'El Golfista y su Amigo' golf tournament
Organized by AMCHAM, 6:30 a.m., Cariari Country Club, Ciudad Cariari, 2220-2220, chamber@amcham.co.cr.

Art and Life Week – Women in C.R.
Concert by Guadalupe Urbina, Chiny, María Pretiz, MAF, 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center.

Dancístico dance conference
Dancers from C.R., El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama, Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.; Sunday at 4 p.m., Manatiales de Vida Auditorium, road to Paraíso, Cartago, 2552-3798.

Theater: ‘Quid Pro Quo, o los Pliegues del Cubo'
Drama, 8 p.m. at Teatro Dionisio, Café Britt, Heredia. 

National Symphony Orchestra
With guest conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor, pianist Andrei Pisarev, playing Berlioz's Overture to King Lear, Chopin's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2, Smetana's Overture to The Bartered Bride, Friday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 10:30 a.m., National Theater.

Robert Aguilar and the Neotics in concert
Neo-soul, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Tatiana Gómez in concert
Pop, jazz, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Expo-Zarcero
Exhibits, performances, food made with potatoes, Saturday and Sunday, Zarcero, Alajuela.

Tamarindo beach cleanup and recycling
9 a.m.-3 p.m., beach parking lot, Tamarindo, Guanacaste, tamarindorecycles@gmail.com.

Classical trio
Oboe, bassoon and piano, 5 p.m., José Figueres Ferrer Cultural Center.

Umbrarum in concert
Progressive rock, 6 p.m., Club Oxígeno, San Pablo, Heredia, 150 m east of gas station.

Georgian National Ballet
Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater, 2207-2025, www.mundoticket.com.

Arnoldo Castillo in concert
Pop, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

Cardamomo in concert
World music, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú.

Still Earth Day
Tree planting, museum tour, lunch, starts 9 a.m., Santa Ana Conservation Center, esibaja@conversa.net. 

Turtle protection workshop
9-11:30 a.m., El Pizote Lodge, ATEC, Puerto Viejo, Limón, 2750-0191.

Fun at Juan Santamaría Park
‘Mascarada' at 11 a.m., circus at noon, comedy at 1 p.m., garage band contest at 2 p.m., Totten in concert at 3 p.m., Juan Santamaría Park, Alajuela.

Activities at Parque de Diversiones
Saturday and Sunday, folclórico dancing, Play “El Carretón de la Fantasía,” play “Aguizotes,” play “Tío Conejo,” and more, in La Uruca.

'Todos Para Uno y Uno para Todos'
Puppet show by Fernando Thiel and Ticotíteres, Sunday and May 18, May 25 and June 1, 11 a.m., Eugene O'Neill Theater, CCCN.

Ska concert
9 p.m., Club Oxígeno, Heredia.

Allan Guzmán in concert
Tova, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

The Hyatt Regency Azulera, a $300-million luxury beachfront resort under construction in Brasilito, is among more than a dozen developments under investigation for possibly causing environmental damage, said an Environment Ministry administrative court yesterday.

The Environmental Tribunal is in the northwestern province of Guanacaste this week for the latest of its surprise inspections aimed at catching land developments that are violating environmental regulations.

The Tamuz of Tamarindo, also in Brasilito, Punta San Francisco in Tamarindo, Bahía del Sol in Playa Potrero, Mar Serena in Zapotillal de Cabo Velas and El Castillo residences in Zapotal de Carrillo are all projects currently under investigation, according to the tribunal.

In addition, inspectors stopped three construction projects and opened cases against 17 vacation rental homes, some now slated for demolition by the government, that were built inside the borders of the Las Baulas National Park, in Playa Grande. Despite being within a national park, some of the projects had municipal construction permits and approval from the Environment Ministry's Technical Secretariat (SETENA).

“Practically all the Playa Grande area, inside the Las Baulas National Park” was divided into lots and had for sale signs, “put there in their majority by Century 21 real estate agency,” said a tribunal press release.

