Ny Safidinao

Big-name sponsors are yanking their support from New York’s 2017 Puerto Rican Day Parade after organizers decided to honor a man labeled by U.S. officials as a terrorist. Coca-Cola, AT&T, JetBlue, Univision, The Daily News, the New York Yankees and Goya Foods are among the companies that have decided not to sponsor the event, which is scheduled to take place on June 11. It’s expected to attract more than one million people. The 2017 parade is set to honor Oscar López Rivera — a man who was involved with FALN, a Puerto Rican nationalist group that was linked to terrorist attacks in several US cities in the 1970s. Bombings that are believed to have been carried out by the group killed five people and injured dozens more. Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898, and various separatist movements have cropped up ever since. Today, Puerto Rico is in the throes of an economic crisis that has spurred many to flee the island for the US mainland. Some blame Puerto Rico’s curren...

Adding to the University of Puerto Rico’s financial woes, the Department of Education has rescinded the eligibility of five of the system’s 11 campuses for Title IV programs due to the ongoing student strike. by Catherine Morris So far, the UPR campuses of Río Piedras, Humacao, Ponce, Bayamón, and Carolina have lost eligibility for Title IV programs. That means funds for essential programs such as Pell Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG) and federal work study will be withheld until the strike has ended and the campuses have reapplied for Title IV eligibility. In a  letter  sent to UPR Carolina chancellor Dr. Moises Orengo on May 8, ED New York and Boston School Participation Division director Betty Coughlin explained that because the university had not offered classes since early April due to the strike, UPR Carolina would lose Title IV eligibility. Institutions lose Title IV eligibility, Coughlin wrote, “on the date that the institutio...

  Thousands of students are demanding that the interim president of Puerto Rico's largest public university resign amid looming budget cuts. The students voting at Wednesday's mass meeting are upset that she's supporting a modified version of cuts being forced on the school due to the territory's budget crisis. A federal control board has proposed $450 million in cuts and students have been on strike for a month. The previous president of the University of Puerto Rico was among several top-level officials who have resigned in protest. An appeals court has ordered the university to reopen tomorrow following a lawsuit filed by students seeking to resume their studies. Puerto Rico university students demand leader's resignation