Topics of the Week

This past week was filled with interesting news here on the island. It started off with Governor Fortuño's announcement on Tuesday announcing the layoff of more than 30,000 public employees beginning July 1st of this year. This was met with many, but yet peaceful, demonstrations by la Fortaleza (the governor's residence) by unions. Many people are angry and upset, but I believe most do realize the dire economic situation which the island faces. There are no other options. In fact, the island's bond ratings are close to being downgraded to junk status by Moody's. Along with the $5 billion dollars coming from the federal government to help stimulate the local economy, Governor Fortuño has also proposed el plan estímulo criollo, which will inject an estimated $500 million to help numerous sectors of the economy, such as infraestructure projects, small to medium businesses, amongst others.

Now switching gears and moving on to another hot topic here on the island... the trial of former governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, who is accussed of breaking campaign finance laws, seems to be going well in his favor. Halfway into the trial, the judge has warned prosecutors saying they have not shown enough evidence to prove the governor was guilty of any conspiracy.

Moving onto sports, it's nice to finally see something else dominate the front page of the Sunday paper besides boxing. As most baseball fanatics might already know, the World Baseball Classic is currently taking place in several different countries, including Puerto Rico! Yesterday, Panama was defeated by Puerto Rico in a shutout game, 7-0. The biggest upset was the game between the Dominican Republic and the Netherlands, who were the underdogs. The Dutch won by 1-0! As I'm one who tends to root for the underdogs, and someone very close to me is Dutch, I can't help but say "hup Holland hup!"

(Images obtained from www.endi.com, photo by Juan Alicea).