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Before Tuesday, I’d have said that Puerto Rico had no chance to win its legal fight to let its municipalities and utilities declare bankruptcy. That's how the island hopes to resolve its overwhelming debt problems, but the federal bankruptcy code says that it can't. That's what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held last summer, unanimously. The statute seemed so clear that even Judge Juan Torruella, the appellate court’s only Puerto Rican member, concurred in an outraged separate opinion criticizing the federal law. Puerto Rico's Slide Then Sonia Sotomayor stepped in. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court...

White House officials would not tell NBC News whether President Obama will raise the issue of 70 fugitives from U.S. justice — including convicted cop-killer JoAnne Chesimard — who are hiding in Cuba when he meets Cuban leaders during his visit to the island. ... Chesimard, who fled to Cuba in 1984 after escaping from a New Jersey prison in 1979, was convicted of the 1973 execution-style murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. She is on the FBI's Most Wanted International Terrorists list, and is the most notorious of a group of criminals and violent radicals who have...

Denmark overtook Switzerland as the world's happiest place, according to a report on Wednesday that urged nations regardless of wealth to tackle inequality and protect the environment. The report, prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, showed Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries as the 10 least happy places on earth to live. The top 10 this year were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden. Denmark was in third place last year, behind Switzerland and Iceland. The bottom 10 were Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin,...

A U.S. federal judge has upheld Puerto Rico's ban on same-sex marriage and ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year that legalised gay marriage does not apply to Puerto Rico since it is an "unincorporated territory" and not a U.S. state. In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez wrote, "One might be tempted to assume that the constant reference made to the 'States' in Obergefell includes the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Yet, it is not the role of this court to venture into such an interpretation." He said, "For the foregoing reasons, the court concludes that...

Senate Democrats have unveiled legislation to alleviate Puerto Rico’s debt woes, urging that the island be allowed to declare bankruptcy on all of its debt. The bill, released Monday, would allow the U.S. territory to restructure its $72 billion in outstanding debt and create a fiscal oversight board for the island. “For the 3.5 million American citizens living on the island of Puerto Rico, time is running short,” said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the bill’s sponsors. “Congress has to act immediately to fix the federal funding shortfalls and give Puerto Rico the tools it needs to fully restructure...

It’s not that last night’s contests in Idaho, Hawaii, Michigan and Mississsippi doomed Marco Rubio’s campaign; it’s that the four bad performances atop Rubio’s previous disappointments — New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and just about everywhere else not called Minnesota and Puerto Rico – have now created what feels like an insurmountable perception of defeat. Three Rubio-friendly conservative writers — Jen Rubin of the Washington Post, Dan McLaughlin of Red State, and Guy Benson of Townhall.com — contend it’s time for Rubio to quit the race and endorse Ted Cruz. Jen and Dan urge Rubio to strike the deal now...

Rafael Rivera left Puerto Rico for central Florida late last year, fed up with the island's escalating debt crisis and dwindling sales at his cellphone shop. Five months later, Rivera, 36, has a nice apartment in the Orlando suburb of Kissimmee and a job at a nearby Hyundai dealership. He's also registered to vote. Because Puerto Ricans are the fastest-growing group of voters in a contested corridor of a battleground state, "you could make the case that they're the most important voters in the United States," said Fernand Amandi, a Florida pollster. "Puerto Rican voters have completely upended the understanding...

Florida Senator Marco Rubio scored a much-needed win Sunday night in Puerto Rico, where he was declared the winner in the commonwealth’s Republican presidential primary, according to CNN. Prior to Sunday’s win, the only other state to throw its support behind the first-term senator was Minnesota. Early results from the island territory show the vote giving Rubio a wide margin in Puerto Rico, meaning he could top the 50 percent magic number that would award him the island’s 20 or more delegates with none going to challengers Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Governor John Kasich of Ohio, or businessman Donald...

