Puerto Rico News

CBPuerto Rico-Car Surfing,0115 US tourist dies 'car surfing' in Puerto Rico Eds: APNewsNow.

From The New York Times Governor's order opens Puerto Rico's northeast coast for resort development Despite objections from environmentalists and a gaggle of celebrities, Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno effectively lifted a ban on large-scale development of 3,240 acres of public and private land on the island's northeast coastline.

Just in case you were wondering where some of your elected officials were posturing post-election, many are heading to Puerto Rico today for the annual Somos conference.

With nominations in five categories including album of the year, the Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Calle 13 is a favourite to win a Latin Grammy in Las Vegas - which might have producers of the international awards ceremony on edge.

What has Governor Fortuño accomplished since becoming governor almost a year ago?" Right after taking office in January 2009, he had an excellent photo opt by announcing that almost fifty percent of our buses are out of service in the repair shop. We loved him for spotting this problem. However, he never came up with a solution. Most of the buses are still out of service and bus service is worse now then when he took office. What has he done about providing better bus service? Is it more urgent for him to serve corporate interests rather than the people depended on good bus service?

More recently, he discovered that the Capeco blast gave him a chance for reaping some different kinds of photo opts. He is photographed driving a work vehicle at the site of the fire though he usually drives around in a chaufferued, luxury car. Boy! Did this shot driving the work vehicle proved that Fortuño is a hands-on governor at the scene of a major tragedy!

He usually likes a photo opt showing him with a shovel in his hand at a new construction site. This work vehicle is better than a shovel for a photo opt! In all his press conferences at the Capeco scene, he is with his government's officials and not with the firemen and other workers who were actually putting out the fire. He must have thought about this lack of firemen and other workers in his press conferences' photo opts. Finally, he ran an expensive full-page ad at taxpayers' expense to provide one more photo opt to correct his ignoring the firemen. In this ad, he is photographed shaking the hand of one lone fireman. Is this a true fireman or a model? Any good public relations advisor would have suggested that Fortuño show a larger photo with him surrounded by several firemen and other workers, who worked on controlling the fire, hugging him. Why one lone fireman and such a tiny photo? We wonder if a lot of these firemen -- the true heroes -- would have participated in a group photo opt with him. The media said that some of these firemen and workers, who put in twelve hours a day fighting the fire, had received their layoff notices from the Fortuño Administration.

The use of the federal stimulus funds is Fortuño's latest opportunity for photo opts. Republican Fortuño should thank the Democrats in the U.S. Congress for these stimulus funds that are helping Puerto Rico and making him

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Hispanic, Afro-Caribbean and North American influences meld in Puerto Rico, a self-governing commonwealth that belongs to the United States.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico's governor on Friday canceled the designation of a portion of the island's northeastern coastline as a nature reserve, opening the door to large-scale development along a white-sand beach where proposals for hotel resorts have sparked bitter protests.

BY JOSE ALVARADO VEGA - Of the Daily Sun Staff - jalvarado@prdailysun.net

The Fiscal Reconstruction and Stabilization Board announced Tuesday that the layoffs. of some 7,191 public employees scheduled to take effect on Friday will be postponed until January, given recent court rulings determining that the notification of these fiscal emergency Law 7 layoffs did not follow due process.

In a press release sent out Tuesday evening, Board Chairman Carlos García attributed the decision to the courts' invalidation of these layoffs due "mostly to technicalities" involving the fact that while employees were duly notified of the layoffs, the labor unions representing them were not.

He said did not say from which agencies are the 7,191. employees whose layoffs will be postponed, but noted that these employees will be notified of the change before Friday.

While Garcia said that the court rulings apply to the particular cases decided, affected agencies will be instructed to make the notifications follow the "strictest interpretation in terms of the technicalities required to notify the union. He said this is being done so that "there is no doubt that the strictest of measures are being taken to safeguard the rights of all employees to be laid off."

These layoffs -- among the 16,970 in the second round of layoffs announced on Sept. 25 -- will take effect next Jan. 8, raising the number of layoffs on this date from the original 4,556 to 11,747. This means that just 2,774 public employees will be laid off on Friday, according to figures García provided in the press release.

"In other words, we do not expect that this re-notification process will substantially affect the number of layoffs, but just extent by 60 days the date they are effective," said García, who nonetheless noted that these estimates could vary according to pending challenges and to exclusions of workers for "critical services, among others." He said he did not expect these to be significant.

The board, known as ]REF by its Spanish initials, is charged with implementing Law 7 austerity measures and includes members of Gov. Fortuño's fiscal cabinet, including Treasury and Office of Management and Budget chiefs.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico a ' The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for an American man who was reported missing as he sailed from Puerto Rico to Florida.

Nov. 3, 2009: Puerto Rican singer Aldo Matta was among the suspects rounded up by federal authorities Tuesday morning in connection with a purported $14 million mortgage fraud scheme allegedly masterminded by local developer Joseph McCloskey Díaz.

McCloskey and Matta, who was picked up by federal agents in Juncos, were among 10 people indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, mortgage fraud and money laundering counts in connection with the scheme centered on luxury residences in the exclusive Palmas del Mar area of Humacao.

