Puerto Rico Background:
"Populated
for centuries by aboriginal peoples, the island was claimed by the Spanish
Crown in 1493 following COLUMBUS' second voyage to the Americas. In 1898,
after 400 years of colonial rule that saw the indigenous population nearly
exterminated and African slave labor introduced, Puerto Rico was ceded
to the US as a result of the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans were granted
US citizenship in 1917. Popularly-elected governors have served since 1948.
In 1952, a constitution was enacted providing for internal self government.
In plebiscites held in 1967, 1993, and 1998, voters chose not to alter
the existing political status."
-Factbook
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 Puerto
Rico
PUERTO RICO News:
20080603
 Hillary
Clinton -  Barack
Obama -  2008
Election - Puerto
Rico -  Politics
-  Government
-  History
- "Puerto
Rico vote an enigma of complexities." ... "[2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Rodham Clinton won
big in Puerto Rico. She got 68 percent of the vote, to [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama's 32. But while the Clinton campaign
was hoping for a large showing of at least 700,000 voters, the turnout
was a poor 16 percent, with fewer than 400,000 Puerto Ricans voting." ...
"So instead of walking away with half a million votes, Clinton wound up
with fewer than 300,000. Not bad, but not quite enough to make her popular-vote
argument convincing, based on her own criterion." ... "Clinton also walked
away from Puerto Rico with about 38 delegates to Obama's 17. She's now
203 delegates short of the nomination, compared with Obama's 45, with the
last two primaries taking place today. Without the popular-vote argument,
Clinton's sunk. And Puerto Rico, despite giving her that big percentage
win, could be considered the culprit because of the poor turnout." ...
"Puerto Rico turned out to be a bit of an enigma. It has a history of voter
participation that's much higher than that in the United States. Its residents
are U.S. citizens but are not allowed by the United States to vote in the
November elections for president. They are Hispanics who run their own
local government and have a history of functioning like their own nation,
despite being a territory of the United States (they have their own Olympic
team, for example) - so they are not quite the same as Hispanics in the
United States." ... "Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, or nonincorporated
territory (read: colony), of the United States, and its people are debating
whether it should remain so, become a state or become independent - a decision
that is ultimately in the hands of the U.S. Congress." -By
Angelo Falcón -Newsday.com
20080602
Hillary
Clinton -  Accounting
- Politics
-  Florida
-  Michigan
-  Iowa
- Puerto
Rico -  Nevada
-  Washington
-  Maine
- Barack
Obama - 2008
Election - "Hillary:
Peddling pop vote canards to the end." ... "The facts,
which must be repeated:" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Hillary [Clinton] does not lead in the popular vote by any measure other
than her own idiosyncratic belief that Florida should count even though
it didn't and hundreds of thousands of Floridians didn't vote because they
were told it wouldn't; that Puerto Rico should count even though Puerto
Ricans can't vote in the general election ("lead us to victory in November"???);
that Michigan should also count even though it didn't and thousands of
Michiganders didn't vote because they were told it wouldn't and she was
the only person on the ballot; that Obama should get zero votes -- Zero!!!
-- from Michigan ["Uncommited" received 238,168 votes, Clinton received
328,309 votes]; and that Obama also should get no votes from four states
that he won [Iowa, Nevada, Washington, and Maine], because they held caucuses
and didn't count the popular vote." -By John Riley
-Newsday.com
20070503
-
 Health
-  Science
-  Consumer
-  Food
- Drug
- Safety
-  Terrorism
- Emergencies
-  Lawmakers
- Politics
- Animal
- Pets
-  Pennsylvania
-  Colorado
- Michigan
-  Calif
-  Kan
-  Mass
- "FDA
plan to close field labs draws fire." ... "A Food
and Drug Administration plan to close seven of 13 field laboratories has
angered some lawmakers, government workers and safety advocates, who fear
the move will chase away skilled veteran employees and hurt the FDA's ability
to respond to public health emergencies." ... "The FDA's field labs inspect
and analyze food, drugs, animal medications and feeds, medical devices
and other health products." ... "The labs check for compliance with federal
guidelines, protect consumers from unsafe, ineffective and mislabeled products,
and help investigate public health threats such as product tampering, bio-terrorism,
food-borne illnesses and contaminated blood supplies." ... "Several of
the facilities helped investigate the recent pet food scare and E. coli
and salmonella outbreaks in spinach and peanut butter. On the heels of
these crises, the proposed lab closings have been met with strong suspicion."
... "Over the next several years, the FDA wants to close labs in Philadelphia
[Pennsylvania]; Denver [Colorado]; Detroit [Michigan]; Alameda, Calif.
[California]; Lenexa, Kan.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Winchester, Mass
[Massachusetts]. Those operations and an estimated 250 employees would
then be moved to five multi-purpose "mega-labs" that could handle all types
of FDA testing." ... "But some fear that fewer labs would delay the testing
of food, biological medical products or drugs in the event of a public
health emergency." -By Tony Pugh
-McClatchy via
-RealCities
20050513
-
- 
- 
- 
- "Pentagon
recommends closing 33 major bases, cutting 29,000 jobs."
... "The Pentagon on Friday announced 33 major military bases throughout
the United States should be closed and hundreds of other smaller institutions
either shut down or their staffs and missions substantially trimmed, part
of an overall plan to save nearly $49 billion in the next 20 years." ...
"The proposed reductions throughout the country - and at U.S. bases in
Germany, South Korea, Guam and Puerto Rico - will now be reviewed by an
independent commission and must be approved by President Bush by October.
They include moving the existing Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Washington
[DC] to Maryland." ... "Pentagon officials said the savings would accrue
through reduction of some activities and the combination of others at the
nation's 318 major military bases and hundreds of smaller ones. But the
plan also calls for substantially expanding the size of some of the nation's
largest military installations." -By Stephen J. Hedges
and Aamer Madhani
-ChicagoTribune
via -KansasCity.com
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Puerto Rico Flag
"Flag Description: five equal horizontal bands of
red (top and bottom) alternating with white; a blue isosceles triangle
based on the hoist side bears a large, white, five-pointed star in the
center; design initially influenced by the US flag, but similar to the
Cuban flag, with the colors of the bands and triangle reversed."
-Factbook
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Puerto Rico News Sources:
Search Puerto Rico News:
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Rico>
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