Puerto Rico announces referendum to protect public pensions

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor says she plans to hold a referendum on whether public pension payments should be protected by the U.S. territory’s Constitution for the first time in the island’s history. If approved, the measure would prohibit using money from Puerto Rico’s crumbling public pension system to repay creditors. That would challenge efforts by the federal control board overseeing the island’s finance to make pensioners share th