Monday Aug 24, 2020

Monday, August 24, 2020

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Not All Vinyl Is Created Equal P20

Blood Donors Needed Urgently Pierluisi: ‘I Want Puerto Rico to Have a Permanent Relationship with the US’ P3 Everything Is Possible in Live TV: ‘Apprentice’ Producers Helping to Finalize GOP Convention P7

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

PR Gov’t and Federal Officials Say COVID-19 Fears Have Caused Shortage of Blood Donations P4

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The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

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August 24, 2020

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.

Pierluisi: ‘Our goal is to be treated equally as American citizens’

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This is the fourth in a series of interviews with candidates running in the 2020 general elections

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By PEDRO CORREA HENRY Twitter: @PCorreaHenry Special to The Star

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ew Progressive Party (NPP) gubernatorial candidate Pedro Pierluisi’s goals seem greater than just to live in La Fortaleza, where he passed through briefly in the summer of 2019 as a successor of former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares.

He spoke with the Star on Sunday about his aspirations to achieve equality for residents of Puerto Rico, how he will not replicate the Law 7 strategy to deal the public debt, how he and his government will work with the Financial Oversight and Management Board and how he will work to pull the island out of its economic crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As for Puerto Rico’s political status, Pierluisi said his main goal as governor will be to achieve a permanent and effective relationship with the United States in order to provide for the well being of Puerto Rico residents. Likewise, both he and his prospective government want islanders to acquire rights equal to those of U.S. mainlanders, such as voting rights and equal treatment in all federal programs.

“What we need from the government of Puerto Rico is for people to be able to improve their quality of life. And that’s what I’ll bring to the table,” Pierluisi said. “Our goal is to be treated equally as American citizens; my goal is to have a permanent relationship with the U.S., have an effective relationship with the federal government for the well being of our people.”

When it comes to how Pierluisi will manage the island government’s relationship with the oversight board, as the government has yet to restructure its public debt and the composition of the board is changing for the next four-year period, he said that as the governor of Puerto Rico he focus on four areas in which his government will stand its ground in order to change the board’s posture, including investing in compensation for Puerto Rico’s public servants, ensuring municipal governments can provide essential services to citizens and preventing cuts from both the public pension system and the University of Puerto Rico’s budget.

“Frankly, the fact that there will be a change of composition of the board doesn’t tell me to be concerned at all because any member will know that I, personally, participated in the drafting and approval of the law that created the board, that I know that law, PROMESA [the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act], inside and out, and that I know how the board operates and what its mandates are.”

When The Star asked if his government would replicate

the strategy for addressing the public debt pursued by former Gov. Luis Fortuño of the NPP, who signed Law 7 of 2009, which laid off around 30,000 public servants, Pierluisi said “those were very different times” and that the island would not have the oversight board if there was no change of government in 2013, back when Alejandro García Padilla of the Popular Democratic Party became the head of state.

“This is a different ball game altogether; what you have now is an oversight board and a pending bankruptcy process,” he said. “Something that I will be doing is encouraging the board to finalize the pending debt restructuring that we have at the central government level. Why would I do so? Because PROMESA says that once the debt of the central government is restructured and once we show the government of Puerto Rico has been operating on a balanced budget basis for four years and we gain adequate access to the market, the board must leave our island.”

Regarding his constitutional cabinet, the former twoterm resident commissioner said that beyond having honesty and integrity, his cabinet members must also be extensively knowledgeable on the matters they will be faced with at the agencies they lead.

“If I [have] seen something that hasn’t worked in Puerto Rico, it’s the lack of execution from part of the government; we’re not talking about a lack of federal funding, or even state funding; this is not a funding issue, this is a capacity issue,” Pierluisi said. “Something that I am determined to do is hire honest and capable people to lead the key agencies of the government of Puerto Rico and to be under my guidance in executing for the benefit of the people.”

Meanwhile, when the Star asked how his government will aid Puerto Rico’s healthcare system amid the coronavirus pandemic, he said the government’s medical card program needs “major surgery” in that it must ensure better oversight.

“I keep seeing that the government is continuing to make decisions without an adequate scientific basis,” he said.

“The consistent lack of data and [lack of] effective contract tracing has undermined the government’s ability to deal with the pandemic.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

Health secretary: ‘We need blood donors’

By PEDRO CORREA HENRY Twitter: @PCorreaHenry Special to The Star

I

sland Health Secretary Lorenzo González Feliciano called for citizens of Puerto Rico on Sunday to donate blood as both hospitals and blood banks have been reporting shortages since April amid the coronavirus pandemic emergency.

During a press conference where Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced described the situations the government responded to

during the passage of Tropical Storm Laura, González Feliciano said that he, White House Special Representative Rear Adm. Peter Brown, and Alex Amparo, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s federal disaster recovery coordinator for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, requested that the local government make the call.

“We need blood donors, not only for COVID-19; we are talking about blood for people who go to emergency rooms, for people who are undergoing surgery, for people who have medical conditions who could die if there are no blood donations,”

González Feliciano said. “I am starting to say it now, but we will be communicating in the next days each time we stop to speak with the governor; we will communicate the importance of blood donors to protect our population.”

The Health secretary added that the department has known about the shortages since April as most citizens are not visiting any medical institutions due to fears of being infected with the coronavirus.

“When we started in April, both blood blanks and hospitals were making some claims that people are not donating, and that is our reality, that no one is coming to hospitals,” he said. “There is a gigantic fear. And then, [people] are not donating.”

González Feliciano also said mortality rates from COVID-19 are highest among elderly adults; in other words, people who are at least 65 years old.

However, he added, casualties due to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus are not due to a capacity issue or a shortage of ventilators and hospital beds.

“If you arrive at a hospital and you are in a high-risk group, with comorbid conditions, and you are over 65 years old, even if we have the medical resources, they are still dying,” he said. “I’ll keep saying it -- it is not due to a shortage of ventilators, there are enough ventilators such that, even if we throw them away, they are not all gone. It is not due to a lack of intensive care units (ICUs), it is

not due to a shortage of antibody packs [test kits]. So it’s our turn; we must take care of ourselves.”

Only 3% of ventilators are being used on COVID-19 patients Regarding the number of ventilators being used at hospitals, González Feliciano said 36 of 758 ventilators, which amounts to 3 percent, are being used by COVID-19 patients. He further clarified the presumption of a patient being hooked up to a ventilator if they were under intensive care.

“Historically speaking, when we talked about ICU [patients], it was presumed that the patient was already hooked up to a ventilator. That is not the case,” he said. “Remember that when we saw this during May, the closest event to us was seeing people using ventilators at emergency rooms; we have not reached that point where the maxing out of medical resources should concern Puerto Rico amid the COVID-19 protocol.”

As concerns have been raised over hospital capacity, the Health secretary said his department meets with the Puerto Rico Hospitals Association every Monday and Wednesday to monitor capacity during the national emergency. At press time, out of the 53 percent of general hospital beds currently occupied, 4 percent are occupied

by COVID-19 patients. Meanwhile, out of the 70 percent of ICU beds currently occupied, 10 percent are occupied by COVID-19 patients.

FEMA makes shelter funds available in wake of TS Laura

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he Federal Emergency M a n a g e m e n t A g e n cy (FEMA) announced on Saturday the availability of federal assistance to Puerto Rico to complement commonwealth and local government response efforts that began last Friday and continue due to Tropical Storm Laura.

Federal funds are available to the commonwealth and local governments, and some eligible private non-profit organizations subject to a 75 percent cost contribution by the federal government, for emergency protective measures (Category B), which are limited to direct federal assistance and reimbursement for group care, including evacuation operations and shelter support.

According to a press release

from the agency, assistance is available for the island’s 78 municipalities.

Alex Amparo, FEMA’s federal disaster recovery coordinator for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, has been appointed as the federal coordinating officer in charge of response operations in affected areas.

Additional appointments could be made if justified by the According to a press release from the agency, assistance findings of damage assessments. is available for the island’s 78 municipalities.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

5

Union attorney: ‘PREPA RSA dying, it offers high payment to creditors amid debt’

By THE STAR STAFF

I

n the opinion of Rolando Emmanuelli, a bankruptcy lawyer who represents the power utility’s workers’ union, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) restructuring support agreement (RSA) is “dying” because it offers creditors payment of 70 percent of the utility’s $9 billion debt, which is unsustainable.

The government parties filed a Section 9019 motion to restructure the debt on May 10, 2019 on an urgent basis but, after seeking a hearing for a month later, have postponed such hearings 11 times, Emmanuelli said.

“The bondholders for the most part have an unsecured debt and do not deserve that amount,” the attorney said.

“However, the Financial Oversight and Management Board has asked the judge 11 times to suspend the hearings and they have not been able to convince the [Puerto Rico] Legislature to enable the RSA.” The island government was given until Sept. 25 to inform the U.S. District Court about the future of the RSA. PREPA has been in bankruptcy under the federal Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act since 2017.

The Unsecured Creditors Committee (UCC) has informed the court that even government officials have said the accord is not viable and told the judge to cancel the Section 9019 motion.

“With so much time having passed since the RSA was filed, I think the judge will put some pressure on the [oversight] board,” Emmanuelli said.

In their status report filed on July 31, the government parties again conceded that there are grave doubts about the PREPA RSA’s viability, but claimed that “additional time is required to understand how and if the situation will impact PREPA and to what extent (if any) they should seek to amend the RSA,” the union attorney said.

“They then sought a two-month extension -- not to

propose any concrete steps for the consideration of their 15-month-old 9019 Motion, but, rather, to “[hope] that they can report on developments regarding their evaluation of the RSA and 9019 Motion,” he said.

On Aug. 5, the court entered an order granting the government parties’ request to submit a further status report on Sept. 25. As it had in earlier such orders, the court required that the government parties’ upcoming status report “propos[e] next steps with respect to the 9019 Motion.”

The UCC says that notwithstanding the government’s desire to continue adjourning their 9019 Motion, recent public statements by PREPA leadership have suggested that the parties to the RSA have effectively abandoned the agreement in its current form and intend to renegotiate it next year.

For example, former PREPA Executive Director José Ortiz stated publicly during a high-profile industry conference last month that the RSA “certainly has to be renegotiated,” but that he “do[es]n’t see an RSA being agreed on until next year.”

Moreover, the government and the PREPA bondholders benefit from the pretense that the RSA is still viable, the UCC said.

“The pretense of a settlement is the only way that the

oversight board can obtain control over the claims objection process, a right that -- because Congress did not incorporate Section 1106 of the Bankruptcy Code into PROMESA -- they would not otherwise have,” the UCC said. “For their part, the PREPA bondholders benefit from the pretense of a viable RSA because their legal fees get paid while the RSA is in place and an indefinite adjournment is their preferred outcome because recent changes in the legal landscape make clear that it would be suicidal for them to litigate the claim objection.”

Specifically, the committee was referring to a U.S. First Circuit Court’s decision regarding the scope of the Employees Retirement System bondholders’ liens and the U.S. District Court’s recent decision on the preliminary lift stay hearings in the Highways and Transportation Authority case, which the UCC says show it has meritorious objections.

Emmanuelli said that more importantly, the RSA is dead because PREPA’s cash flow has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and the oversight board has not been able to determine debt sustainability.

“If you can’t determine debt sustainability, no RSA can be signed because you do not have information [on whether] they can pay overtime,” he said.

He also noted the estimated $115 million in payments that PREPA must start making to LUMA Energy for the operation of the utility’s transmission and distribution system.

The attorney said the parties need to go back to the table and further cut the debt by at least 80 percent.

“The worst thing that can happen is for PREPA to file for bankruptcy,” he said.

Emmanuelli believes the 80 percent cut is viable because the bondholders, for the most part, are unsecured.

He says the RSA should be ended to stop the waste of public funds but noted that for the bondholders, it is a good one. He said the consequence of ending the RSA would be that the litigation can continue.

Ports Authority issues RFP for Isla Grande dry dock manager

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Puerto Rico Ports Authority has initiated a request for proposals (RFP) process for the operation, maintenance and repair of the dry dock located at Pier 15 in Isla Grande.