Rubio surrogates and aides quickly moved to cast his victory in Puerto Rico as a needed momentum shift a week before the critical Florida primary. Runners racing to bring results from individual polling sites to the Marco Rubio campaign headquarters in San Juan had good news for Rubio's campaign manager Jose Fuentes on the island: The Cuban-American Florida senator was cleaning up in Puerto Rico. "It's going to be a blowout," he told BuzzFeed News, before the race was officially called for Rubio. He had 73% of the vote with 61% of precincts reporting. While that good result for the...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was set Sunday to collect no delegates in Puerto Rico as Marco Rubio swept the territorial primary in his second win of the GOP presidential nominating race. Rubio, Cruz's colleague in the U.S. Senate from Florida, was projected to win the under-the-radar contest with 74 percent of the vote, well above the threshold to take all 23 delegates at stake. With 41 percent of precincts reporting, Cruz was coming in third with nine percent and Donald Trump second with 13 percent. The outcome is unlikely to change the Texas senator's argument that he is the most...

Polls closed 3pm EST 23 delegates at stake.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Thousands of inmates lined up in prisons across Puerto Rico on Friday to cast early ballots in the U.S. territory's Republican primary, some saying they hoped the elections can help lift the island out of an economic crisis. At least 6,500 of the island's 11,500 prisoners are registered to vote, and government officials said this year's turnout was strong. Even prisoners not registered are allowed to participate in the open primaries, which are held two days ahead of the vote for the general population. The island's Republican primary is Sunday while Democrats vote...

There is an Open Primary in Puerto Rico today.  It's worth 23 Delegates.  If Trump wins this (which he should), then he should be able to erase most if not all the Delegates that Cruz gained last night (15 Delegates closer to Trump) . Trump should win Mississippi, Michigan and Hawaii on Tuesday expanding his Delegate lead even further along. Here is the link to the Delegate count.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/republican_delegate_count.html    

What is voting in the Puerto Rico primary like? As we reported earlier this week, there are no polls in advance of Puerto Rico's March 6 Republican primary, so it is hard to get a sense of what issues are shaping the race or even how Puerto Rican residents view the primaries. Puerto Ricans on the island can't vote for president in the general elections, but the Republican primary on Sunday, March 6, and the Democratic caucus on June 5 give the territory a chance to put its delegates to use in perhaps addressing some of the island's pressing issues,...

GOP Primaries for March 5 (Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine)154 of 2,472 delegates allocated GOP Primary for March 6 (Puerto Rico)23 of 2,472 delegates allocated

Although at one time it was alleged that the primary candidate of the Republican Party for President of the United States, Donald Trump, wanted to take away American citizenship from Puerto Ricans once he took office, he sent a message this afternoon in the 99th anniversary of the Jones Act 1917. "I join the 3.6 million US citizens living in that beautiful island to celebrate such an important date for all Puerto Ricans and all Americans also," said the magnate in written statements. In his message, the businessman highlighted the natural beauty of the island, but established "the best that...

Years of fiscal irresponsibility have caught up to Puerto Rico. Its government has long lived beyond its means and today the bills are coming due, but the island’s economy has also been hampered by costly local and federal mandates. Rather than reward Puerto Rico’s spend-happy politicians with a bailout as legislators are currently contemplating, Congress should remove impediments to economic growth so that the island can prosper. As the third-largest issuer of municipal bonds in the United States, Puerto Rico has racked up $73 billion in debt under the mistaken notion that borrowing and spending are the path to prosperity....

By now, many Americans are familiar with the public debt fiasco that plagues Puerto Rico. The issue has steadily risen in prominence as the gravity of Puerto Rico's debt load sets in on the American public. Certainly, the island's economic mismanagement has taken center stage in Washington, as Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has been called to testify numerous times before Congress.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday warned of a potential government shutdown in Puerto Rico and lengthy litigation if Congress doesn't approve a debt restructuring plan for the U.S. territory soon. Antonio Weiss, counselor to the U.S. Treasury secretary, issued the warning as House Republicans held hearings in Washington during a final push to address the island's failing economy. Weiss said he supports a plan that would temporarily suspend litigation to prevent a shutdown of basic government services on the U.S. territory and give time for voluntary negotiations with debt holders. ...

Hoping to spur economic development in financially ailing Puerto Rice, the White House said Thursday it will speed access to almost $400 million for roads and other public works projects on the island. [...] But the White House also said Congress needs to give Puerto Rico the ability to seek bankruptcy protection under a framework reserved for U.S. territories. That proposal has drawn objections in Congress, with some Republican leaders saying Puerto Rico has the tools to restructure a large portion of its debt voluntarily. ...