Monday Aug 21, 2023

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.

Pro-statehood lawyer advises governor against holding a status vote next year

By THE STAR STAFF

Pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa advised Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia on Sunday against holding a status vote next year and to seek territorial incorporation from Congress instead.

Igartúa, who has a private legal practice, Igartúa Law, in Aguadilla, said the most effective alternative is to push Congress to certify Puerto Rico as an incorporated territory because the declaration would put the U.S. commonwealth on the track to statehood and from that point on the island would not be de-incorporated.

While Igartúa said he supports the statehood movement in any consultation it holds, he said there should not be a status vote.

“We have to act with the reality of what we truly are and not with what we wish to be,” he said.

Several U.S. rulings, such as the Insular Cases, have defined Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory. The U.S. Department of Interior Office of Insular Affairs defines an unincorporated territory as a U.S. insular area in which Congress has determined that only selected parts of the U.S. Constitution apply. The office defines an incorporated territory as one in which Congress has used the full U.S. Constitution as it applies to states. Incorporation is a perpetual state. Once incorporated, a territory can no longer be de-incorporated.

Besides including Puerto Rico in its definition of a U.S territory, the Office of Insular Affairs also catego-

rizes Puerto Rico as a U.S. commonwealth, defined as an organized United States insular area that has established with the federal government a more highly developed relationship, usually embodied in a written mutual agreement.

Igartúa said that although the courts said otherwise, the reality is that Puerto Rico has already been incorporated as a territory because Puerto Ricans enjoy all the rights and benefits afforded by the U.S. Constitution except for the presidential vote.

“If we ask for [territorial incorporation], they will not be able to deny it to us,” he said.

He also said federal judge Gustavo Gelpí, who was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in October 2021, declared that Puerto Rico was an incorporated territory in the case Consejo de Salud Playa de Ponce vs. Health Secretary Johnny Rullán many years ago, and “this has never been reversed.”

Pierluisi recently said he might enable a status vote next year using a 2020 law that allows him to do so.

Igartúa said such a decision might also backfire, recalling that when former Gov. Luis Fortuño convened a status vote in 2012, he managed to unite the procommonwealth opposition Popular Democratic Party and went on to lose the election.

Pierluisi has said he may use the status formulas presented in congressional legislation, which do not include the current commonwealth status.

The congressional legislation has, however, obtained very little congressional support.

Pro-statehood attorney Gregorio Igartúa

Municipalities brace for heavy storm conditions

By THE STAR STAFF

Given the communication issued Sunday by the National Meteorological Service (NMS), several island mayors called on residents -- especially to residents of flood zones -- to activate their emergency preparedness plans and be alert to weather conditions in the next few days.

The NMS reported that the AL90 system was presenting a high potential for cyclonic development, which could give rise to adverse weather conditions in the northern regions of the island.

“Regardless of its development, unstable weather conditions are expected for the start of the work week and the rest of the week according to the forecast by the NMS,” Canóvanas

Mayor Lornna Soto Villanueva said. “Therefore, if you or a family member lives in a flood-prone area, it is time to take the necessary precautions and not wait until the last moment. I also call on the children and grandchildren of residents in these vulnerable areas to provide support and assistance in their preparation, especially in the protection of their necessary medicines and medical equipment.”

“Underestimating any warning can put your life and that of your loved ones at risk,” Soto Villanueva added. “Regardless of whether the system develops or not, a rainy start to the week is forecast, with the first rainfall expected for today [Sunday].”

The municipality of Vega Alta was ready to face the possible effects of the potential cyclonic development predicted by the NWS, Mayor María Vega said Sunday, adding that her greatest concern was with the electrical service provided by LUMA Energy.

“Since the early hours, we have been alert and have been carrying out efforts with the director of municipal emergency management, Miguel Navas, to be prepared for a possible atmospheric event, as predicted by the National Weather Service,” Vega said. “For early [Monday], we have called a meeting of all members of the Emergency Operations Center in case there are no changes.”

“Our biggest concern is the situation of the electrical system,” the Vega Alta mayor added. “We have areas like Barrio Maricao, where in the last two months the electrical service has been interrupted every day. Last week we had a serious situation with trees and a cement pole falling to the ground for two consecutive days. Thank God, there was no one passing by on Highway 647 at the time. We are already in conversation with LUMA staff to follow up on tree pruning in that area.”

In Sunday’s 2 pm bulletin, the National Hurricane Center

(NHC) forecast that, if the current trend were to continue, it could be as soon as Sunday afternoon that a depression or tropical storm could develop. At the time, it said a tropical wave south of Puerto Rico, called Invest 90L, was showing signs of organization.

“Visible satellite imagery shows indications that a well-defined center is developing, and early satellite wind data showed that the system was producing winds of 35-40 miles per hour,” the NHC said.

Cataño Mayor Julio Alicea Vasallo and his emergency team on Sunday afternoon reviewed the necessary work plans to be executed before the potential heavy rains that were expected Sunday evening. Likewise, he urged residents to “be aware of the official announcements before the amount of rain that is expected to bring the atmospheric disturbance.”

“As part of the preparations, in the Juana Matos neighborhood, there are two pumps with flexible sleeves to prevent the accumulation of water or mitigate major flooding,” the mayor said. “Similarly, the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, through its [contracted] private company, agreed to our request to install a temporary pump on the Wilson Ramos Bridge to serve as a backup to the existing pump to protect the area of the town center, which was badly flooded during the rains from Hurricane Fiona. Prevention is the key to avoiding calamities.”

Alicea Vasallo emphasized that work has been continuously done on the uncovering and cleaning of all drains and areas vulnerable to flooding, including drain pipes. Likewise, it was reported that all the pump houses are prepared to work at capacity. It was also emphasized that residents not put out garbage or debris at this stage in order to avoid clogging drains and disrupting the flow of flood water.

House leaders to appeal Boston court’s ruling on labor bill

By THE STAR STAFF

Speaker of the House of Representatives Rafael Hernández Montañez and House Labor Affairs Committee

Chairman Domingo Torres García announced Sunday that they will appeal before the plenary session of the U.S. Court of Appeals First Circuit in Boston today the decision that annulled Law 41-2022, the statute that grants more rights to private sector workers in Puerto Rico and that was annulled by the Financial Oversight and Management Board.

Hernández Montañez and Torres Garcías also announced that during the legislative session they will approve House Bill 1651, which contains the same provisions of Law 41-2022, but this time will be accompanied by a fiscal impact report, as required by Section 204. (a) of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), which will be prepared by the Budget Office of the Legislative Assembly.

“The protection of the rights of workers in private companies will continue to be a priority during the sixth regular session,” Hernández Montañez said in a written statement.

“As the country knows, the House of Representatives has led an unprecedented offensive at the legislative, administrative, and judicial levels to achieve this objective, which included the approval of Law 41-2022 to restore the rights of private sector workers, and its strong defense in court when the [oversight] Board claimed that it be declared null, based on a philosophical vision that clearly exceeds the authority granted by the United States Congress.”

“Tomorrow our lawyers will be presenting before the First Circuit of Appeals a request for reconsideration so that the plenary of the judges that constitute this court (“Petition for Rehearing en Banc”) revokes the panel of three judges that on August 10 confirmed the Court of the District of Puerto Rico to declare Law 41-2022 null and void,” Torres García added regarding the requested judicial remedy.

The request of the legislative body is based on three central arguments:

The decision unjustifiably expands the authority and prerogatives of the oversight board, which undermines the fundamental right to self-government, despite the fact that the PROMESA Law limits the role of this entity to mainly

guaranteeing compliance with the certified Fiscal Plan.

The decision provides an overly broad interpretation of Section 204(a) to allow the Board to prospectively challenge a law’s taking effect, based on speculation and a philosophical view of what the government’s role should be, without economic data to validate the inconsistency with the certified Fiscal Plan.

The unjustified centralization of Judge Laura Taylor Swain to intervene as the exclusive judge of lawsuits where the Board appears (“judge-shopping”), even when there is no relationship with the bankruptcy of the public finances of the government of Puerto Rico, which creates a dangerous perception of bias that damages the operation of the justice system.

“The appeal also cites the former judge of that forum, Juan R. Torruella, who previously stated that the remedy that our lawyers are requesting must be granted as an exception when the decision under question affects the lives of millions of people and has an adverse effect on the operation of public institutions,” Hernández Montañez said. “Both considerations are present in this case.”

Cataño Mayor Julio Alicea Vasallo

Complaints accuse UPR Medical Sciences Campus chancellor of illegal acts

By THE STAR STAFF

Two complaints have been filed against Carlos Ortiz Reyes, the current acting chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Medical Sciences Campus, with the Government Ethics Office and the Commonwealth Comptroller, accusing him of engaging in corrupt acts.

Ortiz Reyes is one of three candidates competing to become the Medical Sciences Campus chancellor. The UPR governing board is scheduled to vote to select a new Medical Sciences chancellor on Tuesday.

The complaints against Ortiz Reyes, copies of which were obtained by the STAR, were filed last Wednesday, Aug. 16 and allege that a company he owns, IT Group Solutions, received two contracts in 2019 and 2020 with the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) but that Ortiz Reyes, who was a Medical Sciences employee, failed to get a waiver as required under law. The CCC is part of UPR.

According to the complaints, the 2019 contract with the CCC was signed by former CCC Executive Director Luis A. Clavel and the 2020 contract by CCC Executive Director Marcia Cruz Correa.

Under the contracts’ clause 23.2, the contracting party states that neither it nor its workers have a regular position in any government entity, that they do not receive

payment for services rendered under an appointment to any government entity, and that they do not have any other contract with any other government entity, according to

the complaints.

Ortiz Reyes did not answer a request for comment from the STAR through his Linkedin page. Reacting to the story about the complaint published by another media outlet, Ortiz Reyes’ executive assistant, Rosa Martínez, denied the allegations.

The reaction, posted in Ortiz Reyes’ Facebook page, noted that neither Act 100 of 1956, the Law for the Contracting of Public Workers by the University of Puerto Rico Outside Working Hours, nor Act 1 of 2012, the Government Ethics Law, apply to the situation.

Martínez also said Act 237 of 2004, the Professional Services Contracting Law, applies to individuals and not corporations.

“Although these acts contrary to the law and of flagrant corruption have been denounced previously and published in media outlets, it seems that the oversight authorities charged with watching for deviations from the laws and regulations in this case have not been warned nor have they received information about these facts,” the complaints said.

Along with Ortiz Reyes, the candidates for the Medical Sciences campus chancellor position are Natalio Izquierdo and Ilka Ríos. The latter was nominated by UPR President Luis Ferrao Delgado.

UPR Río Piedras campus returning to ‘normal’ after workers end strike

By THE STAR STAFF

David Muñoz, president of the Workers’ Union of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), announced late last week the end of the strike that began last Wednesday, after the UPR administration guaranteed compliance with all the demands derived from an agreement reached in February.

“Effective August 30, workers will receive a retroactive wage of $8.50 per hour, corresponding to the years 2021 to 2022,” Muñoz said in a written statement issued Friday.

He added that “on September 1, these employees will get a salary adjustment to $9.50 per hour, counting the retroactive from July 1 of this year.”

This provision will benefit one-third of the union’s enrollment, which is made up of 1,000 maintenance and physical plant employees.

Regarding the issue of a medical plan, the union will continue its legal battle, which is currently in the hands of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.

Muñoz thanked the workers, the university community and the sectors that supported the demands for wage justice, and stressed the importance of having forced the administration to honor the agreement from February that led to the strike. He confirmed that the workers would return to their jobs at the UPR today.

UPR President Luis Ferrao Delgado said “I have always been willing to dialogue with the Workers’ Union and the unions that represent the employees of the primary educational center on the island.”

“In our budget request for FY [fiscal year] 2023, we requested the necessary funds to provide wage justice to UPR employees and I maintained constant communication with the fiscal oversight board to make this increase materialize. We managed to offer a salary review, which for more than 10 years was not done and we granted an increase to $9.50 to more than 1,400 employees of our institution,” Ferrao said. ‘And we continue to do them salary justice, after an analysis

and review of some profits obtained through the student boarding project that ended on August 11, which allowed us to comply with the retroactive salary adjustment payment to $8.50, which includes from 2021 to 2022, and which amounts to $1.5 million. We fulfill our commitment to our employees.”

The UPR president added that “our institution will return to normal and face-to-face classes at the Río Piedras campus.”

“We hope that the dialogue will always continue to maintain a healthy work coexistence and that our students will never be affected so that they can enjoy the university environment of excellence offered by the University of Puerto Rico,” Ferrao said.

Acting UPR Medical Sciences Campus Chancellor Carlos Ortiz Reyes

David Muñoz, president of the Workers’ Union of the University of Puerto Rico, confirmed that workers at the Río Piedras Campus would return to their jobs today.

Mochilas stuffed with love

MMM & Comfort Cases deliver well-filled backpacks to foster children

By RICHARD GUTIÉRREZ richardsanjuanstar@gmail.com

While many are raised in a home with loving parents, life has been less fortunate for others. Sometimes people don’t assume their responsibility as parents, other times they don’t have the resources to be parents, which is why foster care exists in the United States, to provide a home for children who haven’t had the opportunity to have one.

However, not everyone in foster care has a positive experience. Sometimes kids in foster care don’t even have their own belongings, which is why MMM Holdings LLC and the nonprofit organization Comfort Cases has created an alliance to provide “love bundles” to children and youth in the foster care system in Puerto Rico.

During last Friday’s event, a large group of volunteers packed part of the 500 backpacks, which are known as “mochilas” on the island, with essential items including blankets and pajamas, and gifts, to show children in foster homes that they are loved and valued, and at the same time give them quality backpacks to carry their belongings in.

MMM Multiclínica de San Juan became the meeting point for the celebration of a very special “packaging party.” The backpacks even contain books that were purchased from a local book vendor to support the local economy.

“We learned of the noble mission that Comfort Cases carries out in the United States and around the world through our parent company, Elevance Health,” said Orlando González, president of MMM Puerto Rico and head of the Medicare Eastern Region for Elevance Healthcare. “Right away, we made a commitment to bring a little joy to our Puerto Rican children in the foster care system; which fills us with great satisfaction.”

“I was a 12-year-old boy and all they gave me was a garbage bag and 20 minutes to collect my things before I went to the foster home … until I turned 18,when

those same people I was calling mom and dad, they gave me another bag of trash with my belongings and told me, ‘You have to go because we don’t get a check anymore,’” recalled Rob Scheer, founder and CEO of Comfort Cases and an adoptive father of five children who, at the time, had come to his house with garbage bags, the same as he once did.

The children of Casa Cuna de San Juan, Casa de Niños Manuel Fernández and other entities will receive “bundles of love” prepared by volunteers from Fundacción MMM and the Comfort Cases team.

During the event, Scheer told his life story as a person who went through foster care. His story was a mix of data and personal experiences, and as he told it, he shared data about what’s happening in the United States currently with foster care. Only 54% of children in foster care will actually graduate from high school, only 11% fill out a college application and only 3% get a college degree.

After years of suffering through abusive parents and living on the streets, Scheer eventually joined the Navy and later became a successful businessman. Over the years, however, he decided to give up his luxurious life to help children who went through the same experience or a similar one, which is where Comfort Cases comes in. Currently the nonprofit is not only in Puerto Rico and the mainland United States but in the UK, and plans to become established in Toronto.

Scheer told the STAR that “there is a ton of work to be done” to resurrect the foster care system in the United States.

“Our foster care system is completely shattered,” he said. “We have to realize that when something is broken we can take some super glue and put it back together, but when something is shattered it must be rebuilt.”

“Our system is so unbelievably beyond repair. We have over 438,000 children sitting in our foster care [system],” Scheer noted. “The sad part is that 30,000 of these children will age out this year and when they do, they’ll become homeless just like me. We have to do better and we can do better. It is an industry that makes money off the backs of children and that has to

stop and stop today.”

González, the MMM president, said regarding the partnership with Comfort Cases told the STAR that “MMM has a huge commitment to the community of Puerto Rico.”

“We don’t just serve the elderly, as some people think, we also serve all ages of people and offer services to all of them; this is an example of the efforts we are making to [help] our child and youth population,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to help people in Puerto Rico, not just in the health aspect directly, but also on the social front.”

MMM will continue working in collaboration with Comfort Cases moving forward, González added.

Jessica Hubble of Elevance Health noted that “they’ve brought Comfort Cases already to 18 states of the U.S. and now Puerto Rico.”

“Working with them, [we] have delivered over 7,000 cases all around the U.S.,” she said.

