A study released earlier this year by the Pew Hispanic Center caught my attention, and its findings might require observers of U.S.-Mexico relations to recalibrate their thinking.

According to Pew data, immigration – legal and illegal – from Mexico to the United States has flat-lined. The report’s writers found that in the five-year period from 2005-2010, 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the U.S. That’s the same number of Mexicans who immigrated from the U.S. to Mexico during that same period.

Certainly the weak U.S. economy has played a role in the declining immigration numbers. After all, a struggling U.S. jobs picture combined with increased workplace enforcement measures, such as E-Verify, makes this country less attractive to the would-be immigrant worker.

This Tuesday another public art deadline rolls around for San Antonio artists: applications are due for Cut and Paste, a program run by Public Art San Antonio that is “intended to prompt dialogue surrounding Downtown San Antonio, and to activate underutilized downtown properties” by filling empty storefronts with original artworks. This is the second wave of X Marks the Art, following on successful installations by  Thomas Cummins, Cathy Cunningham-Little, Mat Kubo, and others. Eight properties are listed on the website, all within the bounds of Alamo, Flores, Commerce, and Travis streets.

X Marks the Art was launched in August 2011, using a model similar to Chicago’s Pop-Up Art Loop. But it’s hardly the first of its kind in San Antonio. Throughout 2003 and into 2004, Celia Mendoza organized installations by both local and visiting artists in vacant spaces in the city center. She called the project artWHERE, and worked with several real estate companies to gain temporary access to unused spaces. Mendoza says she launched the project simply because “there were all these great spaces downtown that were vacant, and I wanted to go inside.”

News that we lost Border Patrol agent Nicholas Ivie in the line of duty this week is a punch in the gut to any of us who monitor border security issues. The loss of anyone who takes the solemn oath to patrol our borders and secure our ports is felt all along our shared borders, from Washington to Maine, San Diego to Brownsville.

There’s very little anyone can say to ease the pain that the men and women of the Border Patrol and Agent Ivie’s family are feeling right now. Even the best border security strategy can’t guarantee that there won’t be terrible days like the one last Tuesday in Naco, Arizona.

The Express-News reports that San Antonio-based Biglari Holdings failed last summer to notify the Justice Department of its intent to initiate an activist approach to investing in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc, as required by law.

Sardar Biglari operates in the exceedingly small financial sandbox of San Antonio, where his firm’s $850,000 Justice Department fine makes news, and for that matter where $10 million in city initiatives constitutes a significant portion of local venture capital investments over a three year period.

Does the Biglari fine matter?