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96 PR health workers to aid Haitian quake victims - Puerto Rico Daily Sun - 16/01/10

de Puerto Rico News

Some 96 doctors, nurses and University of Puerto Rico medical students left for the Dominican Republic Friday to set up a camp next to a hospital in Jimani, a town on the border with Haiti, to provide medical care to thousands of Haitians injured in the earthquake that devastated the country earlier this week, Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz said Friday.

The effort was coordinated by Rivera Schatz and Dominican Republic authorities and the site was chosen because of the difficulties entering chaotic Port-au-Prince. Rivera Schatz said the hospital in Jimaní is a 45-minute drive from the Haitian capital and that the facility has been swamped by injured victims since the earthquake. The doctors brought medical supplies and medications donated by local companies.

The health professionals, including three native Haitians, will be in the Dominican Republic until Tuesday, when they will be replaced by a contingent of 30 doctors who have volunteered to support the Senate's aid efforts. This second group will include three island mayors who are doctors. They are Ponce Mayor María "Mayita" Melèndez, who is a dentist and will work trying to identify bodies, Salinas Mayor Carlos Rodríguez Mateo and Aguada Mayor Luis Alberto Echevarría. Rivera Schatz said he and a group of senators will also be visiting Haiti next week to deliver supplies. The Senate has set up a collection center in front of the Capitol to deliver food, clothing and medicine to Haitians and the House has set up collection centers in all district offices. The goods will be delivered in coordination with the U.S. Southern Command since the government in Haiti has effectively broken down.

"The [Haitian] president [Rene Preval] does not have a home, and he is working from the Dominican Republic," Rivera Schatz said at a news conference in the Capitol.

Tax Assistance for the Unemployed

XTRAREFUNDS

January 15, 2010, Lawrence, MA. In an effort to reduce the financial strain on those who are unemployed, XtraRefunds has announced that we will be extending a 50% discount on 2009 Federal Filing fees through January 31st, 2010.

Filing taxes is a necessity and many unemployed people are trying to weigh and balance their finances. By extending this offer we hope to make the filing process easier during this tax season.

XtraRefunds is located on 102 Winthrop Street (Rt.114) in Lawrence Massachusetts.

We are open Monday through Friday from 9am to 9pm; Saturdays 9am to 5pm and Sundays noon to 5pm.

Please call us at 978-416-4107 with any questions or to schedule your appointment.

Mormons take Pro Life view on abortion, survey says

WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 29, 2009-RECENT survey results by the Pew research forum show Mormons are more likely to take a pro-life view against abortion than the public in general and members of other religions.

The recently-released Pew survey and analysis compared Mormons to various religious groups and Americans as a whole which led to such finding including the religious group having more conservative views as a whole and are more likely to back the Republican Party.

Pew found the general population learned slightly in favor of keeping abortions legal, which contrasts with five polls taken in April and May showing a pro-life majority or movement in the pro-life direction.

Mormons, however, had a very strong pro-life position. Fully, 70% say abortion should be illegal in most or all circumstances, compared with 42% among the general population, Pew found. They are also more pro-life (70-61 percent) than evangelical Christians.

However, when compared with pro-life advocates who come from an evangelical, Catholic or mainline Protestant faith, Mormons are less likely to favor making all abortions illegal.

Mormon opposition is concentrated on opposing it in most cases (61%) rather than in all cases (9%), whereas looking members of evangelical churches, by contrast, 36% say abortion should be illegal in most cases and 25% say it should be illegal in all cases.

As is the case with members of other religious faiths, Mormons who attend church less often are less likely to hold as strong of a view against abortion. In fact, among those who attend church less often, 44 percent of Mormons favor legalized abortion.

There also are some differences between Mormons depending on whether they are converts or lifelong members. While majorities of converts and nonconverts alike say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, converts are considerably less likely than nonconverts to do so as 59% of converts oppose legal abortion versus 74% of nonconverts.

The good news for the pro-life movement and members of the Mormon church is that Americans are growing more pro-life.

On the issue of legal abortion, younger Mormons are significantly more pro-life than their older counterparts. Among those under age 50, 74% say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, while among those aged 50 and older, 62% say this.

