The Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU), formerly Ponce School of Medicine & Health Sciences, is a private, for-profit university in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It awards graduate degrees in Medicine (MD), Clinical Psychology, Biomedical Sciences (PhD), Medical Sciences (MS), and Public Health. The university has 360 students in its medical school and, as of 11 February 2019, was authorized to increase the student body at the medical school to 600 which, when fully in place, will make it the largest private medical school in Puerto Rico and one of the largest under the American flag.
The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The court is based in San Juan. The main building is the Clemente Ruiz Nazario United States Courthouse located in the Hato Rey district of San Juan. The magistrate judges are located in the adjacent Federico Degetau Federal Building, and several senior district judges hold court at the Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Old San Juan. The old courthouse also houses the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Most appeals from this court are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which is headquartered in Boston but hears appeals at the Old San Juan courthouse for two sessions each year. Patent claims as well as claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act are appealed to the Federal Circuit.
The Puerto Rico Health Reform —Spanish: Reforma de Salud de Puerto Rico, refers to the Medicaid health plan which is a "subset of the larger public government healthcare delivery system" of Puerto Rico. It was once called "La Reforma", later it was called "Mi Salud" and now called Vital but they are all Medicaid, a government-run program which provides medical and healthcare services to indigent and impoverished citizens of Puerto Rico. It was locally referred to simply as La Reforma — for many years. Puerto Rico's Medicaid program is, similar to other Medicaid programs of states of the United States. The funding is by the U.S. Medicaid program in the form of a block grant, unlike how states of the United States Medicaid programs are funded and in 2019 much of the funding was slashed.
The Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDOE) is one of the statewide public education system in the United States, with. The PRDOE is the state education agency responsible of managing public schools in Puerto Rico as well as the island's education system and curricula. The department, headquartered in Hato Rey, San Juan, is the result of a United States state department of education. It is also the largest agency of the executive branch of Puerto Rico, with, as of 2019, an annual budget of more than $3.5 billion USD and over 72,000 staff—including more than 41,000 teachers, and as of 2020 the department is the third-largest school district in the United States by enrollment, with over 276,413 students and 857 schools.
Juan Luis Boscio Desprez was a Puerto Rican merchant and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico from 1961 to 1964. During his tenure as mayor, in 1962, a major shopping mall opened in the city called Centro del Sur which, at the moment of its opening was "the most modern in the Caribbean".
The Puerto Rico Department of Sports and Recreation is the executive department of the government of Puerto Rico responsible of sports and recreation in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Andrés Grillasca Salas was a Puerto Rican farmer from Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 2 January 1941 to 9 May 1956. Until the 1990s administration of Rafael Cordero Santiago, Grillasca Salas had the distinction of being the longest-serving mayor of the city. He was known to always dress in white clothes.
The Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources (PRDLHR); is an executive department of the government of Puerto Rico. The DLHR is responsible for setting and implementing public policy in the areas of labor relations, occupational safety, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and human resources training in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Department is also responsible for some economic statistics.
The Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PRDNER) is the executive department of the government of Puerto Rico tasked with protecting, conserving, developing, and managing the natural and environmental resources in Puerto Rico. The current Secretary is Rafael A. Machargo Maldonado. As of November 2020 the Department has 1,096 employees.
Ricardo Ulpiano Colóm y Ferrer was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, during part of 1898. He was the second of two mayors to lead the municipality of Ponce under the Spanish Crown's "Decreto Autonómico para Puerto Rico", whereby Puerto Rico was granted autonomy by Spain.
The Puerto Rico Department of Correction and Rehabilitation is the executive department of the government responsible for structuring, developing, and coordinating the public policies in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the U.S. The department has authority over its correctional system and the rehabilitation of its adult and young population who have broken the law.
The Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture is one of the few Cabinet-level government agencies explicitly created by the Constitution of Puerto Rico as the Department of "Agriculture and Commerce", most of the commerce at the time of its enactment being agriculture-based. The DAC oversees rural development work and conservation and is headed by a cabinet secretary. The current secretary is Ramón González Beiró who was confirmed in May 2021.
The secretary of education of Puerto Rico is responsible for the development and management of all educational matters in the government of Puerto Rico and heads the Department of Education.
The Secretary of Family Affairs of Puerto Rico leads the Department of Family Affairs of Puerto Rico and all efforts related to the sociology of the family and social work in Puerto Rico.
The Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico leads the Department of Health of Puerto Rico and all efforts related to health in Puerto Rico.
Rafael Rodríguez Mercado is a Puerto Rican neurosurgeon and military officer. He was the Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico from 2017 until his resignation in 2020. Rodríguez Mercado previously served as chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus.
Milagros Benet de Mewton was a Puerto Rican educator, women's rights advocate and suffragist. Born into an intellectual, liberal family, Benet trained as a teacher. Inhabitants of the island gained U.S. citizenship in 1917, after the United States acquired Puerto Rico from Spain. Benet was active in the struggle for women's enfranchisement and joined the first suffragist organization Liga Femínea Puertorriqueña that year. When U.S. women gained the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919, Benet led the push to extend its coverage to Puerto Rico. In 1924, she filed a lawsuit challenging the right of the electoral board to refuse to register women as they were U.S. citizens. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that states and territories have the right to determine who can vote and denied her claim.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Concepción Quiñones de Longo is a Puerto Rican pediatrician and government official. She was the interim Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico in March 2020 and had previously served as the undersecretary of Rafael Rodríguez Mercado. Quiñones de Longo is a former faculty member of the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine.
