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More than 500 years after the Spanish Inquisition, the Spanish government has voted to facilitate the naturalization of Jewish families of Spanish descent, without demanding they give up their other citizenship. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain must be rolling in their graves: The government in Madrid on Friday approved legislation that would allow descendents of Jews who were exiled from Spain to be naturalized in the country without having to give up their former citizenship, which had been the law until now. Spanish Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said that Spain "is indebted to Spanish Jews for spreading the...

A sense of pessimism pervades on the island. Streets are lined with empty storefronts in San Juan and in smaller cities like Mayagüez; small businesses, hit hard by high electricity, water and tax bills and hurt by drops in sales, have closed and stayed closed. Schools sit shuttered either because of disrepair or because of a dwindling number of students. In this typically convivial capital, communities have erected gates and bars to help thwart carjackers and home invaders. Illegal drugs, including high-level narcotrafficking, are one of the few growth industries. Puerto Rico, about 1,000 miles from Miami, has long been...

On Tuesday, credit ratings agency Standard & PoorÂ’s downgraded Puerto RicoÂ’s general-obligation bonds to BB+, a level that is considered junk status. Similar action by rating agencies MoodyÂ’s and Fitch appears virtually certain, as the island territory copes with a staggering $70 billion of debt, all of which needs to be repaid with interest. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico has been in what amounts to a continuous recession since 2006, and its economy is currently shrinking at a 6 percent pace. The official unemployment rate is 14.7 percent, and its debt-to-GDP ratio is 93 percent.Furthermore, the island is experiencing the largest population...

The Obama administration will announce the establishment of regional hubs focused on mitigating climate change on Wednesday. The hubs are the first-ever regional centers that will focus solely on risk adaptation and climate change solutions at seven locations across the country. "On the heels of passage of the farm bill, the administration will take executive action to help farmers, ranchers and rural communities combat climate change and adapt to extreme weather and other damage it causes," a White House official said in an email ahead of Wednesday's announcement. Dubbed "climate hubs," the new centers will address issues like increasing risks...

Standard & Poor’s cut Puerto Rico’s credit rating by one notch on Tuesday, becoming the first of the Wall Street credit ratings agencies to downgrade the debt to junk level. S&P lowered the commonwealth government’s general obligation rating to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-’. At the same time, it downgraded commonwealth appropriation secured debt and Employee Retirement System (ERS)debt to ‘BB’. All of S&P’ ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications. “My administration isn’t to blame for this. But it is my responsibility to get us out of it,” Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said during a hastily convened press conference at La...

He refused to be knocked out, even in death. The family of a Puerto Rican boxer — who was shot to death last week — honored his dying wish on Friday by propping up his corpse in the corner of a fake boxing ring to memorialize his career. Like an ashen wax figure, Christopher Rivera’s pale, embalmed body was positioned in the corner of the ring decked out in boxing gloves, a hoodie, shades and sneakers.

Puerto Rico’s Senate approved several measures late Thursday aimed at helping the U.S. territory take on new loans and better manage its ability to repay an existing $70 billion public debt, an issue that has worried investors. One measure would create a corporation responsible for issuing bonds to help pay and refinance some of the $590 million in debt held by the island’s municipalities. The corporation would use a portion of revenues generated through an existing sales and use tax to guarantee payment. As a result, municipalities would see a slight drop in revenues they receive through the tax. Another...

<p>SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The son of a U.S. district court judge has been found guilty of killing his wife at their home in a wealthy suburb in Puerto Rico.</p> <p>Pablo Casellas Toro also was found guilty late Wednesday of weapons offenses and destroying evidence. His 46-year-old wife, Carmen Paredes, was killed in July 2012, her body riddled with about a dozen shots, including one to the forehead, forensic officials testified.</p>

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7d2970ba-7e07-11e3-95dd-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2qVCAHQR4 Creditors to Puerto Rico are meeting in New York on Thursday with lawyers and debt restructuring specialists as a moratorium on payments on the territory’s $70bn in public sector debt and an additional $40bn of unfunded pension liabilities appears increasingly likely, these specialists say. A possible suspension on payment of the debt comes despite the progress Puerto Rico’s governor Alejandro Garcia...

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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...