Ny Safidinao

Donald Trump told a large, enthusiastic Keokuk, Iowa audience that he's going to purchase the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in order to resolve its debt crisis and rename it Puerto Trump. Trump later heatedly denied to reporters that buying Puerto Rico was a way to repair bridges with Latino voters offended by his comments about Mexican immigrants. "I love Puerto Rico," Trump told 4,000 flag-waving supporters in the early primary state of Iowa. "I go there every winter, to visit my hubcabs. "Seriously, they got the rug pulled out from under them when the idiots in Washington changed the rules of the game about how they can borrow money. "I don't need to wait until I'm elected President to fix this. I'm just buying the whole damn island right now." Reaction to Trump's plan, the details of which his advisors hurriedly released after the surprise announcement, has been mixed. "Jobs and money," Alejandro Garcia Padilla, Gove...

The first Federal Election Commission filing deadline for most of the presidential candidates is Wednesday, but some organizations have released their totals early. Below, the announced money raised by the campaigns, “super PACs” and nonprofits supporting each candidate. Money Raised So Far Millions raised by Campaign Campaign Super PAC Other Jeb Bush Bush r epublican $11.4 in 16 days $103.0 n/a Hillary Rodham Clinton Clinton d emocrat $45.0 in 79 days $15.6 – Ted Cruz Cruz r epublican $14.5 in 100 days $38.0 – Marco Rubio Rubio r epublican $12.0 in 79 days ...

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign has, thus far, been rather light on concrete policy proposals. The first exception to that rule, somewhat surprisingly, turns out to relate to the obscure issues of Puerto Rico's treatment in federal bankruptcy code and health-care reimbursement formulas. These are not top priority issues for most voters, but they are urgent for Puerto Ricans. Clinton's plan arrives as Puerto Rico's governor has said that the island cannot pay all its debts and is trapped in a "death spiral" of recession and debt. This situation hasn't yet secured as much attention as the debt crisis in Greece, but it involves the lives of millions of US citizens, and if Congress doesn't act to do something the resulting fight is going to play out in American federal courts. Clinton offers two big ideas for how Congress could act to help rescue Puerto Rico's economy, plus a hint of larger political change in the future. Hillary Clinto...

THE BIG IDEA: — Puerto Rico’s debt crisis may soon blow up into a significant 2016 issue.  The island is poised to default on its crushing $72 billion debt. Its government wants to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy, following the path of cities like Detroit, but as a U.S. commonwealth it is barred from doing so. The island’s leaders are launching a campaign to get the law changed, using a mix of public pressure on 2016 candidates and a bipartisan lobbying blitz in D.C. But they face opposition from Wall Street, the Koch brothers’ political network and movement conservatives who think it smacks of a bailout. Puertorriqueños recognize their increasing political clout, particularly in Florida, and they promise to put it to use. In an interview on Telemundo yesterday, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla. want the support of Puerto Ricans must help Puerto Rico now, not later,” he said. “Puerto Ricans decide the elections in Florida. That’s very important. By deciding the...

With Puerto Rico in a sustained economic decline and its government in arrears on debt, the exodus of its residents to the mainland is having a powerful benefit for the Democrats.  Alan Yuhas of the U.K. Guardian writes: Facing a crisis of monumental proportions at home, tens of thousands of people are fleeing a Caribbean island in search of a better life in the United States…. Unable to pay its $73bn debt, Puerto Rico has begun rationing water , closing schools and watching its healthcare system collapse and 45% of its people living in poverty. Emigration to the mainland has accelerated in recent years, activists say, and data shows that from 2003 to 2013 there was a population swing of more than 1.5 million people. “This new wave of immigration can be compared with the immigration in the 1930s and 40s,” said Edgardo González, coordinator of the Defenders of Puerto Rico, an activist group. The Great Depression and second world war spurred the so-called “ Great Migration ”, w...

ebt-ridden Puerto Rico got a bit of good news on Tuesday when the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and its nervous creditors reportedly moved towards a deal that would permit the utility to pay bondholders more than $400 million as a down payment on its debt. As The Wall Street Journal reported, analysts feared that a default by the utility would have foreshadowed defaults by other public institutions within the commonwealth, which is saddled with about $72 billion of outstanding debt. Related: Greece and Puerto Rico May Force 2016 Candidates to Talk About U.S. Debt      Unlike Detroit and scores of other municipalities and U.S. state-affiliated authorities in fiscal trouble, Puerto Rico can’t avail itself of federal bankruptcy protection to expedite a wholesale restructuring of its debt and simultaneously deal with creditors. Under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy law, only a "municipality" may file for relief -- meaning a political subdivision or public...

