SouthPark restaurant temporarily closed for health-code violations
ALSO READ: Deadly fire breaks out at construction site in SouthPark area of Charlotte
The Spanish-inspired restaurant has been shut down four times — totaling more than 10 days — since May 8 by the Mecklenburg County Public Health Department. That agency inspects establishments for everything from cooking techniques and food temperatures and proper hand-washing.
Learn more about the violations on CBJ's website here.
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Chicago Tribune
20 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
ICE spared him from deportation to Venezuela. He donated a kidney to save his ailing brother in the Chicago area
The minutes dragged into hours on Wednesday night as Jose Gregorio Gonzalez tossed and turned through the night. At 5 a.m. the next day, he was scheduled to donate his kidney to his younger brother, Alfredo Pacheco, who was also restless. By 2 a.m. the two couldn't stay in bed any longer and began to get ready for a day that they thought would never come. ',' Gonzalez said. 'It's a miracle, because all odds were against us.' His mind raced back to the nights he spent locked inside an immigration detention center earlier this year, convinced he would soon be deported, while his younger brother pleaded with ICE officials to let him stay. Gonzalez was Pacheco's only hope to keep living after being diagnosed with terminal renal failure. When doctors told Pacheco he needed a kidney transplant, Pacheco stepped up. ',' Gonzalez said in Spanish. 'I didn't think about it twice.' But in March, just shy of a few weeks to begin the process for the transplant, Gonzalez was suddenly arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside their home in Cicero. Without him, Pacheco's condition would continue to deteriorate, putting him on an endless waiting list to get a transplant due to his immigration status. And doctors warned that time was running out. Gonzalez knew it: If he was deported, his brother would die. On Thursday, the brothers were admitted to the University of Illinois Hospital, where the transplant surgery was successfully performed. Hospital officials confirmed that both Pacheco and Gonzalez were recovering well. After mounting pressure from advocates and elected officials, ICE granted Gonzalez a temporary humanitarian parole so that they could proceed with the transplant, an unexpected move at a time when the agency is ramping up enforcement. Unlike in past administrations, immigration experts say agents today have less discretion over individual cases and are under pressure to meet deportation quotas, leaving little room for compassion. Though Gonzalez must return to Venezuela by March — after he's recovered from surgery — he says he's deeply grateful to the agent who, as he put it, 'touched his heart' and gave him the chance to save his brother's life. ',' Gonzalez said, smiling, his voice quiet and weak. 'Everything is possible if you have faith.' Even through the surgery, Gonzalez wore the ankle monitor that ICE activated when he was released from the Clay County Jail in southwest Indiana. The brothers now face a long and perhaps complicated road to recovery. The two have limited funds from the few hours of work that Pacheco was able to put in after dialysis over the last few months. Gonzalez was still waiting for the work permit that ICE officials promised. They were able to pay for rent and Pacheco's health insurance for a few months thanks to a fundraiser organized by his neighbors in the town of Cicero and a page on a GoFundMe page still open. But the money is running out quickly. Pacheco said he is worried the two won't be able to rest or take care of themselves properly after the surgery, potentially offsetting the success of the organ transplant and putting their lives on line once again. 'I have to be honest, we were so focused on making sure that I could get the transplant that we didn't consider much of the rest,' Pacheco said. 'We only have each other and cousins here. The rest of our family is in Venezuela.' Their cousin Cristalyn Gonzalez, 38, said her husband took some days off work to take care of their two kids so that she can help the brothers while they're at the hospital. 'I want them to feel supported somehow,' she said. 'We never thought that we would go through something like in the country we thought was going to provide us with opportunities to make a better life for us and our children.' Pacheco was the first one of the brothers to make his way in 2022. Like many other Venezuelan migrants, he made the trek to the United States hoping to get asylum from political and socioeconomic turmoil in Venezuela, where he served as part of the military during his youth. By January 2024, Pacheco was suddenly diagnosed with end-stage renal disease not long after arriving in the Chicago area from the southern border. 'My world completely fell apart,' Pacheco said, who at first refused to tell his family back in Venezuela. 