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Racism is to blame for Puerto Rico’s dire fiscal situation, Mayor de Blasio charged Saturday. “The backs of the United States government turned on them, while a health-care crisis grows, a humanitarian crisis grows, the Zika crisis grows,” he said in a speech at the National Action Network in Harlem.

The "humanitarian crisis" narrative fueled by the administration of Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla, together with the fiscal crisis and the impact of the transmission of the Zika virus, is backfiring on the government of Puerto Rico, costing millions of dollars in revenue and affecting directly tourism, one of the few economic sectors that produce positive results for the U.S. territory. While it is true that the spread of Zika has had a strong impact on attracting tourists, groups and conventions to the island, this factor has been lagging in third place, taking the head "humanitarian crisis" narrative followed...

Later this week or next, Congress will take up legislation to rescue the commonwealth of Puerto Rico from its financial crisis that is getting worse by the day. Puerto Rico faces more than $70 billion of debt and the government is already in technical default on many of its bonds. Billions more come due in weeks ahead and the government says they are out of money to repay. These debts don’t even include an additional $43.2 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. Add it all together and the debt reaches at least 150 percent of GDP. That’s a lot of weight...

Update: PR Governor Padilla has spoken... -PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR SAYS WON'T PAY DEBT TOMORROW -PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR SAYS ISLAND WON'T PAY DEBT MONDAY -PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR: GOVERNMENT SIGNED MORATORIUM BILL YESTERDAY -PUERTO RICO NEEDS DEAL W/ CREDITORS AND/OR CONGRESS: GARCIA And of course, demands a bailout... -PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR CALLS ON U.S. CONGRESS, PAUL RYAN FOR HELP And then threatens... -CRISIS WILL GET WORSE IF U.S. CONGRESS DOESN'T HELP: GARCIA -PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR CONCLUDES REMARKS TO COMMONWEALTH A default on the $422 million due today is "virtually certain," S&P Global Ratings said April 11.

Speaker Ryan has made it crystal clear that House Republicans' number one priority is to shield American taxpayers from a bailout of Puerto Rico My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.—Errol Flynn Due to Puerto Rico’s gross habits, the commonwealth has amassed a total debt of over $72 billion and has already defaulted on $221 million of its’ debt. When unfunded liabilities (pensions) are included, these additional costs bring the total value of their debt closer to $165 billion, approximately $150% of its’ GDP.

Puerto Rico’s complex debt crisis is shaping up as the first true test of Paul Ryan’s six-month old speakership.[snip] The high stakes explain why Ryan’s office has been involved -- often behind the scenes -- from the start. It could also ultimately find him having to strong-arm or bypass fellow conservatives, a move that would also break his promise for a new, bottom-up approach to running the House. Either way, time is running short. Congress is already blowing through a May 1 debt repayment deadline and Ryan needs to get something through both chambers before July 1 to avoid a...

It’s not just the chickens that have come home to roost in Puerto Rico. It’s the hacks as well. The whole thing can be summed up in two words – Hack City. There were the public-sector union hacks whose contracts drove the Commonwealth into what is now estimated at $72 billion in debt. There were the government officials who encouraged this profligacy with indulgent hiring. There are the hacks in Washington who just want to send a big check and forget the whole thing, rather than insist on the reforms that put Puerto Rico in these straits in the first...

Please insert a big fat TOLDYASO right here. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is lashing out at opponents to his Puerto Rico bailout bill demanding they stop calling it a “bailout”. Instead Ryan demands his opposition use the gaslighting term “restructuring”. Hogwash.

Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources released H.R. 4900, the “Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA).” Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and bill sponsor Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) issued the following statements: “We are nearing the conclusion of a collaborative and open drafting process that has involved all stakeholders to reach a responsible consensus. “This package of reforms will restore the guardrails of freedom and self-governance in Puerto Rico. It will hold Puerto Rico accountable to its debt, uncover audited financial statements, enforce fiscal responsibility and cut red tape holding down the Island’s economy. It provides...

The draft "Law on Moratorium Emergency and Financial Rehabilitation of Puerto Rico" would give many absolute and unilateral powers to governor Alejandro García Padilla, including the option of expropriating properties from private companies that refuse to continue to provide services to the Government during an emergency declaration. According to the bill, which was approved this morning in the House of Representatives after being approved in the Senate yesterday, the governor "may take all reasonable and necessary measures to continue providing essential public services and protect the health, safety and welfare, including, without limitation, expropriating property rights of a contractor". That...

<p>SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Retail giant Walmart won a legal victory Monday in a fight over taxation by Puerto Rico's government.</p> <p>A federal judge in the U.S. island territory ruled that a modified tangible-property tax is invalid. The ruling was issued as Puerto Rico's government rushes to find new sources of revenue and a debt restructuring mechanism from the U.S. Congress while struggling through a decade-long economic crisis.</p>

Retail giant Walmart won a legal victory Monday in a fight over taxation by Puerto Rico’s government. A federal judge in the U.S. island territory ruled that a modified tangible-property tax is invalid. The ruling was issued as Puerto Rico’s government rushes to find new sources of revenue and a debt restructuring mechanism from the U.S. Congress while struggling through a decade-long economic crisis. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said his government will appeal the decision. “The judge just took away $100 million from the people of Puerto Rico and gave it to Walmart,” he said, referring to the revenue the...

Politicians in Washington are coalescing around a financial plan to rescue Puerto Rico, just weeks before an expected major default on bond payments that would spread more turmoil through the island’s shaky economy. The plan, being drafted as legislation by House Republicans, would not grant Puerto Rico’s most fervent request: permission to restructure its entire $72 billion debt in bankruptcy. It would, however, give the island certain crucial tools that bankruptcy proceedings can offer — but only if it first comes under close federal oversight and meets other conditions. The oversight would be provided by a five-member voting board, selected...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal authorities in Puerto Rico have arrested a California man who allegedly traveled to Puerto Rico to have sex with a minor. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that 38-year-old Shane Yoder of Fairfield told an undercover agent he was going to the U.S. territory to have sex with a 9-year-old girl. He has been charged with attempted sexual trafficking of minors. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney. Yoder was the president of the Islamic Circle of North America chapter in Sacramento, California.

Sotomayor Helps Puerto Rico Argue Its Bankruptcy Case Noah Feldman 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. Then Sonia Sotomayor stepped...

In a surprise to everyone in Los Angeles and probably most people in San Juan, Puerto Rico, pop superstar Rihanna announced today in an interview that she is moving to San Juan. Rihanna said that she was “tired of the L.A. lifestyle” and wanted to “live in a place where people are real and genuine”. She recently visited the area for a few days and, according to her publicist, “Rihanna has been to San Juan many times in the past but this time she just felt so strongly that this is the place she needs to be at this time...

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...