By THE STAR STAFF

Justin Peterson, one of the members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board, announced his resignation late last week due to what he said are disagreements with the negotiations on pensions in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) bankruptcy process.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to have served and I am proud of what was accomplished during my tenure to bring Puerto Rico out of bankruptcy. Thank you to Donald

Trump for the opportunity to serve our great country,” Peterson said in a written statement on the social network X. “To be clear, I decided to resign because I do not wish to be part of a PREPA deal that is unfair, coercive and discriminatory. The [oversight board] is basically eliminating bondholders while keeping pensions completely intact. This is wrong.”

Peterson was appointed to the oversight board by then-President Donald Trump in 2020. His term was scheduled to end in October.

‘This is wrong’: Fiscal board member Peterson resigns

Rob Scheer, founder and CEO of Comfort Cases (Richard Gutiérrez/The San Juan Daily Star)

Justin Peterson at right, said he decided to resign from the Financial Oversight and Management Board “because I do not wish to be part of a PREPA [Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority debt] deal that is unfair, coercive and discriminatory.” The oversight board, he said, “is basically eliminating bondholders while keeping pensions completely intact.”

Monday, August 21, 2023 7

Tropical Storm Hilary brings ‘life-threatening flooding’ to Baja California, US Southwest

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Tropical Storm Hilary made landfall on Mexico’s Baja California coast shortly before noon late last week, lashing the peninsula with winds and heavy rain that triggered flooding and mudslides as the storm churned north toward the United States.

Hilary was downgraded from a hurricane shortly before 8 a.m. Pacific time, weakening as it moved up the coast. But the National Weather Service warned that it was still strong enough to cause “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” in parts of the Southwest unaccustomed to heavy rains.

Strong winds and waves buffeted a large swath of the Baja California coast. One Indigenous community was essentially cut off by the storm, and flooding and mudslides closed a section of highway between the towns of Santa Rosalía and Mulegé in Baja California Sur state.

One person died after a family’s vehicle was swept away Saturday night, and Santa Rosalía had suffered “very severe” damage, its mayor said on Sunday.

The storm was moving north at roughly 25 mph, and rain and tropical storm-force winds have been reported in California, whe-

re forecasters warned that conditions would worsen throughout the day. Officials urged residents of some communities to evacuate, with several inches of rain expected there and in Southern Nevada.

Here’s what else to know:

— According to the Hurricane Center, the tropical storm warning was the first ever issued for Southern California. The warning extended from the Mexico-California border to Point

Mugu, about 40 miles west of Santa Monica by road. It also includes Catalina Island, where officials urged some residents to evacuate.

— Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared a state of emergency in 11 counties, including Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange. Across the state, officials canceled events, closed parks and beaches, and deployed more than 7,500 emergency responders.

— The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office on Saturday night ordered residents of several communities, including Oak Glen, Forest Falls and Mountain Home Village, to leave. Officials in Orange County urged people in Silverado Canyon and Williams Canyon to evacuate, and said the warning could become mandatory quickly if conditions changed.

— The weather service said that parts of California, including the Mojave Desert and the Imperial Valley, could see a tornado or two on Sunday. Tornadoes are not common in the Golden State. But it sees about 11 per year, the service has said.

— Mexico deployed more than 6,500 soldiers on Friday to the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur to help erect shelters, organize food banks and prepare for possible emergency rescues in areas popular with tourists.

Wildfire prompts evacuations and warnings in Washington State

By EDUARDO MEDINA and MIKE IVES

Awildfire in eastern Washington state prompted evacuations and helicopter rescues Friday as authorities raced to contain blazes across the state and in the nearby Canadian province of British Columbia.

The Gray Fire, which began in Washington state around noon Friday, burned through 3,000 acres over a few hours and threatened the communities of Medical Lake and Four Lakes. The areas, less than 20 miles southwest of Spokane, have a combined population of more than 5,000.

A so-called red flag warning, meaning that critical fire conditions were occurring or would soon occur, was scheduled to come into effect at 10 a.m. Saturday for eastern Washington state and northern Idaho, the National Weather Service said.

KHQ, an NBC affiliate in Spokane, reported late Friday that one person had died in connection with the Gray Fire, citing the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. No other details were available, and police officials could not be reached for comment overnight.

Joe Smillie, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, said by telephone Friday that the wildfire had destroyed several structures in Medical Lake. It remained zero percent contained Friday night.

Smillie said the fire, pushed by wind gusts of about 35 mph, was also being fueled by dry grass and wheat fields.

“All Medical Lake citizens, get out now,” Mayor Terri Cooper of Medical Lake said on Facebook. The city later warned that local water was not safe to drink unless it was boiled.

The fire was spreading farther south

closer to Cheney, a city of about 13,000 that also houses Eastern Washington University. Smillie said firefighters were trying to reroute the fire or stop its spread.

Photographs posted by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed pilots flying near a forest through a sky streaked with fire and smoke.

Washington State’s Department of Natural Resources also warned Friday that strong winds were likely to bring fire that has been burning across the border in the British Columbia Cascades since July into the United States and toward a conservation area. The blaze, the Crater Creek Fire, has burned at least 54,000 acres; the protected land, the Loomis Natural Resources Conservation Area, is nearly half that size.

“We’ve got a long night ahead of us, but please keep yourselves safe,” Hilary

Franz, the public lands commissioner in Washington, said on X on Friday night. “And we’ll focus on bringing these fast-moving fires under control.”

In Canada, the western province of British Columbia was under a state of emergency order early Saturday because of dangerous wildfires. Some homes on its suburban fringes of Kelowna, a major resort area, were on fire, and a few were destroyed.

Farther north, most residents of Yellowknife, a city of 20,000 people in the Northwest Territories, had fled before a deadline as a wildfire approached the city limits.

Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity in the western United States, and wildfire seasons are growing longer. Recent research has suggested that heat and dryness associated with global warming are major reasons for the increase in bigger and stronger fires.

The San Juan Daily Star

People watch the surfers in Huntington Beach, southeast of Los Angeles, on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023.

It was an oasis for Maui elders. The fire brought terror and death.

or pinned down by fires. The authorities on Maui have only begun to identify the dead, but the six victims whose names and ages have been released are older than 70.

“They had a duty to keep people safe,” Bass said. “Knock on their doors, drag them by the hand and stick them in your car.”

Hale Mahaolu, which operates government-subsidized housing for families and seniors across Maui, said in a statement that it was helping to get aid, money and housing resources to displaced residents, and locate missing ones. Grant Chun, its executive director, said that “all staff members and most tenants” were safe after the fire, and that the group was trying to reach missing residents.

“The safety of our tenants has always been our foremost priority,” Chun said in a statement. The organization did not say whether it had formal evacuation plans.

As an independent-living complex for people 62 and older, Hale Mahaolu Eono was not subject to the same safety rules requiring evacuation plans that govern assisted-living facilities and nursing homes, experts said.

until she bumped into a concrete pillar at age 95. She loved Korean soap operas and the K-pop group BTS, and always called her grandchildren on their birthdays. She also exasperated her family by leaving her cellphone off so she wouldn’t drain its battery.

But no matter how sharp and strong she was, her family said that at 97, she should not have been forced to try to flee a wildfire on her own.

“They’re independent. It doesn’t mean they can go outside and run,” Clifford Abihai, her grandson, said.

Abihai’s family papered West Maui with missing posters and chased down the faintest rumors of her presence. When someone reported spotting her at the Ritz-Carlton on the north side of the island, relatives raced to scour the emptied-out beaches.

By JACK HEALY

Before fire tore through the Hale Mahaolu Eono senior-living complex, trapping a man in his wheelchair and forcing a 95-year-old grandmother to flee through a blizzard of embers, before it killed two close friends and left neighbors missing, people felt lucky to live there.

The independent-living complex in Lahaina was one of the few housing options for low-income older adults on Maui, where soaring rents have forced more and more seniors into homeless shelters or onto five-year waiting lists for subsidized housing.

At Eono, residents said they paid as little as $150 a month for palm-fringed one-bedrooms overlooking the Pacific. They held group barbecues and monthly birthday celebrations. They felt like they had found stability on an island where many elders — known in Hawaiian as “kupuna” — had been priced out after a lifetime of raising families and serving tourists.

“If you got in there, you won the lottery,” said Sanford Hill, 72, a photographer who grew up on Oahu and spent two years homeless before he landed a spot at the complex. “You stay till you die.”

They did not think death would come like this.

Their 35-unit apartment complex in

Lahaina may have been one of the first major buildings consumed as a brush fire tumbled down from the hills on Aug. 8. Two residents of Eono have been named among the 114 confirmed deaths, and another half-dozen residents are still not accounted for, families said in interviews.

Now, survivors and families of the missing are asking whether Maui officials and managers at the complex could have done more to save one of the most vulnerable clusters of people in Lahaina from the fast-moving inferno.

“We were all on our own,” said Tina Bass, 72, a resident who said she grabbed a neighbor cowering behind a bush in a parking lot and fled in her white minivan as flames hurtled toward the complex.

When fire broke out in the hills above Lahaina early on Tuesday morning, staff members at the complex knocked on doors and warned that residents might have to leave, said Hale Mahaolu, the nonprofit that operates the complex. But residents said they never received any formal guidance to flee. When the blaze, thought to be extinguished, rekindled later that afternoon and roared toward their complex, they said nobody came to help them.

Older people are often at greater risk when natural disasters strike, often trapped in sweltering nursing homes after hurricanes

The complex had an on-site manager and groundskeeper, but no nurses or aides. Some residents still had cars and jobs, such as Buddy Jantoc, a 79-year-old musician who still played gigs at hula shows. Jantoc was one of the first confirmed victims of the fire.

Residents spent their days ferrying grandchildren to and from school, archiving decades’ worth of photographs, or cooking chicken adobo and Filipino spare ribs.

They forged easy bonds with their neighbors, met in a community room to play cards, and every month gathered to celebrate birthdays. They celebrated the Fourth of July together with hot dogs.

But several residents did not have cars, families said. Some used walkers or wheelchairs. One man was legally blind. Another struggled to get onto the toilet.

“Where’s the help for them?” asked Clifford Abihai, whose 97-year-old grandmother, Louise Abihai, was still listed as missing.

Louise Abihai had grown up on Maui, in a home where she drew water from the well, family members said. She would chuckle recounting her days riding a donkey to school — an education that was cut short when she left elementary school to raise her brothers and sisters.

Abihai’s family was amazed at her vitality. She still went to 7 a.m. Mass at Maria Lanakila Catholic Church, and had driven

They and other families say they have grown increasingly frustrated by not knowing whether their great-grandparents, aunties and uncles are alive or dead. They say they have gotten little information from local officials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency or staff members at Hale Mahaolu headquarters, which was far outside the fire zone.

Hale Mahaolu said that most residents “heeded our warnings to leave the property,” but that four people declined to leave when the lone staff member offered to help them evacuate.

“Our tenants are independent adults, who navigate their own lives,” the nonprofit said. “Similarly to regular apartment buildings, independent-living apartments do not typically evacuate tenants during disasters.”

Some residents challenged that timeline. Bass, who fled in her minivan with a neighbor, said nobody warned her. Hill, the photographer, said he was home until he left for a dentist’s appointment at 1 p.m. on Aug. 8 and never got a knock on his door.

“They didn’t notify me in any way,” he said.

Gloria Perreira, 71, said she did not smell smoke until around 2 p.m. that day, and said that quite a few people were still at the complex. By 3 p.m., the air was so thick with smoke that Perreira said she could no longer see nearby trees, and the hurricaneforce gusts were spraying embers and flame everywhere.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to get the hell out,’” she said. She grabbed her medications and a water flask and bolted to her car. “Some of them in wheelchairs weren’t able to leave. I don’t know what happened to them.”

From left: Clifford Abihai, Kehau Ashton, Benny Caluya and Leilani Caluya, who are all related to Louise Abihai, one of the residents of the Hale Mahaolu Eono senior-living complex who is still missing, at a hotel in Kahului, Hawaii, Aug. 17, 2023.

The South knows a hot, sticky summer. But this? ‘It’s hell.’

By RICK ROJAS

Grab-N-Go, a drive-thru and walkup convenience store here, has a central air-conditioning system, a window air-conditioning unit and two small, portable air conditioners. On a recent afternoon, all of them were running. Cool air swirled through the devil-red metal box of a building.

Still, Don Vitto, the shopkeeper, was sweating anyway.

Lately, brisk business could almost be considered a curse: Every time a customer arrived, Vitto had to slide open the window to take their order. His stockpile of chilled air spilled out. The outside air — nearly 100 degrees but feeling even warmer — forced its way inside.

“It’s a sticky, heavy heat,” Vitto said, disgust dripping from every drawn-out syllable. “You can feel it in your breathing — I know I can. I can feel the thickness in the air.”

In Louisiana, and along much of the Gulf Coast, the misery of summer has never been reflected simply by a temperature reading alone. It’s not just the heat, as Southerners have explained for generations. It’s the moist, soupy, suffocating humidity that swallows up everything and conspires with the heat to make any activity without air conditioning draining and even deadly.

And this summer — goodness gracious — it has been absolutely abysmal.

The air has felt swampier and more suffocating. Yet, confoundingly, as moist as the air has been, a scarcity of rain and clouds has made the sun all the more blistering, leaving the earth as dry and cracked as peanut brittle.

But what has made recent months so punishing is the relentlessness of it all, as the conditions have dragged on for days on end and the volume of excessive heat warnings has broken records.

“It’s been an incredibly aggressive summer,” said Barry Keim, Louisiana’s state climatologist. “We normally have spells like this most summers. But this summer has been very, very persistent. The breaks are the fleeting moments, and it’s been oppressive most of the time.”

Usually, on the Gulf Coast, the thermometer readings do not have the same

shock value as those in arid desert cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. Officials, forecasters and residents wallowing in their discomfort have had to lean on the heat index — a measurement meant to illustrate what it “feels like” outside by taking temperature and humidity into account — to convey the severity of what they are enduring.

Sure, these conditions come every summer, and even at times in the fall and spring, too. But veterans of the heat and humidity said this summer was wearing them down. They acknowledged a fear that what was happening now was less an anomaly than a sneak preview.

“It’s going to get worse,” Latoya Wilson, 44, said as she sat with her family on the sand at Cypremort Point Beach, on the coast south of Lafayette. “It feels like the beginning of the end.”

Even so, she refused to completely surrender to her worries. Instead, her family made accommodations: Stay hydrated. Stay inside. Go to the beach, but wait until 7 p.m., when things are at least tolerable. “It’s not going to stop us from living,” she said.

Coping with oppressive heat and humidity is fried into virtually every part of the South’s history and culture, influencing daily rhythms and the design of homes. Southern author Roy Blount Jr., writing about humidity for Garden & Gun magazine, noted that the word itself almost never appears in the region’s literature precisely because it is omnipresent. “If fish had a literature, you wouldn’t find the word water there,” he wrote. Yet there were plenty of references to its chief symptom, namely sweat.

That sweatiness is the result of a dome of pressure known as the Bermuda high, which parks itself in the Atlantic Ocean and spins clockwise into the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern United States. “We just bask in this really hot, moist air,” Keim said.

The ascendance of air conditioning was a transformative force in the South, facilitating the rise of suburbs and making the region less forbidding for companies that wanted to move in. Now, transoms and rising early have been replaced with drive-thrus and attached garages and cranking up the AC — for people with the

means and jobs that allow it.

“People are so completely dependent on air conditioning,” said Craig Colten, a professor of geography at Louisiana State University. “You run around on our campus and you see people going between classes in shorts and sweatshirts because the air conditioning is so ramped up.”

Then, in New Iberia, a city situated in the swamps west of New Orleans, there’s Herman Marshall sitting under his carport, a fan a few feet from his face, blowing out hot air.

“It’s hell,” said Marshall, 72. “It’s all I can say.”

He had had the same central air conditioning unit for 20-plus years. Recently, it pooped out on him, and he was waiting for the parts to come in to fix it. “I guess anything like that will burn out if you run it 24/7,” he said.

Marshall was no stranger to the heat. He gave up a job as a welder long ago because he could not stand how hot the work was, becoming a heavy equipment operator, which was marginally better. “It’s hard in the morning,” he said, when the dew that forms overnight contributes to the mugginess. “You stand in one place and you sweat.”

Oddly enough, for all humidity’s wretchedness, there was somehow a comfort in its familiarity. “I go somewhere else and I miss it,” said Wilson, a nurse

who lives in Lafayette. She even had a theory: Humidity kept people on the Gulf Coast looking youthful, acting as a natural moisturizer.

