Madagascar Development

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Twenty-five businesses representing the automotive, retail, healthcare, restaurant, security, agriculture, food, banking and telecommunications industries became the latest employers to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to strengthen their hiring practices, reduce fraud and ensure they employ a legal workforce. The 25 companies officially became members of ICE's Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) Thursday during the largest IMAGE signing ceremony since inception of the program. IMAGE is a voluntary program that allows private sector businesses to partner with ICE to reduce unauthorized employment and the use of fraudulent identity documents. As a result, a participating employer is able to maintain a more secure, stable workforce. "I am pleased to welcome these companies as IMAGE partners," said Angel M. Melendez, special agent in charge of HSI San Juan

Payment fell and wages inched up in Puerto Rico during the first quarter of 2014, the federal government reported Thursday. Puerto Rico’s employment fell 1.8 percent to 914,900 while the average weekly wage rose 1.4 percent to $521, according to the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overall U.S. economy posted a 1.7 percent employment increase and 3.8 percent gain in the average weekly wage to $1,027. Puerto Rico’s capital city San Juan posted an employment loss of 1.2 percent and a thin 0.8 percent wage increase on a year-over-year basis. A separate report issued Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that household incomes in Puerto Rico plunged 2.3 percent last year, a steeper drop than any of the 50 states. Puerto Rico is struggling to pull out of an economic downturn dating back to 2006 and is grappling with high unemployment (13.1 percent) and public debt of $73 billion. In 2013, the poverty rate for Puerto Rico was 45.4 percent, which was not s

NEW YORK/WILMINGTON DELAWARE (Reuters) - Puerto Rico's indebted power authority better get used to some tough love from its new chief restructuring officer, Lisa Donahue, who has earned a reputation for decisiveness, hard work and a cold-blooded devotion to cutting costs. Donahue, 49, who runs the restructuring practice at New York-based corporate consultant AlixPartners, has played key roles in massive corporate bankruptcies including those of Calpine and SemGroup LP, two energy giants. "(SemGroup) was a freefall Chapter 11 filed at the last minute," said Hugh Ray, an attorney with McKool Smith in Houston who opposed Donahue when he represented a committee of oil and gas producers in SemGroup's bankruptcy. "This was total immersion and devotion and she's not afraid to fire every other person on the payroll if needed, and she'll do it quickly." Donahue will be spending the foreseeable future commuting between Puerto Rico and her New York home to com