Free Republic

People in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico may not be grappling with the botched Obamacare website rollout, but the program could spell disaster for the island, which is facing a financial crisis and where half the population already is dependent on free health insurance, members of the island's medical community warned. Puerto Ricans, who are born U.S. citizens, do not enroll on the healthcare.gov because their government decided not to offer health-insurance exchanges, which offers private plans. Instead, the Affordable Care Act, commonly dubbed Obamacare, has mostly arrived on the island in the form of a $6.3 billion social...

Happy 50th birthday to the telescope that brought us the first map of Venus, revealed ice on Mercury, and more. When Cornell University built the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico -- near the equator, so it could observe the planets without needing to move its 1,000-foot-wide reflector -- people hadn't even set foot on the moon yet. They wouldn't for another six years. Since its construction, Arecibo has contributed to generations of astronomy. Researchers first set its radar and radio instruments to discover basics, such as the speed of Mercury and Venus' rotations and the surface features of the moon...

In the film “West Side Story,” Puerto Ricans sing “America” and pronounce that “Puerto Rico Is In American Now.” If they redid “West Side Story,” they would have to sing “Detroit Is In Puerto Rico Now.” Puerto Rico has a negative outlook from ratings agencies and is rated Baa3 by Moody’s. prcwdes Puerto Rican municipal bonds are collapsing in price. Puerto-Rico-commonwealth-2033 While the Puerto Rican municipal bond 20 year yield has popped to over 10%. PR-20-year-yield Puerto Rico credit default swaps have increased recently (note the “Batman ears”). prdcs At least Puerto Rico isn’t in the Argentina area of CDS...

Frustrated, sweating tourists with hands on their hips stood in front of a seaside 16th-century fortress on Tuesday after discovering it was one of several sites in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico closed by the partial federal government shutdown. The majority of Puerto Rico’s 10,000 federal employees were affected by the shutdown, which led to closure of the imposing San Felipe del Morro fort in San Juan, along with other tourist destinations including El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the U.S. National Forest system. Also affected are national wildlife refuges in the nearby islands of Culebra and...

"If you live in Puerto Rico, you’re not eligible to use the Marketplace to apply for health insurance. Check with your territory’s government offices to learn about health coverage options". That's the message you get if anyone would want to enroll from Puerto Rico or any of the other U.S. Territories. Why? Because we have been exempted from many of Obamacare's requirements to include the individual and employer mandates and the exchanges. So, I could hook you up with a real good real estate agent in Puerto Rico if you would be inclined to escape this bit of tyranny that...

Federal agents will start targeting high-level drug traffickers in Puerto Rico with intelligence gathered during a three-month blitz on criminal activity in the U.S. territory, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday. The campaign is part of a federal operation that began in July 2012 with help from local authorities that focuses on the smuggling of drugs, weapons, money and migrants. The agency says agents have seized a total of 53,000 pounds (24,000 kilograms) of drugs, confiscated hundreds of firearms and arrested more than 320 suspected criminals who will be prosecuted at federal and local levels. …

A TSA agent and 5 others were caught red-handed bringing Brazilian nationals across our border illegally: ... a group of Brazilian nationals were smuggled through the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Díaz-Torres allegedly allowed the Brazilians through a TSA security checkpoint without questioning them. The group then flew to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia on commercial flights. The corruption is widespread and getting worse, ushering in not only illegals, but terrorists. An ‘event’ that rocks the US is not a matter of if, but when. We are essentially borderless with no real security protecting our...

Playa Puerto Nuevo is an enclosed beach in Puerto Rico with huge limestone rocks that provide a barrier from the sea and create an awesome natural pool.

Key lawmakers told Puerto Rico's governor on Thursday that it's time for the island to choose between statehood and independence. Gov. Alejandro García Padilla has been fighting to retain the island's status as a U.S. territory without voting rights, arguing that it provides the economically troubled island with an advantageous tax status. Leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over U.S. territories and insular possessions, said that's unacceptable. “After 115 years, it is clearly time for Puerto Rico to determine what political path it will take,” said committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “The current status...

SAN JUAN - Past Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Senate President and current Senator-at-large Thomas Rivera Schatz asserted today on the talk-radio program "En Caliente con la Jovet" (680 AM Radio) that President Obama is the "whitest" U.S. President and along with Congressional Democrats, the most elitist politicians in U.S. history for calling for amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, while maintaining four million current U.S. Citizens in a second-class citizenship status. Residents of the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico are considered natural born citizens, but are not allowed to participate in Presidential elections nor are they afforded...

Last night was the 2013 MLB All-Star game. Ah, America’s pastime! Who doesn’t love a good baseball game? And what better way to open up America’s game then with a heartfelt rendition of ‘God Bless America’? And…wait, a minute. Who is this guy coming out to sing God Bless AMERICA?

A woman accused of hiring someone to kill her wealthy Canadian husband on the U.S. Caribbean island of Puerto Rico was arrested Sunday by police in Spain after being sought for five years in the alleged murder-for-hire scheme, according to the FBI. Moises Quinones, the FBI’s spokesman in Puerto Rico, said Aurea Vazquez Rijos was arrested by the Spanish police at an airport in Madrid. The Puerto Rican suspect was taken into custody as she was getting off a flight from Italy, where she has lived for years and gave birth to another man’s twins. A U.S. grand jury charged...

But beyond its shoreline, U.S. investors see a threatening view, a tropical version of a near-bankrupt industrial city - Detroit, whose stressed finances...

Sen. Robert Menendez wooed a married newspaper publisher, taking the attractive brunette on a romantic getaway to the Caribbean, a tipster alleges. The New Jersey Dem and Cecilia Reynolds jetted to Puerto Rico, where they stayed at the isolated beach retreat of the island’s then-governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila. In a photo provided by the anonymous informant, Reynolds is sitting naked on a beach and suggestively smiling at the camera. In another set of pictures, they take turns posing against the same sunset backdrop. The happy couple, dressed in shorts, also appeared to tour a national park and pose for a...

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...