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Drum workshop on Calle Loiza, Santurce, Puerto Rico. Photo by Flickr user Angel Xavier Viera-Vargas. CC BY-ND 2.0
Is there such a thing as a “perfect human being”? Many in Puerto Rico seem to think so. And those who do, believe the closest thing to one is, precisely, a Puerto Rican.
At least, that is what can be gleaned from the social media buzz generated by a blog post by Lior Pachter titled “The perfect human is Puerto Rican,” published on December 2 on his blog Bits of DNA, written in reaction to the news that James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA's molecular structure,would be auctioning off his Nobel Prize.
Watson was shunned by the scientific community after he made incendiary remarks about how research allegedly pointed to the conclusion that black people are less intelligent than white people. This was only the latest in a long string of racist and sexist comments made by Watson throughout his career.
Pachter, who is a computational biologist, was being more than a little ironic when he chose the title for his post. The idea was to conduct an informal thought experiment to underscore how absurd Watson's obsession with genetically “improving” human beings really is. Essential to Pachter's thought experiment was the data on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, better known as SNPs (or “snips”) collected on SNPedia, an open database of 59,593 SNPs and their associations. The particular data Pachter used was collected by researchers at the Caribbean Genome Center at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez.
Taras Oleksyk, one of the researchers involved in collecting the data, explained Pachter's thought experiment in a nutshell in a post published on the Caribbean Genome Center's blog a few days after Pachter's post went viral:
Using this genetic resource, Patcher [sic] looked at all the mutations in the database and notes the ones with a phenotypic effect. If the effect is positive, the mutation is beneficial. So the person with the most of the beneficial alleles and the least of the disadvantageous alleles must be the “perfect human”. It just happened that the sample that clusters the closest to this made up point was a woman we collected a sample from three years ago in Puerto Rico. She was therefore designated as the “perfect woman”.
Thus, the part of Pachter's post that gave it its title and that attracted the most attention:
The nearest neighbor to the “perfect human” is [...] a female who is… Puerto Rican. One might imagine that such a person already existed, maybe Yuiza, the only female Taino Cacique (chief) in Puerto Rico’s history.
Leaving aside the historical error (Yuisa was not the only female taíno chief that we know of, nor can she be considered Puerto Rican), Pachter, to his credit, immediately admits that to try to define a perfect human is very misleading, at best.
Oleksyk, who is also a biology professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez, felt obliged to offer some clarification in the post cited above, since it was the data that he helped collect that was used in Lior Pachter's exercise, even though he never imagined that it would help to cause such a firestorm on social media:
If the readers only read to the article’s conclusion, where they would notice that author is a fan of the “Puerto Rico All-Star Basketball Unicycle Team” they should ask themselves:How does this Berkeley professor know so much about Puerto Rico, while I live here all my life and I have never heard about such a thing?”This is because the example is used to show that the author is sarcastic about this comparison. In fact, he is very happy that Puerto Ricans win the comparison, because he feared that the perfect human would be a white male of British descent such as Watson. For him, the exotic remoteness of the “winning” population is a great thing. As long as it were not Anglo-Americans, it could have been elves. Sadly, the audience did not see the subtle message, the resounding “Hurrah! We have won the race of the human race!” has made everyone unable to make a critical judgment.
This is no understatement. Spanish-language news agency Agencia EFE produced an article that treated Pachter's blogpost as a serious scientific study. That same article was later republished acritically in numerous news sites, including one of the most widely read Puerto Rican daily papers,Primera Hora, which, despite having the benefit of an interview with Lior Pachter himself, only helped to spread disinformation, leading many to believe that there really existed such a thing as a genetically “perfect” human and that the closest thing to one right now is a Puerto Rican.
Puerto Rican researcher Rafael A. Irizarry, a professor of biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, who is also one of the most highly cited researchers in mathematics and computer science, wrote a Spanish-language post on his blog Simply Stats out of concern for the mistaken and downright worrying interpretation of Lior Pachter's post in mainstream media. After explaining what exactly the human genome is, how genetic variation works, and concepts like “race” in simple language, he finishes his post with the following thoughts:
A pesar de nuestros problemas sociales y económicos actuales, Puerto Rico tiene mucho de lo cual estar orgulloso. En particular, producimos buenísimos ingenieros, atletas y músicos. Atribuir su éxito a “genes buenos” de nuestra “raza” no sólo es un disparate científico, sino una falta de respeto a estos individuos que a través del trabajo duro, la disciplina y el esmero han logrado lo que han logrado. Si quieren saber si Puerto Rico tuvo algo que ver con el éxito de estos individuos, pregúntenle a un historiador, un antropólogo o un sociólogo y no a un genético. Ahora, si quieren aprender del potencial de estudiar genomas para mejorar tratamientos médicos y la importancia de estudiar una diversidad de individuos, un genético tendrá mucho que compartir.
In spite of our current social and economic problems, Puerto Rico has a lot to be proud about. In particular, we produce great engineers, athletes, and musicians. To credit their success to the “good genes” of our “race” is not only scientifically absurd, but also disrespectful to these individuals who through hard work, discipline, and dedication have achieved what they have achieved. If you want to know if Puerto Rico had anything to do with the success of these individuals, ask a historian, an anthropologist or a sociologist, but not a geneticist. Now, if you want to learn about the potential that studying genomes has to improve medical treatments and the importance of studying a variety of individuals, a geneticist will have a lot to share.
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(English translation below) La Sociedad de Astronomía del Caribe (SAC) captó imágenes de un impresionante y lento meteoro que fue visible en Puerto Rico en la madrugada del domingo 28 de...