Authorities had taken custody of nine of the 10 suspects by Tuesday morning.

The alleged scheme involved fraudulently inflating the value of homes during the appraisal process through a conspiracy between the buyers and seller McCloskey. They would then split the inflated portion of the appraised value between each other.

“Matta was one of the buyers in this scheme,” FBI spokesman Harry Rodríguez said.

The singer bought three properties for $4.2 million during a six-month period and got a $600,000 kickback from the developer, federal authorities allege.

Among the other suspects is Nahir Dominicci, the sister of TV reporter Carmen Dominicci, who allegedly served as a buyer and recruited other buyers in the scheme.

Federal authorities said the mastermind was McCloskey, the developer of the 12 luxury homes involved in the scheme in The Castles and Sunrise II developments at Palmas del Mar.

McCloskey, a prominent Puerto Rico developer and president of Swiss Chalet Inc., recently built the massive Gallery Plaza complex in the Condado with millions of dollars in Law 212 tax incentives from the local government. He also owns the neighboring DoubleTree Hotel.

The other suspects were identified as Angel Millán, Esteban Llanos, Jesús Suárez, Harold Mestey, Lorny Seda, Sarahid Gómez and Yhanira Alberti.

“These people were dedicated to a fraud scheme that took place between 2004 and 2006 where they stole $14 million,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Luis Fraticelli said.

U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez said the scheme was built on McCloskey inflating the prices of the homes and then kicking back cash to the buyers who had taken bank loans to buy the homes.

[Upfront Yankee urges you to open link and read full story. It is loaded with newsworthy facts.]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A developer and nine other people, including a former salsa singer, have been charged in an alleged $14 million mortgage fraud in Puerto Rico, federal officials said Tuesday.

The suspects are accused of a scheme in which buyers allegedly took out loans using fake documents overstating the value of a dozen Spanish-style mansions in the ritzy Palmas del Mar coastal resort community in Humacao, in southeastern Puerto Rico.

A federal indictment charges developer Joseph McCloskey Diaz split the difference with the buyers, the loans went unpaid and the properties passed into foreclosure.

The Todo Puerto Rico por Puerto Rico Coalition on Monday issued an ultimatum aimed at Gov. Luis Fortuño: Reverse the layoffs of more than 16,000 government workers or face another general strike.

“If we don’t receive a clear intention from the Fortuño administration to stop the firings, the Todo Puerto Rico Por Puerto Rico Coalition will call the Puerto Rican people to take part in a general strike,” said Lutheran Bishop Felipe Lozada, a spokesman for the coalition of labor, religious and civic organizations.

The reverend said the coalition began Monday to hold work meetings at the municipal level to establish strike committees.

The Fortuño administration announced in late September the dismissal of more than 16,000 government workers in the second and final round of layoffs under Law 7, the package of belt-tightening and revenue measures passed earlier this year to help close a $3.2 billion budget deficit, pare $2 billion in public spending annually and protect Puerto Rico’s credit from a downgrade to junk status. Nearly 4,000 jobs were cut in an initial round of dismissals announced in May.

The bulk of those layoffs are scheduled to take effect on Friday, which labor leaders and other coalition members have dubbed “el viernes de la infamia,” or the “Friday of Infamy.”

Lozada urged islanders to voice opposition to the firings Friday at noon by honking their automobile horns, stopping their vehicles in the streets, wearing black clothes and ringing church bells

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" Three-time world champion MIGUEL COTTO breaks his Tampa training camp and heads to Las Vegas Sunday, November 1. Cotto fans are invited to greet the champ at McCarran International Airport when he arrives at 3:55 p.m. PT on America Airlines #2249. Cotto , from Caguas, Puerto Rico, who has held a world title every year since 2004, has been in ...

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Un Gran Jurado evalúa prueba sobre un alegado esquema de fraude de sobre $20 millones por parte de Beneficial Mortgage. EL VOCERO / Archivo

Las autoridades federales investigan otro esquema de fraude bancario que involucra a tasadores de propiedades, agentes de venta de casas y ejecutivos de instituciones financieras, informaron fuentes de EL VOCERO.

Se supo que los federales investigan el concepto del ‘rebate’ utilizado por desarrolladores de complejo de viviendas en Puerto Rico. Las fuentes utilizaron como ejemplo la venta por un ‘realtor’ de una residencia cuyo valor era de $1 millón, vendida por $1.4 millones. Los $400,000 que se cobraron por encima del valor de tasación eran divididos entre el banquero y el tasador.

En agosto pasado, EL VOCERO informó que las autoridades efectuaban una pesquisa que tenía en la mirilla a contables, desarrolladores y altos ejecutivos de instituciones bancarias. Esto como parte de varias investigaciones por fraude bancario. Según las fuentes, integrantes de comités de crédito de instituciones bancarias y desarrolladores pueden enfrentar cargos de conspiración, ya que presuntamente los desarrolladores radicaron documentos fraudulentos para que las instituciones bancarias les concedieran los préstamos para la construcción de proyectos.

Al momento, varios subpoenas han sido sometidos por el Gran Jurado.