'They were counting on me to help out over there.' Gonzalez was already at the southern border when he learned of his younger brother's brother's prognosis. Though agents had denied him entry the first time, he tried to enter again a second time, knowing that he would be his brother's lifeline. That's when Gonzalez was detained for the first time at a Texas facility awaiting deportation, but since there were no deportation flights to Venezuela, he was released to join Pacheco in Chicago under immigration supervision in March 2024. 'That was the first miracle,' Pacheco said. 'I know God was on our side.' Due to the previous order of removal, unlike Pacheco, Gonzalez cannot apply for asylum or any other kind of immigration relief. ICE officials had no comment, citing confidentiality rules. The oldest of six and having lost two younger siblings to accidents over the last few years in Venezuela, Gonzalez felt it was a blessing to be by Pacheco's side even if it was only for a few months to donate his kidney. Until ICE took him once again in March of 2025, just shy of a month of starting the process to donate the kidney — as confirmed by UIC hospital officials — and days before his parole ended. 'It has been a difficult, painful and frustrating experience,' Pacheco said. 'The American Dream doesn't exist. It's a lie. But at least there are good people in Chicago.' Despite his illness and uncertainty, getting dialysis every other day for four hours in the early morning, Pacheco worked delivering packages for Amazon. He used most of the money to pay for rent and food, and the rest, he said, he would send to his wife and children in Venezuela. 'They think everything is going OK here in Chicago, and that one day I will be back healthy and with enough money to start anew,' Pacheco said. Pacheco's children, a girl, 17, and twin boys, 9, still don't know that their father has a terminal illness. They also didn't know that we underwent lifesaving surgery on Thursday morning. They do know however, that their father and their uncle are hoping to return to Venezuela sometime soon, when 'things are much better,' he said. 'I now pray that my body responds well and that I have the strength to undergo the recovery,' Pacheco said. The recovery process is not an easy one, said Hilda Burgos, a longtime community activist who was key to the movement that helped to establish and pass legislation in Illinois in 2014 that expanded access to organ transplants, specifically kidney transplants, and the drugs needed to maintain the transplants, for immigrants with an irregular status in the country. 'Undocumented people, 'illegal people,' as many like to call us, were allowed to donate our organs to save people's lives including us citizen, but if we needed one, we couldn't get one. We couldn't even get in line to get one,' Burgos said. 'These two brothers are a testament to great work that the community has done to advocate for each other. We are not talking about policies here, it is people's lives.' Burgos' passion to advocate for those undocumented people in need of transplants began after her son was initially denied a kidney transplant he needed to continue living when he was 18-year-old in 2009. After mourning pressure, he got the surgery, but it was also then when she became aware of the 'unfair system.' Shortly after, she joined a delegation of faith leaders and medical leaders representing a group of ailing people in need of lifesaving transplants in Chicago. The group, led by the late Rev. Jose Landaverde performed hunger strikes outside the city's major hospitals, marched from Little Village to UIC and then to Northwestern. And they even conducted a funeral march for one woman who had died after not receiving a liver transplant. 'The fight for transplants was not an easy one,' Landaverde told the Tribune in 2014. While the 2014 law represented a significant step, its initial impact was limited due to several factors. In response, the Illinois Transplant Fund, a nonprofit organization, was established in 2015 to provide financial assistance, primarily covering health insurance premiums for eligible individuals, including undocumented immigrants, needing transplants and their aftercare. Over the last 10 years, ITF has supported hundreds of patients through the transplant process, including Pacheco. 'Senate Bill 741 was a simple, compassionate measure that has saved the lives of those many of us may never meet,' said Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, 'It's in situations like Alfredo's and Jose's that we see the urgent need for our fiscal, health and education policy to not single out, but bring in, our neighbors without permanent legal status and those on society's margins.' Hernandez was one of the many elected officials leaders who rallied in support of the Venezuelan brothers, with more than 1,700 other people signing a petition requesting that ICE release Gonzalez. Most recently, in 2021, Illinois passed a new bill directing the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to cover post-transplant care for noncitizen kidney transplant recipients. A spokesperson for HFS said that despite the most recent changes, including the dismantling of coverage for noncitizen adults 42 to 65 years old, 'noncitizens who are not eligible for comprehensive medical benefits who have End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) may be eligible for certain dialysis, kidney transplantation, and post kidney transplantation services.' Immigration advocates say the brothers' case underscores the human cost of detention policies and the importance of considering humanitarian exceptions. 