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Puerto Rico has the world's highest overall percentage of homicides by firearm, with an estimated more than 90 percent of murders caused by guns. This statistic hasn't stopped the NRA from...
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El comentarista de política de Noti Uno 630, Mario Porrata nos brinda unos puntos muy interesantes sobre las oportunidades que debería aprovechar Puerto Rico...
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Puerto Rico News Digest For December 29, 2014by noreply@blogger.com (Admin)
GOVERNMENT TO APPEAL DORAL RULING
From The San Juan Daily Star:
Puerto Rico Justice Secretary César Miranda said that on or before
Jan. 2, the agency will appeal the recent ruling that validated a
2012 closing agreement in which the commonwealth government pledged
to pay a refund of almost $230 million to Doral Bank. The appeal comes
days after federal authorities raided the bank in search of documents
related to the 2011 slaying of Doral Executive Vice President Maurice
Spagnoletti. It also comes as the bank faces financial struggles as
it is undercapitalized and threats to be removed from the stock market.
“Justice will appeal the ruling on Doral on or before the expiration
of the term set for January 2,” Miranda said in written statements
released by the press office.
COTTO-ALVAREZ MATCH NOT YET FINAL
From The International Business Times:
Canelo Alvarez of Mexico against Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico on Cinco
de Mayo weekend has yet to be finalised and there are rumours that
Floyd Mayweather Jr. may instead fight Puerto Rican Cotto rather than
Filipino Manny Pacquiao. The development is seen as a double blow for
boxing fans who are demanding that Mayweather face Pacquiao and who
wants to see the huge Puerto Rico vs. Mexico rivalry match in 2015.
Mayweather and Pacquiao have recently indulged in word wars although
both camps have publicly revealed that they are willing to fight each
other on May 2, 2015 while the Alvarez vs. Cotto fight was announced
as a probable fight although date and venue have not been revealed yet.
According to Oscar De La Hoya, the head for Golden Boy promotions
which handles the Canelo fights, they want the fight on Cinco de Mayo
weekend if the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao won’t happen.
12 EX-COPS JAILED FOR RACKETEERING
From The Jamaica Observer:
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says 12 former Puerto
Rico police officers have been jailed for running a criminal organi-
zation out of the Puerto Rico Police Department. The DOJ said
the ex-officers used their law enforcement affiliation and equipment
to commit robbery and extortion, and sell illegal narcotics and
manipulate court records.
Most of the defendants pleaded guilty on August 21 to violating the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Four
others convicted in the case are scheduled to be sentenced in
January.
PR ONE OF LEAST CORRUPT IN REGION
From News Is My Business:
Despite Puerto Rico’s ongoing fiscal crisis and allegations of corrup-
tion by enemies of Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla, business executives
and foreign investors still perceive the Commonwealth as relatively
clean by Caribbean standards.
Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index,
released earlier this month, shows Puerto Rico scoring 63 on a scale of
zero to 100, with zero being the most corrupt and 100 representing the
cleanest. The island tied for 31st place worldwide this year — along
with Portugal, Cyprus and the African nation of Botswana — up from
33rd place in 2013 and 32nd the year before.
In the Caribbean, only Barbados (with a score of 74), the Bahamas (71)
and St. Vincent (67) outranked Puerto Rico. That puts the “Isla del
Encanto” slightly ahead of Dominica (which scored 58) and way ahead
of Cuba (46), Jamaica (38), Trinidad & Tobago (38), Suriname (36),
Dominican Republic (32), Guyana (30) and Haiti (19).
Read the whole story
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Puerto Rico News Digest For December 31, 2014by noreply@blogger.com (Admin)
METEOR SIGHTING MAY HAVE BEEN ROCKET
El Nuevo Dia is reporting today that the Astronomical Society of the
Caribbean has advised that the "meteor" sighted over Puerto Rico early
in the morning of December 28th may have actually been a part or
parts from a man-made rocket. The flying object -- which was observed
by several witnesses moving slowly from the southwest towards the
east/northeast -- may have been a stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which
had been launched to put an Asian satellite into orbit. The rocket parts
had subsequently been orbiting Earth and eventually lost altitude,
according to Dr. Roger Thompson of the Center For Orbital and Space
Junk Reentry Studies. The seemingly flaming object was observed
for about 44 seconds.
PDP SENATOR SEEKS TO HIKE MINIMUM WAGE
Popular Democratic Party Sentator Cirilo Tirado has pushed for
legislation to increase Puerto Rico's minimum wage from $7.25
to $15 an hour, as several US states and the District of Columbia
are poised to see minimum wage hikes come into effect tomorrow.
The project has so far received little attention in the legislature,
but Sen. Tirado hopes it can move forward after the start of the next
legislative session, according to El Vocero. The proposed increase
has seen considerable opposition from business groups, who claim
that such an increase will lead to a loss of jobs. Proponents of the hike
believe that such a boost would help the island's economy, as minimum
wage earners are very likely to spend any extra income they receive,
putting the money back into the economy.
MURDERS AT FIFTEEN YEAR LOW
From Fox News Latino:
Murders in Puerto Rico at the close of 2014 numbered 680, the lowest
figure since 2000 and a drop of 23 percent compared with the year
before, something that police attribute to better crime detection and
citizens' cooperation.
The chief of the Puerto Rico Police Department, Jose Caldero, said
Tuesday in a statement to Efe that the reasons for the significant
decline in the number of murders are to be found in those two points
plus the commitment of all the cops on the force.
