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A DEA agent has died in an apparent robbery attempt in Colombia, U.S. Ambassador Michael McKinley said Friday. Colombian authorities said the American agent was stabbed four times.

It wasn’t clear if residents of Puerto Rico got the warning about possible flash flooding in parts of the U.S. territory Wednesday, but at least some Pierce County residents did. Cellphones across Western Washington warned users of flash flooding, though the National Weather Service said the local forecast called for nothing of the sort, and that the warning seemed to refer to some areas of Puerto Rico. How widespread the alert was is not known, but at least several Tacomans said they got it about 1:40 p.m. “Flash flood warning this area til 6 p.m. AST. Avoid flood areas. Check...

A British student who was sexually assaulted by a gang in New York and then ignored by police when she begged for help has received £80,000 in compensation. The 22-year-old accepted the out-of-court settlement even though she could have received millions if she had taken the case to a jury. The woman was attacked near the gates of Central Park by about 15 men after the Puerto Rican Day Parade in June 2000. She was among dozens of women who were attacked by roving gangs during the day, suffering the worst assault. Many of the victims were doused with water,...

Cold beer has the blood boiling from the City Council to the Bronx. The Puerto Rican Day Parade is only weeks away, and once again, parade officials along with Coors Light are serving up controversy for the community Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito is furious that the parade and MillerCoors would actually place a Puerto Rican flag on a Coors Light can and include a similar patriotic image as part of the campaign logo. “My initial reaction is that this is unacceptable,” Mark-Viverito said. RELATED: Controversial Puerto Rican Day Parade Coors Light ads taken down “Anybody that sees that image, on that...

SPC Wilbel A. Robles-Santa, USA, KIA April 6, 2013, Zabul, Afghanistan SGT Luis A. Oliver Galbreath, USA, KIA August 16, 2012, Kandahar, Afg. SGT Jose J. Reyes-Cruz, USA, KIA July 18, 2012, Afghanistan SGT Louie Ramos-Velázquez, USA, KIA May 26, 2011, Kandahar, Afg. SGT José M. Caraballo-Pietri, USA, KIA April 10, 2011, Badghis, Afghanistan SGT José M. Cintrón-Rosado, USA, KIA January 2, 2011, Taji, Iraq SPC José A. Delgado-Arroyo, USA, KIA January 2, 2011, Taji, Iraq PVT Francheska Velez and her unborn child, USA, KIA, November 5, 2009, Fort Hood, Texas SPC Israel Candelaria Mejías, USA, KIA April 5, 2009,...

The real story goes something like this: In 1511, messy political squabbling forced Ponce to surrender the governorship of Puerto Rico, an appointment he had held since 1509. As a consolation prize, King Ferdinand offered him Bimini, assuming the stalwart conquistador could finance an expedition and actually find it. J. Michael Francis, a historian at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg who has spent decades studying the Spanish colonies in the Americas , says no mention of a Fountain of Youth occurs in any known documents from Ponce’s lifetime, including contracts and other official correspondence with the Crown. In...

The number of scandals and the speed at which they are both multiplying and growing in seriousness portends difficulties for Democrats in the near future. Nevertheless, they are a slippery bunch and never without a trick or two up their sleeve. All indications are that these scandals will end Democrat dreams of having useful idiots like Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan help them erase our borders thus giving them a fresh supply of voters. When that scheme ends, they will have to look elsewhere and that elsewhere is Statehood for Puerto Rico. A movement for statehood for Puerto Rico is...

The new pope's first crisis is not related to the Church's controversial position on contraceptives or proposals for female clergy. Rather, Pope Francis' first major quandary is getting rid of a Puerto Rican archbishop who, despite the Vatican's numerous requests, has repeatedly refused to step down. The source of Pope Francis' current ordeal is Roberto Octavio González Nieves, the outspoken Archbishop of San Juan, who has been accused by Vatican emissaries of allegedly protecting pedophile priests, abusing his power, promoting Puerto Rican independence from the U.S., and supporting a law that could grant same-sex couples living together hereditary rights and...

Per rules, AP stories cannot be posted. Rundown is that the lack of payments from insurers and Medicare is causing doctors to leave the island and leaving residents in a serious situation where there are not enough doctors to provide services.

Known for its white-sand beaches and killer rums, Puerto Rico hopes to stake a new claim: tax haven for the wealthy. Since the beginning of the year, the island has gone on a campaign to promote tax incentives that took effect last year, marketing its beautiful beaches, private schools and bargain costs in an effort to lure well-heeled hedge fund managers and business executives to its shores. So far, Puerto Rico’s pitch has attracted a handful of under-the-radar millionaires. Several American executives of mostly smaller financial firms say they have already relocated to the island, and Puerto Rican officials say...