Mormons who are married and those who live in Utah are more likely to be pro-life on abortion, although a majority of Mormons who live elsewhere and are unmarried are pro-life.

Credits:

Cited from an original article by Steven Ertelt for lifenews.com 07/29/09

Radio Communicator of the 1490 favours the legal marriage between same-sex couples

May 28 of the year 2009

I agree with the new law because all human beings we have rights"stated Jose Ayala radio host "La Movida" transmitting from Monday to Friday from 6: 00 AM - 8: 00 AM by the impact 1490 AM station.

"I am of persons which favours the legalization of same-sex marriage documents because I understand the anguish of many people that live together for decades without right to health insurance or compensation of property there is not a legal paper cover these couples gay people" said Ayala.

I know many people who have attacked me, but I still insist on the legal measure because I am of those who considers just and humanitarian to share the same rights as human beings said Ayala in May 28, 2009 radio programming. According to several media marriage between homosexuals continues to gather ground in several States of the nation while some places still fight the legal matter by small technical errors or because religious denominations insist on against the measure.

Weekly Address: Government Actions to Address the H1N1 Flu Virus

President Obama: This is also why the Centers for Disease Control has recommended that schools and child care facilities with confirmed cases of the virus close for up to fourteen days. It is why we urge employers to allow infected employees to take as many sick days as necessary.

f more schools are forced to close, we’ve also recommended that both parents and businesses think about contingency plans if children do have to stay home. We have asked every American to take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough; stay home from work if you’re sick; and keep your children home from school if they’re sick.

And the White House has launched pages in Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to support the ongoing efforts by the CDC to update the public as quickly and effectively as possible.

Angels pitcher Adenhart, 22, killed in car crash

Associated Press

Updated: April 9, 2009, 12:07 PM EST

FULLERTON, California (AP) - Los Angeles Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart and two other people were killed Thursday when a minivan ran a red light and struck their sports car, authorities said.

Nick Adenhart, 1986-2009

Adenhart, 22, died after undergoing surgery, University of California, Irvine Medical Center spokesman John Murray said.

A fourth person remained hospitalized in critical condition.

Adenhart was the Angels' No. 3 starter. He threw six scoreless innings Wednesday night in his fourth major-league start and first of the season. Oakland won the game 6-4.

Adenhart and three other people were in a silver Mitsubishi that was struck shortly before 12:30 a.m. by a minivan that ran a red light and also hit another vehicle, police said.

The sports car struck a light pole, killing three people inside.

Police Lt. Craig Brower said the minivan driver fled the crash scene and was captured a short time later. The driver was arrested and booked for investigation of felony hit-and-run.

Adenhart, a right-hander, earned a spot in the starting rotation on an injury-plagued Angels staff by impressing manager Mike Scioscia late in spring training.

The pitcher made his major league debut May 1 of last year, also against Oakland

He made two other starts, getting his only decision in a victory over the Chicago White Sox on May 12. He was 37-28 in the minor leagues from 2005-08, including 9-13 last year at Triple-A Salt Lake.

There was to be a moment of silence before the start of the Texas Rangers' home game against the Cleveland Indians.

The danger of losing the ethnic media

By Sally Lehrman | March 5, 2009

ASIANWEEK, San Francisco's English-language weekly for Asian Americans, and San Francisco Bay View, which has served the black community there for three decades, both have dumped their print editions. Siglo21, a Spanish-language paper published in Lawrence, is returning to publishing weekly after three months as a daily due to declining advertising. Ming Pao Daily in New York will shut down entirely, while Hoy New York abandoned print at the end of last year. At the venerable Ebony and Jet in Chicago, all employees must reapply for their jobs - that is, the jobs that remain.

With the ever-deepening cuts across the news business, these losses may seem worth no more than a shrug. AsianWeek, after all, employs only 11 staffers. But the harm goes deep. Ethnic media play a vital role in the communities they serve and do a great deal of unrecognized work for journalism.

Ethnic media, like other news media, recognize that an informed populace will help keep government accountable. Armed with knowledge of current events and issues, the public can become wise participants in societal decision-making. Ethnic media also cultivate democracy in ways that the mainstream seems to have abandoned. Univision, for instance, has led bipartisan citizenship and voter registration drives during the past two presidential elections. This involvement in the democratic process might appear unseemly to some traditionalists. But at least according to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, this is the US news media's fundamental role: to further democracy.