"The crime rate continues to drop as we get better at arresting
criminals, dismantling their organizations and taking them to court.
These achievements are thanks to the commitment of our police
officers together with the Department of Justice and its team of
prosecutors," Caldero said.
MORE CHIKUNGUNYA CASES REPORTED
From Outbreak News Today:
Nearly all of the additional 25,000 or so chikungunya cases in
the Americas can be attributed to just a handful of countries,
according to new data from the Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) Monday.
Puerto Rico continues their steady increase in chikungunya cases
reporting another 1,661 cases putting the island country’s total
over 24,000. In total for the Western Hemisphere, there has been
1,071,696 suspected and confirmed locally acquired chikungunya
cases in the past 12 months.
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The White House says President Obama is ready to approve sanctions targeting
senior Venezuelan officials, despite balking on the measures this year at the height of a government crackdown againstprotesters.Read full article >>
senior Venezuelan officials, despite balking on the measures this year at the height of a government crackdown againstprotesters.Read full article >>
MEXICO CITY — With shouts of “Viva Fidel,” Cuban President Raul Castro said Saturday that the easing of tensions with the United States did not mean he was abandoning the communist ideals that his brother brought to the island nation a half century ago.Read full article >>
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- UPDATE 1- appeal in tax dispute is "baseless" ...
- (Adds shares, confirmation of appeal from ). The judge gave PuertoRico 60 days to appeal, a deadline that expired on Friday.
- Fri Jan 2, 2015 6:32pm EST
- Puerto Rico has filed an appeal against local lender Doral Financial Corp over $229.9 million in disputed taxes, which Doral on
- Fri Jan 2, 2015 6:33pm EST
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- FBI searches Doral Bank offices in Puerto Rico - agent
- Doral in October in its tax dispute with the Treasury Department business has been affected by a slowing Puerto Rican ,. ...
- Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:42pm EST
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Washington, DC—Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ordered the immediate implementation of a federal law that Pierluisi secured earlier this year, which will substantially facilitate the completion of flood control, harbor dredging, and other Corps of Engineers studies and projects in Puerto Rico. Specifically, the law will reduce—and, in some cases, eliminate—the financial contribution that the island’s 78 municipalities, the central government, and non-profit organizations would otherwise be required to make in order for Corps of Engineers projects to move forward in Puerto Rico. “Under current law, all Corps of Engineer projects require a ‘non-federal sponsor’ to contribute to the cost of planning and executing those projects. The non-federal sponsor is typically a state or territory government, or a municipality. The sponsor can also be a non-profit organization. One example is the case of Martin Peña Canal, where the sponsor is the non-profit organization ENLACE,” said Pierluisi. “Typically, the federal government will fund between 65 percent and 80 percent of the cost of dredging projects, and 65 percent of the cost of flood control and hurricane damage control projects. The balance must be provided by the local sponsor. This can be a real impediment to action when the local sponsor faces financial challenges, as so many in Puerto Rico do,” added the Resident Commissioner. Effectively immediately, the Jacksonville District of the Corps of Engineers, which oversees all Corps of Engineers activities in Puerto Rico, will apply a waiver of up to $455,000 for all Puerto Rico studies and projects in progress. The new waiver amount will also apply to all future studies and projects that may be commenced in Puerto Rico. “For example, if there is a Corps of Engineers study or project in Puerto Rico that would normally require a $400,000 contribution from the local sponsor, there will now be no contribution required. If the study or project would normally require a $1 million contribution, the local sponsor will now only need to contribute about $545,000,” said Pierluisi. Recently, the Resident Commissioner sent a letter to the Mayor of San Juan, urging the Municipality to serve as the local sponsor for a project to resolve a flooding problem that has been affecting Joffre Street and surrounding streets in the neighborhood of Condado. In October, Pierluisi met with residents and business owners at an event sponsored by Javier Laureano and his team from the San Juan Bay Estuary program, with the goal of identifying a solution to this persistent flooding problem. The office of the Resident Commissioner is working shoulder to shoulder with residents and business owners in Condado, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, representatives from the San Juan Bay Estuary program, and officials from the Municipality of San Juan. Thanks to this new federal law sponsored by Pierluisi, the Municipality of San Juan can become the local sponsor without incurring any financial obligation. Pierluisi made this financial relief possible through an amendment he successfully offered to the Water Resources Development Act of 2014, which became law on June 10, 2014. The bill was signed minutes before the President signed into law another bill that the Resident Commissioner worked to enact, namely the bill authorizing the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to the U.S. Army’s 65th Infantry Regiment, known as the “Borinqueneers.” Since June, the headquarters of the Corps of Engineers has been working to prepare and issue guidance to its divisions and districts around the nation about how to implement the Water Resources Development Act of 2014, which included over 130 provisions. Last month, Pierluisi wrote to the Assistant Secretary of the Army who is responsible for the Corps of Engineers, urging the Army to expedite the issuance of guidance regarding the Puerto Rico provision. In his letter, the Resident Commissioner noted that there was an immediate need for the Corps of Engineers to help investigate and resolve repeated occurrences of flooding in the Condado neighborhood of San Juan and the Los Angeles neighborhood of Carolina. Pierluisi also observed that, in both instances, the Corps of Engineers could not begin to investigate the problem and to propose a construction solution because the municipalities were unable to immediately pay their portion of the study costs. As noted, the implementation guidance that has now been released will enable the costs of each study—approximately $80,000—to be paid entirely by the Corps of Engineers and at no cost to either San Juan or Carolina. There are about 20 authorized Army Corps projects pending in Puerto Rico that stand to benefit from this new law. These include flood control projects for Río De La Plata, Río Grande de Loiza, Río Descalabrado, Río Guanajibo, Río Nigua; the dredging of harbors in Arecibo, Fajardo, Ponce, Mayagüez, San Juan, and Yabucoa; and the critical Martin Peña Canal ecosystem restoration project. “I am pleased that the Corps of Engineers will begin immediately implementing the financial relief law I secured. Puerto Rico faces severe economic and fiscal challenges as a result of, among other factors, the unequal treatment that the island receives under numerous federal programs due to its political status. Puerto Rico is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes and floods because of its geographic location, topography, and climate. This new law will help key construction projects in Puerto Rico move forward by reducing the dollar amount required to be expended by the government of Puerto Rico, local municipalities and non-profits,” said Pierluisi.
