Well, it’s not only high-school professors that have to pay the price of going to Cuba for educational purposes.

Oscar-winning director Michael Moore is now being investigated by the U.S. Treasury Department after he took a group of rescue workers on a trip to Cuba — presumably in violation of a government travel ban to the island.

According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, Moore traveled to Cuba in February with a number of former ailing workers to shoot a segment for his upcoming documentary Sicko, which is expected to assault U.S. healthcare system in much the same way as Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Roger and Me.

Doesn’t the U.S. Treasury Department have other more interesting “evil doers” to go after? Leave the teachers -and movie people- alone!

Just when we thought only mainstream media was concerned about punishing un-politically correct people -and comments- Univision Radio this week said it suspended The Luis Jiménez Show for a month, following the hosts’ anti-gay slurs on May 1.

According to press reports, Jiménez and his co-hosts on May 1 performed “Las Patas” (The Dykes), a song in which they used homophobic slurs and ridiculed lesbians. Later during that same program, the show introduced an offensive stereotypical gay character called “Chef Pepín.” Jiménez then ridiculed and verbally abused Chef Pepín for being gay, saying, “Cállate pato” (Shut up, faggot).

In applauding the decision, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) this week said it has scheduled a meeting with Univision Radio’s production team in New York. One can only wonder what will happen during the meeting: would Jimenez get a slap in the hand? would they apologize in public?

Regardless the outcome, I could not help but cracking up after reading Univision Radio’s official statement: “Univision Radio has suspended Luis Jimenez for inappropriate comments made during a recent broadcast of his early-morning program. While Univision Radio encourages innovative and fresh programming ideas, it takes seriously its responsibility to provide information and entertainment that adheres to the highest standards.”

Highest standards? Common! didn’t Univision know what El Vacilón de la Mañana was all about when they snatched Jiménez from SBS? They gotta be kidding us!

I was really hoping to ignore the “holiday” altogether, but a recent announcement by Mattel was just too good to be true.

Turns out that this year the giant toy maker is launching a new -revised- version of a Cinco de Mayo Barbie. Yep, she’s cute, she looks very “Mexican” and she surely looks proud to have won over the French in some obscure battle in Puebla. (I guess she could very well compete for the popular Nuestra Belleza Latina crown).

What’s interesting though is that — at least according to a story in the San Antonio Express News — in human form, these Barbies would be 7 feet tall, have a bust size of 44 inches, a 17-inch waist and hips that lie at 40 inches.

Meanwhile, Latinas, who come in all colors, sizes and shapes, are more likely to fall in the “average category” as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is 5-foot-3 and 152 pounds, according to the article.

Oh well, flat-chested, short (rather vertically-challenged) Latinas can have a few moments of happiness for only $19.95 a piece.

Ok, I didn’t make it to People en Español‘s 50 Most Beautiful People issue (again!) so I might as well bitch a little bit about it … oh well, not that much.

Actually, the June 2007 looks quite nice, with four very beautiful people gracing the cover: Angélica Vale, Adamaris López (again?) Alejandro Fernández and… Beyoncé Knowles. Yes! this gorgeous fortunate non-Latina made it to the list as an “honorary beautiful one,” as the editors explain, for her duo with Fernández in the hit song of Telemundo’s novela El Zorro and her recent CD featuring six songs in Spanish.

In reading the details about the photo session that took place around this year’s Bellos edition, though, I could not help but notice that at some point Beyoncé is referred to as the “African American diva.” So far so good. But turn to page 218 and you will find an interview with another beauty, Ana de la Reguera, who speaks candidly about her life and … body:

— “… Quisiera tener más largas las piernas. Y también tener la pompa parada, me hubiera encantado tenerla como las negritas.”

What?? Which negritas is she talking about? I might have missed something so I’ll get back to the list, count the “pompas paradas” and see how many of those belong to “little black women”. So far, I see a lot of pompas, but not very “negritas”, they’re rather morenitas.

Where does New York City turn to learn how to deal with lots and lots of poor people? Mexico, of course: we have a solid 50% of the population living in poverty, and one fifth living in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.

So, Mayor Michael Bloomberg today begins a brief tour around Mexico City in hopes to learn something (anything) about such a phenomenom and how to fight it.

One program under the mayor’s radar is “Oportunidades,” under which poor families get paid for meeting certain goals such as attending parent-teacher conferences, getting medical checkups or holding down a full-time job.

What’s wrong with that? well, for starters most poor people in Mexico cannot attend parent-teacher conferences or get medical checkups simply because they live in communities with no schools or medical facilities; and don’t get me started on the “holding a full-time job.” In case you’ve missed it, the last sexenio left thousands of middle-class professionals without a job, full-time or not. (The poor don’t have jobs, period.)

Maybe Mr. Bloomberg ignores that a lot of those people he’s hoping to visit this week are already planning their trip North of the Border.

Mmmmm, maybe what he really wants to get out of this Mexico adventure is to learn how to actually –and literally– make the poor go away. Tricky guy, always ahead of the curve!