The information was provided recently by Ports Authority Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz, who said the dry dock, which was built by the United States Navy in the early 1940s and initially operated by the Navy, was eventually acquired

by Ports in the late 1990s. However, it has remained unused since 2000.

“As part of Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced’s initiatives to turn unused assets into productive ones, we are launching the start of the Request for Proposals process for the dry dock, so that this facility, the only one of its kind in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, can operate again, and once more be a

source of economic activity and employment for the island,” Pizá Batiz said.

It is estimated that the project has the potential to generate private investment of $20 million, the creation of 400 direct, indirect and induced jobs and an annual economic impact of about $15.9 million.

Emphasizing that the RFP is not for a public-private partnership, Pizá Batiz noted that what it seeks is an operator to establish a maintenance, repair and overhaul service center for various types of vessels, including commercial ships, and private yachts and mega yachts, among others.

The dry dock measures approximately 600 feet long, 102 feet wide and 26 feet deep, which positions it as a unique facility in the Caribbean for the repair and maintenance of vessels up to 400 feet long, the Ports executive director pointed out.

Currently, local businesses are required to use dry dock facilities in New Orleans, the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands to repair or maintain their vessels.

Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Manuel A. Laboy Rivera said in a statement that “this project has an economic multiplier effect for various economic sectors.”

“It should be taken into consideration that whoever arrives on the island with a boat to receive some type of maintenance or repair can enjoy a few days in our hotels, entertainment centers, and gastronomy and shopping centers, among others,” he said. “It is estimated that all these activities could have a multiplier economic impact of approximately $15.9 million once the dry dock begins operations. Undoubtedly, this dry dock will be a perfect complement to facilitate an increase in the development of the yacht and mega yacht service industry in Puerto Rico.”

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Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Union holds central and municipal gov’ts responsible for rise in COVID cases

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

J

esĂşs Anguita Serrano, coordinator of the Electrical Industry & Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER by its Spanish acronym) solidarity program, said last week that he holds the central government and municipal administrations responsible for the increase in cases of COVID-19, saying the authorities have

JesĂşs Anguita Serrano said that the central government and municipal administrations are responsible for the increase in cases of COVID-19

been negligent in putting prevention measures into place. “[Management] has operated and put the life, health and safety of the country’s employees at risk by not corroborating, or guaranteeing that the employers from government agencies, mayors, and private companies submit their protocols and self-certifications before starting work,� the union official said in a press release. “[UTIER] calls on the government to take the necessary measures so that the established protocols are met.� “The government intends to show that the people are responsible for the rise in infections in Puerto Rico instead of recognizing that, five months after the pandemic, they have not been able to corroborate or guarantee that employers are complying with the protocols established for the resumption of work and for the reopening of shops,� Anguita Serrano said. “Since the beginning of the restoration of work, we have charged that both government agencies and municipalities have not taken the correct actions and enforced the Executive Orders, or [implemented] the memoranda of the Department of Labor. To this day, the health and safety agreements with employees, and the COVID-19 Exposure Plans and the agreed Risk Management protocols continue to be violated.�

The union leader, who also represents employees in the Highway Authority, Special Communities, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, Office of theVeteran’s Advocate, municipalities of Arecibo, Arroyo, AĂąasco, Ciales, GuĂĄnica, Lajas, Patillas and Utuado, the Albergue OlĂ­mpico and retirees from various sectors, added that the disinfection recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Occupational Health and Safety Administration is not being complied with in the case of positive cases in the agencies and municipalities, and the necessary personal protective equipment is not being provided, which is why they demand that the government comply with the established protocols. “ProSol-UTIER again demands that the government employers take the necessary and mandatory measures, putting the safety and health of workers first, addressing the demands we make and the cases reported in government agencies, municipalities and other employers,â€? Anguita Serrano said. “We can beat this COVID if guarantees are established to preserve the health of workers in work and study centers, as well as in communities. For this, the government must provide free tests for the entire population, track infections, hire more health personnel and establish educational campaigns at all levels.â€?

Ombudsman urges public to participate in Census

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

P

uerto Rico Ombudsman Edwin GarcĂ­a Feliciano called for a coordinated effort among the entire community, government agencies and civic, professional and faith organizations to encourage each citizen to comply with the responsibility of submitting the information required by the 2020 Census, which is the basis for the granting of federal funds for the island and all other United States jurisdictions.

The ombudsman said commerce and industry should

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also be included in this multisectoral effort, since the money that the government receives is converted into the acquisition of goods and services in those sectors.

GarcĂ­a Feliciano expressed his serious concern about the apparent apathy that citizens in general have shown in responding to the census questionnaires, a situation that has become aggravated since the federal authorities postponed the deadline for responding to them to Sept. 30.

He insisted that it is a matter of high priority for all citizens, and offered the help of his office to coordinate any effective effort to help Census 2020 fulfill its mission.

GarcĂ­a Feliciano said the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the health strategies in place to contain the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, seem to have been the main cause for census officials not being able to effectively fulfill their task.

However, the ombudsman pointed to the email address my2020census.gov to fill out the questionnaire online, as well as forms distributed house to house, which do not require postage to return. Citizens can also call toll free 1-844-426-2020.

GarcĂ­a Feliciano, who prior to being appointed and confirmed as Puerto Rico ombudsman served as mayor of Camuy for 18 years, noted that the municipalities that render direct services to citizens are the ones that lose the most by neglecting to agree to provide vital information for the Census.

He went on to say that if participation in the 2020 Census falls short, the situation for poor and vulnerable communities in all corners of the island will become serious. It must be remembered that health, education, public safety and urban

development are sustained with a significant contribution of federal funds, he said.

The official said further that citizens such as residents of barrios and public residential areas, as well as other vulnerable sectors, or citizens who have not legalized their residence in the country, must keep in mind that all the information provided to the census is confidential and is not shared with any other public or federal agency. “The census is the primary vehicle the federal government takes into account when assigning fiscal priorities and funding allocations,â€? GarcĂ­a Feliciano said. “In a country that has suffered the onslaught of a catastrophic hurricane, unprecedented seismic activity and a ‘lockdown’ due to COVID, the limitation of access to federal funds would bring a devastating blow to all people.â€?

“The census is the primary vehicle the federal government takes into account when assigning fiscal priorities and funding allocations,â€? GarcĂ­a Feliciano said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

7

Republicans rush to finalize convention (‘Apprentice’ producers are helping)

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM and ANNIE KARNI

D

emocrats set a high bar last week for the pandemic-era political convention, dispensing with cheering crowds in favor of a virtual pageant that encompassed passionate speeches, a charming cross-country roll call vote, vignettes from an Oscar-winning filmmaker and a low-fi fireworks display above a parking lot. A few hiccups aside, even jaded network executives conceded the party mostly pulled it off.

Now it’s the Republicans’ turn in the prime-time spotlight — and the party led by a former reality TV star is rushing to measure up.

After scrapping plans for a full-bore, in-person spectacle in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida, because of the coronavirus crisis, Republicans are working to finalize a week’s worth of events that can match the production put on for the Democratic nominee, formerVice President Joe Biden, while meeting the exacting — and frequently shifting — standards of President Donald Trump.

Two producers of “The Apprentice,” where Trump rose to TV stardom, are involved in the planning. Sadoux Kim, a longtime deputy to “Apprentice” creator Mark Burnett, is a lead consultant on the production. Kim once served as a Miss Universe judge when Trump owned the pageant. Chuck LaBella, a former NBC entertainment executive who helped produce “The Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump,” is also on the payroll.

Party officials say their convention — during which Trump is expected to speak every night in the 10 p.m. hour — will ultimately surpass the Democrats’ telethon-like show, which the president and his allies have repeatedly called “dark,” depressing and thin on policy proposals. “We’re going to have more of it live than what they did,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday. “I think it’s pretty boring when you do tapes.”

Exactly what that looks like remains an open question.

As Monday’s kickoff looms, Republican officials were still deciding what segments to air live and what would be recorded in advance. Typically, convention broadcasts require weeks of highly technical preparation. By the weekend, producers at the major TV networks had only a foggy idea of what to expect, although Republicans provided a more detailed rundown Saturday evening. Still, broadcasters will head into the week with some unknowns.

“We’re treating this as breaking news,” Steve Scully, the political editor at C-SPAN, said in an interview. “Once we know who’s speaking where and when, we’ll send cameras.”

Republicans involved in the planning admit that anxiety began to set in two weeks ago. But on Saturday, they said that they were now confident that a fully realized lineup was in place — and that in contrast to the Democrats’ virtual event, voters could expect something more akin to a regular convention, with a focus on live onstage moments featuring Trump, whom aides described as the week’s “talent in chief.”

Typically, the nominee makes a mundane appearance early in the convention — waving or watching from the wings — before a major speech at the end. Trump has dismissed that model and plans to directly address the nation in prime-time

President Trump at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting at the Ritz Carlton in Arlington, Va., on Friday. on each of the convention’s four nights. The president wants the opportunity to rebut charges made against him throughout the Democratic program, aides said, particularly on his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

A stage has been built at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, a neo-Classical event space where most of the speakers will address a live audience. Regulations in Washington prohibit gatherings of more than 50 people; Republican aides say they have hired “COVID experts” to determine how many onlookers can enter the auditorium and what audience participation can look like.

The list of speakers is heavy on the president’s relatives and White House staff members, including Dan Scavino, Trump’s former caddie who is deputy chief of staff for communications, and Larry Kudlow, the national economic adviser. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, will also speak, according to a person involved in the planning.

The lineup also includes Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Missouri couple that toted weapons at Black protesters and have since become right-wing media stars, and Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky teenager who sued news outlets over coverage of his encounter last year with a Native American protester in Washington.

Each night’s events are expected to begin at 8:30 p.m., a half-hour earlier than the Democrats’ program, although the major broadcast networks do not start covering until 10 p.m.

A “Democrats For Trump” segment is planned, although the participants remain a closely guarded secret. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole Black Republican in the Senate, will speak, along with two future potential presidential candidates: Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations.

“The Democratic convention was a Hollywood-produced, Old Guard-laden convention, if you ask me,” Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s counselor, told reporters at the White House on Friday, adding that viewers “are going to see and hear from many Americans whose lives have been monumentally impacted by this administration’s policies.”

The president is set to accept his party’s nomination on Thursday from the White House, with fireworks above the South Lawn. The first lady, Melania Trump, will speak Tuesday from the Rose Garden, and Vice President Mike Pence will appear Wednesday from Fort McHenry in Maryland, the site of a battle in the War of 1812 that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

All of the sites are controlled by the federal government, which some ethics experts say would violate the Hatch Act, a Depression-era law that bans the use of public spaces for political activities. Trump aides said that the White House venues being used are considered part of the residence and therefore are authorized for political use. Some of Trump’s aides privately scoff at the Hatch Act and say they take pride in violating its regulations.

8

Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

In year of virtual politics, Republican delegates flock to Charlotte convention

Delegates began to arrive on Friday for the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. on Aug. 21, 2020. It’s not the convention people will see on television next week but Republicans are staging a truncated gathering in Charlotte to renominate President Donald Trump.

By ANNIE KARNI

S

hirlene Ostrov, the Republican state party chairman from Hawaii, has barely left her home in Mililani since March, because of the island’s rigorous stay-at-home order put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

So Saturday morning found her releasing a lot of pent-up energy as she waved an American flag and hammed it up for photos in a colorful dress, on a red carpeted backdrop outside the Westin Charlotte, where delegates were gathering over the weekend for the Republican National Convention.

Ostrov took an overnight flight from Hawaii to get here, and she will have to quarantine for two weeks upon her return, to comply with state law. She said it was worth it.

“Even though I live in Hawaii, this is a nice break,” she said.

The convention unfolding in Charlotte is nothing like anyone envisioned more than two years ago when the city was selected to host a raucous gathering to renominate President Donald Trump. There were going to be parties and after-parties, and the city expected $200 million of economic impact.