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San Juan, Puerto Rico—Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that the comprehensive federal spending bill for Fiscal Year 2015, which was signed into law this week, includes a provision endorsed by Pierluisi that requires the federal government to develop an “energy action plan” for Puerto Rico and the four other U.S. territories, with the goal of helping to reduce the cost of electricity in each of these island jurisdictions. In June 2013, the Resident Commissioner testified in support of this provision at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. As of October 2014, the average cost of electricity in Puerto Rico was about 26.7 cents per kilowatt-hour for households and 27.1 cents per kilowatt-hour for businesses, which is extraordinarily high. “Section 9 of this new law requires the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior—within 180 days—to appoint a team of technical, policy and financial experts to develop an energy action plan for Puerto Rico and to help the government of Puerto Rico implement this plan,” said Pierluisi. “Pursuant to the new law, the action plan must contain concrete recommendations to help Puerto Rico reduce its reliance on fuel shipped from foreign countries, to better utilize domestic U.S. energy sources, and to improve the reliability and efficiency of the electrical grid in Puerto Rico,” added the Resident Commissioner. The team of experts is required to establish a schedule for the implementation of the recommendations contained in the energy action plan, as well as to create a financial and engineering plan to carry out specific energy projects. The team will have to provide reports to the Secretary of the Interior and to Congress detailing its progress. “The high cost of electricity in Puerto Rico strains family budgets and is regularly cited as the most burdensome factor for current and prospective island businesses. The federal action plan will provide a blueprint to help the government of Puerto Rico diversify its energy portfolio and reduce electricity rates, thereby improving the environment, bringing financial relief to consumers, and strengthening the local economy,” Pierluisi said. This is the second major energy-related achievement for Pierluisi within the last two years. Because of the Resident Commissioner’s efforts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) took administrative action to increase the amount of federal funding it provides to Puerto Rico under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps households pay their electricity bills. In Fiscal Year 2013, Puerto Rico received less than $4 million annually under LIHEAP, which is administered by the Puerto Rico Department of the Family. Puerto Rico now receives about $15 million a year, an $11 million increase. Over the next decade, this will represent an increase in federal funding for Puerto Rico families of approximately $110 million. Under the old federal funding formula, approximately 250,000 individuals in Puerto Rico received assistance under LIHEAP. With the increase in funding, it should be possible to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands of additional island residents. “Although Puerto Rico is still treated unequally under LIHEAP compared to the states, we are treated much better than we were before, and this additional funding will help many hard-working families in Puerto Rico afford their electricity bills,” said Pierluisi.
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As US-Cuba relations thaw, fight for the soul of Cuban rum could begin anew by Nicky Woolf in New York
A decades-long legal tussle left Havana Club with dual identities – one in the US market and one abroad. But after Wednesday’s historic announcement, the uneasy truce between its two parent companies might be in jeopardy
In Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, the Havana Club is the home of the iconic Cuban rum of the same name; a small bar on the second floor, with the windows facing the cathedral where the body of Christopher Columbus had once lain.
It is here that Greene’s anti-hero Wormold drinks and plays chess with his contact, the chief of police. “They had met at the Havana Club,” Greene wrote. “At the Havana Club, which was not a club at all and was owned by Bacardi’s rival, all rum-drinks were free.”
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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 ofstatehood, commonwealth or ...
A major proposal pending before Congress to provide $1.1 trillion in government funding is proceeding in conjunction with a smaller U.S. Senate initiative to require the U.S. Interior Department to lend assistance to Puerto Rico, the other territories, and the freely associated states reduce reliance on foreign fuel and improve energy efficiency and infrastructure.
Under the Senate initiative, the Interior Department would provide technical, policy, and financial experts to develop and implement plans to address the islands’ energy needs. There are four components to the energy action plan: (1) recommendations to reduce reliance and expenditures on fuel shipped from ports outside the United States, develop and utilize domestic fuel energy sources, and improve performance of energy infrastructure and overall energy efficiency; (2) a schedule for implementation of such recommendations and identification and prioritization of specific projects; (3) a financial and engineering plan for implementing and sustaining projects; and (4) benchmarks for measuring progress toward implementation.
A team of experts would submit progress reports annually to the Secretary of the Interior and Congress.
The legislation represents the first time that the U.S. Congress has gotten involved in Puerto Rico’s electricity problems. As previously noted in the Report, the cost of energy is extremely high in Puerto Rico. The U.S. territory uses oil that must be shipped in for more than two-thirds of its energy production. It also uses coal that must be shipped. There have been plans to transition electric plants from oil to less-costly gas or tap its sun, wind, and other local energy resources, but little progress has been made. Puerto Rico’ Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is also facing a substantial debt.
