Puerto Rico

Columbus developer Casto said today it is entering the Puerto Rican commercial real-estate market in a $400 million venture with a current investment partner.

Casto Caribbean, a new Casto affiliate, has joined Commercial Centers Management of Puerto Rico in the purchase of 1.7 million square feet of retail and office space in the U.S. territory. The investment includes an office building in San Juan and nine retail properties located around Puerto Rico.”*

Johanna Delgado-Acevedo and Carla Restrepo at the University of Puerto Rico collected specimens of two common species of Puerto Rican frogs from nine sites in the northern regions of the island.

The sites were all subtropical, moist environments, but differed dramatically from one another in the amount of foliage present. Some were heavily forested, while others had barely any forest left at all. Collected frogs were X-rayed and had their bones measured.

Remarkably, the team found that frogs collected in habitats with foliage coverage of 20% or less were physically 5 to 10% smaller than those collected in habitats with 70% or more foliage cover. They also found that the frogs collected in more disturbed habitats had bodies that were less symmetrical than those in pristine areas.”*

What follows is a stop-by-stop diary of Hillary Clinton campaigning in Puerto Rico over the weekend from our campaign reporter who followed Clinton on the trip.”*

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton took to rural Puerto Rico on Tuesday, urging islanders to turn out in large numbers in a weekend presidential primary to give his wife Hillary a majority of the popular vote cast in all Democratic contests.

Speaking before some 300 workers of a uniform factory in this town in Puerto Rico’s central mountains, Clinton said his wife as president would move to allow Puerto Ricans to determine whether they should retain their commonwealth status with the United States, become a state or be independent.

Puerto Ricans now have a rare chance to help decide which candidate will face presumed Republican nominee John McCain in November, and Clinton said their future is at stake in Sunday’s primary.”*

Puerto Rico traditionally complains of being ignored by the rest of the United States, but that has just changed, if only for the moment. With a Democratic presidential primary to be held here on June 1, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton began their Memorial Day weekend here in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

Clinton, now the clear underdog for the nomination, has been especially active, combining American and Latin American campaign techniques in hopes of demonstrating her strength in yet another Hispanic constituency. She has not only employed television and radio advertisements in Spanish and English, but also has sent batucada percussion ensembles and mobile loudspeakers playing reggaetón chants into the streets to spread her message.”*

Forget placards, stoic bodyguards and formal rallies. To win Puerto Rico’s presidential primary, both the Clinton and Obama camps are campaigning in the boisterous, face-to-face “boricua style” favored on this Caribbean island.

The June 1 vote will allocate 55 delegates and might finally give Illinois Sen. Barack Obama the number he needs to claim the Democratic nomination if he picks up enough superdelegates in the meantime. But rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is favored to win here, partly because she’s done better among Hispanics in previous primaries and partly because the New York senator already represents a lot of Puerto Ricans, many with relatives on the island.”*

The U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico can’t vote in the November presidential election. But Puerto Ricans are relishing a newfound clout in the race to see who will be the candidate of the Democratic party.

The island’s June 1 primary is the biggest Democratic contest left, with 55 delegates at stake and perhaps giving Sen. Hillary Clinton a last-gasp opportunity to claim victory in the popular vote.

The former first lady has performed strongly among Latinos. Sen. Barack Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, has not fared that well in states with large Hispanic populations.”*

Former presidential rival turned supporter Bill Richardson will campaign this week for Barack Obama in Puerto Rico, 10 days before the Commonwealth holds its Democratic primary, a Richardson aide tells CNN.

Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and former Cabinet official, is one of the most prominent Hispanic politicians in the nation. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination, but dropped out of the race after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary.”*

Some American companies – facing a crackdown on hiring illegal immigrants and difficulties in using temporary worker programs – are venturing south to solve their labor woes, to Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is part of the United States, so its residents are American citizens.”*

For Kenneth D. McClintock, president of the Senate of Puerto Rico, the overriding issue is the political status of the island, which is now a U.S. territory. He would like to see Puerto Rico become the 51st state.

Congress has the ultimate say in the issue, but congressional leaders say they want the people of Puerto Rico to reach consensus on the their future.