But despite the pandemic upending carefully laid convention plans for both parties, there is, against all odds, still a convention in town. It is modest, and contained to a COVID-

tested bubble inside the Westin hotel and the Charlotte Convention Center down the street. It’s not what Americans will see starting Monday, when the Republicans stage a prime-time program on television, where Trump will deliver his renomination speech from the White House.

But keeping in place at least a piece of an in-person convention, in the original host city, has been a priority for the Republican National Committee, both symbolically and procedurally. The various RNC committees must meet to complete the formal paperwork to nominate Trump by the coming deadlines. For example, Delaware, has a Tuesday deadline.

And an in-person formal roll call Monday, when 336 delegates representing 50 states, six territories and Washington, D.C., will formally renominate Trump from inside the convention center, was seen as a statement of where the party stands on lockdowns. The president and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to attend.

Even the scaled-back event has been tricky to pull off.

The delegates participating were required to take at-home tests before arriving and are being tested daily now that they are here (two people who planned to attend tested positive before traveling and had to stay home). The RNC has spent half a million dollars on tests and safety measures, according

to officials, drafted a 42-page health plan, and still had to get an exemption from the state to host a large indoor gathering of out-of-towners. Convention participants Saturday were all wearing privacy-hardened safety fobs, which are supposed to provide notifications if they come into close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.

And they still have to abide by the rules of a city that is only in Phase 2 of reopening. Bars in Charlotte are still closed. Restaurants are allowed to open only at 50% capacity. Delegates are being told they can’t necessarily bring their spouses to planned dinners, and masks are required at all times, even outdoors.

But once they have entered the safe zone, delegates in town said they are here to experience a little slice of life as it used to be.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for months,” said Henry Barbour of Yazoo City, Mississippi, whose uncle is former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. “I want to be part of this. For those of us who are really engaged, this is a reward.”

He said that it was an honor to be chosen as a national delegate, and that attending the convention in person was a story he planned to feast on for years to come.

“My dad went to the convention in ’68 and I heard about it all my life,” Barbour said. “It’s an honor.”

The Democrats decided not to go to Milwaukee, where their convention was originally set to take place, going all virtual instead. But Barbour, who drove nine hours to Charlotte, said an in-person gathering was critical at the grassroots level, to energize delegates across the country to reelect Trump in November.

“There’s a lot of just hanging out,” he said. “We’ve known each other for a number of years. There’s some illegal hugging going on. We all feel very safe because we all took a test before we came and when I got to the hotel, a lovely lady stuck a cotton swab into my brain.”

The Republican National Committee doesn’t expect people to sit in their hotel rooms ordering room service once they are here and has tried to make the trip worth it for its members. It has rented out four venues for attendees to choose from for each night they are here: the Billy Graham Library; a tour of a local brewery; a night at Middle C Jazz, a live jazz venue; and an evening at TopGolf, which has a high-tech driving range.

Republican officials said it was symbolically important for the party to show that locking the country down again — as former Vice President Joe Biden has said he would do if necessary to stop the spread of the virus — wasn’t a realistic way of life for many Americans, and that with the right precautions in place, life had to go on.

“It’s been an unusual year,” said Toni Anne Dashiell, a delegate from Texas who has attended every Republican convention since 2004. “We were surprised and disappointed, maybe, that the convention in Jacksonville was canceled, but it was the right thing to do. And we still made a footprint here in Charlotte.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

9

House votes to block postal changes and allocate funds for mail

By NICHOLAS FANDOS and EMILY COCHRANE

T

he House interrupted its summer recess Saturday for a rare weekend session to approve legislation blocking cost-cutting and operational changes at the Postal Service that Democrats, civil rights advocates and some Republicans fear could jeopardize mail-in ballots this fall.

The measure, put forward by Democratic leaders, would also require the Postal Service to prioritize the delivery of all election-related mail and grant the beleaguered agency a rare $25 billion infusion to cover revenue lost because of the coronavirus pandemic and ensure it has the resources to address what is expected to be the largest vote-by-mail operation in the nation’s history.Democrats were joined by 26 Republicans in voting yes, passing the legislation 257-150, with more than 20 Republicans not voting. But the bill, as written, appeared unlikely to move through the Republican-controlled Senate. President Donald Trump opposed the measure in last-minute tweets, calling it a “money wasting HOAX” by Democrats.

Democrats framed Saturday’s action as an emergency intervention into the affairs of an independent agency to protect vital mail and package services that have seen significant delays this summer as the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, moved swiftly to cut costs to close a yawning budget gap. They said it was also necessary to instill confidence in American voters that the agency would safeguard their ballots despite near daily attacks by Trump on mail-in voting.

“This is not a partisan issue,” said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., the lead author of the bill, as she released Postal Service statistics documenting the slowdown in delivery since early July. “It makes absolutely no sense to impose these kinds of dangerous cuts in the middle of a pandemic and just months before the elections in November.”

Most Republicans in the House opposed it after DeJoy, facing intense backlash and with the vote looming, announced this past week that he would temporarily halt the removal of blue mailboxes and sorting machines, as well as changes to post office hours and to mail delivery operations until after Nov. 3 out of an abundance of caution.

In testimony before the Senate on Friday, DeJoy reiterated that pledge and said ensuring successful mail-in voting would be the agency’s “No. 1 priority.” He called Democrats’ assertion that he was working with Trump to hinder the program “outrageous” and testified that he planned to continue the agency’s practice of prioritizing election mail.

He is scheduled to testify again Monday before the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

The decision to recall lawmakers back to the Capitol underscored just how high the political and electoral stakes have become around the operations of a usually humdrum federal service, especially in the eyes of Democrats. Even

Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussing the bill on Saturday before the vote in the House. The bill, as written, appeared unlikely to move through the Republican-controlled Senate. if it does not become law, they reason, the vote will help elevate the issue in the eyes of regular Americans and further tarnish Trump.

“Don’t pay any attention to what the president is saying because it’s all designed to suppress the vote,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said before the vote.

Postal leaders have been warning for months that the sharp decline in mail caused by the pandemic could jeopardize the solvency of an agency that has struggled to turn a profit. But DeJoy, a Trump donor and former logistics executive, introduced measures to cut down on transportation costs and overtime this summer — leading to substantial delivery delays of vital items like medicines, checks and even chicks. Democrats and postal unions began to caution that the Trump administration may be moving to destabilize the Postal Service during an election year and aid its private competitors because of the president’s animus against mail-in voting.

Many Republican lawmakers have joined Democrats in voicing concern over the slowdowns and demanding assurances from DeJoy and others that the Postal Service will be able to carry out the vote-by-mail initiatives.

Among the Republicans bucking their leadership Saturday were moderates, representatives of heavily rural districts that rely on the mail for basic services and several

lawmakers fighting for reelection this fall.

“We should be preserving and enhancing USPS delivery standards and services, not implementing operational changes that could delay delivery times and undermine quality services that every American depends on,” said one of them, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. More conservative Republicans and allies of Trump accused Democrats of continuing to fan hyperbolic and unsupported theories of a conspiracy overseen by Trump to sabotage the election for their own political gain.

“Like the Russia hoax and the impeachment sham, the Democrats have manufactured another scandal for political purposes,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the oversight panel.

Many Senate Republicans — including moderate senators facing tough races in November — are supportive of granting the agency a direct appropriation, albeit with some policy stipulations to address its long-term business model. Congress provided $10 billion in loan authority for the agency this spring, as well, that it has yet to use.

But Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said plainly Saturday that he did not plan to bring up a stand-alone bill in the Senate when lawmakers are at a stalemate over broader coronavirus relief legislation.

“The facts show the USPS is equipped to handle this election, and if a real need arises, Congress will meet it,” he said in a statement. “The Senate will absolutely not pass stand-alone legislation for the Postal Service while American families continue to go without more relief.”

The Democratic legislation would amount to an extraordinary intervention. Though it is a government entity explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the modern Postal Service functions as a self-sustaining business that raises funds through postal products, not from taxpayers.

Democrats’ $25 billion comes with no strings attached, but their bill would effectively bar Postal Service leaders from making any changes that “impede prompt, reliable, and efficient service” through at least January. It would reverse changes already put in place that DeJoy had declined to.

By imposing strict requirements until the end of the pandemic, it would, if approved, also effectively block the postmaster general from making more sweeping changes he has planned after Election Day that Democrats generally oppose.

The $25 billion in direct funds match a request the Postal Service made of Congress this spring to cover lost revenue.

DeJoy and the Postal Service remain supportive of a direct grant from Congress, though they have more cash on hand than previously anticipated. Still, he opposed the restrictions that Democrats’ bill would impose. On Friday, he urged lawmakers to pass bipartisan legislation to address the agency’s longer-term financial woes by unburdening it from a requirement to pre-fund retiree benefits that has put it deep in the red.

10

Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Projected storms may make blazes tougher to control

The remains of a trailer park damaged by the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, in Spanish Flat, Calif., on Aug. 22, 2020.

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

C

alifornia firefighters had good weather on their side Saturday as they battled wildfires that have torched nearly 1 million acres and forced the evacuation of more than 119,000 people from their homes. But their fortune may run out Sunday, when storms with strong winds, lightning and little rain may return to the region.

Among the two dozen major fires pulling firefighters in all directions are two groups of wildfires that have swelled to become the second- and third-largest blazes the state has seen.

It may get even worse.

Fire officials are worried that another extreme period of lightning strikes — like the 12,000 strikes blamed for igniting many of the 585 new fires since last weekend — could roll through Northern California in the coming days, potentially bringing new blazes to the scorched region. On Saturday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for much of the northern half of the state from 5 a.m. Sunday to 11 p.m. Monday.

The storms could erase Saturday’s progress, when shifting winds allowed firefighters to construct a fire break that officials said would protect Santa Cruz and the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus from the CZU Lightning Complex. The campus was evacuated Thursday because of the approaching fires, which have grown to 63,000 acres, consumed almost 100 buildings and are 5% contained.

East of Silicon Valley, the SCU Lightning Complex group of about 20 fires — largely burning in less-populated areas — has

grown to 339,968 acres and is now the second-largest in state history. It is 10% contained.

The group of fires known as the LNU Lightning Complex in Napa Valley — the third-largest in California history — has burned through 325,128 acres and consumed 845 buildings.

Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency, said that the LNU group of fires was its top priority, but in a sign of how stretched the agency is, only 1,400 firefighters were assigned to battle it Saturday afternoon, fire officials said, and it was 15% contained.

Chief Sean Kavanaugh, the incident commander, said about 5,000 firefighters were assigned to the Mendocino Complex fire in 2018, the largest fire recorded in the state.

There are 13,700 firefighters battling the blazes, but they are up against an extraordinary foe that has burned through an area larger than Rhode Island.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has requested more firefighters from as far away as the East Coast and Australia, and on Saturday, he announced that the White House had approved a disaster declaration for the state. “These are unprecedented times and conditions, but California is strong — we will get through this,” Newsom wrote in a news release.

Many other fires are burning dangerously across the state.

Two firefighters in Marin County had to call for a helicopter rescue after they were surrounded by the Woodward Fire, which is burning in a remote part of the Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco.

“Had it not been for that helicopter there, those firefighters would certainly have perished,” said Sheriff Mark Essick of the

Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputy extracted the two men.

Smoke from many of the fires is pouring over San Francisco and other cities, making the air unhealthy to breathe. In San Jose, Concord and Vallejo, the air quality index has surpassed 150, meaning the air is unhealthy for everyone. Smoke from the fires has been spotted as far away as Nebraska.

Towering over the coast, straining for sun as they’ve done since before there was such a thing as California, the old-growth giants of Big Basin Redwoods State Park stood in flames Friday.

John Gallagher thought of his sons. Darryl Young thought of his father. Laura McLendon thought of her wedding day.

“It was evening and the sun was just starting to slant through the trees,” said McLendon, a conservationist in San Francisco who married her husband in the park three years ago next week. “We could hear birds. It was magical. Like a time out of time.”

Now the 118-year-old state park, California’s oldest — the place where Gallagher hiked with his children in June, where Young learned to camp in his childhood, and where McLendon repeated her vows in a stand of 500-year-old redwoods — has been devastated. Park officials closed it Wednesday, another casualty of the wildfires that have wracked the state with a vengeance that has grown more apocalyptic every year.