The post Major Federal Spending Bill Provides Energy Expertise to Puerto Rico appeared first onPuerto Rico Report.
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Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla is deciding whether to sign his bill to prevent financial failures of the Puerto Rico’s Highways and Transportation Authority and Government Development Bank as it was passed by the Legislative Assembly controlled by his “commonwealth” party last night.
The bill would transfer the Authority’s $2 billion plus debt to the Government Bank and $275 million debt to the Royal Bank of Canada to the Puerto Rico Infrastructure Finance Authority.
It would also increase the tax on oil and oil products and transfer the increase and some of the existing revenue from the tax from the Highways Authority to the Infrastructure Authority.
The Infrastructure Authority would, additionally, be authorized to borrow $2.95 billion by issuing 30-year bonds to extend the payment period for the debts. Unlike the Highways Authority, the Infrastructure Authority is not subject to the Commonwealth government’s new law purportedly enabling some government corporations to deny their financial obligations.
In the Governor’s original bill, some of the oil tax collections were also to go to a new Integrated Transportation Authority to subsidize its operations but legislators diverted $36 million in cigarette tax revenue from the central government to the new Transportation Authority instead.
The Integrated Transportation Authority is being created out of the San Juan metropolitan area’s passenger train, bus, and ferry systems and the ferry system between the main island of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican island municipalities of Culebra and Vieques.
The legislation passed each house of the Legislative Assembly with different amendments by the minimum votes needed last week, although Garcia’s “commonwealth” party has supermajorities in each house. A version that reconciled the different bills passed both houses last night, again without a vote to spare.
The Government Bank was very disappointed with the legislation and is unwilling to accept it. President Melba Acosta-Febo and Board of Directors Chairman David Chafey said today that they would continue to work with the Legislative Assembly on the bill, although legislators brushed aside the amendments that Acosta had tried to have made and the Garcia Administration has been intensely lobbying to have its version of the bill passed for three months.
The hold-up has concerned the bill’s increases in the oil tax. The first would result in a 15 cents per gallon rise in the cost of gasoline. A simple majority of legislators in each party finally agreed to vote for it if the amendments made to the bill were made.
The Garcia Administration had pushed through an equal increase in the oil tax last year, also on the promise that it would resolve the Highways Authority’s annual financial shortfall.
Governor Garcia said today he had not made up his mind on signing the bill. He said that he wanted to see if there were other ways of ensuring the financial viability of the Development Bank.
The Highways Authority is on the brink of drastic cuts in transportation services and not paying employees on one hand or not making debt payments on the other.
The Government Bank’s unencumbered cash has been reduced to the point where a major unexpected expense for the Government could cause it to come up short, according to Acosta.
It has already declined to finance some transactions of the territory’s municipal governments.
The Garcia Administration’s biggest concern with the Legislative Assembly’s amendments is one that dropped a provision for future automatic increases in the oil tax every four years. The levy would rise to cover the cost of inflation plus 1.5%.
Acosta says that dropping the automatic future increases would only enable $1.7 billion in bonds to be sold instead of the $2.95.
Another amendment of concern limits the interest rate on the bonds to 8.5% and provides that the original price for the bonds cannot be less than 93% of their face value.
The bill also links the oil tax increase to enactment of a new Commonwealth government tax system by March 15th and specifies provisions of the tax system change.
It requires the secretary of the Treasury to submit a report describing the proposed new system by January 31st and submit legislation for it by February 15th.
Statehood and Independence minority party legislators are threatening to take legal action against the bill. They say it unconstitutionally binds the Legislative Assembly to future legislation on the territory’s tax system.
Another amendment would establish a joint Executive-legislative committee to report on whether there are alternatives to the oil tax increase by February 2nd.
The committee would also verify the Garcia Administration’s claim that the oil tax increase would only add $1.17 a week to the cost of gas for the average driver.
An additional joint Executive-legislative committee would be established to either reach an agreement on operational efficiencies with the Highways Authority within a 30-day period or name an Emergency Officer for the agency. This official would have authority over the agency.
Another significant amendment would redirect $36 million in cigarette tax revenue away from the central government treasury to the Integrated Transportation Authority. The Governor’s bill would have granted the new agency $1.25 per gallon of the oil tax revenue.
The financial problems of the transportation agencies and the Government Bank are primarily due to Puerto Rico’s failing territorial economy. After growing at a slower rate than the economy of the States for three decades, it began a downward slide almost nine years ago.
The much smaller economy cannot generate the revenue needed to maintain government spending.
It is also suffering from not receiving at least $9 billion a year that the Federal government inject into Puerto Rico if the territory were a State. Statehood would entail some additional Federal taxation but billions of dollars less.
The post Gov’s Highways Relief Bill Passed But He Doesn’t Like Amendments appeared first onPuerto Rico Report.
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Balance of Payments Report Released by hadeninteractive
The Office of the Governor has published the “Balance of Payments” report for 2013, containing 25 pages of financial tables and seven pages of related graphs. Among the key findings –
Investments have fallen or remained stagnant:
- External investments in the islands were $13.3 billion in 2008 and less than$5.7 billion in 2013.
- Short-term investments were about the same in 2008 and 2013.
- Income from external investments remained about the same throughout the period.
- The value of long-term investments decreased from $102.2 billion in 2011 to $88.8 billion in 2013.
- Puerto Rico’s external investments dropped from $38.9 billion in 2008 to $24 billion in 2013.
Federal support has grown significantly:
- Federal grants to government grew from $2.4 billion in 2004 to $3.8 billion in 2013.
