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Puerto Rico is in trouble, after years of bad policies, mismanagement, excessive debt and bad luck. Its economy has been shrinking or stagnant for a decade and the unemployment rate sits at nearly 12 percent. The commonwealth and its utilities have a debt of $73 billion, its public pension funds are woefully underfunded and one state agency has warned that the government could be forced to shut down soon because it might run out of money. Lawmakers in Washington and San Juan need to come up with a plan that addresses the financial and economic problems of the territory, which...

Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank warned Wednesday that it is very likely the U.S. territory's government could be forced to shut down in the next three months because of a lack of funds. The bank made the warning in a letter made public a day after it was sent to Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla and the presidents of the island's Senate and House of Representatives. "The island's financial state is extremely uncertain," the letter said. "A government shutdown would have a devastating impact on the economy, with salary and public service cuts, and a long and painful recovery."

Puerto Rico's top finance officials said the government of the US territory will most likely shut down in three months because of a looming liquidity crisis, and they warned of a devastating impact on the island's economy. In a letter to leading lawmakers, including Gov. Alejandro Padilla, the officials said a financing deal that could potentially salvage the government's finances looked unlikely to succeed. It warned of laying off government employees and reducing public services. "A government shutdown is very probable in the next three months due to the absence of liquidity to operate," the officials said. "The likelihood of...

Antonio Weiss, the former Wall Street banker who became a top adviser to the Treasury secretary this year, has made two trips to Puerto Rico in recent weeks. Kent Hiteshew, who runs the Treasury Department’s office of state and local finance, has also met with government officials in San Juan multiple times this spring. The Treasury Department is quietly stepping up its involvement in Puerto Rico, indicating that the island’s financial problems, which have been simmering for years, are reaching a critical point. High-ranking officials have been shuttling between Washington and Puerto Rico, advising commonwealth officials as they try to...

95 percent of Puerto Ricans speak SpanishThe Social Security Administration (SSA) approved disability benefits for hundreds of Puerto Ricans because they do not speak English, despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a predominantly Spanish-speaking territory.According to a new audit by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency is misapplying rules that are intended to provide financial assistance to individuals who are illiterate or cannot speak English in the United States. Under the rules, Puerto Ricans are allowed to receive disability benefits for their inability to speak English as well.“We found the Agency did not make exceptions regarding the...

The governor of Puerto Rico has admitted that it can't keep paying down the over $72 billion worth of public debt obligations. As a result, it finds itself in a uniquely awful position. It can't go into bankruptcy according to its own laws, so now it has to deal exclusively with its creditors to restructure its debt. That means it has to deal with Wall Street. "I think the surprise was that it happened this quickly," said Brian Kelly, CEO of Connecticut-based fund Brian Kelly Capital. "We thought it would take 6 months to a year... the solution is a...

Dodd acknowledged his role in the change after a Treasury Department official told CNN the administration pushed for the language. Both Dodd and the official, who asked not to be named, said it was because administration officials were afraid the government would face numerous lawsuits without the new language. ---snip-- "I agreed reluctantly," Dodd said. "I was changing the amendment because others were insistent."

iHeartMedia is flipping Sports “Fox Sports 1410” WPOP Hartford to News/Talk. iHeart has registered 1410WPOP.com, NewsRadio1410.com, NewsRadio1410WPOP.com, NewsRadioWPOP.com, and WPOP1410.com. The flip will eliminate one of two Sports stations in the iHeart Hartford cluster as the company also owns “ESPN 97.9” WUCS. The station will become the third Talk station in the market joining Connoisseur’s “Talk of Connecticut” 610 WDRC and CBS’s 1080 WTIC. iHeart will likely duplicate the lineup of sister 960 WELI New Haven, which includes the syndicated Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity who do not have clearances in the Hartford market. The big question could be whether...

Hillary Clinton has relaunched her campaign on Roosevelt Island with a 4,687-word speech. But it's not clear whether she and her husband, Bill Clinton, can win four presidential elections as Franklin D. Roosevelt did. Negative news for Clinton's prospects comes in the latest Quinnipiac polls in the key mega-states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In each of them, she leads or ties Republican opponents, though in many cases not by statistically significant margins. But she also is running under 50 percent of the vote in every pairing, averaging 47 percent against six different Republicans in Florida, 44 percent against seven...