From the Southern California deserts to the Sierra Nevada to the vineyards and movie sets and architectural landmarks left by modern mortals, little of the state has been left unscathed by wildfire. In the past several years, infernos have scorched the Yosemite National Park, blackened the Joshua Tree National Park’s palm-strewn Oasis of Mara, damaged the Paramount Ranch and eviscerated Malibu summer camps beloved for generations.

In a state that has historically preferred to focus on resurrection, the catalog of loss has again expanded, with the heartbreaking news from Big Basin at the top.

There are four key factors making California’s wildfires so catastrophic. The first is the state’s changing climate. California has always had wildfires, since its low-rain summers tend to dry out vegetation, which serves as fuel when sparks strike. And while the role of climate change in any particular fire takes time and scientific inquiry to establish, the link between climate change and bigger fires is inextricable.

“Behind the scenes of all of this, you’ve got temperatures that are about 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer now than they would’ve been without global warming,” said Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. That dries out vegetation even more, making it more likely to burn.

The second factor is people. Wildfires can be caused by lightning strikes, but human activity is a more common culprit — often through downed power lines. People are increasingly moving into areas near forests, known as the urban-wildland interface, that are inclined to burn.

Oddly enough, the nation’s history of fire suppression has also made present-day wildfires worse; when fires are fought successfully, many plants that would be burned accumulate instead.

The final major factor is the annual Santa Ana winds, which can further dry out vegetation and blow embers around. The Santa Ana winds drive a second fire season that generally runs from October through April. So fire season is far from over.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

11

TikTok plans to challenge Trump administration over executive order

By MIKE ISAAC and ANA SWANSON

T

ikTok plans to sue the U.S. government, the company confirmed Saturday, arguing that President Donald Trump’s moves to block the app had deprived it of due process and claiming it had been unfairly and incorrectly treated as a security threat.

The lawsuit, which the company plans to file next week, would amount to the most public pushback against the U.S. by TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance.

“Even though we strongly disagree with the administration’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution,” Josh Gartner, a TikTok spokesman, said in a statement. “What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”

For weeks, Trump has railed against TikTok and its ties to China, arguing that the app was a national security threat and that it could share data about its users with the Chinese government. On Aug. 6, Trump issued an executive order against TikTok, saying it would ban transactions with the app within 45 days. A week later, he issued a separate executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to divest from its U.S. assets and any data that TikTok had gathered in the U.S. Trump’s actions have pushed ByteDance to seek a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a U.S. company.

Microsoft and Oracle are among those that have recently held discussions for such a deal. The companies remain in negotiations for a potential acquisition of TikTok, which has more than 100 million regular users in the U.S. TikTok, which has repeatedly denied that it shares data with Beijing, previously tried to pacify the Trump administration. But as the White House’s actions escalated, TikTok became more critical of its moves.

Representatives for the White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters previously reported on TikTok’s plan to file a lawsuit.

Trump’s first executive order against TikTok draws its legal authority from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the president to regulate economic transactions in a national emergency. Past administrations have used it to sanction foreign governments as well as terrorists, drug kingpins and hackers, but have never used it against a global technology company.

Past administrations have also used the authority somewhat cautiously, wary that a legal challenge could result in a court curtailing some of the president’s ex-

President Trump has railed against TikTok and its ties to China, arguing that the app was a national security threat and that it could share data about its users with the Chinese government. pansive powers. Some Trump administration advisers have been concerned about such an outcome, but others view the economic powers as a kind of blank check, giving the administration wide-ranging authority to restrict U.S. commerce.

Jason M. Waite, a partner at Alston & Bird, said the order raised serious questions, including whether the provision could be used to target people or companies registered in the U.S., even if they had a foreign parent company.

“Using this authority against a Hezbollah leader does not present litigation risk like using this authority against a major global technology company,” he said.

He added that the odds would be in the president’s favor but that the administration had still opened itself up to the possibility of having its economic powers curtailed.

In addition to an executive order against TikTok, Trump also issued an order to cease operations of WeChat, the chat and commerce app that is owned

by Chinese company Tencent and is highly popular in Asia. Similar to TikTok, Trump gave Tencent a 45-day deadline to wind down its operations in the U.S. But as Trump has ramped up his attacks against Chinese-backed companies, the fallout has spilled

over into the West. Dozens of U.S. companies rely on partnerships with WeChat and Tencent to do business globally; a cancellation of the service in the U.S. could disrupt corporate America.

As for TikTok, the company appears to have a stronger potential backup plan than Tencent’s WeChat: It is in discussions with multiple suitors for a potential sale. The White House has repeatedly pressed TikTok to store American user data on U.S. servers, something that a sale to a U.S. company is likely to accomplish.

But TikTok also faces continued pressure from Facebook as advertisers flock to other social media platforms while TikTok is embroiled in controversy.

After early attempts to purchase the video app Musical.ly — a company that was eventually joined with TikTok — Facebook instead has tried to clone TikTok’s main video features. In 2018, Facebook created Lasso, a stand-alone app similar to TikTok. And in June, Instagram introduced Reels, a TikTok-like feature.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has repeatedly pressured lawmakers to support U.S. tech companies. In congressional hearings, Zuckerberg has warned lawmakers of the impending threat that Chinese-backed tech startups could pose to Silicon Valley’s technological dominance.

12

Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Economic data points to pause in recovery as aid programs expire

People wait to file unemployment insurance claims at the River Spirit Expo center in Tulsa, Okla., July 24, 2020. Expanded unemployment insurance bolstered household finances, but the weekly $600 benefits lapsed in late July.

By JEANNA SMIALEK and JIM TANKERSLEY

A

merica’s economic recovery is in an uneasy pause, with key indicators of hiring, shopping and investment stalling or in retreat in the wake of a resurgence in coronavirus cases across broad sections of the country, and with Congress and President Donald Trump showing no signs of progress on another stimulus deal.

Real-time measures of consumer spending, business sentiment, small-business reopening plans and even available jobs began flatlining last month, suggesting that the wave of virus infections that swept across parts of the United States in June and July came with economic consequences. Small-business data from time management firm Homebase shows no improvement since the middle of the summer in employment or hours worked in crucial parts of the economy. Job postings from online recruiting site Indeed slipped backward this week for the first time since May. Now, key policy supports that included a $600-perweek unemployment insurance expansion have begun to lapse. Congress appears unlikely to pick up negotiations on a new relief package until September, and analysts are increasingly accounting for the possibility that lawmakers will fail to strike a deal before the November election. By that point, with the changing weather pushing many people back inside, public health officials

fear a new wave of coronavirus infections.

Those twin risks — the path of the coronavirus and waning policy support — loom over the country’s fledgling recovery when the economy has yet to recover about 60% of the jobs lost since the start of the pandemic. More than half of those who are still out of work say they never expect to go back to their old jobs, according to polling from online research firm SurveyMonkey for The New York Times.

Without a new government package, “we could go back into recession,” said Megan Greene, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. “We built half a bridge, and we didn’t bother to finish it.”

Congress initially poured money into the economy to help it deal with the pandemic, but its relief efforts were intended to counter a short-term problem. Onetime stimulus checks and expanded unemployment insurance bolstered household finances, but the weekly $600 benefits lapsed in late July. A program that was funneling loans to small businesses, preventing bankruptcies, ended in early August.

The pandemic, it has turned out, is around for the long haul.

Trump has signed executive orders and memorandums that could temporarily extend some relief programs, but he cannot fully revamp them unilaterally. His plan to continue more generous unemployment insurance, for instance, will only partly replace the former be-

nefit — offering $300 or $400 extra per week instead of $600. Only 15 states have won approval so far to administer the benefit, and it will take time to get the money flowing. Once it does, the funds backing up the program could be exhausted quickly, depending on how many people are using them.

“The lack of emergency unemployment benefits in August is going to have, I think, devastating effects both for families and the economy as a whole,” said Ernie Tedeschi, an economist at Evercore who has tracked the effects of the supplemental benefits throughout the recovery.

The lapse of the extra $600 could cut monthly disposable income in August by around $70 billion compared with a full month of benefit payments, based on one Goldman Sachs analysis.

The steep decline in benefits will almost certainly hamper consumer spending, which makes up 70% of the economy. Tedeschi estimated that consumption could drop by as much as $58 billion this month, for instance.

That’s bad news for a recovery that, until recently, had been surprising many with its speed and robustness.

Unemployment dropped sooner and faster than practically anyone predicted. Retail sales rebounded strongly through July.

Most official government data, which are reported on a delay, have yet to show a reversal. Real-time data, and more short-term government releases, tell a different story.

Initial state jobless claims jumped unexpectedly last week, according to data released Thursday. Figures collected by Opportunity Insights, a project run by a group of academic economists, show that consumers may have already begun to cut their spending slightly as expanded benefits lapse. Low-income consumers had been spending at roughly pre-coronavirus levels by midsummer, but pulled back in the first week of August.

A slowdown is also taking hold across other income groups, which had never recovered their former consumption levels in the first place.

Service industry leaders in the New York region became more pessimistic about business activity in August, based on a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey, after becoming more optimistic the prior month. Consumer sentiment has fallen to low levels, based on a survey conducted by the University of Michigan, reflecting continued uncertainty.

If the recovery does stall out or reverse, the nation’s most vulnerable people could be hurt the worst. Families with children have already been far more likely to report food insecurity and other types of financial hardship, based on one New York Fed analysis. Lower-income and minority workers are also more likely to have lost work or hours, and are heavily concentrated in the service sectors — like hotels and casinos — that may struggle to snap back until the pandemic is under control.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

13

Stocks

Wall Street Week ahead: No elk or trout, but Fed’s virtual retreat may stoke market’s ‘animal spirits’

I

nvestors could get a hint from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell next week about how aggressively the U.S. central bank will try to manage the long-term recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Powell will discuss the Fed’s monetary policy framework review - a review it has been undertaking for nearly two years into how it conducts monetary policy - on the opening day of the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium on Thursday.

Since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, Fed chiefs have used their keynote speaking appointment at the conference - not being held this year in the hunting and fishing resort of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the first time in nearly four decades because of the pandemic - to signal important shifts in monetary policy or the economic outlook.

The market backdrop this time around could hardly be less dramatic. Spurred by Fed buying of assets, stocks have recovered their entire pandemic-related losses and are trading around record highs, while bond yields have been near record lows.

“The stock market is telling you there is asset price inflation occurring when there is still a lot of underlying weakness in the economy. I think the Fed is unlikely to view that as a signal of success on policy and, therefore, decide there is nothing more to do,” said Tony Rodriguez, chief fixed income strategist at Nuveen.

A major question - particularly ahead of the Fed’s September policy meeting - is whether the central bank will shift its inflation targets to an average, which would allow inflation to run higher than previously expected before interest rates are raised.

“We fully expect that they are going down the path of average inflation targeting,” said Bob Miller, head of Americas Fundamental Fixed Income at BlackRock.

Investors have been increasing their bets on inflation in reaction to the roughly $9 trillion in stimulus measures from central banks worldwide. Gold, a popular hedge against inflation and a falling U.S. dollar, is up 28% for the year to date and near record highs, while the dollar has fallen close to two-year lows.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields hit near record lows of 0.504% earlier this month, before backing up to 0.638% after a rash of Treasury supply.

Real yields for the notes, which show yield returns after adjusting for expected inflation, dropped this month to a record low of minus 1.11%.

The shift to looking at an average measure of inflation would be a “big deal” and help the central bank avoid the same negative interest rate policies adopted by central banks in Europe and Japan, Miller said.

The Fed is trying to spur inflation over the next several years in order to prevent a deflationary spiral as the global economy struggles to right itself from the COVID-19 shock.

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14

Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

A Spanish whistleblower appeals to the EU for help

Roberto Macias, who leaked to Spanish newspapers files relating to the finances of his former union, helping fuel one of Spain’s biggest corruption scandals, in Seville, Spain, April 19, 2016.

