Word: rico
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...that the Navy used a portion of the island as a firing range and weapons-testing ground it negligently exposed Vieques' population of 10,000 to dangerous levels of toxins. The community, according to several independent medical studies, has a cancer rate 30 times higher than that of Puerto Rico's main island to the west. The U.S. Justice Department has filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which collectively seeks health and property damages in the billions of dollars, claiming the Federal Government's sovereign immunity. A federal judge in San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital, is expected...
...recalls being the only recruit who didn't panic during simulated-chemical-warfare drills. "I'd sit there calmly with my gas mask on," Marrero says, "while a lot of other guys got scared and ran away." It was 1969, and Marrero, a New Yorker born in Puerto Rico, was fresh out of high school at the age of 17. But his composure caught the eyes of Marine instructors - and the next year, he says, he was at Camp Garcia on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, helping guard for 18 months chemical agents being tested by the U.S. Navy...
...Today Marrero, at 57, believes he was too poised around those hazardous materials for his own good. In an affidavit filed last month in the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico, where Marrero now lives, he says he is legally blind, uses a wheelchair, has battled colon cancer and chronic pulmonary illnesses, and was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, among other ailments. "I've been sick in some form or another since I was 25," says Marrero. He was stationed on Vieques, he adds, "for too long...
...excessive levels of lead, mercury, cadmium and aluminum. "The [ATSDR] conclusion seemed borderline criminal," says former Vieques mayor Radames Tirado, a plaintiff in the Sanchez suit who says at least 13 of his relatives there today have cancer. Says Arturo Massol, a biologist at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez, "We've also found that since the Navy left, those contaminants have decreased eightfold. That's no coincidence...
...making some people act insane. Take Seth Miller, an aerophile who for some baffling reason enjoys nothing more than sitting on planes and lounging in airports. From 10 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, to 10 a.m. the following Monday, he will fly from New York to Ponce, Puerto Rico, back to New York to Las Vegas to Long Beach, Calif., to Portland, Ore., back to Long Beach to Chicago to New York to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and back to New York one last time. Yes, Miller will board 10 flights in 60 hours, without missing a minute of work...