Tag: puerto rico

AOC splashed $50K on Puerto Rican getaways while denouncing gentrification on the island

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent about $50,000 on ritzy Puerto Rico getaways, even as she decried gentrification on her family’s home island.

The New York congresswoman splashed the five-figure sum in the third quarter of this year, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Ocasio-Cortez’s largest splurge came on June 24 when her principal campaign committee dropped $16,725 on a ‘venue rental’ at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico.

The 19,000-seat stadium is where the Democrat lawmaker filmed herself enjoying global artist Bad Bunny‘s concert in August.

That same summer, Ocasio-Cortez had railed against greedy millionaires’ influence on Puerto Rico.

‘Puerto Rico is an island for working people,’ she wrote on her Facebook account in July. ‘We won’t be pushed out just so vulture capitalists can cash in.’

In a video, Ocasio-Cortez added in Spanish: ‘Puerto Rico is not for sale.’

The Democrat congresswoman’s second-largest expense was a $9,440 expenditure on September 29 at San Juan’s Hotel Palacio Provincial.

The upscale ‘adults only’ hotel has 43 rooms and suites, and is touted as being located in an early 19th century historic building. Rooms start at $269 and suites start at $439 per night.

Ocasio-Cortez also spent $1,507 on August 29 and $680 on July 28 at the Puerto Rico hotel, her campaign filings showed.

The New York lawmaker’s lodging tabs also featured a $3,861 outlay at the Hotel El Convento on August 25.

On that same day, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign doled out $6,987 on another venue rental at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico.

About two weeks earlier, she had attended a Bad Bunny concert at the arena as part of the Puerto Rican singer’s residency.

On August 12, Ocasio-Cortez uploaded a video of herself at the show on Instagram singing along with Democratic Rep. Nydia Velázquez, of New York. It was not known whether her expenditures were related to the concerts.

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While Fire Victims Struggle to Rebuild, Gavin Newsom Sends Resources to Puerto Rico

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday that he is sending emergency resources and personnel to Puerto Rico, over 3,000 miles away, ahead of a tropical storm — even though tens of thousands of Californians are still displaced by fires.

Newsom has claimed, in his defense, that he did, in fact, pre-deploy resources to the fire-stricken areas of the state in January — but that is not entirely true. Although he deployed some resources ahead of the extreme wind event in Southern California, both state and local authorities failed to pre-deploy firefighting resources in the Pacific Palisades, including on state land where there had been a fire just a few days before.

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Waste Of The Day: Puerto Rico, Guam, Others In Debt

Topline: The five inhabited U.S. territories are collectively $57.8 billion in debt and have issues with their financial statements that “can lead to poor financial decisions and lost access to capital markets,” according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Key facts: The GAO suggested that the territories may struggle to repay their debt even more than the 50 U.S. states. The territories have high energy and import costs, extreme weather, economies that rely on just a few industries, and had a population decrease from 2010 to 2020.

Puerto Rico holds the most debt by far with $52.8 billion as of 2022, which is 47% of its gross domestic product. Guam ($2.5 billion of debt as of 2023), the Virgin Islands ($2.2 billion as of 2021), the Northern Mariana Islands ($121 million as of 2021) and American Samoa ($145 million as of 2023) are also struggling to balance their budgets.

If some of those statistics seem outdated, it’s because they are. The territories are supposed to release financial statements nine months after each fiscal year ends, but American Samoa is the only one meeting that deadline.

While Guam includes 2023 figures, it issued them seven months late.

The delays could hurt the territories’ credit rating, making future borrowing more expensive, according to the GAO. The territories also can’t be audited if they don’t have financial statements, which the GAO says will make it more difficult to identify potential fraud.

American Samoa is also the only territory properly managing its federal funds. The other four territories all had “questioned costs” in the most recent audits of their financial statements, which could mean “there was a violation or possible violation of a statute, regulation, or the terms and conditions of a federal award.” 

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Trump Energy Chief Invokes Emergency Powers To Boost Fossil Fuel Use in Blackout-Plagued Puerto Rico

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is invoking emergency powers to empower Puerto Rico to boost fossil fuel power generation in the wake of a recent island-wide blackout and ahead of the summer, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Wright issued two orders Friday afternoon: The first directs the government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to increase electric power production on the island to maintain grid reliability while the second orders the agency to immediately clear overgrown vegetation that presents risk of shortages and fire. Both orders invoked emergency powers conferred on the energy secretary under the Federal Power Act.