McClintock backs legislation that would provide for a vote on whether to continue the current relationship with the U.S. or seek unspecified change, to be determined later”*

My co-paddler and I were in one of eight kayaks moving through a narrow mangrove lagoon outside the fishing village of La Parguera in southern Puerto Rico. Our destination was the famous bioluminescent bay, a natural phenomenon created by tiny organisms that glow as a protective mechanism - the better for predators to see other game.

It was so dark on this evening, we kayakers could hardly see our hands holding the oars. A scuffling in the dense bushes startled us. We heard a snort (a wild pig?) and brushed up against something hanging from a tree (a python?). A fish jumped in the water (a piranha?). And then a big crash as we butted up against a fellow kayaker - who was not amused as we laughed uncontrollably from relief, fear and from exhaustion. “*

While Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, help crown national nominees, their commonwealth status prevents them from casting ballots in the November presidential election.

“It’s ludicrous that people can participate in selecting a candidate for whom they cannot vote,” says Fernando Martín of the Independence Party of Puerto Rico, which is organizing a protest march for primary day. Other politicians are calling for a boycott of the vote.

Clinton, 60, is favored to win here, thanks to greater name recognition and involvement in hurricane relief, a base closure and legislation to resolve Puerto Rico’s status. The New York senator’s supporters hope high voter turnout and a big winning margin might boost her long-shot nomination chances.”*

Total 2008 ad investment expected to reach $767.4 million in real dollars; ad execs blame politics for economic woes; few bright spots offer relief.

“Advertising in a Recession” was the title of a panel discussion held during the early 1980s, when oil prices drove interest rates to more than 20%.”*

As Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination loses steam on the mainland, it’s full speed ahead in Puerto Rico, which holds one of the last remaining primaries June 1.

Her focus on the island has some political observers wondering why. Clinton has fallen behind her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, and it seems mathematically impossible for her to attain the number of delegates needed to lock the nomination in the handful of contests left.

Meanwhile, she continues to go after Puerto Rico’s 55 pledged delegates.”*

Now Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory for more than 100 years, has a place at the center of American political debate. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are competing for 55 delegates to be chosen in a June 1 Democratic primary. The island also has eight superdelegates.

“We’re going to enjoy every minute of the attention,” the president of the Puerto Rican Senate, Kenneth D. McClintock, said during a recent visit to the nation’s capital.”*

Thousands of Puerto Ricans will finally see some kind of financial relief as the Puerto Rico Treasury Department begins to send out federal economic incentive checks to some 72,000 public workers Wednesday.

At a news conference in San Juan, Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vila announced that the first $59 million of some $1.282 billion in federal economic incentive payments will be deposited into the accounts of government workers who receive their regular salaries through “electronic direct deposits.” “*

Shipping companies allegedly conspired to inflate prices for transporting goods to Puerto Rico and added illegal surcharges, according to an antitrust lawsuit filed in the island’s U.S. District Court.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from several U.S. companies, and it comes amid an FBI investigation into pricing practices of ocean carriers operating in the territory.

The suit was filed Tuesday by a law firm representing La Esperanza Bus Line, which ships buses to Puerto Rico from the U.S. mainland.”*

A new study by an international team led by a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, sheds light on the factors influencing the stalled growth of this parrot’s population and, in turn, provides an analytical tool that could help pinpoint the biggest factors hindering the recovery of other endangered species.

“This is the first time a framework has been developed to integrate simultaneously the multiple factors impacting the decline of a species,” said Steven Beissinger, professor of conservation biology at UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management and lead author of the paper. “The Puerto Rican parrot’s wild population has only increased, on average, by about one bird a year, and it can’t seem to get out of that funk.”

The research, published in the May issue of the journal Ecological Monographs, not only highlights the various challenges to the parrot’s recovery, but identifies the factors hindering population growth.

Despite intense conservation efforts over the past three decades, the Puerto Rican parrot’s population, which once flourished throughout the island, has languished at 30 to 40 individuals in the wild, with one year seeing a low of only 13 birds.

The parrot today can only be found in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest on the northeast part of the island. The wild Puerto Rican parrot population is often supplemented by birds released from captive breeding programs, which house another 150 or so parrots.

The parrot’s population began its dramatic descent towards the end of the 19th century as extensive deforestation destroyed much of its habitat. Additional stresses have come from poachers smuggling the birds out of Puerto Rico for the pet trade, competition for nesting sites with other birds and, significantly, hurricanes. The researchers also considered whether the low population numbers have been affected by inbreeding, which reduces the genetic health of the population.

