Ny Safidinao

Up from the ashes of the D.C. statehood movement has risen a fresh idea: to present D.C. and Puerto Rico as a pair of vote-neutering twins, where the territory’s right-leaning representatives in Congress would cancel out the District’s left-leaning ones. Never mind that Puerto Rico, home to about 3.5 million vote-starved brethren, who are more or less evenly split along party lines, has five times more people than the District.  Our dispatch from the latest, and somewhat pointless, statehood commission meeting. Puerto Rico Features in New Statehood Strategy

IVETTE FELICIANO:  Along the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, graffiti reading “No more abuse” and “Fascism in Puerto Rico” are a window into the unrest sparked by the largest financial crisis in the island’s history. Since January, thousands have protested austerity measures and cuts to public services imposed on this U.S. territory that’s home to 3.4 million U.S. citizens. But Puerto Rico currently owes creditors a massive $72 billion. Last year, following a series of defaults on debt payments, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight Management and Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA, which means “promise” in Spanish. The law gave a financial oversight board veto power over Puerto Rico’s budget and provided a process to restructure the debt. Did you realize what you were getting yourself into? JOSE CARRION:  I did not. IVETTE FELICIANO:  Jose Carrion, who runs a large insurance brokerage in San Juan, chairs the appointed seven member board.

The economic crisis afflicting Puerto Rico for the last decade has also taken a toll on the island’s only zoo, with critics saying it is sorely understaffed and struggling to care for its animals on a limited budget. Conditions at Dr. Juan A. Rivero, a 45-acre zoo featuring over 300 species in the western coastal town of Mayaguez, have deteriorated so far as to catch the attention of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which cited dozens of violations at the park in its most recent report from this spring. They included a distressed cougar housed in a tiny enclosure; a lack of working fans for camels and deer exposed to tropical heat; expired food and medicines; and a tiger that inspectors said was underweight and had not had any medical exams or lab tests for two years. “It makes you want to cry,” said Susan Soltero, an animal activist appointed to a newly formed government committee charged with investigating conditions at the zoo. “This is unacceptable to me as a human being.

Introduction On July 10th, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló announced three new appointments to the newly formed Democracy Commission. Those three appointees join four others who were appointed earlier this year. The commission is tasked with lobbying Congress to approve Puerto Rico’s request for statehood. Puerto Rico’s latest push for statehood resembles the strategy Tennessee used in 1795 to become a state, known as the Tennessee Plan. But what exactly is the Tennessee Plan and how could it help Puerto Rico achieve statehood? What is the Tennessee Plan? The Tennessee Plan refers to the strategy that Tennessee used in 1795 to gain membership into the Union. The territory of Tennessee, then known as the Southwest Territory, was under the jurisdiction of North Carolina from 1777-1788. In 1789, North Carolina ratified the United States Constitution and ceded its Tennessee territory to the federal government. The territory was governed under the Northwest Ordinance, whic

First, there was silence, as none of the other three Brevard County commissioners in attendance would second a resolution by Commissioner John Tobia, calling for Congress to reject statehood for Puerto Rico. Then, there was a loud cheer from members of the audience who opposed Tobia's resolution, as they realized his proposal had died for a lack of a second. Tobia introduced his proposal shortly after the start of Tuesday night's County Commission meeting. He contended that Puerto Rico's debt issues would affect all taxpayers if Puerto Rico became a state. Buy Photo At the Tuesday, July 11 meeting, the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners rejected a resolution by District 3 Commissioner John Tobia (seen at far right in this photo) requesting that the U.S. Congress refrain from extending statehood to Puerto Rico. Several speakers in favor of statehood addressed the commissioners, including Colonel Dennis Freytes, U.S. Army, retired, seen at the podium.  (Phot