Tropical Storm Ernesto gained strength on Tuesday morning as it headed toward the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where forecasters said it could bring powerful winds and heavy rain — up to 10 inches in some places — before potentially intensifying into a hurricane.
Ernesto became the fifth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season when it formed Monday along a fast-moving path to the Caribbean. The storm comes on the heels of Hurricane Debby, which lashed parts of the southeastern United States last week with disastrous flooding and brewed up a flash of severe weather that ultimately touched much of the East Coast. Ernesto wasn’t expected to strike the mainland U.S., the National Hurricane Center said.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
Maps charting Ernesto’s path, according to the latest forecasts Tuesday afternoon, suggested the storm would continue on its route toward the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, after traveling across portions of the Leeward Islands. Ernesto could either reach or pass over the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by the evening, although forecasters said it was possible the system’s track would carry it near the islands instead of over them.
Ernesto could develop into a hurricane after leaving the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, which would require its maximum sustained wind speeds to meet or exceed 74 miles per hour. That could happen by Wednesday, forecasters said, although an initial timeline for Ernesto’s strengthening suggested it wouldn’t reach the threshold necessary to warrant hurricane status until early Thursday.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
As of 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the storm was churning in the Atlantic Ocean, about 85 miles east of St. Croix and about 175 miles east-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the hurricane center. It was traveling west-northwestward at 18 mph and packing maximum sustained winds of 60 mph.
Hurricane watches were in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Culebra, Vieques and the British Virgin Islands. Tropical storm warnings were also in effect for those places, as well as in Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Anguilla, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy and Sint Maarten. Previous tropical storm warnings for Antigua, Barbuda and Guadeloupe were discontinued Tuesday afternoon.
Hurricane watches are issued when hurricane conditions are possible in a given area within 12 hours or so. Tropical storm warnings are issued when forecasters expect tropical storm conditions to impact an area within 36 hours, but meteorologists said at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday that tropical storm conditions were expected to begin in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by nighttime, and potentially even sooner than that. Powerful winds and other weather conditions typical of a tropical storm were already happening in the Leeward Islands, they said.
Tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 105 miles from Ernesto’s center on Tuesday afternoon — a sizable expansion from its 70-mile reach in the morning — according to the hurricane center.
Not unlike Debby, which dumped devastating and, in some instances, historic rainfall on southeastern U.S. states last week, Ernesto’s primary threat was inundation, although slightly less rain was forecast for this week compared with last week’s hurricane.
Ernesto was expected to shower parts of the Leeward Islands and Virgin Islands with 4 to 6 inches of rain, while southeastern Puerto Rico was expected to see 6 to 8 inches, although forecasters warned that as much as 10 inches of rain could fall in certain places.
CBS News senior weather producer David Parkinson said Tuesday morning that even a foot of rainfall could be possible in areas where the terrain might lend itself to that. Northwestern Puerto Rico was forecast to get less rain, between 2 and 4 inches in total.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
“Heavy rainfall may result in locally considerable flash flooding and mudslides in areas of the Leeward Islands through today, and over the Virgin Islands into Puerto Rico by later today through Wednesday,” the hurricane center said in an advisory Tuesday morning.
Ernesto was also expected to fuel storm surge, between 1 and 3 feet above ground levels, along the eastern coast of Puerto Rico from San Juan, the capital city, to Guayama, and to the islands of Culebra and Vieques. The same peak surge forecast could materialize in the U.S. Virgin Islands, including St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, and in the British Virgin Islands. The hurricane center warned that surge would be accompanied by large, destructive waves in coastal regions.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
By Thursday morning, when Ernesto was forecast to have grown from a tropical storm to at least a Category 1 hurricane, it would likely continue tracking northward over the western Atlantic on a path toward Bermuda, where it could make landfall on Sunday, Parkinson said. He noted that the eastern seaboard of the mainland U.S. could see rip currents and larger waves than usual as an indirect consequence of the storm.
“It is too soon to know what impacts Ernesto could bring to Bermuda late this week,” the hurricane center said Tuesday, adding that “interests there should monitor the progress of this system.”
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
Puerto Rico’s lone zoo was closed after years of complaints about conditions. Colorado-based animal sanctuary founder Pat Craig spent months rescuing the animals.
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First, a report on the assassination attempt made on former President Trump. Then, a trip to an Austrian Alps camp for grieving Ukrainians. And, a look at animals rescued at troubled Puerto Rico zoo.
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The lights dimmed in the Toyota Center as the crowd noise began to calm. Just a moment before fans screamed as flames and fireworks ran along the side of the stadium, Bad Bunny disappeared from the stage and a mist began to float through the building. On the large screens above the audience video of a man riding a horse alone in the desert played, his face covered in a ski mask with bug eyes. As the video played, the masked horseman moved toward a black ominous hole floating in front of him. The crowd cheered in anticipation with each trotting step of the animal, the sound of its hooves clicking echoing through the stadium. As the rider crossed the brink of darkness on the screens above, below he and the horse appeared on the side of the stage on the stadium floor. Chants of “Benito” filled the room as Bad Bunny dismounted the horse and walked over to greet members of the audience. Fans screamed as the Most Wanted Tour continued to rock the Toyota Center.
Dallas fans of Bad Bunny may have been disappointed with the rescheduling of the Puerto Rican rapper’s recent tour due to the NBA playoffs. The show has already been rescheduled and luckily it didn’t affect the rest of the tour, including the two nights the King of Latin Trap would be gracing the Toyota Center stage here in Houston. This show and latest album are supposed to be a return to the superstar’s roots and the first show did not disappoint. Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio is a showman and his only challenge in Houston right now is creating a second night that would top the first. Whether running through hits from the new album like “Monaco” or older tracks like “25/8” the MC puts his all into the show.
The MC brought everything including his own orchestra
Photo by Violeta Alvarez
When audience members entered the stadium, they were given lanyards with a cowboy-boot-shaped pendant to wear around their neck. It meshed with the outlaw/cowboy/western theme that so many fans came dressed in. The boots, however, weren’t just quick fan give-aways but also doubled as a part of the show with each one having a light that was activated by Bad Bunny’s team. As the singer performed, waves of light would pulsate around the stadium along with the music and his lyrics. The floor was split between two stages that Bad Bunny traversed throughout the night giving the entire hall the opportunity to get a close glimpse of the MC. At some points both stages were filled with dancers while at other points one stage would house a full orchestra. The middle of the show had Ocasio on a long-elevated stage between the two halves rotating toward the sides of the Toyota Center.
Bad Bunny continues to be a powerhouse in the music industry with his latest tour putting up record setting numbers early on. Billboard Boxscore has it crowned as the top tour in March already earning $64.6 million over 13 shows. This puts him ahead of other heavy weights like Madonna, Zach Bryan, Nicki Minaj and the Eagles. It’s a notable accomplishment given that he is just in the middle of his 48-date tour covering 31 cities throughout North America and his home in Puerto Rico.
