Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Last vestige of American imperialism: "It is incumbent upon Congress to act to correct this festering blemish from our nation’s imperial past, by treating Puerto Rico as a fully incorporated territory of the United States, and approving the necessary legislation to admit Puerto Rico as full member of the Union in equal footing." - By Hernán Padilla, MD - The Hill: Congress Blog

Puerto Rico Greets One of World's Largest Cruises : BREAKING NEWS 

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For More Latest News Subscribe us: http://www.youtube.com/user/worldnetworktvbbccnn http://worldnetworktv.blogspot.in/ SAN JUAN: Puerto Rico, on Thursday, we...
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Sunset st the light house(El Faro) Rincon, Puerto RIco

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I was vacationing with my girlfriend in Rincon and I went to the light house to catch the sunset and shot this video of the waves hitting the rocks and surfers and the sun set as well as a...
From: alienex
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La macabra historia de una familia peruana asesinada en Puerto Rico 

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Tras la masacre, el único sobreviviente, de 13 años, cuenta su estremecedora e increíble historia a policía que lo encontró. Encuentra más información,
entre...
From: Latina.pe
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PUERTO RICO, Génesis Dávila - Contestant Profile : Miss World 2014 

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Find out more about Génesis @ Miss World Website - http://www.missworld.com/Contestants/PuertoRico/ Official Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/MissWorldPuertoRico?fref=ts Register...
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PASA POR LA PIEDRA a 'la crudita' 

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El comentarista de política de Noti Uno, Mario Porrata esta semana vino vira'o contra el Gobierno y 'la crudita' (impuesto al petróleo).
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POR LA PIEDRA: ¿Donde está el PNP contra la 'crudita'?

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El comentarista de política, Mario Porrata pregunta donde está la oposición contra la llamada 'crudita' que el gobierno quiere aprobar y hace un contundente ...
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Plan Anticrimen: Reducción en la criminalidad 

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From: La Fortaleza
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Plan Anticrimen: Violencia de género 

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From: La Fortaleza
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Plan Anticrimen: Policía de Puerto Rico 

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From: La Fortaleza
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Last vestige of American imperialism

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In 1898 Spain ceded Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and portions of the West Indies to the United States. Additionally, Spain surrendered the Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War. Cuba...

Freed Gitmo detainee thanks Uruguay for accepting him

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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — One of six detainees flown from the U.S. camp holding terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for resettlement in Uruguay has thanked the South American country for helping free him from “that black hole.”
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On Venezuela’s communes, idyllic future is just over the rainbow 

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CUA, Venezuela — With an Iranian tractor, and two big subwoofers blasting salsa music across his onion patch, Ivan Lora says he is turning his weedy hillside into a building block of Venezuelan socialism.
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In Landmark Victory for Puerto Rico, Pierluisi Bill to Require Federal Cleanup of Culebra Set to Become Law 