By RAPHAEL MINDER

H

e leaked files that led to the prosecution of one of the biggest labor corruption scandals in Spain’s history. But instead of being lauded for whistleblowing, he was charged with revealing workplace secrets and sentenced to two years in prison.

The leaker, Roberto Macías, filed an appeal this month in a case that highlights the weak protections given to whistleblowers in many of the member states of the European Union — and the bloc’s efforts to strengthen them.

More than half of European nations, including Spain, offer little to no national protection for whistleblowers, undermining efforts to fight corruption. But an EU law passed in 2019 requires organizations of more than 50 employees to set up internal channels for people to report wrongdoing, and then to act upon such information within three months of receiving it.

Enforcement of it could help the bloc recoup billions of dollars siphoned off by corruption. Weak or nonexistent whistleblower laws waste 5.8 billion to 9.6 billion euros ($6.8 billion to $11.3 billion) each year in

public procurement spending alone, according to a 2017 study by the European Commission.

Macías is one of the first people to test Europe’s new commitment to require member states to protect whistleblowers. In his appeal, he is arguing that the law obligates Spain to safeguard him rather than punish him. Member states have until December 2021 to adopt the new law, but all EU citizens can already sue under it.

“This case should allow us to see how Europe’s political commitment to fighting corruption translates into practice in a country like Spain,” said Fruitós Richarte i Travesset, a former Spanish judge who is now a law professor at the Rovira i Virgili University. Richarte i Travesset added that Spain “needs to change not only its legislation but also its mentality, because every advanced society should encourage citizens to denounce fraud.”

Spain’s lawmakers have been debating how to strengthen the country’s anti-corruption laws since 2016 but have been unable to agree on how to do so.

The most recent proposal — by the Ciudadanos party — was voted down by Parliament in June.

Left-wing parties argued that the law, which targeted public corruption, did not go far enough in addressing corporate and individual fraud.

Failing to fight political fraud and protect whistleblowers undermines democracy “because when people do not trust their institutions, they do not have faith in democracy,” Edmundo Bal, a Ciudadanos lawmaker, said during June’s parliamentary debate over the thwarted proposal.

Spain has in recent years been racked by some major scandals that have been exposed by whistleblowers. While few have been prosecuted, many have complained that they have faced ostracism. In 2018, dodgy contracts provided by a town hall employee led to a lengthy investigation that resulted in Spain’s conservative Popular Party being found guilty of operating a kickback scheme. The employee, Ana Garrido, suffered what she called “a calvary,” including death threats that caused her to take sick leave for depression.

Macías, 40, worked for four years as an official for the General Union of Workers, one of Spain’s two main unions. During that time, he became suspicious that his union was engaging in wrongdoing, and he downloaded thousands of computer files from his workplace that he believed might prove it.

In late 2012, he was laid off from the job, part of a downsizing of the union. In 2013, a few months after being laid off, Macías leaked the files to Spanish newspapers, helping fuel a national scandal implicating several officials in the misuse of public money. The money that the union received was meant to be spent

on helping the unemployed, but prosecutors allege the union spent it on unrelated events, including feasts.

Union officials deny the accusations.

Macías leaked the files anonymously, but through cyber-detective work, the union discovered his identity and filed a criminal lawsuit against him, arguing that under Spanish law protecting confidentiality in the workplace, he should have complained to a court or the police rather than hand over files to journalists.

That, the union said, had provoked “an indiscriminate media lynching of our organization.”

In May, he was sentenced to two years for sharing the information without the consent of his former employer. The prosecution of union officials implicated in the scandal has proceeded more slowly, with five former officials still awaiting trial.

“My only crime has been to reveal a secret kept by my union that is called corruption, which is something for which I never even expected to get prosecuted,” Macías, whose sentence is suspended until his appeal ends, said in a recent interview.

“My motivation to fight corruption has come from deep inside my conscience and my heart,” Macías said.

“I had been working for a union that was pretending to care for the unemployed while stealing money that was meant to help them.”

The scandal over the misuse of unemployment subsidies has led to other investigations, including one focused on whether governing officials in Andalusia, Spain’s largest region, illegally put their friends and relatives on the list of people eligible for layoff compensation.

Last November, two of Andalusia’s former Socialist leaders — José Antonio Griñán and Manuel Chaves — were convicted of breach of public duty while overseeing an unemployment payment scheme that the court called fraudulent. Both are appealing. Griñán is facing six years in prison.

Since being convicted, Macias has received the support of some politicians and activists. His appeal is being handled by Francisco José Sánchez, a pro bono lawyer who is also the founder of a small civil rights association.

Macias now holds Spanish citizenship, but he was born in Guadalajara and got his law degree in Mexico.

Since 2013, he said, he had mostly relied on unemployment benefits to get by. His joblessness and the time spent in the courtroom had taken a heavy toll on his family, he said.

“This is the kind of situation that can easily break up a family,” he said. “There have certainly been moments when my wife has questioned why I launched into a battle that has also put at risk the financial future of our children.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

15

As politicians clashed, Bolivia’s pandemic death rate soared

By MARIA SILVA TRIGO, ANATOLY KURMANAEV and ALLISON McCANN

S

o many people were dying that the government’s numbers couldn’t be accurate.

Calls to pick up bodies were inundating Bolivia’s forensic office. By July, agents were gathering up to 150 bodies per day, 15 times the normal amount in previous years, said the country’s chief forensic official, Andrés Flores.

The demand on his office suggested that the official tally of COVID-19 deaths — now more than 4,300 — was a vast undercount, Flores said. But with limited testing, scarce resources and a political crisis tearing the country apart, the extra lives lost were going largely unrecognized.

New mortality figures reviewed by The New York Times suggest that the real death toll during the outbreak is nearly five times the official tally, indicating Bolivia has suffered one of the world’s worst epidemics. The extraordinary rise in death, adjusted for its population, is more than twice as high as that of the United States and far higher than the levels in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

About 20,000 more people have died since June than in past years, according to a Times analysis of registration data from Bolivia’s Civil Registry, a vast number in a country of only about 11 million people.

Tracking deaths from all causes gives a more accurate picture of the pandemic’s true toll, demographers say, because it does not depend on testing, which has been very limited in Bolivia. The mortality figures include people who may have died from COVID-19 and from other causes because they couldn’t get health care.

“This is a very cruel situation that we’re living through,” said Flores, who heads the Institute of Forensic Investigations. “We’ve been left completely exposed.”

With a bare-bones health system, a decentralized government and poor infrastructure, Bolivia struggled to contain infectious diseases such as dengue even before the coronavirus arrived, said Virgilio Prieto, an epidemiologist at Bolivia’s Health Ministry.

But its ability to respond was undermined by a contested election that led to the ouster in November of the then-president, Evo Morales, a socialist.

An interim president, Jeanine Añez, a conservative, stepped in with a promise to govern until elections could be held.

Since then, Añez has announced that she is running for the office — and asked the electoral board to postpone the new vote, saying the pandemic made it unsafe for the population to go to the polls. The rescheduling of the vote from May to October has enraged opposition groups, who see it as an attempt by the caretaker president to cling to power.

“She is not recognized as a legitimate leader, which makes it extremely difficult to coordinate a complex response that the pandemic requires,” said Santiago Anria, a Bolivia expert at the Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

Añez defended her approach to the outbreak, saying that her decision to enact a swift lockdown avoided an even greater loss of life. She also blamed Morales’ party for mismanaging the health care system during its 14 years in office and stifling her plans to boost public spending in the pandemic.

“We did more in three months than what was done in the history of health care of this country,” she wrote in a Twitter post this month.

More than 100 road blocks by labor unions and Morales’ supporters have paralyzed an already weakened economy, leaving the government with fewer resources to import urgently needed medical supplies. The shortages of oxygen and other equipment caused by the road blocks resulted in the deaths of at least 30 patients, the government said in a report to the Organization of American States.

As hospitals ran out of medicines and coronavirus tests, Morales’ allies in Congress passed a law to allow the medical use of a bleaching agent, chlorine dioxide — an unproven and potentially dangerous coronavirus treatment popular among Bolivians.

“The pandemic has found us in a very precarious situation, with an inexperienced government and elevated political tensions,” said Franklin Pareja, a political scientist at the San Andrés Major University in La Paz. “This political standoff has a cost in lives.”

In Bolivia’s political center, the La Paz region, five times as many people died in July than in past years, according to the data, a rate comparable with Madrid’s du-

Jeanine Anez, the interim president of Bolivia, at a news conference at the presidential palace in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 15, 2019. ring its worst month. In the tropical plains region of Beni, more than seven times as many people died as normal, a number surpassing Bergamo, Italy, during its peak.

Although Bolivia’s official statistics show a severe spike in mortality starting in July, the closure of government offices during a lockdown in April meant that almost no deaths were registered that month. Officials at Bolivia’s Civil Registry, which issues death certificates, warned that at least some of the deaths that occurred in April could have been registered in later months, potentially skewing the mortality rate.

The scale of the mortality spike, however, is confirmed by Bolivia’s overwhelmed crematories, cemeteries and body collection agencies.

The spike in deaths had collapsed Bolivian hospitals and forced local authorities to expand their crematories and open new cemeteries. In La Paz’s municipal cemetery, residents and hearses had to line up outside the entry last week for a chance to bury their loved ones.

In Bolivia’s capital, Sucre, local health authorities said they had to stack up dozens of bodies in morgues, hospitals and even the local university until they were able to install a new crematory oven to meet the demand. And in the central city of Cochabamba, families had to keep bodies of their loved ones at home for

days because local funeral parlors and crematories could not handle the increase.

“The health system is saturated,” said the Health Ministry’s chief epidemiologist, Prieto. “We don’t have enough capacity, equipment or the intensive care units required.”

Despite the crisis, some regional governments, under pressure to restart the economy before the elections, are reopening gyms and restaurants, feeding fears that mortality rates will continue to rise. The Health Ministry estimates that the country will only reach the peak of the pandemic in September.

And in the meantime, the population will continue to bear the burden of Bolivia’s ineffective response.

When Josué Jallaza, a 24-year-old taxi driver in Cochabamba, fell sick with coronavirus symptoms, his family called three times for a doctor, but no one ever came. After he fainted, his family took him to a hospital, “but they didn’t want to admit us,” said his brother, Marcelo Jallaza. “They threw us out like a dog.”

They then took him to a private clinic, where “a doctor came out, looked into his eyes, and said, ‘He’s already dead. We can’t do anything,’” said Jallaza.

The family took the body home and spent four days trying to bury it. After pleading in tears with cemetery officials, they were finally granted a grave.

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Monday, August 24, 2020

Navalny, being treated in Germany, looms over Russian politics

By MELISSA EDDY and ANDREW E. KRAMER

R

ussia’s most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, arrived in Berlin for treatment Saturday after falling into a coma in Siberia in what his family and supporters suspect was a deliberate poisoning weeks before nationwide local elections.

Navalny was admitted to Charité, one of Germany’s leading medical research facilities, where he was undergoing extensive diagnostic tests, the hospital said after a plane transporting him from Russia touched down. He arrived more than 48 hours after he first lost consciousness, a delay his supporters bitterly criticized Russian officials for having caused.

“Patient stable, mission accomplished,” said Jaka Bizilj, who runs the Cinema for Peace, the foundation that organized the air transport at the urging of Navalny’s friends and family.

Navalny became violently ill Thursday shortly after a Moscow-bound flight he had boarded took off, forcing an

emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk.

The sudden illness struck Navalny, who is the most persistent critic of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, just as popular uprisings have sprung up in Russia’s Far East and in neighboring Belarus — and only weeks before Russians vote in municipal elections Sept. 13.

How it will affect the political scene, analysts in Russia said, will hinge in part on Navalny’s longer-term condition and whether he will be able to return home.

“Sometimes, instances that are publicly perceived as political terror do demoralize the opposition,” Ekaterina Schulmann, a Moscow-based political analyst, said in an interview, “and at other times they motivate people to protest or, at the least, to vote in protest.”