The Most Wanted Tour supports the superstar’s fifth solo studio album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Manana, with Bad Bunny releasing a promotional poster saying, “Only Trap” and “If you’re not a real fan, don’t come.” His latest album is a return to the charts and a reclamation of his number one spot after taking a social media break, headlining Coachella, and releasing a collaboration album Un X 100to with Grupo Frontera. His latest offering is 22 tracks where the MC has described himself experimenting with Spanish and English music from the seventies. The results are another critically acclaimed offering earning him his third number one on the billboard charts.
That success is evident in the response displayed by the fans Tuesday night.
“He just knows how to create an atmosphere that you can immerse yourself in,” said Alec Hughes of the first night’s show. “The energy here tonight is contagious. You can’t help but dance. Every second of the show was incredible and I’m going to cherish this forever.”
For fans that missed Tuesday night there is still a chance to see Bad Bunny before he leaves Houston. The second night of the show will be held Wednesday evening.
Photo courtesy Florida Puerto Rican Parade, Inc./Facebook
Florida Puerto Rican Parade and Festival happens downtown this weekend
Wepa! Celebrate culture and community at the Florida Puerto Rican Parade and Festival in downtown Orlando.
This year’s events are themed “Civic Engagement and Responsibilities,” with a focus on civic literacy efforts like voter registration, community volunteering and holding positions in government and public office.
The parade is dedicated to the Municipality of Juncos “La Ciudad del Valenciano,” a town on the eastern part of Puerto Rico. Over 100 vendors will offer art, food (fingers crossed for good pastelón), products from Puerto Rico and more. The festival also features live music from artists like Crespo, Yomo and Elysanij, along with celebrity appearances and a children’s area.
Parade floats and comparsas — groups of musicians and performers traditional at carnivals — will line the streets during the parade, set to start at 11 a.m.
The parade route begins at Robinson Street near Lake Eola and ends at the intersection of West Livingston Street and North Orange Avenue. The festival area, conveniently, begins where the parade route ends.
Dr. Tana Wood, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, is running experiments to see what might happen to forests if temperatures rise by seven degrees Fahrenheit, the worst-case scenario by the end of the century. Among the impacts, it appears forests could lose some of their ability to absorb carbon, which contributes to rising temperatures. David Schechter has the story.
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First, a look inside Aliceville: A women’s federal prison. Then, a report on how some
countries are accused of abusing the Interpol red notice system. And, how animals were
rescued at a troubled Puerto Rico zoo.
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Puerto Rico’s lone zoo was closed after years of complaints about conditions. Colorado-based animal sanctuary founder Pat Craig spent months rescuing the animals.
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And, lo, before the flood, the Lord said to Noah, “make yourself an ark… bring out every kind of living creature.” That was the Old Testament. But what happens today when disaster threatens animals? A powerful force—a zoo, a foreign government, even the U.S. Department of Justice—often calls from on high and enlists the services of one man: Pat Craig, founder of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado… who’s emerged as the go-to guy for orchestrating high-stakes rescues around the world. Last spring, we accompanied this modern-day Noah to a zoo in Puerto Rico, for his most ambitious mission yet.
These lions were once—literally—the pride of Puerto Rico. Housed at the Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo in the coastal town of Mayaguez, the only zoo on the island. But after years of decline, mismanagement and neglect… this was the tableau that greeted Pat Craig and his wife Monica when they arrived here from Colorado.
Jon Wertheim: What was your impression when you got to the zoo for the first time?
Monica Craig: The animals were very, very sad-looking and, some of them were very, very sick. I felt physically and emotionally overwhelmed.
Pat Craig: And even while we were there, animals died almost on a weekly basis.
Monica Craig: Correct.
Pat Craig: So that felt even worse, because we’re present, and yet we were there too late.
Pat and Monica Craig
60 Minutes
Over the course of a decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the zoo two dozen times for substandard conditions and animal mistreatment.
After hurricanes Irma and Maria ravaged the island, the zoo closed to the public in 2018. For the more than 300 winged…scaled…and four-legged residents still captive, the situation turned from bad, to downright desperate.
Monica Craig: We saw a zebra that had a horrible wound on her leg and her tail and she couldn’t stand up. We saw a pig that had a skin condition, her skin was just falling apart.
A mountain lion’s untreated cancer had been allowed to spread all over its body.
Monica Craig: Seeing the mountain lion suffering the way that he was, that broke my heart. And not being able to– sorry (crying).
Pat Craig: Yeah, help him. Yeah. It was just so evident that this facility was way beyond repair.
The U.S. Department of Justice—which enforces federal animal welfare laws in the states and Puerto Rico—agreed… and in February, staged an extraordinary intervention, sending a battalion of agents to the zoo…to evacuate every single species to permanent homes on the mainland.
To lead this mission—to captain this ark, as it were—the DOJ tapped Wild Animal Sanctuary founder Pat Craig.
We were there in April to witness the operation: equal parts military-style logistics and battlefield extraction. Among the targets: seven lions sweltering in a concrete bunker.
Wild Animal Sanctuary founder Pat Craig
60 Minutes
Pat Craig: And they never hooked up the power after the hurricane. They never hooked up the power to the zoo.
Monica Craig: Never.
Jon Wertheim: Wait, wait, wait, there’s a zoo that’s functioning with animals therE, and there’s no power?
Monica Craig: No electricity.
Pat Craig: No power. And then if you look at the pictures from the inside of their building, you know, it’s old steel bars just like jail cells, all in a row.
When it came time to coax the cats out of their cages, Craig entered the lion’s den.
Jon Wertheim: I gather the lions weren’t necessarily happy to see you and go with you. What happened?
Pat Craig: They’re definitely defensive, because they don’t know who we are, and what we’re doing and why. And so, we show up and we’re like, “Believe me, you’ve got to trust me, we’re trying to help you here.”
The sweet-talking didn’t work, so they deployed plan b: sedation… hard to watch, but accepted practice when rescuing uncooperative carnivores.
Over the course of five months, Craig and his team of 20 used patience…prodding… pursuit… and…grape jelly… to lure each animal into its custom-built crate. A camel… a kangaroo… a rhinoceros…. these stubborn hippos.
Monica Craig, a native Spanish speaker, had hoped to coordinate with the local staff… but the team from Colorado mostly had to go it alone… she says, the zookeepers in Puerto Rico often refused to help.
Monica Craig: We tried many, many days to communicate with them and trying to tell them, “Hey, we’re not bad people, were just trying to do what we’re supposed to be doing for these animals and give them a better home.”
Monica Craig and her husband, Pat Craig, removed animals from a Puerto Rico zoo after it was shuttered.
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: What was their response to that?
Monica Craig: They were upset. They were like, “No, I don’t think– I don’t think that’s right. The animals belong here.”
It was a sentiment shared by many in the community, and at times resistance curdled into outright sabotage.
