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A judge ordered Puerto Rico’s Treasury Department to explain why it awarded an $8.7 million Lottery Bureau advertising contract to another agency, despite Digimedia receiving the highest score in the bidding process.

According to the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, the housing units proposed for the project outnumber the tourist lodging units by a ratio of two to one. The agency recommended that the developer reduce the number of residences to qualify for more tax credits.

After a $1 billion cut to one of the main federally funded mitigation programs — designed to help communities tackle climate change — Puerto Rico is losing significant grants. For the past four days, Governor Jenniffer González's administration has remained silent on the matter.

The noncompliance of existing plans, court orders and laws in southwestern coastal areas in Buyé, Joyuda, and La Parguera, shows how complex the implementation of the Climate Change Adaptation Plan would be.

The case of several properties on the Arecibo coast is an example of what is happening in other areas of Puerto Rico, but neither the Municipality nor the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA, in Spanish) act, while construction is allowed in the area affected by erosion.

The experience of communities in Isabela and Vega Baja shows that the government of Puerto Rico acts against the recommendations of experts and its own public policy, which is supposed to protect coastal natural resources.