Changes are afoot in the Jalisco government’s emissions testing program, known as the Programa de Verificación Vehicular Obligatorio.

The contract of Marco Parisotto, the Canadian musical director of the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO), has not been renewed, the state Culture Department (Secretaria de Cultura) announced in a press release prior to the Christmas holiday.

Thousands of pilgrims have started to swarm into the rural village of Cajititlan de los Reyes (roughly located half-way between Guadalajara and Chapala) to pay devotion to the town’s religious patrons Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar, better known as the Wisemen of the Orient.

About 140 refugee applications were filed between January and August of 2018 in Jalisco, according to the Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (COMAR). That figure may not seem impressive, but it’s a massive increase from last year’s four claims and distinguishes Jalisco as the eighth state with the most asylum claims.

The investigation surrounding the November 30 grenade attack at the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara is making progress.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s relatively austere 2019 federal budget proposal has been welcomed cautiously by economic analysts and the business community but has come in for fierce criticism in Jalisco for ignoring many commitments to this state that the president made during his campaign.