The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Financial Oversight and Management Board Executive Director Robert Mujica said late last week that the directors of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and members of the PREPA Employees Retirement System (SREAEE by its Spanish initials) gave him erroneous information on at least two occasions about the situation of the utility’s retirement fund.
The SREAEE president denied the allegation on Monday, adding that the entity has made proposals to the oversight board, also known by its initials FOMB, to deal with the crisis in the retirement system that the board has ignored.
“This information came from PREPA or the Retirement System; I don’t remember now who had to carry out the actuarial analysis of how much was owed,” Mujica said at a press conference on Friday. “And in different instances, they presented different analyses. It may be due to inflation costs and the numbers changed significantly on two occasions.”
“For this reason, we assumed that the pension funds would be properly insured until mid-2024,” he said. “But then they notified the government and us at the same time that they were short of money, so we had to act so that they do not lose a single cent.”
José R. Rivera Rivera, chairman of the SREAEE board of trustees, said in February that the actuarial deficit of the pension system as of June 2021 was over $3 billion. In 2022, PREPA was supposed to contribute 166.38% of the total payroll, or $23.8 million per month, but it has yet to make payments to the pension system.
As of December 2022, PREPA owed the SREAEE $895 million in delinquent pension payments. Meanwhile, agencies that took former PREPA employees following the LUMA Energy takeover of the transmission and distribution system owed the system over $8 million.
Rivera said at the time that the system is slated to become insolvent next month.
Mujica said PREPA funds were identified that include debts receivable, which guarantee payments to pensioners. However, there were also changes in the amount to be paid monthly, he said.
“They are paying around $30 million. But a few weeks before we were told it was $22 million, and the number kept changing. Now we are at $30 million,” Mujica said. “The funds come from PREPA itself. Initially, they found the funds within their budget. There is another controversy over other funds owed to PREPA. There are debts from other agencies that owe PREPA and have not paid. We went to those funds and determined that there is money that is owed to them and some that we are
not sure about. Those funds that we are sure are owed allow us to pay pensions until October. These funds will help us pay pensions while the debt adjustment plan is approved.”
Johnny Rodríguez Ortiz, the SREAEE president, refuted claims by oversight board officials that they were unaware of the true crisis that the PREPA retirement system is going through because since November of last year they were informed by way of letters, copies of the actuarial reports and specific proposals of the need to prevent the system’s insolvency.
“Retirees demand justice, that the FOMB should stop distributing money to LUMA and Genera PR when the FOMB knows that they owe millions to our retirement system,” Rodríguez Ortiz said. “Likewise, we demand that the FOMB stop lying to the people of Puerto Rico or retirees, when they said that they did not have reliable official data to make decisions. That is a big lie.”
He said the only reality is that “the fiscal oversight board and the [power] authority have failed to comply with PROMESA [the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act], which requires that the fiscal plans certified by the board provide adequate funds for the payment of pensions.”
“The board of trustees of the PREPA retirement system has raised this non-compliance with the PROMESA law to the fiscal oversight board and its advisers without obtaining an appropriate response to date,” Rodríguez Ortiz said.
He said that on Nov. 17, 2022, the SREAEE board of trustees submitted a proposal to the oversight board for managing the crisis of eroding SREAEE funds, but that the oversight board to date has ignored the proposal.
“If this proposal is adopted, it would allow the SREAEE to remain solvent without changes in the rights and benefits of its members and retirees,” the SREAEE president said.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez reacted on Monday to the death of Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Rep. José Aníbal Díaz Collazo at the age of 52.
“Today, the House of Representatives loses an extraordinary legislator, a supportive friend, a man of high moral values, a simple, humble and big-hearted human being. Although we are overwhelmed by a sense of sadness for the departure of our colleague, we want to honor his life and his legacy, since in his passage through the Legislature he distinguished himself by presenting legislation to do justice to public servants and municipal employees, as well as to advance various causes of the towns of Cayey and Cidra, that he so worthily represented,” the House speaker said. “To the Díaz Collazo family, our condolences and a most sincere embrace in these times of affliction. Aníbal gave the battle and that warrior spirit is what we will always remember. Rest in peace, dear friend.”
Hernández Montañez added that previously scheduled activities such as the special session in honor of Hispanics, the presenting of the Don Luis Vigoreaux House of Representatives Scholarship and the caucus meeting of the majority delegation, were canceled until further notice.
PDP House Majority Leader Ángel Matos García, meanwhile, said of Díaz Collazo’s death: “With great pain I receive the sad news of the death of good friend José Aníbal Díaz, representative of District 29, which makes up the municipalities of Cayey and Cidra. Aníbal was a first-rate public servant and an extraordinary hu-
man being. His sensitivity, humility and honesty were the great attributes of Aníbal’s life. In addition, he was a great warrior who fought until the last day against this terrible disease that is cancer. Friend, at the Capitol we are going to miss you. My condolences and a hug to all his family.”
Likewise, Cayey Mayor Rolando Ortiz Velázquez said “Cayey mourns the passing of an extraordinary human being who dedicated body and soul to his family and his community as a good Puerto Rican.”
“Aníbal Díaz Collazo, a son of Barrio Jájome Bajo, now rests in peace. He was a brother in struggles and solidarity, and his life was dedicated to selfless service for others,” the mayor said. “All our people of Cayey, and I know that our brothers in Cidra, also mourn his departure. We ask the Creator to give him eternal rest and his family comfort.”
Díaz Collazo was born on Feb. 16, 1971 in Caguas. From his earliest days he settled in the Jájome Community of Cayey. He completed his secondary studies at the Miguel Meléndez Muñoz High School in that municipality.
He earned an associate degree in electronic engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Puerto Rico, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in management, which he obtained with the distinction of magna laude.
In Cayey’s Office of Federal Programs he served as inspector of the Section 8 program for five years. Later, he moved to the Planning Office as a project inspector, and was in charge of the Citizens’ Petitions Division. Over more than a decade he learned and identified the existing possibilities for a better quality of life for cayeyanos.
Díaz Collazo went on to direct Cayey’s Civil Works Infrastructure Construction Office, and in recent years he directed the Municipal Public Works Office there.
Díaz Collazo joined the House of Representatives on Nov. 16, 2015, and during the current session was chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Works.
As a leader of his community, he was an organizer of the Guatibiri Cultural Festival of Jájome Bajo in Cayey for more than 10 years.
Former Isabela mayor and current Popular Democratic Party Vice President Carlos “Charlie” Delgado Altieri said it is possible that Rep. Orlando Aponte Rosario may not be able to run again under the PDP banner because of a gender violence incident.
“Undoubtedly, he has a lot to answer for to his colleagues there in the House and after that, it is also necessary to allow space for the case to have a final indication because then the party will have to apply the new regulations,” the one-time candidate for governor said.
Delgado Altieri noted that the new party regulations say that the PDP president has the power to remove individuals from positions and can even stop an individual from running under the party’s emblem.
“The regulation is quite clear on these matters and specific
and much more severe,” he said.
Aponte Rosario, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, faces a protection order that a Toa Baja Municipal Court judge issued against him due to a domestic violence incident. The request for the protective order was filed by the lawmaker’s wife.
House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montanez, who revealed the information last week, said Aponte Rosario did not inform him or the House of Representatives about the incident and that he found out about it through media reports.
“Immediately, I issued instructions so that all the information regarding this unfortunate matter be required, and we can proceed with the corresponding referrals, under Section 18 of the House Code of Ethics,” Hernández Montanez said. “Likewise, after we evaluate the information, we will take the necessary administrative actions, according to the powers provided in subsection (d) Section 5.2 of the House regulations.”
“I want to make it abundantly clear that the House of Representatives repudiates gender violence in all its manifestations, and we will act rigorously, firmly and without delay so that the ultimate consequences are reached,” he said.
Aponte Rosario, a first-term legislator who represents the 26th House district (Orocovis, Corozal, Barranquitas, Villalba and Coamo), declined to provide comments.
Emilio Figueroa, a renowned San Juan restaurateur who established the famous Parrot Club, Agua Viva, Dragon Fly, Toro Salao, Sofía and Koko restaurants, has passed away. He was 61 years old.
San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo informed the public about Figueroa’s passing through social media, stirring an outpouring of condolences.
“We join the family and friends of merchant and entrepreneur Emilio Figueroa, upon his departure,” the mayor wrote. “His contribution to the business and gastronomy of San Juan leaves an important mark on everyone. May he rest in peace.”
The cause of Figueroa’s death, on Saturday, is unknown. He had recently moved to New Jersey. He is survived by his wife Gigi Zafero and two daughters.
“No, how sad. Emilio has been an example for all of us Boricuas. An example of business success, an example of what love and friendship are, an example of good people, of [someone who is] loving to their employees and the
wealthiest diner, an example of believing in Old San Juan when nobody believed in it,” wrote Alberto Bacó Bagué, a
former secretary of economic development and commerce, in social media. “In my book we had to name a square, a worthy sculpture in Old San Juan after him. Rest in peace my friend.”
Figueroa owned Oof! Restaurants, a corporation that opened and offered a diversity of restaurants and businesses. In 2012, he managed seven restaurants, a clothing store and a gym with his company Oof!, including Aguaviva, Toro Salao, Parrot Club, Dragonfly, Koco, Piña Colada Shop and a vegetarian corner called Tanamá, as well as Oof Catering. Through SOFO, the South Fortaleza Culinary district, as he called it, more than 40 San Juan restaurants came together to hold a gastronomic festival.
Figueroa’s experience as a gastronomy expert began with Olivier Mason, manager of the Four Seasons, from Egypt; Barry Lewin, vice president of Blackstone Group; and Hugh Andrews, owner of La Concha and the Vanderbilt.
Gretchen Sierra Zorita, the associate director for Puerto Rico and the territories in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, described Figueroa as a “friend, entrepreneur, visionary and an example to follow.”
The University of Puerto Rico (UPR) recorded a $1.75 billion net deficit in fiscal year (FY) 2022, raising questions about its ability to continue as a going concern, according to a market filing.
According to an audit by Ernst & Young, filed last week with the Electronic Municipal Market Access, UPR’s net deficit at the close of FY22, ended June 30, 2022, was 25.8% lower than the $2.36 billion net deficit recorded in FY21.
The auditor, nonetheless, expressed serious doubts about UPR’s ability to continue as a going concern due to its relationship with the commonwealth government, which just recently completed its bankruptcy restructuring.
“The university is highly dependent on commonwealth appropriations to finance its operations,” the report noted. “The recurring losses from operations, net capital deficiency, and the fact that the university is still negotiating its debt, raises substantial doubt about the university’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The most significant fluctuations in the statement of net position came from changes in the net pension liability, which declined by 43.8% to $1.53 billion in FY22 from $2.72 billion in FY21.
“The decrease in the net pension liability in FY22 mainly resulted from the increase in the discount rates used to calculate the total pension liability, which amounted to 6.75% and 4.60% in fiscal years 2022 and 2021, respectively,” the report noted.
The university also recorded a $506 million operating loss in FY22, compared to a loss of $948.1 million in FY21.
Although the University of Puerto Rico’s $1.75 billion net deficit for fiscal year 2022 was substantially lower than its net deficit from the preceding fiscal year, auditor Ernst & Young nonetheless expressed serious doubts about UPR’s ability to continue as a going concern due to its relationship with the commonwealth government, which just recently completed its bankruptcy restructuring.
In fiscal year 2022, the total net nonoperating revenues, which amounted to $947.2 million, the additions to term and permanent endowment, which amounted to $162.7 million, and the capital grant contributions, which amounted to $6.3
million, exceeded by some $610.2 million the operating loss, which amounted to $506 million.
The decrease in the net operating loss of some $442.1 million, or 47%, in fiscal year 2022 was caused by a decrease in total operating expenses of some $483.4 million, or 36%, and a decrease in total operating revenues of some $41.3 million, or 11%. In fiscal year 2021, total net nonoperating revenues, which amounted to $955.6 million, exceeded by some $7.7 million the operating loss, which amounted to $948.1 million.
The financial statements did not audit the Molecular Sciences Research Center Inc. or Servicios Médicos Universitarios Inc. (the hospital), University of Puerto Rico Parking System Inc., or Material Characterization Center Inc., which represent 100% of the aggregate discretely presented component units, as of June 30, 2022.
Two bipartisan bills were reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on U.S. coasts, coastal communities and oceans. as well as in the wide range of communities and industries that depend on them, the House announced on Monday, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón, as cochair of the Congressional Ocean Caucus, joined Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) to refile the measures.
“The climate crisis is a threat to all industries and communities, but one of the ways our nation is feeling the impacts of climate change is through the accelerating change of our oceans and coastlines,” Carbajal, who co-authored the Coastal State Climate Preparedness Act, said in a written statement. “Whether it’s reduced fishing capacity, erosion of our beaches, worsening storm surges and hurricanes, or historic devastation of our coastlines, coastal communities like mine will see widespread impacts and will need support to overcome these challenges.”
“I am proud to partner with peers from the other party like Rep. Fitzpatrick to reintroduce these two critical bills that will help coastal communities navigate the impacts of climate change and advance research on the growing threats to our fisheries and all those who depend on them,” he said.
Fitzpatrick noted that “[p]reserving and enhancing our country’s oceans, wildlife, and ecosystems is paramount to our future.”
The Coastal State Climate Preparedness Act would provide grants to coastal states to help them plan and implement strategies to mitigate climate change, prepare for sea level rise, and address other impacts.
González Colón, a Republican, and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oreg.), co-chairs of the House Oceans Caucus, joined in the reintroduction of the Ocean Acidification Research Partnership Act, which seeks to authorize up to $5 million in
research grants for studies on the effects of ocean acidification, a rapidly worsening climate threat that threatens the U.S. fishing and tourism industries.
“Ocean acidification poses a significant threat to our marine, estuarine and coastal ecosystems, such as our coral reefs in Puerto Rico,” the resident commissioner said. “It also hurts important sectors of the U.S. economy, including fishing and ocean tourism activities in our nation’s coastal communities. That’s why I’m proud to support the Ocean Acidification Research Partnership Act, which would authorize grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for collaborative research projects between the fishing industry and academia to investigate the effects of ocean acidification. I am confident this will further inform our efforts to address this important issue.”
Bonamici added that “the Ocean Acidification Research Partnership Act will provide dedicated funding to study the effects of ocean acidification on the fishing and tourism industries, helping them prepare for changing ocean conditions.”
According to a report published by the United Nations, worsening ocean acidification caused by both runoff-induced nutrient pollution and carbon air pollution will cost the global economy more than a billion dollars annually by 2100.
Worsening ocean acidification threatens billions of dollars in U.S. economic activity and tens of thousands of U.S. jobs, according to NOAA.
of Innovation and Technology Services Executive Director Nannette Martínez Ortiz said: “We have ... citizens who are aware of government pages and applications that can help us detect vulnerabilities.”
Office of Innovation and Technology Services (PRITS by its Spanish acronym) Executive Director Nannette Martínez Ortiz announced on Monday the formation of the Puerto Rico Cyber Force, an alliance with federal authorities and nonprofit organizations to protect citizen data against cyberattacks on the pages of Puerto Rico government websites.
“Here what we want is to take advantage of all the
efforts that are already running in different parts and unify them. We always have these collaborations with federal and state entities with whom we exchange information,” Martínez Ortiz said at a press conference. “We have, as well, citizens who are aware of government pages and applications that can help us detect vulnerabilities.”
“These cyber workers have training opportunities and have an interest in contributing,” she added. “So what we want is to take advantage of what is happening everywhere, unite it and establish those ties of communication.”
Amid a protracted stalemate in Congress over immigration, President Joe Biden has opened a back door to allow hundreds of thousands of new immigrants into the country, significantly expanding the use of humanitarian parole programs for people escaping war and political turmoil around the world.
The measures, introduced over the past year to offer refuge to people fleeing Ukraine, Haiti and Latin America, offer immigrants the opportunity to fly to the United States and quickly secure work authorization, provided they have a private sponsor to take responsibility for them.
As of mid-April, some 300,000 Ukrainians had arrived in the United States under various programs — a number greater than all the people from around the world admitted through the official U.S. refugee program in the last five years.
By the end of 2023, about 360,000 Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians are expected to gain admission through a similar private sponsorship initiative introduced in January to stem unauthorized crossings at the southern border — more people than were issued immigrant visas from these countries in the last 15 years combined.
The Biden administration has also greatly expanded the number of people who are in the United States with what is known as temporary protected status, a program former President Donald Trump had sought to terminate. About 670,000 people from 16 countries have had their protections extended or become newly eligible since Biden took office, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.