Day after day, the various branches of the ethnic media follow some of the most important and contentious issues, ones that grab the attention of the mainstream only sporadically. Take immigration. A reader might find a story now and then on CNN or the Associated Press. But Impremedia, which owns eight Spanish-language print outlets including Hoy New York, features as many as 10 immigration stories on its website every day.

Ethnic media can help steer the mainstream away from short-sighted and shallow reporting on communities and the ways in which race and ethnicity operate in all of our lives. When the New Yorker and National Public Radio's Daniel Schorr declared that Barack Obama's campaign signaled a new, "post-racial" era, the rest of the mainstream took up the theme. We do all get along, the story went, and Obama's success proved it. The black media, however, were quick to point out that one black president might create dramatic change, but could not transform a history of institutionalized inequities.

When the New Yorker ran its infamous caricature of Barack and Michelle Obama, the mainstream news interviewed comedians who worried about making fun of a black president. But Eric Easter of Ebony/Jet offered more insight. He wrote about the powerful impact of grotesque, racialized cartoons, from political propaganda of the Nazi era to family fare of recent decades, that "still find their ways . . . into the backs of our minds." The New Yorker cover did not affront because the joke failed, but because it harkened back to the dehumanizing imagery that takes up residence in our reactive minds.

Ethnic media see their role as primarily to give voice to the community, strengthen cohesion, and chronicle community life. They also consider it important to correct misperceptions promulgated by the rest of the news. They report about the community from the inside out, sometimes quite literally. When inmates of the Reeves County Detention Center protested poor medical care at the privately run Texas facility, most outlets highlighted the damage to buildings. Telemundo's station in Midland/Odessa, Texas, also described the plight of hundreds of inmates - detained there on immigration violations - who slept outside in makeshift tents despite the freezing weather.

More than 42 percent of print newsrooms across the country employ no black, Asian American, Latino, or American Indian journalists at all. According to even the most generous analyses, they consult white sources at least two-thirds of the time. With their ability to tap into the communities they serve, the ethnic media contribute context, history, and perspectives found nowhere else.

Sally Lehrman holds the Knight Ridder/San Jose Mercury News Endowed Chair for Journalism in the Public Interest at Santa Clara University.

A-Rod admits using performance-enhancers

sports-general-20090209-Rodriguez-Steroids

NEW YORK (AP) - Alex Rodriguez admitted Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-03, saying he did so because of the pressures of being baseball's highest-paid player.

``When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day,'' the New York Yankees star said in an interview with ESPN that was broadcast Monday shortly after it was recorded.

Rodriguez, who for years has denied using steroids, was given a $252 million, 10-year contract by the Texas Rangers in December 2000.

His admission came two days after Sports Illustrated reported he tested positive for steroids in 2003, one of 104 players who tested positive during baseball's survey testing, which wasn't subject to discipline and was supposed to remain anonymous.

``Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid,'' he said. ``I was naive, and I wanted to prove to everyone that, you know, I was worth, you know - and being one of the greatest players of all time.''

Rodriguez hit 52, 57 and 47 homers in his three seasons with the Rangers, winning the first of three AL MVP awards during his final season with Texas. Because the Rangers were uncompetitive, he pushed for a trade to the Yankees in February 2004. Although he's won two more MVP awards in pinstripes, he's been a postseason failure and has never been to the World Series.

``It was such a loosey-goosey era. I'm guilty for a lot of things. I'm guilty for being negligent, naive, not asking all the right questions,'' Rodriguez said. ``And to be quite honest, I don't know exactly what substance I was guilty of using.''

SI.com reported he tested positive for Primobolan and testosterone.

``And I did take a banned substance and, you know, for that I'm very sorry and deeply regretful. And although it was the culture back then and Major League Baseball overall was very - I just feel that - You know, I'm just sorry. I'm sorry for that time. I'm sorry to fans. I'm sorry for my fans in Texas. It wasn't until then that I ever thought about substance of any kind, and since then I've proved to myself and to everyone that I don't need any of that.''

