Tag Archives: Puerto Rico

CBS News reports: One of the few well-known openly gay rappers in Puerto Rico has become a victim of intensifying violence on the island. Kevin Fret, a 24-year-old musician and outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, was murdered early Thursday morning in Santurce, one of San Juan’s busiest and most densely populated neighborhoods, according to El Vocero, one the largest …

Axios reports: President Trump doesn’t want to give Puerto Rico any more federal money for its recovery from Hurricane Maria, White House officials have told congressional appropriators and leadership. This is because he claims, without evidence, that the island’s government is using federal disaster relief money to pay off debt. Trump also told senior officials last month that he would …

NBC News reports: FEMA administrator Brock Long Sunday questioned the relevance of independent studies tying thousands of deaths to the aftermath of last September’s hurricane in Puerto Rico, echoing President Donald Trump’s criticism of those findings as Florence continues to batter the Carolinas. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Long defended the president for his response to Hurricane Maria last …

It’s like two days of national scorn didn’t happen: President Donald Trump yesterday said he doesn’t believe the Puerto Rico death toll, and today he continued to stand by that position by touting comments from Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera. During a segment on The New York Times and media bias, Rivera had this to say regarding Puerto Rico:  “They’re saying …

Reuters reports: U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he had “no reason” to dispute Puerto Rico’s official death toll of 3,000 from last year’s Hurricane Maria, speaking after his fellow Republican President Donald Trump accused Democrats of inflating the death toll to make the president look bad. “Casualties don’t make a person look bad,” Ryan told reporters at …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday appeared to cast doubt on studies that found roughly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico officials late last month increased the death toll as a result of the 2017 storm to 2,975 after a study by the George Washington University that assessed the aftermath of …

The Hill reports: The Puerto Rican government acknowledged in a new report in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria that more than 1,400 people likely died on the island because of the storm, roughly 20 times the previous number that had been provided. The government on Thursday published a report titled “Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation,” which outlines …

The New York Daily reports: The number of people killed in Puerto Rico amid Hurricane Maria is at least 70 times higher than the official government death toll, according to a study published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in the United States and Puerto Rico estimated more than 4,645 people were killed as a result of …

Politico reports: A Florida congressional candidate is under fire for saying that he didn’t believe hurricane evacuees from Puerto Rico should be allowed to register to vote in the Sunshine State, a comment that some fellow Republicans denounced as complicating GOP efforts to reach out to a growing segment of voters. Amid the blowback at his remarks, political newcomer John …

The Associated Press reports: Florida’s Republican governor says he supports making Puerto Rico the nation’s 51st state. Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday said the United States should “respect the will of the people of Puerto Rico.” The U.S. territory held a referendum last year where more than a half a million voters backed statehood. The U.S. Congress has to approve …

Trump hires the BEST PEOPLE. The New York Times reports: The mission for the Federal Emergency Management Agency was clear: Hurricane Maria had torn through Puerto Rico, and hungry people needed food. Thirty million meals needed to be delivered as soon as possible. For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster …

Rolling Stone reports: The Simpsons‘ resident bartender Moe helped step up relief efforts for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria with a video that both raised money and trolled Donald Trump. In the minute-long video, Moe personally addressed San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who clashed with Trump in the aftermath of the devastating hurricane. Moe also subtly mocked Trump, who …

Talking Points Memo reports: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday said he welcomed all investigations into Whitefish Energy Holdings, an electric company based in his hometown that was recently awarded a $300 million contract to repair Puerto Rico’s badly damaged electricity infrastructure. “I had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish Energy receiving a contract in Puerto Rico,” Zinke said in …

The Hill reports: A deal reached between the government and a small Montana energy company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown prohibits the government from reviewing labor costs or profits related to the company’s relief efforts in Puerto Rico, according to a leaked copy of the contract. A copy of the deal obtained by reporter Ken Klippenstein reveals that …

USA Today reports: A $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure, which was awarded to a small, two-year-old Montana company that had only two employees when Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory, has sparked calls for an investigation from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. In addition to its size and relative inexperience, the fact that …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday gave himself a perfect rating for his response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico. “I would give myself a 10,” Trump said when asked by reporters how he would score his efforts, on a one to 10 scale. Trump spoke during a meeting with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, who is in …

I love when they do this. Via Mediaite: Following his speech announcing the decertification of Iran nuclear deal Friday, President Donald Trump made some informal remarks on a variety of subjects to the White House press pool. One of the subjects the President hit on was Puerto Rico. And yet again, Trump praised himself and his team for their work …

Talking Points Memo reports: After President Donald Trump continued his tirade against Puerto Rico Thursday morning, the mayor of San Juan shot back and said Trump’s comments sound like they were coming from “a ‘Hater in Chief,’” not the President. On Thursday morning Trump again criticized the U.S. territory’s debt and infrastructure issues. He tweeted that FEMA, the military and …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump served notice Thursday that he may pull back federal relief workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid a staggering humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Declaring the U.S. territory’s electrical grid and infrastructure to have been a “disaster before hurricanes,” Trump wrote Thursday that it will be …

USA Today reports: “I don’t give a shit.” That’s one of the first things that Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, said to me, referring to her recent public exchanges with President Trump. In reference to his tweets calling her “nasty,” she went on to say, “This isn’t about me or politics. I’m not going to …