All told, these temporary humanitarian programs could become the largest expansion of legal immigration in decades.
“The longer Congress goes without legislating anything on immigration, the more the executive branch will do what it can within its own power based on the president’s principles,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, senior adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
The main challenge, she noted, is that “the courts can come in and say it’s outside the president’s authority, or an abuse of discretion, and take it all away.”
Already, critics have complained that the administration is using unfettered discretionary power that runs afoul of the laws Congress passed to regulate legal immigration, a system based primarily on family ties and, to a lesser extent, employment.
With Biden expected to kick off his reelection campaign this week, Republicans are likely to focus on what they call his overly permissive immigration policies.
Twenty Republican-led states, including Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas, have sued in federal court
to suspend the parole program for residents of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, arguing that it will admit 360,000 new immigrants a year from those countries and burden states with additional costs for health care, education and law enforcement.
In adopting the programs for Latin Americans, the Biden administration was responding to widespread criticism over the chaotic situation on the southern border, which last year saw 1.5 million unauthorized crossings. It bypassed years of failed attempts in Congress to legalize undocumented workers already in the country or to make more visas available to employers who wish to bring in temporary workers.
The new parole programs are temporary — most expire after two years, unless they are renewed — but they already are changing the nature of immigrant arrivals. The migrants who were admitted to the country after flooding the border from many of the same conflict-ridden countries last year have not been allowed to work for at least six months after opening an asylum case.
As a result, many have wound up in shelters in cities like New York, which has struggled to accommodate them.
The humanitarian parole program, in contrast, requires immigrants to first have a sponsor in the United States who will take financial responsibility for settling them in, and expeditiously offers a work permit for those approved. Employers with worker shortages are welcoming the arrivals as an important new labor pool.
The administration’s goal was to discourage the hundreds of thousands of migrants who were arriving at the border by allowing people to apply in a more orderly fashion from their home countries. After the programs began, overall Border Patrol apprehensions at the border reached their lowest levels in two years, led by a precipitous decline in Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Average weekly apprehensions declined
to 46 in late February from 1,231 in early January, when some of the parole measures were announced.
“The successful use of these parole processes and the significant decrease in illegal crossing attempts demonstrate clearly that noncitizens prefer to utilize a safe, lawful and orderly pathway to the United States if one is available, rather than putting their lives and livelihoods in the hands of ruthless smugglers,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
Overall border crossings from all nationalities, however, remain near historic highs, even with the new programs.
The programs have divided leaders of Republican states. Some, including those suing, contend that with the new programs, Biden has effectively kept the country’s doors wide open, although instead of masses of people crossing without authorization, he has invited them in legally.
But the programs have attracted broad support in the business community in some conservative states, like North Dakota, where there is deep concern over worker shortages.
A report last week from FWD.us, a bipartisan proimmigration group, estimated that about 450,000 immigrants who entered the United States on parole programs from Afghanistan, Ukraine and Latin American countries were filling jobs in industries facing critical labor shortages, including construction, food services, health care and manufacturing.
In North Dakota, where the oil industry has been struggling to hire roustabouts to operate rigs in the region’s notoriously punishing weather, the state Petroleum Council is recruiting people across the western prairie to act as sponsors for new Ukrainian immigrants who can be put to work.
The first 25 Ukrainian families are expected to arrive by July, with hopes that hundreds more will follow soon after.
“The Ukrainians need us, and we need them,” said Ron Ness, president of the council. “We have been working seriously to develop a very big project on a very large scale to attract them.”
The Ukrainian immigrants in western North Dakota are joining a community of Ukrainians that sprang up there in the late 1800s. State officials said that welcoming the newcomers would both achieve a humanitarian goal and help address a shortfall of about 10,000 workers in the oil industry.
Glenn Baranko, who owns a large company that builds pads for drilling rigs and is the great-grandson of Ukrainian settlers, said that his family and friends have already agreed to sponsor 10 people he plans to employ.
“I want them here, and I will help them get their first apartment and make sure their fridge is full until the paychecks start to come in,” he said.
The Supreme Court issued a decision late last week that maintained the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a commonly used abortion pill while an appeal moves forward, the latest development in a fast-moving legal battle that followed a lower court’s ruling that ordered the drug pulled off the market.
Justice Samuel Alito had paused the lower court’s ruling on the pill, mifepristone, but that freeze had been set to expire at midnight. The justices issued their decision about five hours before the deadline.
When the justices overturned Roe v. Wade in June, the conservative majority said the legislative branch, not the courts, should make decisions on abortion policy. But the issue quickly made its way back to the Supreme Court, in a case that may have wide-ranging consequences even in states where abortion is legal, as well as for the FDA’s regulatory authority over other drugs.
What’s at stake?
At issue is the availability of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen that now accounts for more than half of the abortions in the United States. More than 5 million women have used mifepristone to terminate their pregnancies in the United States, and dozens of other countries have approved the drug for use.
Federal judges have questioned steps the FDA has taken to expand the drug’s distribution, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New Orleans, imposed significant barriers to access
last week, even as it said it would allow the pill to remain on the market.
That decision essentially turned back the clock seven years, before the FDA added a series of guidelines in 2016 that eased access to the pill. The restrictions would require mifepristone to be prescribed and dispensed only by a doctor and picked up in person by the patient, who would have to visit the doctor three times during the medication abortion process. Those rules would have effectively prevented patients from receiving mifepristone by mail, which has made obtaining the medication easier for many patients.
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Before the changes in 2016, mifepristone was only authorized for use until seven weeks into pregnancy; now the time frame is 10 weeks into pregnancy, allowing medication abortion for many more patients.
And the appeals court ruling appeared to have declared invalid the FDA’s approval in 2019 of a generic version of mifepristone, manufactured by GenBioPro, whose product now accounts for two-thirds of the mifepristone used in the United States.
The restrictions in the appeals court’s preliminary ruling are all on pause for now, but the case will continue, with oral arguments before the appeals court scheduled for May 17.
The case could also pave the way for all sorts of challenges to the FDA’s approval of medications. Legal experts said medical providers anywhere in the country might be enabled to challenge government policy that might affect a patient, as did the anti-abortion medical coalition that filed the original lawsuit against the pill. And leaders of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries have filed briefs saying that the case could undermine their businesses by destroying their ability to rely on a single national standard for their products.
The dispute traces back to a lawsuit by an umbrella group of medical organizations and four doctors who oppose abortion, challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone 23 years ago.
The suit, filed in the Amarillo division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, came before a single federal judge: Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who is known as a longtime opponent of abortion.
The plaintiffs have claimed that the pill is unsafe and that the agency’s approval process for the drug was flawed. The FDA has forcefully countered those claims, contending that the drug is very safe and effective. It has cited a series of studies that show that serious complications are unusual and that less than 1% of patients need hospitalization.
In his preliminary ruling, Kacsmaryk said the Food and Drug Administration had improperly approved the drug, essentially ordering it off the market. He gave the agency a week to seek emergency relief before his ruling would take effect.
The Biden administration immediately appealed, and a divided three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said mifepristone could remain available as the lawsuit makes its way through the courts, but it said the 2016 restrictions should take effect immediately. The Biden administration then appealed to the Supreme Court, which issued Friday evening’s order that the status quo should remain in effect until the full case is resolved.
What about the case in Washington state?
A second case about the abortion pill is proceeding in a federal courtroom in Washington state, after Democratic attorneys general of 17 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit challenging the renewed FDA restrictions on access to mifepristone.
Less than an hour after Kacsmaryk issued his ruling, Judge Thomas Rice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, an Obama appointee, blocked the agency from doing anything to curb the availability of mifepristone in those 17 states and the District of Columbia. Although his order did not affect the entire country, the states in that lawsuit represent a majority of states where abortion remains legal. And drug policy experts said the order essentially had national implications because it would be logistically untenable for the FDA to apply one set of rules about a drug to some states and not others.
Legal experts said the direct conflict between the Washington state case and the 5th Circuit’s decision to block specific parts of the FDA’s rules for the abortion drug helped ensure the Supreme Court would have to weigh in.
As the dueling cases work their way through the courts now, their outcomes will affect the ultimate resolution of the abortion pill conflict. As will the outcome of a new lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Maryland, in which the maker of the generic version of mifepristone is asking a court to order the FDA not to immediately pull generic mifepristone from the market if another court ordered the agency to do so.
Over the last three decades, Americans have chosen presidents who felt their pain and channeled their anger, who shattered historical barriers or seemed like enjoyable beer-drinking companions.
But if voters often desire leaders who reflect themselves and their struggles, President Joe Biden’s potential bid for a second term, which he would conclude at the age of 86, is prompting exceptionally complicated feelings among one highly engaged constituency: his generational peers.
Three years after older voters helped propel Biden to the Democratic presidential nomination, embracing his deep experience and perceived general election appeal, his age is his biggest political liability as he moves toward another presidential run, which he could announce as soon as Tuesday.
It is a source of mockery and sometimes misinformation on the right — although the now-indicted Donald Trump, the Republican presidential poll leader who faces a morass of legal troubles, is just a few years younger — and one of widespread anxiety among Democrats.
The issue is particularly personal, however, for older voters who are inclined to like Biden, but often view his age through the prism of their own experiences.
They are aging. He is aging. They are not the president of the United States.
In interviews with about three dozen voters, political veterans and prominent Americans between 67 and 98 years old, broaching Biden’s age prompted not only electoral analysis, but also wide-ranging discussions of their own abilities and adjustments to their lives. Some bluntly wrestled with questions of mortality, and others veered into grandparent mode, admonishing the president to take care of himself.
“I’m 72 and I’m a young whippersnapper here in The Villages,” said Diane Foley, president of The Villages Democratic Club at the Republican-tilted mega-retirement community in Florida, who encouraged Biden to run again. “There are incredibly energetic, active people well into their 80s, and some 90s.”
“One has to know one’s limitations,” advised Dr. Ruth Westheimer, 94, the famed sex therapist. She keeps busy these days with a project on the grandparent-grandchild relationship but prefers to take meetings from home.
“I would say the president should run again, but he should also not run up to a podium,” she added. “I don’t want him to fall.”
And former Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, who at 92 has a dark sense of humor about his future — “at my age, I don’t buy green bananas” — signaled that he would support a Biden run. But he is eager for a new generation of leaders.
“Maybe I’m feeling so strongly because I’m leaving relatively soon and I want to see what’s going to follow,” Rangel said in an interview. “I truly believe that we should have more candidates, more than two old white men.”
Party leaders overwhelmingly plan to support Biden if he runs. But recent polling has shown that while many Democratic voters rate him favorably, they also have reservations about another bid. An Associated Press/NORC poll released Friday found that poll respondents were concerned about his age.
Other surveys found that older Democratic voters were more likely to favor another Biden run than younger Democrats, even as roughly 30% to 50% of Democrats over 60 preferred that he step aside.
“I can’t go on television and say, ‘Let’s not talk about this, let’s pivot to the real issues,’ because people think age is a real issue,” James Carville, 78, a Democratic strategist, said last month.
It was top of mind for several people who milled around a community center recently as a canasta game ended in Plantation, Florida.
Doreen W., 78, a Democrat who decli-
ned to share her last name on the record, citing fear of causing problems for her husband at work, said she hoped Biden would run again. But she worried about whether he was up to it.
“I know how tiring it is for me, and I’m not doing anything but retire,” she said. “I’m aware of his age and I’m concerned about that.”
Informed that Biden was not 78, as she had thought, but 80, she groaned, “Oh, God.”
“If I could just keep him at age 80 and active the way he is, I’d be more than happy,” she said.
Nursing a canasta defeat nearby, Jacque Deuser, 67, said the way Biden sometimes walked reminded her of her late husband, who had dementia.
“It kind of looks like he’s going to fall down,” said Deuser, who voted for Trump in 2016, backed Biden in 2020 and is inclined to support him again if Trump or Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida wins the Republican nomination.
Biden’s doctor recently reported that he was a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old” fit to serve, while acknowledging that Biden had a “stiffened gait,” citing factors including arthritis. But the doctor said there were no findings “consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder.”
Biden works out at least five days a week and does not drink or smoke, and his recent travel, including a covert trip to Ukraine, im-
pressed some of his peers.
“I don’t know if I could have been on my feet going to Ukraine and taking a 10-hour train ride,” said Peggy Grove, 80, vice chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. But while health is unpredictable, some aging experts have said there are signs Biden could be a “superager.”
Dr. John W. Rowe, a former president of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics and a professor of health policy and aging at Columbia, said “superagers” tend to live more of their lives without functional impairment.
Rowe also said age could bring unexpected benefits. Older people, he said, are often better at resolving disputes, and “are less likely to do something imprudent.”
“If you have, on the one hand, a superager, with no obvious evidence of something bad happening right now, and they bring along these other characteristics, I would feel pretty comfortable for the next four years,” he said, adding that he did not know Biden.
Biden and his allies stress his legislative accomplishments, including on issues affecting older Americans.
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said Biden had inherited and helped the country overcome “the worst crises in decades,” and was “now bringing manufacturing back from overseas, rebuilding our infrastructure, empowering Medicare to lower drug prices and standing up for the rights and dignity of every American.” He emphasized Biden’s experience, judgment and values in office.
At a recent gathering of the Broward Democratic Senior Caucus at a pub in Plantation, attendees dismissed concerns about Biden’s age.
“If his head is working, he’s fine,” Muriel Kirschner, 94, pointedly told a reporter. “My head is still working, honey.”
Patti Lynn, who will turn 80 this year, retired after having a heart attack, deciding it was “time to have some fun.” But Lynn, whose phone background was a picture of herself with Biden, did not think he should do the same just yet.
“Does he stumble and forget and have to get his words? I understand that perfectly,” she laughed. “Been there, done that. Oh well, I’m having a senior moment. But he’s respected worldwide, he is stable.
“How do you put him down — because he is old?” she added. “He worked hard to get that old. Me too. I worked hard to get this old.”
Bed Bath & Beyond came out of the 2008 downturn a winner. Although competitors like Sharper Image and Linens ’n Things filed for bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond actually expanded its business by acquiring other retailers. Its home-goods emporiums full of towels and kitchen aids — all available at a reduced price with that big blue coupon — were beacons that kept shoppers coming back.
Now, as the U.S. economy experiences another period of uncertainty, Bed Bath & Beyond is no longer on top, the result of an increasingly unwieldy corporate structure and its failure to fully reckon with the ascendance of online shopping.
On Sunday, the 52-year-old retailer said it was filing for bankruptcy protection in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. It said it would start the process of closing the company’s 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby locations Wednesday and seek to sell parts of its business. In its Chapter 11 filing, the company said that it expected all stores to close by June 30.
It will stop accepting its coupons Wednesday, when its store closing sales begin. Customers will have until May 8 to use Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards. The company did not specify when its store apps would shut down, saying only that customers could continue using them “at this time.”
“Thank you to all of our loyal customers,” the company said on its website. “We have made the difficult decision to begin winding down our operations.”
To help fund its operations in bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond has raised $240 million from the investment firm Sixth Street Specialty Lending.
The company’s decline offers a glimpse into the forces shaping the post-pandemic retail landscape. For companies such as Bed Bath & Beyond, whose financial problems were masked as consumers rushed to spend their stimulus money, the economic concerns of the past few months are exposing those weaknesses. It will become even more crucial for retailers to adapt as shoppers cut back on discretionary spending.
“We are going to see the Darwinism of retail” play out in 2023, said Michael Lasser, a retail analyst at UBS who has covered Bed Bath & Beyond for 16 years.
The past several years have been tumultuous for retailers. In 2020,J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and J. Crew all filed for bankruptcy. But in the past two years, retailers have benefited from U.S. consumers’ willingness to spend. Now, as shoppers are being more discerning about their purchases, more companies will be at risk.
The retail landscape looked much different when Bed Bath & Beyond was started in 1971 as a way to compete with the home goods sections of department stores.
The company’s founders, Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein, opened the chain’s first stores in New York and New Jersey. The venture was originally called Bed N’ Bath, a nod to their narrow line of merchandise.
Compared with a store like Macy’s, the upstart retailer promised a larger selection of bedsheets, towels, shower curtains and other home necessities. As their merchandise assortment and store base expanded, the retailer was renamed Bed Bath & Beyond in 1987. It went public in 1992.
It embraced innovation, former executives and employees said. Instead of TV ads, Bed Bath & Beyond relied on word-of-mouth advertising and the large coupons it delivered to millions of Americans’ mailboxes. Countless shoppers would keep those 20% off cards in their cars or junk drawers, a reminder to head to the retailer if they were considering, say, a new toaster.
