Ny Safidinao

ORLANDO, Fla. — Ramon Troche Pacheco, 77, said that like his father before him, he favors Democratic candidates. So, on November 8, he will vote for Hillary Clinton. But for the U.S. Senate race, he will vote for Republican incumbent Marco Rubio. "Rubio is my boy. He is mi gente (my people). He is Latino - mi raza," Troche Pacheco said in Spanish, while looking over the food displayed at Melao Bakery, a popular restaurant that serves a wide array of traditional Puerto Rican dishes and sweets. Puerto Ricans like Troche Pacheco are part of a mass exodus of islanders moving to the U.S. mainland, spurred by the effects of the island's massive debt crisis. For the past five years he and his wife have been frequently going between Orlando and Puerto Rico. But he said that on his next trip he will sell what is left of his island properties and live permanently in the U.S. Borícuas, as they are also known, are the fastest growing group in Florida and are transforming the ...

The clear frontrunner in the upcoming election for Governor of Puerto Rico is the youngest son of a former Island Governor. He is 37 years old and holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He believes in science, technology and statehood for Puerto Rico. His dissertation is on cell to cell communication. He is notorious on social media for his inability to communicate his ideas regarding public policy. This much is clear however: He believes the Puerto Rican Government can and should pay all its debts. At present, the Puerto Rican Government owes 73 billion dollars. At present, he is a college professor on leave and has never held public office. At present, he is living off of a family inheritance. Local financial experts and political pundits like to speak of Puerto Rico’s debt as inherited. He is the author of a book on Puerto Rico’s socio-political future. At present, Puerto Ricans’ socio-political future looks so bleak...

Last Wednesday morning contained an unusual landmark in the endgame of the 2016 election season: the first time in months that Central Floridians could confidently go about their business without being hassled about their level of civic engagement. Throughout the year, their region has been overrun with clipboard-grasping canvassers listening for the distinctively accented Spanish of native Puerto Ricans. While in most states registration drives focus on college campuses and African-American neighborhoods - the standard marketplaces where canvassers find non-registrants who skew Democratic - Florida has presented a distinct demographic opportunity. The center of the state, across several counties sprawling outward from Orlando, has been a destination for one of the most significant domestic diasporas in recent American history. The debt crisis that has been roiling Puerto Rico for the last two years has forced residents to flee the island in droves, with many settling in Florida...

Moderator Chris Wallace concluded Wednesday night's final presidential debate with a note of relief for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who refused to even shake hands at the beginning of the night. "This is a final time, probably to both of your delight, that you're going to be on the stage together in this campaign," Wallace said. But they will share the stage one more time, just 24 hours after their last meeting. The white-tie Al Smith Dinner, the major fundraiser for the Catholic charities connected to the Archdiocese of New York, has attracted presidential candidates for years and traditionally offers a rare moment of levity in the midst of heated campaigns where candidates poke fun at each other and themselves. It can be an awkward event in any election year, but exponentially more so this time with two candidates who dislike each other more than perhaps any others in modern history. At the 2012 dinner, Mitt Romney poked fun at a Barack Obama gaffe by sa...

D ozens of heavyweight   Republican politicians   have by now fallen like dominoes and called for Donald Trump to step aside as the GOP presidential nominee, following Friday’s revelation of his lewd comments about kissing and groping women. Up in Trump Tower, meanwhile, the candidate has   assured   his supporters he will “NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE.” If the anti-Trump momentum continues growing—and Trump holds his ground—is there anything that Republicans who oppose their nominee could still do to thwart him? The answer is yes. The scenario is a bit far-fetched—it’s been aptly referred to elsewhere as a  “Hail Mary” plan . But if there’s anything we’ve learned from this election, it’s not to discount the improbable. And if Trump’s prospects look so dim that Republicans think the party has zero shot at reaching 270 electoral votes by standing behind him as their nominee, they might decide that they have at least a better-than-zero shot by throwing that H...

Florida's rapidly growing Puerto Rican population heavily favors Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race, according to a poll released on Wednesday by groups with links to the Democrats. Seventy-four percent of Puerto Ricans now registered to vote in Florida said they would likely pick Clinton in the Nov. 8 election, versus 17 percent for Trump, according to the poll from the Center for American Progress Action Fund and Latino Decisions. Puerto Ricans, who traditionally lean toward voting Democratic in Florida, are a big enough group to swing the closely-fought state. Florida, the third-largest state in the country in terms of electoral college votes needed to win the White House, has seen an influx of people from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, as the Caribbean island's economy has floundered in recent years. More than one million Puerto Ricans now live in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center, making up about 5 perce...