The rescue team had nearly wrangled Mundi, once a star attraction, into her transport crate, when suddenly…
Pat Craig: Out of nowhere, this elephant– just flies up, tears out of there, starts runnin’ around.
Jon Wertheim: What do you think happened?
Pat Craig: Well, I think somebody shot her with a BB gun, if you ask me.
Jon Wertheim: And hit her in the rear end?
Pat Craig: Hit her in the rear end, just to make her hate that crate.
Monica Craig: Yeah.
Pat Craig: Now she thinks that crate did something to her.
We reached out to Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, which is responsible for the zoo. In a statement, it said the animals were provided with comprehensive care, and denied there was any neglect… blaming problems at the zoo on hurricane damage, limited resources and aging animals.
Once the transport was finally ready: a police escort to the airport. Then the animals were loaded, one by one, onto charter flights bound for new homes Craig had arranged at sanctuaries across the U.S.
Mundi the elephant
60 Minutes
How do you ferry to safety an 8,000-pound elephant like Mundi? On a 747 cargo jet of course.
Departure brought a sigh of relief.
Monica Craig: When she took off, I cried because I said, “Thank you God, she’s in, it’s over, and she’s out of here. There’s no question about it anymore.”
Pat and Monica Craig took as many of the rescues as they could back to their 1,200-acre facility. A vast menagerie roams the grassy enclosures on the high planes of eastern Colorado.
Each of the 700-plus animals here came with a sad backstory… wagging their own tales of woe, as it were. Tigers kept in garages as pets. Lions saved from a zoo in war-torn Ukraine. Bears abused at a Korean medical facility.
Now 64, Craig got the idea for the place as a teenager in the 1970s, when a friend who worked at a zoo gave him a tour behind the scenes.
Pat Craig: There were all these animals, lions, and tigers that were in small cages. And he said, “These will be euthanized.” And I thought, “Wow, this is crazy, you know? These are healthy and not– they’re not old. They’re not sick.”
Craig decided right then and there to open his own sanctuary on his parents’ small Colorado farm. With few regulations to guide him, he built the animal enclosures himself and scoured biology books for pointers.
Jon Wertheim: Did you have any experience with lions and tigers?
Pat Craig: No, no, none.
Jon Wertheim: You have a degree in zoology?
Pat Craig: No. I was just starting college back then. It was going to be a business degree. (laugh)
And he quickly learned that lions and tigers are no house cats.
Pat Craig: In the early years, I was in the hospital more times than you could count. It was like, “OK, don’t do that again.” And, you know, so all those years of making mistakes and not getting killed.
Jon Wertheim: What specifically does a mistake look like?
Pat Craig: Uh, pretty bad. I’ve had my left arm almost completely torn off. I’ve had– bit through the chest and collapsed lungs.
Jon Wertheim and Pat Craig
60 Minutes
The animals, Craig can handle. But on his missions to hostile environments around the world, it’s the people he often needs extra help managing.
Heavily-armed federal marshals accompanied Craig when the Department of Justice dispatched him to retrieve maltreated big cats that had been kept by the notorious Tiger King Joe Exotic—the unlikely Netflix sensation—and his associates. These two are among the 141 animals Craig liberated and brought back here.
Jon Wertheim: What kind of conditions was Joe Exotic keeping these guys in in Oklahoma?
Pat Craig: Well, you know, it was just all these really small cages that were just lion after lion because it was a gigantic breeding operation primarily.
The rescue missions and the sanctuary operate on an annual budget of $34 million, funding comes mostly from private donations.
When animals arrive here, this is oftentheir first stop… designed to minimize shock by mimicking the conditions they came from. Here, they’re evaluated and given a treatment plan. Whether it’s medication or emergency surgery. Craig and staff veterinarian, Dr. Mikaela Vetters introduced us to Chad and Malawi… both rescued from Puerto Rico.
Jon Wertheim: How confident do we feel about our locks here?
Dr. Mikaela Vetters: Confident.
Jon Wertheim: This guy wants to get out.
Pat Craig: She says, “Yeah.”
Jon Wertheim: This guy’s ready to hang out with us.
They suffer from permanent neurological damage, likely caused by malnutrition, something Craig could spot just by looking.
Pat Craig: You see how she keeps doing that? She just doesn’t have control over it.
Jon Wertheim: Head tilting at an angle.
Pat Craig: Yeah, we’ve had literally hundreds of lions that have come through that have had that kind of problem.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve seen this before?
Pat Craig: Oh yeah.
The sanctuary devises a special diet for each animal… which requires 100,000 pounds of food per week— mainly donated by nearby Walmarts… occasional cupcakes included.
When we met him, Mikey the bear, another asylum-seeker from Puerto Rico, was midway through his rehab.
Dr. Mikaela Vetters: Right now he’s in his lock-out just so we can medically manage him.
Jon Wertheim: What did you see the first time you saw him?
Dr. Mikaela Vetters: He was in a great deal of pain very gingerly moving. We assume he’s got, you know, a great deal of arthritis which we’ve provided medications for and now he’s getting around like– almost like a young bear.
Nursing animals like Mikey back to physical health is one thing. Ministering to their emotional wounds is often a bigger challenge. Having been raised in captivity, many of the animals arrive with what amounts to severe PTSD, and they must be taught to trust the humans caring for them.
Pat Craig: They’re already mad at people anyway because of whatever people had done. I had one tiger years ago that any time you came near he’d want to hit the fence and kill you.
Jon Wertheim: What’s the timetable for trying to ease some of the trauma these animals have been through?
Pat Craig: You know, some were beaten, some were starved, some were mentally tormented, to a degree, you know. And so every case is different. So some of them will do it in a matter of days, some will be a few weeks.
Jon Wertheim: Doesn’t that story imply however traumatic this may have been, it’s not irreversible.
Pat Craig: It’s not irreversible.
The goal of all this rehab is to get these wild animals to act the part.
Remember Mundi? At the zoo she had zero contact with other elephants for more than30 years. We accompanied Craig on a visit to a refuge in Georgia, where he placed Mundi under the care of conservationist Carol Buckley. This marked the first time Craig and the elephant had seen each other since Puerto Rico.
Jon Wertheim: What do you notice?
Pat Craig: Well, first thing she just looks so much healthier. And just her demeanor is so much calmer and nicer. Every day when I would go see her in the zoo, I just, God, I would just hurt. And then now to see this is just amazing. Just truly amazing.
Buckley provides the care and feeding, but happily admits Mundi’s real mentors are the other elephants here.
Jon Wertheim: You’re just the innkeeper.
Carol Buckley: That’s right. Hey, I just open and close doors and make sure the waters are running, you know? And, the other elephant knows what they need to learn. And they’re instructing them. It’s fantastic. It is exactly the same as what happens in the wild.
That’s the same principle Craig employs at his sanctuary, and after two months of rehab, the lions from Puerto Rico were ready to enter their permanent habitat.