“Our tool helps diagnose why the population has grown so slowly by combining different kinds of analyses and population models in an integrated framework, and sorting out which factors have the greatest impact,” said Beissinger.

“Such information could help prioritize conservation and research efforts in the El Yunque National Forest,” said study co-author Joseph Wunderle Jr., research scientist at the U.S. Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry.

The model integrated 30 years of data on the Puerto Rican parrot, which was listed as an endangered species in 1967.

After testing the range of hypothesized factors impacting the Puerto Rican bird’s struggle to increase its population growth rate, the researchers found that hurricanes play the largest role in hindering the parrot’s recovery. In 1989, for example, Hurricane Hugo cut the population of Puerto Rican parrots down from 47 to 22 birds.

“Since hurricanes are relatively infrequent occurrences, it was surprising how important they were. These events are having a long-term impact, the frequency of hurricanes is expected to increase with global warming,” said Beissinger.

The Puerto Rican Department of Natural and Environmental Resources is trying to establish a second population of wild Puerto Rican parrots elsewhere on the island. “This will help act as an insurance measure against further environmental disasters,” said Beissinger. “But without understanding why the existing wild population has grown so slowly, the new population may get stuck in the same bottleneck.”

The study found that after hurricanes, the next largest factor in the parrot population’s bottleneck is the failure of mature adult birds to mate and breed. “More research is needed to understand this ’social dysfunction’ that is causing individuals of breeding age to hold back from finding a mate and nesting,” said Wunderle.

Lower priority factors, according to the study, include the availability of nesting sites and the failure of eggs to hatch once laid.

“People have assumed that predation on adults was a key factor in the parrot’s decline, but we didn’t find as much support for that in our study,” said Wunderle.

“The factors that are most important in keeping the parrot numbers in a bottleneck can change from one year, or even one decade, to the next,” added Beissinger.

Beissinger noted that in the 1980s, low rates of hatching success were a major factor in the population bottleneck and, prior to that, nest predation was important. Concerted efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to guard parrot nests have since alleviated some of that pressure.

“The approach we developed has real generality,” Beissinger pointed out. “For example, it could be used to analyze the current salmon crash in California, which is blamed on water diversion, global warming, habitat destruction and myriad other factors. If we want to be efficient in our efforts at species recovery, it is important to know what factors to target in order to have the biggest impact.”

Other authors of the paper are J. Michael Meyers, research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forest and Natural Resources; and Bernt-Erik Saether and Steinar Engen, both professors at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Support for this research was provided by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, the National Science Foundation and the Research Council of Norway.
“*

Delgado swatted No. 435 to move past Juan Gonzalez on the all-time list for Puerto Rican-born players, but few here in the States seemed to take notice. Even Carlos Beltran, who also is Puerto Rican and one of Delgado’s closest friends, didn’t know what he had done until he told him at dinner that night.

“It’s a great, great accomplishment,” said Beltran, who has 238 homers. “With all of the great players that have come from Puerto Rico, I know it means a lot to him. But I believe his goal is 500. That’s a lot.”"*

Minutes after the winner in the gubernatorial primary of Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood party was announced, Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fern�ndez received a phone call.

She wasn’t surprised it was from a prominent Central Florida doctor who offered to hold a fundraiser for the winner at a palatial Lake Nona home.

“There are strong ties between Puerto Rico and Central Florida,” said Fern�ndez, who was on the island for the March 9 primary. “The things that are happening between these two communities are not happening in any other place. It only makes sense that people would want to meet the leaders and, in this case, potentially the next governor.”"*

Victims of some of the worst cases of police brutality in United States history will join the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Puerto Rico to address issues of police brutality and racial discrimination at the Fourth Annual Congress on Civil Liberties in Puerto Rico beginning today.

“In light of what seems to be an ongoing systemic problem with policing in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, this year’s ACLU workshop will examine the ongoing plague of police violence against mostly unarmed young men of color and indigent homeless,” said William Ramírez, Executive Director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico. “In Puerto Rico, the government continues to insist, in case after case of violent police behavior, that each case is an isolated incident perpetrated by a few rotten apples, and refuses to recognize that there are systemic failings that must be aggressively attacked.”