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer seemed to indicate Thursday they'd consider a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico "natural-born" and eligible to run for president. Their comments, directed at Puerto Rican-born Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.), came during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the Supreme Court's budget

But that’s not Cuomo’s only pull back. “This state has no future if it is going to be the tax capital of the nation,” Cuomo during his inauguration. Cuomo then passed a supposedly temporary tax on high-earning New Yorkers that was due to end next year, but now, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday, that’s not going to happen. “There will be an extension of the surcharge set to expire next year,” Cuomo said Thursday. And when asked at if that wasn’t hypocritical, given his prior no-new-taxes positions, Cuomo tried to paint the tax hike as a tax cut, since...

SAN FRANCISCO - After Team USA was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic, we heard the usual lines about the inability of Americans to meet expectations in the tournament. That’s not entirely accurate. Team Puerto Rico — comprised of U.S. citizens — is one victory away from stunning the baseball world. After unexpectedly eliminating Venezuela in the first round and the U.S. in the second, the Puerto Ricans pulled off an even bigger upset Sunday night. Behind starting pitcher Mario Santiago, who spent last season with SK Wyverns of the Korean Baseball Organization, Puerto Rico stunned twice-defending champion Japan, 3-1,...

The surprising Puerto Ricans first eliminated the star-studded United States, then took care of two-time World Baseball Classic champion Japan two days later with a 3-1 victory in Sunday night's semifinal. Puerto Rico needs just one more win to be WBC champions. "We totally showed we can be the new team, the champion nobody expected," said Angel Pagan, center fielder for the World Series champion San Francisco Giants. "It means a lot, but not everything, because we're still missing one more win." Alex Rios hit a two-run homer, Mike Aviles singled twice and drove in the game's first run, and...

Could big-money billionaire John Paulson be ready to bolt from New York and into a palatial Puerto Rico penthouse in the name of lower taxes? A Bloomberg News report says the Queens-born hedge fund heavyweight — worth $11.2 billion — has looked at property in the wealthy Condado neighborhood of San Juan. The $5 million penthouse he reportedly eyed is 8,379 square feet, occupies three floors and includes six underground parking spaces, according to the Trillion Realty Group listing. ~ snip ~ Paulson’s potential move to the commonwealth would save the 57-year-old from paying tax gains on the $9.5 billion...

As most of you have read or seen by now, a journalist and NBC/MSNBC media consultant named William “Bill” Arkin has created quite a stir by viciously insulting American soldiers in Iraq. He wrote at his Washington Post blog, “Early Warning: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security” column (1/30/07), that “… this NBC (Nightly News) report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer force that thinks it is doing the dirty work” re Iraq. The “report,” according to Arkin, featured “a number of soldiers (who) expressed frustration with...

More than 200,000 religious Christians marched against gay rights in Puerto Rico on Monday in the largest such demonstration in the history of the US commonwealth. Gathering in front of San Juan’s Capitol building, hundreds of thousands of Christian Puerto Ricans stopped traffic while defending “traditional marriage” and protesting against the idea of granting gay couples legal rights. “Traffic was snarled for miles leading toward the San Juan islet as buses packed with marchers headed toward the north side of the Capitol,” described the Puerto Rican-based Caribbean Business. The mass demonstration, which took just three weeks to organize, drew in...

Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday voted 5-4 to ban gay couples from adopting children, with judges claiming that a child’s dignity, stability and well-being can only be ensured if raised in a “traditional” family. The vote comes two days after 200,000 religious Christians held a rally against granting same-sex couples any sort of legal rights. As the largest anti-gay rally in the history of the US commonwealth, the gathering portrayed the immense opposition gay couples continue to face in Puerto Rico. Although some lawmakers support granting gay couples with certain legal rights, many public figures remain starkly opposed to...

With the Washington news cycle being dominated this week by a bipartisan comprehensive immigration framework that includes an earned path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, a group of conservative heavy hitters are trying to push another issue that affects over 3.5 million second-class U.S. citizens. Yesterday morning at the National Press Club, the topic was Puerto Rican statehood, as the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles announced a new education campaign to convince fellow conservatives that making Puerto Rico the 51st state of the Union is the most American thing one can do. The LPCP rolled out an A...

Yay!! MORE POOR DEMOCRAT VOTERS! Anti-higher taxes activist Grover Norquist is joining an effort to convince conservatives to support statehood for Puerto Rico. Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, is scheduled to appear at a press conference with Luis Fortuno, the former Republican governor of Puerto Rico, in Washington to push statehood for the territory next week. The group organizing the effort is the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “The group of conservative leaders will call on Congress to pass legislation to allow the people of Puerto Rico to decide their political future among non-territorial and constitutionally valid...