Dallas-based chain operates about 100 stores in the U.S., the WSJ said.

Circuit City said the company looked at CompUSA stores in the past but isn't looking at them now, the Journal reported, citing a spokesman for Circuit City. Other talks also receded without an agreement, the newspaper said.

Representatives for Slim's Grupo Carso SA and CompUSA declined to comment, the Journal said.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Altaner in London at daltaner@bloomberg.net

Mexico raids sawmills near Monarch butterfly reserve, arrests lumberjacks, seizes lumber

By Mark Stevenson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:02 p.m. December 6, 2007

MEXICO CITY – Police raided clandestine sawmills near a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter, arresting 45 people and confiscating enough illegally logged wood to fill 600 heavy trucks, the government said Thursday.
Illegal deforestation in and around the reserves threatens the butterflies, which rely on the forest cover to protect them from the cold, high-altitude winds. Huge numbers of Monarchs died during a cold snap in 2002.

About 600 police and environmental agents raided 19 clandestine saw mills Wednesday in the western state of Michoacan. They detained mill workers, lumberjacks, truck drivers and others, said Augusto Cabrera, a spokesman for the attorney general for environmental protection.

Authorities reported seizing about 210,000 cubic feet of logs and boards, equivalent to about 4,400 tons of wood. Cabrera and other environmental authorities said they could not remember a larger seizure in Mexico.

“This was in the area of the Monarch butterfly, in the buffer zone” created to protect the pine- and fir-covered mountaintops where the butterflies rest for the winter after migrating south from the United States and Canada, Cabrera said.

Before Wednesday's raids, the government had already seized about 6.4 million cubic feet of illegally logged wood, closed 59 sawmills and charged 193 people with related crimes this year.

“That's the important thing – that people are being charged,” Cabrera said. “Before, (authorities) would seize wood and dismantle sawmills, but there weren't many charges.” It was not immediately clear what charges and possible punishments the suspects face.

A study conducted in 2000 showed that 44 percent of the fir forests that shelter the migrating butterflies during their annual stopover had been damaged or destroyed over the preceding 29 years.

MEXICO: Striving To Make A Better Wine

By MARIA FINN
Dec. 6, 2007

Legend has it that Hernan Cortez and his men exhausted their wine supply when celebrating the conquest of the Aztecs in the 1500s, so the Spaniards decreed that every recipient of a land grant must plant grape vines so that sacramental wine would be plentiful.

While Mexico is one of Latin America's oldest wine-producing countries, it is not well known for it. There is a legacy of protectionist laws that came out of Spain in 1699 that prohibited wine production in its colonies, particularly Mexico.

Top Exclusiva stories
MEXICO: Mexican Musicians MurderedPUERTO RICO: 3 Charged In Pet MassacreCHILE: Police Drummer Apologizes To Pres.Related Topics
Carlos Salinas
The Mexican War of Independence lasted from 1810-1821 and its earliest winery is still in operation today: Bodegas de Santo Tomas, opened in 1888 near Ensenada on the Baja California Peninsula. However, early wine made there tended to be sweet and of low quality.

In 1987 a small group of investors came together with the sole purpose of creating quality wine in Mexico. They founded the vineyard Monte Xanic on the Baja peninsula and achieved their goals.

Their wines have become well known in Mexico City, and according to Carlos de la Mora, who came from Baja to New York City to promote Mexican wine, they soon were served by former Mexican President Carlos Salinas at formal dinners held at Los Pinos, or the Mexican equivalent of the White House.

With the bar raised, Bodegas de Santo Tomas hired Hugo d'Acosta. This Mexico City native received his doctorate in enology in Montpelier, France, and then worked in wineries in Italy and California's Napa Valley.

He turned the winery around and then founded his own, Casa de Piedra, in 1997. He is now working with partners to open more boutique wineries. The first, Paralelo, has recently opened. He also started a winemaking school, Estacion de Oficios del Porvenir, to train a new generation of Baja residents in winemaking traditions.

According to Rodrigo Ofner, the head of the food and beverage at the Maroma Resort and Spa, viticulture in Mexico has persisted, and today there is a renewed interest in Mexico's wine industry.

"You're seeing many more Mexican wines being served to tourists in the luxury resorts of the Yucatan," he said. "But much of the upswing in popularity is due to an increase in interest by middle-class Mexican families, especially in Mexico City."


De la Mora explained that right now is a very exciting time for Mexican wine. More and more vintners are being drawn to the winemaking regions of Mexico and better wines are being produced.

"This is still a work in progress," he said. "Most of the wineries are very young, under 20 years old. There's a lot of potential here. Mexico is working to find it's own style in the world of wine."

