Gidget, the Chihuahua best known for her Taco Bell ad campaign, died from a stroke on Tuesday night at age 15.

David Puente
AC360° Producer

I got sad news today from Peoplepets.com about a famous Chihuahua.

I was already feeling sensitive. I'm sure many of you pet owners will understand. I'm getting ready to go on vacation for a couple of weeks and that pre-separation anxiety is on high. I'll be in Europe and the Middle East and bringing Luc, my 10 year-old Cockapoo, isn't really an option. I'm lucky that I have friends – the Fernandez Family – who have known and loved him since he was a puppy, and they agree to watch him every time I travel.

Unfortunately during the summer holidays, pounds and shelters usually see a spike in the number of pets abandoned. It seems that some people go on vacation and actually throw their pets out. Needless to say there are other solutions. Friends have helped me and Luc but what options do you use when you're on the road? Who's the best pet watcher? Friends? Home-pet sitters? Pet friendly hotels?

All this came to mind after hearing that Gidget, or Gidgey – apparently there were different Hollywood spellings of her name – the Chihuahua best known for her Taco Bell ad campaign ("Yo Quiero Taco Bell"), died from a stroke on Tuesday night at age 15.

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David Puente
AC360° Producer

After so many questions about it, Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s now famous “wise Latina” quote will likely not keep her off the Supreme Court. All indications from Capitol Hill point to her confirmation as the 111th person to sit on that court next week.

Her quote got me thinking, and although I know the role of women is paramount in all ethnic groups, all societies throughout history, I can attest to the great tradition behind Judge Sotomayor’s words where I grew up.

Throughout my youth I was surrounded by hard working, dedicated, intelligent and wise, very wise Latinas. The women of my childhood’s immigrant neighborhood played a strong and central role in family and in community.

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David Puente
AC360° Producer

A former nude model will be among some of the most powerful women in the world at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy this week.

L’Aquila is the town devastated by the earthquake in April and it is also where first ladies like Michelle Obama are joining their husbands for the annual G8 summit. But an ex-glamour and lingerie model is accompanying the Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, 72, to the summit.

Mara Carfagna, 33, was his choice for minister of equal opportunities, last year. Since then she’s been named one of the world's hottest politicians by the men’s magazine Maxim. Carfagna, not Berlusconi’s wife - who has filed for divorce - will escort Michelle Obama, Sarah Brown and the other first spouses on a tour of Rome.

Rumors about Prime Minister Berlusconi’s sex life have been the talk of the Italian media for the last several months. It’s been reported that he told Carfagna that, "If I was not already married, I would run off with you immediately."

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Michael Jackson, loved by millions, but not by all.

David Puente
AC360° Producer

Get this - about half of all Americans count themselves as fans of the King of Pop. That’s what a new CNN poll released today says. It might seem right now like everyone's a Michael Jackson fan.

But it turns out there are big gender, generation, ethnic and even political gaps when it comes to who admires Michael Jackson.

Interviews for the poll were done between June 26-28, with just over 1000 adult Americans. Here are some of the results, tell us how accurate you think they are and how you compare…

Would you say you were a fan of Michael Jackson, or not?

Yes, a fan 51%

No, not a fan 49%

Of that total of fans and non-fans the results here broken down further by gender and race:

                                     Men        Women        White        Non-White

Yes, a fan                   45%         56%              42%            73%

No, not a fan             54%         43%              57%            27%

Broken down by age:

                              18- 34       35-49       50 – 64         65+

Yes, a fan             58%            62%          49%           24%

No, not a fan        42%            38%         49%           76%

Even broken down by political party:

                                                   Republican                       Democrat

Yes, a fan                                    63%                                     35%

No, not a fan                               36%                                     64%

Gov. Mark Sanford has said it's better for him to keep his governorship to learn lessons.

David Puente
AC360° Producer

There’s another twist in the story of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford today. His wife, South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford said she is “willing to forgive Mark for his actions,” though she did put the onus on him publicly. “Mark has stated that his intent and determination is to save our marriage…I hope he can make good on those intentions,” she said in a statement.

I was covering the disappearance of the governor last week, before being pulled into the breaking news of Michael Jackson’s death. Though it feels like it’s been longer than that, it was just last Monday when Sanford’s spokesman Joel Sawyer said his boss was on the road, “to kind of clear his head after the legislative session." Then Wednesday morning was when I read the governor’s first account of his trip to Buenos Aires in The State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper. “I would get out of the bubble I'm in," Sanford said describing why he traveled to Argentina. But something about even the article’s headline just didn’t ring true: “Governor Says He Cruised Along the Coast of Buenos Aires.”