'We celebrate not just a successful surgery, but the triumph of love and community over fear and cruelty,' said Erendira Rendón, vice president of immigrant justice at the Resurrection Project, which provided Gonzalez with legal and community support for his release. 'The fact that this feels like such an incredible victory speaks to how cruel our immigration system has become. Across the country, families are being torn apart as parents, caregivers, coaches and partners are detained indiscriminately and jailed indefinitely in overcrowded facilities that put their mental and physical health at risk.' As the Venezuelan brothers recover side by side in a small hospital room, the physical pain is a reminder that their journey is far from over. Though the transplant was a hard-won victory, their lives remain defined by uncertainty, limited resources, fragile immigration status and the looming deadline for Gonzalez's return to Venezuela in March. And yet, for the first time in months, they can finally rest. ',' Pacheco said. 'We leave our life in God's hands.' Their pain, once rooted in fear and desperation, is now part of a story of survival made possible not by policy, they said, but by people. A community of strangers in the Chicago area rallied around them, Pacheco said, offering the kind of support they never expected to find in a foreign country.
UPI
a day ago
- UPI
Watch: 'Astonishing' video shows human embryo implanting in real time
1 of 4 | A human embryo is shown implanting itself inside a simulated uterine wall in an image taken from the first real-time video of the process ever recorded. Spanish researchers say they hope their video will lead to a deeper understanding of infertility. Photo courtesy Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A team of Spanish researchers announced Friday they have for the first time recorded video of a human embryo implanting itself in a simulated uterine wall, revealing never-before-seen details of how 5-day-old embryos carry out the mysterious process. Using advanced microscopy techniques allowing the scientists to record the human embryo in full color and 3D, the "astonishing" videos provide the first-ever, real-time glimpse of the implantation process and have provided key insights into how it actually works, they said. Researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and Dexeus University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, said the videos reveal for the first time that embryos exert "considerable force" and employ digging traction as they "invade" the uterine tissue, becoming completely integrated with it. The findings, published in journal Science Advances, found crucial differences between how mouse and human embryos move in connecting to the uterus wall, the authors said. An "ex vivo" platform they developed using an artificial uterine matrix made of gel and collagen which allows for implantation outside of a human uterus made the videos possible. The system could have a "significant impact" on efforts to counter infertility and help those who are unable to conceive naturally, they predicted. Failure of the implantation process is the main reason behind the relatively low effectiveness of assisted reproductive technologies, such as in-vitro fertilization, in which embryos are conceived in a lab and then transferred to the womb. Implantation occurs in only 25% to 30% of transferred embryos -- whether conceived in vivo or in-vitro -- with embryo quality cited as the most significant feature affecting implantation. "We've opened a window into a stage of development that was previously hidden," the co-authors said in a statement to UPI. "After Day 5, when an embryo has 100 to 200 cells, it must implant, but until now, doctors couldn't observe it again until an ultrasound weeks later. "With our system, we can test culture conditions or compounds that might improve implantation." For example, the scientists say they have already developed a protein supplement that can be used in clinics to enhance implantation rates, available through their spin-off company Serabiotics and in collaboration with the Spanish pharmaceutical major Grifols. "In short, this is a new tool for extending embryo observation and optimizing conditions for success," they said. The videos show a donated human embryo powerfully pulling on the uterine matrix and reshaping it as it goes, illustrating the importance of "optimal matrix