Da’lijah Nae Ozenne, 23, wasn’t so concerned about that.

“I’m staying in the house — with my air conditioner on 68,” she said. “Every day, all day.”

Except for this rare moment when she had to separate herself from it. Sweat beaded on her face as she stood outside the window at Grab-N-Go, asking Vitto’s wife, Linda, for a strawberry Fanta.

“Everybody be complaining how hot it is,” Linda Vitto said as she leaned out the window. “They all want ice. They all want something cool to drink.”

Don Vitto declined to give his age. “I’m old enough to vote,” he said. And old enough, he admitted, to recall life before air conditioning was everywhere. He remembered playing outside all day, coming home, taking a bath in the evening and planting himself in front of a box fan.

But that was a different time, he said.

“Sometimes,” he said, “it seems unbearable.”

He slid the window closed. He just wanted to savor the hard work of his air conditioners for as long as he could. Any minute now, the next customer would pull up, and he’d have to greet them with a blast of cool air.

A family sits by the water’s edge on a beach in Cypremont Point, La, on Aug. 5, 2023.

How geopolitics is complicating the move to clean energy

By PETER S. GOODMAN

He is known as the Minister for Everything. From the government offices of Indonesia’s capital to dusty mines on remote islands, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan commands authority as the nation’s essential power broker.

A four-star general turned business magnate turned Cabinet officer, Luhut’s paramount aspiration is transforming Indonesia into a hub for the production of electric vehicles. But as he pursues that goal, he and his country are increasingly vulnerable to geopolitical forces beyond their control. Though this archipelago nation has long sidestepped entanglements in ideological rivalries, it is increasingly caught in the conflict between the United States and China.

At stake is control over nickel, a mineral used to make batteries for electric cars and motorcycles — a central component of the mission to limit the ravages of climate change.

Indonesia boasts the Earth’s largest reserves, making it something like the Saudi Arabia of nickel. But harvesting and refining those stocks is largely dependent on investment and technology from Chinese companies. And that has limited Indonesia’s access to the United States.

In Washington, the Biden administration has proffered tens of billions of dollars in tax credits to spur electric vehicle manufacturing. To qualify, cars sold in the United States must include an increasing share of parts and materials produced either in domestic factories or in countries deemed friendly to American interests.

In recent months, Luhut — formally, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment — has implored the Biden administration for a trade deal covering minerals in an effort to secure his country status as a friendly country. That would generate greater demand for its nickel by making it eligible for the American tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Companies around the globe would presumably gain incentive to erect smelters and electric vehicle factories in Indonesia, enhancing the nation’s technological prowess, and creating jobs.

But Luhut, the government’s de facto lead official on trade matters, has been repeatedly rebuffed because of American concerns about Chinese investment in Indonesia’s nickel industry, as well as unease over working conditions and environmental standards. In Washington today, countering China’s technological ascendance is that rare objective that captures support on both sides of the political aisle.

Some within the Biden administration argue that this stance is shortsighted. Climate change is an existential threat. Nickel is a central component of the transition away from fossil fuels, making access to Indonesia’s stocks an objective of greatest urgency. But that logic has failed to win over powerful administration figures — especially on the National Security Council — who maintain that nothing should be subordinated to limiting China’s might.

All of which explained Luhut’s tone of weary indignation on a recent morning as he held court in his glass-fronted office at his residence in Jakarta, Indonesia’s teeming capital. Outside in his garden, magpies whistled emphatically in cages hung from orchid trees. Inside, the Minister for Everything lamented the pernicious misconceptions separating his nation from its destiny.

“America doesn’t understand what Indonesia is doing,” he

said. “It’s frustrating.”

Money and power

The animosity between the United States and China was not the only issue causing him angst. He was incensed by the stance of the European Union, which has challenged a key tenet of Indonesia’s industrial designs: a ban on the export of nickel ore.

In refusing to sell its raw nickel to the world, Indonesia has drawn more than $14 billion in investment, primarily from Chinese companies, into smelters that process it into products used to make stainless steel and EV batteries. Since the ban was introduced in 2014, Indonesia’s exports of nickel products have multiplied more than tenfold, exceeding $30 billion last year, according to government data.

The European Union asserts that its companies are being deprived of a fair chance to import nickel ore. It brought and won a case at the World Trade Organization, gaining the power to apply punitive tariffs on Indonesia’s exports even as the country appeals.

Luhut likens that position to a perpetuation of the colonial era, when the Dutch, Portuguese and British hauled spices, sugar and other lucrative commodities back to European entrepôts. The nickel export ban is a corrective, he said, the means of securing the value of extraction for Indonesians.

“It’s the arrogance of European countries,” he said. “Maybe they thought that Indonesia is still colonized. We have the right now to improve the quality of life in this country.”

His righteous words coincide with the crude interplay of money and state power that has long animated Indonesian commerce.

Luhut earned his fortune in the business of coal, still the dominant way the country generates electricity. His company, TBS Energy, which trades on the Jakarta stock exchange, is now effectively controlled by his nephew, Pandu Sjahrir, who also heads Indonesia’s leading coal industry trade association. The company is intent on placing itself at the center of the “electrical vehicle ecosystem,” according its most recent annual report.

Nearly 62% of TBS Energy shares are owned by a Singapore-registered company, Highland Strategic Holdings, that is itself controlled by another holding company, which is in turn owned by a third entity, masking the real beneficiaries. Luhut does not

appear in the paperwork maintained by Singapore regulators, but he still owns 8% of his old company, he said, positioning him to profit from new smelters.

A critical need

Luhut describes his plans for nickel as the centerpiece of his efforts to spread the benefits of economic development beyond Indonesia’s largest cities, where a thriving middle class throngs shopping malls, and on to impoverished communities.

Most of the nickel is on Sulawesi, a K-shaped, jungle-draped island that is roughly the size of Oklahoma. Despite its expanse, Sulawesi has long been an outlier in a nation of 17,000 islands whose political and economic spheres are dominated by the one that holds the bulk of the population: Java.

In communities near new smelters, many celebrate an infusion of new jobs, even as people decry horrific pollution. Local workers complain that they are paid far less than those from China.

Experts accuse the United States of myopia in not embracing a trade deal with Indonesia, noting that Americans are already driving cars that use nickel mined there. The only question is which factories wind up making the batteries: those in China that now purchase nearly all of Indonesia’s nickel products, or new factories in the United States.

By 2035, more than 90% of all nickel products will be processed in countries that lack free-trade agreements with the United States, according to a recent study by S&P Global, a research firm. That makes it impossible for American battery factories to satisfy their demand for nickel without looking to countries beyond core U.S. trading partners.

“One way or another, Europe and the U.S. will need Indonesia nickel,” said Putra Adhiguna, an electric vehicle specialist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis in the Indonesian city of Bandung. “They should be coming to this country figuring out how they can do it better.”

The White House declined to discuss the particulars of its talks with Indonesian officials, while suggesting that deliberations continue.

“Indonesia is an important partner for fighting climate change and accelerating the clean energy transition,” said a spokesperson for the National Security Council, Eduardo Maia Silva. “We continue to consult with stakeholders and Congress on implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, and we remain interested in coordinating with Indonesia, just as we are with other partners, to strengthen the resilience of our critical minerals supply chains.”

Without a trade deal that can extend American tax credits to Indonesian minerals, many anticipate that the advent of electric vehicles will be hampered by a crude division: producers that rely on Chinese investment, and those that don’t.

Luhut’s advisers quietly acknowledged that the American tax credits were not happening, not with the pushback in Congress after the Biden administration completed a minerals deals with Japan.

The Minister for Everything was absorbed with hawking nickel.

“We are aiming basically to the United States,” he said. “But if the Americans finally say, ‘We don’t want to take it,’ fine, we’ll look for some other places to go.”

A nickel mining site in North Konawe, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, July 23, 2023.

Wall Street, yields tread water as investors await Fed at Jackson Hole

Wall Street ended mixed on Friday (Aug 18) and US Treasury yields stabilised after a recent surge, and as investors awaited further interest rate insight from the Federal Reserve (Fed) next week.

Global shares were stuck around two-month lows and Wall Street indices closed nearly flat and narrowly mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.08%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.01% and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.2%.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 nations, was last down 0.24%.

Yields on benchmark 10-year US Treasuries stepped back after flirting with 16-year highs earlier in the week. Investors expect the Fed to hold interest rates higher for longer as the US economy continued to show strength.

“August historically has been a weak month for markets, and it isn’t surprising that after a big rally to start the year, that investors would take a breather. The headlines haven’t changed all that much, but the lens with which investors are viewing those headlines has,” said Blake Emerson, a global investment specialist at JP Morgan Private Bank.

Ten-year yields were last at 4.255%, after reaching 4.328% on Thursday. A break above the 4.338% level reached in October would have brought yields to their highest since November 2007.

The dollar index, which tracks the currency versus a basket of six competitors, was down 0.16%. But despite the daily dip, the greenback posted a fifth consecutive week of gains, its longest winning streak in 15 months.

Minutes this week from the Fed’s rate-setting July meeting showed most members of the rate-setting committee continued to see significant upside risks to inflation, suggesting that more hikes are in the pipeline.

Attention now turns to the Fed and other top central banks’ annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Investors will scrutinise a speech from Fed chair Jerome Powell next Friday for clues about the interest rate outlook.

“We view the event as a good opportunity for Powell to start laying the ground for the next step in the Fed’s policy guidance — no longer focused on how many hikes to expect, but rather on rates remaining ‘higher for longer,’” said TD Securities analysts in a note.

Markets are already scaling back rate cuts bets next year.

Oil prices rose, but posted a weekly decline, snapping a seven-week winning streak as China’s slowing economic growth clouded the picture for demand.

For the day, Brent crude was up 0.77% at US$84.85 a barrel. US crude jumped 1.13% to US$81.30 a barrel.

The yen was trading at 145.33 against the dollar, having been hammered this week to a nine-month low of 146.56 per dollar, as yield differentials between the US and Japan widened. It is near levels that sparked an intervention by Japanese authorities late last year.

Global stocks skidded and the dollar jumped on Tuesday

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS COMMODITIES CURRENCY

after Moody’s cut the credit ratings of 10 small to mid-sized U.S. banks and China’s trade data was worse than forecast in July, raising caution about the economic outlook.

The yuan slid to a three-week low as Asian stocks and the Australian and New Zealand dollars, seen as proxies for Chinese growth, turned weaker. The data also heightened pressure for China to provide fresh stimulus to prop up demand.

The gloom also affected major lenders that were not mentioned by Moody’s, with the broader S&P 500 Banks In-

dex sliding almost 3%.

Investors have scaled down their expectations for future bank earnings, and markets have already priced in some of the factors Moody’s cited, said Mike Mayo, a bank analyst at Wells Fargo.

Moody’s also placed six banking giants, including Bank of New York Mellon, US Bancorp, State Street and Truist Financial, on review for potential downgrades in a move that tempered a still strong outlook for U.S. growth.

Longer term there’s unlikely to be an issue, but rising interest rates and regional banks’ exposure to commercial real estate has cast a cloud over the market, said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan.

Deadly Russian strike hits city center in northern Ukraine

By MARC SANTORA

ARussian missile slammed into the center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 100, including 12 children, Ukrainian officials said.

The missile tore through the main square just before noon, as people were leaving church after celebrating a holy day, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.

“A Russian missile hit the heart of Chernihiv,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement. “A square, a university and a theater. Russia turned an ordinary Saturday into a day of pain and loss.”

Ukrainian officials and emergency services released graphic videos of the initial blast in the attack and the devastating aftermath. Victims could be seen sprawled in the square, surrounded by pools of blood. The Interior Ministry said a search-and-rescue operation was underway in the surrounding area.

The youngest known victim was a 6-yearold girl who died at a local hospital, local officials said.

Zelenskyy said the deadly bombardment should remind the world that it needs to stand united against “Russian terror,” adding: “For life to win, Russia must lose this war.”

The strike in Chernihiv, an elegant city that was battered by Russian forces during a siege in the first months of the war that ultimately failed, comes as Ukrainian forces are making incremental gains against entrenched Russian forces in the south of the country in their slow-moving counteroffensive.

Those advances are being earned through bloody battles across fields littered with mines and backed by deeply dug-in Russian forces. At the same time, Kyiv has stepped up its assaults on Russian military targets behind the front lines, including some inside Russia.

On Saturday, a Ukrainian drone reached

a Russian air base hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border in the Novgorod region, sparking a fire and damaging one aircraft, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The Russian military said “a copter-type UAV,” or unmanned aerial vehicle, was used to target the base and claimed to have shot it down. But as a result of the attack, the ministry said, “a fire broke out in the aircraft parking lot” and one plane was damaged. There were no casualties, the ministry said.

The Ukrainian air force, in a statement on Telegram, celebrated the attack on the airfield, called Soltsy, home to a fleet of Russian bombers that are frequently used to carry out strikes aimed at Ukrainian towns and cities.

The Kremlin has sought to play down the significance of Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, seeking to maintain a sense of normalcy and to reassure Russians that the war is going according to plan. President Vladimir Putin, for his part, has stepped up his efforts to project authority over a military campaign that has been marked by brutal tactics, setbacks and internal divisions.

The Kremlin said Putin traveled to the southern Rus-

sian city of Rostov-on-Don to meet with military commanders, in his first publicized visit to the military hub since it was seized in June in a short-lived rebellion led by Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Rostov-on-Don is home to the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District, a strategic command center for Putin’s war in Ukraine. Prigozhin briefly took control of the headquarters before his fighters began advancing toward Moscow.

The Kremlin did not say when Putin visited the city, where he met with the chief of the Russian military, Gen. Valery Gerasimov. Gerasimov and Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, were the primary targets of criticism from Prigozhin before the uprising, which plunged the country into crisis and raised questions about Putin’s leadership.

The visit, which appeared to take place at night, comes as Putin continues an active schedule of public appearances and continues to signal that he is sticking by his top generals. At the same time, the general seen as closest to Prigozhin, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, has not been seen in public since the mutiny.

After abruptly ending the uprising, Wagner forces left Rostov-on-Don to the applause of some onlookers, suggesting that Prigozhin and his Wagner forces maintained at least some popular support there.

Since then, Prigozhin’s status has been

shrouded in mystery. He has apparently been in Belarus and was recently still able to travel to Russia — last month, unverified images appeared to show him meeting with African leaders in St. Petersburg during a summit hosted by Putin. But his extensive media holdings, including a troll farm that figured prominently in Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election in 2016, have largely been taken apart and state media has depicted him as a thug. He has also toned down his criticism of Russia’s top military leaders.

Here’s what else is happening in the war:

— Zelenskyy visit: Zelenskyy arrived Saturday in Sweden, where he said in a statement that he would continue to work on bilateral cooperation, “in particular in the defense industry, the European integration of Ukraine and common security in the Euro-Atlantic space.”

He added that Ukraine supported Sweden “on its way into NATO.” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, an alliance member that had been blocking Sweden’s entry, expressed support in July for the Nordic country’s membership, but said that it still needed to take more steps to earn the support of the Turkish parliament.

— Camp David summit: In his summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, President Joe Biden commended Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan for his country’s support of Ukraine. “Imagine if we had done nothing?” the president said. If the world had not come to Kyiv’s aid, Biden added, hinting at U.S. officials’ concern about China taking military action against Taiwan, “What signal would that send to China?”

— Kerch bridge attack: The head of Ukraine’s security services revealed details of the country’s first successful attack on the only bridge linking occupied Crimea with Russia, saying that its operatives loaded a truck with 21 tons of explosives wrapped in packing film to detonate the vehicle in the middle of the bridge.

Vasyl Malyuk, head of Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, released photos of preparations for the attack on Oct. 8, 2022, as well as details to the Ukrainian media outlet, New Voice, about how Ukraine managed to evade Russia’s defenses. Malyuk said Ukrainians used an explosive commonly referred to as RDX, which is more powerful than TNT. The information was later released on a Telegram channel run by the Ministry of Defense.

Worshipers celebrating the Apple Feast of the Savior at the Church of Saint Mykolai in Tukhlya, Ukraine on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023.

A defense agreement likely to deepen Chinese rancor

By DAVID PIERSON and OLIVIA WANG

Ever since members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization sprang into action to help Ukraine try to thwart Russia’s invasion last year, China has warned about a similar U.S.-led security alliance forming in Asia that would seek to hobble Beijing’s ambitions and provoke a confrontation.

