SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Many basic functions of Puerto Rico’s government were unavailable Monday as the U.S. commonwealth ran out of money and imposed a partial public-sector shutdown – putting nearly 100,000 people, including 40,000 teachers – out of work and granting an unscheduled holiday to 500,000 public school students.
Police and other emergency services were not affected, but dozens of public offices were either shuttered or partially closed. Hundreds of government employees stood in the rain outside the capitol to protest the politicians’ failure to avoid the shutdown, and to spur them into resolving the impasse.
Puerto Rico is saddled with a $740 million budget shortfall because the legislature and the governor have been unable to agree on a spending plan since 2004.
The government is Puerto Rico’s largest employer, with about 200,000 workers. Salaries make up about 80 percent of the government’s operational costs.
Connecticut: Michael Skakel appeal
Stamford attorneys for Michael Skakel, the Kennedy cousin convicted of killing 15-year-old neighbor Martha Moxley when he was a teenager in 1975, identified two men Monday they say have been implicated in the killing. Skakel is seeking a new trial based on a claim by Gitano “Tony” Bryant, a cousin of basketball star Kobe Bryant, that two of his friends – Adolf Hasbrouck of Bridgeport and Burt Tinsley of Portland, Ore. – actually killed the girl. Both men denied involvement in the slaying.
Florida: Astronaut leaving NASA
Eileen Collins, who last year lead NASA’s first flight in space since the Columbia disaster in 2003, is leaving the U.S. space agency. The 49-year-old astronaut said Monday from Cape Canaveral that she will leave the NASA in the next week or two and plans to devote several months to her family. Collins became the first female pilot on a space shuttle with the flight of Discovery in 1995, the first mission to rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir. She also flew on Atlantis in 1997 and became first female commander on the 1999 Columbia flight.
Pennsylvania: DNA frees man
A man serving a life sentence for a 1988 killing was freed Monday after charges were withdrawn because his DNA didn’t match evidence from the killer’s clothing. Drew Whitley, 50, had been jailed since he was arrested soon after the shooting death of Noreen Malloy, 22, outside the restaurant she managed. “I want to thank God for keeping me strong through this nightmare,” Whitley said before walking out of court in Pittsburgh.
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