Live jazz by Boston's Moontit
Berklee College of Music presents Moontit, including Tico drummer Alonso Zayas, 7:30 p.m., Eugene O'Neill Theater, North American Cultural Center, tel.: 2207-7554. www.myspace.com/moontit.

National Symphony Orchestra honors Ray Tico
Tonight at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 5 p.m., National Theater  

Sasha Campbell in concert
Soul, R&B, tonight and July 4, 11, 18, 6:30 p.m., Restaurante La Luz, Hotel Alta, Alto de las Palomas, Santa Ana, tel.: 2282-4160.

Pérez Zeledón music school concert
Fri. and Sat., 7 p.m., Cultural Complex, southern canton of Pérez Zeledón.

Montes de Oro fiestas
Crafts, horse parade, cimarrona, mascaradas, Fri.-Sun., Miramar, Puntarenas. 

Singing workshop and concert
Led by Italian Maestro, Salvatore Ragonese, Fri. and Sat., 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; 3-8 p.m. Concert Sun. at 5 p.m., at Teatro Mozart, 400 m. east of San Francisco de Dos Ríos, 8873-1622.

Gala dance show
8 p.m., Teatro de la Danza, CENAC.

Emilio José in concert
Trova, 8 p.m., National Gallery, Children's Museum.

Play: ‘La Hoja de Aire'
Joaquín Gutiérrez, through Sun., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 5 p.m., Giratablas Theater, opposite KFC, Los Yoses, tel.: 8305-0202.

Malpaís in concert
Trova, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Miriam Jarquín and Blues Latino
Jazz, blues, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú.

Wax Tailor spins
French hip-hop, electro-jazz producer and DJ, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.  

Blind Pig Blues Band
8:30 p.m. at Mac's American Bar, Sabana Sur, next to the CR Tennis Club.

Tamal Fair
Feast of tamales, concerts, dances, oxcart parade, cimarronas, mascarades, through July 6, Aserrí, sports court, www.feriadeltamal.com. 

Cattle Auction
11 a.m., Hacienda Los Ahogados, tel.: 8379-1829.

Orchid planting workshop
7:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Orchimex de Costa Rica, tel.: 2639-1034, e-mail: orchidtour@orchimex.com.

Pet adoption fair
Get a puppy or a cat, organized by Alianza con los Animales, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Veterinaria Planeta de Mascotas, Centro Comercial Vistana Este, 100 m north of MATRA, Santa Ana-Belén road, e-mail: aclapets@gmail.com.

Sonámbulo in concert
Self-described “psycho-tropical” band, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

Conference: ‘Don Pepe Lives'
A talk about former President José “Pepe” Figueres, by Labor Minister Francisco Morales, 4 p.m., José Figueres Ferrer Cultural Center.

Canada Day festivities
Canada Day is July 1, but Sun. there's a party in Heredia: barbecue, maple leaf Canadian birthday cake, entertainment, games, dancing door prizes, 50-50 draw, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Club Campestre Español, La Ribera de Belén, Heredia, tel.: 2288-6762; e-mail: mermatt@amnet.co.cr. 

Long distance race
11.5 km., start and finish at Coopemex, Paseo Colón, registration dateline June 28, at Centro Sport, Av. 2.

Motorcycle ride
9 a.m., leaving from Suzuki Moto Store, Paseo Colón, tel.: 2258-0708.

Francisco Murillo in concert
Trova, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

Lawmakers voted this week to prohibit parents from spanking their kids.

The bill, passed in a second vote Wednesday, would outlaw “physical or emotional punishment or mistreatment” of children. The proposal will become law once it is signed by President Oscar Arias.

Ombudswoman Lisbeth Quesada, whose office proposed the bill in 2005, cheered the vote.

“Nothing justifies hitting children,” she said in a statement.

Still, lawmaker Luis Antonio Barrantes, who serves on the committee that approved the bill, said the proposal lacks mechanisms for enforcement.

“It's symbolic,” he said. “There are no clear sanctions, but it does send a clear message that you mustn't mistreat children.”

Mum's the word: Costa Rican Cruz Prado, right, confers with her lawyer Tuesday when questioned by an investigative commission about her alleged involvement with Colombian leftist guerrilla leaders.

Hannah Rexroth |Tico Times

Former labor leader Cruz Prado declined to testify Wednesday before a legislative committee investigating the presence in Costa Rica of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), citing possible legal proceedings against her in Colombia for keeping $480,000 of FARC money in a safe in her Heredia home.

Cruz told the panel that on advice of her lawyer she would not make statements or answer questions because she could face money-laundering charges in Colombia.

Authorities were led to the safe from information found on a computer belonging to FARC second in command, Raúl Reyes, killed March 1 in a cross-border Colombian military raid into Ecuador.

Cruz Prado and her husband, Francisco Gutiérrez, maintain they believed the safe contained documents.

The legislators lamented Prado's refusal to talk, saying the matter was one of national security.

“What this commission is trying to discover is extremely important for Costa Rica,” said National Liberation Party deputy Marvin Rojas.

Prado gave The Tico Times and the weekly magazine Seminario a document in which she reiterated that her house has always been open to thinkers, academics and even exiled political leaders – including the physicist Jorge Wagenberg, the scientist Brian O'Leary and the neural surgeon Julio Cesar Pagán, as well as the Guatemalan guerrilla leader Rodrigo Asturias. Her point is that it was not unusual that she and her husband would agree to host Colombian rebels who they said came to Costa Rica about a decade ago for talks with representatives of the U.S. State Department.

She made a list of questions of her own that she said should be answered to explain the reason for all the controversy over the safe. For example, she c ited U.S. Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice, who said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, whose name appeared on Reyes' computer, would have a lot to answer for if the information on Reyes' computer was true. Prado asked if the raid on the Heredia home was an effort to provide proof that Reyes' computer contained reliable information.

The Costa Rican Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) is warning residents that robbers posing as flower vendors are going door to door in San José.

“Watch out for flowers,” states an OIJ press release. “The robbery division is warning citizens about this new modus operandi being used to rob homes in the metropolitan area.”

The fraudulent flower vendors, once a home owner opens their door, force themselves in, point guns at residents, gag them and rob them of all their valuables, the release states.

Home robbery chief Eddy Roda said there have been three recent cases of the flower scam but he warns there are many other scams as well, including fake DHL delivery men who have targeted Escazú homes.

“The fake flower vending is just one modus operandi,” he said. “There have been DHL, Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) scams, among others. People just have to stay on the alert, demand identification and not allow people into their homes to provide services they never requested in the first place.”

OIJ is specifically warning people to be on the lookout for a burgundy Nissan Sentra and a black Hyundai.