A lion being released into its permanent habitat
60 Minutes
We were on hand for the release. No one quite knew what to expect. Not least, the lions.
The first was reticent. But one by one….they started to venture out… enclosed for their safety, and ours… but otherwise, in a vast ocean of green.
Jon Wertheim: These guys have been in captivity their whole lives. This is a first.
Pat Craig: Yeah, this’ll be the first time ever that they’ve been able to either run, or live in a big space like this, even have deep grass.
Jon Wertheim: Makes you feel good?
Pat Craig: Yeah, absolutely. This is why we do this.
There were a few scuffles…but for Pat Craig, that’s exactly what he’d hoped for: lions acting like, well, lions. The animals come to this sanctuary from all over the world. But in this unlikely setting—here, silhouetted by the Rockies in eastern Colorado—they find more than just sanctuary… they, finally, find a home.
Produced by David M. Levine. Associate producer, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Joe Schanzer.
The arctic chill that upended the final weekend of the Iowa Republican caucus provided a fitting end to a contest that has seemed frozen in place for months.
This caucus has felt unusually lifeless, not only because former President Donald Trump has maintained an imposing and seemingly unshakable lead in the polls. That advantage was confirmed late Saturday night when the Des Moines Register, NBC, and Mediacom Iowa released their highly anticipated final pre-caucus poll showing Trump at 48 percent and, in a distant battle for second place, Nikki Haley at 20 percent and Ron DeSantis at 16 percent.
The caucus has also lacked energy because Trump’s shrinking field of rivals has never appeared to have the heart for making an all-out case against him. “I think there was actually a decent electorate that had supported Trump in the past but were interested in looking for somebody else,” Douglas Gross, a longtime GOP activist who chaired Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign in Iowa, told me. But neither DeSantis nor Haley, he adds, found a message that dislodged nearly enough of them from the front-runner. “Trump has run as an incumbent, if you will, and dominated the media so skillfully that it took a lot of the energy out of the race,” Gross said.
In retrospect, the constrictive boundaries for the GOP race were established when the candidates gathered for their first debate last August (without Trump, who has refused to attend any debate). The crucial moment came when Bret Baier, from Fox News Channel, asked the contenders whether they would support Trump as the nominee even if he was convicted of a crime “in a court of law.” All the contenders onstage raised their hand to indicate they would, except for Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, two long shots at the periphery of the race. With that declaration, the candidates effectively placed the question of whether Trump is fit to be president again—the most important issue facing Republicans in 2024—out of bounds.
That collective failure led to Christie’s withering moral judgment on the field when he quit the race last week: “Anyone who is unwilling to say that he is unfit to be president of the United States is unfit themselves to be president of the United States.” But even in practical political terms, the choice not to directly address Trump’s fitness left his principal rivals scrambling to find an alternative way to contrast with the front-runner.
Over time, DeSantis has built a coherent critique of Trump, though a very idiosyncratic one. DeSantis runs at Trump from the right, insisting that the man who devised and articulated the “America First” agenda can no longer be trusted to advance it. In his final appearances across Iowa, his CNN debate with Haley last week, and a Fox town hall, DeSantis criticized Trump’s presidential record and 2024 agenda as insufficiently conservative on abortion, LGBTQ rights, federal spending, confronting the bureaucracy, and shutting down the country during the pandemic. He has even accused Trump of failing to deport enough undocumented immigrants and failing to construct enough of his signature border wall.
On issues where politicians in the center or left charge Trump with extremism, DeSantis inverts the accusation: The problem, he argues, is that Trump wasn’t extreme enough. The moment that best encapsulated DeSantis’s approach came in last week’s CNN debate. At one point, the moderators asked him about the claim from Trump’s lawyer that he cannot be prosecuted for any presidential action—including ordering the assassination of a political rival—unless he was first impeached and convicted. DeSantis insisted the problem was that in office, Trump was too restrained in using unilateral presidential authority. He complained that Trump failed to call in the National Guard over the objections of local officials to squelch civil unrest in the Black Lives Matter protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd. When DeSantis visited campaign volunteers last Friday, he indignantly complained “it’s just not true” that he has gone easy on Trump in these final days. “If you watched the debate,” DeSantis told reporters, “I hit on BLM, not building the wall, the debt, not draining the swamp, Fauci, all those things.”
Perhaps the prospect of impending defeat has concentrated the mind, but DeSantis in his closing trek across Iowa has offered perceptive explanations for why these attacks against Trump have sputtered. One is that Trump stifled the debates by refusing to participate in them. “It’s different for me to just be doing that to a camera versus him being right there,” DeSantis told reporters. “When you have a clash, then you guys have to cover it, and it becomes something that people start to talk about.” The other problem, he maintained, was that conservative media like Fox News act as “a praetorian guard” that suppresses criticism of Trump, even from the right.
Those are compelling observations, but incomplete as an explanation. DeSantis’s larger problem may be that the universe of voters that wants Trumpism but doesn’t think Trump can be relied on to deliver it is much smaller than the Florida governor had hoped. One top Trump adviser told me that the fights Trump engaged in as president make it almost impossible to convince conservatives he’s not really one of them. Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa evangelical leader who has endorsed DeSantis, likewise told me that amid all of Trump’s battles with the left, it’s easier to try to convince evangelical conservatives that the former president can’t win in November than that he has abandoned their causes.
The analogy I’ve used for DeSantis’s strategy is that Trump is like a Mack truck barreling down the far-right lane of American politics, and that rather than trying to pass in all the space he’s left in the center of the road, DeSantis has tried to squeeze past him on the right shoulder. There’s just not a lot of room there.
Even so, DeSantis’s complaints about Trump look like a closing argument from Perry Mason compared with the muffled, gauzy case that Haley has presented against him. DeSantis’s choice to run to Trump’s right created a vacuum that Haley, largely through effective performances at the early debates, has filled with the elements of the GOP coalition that have always been most dubious of Trump: moderates, suburbanites, college-educated voters. But that isn’t a coalition nearly big enough to win. And she has walked on eggshells in trying to reach beyond that universe to the Republican voters who are generally favorable toward Trump but began the race possibly open to an alternative—what the veteran GOP pollster Whit Ayres calls the “maybe Trump” constituency.
The most notable thing in how Haley talks about Trump is that she almost always avoids value judgments. It’s time for generational change, she will say, or I will be a stronger general-election candidate who will sweep in more Republican candidates up and down the ballot.
At last week’s CNN debate, Haley turned up the dial when she that said of course Trump lost the 2020 election; that January 6 was a “terrible day”; and that Trump’s claims of absolute immunity were “ridiculous.” Those pointed comments probably offered a momentary glimpse of what she actually thinks about him. But in the crucial days before the caucus, Haley has reverted to her careful, values-free dissents. At one town hall conducted over telephone late last week, she said the “hard truths” Republicans had to face were that, although “President Trump was the right president at the right time” and “I agree with a lot of his policies,” the fact remained that “rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him.” Talk about taking off the gloves.