President Joe Biden’s Camp David summit on Friday with the leaders of Japan and South Korea most likely reinforces Beijing’s perception. The talks saw Japan and South Korea put aside their historical animosities to forge a defense pact with the United States aimed at deterring Chinese and North Korean aggression.

Biden, who met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, sought to emphasize at a news conference that the summit was not “antiChina.” But Beijing will almost certainly find Biden’s assertion unpersuasive. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has accused the United States of leading Western countries in the “all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China.”

“It is appropriate to say that the Camp David summit is possibly a starting shot for a new cold war,” Lu Chao, an expert on Korean Peninsula issues with the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Communist Party newspaper, the Global Times, on Friday.

The Camp David agreement requires the United States, Japan and Korea to hold annual talks, expand joint military exercises, and establish a three-way hotline for crisis communications. In a statement, the countries also criticized China’s “dangerous and aggressive behavior” in the South China Sea and reaffirmed the “importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

The language on Taiwan, which could be read as a warning to Beijing not to attempt to take the island by force, will most likely rankle Chinese leaders for drawing Japan and South Korea closer into a dispute that has traditionally been restricted to the United States, China and Taiwan. Just this past week, China’s defense minister, Li Shangfu, visited Moscow and warned against “playing with fire” when it came to Taiwan. He added that any effort to “use Taiwan to contain China” would “surely end in failure.”

The Camp David agreement follows a string of moves by the Biden administration that Beijing views as hostile. Those include a clampdown on China’s access to advanced chip technology; a three-way security agreement with Australia and Britain; the strengthening of the so-called Quad grouping of the United States, India, Australia and Japan; and an increased U.S. military presence in the Philippines.

As the United States, Japan and South Korea have drawn closer, China has responded largely by doubling down on the strategy that has been a source of concern to Washington and its allies in the region.

China has been holding joint military exercises with Russia, notably on Japan’s doorstep and near Alaska. It has pressed its claim over Taiwan with a steady increase of military pressure, including by launching a round of air and naval drills on Saturday. It has been engaging in increasingly provocative behavior in the South China Sea.

In a possible sign that tensions could escalate further in the region, Japan said Friday that it scrambled fighter jets to track two Russian patrol aircraft seen flying between the Sea of Japan

and the East China Sea, where Russia and China were holding joint naval exercises.

A day earlier, 11 Chinese and Russian naval ships, including destroyers, were spotted sailing between the southern islands of Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, northeast of Taiwan. China has increasingly concentrated military drills on Taiwan’s east coast facing the Pacific Ocean as part of an “all-around encirclement” strategy aimed at demonstrating how the island can be choked off from outside help.

“Sending 11 ships in a joint patrol with Russia close to Okinawa is either a response to the Camp David agreement, or an explanation for why Tokyo and Seoul are strengthening their own defense capabilities and alliances,” said Drew Thompson, a visiting senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and a former U.S. Defense Department official on China.

“Deterrence is increasingly hard to come by in northeast Asia, so I fully expect all the parties to redouble their respective efforts,” he added.

China indicated that the joint air and naval drills around Taiwan on Saturday were in response to a recent visit to the United States by Taiwan’s vice president, Lai Ching-te. China has objected to even brief stopovers in the United States by Taiwanese officials.The exercises were just as likely to be directed at the United States, which Beijing has openly criticized for its support of Taiwan.

Beijing has often warned Tokyo and Seoul not to be drawn into the Taiwan issue, depicting Washington as a puppet master manipulating its allies. In an editorial Wednesday, the Global Times likened South Korea to a “kindergarten child receiving a sticker from their teacher” by agreeing to attend the summit at Camp David. That excitement, the editorial said, should instead be replaced with “a sense of deep trepidation and caution.”

China has also invoked ethnicity to try to drive a wedge between the sides. Last month, Wang Yi, the country’s top diplomat, warned Japan and South Korea that “no matter how yellow you dye your hair, or how sharp you make your nose, you’ll never turn into a European or American.”

Chinese analysts expressed skepticism that Seoul and Tokyo can set aside problems in their relationship stemming from Japan’s brutal, decadeslong occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the first part of the 20th century.

“Their relations still face many barriers,” said Zhao Minghao, a professor at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University. “Beijing will on one hand express worry and

dissatisfaction, but on the other hand, continue observing” for cracks in the alliance.

Beijing has dangled economic incentives as recently as this month by increasing the flow of Chinese outbound tourists to Japan. The strategy underscores the economic heft of China, which is the top trading partner for both Japan and South Korea. It is also a reminder of the possibility that China might retaliate with economic measures. In 2017, China boycotted many South Korean businesses and shunned its K-pop stars after Seoul allowed the United States to deploy an antimissile system in South Korea.

To China’s chagrin, Russia’s war in Ukraine has brought Japan and South Korea closer to NATO. Kishida paid a surprise visit to Ukraine in March and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Japan has also supplied Ukraine with 100 military trucks.

That has deepened fears in Beijing of a so-called miniNATO in Asia, though Friday’s agreement falls short of mirroring the trans-Atlantic alliance in a crucial way. The Camp David pact requires the United States, Japan and South Korea to treat any security threat to one as a threat to all and to respond by holding mutual discussions. That is far less stringent than NATO’s Article 5, which requires members to “take action” if one is attacked.

Now, China will be watching for signs that the alliance will expand, drawing in countries such as the Philippines, said Song Zhongping, a commentator in Beijing who is a former military officer. Song called that a “worst-case scenario” for China because it would create an “Indo-Pacific NATO.”

Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based scholar who focuses on U.S.-China ties, said the new alliance should not overly threaten China, especially if it was more defensive in nature.

“We believe that Japan and South Korea understand the big picture and won’t jointly challenge China because they are not able to,” Shen said. “There is no need for China to worry because they are smart. They know they cannot defeat China.”

U.S. President Joe Biden with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio during a news conference following their trilateral meeting at Camp David, outside of Thurmont, Md. on Aug. 18, 2023.

As dead dolphins wash ashore, Ukraine builds a case of ecocide against Russia

By MARC SANTORA

The victim was found along a stretch of beach near the port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine early this summer, cause of death unknown.

As a light rain fell in the open field where the necropsy would take place, law enforcement officials, a representative of the local prosecutors’ office and civilian witnesses gathered to watch.

On the beach was a harbor porpoise. They are washing up dead in droves on the shores of the Black Sea.

“Dolphins are not only cute creatures,” Pawel Goldin, 44, a doctor in zoology who specializes in marine mammal populations at the Ukrainian Scientific Center of Ecology of the Sea, said before the necropsy. “They are keystone creatures for the marine ecosystem. If dolphins are in a bad condition, then the entire ecosystem will be in a bad condition.”

And the dolphins in the Black Sea are in trouble.

Ukrainian officials say their plight speaks to the savage toll that Russia’s war is taking on marine life and the environment more broadly — something they want to document for prosecution.

Four specific acts — genocide, crimes against humanity, aggression and war crimes — are recognized as international crimes. Ukraine would like to add a fourth — ecocide — and it is setting out to build its case against Russia. The autopsy of the porpoise was part of that effort.

“We right now are developing the strategy for the prosecution of environmental war crimes and ecocide,” said Maksym Popov, an adviser to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, who is specifically focused on environmental issues. “It’s not established yet.”

While people often refer to porpoises and dolphins interchangeably, they are distinct creatures that are both endangered.

The attempt to document and prosecute atrocities in Ukraine is a sprawling effort, and the government in Kyiv, the capital, is being assisted by experts from the United States, Britain and the Europe Union. There are tens of thousands of registered war crimes under investigation, including the killing of innocents; the destruction of civilian infrastructure and whole towns; cases of kidnapping, torture and rape; and the forcible deportation of men, women and children.

Even with so much suffering to document, Ukraine’s atrocity advisory board has also dedicated resources to the investigation and prosecution of environmental crimes.

“The environment is often called the si-

lent victim of war,” Popov said. Ukraine is trying to change that, since “the environment has no citizenship, no borders.”

In a sign of the importance that Ukraine is placing on the issue, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has included “immediate protection of the environment” in the 10-point peace plan Ukraine hopes will provide a foundation for negotiations to end the war.

Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine’s minister of environmental protection and natural resources, said in an interview that environmental investigators had collected data related to more than 900 cases of dead dolphins. The figure includes those found on the shores of Ukraine, as well as Turkey and Bulgaria, which also border the Black Sea.

In one week in July, he said, 10 dolphins were found and are being studied to determine how they died.

“This is a new challenge for wartime,” he said. “We can’t lose any information about environmental crimes.”

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which sent trillions of gallons of polluted water down the Dnieper River and into the Black Sea, was the most serious blow to the environment in an already ecologically catastrophic war. But even before then, dolphins were dying at an alarming rate.

Russian warships menacing the southern coast of Ukraine in the Black Sea make constant use of acoustic sonar signals that scientists

say can interfere with dolphins’ sense of direction, since they use their own natural sonar for echolocation.

Explosions, rocket launches and lowflying Russian fighter jets only add to the cacophony traumatizing the dolphins, Goldin said. But he cautioned that it was far too early to directly link the dolphin die-off to a single cause.

Maritime mines littering the coastal waters present new, deadly obstacles. Pollutants from explosives and fuel leaks, along with an assortment of flotsam associated with war, have spoiled vast swaths of the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve — Ukraine’s largest protected area that is classified as a “wetland of international importance.” And the environmental toll caused by the sprawling consequences of the dam break is still being intensively studied.

Goldin said the floodwaters included heavy metals, pesticides and nutrients — nitrogen and phosphorus in particular — that had built up in the sediment behind the dam. Those nutrients triggered a massive algae bloom, which can become toxic.

A major study of the Cetacean population of the Black Sea in 2019 found that there were about 200,000 harbor porpoises, 120,000 common dolphins and 20,000 to 40,000 bottlenose dolphins, Goldin said.

While some environmentalists have speculated that more than 50,000 Black Sea dolphins could have died in the first year of the

war alone, the scientists involved in the forensic examinations are more cautious.

Goldin said it was not yet possible to estimate how many dolphins had died as a direct result of the war, and Ukraine is working with international partners to better understand what is happening.

Ukraine has had to create new methodologies to document damage to the environment, Strilets said. The Black Sea is a battle zone, large sections of the Ukrainian coastline are under Russian occupation, and many areas are too dangerous to visit because of heavy fighting.

But it is one thing to document a dead dolphin washing ashore. It is a vastly more complicated matter to understand why the animal died.

“The diagnosis is the result of all steps of all the research,” Goldin said.

After each necropsy, Ukraine sends samples to experts at the University of Padua in Italy and the University of Hannover in Germany for further analysis.

That work will take time, Goldin said. And it is only after the war, when a large-scale survey of marine life in the Black Sea can take place, that the true toll will be known.

Still, each dolphin death they document and study offers important clues.

The porpoise dissected this summer had died a few weeks earlier, days after the destruction of the dam. With Ukraine’s resources stretched thin, it had to be frozen until officials could perform an autopsy in accordance with the protocols for both a scientific and criminal investigation.

“This is a small guy,” Goldin said as his team laid the porpoise out on a table to thaw. A powerful odor was overwhelming even in the open air as they cut the creature apart.

When the necropsy was done, Goldin said that one surprise was that the porpoise’s stomach was full and it had recently eaten at least five species of fish.

“To eat so much food showed he was ready for life,” Goldin said. “It is intriguing because it adds to the mystery of why he died.”

Goldin was hopeful they would begin to get a better overall picture of what was happening to the dolphins in coming months, but said that “the best agent of nature conservation now is the Ukrainian Army” since it was only when the war ended that the destruction would stop.

“Maybe we were not the best stewards, but we are truly shocked by what the Russians do to nature,” he said. “The sooner the Ukrainian Army takes control over the Black Sea, the sooner the environment in the Black Sea will begin to heal.”

A dolphin show at a hotel in Odesa, Ukraine, on July 18, 2023.

Live by RICO, die by RICO

By MAUREEN DOWD

Ifirst met Rudy Giuliani in 1986 when I was a New York Times reporter writing about corruption cases in New York. Gotham was awash in so much municipal sleaze, a detective joked that city employees were streaming into the FBI office with their hands up.

Giuliani, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, got in a kerfuffle with Robert Morgenthau, the storied Manhattan district attorney who was a model for the DA in “Law & Order,” because Rudy considered the local prosecutor to be superfluous, so he wasn’t sharing information.

Giuliani, 41, was already renowned as a scourge of organized crime. (The next year, he would become the scourge of Wall Street, perp-walking white-collar criminals in handcuffs in tableaus of virtue conquering vice, even though the charges sometimes failed to stick.)

Morgenthau favored a sweater with a hole in it. Giuliani was bandbox-perfect, feral and ready to pounce. Morgenthau had an understated tenacity. Giuliani was like a cult leader among acolytes.

He grew up thinking he would be a priest — until he decided he didn’t want to be celibate. When I met him, he was still speaking passionately about good and evil, right and wrong. His eyes gleamed when he talked about routing

blackguards who had breached the public trust. He was following a Thomas Dewey model: Clean up corruption and parlay that into higher office.

The phone rang as I came into the paper the morning my story ran. Giuliani was demanding to talk to my editor; the story made him seem holier-than-thou!

He didn’t know how good he had it. Now he just seems crazier-than-thou. It’s a Puccini opera, really, about an opera-loving federal prosecutor and heroic mayor who spirals into lawlessness, as well as multiple divorces, depression, drinking, money problems, sexual harassment claims, Cameo cameos and “Borat” humiliation.

Giuliani went from cleaning up corruption to ginning up corruption, from crimebuster to criminal defendant in Georgia and unindicted “Co-Conspirator 1” in D.C. Rudy, the prosecutor who made his reputation aggressively pursuing RICO cases, is now Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, a defendant in the Georgia RICO case about the deranged plot to steal the election.

We have seen many cases of mobsters turning state’s evidence for prosecutors. But now we have the rare experience of seeing a prosecutor turn into a mobster.

After all those years spent prosecuting the Five Families in New York, Giuliani surrendered himself to the lamest mob boss there ever was: Don Trump.

We saw the coup attempt play out, but it’s startling to see the Georgia indictment refer to “this criminal organization,” “members of the enterprise,” “corruptly solicited” and “acts of racketeering activity.”

Trump, mentored by mob lawyer Roy Cohn, always loved acting like a mobster, playing the faux tough guy; intimidating his foes; swanning around like John Dillinger, Al Capone and John Gotti. He told Timothy O’Brien, the author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald,” that he admired Gotti because the mobster sat through years of trials with a stone face. “In other words, tough,” Trump said.

As Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress, Trump ran his family business “much like a mobster would do,” using “a code,” letting capos do the dirty work and expelling rats.

“Trump both fetishized mobsters and did business with them,” O’Brien said. “The way he fetishizes mobsters informs this fascination he has about Putin and Kim Jong Un. He loves ‘badass’ guys who roll like they want to roll. He sees himself the same way.”

True to his longtime practice of stiffing the help, Trump is turning a deaf ear to Giuliani’s desperate pleas, in a tincup trip to Mar-a-Lago, to pay his legal bills.

Desperate to stay relevant, Giuliani made himself Trump’s legal button man, pressing the conspiracy theories his boss wanted to hear on Ukraine and the Bidens and then on election fraud. Giuliani can take credit for helping spur both Trump impeachments.

As the great Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett wrote in his 2000 book, “Rudy: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani,” Rudy had his own family history with wiseguys. Although Giuliani’s father, Harold, taught him to hate the mob, some cousins had mob connections. Barrett wrote that Harold Giuliani had broken legs and smashed kneecaps for his brother-in-law’s loan-sharking in the ’50s. Barrett also revealed that Harold Giuliani went to Sing Sing for robbing a milkman at gunpoint.

Rudy Giuliani told the Times’ Sam Roberts his family moved to Long Island from Brooklyn to avoid his mobbedup relatives, and it was a reason he got into law enforcement.

“Rudy wants to be the mob slayer, and then he winds up doing mobsterlike things and getting in bed with a wannabe mobster,” O’Brien said, “and neither one of them can shoot straight, and they end up getting in trouble with the law. It’s a dime-store psychodrama that is both comic and grotesque at the same time.”

Dr.

SAN JUAN – El presidente de la Comisión de Agricultura de la Cámara de Representantes, Jorge Alfredo Rivera Segarra, se comprometió a iniciar una investigación para auscultar las verdaderas razones que propiciaron una ola de renuncias de agrónomos que laboraban en el Departamento de Agricultura, tras aparentes maltratos y decisiones arbitrarias del secretario de esta agencia.

