U.S. House Passes Bill Calling for Referendum on Puerto Rico’s Political Status

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill allowing a referendum in Puerto Rico to decide the future of the territory. 

The referendum would allow Puerto Rican voters to choose between three options: becoming an independent nation, becoming a state, or becoming a sovereignty with a formal U.S. association. The options do not include Puerto Rico’s current status as a territory. 

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Puerto Rico: Tax Haven for the Super-Rich

Puerto Rico has become a popular tax haven for super rich Americans who take advantage of local laws, which allow them to avoid paying U.S. federal income taxes.

Over the last decade, thousands of wealthy Americans have built homes, started businesses and spent a significant amount of time in Puerto Rico, all in order to take advantage of the island’s tax code that exempts them from U.S. taxes. While just a few thousand have taken advantage of the law, the U.S. federal government has potentially lost out on hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

“It’s being done, in a sense, in plain sight,” Peter Palsen, an international tax expert at the Washington D.C-area law firm Frost Law, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The IRS has the knowledge of who’s doing it.”

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Puerto Ricans Demand Answers Over Primary Ballot Shortage and Election Delay

The future of Puerto Rico’s botched primaries rested in the hands of the island’s Supreme Court as answers trickled out Monday on why voting centers lacked ballots and forced officials to reschedule part of the primaries in a blow to the U.S. territory’s democracy.

A plan to hold another primary on Aug. 16 for centers that could not open on Sunday could change depending on the ruling of a lawsuit filed by Pedro Pierluisi, who is running against Gov. Wanda Vázquez to become the potential nominee of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party. Joining the lawsuit was Puerto Rico Sen. Eduardo Bhatia, of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party.

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Here’s Why Protesters Are Demanding Puerto Rico Gov. Rico Rosselló Resign

by Chris White   Thousands of protesters in Puerto Rico are demanding Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resign over corruption charges and what many believe are misogynistic private messages he shared with officials. Protesters hurled bricks, glass and fireworks, at police Wednesday evening in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Police fired tear gas in response as they attempt to clear the streets. Authorities also shot rubber bullets into the crowd, which included celebrities such as Ricky Martin and award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro. People have lit up the streets for five consecutive days, urging Rosselló to resign in the wake of corruption charges and the leaking of a private correspondence between him and close associates. The messages reportedly include misogynistic and homophobic comments, as well as cynical comments about deaths following Hurricane Maria. Martin and the other celebrities asked participants to protest peacefully. “Puerto Rico, say present without fear. Let’s march in peace and remain firm and assertive,” he told NBC reporters Wednesday. “When Puerto Rico unites, we accomplish wonderful things and we can change the course of history.” Del Toro made similar comments. “I’m here in support of the people of Puerto Rico,” he said during the rally. Others flocked to…

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Klobuchar Steps Up Attacks on Trump During Visit to Puerto Rico

  Sen. Amy Klobuchar spent the weekend visiting with leaders in Puerto Rico and repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump for his response to Hurricane Maria ahead of her visit to the U.S. territory. “A lot of it has to do with this president, who continually wants to look at Puerto Rico in a different way when in fact there are citizens there, there are people, this is a U.S. territory. And he’s someone who just wants to look at them and let them go, I guess,” Klobuchar said on Rachel Maddow’s show Thursday night. Joined @maddow last night to talk about what it's like to run for president and why I'm headed to Puerto Rico pic.twitter.com/HSSl6zZUq3 — Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) May 10, 2019 “You have people that need so much help, that lost everything—that lost their homes, that lost their hospitals, that lost their schools,” she continued. “We respond. We don’t just let them out. We did it when New Jersey needed help, we helped them. When North Dakota needed help with Grand Forks and that flood, we helped them. We come together as a nation.” “This president just looks for divides,” Klobuchar concluded. “He wants to blame people in…

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Judge Approves First-of-Its-Kind Debt Restructuring Deal for Puerto Rico