Jennifer Horn, the former Republican Party chair in New Hampshire who has become a fierce Trump critic, told me, “There’s no moral or ethical judgment against Trump from her. From anyone, really, but we’re talking about her. She says chaos follows him ‘rightly or wrongly.’ Who cares? Nobody cares about chaos. That’s not the issue with Trump. He’s crooked; he’s criminal; he incited an insurrection. That’s the case against Trump. And if his so-called strongest opponent won’t make the case against Trump, why should voters?”
Gross, the longtime GOP activist, is supporting Haley, but even he is perplexed by her reluctance to articulate a stronger critique of the front-runner. “I don’t know what her argument is,” Gross told me. “I guess it’s: Get rid of the chaos. She’s got to make a strong case about why she’s the alternative, and it’s got to include some element of judgment.”
The reluctance of DeSantis and Haley to fully confront the former president has created an utterly asymmetrical campaign battlefield because Trump has displayed no hesitation about attacking either of them. The super PAC associated with Trump’s campaign spent months pounding DeSantis on issues including supporting statehood for Puerto Rico and backing cuts in Social Security, and in recent weeks, Trump’s camp has run ads accusing Haley of raising taxes and being weak on immigration. In response, DeSantis and Haley have spent significantly more money attacking each other than criticizing, or even rebutting, Trump. Rob Pyers, an analyst with the nonpartisan California Target Book, has calculated that the principal super PAC supporting Trump has spent $32 million combined in ads against Haley and DeSantis; they have pummeled each other with a combined $38 million in negative ads from the super PACs associated with their campaigns. Meanwhile, the Haley and DeSantis super PACs have spent only a little more than $1 million in ads targeting Trump, who is leading them by as much as 50 points in national polls.
Haley’s sharpest retort to any of Trump’s attacks has been to say he’s misrepresenting her record. During the CNN debate, Haley metronomically touted a website called DeSantislies.com, but if she has a similar page up about Trump, she hasn’t mentioned it. (Her campaign didn’t respond to a query about whether it plans to establish such a site.)
“Calling him a liar right now is her strongest pushback, but I just don’t think GOP voters care about liars,” Horn told me. “If she engaged in a real battle with him for these last days [before New Hampshire], that would be fascinating to see. The fact that she’s not pushing back, the fact that she’s not running the strongest possible campaign as she’s coming down the stretch here, makes me wonder if she is as uncertain of her ability to win as I am.”
Some Republican strategists are sympathetic to this careful approach to Trump, especially from Haley. A former top aide to one of Trump’s main rivals in the 2016 race told me that “nobody has found a message you can put on TV that makes Republicans like Trump less.” Some other veterans of earlier GOP contests believe that Haley and DeSantis were justified in initially trying to eclipse the other and create a one-on-one race with Trump. And for Haley, there’s also at least some argument for preserving her strongest case against Trump for the January 23 New Hampshire primary, where a more moderate electorate may be more receptive than the conservative, heavily evangelical population that usually turns out for the caucus.
“She has to draw much sharper contrasts,” Gross told me. “And to be fair to her, once she gets out of here, maybe she will. What she strikes me as is incredibly disciplined and calculating. So, I do think you’re going to see modulation.”
DeSantis has the most to lose in Iowa, because a poor showing will almost certainly end his campaign, even if he tries to insist otherwise for a few weeks. For Haley, the results aren’t as important because whatever happens here, she will have another opportunity to create momentum in New Hampshire, where polls have shown her rising even as DeSantis craters. Still, if Haley is unable or unwilling to deliver a more persuasive argument against Trump, she too will quickly find herself with no realistic hope of overtaking the front-runner, whose lead in national polls of Republican voters continues to grow. That’s one thing common to winter in both Iowa and New Hampshire: It gets dark early.
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The people of Puerto Rico are US citizens. They vote in US presidential primaries, but not in presidential elections.
First named San Juan Bautista by Christopher Columbus.
The governor is elected by popular vote with no term limits.
Jenniffer González has been the resident commissioner since January 3, 2017. The commissioner serves in the US House of Representatives, but has no vote, except in committees. Gonzalez is the first woman to hold this position.
Puerto Ricans have voted in six referendums on the issue of statehood, in 1967, 1993, 1998, 2012, 2017 and 2020. The 2012 referendum was the first time the popular vote swung in statehood’s favor. Since these votes were nonbinding, no action had to be taken, and none was. Ultimately, however, Congress must pass a law admitting them to the union.
In addition to becoming a state, options for Puerto Rico’s future status include remaining a commonwealth, entering “free association” or becoming an independent nation. “Free association” is an official affiliation with the United States where Puerto Rico would still receive military assistance and funding.
1493-1898 – Puerto Rico is a Spanish colony.
July 25, 1898 – During the Spanish-American War, the United States invades Puerto Rico.
December 10, 1898 – With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Spain cedes Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States. The island is named “Porto Rico” in the treaty.
April 12, 1900 – President William McKinley signs the Foraker Act into law. It designates the island an “unorganized territory,” and allows for one delegate from Puerto Rico to the US House of Representatives with no voting power.
March 2, 1917 – President Woodrow Wilson signs the Jones Act into law, granting the people of Puerto Rico US citizenship.
May 1932 – Legislation changes the name of the island back to Puerto Rico.
November 1948 – The first popularly elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, is voted into office.
July 3, 1950 – President Harry S. Truman signs Public Law 600, giving Puerto Ricans the right to draft their own constitution.
October 1950 – In protest of Public Law 600, Puerto Rican nationalists lead armed uprisings in several Puerto Rican towns.
November 1, 1950 –Puerto Rican nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attempt to shoot their way into Blair House, where President Truman is living while the White House is being renovated. Torresola is killed by police; Collazo is arrested and sent to prison.
March 3, 1952 – Puerto Ricans vote in favor of the constitution.
July 25, 1952 – Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth as the constitution is put in place. This is also the anniversary of the United States invasion of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.
August 6, 2009 – Sonia Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is confirmed by the US Senate (68-31). She becomes the third woman and the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
November 6, 2012 – Puerto Ricans vote for statehood via a status plebiscite. The results are deemed inconclusive.
June 5, 2017 – Puerto Rico declares its Zika epidemic is over. The Puerto Rico Department of Health has reported more than 40,000 confirmed cases of the Zika virus since the outbreak began in 2016.
June 11, 2017 –Puerto Ricans vote for statehood via a status plebiscite. Over 97% of the votes are in favor of statehood, but only 23% of eligible voters participate.
December 18, 2017 –Gov. Ricardo Rosselló orders a review of deaths related to Hurricane Maria as the number could be much higher than the officially reported number. The announcement from the island’s governor follows investigations from CNN and other news outlets that called into question the official death toll of 64.
January 30, 2018 – More than four months after Maria battered Puerto Rico, the Federal Emergency Management Agency tells CNN it is halting new shipments of food and water to the island. Distribution of its stockpiled 46 million liters of water and four million meals and snacks will continue. The agency believes that amount is sufficient until normalcy returns.