“Luego de las renuncias de estos funcionarios, el propio Colegio de Agrónomos de Puerto Rico aprobó unánimente una resolución para investigar al secretario Ramón González Beiró y nuestra Comisión también está lista para iniciar una pesquisa sobre esta situación”, expresó Rivera Segarra.

El representante por el Distrito 22, indicó que las alegadas denuncias so-

bre el comportamiento del Secretario de Agricultura son “muy serias y merecen investigarse para determinar si tiene que ser referido a las autoridades pertinentes”.

“Lo que se alega sobre González Beiró es repudiable y se distancia del comportamiento que debe exhibir un funcionario del gobierno. Por eso, vamos a investigar y no nos temblará el pulso para referirlo, tanto a la Oficina de Ética, como al Departamento de Justicia”, añadió el Legislador.

“Nuestra investigación no se circunscribirá solo a estas denuncias sobre el Secretario de Agricultura, también auscultaremos las irregularidades en esta agencia y los señalamientos realizados por la Inspectora General contra la Administración para el Desarrollo Empresarial Agropecuario (ADEA). Estamos listos para que

estos funcionarios le rindan cuentas al país a través de la Comisión que

Guánica promueve sus atractivos turísticos en el Día

Puertorriqueño de Jersey City en Estados Unidos

POR EL STAR STAFF

ERSEY CITY, N.J. – El alcalde de Guánica, Ismael ‘Titi’ Rodríguez Ramos representa el domingo a su pueblo en la celebración del Día Puertorriqueño de Jersey City que celebra su aniversario número 63, que consiste en varios eventos para hermanar a los bori-

cuas de aquí y los de allá. “Para nosotros es un gran orgullo que el comité organizador haya seleccionado a Guánica este año. Es una magnífica oportunidad para promover el turismo y la cultura guaniqueña”, señaló el Alcalde en compañía de la primera dama, Mondeliz Rodríguez.

El sábado se celebró en esta ciudad del estado de Nueva Jersey el Festival Anual, y hoy es la tradicional parada. Las celebraciones ya estaban en marcha a principios de este mes con el izado de banderas en el Ayuntamiento y el Palacio de Justicia del Condado de Hudson, y una gala en el restaurante Liberty House en Liberty State Park.

El primer desfile del día puertorriqueño de la ciudad de Jersey se remonta a 1961, cuando se inició como una forma en que la comunidad puertorriqueña de la ciudad de Jersey reconocía su cultura y herencia. “Muchos guaniqueños han emigrado a los Estados Unidos, luchando por el bienestar de sus familias, pero los lazos de familia y amistad siempre se mantienen. Uno de los casos más reconocidos es el cuatrista Yomo Toro, quien es una de las figuras más reconocidas en la música puertorriqueña”, señaló el alcalde.

La entidad sin fines se lucro ‘Jersey City Puerto

Rican Heritage, Arts & Culture’ es una organización cuya visión es promover y fortalecer la diversidad histórica, cultural y artística de la comunidad puertorriqueña, buscando de manera continua a el mejoramiento de la juventud por medio de la educación. A esos fines, auspician un programa de becas a estudiantes.

Durante los eventos relacionados al Día Puertorriqueño, la delegación municipal promovió los atractivos turísticos más importantes, como el Bosque Estatal de Guánica, único bosque xerofítico subtropical Declarado Reserva Forestal y Reserva de la Biosfera Internacional, así como las antiguas instalaciones de la Guánica Central, ubicada en el barrio Ensenada, y que fuera una de las centrales más grandes y productivas de todo Puerto Rico, así como el histórico Malecón en el centro urbano.

“Muchos acá en Jersey City se asombran cuando le hablamos de la gran cantidad de playas que tenemos en Guánica, desde Playa Azul y Caña Gorda, hasta Playa Manglillo, Playa Rosada, Playa Santa, y Reserva Natural Bahía Ballena, entre muchas otras. Ciertamente hemos sido bendecidos con tantas bellezas naturales y las queremos proteger y compartir con todos los visitantes”, finalizó Rodríguez Ramos.

me honro en presidir”, enfatizó Jorge Alfredo Rivera.

Presidente de la Comisión de Agricultura se solidariza con el colegio de agrónomos e informa inicio de investigación cameral

They review movies on TikTok, but don’t call them critics

By REGGIE UGWU

Maddi Koch loves to spread the gospel about a good movie. Her favorites are little-noted thrillers with few stars but juicy concepts or dig-your-nails-into-thesofa plot twists.

On TikTok, where Koch has 3 million followers (and goes by Maddi Moo), her review of “What Happened to Monday,” about a dystopian world where seven identical sisters share a single identity, has drawn more than 24 million views. “If I were to die tomorrow, I’d watch this tonight,” she raved.

Koch, who is a senior at Virginia Tech and is sometimes paid by film companies to promote their work, said she makes videos to connect people and to spare them “the pain of arguing over finding a movie or not knowing what you’re really looking for.” (Most of her videos, including the “What Happened to Monday” review, are not sponsored.) When asked, she’ll describe herself as a “random girl” who loves movies, a “content creator,” or, sure, even an “influencer.”

But one title that she would never use might be the most obvious: “Critic.”

“I just don’t see myself in that light,” she said.

Koch, 22, is among dozens of personalities on TikTok, along with peers like Straw Hat Goofy and Cinema.Joe, who reach millions of people by reviewing, analyzing or promoting movies. Several earn enough on the platform — from posts sponsored by Hollywood studios (many have taken a break from working with them since the actors’ strike), through one of TikTok’s revenue sharing programs or both — to make their passion for film a fulltime job, a feat amid long-standing cuts to arts critic positions in newsrooms.

But the new school of film critic doesn’t see much of itself in the old one. And some tenets of the profession — such as rendering judgments or making claims that go beyond one’s personal taste — are now considered antiquated and objectionable.

“When you read a critic’s review, it almost sounds like a computer wrote it,” said Cameron Kozak, 21, who calls himself a “movie reviewer” and has 1.5 million followers. “But when you have someone on TikTok who you watch every day and you know their voice and what they like, there’s something personal that people can connect to.”

On MovieTok — as the community is known — the most successful users gene-

rally post at least once per day, with videos typically ranging between 30 and 90 seconds. Many attempt to capture the viewer’s attention within the first three seconds (“This movie’s perfect for you if you never want to sleep again,” begins Koch’s review of the hit horror film “Barbarian”) and speak directly to the camera, with screenshots from the film in the background.

Many creators, most in their 20s or early 30s, specialize within a particular niche. Joe Aragon (Cinema.Joe, 931,000 followers) is known for his breakdowns of coming attractions; Monse Gutierrez (cvnela, 1.4 million followers) and Bryan Lucious (stoney_tha_great, 387,000 followers) demystify and rank horror films; Seth Mullan-Feroze (sethsfilmreviews, 256,000 followers) leans toward art house and foreign cinema.

Unlike film departments at major metropolitan newspapers or national magazines, individuals on MovieTok generally don’t aspire to review every noteworthy film. And while most expressed admiration for traditional critics’ grasp of film history, they tended to associate the profession as a whole with false or unearned authority.

“A lot of us don’t trust critics,” said Lucious, 31. He was one of many who pointed to the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, where the scores of “Top Critics” often differ widely from those of casual users, as evidence that the critical establishment is out of touch. “They watch movies and are just looking for something to critique,” he said. “Fans watch movies looking for entertainment.”

MovieTok creators are not the first in the history of film criticism to rebel against their elders. In the 1950s, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and other writers of the journal Cahiers du Cinéma disavowed the nationalism of mainstream French criticism. In the 1960s and ’70s, New Yorker critic Pauline Kael assailed the moralism associated with Bosley Crowther, a longtime movie critic of The New York Times, and others. And movie bloggers in the 2000s charged print critics with indifference or hostility to superhero and fantasy films.

“There’s always this denigrating of those so-called ‘other’ critics as somehow elitist and old-fashioned while presenting yourself as the new avant-garde,” said Mattias Frey, head of the department of media, culture and creative industries at the City University of London and the author of “The Permanent Crisis of Film Criticism.” He defined criticism, by any name, as “evaluation grounded in reason,” citing phi-

Megan Cruz, known as jstoobs on TikTok, at her home in Los Angeles, Aug. 1, 2023. On MovieTok, reviewers can reach an audience of millions and earn tens of thousands of dollars per post. “Critics,” they say, are old news.

losopher Noël Carroll.

Juju Green, a 31-year-old former advertising copywriter, sees himself as on a “mission to combat film snobbery.” Known as Straw Hat Goofy, Green is the most prominent member of MovieTok, with 3.4 million followers and an emerging side career as a correspondent and host. His most popular video, in which he identifies Easter eggs in Pixar movies, has nearly 29 million views.

Seven years ago, Green started a moviethemed channel on YouTube — which favors longer, more produced videos — but abandoned it after the birth of his first child. On TikTok, he found that he could reach an enormous audience with relatively little effort. He said one of his first videos on the platform, a post from January 2020 about Tom Holland’s performance in “Avengers: Endgame,” received more than 200,000 views in about an hour.

“I had a feeling like I was meant to do this,” he said. Green quit his advertising job last year.

Without the salary of a news organization, MovieTok creators earn money by partnering with entertainment companies. A sponsored post promoting a film or streaming service can be worth anywhere from $1,000

to $30,000.

Green’s clients have included Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros., among others. In January, Universal paid him to create a post at an NFL game promoting the movie “M3GAN” that received nearly 7 million views — part of a marketing campaign that helped the film earn $30.2 million in the United States and Canada on opening weekend, about 30% more than box office analysts had predicted. It is impossible, of course, to make a direct link between TikTok influencers and ticket sales. But there are signs that the impact can be considerable. Sony executives have cited MovieTok campaigns as one reason for the strong performance of “Insidious: The Red Door,” which cost $16 million to make and has taken in a surprising $183 million worldwide. Being paid by the studios presents an obvious conflict of interest. Creators may be reluctant to speak negatively about the products of a company that pays them (or might). While traditional news organizations, including the Times, sell ads to movie studios, they do not allow critics, reporters or editors to accept compensation from them and generally keep editorial and business operations separate.

Carrie Rickey, who was the film critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1986 to 2011, said she refrained from working too closely with studios to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.”

“It would mar my reputation as an independent writer,” she said.

Many on MovieTok have evolved an ad hoc code of ethics — accepting payment only for trailer announcements or general recommendations, for example, rather than true reviews — but recognize accusations of bias as an occupational hazard.

“I always try to be super transparent with my viewers,” said Megan Cruz (jstoobs, 535,000 followers), noting that she is careful to identify gifts and sponsorships in her videos. “We do exist in this in-between space, and I think it’s important to clarify whenever you’re getting any kind of advantage.” (By law, paid endorsements on TikTok must be labeled, but gifts, including swag boxes and travel to red carpet events, are not always disclosed.)

Another source of income is TikTok itself. Since 2020, the platform has shared revenue with accounts that meet eligibility requirements. Gutierrez said that between sponsored posts and payouts from TikTok, she has made as much as four times the salary of her previous job as a substitute teacher.

After Maui wildfires, travelers ask: Would a trip help or hurt?

By CHRISTINE CHUNG and MADISON MALONE KIRCHER

In the throes of responding to the Maui wildfires that razed the celebrated town of Lahaina and claimed more than 110 lives, Hawaii remains mostly open for tourism, despite the misgivings of both residents and tourists.

“Do not come to Maui,” Kate Ducheneau, 29, a Lahaina resident, said in a TikTok video that has been viewed more than 2 million times since it was posted Sunday. “Cancel your trip. Now.”

“It’s just kind of a gut-wrenching feeling to see other people enjoying parts of their life that we used to welcome,” she said, adding that her home was severely damaged by fire and her family evacuated with minutes to spare.

This month’s tragedy has intensified long-simmering tension over the archipelago’s economic reliance on tourism, a dependency that sparked anti-tourism protests in recent years and brought the state to its knees during the pandemic. Many residents, particularly in Maui, are furious over the uncomfortable, contradictory scenario of visitors frolicking in the state’s lush forests or sunbathing on white-sand beaches while they grieve the immense loss of life, home and culture. Others believe that tourism, while particularly painful now, is vital.

“People forget real quick right now, how many local businesses shut down during COVID,” said Daniel Kalahiki, who operates a food truck in Wailuku on Maui, east of Lahaina. The island needs to heal, and the disaster areas are far from recovered, he said, but the tourist-go-home messaging is irresponsible and harmful.

“No matter what, the rest of Maui has to keep going on,” said Kalahiki, 52. “The island has already been shot in the chest. Are you going to stab us in the heart also?”

The devastating loss of life and these conflicting messages are causing travelers to grapple over the propriety of visiting Maui, or anywhere in Hawaii, in the near future, prompting them to ask if their dollars would help or their presence would hamper recovery efforts.

“If we’re in a Vrbo, is that going to take away from a potential person who’s been displaced?” said Stephanie Crow, an Oklahoman traveling to Maui this fall for her wedding.

Official guidance from the Hawaiian government has shifted in the past week, first discouraging travelers from visiting the entire island of Maui, and now from West Maui for the rest of the month. Travel to the other islands, including touristdraws Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island, remains unaffected.

State tourism groups say that travel is encouraged to support Hawaii’s recovery and to prevent it from plunging into a deeper crisis.

“Tourism is Hawaii’s major economic driver, and we don’t want to compound a horrific natural disaster of the fires

with a secondary economic disaster,” said Ilihia Gionson, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Vital to the economy

For those in the tourism industry, the year was off to a promising start. Visitor spending through June was $10.78 billion, a 17% increase compared to the same period last year, according to Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The pandemic’s woes were in the past.

But tension over growing tourist numbers was not. Hawaii has for decades been one of the top destinations for American and international visitors and has struggled to balance tourism with residents’ demands to acknowledge and protect the islands’ traditional culture. Visitor-reliant countries like Jamaica, Thailand and Mexico navigate similar existential issues.

A year ago, John De Fries, the first Native Hawaiian to lead the Tourism Authority, told The New York Times that “local residents have a responsibility to host visitors in a way that is appropriate. Conversely, visitors have a responsibility to be aware that their destination is someone’s home, someone’s neighborhood, someone’s community.”

In the tourism agency’s most recent resident sentiment survey, issued in July, 67% of 1,960 respondents across four islands expressed “favorable” views of tourism in the state. But the same percentage agreed with the assertion: “This island is being run for tourists at the expense of local people.”

In the immediate days after the fires, frustration over visitors in Maui erupted.

“People are preying on trauma,” wrote Kailee Soong, a spiritual mentor who lives on Maui in Waikapu, on a TikTok post.

Tourists are still in stores even though resources are lim-

ited, said Soong, 33, in the video. “They are in the way right now as people mourn the loss of their loved ones, of the places that burned down, of the history that was completely erased.”

“Maui is not the place to have your vacation right now,” said Oahu-born actor Jason Momoa in an Instagram Story. He posted an infographic that read “stop traveling to Maui” and included guidance on how to make donations. There was fierce outcry after a Mauibased snorkeling company conducted a charity tour after the wildfires, leading the company to issue an apology and suspend operations.

The industry supplies approximately 200,000 jobs across the islands, and last year, a little over 9 million visitors spent $19.29 billion, according to the Tourism Authority. About 3 million visitors went to Maui, where the “visitor industry” accounts for 80% of every dollar generated on the island, the Maui Economic Development Board said.

“Just like everybody, we need to work. We just got over COVID. Things are just starting to get better.

To think that everything might shut down again,” said Reyna Ochoa, a 46-year-old who lives in Haiku in North Maui and works several jobs outside of the tourism industry. “The islands need the tourism and the income to rebuild.”

In Wailuku, Kalahiki said that his food truck sales have dropped by half. Streets usually “popping” with tourists have been empty, he said, and there have been days when his wife, who has a beach apparel store in town, hasn’t sold a single item.

Travelers search for clarity

Then there are the travelers who have saved up for their first vacations in years, many with plans to reunite with family or to celebrate weddings and honeymoons. Many want to be respectful and are searching for clarity on what that looks like, deluging online forums to ask local residents where and when it is acceptable to visit.

Early next month, Danett Williams, 48, will spend her honeymoon on the Big Island, where fires burned in North and South Kohala.

For days, she and her fiance went back and forth about canceling their trip, considering a road trip from their home in San Francisco instead. Ultimately, they decided their tourism dollars were helpful, as long as they stayed clear of other islands and did not take up necessary space or resources away from displaced residents, she said.