For more information about wines in Baja California, visit: www.enswine.com

Border Patrol finds another tunnel along Mexican border

AP
Posted: 2007-12-03 19:40:32

TECATE, California (AP) - The Border Patrol said Monday that it discovered a secret tunnel that may have been used for smuggling drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border east of San Diego.

Authorities found an estimated 10,000 pounds (4,535 kilos) of marijuana inside a trailer that led to the underground crevice, said Eileen Zeidler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

A Border Patrol agent heard noise Monday from the 30-foot (9-meter) trailer parked 360 yards (330 meters) north of the border in the town of Tecate, said agency spokesman James Jacques.

When he peered inside, he saw a pistol-toting man disappear into a hole. The trailer was half-full of packages containing the marijuana.

The Border Patrol says it is unclear if the tunnel was completed. U.S. and Mexican authorities are investigating.

Authorities have discovered dozens of tunnels along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, with many clustered around San Diego and Nogales, Arizona.

News
Press Releases: U Visa Regulations Released
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2007


LEGAL MOMENTUM APPLAUDS THE RELEASE OF U VISA REGULATIONS

Thousands of Crime Victims Finally Receive the Protections of a Law Passed in 2000

Documents:
U Visa Supplemental B Fact sheet
U Visa Interim Regulations Fact Sheet and Guidance
U Visa RegulationsFact Sheet
VAWA Red Flags


Washington DC (September 5, 2007)-- Legal Momentum, the nation's oldest legal advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the rights of women and girls, joins with immigrant rights advocates across the country to applaud the Department of Homeland Security’s release of interim regulations on the U visa, a remedy established by Congressional legislation enacted in 2000. The Department of Homeland Security today released the regulations thus making immigrant crime victims immediately eligible for the U visa. Legal Momentum, through its Immigrant Women Program in Washington DC, is committed to working with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the regulations are aligned with Congressional intent while providing immediate access to visas for immigrants crime victims. The Legal Momentum Web site is a portal for information and will provide critical resources for those who may be eligible to file for U visas: www.legalmomentum.org/iwp.
Through its Immigrant Women Program (IWP), and in partnership with the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women, Legal Momentum has been advocating for release of these vital regulations to protect the rights of immigrant women who are victims of crime in the United States and who, without the protection of the U visa, are less likely to report the crimes against them. Legal Momentum commends Congressman David Pryce (D-NC) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) who were instrumental in encouraging the Department of Homeland Security to release the regulations.

What is the U Visa and why does it matter?

Created as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act, the U visa is an immigration status available to crime victims who are helpful in the investigation or prosecution of a crime. In order to qualify, an undocumented immigrant must also prove that he or she suffered from physical or mental abuse as a result of the crime. U visas also create a path to lawful permanent residence, which is commonly known as a Green Card. This visa will allow undocumented immigrants to feel safer in coming forward to report and testify about crimes because they will no longer fear deportation, and they will be able to work lawfully. It will improve the effectiveness of law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting crimes, enhancing public safety throughout the country.

Although Congress passed a law in 2000 that recognizes the role immigrants can play in improving public safety, that law has not been enforceable, until now, in the absence of regulations to implement the visa. Leslye Orloff, director of Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program, said, “These regulations make it possible for our most vulnerable immigrants to finally have the opportunity to apply for a status that should have been available years ago.” She added, “Without regulations, thousands of immigrants were at best allowed to apply for U visa interim relief, which granted them authorization to work legally, but still kept them undocumented.”

The Immigrant Women Program estimates that 8,000 immigrants and their children have applied for and received interim relief, but many more waited for the regulations. In addition to keeping thousands of crime victims from reporting the crimes, this seven-year delay imposed huge burdens on eligible immigrants who would have, by now, received their Green Cards. In addition, they were prevented from leaving the United States to see family and receiving critical benefits, they were required to pay annual filing fees to renew work authorization.

In an effort to reinforce Congressional intent in enacting this legislation, Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program has been at the forefront of the battle to end the long delay by the Department of Homeland Security in issuing proposed regulations. Said Kavitha Sreeharsha, staff attorney for the Immigrant Women Program, “We wanted the Department of Homeland Security to understand that immigrant crime victims have been struggling while waiting for the regulations to be issued. Immigrant crime victims do not deserve to be victimized by such bureaucratic delays.” Members of the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women were critical in providing the Department of Homeland Security and others with stories of immigrants who have been caught in the cycle of waiting for regulations.


About Legal Momentum

With offices in New York City and Washington DC, Legal Momentum is the nation's oldest legal advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the rights of women and girls. Since its founding in 1970, Legal Momentum has been a leader in establishing legal, legislative and educational strategies to secure equality and justice for women across the country. Its public policy and litigation agenda focus on four areas that are of greatest concern to women in the United States: freedom from violence against women, equal work and equal pay; the health of women and girls; and strong families and strong communities.

