PUERTO RICO HERALD: Puerto Rico May Get U.S. Quarter

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Puerto Rico May Get U.S. Quarter

by Robert Nolin

September 29, 2000
Copyright © 2000 Sun-Sentinel, South Florida. All Rights Reserved.

Part of the realm for more than a century, Puerto Rico may soon get its own coin of the realm: a specially designed quarter commemorating the island as a U.S. commonwealth.

And a tiny tree frog could leap to the top of the list of designs to symbolize the land.

The House of Representatives this week passed a measure to include Puerto Rico and five U.S. territories in the national mint`s popular program of recognizing individual states with specially designed quarters. The Senate must still approve the bill.

Started in 1999, the 10-year program calls for five quarters to be minted each year. Nine coins, issued in the order in which the states entered the union, have already been struck.

"I felt left out as a U.S. citizen," said Puerto Rican Sen. Kenneth McClintock, who testified before Congress last week for the coins. "I was seeing all the other states getting quarters and we don`t get ours. A quarter circulates here as much as anywhere else."

High circulation is almost guaranteed in Puerto Rico, whose population of 3.9 million makes it the largest of the U.S. possessions. If Congress approves, however, it would be 2009 before any new coins are struck.

Besides Puerto Rico, the other political entities that may get their own quarters are Washington, D.C., American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Marianas and Guam.

SAN JUAN (AP) - The U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved Thursday the new proposal to improve the Section 30-A incentive in Puerto Rico at a cost of $516 million over five years.

The plan to improve Section 30-A of the Internal Revenue Code would modify the maximum limit of benefits that the manufacturers will be allowed starting Jan. 1, 2002.

If the actual law stands, in 2002, the benefits that 30-A companies can take based on the jobs created will be drastically limited in relation to the amount of credit.

SAN JUAN (AP) - U.S. District Judge Jaime Pieras ruled Friday that the presidential vote bill that would enable Puerto Rico residents to vote for U.S. president in the upcoming elections is valid because it was approved before the midnight deadline in the Legislative extraordinary session earlier this month.

Pieras' ruling ends the controversy between New Progressive Party legislators and Puerto Rican Independence Party and Popular Democratic Party opposition, who claimed the presidential vote bill was invalid because it was approved after midnight on Sept. 29.

September 30, 2000
Copyright © 2000 PuertoRicoWOW News Service. All Rights Reserved.

SAN JUAN — 09/30/00 - The Puerto Rico government began to receive their share of the tobacco settlement, and Gov. Pedro Rossello announced Friday the assignment of $41.2 million of those funds to educational programs for children.

Friday's assignment is the second to be given this week to the Children Trusteeship created immediately after Puerto Rico was informed that it would be receiving $2.2 billion from the settlement agreement over the next 25 years.

Rossello assigned $37 million on Wednesday for health related programs. Next week, he will be distributing $25 million to the recreational endeavors.

The three-phase program will receive a $103 million assignment, of which $90 million has already been received.

Rossello made the announcement Friday afternoon at one of the 42 programs that were awarded funds - the YMCA, which received $2.7 million for their new educational program.

"Most of the proposals received were from community groups that for years have been doing an astonishing job in favor of our children and our youth," Rossello said.

The funds awarded to educational programs will be used to cover teaching materials, pre-school and day-care service for children under 5 years old, technological initiatives, development of scientific skills, and special aid programs.

SAN JUAN (AP) - Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) Rep. Victor Garcia San Inocencio heads the list of candidates to receive the most votes in the next general elections, according to a survey of Precision Research in published reports.

The six candidates of the New Progressive Party and four of the six candidates of the Popular Democratic Party would also win, according to the survey.

Carried out in September, the survey registered 13.18% of undecided voters and a 3% margin of error.

Garcia San Inocencio has 6.94% of the votes, followed by Melinda Romero, Lourdes Ramos, Jorge de Castro Font, Jose Chico, Oscar Ramos, Angel Cintron, Gladys Nieves, Iris Miriam Ruiz, Carlos Vizcarrondo, and Severo Colberg. Ferdinand Perez and Alida Arizmendi would not gain a seat.

Precision Research indicated that closer to the Nov. 7 elections, the outlook of the survey could change.

SAN JUAN (AP) - Amidst vocal protests by their lawyers, the 65 protesters arrested Sunday for trespassing on U.S. Navy land in Vieques were returned to prison after U.S. Magistrate Jesus Castellanos imposed $1,500 bail for each.

Those detained were returned to jail in Guaynabo after Castellanos denied requests by their lawyers to allow them to unite the group for purposes of their defense.

BOSTON (AP) - If residents of Puerto Rico want the right to vote in presidential elections, the island must become a state or the U.S. Constitution must be amended, a Justice Department attorney said Thursday.

Matthew Collette told a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Constitution only allows states - not territories - to send electors to the Electoral College to pick the president.

"This was a fundamental point. States would choose the electors," he argued. "While we understand the frustration, we understand the dissatisfaction, the constitution is clear as it stands."

The U.S. government is battling a group of activists from Puerto Rico who persuaded a lower court judge to declare that Puerto Rican voters - 2.4 million of them - have a right to participate in the election.

Gustavo Gelpi, solicitor general for the Puerto Rican government, which joined the plaintiffs in the case, told the court that residents of Puerto Rico have a fundamental right to vote, even without the passage of any constitutional amendment.

SAN JUAN –- Rosa Meneses, granddaughter of Puerto Rico Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos, urged members of the Senate Government and Federal Affairs Committee to find those responsible for politically persecuting Puerto Ricans.

Meneses was among those who testified during the first round of hearings by the committee, which is investigating the role of local and federal authorities in creating political dossiers on Puerto Ricans. The files were established to monitor people on the basis of their political beliefs.

Thursday hearing's was the first of three already schedule to be held on the subject. Although the New Progressive Party (NPP) chairman Kenneth McClintock acknowledged that more hearings could take place, he said the fact that the proceedings began so close to the end of the legislative calendar could limit their number.

Aside from the hearing on Albizu Campos, the committee plans to have a hearing on the dossier of the University Students Pro Independence Federation, and one on Popular Democratic Party (PDP) founder and Gov. Luis Muñoz Marin.

Washington - Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush said Thursday that if Vieques residents vote in favor of a U.S. Navy withdrawal from the island, he will completely abide by that decision.

Puerto Rico May Get U.S. Quarter

U.S. Senate Committee Approves Improved 30-A

Presidential Vote Bill Passed On Time

Tobacco Settlement Fund Allocation Set

PIP Representative At-Large Ahead

Vieques Protesters Sent Back To Jail

U.S. Appeals Court Hears Arguments In Puerto Rico Vote Case

Senate Holds First Round Of Hearings On Political Dossiers

Bush Promises To Respect Wishes Of Vieques Residents

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