If Navalny remains in Germany for a lengthy recovery, or indefinitely as a political exile, the Kremlin stands to benefit politically, she said.

“It is very useful to have an opposition figure in exile,”

Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, Aleksei A. Navalny, arrived in Berlin for treatment after entering a coma in what his family and supporters suspect was a deliberate poisoning before nationwide elections.

Schulmann said. “He can be cast in the state media as a person who fled Russia. They can present it as unpatriotic behavior.”

In the days before he fell ill, Navalny had been meeting with opposition candidates in Novosibirsk, Siberia’s largest city, promoting a strategy he called “smart voting” that encourages multiple, small opposition movements to back a single candidate on a local ballot.

The strategy seeks to chip away at the dominance of the pro-government party, United Russia, in city councils and regional parliaments.

Putin’s popularity has been in decline for the past two years as nationalist fervor over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine has faded and as the economy has slumped under sanctions and then coronavirus lockdowns.

Upon landing in Berlin, Navalny’s plane was met by an ambulance that took him, under police escort, to the hospital where doctors began extensive testing to determine what may have caused the illness and how to treat it. Several police officers were stationed outside the hospital throughout the day.

The examinations, said Manuela Zingl, a spokeswoman for Charité, “will take some time.”

Navalny collapsed in agonizing pain Thursday shortly after takeoff on what was to have been a 2,000-mile flight to Moscow. His family suspects that poison may have been added to a cup of tea he drank in the airport before boarding that flight.

His evacuation came only after long hours of wrangling with Russian doctors and officials, who had insisted that a transfer to Germany would endanger Navalny’s health. But German doctors, who had arrived in Omsk on the air ambulance, were granted access to Navalny on Friday afternoon, and they stated unequivocally that it was safe for him to travel.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, who had sent Putin a letter Friday requesting permission to evacuate her husband, was allowed to accompany him to Germany.

The Russian authorities said tests for toxins in Navalny’s blood were all negative, indicating they found no evidence he was poisoned. At a news conference Friday, Dr. Alexander Murakhovsky said Navalny had suffered an “imbalance in carbohydrates, that is, metabolic disorder,” possibly caused by low blood sugar.

Navalny’s wife and personal doctor quickly dismissed this account, saying the idea that an otherwise healthy 44-yearold would collapse and fall into a dayslong coma from low blood sugar was ridiculous.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

17

Kenya’s health workers, unprotected and falling ill, walk off job

By ABDI LATIF DAHIR

D

octors in public hospitals said they have not been paid, some for as long as six months. They’re furious that they’ve been given faulty protective gear or none at all. Hundreds of government health workers have fallen sick with the coronavirus, and yet many said their medical insurance was cut in July, just when hospitals became overwhelmed with cases.

The situation in Kenya’s public hospitals is so dire that thousands of doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians in at least three counties walked off the job this month. On Friday, they were joined by more than 300 doctors working in 20 public facilities in Nairobi, the country’s capital, and thousands more across the country are threatening to strike in September if their demands are not met.

The crisis comes as infections are surging, particularly in cities like Nairobi, and intensive care units in hospitals are filling up with coronavirus patients. The pandemic is now straining medical workers to the breaking point in a country known for having one of the better health care systems in Africa, experts said.

“Doctors are not martyrs,” Thuranira Kaugiria, secretary-general of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, said in an interview — a line he has since adopted as a hashtag. “Doctors are not children of a lesser god.”

Frustration among health workers peaked after a recent television exposé accused dozens of business leaders and government officials of corruption, alleging that they stole about $400 million in funds allocated to fight the pandemic.

The country’s health minister, Mutahi Kagwe, told Parliament the allegations were “just fiction” but later, on Facebook, he promised changes. Some officials have been suspended.

Authorities said they are investigating the alleged theft of pandemic-related donations from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma. Protesters gathered in Nairobi on Friday, calling for those accused to be brought to justice.

While Kenya was able to stem the spread of the virus by locking down early on, health officials have reported 31,763 cases and 532 deaths — a tally experts believe is low because of inadequate testing.

Doctors are demanding quality protective gear, comprehensive medical insurance, salaries paid on time, promotions and compensation packages, and exemptions from duty for doctors who are pregnant or who have preexisting conditions. Union officials have also urged the government to hire 1,000 unemployed doctors to bridge shortages.

Past doctors’ strikes have lasted for months, and this one is open-ended.

Kenya’s Health Ministry did not respond to requests for an interview. But Mercy Mwangangi, chief administrative secretary for the ministry, said in a news conference Friday that counties have been improving hospital conditions and protective gear and that the ministry is negotiating with the health workers.

With almost 48 million people, Kenya only has 9,068 licensed medical doctors, according to the Kenya Medical

Protesters demonstrate amid allegations of the theft of almost $400 million in funds to fight the pandemic, in Nairobi, Kenya, Aug. 21, 2020.

Practitioners and Dentists Council. The country has 537 intensive care unit beds but only 256 ventilators, a recent study showed.

“Kenya’s health care system has always been one major disaster away from collapsing,” said Dr. Stellah Bosire, co-executive director of the East Africa Sexual Health and Rights Initiative.

COVID-19 has so far infected 700 health workers and killed more than 10, according to the doctor’s union. These include at least 41 positive cases among workers at Kenya’s largest maternity hospital, Pumwani.

Union officials said a public health officer in the northeastern county of Wajir died because he could not get to a facility equipped with oxygen. A nurse in the western county of Homa Bay died of COVID-19 complications days after giving birth.

The poor quality of protective equipment is the main reason many health workers are getting infected, said Dr. Chibanzi Mwachonda, acting secretary-general of the Kenyan medical workers union, who tested positive last month.

“There’s a false sense of protection,” he said.

The crippling effects of the walkout are apparent in Homa Bay County, where for 18 days now, 64 doctors and more than 4,000 health workers have been on strike, said Dr. Kevin Osuri, a union official who works at Rangwe SubDistrict Hospital, a public facility.

The coronavirus isolation centers in the county have

been “abandoned,” he said, and patients who test positive are being sent home. The government has yet to call for a meeting with the doctors, Osuri said.

Kenya’s government was initially lauded for initiating mitigation efforts to curb the virus. But health officials said coordination between the national government and counties isn’t effective, with smaller hospitals left to fend for themselves.

“The ministry of health is like a mother that cut its cord with the counties,” said Dr. Rowena Njeri, a medical superintendent at a hospital in Murang’a County, north of Nairobi.

Njeri said authorities in Nairobi sent her permeable coveralls, which she only discovered while training health workers on how to use them.

“I felt fear for our health workers,” said Njeri, who manages 17 health centers and dispensaries with only two regularly assigned doctors. “There was a sense of doom and uncertainty.”

Kenyan doctors recently launched a campaign to commemorate the life of Dr. Doreen Adisa Lugaliki, the first Kenyan doctor to die of COVID-19.

Dr. Yubrine Moraa Gachemba, an internist and health advocate, said that even though she works at Nairobi Hospital, one of Kenya’s top private hospitals, all doctors are afraid.

“The army that’s fighting the pandemic in Kenya is currently demoralized,” said Gachemba.

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Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

How to reverse course on Trump’s environmental damage

By THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD

T

hat the Interior Department has now blessed oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge comes as no surprise. It was a foregone conclusion once Lisa Murkowski, in 2017, persuaded her Senate colleagues to authorize drilling in the refuge as part of a tax bill, ending protections that have been in place since the Eisenhower administration.

Still, given the refuge’s obvious importance to the abundant wildlife there, its talismanic significance to the environmental community and the climate-wrecking potential of the oil that lies underneath it, the announcement came as one more disheartening blow from the Trump administration. The administration’s contempt for public lands is equaled only by President Donald Trump’s fealty to the country’s fossil fuel interests and by his determination to obliterate anything President Barack Obama did to preserve open space, ensure cleaner air and water and reduce global warming gases.

The courts have already intervened to limit some of the damage; a new president, with a favorable Congress, can do much more.

This will take patience and discipline. Trump has left the country’s environmental policies in wreckage. Most of that destruction has been in service of a misbegotten strategy of “energy dominance” that emphasized the production of more and more fossil fuels at a time when mainstream science — and the fires, floods, hurricanes and other evidence before our eyes — insisted that what we need is less of them.

The biggest casualties were the three programs that formed the basis of Obama’s promise at the 2015 Paris climate meeting to

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substantially reduce America’s greenhouse gases: rules reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, those reducing emissions of methane, another potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas operations; and those mandating dramatic improvements in automobile fuel efficiency.

Along the way were other sacrifices offered to the gods of fossil fuels — two national monuments in Utah established by President Bill Clinton and Obama, and millions of acres of Western lands set aside

by Obama to save the endangered sage grouse. Meanwhile, bad ideas thought to be dead and buried received new life in the Oval Office: logging in hitherto protected old-growth areas of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and a gold and silver mine in the headwaters of America’s richest fishery, Bristol Bay. The damage this year, though considerable, was less visible in the shadows of a global pandemic. Perversely, despite emerging evidence of a link between dirty air and deaths from COVID-19, a disease that among other things attacks the lungs, the Environmental Protection Agency voted emphatically in favor of dirty air. In April, the agency recalculated the costs and benefits of curbing mercury pollution in a way that could be used to justify weakening rules for any pollutant the fossil fuel industry deemed too costly to control.

That same month, it declined to tighten regulations on emissions of tiny soot particles known as PM 2.5, which threaten the lungs — even though career scientists at the agency had overwhelmingly favored a more protective standard.

It’s hard to find encouragement in all this, though here is one positive sign often overlooked in what has been a relentless, attention-grabbing onslaught: The administration has not always received buy-in from the very industries Trump purports to help. Some are distinctly uncomfortable in his warm embrace. Automakers, for instance, wanted some relief from the Obama fuel efficiency standards, though nothing on the scale of Trump’s rollback, which dropped the target from 54 mpg by 2025 to 40 mpg. Indeed, in a stinging rebuke to the president, five major auto companies that control 30% of the market agreed this month in a separate deal with California to abide by the state’s stricter mileage standards, which are very close to Obama’s.

Similarly, some of the big oil companies had urged the administration to keep Obama’s methane restrictions in place; having invested heavily in the idea that natural gas is a more climate-friendly fuel than coal, they feared, quite rightly, that unregulated leaks would cancel out that advantage and undermine their sales pitch. The major utilities, meanwhile, saw no great value in softer mercury rules because they had already invested heavily in the technologies that capture it.

Even the president’s efforts to romance the fishing industry fell flat. In June, Trump boasted on a trip to Maine that he had saved the state’s lobster industry by opening up the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to industrial fishing — thus adding to his fire sale of the nation’s natural heritage that his predecessor had tried to shield. The lobstermen were unimpressed. The monument is more than 100 miles out to sea. Maine’s lobstering typically takes place within 3 miles of shore.

As for the Arctic refuge, the oil companies are hardly tripping over one another to bid for leases. Why should they? Demand is low, prices are low and an industry that has already begun writing down some assets as possibly unrecoverable in a climate-conscious world would undoubtedly prefer to drill in the friendlier climates of, say,

“The next president can undo some of the recent efforts to weaken environmental protections. But it’ll take work,” writes the New York Times Editorial Board.

West Texas. Then there’s the matter of money. Increasingly conscious of climate risk, major investment banks — including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo — have promised not to finance drilling in the refuge, and, in some cases, the entire Arctic. That would seem to leave the field, and the prospect of unending negative publicity, to big outfits like Exxon and Chevron.

Litigation is virtually certain. Environmental groups and states’ attorneys general now mobilizing for court action say that the Interior Department downplayed the potential damage to wildlife and the risks to the climate of unearthing the 10 billion or so barrels the department says the refuge contains.

So far, the federal courts have not been friendly to the administration. They rejected Trump’s attempt to overturn Obama’s executive action protecting Arctic waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas from drilling, as well as his meddling in the Tongass, and derailed, at least for now, his plan to revive the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

And the courts could still overturn Trump’s effort to repeal Obama’s monument designations.

