Organizing for Action, a grassroots group run by Obama loyalists that grew out of his 2012 re-election campaign, will co-sponsor a “virtual march on Washington” planned for next week aimed at getting people to use social media platforms to register their support for the immigration legislation.

Bloomberg’s Partnership for a New American Economy is behind the effort, and was announcing OFA’s participation Tuesday. Republicans for Immigration Reform, a group headed by former Bush administration Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, also is co-chairing the endeavor.

“By bringing together leaders from both parties and Americans across the country, we hope to send Congress a clear message that there is broad support for smart reform – and the time for action is now,” Bloomberg said in a statement.

The virtual “March for Innovation,” planned for May 22-23, is designed to get people to use Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and other social media platforms to push Congress to pass the immigration bill, which may come to a vote next week in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It’s another sign of engagement by business and high-tech leaders and officials across the political spectrum to support the immigration legislation.

The group looked at geotagged Tweets from June 2012 to April 2013 and students at Humboldt State University manually read and identified the sentiment of each tweet to determine if a specific word was used in a positive, negative or neutral way. Altogether 150,000 tweets were found to be negative.

Floating Sheep looked for the use of words like “wetback” and “spic” to analyze negative racial sentiment aimed at Hispanics or immigrants, with the former being the slur that was used by most users out of the two.

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“Ultimately, this term is used most in different areas of Texas, showing the state’s centrality to debates about immigration in the U.S.,” the authors wrote in a blog post. “But the areas with significant concentrations aren’t necessarily that close to the border, and neither do other border states who feature prominently in debates about immigration contain significant concentrations.”

The map also looked at the use of the most infamous racial slur aimed at blacks, the so-called “n-word,” and found a picture more troubling than any of the other words analyzed.

“[It's] not concentrated in any single place or region in the United States; instead, quite depressingly, there are a number of pockets of concentration that demonstrate heavy usage of the word,” the academics wrote, adding that in addition to looking at the density of hateful words, they also examined how many unique users were tweeting these words.

“For example in the Quad Cities (East Iowa) 31 unique Twitter users tweeted the [n-word] in a hateful way 41 times,” they added. “There are two likely reasons for higher proportion of such slurs in rural areas: demographic differences and differing social practices with regard to the use of Twitter.”

The Floating Sheep concluded by saying that some of the slurs included in the analysis may not lead to clear conclusions to draw, “but, unfortunately, they show the significant persistence of hatred in the United States and the ways that the open platforms of social media have been adopted and appropriated to allow for these ideas to be propagated.”

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@chrisbrown @coryrooney @beaucaspersmart @missgillygrace #studiolife #makinghistory #Album10 #SAMEGIRL twitter.com/JLo/status/314…

— Jennifer Lopez (@JLo) March 21, 2013

Lopez is currently working on her tenth studio album with some help from all-star producers and artists. The 43-year-old mom of twins recently told NBC Latino that “I’m going to make music and I’m going to focus on my artistry.”

And it looks like boyfriend Casper Smart approves of the upcoming collaboration between Lopez and Rihanna’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, as he retweeted the picture.

Most-Followed Latinos on Twitter

1) Shakira

Thanks to you hundreds of thousands of children will be protected in times of need. bit.ly/ShakHQBS @UNICEF—
Shakira (@shakira) February 22, 2013

Shakira is the ninth-most followed person on Twitter, settling in nicely between Britney Spears and Ellen Degeneres, and the top person on this list with more than 20 million followers. She recently used her social media influence to start a UNICEF World Baby Shower in lieu of gifts for her approaching pregnancy. Even after she gave birth to little Milan, she kept the initiative going, and when it concluded said she was thrilled that “over 80,000 children will be protected from polio, almost 200,000 oral rehydration salts sachets will be distributed in times of need, [and] the 3.8 tons of therapeutic food collected will save many children from severe acute malnutrition.”

