The state of Jalisco is under alert as Hurricane Blanca passes along the Pacific Coast this weekend on its way to Baja California.  

Federal authorities have rejected suggestions that 42 presumed drug cartel affiliates who died in a police operation at a ranch near Tanhuato, Michoacan were victims of a massacre.

Heavy rains were expected in Guadalajara and its surrounding areas Friday as “Andres” became the eastern Pacific basin’s first tropical storm of 2015. At press time the storm was lying about 690 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Colima.

Andres is expected to strengthen to a hurricane by Friday, if not sooner, according to the Weather Channel.

The network predicted that Andres will curl toward the northwest in a day or so, and likely remain well off the Mexican coast, eventually weakening over colder water early next week.

It looks more like the trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey than a political campaign video. In Natalia Juarez’s latest promotional video, called “The Strength of a Woman,” the Jalisco political candidate makes no campaign promises. She doesn’t even attack her opponents. Instead, Juarez appears on a bed draped only in a white sheet. She slowly pulls it up to reveal her bare legs and arms. In a close up, she is shown dropping underwear to the floor and turning to stare into the camera.

Under fire  Jalisco Attorney General Luis Carlos Najera hit back at his critics and called for unity during a congressional hearing last week, denying that he had any prior knowledge of the federal police operation that sparked statewide “narco-blockades” and disturbances on May 1.

The usually sedate town of Villa Purificacion in southern Jalisco is becoming a major battleground of the federal government’s operation to dismantle the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).