Others, like Crow, from Oklahoma, say that vendors like her wedding planner are asking her to keep their trip. In early September, Crow, 47, and her fiance plan to get married on a beach in Kihei, about 20 miles south of Lahaina. It was supposed to be a wedding in a “happy, blissful paradise” setting, she said.

“These are first-world problems I’m dealing with. They’ve lost life, homes, income. They’ve lost everything,” Crow said.

The Lahaina Shores Beach Resort stands damaged beyond buildings destroyed by wildfires in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii on Aug. 10, 2023.

The San Juan Daily Star Monday,

LEGAL NOTICE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

WILMINGTON SAVINGS

FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA

TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2015-PR1 TRUST, MORTGAGE BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2015-PR1

Plaintiff Vs. EDWARD SANTOS

MALDONADO A/K/A

EDUARD SANTOS

MALDONADO; LUZ

SELENIA TORRES

SANTOS A/K/A LUZ

S. TORRES SANTOS AND THEIR CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP

Defendants

Civil Núm.: 19-cv-1747. (ADC).

Re: FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE - IN REM. NOTICE OF SALE.

TO: EDWARD SANTOS

MALDONADO A/K/A

EDUARD SANTOS

MALDONADO; LUZ

SELENIA TORRES

SANTOS A/K/A LUZ S. TORRES SANTOS AND THEIR CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP, ANY OTHER PARTY WITH INTEREST OVER THE PROPERTY MENTIONED BELOW; GENERAL PUBLIC.

WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the sum of $99,302.18 in principal plus interest at rate of 3.8750 % per annum since May 1, 2018. Such interest will continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full. In addition, to pay the Plaintiff the late charges amounting to 5.000% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment was due and all of the advances made pursuant to the provisions and/or dispositions of the Mortgage Note and the Mortgage Deed. An amount equivalent to 10% of the original principal balance, or $9,600.00 as liquidated amount is due to cover costs, expenses and attorney’s fees. 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. WHE-

REAS: 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 United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 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 (as described in the Property Registry in Spanish language):

URBANA: Solar radicado en el barrio Pájaros del municipio de Puerto Rico, marcado en el plano de inscripción con el número 2 del bloque “3CC” de la Urbanización Colinas de Bayoan, con una cabida de 377.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes, por el Norte, con la calle #41, en distancia de 13.00 metros; al Sur, con los lotes #6 y 8, en distancia de 13.00 metros; al Este, con el lote #3 en distancia de 29.00 metros y al Oeste, con el lote #1 en distancia de 29.00 metros. En este solar enclava una casa. Afecta a servidumbre de 5 pies de ancho a lo largo de su colindancia Norte a favor de Puerto Rico Telephone Company. Inscrita al folio 211 del tomo 1526 de Bayamón Sur, Finca #67,129, Registro de Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección I. The property is recorded at page 211 of Bayamon South, volume 1526, property number 67129 on Puerto Rico Property Registry at Bayamon, Section I. The mortgage is recorded at page 117 of volume 1755 of Bayamon South, 3rd inscription, property #67129 of the Property Registry of Property of Bayamon. Section I. The modification is recorded of Bayamon South volume Karibe, property #67129, fourth inscription in the Property Registry of Bayamon, Section I. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: None. 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 12TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER OF 2023, AT:

9:30 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $96,000.00. 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 19TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER OF 2023, AT: 9:30 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $64,000.00, 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 26TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER OF 2023, AT: 9:30 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $48,000.00, 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 Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency 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. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the 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 27th day of June of 2023. Pedro A. Vélez-Baerga, Special Master, specialmasterpr@gmail.com, 787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO. LIME

HOMES, LTD.

Plaintiff, vs. DAVID RAMOS PAGAN

Defendants

Civil No. 14-1417 (BJM). MATTER: COLLECTION OF MONIES. NOTICE OF SALE.

TO: DAVID RAMOS PAGAN; AND TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC:

WHEREAS: On May 21, 2015, Default Judgment in Collection of Monies was entered and granted in favor of Plaintiff to recover from defendants the following sums: The principal sum of $270,853.04, bearing an annual interest rate of 2.50% on payments 1-60, and at 3.50% per annum on payments 61-72; 4.5% per annum on payments 73-84, and 4.75% per annum on payments 85-480, from October 1, 2013 until the present and until fully paid, plus 10% of the original principal amount equivalent to $27,500.00, to cover costs, expenses and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation.

That on June 27th, 2023, the Court entered order granting execution of the attachment affecting the property, with writ of execution of attachment issued on same day. The order of attachment shall cover the amount of the Default Judgment above cited and awarded to Plaintiff. 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 Chard6n Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property described in Spanish: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZON-

TAL: URBANA: Apartamento de forma irregular identificado con el Número A Doscientos Tres (A-203), localizado en el segundo piso del Edificio A del Condominio Haudimar Beach Apartments, ubicado en el Barrio Bajuras del término munici-

pal de Isabela, Puerto Rico. EI apartamento consta de un nivel y son sus colindancias las siguientes: Por el Norte: Con elemento exterior en una distancia de veintidós pies con diez pulgadas (22’ 10”); Por el Sur: Con elemento exterior y área común en una distancia de veintidós pies con diez pulgadas (22’ -10” ); Por el ESTE: Con apartamento A Doscientos Cuatro (A-204) en una distancia de treinta y seis pies con seis pulgadas (36’ -6” ) y área común en una distancia de quince pies diez pulgadas (15’ -10’’) para un total de cincuenta y dos pies con cuatro pulgadas (52’ -4”); Por el OESTE: con el apartamento A Doscientos Dos (A-202) en una distancia de cincuenta y dos pies con cuatro pulgadas (52’ -4’’) Consta el mismo de dos (2) habitaciones con sus respectivos guardarropas, una sala comedor, cocina, dos (2) baños, lavandería y balcón. Los baños están equipados con bañeras, lavamanos Y servicio sanitario. EI área total del apartamento es de mil seis punto mil trescientos cinco pies cuadrados (1, 006.1305 p. c.), equivalentes a noventa y tres punto cuatro mil setecientos veinticinco metros cuadrados (93.4725 m.c.). EI apartamento tiene una puerta de entrada, por su lado Sur que comunica al área común donde se encuentra la escalera. Le corresponde como elemento de uso común limitado dos (2 ) espacios de estacionamiento identificados ambos con el número y letra A guión Doscientos Tres (A-203). Le corresponde a este apartamento en los elementos communes generales del inmueble una participación del punto cero cero cinco uno uno cero por çiento ( .005110 % ). The property # 29,478 is recorded at Page KARIBE volume of Isabela, Property Registry of Puerto Rico, lot number 12,712 Section of Aguadilla. Property address: Cond. Haudimar, Apartment A-203, Isabela, P.R. 00662. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens described in Spanish: Senior Liens: • NONE • Junior 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/sold 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. Because this is a case of money collection, it does not have a minimum rate or bid.

The sale will take place to satisfy the amounts owed per the Default Judgment entered on May 21, 2015. The AUCTION will take place on the 11th day of September of 2023, at: 9:15 am, at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150— Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chard6n Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, whose sale at public auction was ordered by the Order of Execution of June 25, 2023, Judgment dated May 21, 2015. 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. WHEREAS: 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, 22nd day of July of 2023. By: Pedro A. Vélez Baerga, Special Master 787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE GUAYAMA

APEX BANK

Parte Demandante V.

OBED DAVID ALVARADO

BURGOS, INGRID ARITZA

BERRIOS MARTINEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: GM2021CV00461. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.

LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. AVISO DE PUBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de GUAYAMA, hago saber a la parte demandada, OBED ALVARADO BURGOS, INGRID ARITZA BERRIOS MARTINEZ y Ia SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES compuesta por ambos y al PUBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 16 de mayo de 2023, por Ia Secretarla del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, la siguiente propiedad con dirección física: Apt. 622, Cond. El Legado Golf Resort Guayama PR 00785 y que se describe como sigue: HORIZONTAL PROPERTY: El Legado Condominium Regime 1. Apartment 622. Square shaped 1 bedroom unit in the El Legado Condominium Regime 1, located at Jobos Ward of the Municipality of Guayama with a total area of 724.6181 square feet, equivalent to 67.3192 square meters, distributed in 639.2014 square feet, equivalent to 59.3838 square meters of enclosed area, and 85.4167 square feet, equivalent to 7.93547 square meters of balcony. The main entrance located on the South West side of the apartment leading to the exterior common hallway. This apartment is located in Building 6 of the Regime, occupies part of the second floor of the building and has been assigned a share of .33% in the common elements of the regime. The maximum length of this unit is 8.89 meters and the maximum width is 8.43 meters. Its boundaries are by the NORTH, in a distance of 8.89 meters with the common green areas; by the SOUTH, in a distance of 5.59 meters with the common wall that separates it from apartment 621 and in a distance of 3.30 meters with the common lobby area; by the EAST, in a distance of 6.45 meters with the common wall that separates it from apartment 621 and in a distance of 1.90 meters with green common areas; by the WEST, in a distance of 8.43 meters with the common wall which separates it from apartment 623. This unit contains a foyer, a living- dining area, kitchen, bedroom with closet, a bathroom, a hall, a laundry closet and a

covered balcony. Finca 19698, inscrita al folio 91 del tomo 493 de Guayama, Registro de la Propiedad de Guayama. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) HIPOTECA constituida por Obed David Alvarado Burgos y su esposa Ingrid Aritza Berrios Martinez en garantía de pagaré aff #2475 a favor de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma de $180,000.00 con intereses al 5 5/8% anual y vencimiento 1 de abril de 2034. Constituida por Ia Escritura 68 otorgada en Caguas el 17 de marzo de 2004 ante el notario José Orlando Mercado Gely, e inscrita al folio 91 del tomo 493 de Guayama, finca 19698, inscripción 2. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es Ia que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada Ia subasta para con el importe de Ia misma satisfacer la sentencia dictada el 23 de marzo de 2023, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la cantidad ascendiente a $136,697.83 de principal, más, calculado hasta el 15 de septiembre de 2022 con intereses acumulados de $39,639.10, que continuarán acumulándose al 5.625% anual hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más $725.34 a cargos por demora, más cargos adicionales de $459.68, mas $4,332.86 de escrow, más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, según pactado en Ia Escritura de Hipoteca, más otro gastos efectuados por la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso y para otros adelantos. La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 12 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de GUAYAMA, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma, Ia cantidad de $180,000.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 19 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $120,000.00. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el dIa 26 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, Ia mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para Ia primera subasta, o sea, $90,000.00. El Alguacil

ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, 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 de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores conocidos y desconocidos que tengan inscritos, no inscritos, presentados y/o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas 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. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 16 de agosto de 2023. EDGARDO ELIAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON

SALA SUPERIOR. LEGAL NOTICE

Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Y SUN

WEST MORTGAGE

COMPANY, INC. COMO

AGENTE DE SERVICIO

Demandante Vs SUCESIÓN DE HÉCTOR

TOMÁS MATÍAS VÉLEZ

COMPUESTA POR SU

VIUDA MYRTA DALIA

VÁZQUEZ ROMÁN

T/C/C MIRTA DALIA

VÁZQUEZ ROMÁN, POR SÍ; SUS HEREDEROS

CONOCIDOS JOLIMALIS

MATÍAS T/C/C JOHMALIS

MATÍAS VÁZQUEZ, JUAN

MATÍAS VÁZQUEZ, JORGE MATÍAS

VÁZQUEZ, JOMYRVA

MATÍAS VÁZQUEZ, HÉCTOR MATÍAS LEÓN, RALPHY MATÍAS LEÓN

T/C/C RALPHI MATÍAS

LEÓN Y JUDITH MATÍAS

LEÓN; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL

COMO HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS Y/O

PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandado

Civil Núm.: PO2021CV00791.

Salón: 406. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

SUCESIÓN DE HÉCTOR

TOMÁS MATÍAS

VÉLEZ COMPUESTA

POR FULANO DE TAL

Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS Y/O

PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN

BARRIO CANAS

SECTOR QUEBRADA, PARCELA 10

PONCE PR 00732

HC-1 BOX 10112

PEÑUELAS PR 00624-9728

P/C LCDO. JUAN C.

FORTUÑO FAS

PO BOX 3908

GUAYNABO, PR 00970

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 18 de octubre de 2022, 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 representado 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 16 de agosto de 2023. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 16 de agosto de 2023. CARMEN G TIRU QUIÑONES, Secretario(a) Regional. f/EREINA AGRONT LEON, Secretaria(a) Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMON.

Sucesión de Juan Enrique Izquierdo Cruz compuesta por: Ornar Lorenzo Izquierdo Frau, Juan Enrique Izquierdo Frau, Joanes Izquierdo Núñez Demandante vs. Sucesión Juan Enrique Izquierdo Cruz compuesta por: Alberto Izquierdo Andújar

Demandado CIVIL NUM.: BY2023CV04392.

SALA: 502. SOBRE: DIVISIÓN DE BIENES HEREDITARIOS.

EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE NORTEAMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. ss.

A: ALBERTO

IZQUIERDO ANDUJAR

4019 Woodside Drive

Apt. N Coral Spring Florida, Estados Unidos 33065

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a:

LCDA. LORRAINE T. MORALES CORREA Urb. Extensión Reparto Caguax Edificio Ingeprom Suite #103 99 calle 21 Caguas Puerto Rico 00725 Teléfono. (787) 703-1208 abogada de la parte demandante, con copia de la contestación a la Demanda de DIVISION DE BIENES HEREDITARIOS que ha sido presentada por la parte demandante, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto, por orden del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón.

Se le apercibe que, si dejare de hacerlo, se continuará con los procesos y se dictará sentencia y se concederá el remedio solicitado por la parte peticionaria. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal de Primera Bayamon, a 15 de agosto de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Sec Regional. Carmen M. Pintado, Sec. Auxiliar del TribunaI I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MAYAGUEZ. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO DEMANDANTE vs. SUCESION DE JOSE ANGEL LUCIANO ASENCIO T/C/C JOSE LUCIANO ASENCIO COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDA OBDULIA

GONZALEZ, POR SÍ; SUCESION DE JOSE

ANTONIO LUCIANO

GONZALEZ COMPUESTA

POR SU HEREDERA

CONOCIDA OBDULIA

GONZALEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES

DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NÚM.: MZ2023CV01031. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DELOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

A: SUCESION DE JOSE

ANGEL LUCIANO ASENCIO T/C/C JOSE

LUCIANO ASENCIO COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDA OBDULIA GONZALEZ, POR SÍ; SUCESION DE JOSE ANTONIO LUCIANO GONZALEZ COMPUESTA POR SU HEREDERA CONOCIDA OBDULIA GONZALEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERESEN DICHAS SUCESIONES

-BARRIO LLANOS TUNA, LOTE 5, CARR. 101, KM. 13, CABO ROJO, PR 00623;

-3 GREENCREST DR., MIDDLETOWN, NY 109411341, y;

-Obdulia González, 75 SeniorWay, Apt. 30,

Middletown, NY 10940.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento.

Usted 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. 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, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días, en tomo a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. También se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que luego del transcurso del término de treinta (30) días antes señalado, contados a partir de la fecha de publicación de este edicto, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del(los) causante(s) y, por consiguiente, responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 1,578 del Nuevo Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11,021. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS

RUA NUM.: 11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970

TEL: 787- 751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155

E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 14 de agosto de 2023. LIC NORMA G SANTANA IRIZARRY, Sec Regional II. Nilda Torres Acevedo, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal I

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ. DAMARIS CANCEL ROSAS

DEMANDANTE VS YAMIL GONZALEZ COLLAZO

DEMANDADA

CIVIL NUM: MZ2023RF00441.

SOBRE: CUSTODIA Y PATRIA

POTESTAD. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS

A: YAMIL GONZÁLEZ COLLAZO

11805 LARK SON LOOP RIVERVIEW, FL 33579 o ea la parte demandada arriba mencionada.

POR LA PRESENTE: Se le notifica a usted, Sr. Yamil González Collazo, que la parte demandante de epígrafe ha radicado en esta Secretaría una Demanda de Custodia que aquí se menciona. 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), al cual puede acceder utilizado 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 rebeldia en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitando en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción lo entiende procedente.

Nombre del Abogado: LOURDES M. ORTIZ PAGAN RUA: 9103

Dirección: PO Box 593, Cabo Rojo, PR 00623 Tél: (787) 831-1984/ Fax (787)833-5118

Correo electrónico: lourdesm_ ortizpagan@hotmail.com

EXPEDIDO POR ORDEN DEL TRIBUNAL, en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico hoy 3 de agosto de 2023. LIC. NORMA G SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA.