Witnesses say the white gunman who killed nine people at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., was quite vocal about his motives: He wanted to kill black people. Sylvia Johnson, whose cousin the Rev. Clementa Pinckney was one of three ministers killed in the church, said a survivor of the horror told her the shooter muttered, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." In Charleston, a slaughter in the sanctuary In Charleston, a slaughter in the sanctuary Facebook photos and other evidence suggest...

A study of lakes in Connecticut reveals that recreational angling pushes largemouth bass to evolve.Fishing a lake may, over time, make the fish in that lake harder to catch. A new studysuggests that recreational fishing, aka angling, causes evolutionary changes over the course of decades. Largemouth bass living in waters popular with anglers have been adapting to become less active. New generations of increasingly timid fish may eat less and be less likely to bite. “When your grandfather told you the fishing was better back in his day, it’s possible he was right,” says Jan-Michael Hessenauer, who reported the finding...

A new study in the American Journal of Public Health claims that the state of Connecticut’s 1995 gun licensing law has reduced firearm homicide rates by 40 percent. But this just released study gives academics a bad name. Not surprisingly, anti-gun activist and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the left-wing Joyce Foundation funded the research. The study cherry picks which states with gun licensing laws are examined, which years are looked at, and the type of crime to study. Any normal researcher would look at all the states in the country that have passed a similar law...

United Technologies Corp. has announced it will separate its Connecticut-based Sikorksy Aircraft business as it exits the helicopter business. The Hartford conglomerate says it will focus on high-technology systems and services to the aerospace and building industries. It says a decision on selling or spinning off Sikorsky will be made by the end of the third quarter. …

The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University put out this press release on a paper by Rudolph, Stuart, Vernick, and Webster: "A 1995 Connecticut law requiring a permit or license – contingent on passing a background check – in order to purchase a handgun was associated with a 40 percent reduction in the state’s firearm-related homicide rate, new research suggests. "Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, compared Connecticut’s homicide rates during the 10 years following the law’s implementation to the rates that...

At a Hartford, Connecticut rally supposedly called to protest five homicides of young people in the city over the past two weeks – four of them shootings – Rev. Al Sharpton was challenged Saturday by a black pastor for asking every preacher present to donate $100 to Sharpton’s civil rights organization, National Action Network (NAN). Pastor Marcus Mosiah Jarvis of Christ the Cornerstone Praise and Western Tabernacle, however, shouted at Sharpton as he strode down the center aisle of the crowded church, “How dare you ask the people of Hartford to give you their money! You’re nothing but a pimp!”

HARTFORD — Police arrested 17 protesters who blocked Central Row during rush hour Monday afternoon as part of a Moral Monday demonstration. The protest began at 4 p.m. as protesters locked arms and stood in the street. Many held signs saying "Black Lives Matter."

House GOP leaders are expressing a bold new confidence heading into the final stretch of the divisive fight over granting President Obama broad trade powers. The vote, expected as soon as this week, is likely to be a nail-biter — scores of lawmakers in both parties remain publicly undecided, making the count on both sides difficult to pin down. But both the White House and GOP leaders say their whipping efforts are paying dividends, with new supporters signing on by the day. The White House won a victory last week when Reps. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Don Beyer (Va.) and Derek...

So now several of the largest corporations in the state, including Yankee mainstays such as insurance giants Aetna and Travelers, as well as General Electric, are threatening to leave and get out of this abusive relationship. GE's CEO Jeff Immelt told his thousands of Connecticut-based employees that he has put together a team to evaluate a move to another state with "a more pro-business environment." He says the company's state taxes have increased five times since 2011 and the new hike would impose "significant and retroactive tax increases for businesses." Aetna complained that it already pays $65 million a year...

Skeleton 'may be John the Baptist' A professor claims a skeleton discovered near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found may be the remains of John the Baptist. He suggests the phrophet who annointed Christ may also have been the leader of the tribe to which the burial ground belonged. Israeli archaelogists say his theory is far-fetched and that the burial site unearthed is probably that of an 18th century Bedouin man. US professor Richard Freund at a Centre for Judaic Studies in Connecticut, has been art of an expedition in the Judean Desert. Professor Freund says there is "circumstantial...

Connecticut’s Democratic leaders were willing Thursday to make minor changes to the business taxes that prompted some major employers to threaten to leave the state, but said they won’t roll the taxes back and expressed doubt that any of the firms would move. […] The plan includes numerous business tax changes, including higher taxes on computer and data processing services, limits on tax credits, limits on when losses can be reported, and how business income is reported. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric Co., sent an email to employees Thursday, saying he has assembled an “exploratory team” to review...