2) Cristiano Ronaldo

3) Jennifer Lopez

4) Bruno Mars

5) Kaka

6) Selena Gomez

7) Demi Lovato

8) Pitbull

9) Alejandro Sanz

10) Ricky Martin

Top Politicians

1) Senator Marco Rubio 

I don't understand #nfl anymore. If RB can't lower head what do they do, take on tackler with chest? profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/14/nfl… #c'monman—
Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 15, 2013

With more than 350,000 followers, the Florida Senator certainly has a platform to spread the GOP’s message, but he’s just as likely to sound like a fan when discussing the NFL, baseball or college sports. In the tweet above, he laments a rule change where running backs would not be able to lower their heads to deliver a hit to an oncoming challenge, adding a “c’monman” hashtag for added effect.

2) Mayor Julian Castro

3) Governor Susana Martinez

4) Senator Bob Menendez

5) Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

6) Senator Ted Cruz

7) Rep. Joaquin Castro

8) Gov. Brian Sandoval

9)Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez

10) Rep. Raúl R. Labrador

Latino issues and organizations

1) SpanglishBaby

The Benefits of Bilingualism for Kids with Special Needs buff.ly/YoMd2K #bilingualkids #langchat #edchat #flteach—
SpanglishBaby (@spanglishbaby) March 19, 2013

Often, Latino issues are seen as beginning and ending with the immigration debate. While it certainly resonates with many Hispanics across the country, there is so much more. SpanglishBaby, founded by Ana Flores and Roxana Soto, seeks to serve parents who want their children to be bilingual and bicultural. SpanglishBaby serves as a resource for parents and the duo also wrote a book, Bilingual is Better.

2) Voto Latino

3) Latino Museum

4) NCLR

5) Immigrant Archive Project

6) Latino Rebels

7) Cuentame

8) Latinos in Social Media

9) Pew Hispanic Center

10) Hispanic Business

NBC Latino on Twitter

Lists are shameless, so why not drive it home by listing how you can connect with the NBC Latino team on Twitter?

1) NBC Latino

2) RealAdrianC

3) TheNininsky

4) PenaChristian

5) NBCNewsAlcon

6) KristinaPuga

7) SandraLilley

8) IgnacioTorres 

9) BettyCortina

10) JacquellenaC

“Meet Roxy…. Newest member to the family…. @JLo ‘s baby, & bears new boo!!!” Smart tweeted on Thursday.

Meet Roxy…. Newest member to the family…. @jlo ‘s baby, & bears new boo!!!! #Surprise twitter.com/BEAUcasperSMAR…

— Beau Smart (@BEAUcasperSMART) March 14, 2013

But showing that there’s plenty of love for two dogs in the house, the 24-year-old posted an update about the first dog that he adopted with Lopez, 43.

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“Update.. Lil bear is doin GREAT!!! He was 9lbs when we got him, now he’s 22lbs in a short 7weeks,” wrote Smart.

While there’s no word about who is on doggy doo doo duty, here’s one thing we know for sure: Lopez seems more domestic than ever, baking cupcakes for her five-year-old twins and relishing family time in the company of ex-Marc Anthony, with whom she recently celebrated his son Cristian’s birthday.

The cult of Chávez’s personality has always gone beyond Venezuela’s borders. For example, within minutes of my own outlet reporting his death, we had already received a flurry of comments from other Latinos not from Venezuela. On Twitter, we were told of stories from real Venezuelans who lived during Chávez’s rule but have now moved to places like Australia. Very few political topics incite such instant reaction among our networks than Chávez does. Whenever I have discussed or written about Chávez, I have either been accused of working  for the U.S. multinationals or that I was a communist from Havana. There never was a middle ground.

I often wondered why.

Why does Chávez inspire and incite, even among U.S. Latinos who are not of Venezuelan descent? My conclusion was rather simple. People like Chávez, Fidel Castro, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega, Salvador Allende, and so many other Latin American leftist leaders just didn’t magically spring out of thin air. There is a commonality in all this: the United States and its long history thinking that Latin America was just a backyard for our nation’s interests.