NILDA L IRIZARRY RODRIGUEZ, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE SAN SEBASTIÁN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO

AGENTE DE ACE ONE

FUNDING, LLC

Parte Demandante Vs. ORLANDO MATOS VALE

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: MO2022CV00113.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: ORLANDO MATOS VALE - BO VOLADORAS

CARR 125 KM 10.4 MOCA, PUERTO RICO, 00676

/ PB BOX 1915 MOCA,

PUERTO RICO 006761915.

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, Lcdo. José Aguilar Vélez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección jose.aguilar@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, hoy día 10 de julio de 2023. En San Sebastián, Puerto Rico el 10 de julio de 2023. SARAHÍ REYES PÉREZ, SECRETARIA. LAURA LUGO CRESPO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. YOHMAYRA

MEDINA REYES

Demandado Civil Núm.: BY2022CV06635. Salón: 403. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: YOHMAYRA MEDINA

REYES - URB. LOMAS VERDES R11 CALLE CLAVEL, BAYAMÓN, PR 00956-3217.

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 a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 13 de junio de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 13 de junio de 2023.

LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. KATHERINE SANTIAGO RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. MISAEL RIVERA SÁNCHEZ Demandado Civil Núm.: BY2023CV00370. Salón: 403. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: MISAEL RIVERA

SÁNCHEZ - CARR 829 BO. BUENA VISTA, BAYAMÓN, PR 00957 / RR BOX 2726, BAYAMÓN, PR 00957. 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 secretaria 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 a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EX-

TENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 13 día de junio de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 13 de junio de 2023.

LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIO-

NAL. KATHERINE SANTIAGO

RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA

AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYA-

GÜEZ

ORIENTAL BANK

Parte Demandante V.

MARIA ESTHER

CRUZ GALARZA Y LA SUCESIÓN DE MIGUEL ANTONIO SANABRIA

MOLINA COMPUESTA POR YOLANDA

SANABRIA, MIGUEL

ANTONIO SANABRIA CRUZ, LILLIAN SANABRIA CRUZ, ROBERTO ENRIQUE

SANABRIA CRUZ, LVONNE SANABRIA CRUZ, IVETTE SANABRIA CRUZ, ALBERTO

SANABRIA CRUZ, FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: MZ2019CV02027.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.

LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO

LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de MAYAGÜEZ, hago saber a la parte demandada, MARIA ESTHER CRUZ

GALARZA, LA SUCESION DE MIGUEL ANTONIO SANABRIA MOLINA compuesta por YOLANDA SANABRIA, MIGUEL ANTONIO SANABRIA CRUZ, LILLIAN SANABRIA CRUZ, ROBERTO ENRIQUE SANABRIA CRUZ, IVONNE SANABRIA CRUZ, IVETTE SANABRIA CRUZ, ALBERTO SANABRIA CRUZ, FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 20 de abri de 2023, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, la siguiente propiedad con dirección física: Calle G. Pales Matos #833, Urbanización Guanajibo Homes, Mayagüez, PR 00682-1163 y que se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar número 17 del bloque E de la Urbanización Guanajibo Homes Corporation, radicada en el Barrio Guanajibo del término municipal de Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 310.50 metros cuadrados. Colindando por el NOROESTE y SURESTE, en 13.50 metros por cada lado respectivamente, con la calle ‘B’ y solar número 22 de dicho bloque y por el NORESTE y SUROESTE, en 23.00 metros, por cada lado respectivamente con solares 16 y 18 de dicho bloque. Sobre este solar enclava una casa de concreto reforzado de una sola planta para una familia. Finca 13311 inscrita al folio 139 del tomo 1508 del Registro de la Propiedad, Mayagüez. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes:

(i) HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor de Doral Bank o a su orden, con un valor de $107,000.00 con intereses a razón del 5 3/8% anual con y vencimiento al 1 de noviembre de 2035. Constituida por la Escritura 89 otorgada en Mayagüez el 10 de octubre del 2005 ante notario Elizabeth Pabón Quiñones. Inscrita en virtud de la Ley 216 para Agilizar el Registro de la Propiedad 2010, inscripción 12. (ii) EMBARGO FEDERAL:

Contra Wilson Velázquez y M. Sanabria por $3,888.67, notificación 271300517, anotado al asiento 2017-008584FED, anotado el 29 de agosto de 2017 al sistema Karibe. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dictada el 1 de marzo de 2023, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la cantidad ascendiente a $81,437.18 de principal, más intereses acumulados que

continuarán acumulándose al 5. 3/8% anual hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más cargos por demora, más $10,700.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, según pactado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario.

La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 3 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de MAYAGÜEZ, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma, la cantidad de $107,000.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el 10 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $71,333.33. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 17 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $53,500.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad para ejecutar será adquirida libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. 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 cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con

posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En MAYAGÜEZ, Puerto Rico, hoy 10 de julio de 2023. JOSÉ M. CRESPO NAZARIO, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. DORAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION, FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) COMO SÍNDICO DE DORAL BANK, DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION T/C/C DORAL MORTGAGE, LLC, MORTGAGE PLUS EQUITY & LOAN CORPORATION, CONSTANCIA GARCÍA MORALES, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: CG2023CV01765.

(802). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN

DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: MORTGAGE PLUS EQUITY & LOAN CORPORATION A LAS ÚLTIMAS DIRECCIONES CONOCIDAS: 255 AVE PONCE DE LEON STE 1408, SAN JUAN, PR 00917, 4 WEYANT DR., CEDARHURST, NY 11516-2515, 60 E 42ND ST, NEW YORK, NY 10165-0006, 100 QUENTIN ROOSEVELT BLVD STE 205, GARDEN CITY, NY 11530-4843, 6851 JERICHO TPKE STE 246, SYOSSET, NY 11791-4494, 45 CROSSWAYS PARK DR W, WOODBURY, NY 11797-2002. CONSTANCIA GARCÍA MORALES

A LAS SIGUIENTES DIRECCIONES: URB. EL CID, D3A CALLE 3, JUNCOS, PR 00777, PO BOX 4040, JUNCOS, PR 00777-7040 Y HC 2 BOX 3905, MAUNABO, PR 00707-9678.

FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ.

Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre cancelación de pagaré extraviado por la vía judicial. El 6 de febrero de 1997, Constancia García Morales, soltera, constituyó una hipoteca en San Juan, Puerto Rico, conforme a la Escritura núm. 33, autorizada por la notario Alexandra M Serracante Cadilla en garantía de un pagaré suscrito bajo el testimonio núm. 740 por la suma de $30,000.00 a favor de Doral Mortgage Corporation, o a su orden, con intereses 10.50% anual y vencedero el 1ro de febrero de 2012, sobre la siguiente propiedad: RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno compuesto de trescientos setenta y ocho metros cuadrados, marcado con el D-tres A de la Urbanización Residencial El Cid, radicado en el Barrio Ceiba Sur de Juncos, Puerto Rico. En lindes: por el NORTE, con el solar D-Dos-A, en distancia de veintidós puntos ochenta y siete metros lineales; por el SUR, con el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y con una distancia de quince metros cincuenta metros lineales; por el ESTE, con la calle número 3, en una distancia de quince punto treinta metros

lineales y por el OESTE, con La Autoridad de Carreteras en una distancia de diecisiete punto cuarenta y cinco y en punto cero nueve metros lineales. Enclava en dicho solar una casa de hormigón y bloques dedicada a vivienda. Inscrita al folio 120 del tomo 153 de Juncos, Finca 5876, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 123 del tomo 153 de Juncos, Finca 5876, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. Inscripción segunda. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo 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. Se le advierte que, si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la parte demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 8 de agosto de 2023, en Caguas, Puerto Rico. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN SEBASTIÁN COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DE RINCÓN (ANTES COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DE AGUADA)

Parte Demandante Vs. CARLOS GONZÁLEZ RÍOS (SOCIO NÚM. 32047877)

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: SS2023CV00366.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO.

A: CARLOS GONZÁLEZ RÍOS.

Se le apercibe que la parte demandante por mediación del Lcdo. José F. Giraud Mejías, P.O. Box 277, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681, Tel. 787-2650334, ha radicado la acción de

epígrafe en su contra. Copia de la demanda, emplazamientos y del presente edicto le ha sido enviado por correo a la última dirección conocida. Pueden ustedes obtener mayor información sobre el asunto revisando los autos en el Tribunal. Se le apercibe que tiene usted un término de treinta (30) días para radicar contestación a dicha demanda de cobro de dinero y/o cualquier escrito que estime usted conveniente 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 de epígrafe, pero que de no radicarse escrito alguno ante el Tribunal dentro de dicho término el Tribunal procederá a ventilar el procedimiento sin más citarle ni oírle. Dada en SAN SEBASTIAN, Puerto Rico, hoy 09 de agosto de 2023. SARAHÍ REYES PÉREZ, SECRETARIA GENERAL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN SEBASTIÁN. IVELISSE ROBLES MATHEWS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE MASSACHUSETTS

MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Demandante V. LA SUCESIÓN DE IVELISSE PÉREZ ÁLVAREZ COMPUESTA

VANESSA CORNIER PÉREZ; JEANESSA

CORNIER PÉREZ:

FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESIÓN; LA

SUCESIÓN DE CRUZ

CORNIER FIGUEROA

COMPUESTA VANESSA

CORNIER PÉREZ; JEANESSA CORNIER

PÉREZ: MENGANO DE TAL Y MENGANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS CON INTERÉS EN LA

SUCESIÓN: MIGDALIA

PÉREZ ÁLVAREZ (NUEVO

TITULAR); CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados

Civil Núm.: PO2023CV01754.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.

A: FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, MENGANO DE TAL Y MENGANA DE TAL, COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

CON INTERÉS EN LAS SUCESIONES DE IVELISSE PÉREZ ÁLVAREZ Y CRUZ CORNIER FIGUEROA. Queden emplazados y notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra. Conforme al caso de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria vs. Latinoamericana de Exportación, Inc., 164 DPR 689 (2005) y el Artículo 1578 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §11021, se le requiere a la Sucesión de Ivelisse Pérez Álvarez y la Sucesión de Cruz Cornier Figueroa que en el término de treinta (30) días, haga Declaración aceptando o repudiando la herencia del causante. Se les apercibe que de no expresar su intención de aceptar o repudiar la herencia dentro dcl término provisto, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto y deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), el cual podrá 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, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Los abogados de la parte demandante son:

y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 9 de agosto de 2023. CARMEN

G. TIRÚ QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARIELY FÉLIX RIVERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO

COMMOLOCO INC. (PR)

Demandante V. LA SUCESION DE ALEJANDRINA SANTOS OCASIO COMPUESTA

POR CHRISTOPHER

MARTÍNEZ GÓMEZ, MARTIZA MARTÍNEZ SANTOS, MILAGROS PÉREZ SANTOS, MENGANO DE TAL Y MENGANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESIÓN; LA SUCESIÓ DE ISMAEL PÉREZ RIVERA COMPUESTA POR WILLY PÉREZ, MILAGROS PÉREZ

SANTOS, FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados

Civil Núm.: FA2022CV00746.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.

A: LA SUCESIÓN DE ALEJANDRINA SANTOS

OCASIO COMPUESTA

POR CHRISTOPHER

MARTÍNEZ GÓMEZ, MARTIZA MARTÍNEZ

SANTOS, MILAGROS

PÉREZ SANTOS, MENGANO DE TAL Y

MENGANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS CON INTERÉES EN LA SUCESIÓN; LA

SUCESIÓN DE ISMAEL

PÉREZ RIVERA

COMPUESTA POR WILLY

PEREZ, MILAGROS

PÉREZ SANTOS, FULANO DE TAL Y

FULANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESIÓN.

El Artículo 1578 del Código Civil de 2020, dispone: “Transcurridos treinta (30) días desde que se haya producido la delación, cualquier persona interesada puede solicitar al tribunal que le señale al llamado un plazo, para que manifieste si acepta la herencia o si la repudia. Este plazo no excederá de treinta (30) días. El tribunal apercibirá al llamado de que, si transcurrido el plazo señalado no ha manifestado su voluntad de aceptar la herencia o de repudiarla, se dará por aceptada.” Por la presente el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, conforme al Art. 1578, supra, y el caso Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria vs. Latinoamericana de Exportación, Inc., 164 DPR 689 (2005), les ordena que el término de treinta (30) días partir de la publicación del presente edicto y deberá hacer declaración aceptado o repudiando la herencia de los causantes, ALEJANDRINA SANTOS OCASTO e ISMAEL PEREZ RIVERA, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), el cual podrá acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr. Se les apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días en torno a Ia aceptación o repudiación de herencia, Ia misma se tendrá por aceptada. Los abogados de la parte demandante son:

Lcdo. Andrés Sáez Marrero

T.S.P.R. Nm. 18074

TROMBERG, MORRIS & POULIN, LLC

1541 Calle J. Ponce de León San Juan, PR 00926

Tel. 877-338-4101 /

Fax: 561-338-4077 prservice@tmppllc.com / asaez@tmppllc.com

Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 11 de agosto de 2023. WANDA I.

SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA GENERAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYA-

GUEZ SALA SUPERIOR.

ORIENTAL BANK

DEMANDANTE VS.

LAS SUCESIONES DE RICARDA ORTIZ

PESANTE T/C/C

RICARDA ORTIZ Y

RUPERTO VELEZ ORTIZ COMPUESTA

POR RUPERTO VELEZ; FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL; MENGANO Y MENGANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS DE LAS SUCESIONES; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NUM.: MZ2022CV01030.

SALA: 207. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA) . EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUNCIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el 5 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: URB. ANA MARIA, B-10 CALLE 5, CABO ROJO, PUERTO RIOC 00623 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Ana María, situada en el Barrio Pueblo del término municipal de Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, que se describe en el Plano de Inscripción de la Urbanización con el número, área, y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: número del solar: diez del Bloque B. Area del solar: doscientos veintisiete metros cuadrados con treinta y seis centímetros cuadrados (227.36 m.c.). En lindes por el NORTE, veinticuatro metros cincuenta centímetros, con el solar número once; por el SUR, en veinticuatro metros cincuenta centímetros con el solar número 9; por el ESTE, en nueve metros veintiocho centímetros con solares treinta y treinta y uno; por el OESTE, en nueve metros veintiocho centímetros con la Calle número cinco. En este solar enclava una casa de concreto. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 260 del Tomo 331 de Cabo Rojo, finca número 11,148, en el Registro de la Propiedad de San Germán. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $70,919.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las ofici-

nas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 12 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $47,279.33. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 19 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $35,459.50. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura de hipoteca número 387 otorgada en Isabela, Puerto Rico, el día 31 de diciembre de 2015, ante el Notario Carlos Martínez Olmo, según la inscripción Octava (8va), en el Registro de la Propiedad de San German. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $62,877.81 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de diciembre de 2021, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.00% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte co-demandada, La Sucesión de Ricarda Ortiz Pesante t/c/c Ricarda Ortiz y Ruperto Vélez Ortiz, 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, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $7,091.90. Además, la parte co-demandada, La Sucesión de Ricarda Ortiz Pesante t/c/c Ricarda Ortiz y Ruperto Vélez Ortiz se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $7,091.90 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $7,091.90 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley. 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. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se enten-

derá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, 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 de 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. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores desconocidos, no inscritos o presentados que 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. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, hoy día 18 de agosto de 2023. Jose M Crespo Nazario, Alguacil De Subastas, Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial De Mayagüez, Sala Superior.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE

FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. MADELINE M. TORRES MORALES

Demandado

Civil Núm.: MZ2022CV01961.

402. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: MADELINE M. TORRES MORALES - VILLA CENTROAMERICANA

2010, CARR 64, APT 1111, MAYAGÜEZ, PR 00682.

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, Lcda. Natalie Bonaparte cuyas direcciones: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección natalie. bonaparte@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, hoy día 11 de julio de 2023. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico el 11 de julio de 2023. LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. JOSSIE BEBE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE.

CONSEJO DE TÍTULARES CONDOMINIO EL SEÑORIAL PLAZA

Demandantes Vs. BENEDICTO BONILLA y OTROS.

