A deficit of 12 million pesos and a group of 50 dogs in need of shelter, food, and medical attention, are endangering the future of the Orca Foundation, which for the past five years has worked to rescue animals and find them good homes.

Many of the dogs at Orca were abandoned by previous owners and are currently in poor health. The problem is more serious for larger breeds, because fewer people want to adopt them and their maintenance is more expensive. The organization is asking the community to step up and adopt larger breeds in need.

Vendors are reluctant to discuss it openly, but local authorities have received a number of complaints confirming that many of those working at the Minorista Plaza often fall victim to extortion and “vaccines”.

The plaza, which serves as workplace to hundreds of vendors, is an easy target for criminal gangs. According to Medellín’s Secretary of Security, Arnulfo Serna, authorities are planning to take aggressive action to reduce criminal activity at this location.

The plan includes educating the vendors and employees on how to effectively file complaints, which will hopefully assist authorities in bringing perpetrators to justice.

Medellín is currently hosting the Non-Violence Summit at the Museum of Modern Art, an event in which experts from all over the world will share ideas and experiences aimed at finding peaceful conflict resolution.

Mayor Aníbal Gaviria opened the event alongside the director of the Martin Luther King Institute in the United States, Bernard Lafayette. To a crowd of about 300 people, Gaviria said, “Violence is the negation of intelligence, while non-violence is a form of reconciliation.”

The forum is one of many activities planned for May, which the administration declared the month of life, a time to engage society as a whole in the quest for peace.

The Distinguished Services Medal was awarded to auxiliary police officer, Luis Alfonso Ramírez, in Bogotá for saving the life of a man attempting to commit suicide at the Hospital Metro station in Medellín.

The director of the National Police, General Jose Roberto León, called Ramírez a “hero” and said these are the attitudes that distinguish the men and women who choose to honor their commitment to “serve society and protect lives.”

Officer Ramírez, General León said, has “written a new page of glory in the history of the Colombian police.”

By the end of 2015, 24 out of 25 projects aimed at adding value to El Poblado will be completed. Only one, the expansion of 34th Avenue from Las Palmas to La Aguacatala, might not be finished until 2016 because of its complexity.

Property owners will absorb the cost of all 25 projects, estimated to be around 380,000 million pesos. Fonvalmed believes that 80 percent of them will end up paying less than five million pesos, and 46,5 percent will pay less than two million. Fortunately for tax payers concerned about having to pay property taxes and appreciation taxes at the same time, Mayor Anibal Gaviria announced that invoices won’t go out until April of 2014, which authorities said will not affect timelines.

Since August of 2009, when the appreciation plan was introduced, invoicing has been delayed six times.

In recent days, authorities have found four bodies in rivers of the Aburrá Valley, including a supposed member of Medellín’s LGBT community, an alleged fugitive and two unidentified corpses.

The first discovery was last Sunday at 6:30 a.m. on the road connecting Barbosa and Cisneros, where authorities found a member of the LGBT community with polished nails and wearing a woman’s dress. This person’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition and showed no signs of violence. The victim was found as authorities were searching for a wanted fugitive in the waters of the Medellín River.

The second body was also found on Sunday, in the evening, and was identified as Yeison Jiménez, who allegedly fell into the river on Wednesday as he attempted to escape police officers in Tamborcito, Barbosa.

The third body had been in the water for about two weeks and has yet to be identified; the fourth is in a similar situation. General Jose Angel Mendoza Guzmán, commander of the Metropolitan Police of the Aburrá Valley, said it seems to be a new way criminal gangs are using to make their victims ‘disappear’.

Results from the ‘Day without a Car’ came as no surprise to authorities. By noon, police had pulled over 220 violators who got hit with a fine of 294,750 pesos, but most residents, according to Mobility Secretary Omar Hoyos, did what they were supposed to do and used public transportation, motorcycles and bicycles.

In some cases, however, violators claimed that ignoring the measure was an oversight and not at all intentional. There were also fewer accidents reported.

Medellín’s new entrepreneurship model will move on to an acceleration phase in which it will enjoy stronger institutional support and attempt to correct its more vulnerable aspects such as financing.

The Mayoralty is setting aside 11,145 million pesos for anything related to entrepreneurship in 2013 and specifically 3,400 million for two agreements: one with Parque E and the other with Créame. The new model is open to any institution willing to add value to the entrepreneur.

An accident between a barge and a vessel on Tuesday in the Gulf of Urabá led to an oil spill by the Turbo coast. The 20-centimeter gash dumped 3,8 tons  (1,000 gallons) and caused a 1,5 Km stain in the water, according to the Administrative Department of Disaster Prevention, Dapard. No injuries were reported.

Dapard employees flew over the area to assess the damage and control the situation.

In Antioquia, 24,5 percent of girls between the ages of 10 and 19 get pregnant, that’s one of every four female minors. The goal, over the next three years, is to reduce that number to one out of five, and while this may seem lacking in ambition, there are many factors that require significant intervention.

Poverty and lack of education are influential factors but in February, when Governor Sergio Fajardo launched a program to reduce teenage pregnancy, he said the first steps were already being taken. One of the strategies is to place trained professionals in local hospitals so that they may offer guidance to these women; it was also decided that birth control would be distributed.