TT Live Chat tomorrow: real estate tax
Join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. to ask KPMG tax expert Sergio García your questions about real estate taxes and what to look out for when buying or selling property. www.ticotimes.net.

Plasticola Demonstrations
Librería Universal, Real Cariari Mall, Barreal Heredia,10 a.m.-6 p.m.,

Photo exhibit opening
Cristina Piza opens her photo show “Impresiones Personales,” 7:30 p.m., Galería Amón, 250 m. north of the kiosk in Parque Morazán, Barrio Amón, #937, telephone: 223-9725. www.amon937.com.

Art show opening
Work by Gerardo Valerio at Children's Museum's National Galery, end of Calle 4, opens 7 p.m. and runs through Feb. 29.

While U.S. citizens were glued to TV sets and online news sites to see who would win their country's primary elections, a group of Democrats in Costa Rica released results of a vote it carried out here on Super Tuesday.

Of the Democrats Abroad members who voted at Holiday Inn in San José, 30 chose Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 18 went with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. One voter picked former South Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who has dropped out of the race.

It was the first time the party held primary voting for its members worldwide, organizers said, tugging U.S. expats along for the ride of the roller coaster that has been the Democratic race for a presidential nomination.

Paul Kloes, the chairman of Democrats Abroad of Costa Rica, said voting was steady but not overwhelming.

“All votes will count,” he said. “Democrats Abroad International has the same status as a state in the Democratic Party.”

Ballots were not kept secret and participants were required to join Democrats Abroad.

Whereas expats have long been able to vote in the general election by absentee ballot, on Tuesday Democrats living overseas voted online or by walking into sites around the world to choose their favorite candidate to lead the party in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Figures for overall voter participation outside the United States were not available, but inside the country CNN reported massive Democratic turnout, with states such as Arizona breaking records.

Political analysts late Wednesday were still debating which of the two Democratic candidates led the race. Some put Clinton ahead, with her big California win, while others said Obama was taking more states and more delegates. Others called it a tie.

-Tico Times

Hundreds of T-shirts set to arrive in Nicaragua this week might lead one to believe that the New England Patriots didn't blow their perfect season in Sunday's Super Bowl.

Though the Patriots lost 17-14 to the New York Giants, several hundred poor Nicaraguan kids will be winners thanks to a program to send the Patriots Super Bowl Champs T-shirts to those in need.

The U.S. National Football League (NFL) is teaming up with the Christian group World Vision to distribute millions of dollars worth of the losing Super Bowl team's licensed Reebok apparel in poor parts of Nicaragua and Romania.

“World Vision helps us to ensure that no NFL apparel goes to waste,” David Krichavsky, the league's director of community relations, said. “We are pleased to find a good home for clothing by getting it to those who need it most.”

Now you can “txt yr frnds” in other countries from your Costa Rican cell phone, thanks to a new initiative by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) currently in the testing phase.

Though the international messages cost the same as any other text message (1.5 colones), they do come with a catch. International text messages can be sent only to phones on certain networks.

In the United States, only T-Mobile phones can get the ICE text messages, while in Nicaragua only Movistar phones will receive them.

Also, international texting will work only on GSM phones – that is, any cell phone whose number starts with the number “8.”

The Judicial Investigation Police announced successful raids on the homes of eight alleged con artists in San Francisco de Calles Blancos, San Ramón de Alajuela, El Alto de Guadalupe, Alajuela centro and Tres Ríos.

According to police, the eight – Soto, Prenda, Arce, Argüello, Mata, Zuñiga, Gutiérrez and Navarro – used two estates of a foreigner in Heredia as security to acquire a $200,000 mortgage from a private bank. To use the estates as security, the alleged perpetrators, among them two lawyers, changed the legal representative of the Heredia estates at the National Registry, which keeps track of properties and corporations, and put them in their names.

Then, one of the con artists allegedly presented fake documents to set herself up as the guarantor for the mortgage. When notaries who worked for the legitimate foreign owner, who wasn't aware of the fraud, began the process of selling the properties, the money transferred to the con artist who requested the mortgage in the first place.

As soon as the mortgage was approved, one of the con artists requested the money be deposited in small amounts at intervals in the names of the other seven alleged con artists who were listed as her creditors.

Property owners in Costa Rica can avoid being the victim of this type of fraud by frequently checking at the National Registry to make sure no one has changed their legal representative without their knowledge.