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The Rumors have been flying around this morning that there has been a revaluation of the Iraqi Dinar. I haven't been able to find any official confirmation of a reval, yet. Has anyone else heard any news along these lines?

Critics of Section 936, while acknowledging that the incentive did help create new jobs in Puerto Rico, nonetheless assert that it was an "inefficient" mechanism for creating jobs. As evidence of Section 936's "inefficiency," they cite the fact that in recent years pharmaceutical employment on the island has increased "precisely when Section 936 benefits were being phased-out." What these critics fail to recognize - but what the recent GAO report on Puerto Rico confirms - is that many companies operating in Puerto Rico in this post-936 era continue to benefit from a tax incentive somewhat equivalent to Section 936 but...

Gov. Calderon wound up her latest lobbying efforts here Tuesday for the island's Section 956 economic initiative, but so far the proposal had not surfaced in President Bush's tax cut plan undergoing scrutiny in both the House and the Senate. While the governor maintained, "We don't have any firm expectations" that the island initiative would become part of the massive tax program, sources report that efforts were being made to get the Puerto Rico provision attached to a new Senate version that was introduced Tuesday and will be marked up by Thursday in the Finance Committee. Finance Chairman Charles Grassley,...

Those who protested the Navy exercises on Vieques "want bombs to stop falling from the sky, but they want money to keep falling" to Puerto Rico. That more or less was the gist of a critical report, aired Friday night over ABC to millions of stateside viewers, of efforts to keep Roosevelt Roads Naval Station open after the Navy ends exercises on Vieques on May 1. The report, featured on the 20/20 news show by commentator John Stossel, suggested that keeping Roosevelt Roads open after the Navy leaves Vieques was "a waste of taxpayer money." Stossel, who usually hosts a...

Gov. Calderon said Thursday that she has "temporarily" postponed moving forward on the status issue because of a lack of consensus between the island's three political parties and the U.S. war with Iraq. "I have temporarily postponed this subject, in light of, first, that a consensus was not achieved with current leadership, and, secondly, because of the war and other situations compelling the U.S. Congress, which at this time would make an approach by one or two [political] parties unproductive," Calderon said. "I understand that until the people of Puerto Rico go before the U.S. Executive and U.S. Congress in...

The article by Andrew Cockburn entitled "True Colors: Divided Loyalties in Puerto Rico," published in the March 2003 issue of the National Geographic Magazine, which has a world-wide readership of over seven million, has sparked much commotion in Puerto Rico and the United States. In his article, the author, who based his damaging characterization of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans on interviews with members of pro-independence, anti-U.S., and Leftists sectors, portrays Puerto Ricans as a bunch of drug addicts, alcoholics, and disloyal to the U.S., who live at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers, and that the economy of the...

Three engineers who work for the Navy predicted Tuesday that the Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Ceiba will be shut down entirely. Three instrumentation engineers - Juan Lugo, Angel Ramos and Miguel Sierra - disagreed with Vieques Commissioner Juan Fernandez and Ceiba Mayor Antonio Cruz, who maintained the base will not be shut down because the Navy is investing money to restore and purchase equipment for the facility. The three who work with the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility, a Navy division whose main function is to provide Navy training, were notified that as of Sept. 30, they will no...

Resident Commissioner Anibal Acevedo Vila asked the Navy Monday to look into whether downsizing operations at Naval Station Roosevelt Roads "goes beyond what is necessary and legitimate." In a letter to Acting Navy Secretary Hansford Johnson, the resident commissioner said he was "deeply concerned about conflicting information regarding the intentions of the Navy over future operations" at the Ceiba base. Employees at the base, and others, have charged that the downsizing ordered by the Atlantic Fleet chief Adm. Robert Natter is of a broader scope than just shutting down operations related to the training facility at Vieques. The Navy intends...

San Juan has a far higher incidence of hepatitis C than anywhere else in the United States, according to a new study by the University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Cynthia Perez, who headed the study by the UPR's School of Public Health, said the survey included 970 adults between the ages of 21 and 64, from different socio-economic segments of San Juan. "The most striking discovery was the hepatitis C incidence in San Juan is 6.3 percent, whereas the incidence on the mainland is between 1 and 4 percent," she said Friday at a press conference. Ninety-six percent of he...

Popular Democratic Party Sen. Juan Cancel Alegria said Friday Navy Adm. Robert J. Natter's decision to close the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility at Naval Station Roosevelt Roads is illegal, citing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2001. He also called on U.S. government officials to investigate the legality of the matter. "Section 1504 of the Act is clear to the effect that the termination of training and related closures are specifically and exclusively limited to Vieques Naval Training Range. No authorization was granted to affect the rest of the AFWTF," Cancel Alegria said in a letter to several U.S....