During one of my visits to Buenos Aires, I wanted to go to the beach but it never happened because the nearest “decent” one, I was told, was about 250 miles away. So it seemed unbelievable to me that the governor would want to travel for so many hours just to go cruising along a “decent” coastline. Of course if he had really wanted to go to a beach, he could have stayed in South Carolina as its official tourism website says, the state’s coast has “miles of crystal white sand” and it’s a great place to “relax at a romantic island resort”.

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A picture of people at the party David Puente attended in Washington, D.C.

David Puente
AC360° producer

I normally travel to Washington DC for work, not for parties.

I've been to the White House for an interview with Bill Clinton when he was president and I returned several times during George W. Bush's administration. I was there for Barack Obama's inauguration and most recently I went to report on which DC church the Obama family may choose to attend.

But this past weekend I went to Washington for a birthday party.  I'm writing about it for two reasons; first it was my good friend's 25th birthday party, Jacquelyn Puente, (no relation), who works for a public affairs firm and supports various conservative causes in the Beltway.

She is a charismatic, up and coming Latina who can out-debate policy types twice her age. She also knows how to throw a party. It was an over-the-top Miami Vice-themed night and most of the guests ended up in the heated outdoor swimming pool, (some in underwear, others in designer dresses/some of us dove in, many were thrown in).

But more importantly, I'm writing about the party because so many of the guests, including Jackie's husband Robert Fardi, are young Iranians, or of Iranian descent, who work and live in the US now.

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David Puente
AC360° Producer

Father Alberto Cutie, who millions of Hispanics know simply as El Padre Alberto, has married the woman that he called “the love of his life”. The charismatic Miami priest left the Catholic Church after photos of him kissing his girlfriend – now his wife – on the beach were published in a magazine.

Father Alberto left the Catholic Church last month to become an Episcopal priest. Now many believe the Episcopal Church will become better known and more popular especially with Hispanics who know Father Alberto from his radio and TV broadcasts across the US and Latin America. He's been dubbed "Father Oprah."

David Puente
AC360° Producer

Initially he called Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor a “reverse racist” and wanted her to withdraw from consideration. Newt Gingrich has apologized for his choice of words. Some, including President Obama himself, believe Judge Sotomayor would have also chosen some of her past words differently if she had the chance.

In the conservative magazine Human Events, Gingrich writes this week: "My initial reaction was strong and direct - perhaps too strong and too direct. ... Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the nation's highest court have been critical of my word choice. ... The word 'racist' should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable."

According to Gloria Borger, senior political analyst for CNN, Gingrich's apology came because he was feeling the heat from his own party whose members are trying to avoid personal name calling.

Newt Gingrich and others called Sotomayor a racist after learning about her now infamous statement, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

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Zac Sunderland on his boat.

Mike Perham holds the world record for being the youngest person to sail across the Atlantic all alone.

David Puente
AC360° Producer

Zac Sunderland is sailing around the globe on his own and he's only 17, intent on becoming the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe. He's expected back in California next month, exactly where he started almost a year ago.

Sunderland says he was destined to live the "sailor's life". He comes from a family of yachtsmen and as a young child was "deciphering Lat/Longs, not streets and avenues."

But during what he hopes is his record-breaking voyage, a slightly younger sailor Mike Perham from England embarked upon a similar quest in a larger, faster boat, and threatens to upstage his Yankee counterpart.

Perham holds the world record for being the youngest person to sail across the Atlantic all alone.

I spoke to American Zac Sunderland today who says he and Perham have become good friends since meeting up in South Africa during their voyages. Now Sunderland is in Panama and heading north hoping to reach the California coast next month. Here's my chat with him via skype:

AC360° Producer David Puente talks to Zac Sunderland in Panama.

Check out Zac Sunderland's web site and track his progress:

Zac Sunderland's web site: http://www.zacsunderland.com

Follow David Puente on Twitter @puenteac360

David Puente
AC360° Producer

Health officials in the US are investigating two more possible deaths from the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, a 16-month old toddler who died late yesterday in New York and a 44-year-old man who died today in Missouri. At the same time, they are also trying to confirm whether or not swine flu killed a New York assistant school principal. These deaths could bring the US death toll to nine.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said today nearly 10,000 people worldwide have been sickened by the virus. But the threshold which would make the WHO declare a global pandemic isn’t the number of cases, as much as it is how many regions are affected. Phase six of a pandemic alert kicks in if two or more world regions become affected. Right now we’re at phase five with most cases concentrated in Mexico and the US. Only three states have dodged the virus – Alaska, West Virginia and Wyoming.

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