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Washington, DC—Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that, after five years of persistent efforts, his bill to require the Department of Defense to remove dangerous military munitions from the Northwest Peninsula of Culebra, Puerto Rico is finally on track to become law.  The bill was included as Section 317 in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (NDAA), which was unveiled today by leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.  The bill is expected to be approved by both chambers and signed into law by President Obama before the end of the year.  Enactment of the Resident Commissioner’s bill into law will constitute a major victory for Puerto Rico, in terms of both public safety and equitable treatment.  Culebra, which is located 17 miles off of the east coast of Puerto Rico’s main island, was used as a military training range for over 70 years by the U.S. Navy.  In 1973, Congress enacted legislation directing the Navy to cease operations in Culebra.  In 1982, the federal government executed a deed that conveyed about 935 acres of land on Culebra to the government of Puerto Rico, for use as a public park or for public recreation.  The property conveyed includes about 400 acres on the Northwest Peninsula that had been part of the Navy’s “bombardment zone” when the island was used as a training range.  These 400 acres, which are now managed by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, include world-famous beaches that are highly popular with residents and tourists. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—which is within the Department of Defense—is removing residual military munitions from limited areas of Culebra.  However, the Department of Defense contends that a provision in the 1973 law prohibits the use of any federal funds to decontaminate the 400 acres on the Northwest Peninsula.  The Department insists that this prohibition was not superseded by a 1986 federal law that specifically requires the Department of Defense to decontaminate its former military sites. “As a result of this restrictive legal interpretation, the Northwest Peninsula is the only former defense site—of several thousand across the United States—that the Department of Defense contends it is barred by statute from decontaminating.  The status quo poses a threat to human safety, since this area of Culebra is visited by over 300,000 people a year and yet contains unexploded bombs that could cause grave harm,” said Pierluisi. “Since arriving in Congress in 2009, I have worked to address this problem though the annual defense bill.  Although incremental progress was made, success ultimately proved elusive because of opposition from certain Members of Congress and, to my immense frustration, from the Department of Defense,” added the Resident Commissioner.  However, Pierluisi refused to give up.  He tried again to rectify the situation this year, enlisting key congressional allies in the fight.  In May, the Resident Commissioner successfully offered an amendment to the House version of the NDAA, which would enable the Corps of Engineers to clean those areas within the 400-acre parcel where there is public access, namely all of Flamenco Beach, the adjoining campgrounds, a walking trail, Tamarindo Beach, and Carlos Rosario Beach. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York offered a similar amendment to the Senate version of the NDAA that was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, 20-6. As the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees convened in recent weeks to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the NDAA, Pierluisi spearheaded a letter to these leaders that was signed by 39 bipartisan Members of Congress, 27 from the House and 12 from the Senate, urging the retention of the Culebra language in the final bill.  The Resident Commissioner also led a bipartisan letter to the Department of Defense’s representative on the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico, urging the Department to support, rather than oppose, the Culebra provision. These efforts, at long last, have borne fruit.  Section 317 of this year’s NDAA modifies both the 1973 federal law and the 1982 deed in order to eliminate any and all legal obstacles to the Department of Defense removing military munitions from the publicly-accessible areas of the Northwest Peninsula.   “I am very pleased with this result and want to thank all of those Members of Congress from both parties who joined with me to advocate for this provision.  I want to express my deepest gratitude to Senators Blumenthal and Gillibrand, who have been tremendously effective partners in this effort.  I also want to thank Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Congressman Don Young of Alaska for their steadfast, principled support.  In addition, I want to thank Congressman José Serrano, who fought alongside me on this issue, just as we fight side-by-side together on so many other issues where Puerto Rico is not being treated fairly,” said Pierluisi. "Finally, I want to thank the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees for including this provision in the final bill, namely Congressman Adam Smith of Washington, Congressman Howard ‘Buck’ McKeon of California, Congressman Rob Wittman of Virginia, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo of Guam, and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan,” added the Resident Commissioner. 
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Pierluisi Announces That Congress is on Track to Extend Two Important Tax Provisions for Puerto Rico 

