FEMA moves to end one of its biggest disaster adaptation programs
By Zoya Teirstein & Jake Bittle, Grist This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is known for responding to extreme weather like hurricanes and wildfires — the kinds...
#TBT: April 3, 2025
Danish Ambassador Constantin Brun receives a check for $25 million, finalizing the sale of the Danish West Indies, now the United States Virgin Islands, to the US, on March 31, 1917.
Trump, Bad Bunny and Puerto Rico’s Perennially Broken Power Grid
Politico's Gloria Gonzalez, with support from the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Fund for Environmental Journalism, takes a deep dive into Puerto Rico's perennial energy problems, and the roles of Donald Trump, Bad Bunny, and LUMA Energy in the crisis. Puerto...
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'...