September 4, 2018 – The US Government Accountability Office releases a report revealing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was so overwhelmed with other storms by the time Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico that more than half of the workers it was deploying to disasters were known to be unqualified for the jobs they were doing in the field.
September 13, 2018 – In a tweet, Trump denies that nearly 3,000 people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. He expresses skepticism about the death toll, suggesting that individuals who died of other causes were included in the hurricane count.
July 9, 2019 – Excerpts of profanity-laden, homophobic and misogynistic messages between Rosselló and members of his inner circle are published by local media.
July 10, 2019 – Six people, including Puerto Rico’s former education secretary and a former health insurance official, are indicted on corruption charges. The conspiracy allegedly involved directing millions of dollars in government contracts to politically-connected contractors.
July 13, 2019 –The Center for Investigative Journalism publishes hundreds of leaked messages from Rosselló and other officials. Rosselló and members of his inner circle ridicule numerous politicians, members of the media and celebrities.
September 27, 2019 – The federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances releases a plan that would cut the island’s debt by more than 60% and rescue it from bankruptcy. The plan targets bonds and other debt held by the government and will now go before a federal judge. The percentage of Puerto Rico’s taxpayer funds spent on debt payments will fall to less than 9%, compared to almost 30% before the restructuring.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ fund to support homeless families announced $117 million in new grants on Tuesday to organizations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, part of a $2 billion commitment that the billionaire made in 2018 to support homeless families and to run free preschools.
That brings the amount granted by the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund to benefit homeless families to almost $640 million.
Bezos’ partner, former news anchor Lauren Sánchez, who is also the vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, thanked the grantee organizations in a video posted to both her and Bezos’ social media accounts.
Bezos, the world’s third richest person with a fortune of $170 billion, last year told CNN he planned to donate much of his fortune to charity over his lifetime. That came after Bezos had come under fire for what critics said was a lack of philanthropic initiatives, especially amid the charitable activities of his ex-wife, Mackenzie Scott.
Scott, who divorced Bezos in 2019, is the world’s 39th richest person with a fortune of $34 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The Bezos Day 1 Families Fund did not give a timeframe for when the pledged $2 billion would be distributed or what portion would go to homeless families.
Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021 to spend more time on his other projects, including the rocket company, Blue Origin, and his philanthropy. Bezos and Sánchez have not signed the Giving Pledge, which asks billionaires to make a similar commitment.
Flexible grants
The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte received a second grant this year after first being awarded $5 million by the fund in 2018. Deronda Metz, director of social services, said they can use the funding in more flexible ways than the government grants they receive, including the renovation of a 100 room hotel, hiring additional staff and expanding the facility for an on-campus Boys & Girls Club.
Rents rose sharply in her city following the pandemic, as it did in many cities, meaning that more families are losing their housing and that the cost of getting them into apartments has risen, she said.
“When you have flexible dollars in a rental market like this, you could pay your high rent, you could pay a higher deposit,” Metz said.
Here are the 38 recipients
Abode Services, Fremont, CA — $5 million
American Indian Community Development Corporation (AICDC), Minneapolis, MN — $5 million
ARVAC Inc., Russellville, AR — $1.25 million
BronxWorks, New York, NY — $5 million
Bolivar County Community Action Agency, Inc., Cleveland, MS — $1.25 million
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, Inc., Miami, FL — $5 million
Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, Seattle, WA — $5 million
Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, Burlington, VT — $5 million
Community Action Partnership of Kern, Bakersfield, CA — $5 million
Community of Hope, Inc, Washington, DC — $3.75 million
Council for the Homeless, Vancouver, WA — $5 million
Crossroads Rhode Island, Providence, RI — $5 million
Everyone Home DC, Washington, DC — $2.5 million
Family Promise of Athens, Athens, GA — $400,000
Family Promise of Cheyenne, Cheyenne, WY — $150,000
Family Promise of the Triangle, Raleigh, NC — $1 million
Family Service Lincoln, Lincoln, NE — $2.5 million
Hogar Ruth para Mujeres Maltratadas, Inc., Vega Alta, PR — $2.5 million
Hospitality House of Northwest North Carolina, Boone, NC — $2.5 million
Interfaith Community Services, Escondido, CA — $5 million
Ka Mana O Na Helu, Pearl City, HI — $2.5 million
La Fondita de Jesús, San Juan, PR — $2.5 million
Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, Salem, OR — $5 million
Native American Connections, Phoenix, AZ — $5 million
Neighborhood Place of Puna, Puna, HI — $2.5 million
Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority, Ukiah, CA — $2.5 million
Primavera Foundation, Tucson, AZ — $5 million
Shelter House, Inc, Fairfax, VA — $2.5 million
Stewpot Community Services, Inc., Jackson, MS — $1.25 million
Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, Fort Worth, TX — $2.5 million
Temporary Emergency Services, Inc., Tuscaloosa, AL —$1 million
The Salvation Army, Fort Myers Area Command, Fort Myers, FL — $2.5 million
The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte, Charlotte, NC — $3.75 million
UMOM New Day Centers, Phoenix, AZ — $5 million
United Communities Against Poverty, Inc. (UCAP), Capitol Heights, MD • $1.25 million
United Way of Yellowstone County, Billings, MT • $2.5 million
Wisconsin Balance of State CoC, Eau Claire, WI — $1.25 million
YWCA Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH — $1.25 million
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As Hurricane Lee fluctuates in intensity over open Atlantic waters, its effects may soon be felt at beaches up and down the East Coast in the form of life-threatening rip currents and dangerous shoreline conditions.
Lee is forecast to continue moving well north of Puerto Rico, the British and US Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands, but it will have an impact there and at other Caribbean islands. It remains too early to determine its long-term track for later this week and how significant the impacts could be for northeastern US states, Bermuda and Atlantic Canada.
The East Coast, however, is expected to face large swells and rip currents in an increasing manner through this week – much as the Caribbean is being affected now.
“Swells generated by Lee are affecting portions of the Lesser Antilles,” the National Hurricane Center warned Friday night. The British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda also face swells this weekend that can bring life-threatening surf and rip conditions.
Waves breaking at 6 to 10 feet were forecast for Sunday, according to the National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Larger waves were expected this week along east- and north-facing beaches.
“Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible,” the office posted on social media.
Lee, which was a Category 1 storm Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed into Category 5 status as it moved west across the Atlantic, more than doubling its wind speeds to 165 mph in just a day.
Vertical wind shear and an eyewall replacement cycle – a process that occurs with the majority of long-lived major hurricanes – has since led to the weakening of Lee, the hurricane center said.
Now a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, forecasters expect Lee to regain strength “during the next couple of days, followed by gradual weakening,” the hurricane center said early Sunday. Lee is centered around 280 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands as of 5 a.m. ET Sunday and moving in a west-northwest direction at 9 mph.