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Washington, DC—Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that the House Committee on Ways and Means has released a bill to retroactively extend a package of expired tax provisions from January 1, 2014 through January 1, 2015, and the bill includes two Pierluisi-supported provisions of major importance to Puerto Rico’s economy.  The House is expected to vote on the bill, the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, this week. The first provision extends the tax deduction under Section 199 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, which effectively reduces the tax rate, from 35% to 32%, for those U.S. manufacturing companies who conduct business on the island and who are eligible to claim the deduction.  Specifically, this deduction will save companies with operations in Puerto Rico that are not organized as Controlled Foreign Corporations about $109 million in 2014.  In January, Pierluisi introduced legislation, H.R. 3968, to extend this provision. “This provision provides U.S. companies who operate in Puerto Rico in branch form—as opposed to as CFCs—with the same tax treatment they would receive if they were operating in a U.S. state.  This will enable them to sustain and strengthen their operations in the territory, which support thousands of jobs.  Given that Puerto Rico has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and that there are 40,000 fewer individuals working on the island now than there were in January 2013, this is a particularly important provision,” said Pierluisi. The second provision extends the additional $2.75 per proof gallon grant that Puerto Rico is eligible to receive under the federal rum cover over program, thereby increasing the grant from $10.50 per proof gallon to $13.25 per proof gallon.  In January, the Resident Commissioner introduced legislation, H.R. 3967, to extend this provision as well.  “I am very pleased with the inclusion of this provision in the House bill.  The additional $2.75 grant translates into about $100 million in funding to Puerto Rico in 2014, which—to the greatest extent possible—should be used by the local government to provide important public services and reduce the deficit,” said Pierluisi. In May, the Senate Finance Committee approved tax extender legislation that, at Pierluisi’s request, included both of these Puerto Rico provisions.  Accordingly, as the House and Senate work to reconcile their two bills in the coming days, the odds of these two provisions being included in the final package are very high.    

Pierluisi Announces $6.37 Million in Federal Funding for Community Health Centers in Puerto Rico 

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Washington, DC—Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has allocated $6.37 million for the community health centers Concilio de Salud Integral de Loíza, Inc. and Consejo de Salud de Puerto Rico, Inc. in Ponce.  “We have received confirmation that the Concilio de Salud Integral de Loíza will receive $1.97 million and that the Consejo de Salud de Puerto Rico in Ponce will receive $4.4 million in federal funds from HHS under the “Affordable Care Act’s Grants for New and Expanded Services Under the Health Center Program.”  The program provides assistance to health centers funded under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act, enabling them to sustain and strengthen their efforts to offer high-quality health services in their respective communities,” said Pierluisi.  The Concilio de Salud Integral de Loíza, which also received federal funding in June in the amount of $185,000, provides health care for 16,000 individuals, most of whom have low incomes.  About 80 percent of these patients have coverage through Medicaid (Mi Salud) and 5 percent have coverage through Medicare, while 12 percent lack any health insurance.  For its part, the Consejo de Salud para Puerto Rico in Ponce provides a wide range of health services, including primary care, mental health care, dental care, pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics.

Growing crisis in Puerto Rico's colonial regime - Workers World

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Growing crisis in Puerto Rico's colonial regime
Workers World
The parliamentary opposition, the also rightist New “Progressive” Party (PNP), seeks to block the reforms of the PPD, more as an electoral ploy than out of principle, and its sole proposal to address the crisis is to promote “statehood” for Puerto Rico ...

Koch brothers eye Puerto Rico - Fox News Latino

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Fox News Latino

Koch brothers eye Puerto Rico
Fox News Latino
Many Puerto Ricans believe the Doral lawsuit stems from a partisan dispute between current Governor Garcia Padilla, head of the pro-Commonwealth party and a Democrat, and former Governor Luis Fortuño, statehood supporter and prominent Republican.

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Miguel Zenon on the Power of Choosing Your Own Cultural Identity - Wondering Sound

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Miguel Zenon on the Power of Choosing Your Own Cultural Identity
Wondering Sound
In his music, Zenon seamlessly weaves the traditions and culture of Puerto Rico with the sophistication of modern jazz, a combination that goes hand-in-hand with his personal biography. Born in Puerto Rico, Zenon arrived in Boston to attend the Berklee ...

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Last vestige of American imperialism - The Hill (blog)

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Last vestige of American imperialism
The Hill (blog)
Acting to address the problem, President Truman helped lead Puerto Rico even closer tostatehood. In 1947, Truman signed into law the Elective Governor Act, which establishes that the “constitutional rights, privileges and immunities of American ...

The Farce of Puerto Rico's Status Debate | La Respuesta

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By: Luis Gallardo Rivera. The status question is Puerto Rico's daily bread and butter. Each morning on their way to work, Boricuas turn on their radios to hear pundits and politicians rant away about the benefits of statehood, ...