A federal bankruptcy judge approved a major debt restructuring plan for Puerto Rico on Monday in the first deal of its kind for the U.S. territory since the island’s government declared nearly four years ago that it was unable to repay its public debt. The agreement involves more than $17 billion worth of government bonds backed by a sales-and-use tax, with officials saying it will help the government save an average of $456 million a year in debt service. The deal allows Puerto Rico to cut its sales-tax-backed debt by 32 percent but requires the government to pay $32 billion in the next 40 years as part of the restructuring. Senior bondholders, who hold nearly $8 billion, will be first to collect, receiving 93 percent of the value of the original bonds. Junior bondholders, many of whom are individual Puerto Rican investors and overall hold nearly $10 billion, will collect last and recover only 54 percent. ‘An important step’ “Puerto Rico has taken an important step toward its total financial recovery,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello said in a statement. “This represents more than $400 million annually that will be available for services in critical areas such as health, education, pension payments,…

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Commentary: School Choice Is Breaking Down Barriers in Puerto Rico

by Jude Schwalbach   The new year is bringing exciting developments to Puerto Rico’s education reforms. Not only will the U.S. territory open new charter schools, it will also launch a new pilot private school voucher program in the fall. The need for education reform is most clearly illustrated by Puerto Rico’s National Assessment of Educational Progress results, where students scored multiple grade levels below students in underperforming school districts, such as the District of Columbia and Detroit. Incredibly, zero percent of Puerto Rican fourth- and eighth-graders scored at the “proficient level” in mathematics. However, the island took action last year when it opened its first charter school, Proyecto Vimenti, which modeled its curriculum after Puerto Rico’s most prestigious private school. In a community where more than 40 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty line, the school’s mission to free children from generational cycles of poverty and improve student health resonated deeply with local families. Proyecto Vimenti’s emphasis on health screenings identified student struggles that might have been overlooked in traditional public schools. For instance, the school’s initial health screening quickly showed why some children struggled in the classroom: More than half of them suffered from visual…

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Scientists Work to Save Wild Puerto Rican Parrot After Maria

  Biologists are trying to save the last of the endangered Puerto Rican parrots after more than half the population of the bright green birds with turquoise-tipped wings disappeared when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and destroyed their habitat and food sources. In the tropical forest of El Yunque, only two of the 56 wild birds that once lived there survived the Category 4 storm that pummeled the U.S. territory in September 2017. Meanwhile, only 4 of 31 wild birds in a forest in the western town of Maricao survived, along with 75 out of 134 wild parrots living in the Rio Abajo forest in the central mountains of Puerto Rico, scientists said. And while several dozen new parrots have been born in captivity and in the wild since Maria, the species is still in danger, according to scientists. “We have a lot of work to do,” said Gustavo Olivieri, parrot recovery program coordinator for Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources. Federal and local scientists will meet next month to debate how best to revive a species that numbered more than 1 million in the 1800s but dwindled to 13 birds during the 1970s after decades of forest clearing. The…

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Commentary: How School Choice is Lifting Up Puerto Rico’s Children After Hurricane Maria

by Jude Schwalbach   Thirteen months ago on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, devastating homes and infrastructure and leading to loss of life across the island. The storm greatly exacerbated the problems of a school system already in crisis: Puerto Rican fourth- and eighth-graders, for example, are roughly five grade levels behind their U.S. mainland peers in mathematics. Out of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria came an opportunity to reform the ailing education system on the island. Notably, the education reforms introduced by the territorial government and supported by Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher, along with Gov. Ricardo Rossello, include a pilot school-voucher option and the introduction of charter schools. The introduction of education choice in Puerto Rico didn’t come without pushback from special-interest groups, however. The Puerto Rican Superior Court initially sided with the teachers union, which had argued that school choice was unconstitutional. However, the Superior Court’s narrow reading of the Puerto Rican Constitution was overturned by the Puerto Rican Supreme Court in Asociacion de Maestros v. Departamento de Educacion, allowing the new charter school and voucher options to proceed. The ability for the island to introduce parental school…

