Wal-Mart's Mexican problems are not going away. After a Times report alleged that the company was bribing officials south of the border willy nilly in an effort to expand as quickly as possible, the big box behemoth is now facing a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation. All of which is giving the chain's foes in the Big Apple lots more ammunition. more ›

A Mexican man pleaded guilty yesterday to being part of an international sex trafficking ring that spanned from Mexico to Queens. Angel Cortez Granados, 25, admitted to seducing a woman, then bringing her to the U.S. as his girlfriend, only to force her into sex slavery: “I threatened her, telling her that she was alone in this country, that nobody would help her, so that she would work as a prostitute." He said he threatened to call the cops on her if she didn't comply: “Since she didn’t have any papers, (I was) scaring her with the possibility of going to jail,” he said. more ›

Talk about the wrong address! Some silly Mexican drug traffickers recently lost 35.5 pounds of cocaine when they accidentally sent it to the United Nations. You can not make this stuff up. Also, that's a lot of blow. more ›

Last night, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama held their second White House State Dinner, this time welcoming Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his wife Margarita Zavala. After their first State Dinner for India's prime minister was crashed by aspiring reality stars (prompting Secret Service members to be put on leave), security was tight this go around. The AP reports, "At least one woman was turned away for lack of proper ID. Kathryne Mudge said her husband, Arturo Valenzuela, an assistant secretary of state, was supposed to bring the necessary identification. 'My husband is the absent-minded professor,' Mudge said." more ›

A Rutgers pre-law student who was vacationing in Cancun is in a coma today under mysterious circumstances after sustaining brutal head injuries there. Joseph "Zeke" Rucker, 21, went on the trip to Mexico with friends two weeks ago to celebrate his graduation from Rutgers undergrad. more ›

A Mexican day laborer is hospitalized with brain damage after being attacked somewhere in Williamsburg or Bushwick by three black men shouting "wetback." Mario Vera was riding his bike back home to Bushwick with groceries from a lower Manhattan food pantry when the young men hit him in the back of his head "with something hard" while yelling anti-immigrant slurs. The assault happened on September 23rd, but wasn't reported until last Friday, because Vera is an undocumented immigrant afraid to go to the police. (NYPD policy prohibits officers from sharing law-abiding immigrants' status with the Feds, but it has been known to happen.) more ›

Betsy Perry has resigned from the city's Committee on Women's Issues after her ill-advised post on the Huffington Post last week. Perry, a marketing consultant who was appointed to the panel by Mayor Bloomberg, had written about Mexico's bad rap, "Between the guns, drugs, kidnappings and swine flu, this poor country can't catch a break and, maybe it shouldn't." CityRoom has Perry's statement, which reads: "Rather than become a distraction to Mayor Bloomberg, I think it best if I resign from the Women’s Commission. I have enjoyed the work and the many fine friends I made and continue to be a great fan of the mayor’s and the wonderful work he has done for our city." While Bloomberg had called her remarks "inappropriate," he didn't outright fire her from the unpaid position, prompting criticism from mayoral hopeful City Comptroller Bill Thompson, who writes on his Facebook page, "[The] Mayor should have acted more swiftly to remove Betsy Perry from the NYC Committee on Women's Issues after her insensitive remark." (Thompson also held a rally outside the Mexican consulate over the issue.) more ›

Mayor Bloomberg announced this afternoon that the number of confirmed instances of swine flu in New York has jumped up to 28, with another 17 probable cases likely to follow. But he emphasized that all of these are still relegated to students from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows and officials reported once again that none of the teenagers afflicted are gravely ill. Bloomberg said, "We have one reported cluster of swine flu at one school." more ›

Giants quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning married his Ole Miss sweetheart Abby McGraw in Mexico last night. The couple, who got engaged during a date in Hoboken, had a sunset beach ceremony at the One&Only Palmilla resort in Cabo San Lucas. more ›