In 2000, Bed Bath & Beyond had 311 stores. A decade later, it had 1,100. From 2002 until 2012, the company acquired Harmon Stores, Christmas Tree Shops, Buy Buy Baby and Cost Plus World Market. The brands helped diversify the company from a retail perspective, but the moves also diverted management’s focus away from other crucial investments, like its e-commerce business, according to Richard McMahon, who held various executive titles at the company, including chief strategy officer, over 17 years before leaving in 2015.
“There wasn’t as much focus put on the organic business — Bed Bath & Beyond — and evolving that business to consumer behavior,” McMahon said. “The internet started to become real and consumer behavior was changing through that process.”
In 2014, Bed Bath & Beyond got into the debt market for the first time by selling $1.5 billion in bonds to buy back stock. Many retailers avoid taking on debt, well aware of the industry volatility that can quickly turn a reasonable debt load into a serious financial burden. Lasser, the UBS analyst, described the move as a “seminal event” and wondered if it was an attempt to raise the company’s stock price to fend off activist investors.
If that was the intent, it wasn’t a long-term solution. In 2019, a trio of activist investors — Legion Partners, Macellum Advisors and Ancora Advisors — won a fight with the retailer that gave them the choice of four new board members and, eventually, a chief executive they supported: Mark Tritton of Target, the first top executive to come from outside the company.
Much of the workplace culture at Bed Bath & Beyond soon changed. There were layoffs. Store managers had less say over which items would be stocked in their stores. Tritton, who left the company last year, declined to comment on his tenure.
When the pandemic came, Bed Bath & Beyond joined other retailers in dealing with supply chain problems.
A Bed Bath & Beyond retail location on 6th Avenue in Manhattan on Sept. 27, 2022. The company, which failed to fully reckon with the rise of online shopping, said that store closing sales would begin on Wednesday, April 27, 2023.
But the company’s decentralized system complicated things further, and its e-commerce technology was less advanced than many of its biggest competitors.
Revenue in 2020 fell to $2.6 billion, a 16% drop from 2019. What had once been a manageable debt load quickly became unsustainable.
As the company looked for places to cut costs, it started to undo the things that people loved about Bed Bath & Beyond. In 2020, the retailer said it would scale back on mailing its trademark coupons. It moved away from national, well-known brands in favor of making its own batch of private label brands, which usually have better margins. To make stores feel more open, it removed items and tore down its 14-foot-tall tower of towels.
In August, the company announced an aggressive restructuring plan, saying it would close 150 stores and lay off more workers. Just a few days later, the retailer was thrown into emotional tumult when its chief financial officer, Gustavo Arnal, died, a death that was ruled a suicide.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s suppliers started to get spooked and began demanding payment upfront. That led to instock levels around 70% during the past holiday season, according to Sue Gove, who became the permanent CEO in October.
In early February, the company sidestepped bankruptcy after coming up with a plan to use a public stock offering to raise more than $1 billion. The plan, backed by Hudson Bay Capital Management, was good only so long as Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock stayed above $1 a share. This month, the retailer canceled that deal after its terms were breached. Its stock closed at 29 cents a share Friday.
All the while, sales continued to fall, starving the company of the cash — and confidence — necessary to keep suppliers shipping to its stores.
“It’s a death spiral,” said Neil Saunders, the managing director at GlobalData’s retail division. “If you can’t get the stock, you can’t make the sales. If you can’t make the sales, your credit deteriorates. If your credit deteriorates, people are less willing to supply you. That cycle seems impossible to break.”
Alook at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan
With world markets preparing for first-quarter updates from U.S. Big Tech firms this week, the heat under simmering geopolitical tensions went up a notch as a Chinese diplomat to France questioned the independence of all former Soviet states.
Ahead of an event-packed week, Chinese and global emerging market stocks fell to their lowest in almost a month and the yuan fell to its lowest in almost six weeks as the controversial statement met with fierce backlash in European capitals- especially those of Baltic states now European Union members.
Although China’s foreign ministry attempted to row back by saying Beijing respects the sovereignty and integrity of all countries - despite its refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - the row will unnerve many investors wary of Beijing’s support for Moscow and position on its right to Taiwan.
And with China’s economy accelerating again after it ended its extended COVID-related lockdowns, spurring world growth again in the process, the political tension risks cutting across many investors’ attempts to re-invest in the country.
Otherwise, a packed earnings season dominates this week’s investment radar as more than a third of S&P500 companies report.
Three of the four biggest U.S. companies by market value -- Microsoft, Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon -- are scheduled to post updates, with Microsoft and Alphabet due on Tuesday and Amazon on Thursday. Facebook parent Meta Platforms is sandwiched in between on Wednesday.
Including Intel, those five tech stocks have accounted for two-thirds of the S&P500’s gains this year - with the Artificial Intelligence craze sparked by the emergence of ChatGPT adding a new non-cyclical attraction to the sector.
And that cycle, for all the recession fears that abound, got another fillip from Friday’s news of a marked acceleration of U.S. and global service sector firms in April.
But before markets get a taste of Q1 tech profits, the reverberations from last month’s banking blow-up are still being absorbed.
First Republic, one of the U.S. regional banks caught in the storm, reports later on Monday as Wall Street tots up the level of deposit flight from these banks and ponders plans for new regulation of mid-sized operations.
With European earnings kicking into high gear this week too, collapsed Credit Suisse said on Monday that 61 billion Swiss francs ($68 billion) in assets left the bank in the first quarter and that outflows were continuing, underscoring the challenge faced by UBS in rescuing its rival.
U.S. and euro zone first quarter gross domestic product numbers are due out later in the week too, with eyes also on
new Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda as he chairs his first monetary policy meeting at the end of the week.
Although confidence is high that the BOJ’s ultra-dovish policy will remain unchanged next Friday, economists flag the non-negligible risk of another surprise tweak to the explicit bond yield cap.
Japan’s stocks closed in positive territory on Monday, bucking the trend in the rest of Asia.
European stocks were slightly negative and U.S. stock
futures also marginally in the red ahead of Wall Street’s open. Crude oil prices were lower.
With another Federal Reserve quarter-point interest rate rise next month now baked into pricing, Treasury yields were mostly flat. Focus is on the tense debt ceiling standoff - with the House of Representatives due to vote on Republicans’ spending and debt bill this week.
The dollar was mixed - up against Asian currencies but off against European currencies amid hawkish European Central Bank soundings on interest rates.
Events to watch out for on Monday:
* Dallas Fed April manufacturing survey, Chicago Fed National business survey
Civilians fleeing the fighting between two rival generals in Sudan streamed into neighboring countries Monday, raising concerns about a humanitarian crisis spreading to countries already grappling with conflict, hunger and dire economic straits.
The heavy gunfire, shelling and airstrikes that have rocked Sudan for 10 days prompted foreign countries to begin evacuating diplomatic staff and nationals over the weekend. It also has driven thousands of Sudanese and other people across borders into Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, aid workers said.
The huge movement of people risks overwhelming Sudan’s neighbors, some of which already host large numbers of refugees and internally displaced people. Sudan, a country of 45 million people and the third-largest by area in Africa, is surrounded by seven countries racked by poverty and instability.
Just the past few years have seen a civil war in Ethiopia; hunger, flooding and ethnic fighting in South Sudan; and a coup in Chad.
“The humanitarian impact of this crisis is going to be almost unimaginable,” said Faith Kasina, the regional spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency. “The worst-case scenario is unfolding right before our eyes.”
More than 400 people have been killed and 3,700 others injured in Sudan in the fighting, according to the World Health Organization. The clashes have left countless people in the country without food, water or electricity. Many hospitals in the capital, Khartoum, have closed, and several humanitarian organizations said that their warehouses and offices had been looted.
Repeated efforts to broker a cease-fire between the two rival forces — the army and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary unit — have failed. Everyone from the U.N. secretary-general to the Israeli Foreign Ministry has offered to mediate.
On Sudan’s southern border, nearly 3,000 people had arrived by Monday in the town of Renk in South Sudan, according to the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency. Most of those were South Sudanese returning home after having fled Khartoum in cars and on the backs of trucks, carrying whatever they could on the 280-mile journey south.
“The people that get out first are the people that have the means,” noted Peter Van der Auweraert, the South Sudan representative for the migration organization. “We are preparing for more vulnerable people arriving in the coming days and weeks.”
South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, is wrestling with its own problems, particularly stemming from a yearslong civil war that has devastated the economy, cost the lives of more than 400,000 people and displaced 4.3 million others. About three-quarters of the population, or more than 9 million people, are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the International Organization for Migration.
At Sudan’s northern land border, dozens of buses
crossed into Egypt on Monday carrying those fleeing the fighting, where they were met by Sudanese relatives.
Hundreds of families, according to relatives and aid workers, are also fleeing to small cities and towns in the eastern and southern parts of Sudan, and some are considering crossing into Ethiopia — which is still recovering from two years of civil war in the northern Tigray region that was quieted in November.
Abdirahman Isak Shangah, a postgraduate student at the International University of Africa in Khartoum, took a half-day bus ride to reach the Sudanese town of Qadarif, and is headed to Ethiopia. He said that members of the paramilitary force barged into his dormitory Friday, took away the little food he had stored, ordered students to vacate their rooms and began taking up positions.
“Our bedrooms became the battleground,” said Shangah, who is 26 and from Somalia. “Ethiopia has its own challenges, but it is safer to be anywhere else now than Khartoum.”
Foreign countries began to evacuate diplomatic staff from Sudan over the weekend in airlifts, and in long convoys by car to Egypt or a port on the Red Sea. But they have left behind a pool of resentment among some Sudanese, who say they feel both abandoned and angry that international diplomacy failed to prevent the military rivals from turning to battle.
The removal of foreign nationals continued Monday, with the European Union evacuating 21 diplomatic staff and “more than 1,000 civilians,” according to the bloc’s top diplomat. France said it closed its embassy in Khartoum. Djibouti, Kenya, Nigeria, Brazil and South Africa announced plans to evacuate their nationals.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that “dozens” of American citizens in Sudan have told the U.S. government that they want to leave. The State Department is providing them with advice and guidance, but there are still no plans to offer them transportation because it is too dangerous, Blinken said.
There are an estimated 16,000 Americans in Sudan, many of them dual nationals.
Complicating matters further, Sudan has been host-
ing about 1.1 million refugees and asylum-seekers, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Most of those people are from South Sudan, a nation that split from Sudan in 2011 and has been ravaged by civil war ever since. Sudan is also home to refugees from conflicts and autocratic rule in countries such as Eritrea, Ethiopia and Syria.
For many of those people, who had just begun to pick up the pieces of their lives by opening small businesses and otherwise putting down tentative roots in Sudan, any hope of regaining a settled existence is now in limbo again.
When the fighting broke out in Khartoum, pockets of violence also flared up in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
That sent up to 20,000 people — mostly women and children — fleeing into neighboring Chad, which is already home to more than 400,000 Sudanese refugees, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Many of those arriving in eastern Chad walked for a day, carrying little more than clothes and a pair of shoes, said Eujin Byun, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency.
Some joined relatives in the already sprawling camps where resources are stretched, she said. But many of the new arrivals chose to sleep in the open area close to the border and wait for word of when it will be safe to return.
South Sudan, one of the poorest nations in the world, is also bracing for what could be a catastrophic economic shock. While most of the South Sudanese living in Sudan are refugees, the rest are migrants who typically support their families back home. The fighting could interrupt those flows of money and limit cross-border trade.
Markets in the north of South Sudan, filled with goods brought in from Sudan, already have less to offer as fighting disrupts the supply chain, Van der Auweraert said. And the South Sudanese pound has begun to lose value.
“We do not want to get into a situation where we have to deprive people in South Sudan that are also in need,” Van der Auweraert said. “There’s going to be difficult decisions to be made.”
Even as some found a way to leave the most dangerous areas of Sudan, many people remain stuck in Khartoum, where the conflict is most acute.
Javid Abdelmoneim, who lives in Malawi, said that his father, an 80-year-old British national living in Khartoum, had declined offers from relatives to leave the city because he said that he had received promises from the British Embassy that he would be evacuated.
But the British government evacuated only its diplomatic staff Sunday, a move that Abdelmoneim said he and his family had learned about on Twitter. The government said Monday that it is using “all diplomatic avenues” to get British nationals out.
Abdelmoneim said that he is now trying to contact two uncles to take his father out of Khartoum along with them, but that phone and internet networks were patchy.
“My only hope is that we will somehow reach our relatives and have them get my father out,” Abdelmoneim said, through tears.
Soon after his airplane took off from Moscow last fall, a Russian energy official who had just resigned took his phone and typed up the emotions he had kept bottled inside since the invasion of Ukraine.
“I am tired of feeling constant fear for myself, for my loved ones, for the future of my country and of my own,” Arseny Pogosyan wrote on his social media page as he flew into a hurried exile. “I am against this inhumane war.”
The outburst in September did not receive much attention, gathering eight likes and one brief comment. After all, Pogosyan, 30, was among the hundreds of thousands of young Russian men fleeing the mobilization announced days earlier by President Vladimir Putin to replenish his battered military.
But among his colleagues in the energy ministry, where he worked as a press officer, his decision to leave his job was rare.
Since the war began, Russia has lost droves of tech workers as well as other professionals, a brain drain that analysts say will harm the country’s economy for decades. By contrast, many government employees have fallen in line behind Putin’s wartime leadership. Almost all senior Russian technocrats and a large majority of their immediate subordinates — officials who guide Russia’s economy — remain in their posts more than a year after the invasion.
Their professional expertise has helped Putin largely keep the economy afloat in the face of increasingly severe Western sanctions.
“It is unthinkable for me these people can support this war, yet they won’t openly condemn it,” Pogosyan said in an interview in March in Egypt, where he spent three months waiting for a U.S. visa in an apartment by the Red Sea. “It’s the quiet majority. Everything in Russia is built around it.”
Raised after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Pogosyan represented a new generation of officials climbing the ladders of Russian ministries and state companies. Tasked by Putin with modernizing the national economy, they built their careers by replacing the Iron Curtain mentality with Western practices in public institutions.
In their personal lives, they navigated Western culture, bonded with Western partners, vacationed in Europe and the United States and often studied there.
Pogosyan’s former superior, for instance, was a deputy energy minister, Pavel Sorokin, who studied in London and worked at Morgan Stanley. Sorokin, 37, has played a key role in maintaining Russia’s alliance with OPEC, which has helped prop up the Kremlin’s oil
revenues, according to Pogosyan, who until his departure wrote the deputy minister’s press statements.
Another Russian technocrat, Putin’s chief economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin, 40, worked in the French bank Crédit Agricole and is fluent in English. He devised a payment system that allows Russia to sell gas to Europe in rubles, preempting Western sanctions, Bloomberg News reported last year, citing anonymous sources.
And Alexei Sazanov, 40, an Oxford-educated deputy finance minister, works on maximizing Russian tax revenues from oil and gas exports hit by sanctions.
Sorokin and the press offices of Oreshkin and Sazanov did not immediately respond to requests for comment on their post-invasion initiatives.
The midlevel technocrats who opted to stay in most cases did not face explicit government threats or coercion, said Alexandra Prokopenko, a former monetary policy adviser at Russia’s Central Bank, who resigned and left the country shortly after the start of the war. Instead, she said, they are driven by a combination of professional opportunities, material benefits and inertia.
Putin’s calls for economic self-sufficiency have put a premium on their professional skills, Prokopenko said in an interview in Berlin. “They are becoming more visible to Putin, and they feel empowered.”
She and other analysts, as well as exiled Russian dissidents, cite several reasons why most technocrats remain in their jobs. Some support Putin and accepted his justification for pressing war in Ukraine. Those with misgivings tend to emphasize the value of their work for ordinary Russians, who are suffering the economic consequences of the war.
Yet even those who decide to leave can find it difficult to break ties, Prokopenko said. And these difficulties increase with seniority.
She said the Russian intelligence agents who are traditionally attached to all ministries and major state companies closely monitor personnel moves; they also have the last word on all resignation petitions submitted at managerial level. Since the start of the war, these overseers have worked to convince managers considering resignation to remain in their posts and even forced some to hand over their passports, Prokopenko said, recounting her conversations with officials.
By dragging out the resignation process, the government can exploit the workers’ attachment to protocol, as well as their fear of damaging their reputation among peers, she added.
“To get up and go is absolutely unthinkable for these people,” she said.