U.S.-based Venezuelan journalist Pilar Marrero concurs. When I asked her the very same question about why the topic of Chávez interests many U.S. Latinos, she said the following: “I think many Latin Americans that live in the U.S. are very aware of the good and the bad of their adopted country, its history of intervention in Latin America, support for coups and wars. Many refugees from the Central American wars live in the U.S., many economic refugees that fled Latin American for lack of economic development and jobs are also finding opportunity here. The ties are deep and obvious.”

As the U.S. Latino population continues to grow, many are looking at Latin America differently, more so that other Americans, because for a lot of U.S. Latinos, Latin America is their region of origin. Unlike the 19th century, when news from home would take months, it now takes seconds through a smartphone. The connection to one’s origins are stronger in the digital age, and the pushback against the one-sided history of Latin American told through a U.S.-only lens will eventually impact U.S. policy with other countries in this hemisphere.

Yet what about the hatred for Chávez? Besides the human rights abuses and the gut-wrenching tragic tales I have heard my Venezuelan friend tell me about life under Chávez (both extremely valid), how did he become Public Enemy #1? One commentator on Twitter summed it up succinctly when he asked if my outlet preferred “narco state jihadist ‘freedom.’” (You do know who buys the drugs, right?) A lot of what was manufactured against Chávez had to do with the U.S. government despising him, so when in doubt, talk about meetings with Iran and start suggesting that Al Queda is now in Caracas, instead of focusing on how some parts of The Bolivarian Revolution are failing. I guess Al Queda still sells well in the category of fear.

And Hugo Chávez will continue to influence, whether you agreed with him or not.

Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77 ) founded LatinoRebels.com in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. In the past 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on Face the Nation, NPR, Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

The lightning-fast transition to mobile technology has left me – and I’m sure a lot of other moms – on our heels. Our perfectly-controlled worlds of scheduled tech time and filtered content have been replaced by an anytime, anywhere mash up of smartphones, tablets and connected gaming devices.

So what is a concerned parent supposed to do? Well, one thing it has taught me is to focus more on being a mentor rather than a gatekeeper. If there is no way to block everything out, then the challenge is to teach good decision-making; to turn our kids into their own gatekeepers. Easier said than done.

Take the case of mobile social networking. My daughter’s first smartphone roughly coincided with the time we let her have a Facebook account. Luckily, I was able to make a deal where all e-mail notifications came to me, and almost 18 months and 500 friends later, she seems to have avoided any serious mishaps.
But like I say, things move fast in the world of technology.

Soon after she got comfortable with Facebook, she wanted a Twitter account, and then Instagram. Then it was cool to SnapChat. Then video-sharing came along with Keek and now Vine. None of these social networks and messaging tools have any controls worth talking about, although many of them are clearly aimed at a younger audience.

For parents, mobile technology has become a game of whack-a-mole, as we desperately try to keep up with all the various apps and communication platforms that are currently in vogue. And for every app that we think we understand, there are five more that we have yet to learn about. The best we can do is keep our eyes and ears open and hope that those lessons on exercising good judgment found a receptive audience.

One of the most important things we can do is to share whatever little we may know with the parents of our kids’ friends. That community is the most important one because while they may not be YOUR friends, their rules and beliefs are going to impact your child when she’s over there playing with her friend. Talk to each other about the importance of filters, the notion that unfettered access to the Internet is not a right and share trends and other links and articles that you find that have helped you continue your parenting journey.

While I still think of myself as a tech-savvy mom, I know my limitations. It’s not about knowing the hardware anymore; it’s more about keeping an open dialogue.

Monica Vila is “Chief Technology Mom,” born and raised in Mexico and co-founder of The Online Mom, the market leader in providing online and off-line tools to make parents of kids K-12 smarter and more comfortable with the technology that touches their family. The Online Mom is a website, an online newsletter, a forum for discussion, a network of certified experts and a social community devoted to promoting a healthy understanding and appreciation for the positive role technology can play in a family’s life.

Ready for it? Well, the 37-year-old Corpus Christi native is actually into …cats!