About Immigrant Women Program
The Immigrant Women Program at Legal Momentum advocates for legal protections, social services and economic justice for immigrant women while reforming laws, policies and practices that may harm them.

Contact information:

Contact: Altagracia Dilone Levat, Vice President for Communications and Marketing
212.413.7510
Mobile: 347.739.7664
alevat@legalmomentum.org

Leslye Orloff, Associate Vice President and Director of the Immigrant Women Program
202-210-8886
lorloff@legalmomentum.org

Kavitha Sreeharsha, Staff Attorney, Immigrant Women Program
202-903-8994
ksreeharsha@legalmomentum.org

Border Patrol ready to test 'virtual fence' towers

By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.08.2007

Nearly six months after it was scheduled to occur, Border Patrol officials got the keys to The Boeing Co.'s high-tech prototype system of camera towers in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson.

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday took "conditional possession" of the system, dubbed Project 28, and Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector will have 45 days to test it, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

"We want to work with it on a day-by-day basis," Chertoff said. "I liken it to, right now we've taken the car out for a test drive with the salesman, now we are taking it home.

We are going to drive it around for 45 days."
The nine towers that are scattered along a 28-mile stretch of border that flanks Sasabe are equipped with cameras, radar and sensors that gather information and send it to command centers and monitors in agent vehicles.

Officials say the system will provide complete sensor coverage of the area.
Boeing, which is being paid $20 million to administer the test project, was scheduled to hand the system over to the Border Patrol on June 13 but software glitches delayed the launch. Boeing officials have spent the past six months problem-solving, spending more than twice the money Boeing is contracted to receive for the job.

The testing was finished this month, prompting the move to the next phase of testing, which falls to agents in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. They will try out the system in one of the busiest smuggling corridors on the Southwest border.

Chertoff said, "I'm going to let the Border Patrol guys, over 45 days, come up with a list of things that they say would make it a better tool."

They've already discovered, for instance, that they want to make the "common operation picture" — the way the information is displayed on screens in command centers and vehicle monitors — more fluid and user-friendly, Chertoff said.

Customs and Border Protection, an agency within Homeland Security, has already given Boeing a $64 million contract to design, develop and test an upgraded "common operation picture" for command centers and vehicle monitors.

After the 45 days, officials will put in orders for additional changes, Chertoff said. Full acceptance of the system depends on the results of the test run.

Despite the delays in the launch of Boeing's pilot project, he said, the department isn't worried about Boeing designing and implementing similar systems along the rest of the border.

"We picked a particularly demanding area of the border, with a lot of ground clutter," Chertoff said. "So it should be a good kind of challenge,and some other parts of the border should be easy."

● Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.

PLAYING CHICKEN

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/tcoast/content/tcoast/epap....html?cxntlid=inform

Click-2-Listen


With a little help, Indiantown kids get to shop for Christmas
By RACHEL SIMMONSEN

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, December 07, 2007

STUART — After years working as a crop duster, surviving crashes into power lines, Bob Howe started to wonder, "Why did the good Lord leave me around?"

Maybe, he decided, it was because the Lord had other plans for him.


See the shopping photos

In 1985, the Indiantown resident helped round up money and volunteers to take 13 children shopping for winter clothes.

He did again the next year, and the next, making it a Christmas season tradition that continued this morning, when he and more than two dozen volunteers took about 30 Indiantown children to the Stuart Wal-Mart, where they each picked out about $140 worth of clothing.

Howe, 62, doesn't like the words "needy" or "poor."

"They're human beings who just need a few nice things," Howe said of the children, all of whom attend Warfield Elementary School in Indiantown.

More than 94 percent of the students there qualify for free or reduced price lunch, Principal Loreen Francescani said. Staff at the school help select which children will take part in Howe's shopping trip, picking different children each year.

"It's fabulous," Francescani said. "The children get so excited."

Little boys bounced excitedly through the aisles, picking out sweat shirts and blue jeans. Clusters of girls swarmed the shoe aisles, pointing with grins at hot pink and purple sneakers.

"I like the Bratz," nine-year-old Guadelupe Pedro-Mateo said, eagerly clutching a box of shoes covered with the cartoon characters.

"Look!" five-year-old Nevaeh Garza exclaimed, proudly showing a friend a High School Musical T-shirt that she picked out.

"It moves you," said Chris Bee-Houlihan, who has volunteered for three years. "It's just nice to help out when you know a lot of these parents are struggling, sometimes with two or three jobs."

Howe estimates the group raised about $5,000 this year.

"What if we go over the spending limit?" one volunteer asked.

"Somehow, in the end, it all works out," replied Thea Valen Lacey, another volunteer who has been helping out for about 10 years.

"We'll find a way," said Howe, flashing a few gift cards provided by WalMart.

Howe watched as the children and their volunteer helpers passed through the checkout lines.

"This makes my Christmas," he said.