Pogosyan’s complicated journey to exile illustrates this complex interplay between personal benefit and moral quandary. He remained in his post for months after the start of the invasion, describing how a desire to wait out a period of intense uncertainty gradually morphed into inertia and then acceptance of the new circumstances.
His take-home monthly salary, equivalent to about $4,000, allowed him a comfortable life in Moscow. “My future was secured,” he said.
His previous role focused on boosting Russia’s image as a reliable global energy supplier, he said, but once the war came it shifted primarily to managing domestic public opinion.
In particular, he was instructed to downplay negative news, such as rising energy costs, for the Russian consumer, he said.
“The government was doing everything that it could to make sure that people in Russia would not notice any changes in their lives” after the war, Pogosyan said.
Kremlin officials began to review the work of his press office, he said, pressing his team into what they saw as an information war against the West. In the summer, he and about 150 other government press officers were sent to a three-day workshop where the Kremlin’s powerful domestic policy chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, called on them to become “in-
formation SWAT teams” in the battle for Russian hearts and minds.
Pogosyan said the politicization of his work made him uncomfortable but, like everyone else in his team, he carried on with his tasks, convincing himself that it was still removed from the country’s war machine.
This changed after Putin’s announcement in late September that his military would call up 300,000 men after a series of disastrous setbacks in Ukraine.
Spooked by a rumor that he would soon be mobilized, Pogosyan swiftly resigned and boarded a flight to Armenia.
In interviews, two people who knew Pogosyan confirmed the broad details of his departure from his job, and from Russia.
After that social media post last fall condemning the war, Pogosyan’s former employer considered filing a criminal complaint against him, according to a person familiar with a letter requesting the complaint. And two of his friends received vague phone inquiries about him from men claiming to be police. No criminal case against Pogosyan was publicly opened.
In Armenia, Pogosyan contacted the U.S. Embassy and applied for a special refugee visa. He eventually crossed overland to neighboring Georgia and later flew to Egypt. Despite being surrounded there by Russian tourists, Pogosyan said, he kept to his own to avoid coming across government supporters.
Now, he rents a room in New York, and does odd jobs while waiting to apply for political asylum.
For months, guards at a Syrian prison brutally tortured an American aid worker and threatened to kill her loved ones. She eventually caved to their demands, confessing to crimes she did not commit. A trial that lasted no more than a few minutes followed, and she was ordered executed in late 2016.
Human rights workers and politicians were outraged when the U.S. government stayed noticeably silent about the death of the aid worker, Layla Shweikani, 26. Her case never received the same level of attention as those of other American citizens captured abroad, including Austin Tice, a freelance journalist covering the war in Syria who was abducted outside Damascus in 2012; Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for The Washington Post, who described being subjected to psychological abuse and sleep deprivation after he was released from an Iranian prison in 2016; and Brittney Griner, a professional basketball star who was imprisoned for nearly a year in Russia.
But for five years, the Justice Department has been quietly investigating Shweikani’s killing, led by the U.S. attorney in Chicago, according to four people with knowledge of the inquiry. FBI agents traveled to Europe and the Middle East to collect troves of evidence and interview potential witnesses, including the man who may have buried Shweikani. Federal prosecutors convened a grand jury, which has been hearing evidence.
The inquiry, which has not been previously reported, aims to bring to account top Syrian officials considered key architects of a ruthless system of detention and torture
that flourished under President Bashar Assad: Jamil Hassan, the head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate when Shweikani disappeared, and Ali Mamlouk, then the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service.
A federal indictment accusing the men of committing war crimes would be the first time that the United States has criminally charged top Syrian officials with the very human rights abuses that Assad has long denied using to silence dissent. Although the men are unlikely to be apprehended, a conviction would signal that the United States aims to hold the Syrian government responsible. Already, the United States has imposed sanctions on Assad and his inner circle, including Mamlouk and Hassan, over abuses such as violence against civilians.
International efforts to bring top officials in Syria to justice for war crimes committed over more than a decade of conflict have been starkly limited. Few perpetrators have been prosecuted, raising the stakes of any possible charges and testing diplomatic relations. A potential indictment would “personalize the evil of this regime and make it clear you can’t do business with Assad,” said former Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special representative for Syria engagement.
Even as it is widely acknowledged that security forces under Assad have sys-
tematically sought to stamp out opposition to his authoritarian rule, he has inched back onto the world stage. A few Arab countries, led by the United Arab Emirates, are trying to draw Syria back into the international fold. Critics have accused President Joe Biden of tacitly shifting from the position held by previous administrations that no nation should ever engage with Syria, accusations the White House has denied. And after a powerful earthquake devastated Syria in February, Western nations have worked more amicably with Assad’s government to deliver aid.
As a child, Shweikani traveled to Syria to see family, and she earned a computer science degree in 2012 from Arab International University, according to her LinkedIn account. After working for a few years as a software engineer, she relocated in 2015 from suburban Chicago to Damascus, Syria, to join a grassroots network of humanitarian relief workers. But Assad tightly controls all official aid efforts in his country and he has treated citizen-run efforts as a threat, accusing them of terrorism.
By the time the authorities detained Shweikani on Feb. 19, 2016, along with her father and her fiancé, who were also in the country, almost every member of her relief group had been taken into Syrian custody. She would spend nearly a year in prisons on the outskirts of Damascus where cramped conditions, illness and torture run rampant: a detention facility at the Mezze airport, the Adra civilian prison and the Saydnaya military prison, where witnesses believe she was tried and executed.
Syrian guards tortured Shweikani, witnesses would later tell Justice Department investigators, recounting how they vowed to kill her father and fiancé, who had been detained for only a few days. The guards eventually forced her to falsely confess to crimes against the state, including terrorism.
Some of the worst abuse she endured is believed to have been at the Mezze detention center, which was then controlled by Hassan. One former detainee described the stark conditions there after he was arrested in 2012 as part of the government’s crackdown on Homs, once the heart of the resistance against Assad.
“You’re blindfolded, handcuffed and naked,” said Mohamed, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of retribution. “Your cell is so full that you sleep standing up. You don’t know what time it is. But you know that you’re always awaiting tor-
ture.” He had scabies and lice, and his skin was deteriorating. Some prisoners died of gangrene from mutilations and amputations, others of starvation and suffocation.
Guards suspended him by his wrists, feet barely touching the floor, alternately beating him and leaving him hanging for hours to listen to the screams of men, women and children as guards set upon them.
“I confessed to anything they wanted me to,” he said.
Eventually, Shweikani was moved to Adra prison, where the Obama administration dispatched the Czech ambassador, Eva Filipi, to meet her in December 2016 because it had cut off formal diplomatic relations with Syria. Convinced that Shweikani had confessed under torture, she relayed that to officials in Washington, two former officials said.
But before the U.S. government could intervene, Shweikani was transferred in late December to the Saydnaya military prison. After a brief field trial, she was convicted. Investigators believe she was hanged. She died at 7:07 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2016, according to a government document obtained by a Syrian news service.
At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Syria in 2018, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., disclosed Shweikani’s death to the public.
“She became the first American citizen that we know of to be killed by the Assad regime,” Kinzinger said, adding, “Whatever response the administration decides to take will shape how the regime and its backers treat other Americans.”
At the hearing, Jeffrey confirmed that Shweikani died “in Syrian government hands.”
Four months later, at a private White House meeting, President Donald Trump told Republican lawmakers that he was unlikely to respond to a killing by the Syrian government, according to two people familiar with the conversation. Even though human rights groups had details supporting allegations of torture and murder, Trump said he was not inclined to address the matter because of Assad’s claims about aid workers and extremism.
If the Justice Department were to charge Hassan and Mamlouk, it is highly unlikely that the men would enter a country willing to extradite them to the United States. But human rights lawyers say the prosecution would still be valuable, revealing more about the atrocities that continue to be committed in Syria.
This year, 61 million visitors are expected to come to New York City. Among the best remembered will probably be the dozen or so members of the House Judiciary Committee who traveled to 26 Federal Plaza to participate in a field-trip hearing titled “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,” an event to which actual Manhattan was largely indifferent.
The crowd outside the building Monday morning, before the proceedings began, was small. Protesters held signs calling Jim Jordan, the Republican committee chair from Ohio and host of this theater of reproval, an “insurrectionist” and “Trump’s errand boy.” The congressman had arrived in New York to condemn what he and other Republicans view as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s lax approach to crime fighting, calling New York a place “where videos of violent, senseless attacks appear almost daily, and where the DA of lower Manhattan earned a reputation for caring more about the perpetrators of crime than the victims.”
Democrats were quick to describe the hearing as a “junket,” a “sham,” a “stunt,’’ a “MAGA Broadway production,” an “outrageous abuse of power” — an exercise in retribution directed at the prosecutor who
indicted the former president on 34 felony counts earlier this month.
A woman outside the building where the hearing was about to get underway took out a piece of chalk, crouched down and wrote “Gym Jordan” in big letters on the street as a reminder of the congressman’s past, should anyone have forgotten. Five years ago, it was Jordan who was accused of turning a blind eye to crimes, specifically to sexual misconduct in the athletics department at Ohio State University when he was a wrestling coach there in the late 1980s and ’90s. Jordan has consistently denied the allegations, claiming he was unaware of the abuse, although a report in The New York Times suggests otherwise.
The chair, though, was quite explicit in his expression of sympathy for the victims of violent crimes brought to testify in front of the committee, among them Madeline Brame, whose son was murdered in upper Manhattan. Certain turns of phrase were repeated so often in the hearings that they might have lent themselves to a drinking game had most of this not transpired before lunchtime. Republicans referred to the “Sorosization” of the criminal justice system over and over, not intending it as a compliment, and Dan Goldman, elected to the House last year to serve downtown Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn, pointed to the antisemitic overtones.
For roughly four hours, the hearing played out as a fusillade of statistics, impressions and misimpressions, as Republicans argued that New York was a hellscape of unchecked violence and chaos — viral videos of which were shown on local news programs around the country to prove it. Democrats on the committee countered that things were much worse in so many other places, especially in the cities and states from which their political adversaries had come. A Republican out-of-towner proved that he had already internalized the reflexes of a certain kind of New Yorker, whether he could appreciate it or not, when he mentioned the cabdriver he had interrogated, after landing, about how much he worried about crime.
The New York Police Department, like the police departments of many other cities around the country, offers the public a weekly account of crime both citywide and by precinct, which might have obviated the need for a lot of the bickering. But then where would the drama have come from? The data tells us that so far this year, murder is down 6.6% citywide and shootings are down 23% compared with last year.
Still, is the vibe of the city more lawless than it has ever been? Robert Holden, a Democrat and a City Council member representing a district in Queens — which, it ought to be noted, is not in Manhattan — and the only
elected official of local government asked to testify, said that yes, it did feel more lawless. His wife, who is Asian American, was afraid to take the subway, fearful of hate crime. She is justified in this worry. Although hate crimes have fallen 40% citywide compared with the same period last year, in Queens, where Bragg has no jurisdiction, they have gone up.
Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican congresswoman from Staten Island, where major crimes have increased this year, showed up about 2 1/2 hours into the hearing to observe and offer herself to reporters. In the overflow room outside the hearing, she talked about the dangers delivered to the world by reform-minded prosecutors, claiming that 1 in every 67 New Yorkers was a crime victim. Asked whether this hearing would have been conducted had there been no Trump indictment, Malliotakis insisted it would have, adding, “This is an issue I have been pushing.”
Unlike Marjorie Taylor Greene, the celebrity congresswoman who visited New York from Georgia not long ago and called the city “repulsive,” “filthy” and “disgusting,” Republican committee members practiced their best guest etiquette, referring to the city as an “iconic” place, a “great” place. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican, who did not look like someone in any rush to jump back to Washington on the Acela, said that he had not come to “criticize any New Yorkers,” that a city rightly celebrated for its drive and “hustle” was now imperiled by rampant fear.
Would Republicans, they were repeatedly asked, then agree to stricter gun control to keep illegal weapons out of the city? How the House Judiciary Committee would “save” Manhattan from itself — from the Democrats whom those who live there chose to elect — was not obvious.
EL CAPITOLIO – El Senado de Puerto Rico avaló, durante los trabajos de la quinta sesión ordinaria, varias medidas de justicia social entre ellas el segundo Informe de Conferencia del Proyecto del Senado 537 que propone establecer la Ley para la Prevención del Maltrato, Preservación de la Unidad Familiar y para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de los Menores.
Dicha pieza legislativa contó con 14 votos a favor y 11 en contra, la misma busca garantizar el cumplimiento con las partes B y E del Título IV de la Ley del Seguro Social, según enmendada por la Family First Prevention Services Act; derogar la Ley para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de Menores y para otros fines relacionados.
“Esta legislación fomenta el proveer oportunidades y esfuerzos razonables que permitan preservar los vínculos familiares y comunitarios en la medida que no se perjudique al menor, evitando el trauma de la separación innecesaria de los padres e hijos. La política pública se enfoca en brindar los servicios y realizar esfuerzos razonables para evitar remociones, mantener la unidad familiar o reunificar al menor con su familia”, detalla el proyecto.
La Ley también implementará un “procedimiento estándar para el manejo de acciones judiciales de me-
nores extranjeros que no ostentan el estado migratorio de residentes permanentes para alinear estas prácticas con los nuevos requisitos federales”.
Asimismo, se aprobó el Proyecto del Senado 839 de la autoría del senador novoprogresista, Gregorio Matías Rosario, que busca añadir un inciso a la Ley Orgánica del Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos de Puerto Rico a los fines de incluir entre sus poderes y deberes la facultad para identificar y crear las herramientas que permitan a las personas diagnosticadas con el Trastorno del Espectro del Autismo o Síndrome Down poder insertarse y mantenerse en la fuerza laboral. También, busca enmendar el Código de Rentas Internas de Puerto Rico de 2011 a los fines de establecer una deducción contributiva a los patronos de empresas privadas que empleen a personas diagnosticadas con el Trastorno del Espectro del Autismo o Síndrome Down.
Según la exposición de motivos de la pieza legislativa “el panorama sigue siendo desalentador, con uno de cada tres adultos con autismo que no han tenido un trabajo remunerado o educación posterior a la escuela superior. Ese porcentaje de personas excluidas del mundo laboral es más alto que en el caso de otras discapacidades. Ello es incluso peor para individuos provenientes de familias con bajos ingresos”.
Durante su turno, Matías Rosario expresó que “este proyecto es uno de justicia y lo que busca son herra-
mientas para insertar en el mundo laboral a la comunidad con autismo y con síndrome Down… aquí hay un proyecto donde dice que vamos a darle un incentivo a los que contraten a las personas de la comunidad de autismo y síndrome Down, personas vulnerables y la Junta de Supervisión Fiscal hace unos cálculos que puede ser de $2 a $5 millones y por eso ellos no le van a dar paso… [Pero ellos, la Junta] ya han gastado sobre dos millones de dólares en asesores… No vamos a dejar que la insensibilidad de ellos nos arrope a nosotros y vamos a luchar por los más vulnerables”.
S AN JUAN – La directora ejecutiva de la Oficina de Innovación y Servicios de Tecnología (PRITS), Nannette Martínez Ortiz, aseguró el lunes que se mantendrá en la posición, a pesar del informe nega-
tivo de la Comisión de Nombramientos del Senado.
“No voy a especular sobre las teorías de qué puede ser la razón que puede haber detrás de una recomendación o rechazo de mi nombramiento. Yo sí puedo decirle lo que yo veo”, dijo Martínez Ortiz en conferencia de prensa.
“Yo veo a una mujer trabajando en esta oficina, echándola hacia adelante, desde hace dos años y cuatro meses. Y veo a que está detrás de todos los esfuerzos como el Vacu ID, las últimas 5 o 6 actualizaciones del CESCO Digital, la arquitectura del sistema ideal que integra las bases de datos del gobierno. El sistema que vieron en el huracán Fiona para datos de emergencia, el sistema centralizado de convocatorias. Una mujer que está haciendo cambios que han sacudido el gobierno”, añadió.
A preguntas de si pedirá al gobernador que retire su nombramiento o si está dispuesta a ser colgada por el Senado, Martínez Ortiz contestó que “yo voy a continuar con el trabajo, siempre que me lo permitan y el Senado que haga el suyo. No es mi intención (pe-
dir que se retire el nombramiento), será discreción del gobernador como él lo quiera manejar”.
