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PESQUISA A FONDO AL GOBIERNO DE MANATÍ
La pesquisa de la División de Integridad Pública del Departamento de Justicia sobre posibles ilegalidades en las operaciones del municipio de Manatí bajo la dirección del alcalde Juan Aubín Cruz Manzano reviste una peculiaridad: la larga saga de acciones irregulares ocurridas en ese ayuntamiento durante los 36 años de la regencia de ese alcalde.
Maltrato a la vejez
IDALIA COLÓN RONDÓN
El maltrato a la vejez es uno de los grandes retos que enfrenta nuestra sociedad. Al igual que con el maltrato de menores y el de violencia doméstica, resulta difícil aceptar que
Váyanse
Rafael Acevedo
El discrimen es un crimen. Si no existiera una ley que así lo hiciera claro, sería un crimen agravado por la impunidad. El trato desigual, el daño moral, la humillación y la ofensa
Hace un rato, rallando las once de la mañana, había decidido escribir sobre el vallista Culson, quien acaba de ingresar al Club de los Amargados, que comanda Cotto, ya que ambos so
Los derechos constitucionales son sagrados en Estados Unidos. Por eso el presidente Barack Obama rechazó, en rueda de prensa, toda relación con la trama de espionaje a votantes y organizaciones conservadoras por parte de la Agencia Tributaria.
Una noticia que se suma al espionaje a la agencia de noticias AP, con el terrorismo islamista de fondo. Dos casos distintos pero que han hecho saltar las alarmas en una nación que sólo acepta excepciones a la libertad si está en juego la seguridad nacional.
Y con un juez de por medio que lo autorice.
Jesús Méndez
Madrid, España
El manga es un cómic de origen japonés.
Hoy, Día de la Recordación, cientos de familias recordarán aquellos soldados fallecidos. Irónicamente durante el resto del año los veteranos son mayormente desatendidos o rechazados. Para colmo, cuando funcionarios del gobierno van a solicitar dinero a Washington su tarjeta de presentación es el estribillo “el sacrificio, el valor y la sangre de los veteranos puertorriqueños…”. Cuando van a pedir son los primeros. Cuando van a repartir son los últimos.
A pesar de los estigmas y el desprecio, los veteranos aportan significativamente a la economía de Puerto Rico. Millones de dólares entran mensualmente al país mediante las pensiones y compensaciones de los veteranos. Las becas para estudios de los veteranos contribuyen al sostén básico de muchas universidades e instituciones académicas. Otra aportación sustancial a la economía es la compra de viviendas a través de los préstamos de hogares para veteranos.
El Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA por sus siglas en inglés) ha creado miles de empleos en Puerto Rico para ofrecer servicios a los veteranos. Empleos que no existieran de no haber veteranos. Además, miles más se organizan alrededor de estas facilidades, tales como vendedores de comestibles, venta de equipos, taxis, carros públicos, artesanos, billeteros, etc. Puerto Rico se beneficia enormemente gracias a los veteranos puertorriqueños.
Se estima que pudiera haber aproximadamente 200,000 veteranos en Puerto Rico. Si contamos sus núcleos familiares esta cantidad podría cuadriplicarse. Es una fuerza política y económica importante. Por lo tanto es incomprensible la completa desatención de los políticos del patio a una obvia fuerza con poder para decidir unas elecciones. Los políticos han realizado esfuerzos por aglutinar a los confinados y a los que viven al margen de la ley, pero ninguno ha tratado de allegarse a los veteranos. ¿Cómo es posible esta indiferencia? ¿Será acaso que los veteranos tampoco reconocen su poder económico/político o su valiosa aportación a Puerto Rico?
Reinand Ortiz
El 18 de febrero radiqué mi planilla electrónicamente y, hasta la fecha, aun no he recibido el reintegro.
Durante el último mes y medio he estado llamando al Departamento de Hacienda y siempre me dicen que se está procesando. En una ocasión el sistema me indicó que la planilla ya estaba terminada, pero cuando me comuniqué con un humano, éste me indicó que todavía se estaba procesando.
Aguardo por ese dinero para disfrutar las vacaciones con mi hijo, quien se graduó de sexto grado con honores.
Juan de Dios Ayala Ramos
Moca
En la mañana del 21 de mayo aparecieron 10 gatitos muertos en el estacionamiento del Condominio Los Robles, en Río Piedras. Gatitos que estaban esterilizados gracias a la caridad de personas sensibles que pese a los insultos y querellas contra ellas están haciendo la labor que se supone haga la Administración para evitar que se proliferen.
Verlos en esa forma le desgarra el corazón a cualquiera y, sobre todo, a los que tenemos la sensibilidad de respetar esa vida y que además los amamos. El que a ciertas personas no les gusten los animales, tampoco les da derecho a matarlos. Ellos hacen una gran labor que es ahuyentar los ratones que es una plaga peligrosa y que cuando no hab?ían gatos se subían hasta a los apartamentos.
Nilda González
San JuanThis post has been generated by Page2RSS
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51 in Congress Propose 51st State by Contributing Editor
The number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have formally proposed statehood legislation for Puerto Rico reached a symbolic 51 Thursday. If it becomes a State, Puerto Rico will be the 51st.
