Big cuts at the Education Department’s civil rights office will affect vulnerable students for years to come
By Erica Frankenberg, Penn State and Maithreyi Gopalan, University of Oregon The United States Department of Education cut its workforce by nearly 50% on March 11, 2025, when it laid off about 1,315 employees. The move follows several recent directives targeting the...
Google Trends in the US territories: February 2025
Welcome back to our monthly series examining the top Google Trends in Puerto Rico, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Trends data is an unbiased sample of Google search data. It’s anonymized (no one is...
#TBT: March 27, 2025
On March 27, 2020, United States President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for Guam that ordered federal assistance to supplement territory and local COVID-19 recovery efforts. This was after the territory registered its first cases on March 15.
US Virgin Islands Department of Health releases 2024 Epidemiology Report highlighting USVI disease trends
The United States Virgin Islands Department of Health has released its 2024 Epidemiology Division Annual Report, offering a comprehensive analysis of reportable disease trends in the territory. This report serves as a vital resource for shaping data-driven health...
#TBT: March 13, 2025
On March 13, 2020, Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vazquez announced that the territory reported its first COVID-19 cases. Concerned that the curfew established earlier was not being followed, Vazquez took stronger actions and asked all non-essential businesses and schools...
US and British Virgin Islands leaders meet to discuss maritime policy changes
United States Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Jr. (D) held a constructive meeting with British Virgin Islands Premier Natalio Wheatley to discuss critical issues impacting the shared maritime economy between the two territories. The meeting focused extensively on...
Pacific territories’ role in national security discussed in US House subcommittee hearing
American Samoa Delegate Amata Coleman Radewagen (R) recently took part in an oversight hearing of the United States House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs regarding the US Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs'...
Making English the official US language can’t erase the fact that the US has millions of Spanish speakers and a long multilingual history
By Daniel J. Olson, Purdue University English should be the official language of the United States, says a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump on March 1, 2025. The move follows the Trump administration’s termination of the Spanish-language version of...
#TBT: March 6, 2025
On March 6, 1977, 93% of Northern Mariana Islands voters ratified the territory's new constitution. Its creation was required by the covenant between the United States and the CNMI. It was drafted at a local constitutional convention in 1976 and became effective in...
Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner criticizes statehood lobbying efforts citing questionable numbers
From the floor of the United States House of Representatives, Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner, Pablo José Hernández Rivera (PDP, D), criticized this week's efforts by the government advocating for statehood in Washington, DC, calling it an unnecessary endeavor that...