- Assistance to and for individuals increased from $10.1 billion in 2004 to $17 billion in 2013.
- Agency spending is up from $959 million in 2004 to $1.7 billion in 2013.
Tourism has fallen, but may be beginning to show some recovery:
- Income from tourism grew steadily from $3 billion in 2004 to $3.5 billion in 2008, but then fell back to 2005 levels, and has been uneven since.
- 2013 saw an increase in income from tourism, but income is lower than 2006 levels.
- The number of tourists was lower in 2013 than in 2004.
- Travel spending by residents of Puerto Rico within Puerto Rico also grew until 2008, but then fell and has remained low, going from $1,213.3 million in 2008 to $781.9 million in 2013.
- 5,410,100 travelers arrived in 2004 and 4,401,900 in 2013.
Motion picture rentals increased from $15.4 million in 2004 to $16.7 million in 2013.
The post Balance of Payments Report Released appeared first on Puerto Rico Report.
President Obama is likely to end the long prison term of a member of a U.S. terrorist group that tried to pressure the Federal government into granting independence to Puerto Rico.
The expected release appears to be related to the President’s restoration of diplomatic relations with the Cuban government, the related release of Cuban spies by Obama and political prisoners by Cuban President Raul Castro, and the president of Uruguay’s acceptance of suspected terrorists from Iraq and Afghanistan held by the U.S. at the Guantanamo, Cuba naval base prison that Obama wants to close.
The Prisoner
Oscar Lopez Rivera, a resident of Chicago, Illinois of Puerto Rican origin, was initially sentenced to 55 years in prison for the use force in a robbery, transportation of firearms and ammunition across State lines for use in a crime, and interstate transportation of stolen vehicles as well as conspiracy to overthrow Federal authority in Puerto Rico.
He was a member of the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN) but was not convicted of any crime in which people were killed or maimed.
He had 15 years added to his sentence in 1988 for escape attempts.
According to Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla (“commonwealth” party), however, he is “in prison simply for thinking differently.”
Lopez has served 33 years of his total sentence of 70 years. Unless otherwise released, he is not eligible for release until 2021.
In 1999, President Clinton offered to commute the sentences of Lopez and 13 others who committed crimes in the name of Puerto Rican independence. Clinton found their sentences to be “out of proportion to the nationalists’ offenses” and the sentences given others for similar crimes.
His offer required renouncing the use of violence and being on parole after release.
In Lopez’s case, the offer also required spending another 10 years in prison for his escape attempts.
Lopez alone among the 14 declined the offer.
Afterwards, Lopez’s sister said that her brother had declined because parole would be like “prison outside prison.”
More recently, supporters of Lopez’s release have contended that he did not agree because Clinton did not commute the sentences of a husband and wife in prison for for more serious offenses committed in in their FALN activities.
The couple were paroled in 2009 and 2010. Had he accepted Clinton’s offer, Lopez would have been released in 2009.
The U.S. Parole Commission denied Lopez parole in 2011.
Why a Release
Newspaper El Nuevo Dia reported today that an Obama Administration official said the Administration supports pardoning Lopez, and it is likely that the President will, although not soon.
Also, an unofficial Uruguayan source said that President Jose Mujica has a commitment from Obama to release Lopez. Mujica helped mediate the restoration of diplomatic relations agreed on by Obama and Castro, asked for the release of Lopez along with the Cuban spies, and took the prisoners from Guantanamo, helping Obama in his controversial goal of closing the prison.
Last week, U.S. House of Representatives Member Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) told a reporter for GFR Media that he is “confident” Lopez will be released, but he suggested that it would be soon.
Gutierrez, whose family is from the territory and who has a home there, was a friend of Lopez’s in Chicago, and has been a leader of the campaign for Lopez and the other FALN prisoners to be pardoned.
Gutierrez left open the possibility that he raised the Lopez issue at a recent dinner with Obama related to the President’s order that many illegal aliens in the U.S. not be deported. Gutierrez has also been a leader in the effort to win citizenship for the aliens.
The congressional advocate of independence for Puerto Rico — who works closely with “commonwealth” party officials — said that any discussions with Federal officials on the matter will remain “completely confidential.” But he asserted that Puerto Ricans should take it on “faith” that Lopez will be allowed out of prison soon.
This week, a relative of Lopez’s in Uruguay said that she had “some information from Uruguayan authorities that” Lopez “will be here very soon.”
She said that there were talks between U.S. and Uruguayan officials on the issue.
Friend of Gutierrez
Born in Puerto Rico, Lopez grew up and lived in Chicago. He also was a leader of the FALN, which used violence to try to obtain Puerto Rico’s independence, although Puerto Ricans overwhelmingly reject the status.
In a plebiscite in November 2012, independence obtained only 5.5% of the vote. The plebiscite was won by statehood, which got 61.2%.
The FALN was linked to more than 100 bombings and five deaths in the 1970s — but Lopez was not tied to any of these.
He refused to defend himself when on trial, however, contending that he was a “prisoner of war.”
Before any of the 14 accepted Clinton’s offer of reduced sentences, Gutierrez and Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-New York) helped lead a campaign in Puerto Rico to pressure Clinton to drop his conditions for commuting the sentences.
The campaign had no success but it provided time that Republicans in New York used to generate a firestorm of opposition to Clinton’s offer. They charged that the offer was an effort to boost the U.S. Senate ambitions of First Lady Hillary Clinton. It was later found that she had not known of the offer beforehand and did not agree with commuting the sentences.
The opposition to the commutations grew to be so widespread that both houses of the U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly against the offer, a symbolic move because of the president’s power to pardon.