Abner Louima, a Haitian native who, while living in New York City, was the victim of one of the worst cases of non-fatal police brutality in U.S. history, and Iris Baéz, who witnessed the killing by asphyxiation of her son at the hands of a police officer, will address workshop attendees. Other speakers include human rights experts, activists, and attorneys.

“In the wake of the Sean Bell case and countless other instances of police brutality, we continue to be reminded that the U.S. government has been fundamentally unwilling or unable to hold human rights abusers accountable,” said Chandra Bhatnagar, staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program. “It is time to reinforce the fundamental principle that human rights begin at home.”

The ACLU workshop is in anticipation of a visit later this month to the U.S. by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Doudou Diène. Diène will tour the U.S., including Puerto Rico, at the request of the government to study and report on forms of racism and racial discrimination.

The ACLU Human Rights Program submitted a December 2007 report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) highlighting systemic and structural racism in America, including police brutality, and testified before the committee in February 2008. In March, the committee recommended that the U.S. “increase significantly its efforts to eliminate police brutality and excessive use of force against persons belonging to racial, ethnic or national minorities.”

More information about the Congress on Civil Liberties in Puerto Rico is available online at:
www.aclu-pr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Events/Events.htm

More information about the ACLU’s report to CERD is available online at: www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/racialjustice/cerd.html

Chelsea Clinton campaigned for her mother Tuesday in Puerto Rico, where the marathon race for the Democratic presidential nomination has brought new importance to a U.S. island that typically has scant say over national affairs.

With just over a month to go before Puerto Rico’s June 1 primary, the former first daughter toured the U.S. territory’s capital of San Juan and shook hands with well-wishers, posed for snapshots and tried to charm voters on behalf of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.”*

Puerto Rican Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila was approved for re-election despite facing charges in an investigation of alleged corruption.

Acevedo’s Popular Democratic Party approved his candidacy for November elections, El Nuevo Dia reported Monday.

Last month, the Puerto Rican leader was charged with conspiracy, making false statements, wire fraud, federal program fraud and tax crimes. The alleged crimes were related to financing of his 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 campaign for resident commissioner of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and his subsequent 2004 gubernatorial campaign.”*

Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) (NASDAQ: SBSA) announced today that Luis Roldan was named Senior Vice President and General Manager of MEGA TV in Puerto Rico. Mr. Roldan will oversee the retransmission of Mega TV on WSJU-TV (Channel 30).

“We are pleased to have someone of Luis’ caliber, talent and experience joining the MEGA TV family,” stated Raul Alarc�n Jr., CEO and Chairman of Spanish Broadcasting System. “Over the last two years, MEGA TV has grown at an incredible rate while maintaining its leadership position in the Hispanic TV market with high quality content and programming. We expect our entrance into Puerto Rico’s broadcast market to follow the same path to success and we are confident that Luis will help to lead us in that direction.”

Most recently, Mr. Roldan served as President and General Manager for WKAQ-TV, Telemundo’s flagship station in Puerto Rico. Prior to that, he worked for WNJU-TV in New York where he served as an Account Executive, Local Sales Manager, General Sales Manager, Station Manager and Executive Vice President and General Manager. Mr. Roldan began his career at WNBC-TV in New York where he served as an Account Executive for three years. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Fordham University.

“With over 25 years of experience in the television business, Luis brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to MEGA TV Puerto Rico,” added Cynthia Hudson Fernandez, Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of Spanish Broadcasting System. “Throughout his career, he has worked with networks as well as independent and affiliate stations, delivering tremendous results for each of them. As MEGA TV grows faster than any other Hispanic station in the United States, the hiring of Luis could not have been more timely.”

“I am very grateful to be given the opportunity to join such a savvy and powerful team of industry veterans,” said Mr. Roldan. “Their hard work and dedication has put MEGA TV way ahead of its time and I am looking forward to adding value to continue making it a leading competitor in Hispanic TV.”"

Private employers would be required to verify the legal status of their workers under a bill that Rhode Island lawmakers could consider next week.
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A vote on Democratic Rep. Jon Brien’s bill was scheduled for Thursday, but it has been pushed back until Tuesday.

His proposal would force private employers to verify the immigration status of prospective employees using a federal database called E-Verify. Companies that refuse could face up to a $5,000 fine.”*