Computer model trends for Lee have shown the hurricane taking a turn to the north early this week. But exactly when that turn occurs and how far west Lee will manage to track by then will play a huge role in how close it gets to the US.
Several steering factors at the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere will determine how close Lee will get to the East Coast.
An area of high pressure over the Atlantic, known as the Bermuda High, will have a major influence on how quickly Lee turns. A strong Bermuda High would keep Lee on its current west-northwestward track and slow it down a bit.
As the high pressure weakens this week, it will allow Lee to start moving northward. Once that turn to the north occurs, the position of the jet stream – strong upper-level winds that can change the direction of a hurricane’s path – will influence how closely Lee is steered to the US.
Scenario: Out to Sea
Lee could make a quick turn to the north early this week if high pressure weakens significantly.
If the jet stream sets up along the East Coast, it will act as a barrier that prevents Lee from approaching the coast. This scenario would keep Lee farther away from the US coast but could bring the storm closer to Bermuda.
Scenario: Close to East Coast
Lee could make a slower turn to the north because the high pressure remains robust, and the jet stream sets up farther inland over the Eastern US. This scenario would leave portions of the East Coast, mainly north of the Carolinas, vulnerable to a much closer approach from Lee.
In the 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination, Puerto Rico will weigh in with its 23 delegates — more than any of the U.S. territories — and more than the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, Delaware and Maine.
The island, a U.S. territory, doesn’t usually attract much attention early in the race, likely because it tends to hold its presidential primary after Super Tuesday, when the largest number of states will be voting. So far, only one GOP 2024 presidential candidate has visited the island, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, and he has since dropped his presidential bid.
But Republican presidential candidates have campaigned here, and perhaps because of its late date, it can play a role in helping a GOP candidate reach the 1,234 delegates needed to secure the nomination. George H.W. Bush, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama also visited during their presidential campaigns.
Each of them ended up winning Puerto Rico during their primary campaigns — and all supported statehood for the U.S. territory, the top issue in island politics. In 2012, when former Sen. Rick Santorum was running for president and visiting the island, he was heavily criticized after telling a newspaper in Puerto Rico that he supported statehood but “to be a state of the United States, English has to be the principal language.”
Puerto Rico, with its population of 3.2 million, is the only U.S. jurisdiction that is fully Hispanic and whose main language is Spanish.
Puerto Rico participates in presidential primaries but not presidential elections
States determine the winner of the presidential election with the electors they select. Because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and not a state, its citizens may not vote in presidential elections. However, as U.S. citizens, Puerto Rico residents may participate in the primaries.
But in general, Puerto Ricans are somewhat disconnected from U.S. party politics, largely because political affiliations on the island revolve around Puerto Rico’s status — that is, whether or not to back statehood or independence.
“The vast majority doesn’t know what being a Democrat or being a Republican is…political parties in Puerto Rico deal with local issues, and they don’t usually interfere in national politics, and if they comment it’s minimal, and the main topic is the political status,” says Luis Carmona, a political science professor at the University of Puerto Rico.
The island’s three main political parties represent each choice about its status: The New Progressive Party supports statehood, while the Popular Democratic Party favors territorial ties with the mainland U.S., and the Puerto Rican Independence Party wants independence.
A non-binding referendum in 2020 showed the island was divided on this question: 52% of the residents voted in favor of statehood, while 47% voted against it, according to the local state commission. While all local GOP members are required to support statehood, not all members of the New Progressive Party are Republicans.
In the U.S., allowing a vote on statehood for the island has had some bipartisan support. Last year, the House passed a bill that would have allowed Puerto Ricans to vote in a binding referendum on statehood versus some type of independent status, but the Senate did not consider it. The House vote on the bill received some support from GOP lawmakers, but in the Senate, most Republicans oppose Puerto Rico statehood, so there was not enough support to bring the legislation to the floor.
Primary turnout
Historically, primary turnout in Puerto Rico is very low. According to the local state commission, about 126,000 people participated in the 2012 GOP primary, the year Romney won the primary and the Republican nomination. But in 2016, the last time the island held a Republican primary, voter turnout dropped off substantially, with under 40,000 voters participating when Rubio prevailed. That year, however, the presidential primary was held on a different date than the local elections, which was likely a contributing factor.
Any registered voter may cast a ballot, since Puerto Rico has an open primary. As is true of the states, Puerto Rico’s Republican primary is winner take all.
Unless Republicans make a bigger effort to connect with Puerto Rican voters and their issues, like statehood and the island’s economy, which has been devastated by hurricanes and by the pandemic, that low voter engagement is likely to continue.
One factor that could come into play, though, is the GOP’s recent efforts in the midterm elections to woo Hispanics, who make up about 13% of the electorate. Puerto Rican Republican Party Chairman Ángel Cintrón argues that winning Puerto Rico would send a strong signal to other Hispanic voters across the country.
“It’s like a letter of recommendation because this is a jurisdiction 100% Hispanic…you won’t find any other jurisdiction like this one,” Cintrón said.
“To the extent that candidates start visiting Puerto Rico or start talking about it, and get involved in our issues there will be more people participating in the polls,” he added.
“We are not a barometer, but we do have electoral weight,” Cintrón said of the island’s role in the primaries. He believes Puerto Ricans “are conservatives by nature.” According to the World Values Survey for Puerto Rico published in 2019, about 94% of residents consider family to be the most important thing in their lives, followed by their jobs with 70% and religion with 65%.
When is Puerto Rico’s Republican presidential primary?
The island usually holds its primaries after Super Tuesday, when the largest number of states will be holding primary contests. In 2024, that date will be March 5. Puerto Rico Republicans have not yet set a date for their primary, but a source told CBS News April is a possibility. If the GOP presidential nomination fight is close, Puerto Rico’s late primary could be a deciding factor for a candidate trying to lock up the 1,234 needed to win.
The board game Puerto Rico was released in 2002, and while it by all accounts played very well, it was also a deeply colonial game that made light of the fact you were being asked to build a commercial empire large part on the back of slavery.
This Lesbian Mafia Anime Might Actually Make You Want To Play Golf
To win, one must “achieve the greatest prosperity and highest respect.” In practice, that means the mechanics of “Puerto Rico” are centered around cultivation, exploitation, and plunder. Each turn, a player takes a role—the “settler,” the “builder,” the “trader,” the “craftsman,” the “captain,” and so on—and tries to slowly transform their tropical enclave into a tidy, 16th-century imperial settlement. Perhaps they uproot the wilds and replace them with tobacco pastures or corn acreage, or maybe they outfit the rocky reefs with fishing wharfs and harbors, in order to ship those goods back across the ocean. All of this is possible only with the help of a resource that the game calls “colonists,” —represented by small, brown discs in the game’s first edition, which was published by Rio Grande Games and is available in major retailers—who arrive by ship and are sent by players to work on their plantations.
