Almost three decades after last hosting one, Milwaukee is organizing the next U.S. Latvian Song and Dance Festival (XIII Vispārējie Latviešu Dziesmu svētki ASV), scheduled July 4-8, 2012.

The nonprofit corporation that will oversee the festival was registered Jan. 23 with the Wisconsin Secretary of State’s Office, public documents show.

A number of preliminary steps have been completed or are underway, Ēriks Krūmiņš, a member of the American Latvian Association board of directors, told Latvians Online in an e-mail.

Some observers in the Latvian diaspora in recent years have expressed doubts about the continued viability of song festivals outside Latvia. Last summer’s festival in Indianapolis ended with a deficit and organizers now are seeking donations to erase it.

Traditionally the location of the next song festival is announced at the conclusion of the last festival. Milwaukee organizers had discussed hosting the festival, but a firm proposal was not available when the Association of Latvian Choirs (Latviešu Koru apvienība) met during the Indianapolis song festival. The association determines the host city. The association decided July 5 that if Milwaukee would not be willing to organize the festival, then another location would have to be found, said Andris Kursietis, chair of the Milwaukee organizing committee.

In the following months, organizers in Minneapolis also proposed that they could host the next festival. Minneapolis has never hosted the song festival, while Milwaukee did so in 1983. Milwaukee also hosted a regional song festival in 1956.

The choir association on Oct. 15 affirmed its decision to make Milwaukee the host city for the next festival.

Three days later, the Milwaukee organizing committee was confirmed, Kursietis said in an e-mail. Besides himself, members include Ernests Brusubārdis III, vice chair and music diretor; Vincents Dindzans, vice chair and information director; and Ildze Rudzīte, folk dance director.

Further details about the Milwaukee festival are expected to be announced soon, Krūmiņš said.

In the meantime, Latvian choirs and folk dancers are preparing for three other festivals coming up this year and next: the Latvian Nationwide Song and Dance Celebration scheduled July 5-12 in Rīga; the West Coast Latvian Song Festival scheduled Aug. 28-Sept. 1 in Ventura, Calif.; and the Latvian Song Festival in Canada planned July 1-5, 2009, in Hamilton, Ontario.

Latvia has recognized the independence of Kosovo, the breakaway region that declared its freedom from Serbia on Feb. 17.

The Latvian announcement on Feb. 20 comes after Foreign Minister Māris Riektiņš first said his country favored a coordinated action by the European Union on the Kosovo question. He traveled to Brussels for a Feb. 18 meeting of the EU’s General Affairs and External Relations Council, which decided that recognition of Kosovo was up to each member country.

Several countries, including Spain, have said they will not recognize Kosovo in part because of concerns over the precedent such action might set for minorities in their territories. Ninety percent of Kosovo’s inhabitants are ethnic Albanians, but the region also holds deep cultural and historic meaning to the Serbs.

Russia, which has longstanding ties to Serbia, also will not recognize the new nation. Russian President Vladimir Putin angered Spanish officials when he compared Kosovo to the issue of separatism in the Basque and Catalan regions.

The Latvian decision, echoing similar EU member announcements, notes that the Kosovo situation is unique and cannot be compared to other conflicts.

Estonia and Lithuania also have said they will recognize Kosovo’s independence.

A Russian-speaking man from Latvia who has spent more than a decade in Canada, including nearly three years in sanctuary in a Newfoundland church, will get another chance to become a permanent resident, a federal judge has ruled.

Justice Douglas R. Campbell ruled Feb. 7 that 51-year-old Aleksejs Vitaly Kolosovs will get another hearing before a different visa officer to determine whether he should be allowed to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

In court documents, Kolosovs argues that to send him back to Latvia would be an emotional and financial hardship to his four Canada-born grandchildren, one of whom has diabetes. Kolosovs also claims it would be difficult for him to find a job in Latvia because he does not speak Latvian and is not a citizen.

Kolosovs, who was born in Russia, came to Canada in 1997 working aboard a fishing boat. When the boat’s owners went bankrupt, he stayed in St. John’s, the provincial capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. With valid work permits, he found employment in the area, but several applications to stay in Canada were denied. Kolosovs was scheduled to be deported in April 2005, but sought sanctuary in West End Baptist Church in St. John’s, where he has lived since.

In his ruling, Campbell wrote that the visa officer who reviewed Kolosovs’ application lacked sensitivity to the needs of the grandchildren and breached due process by not giving Kolosovs an opportunity to respond to evidence used in denying permanent residency.

Kolosovs’ son, the father of the four children, was deported to Latvia in 2005. Since then, the elder Kolosovs has been the children’s father figure and has provided financial support for them.

Although acknowledging that deporting Kolosovs would be difficult on his grandchildren, the visa officer wrote that “family separation is within the normal consequences of the removal of someone who has no recognized status to remain in Canada,” according to court documents. The officer also noted that Kolosovs has a daughter and son in Latvia.

The visa officer also challenged Kolosovs’ claim regarding Latvia’s lanuage law and the difficulty ethnic Russians have in finding work.

“I could find nothing in my research that would allow me to conclude that they are denied employment as a general rule,” the visa officer concluded, according to the court documents.

Kolosovs’ case has garnered coverage from Canadian media including the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and the St. John’s-based newspaper The Independent.

His case also has earned support from the Refugee Immigrant Advisory Board of St. John’s.