El presidente del Senado, José Luis Dalmau Santiago ha expresado en repetidas ocasiones que Martínez Ortiz no tiene los votos para ser confirmada. Según el informe negativo de la Comisión de Nombramientos que Dalmau Santiago preside, hay dudas con relación a contratos otorgados y las cuantías que se han desembolsado en los últimos años. Además, se le adjudica falta de efectividad y eficiencia en la puesta en vigor del marbete electrónico que se anunció desde el 2022 y todavía no arranca. Asimismo, se le adscribe responsabilidad por los ataques cibernéticos a varias páginas del gobierno, que incluye la del Senado.
“Ante la falta de información clara y certera sobre el manejo de la dependencia pública y de lo anteriormente señalado, incluyendo lo relacionado con las entidades receptoras de los recursos públicos para la prestación de servicios contratados, no es posible dar paso a la confirmación de la designada”, según el informe.
Directora de PRITS no pedirá al gobernador que retire su nombramiento ante informe negativo del Senado
Senado aprueba “Family First Act”
The San Juan Daily Star
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 17
by the leading gangster, Nino (Tayo Faniran), is the heart of this mob epic from Nigerian director Jadesola Osiberu. In the dense script by Osiberu and Kay Jegede, we see Obalola rise from a keen, quick-witted kid to an enforcer and bodyguard for Nino’s adversary, Kazeem (Olarotimi Fakunle), after Nino is mysteriously murdered. Kazeem has his finger in several pies: He sells drugs, owns nightclubs and plays kingmaker to politicians.
By ROBERT DANIELS
From orphans turned assassins to martial artists seeking redemption, these action picks are a feast of retribution.
‘Fist of the Condor’
In this film by Chilean writer-director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, twin brothers (both played by Marko Zaror) arrive at the temple of a martial arts master to study an ancient fighting style (in the film’s lore, one originated by the Inca against the Spanish). They promise each other that if they can’t both join the school, the one who is accepted will teach the other. When one brother is turned away, however, he abandons the plan, murdering the temple’s teacher and absconding with the book holding the secrets of the style.
The innocent brother, credited simply as the Warrior, goes into hiding after his nefarious sibling begins fielding assassins to murder him. To avenge his teacher and save his own life, the Warrior decides to finally confront his past.
“Fist of the Condor” is a throwback to 1970s martial arts films such as “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” which render a man of few words with arresting charisma and awe-inspiring fighting ability. The final fight, set in a dusty ruin, features physics-defying flights through the air that feel rugged yet dizzyingly weightless.
Stream it on Hi-Yah!
With an election nearing, Obalola is caught between the realities of an oncoming gang war and his dream of leaving Lagos. The climactic set piece of the film, in which Obalola avenges the death of a childhood friend, is an all-out machete street fight slowed to molasses so that the viewer can feel the visceral heartache in each blade’s slash and the insurmountable odds inherent in a life of crime.
‘Rusty Blade’
Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.
“You can never put down the sword that feeds you,” says Lin (Zhenhua Su), the best swordsman in China. Lin, the hired killer for his town’s magistrate, is poorly compensated: Rather than being paid in silver, he is given fabric to barter. But now his wife is sick, they’re running out of rice and the local businesses no longer accept his fabric. He lets his friend Qian Lu (Cong Xiao) talk him into robbing the constable, Jin Mantang (Mohetaer), of his gold. The job turns bad when Lin accidentally kills the constable’s wife, and further devolves when Qian Lu brutally murders Jin’s son. Lin gets away with the loot, but in a betrayal akin to “The Count of Monte Cristo,” Qian Lu turns on his friend, causing Lin to be sentenced to life at a grueling work camp. Fifteen years later, Lin receives a pardon and returns home for his gold, his family and revenge.
Para conocimiento del público en general y de conformidad con las disposiciones del Artículo 8.6 de la Ley 161-2009, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley para la Reforma del Proceso de Permisos de Puerto Rico”, la Ley Núm. 38 -2017, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley de Procedimiento Administrativo Uniforme del Gobierno de Puerto Rico”, el Reglamento Conjunto para la Evaluación y Expedición de Permisos relacionados al Desarrollo, Uso de Terrenos y Operación de Negocios, en adelante Reglamento Conjunto y cualquier otra disposición de ley aplicable, se informa que la Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (“OGPe”) celebrará vista pública para el caso que se describe a continuación:
Proyecto/Peticionario:
Asociación Puertorriqueña de los Adventistas del 7mo. Día
Caso Núm.
2021-398332-CUB-003633
Dueño de la Propiedad:
Sr. José M. López Santiago
Calificación: “Residencial Intermedio” (RI)
‘Furies’
“Furies,” a prequel to the 2019 film “Furie,” manages to attack the patriarchy while critiquing girl-boss feminism with aplomb. It helps that Veronica Ngo, a Vietnamese actress who starred in “Furie,” not only returned to act in this film but directed it. Ngo plays Jacqueline, the matron to a group of women assassins whose task is to rid the streets of a sex-trafficking drug gang led by venomous Mad Dog Hai (Thuan Nguyen).
Jacqueline’s crew grows by one when she offers to train Bi (Dong Anh Quynh), a homeless teenager haunted by the gruesome death of her mother, a prostitute in a country village. As a filmmaker, Ngo has an exquisite eye: She reapplies the aesthetics of Wong Kar-wai to enrapturing, blood-drenched battles with bold red and green lighting and wild camera movement. She leads into one scene by tracking a rat running on a pipe into a room where Hai is presiding over a tense meeting. Another stylish cut shows wisps of gore floating past Bi’s eyes after she slashes a man’s face. And a claustrophobic motorcycle chase sequence, set to a thrumming hard-rock song, effectively reveals both the fissures between these women and their dedication to each other in a film that is an audacious statement of empowerment.
‘Gangs of Lagos’
Stream it on Netflix.
Obalola (Tobi Bakre), an orphan taken in from the street
“Rusty Blade,” from Chinese directors Xiaobai Song and Huyi Sun, is a sturdy swordplay drama, where the clinking of blades becomes a symphonic soundtrack to a story concerned with the cost of retaining honor, paying your debts and dying a good death.
‘Sakra’
Stream it on Vudu.
An orphan raised by the Song people, Qiao Feng (Donnie Yen) is now a leader in the Beggars’ Sect, an elite group of swordsmen endowed with otherworldly wushu powers. His place in society turns sour, however, when he is accused of being Khitan (an enemy of the Song) and of killing an elder. Exiled from the Beggars, he seeks proof of his innocence, only to be framed for the murder of his adoptive parents and a priest. Along the way, he meets Azhu (Chen Yuqi), a trickster, and nurses her back to health after he accidentally injures her during a larger fight.
On the journey to clearing his name, the men he once called his brothers, the Beggars, face him in battle: Their confrontations include graceful and dexterous spinning through the sky, balletic sliding on the floor and blades that seem to move faster than light. Yen, who also directed “Sakra,” captures these sprawling battles with soft melodramatic touches — supported by muscular lighting and whirlwind fight choreography — and a swaggering tone that aptly marries the tragedy and artistry central to every thrilling martial arts costume drama. Rent or buy on most major platforms.
Cualquier interesado en acceder y participar en la Vista Pública Virtual puede a través de: www.ddec.pr.gov/vistaspublicas
Fecha: 10 de mayo de 2023 Hora: 9:30 a.m.
Dirección de la acción propuesta: Carretera PR-188, Km. 10.9 Barrio Medianía Baja, Loíza P.R.
En la vista del caso de referencia se interesa discutir, pero sin limitarse a: solicitud de consulta de ubicación vía variación en uso consistente en la ubicación y construcción de una Iglesia y Almacén, con un área total aproximada de 9,129.00 pies cuadrados. El Templo será para 150 asientos, recepción, salones, baños, oficina, cocina y comedor. El Almacén se utilizará para alimentos empacados, ropa y otros suministros, para ayuda a la Comunidad en caso de emergencia. Además, se propone 61 espacios de estacionamientos. La solicitud se evaluará a tenor, pero sin limitarse, a lo establecido en las Reglas 2.2.2, 2.2.3 y 6.1.3 “Residencial Intermedio” (RI), del Reglamento Conjunto y sus disposiciones sobre variaciones en uso. La parte proponente tendrá que justificar su solicitud para la concesión de la variación.
Se convoca e invita al público en general a comparecer y participar a la vista pública a celebrarse mediante el método alterno (“virtual”), con acceso al público general, además de las partes reconocidas. Los procedimientos para la celebración de la vista serán los establecidos en las secciones 2.1.10.7 a 2.1.10.15 del Reglamento Conjunto. Si una parte debidamente citada no participa o comparece a la conferencia con antelación a la vista, a la vista pública o a cualquier otra etapa durante el procedimiento adjudicativo, el funcionario que presida la misma podrá declararla en rebeldía, multarla y continuar el procedimiento sin su participación, pero notificará por escrito a dicha parte su determinación según la Regla 2.1.7 (Notificaciones), los fundamentos para la misma, el recurso de revisión disponible y el plazo para ejercerlo
Se advierte que las partes, incluyendo corporaciones y sociedades, podrán, pero no están obligadas a, comparecer asistidas por abogado. Salvo justa causa, la vista no podrá ser transferida. Cualquier solicitud de transferencia de vista tendrá un cargo de $100.00, y deberá ser presentada con no menos de cinco (5) días de antelación a la fecha de la misma a través del Sistema Unificado de Información (“Single Business Portal”) de la OGPe, expresando las razones que justifican la solicitud. Deberá, además, cubrir los costos que conlleve la notificación de la transferencia y anunciar el nuevo señalamiento mediante la publicación de un nuevo aviso de prensa. El peticionario de la transferencia de la vista notificará y enviará copia de la solicitud simultáneamente a las otras partes ya reconocidas en el proceso y certificará el cumplimiento con lo aquí expuesto en la propia solicitud de trasferencia. El Reglamento Conjunto faculta al Oficial Examinador a imponer una multa de $500.00 a toda persona que observe una conducta irrespetuosa durante la vista, o que intencionalmente interrumpa o dilate los procedimientos sin causa justificada.
Cualquier persona podrá requerir examinar el expediente o solicitar copia de éste mediante solicitud (SCE) a través del Single Business Portal en la página https://sbp.ogpe.pr.gov/ o en cualquier oficina de la OGPe. Podrá, además, haciendo referencia al número de solicitud, presentar por escrito sus comentarios a través de notificaciones_ogpe@ddec.pr.gov o a PO Box 41179, San Juan, PR 00940-1179 en cualquier momento previo a la fecha de la vista. El Oficial Examinador, motu proprio o a solicitud de parte, podrá conceder un término adicional para someter comentarios, que en ningún caso excederá de diez (10) días desde que concluya la vista.
Marko Zaror plays twin brothers who become enemies in “Fist of the Condor.”To celebrate the 10-month anniversary of the successful spinal surgery on Jagger, her goldendoodle, Cat Torrejon-Nisbet didn’t buy him the traditional rawhide dog bone. Instead, she paid $15 for a light pink, rose-shaped dog pastry made with antelope heart from Dogue, a canine restaurant in San Francisco.
“They’re not going to love you more for giving them a fancy treat,” said Torrejon-Nisbet, 50, who lives in Santa Barbara, California, with Jagger and his Bernedoodle sister, Sierra. “It’s more about the love we have for our dogs.”
Dog owners like Torrejon-Nisbet are frequenting an increasing number of restaurants across the country that offer separate menus for their four-legged family members. Dog menus have become the new version of children’s menus at some restaurants. Pet parents can now order their dog a steak or Alaskan salmon with steamed rice. The dog can wash that down with a nonalcoholic “beer” made of pork broth, or a bowl of Dög Pawrignon made with wild-caught-salmon oil.
Other restaurants have gone a step further, catering exclusively to dogs, from custom canine birthday cakes to food trucks serving chicken nuggets and burgers. At Dogue, dogs eat a fine-dining tasting menu.
Kelly Lockett, 32, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, has taken Benji, her mini schnauzer mix, to several New York restaurants with dog menus, including Judy Z’s in Greenwich Village.
“He gets so happy, and he enjoys spending time with us and not spending time home alone,” she said.
The pandemic has prompted an increase in pet ownership, according to a 2021-22 survey by the American Pet Products Association, which found dogs in about 65.1 million U.S. households. Sales of pet products have risen by $46 billion since 2018, according to the association, which predicted they will reach $143.6 billion this year.
In San Francisco, Jason Villacampa, 40, has treated his corgis, Tony and Captain, to the tasting menu at Dogue four times. It costs $75 per dog, with complimentary sparkling water or mimosas for the owner.
On a recent visit, Villacampa said, the chef, Rahmi Massarweh, explained the dishes the dogs were about to eat, detailing which local farm provided each ingredient and how each meal was prepared. He served bone broth tableside and put the finishing touches to plates like mosaic chicken, thin strips of white meat wrapped in nori, layered together and cooked in a water bath. Massarweh, a chef for 20 years, trained in French cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco.
Dog menus provide a new revenue source for restaurants. The Wilson, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, estimates that it serves meals to most of the 30 to 40 dogs that come in every day. A dog entree of steak and vegetables costs $24.
Bambi, left, and Miso at Dogue in San Francisco, April 16, 2023. From special menus for canine companions to food trucks and even tasting menus, some restauranteurs are pulling out all the stops for pets.
Despite recent inflation, 54% of dog owners said they were willing to spend more to provide their dogs with a more nutritious, whole-food diet that aligns more with their household’s health choices, according to a small survey a year ago by Rover, a pet-sitting service. Rover also said that dogs have become a substitute for children in many households.
“Pets are members of our family, and we equally want to feed them that way,” said Ron Holloway, who owns Woofbowl, a food truck based in Dumbo, Brooklyn, that caters to dogs.
Holloway and his wife, Solo Holloway, a former biochemical and electrical engineer, started the mobile restaurant after making more nutritious meals from scratch for their French bulldogs, Latto and Dino. Holloway, a military veteran, and his wife, a Cambodian refugee, adopted the dogs as part of his treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Just as some people celebrate their birthdays or holidays at restaurants, many dog owners do the same for their pets. Owners order custom cakes — like one shaped as a ramen bowl for a Shih Tzu named Ramen — from businesses like Maison de Pawz in New York, a dog bakery and catering company where they can choose from flavors like peanut butter, Funfetti, coconut, spiced apple or carob (chocolate
is toxic to dogs). The dense cakes are made with buckwheat flour and coconut oil, and though humans can eat it, they probably wouldn’t like the taste, said Mei-i Zien, the owner of the bakery.
To comply with health department regulations, the pet-focused restaurants in New York City serve just dog-only items or prepare meals for pets and people separately. At Judy Z’s and the Wilson, dogs and their owners are seated at tables outside, and the food is served in dog bowls that must be placed on the ground.
At Boris & Horton in the East Village, which serves Zien’s treats, dog items and pastries for humans are prepared by a separate staff and served on disposable plates to prevent cross-contamination. Logan Mikhly, a founder of the dog cafe, said the city’s health department was “helpful with what we had to do to make it happen with a strict list of things we follow to a T.”
When Joey, a Yorkshire terrier, visits New York City, his owner Rachel Choi, 25, usually takes him to socialize at a dog park on the Lower East Side. But Choi said he makes it clear, with his whining at the entrance, that he doesn’t want to be there. He wants to go to Boris & Horton, which has air-conditioning, to enjoy a peanut butter cupcake and have other people pet him.
“He just seems to have a bright mood there in a way that he doesn’t have anywhere else,” she said.
LEGAL NOTICE
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO DLJ MORTGAGE CAPITAL, INC.
Plaintiff V. WILSON ALFREDO WILCHEZ-QUINTERO, KENIA ENID OCASIOMARTINEZ, AND THE CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP WILCHEZOCASIO
Defendants
Civil Action Num.: 16-cv-2657. (RAM). Matter: FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.
To: WILSON ALFREDO WILCHEZ-QUINTERO, KENIA ENID OCASIO - MARTINEZ AND THE CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP WILCHEZOCASIO: AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC:
WHEREAS: On February 8th, 2023, Default Judgment was entered and grated on same day, in favor of Plaintiff to recover from defendants the principal amount of $142,668.90, plus interests at a rate of 6.875% per annum since April 1, 2016, which continues to accrue until the debit is paid in full, late charged on the amount of 5.00% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment is due, all advances made in accordance with the mortgage note including, but not limited to, insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% ($11,352.50) to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property described in Spanish: URBANA: Solar número treinta y dos
(32) del Bloque “D” del plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Los Robles radicada en el Barrio Hato Nuevo del término Municipal de Gurabo con un área de trescientos punto treinta (330.30) metros cuadrados. En lindes, por el NORTE, en trece (13.00) metros, con Cementerio de Gurabo; por el SUR, en trece (13.00) metros, con la calle número tres (#3); por el ESTE, en veintitrés punto diez (23.10) metros con el lote número treinta y uno (#31); y por el OESTE, en veintitrés punto diez (23.10) metros, con el lote número treinta y tres (#33). Enclava una casa de una sola planta construida de concreto y bloques para una sola familia. The property is identified with the number 8,822 and is recorded at Page number 122 of Volume number 230 of Gurabo, in the Registry of Property of Caguas. The deed of mortgage is recorded on Page 124 of volume 230 of Gurabo, land # 8,822, second inscription. The deed of modification # 115 of September 9, 2013 is recorded as 3rd inscription, property # 8,822.