The Hyatt, a project whose groundbreaking featured speeches by Tourism Minister Ricardo Benavides and Public Works and Transport Minister Karla González, is perhaps the highest profile development to catch the eye of authorities in these sweeps, which have already gone through the Central Pacific area and the Caribbean Limón province.

“We have doubts as to the protection of the riverbed, the logging that was authorized and what was carried out, and the large movements of earth,” José Lino Chaves, the tribunal's president, told The Tico Times.

Court spokeswoman Gabriela Hernández said more than 300 trees were cut down to make way for the site in areas identified on plans as forest. In Costa Rica, forests cannot be logged without special permission.

The inspectors had visited 40 projects by yesterday, and were to continue the sweep for at least two more days, Hernández said. Developers have a chance to present documentation in the coming days, and the tribunal will then proceed to suspend or shut down projects that could be in violation of the law.

After shunning a regional agreement to deal with rising food prices, President Oscar Arias' administration pledged to spend $88.4 million to boost local grain production and help the poor afford groceries.

The money will fund credit, insurance and technical help for farmers, as well as cash transfers for students and poor people.

At a Wednesday food-summit in Nicaragua that turned into a bash session against the United States, Arias refused to join 12 other Latin American countries in signing a resolution that calls on Venezuela to donate $100 million in agricultural assistance.

Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said Costa Rica did not sign onto the plan because it included vague phrases such as “solidarity sovereignty” and “fair marketing,” and because it blamed the crisis on developed nations.

“We definitely agree that industrialized countries share much of the blame,” Stagno said, alluding to those countries' agricultural subsidies. “But developing countries – some of which are closing their borders to exports – are also partly responsible.”

In Costa Rica alone, the price of the basic food basket – a measure of 10 items, such as rice, beans, eggs and vegetables – rose 13.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

The administration said it will spend $36 million to help poor people cover those costs. The money provides payments to as many as 42,300 families with children in rural elementary schools that have just one teacher.

Some 16,000 poor families with children under 12 will receive a monthly check of $100 on average. Poor elementary school students will now receive a month cash transfer that formerly went only to high-schoolers.

The state will also invest in development and nutrition centers throughout the country, which give food and provide day care services to malnourished children and pregnant mothers.

That's in addition to a litany of social service programs already in place to help low-income or vulnerable Costa Ricans.

The plan's remaining $52.4 million will help bean, rice and white corn farmers substantially increase production, said Agriculture Minister Javier Flores. He wants Costa Rica to produce 80 percent of the rice it consumes within two years, up from about 50 percent today. Within three years, he said, Tico farmers should be growing 70 percent of the beans and white corn eaten here, up from 25 percent today.

Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga said he would ask the Legislative Assembly to approve $35 million in new funds for the plan. State banks and institutions will put up the remaining $53.4 million from their own budgets.

Tica journalist Amelia Rueda's brother was murdered Wednesday.

Carlos Eduardo Rueda, 56, was gunned down by one of two subjects on a motorcycle outside his home in Paso Ancho, in southern San José, after resisting attempts to rob him, Judicial Investigation Police Deputy Chief Walter Guevara said.

“The motive was assault and robbery,” he said.

Police have already arrested two suspects – brothers with the last name Marín.

During two raids in Desamparados in southern San José, Guevara said, authorities seized two firearms and other evidence they believe ties the suspects to the murder. Guevara said the guns will undergo ballistics tests to determine if they were the weapons used to kill Rueda.

“It's very likely the results will be in (Friday),” he said.

Amelia Rueda has a Web site and radio show dedicated to investigative journalism and she routinely interviews and calls out the country's political elites for the country's problems, especially crime.

As of press time, she declined to comment but her editor, Alejandra Fernández, asked people to respect the family's privacy.

“In these moments of pain for (Rueda) and her family, we are grateful for expressions of condolence,” she said.

Many of her fans have already left Rueda messages of support on her Web site at www.ameliarueda.com.