Puerto Rico’s August 22-26 political week in tweets

by Aug 31, 2016News Week in Tweets0 comments

Puerto Rico’s Environmental Crisis That No One Is Talking About

A recent report released by Puerto Rico Limpio, a watchdog group cofounded by Puerto Rican attorney Hiram Torres Montalvo, has stated that the EPA is responsible for gross negligence in regards to the standards that landfills in Puerto Rico operate. In 1994, the EPA granted Puerto Rico’s Environmental Quality Board control over local landfills in order to bring them under compliance of EPA standards. The report uncovered that the EPA Region 2 Administrator, Judith Enck, did nothing to ensure that most of 27 landfills in Puerto Rico were brought to safe standards even though EPA reports list them as under “significant non-compliance.” This only adds to the troubles that Puerto Rico faces economically, and now environmentally as the landfills could prove to be potent breeding grounds for Zika virus carrying mosquitoes.

Mismanagement in municipalities is hurting Puerto Ricans

Puerto Rico is organized into 78 municipalities, each overseen by a mayor. With the unfolding economic crisis, special attention has been given to each one in regards to their allocation of public money. Each municipality designs a budget and submits it for approval to their respective municipalities legislature, but in recent years it has become obvious that the public work projects being launched with this money is either unnecessary or unable to be used. Essentially, public money, needed now more than ever, is being wasted on construction of unwanted or unusable infrastructure rather than be earmarked for more pertinent projects, exasperating the economic turmoil gripping the territory.

 

Court sets September 13 deadline for Clinton FBI emails

In the ongoing scandal related to Hillary Clinton’s private email server, a federal judge has ordered the State Department to release more communications relating to Benghazi by September 13th, in addition to 14,900 emails the FBI collected in its investigation. The conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, is seeking to expedite the delivery ahead of election day but the State Department has declared that the new emails may not even involve Benghazi or Hillary Clinton. The order comes amid controversy involving cooperation between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.

 

Gary Johnson, Libertarian Nominee, Denounces Donald Trump as Authoritarian

Gary Johnson has echoed his running mate’s statement, William Weld, agreeing that Donald Trump could be considered a fascist. Johnson, who is the Libertarian party’s candidate in the general election, has compared Donald Trump’s statements about immigrants to that of the Nazi parties in regards to Jews. Johnson condemnation joins a chorus of other national leaders, stating that Donald Trump resembles an authoritarian figure with no regard to the Constitution.

 

Trump, shifting back, now says no legal status for all 11 million illegal immigrants

In another apparent shift in policy, Donald Trump has now declared that he will not deport all of the 11 million illegal immigrants within the United States. In an omission that during an interview with CNN, Donald Trump stated that collecting millions of people and sending them back to their home countries, at one point stating it could be done with “deportation force,” would be difficult. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that law-abiding illegal immigrants might be allowed to stay as long as they paid taxes, but denied any opportunity of citizenship.