Reporters on the Job

• More Than Tequila: Staff writer Sara Miller Llana was impressed by the passion in Mexico for a tourism project dubbed the "Tequila Trail." She was met by officials on a Sunday afternoon (see story) and was whisked away on a road trip that lasted more than eight hours. "Of course all of the distilleries are there, and the agave fields are beautiful. But there are obstacles – trash, for example. There is a lot of trash along the road," she notes.

Sara was told the Jalisco state government had just made littering a punishable crime, and someone was in a jail for a few hours to make a lesson of it. "But as they were telling me this, someone in the bus in front of us threw a Coke bottle out the bus window. " Among the other obstacles: few quality hotels or restaurants.

"I'd like to go back in a couple years and see if the nice hotels, gourmet restaurants, and a trash-free route materialize. This region, as they say, could be so much more than just tequila!"

• On the Gaza Border: Correspondent Joshua Mitnik went back to the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel Wednesday, for the second time in less than a week. Hundreds of Palestinians are trying to get out (see story). On the Israeli side, dozens of journalists have gathered. "As a reporter, it was frustrating because access is limited," he notes. Israeli officials let about 90 Ukrainians out of Gaza Wednesday. "I saw two bus loads of people, mostly women and children, waving happily as they pulled away. But I wasn't allowed to talk to them."

In the parking lot, Josh spoke with worried Palestinian family members. "They had family members in Gaza who had told them by phone that Hamas activists were patrolling the neighborhoods looking for Fatah members."

– David Clark Scott

World editor