In addition, as part of the announcement, the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office will conduct a review of $365 million in funding the Biden administration granted to third party organizations and companies in December to develop new solar power installations across the island.

Wright’s actions Friday represent an abrupt recalibration of how the federal government will address Puerto Rico’s ongoing power generation crisis, shifting from a focus on boosting green energy like solar power to expanding existing fossil fuel infrastructure. And it comes just a month after after Puerto Rico suffered a devastating blackout that impacted 1.4 million residents and left hundreds of thousands without water, the Associated Press reported.

That blackout was the second of its kind in less than four months on the island and underscored the power supply issues Puerto Rico has faced for the better part of a decade. Both blackouts are particularly alarming considering they occurred outside of the peak summer demand season.

“Access to energy is essential for all modern life, yet the current energy emergency jeopardizes Puerto Ricans’ access to basic necessities,” Wright said in a statement. “This system is unsustainable, and our fellow citizens should not be forced to suffer the constant instability and dangerous consequences of an unreliable power grid.”

“With President Trump’s leadership, we are prioritizing immediate and comprehensive actions that will mitigate the greatest threats to the grid and benefit a vastly larger portion of the population, including critical facilities like hospitals and community centers,” he continued.

The Department of Energy said Wright’s actions were taken in coordination with the Puerto Rican energy industry and power experts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The actions received support from Puerto Rico’s governor Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (R.) and energy czar Josue Colon-Ortiz.

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Puerto Rico Trash Problem: Understanding the Crisis and Working Toward Solutions

Puerto Rico is grappling with a pressing trash problem that’s not just a visual blight, but a serious threat to its stunning landscapes, marine life, and the environment. The urgency of this crisis is underscored by its far-reaching impacts on health, tourism, and the economy. Let’s delve into the reasons behind this crisis, its profound effects on Puerto Rico, and the ongoing efforts to restore the island to its former glory. 

The Puerto Rico trash problem has been growing for decades. With a population of around 3.2 million, the island generates about 3.7 million tons of waste yearly. Despite being small, the island’s landfills are full and there’s no proper recycling infrastructure. This trash crisis affects everything from health to the economy so solutions are crucial for Puerto Rico’s future.

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Voting machine contract under scrutiny following discrepancies in Puerto Rico’s primaries

Puerto Rico’s elections commission said Tuesday that it’s reviewing its contract with a U.S. electronic voting company after hundreds of discrepancies were discovered following the island’s heated primaries.

The problem stemmed from a software issue that caused machines supplied by Dominion Voting Systems to incorrectly calculate vote totals, said Jessika Padilla Rivera, the commission’s interim president.

While no one is contesting the results from the June 2 primary that correctly identify the winners, machine-reported vote counts were lower than the paper ones in some cases, and some machines reversed certain totals or reported zero votes for some candidates.

“The concern is that we obviously have elections in November, and we must provide the (island) not only with the assurance that the machine produces a correct result, but also that the result it produces is the same one that is reported,” Padilla said.

More than 6,000 Dominion voting machines were used in Puerto Rico’s primaries, with the company stating that software issues stemmed from the digital files used to export results from the machines.

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Former Puerto Rico Mayor Gets 5 Years After Being Caught In “High Profile Bribery Case”

A former Puerto Rico mayor faces 5 years in prison after he was caught on tape in a “high-profile bribery case”. 

Ángel Pérez Otero was sentenced on Monday as part of a wider federal crackdown on government corruption in Puerto Rico, ABC News reported this week. 

Otero had previously been found guilty of conspiracy, bribery back in March, charged with awarding contract and expediting invoice payments while getting kickbacks of thousands of dollars.

Federal authorities said the scheme ran from late 2019 to May 2021. 

Back in March, the Department of Justice wrote about the scheme: “According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ángel Pérez-Otero, 52, was involved in a bribery conspiracy in which, from approximately late 2019 through May 2021, he accepted thousands of dollars in cash bribes on a regular basis from the owner of a construction company.”

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