displacement." Lead author Samuel Ojosnegros, principal investigator of IBEC's Bioengineering for Reproductive Health Group, said the initial real-time look at a human embryo implanting itself was a profound experience for him. "We had some experience making time-lapse movies of mouse embryos, but the first time we saw a human embryo implanting was truly astonishing," he said. "Everything was different, the size, the shape, the behavior. They were stronger, more forceful, digging a hole into the matrix in a remarkably invasive way. Every detail felt unique. "Watching it alive, in action, for the first time was absolutely mind-blowing." Embryo implantation is the "holy grail" of reproduction -- and unlike in the animal world, in humans it can be a problematic process, resulting in about 1 in 6 people around the world having trouble making a baby, noted Dr. Mark Trolice, a professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and founder/director of The IVF Center, a full-service reproductive medicine clinic in Orlando. "Even though scientists have studied this for many years, they still do not fully understand how implantation works or what makes the uterus ready for an embryo," he told UPI. "One big mystery is why a woman's body can grow a baby made from sperm -- which is a 'foreign' tissue -- without rejecting it, as well as the ability to carry a donated egg." The new study, he said, "gives researchers a closer look at implantation. They used an ex vivo model, which means they studied the process outside the body. This let them watch how embryos interact with the uterine lining (called the endometrium) and measure the tiny pulling and pushing forces from both mouse embryos and donated human embryos." The videos showed for the first time that each species makes its own unique pattern of forces during implantation. Trolice noted that while there are "some limits" to the Spanish study, "this work could lead to new ways of adjusting the uterine environment, which might help more embryos successfully implant. "Before any treatment can be used, scientists will need to do human clinical trials. There are also important ethical and legal rules about using human tissues and embryos, which researchers must follow," he added.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
‘Get by on so little.' Survey details artists' financial struggles in Miami-Dade
At the height of her art career, Devora Perez juggled six part-time jobs. If she wasn't creating Miami-inspired, neon abstractions in her studio, you could find her teaching at Florida International University, preserving records as a digital archivist for several nonprofits, or managing Dimensions Variable, a gallery and artist-in-residence program in El Portal, her current gig. And when an undiagnosed autoimmune disorder forced her into a wheelchair for months last year, she was fortunate to have health insurance through her husband's employer. Had she not, her bi-weekly injections would have cost her nearly $3,000, instead of the $5 out-of-pocket cost through his insurance. 'I couldn't have health insurance until I married [my husband]. He works for the county, so even better, those benefits,' said the 34-year-old artist who lives in Hialeah. 'I couldn't walk, and I didn't know what was wrong ... I honestly don't know what I would've done.' Perez's reality is not far off from those of other artists living in Miami-Dade County. She's joined by 226 creatives who self-reported that they could not afford healthcare — including insurance plans and doctor visit co-payments — last year, according to a survey by the Miami Artist Census released in June. Artists for Artists: Miami, a nonprofit advocating for local artists, launched the survey in October following Gov. Ron DeSantis' $32 million veto of arts funding from the state budget. 'We realized that we were making a lot of assumptions about what artists actually truly need in Miami,' said Misael Soto, an artist and self-described 'chief instigator' behind the census. 'We struggle to get outside of our own kind of networks or little circles, so how could we truly understand and advocate for ourselves? Soto, joined by data librarian Carrie Sieh and performance artist Harmony Honig, modeled the 90-question, self-funded survey after the Los Angeles Artist Census, created by Miami-born artist Tatiana Vahan. Queries on income, benefits and representation stayed the same, with questions about the financial impact of hurricanes or Florida-specific healthcare issues thrown in. From Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, the team disseminated the questionnaire through social media call-outs, local art events and contacting the county's Department of Cultural Affairs. Nine months later, they got 443 responses, leaving many 'shocked and surprised by how artists continue to get by on so little,' Soto says. Perhaps one of the most striking statistics in the survey, compiled in 'Prologue: The Big Feature,' is that 91% of artists are without gallery representation. Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, 51, had relied on these spaces to exhibit his work, sculptures and installations that draw on suburban architecture. But the showings didn't alway pan out. 'I remember I went about $10,000 in debt on one exhibition, because I wanted to do what I wanted to do and I just put it all on credit cards to make the exhibition happen,' said Rodriguez-Casanova, who started Dimensions Variable, 101 NW 79th St., as a gallery for local artists. 'Nothing sold.' The other career route artists often take — support from museums through residencies and grants — can bring high visibility to one's art practice, but can take years to turn a profit, said Rodriguez-Casanova. And Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava's proposed $12.8 million budget cut in county funds for arts organizations — a 52-percent slash from the current budget — could quickly quash that option. READ MORE: Arts groups push for Miami-Dade mayor to restore proposed funding cuts The county will hold two budget hearings in September, one on Sept. 4 and the final one on Sept. 18 at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, 111 NW First St. The hearings begin at 5:01 p.m. For Rodriguez-Casanova and his team, the county's proposed arts budget cuts would be felt immediately. He already had to raise rents at Dimensions Variable — which offers artists long-term studio space — after last year's state budget cuts and soaring rents. Now, studio space goes for $600 a month, up from $150. Previously pro bono resources, including invites to private events or access to micro-grants, now have a monthly membership fee to keep the space afloat. The budget cuts 'created a painful scenario where the amazing artists we brought in, we had to have a conversation with them, saying 'This needs to be done or else we won't survive' ... And they couldn't afford that, so they had to move,' said Rodriguez-Casanova. For Perez, the Dimensions Variables employee, the county's looming budget cuts could leave her one stream of income short, considering the $15,000 the gallery typically receives from the Department of Cultural Affairs' annual budget. The mayor has proposed merging the department into the Miami-Dade County Department of Arts, Culture and Library Services. For the gallery's artists, like Nicole Burko, it's one more reason why artists should be wary of having 'a lot of eggs in one basket.' The 38-year-old painter known for her free diving-inspired seascapes moonlights as a part-time art teacher at Miami Arts Charter. 'I think it's really difficult to solely exist as an artist financially, so I've learned to diversify my streams of income,' said Burko. 'The vision of being an artist now is not necessarily what I had imagined when I was a child of what being an artist is.' Census takers like Miami artist Yessica Gispert saw her struggles reflected in the statistics showing how few creatives have health insurance. 'I haven't had a job that guarantees me health insurance ever in my time in the United States,' acknowledged the multidisciplinary photographer, 40, who has an autoimmune disease. For most of her career, she has been part of the overwhelming majority — 88% — of employed Miami artists who go without traditional benefits like paid sick days and retirement plans. To secure a full-time job that worked around her illness, she moved to Germany for a visiting professorship, where the country's subsidized insurance program for creatives, Künstlersozialkasse, made it so she could juggle her practice and health insurance fees. Gispert considers it one of the main reasons why '75% of artists have considered leaving Miami-Dade County due to these challenges,' according to the Miami Artist Census' results. 'I know so many [artists] who haven't been to the doctor in so many years, just because that visit would be $200 ... Why don't we have something to help creatives have the basic needs? We have so many other things that we have to take care of ... And then, on top of that, we have to worry about how we're going to pay for health care.' The June survey compilation is the first of several mini reports Soto, Sieh and Honig will release on the initial census' results, culminating in a final report in January 2026. From there, the group will conduct and release a new survey every two years with data that delves deeper into artist demographics, like an interactive dashboard that shows where in Miami-Dade respondents are clustered. The survey's early findings have already sparked interest among stakeholders in the local arts community, according to Honig, who says some institutions are looking to address affordable housing and studio access. And the organizers behind the Miami Artist Census hopes their data empowers artists to advocate for themselves 'It's going to be a while, it's too soon to tell,' said Soto. '[But] it's also going to be on us, as artists in our community, to take the story that the data tells and bring it in front of policy makers, funders, and our so-called arts leaders.'