Rodriguez directly contradicted a December 2007 interview with CBS's ``60 Minutes,'' when he said, ``No'' when asked whether he's ever used steroids, human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing substance.

``I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field,'' he said then. ``I felt that if I did my, my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level.''

That interview came after he opted out of his $252 million contract and agreed to a $275 million, 10-year contract with the Yankees.

Obama lifts ban on abortion funds

President Barack Obama has lifted a US funding ban for groups providing abortion services abroad, reversing a policy of his predecessor, George Bush.

The policy known as the "global gag rule" had stopped US government money going to groups which perform or provide information about abortion.

Health groups had complained of being badly hit. The US is a key backer of family planning programmes globally.

Anti-abortionists have criticised the move to lift the ban.

Mr Obama's move has implications for hundreds of aid agencies.

Observers say organisations working in the world's poorest nations - places where maternal mortality and infant death are high - have faced a tough choice: either sign the gag rule and be silenced on abortion, or refuse and lose millions of dollars in US aid.

The issue of abortion services remains controversial in the US. The BBC's Richard Lister in Washington says this may be why President Obama signed the order with so little fanfare.

Earlier on Friday, US regulators cleared the way for the world's first study on human embryonic stem cell therapy.

While the decision of the US Food and Drug Administration is independent of White House control, Mr Obama is widely expected to adopt a more pragmatic and science-oriented approach to stem cell research.

Repeated reversals

A spokesman for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) earlier told the BBC that under the Bush administration, the organisation had lost more than $100m (£73m) in funding, affecting its services across 176 countries.

"It's had a massive impact on delivery of services of family planning across the globe, but in particular in Africa," said Paul Bell of the IPPF.

"No money supplied by the US federal government can be used for abortion-related services. But this rule effectively gags foreign NGOs from talking about the issue if they accept US funding. It is not applied to US-based NGOs as it would be deemed unconstitutional."

However, some conservative groups in the US say taxpayers' money should not be used to pay for abortion or its promotion. HAVE YOUR SAY I am personally opposed to abortion. However, as a US citizen, I would rather see uncensored information available to all Jim Nordblom, Mapleton, USA

The Christian group Focus on the Family said lifting the ban on taxpayer funding of overseas abortions was not only contrary to the values of the American people but would only increase the number of abortions being performed.

"President Obama claims that he wants to reduce abortions," Focus on the Family's Ashley Horne told the BBC.

"However, you cannot reduce abortions by channelling more money to the abortion industry."

The policy has become a see-saw issue between Republican and Democratic administrations.

Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, repealed the policy when he took office in 1993 and George W Bush reinstated it in 2001.

The ruling is also known as the Mexico City Policy, because it was first introduced at a UN conference there in 1984 by former Republican President Ronald Reagan.

Obama set to shut CIA's secret prisons

President also moving on Guantanamo as part of reversal of past policies

WASHINGTON - Moving quickly to reverse many former Bush administration policies, President Barack Obama readied on Thursday national security moves that included preparations to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, review military trials for terror suspects and ban harsh interrogation tactics.

Obama also was set to name a highly respected veteran politician to serve as special Mideast envoy, a step to make good on a campaign pledge to be more robustly involved in efforts to help with peace efforts in the volatile region.

The Republican opposition in Congress, meanwhile, said it would seek a meeting with Obama to voice growing concerns about portions of his plan to spend $825 billion in a bid to reverse the country's perilous economic slide.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said his party wanted to work with the new administration, but that many facets of the stimulus program wending its way through Congress would not create jobs, a vital requirement as unemployment numbers climb. Cantor spoke on CBS television Thursday.

As the new president moves into his second full day in office, a senior Obama administration official said Obama would sign the order to shutter the Guantanamo prison within one year. Critics of the lockup at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba say its use violates detainee rights.

A draft copy of the order, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, notes that "in view of significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facility would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice."

The executive order was one of three expected on how to interrogate and prosecute al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters believed to threaten the United States. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.

An estimated 245 men are being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, most of whom have been detained for years without being charged with a crime.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Thursday that Obama would also order the CIA to shut its internationally-condemned network of secret prisons, which it built in 2002 to house and interrogate top al-Qaida figures captured in foreign countries.