The biggest roadblock to Trump’s vaulting anti-environment and anti-regulatory ambitions would, of course, be Joe Biden, should he win the November election and the Democrats capture the Senate. As president, Biden would have several weapons at his disposal.

He could use the complex Congressional Review Act to overturn initiatives that Trump was unable to complete in time, possibly including the recent weakening of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act’s regulations. And he would almost certainly seek to replace Trump’s executive orders and rules with his own, a laborious though necessary process.

And he can move forward with his own agenda. The centerpiece, as of now, would be his sprawling $2 trillion plan to tackle climate change with ambitious deadlines, a more measured approach to drilling on public lands (he’d leave the Arctic alone) and big investments in energy efficient buildings, clean fuels and clean cars.

Look closely, and there’s something else important in that massive document and in Biden’s speeches: evidence of a wholly different mindset toward the relationship between humans and the natural world. Biden would, for instance, oppose the Alaskan gold mine, set aside nearly one-third of America’s land and water for protection, establish new monuments and national parks, move aggressively to restore the Everglades and clean up the Great Lakes. In sum: a new and welcome environmental ethic in the Oval Office.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

19

Inicia la Convención Republicana Nacional Por THE STAR

L

a presidenta del Partido Republicano de Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González Colón, destacó la resolución adoptada por el Comité de Resoluciones del Partido Republicano Nacional (Republican National Committee o RNC por sus siglas en inglés) para establecer como política pública del gobierno federal la manufactura de medicamentos en suelo estadounidense. Esta resolución es en línea con la iniciativa impulsada por la congresista y la Casa Blanca de traer esas operaciones a jurisdicciones de los Estados Unidos, en particular a Puerto Rico.

“Tanto la Casa Blanca, como en el Congreso y ahora el Partido Republicano a nivel nacional están respaldando asegurar la cadena nacional de suministros médicos yendo a la par con mi iniciativa que lidero desde antes de la pandemia, de catalogar a las farmacéuticas como un asunto de seguridad nacional. Con estas expresiones, la Orden Ejecutiva del presidente, las visitas de delegaciones de la Casa Blanca a la isla,

la radicación de dos proyectos de mi autoría y respaldando como coautora otros tanto, estamos creando un frente común en una iniciativa en la que Puerto Rico tiene los atributivos para liderar el camino y, eventualmente, convertirse en un “hub” nacional de manufactura para beneficios de los trabajadores y la economía local”, expresó González Colón.

La aprobación de la resolución se dio durante la celebración de la Convención Nacional Republicana y la Reunión de Verano del RNC que se llevan a cabo en conjunto en la ciudad de Charlotte en el estado de Carolina del Norte. Puerto Rico está representado por una delegación encabezada por Kevin Romero, quien funge como Chairman de la misma, el empresario John Regis, quien fuera el Chairman de la campaña de Donald Trump en el 2016 y por José Carrión III, miembro de la Junta Asesora de Latinos for Trump. La comisionada tenía pautado participar, pero debido a que está tomando medidas preventivas por el contagio del COVID-19 por personas con las que tuvo contacto, no viajó. Por la misma razón la National Committeewoman Zoraida Fonalledas y el National Committeeman Luis Fortuño, se excusaron.

“Todas estas reuniones son importantes para la lucha por la igualdad de nuestro pueblo. Estaremos trabajando arduamente con el liderato republicano para hacer valer la voluntad del electorado puertorriqueño expresada en las urnas en el 2012, 2017 y en el plebiscito del próximo noviembre, cónsono con la plataforma del Partido Republicano Nacional”, señaló Kevin Romero.

Además, el RNC determinó mediante resolución que mantendrían vigente la plataforma adoptada en el 2016, en cuyo comité participó González Colón logrando insertar el respaldo de los republicanos al “derecho de los ciudadanos americanos de Puerto Rico a ser admitidos a la Unión”.

El lunes en cumplimiento de la regla del RNC 37(e) todos los delegados presentes y en representación de sus estados ejercerán los votos para confirmar la nominación del presidente Donald J. Trump, como candidato a la reelección al igual que al vicepresidente Michael Pence. Del martes en adelante los trabajos de la Convención y los mensajes de figuras políticas nacionales se llevarán a cabo virtualmente y por las principales cadenas televisivas. El jueves, 27 de agosto a las 8:00 p.m. el presidente Trump hará su mensaje de aceptación de la nominación desde la Casa Blanca y en presencia de un reducido grupo de delegados entre los cuales fueron invitados los de Puerto Rico.

Guardia Costera reabre los puertos en San Juan e Islas Vírgenes Por THE STAR

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a Guardia Costera reabrió en la mañana del domingo los puertos en San Juan e Islas Vírgenes, tras el paso por la zona de la tormenta tropical Laura.

“Durante la Condición Portuaria FOUR, los puertos reabren para permitir el tráfico marítimo a embarcaciones comerciales. Aconsejamos que los marineros procedan con cautela debido a la posibilidad de encontrar escombros, y pedimos que reporten cualquier irregularidad a la Guardia Costera”, indicó la agencia en declaraciones escritas.

Al cierre de esta edición se informó que los siguientes puertos marítimos en Puerto Rico permanecen cerrados en condición portuaria ZULU hasta nuevo aviso: Culebra, Ceiba, Vieques, Guánica, Yabucoa, Mayagüez y Arecibo.

La Guardia Costera informó que los funcionarios de Prevención del Sector San Juan de esa agencia “trabajaron toda la noche y continuarán realizando evaluaciones en colaboración con la industria marítima para reabrir estos puertos lo antes posible”.

20

Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

How much is an album worth in 2020? Not all vinyl is created equal

Rory Ferreira, who records as R.A.P. Ferreira, with boxes of his “Purple Moonlight Pages,” vinyl at his home in Nashville, Tenn., July 24, 2020. In July, he offered the vinyl for $77, an unusually high price, even for a double LP.

By JON CARAMANICA

O

ver the last couple of years, Rory Ferreira, aka avant-garde hip-hop artist R.A.P. Ferreira, noticed that on Discogs, an online record marketplace that specializes in resales, the physical versions of his albums were trading for several times their original price.

So when planning the vinyl release of his latest album, “Purple Moonlight Pages,” he decided to charge accordingly.

“I’m not going to knock anyone’s hustle. I just need to make sure mine is calibrated accordingly, too,” he said in a phone interview last month.

In July, he offered the “Purple Moonlight Pages” vinyl for $77, an unusually high price, even for a double LP. Although the album had been available on streaming services for months, he sold all 1,500 copies available on his website. And on Instagram, he began replying to feedback about the cost, both positive and negative. To one exasperated fan, he wrote, “look we get it. you don’t value yourself or what you make. the rest of us not on that. kick rocks now.”

Charging $77 for an album might be a reach even in the best of times, but it’s especially ambitious in the current music business climate, where the album itself has become increasingly devalued. The growth of subscription streaming services like Spotify

and Apple Music has, in under a decade, almost completely detached albums and songs from a specific dollar value.

So what, if anything, is an album truly worth in 2020? Depends on the business model.

“I do think music has value, but the value is not on the monetary side,” said Steve Carless, Nipsey Hussle’s business partner and co-manager. “Technology has deteriorated that.” Thanks to the abstraction of the artist from the music on streaming services, and the rise of social media and the intimacy it creates between stars and fans, physical music is no longer the primary way artists capture their followers’ attention and dollars.

“Music has now become the vehicle,” Carless added. “Before it was what was at the end of the equation. Now it’s at the beginning of the equation.”

In short: For the most popular artists, the album itself is just one small part of a multiplatform business, and nowhere near the most profitable one. While they still do a healthy business in physical sales, and sometimes find ways to squeeze additional profits from it — Taylor Swift recently offered eight different deluxe editions of her new album, “Folklore” — generally the album is the thing that sets the table for far more ambitious revenue streams: merchandise, touring, licensing and more.

That’s at one extreme. At the other are small artists or labels with devoted fan bases, for whom the album remains at the center of the financial conversation, and still a lucrative proposition on its own.

All of which is to say that it’s harder than ever to determine, in a pure sense, the value of an album. Unlike in the CD or LP eras, when the market prices for records were essentially consistent, now the album is valued on a sliding scale — for most people, using streaming services, access to an album is (or feels) free; the most dedicated, however, will put their money where their fandom is.

This has wreaked havoc on record label business models, and also on the Billboard charts. In order to encourage immediate sales, artists looking for an opening week No. 1 began bundling albums with other, higher-priced items. Nowadays, an artist’s album release can often look more like the opening of a clothing store.

But this is a recent development. Before the streaming era, artists were attempting to extract maximum value from the album itself.

Perhaps the highest-profile example is the Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” The group made one copy of it available, and it sold at auction in 2015 for $2 million to since-disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who surrendered it to federal authorities in 2018.

Part of the inspiration for the Wu-Tang auction was the release of Hussle’s 2013 mixtape, “Crenshaw.” Hussle, perhaps the first artist in the modern era to propose a premium pricing model for a dying medium, offered physical copies of “Crenshaw,” for $100, using the slogan “Proud2Pay.” (The mixtape was available for free online.)

He sold out 1,000 copies. To demonstrate that the “Crenshaw” release wasn’t a fluke, he upped the ante with his next release, “Mailbox Money,” offering 100 copies at $1,000; all of them sold out too.

Hussle understood that the physical album was no longer a music delivery system, but a proxy for fan enthusiasm, a merch totem of its own. This was an especially key development in an era when physical sales were in decline and streaming services with their own economic interests were on the verge of inserting themselves as crucial middlemen between artists and fans.

Carless described Hussle’s intent as “Let’s stop looking at the majority, focus on the minority” — courting those listeners who were passionate and resourced enough to pay. The CD itself, numbered and signed, became “an important keepsake,” Carless said, and it came with certain fan privileges — a phone number they could use to reach Hussle, a private concert. (Hussle released “Crenshaw” the same year Patreon, which proposed a similar tiered model of financial relationship between artist and fan, opened for business.)

What this underscores is something Hussle knew, and something Radiohead figured out more than a decade ago: There are tiers of fans. Some — most, actually — will pay nothing for music. But the few who are willing to pay can more than offset them. In 2007, Radiohead released its seventh album, “In Rainbows,” via a paywhat-you-wish download, and in various physical formats; 3 million people paid for a copy.

On the online record marketplace Bandcamp, around 80,000 albums are sold per day. Half of them are digital: the average price for those albums — many of which are pay-what-you-wish — is $9, though according to Joshua Kim, chief operating officer of Bandcamp, some fans will voluntarily pay several times that; in one case, a fan paid $1,000 for an album.

Kim said that the fastest growing part of Bandcamp’s business is physical sales, particularly vinyl. “We view Bandcamp as a place where music is valued as art,” he said. “Physical formats are probably the most concrete expression of that.” He likened consumers willing to pay a premium for music they can otherwise get for free to those who shop for organic food or ethically sourced clothing, finding value in “compensating artists fairly.”

Despite the pushback he received from some fans, Ferreira doesn’t view his $77 vinyl as a premium product. He said that he values these newest songs, which were more expensive for him to make and reflect greater maturity as an artist, more highly than his older songs, and felt that should be reflected in the price.

“The music is the premium product,” he said. “It’s just that there are some people who are at a place in their life where it’s kind of nice to be able to style out and buy something nice that you believe in.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

21

Tony Awards ceremony will go ahead, online

By MICHAEL PAULSON

T

ony Awards administrators have decided to hold an online ceremony this fall to honor shows that opened before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered Broadway.

The American Theater Wing and the Broadway League — the two organizations that present the awards — announced the decision Friday morning.

Twenty plays and musicals opened on Broadway during the abbreviated 2019-20 season, but only the 18 shows that opened before Feb. 19 will be eligible for Tony Awards. A revival of “West Side Story” that opened Feb. 20 and the new musical “Girl From the North Country,” which opened March 5, will not be eligible because too few nominators and voters saw them before Broadway shut down March 12.

The decision comes after months of uncertainty over whether and how to recognize the work that was staged on Broadway between May 2019, when a revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” opened starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, and March 2020, when the pandemic forced all 41 Broadway theaters (along with most others across the country) to close.