Property address: Urbanización Los Robles, Calle 3 D-32, Gurabo, P.R. 00778. The deed of mortgage recorded on Page 124 of Volume 230 and the modifications recorded at the Karibe volume of Gurabo, Property Registry of Section II, Caguas, Second Inscription. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens described: Senior Liens: Notice of Lis Pendens, issued by the Federal Court for the District of Puerto Rico, in the civil case number 02-1453HL, by United States of America, for the amount of 31,772.72, annotated at page 124 of volume 230 of Gurabo, property number 8,822, 2nd inscription, as an Abbreviated Entry on July 17, 2012, by virtue of Law number 216 of December 27, 2010 (Filed for record on April 9, 2002, at Entry 240 of Daily Book 508). Junior Liens: NONE. Other Liens: NONE. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 16TH DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:15 AM. The mini-
mum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $148,022.28. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the 23RD DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:15 AM., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $98,681.52, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 30TH DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:15 AM., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $74,011.14, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The undersigned Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency (cash), or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHE-
REAS: Said sale to be made by the undersigned Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 10th day of April of 2023. Pedro A. Vélez Baerga, Special Master, 787-672-8269.
EX PARTE
Civil Núm.: SJ2021CV04582.
Salón: 504. Sobre: ADMINISTRACIÓN JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
PICCO.
Vista la moción presentada por la parte demandante sobre publicación de edictos en cumplimiento con el Art. 594 del Código de Enjuiciamiento Civil Sec 2542, en el caso de epígrafe se les notifica a los acreedores, si alguno de Víctor A. Peralta Picco que se notifiquen con la Administradora Judicial Jacqueline Frances Rapale Burgos a la siguiente dirección en un plazo no mayor de sesenta (60) días.
P. O. Box 20083 San Juan, P. R. 00928-0083 Dada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 24 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LINDA LEVY RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.
LEGAL NOT ICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN WILMINGTON SAVINGS
FUND SOCIETY, FSB, AS TRUSTEE OF FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED SECURITIES
ACQUISITION TRUST 2019-HB1 Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE CAMILO OLMEDA VIDRÓ, T/C/C CAMILO OLMEDA COMPUESTA POR CARMEN OLMEDA, CAMILO OLMEDA ORTIZ, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN
ISMENIA ORTIZ TORRES, T/C/C CARMEN ISMENIA ORTIZ DE OLMEDA, T/C/C CARMEN I. ORTIZ TORRES, T/C/C CARMEN ISMENIA ORTIZ, T/C/C CARMEN I. ORTIZ, T/C/C CARMEN ORTIZ COMPUESTA POR CARMEN OLMEDA, CAMILO OLMEDA ORTIZ, FULANO DE TAL Y
SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA
Sala: 504. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.
Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.
A: SUCESIÓN DE CAMILO OLMEDA VIDRÓ, T/C/C CAMILO OLMEDA COMPUESTA POR CARMEN OLMEDA, CAMILO OLMEDA ORTIZ, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN ISMENIA ORTIZ TORRES, T/C/C CARMEN ISMENIA ORTIZ DE OLMEDA, T/C/C CARMEN I. ORTIZ TORRES, T/C/C CARMEN ISMENIA ORTIZ, T/C/C CARMEN I. ORTIZ, T/C/C CARMEN ORTIZ COMPUESTA POR CARMEN OLMEDA, CAMILO OLMEDA ORTIZ, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA.
Yo, EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 10 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en públi-
ca subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 22 de julio de 2022. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el 17 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA; y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 24 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 3 de marzo de 2023, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número tres (3) del Bloque RR en el plano de inscripcion de la Urbanización Reparto Apolo, situada en el Barrio Frailes del Municipio de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cuatrocientos cinco punto cero cero (405.00m) metros cuadrados y colinda por el NORESTE, en distancia de quince (15.00) metros con la calle número veinte (20) de dicha Urbanización; por el SURESTE, en quince metros (15.00) con el paseo público del Bloque RR de dicha Urbanización; por el ESTE, en veintisiete (27.00) metros con el solar número cuatro (4) del Bloque RR de dicha Urbanización; y por el OESTE, en veintisiete (27.00) metros con el solar número dos (2) del Bloque RR de dicha Urbanización. En este solar se ha construido una casa de concreto de una planta, diseñada para residencia de una sola familia. Finca Número 13,798, inscrita al folio 165 del tomo 212 de Guaynabo, Sección de Guaynabo. Dirección de la Propiedad: 2083 (RR-#) Hercules (20) St., Reparto Apoloi Dev. Guaynabo PR 00696. La subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer, hasta donde alcance, el importe de las cantidades adeudadas a la parte demandante conforme a la sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: de $145,899.66, por concepto de balance principal del préstamo con interés al 5.250% anual, cual acumulan a
un total de $269,602.88, a la fecha de 30 de septiembre de 2019los cuales continúan acumulándose, así como la cantidad líquida estipulada en los documentos del préstamo para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en caso de reclamación judicial y que correspondan a intereses y cargos por demora posterior a dicha fecha, y la suma equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original pactada, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; más recargos acumulados hasta la fecha en que se pague la deuda; más cualquiera suma de dinero por concepto de contribuciones, primas de seguro hipotecario y riesgo, así como cualesquiera otras sumas pactadas en la escritura de hipoteca, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 20 otorgada el día 1 de febrero de 2011, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público Zoila Espinosa Vázquez y consta inscrita al folio 212 del tomo 1454 de Guaynabo, finca número 13,798, Registro de la Propiedad de Guaynabo, Sección Guaynabo. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Entiéndase: Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano de Estados Unidos de América, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $337,500.00, con intereses al 5.250% anual, vencedero el día 17 de marzo de 2083, constituida por la escritura número 21, otorgada en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el dia 1 de febrero de 2011, ante la notario Zoila Espinosa Vazquez, e inscrito al folio 212 del tomo 1454 de guaynabo, finca número 13,798, inscripción 11ma. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta del inmueble an-
tes descrito será la suma de $337,500.00 según se establece en la escritura de hipoteca antes relacionada. En caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en su primera subasta se ordena la celebración de una segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, en la cual, la cantidad mínima será una equivalente a 2/3 parte de aquella, o sea la suma de $225,000.00; desierta también la segunda subasta de dicho inmueble, se ordena la celebración de una tercera subasta en la cual, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, es decir la suma de $168,750.00. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación, entiéndase efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Una vez efectuada la venta de dicha propiedad, el Alguacil procederá a otorgar la escritura de traspaso al licitador victorioso en subasta, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la sentencia dictada en este caso. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Si el producto de la venta fuere insuficiente para satisfacer la cantidad reclamada, se procederá a la ejecución de la sentencia en contra de la parte demandada por el remanente de las sumas no satisfechas, mediante embargo y venta en ejecución de cualesquiera otros bienes propiedad de la parte demandada en cantidad suficiente para dejar cubierta y totalmente satisfecha a la parte demandante cualquier deficiencia o parte insoluta de la sentencia dictada a su favor según dispuesto en la sentencia dictada en este caso. Se dispone, conforme con la sentencia dictada en este caso que, una vez efectuada la subasta y vendido el bien inmueble, los adjudicatarios sean puestos en posesión del mismo
bargo Federal contra Certenejas, Inc., seguro social patronal xx-xxx8682, por la suma de $62,334.39, Notificación número 450546222, anotado el día 21 de marzo de 2022, al Asiento 2022-002684-FED del Sistema Karibe. Primera Subasta:
Se celebrará el día 15 de mayo de 2023, a las 10:15 de la mañana en la Oficina de Alguaciles del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas. Tipo mínimo: $9,900,000.00. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la primera subasta, se procederá a una segunda subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo 2/3 partes del valor de la transacción. Segunda Subasta: Se celebrará el día 22 de mayo de 2023, a las 10:15 de la mañana en la Oficina de Alguaciles del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas. Tipo mínimo: $6,600,000.00. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la segunda subasta, se procederá a una tercera subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo 1/2 del valor de la transacción. Tercera Subasta: Se celebrará el día 30 de mayo de 2023, a las 10:15 de la mañana en la Oficina de Alguaciles del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas. Tipo mínimo: $4,950,000.00. La dirección física de la finca #3,091 lo es: Carr. PR-172, Km. 7.5, Barrio Bayamón, Cidra, PR 00739. La venta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer en todo o en parte a Triangle Cayman Asset Company 2 el importe de la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, ascendente, al 13 de mayo de 2022, a una suma no menor de $18,377,943.69 correspondiente a $8,803,058.42 en concepto al principal adeudado; $8,771,744.93 por concepto de intereses acumulados que continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; $679,561.57 por concepto de cargos por mora y $123,578.77 por conceptos de gastos legales y seguro. Conforme a todo lo anterior, se ordena a Triangle Cayman Asset Company 2 a notificar la venta pública a los demandados y a los acreedores con créditos anteriores y/o posteriores inscritos conforme a las disposiciones aplicables de la Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria de Puerto Rico y su Reglamento y la Regla 51.7 de Procedimiento Civil, 32 L.P.R.A. Ap. V. La representación legal de la parte demandante lo es la licenciada Carolina Velaz Rivero, de Marini Pietrantoni Muñiz LLC, con oficinas sitas en el número #250 de la Avenida Ponce de León, Hato Rey, Suite 900, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918. Para propósitos de la venta judicial, el Alguacil que suscribe no aceptará que ningún postor efectúe su pago en otro método que no sea en dólares estadounidenses o cheque certificado, ex-
cepto por el acreedor ejecutante, quien tendrá el derecho de ofrecer sus créditos como licitación (incluyendo cualesquier créditos hipotecarios que graven la propiedad aquí descrita en rango inferior al gravamen ejecutado), en la medida que estos sean iguales o mayores que los tipos mínimos requeridos. De conformidad con lo establecido en la Regla 51.7 de Procedimiento Civil, 32 L.P.R.A. Ap. V, según enmendada, previo a la fecha de la subasta se estará publicando este aviso mediante edicto en un periódico de circulación general una vez a la semana por un periodo mínimo de dos semanas consecutivas, y por un periodo de dos semanas en tres lugares públicos como la alcaldía, la colecturía, el Tribunal de Primera Instancia de los Municipios de San Juan, Caguas y Cidra. Además, se notificará el aviso por correo certificado con acuse de recibo dentro de los primeros cinco (5) días de publicado el edicto a los deudores por sentencia y/o deudores hipotecarios a sus últimas direcciones conocidas y a los acreedores posteriores a la Hipoteca, cuya ejecución se solicita. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes a los créditos del ejecutante, si alguno, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad subastada será adjudicada al mejor postor en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas. El mejor postor deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto de la adjudicación y remate, excepto por el acreedor ejecutante, quien podrá acreditársele en todo o en parte el monto de su crédito, de conformidad con las disposiciones aplicables de la Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria de Puerto Rico, aunque deberá no obstante satisfacer la diferencia, si alguna, entre la postura ofrecida y el importe de su crédito más los intereses, teniendo que pagar dicho remanente en el acto de subasta, tal como se le exige a los demás postores. Artículos 105 y 106 de la Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria de Puerto Rico. Otorgaré la escritura del traspaso al licitador victorioso, según corresponda, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la Sentencia. El Registrador de la Propiedad cancelará, libre de derechos, todos los gravámenes posteriores a las fechas en que se otorgó la hipoteca sobre
la propiedad que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción, y procederá a la inscripción de la venta a favor de los compradores en subasta libre de todo gravamen posterior a la fecha en que se otorgó la hipoteca que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción. Se notifica a todos los interesados que, para más detalles sobre este procedimiento, los autos y récords del presentado caso podrán ser examinados en la secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, durante horas laborables. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 14 de abril de 2023. ANGEL GOMEZ
GOMEZ, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR
E.M.I. EQUITY MORTGAGE, INC.
Demandante Vs. LILLIAM RODRIGUEZ RIVERA
Demandados
Civil Núm.: CA2023CV00722.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
A LA PARTE CO-
DEMANDADA: LILLIAM RODRIGUEZ RIVERA, A SUS DIRECCIONES
CONOCIDAS: (A) HC-01 BOX 3605 MOROVIS, PR 00687; (B) URB.
VISTAMAR K-650 CALLE JORGE VAZQUEZ SANES
CAROLINA, PR 00983. Por la presente se le(s) notifica que se ha radicado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal una Demanda en Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra, en la cual se alega entre otras cosas que la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante por concepto de hipoteca la suma $96,776.00 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de enero de 2022, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.50% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gas-
tos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $10,309.80. Además la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $10,309.80 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $10,309.80 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y cualquiera otros adelantos que se hagan en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca número 57, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 28 de abril de 2018, ante la notario Melvin E. Rodríguez Torres, de la finca número 20,106, inscrita al Folio 145 del Tomo 517 de Carolina Norte, Registro de La Propiedad Carolina, Sección Primera. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. Este Tribunal ha ordenado que se le(s) cite a usted(es) por edicto que se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectando por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diana general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando Ia siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial,pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal y notifique copia de la Contestación de la Demanda a las oficinas de CARDONA & MALDONADO LAW OFFICES, P.S.C. ATENCION al Lcdo. Duncan Maldonado Ejarque, P.O. Box 366221, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-6221; Tel (787) 622-7000, Fax (787) 6257001, Abogado de la Parte Demandante. Dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a Ia publicación de este Edicto, apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su Rebeldía y dictar Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado sin más citarle(s) ni oírle(s). EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y con Sello del Tribunal. DADA hoy 21 de abril de 2023, en Carolina, Puerto Rico. LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. RUTH M. COLÓN LUCIANO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS-
TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN VIG MORTGAGE CORP.
Demandante V. JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE
Demandado(a)
Civil: BY2023CV01178. Sala: 402. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 18 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 21 de abril de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 21 de abril de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. AMALYN FIGUEROA NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIAD DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR 903 CONSEJOS DE TITULARES CONDOMINIO LOS OLMOS
Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE HILDA
GARCÍA DE LA NOCEDA, FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL
Demandados
Civil Núm.: SJ2023CV02907. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.
A: SUCESIÓN DE HILDA
GARCÍA DE LA NOCEDA, FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL. POR LA PRESENTE se le em-
plaza, se le notifica que una demanda ha sido presentada en su contra y se le requiere que conteste la misma dentro de treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, que será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general en Puerto Rico, radicando el original de contestación de la misma ante el Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Caso (SUMAC) presentada electrónicamente mediante https://tribunalelectronico.ramajudicial. pr/sumac2018/ y notificándole con copia fiel al representante legal de la parte Demandante: Lcdo. Jorge Enrique Valldejuli Reyes; PO Box 367455, San Juan, PR 00936; teléfono (305) 874-8829, jvalldejuli@dlvpr. com. Se le apercibe que, de no hacerlo, se podrá dictar Sentencia en rebeldía concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin citarle ni oírle más. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 18 de abril de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. JESSICA SOTO PAGÁN, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA
SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
U.S. BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE OF CVI CGS MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST I
Demandante V. JORGE LUIS BAUZO MORALES Y OTROS
Demandado(a)
Civil: CA2022CV03318. Sala: 406. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: JORGE LUIS BAUZO MORALES.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 17 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted
esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 18 de abril de 2023. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 18 de abril de 2023. LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS
RUSHMORE LOAN MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC
Demandante Vs. FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON POSIBLE INTERES EN LA SUCESION DE JULIO GOMEZ RODRIGUEZ; MENGANO DE TAL Y MENGANA DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON POSIBLE INTERES EN LA SUCESION DE MARGARITA LEBRON RIVERA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)
Demandados
Civil: CG2020CV00016. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL, COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCOÑOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE JULIO GOMEZ RODRIGUEZ, MENGANO DE TAL Y MENGANA DE TAL, COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE MARGARITA LEBRON
RIVERA. URBANIZACION
IDAMARIS GARDENS, C 52, CALLE B22, CAGUAS, P.R. 00725; URBANIZACION
IDAMARIS GARDENS, C 52 CALLE BENITO RODRIGUEZ, CAGUAS
P.R. 00725-5722. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus-
cribe le notifica a usted que el 18 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 19 de abril de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 19 de abril de 2023. F/ LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SANDRA J. TRINIDAD CAÑUELAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC., COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC DEMANDANTE VS. JOSE C. VILLAREZ VAILANT, FULANA DE TAL. AMBOS POR Sí Y COMO PARTE DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES POR AMBOS COMPUESTA DEMANDADOS CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2022CV09117 SALÓN: 504 SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.