It is not known how many suspects have moved through the secret prison network over the years, but the number is believed to be fewer than 100, The Times reported.

On Thursday, Obama was visiting the State Department to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and his top national security advisers to round out a day focused on restoring the U.S. image abroad by making a clean break with some of the most controversial national security policies of the administration of former President George W. Bush.

White House aides announced that the president would meet with retired military officers about the executive orders in the morning, but would not confirm that Obama planned to sign them immediately.

The Obama-Clinton meeting also was to include Vice President Joe Biden and national security adviser Jim Jones and his deputy. It was to be followed by an address by Obama and Clinton to department employees.

The address could provide an opening for Obama to enter the daunting thicket of Middle East diplomacy.

It could also be the time he announces George Mitchell, the former Senate Democratic leader, as his special Mideast envoy.

Mitchell, 75, will return to a role he pursued during President Bill Clinton's presidency when the former senator took on several difficult diplomatic assignments, including chairing peace talks on Northern Ireland.

Mitchell also led an international commission to investigate violence in the Middle East. His report, issued in spring 2001, after Clinton had left office, called for a freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism.

Obama has vowed to move swiftly to meet challenges in the Middle East and other troubled overseas regions.

Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

By Martin Roberts

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament voiced its support on Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans.

Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.

"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project.

Spain may be better known abroad for bull-fighting than animal rights but the new measures are the latest move turning once-conservative Spain into a liberal trailblazer.

Spain did not legalize divorce until the 1980s, but Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government has legalized gay marriage, reduced the influence of the Catholic Church in education and set up an Equality Ministry.

The new resolutions have cross-party or majority support and are expected to become law and the government is now committed to update the statute book within a year to outlaw harmful experiments on apes in Spain.

"We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," Pozas said.

Keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will also be forbidden and breaking the new laws will become an offence under Spain's penal code.

Keeping an estimated 315 apes in Spanish zoos will not be illegal, but supporters of the bill say conditions will need to improve drastically in 70 percent of establishments to comply with the new law.

Philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri founded the Great Ape Project in 1993, arguing that "non-human hominids" like chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be tortured.

Unemployed Nation: America's Shrinking Payroll

More Than 1 Million People Have Lost Their Jobs in the United States in 2008

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ

ABC NEWS Business Unit

Nov. 7, 2008

Thousands of workers in retail, finance, shipping and just about every other field have lost their jobs in 2008 as the country grapples with recessionary forces.(AP Photos)

But today she is part of another group of Americans, one that is growing larger every day: the unemployed.

In the first ten months of this year, the nation's employers have cut nearly 1.2 million jobs and the unemployment rate is now at 6.5 percent, the highest it has been since March 1994. The Department of Labor released new data this morning showing that October was the tenth straight month of job losses, with another 240,000 lost just last month.

Fidelity and Mattel were some of the latest to announce layoffs, coming out yesterday with 1,300 and 1,000 job cuts, respectively. And this morning Ford said it would cut its North American salaried workforce by an additional 10 percent.

Marihuana

The use of the Cannabis plant dates back well over 5000 years. The compound delta -9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the active ingredient in cannabis that is responsible for it's psychoactive properties and when present cannabis is known as Marihuana. Hemp, cannabis with less than 0.3% THC, has been used for thousands of years to produce rope, paper, and clothing. Hemp seeds have been used as a source of food and oil.

What does Marihuana look like?

Marihuana in its plant form is a green plant most often with five to seven fingered leaves that will typically grow to reach a height of six to twelve feet. Processed marihuana is most commonly a green, brown or gray mixture of dried leaves, stems, seeds and buds. Marihuana can also be seen in the form of Hash, or Hashish. Hash is dried and pressed resin from the marihuana plant.

Who uses marihuana?

Marihuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. It is estimated that at least one-third of all Americans have used marihuana at least once in their lives. In a study on the availability to get marihuana most teens advised that they were able to get marihuana with only slight or moderate difficulty.

How is Marihuana ingested?

