General News

A full frontal collision between two trains in station Atemajac in Guadalajara left 29 passengers injured. The crash occurred in the afternoon of Monday January 26, apparently due to a confusion between the two train operators, who were later arrested. 

Guadalajara’s most famous clown, Lagrimita, who hopes to run as an independent candidate for city mayor, kicked his campaign off with a press gathering in Plaza Universidad. The performer has been accepted as a pre-candidate and now has until February 27 to collect the 23,000 signatures he needs to secure his candidacy. The clown responded with irritation when a reporter accused him of discriminatory behavior on his television show and suggested that Enrique Alfaro, the pre-candidate of the Citizens Movement (MC) was behind the line of questioning. “Maybe you’ve been paid off” he said. “Maybe Alfaro paid you.”

San Francisco based non-profit organization Hack For Big Choices is holding their second Hackathon in Guadalajara January 30 to February 1. A hackathon brings technology-minded people together and challenges them to collaborate to create new products and ideas. The group of about 150 innovators will assemble in the campus of Tec de Monterey and spend three days directing their technical skills towards developing ideas for issues such as education and health care. 

Ticket sales are available at the website: http://goo.gl/2CCRCu

Go http://hackforbigchoices.org/ for more information.

Bookworms looking to get their hands on used volumes in English can head down to La Roma store, located on Pedro Moreno and Avenida Chapultepec. The store is stocked with over 10,000 titles, carefully categorized by genre. It is a great place to browse, with a diverse selection covering all types of fiction, from prose to poetry, the latest crime novels to the classics. Readers will also find titles on a wide array of non-fiction topics: physics, philosophy, Mexican history, feminism and teaching, to name only a few. The shelves display handsome first editions and other collectibles, as well as a selection in Spanish. Staff are helpful and all prices are penciled in on the first white page. 

Police implemented special measures to monitor Chivas soccer fans on Sunday January 17, as official supporter groups returned to the stands after a 10-month ban for rioting. A drone hovered around the stadium and 500 police officers were on duty in a security operation designed to prevent the kind of violence which marred the Clasico Tapatio match against Atlas in March last year. 

Winners of the 2014 Best of the Best, People’s Choice Awards were recently announced in the “Guadalajara Reporter” and online at www.bestoflakechapala.com. Before they can receive the certificates, the winners should contact the contest sponsors with the exact wording for their certificate and an email address for correspondence.

Cyclists are concerned for their safety after two incidents in January put into doubt the degree to which they are protected on Guadalajara’s roads. 

The American School Foundation of Guadalajara hosted the fifth International Congress on Physical Education and Sports at its campus in the Providencia neighborhood. The congress welcomed more than 300 participants form around the world. From left to right on stage, were Athletic Director of JFK Queretaro Arturo Bustamante, Panamerican University Sports Director Alvaro Castañeda, University of Guadalajara Physical Culture Coordinator Gabriel Flores, Jalisco Director of Planning for the State Council for Sports Formation (CODE) Oscar González, Director of the Mexican Program at the American School Norma Guinto, and Director of Physical Education at the American School Alejandro Garza.