Salvadorans may soon replace Cubans as the third largest U.S. Hispanic group, behind Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, according to a Pew Research Hispanic Center study. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Tag Archives: Puerto Ricans
Puerto Rico Status Vote Proposed By White House
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Puerto Rico may be getting another status vote.
The White House budget submitted to Congress Wednesday includes a $2.5 million appropriation for Puerto Rico to hold another plebiscite on its relationship to the United States.
Calling for another vote indicates the Obama administration has rejected the argument that Puerto Ricans voted to become the 51st state in a two-part referendum held in November. But the proposal also recognizes that a majority of Puerto Ricans aren’t happy with their current commonwealth status.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
Tourist in Puerto Rico injured by live munition
Authorities in Puerto Rico said Friday that a young tourist was burned after she picked up an old shell containing white phosphorous dropped by the U.S. Navy when it used the island of Culebra for bombing practice.
The accident occurred as the girl’s family waited to board the ferry in Culebra to return to the main island of Puerto Rico on Thursday, police officer Mario Alvarez told The Associated Press.
“She was carrying it in her hand,” he said. “It dropped on the floor and activated itself.”
The girl was burned, although the extent of her injury was unclear, Alvarez said. Authorities said they believe the girl was 7 years old, but her name and exact age were unknown because her family initially refused medical treatment for her in Culebra.
She was later taken to a hospital after arriving at the northeast coastal town of Fajardo in Puerto Rico, Alvarez said.
The shell was found on the hugely popular beach of Flamenco, which attracts thousands of tourists every year. Alvarez said the girl picked up the shell near a rusty military tank that sits along the beach’s western point and has long served as a backdrop for photographs.
He said FBI agents and police arrived in Culebra Friday to detonate the shell, as well as six other live bombs found near where the girl picked up the shell.
The accident and discovery of additional bombs came as thousands of Puerto Ricans and tourists headed to Culebra for Easter week vacations. Alvarez said police have not issued any warnings and that it is up to the municipality to warn people about what happened.
Government officials had not issued any statements as of late Friday afternoon.
An official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case said he saw the incendiary munition after people at the scene called him for help on Thursday. He said he ordered them to drop the artifact into water so it would stop burning and blowing smoke.
White phosphorus is an incendiary agent commonly used in war to create smoke screens. It can also cause severe burns.
The latest …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Like Giants, PR inspired by spirit of Angel
By Lyle Spencer If Team Puerto Rico appears touched by an unseen force, it should not be all that surprising. There is, after all, an Angel in the Puerto Ricans‘ outfield. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at MLB
Puerto Rico ousts Japan, advances to WBC final
By Associated Press The surprising Puerto Ricans first eliminated the star-studded United States, then took care of two-time World Baseball Classic champion Japan two days later with a 3-1 victory in Sunday night’s semifinal. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at ESPN Headlines
Before heading to Bay, DR, PR to settle top seed
By Walter Villa The Dominican Republic clinched a spot in the semifinals by beating Team USA on Thursday, and Puerto Rico also clinched a berth by beating the U.S. squad. The Dominicans and Puerto Ricans meet on Saturday for seeding purposes. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at MLB
Puerto Rico To Become Epic Tax Haven For U.S. Citizens?
Puerto Rico is working to become one of the most serious threats to the U.S.’s taxation empire in the entire world, all because U.S. citizens per an old taxation agreement become exempt from U.S. income taxes if they become residents of the territory. Under Puerto Rico’s remarkable new tax regime, U.S. citizens who become residents of Puerto Rico can potentially find themselves paying zero capital gains taxes, zero dividend taxes, zero property taxes on their new corporate residence, and a minimal 4% flat business tax on income from their business, the only catch being you have to open your business in the commonwealth and not service Puerto Ricans.
The setup is perfect for hedge fund managers, as well as software businesses and internet entrepreneurs.
The Puerto Rican government, which has slowly been abandoning its socialists ways which led it to bankruptcy, is actively perusing free-market reforms and is reportedly seeking to become “an alternative to Singapore.”
Singapore is one of the most free-market tax havens in the world, but citizens of the country are not allowed to have dual citizenship, if they’re U.S. citizens living there they must pay U.S. income taxes in full, and if they choose to renounce their U.S. citizenship to live there full-time they get looted like Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin by the U.S.’s draconian exit tax. Puerto Rico on the other hand is completely open to U.S. citizens, and actually can exempt them from U.S. income taxes if they become residents. That means there is no need for U.S. citizens looking to lower their tax bill to give up their U.S. citizenship in order to escape the U.S.’s previously inescapable global income tax, nor to avoid the U.S.’s exit tax.
Read More at informationliberation.com . By Chris.
Puerto Rico slowly warms to more gay rights
The advance of gay rights across the United States is spreading into Puerto Rico, making the island a relatively gay-friendly outpost in a Caribbean region where sodomy laws and harassment of gays are still common.
The governing Popular Democratic Party is pushing a bill through the legislature that would outlaw discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation, a step taken by about half of U.S. states. Another bill would extend a domestic violence law to gay couples.
Soon after taking office in January, Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed an order extending health insurance coverage to the live-in partners of workers in his executive branch of government, regardless of gender.
And a popular former conservative governor, Pedro Rossello, surprised supporters and foes when he stated last month that he unequivocally supports gay marriage.
“We’re in a period where it’s important to talk about human rights,” said Rossello, who 14 years ago signed a law as governor to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages held abroad.
“This is extraordinary,” said Pedro Julio Serrano, a Puerto Rican gay activist. “We’ve reached a point of no return in Puerto Rico … Equality is inevitable.”
“The issues that we’re discussing publicly now would have been unthinkable a couple decades ago,” said Osvaldo Burgos, spokesman for the Broad Committee for the Search for Equality, which represents more than a dozen local human rights organizations.
Gay rights activists also say they are encouraged that the island’s Justice Department is prosecuting its first hate crime case for the killing of a hairstylist who was set on fire.
The momentum has not all been one way, however. The island’s Supreme Court last week narrowly upheld a law that bars same-sex couples from adopting children. Despite a string of legalizations in the U.S. over the past decade, adoptions by same-sex couples remain banned in many U.S. states as well.
And many Puerto Ricans remain uncomfortable with the changes. Church groups in February rallied an estimated 200,000 people against a move to include gay couples under domestic violence laws.
The spokesman for that march, Cesar Vazquez, said the state should not meddle with marriage and the family, and a prominent Puerto Rican pastor, Wanda Rolon, said children should not be taught …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Puerto Rico party to seek political status change
Puerto Rico‘s pro-statehood party is organizing marches to demand that the U.S. government honor the results of a referendum regarding the Caribbean island’s political status.
A statement Saturday from the New Progressive Party says marches will be held March 2 in Puerto Rico, Washington and other cities.
Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but are not allowed to vote for a president and have a representative in Congress with limited voting rights.
In the first question of November’s two-part referendum, 54 percent of voters said they were not content with commonwealth status.
The second question asked what status was preferred. Of the about 1.3 million voters who made a choice, nearly 800,000 supported statehood, some 437,000 backed sovereign free association and 72,560 chose independence. But nearly 500,000 left that question blank.
"The Fifth Floor" (El Quinto Piso): Who Will Rebuild the House of Puerto Rico?
By Giovanni Rodriguez, Contributor A desire to change its status vis-a-vis the United States. A dramatic show of power in the United States. A collective ability to speak up — if not act — via virtual networks. The combination of the three helped to convince us in 2012 that Puerto Ricans were poised for a great, perhaps historic transition. But as we said at the start of this article, Puerto Ricans have had big moments before, and they haven’t all been good. Why will this time be different?
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest