puerto rico
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Whitefish, Candidates for the Scammer Hall of Fame, Billed Puerto Rico More Than 7 Times What They Actually Paid Their Workers: Report
A new report from the New York Times has uncovered the startling gap between what Whitefish Energy, the small energy company that was charged with rebuilding Puerto Rico’s devastated power grid, charged for its workers and what it actually paid. The Times spoke to six electrical workers from Kissimmee, Fla., who are currently working on…
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Puerto Rico Suffers Major Blackout as Power Line Fails
After weeks of repairs, Puerto Rico was hit Thursday night with a major power outage that has thrown a substantial portion of the island back into darkness. As the New York Times reports, a major power line serving the northern half of Puerto Rico failed Thursday night, knocking out electricity to seven cities, including the…
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1 Fish, 2 Fish, No More Whitefish: Puerto Rico Cancels Controversial Energy Contract
The Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority, amid mounting controversy surrounding its $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy, has decided to cancel the deal. As CBS News reports, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced early Sunday that he wanted the no-bid contract with the small, 2-year old Montana company to be canceled “immediately.” The governor’s decision…
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Energy Company Tasked With Bringing Power Back to Puerto Rico Gets Into Twitter Beef With Mayor Instead
The company tasked with repairing Puerto Rico’s power grid and restoring electricity to the island got into a public Twitter spat with the mayor of San Juan Wednesday after she said in an interview that the small Montana firm’s $300 million contract should be voided. According to Yahoo! News, the online feud ended Wednesday with…
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Puerto Rico Awards Largest Relief Contract to Small, 2-Year-Old Mont. Firm With Ties to Trump Administration
Puerto Rico’s power authority, PREPA, has awarded a lucrative contract to rebuild the island’s devastated power grid to a small, 2-year-old Montana firm that had only two full-time employees at the time Hurricane Maria hit, according to a report by the Washington Post. The company, Whitefish, also has ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Whitefish…
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Trump Gives Himself a 10 for Relief Efforts in Puerto Rico; Former Island Governor Hits Him With #WellActually on Twitter
Last week, Donald Trump gave himself a 10 out of 10 when asked about his handling of relief efforts in Puerto Rico after the devastation left behind by Hurricane Maria. On Friday, the former governor of Puerto Rico hit him with a big #WellActually on Twitter. During an Oval Office meeting Thursday with current Puerto…
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Report: Water From a Hazardous Waste Site Is Being Given to Puerto Rican Hurricane Survivors to Drink
More than three weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, over 35 percent of the American citizens there (and Puerto Ricans are all American citizens, every single one of them) do not have potable drinking water—and a report that came out late Friday night indicates that the residents of Dorado, Puerto Rico, are being given…
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Disaster Relief Workers in Puerto Rico Treat Themselves to Taxpayer-Funded ‘Spa Day' Given by … Puerto Ricans
Here are a couple of things your tax dollars have paid for in the past few weeks: Vice President Michael Pence’s NFL protest/publicity stunt, the Scotch tape keeping Donald Trump’s ties together, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders calling for Jemele Hill to get fired, and federal relief workers treating themselves to a “spa…
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The Crisis in Puerto Rico Is a Racial Issue. Here’s Why
Last week, CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and asked if he thought President Donald Trump’s punishing response to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico had something to do with “race or ethnicity.” Sanders hesitated a bit but ultimately said, “We have a right to be suspect.” The relative surge in coverage about Puerto Rico after…