A: JOSE C. VILLAREZ VAILANT, FULANA DE TAL. AMBOS POR Sí Y COMO PARTE DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES POR AMBOS COMPUESTA • 120 AVE. CARLOS CHARDON APT. 68 SAN JUAN, P.R. 00918 POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder
utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kenmuel J. Ruiz López cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kenmuel.riuz@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO
MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 24 de marzo de 2023. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria Regional. f/Linda Levy Rodríguez, Secretaria de Servicios a Sala.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICOnTRIBU-
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN GERMAN
ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC
DEMANDANTE, VS.
AMARILYS SAAVEDRA
CRUZ Y NOELIA CRUZ CASIANO DEMANDADO.
CIVIL NÚM.: SG2021CV00587
SALÓN: 0001 SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.
A: AMARILYS SAAVEDRA CRUZ Y NOELIA CRUZ
CASIANO • PO BOX 1880 SAN GERMÁN, P.R. 00683. • AMARILYS 09@ HOTMAIL.COM
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto.
Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o
cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kenmuel J. Ruiz López cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kenmuel.riuz@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO
MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en San Germán Puerto Rico, hoy día 27 de MARZO DE 2023. En San Germán, Puerto Rico, el 27 de marzo de 2023.
NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretaria Regional. SANTA RODRÍGUEZ BONILLA, Secretaria Auxiliar.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR. LOUIS VILLANO, ALEXANDRA BENUS; y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales por ellos compuesta.
DEMANDANTES Vs. MERLIN KAUFFMAN; FULANA DE TAL y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales por ellos compuesta; VIRISA GROUP, LLC AGENCIA DE SEGUROS TRIPLE S PROPIEDAD; COMPAÑÍAS
ASEGURADORAS A, B, C,; “MENGANO DE TAL” como cualquier otra persona natural o jurídica responsable de los daños reclamados
DEMANDADOS
CIVIL NÚM: SJ2022CV10470.
SOBRE: DAÑOS A LA PROPIEDAD DAÑOS Y PERJUICIOS. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PR. SS.
A: MERLIN KAUFFMAN; FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR
AMBOS
Por la presente se le notifica que se ha presentado una Demanda de Daños a la Propiedad y Daños y Perjuicios en su contra donde se solicita el pago de la suma de $15,000.00 dólares por concepto de daños. Por el presente Edicto, se les emplaza y requiere que conteste la demanda dentro de un término de treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación del mismo y presente el original de dicha contestación a través del Sistema
Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal y notificar copia de la misma dentro del mismo término al Lcdo. Luis Domínguez Fuertes a la siguiente dirección:
PMB 191 PO BOX 194000, SAN JUAN, PR 00919-4000, Tel. 787-296-0000, abogados@ fuerteslaw.com, abogado de la parte demandante. Por la presente se les apercibe que de no comparecer a formular alegaciones dentro de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la fecha de la publicación de este Edicto, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia de acuerdo con lo solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, a 24 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Sec Regional. Maria N Lopez Pizarro, Serv a Sala.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA DE SAN JUAN ANGEL OSVALDO
ROMAN LOPEZ TAMBIEN CONOCIDO COMO
ANGEL ROMAN LOPEZ Y ANGEL O ROMAN LOPEZ Y RUTH EVANGELINE
ROMAN LOPEZ, TAMBIEN CONOCIDA COMO RUTH
ROMAN LÓPEZ Y RUTH
E. ROMAN LOPEZ Demandante Vs. BANCO Y AGENCIA PARA EL FINANCIAMIENTO DE LA VIVIENDA DE PUERTO RICO AHORA AUTORIDAD PARA EL FINANCIAMIENTO DE LA VIVIENDA DE PUERTO RICO; BANCO POPULAR PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES CON INTERES Demandados
Civil Núm.: SJ2023CV02710.
Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO
POR EDICTO.
A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE (PERSONAS DESCONOCIDAS CON POSIBLE INTERÉS).
En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de un pagaré a favor de Banco y Agencia de Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, o a su
orden, por la suma principal de Veintinueve Mil Cien Dólares ($29,100.00), con intereses al siete por ciento (7%) anual, vencedero el día primero (1ro) de diciembre de dos mil veinticuatro (2024), constituida mediante la escritura número trescientos noventa y nueve (399), otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día dieciocho (18) de agosto de mil novecientos noventa y cuatro (1994), ante la Notario Público Milagros Mejías Pérez, Registro de la Propiedad Sección Tercera de San Juan, y este garantizado por hipoteca sobre la propiedad sita en Lote 22 Bloque B Urb. Extension Caribe Barrio Monacillo San Juan, Puerto Rico que se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar descrito con el número veintidós (22) del bloque B de la Urbanización Extension Caribe sita en el Barrio Monacillos de Río Piedras término municipal de San Juan. Con una cabida de quinientos veintidós punto noventa (522.90) metros cuadrados. Colinda por el NOROESTE, en quince punto ochenta metros con el solar cuarenta y cuatro (44) del bloque B de la misma urbanización, por el SUROESTE, en treinta punto noventa y cinco metros con el solar veintiuno (21) del bloque B de la urbanización, por el SURESTE, en diecisiete punto noventa y nueve metros con la calle marginal y por el NORESTE, en treinta y un punto cero cero metros con terrenos de Rafael Vega. Enclava una casa. Inscrita al folio 246 del tomo 332 de Monacillos, finca número 12,712. Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria, y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se les emplaza par este Edicto que se publicara en un (1) periódico de circulación general una (1) sola vez y que si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demande radicando el original de la misma a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual pueden acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberán presentar su alegación responsiva en Ia secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Utuado, con copia al abogado de Ia parte demandante, Lcdo. Jorge García Rondón, de PMB 538, 267 Sierra Morena, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926 dentro del término de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la publicación del Edicto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarles ni oírles. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto por Orden
del Tribunal, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 27 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. BRENDA HERNÁNDEZ ZAVALA, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO SALA SUPERIOR FIRSTBANK
PUERTO RICO
Demandante Vs. MANUEL CRUZ COLÓN; MARANGELLY AMARO ROBLES
Demandados Civil Núm.: NSCI201600086. Salón Núm.: 302. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E. U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. Yo, SANDRALIZ MARTÍNEZ TORRES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #737, Alguacil Auxiliar del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Fajardo, al Público HAGO SABER: Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que se me libró con fecha del 3 de junio de 2022, por la Secretaria del Tribunal Superior de Fajardo en relación con la Sentencia Sumaria dictada el 22 de junio de 2016, notificada el 1ro de julio de 2016, publicada su Notificación por Edictos el 8 de julio de 2016, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad inmueble que se describe a continuación: “URBANA: Parcela de terreno localizada en la Urbanización Villas del Pilar del término municipal de Ceiba, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de CUATROCIENTOS TREINTA Y UNO PUNTO VEINTICINCO METROS CUADRADOS (431.25 M.C.); localizados en la manzana A, solar número tres (3); en lindes por el NORTE, en veinticinco punto cero dos (25.02) metros, con el solar dos guión A (2-A); por el SUR, en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros, con el solar número cuatro guión A (4A); por el ESTE, en diecisiete punto ochenta (17.80) metros, con la finca de Mariano Arroyo y por el OESTE, en diecisiete punto setenta (17.70) metros con la Calle Santa María. Enclava una casa de hormigón de tres (3) dormitorios, dos (2) baños, sala, cocina-comedor, balcón y marquesina para automóvil. Consta inscrita al folio doscientos treinta y cinco (235) del tomo cuarenta y seis (46) de Ceiba, Finca Número Dos Mil Ciento Once (2,111) de Ceiba, Registro de la Propie-
dad de Fajardo. Dirección de la propiedad: Urb. Villas del Pilar A-3, Ceiba, Puerto Rico 00735. El precio mínimo de licitación con relación a la propiedad anteriormente descrita y la fecha y hora de cada subasta es como sigue: PRIMERA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el 6 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $103,224.00. SEGUNDA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el 13 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $68,816.00. TERCERA
SUBASTA: Se celebrará el 21 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $51,612.00. Las subastas se llevarán a cabo para satisfacer al Banco demandante de las siguientes sumas de dinero adeudadas por la parte demandante conforme a la Sentencia dictada, a saber, la suma de $86,899.73 por concepto de principal e intereses vencidos y los que se continúen acumulando al tipo pactado hasta el pago total y completo de la obligación, los cargos por demora vencidos que a igual fecha ascienden a $127.86, y los que se continúen acumulando al tipo pactado hasta el pago total y completo de la obligación, más la suma de $9,384.00, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, según pactados. Las subastas de dicha propiedad se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina situada en el local que ocupa este Tribunal en el Tribunal de Fajardo, advirtiéndose que el que obtuviere la buena pro de dicha propiedad consignará en el acto del remate el importe de su oferta en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, en adición a los gastos de la subasta, siendo éste el mejor postor. En cualquier momento luego de haberse comenzado el acto de la subasta, el Alguacil podrá requerir de los licitadores que le evidencien la capacidad de pago de sus posturas. Del producto obtenido en dicha venta, el Alguacil pagará en primer término los gastos del Alguacil, en segundo término las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados hasta la suma convenida, en tercer término los intereses acumulados hasta la fecha de la subasta según pactados hasta su total y completo pago, en cuarto término, las sumas establecidas para el pago de recargos por demora hasta la fecha de la subasta y en quinto término la suma principal adeudada. Disponiéndose, que si quedare algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas mencionadas, el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a la parte demandada, previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los
preferentes al crédito ejecutante, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, toda vez que el precio de remate no se destina a su extinción.
La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento del caso de epígrafe están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Fajardo, durante horas laborables.
Y PARA LA CONCURRENCIA, de los licitadores expido el presente Edicto que se publicará en el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Alcaldía y la Colecturía de Rentas Internas del Municipio donde se celebrará la subasta por espacio de dos semanas y en un periódico de circulación general del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana. En Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a 9 de enero de 2023. JORGE
A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO #622. SANDRALIZ MARTÍNEZ TORRES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #737, ALGUACIL SUPERIOR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. SUCESION DE JOSE
M. RODRIGUEZ
ORTIZ T/C/C JOSE
MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ
ORTIZ POR MAGALY DELGADO POR SI Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA, JOSE
ALBERTO RODRIGUEZ
DELGADO T/C/C JOSE A.
RODRIGUEZ DELGADO T/C/C JOSE RODRIGUEZ
DELGADO, ALANIS
SOPHIA RODRIGUEZ
DELGADO T/C/C
ALANIS S. RODRIGUEZ
DELGADO T/C/C ALANIS
RODRIGUEZ DELGADO
Y POR FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL, SUTANA DE TAL, A, B Y C COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; HONORABLE SECRETARIO DE HACIENDA DEL ESTADO
LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593, Alguacil de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, a la demandada y al público en general, les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso, por el Secretario del Tribunal, con fecha 9 de marzo de 2023 y para satisfacer la Sentencia por la cantidad de $216,554.19 de principal, dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 23 de mayo de 2022, notificada y archivada en autos el 17 de noviembre de 2022, y publicada mediante edicto el día 23 de noviembre de 2022 en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título e interés que haya tenido, tenga o pueda tener la deudora demandada en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el: Municipio de Juncos, Puerto Rico, el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: #183 Rd. Km. 14.9, Sect. Wito Mulero, Valenciano Arriba, Juncos, PR 00777. RÚSTICA: Solar marcado con el número TRES (3) en el plano de inscripción radicado en el Barrio Valenciano Arriba, Juncos, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de uno punto cuatrocientos cuarenta y nueve (1.449) cuerdas, equivalentes a CINCO MIL OCHOCIENTOS SETENTA Y TRES PUNTO DOSCIENTOS VEINTISIETE (5,873.227) METROSCUADRADOS. En lindes por el NORTE, con parcela a dedicarse a uso público y con los solares identificados con los números Cuatro (4), Cinco (5), Seis (6) y Siete (7), en el plano de inscripción; por el SUR, con Wito Mulero; por el ESTE, con el solar identificado con el número dos (2) en el plano de inscripción; por el OESTE, con el solar identificado con el número cuatro (4) en el plano de inscripción y con Miguel González. Consta inscrito al folio ciento treinta y ocho (138) del tomo doscientos cincuenta y seis (256) de Juncos, finca número nueve mil ochocientos noventa y tres (9,893), inscripción primera en el Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Segunda. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, según la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, cuyas cantidades ascienden a $216,554.19 de principal, intereses a razón del 6.75% anual, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo
total de la deuda; $452.44 de cargos por demora, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a un 10% del principal del pagaré. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pactada, la cual es $240,000.00 para la propiedad descrita. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la primera subasta, se procederá a una segunda subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo la cantidad de $160,000.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en esta segunda subasta, se procederá a una tercera subasta, en ésta el tipo mínimo será la cantidad de $120,000.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse a opción del demandante. Para el lote descrito, la PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 15 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a efecto una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 22 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a cabo una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 30 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. La subasta o subastas antes indicadas se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas. De Estudio de Título realizado, surgen los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: Hipoteca constituida por Jose Miguel Rodriguez Ortiz, mayor de edad, soltero, en garantía de un pagare a favor de Sana Mortgage Corporation, o a su orden, por $30,000.00 al 6 ¾ % anual, vencedero el 1 de diciembre de 2019, según Esc. #77 en San Juan a 30 de noviembre de 2004 ante Ginessa I. Martinez Hernandez, inscrita al folio 21 del tomo 354 de Juncos, finca #9893 inscripción 4ta. Aviso de Demanda dictado el 1 de octubre de 2012 en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Lorenzo caso civil #E@ CI2012-0601 sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca seguido por Doral Bank vs Jose Miguel Rodriguez Ortiz donde se solicita el pago de la deuda garantizada con la hipoteca de la inscripción 5ta reducida a $216,554.19 o la venta en publica subasta, anotado al folio 21 del tomo 354 de Juncos, finca 9893 Anotación “A” el día 23 de octubre de 2013. Aviso de Demanda dictado el 22 de agosto de 2014 en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala de San Lorenzo caso civil #E2CI2014-0607 seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico vs Jose Miguel Rodriguez Ortiz donde se solicita el pago de la deuda garantizada con la hipoteca de la inscripción
4ta reducida a $26,590.52 o la venta en publica subasta, anotado al tomo Karibe el 12 de enero de 2021 finca #9893 de Juncos anotación “C”. Se le advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el mismo acto de la adjudicación en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, giro postal o cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal y para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda(s) aquella(s) persona(s) que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general, una vez por semana durante el término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como, la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. Se les advierte a todos los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como la de la subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere al crédito de ejecutante, continuarán subsiguientes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores, previa orden judicial dirigida al Registrador de la Propiedad de la sección correspondiente para la cancelación de aquellos posteriores. Y para conocimiento de la demandada, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, expido el presente Aviso para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Librado en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 18 de abril de 2023. ÁNGEL
GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA
VAZQUEZ, JOHN DOE
Demandado(a)
Civil: SG2022CV00583. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: ELIZABETH PERALES
VAZQUEZ, JOHN DOE.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 19 de abril de 2023. En San Germán, Puerto Rico, el 19 de abril de 2023. NORMA SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. MILITZA LORENZO VEGA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOT ICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
LEGACY MORTGAGE
ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1
Demandante V.
HILDA MARIA TORRES
BLONDET T/C/C
HILDA MARIA TORRES BLONDETT Demandado(a)
Civil: Núm. CA2023CV00032.
402. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: HILDA MARÍA
TORRES BLONDET T/C/C
HILDA MARÍA TORRES BLONDETT. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 10 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted
enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 12 de abril de 2023. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 12 de abril de 2023. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. KEILA GARCÍA SOLÍS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS CARLOS A.
CONTRERAS CLAUDIO
Demandante Vs. ANA MARÍA ROLÓN RIVERA
Demandada
Civil Núm.: CG2023RF00256.
Sala: 501. Sobre: DIVORCIO RUPTURA IRREPARABLE. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.
A: ANA MARÍA ROLÓN RIVERA.