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Commentary: How School Choice is Lifting Up Puerto Rico’s Children After Hurricane Maria

by Jude Schwalbach   Thirteen months ago on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, devastating homes and infrastructure and leading to loss of life across the island. The storm greatly exacerbated the problems of a school system already in crisis: Puerto Rican fourth- and eighth-graders, for example, are roughly five grade levels behind their U.S. mainland peers in mathematics. Out of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria came an opportunity to reform the ailing education system on the island. Notably, the education reforms introduced by the territorial government and supported by Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher, along with Gov. Ricardo Rossello, include a pilot school-voucher option and the introduction of charter schools. The introduction of education choice in Puerto Rico didn’t come without pushback from special-interest groups, however. The Puerto Rican Superior Court initially sided with the teachers union, which had argued that school choice was unconstitutional. However, the Superior Court’s narrow reading of the Puerto Rican Constitution was overturned by the Puerto Rican Supreme Court in Asociacion de Maestros v. Departamento de Educacion, allowing the new charter school and voucher options to proceed. The ability for the island to introduce parental school…

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President Trump an ‘Absolute No’ on Puerto Rico Statehood Until ‘Good Leadership’ is In Place

Puerto Rico

President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself an “absolute no” on statehood for Puerto Rico as long as critics such as San Juan’s mayor remain in office, the latest broadside in his feud with members of the U.S. territory’s leadership. Trump lobbed fresh broadsides at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a critic of his administration’s response to hurricanes on the island last year, during a radio interview with Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera that aired Monday. “With the mayor of San Juan as bad as she is and as incompetent as she is, Puerto Rico shouldn’t be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they’re doing,” Trump said in an interview with Rivera’s show on Cleveland’s WTAM radio. Trump said that when “you have good leadership,” statehood for Puerto Rico could be “something they talk about. With people like that involved in Puerto Rico, I would be an absolute no.” Gov. Ricardo Rossello, an advocate of statehood for the island, said Trump’s remarks had trivialized the statehood process because of political differences. “The president said he is not in favor of statehood for the people of Puerto Rico based on a personal feud with a…

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How Restrictive Labor Laws Keep Puerto Rico’s Economy Down

Puerto Rico

by Rachel Greszler   An economic crisis has engulfed Puerto Rico. The Financial Oversight Management Board, a federally-mandated advisory group, has worked to help Puerto Rico deal with its financial crisis and establish policies that will lead to long-run growth. The board says Puerto Rico must reform its labor market to have a bright future. While the oversight board has direct authority to enact certain fiscal reforms, it needs the Puerto Rican legislature’s approval to enact most of its proposed labor market reforms. Puerto Rico’s governor has agreed to most of the board’s proposed reforms, but the island’s legislature is trying to block the labor reforms that Puerto Rico’s people need. The board recommends several essential reforms: implementing “at-will employment” (allowing employers to fire employees without excessive legal hurdles or significant severance pay); making Puerto Rico the equivalent of a right-to-work state; and reducing unwarranted employee compensation requirements such as mandatory Christmas bonuses and excessive amounts of paid leave. The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >> Even with all of these changes, Puerto Rico would still have more onerous labor market regulations than the rest…

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Tennessee Hispanic Groups Seek Donations to Help Hurricane Victims in Puerto Rico

Latinos For Tennessee is partnering with the Clarksville Hispanic American Family Foundation (CHAFF) to support hurricane victims in Puerto Rico. Clarksville is home to a large share of Tennessee’s Puerto Rican population because of Fort Campbell, where many serve in the military. The groups are putting together emergency kits for men, women and children to send to Puerto Rico. A donation center has been set up at the Clarksville Entrepreneur Center at 1860 Wilma Rudolph Boulevard. Hours are 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. For information on what to donate for the emergency kits, visit Latinos For Tennessee’s Facebook page. Monetary donations can be made by clicking here. More information can also be found by visiting CHAFF’s Facebook page. The groups are also in need of a trailer for faster transport to Miami. Latinos For Tennessee is a conservative political action group that promotes faith, family, freedom and fiscal responsibility.

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President Trump Lifts Puerto Rico Shipping Restrictions

President Donald Trump lifted US shipping restrictions on storm-battered Puerto Rico for 10 days Thursday, temporarily removing a legal obstacle blamed for slowing the disaster relief response to Hurricane Maria, the White House said. A 1920 law that restricts shipments between American ports to US-owned and operated cargo ships has been preventing foreign-flagged ships from delivering…

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