Gutierrez and others have long hoped that the election of Chicagoan Obama would result in an unconditional clemency offer for Lopez.
The post Obama Likely to Release Puerto Rico Independence Crimes Prisoner appeared first onPuerto Rico Report.
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The ‘Perfect Human’ Is a Puerto Rican Womanby hadeninteractive
A blog post entitled “The Perfect Human is Puerto Rican”in the normally staid
blog, “Bits of DNA,” which provides “Reviews and Commentary on Computational Biology,” has made headlines in many other news sources. They include The Latin Timesand The Huffington Post,among others. The article was tweeted much more than most articles on computational biology, to say the least.
blog, “Bits of DNA,” which provides “Reviews and Commentary on Computational Biology,” has made headlines in many other news sources. They include The Latin Timesand The Huffington Post,among others. The article was tweeted much more than most articles on computational biology, to say the least.
The blog post was really not about Puerto Ricans. It was about James Watson, a Nobel prize winning scientist with an interest in eugenics, the idea that humans can (and should) be genetically perfected by selective breeding.
Watson’s view, according to “Bits of DNA” publisher Lior Pachter, is that this perfection would lead to people like Watson himself, a Scotch-Irish Chicagoan. Pachter suggested that an analysis might result in a different answer.
First, Pachter defined perfection in a human as having the “good” forms of alleles (versions of a particular gene) in the case of every gene. For example, there is a gene associated with addiction to alcohol. Having the “good” version would mean not having a genetic inclination toward alcoholism.
There are a number of genes with “good” versions associated with not having a certain disease or problem and “bad” versions associated with having that problem. Some of those genes have been mapped in a public database. Pachter created a mathematical construct of a person who had all good alleles — no genetic tendency toward Tay-Sachs disease, obesity, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, etc.
He then used computational analysis to place the hypothetical ‘perfect human’ into population groups. The ‘perfect human’ was put in with mathematical models of actual humans and the people were sorted according to their place of origin. The result was that the imaginary ‘perfect human’ was, when looking at location of origin, closest to a Puerto Rican woman.
Pachter followed with other computations which indicated that the perfect human was completely different from real humans in significant ways that would cause a biologist to conclude the person was not human. That point in his article didn’t get reported as much.
Why would the absence of “bad” alleles lead to Puerto Rico? There is a tendency for “bad” alleles to show up in specific populations where they might have
been useful at some time in human prehistory. For example, a gene associated with cystic fibrosis seems to be associated with resistance to cholera. That gene is more often found in European populations which often were afflicted with the disease.
been useful at some time in human prehistory. For example, a gene associated with cystic fibrosis seems to be associated with resistance to cholera. That gene is more often found in European populations which often were afflicted with the disease.
Because of this tendency among “bad” genes, Pachter says, one would expect the person with only “good” alleles not to be strongly associated with a particular place, from a genetic point of view. In other words, one would expect a more complex heritage. People from Japan or Iceland, for example, tend to have ancestors from Japan or Iceland. People from Puerto Rico, however, have a very varied heritage.
Taras Oleksyk from the Department of Biology at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez responded with an article explaining “why there can’t be a perfect human, from Puerto Rico or anywhere else.” The article points out that the data used is incomplete, that the concept of a “good” or “bad” allele is inaccurate, and that, as noted above, the perfect human would actually not be human.
Oleksyk also wrote, “Not that anyone has really read the article. Taken by the flashy title… the news spread across the social media as a human wave in a stadium.”
That is certainly true. Check out a sampling of the headlines the post generated:
- Biologist Says Puerto Rican Women Possess Ideal Genotype
- Berkeley Biologist: Puerto Ricans Are Closest To Perfect Physical Specimens
- New Study Reveals The Perfect Human Genetically Speaking
- Puerto Ricans are perfect, says a Berkeley biologist
- Science Proves Jennifer Lopez to Be a Near Perfect Human
Presumably some of these articles — and a Google search came up with more than a million results — were written by people who read and understood the original blog post, but decided to go with the gripping headline.
Another responseto the article, by Angel Carrion, translated an important point made by Rafael A. Irizarry of the Harvard School of Public Health:
In spite of our current social and economic problems, Puerto Rico has a lot to be proud about. In particular, we produce great engineers, athletes, and musicians. To credit their success to the “good genes” of our “race” is not only scientifically absurd, but also disrespectful to these individuals who through hard work, discipline, and dedication have achieved what they have achieved. If you want to know if Puerto Rico had anything to do with the success of these individuals, ask a historian, an anthropologist or a sociologist, but not a geneticist.
The original blog post intended to debunk the idea of a genetically perfect human. Responses instead took up the very “master race” concept the post scorned. Irizarry left out many accomplished people of Puerto Rican heritage when specifying only “engineers, athletes, and musicians,” as examples of excellence among Puerto Ricans, but made the essential point that the concept of genetic perfection is at its foundation racist.
The post The ‘Perfect Human’ Is a Puerto Rican Woman appeared first on Puerto Rico Report.
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We’ve shared the Top 10 Stories of 2014 at PUERTO RICO REPORT, but we were also interested to see the most widely read reports of our entire four years of bringing you the full story on Puerto Rico issues.
Here are the articles that have been read the most:
“Commonwealth” is a word in the official name of the local government of Puerto Rico just as it is in the cases of four States and another territory. It is not a political status. From where did the term come?
Do individuals born in Puerto Rico have citizenship by virtue of the Constitution of the United States, as claimed by the “commonwealth” party? Can they? The U.S. Department of Justice says “No” to both.
