Actualidad

Los puertorriqueños llenan el Censo una y otra vez

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A mediados de agosto, solo uno de cada diez hogares había completado el cuestionario del Censo 2020 en Barrio Obrero Marina en Santurce según la Oficina del Censo de Estados Unidos. Doña Carmen quiso corroborar este dato preguntando en su sector: “¿Llenaste el Censo?” 

Con el sol de mediodía encima y su mascarilla bien puesta, Carmen Febres Alméstica, la líder comunitaria que preside la organización de residentes G-8 del Caño Martín Peña, comenzó por la calle Argentina. 

Desde el balcón de una casa en esa calle, con su perro ladrando sin descanso detrás del portón de la entrada, Raquel Pérez saludó a doña Carmen y le contestó que sí, que su hija llenó el formulario por ella. Aseguró que varios de sus vecinos también lo llenaron y que recibió dos visitas de encuestadores después de haber contestado. De allí, Febres Alméstica pasó a la calle 5, luego subió por la Avenida Rexach hasta la calle 14, su “querida calle 14”, donde vive hace aproximadamente 65 años. En el trayecto, un señor que barría frente a su barra, clausurada por la pandemia, dijo que lo llenó por internet.

English

Puerto Rico residents say they answered the 2020 census. The government keeps asking again.

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In Barrio Obrero Marina, a working class neighborhood of San Juan, the U.S. Census Bureau said that fewer than one in 10 households had answered the 2020 census by mid-August. Community leader Carmen Febres Alméstica set out to see if the government was right. Wearing a face mask under the midday sun, Febres Alméstica, who chairs a local residents’ organization, began on Argentina Street. A woman named Raquel Pérez, her dog barking non-stop behind her small entrance gate, greeted Febres Alméstica from a balcony. Pérez said her daughter filled out a census form for her.

English

Gold coins, Playstation controls, properties and $21 million are the legacy of fraud

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An order from the US District Court – Middle District of Florida appointing Mark A. Kornfeld as receiver in a fraud case was entered late on March 6, 2020. The next morning, Kornfeld went to the BBT Financial Center, on 1800 Second Street, in Sarasota, Florida and took possession of Suite 855. Since 2013, it has been the office of Kinetic Funds and Lendacy, the companies that investment manager Michael Williams used to defraud dozens of investors from Puerto Rico and Florida, according to a civil case filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the beginning of the year. Inside the office, backed by a forensics team, Kornfeld changed the locks on the door, went through several files and took an inventory of all of the items. The office, on the eighth floor of a brick building with luxury suites, was left empty. Everything that had been in it was transported to a storage facility in Sarasota, a city south of Tampa.

Actualidad

Monedas de oro, controles de Playstation, propiedades y $21 millones son el legado de un fraude

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La orden del Tribunal federal del Distrito del Centro de Florida nombrando a Mark A. Kornfeld como síndico en un caso de fraude entró tarde el día 6 de marzo de 2020. A la mañana siguiente, Kornfeld se dirigió al BBT Financial Center, en la 1800 Second Street, en Sarasota, Florida y tomó posesión de la suite 855. Desde el 2013 esa había sido la oficina de Kinetic Funds y Lendacy, empresas que el manejador de inversiones Michael Williams utilizó para defraudar a decenas de inversionistas de Puerto Rico y Florida, según un caso civil que sometió la Comisión de Bolsa y Valores de Estados Unidos (SEC, inglés) a principios de año. Dentro de la oficina, con un equipo de forenses, Kornfeld cambió las cerraduras de la puerta, revisó varios archivos e hizo un inventario de todos los artículos. La oficina, en el octavo piso de un edificio de ladrillo con suites de lujo, quedó vacía.

English

Three years. Four disasters. Social workers in Puerto Rico want change.

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This story was published in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity. After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, social worker Erica Colón Ortega organized psychologists, therapists and religious counselors to meet with residents in her community of Dorado. Many living there had lost all their possessions after flood water rushed into homes sitting along the river. As Colón Ortega talked to residents about their losses, she also heard about the emotional toll — feelings of despair, sadness and anguish as they struggled to rebuild. Now, as COVID-19 surges, mental-health needs in Dorado and across Puerto Rico are further mounting, she and other experts warn.

English

Governor Unveiled Plan to Address Coastal Erosion that Snubs Committee of Experts and Advisors on Climate Change

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The announcement the Government of Puerto Rico made this week about the action plan to address the impact of coastal erosion snubbed the legally mandated role that members of the Committee of Experts and Advisors on Climate Change have to handle this matter that affects the island’s coastal towns. Aside from not having any scientific member of that Committee present during   the announcement, they weren’t either   consulted about the plan presented, the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) confirmed. On September 2, La Fortaleza announced that a working group met that day to prepare an action plan to address coastal erosion. The meeting, which included agency heads from Puerto Rico and representatives of the federal government, was held at the Miramar Convention Center. The CPI contacted five of the nine members of the Committee of Experts and Advisors on Climate Change, and although they confirmed having received an invitation to the meeting, at least four of the six scientific members said they did not know what the action plan announced is about and they expressed concern that the government will not enforce Act 33, which took effect on July 1, 2019.