Never mind that Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is an ambitious but still relatively unknown Republican from upstate New York. Thanks to her political connections, she has fans in Puerto Rico. And Puerto Ricans may be counting their friends in Washington. With an imminent debt crisis looming over the Caribbean commonwealth that threatens the U.S. municipal bond market, Puerto Rico wants its public companies protected by U.S. bankruptcy rules. Whether or not Stefanik, who at 30 is the youngest woman to ever serve in the House, has a chance to influence much of that debate, she has managed to raise more money this year from inhabitants of the U.S. territory than any other candidate or committee. That includes even the archipelago’s own non-voting delegate in Congress, Pedro Pierluisi (D-P.R.), and his challenger, according to an OpenSecrets Blog analysis of campaign data. That’s all thanks to a fundraiser held in early March at the home an insurance executive who kn...

Despite its 2012 electoral loss and recurring internal power-struggles, Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) is probably in better shape than it has ever been. Its fundraising capabilities are unmatched; its pro-statehood stance is preferred over the current Commonwealth status by a plurality of Puerto Ricans; it has controlled both legislative chambers for much of the last two-and-a-half decades; and it holds a supermajority in the Supreme Court that is guaranteed to last decades. Despite this, in previous years it has experienced serious obstacles to its ideological legitimacy. Though the statehood option garnered a seemingly whopping 61 percent in the 2012 status referendum, when factoring in the number of protested blank votes cast, results reveals that only 44 percent of the electorate supported the statehood option. Poll results from October 2011 poll showed a 41 percent with only 37 percent of the population claimed that the status issue should be resolved “u...

Puerto Rico's government has reached a deal that ends a 35-year-old lawsuit involving services for special education students in the U.S. territory. Rosa Lydia Velez had sued the island's government in November 1980 after accusing it of not providing her daughter with special education services as required by law. Velez signed a deal Thursday in which she is slated to receive $125,000 in damages. Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda said he viewed the lawsuit as a social justice case. Previous administrations fought the lawsuit for decades. The government still faces other similar claims as well as a class-action lawsuit that has seen the Department of Education pay daily fines for not complying with federal requirements. Puerto Rico reaches deal in 1980 lawsuit involving special education services

The former Republican governor of Puerto Rico will be the keynote speaker next month at the annual Lincoln-Reagan Day, the major annual fundraiser for the Anne Arundel County Republican party. Luis Fortuño, who was elected in 2008 and served one term, will speak to local Republicans from 6 to 10 p.m. June 3 at Bleue's on the Water, 7696 Altoona Beach Road in Glen Burnie. Tickets start at $75, with VIP tickets and sponsorships available. Fortuño was an active campaigner for Republican candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, and was named by several news organizations as a possible vice presidential candidate. Last month, he held a fundraiser for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who was touring the commonwealth island, according to published reports.  In Puerto Rico, there are no Republicans or Democrats, although the local parties line up with the major ones. Fortuño served president of the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico until 2013, and also has been a member of the National...

The first independent candidate for governor of Puerto Rico, Alexandra Lúgaro, is counting on social networks to promote her image and create a niche for herself in a system controlled for decades by two parties. Lúgaro, a 33-year-old attorney, told EFE in an interview Monday that despite her campaign's lack of means to challenge the island's two major parties, she firmly believes she can become the next governor of Puerto Rico by making full use of social networks. "Yes, I see myself as governor," Lúgaro said about the election in November 2016, an uphill battle provided her lack of financial wherewithal that's traditionally spent by the ruling PPD, which promotes Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. commonwealth, and the PNP, which wants the island to become the 51st state. For Lúgaro, that issue – so frequently portrayed as the definitive one on the island – is not a top priority. "First comes the economy," she said, concerned about the hard times t...