The world’s wealthiest man, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, sees that the problem with Puerto Rico’s status is the lack of democracy at the national government level and the lack of equality.
Bill Gates was not the only celebrity to speak up for Puerto Rico. David Letterman did, too.
The differences between Federal taxation in Puerto Rico and Federal taxation in the States is often used as an excuse for the lower level of support that Puerto Rico — and individual Puerto Ricans — receive from the U.S. Government. Think again. Puerto Ricans do pay taxes — often more than they would if they lived in a State.
Individual residents of Puerto Rico might pay more or less in taxes if Puerto Rico became a State, but it is certain that the State of Puerto Rico — and individual Puerto Ricans — would receive billions more from the U.S. Government than the Commonwealth government and individual Puerto Ricans do today.
Puerto Rico’s “commonwealth” party administration’s says it supports the 2010 Federal healthcare reform known as ‘Obamacare’ — even though it created a new area of the unequal treatment of the territory and its residents. Party leaders criticized those who have called for amendments. In fact, the insular administration secretly sought exemptions that would have denied healthcare to Puerto Ricans.
Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s position on statehood for Puerto Rico has evolved over time. Read an analysis of her writings that reveals her position.
As President Obama’s spokesman said, the results of Puerto Rico’s status plebiscite in 2012 were clear: 54% of voters rejected continuing territory status and 61.2% chose statehood from among the possible alternatives with any support in the territory. Columbia Law School Professor Christina Duffy Ponsa explains the results fully.
The most-read article of all time clarifies a confusing question: just what does “commonwealth” mean in the Puerto Rico context?
The post The Top 10 Articles Published by PUERTO RICO REPORT appeared first on Puerto Rico Report.
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Five Congress Members on Several Day Trip in Territoryby Contributing Editor
Five members of Congress are on a low-key, several-day trip in Puerto Rico.
All Democrats, they include Senators Kirstin Gillibrand of New York and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Representatives John Larson of Connecticut, Nydia Velazquez of New York, and Susan Davis of California.
They are accompanied by New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
The three purposes of the trip have connections to the U.S. military. One concerns removal of naval ordnance from publicly accessible areas of the Puerto Rico island municipality of Culebra.
After a shell fell in a public area and Puerto Rican lobbying, Congress in 1973 required the Navy to stop target practice in Culebra. Congress also, however, limited the use of Federal funds for clean-up of ordnance.
A national defense law enacted a few weeks ago included a provision sponsored by Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner in the U.S. House of Representatives, Pedro Pierluisi (statehood/D), to
authorize a clean-up. The sole representative of the territoryof 3.5 million in the Congress can only vote in committees to which he or she is assigned in the House.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Richard Blumenthal included a related proposal in the United States Senate version of the legislation. Separate legislationenacted last month to fund the federal government includes $17 million for the cleanup of Vieques and $1.4 million for the cleanup of Culebra.
authorize a clean-up. The sole representative of the territoryof 3.5 million in the Congress can only vote in committees to which he or she is assigned in the House.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Richard Blumenthal included a related proposal in the United States Senate version of the legislation. Separate legislationenacted last month to fund the federal government includes $17 million for the cleanup of Vieques and $1.4 million for the cleanup of Culebra.
The congressional delegation stayed quite a while on Culebra.
The members of Congress are also inspecting the Martin Pena Channel in San Juan. Its waters are polluted with human and other waste and it needs to be dredged, a project for the Army’s Corps of Engineers. Some 27,000 people live in the area.
The group is, additionally, meeting with members of a former U.S. Army unit comprised of Puerto Ricans, the Boriqueneers.
The one-time 65th Infantry of the Army dates to a unit established by law a year after the U.S. took Puerto Rico from Spain. The segregated unit was deactivated in 1956, with part of its operations transferred to the Army National Guard unit in Puerto Rico.
The 65th Infantry had a particularly distinguished record during the Korean War. It was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal last June through legislation sponsored by
Pierluisi and Blumenthal.
Pierluisi and Blumenthal.
Gillibrand, Blumenthal, and Davis are members of Congress’ Armed Services Committees.
Gillibrand also serves on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee. The Environmental Protection Agency, which it oversees, is also involved with the Martin Pena Channel and Culebra clean-up issues.
She is also on the
She is also on the
Senate Agriculture Committee, a post she has used in the past to fight for equal nutrition benefits for Puerto Rico.Blumenthal is a Member of the Senate
Veterans Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over Department of Veterans Affairsmatters and related authority over issues impacting the Boriqueneers.
Larson is a former Chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the House and is a member of the Ways and Means Committee that has jurisdiction over most of the relatively few — but important — laws that do not treat Puerto Rico as a State.
Gillibrand, Blumental, Larson, and Velazquez represent many constituents of Puerto Rican origin.
Velazquez was born in Puerto Rico.
So was Mark-Viverito, who encouraged the trip.
Velazquez and Mark-Viverito are opponents of equality for Puerto
Rico with the rest of the Nation. Velazquez is, instead, a protege of former Governor Rafael Hernandez Colon, still the most influential theorist of the territory’s “commonwealth status” party.
And Mark-Viverito is a Puerto Rican nationalist.
Rico with the rest of the Nation. Velazquez is, instead, a protege of former Governor Rafael Hernandez Colon, still the most influential theorist of the territory’s “commonwealth status” party.
And Mark-Viverito is a Puerto Rican nationalist.
The post Five Congress Members on Several Day Trip in Territory appeared first on Puerto Rico Report.
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