My commercial for SHEBA® Facebook.com/ShebaBrand premieres in the US tonight! Watch it here: youtu.be/dCLw_zCXrPU

— Eva Longoria (@EvaLongoria) February 25, 2013

In a new commercial for SHEBA cat food, the actress is seen dancing alone in a beautifully furnished house, showing off some decidedly sexy Latin dance moves to the tune of “Come On A-My House” while her grey cat observes his owner enjoying the luxury of being alone.

Dancing is my passion,” says Longoria seductively during the 60-second commercial which premiered Monday night on ABC. “So is my cat …feed your passion.”

Longoria partnered up with the international premium cat food brand in their “Follow Your Passion” campaign, which showcases the passions of cat lovers around the world. And say what you will about her new passion, but there’s no doubt that the Mexican American star has quickly expanded her brand outside acting since “Desperate Housewives” ended in May 2012.

With roles in commercial campaigns for Canon and Lay’s Potato Chips, as well as a new steakhouse, several production projects and an ever-increasing interest in politics, the “GQ” cover girl has certainly become an enterprising business woman and media personality.

The “Glamorous” singer is in Milan taking in fashion shows during Milan’s Fashion Week and while Fergie appeared bundled up against the cool weather, her baby bump was noticeable under layers of a white blouse, woven vest and leather pea coat.

Fergie shows off the first glimpse of a baby bump.

Fergie – whose real name is Stacey Ferguson – announced via Twitter on Feb. 18 that she and husband Josh Duhamel, 40, are expecting their first child.

“Josh & Me & BABY makes three!!! #mylovelybabybump,” tweeted the 37-year-old pop artist.

And dad-to-be Duhamel – whose newest film “Safe Haven” premiered last week – hasn’t been shy about his excitement either, tweeting a sweet message about the pregnancy news on Feb. 20.

What a week! #SafeHaven premiered, I’m going to be a dad & 400k are following me. Great moment in my life. Glad you’re along for the ride!

— Josh Duhamel (@joshduhamel) February 20, 2013

Fergie, who became famous as the sexy lead vocalist in the Black Eyed Peas, has since branched out to become an entrepreneur with a successful shoe line, perfume scents, a new makeup line and spirits. The singer – who broke out as a soloist in 2006 with her debut solo album “The Dutchess” – even is a minority owner of the Miami Dolphins, proving her business savvy across various industries.

@rickygervais How about an illegal rose from a dead immigrant? Now that’d be a sign of hardcore love! — Jörg Tittel (@newjorg) February 14, 2013

By late this morning, however, there was no official record of the tweet on Twitter. It was deleted from Gervais’ verified account. Every link that shows up in a Google search of the tweet confirms that the tweet no longer exists on Twitter, except for one link that shows an image of the tweet, as initially reported by Latino Rebels.

CREDIT: frrole.com

Social media reaction to the deleted tweet has been overwhelmingly negative. The tweet comes at a time when public comments about “illegal immigrants” are seen by many U.S. Latinos as racist and insensitive, no matter the context. It’s unclear who was actually tweeting from Gervais’ account — whether it was him, a representative or whether the account was hacked. NBC Latino did call and e-mail Gervais’ publicist for comment and clarification. As of this story’s initial posting, no reply has been received. It also isn’t clear who deleted the tweet, but after the tweet was removed, this tweet appeared on the account:

Don’t let anyone tell u how u should be using Twitter. If they don’t like it, they can unfollow, block, ignore. & remember, u can too. Enjoy. — Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) February 14, 2013

Gervais is known for his irreverent humor and for pushing the envelope. Last year, Gervais said about his comedy: “The simple fact is, offence [sic] is taken, not given. It’s up to you if you’re offended or not. And remember, just because you’re offended, it doesn’t mean you’re right.” According to the official Gervais blog, the actor is currently filming the new Muppet Movie in London.

Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77 ) founded LatinoRebels.com in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond.  In the past 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on Face the Nation, NPR, Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.