The former governor of Florida, John (or as he prefers to be called, Juan) Ellis Bush, doesn’t appear to have a lot of support among Republicans, as opposed to Republicans in Name Only (RINOs), who absolutely adore him. But Juan isn’t sweating it. He’s rolling in dough, and more importantly, he’s rolling in opponents. Have you ever heard of a “straw” candidate? When you have a weak front-runner that can’t reach 50 percent, often a third, or a fourth, or even a fifth candidate suddenly jumps into the race. If he has a name similar to that of the strongest opponent, or is at least a member of the same ethnic group, even better! And the best straw of all is the one who doesn’t even know he’s a straw. I think we have a lot of straws traipsing around New Hampshire these days. As Juan Ellis Bush might paraphrase Mao, let a hundred straws bloom. Look at the latest N.H. poll of GOP candidates. Juan Bush is in first place with a meager 15 percent, even though he’s a “brand.” But then, so a...

Republicans are bringing something unique to the 2016 presidential campaign: an ability to speak to Americans in both of their main mother tongues, Spanish as well as English. Democrats can’t match it. Previous GOP candidates couldn’t. But now, paradoxically, the party that’s on the outs with many Hispanic voters over immigration is the party that has serious presidential candidates who are surefooted in their language. It remains to be seen how much Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio will use their fluent Spanish in the campaign. Rubio offered a few words of it in his presidential campaign announcement, quoting his Cuban grandfather, a small but notable addition in a speech meant for everyone to hear, not just a Hispanic crowd. Bush peppered his remarks with Spanish in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, making an obvious cultural connection with many in his audience. Even a modest amount of Spanish will be more than presidential campaigns have known. President George W. Bush rarely used his barely h...

On the Republican side of the 2016 race, this was the week the courting of the Latino vote seemed to begin. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas spoke Wednesday at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., after the group criticized him for skipping their summit last month. Meanwhile, Jeb Bush went on a Spanish-language tour — first to Puerto Rico and then speaking to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference in Houston. Latinos are part of the electorate everyone agrees is key, but the GOP has struggled to connect. Latinos have long skewed Democratic, but the past two presidential elections hit Republicans especially hard — Latinos voted overwhelmingly for Obama. This time around, two major candidates on the right — Cruz and Marco Rubio — are Hispanic. Jeb Bush is not Latino, despite that box he checked , but his wife is Mexican-American, and he speaks fluent Spanish. Cruz, who is Cuban-American, told the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce about his immigrant father who strugg...

Jeb Bush confronted one of the Republican Party's touchiest debates head-on Tuesday, telling Puerto Ricans that conservatives should be proud that America is "an immigrant nation" and value the contribution immigrants make to the country. The former Florida governor and 2016 GOP presidential prospect delivered a speech on economic opportunities peppered with Spanish, and his audience responded with hearty applause. He's fluent in the language, and often uses it in Florida, but it's rarely heard in Republican presidential campaign politics. Immigration is a delicate subject for Bush in the primacy race, with several potential rivals favoring a harder line on those who come to the U.S. illegally. But he took it up unapologetically in his remarks. "We're an immigrant nation and we should be proud," he said, as someone in the audience yelled, "Yes!" "We should create an immigration system that drives economic opportunity for all of us,...

Alexandra Lugaro wants to change things in Puerto Rico and break free from the shackles of a dysfunctional two-party system that has brought the island to its knees. Lugaro, a 33-year-old attorney and businesswoman, is running as the first independent for governor of Puerto Rico. The candidate's lack of party affiliation places her outside the political circles, but she aims to inject new life, hopes, and ideas into the territory's government. Born into a family that struggled economically, Lugaro credits education for her success, saying it offered her the tools to improve herself. She went on to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration at the University of Puerto Rico and later a Juris Doctor at the same school. She then earned a Master's in Laws, LLM from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is currently finishing her Doctorate in Tax Reform at the same. Though the battle to Puerto Rico's presidential mansion, La Fortaleza, may be an uphill on...