Joked about trading Puerto Rico for Greenland

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Aug. 22, 2019, 2:21 PM EDT / Updated Aug. 22, 2019, 4:03 PM EDT
By Nicole Acevedo

... Trump has been joking recently about trading Puerto Rico for Greenland. But ... many say they'd be happy with the trade ...

"Denmark is the country with the best education in the world," a man wrote on Twitter ...

"We're ready," one Twitter user wrote, alongside a picture of a "Conversational Danish" ... book ...

The reactions from Puerto Ricans come after Trump voiced, on multiple occasions, his opposition to fund hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and considered diverting hurricane relief funds to build a border wall.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-joked-about-trading-puerto-rico-greenland-puerto-ricans-are-n1045296

[struggle4progress]

1. New call for federal disaster mitigation aid for PR

A group of 27 congressional Democrats has issued a new call for faster disbursement of disaster aid to Puerto Rico while there’s separate evidence the territory has been slow to spend what’s been made available ...

https://www.bondbuyer.com/news/new-call-for-federal-disaster-mitigation-aid-for-puerto-rico

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2. Democratic lawmakers request HUD publish disbursement requirements for PR, USVI recovery funds

By Caribbean Business on August 23, 2019

SAN JUAN — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) and 25 other Democratic lawmakers from both congressional chambers sent a letter to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson requesting the publication of a Federal Register Notice (FRN) detailing the requirements for the disbursement of disaster recovery funds appropriated for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to mitigate the impact of future hurricanes, under the Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program.

“In a recent background briefing, senior officials at HUD announced the agency would soon be publishing an FRN for $16 billion in CDBG-DR for disaster mitigation. While HUD officials noted that an FRN for a first tranche of funding for nine states would be published in the upcoming weeks, they failed to provide a specific timeline for the second tranche in which Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands would be eligible,” the lawmaker wrote ...

https://caribbeanbusiness.com/democratic-lawmakers-request-hud-publish-disbursement-requirements-for-puerto-rico-usvi-recovery-funds/

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3. FEMA Unprepared for Disasters

By Jan Wesner Childs
2 days ago

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is ill-prepared to respond to disasters nationwide, largely because of the resources it spends on smaller-scale events, according to a new report by E&E News.

The report calls out FEMA for a number of shortcomings, including wasting more than $3 billion and sending federal relief workers to hundreds of smaller floods, storms and other disasters that should have instead fallen to individual states to handle.

The agency faces a major personnel shortage, with nearly three-quarters of FEMA relief workers either assigned to a disaster or on a break, according to the report. This means if a major catastrophe happened today, FEMA would be unprepared to respond.

"FEMA is dying a death by 1,000 cuts," Brock Long, who served as FEMA administrator until March, told E&E. "When (Hurricane) Harvey hit, we didn't have enough staff in my opinion to be able to deploy to the largest events. We were out in the field staffing too many small to medium disasters" ...

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-08-20-fema-unprepared-for-disasters

[struggle4progress]

4. Florida Congressman wanta answers on block grants for future hurricanes

By KEVIN DERBY - 08.22.19

A congressman from Florida is pressing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for more information on how funds will be distributed to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in future hurricane recovery efforts.

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., the first member of the Florida congressional delegation of Puerto Rican heritage, paired up with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, to write U.S. HUD Sec. Ben Carson asking for the “publication of a Federal Register Notice (FRN) detailing the requirements for the disbursement of disaster recovery funds appropriated for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to mitigate the impact of future hurricanes, under the Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program.”

While Soto and Menendez led the letter, they reeled in some of the leading Democrats on Capitol Hill including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and a host of Democratic presidential hopefuls including U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, D-NJ, Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., also signed the letter ...

https://www.floridadaily.com/florida-congressman-want-answers-on-block-grants-for-future-hurricanes-in-puerto-rico-virgin-islands/

[JI7]

5. he thinks the people in greenland look like the people in Denmark

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6. Black caucus calls on HUD to release disaster funds

Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, and a dozen other members of the Congressional Black Caucus slammed federal housing chief Ben Carson over a recent decision to clamp down on critical hurricane recovery money destined for the U.S. Virgin Islands ...

The move by Mr. Carson earlier this month moves a $770 million installment of disaster mitigation grants to the Virgin Islands on the back-burner. The slow-walking of the Washington DC grant money to on-the-ground projects in the Virgin Islands is a sharp departure from Congress’s call for the swift distribution of disaster mitigation money.

Mr. Carson earlier said questions about the Government of the Virgin Islands’ “capacity” to manage record amounts of disaster aid is the reason HUD is treating the territory like Puerto Rico.

The new HUD strategy called for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to be treated unlike nine disaster-stricken states. The letter said it is unfair that the territory is linked to scandal-plagued Puerto Rico. “Recovery efforts in jurisdictions prepared to do their part should not be held back due to alleged corruption, fiscal irregularities and financial mismanagement occurring in Puerto Rico …” the letter said ...

https://viconsortium.com/news-2/congressional-black-caucus-members-call-on-hud-to-decouple-usvi-from-pr-and-release-disaster-recovery-funds/

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7. A glimpse of disaster

Wednesday, August 21st, 2019 2:15 PM
By Michelle Dybal

... "We the People?" is a three-year project. Phase One shows the destruction and the initial response.

Bracey, who traveled to all four locations from 2017 to 2018 to photograph the hurricanes' aftermath, said the first set of photos shows "how backs were turned on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands."

Phase two, which Bracey photographed at multiple locations this year, shows rebuilding. The yet-to-be-completed Phase three will show "people in their living rooms watching TV," according to Bracey.

"Houston and Florida are back to where it was," he said. "It's not true of the islands" ...

https://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles/8-21-2019/A-glimpse-of-disaster/

[Bayard]

8. Yeah......

Puerto Rico doesn't belong to you either. Although, Denmark would probably give them more assistance.