The 51 members of Congress do not include a number of others who have said that they support the legislation, including, for example Raul Labrador (Idaho), who was born in Puerto Rico, a Republican with ‘Tea Party’ support. He is concentrating on sponsoring immigration law reform and other legislation.
The Puerto Rico statehood bill responds to the islands’ status plebiscite last November. In the balloting, 54% of the vote rejected the current territory status, often popularly — but misleading — called “commonwealth” and more than 61% was for statehood among the possible alternatives.
Puerto Rico’s official representative to the Federal government, who has a seat in the House but a vote only in its committees, Pedro Pierluisi, a Democrat, is the principal author of the bill. But joining him in sponsoring it are seven key Republicans in addition to a broad cross-section of the Democratic leaders of the House among other members of Congress.
Among the Democratic leaders are: Steny Hoyer (Maryland), the Democratic Whip; George Miller (California), the alter ego of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi; Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (Florida), President Obama’s Chair of the Democratic National Committee; Joe Crowley (New York), the Vice-Chair of the Democratic Caucus; Ron Kind (Wisconsin), the Chair of the 50-member caucus of moderate Democrats; Raul Grijalva (Arizona) and Keith Ellison (Minnesota), the Co-Chairs of the 77-member Progressive Caucus; Marcia Fudge (Ohio), Chair of the Black Caucus; and Jose Serrano (New York), the senior representative of a State of Puerto Rican origin.
Key Republicans include: Deputy Republican Whip Aaron Schock (Illinois); former Natural Resources and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees Chair Don Young (Alaska), who, with Miller, was the lead sponsor of a Puerto Rico status choice bill that passed the House in 1998; former Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Florida); former Homeland Security Committee Chair Peter King (New York); former Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair John Mica (Florida); Mario Diaz-Balart (Florida); and Andy Harris (Maryland).
One-third of the sponsors are from Florida, one of the most pivotal States in national elections and a State where the vote of citizens of Puerto Rican origin can swing elections between the national political parties. Polling suggests that Puerto Ricans in Florida favor statehood over territory status or nationhood in even greater numbers than Puerto Ricans who have remained in the islands.
The bill would require the president to submit legislation to enable Puerto Rico to become a State after a phase in of equal treatment in Federal tax and program laws if Puerto Ricans confirm their desire for statehood in a referendum. It would also commit the Congress to pass such a bill.
Puerto Rico is treated as a State under most Federal laws but it is treated differently under major tax and social benefits laws. Puerto Rico’s economy and most Puerto Ricans lose more than is gained from the different treatment. The Federal treasury also loses revenue from multinational corporations and very wealthy individuals.
The bill follows legislation submitted to the Congress last month by the Obama Administration that would also provide for a vote in Puerto Rico to confirm last November’s self-determination decision. Under the U.S. Justice Department proposal, the Federal government would provide $2.5 million for a plebiscite on options proposed by Puerto Rico’s Elections Commission found by the U.S. attorney general to not conflict with the Constitution, laws, and policies of the U.S.
The House bill is compatible with the Obama proposal because the White House-initiated plebiscite can be on any of Puerto Rico’s real status options — including just one, such as statehood.
The Obama proposal requires that Puerto Rico status plebiscite options not conflict with U.S. law and policy because the “commonwealth” party has proposed a new “commonwealth status” that is impossible for constitutional and other reasons. Among other problems, it would have the Federal government permanently cede to Puerto Rico the powers to determine the application of Federal laws and court jurisdiction to the islands and to enter into international agreements that require a jurisdiction to be a sovereign nation.
It also calls for the new “commonwealth” status to not be a territory status — but President Obama’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status has said that is impossible under the U.S. Constitution.
The judgments of the Obama Administration on these issues are consistent with those of past administrations of both national parties and of congressional committees and leaders of both parties.
The Federal proposals for votes to confirm the self-determination aspirations of Puerto Ricans are being made because the “commonwealth” party governor and legislative majority narrowly elected to office at the time of the plebiscite dispute the plebiscite and its results. President Obama’s spokesman recognized the plebiscite choice of statehood as the alternative to temporary territory status and today’s House bill recalls the plebiscite results in detail. White House staff and U.S. House members feel that the opposition of Puerto Rico’s new governor and legislature majority would block ultimate congressional action based on the plebiscite’s results.
The Obama and U.S. House legislative proposals fly in the face of efforts of the new governor and legislative majority to portray the results of the plebiscite as different from the official results, which were determined by the Puerto Rico Elections Commission with the support of its “commonwealth” party representative. The governor and his legislature allies contend that the status option for which they urged votes, the current territory status, was rejected by 51.7% instead of 54%, and that statehood won 44.4% of the vote instead of 61.2%.
They argue that Commission should have included ‘votes’ not cast in the percentage and number results, contrary to the law for the plebiscite, Puerto Rico election law, and general election law.
The “commonwealth” party’s closest allies in the House, Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois), Nydia Velazquez D-New York, and Jimmy Duncan have opposed the bill.
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