Asimismo, otro de los ángulos investigados por parte de las autoridades federales en relación al fraude bancario es la radicación de informes auditados fatulos. Las fuentes afirman que varios auditores están siendo investigados debido a que alegadamente se prestaron para manipular informes de instituciones bancarias.

El pasado lunes la fiscal federal Rosa Emilia Rodríguez, reiteró –a preguntas de EL VOCERO– que estos casos por fraude bancario se radicarían próximamente. A pesar de que fue sentenciada a seis años de prisión en el foro estatal, la ex presidenta de New York Mortgage, Nancy Hernández, y su hija Noemí Pérez son blanco de una pesquisa cuya prueba es evaluada por un Gran Jurado en relación a fraude bancario. EL VOCERO supo que hace unas tres semanas el Gran Jurado sesionó en relación a esta investigación. Varios ex empleados de New York Mortgage comparecieron hace unas semanas ante el referido panel.

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A demonstrator holds a sign that reads "Zero layoffs" in Spanish during a protest last month in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Thousands of protesters gathered in the island's financial hub in a rally against Gov. Luis Fortuno and the proposed layoffs of public employees. -- (Andres Leighton/AP)

The island territory has been able to add a high number of new jobs per capita. But the stimulus comes at a time of political struggle between public and private labor in Puerto Rico.

Not having a voting member of Congress doesn’t seem to have hurt Puerto Rico in its quest for jobs and economic recovery.

In the middle of a four-year-long recession, the self-governing US territory has managed to add 17,000 new jobs for a grand total of over 4,000 per million residents, putting the Puerto Rico third behind Washington and Montana in jobs created by the federal stimulus bill, according to a Monitor analysis of new stimulus figures released by the White House.

President Obama on Saturday morning pointed to the success of the $787 billion stimulus program, saying it has “saved or created” about 1 million jobs from Alaska to, well, Puerto Rico.

“As I’ve said many times, it took years to dig our way into the crisis we’ve faced. It will take more than a few months to dig our way out. But make no mistake: that’s exactly what we will do,” the president said in his weekly radio address.

To be sure, the success of Puerto Rico’s stimulus effort backs up the White House’s promises of fairness and lack of political patronage in doling out grants. But beyond the macro-economic news, the figures also shed some insight into the package’s transformative powers and how the Puerto Rico model could well test Washington’s ability to fundamentally change and improve local, state, and regional economies.

In many cases, state-by-state stimulus job creation has been driven by specific circumstances, such as the cleanup of a decommissioned nuclear power plant driving job creation in Washington State.

In Puerto Rico, school bathroom repairs, road rebuilding, and public housing renovation are among the key job-drivers.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico a " Terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that American civilians should have priority, a military spokesman said Sunday.Army Maj.

Baller Status - 10/30/2009: Boxing's #1 pound-for-pound fighter, Manny "PacMan" Pacquiao, is set to get back into the ring on November 14th, when he faces the pride of Puerto Rico Miguel Cotto for what some say will be the toughest bout of his career.

Up for grabs in Cotto's WBO welterweight title and the first-ever WBC Diamond Belt.

After announcing their fight at an international press conference in Yankee Stadium in New York recently, Pacquiao and Cotto proceeded on the remainder of the five-city coast-to-coast, two-ocean media tour, taking them to Caguas, Puerto Rico, AT&T Park in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Calif., and PETCO Park in San Diego.

"I will train harder than I have ever trained before because Miguel Cotto will be my toughest test as a professional fighter," said Pacman. "I know Miguel Cotto is an excellent fighter and a great world champion.

"He is strong and smart and that is a dangerous combination for anyone who challenges him," he continued. "But like every fight, I will not enter the ring alone. My countrymen don't just give me their support, they also give me their strength, their pride and their love. That is why I must give my all. I fight to win and to give honor to the Philippines."

Cotto agrees, explaining that Pacman has never met a fighter like him. However, he says the best in the sport will be decided when they finally meet in the ring.

"He has fought a lot of tough fighters but never one like me," said Cotto. "The world will know who the best is when we meet in the ring"

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Puerto Rico lawmakers have voted to adopt one of the world's lowest legal limits for drunk driving.

A fuel leak created a vapor cloud that caused last week's explosion and massive fire at a Puerto Rican fuel storage depot, according to federal investigators who ruled out arson or sabotage on Friday.

October 30, 2009: The blast that shook the San Juan area and sparked a massive blaze at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility in Bayamón last weekend was not an “act of terrorism or sabotage,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Luis Fraticelli said Friday.

“It has been determined that the Capeco explosion was not an act of terrorism or sabotage. No evidence of any explosives were found at the scene,” said Fraticelli as he summarized the findings of a federally directed probe that employed 241 investigators and questioned 105 witnesses.

The FBI official said gas fumes were to blame for the explosion and fire that burned 21 of 40 tanks at the Capeco oil farm before firefighters finally snuffed the flames Sunday afternoon after a nearly three-day battle.

Fraticelli said a cloud of gasoline vapors covered a large part of the Capeco site.

“Then, an electrical source at the site sparked the first fire that then touched off the massive explosion,” he said.

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