Marihuana in most often smoked. Commonly, dried marihuana will be hand rolled into cigarettes for smoking. Dried marihuana can also be placed into a variety smoking devices known as pipes or bongs and smoked. Another popular method is to smoke marihuana from a "blunt,' a hollowed out cigar with the tobacco being replace by marihuana. Marihuana can also be ingested in the form of baked goods that are then eaten.

What are the effects of marihuana usage?

Marihuana is an addictive, hallucinogenic drug that often produces feeling of well being and euphoria. It also can cause sudden anxiety attacks, panic and hallucinations. Marihuana increases the heart rate typically 30% to 50% above normal and can cause a moderate increase in blood pressure. A slight drop in body temperature, reddening of the eyes, and dryness of the mouth and throat are also common with marihuana use. The use of marihuana impairs a person's ability to judge time and distance and affects their overall motor skills.

What are the consequences of marihuana use?

With over 400 different chemicals in the marihuana plant, users often experience frequent respiratory infection, impaired memory and learning abilities. The use of marihuana by a mother during the first month of breast-feeding can impair infant motor development. Chronic smokers experience the same respiratory problem of cigarette smokers including daily cough and phlegm, bronchitis symptoms, and frequent chest colds and cause damage to lung tissue.

What about the medical use of marihuana?

The smoking of marihuana as a useable form of medical treatment is a myth. Medical marihuana already exists in a prescription drug called Marinol. Marinol comes in pill form with THC as the active ingredient that has been found to relieve nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy treatment. It also has been found to be effective in assisting with loss of appetite in AIDS patients. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no approved medications that are smoked. Smoking is a poor way to deliver medicine. It does not provide a method to administer a safe, regulated dosage. Further the harmful chemicals and carcinogens released during smoking create a whole new range of health problems. There is four times the tar in a marihuana cigarette than in a tobacco cigarette.

Barack Obama

President Barack Obama has lifted a US funding ban for groups providing abortion services abroad, reversing a policy of his predecessor, George Bush.

People should have to pass drug test to get government assistance.

Reasons to agree

1. I have to pass a drug test to work. I hate work. I wish I could get money for doing nothing. If I have to pass a drug test, to have the honor of working, people should have to pass a drug test, if they want free money.

2. Like a lot of folks in this state I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test, with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sitting on their ass. Could you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check????? Please pass this along if you agree or simply Delete if you don't. Hope you all will pass it along, though. Something has to change in this country and soon!!!!! " comments (forum)

El Yunque Nature Conservancy Park

PUERTO RICO

El Yunque National Forest, formerly known as the Caribbean National Forest, is located on the island of Puerto Rico. It is also the name of the second highest mountain peak in the Forest. El Yunque is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Forest System.

Vote now

WARNING ON FRAUDULENT OPERATIONS

The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic wishes to call to the attention of the public the fact that some individuals have been duping foreigners, mostly Europeans, through false real state and time sharing operations by using the Central Bank and Tourism Ministry logotypes, as well as by using the signatures of the above mentioned government agencies' officials.

The transactions have been undertaken under the name of false real state companies and lawyers' firms, which identify through the Internet persons who are interested in selling their properties and in time sharing activities, contacting them afterwards to engage in supposed purchase transactions.

The swindlers require the owners' personal data and the remittance of funds through Dominican commercial banks or through money transfer companies, alleging the need for payment of taxes according to Dominican law, explaining to the customers that until the funds are received, the sale cannot be completed.

Once the required funds are sent, the swindlers notify the seller that the person who received the money has disappeared and that the country's law enforcement authorities are working to find them. But at the same time, they say that the investigation process takes time and hence the customer should send more money to conclude the process that has been initiated.

We urge all persons to be cautious when undertaking any activities involving remittances or the use of credit cards for commercial purposes with persons using the name of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic or any other Dominican Government agencies.

Furthermore, we hereby inform the public that the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic shall not incur any responsibility concerning fraudulent activities carried out against people in its name and that of its officers. The cases that have been reported have been made known to the corresponding Dominican and international authorities.

If you suspect that you have been a victim of a fraudulent operation or that you have been contacted in the name of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic for purposes similar to those mentioned, please report this activity to the following e-mail address: info@bancentral.gov.do or contact the International Department at (809)-221-9111 ext. 5036 or fax (809)-686-4570.