Drug lord Luis "Tun Tun" Figueroa Hernandez, whose cartel is thought to have shipped more than $500 million worth of drugs to the mainland, may be sentenced to life in prison this week, when a New Jersey jury will seal his fate after his conviction on trafficking charges. With former associates testifying against him, the Ciales native also faces two separate murder trials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey this year. But, while the 37-year-old is being held in a federal prison stateside, members of his gang in Puerto Rico, suspected in nine murders here, have yet to be charged and...

The cleanup of Vieques will not be a New Year priority here for the Calderon administration, at least not until after May 1, when the Navy is supposed to end its exercises on the small island, Resident Commissioner Anibal Acevedo Vila has indicated. Congressional action on Vieques is now "closed" - as far as the Navy exiting the island is concerned, said the resident commissioner. He did not foresee trying to rally help for the cleanup in Congress for many months, if at all. "After May, we will have to sit down with federal agencies to talk about a cleanup,"...

Urban Train-related negotiations between Siemens Transportation Partnership and the Highway Authority have stretched out for a second day. Representatives from both parties have been meeting since Tuesday in the Urban Train's offices in Hato Rey to settle on how much money the government will pay the German company to have the first phase of the train fully operational by September 2003. The government is hoping that a 2003 completion date will help it secure $400 million in federal funds to add new routes to the electric train system. A source close to Siemens said both parties have agreed on $70...

Ombudsman Carlos J. Lopez Nieves lashed out at the commonwealth and San Juan police forces Thurday for allegedly detaining undocumented aliens here and then handing them over to federal authorities for deportation. "This is undue intervention of the Puerto Rico Police Department in immigration issues," Lopez Nieves said, adding that the local police don't have the jurisdiction to detain foreigners for immigration violations. He also said that the San Juan police were also detaining foreigners, an action he said local police "here or in any state of the union" lack the authority to undertake. Police Superintendent Miguel Pereira denied the...

After traveling across the ocean for three months, 22 Asian immigrants were detained Friday by local police shortly after coming ashore in Rincon. Aguadilla police spokesman Juan Bautista Ayala said the 17 men and five women were taken into custody around 2 a.m. Friday after agents Wilfredo Vega and Jose Ventura spotted them while patrolling the area. Bautista Ayala said the detainees had apparently set out aboard a vessel from the Dominican Republic. The immigrants remained together after coming ashore and did not resist arrest. A Chinese businessman from Rincon was asked to serve as interpreter, Ayala said, and although...

For two days across the treacherous Mona Passage, Enerolisa Paredes prayed, clasped the wooden slab beneath her until her fingers went numb and kept her eyes tightly shut until the canoe-like vessel packed with other Dominicans finally made landfall. But the most intimidating part of the harrowing journey came as a shivering Paredes hid beneath the thick brush that grows along Puerto Rico's western coast, barely breathing, for fear that U.S. Border Patrol agents searching nearby would find her. "I could see them and hear their footsteps," said Paredes, 26. "There was a cow that kept stepping all over me....

The conversion of Roosevelt Roads Naval Base into a super seaport for excursion boats and cruise ships of every size could transform Puerto Rico into the hub of nautical tourism in the Caribbean, a local investor said Tuesday. "A way to guarantee that Puerto Rico will play a leading role in the future of tourism in the Caribbean is to...[have] the facilities at Roosevelt Roads Base turned over to us, along with Vieques," said Luis M. Corujo, president of Grupo Financiero Corujo investment company and a yacht aficionado. Corujo testified during a hearing held Tuesday by the House Tourism Committee,...

The case of a 50-year-old Yauco man who may have raped more than 12 girls between the ages of 4 and 15 after drugging them inside his Rio Prieto home could soon lead to federal child pornography charges, police said Friday. U.S. Customs agents have been feeding off the information provided by local police to make a move against Jose Robles Perez, who allegedly posed as a gynecologist, led victims to his office, and taped his sexual attacks, police said. U.S. Customs spokeswoman Janice Carabello confirmed Friday the case was under investigation, but refused to say when the additional charges...

A 50-year-old Yauco man who allegedly raped at least 12 girls between the ages of 4 and 15 after drugging them inside his barrio Rio Prieto home was charged Thursday with separate counts of rape, child exploitation and child pornography. Ponce Judge Angela Irizarry set bail at $12.5 million, which the man could not post. He was taken to Las Cucharas penitentiary in Ponce pending an Aug. 14 preliminary hearing. Police said for the past four months, Jose Robles Perez, a convicted rapist, had been posing as a gynecologist and offering fertility treatment to residents of the rural Yauco community...

In addition to the personal security that Island Security provided to former Education Secretary Victor Fajardo, public funds also paid for security services at activities for the League of United Latin American Citizens, according to an Education Department employee. Carmen Ortega, a social worker for the department, testified for a second day Wednesday before the Senate Education and Culture Committee, which is looking into whether public funds were funneled to LULAC, a non-profit organization, to lobby for statehood under the Rosello administration. Ortega was an assistant to Elsie Valdes, the former director of Education's Drug and Weapons Free School Zone...