83 MAYER AVENUE, BUFFALO NY 14207.
Queda emplazada y notificada de que en este Tribunal se ha radicado una demanda de DIVORCIO RUPTURA IRREPARABLE en su contra. Se le notifica que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Caguas y enviando copia a la parte demandante:
LCDA. MICHELE M. SILVA
MARRERO
20 AVENIDA LUIS MUÑOZ MARÍN
PMB 263 VILLA BLANCA
CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO 00725
TELEFONO: 787-668-6517 msilvamarrero@gmail.com
Se le apercibe y notifica que si no contesta la demanda radicada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto,
se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citárseles, ni oírseles. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, a 17 de abril de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SHEILA ROLDAN RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ
COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DE RINCÓN (ANTES
COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DE AÑASCO)
Demandante V. SUCESIÓN FÉLIX E. CANCEL RODRÍGUEZ COMPUESTA POR
FULANO DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL Y JANE DOE
Demandado(a)
Civil: MZ2021CV00655. Sala: 307. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. SENTENCIA EN REBELDÍA ENMENDADA.
A: SUCESIÓN FÉLIX E. CANCEL RODRÍGUEZ COMPUESTA POR
FULANO DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL Y JANE DOE. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 17 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 19 de abril de 2023. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el 19 de abril de 2023.
LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. REBECA MEDINA FIGUEROA,
SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ DLJ MORTGAGE CAPITAL, INC.
Parte Demandante Vs SUCESIÓN DE ÁNGEL
ALFREDO PADILLA
CRUZ T/C/C ÁNGEL A.
PADILLA CRUZ T/C/C
ÁNGEL PADILLA CRUZ
COMPUESTA POR:
SONIA ALEIDA PADILLA
LUCIANO T/C/C SONIA A.
PADILLA LUCIANO T/C/C
SONIA PADILLA LUCIANO COMO POR SÍ, Y COMO COMPONENTE DE LA SUCESIÓN; FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; CRIM
Parte Demandada
Civil Núm.: CB2022CV00687.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE ÁNGEL ALFREDO PADILLA CRUZ
T/C/C ÁNGEL A. PADILLA CRUZ T/C/C ÁNGEL PADILLA CRUZ.
POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcdo. Roberto C. Latimer Valentín, al PO BOX 9022512, San Juan, P.R. 00902-2512; Teléfono: (787) 724-0230. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca. al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de diciembre de 2021, hasta el presente, más los cargos
por demora correspondientes. Además adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a la suma principal global de $24,152.99, la cual se desglosa a continuación: una suma principal por la cantidad de $23,907.23, más intereses a razón del 3.50% anual, desde el 1 de noviembre de 2021, hasta el presente, así como todos aquellos créditos y sumas que surjan de la faz de la obligación hipotecaria y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, incluyendo una suma equivalente al 10% de la suma principal ($2,500.00), por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado todo según pactado. La parte Demandante presentará para su inscripción en el registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Calle Mestre del término municipal de Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, con cabida superficial de noventa y nueve con seis mil novecientos ochenta y nueve diez milésimas de metro cuadrados, iguales a dos céntimos de cuerdas con quinientos treinta y siete milésimas de céntimo (0.02537 cuerdas) (así surge), equivalentes a noventa y nueve centiáreas y setenta y un miliáreas, en lindes por el NORTE, en diez y siete metros y trescientos diez y nueve milésimas con el remanente de la tinca principal propiedad de Ofelia Olivera; por el SUR, en tres alineaciones que totalizan diez y siete metros y cincuenta milésimas con María de los Ángeles Oliveras; por el ESTE, en seis metros y treinta y nueve milésimas con la Calle Salvador Mestre en que radica; y por el OESTE, en cinco metros y cuatrocientos cuarenta y ocho milésimas con la Sucesión de Rodolfo López. Consta inscrita al folio 242 del tomo 464 de Cabo Rojo, finca número #16,373, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de San Germán. SE LE ORDENA a ustedes a que dentro del término legal de treinta (30) días, contados a partir de la fecha de notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que le corresponda en la herencia de la SUCESIÓN DE ÁNGEL
ALFREDO PADILLA CRUZ
t/c/c ÁNGEL A. PADILLA CRUZ
t/c/c ÁNGEL PADILLA CRUZ.
De no hacerlo dentro de dicho término, se dará la herencia por aceptada. SE LE APERCIBE que de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la re-
beldía y se dictara sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. A 20 de abril de 2023. LIC. NORMA G.SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II. NILDA TORRES ACEVEDO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR MUNICIPAL DE SAN JUAN E.M.I EQUITY MORTGAGE INC.
Demandante Vs FIRST MORTGAGE CAPITAL, INC., DESPUES CITIBANK, N.A.; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS
Demandados
Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV09781. (504). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO POR SUMAC. A: LA PARTE CODEMANDADA: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE, DEMANDADOS DESCONOCIDOS CUYA DIRECCIÓN SE DESCONOC. EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 3 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 19 de abril de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 19 de abril de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LUCRECIA PAGÁN MORALES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
including the entire fourth quarter. When was the last time Curry was so pressed in the first round?
Kings fans have showed up with a fervor that matched that of Sabonis, Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox. They rushed to defend home court, purchasing nearly every available seat at Golden 1 Center, then set out to invade on the road. At Chase Center, in San Francisco, the Warriors barred Kings fans from bringing in the clanging cowbells that hark back to Sacramento’s agrarian roots and became a sanctified symbol of the Kings’ success in the early 2000s.
As the series heads back to Sacramento, think about how long Kings fans have waited to show up in the playoffs. Much has been made of the franchise’s streak of 16 seasons without a playoff appearance. But it has been 19 since the Kings came out on top in a playoff series and 21 seasons, since early in the George Bush the Younger administration, when the team was a genuine playoff threat.
In the long, hard seasons after Ranadive saved the team, Sacramento kept journeying into the dark corners of the NBA wilderness. The team churned through coaches and was run by a revolving door of upper management, which seemingly had no clue. (The decision to draft Marvin Bagley III over Luka Doncic with the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2018 characterized the head-scratching moves.)
Critics frothed against Ranadive, claiming he was a meddling owner in over his head. The NBA’s best practice says you hire basketball executives and let them choose the coach. The Kings did it the other way around.
Among all the hoopla about the upstarts from California’s capital city, remember this: It was just last year when the Kings won only 30 games while losing 52, yet another season of frustration, and one that prompted the city’s largest newspaper to run an article with a headline that blared:
By KURT STREETERThe long-term fate of the Sacramento Kings was still unclear. In 2013, Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento and NBA Commissioner David Stern persuaded a new owner to buy the team, a last-minute change that kept it from moving to Seattle.
But the Kings’ home was still a dumpy suburban stadium that no longer fit the modern NBA. Without a new arena, leaving would always be in the cards.
A year later I flew to Sacramento as the City Council convened for a tense vote on whether the city should pay roughly half the cost, $255 million, for construction of a new downtown arena now known as the Golden 1 Center.
Kings fans showed up in force, as they always do, despite the team having just skidded to its eighth consecutive losing season. They held aloft placards imploring the council to say yes. Angry critics were also on hand, dead set against spending taxpayer funds on a sports team’s arena.
The council voted to allocate the money. The Kings stayed put, with the new owner, Vivek Ranadive, promising fans that the team was in it for the long haul. “This is your team, and it is here to stay!” he said.
Nine years later, and after a league-record 16 seasons without being in the play-
offs, Sacramento’s team is finally making waves in the NBA postseason. Who knew it would take this long?
And who could have guessed that the young and suddenly transformed Kings would be going toe-to-toe against dynastic Golden State, which now calls its home San Francisco, a city that has always viewed Sacramento as a cow town.
The Kings of 2023 brim with fast-break speed and precision that conjure memories of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson a decade ago, at the start of a run that brought Golden State four NBA championships and six NBA Finals appearances.
Of course, the Kings look like the Warriors’ doppelgängers: They have been molded by Mike Brown, who was Steve Kerr’s consigliere for years at Golden State, poached by Sacramento last May.
In playing the Warriors to a 2-2 series standoff so far, Sacramento has been so competitive and irritating that it pushed Draymond Green into giving a retaliatory stomp to Domantas Sabonis’ chest in a Game 2 loss from which Green was ejected (and for which he was suspended from Game 3, which the Warriors won).
Game 4 — a 126-125 Warriors victory Sunday that the Kings could have won on their final possession — was so tight that Kerr left Curry in for 43 of the game’s 48 minutes,
Ask Kings die-hards about the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games in the 2002 Western Conference finals, and you will soon see the bugging of eyes and curses aimed at Robert Horry, who is to Sacramento what Bucky Dent is to Boston. The fans possess two qualities in spades: remarkable loyalty and plenty of pent-up frustration.
The crazy cool part of this Kings season is how stunningly surprising it has been.
“Basketball Hell: How Vivek Ranadive Turned Sacramento Kings Into NBA’s Biggest Losers.”
Now, the series heads back to the Kings’ home arena for what promises to be a madhouse Game 5 on Wednesday night (10 p.m. ET, TNT), the vision conjured at that City Council meeting all those years ago finally fulfilled.
Now, the only hell connected to the Kings is the one they are giving the Warriors.
The next time the son of a road team’s superstar visits the Bronx, the New York Yankees would be wise to treat him nicely. Kids with long memories and extraordinary talent delight in revenge.
In the 1990s, it was Ken Griffey Jr. Now, it is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Just as Griffey tormented the Yankees repeatedly in his prime, Guerrero, 24, is doing the same in his. The latest punches came over the weekend in a series victory for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Guerrero, their slugging first baseman, blasted a two-run homer to start the scoring Friday. On Sunday he did it again, pulling a blistering liner into the seats near the left field foul pole with two outs in the sixth inning. The Blue Jays went on to win 5-1 and the Yankees lost a series for the first time this season.
As he rounded first base, Guerrero pointed skyward. He stutter-stepped on his way around third. He kissed his wrists as he pranced home. The crowd booed, and Guerrero reveled in it.
“Of course, you listen to it,” Guerrero, who is hitting .341, said in Spanish through an interpreter. “But they’re not going to take that home run away from me. I’m just going to continue to run the bases and enjoy it.”
Though Guerrero cannot be a free agent until after the 2025 Major League
Baseball season, he vowed publicly last offseason to never play for the Yankees. The declaration echoed one by Griffey, then with the Seattle Mariners, who was filmed signing autographs at old Yankee Stadium and vowed: “If they were the only team that gave me a contract, I’d retire.”
Griffey’s stance came from a sobering incident as a teenager, when he was sitting with his father, Ken Sr., on the Yankees’ bench before a game. A security guard told the Griffeys that the Yankees’ owner, George Steinbrenner, had issued an edict to clear the dugout. They did, but not before Ken Sr. pointed out that the son of a teammate, Graig Nettles, was taking grounders at third base at that very moment.
The takeaway — that a white player was given privileges not afforded a Black player — emboldened the younger Griffey, who hit 41 homers against the Yankees in his career, including five in a five-game playoff series victory in 1995. (Only one team, the Minnesota Twins, allowed more homers to Griffey.)
Guerrero’s father, Vladimir Sr., never played for a New York team in his Hall of Fame career, although his career average against the Yankees (.319, including the postseason) is a bit better than his .316 career mark across the regular season and playoffs. Whatever the origin of Guerrero’s issue with the Yankees, it seems to cut just as deeply.
“It’s a personal thing,” he said Sunday. “It goes back with my family, and I’m not going to talk about more than that. Things happened in the past and I’m just going to leave it like that.”
Like Griffey Jr., Guerrero Jr. has thrived against the Yankees. His slugging percentage at Yankee Stadium is .614, the best of any player in the ballpark’s 15-year history (minimum 100 atbats). His 12 homers in the Bronx are the most he has hit in any road stadium.
“You get here and you get booed, and you can kind of do one of two things,” Blue Jays
manager John Schneider said. “Reggie Jackson said, ‘They don’t boo nobodies,’ so I think Vladdy kind of worked off of that a little bit. We all know the kind of hitter that he is.”
Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, who blanked the Yankees for seven innings Sunday, said Guerrero basks in the heel’s role.
“It seems like he loves playing here,” Gausman said. “He says he doesn’t like coming here, but he plays pretty well here. Anytime he comes up to bat, we’re all paying attention because he just hits the ball so hard. He’s a guy that kind of likes being the villain when we come here.”
The Blue Jays’ George Springer has experience with heckling; he played for the champion Houston Astros in 2017, the year of their sign-stealing scandal, and was among the players booed by opposing fans once the scheme was revealed. Springer said Guerrero is calm by nature, trusting in his talent and his process. But it is a subtlety that impresses Springer most.
“How he processes information is next-level,” Springer said. “He’s a student of the game in his own way. The way he goes about things, I mean, he remembers everything.”
Including, quite obviously, something from the past that drives Guerrero to vanquish the Yankees every chance he gets.
Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.
Sudoku Rules:
Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9
Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9
Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9
Answers on page 30
Aries (Mar 21-April 20)
What you may need most is fresh input, and the more it stirs up current concepts, the better, Aries. It could be time for a revolution in your thinking, so that you’re no longer stuck in the same mental grooves. As you cannot solve a problem on the same level that it exists, so a change in your mental outlook might give you many new alternatives that will help you flourish.
Taurus (April 21-May 21)
If you really believe you can do something, you’ll find a way to accomplish it, even if others are keen to point out how misguided you are. Still, with Mercury rewinding, you need to do the groundwork and don’t take anything for granted. And pushy Mars urges you not to be complacent either. Baby steps is the way. Then you can make adjustments as you go, Taurus.
Gemini (May 22-June 21)
You are usually very open about your ideas and plans, and will chat to anyone about them. Over coming days, you may be quite reticent and even a tad defensive, and others could notice this. Why the need for secrecy, Gemini? You may wonder if someone will jump on your idea and copy it, or you’ll give away a tip that’s too valuable to share. Just make a start and don’t worry.
Cancer (June 22-July 23)
You may have certain expectations today, but there’s a chance things may not work out as planned. No matter how geared up you are to having a good time, you might end up doing something completely different. Adjust your mindset and be open to the unexpected. And with Venus aligning with celestial body Chiron, it pays to embrace a bond you may have resisted.
Leo (July 24-Aug 23)
Driven by insecurity and keen to find a way out of a dilemma? The Mercury/Mars line-up could find you digging into your reserves of brilliance and strength to find answers. But if you’re expecting things to fall into place quickly, you’ll be disappointed. This is something you’ll need to work at over the long-term, and trying to make it happen faster than it can, won’t help you.
Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)
Accomplish one goal, and you’ll feel confident that you can win at the next. A sassy line-up encourages you to be bold and tackle something that may be just out of your comfort zone. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket though. Be prepared to experiment with various options and try one or two out for size. One plan might fail spectacularly, but the other could succeed massively.
Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)
Need someone to spur you on? You may get more than you bargained for if you ask for assistance. Be prepared for a motivational speech that leaves you with little choice but to go ahead. And you’ll be glad you did, especially if you’ve been dragging your heels. The upshot could be that something goes better than you imagined, and next time you’ll aim even higher.
Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)
If there are lingering emotions around a personal issue, then you may be tempted to share them, especially if you’ve kept quiet so far. Is this wise? It’s possible that once you get started you might blurt out more than intended due to holding it all back for so long. And yet this could be exactly the right course of action, and the one thing above all else that resolves it very nicely.
Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)
Seized by a desire to improve yourself? You won’t be able to forget it, unless you start taking action. It may be to do with adopting a healthier and happier lifestyle or making positive changes to your wellbeing. It has to be interesting though, Archer. If you put too much pressure on yourself, you’ll resent having to do it every day. Small beginnings could lead to great results.
Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)
If you haven’t treated yourself for a long time, then why not do it today. A stirring aspect encourages you to do something nice for yourself. Whether it’s to see an exhibition, a special item that you’ve been coveting for some time or something else you’ve longed for, why not give in and go for it. If you’re celebrating a goal or personal achievement, then don’t hold back.
Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)
You may have an idea to start a home business, or to generate more cash by selling items that you no longer need. If you want to start a side-hustle, an exciting thought that occurs to you over the coming day or so, could push you into action. If you work at this steadily, there’s a good chance you’ll achieve your financial goals and be very pleased with the outcome, Aquarius.
Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)
You may have personal views on certain issues, Pisces. Even though a lively aspect involving Mercury and Mars encourages you to share them, it’s wise not to upset good friends. While they might appreciate knowing how you feel, a flexible approach to thoughts that contrast your own can lead to some great conversations. Rather than feel alienated, you’ll become so much closer.
