Puerto Rico Gov. Sila María Calderón has agreed to bethe keynote speaker at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists 12th Annual Scholarship Banquet to benefit the Rubén Salazar Scholarship Fund Feb. 22 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Calderón, the former mayor of San Juan, is Puerto Rico's first woman governor.

For more information about the banquet, call the NAHJ at (202) 662-7145 or visit the association's Web site at www.nahj.org.

VIEQUES DECISION:

The U.S. Federal District Court in Puerto Rico Jan. 10 found three journalists guilty of criminally trespassing on a U.S. naval base on a Vieques island while they were covering a protest against the Navy last June.

The court, however, exonerated a San Juan Star photo-journalist of all charges, but held the paper lresponsible on the trespassing charges. The paper was fined $325. Last June, 11 journalists working for media based in Puerto Rico were arrested on Vieques while covering the protest. Seven of them settled their cases before the one-day trial. The three found guilty of criminal trespass were sentenced - on what amounted to a slap on the wrist - to two hours of confinement in the court house press room.

The U.S. Navy has used Vieques to stage war games for the past 60 years. The journalists had argued that the charges against them violated their First Amendment rights.

EXITO:

The Next Generation Network announced Feb. 1 it will partner with the Spanish-language weekly Exito in Chicago to provide news, weather, sports and entertainment coverage to Chicago's Latino community through video screen display monitors in convenience stories and supermarkets. The monitors provide a continuous feed of news and advertisements. NGN signed a similar agreement with La Opinión in Los Angeles last October. NGN is the world's largest digital out-of-home media company.

CORRECTION:

Martha Flores has been appointed assistant metro editor of The Los Angeles Times, not metro editor as reported last week.