Demandados

CIVIL NÚM.: PO2022CV03458. SALA: 605. SOBRE: COIJRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS

UNIDOS DE NORTEAMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERfO RICO. ss

A: Jorge Ramos Torres

Ext. Punto Oro #4834

C. Merced, Ponce PR 00728

Sucesión Harry Ramirez

Maldonado

1326 C. Salud Apt. 411

Ponce, PR 00717

Jimmy Soto Ledesma

P.O. Box 32237

Ponce, PR 00732

Roberto González

P.O. Box 7214

Ponce, PR 00732

René Canler

P.O. Box 7789

Ponce, PR 00732- 7789

Astrid Rodríguez Serra

5917 Kisssena BLVD

Flushing, NY 11355

Teodoro Colón Box52

Condominio Primavera

Héctor Reyes

#6267 Cond. Saint Tropez Apt. 5N

Ave. Isla Verde Carolina, PR 00979

Polauris Vázquez

P.O. Box 1874

Juana Díaz, PR 00795

Dakota Assets Service #221 Plaza

Ave. Ponce de Leon Ste 1600

San Juan, PR 00917

Alexis Plaza Medina

P.O. Box 16361

San Juan, PR 00908

Wilfredo Cornier Box403

Merceditas, PR 00711

Eliadi Hoyos

Hacienda Concordia #11264 C. Lirio

Santa Isabel, PR 00764

Sucesión Héctor Geral o #1326 C. Salud Apt. 1003

Ponce, PR 00717

Quedan ustedes emplazados y notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado la acción de epígrafe en su contra sobre Cobro de Dinero. Se les requiere que ustedes radiquen su Contestación a la Demanda dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación de este Edicto a través del Sistema

Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https: / /www.poderludicial. pr/index.php/trtbunal-electrorúco / y notificando copia al abogado de la parte demandante:

LCDO. JOSEPH G. CEPEDA

ACOSTA

RUA Núm.: 22,752

PO Box 1980-34 Loíza, PR 00772

TEL.: (787) 900-5117

E-mail: lcdo.cepeda@gmail.com

Se le apercibe que de no hacerlo se anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado por la parte demandante, sin más citarles ni oírles. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, 8 de junio de 2023. CARMEN G TIRU QUINONES, Sec del Tribunal. Loyda Torres Irizarry, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE GUAYNABO

MANUEL MARTORELL CABALLERO Y JOSE ANTONIO MARTORELL CABALLERO

Demandante V. BANCO POPULAR, COMO SUCESOR EN INTERÉS DE BANCO DE PONCE; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

Demandado(a)

Civil: GB2023CV00016. Sala: 201. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE & 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 24 de mayo 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 15 de agosto de 2023. En Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el 15 de agosto de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II. SARA ROSA VILLEGAS, SECRETARIA DEL TRIBINAL CONFIDENCIAL I.

For Spain, a World Cup title built on talent, not harmony

By RORY SMITH

To win a World Cup, everything usually has to be perfect. The manager and the players have to exist in harmony. The squad has to be in delicate balance: between talent and tenacity, youth and experience, self-belief and self-control. A team needs momentum, and good fortune, and unity. Spain, in the year preceding this year’s Women’s World Cup, had none of those things.

The squad was in a state of open revolt. More than half the team had walked away, withdrawing their labor in protest at their treatment not only by executives of the Spanish soccer federation but also by their coach, Jorge Vilda. The country’s great star, the leading light of its golden generation, had watched it all from the sideline, desperately willing her anterior cruciate ligament to heal.

Even when a truce was found, a cadre of the mutineers restored to the team’s ranks, it was an uneasy one. The peace was born of convenience, rather than resolution. The squad was still cleaved by rifts and schisms and cliques. Winning a tournament is a matter of marginal gains, of fine details. Spain had none of them. In its circumstances, it seemed simply not possible for it to become world champion.

And yet, and yet, at the end of the biggest, widest, broadest, deepest Women’s World Cup, it was Spain’s players standing on the podium at Stadium Australia in Sydney, the golden confetti settling on their shoulders, wreathed in the acrid smoke of fireworks, their hands clasped around the trophy for the first time.

A team that had endured all that Spain has in the past 12 months should not be able to win a World Cup. It should not have outlasted every other team in the tournament. It should not have narrowly beaten England, so wily and effective and resolute, in a tense, delicately poised final, 1-0. Except that Spain could, and did, the ultimate expression of succeeding despite it all.

Spain did so not because it found a solution to all of its troubles. Alexia Putellas, the team’s injured star, did not miraculously return to fitness. She has been here, but she has not been herself. The players and the manager did not make up in the nick of time; even in the aftermath of victory, nobody quite wanted to broach that subject.

“I am happy for the people who are happy for us,” said Vilda, the coach.

Aitana Bonmatí, one of the restored protesters, was asked what Vilda had been like

as a coach during the tournament. She took a breath and gave the most diplomatic answer she could. Initially, it extended to just three words. “Everything is good,” she said. Asked to expand, all she added was that “it is not fair to discuss this in this moment.” Jenni Hermoso, tears in her eyes, wanted to make sure that the exiled players who had missed out knew “they were part of this process, part of this star.”

No, the secret behind Spain’s success was simple. Talent, in vast enough quantities and deep enough reserves, conquers everything. No other team in this tournament had Spain’s raw, undiluted, undeniable quality. The competition was fierce, and yet, in the harsh light of day, no other country really came close.

That was clear even in the final, even against a team of England’s resolve and reputation. Only a single goal separated the finalists, in the end. As Alba Redondo said, there were times when England — the reigning European champion, the admittedly slender pregame favorite — ensured that Spain “had to suffer.”

But far more frequent were the times when it appeared that Spain was playing if not quite a different sport, then one on a sig-

nificantly higher difficulty level.

In the first half, in particular, there were moments when Spain’s performance felt like a technical clinic. Redondo might have scored after one intricate, sweeping move had pried England apart; Salma Paralluelo could have capitalized on two.

The buildup to Olga Carmona’s first-half goal — the only goal of the final — was swift, brutal and exquisite, all at the same time: Lucy Bronze guided down a blind alley; Teresa Abelleira and Mariona Caldentey expertly levering open the space she had vacated; Carmona applying the finish.

The best expression of Spain’s superiority, though, was in almost every pass played and touch taken and decision made by the unparalleled Bonmatí, the Barcelona midfielder who decided to use the greatest stage soccer has to offer to paint her own personal masterpiece. She was elected player of the tournament after the game. She could have won the award for Sunday’s performance alone.

It was Bonmatí, more than anyone else, who was at the heart of every one of Spain’s painstakingly constructed attacks. It was Bonmatí who set the game’s rhythm, determined its pace, selected her team’s angle of assault.

She was Spain’s creative force, its destructive element. More than once, she changed the tone of the game with a single touch, an apparently minor choice that transformed everything.

Strictly speaking, the result did not need to have been quite as close as it was. Hermoso could have doubled Spain’s lead, deprived England of its last wisps of hope, with a second-half penalty kick — awarded for a careless handball by Keira Walsh — but she struck her effort too tamely, and too closely, to Mary Earps, the England goalkeeper.

Just for a moment, Spain’s stranglehold on the game was broken. England fizzed with renewed possibility, revived hope. “We suffered the most when we saw there were 13 minutes of injury time,” Redondo said. If true, they did not show it. “I was not nervous, not really,” Spain’s goalkeeper, Cata Coll, said.

Her teammates took the ball, asserted control, waited out the ticking clock, trusted their talent to see them through. It was only when the game was over, when they were gathered in a circle, their arms draped over one another’s shoulders, unity descending at last, that it occurred to them what they had done.

“We were asking each other what had happened,” Redondo said. “We were trying to work out what we had just done.” Even after they had lifted the trophy and paraded it around the field, Redondo said she could not quite believe the weight of the medal around her neck. She spent some time asking people to hold it, to feel it, to see just how real it was.

She pointed to the crest on the new jersey she had put on. Above the Spanish badge was a single star. It had not been there before. That is the ultimate reward. It is not possible to obtain one unless everything is just right. Unless, as Spain proved, you have the talent — bright and clear and irresistible — to make sure nothing can go wrong.

FIFA Women’s World Cup Semifinals

Spain 2, Sweden 1 England 3, Australia 1

Saturday’s 3rd Place Match Sweden 2, Australia 0

Sunday’s Final Spain 1, England 0

Fans during the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final at Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney, Australia on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023. Spain defeated England 1-0 for its first women’s cup title. (Isabella Moore/The New York Times)

The blind side of sports storytelling

By KURT STREETER

Of course America loved “The Blind Side,” the 2009 movie about a homeless and hapless Black teenager rescued from a bleak future by a wealthy, white family. It was based on the true story of the Tuohy family, led by Sean and Leigh Anne, who took future NFL player Michael Oher into their home and raised him proudly as he made it to college and beyond.

It’s the type of story we’re used to in sports, one that undergirds our beliefs about sport’s power to create lifelong bonds, help its participants overcome hardships, and build character. It’s also a simplified rendering of race in America, one that hinges on the trope that white people can be magically redeemed by coming to the aid of a Black character.

Audiences sucked it up. The film took in more than $300 million, and Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy, self-possessed belle of the New South.

But “The Blind Side,” based on the bestselling book by Michael Lewis, renders a complicated reality in the most digestible format. Last week, surprising news of a lawsuit filed by Oher against the Tuohys spurred many to reconsider the movie, searching for answers to questions raised by the legal claim and obscured by the film’s comfortable, tidy narrative.

Oher is suing the couple for a full accounting of their relationship. He claims that when he thought he was being adopted at 18, the Tuohys urged him to sign a conservatorship that gave them control to enter into contracts on his behalf. He said that the familial bond, warmly portrayed in the movie, was a lie and that the Tuohys enriched themselves at his expense.

The Tuohys have defended their actions, arguing in a statement that the conservatorship was a legal necessity so Oher could play football at the University of Mis-

sissippi without jeopardizing his eligibility.

In a story with at least four versions — that of Lewis, the movie studio, Oher and the Tuohys — it’s almost impossible to discern who is telling the truth.

Until last week, I must admit, I had never seen “The Blind Side.” I’d purposefully avoided it. I’m leery of movies that lean on simple racial clichés — a fatigue that began as a child, when so many of my Black heroes died at the end of films so white heroes could live.

News of Oher’s lawsuit convinced me that it was time to plop down on the couch and take in the film, with the benefit of 14 years of hindsight — 14 years in which race and sports have reemerged as essential platforms for the examination of America’s troubles.

My assumptions were proved correct early in the film, while Oher’s character was taking shape.

As the story unfolds, Oher is shown as a lost cause before meeting the Tuohys and attending a well-to-do Christian school in Memphis, Tennessee.

The film portrays him in easy terms: as a body, first and foremost — a gargantuan Black teen whose IQ, we are told, is low and who has no idea whatsoever about how life operates in worlds that are not swamped in poverty and despair.

The Oher of the film, particularly early on, has little agency and no real dreams of his own. When I saw that, it felt like a gut punch. “What?” I muttered. “There’s no way this characterization is true.”

The Baltimore Ravens selected Oher in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. No one makes it that far in sports without a foundation of years of motivation and training, which gives credence to Oher’s longheld criticism of his portrayal in the film. He is an intelligent person, Oher has said, again and again, and he was a skilled football player well before meeting the Tuohys.

Not someone who needed the Tuohys’ young, pint-size son, Sean Jr., to teach him the game in the easiest of terms — by using bottles of condiments to show formations and plays. We watch Sean Jr. at a park, delighting in putting a clueless Oher through workouts.

The movie also shows the Tuohys using sports as a vehicle for Oher to develop confidence, enter a world of prestige and riches — and eventually to attend Ole Miss, the couple’s alma mater, where Sean Tuohy once starred in basketball.

Oher protects Leigh Anne Tuohy when they dare to go to the neighborhoods where he’d grown up — “That horrible part of town,” she says. He saves Sean Jr.’s life when the two are in a car crash by using his massive arm to shield the young boy from the force of an air bag. When Oher struggles on the practice field as he learns the game, Leigh Anne Tuohy bounds from the sidelines and drills him with firm instruction: He must shield the quarterback the

same way he guarded her and her son.

“Protect the family,” she insists.

A lesson delivered to Oher by a feisty white woman as if he were a first grader (or a servant) is a turning point. Oher begins transforming from a football neophyte raised on the streets into an offensive lineman with the strength of Zeus, the nimbleness of Mikhail Baryshnikov and the size of an upright piano.

Soon, we watch him play in a game, enduring aggressive and racist taunting from an opponent who initially has his way with an inexperienced rival.

Suddenly, Oher snaps. He does not just block the opposing player: Enraged, Oher lifts him and drives him across the field and over a fence.

“Where were you taking him, Mike?” his coach asks as Oher stands on the sidelines.

“To the bus,” Oher deadpans, his tone innocent and childlike. “It was time for him to go home.”

By the film’s end, the transformation is complete. We learn that under the watch of a wealthy white family, Oher’s IQ has improved to an average level! We see him become a high school champion! We watch a parade of coaches — real coaches, playing themselves in the film — fawn over Oher as they try to persuade him to suit up for their school.

It is hard to figure out, by the movie’s telling, Oher’s motivation or his savvy, because he continues to be portrayed as a prop — quiet, docile, a young man who, for the most part, does as his newfound family says. This, by the way, makes it hard to even figure out, all these years later, the truth of his lawsuit.

What we do see in the movie is that he shines in college and the pros. There he is in the NFL, in his Ravens gear. He had made it to the sports Promised Land, and through it all, the Tuohy family was at his side.

This film had everything.

The dumbed-down trope about race and class in America that Hollywood has always peddled.

The simplified narrative that uncritically hails sport and its purity, the way it can change lives — always for the better — by shaping diamonds in the rough into jewels.

The shadowy side of sports — the cheating, the lies, the broken promises, which, in this legal tussle, could be coming from either side — never encroach on the fairy tale.

Michael Oher, center, filed a lawsuit against Sean Tuohy, left, and Leigh Anne Tuohy, right, over their conservatorship of his business affairs.

Sudoku

How to Play:

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

This could be the luckiest day of the month, Aries. But astrology also takes your role into account. In other words, luck is something you have to work for. If you seem to have an incredible streak of luck today, it’s probably because you did something earlier to make it happen!

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

If you get asked to lead a team in your personal or professional life, jump at the chance. Today you will get all the support you need, Taurus. Don’t be afraid that you’re not good enough. Things will come together without your having to do much at all. Besides, you already know that people are on your side!

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

You couldn’t dream of a better day to deal with all the little problems in your daily life - broken washing machine, money problems, minor health issues. If your doctor has given you a prescription, you can expect it would work like a miracle drug. Gemini, take care of the little things. It will take less time than you think!

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Perhaps you can’t believe it, but it’s time to say goodbye to your rigid attitude. A little pleasure among all that seriousness and responsibility won’t do you any harm. This day could help you change your point of view on life. This will feel great!

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Life is helping you out at the moment, Leo. You might chalk it up to some divine power. Whatever it is, your guardian angel is always by your side. Perhaps you’d like to begin something new in your life, like moving or changing lifestyles. At the moment you can do anything you want to do. It will all work out just fine!

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

Have you ever thought about writing or working for a company in which you can use your excellent communication skills, Virgo? The planetary alignment emphasizes writing and communication. It’s time to show the world that you have a gift and that people can count on you to do a great job. Think about the publishing business.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

If you’ve been thinking of living somewhere else, Libra, today will push you to really want to move far away from the place you’re living now. Such a move could have consequences for your work situation or family life. It may be time to think seriously about what’s holding you back. Wouldn’t the people closest to you be happy to go along?

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

You have a great day ahead of you, Scorpio. Everything will work out like clockwork. By the end of the day, you’ll still have the energy to do something fun with your evening. It’s a wonderful day for group activities. If you aren’t involved in any, why not try a sport, hobby, music, or art?

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

You may have received some bad news concerning your finances, Sagittarius. This is probably the best day you could ask for out of the whole month to deal with these problems. If you want to come out of this situation a winner, it may be necessary to approach things from a different angle than usual. Rest assured that things will probably work out just fine.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Today is a relatively calm day that’s sure to please you, Capricorn. You may even receive gifts from family and friends as marks of their esteem or love for you. This is just the kind of reassurance you need. Though you have a fairly subtle influence in your relationships with others, it’s nevertheless essential to you to be a good friend.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

Everyone knows that nothing can stop you when you’re determined to get something done. As long as other people are on your side today, you will be amazed at all the things you can accomplish. But don’t get too excited, Aquarius, because it’s time to take care of those thankless tasks that no one wants to deal with. You may need other people’s help to get them done.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

You may be considering taking a trip or planning a party with some friends, Pisces. You may find out today that it’s up to you to do all the organizing. This won’t bother you too much because you know you’ll do it right. Why don’t you think about really trying to outdo yourself and plan something special that your friends will never forget?

Speed Bump