By JOSE de la ISLA, Hispanic Link News Service

MEXICO CITY - A U.S. publisher contacted me wanting a book written quickly about Mexico's issues and its presidential candidates running in July's election. Books about Mexico sell best in the U.S.

MEXICO CITY - Remember the Northwestern University championship women's lacrosse team that visited President George W. Bush in July 2005 wearing flip-flops?

Admittedly, they wore dresses and skirts, but a controversy broke out about what was proper attire. Didn't they know better? Flip-flop sandals aren't proper, are they?

MEXICO CITY - A video from the Daily Beast news website shows how good journalism, turned into commentary, goes bad. It poses a dilemma, perhaps a conundrum, when it turns the corner instead of just plodding straight ahead.

MEXICO CITY - The former rector of the National Autonomous University here, Juan Ramon de la Fuente, published 30 questions he would ask the presidential candidates of the top three parties who are preparing for this nation's July presidential election.

MEXICO CITY - A couple of opinion pieces appeared in two of this city's dailies that would not normally reach U.S. audiences and are worthy of mention.

MEXICO CITY - Canadians who leave for the United States are more than twice as likely to hold a university degree as are immigrants to Canada, according to a report from Statistics Canada, quoted by Richard Shillington of Straight Talk.

However, going south of the border from Canada doesn't cause a brain drain.

HOUSTON, Texas - My great aunt Concepcion de la Isla Paulin will not appear in the year-end recaps about important persons and celebrities who passed away and get remembered maybe one last time. Nor was her passing even publically noted when it happened, except for some official documents.

HOUSTON - Newt Gingrich caught well-deserved flak for referring to Palestinians as "an invented people." While pandering for support of the Republican presidential nomination, he took his shtick to The Jewish Channel, a cable TV station. There he disavowed the legitimacy of a Palestinian homeland in the interview.

HOUSTON - What if we talk about Chinese instead of Mexicans as unauthorized immigrants? Would that make a difference in how the public thinks about the issue and what Republican presidential aspirants say?

When it comes to "illegal" immigrants, the prevailing belief is that nearly all of an estimated 11 million come here from Mexico.

HOUSTON - The arrest of 46-year-old Mercedes-Benz executive Detlev Hager in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant should not be taken too lightly.