Slaves, then. It’s talking about slaves. Throw in the fact the game completely ignores the island’s indigenous population and environmental concerns and you can see why, in more recent years as board gaming has expanded its audience and sought to reckon with its output, it was not a great look for a major publisher like Ravensburger to be lending its name to the game.
As Dicebreaker report, that led to a revised edition being launched last year, which set the game in 1897—after Spanish rule but before America’s—and basically “decolonized it”, keeping the central mechanics but changing much of the imagery and thematic overlay.
Sadly, while the relaunch had good intentions, it badly whiffed on its manufacturing. As Dicebreaker say, “The game’s release was beset by complaints of missing components – notably four fruit tiles and half the coffee tiles needed to play – and production oversights, including rulebook errors and text missing from building tiles that explained their unique effects”.
Things got so bad that Ravensburger had to “halt production” of the game to “correct the number of tiles and rulebook mistakes”. People who had already bought a copy can now fill out a form to get the missing pieces sent out to them, a revised edition of the manual has been released as a downloadable pdf and a relaunch—the game’s third when you count a 2020 visual revamp—later this year in stores will have hopefully fixed all of this for anyone buying a copy going forwards.
Hertz has rewritten some of its policies to make it clear to employees that Puerto Rico driver’s licenses are valid forms of identification for car rentals, and that Puerto Ricans do not need to provide further proof of ID in the U.S. The move comes after a Puerto Rican man was denied a car rental when Hertz employees demanded to see his passport instead of his license.
The incident occurred on May 10 at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport when Humberto Marchand was denied his Hertz rental vehicle after showing his Puerto Rico driver’s license. The Hertz employee demanded to see Marchand’s passport, which he was not carrying because Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, rendering a passport unnecessary for travel in the U.S.
In response, Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s congressional representative, wrote directly to Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr last week, saying that it was “unacceptable that, more than 100 years after obtaining U.S. citizenship, Puerto Ricans are still discriminated against and treated like second-class American citizens.”
González-Colón also called on Scherr to “consider implementing a company-wide educational campaign that adequately addresses this discrimination that far too many Puerto Ricans have experienced — with your business and others — to make certain it does not repeat itself.”
BREAKING: The CEO of @Hertz wrote a letter to Puerto Rico‘s representative in Congress stating that Hertz has rewritten its policy to make it abundantly clear that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory – not a foreign country – & because of that Puerto Rico driver’s licenses are not… pic.twitter.com/Lh1Cjh0VAx
In a response to González-Colón, Scherr wrote that it was the company’s policy that “a driver’s license from Puerto Rico is, on its own, a valid form of identification to rent a vehicle in the United States and is therefore treated no differently from any U.S. state driver’s license.”
“Since this incident occurred, we have taken multiple steps to ensure that our team is better trained on our identification policies,” Scherr wrote. “This includes rewriting a policy to be even more clear about the status of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, disseminating written and verbal communications from Hertz senior leadership to our field and call-center teams, and adding this topic to in-person field huddles.”
In addition to the issues Marchand had with Hertz, a Kenner police officer who responded to the incident also told Marchand to leave. Marchand said that, as he was walking away, he heard the officer say he would call “the border authorities.”
A police spokesman for the Kenner Police Department said that comment wasn’t heard on body camera video from the encounter. It’s unclear, however, when the officer turned the body camera off after responding to the incident.
Marchand has since filed a complaint and that officer is the subject of an internal investigation.
Hertz apologized to Marchand and refunded him for the car rental.
In a similar incident last month, a Puerto Rican family traveling from Los Angeles to Puerto Rico wasn’t allowed onto a Spirit Airlines flight because their toddler did not have his passport, which he did not need. That family ended up paying for a more expensive flight on Jet Blue in order to get to Puerto Rico.
Spirit has apologized to the family, refunded them for the flight and provided them with future travel vouchers, the airline said.
Read the letters from González-Colón and Scherr in full below.
Jenniffer González-Colón’s letter to Herz CEO Stephen Scherr.
CBS News
Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr’s response to Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón
Bad Bunny performs during the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, February 5, 2023.
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters
Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is being sued by his ex-girlfriend for $40 million over claims he used a recording of her voice without permission or compensation.
Carliz De La Cruz Hernández claims that in 2015, prior to her split with Bad Bunny — whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — and before his rise to international fame, she recorded the phrase “Bad Bunny baby” on her phone.
That voice recording, she says, has been used on two of the Grammy-award winning artist’s songs, his 2017 single “Pa Ti” and the 2022 song “Dos Mil 16.” Both tracks have more than 200 million plays each on Spotify and the latter appears on the chart-topping album “Un Verano Sin Ti.”
According to court documents filed in Puerto Rico earlier this month, De La Cruz said she came up with the phrase and her “distinguishable voice” is being used without her permission. Her lawyers argue Bad Bunny’s use violates Puerto Rico’s “law of the right to own image.”
“Thousands of people have commented directly on Carliz’s social media networks, as well as every time she goes to a public place, about ‘Bad Bunny baby,’” the lawsuit states. “This has caused, and currently causes, De La Cruz to feel worried, anguished, intimidated, overwhelmed and anxious.”
De la Cruz and Bad Bunny dated on and off starting in 2011, according to the lawsuit. She alleges in the court documents that Bad Bunny offered her $2,000 to buy the recording in 2022 but she declined. A deal was never reached and he then went ahead and used the recording without her express permission, according to the lawsuit.
De la Cruz is now seeking at least $40 million.
Bad Bunny, 29, has not publicly addressed the lawsuit. His label, Rimas Entertainment, and his manager, Noah Kamil Assad Byrne, are also named in the suit. CNBC reached out to Rimas Entertainment for comment.
Bad Bunny rose to prominence in 2018 after being featured on the Cardi B chart-topper “I Like It.” He’s since become one of the most prolific hit makers in Latin music and was the most-streamed artist on Spotify for the past three years.
Bad Bunny is set to headline the 2023 Coachella music festival next month.
Bad Bunny will be returning to his native Puerto Rico in May to host the upcoming “Backlash” event for WWE.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that the May 6 event — to be broadcast live via PPV from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan — marks the first “premium live event” the WWE has held in Puerto Rico since 2005.
“In 2005 when I was a kid, I wasn’t able to attend New Year’s Revolution at el Coliseo,” said Bad Bunny. “Finally, 18 years later WWE returns to the island with a massive event, and this time I won’t miss it.”
“Backlash” is one of the WWE’s biggest annual events, traditionally taking place after WrestleMania, which this year will take place over two nights — April 1 and 2 — at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
“We’re excited to bring ‘Backlash’ to San Juan as the demand for WWE premium live events outside of the continental United States continues to grow,” said WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque in a statement. “Bad Bunny is one of the world’s most popular entertainers and nowhere is that more evident than in his native Puerto Rico.”
According to THR, WWE will be sharing additional info about the event in the weeks to come; WWE wouldn’t confirm whether Bad Bunny would also be performing at “Backlash”.