The awards administrators debated combining the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons for one televised ceremony next year but decided against that over concern that it would not be fair to shows that opened in 2019.

“Though unprecedented events cut the 2019-2020 Broadway season short, it was a year full of extraordinary work that deserves to be recognized,” Charlotte St. Martin, the Broadway League president, and Heather Hitchens, the American Theater Wing president, said in a joint statement. “We are thrilled not only to have found a way to properly celebrate our artists’ incredible achievements this season, but also to be able to uplift the entire theater community and show the world what makes our Broadway family so special at this difficult time. The show must go on, no matter what — and it will.”

Tony administrators and rule-makers will meet next week to discuss what to do about categories — like original score and leading actor in a musical — in which there are few eligible competitors, because awards officials want to be sure they are recognizing merit. Based on both precedent and the awards rules, options could include: allow the nominators to choose fewer nominees or even eliminate categories; and/or require that a certain percentage of voters support a nominee, even in a non-contested category, for them to win an award.

The award administrators are hoping to be able to stream a ceremony in late October, but the date remains uncertain, as do many other specifics: What site will it stream on? Will there be a socially distanced in-person ceremony, or will it all be remote? Will there be a host?

Will there be performances? Will there be noncompeti-

Adrienne Warren and Steven Booth in “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” one of the shows that opened in the abbreviated 2019-20 Broadway season, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater in New York, Oct. 4, 2019. tive honors for individuals or shows? And how will the ceremony be financed, given that most of the traditional revenue sources (ticket sales, sponsorship and licensing fees) are gone?

Other entertainment industry awards shows have also been grappling with the effects of the pandemic.

Both the Emmy Awards and the Country Music Awards are scheduled to take place in September, and Tony officials will watch to see how those shows are handled.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in June that it would extend the eligibility window for next year’s Oscars and delay that ceremony, to April from February.

The Tony Awards were established in 1947 and had been broadcast on CBS since 1978. This year’s ceremony was originally scheduled to take place June 7 at Radio City Music Hall.

The Broadway shutdown has thrown thousands of people out of work and has upended the financial fortunes of many shows.

Sixteen plays and musicals were slated to open between the March 12 shutdown — a British pop musical, “Six,” was scheduled to open that very night — and April 23, the eligibility cutoff date. Two shows that were in previews but never opened — a new Martin McDonagh play called “Hangmen” and a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” — have said they will not attempt to open after the shutdown; the others are expected to try again next year.

Producers have said they would refund all tickets purchased for performances through Jan. 3, and some shows have announced an intention to open as soon as next March, but some industry leaders believe theaters will remain dark even longer.

Looking even further ahead: The status of the 2021 Tony Awards depends on when Broadway reopens. Both “West Side Story” and “Girl From the North Country” would be eligible to compete in next year’s awards if they resume performances and once again invite Tony nominators and voters.

22

Monday, August 24, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Shhh! We’re heading off on vacation

Elena Gaudino on her terrace in Brooklyn, with camping gear for an upcoming vacation, Aug. 12, 2020.

Sharing vacation adventures used to be fun, but during the pandemic, some travelers are content to let the tree fall in the forest, so to speak, without a single soul to hear it.

By SARAH FIRSHEIN

N

ext month, Elena Gaudino will fly from New York to Las Vegas, rent an SUV and drive to the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park and other desert destinations. The 10-day road trip stands in for her favorite annual tradition — Burning Man, the Nevada arts festival that was canceled this year because of the pandemic — and gives her something to look forward to after a coronavirusinduced travel dry spell.

Now she is itching to trade her Brooklyn apartment for the wide-open spaces of the American Southwest. But unlike in years past, Gaudino will post no requests for restaurant recommendations on Facebook, nor will she swap excited texts with friends detailing her itinerary. Aside from her husband and their two travel companions — and, now, readers of The New York Times — Gaudino has no plans to tell anyone about her trip.

“Some people believe you’re selfish for leaving your home unless it’s to get groceries,” said Gaudino, 34, a communications consultant. “I’d rather avoid potential altercations and I can go into this experience with a clear mind: I’m taking all the mandated precautions, I know the risk.”

Sharing the details about where we’ve traveled has al-

ways been a way to transmit our values, tastes and means — look no further than the postcards of the 19th century or the Kodak carousels of the 1960s and ‘70s. Then came Instagram, a decade ago, to turbocharge the practice. And while technology has made it easy to keep up with loved ones during this period of physical distance, there is one topic being withheld from conversations and hidden from social media: vacations. For a variety of reasons related to the pandemic, some travelers are content to let the tree fall in the forest, so to speak, without a single soul around to hear it.

“In addition to protecting your self-image and reputation, a main reason people keep secrets is to protect relationships and avoid conflicts,” said Michael Slepian, a Columbia Business School associate professor who studies secrecy.

“People often think, ‘You know, life would just be easier if I didn’t have that fight with my parents, so I’m not going to let them know about my trip.’ ” In the past couple of years, the concept of “flight shaming” — originally coined as “flygskam” by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg — has gained momentum as part of an anti-air-travel environmental movement. Today, midpandemic, general “travel shaming” could also take off.

Two-thirds of the nearly 4,000 Americans surveyed in June by Ketchum Travel, a public relations agency, said they

would judge others for traveling before it’s considered “safe.”

Half expected to censor their social media posts to avoid being “travel shamed” themselves. Compare that with last year, when about 80% of the 1,300 respondents in a Skift Research survey said they posted trip photos on social media.

“The pandemic presents a unique case of travel entering the moral sphere, because there are two things that happen when you travel: The first is that I put myself at risk, and the second is by virtue of putting myself at risk, I could be spreading coronavirus to other people,” said Jillian Jordan, a Harvard Business School assistant professor who studies moral psychology.

Jordan said the pandemic — thanks to its unprecedented nature in modern times and patchwork of geographybased restrictions — remains a gray area for ethical norms.

Whereas most people would agree that shoplifting is unacceptable, for example, so far there is no universally agreedupon consensus about whether or not to travel.

“Some people think any trips of any kind are bad; others, meanwhile, are off flying to hot spots,” Jordan said. “If you think it’s fine to travel and some people don’t think it’s fine — but you’re not persuaded by the opposing argument — you may feel motivated to hide your behavior.”

That can be true even when travelers feel confident they’re taking proper health precautions. Gaudino plans to stay in Airbnbs and campgrounds; except for grocery shopping — while wearing a face mask — she will not participate in any public indoor activities. To prepare for a 14-day quarantine upon her return, required by New York for anyone coming from states like Arizona and California, she has stocked her fridge and pantry with long-lasting provisions.

Catharine Jones, 39, also prioritized hygiene and safety when in June she drove with her family from their home in Rochester, Minnesota, to a lake about 3 1/2 hours north.

They stayed in-state, wore masks and bunked in a self-contained cabin.

Watching her children — ages 2, 4 and 7 — play happily by the lake at dusk, she did what many parents might do: She took a photograph and posted it on Instagram.

“Right after I posted it, I thought, ‘Wait a second,’ ” said Jones, a journalist. “Am I going to be judged for doing this? Are people going to say, ‘Wait, you left your house?’ The second thing that ran through my mind was an awareness of how lucky we are: to travel, to be able to spend money, to have a leisurely weekend.”

Though she was not chided for that post, Jones realized that she wants to keep her next trip — another private instate road trip with little, if any, contact with strangers — to herself.

“We’re living in this moment when long-standing inequities are particularly stark and the dividing line is between people whose lives remain relatively normal and people whose lives have been completely turned upside down by this pandemic,” she said. “I feel like vacation pictures signal to the world, ‘Hey! This isn’t so bad!’ And it has been really that bad for many, many, many people.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

23

Are mammograms worthwhile for older women?

By JANE E. BRODY

T

he shutdowns and fears provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into many aspects of routine medical care, especially for older people justifiably wary about being exposed to the virus in a medical setting.

While many facilities have now created “safe spaces” to resume in-person exams, some of the resulting postponements of routine checkups can have a major impact on the severity of an undetected or untreated disease and sometimes even the chances of survival.

One of these is screening mammography, especially for women 75 and older, a group to which I belong that has received conflicting advice for years about the need for, and ideal frequency of, routine breast exams.

On one hand, there’s no denying that breast cancer becomes increasingly common as women age and that finding this cancer in its early stages typically results in simpler and more effective treatment.

On the other hand, some older women might be better off not ever knowing they have breast cancer because they are likely to die of some other cause long before an undiagnosed and untreated breast cancer threatens their lives. Yet once a woman is told she has breast cancer after a routine mammogram, she faces a decision about treatment that can have a negative impact on her emotional and physical well-being.

Further complicating matters is the current inability of cancer specialists to say with certainty which breast cancers found on a mammogram may not warrant any treatment because they are too slow-growing to be life-threatening or may even have the potential to disappear on their own. A Norwegian study published in 2008 found fewer invasive breast cancers among women screened only once in six years than among a comparable group screened biannually for six years, suggesting that some mammogram-detected cancers in the latter group would have regressed spontaneously.

Although the incidence and mortality associated with breast cancer increase with age, there is some evidence to suggest that in general the disease in older women

Some might be better off not knowing they have breast cancer because they are likely to die of other causes long before breast cancer would threaten their health, Jane Brody writes. tends to be less aggressive and more likely to have a favorable prognosis. It is now possible to get a genetic test called Oncotype DX that predicts the risk of a breast cancer recurrence and the disease’s likely response to chemotherapy.

Given the many conflicting guidelines and confusing statistics, making a rational decision about screening can be quite challenging, especially for women who know others found to have curable cancers in their later years. Three of my friends over age 70 learned they had breast cancer just before or during the pandemic lockdown, leaving me — a 79-year-old breast cancer survivor of 21 years — uncomfortable about skipping my annual exam, which I’ve now scheduled for September.

The American Cancer Society guidelines for women with an average risk of developing breast cancer advises yearly mammograms starting at age 45 (or 40 if a woman prefers), changing to every other year (or every year if preferred) at age 55 and continuing every year or two for as long as they remain healthy enough to have a life expectancy of 10 or more years.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, however, recommends stopping routine mammograms at age 75 regardless of a woman’s remaining life expectancy.

Yet there are other professional guidelines recommending continued exams for women in generally good health who have a life expectancy of at least five years.

Then there are data from an analysis of 763,256 mammography screenings done between 2007 and 2017 that found cancer in 3,944 women, 10% of whom were 75 and older. The study’s author, Dr. Stamatia Destounis, a radiologist at Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, New York, reported that most of the cancers in the older women were invasive and of a grade that should get treated. Nearly twothirds had the potential to spread and grow quickly.

Destounis told Healthline: “There are benefits of screening yearly after age 75. Mammography continues to detect invasive cancers in this population that are node negative and low stage, allowing these women to undergo less invasive treatment. The age to stop screening should be based on each woman’s health status and not defined by her age.”

At the same time, women are living longer and spending more of those added years productively and in reasonably good health. For them, Destounis said, finding early invasive cancers that can be treated with minimal surgery and postoperative therapy can mean a lot to the patients, their

families and their communities.

Still, there is one fact that all older women should know: According to Diana Miglioretti, a biostatistician at the University of California, Davis, “There is no evidence from randomized controlled trials on whether screening women ages 75 or older reduces breast cancer mortality. Evidence suggests the benefits of screening are not seen until 10 years later.” She said there is also a risk of overdiagnosis that increases with age — finding a cancer that would not have harmed the woman in her lifetime.

In an interview, Dr. Mara A. Schonberg, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, echoed Miglioretti’s concerns: “Overdetection in older women is a problem, and even finding breast cancer is not always good. It takes at least 10 years of screening 1,000 women aged 50 to 74 to avoid one breast cancer death, and probably even longer in women over 75 in whom breast cancer tends to be more indolent. It’s not clear that all the aggressive treatment older women get is needed.”

Furthermore, among 1,000 women ages 75-84 who continue to have mammograms for five years, 100 will get false alarms, creating anxiety and prompting a slew of tests that do not find cancer. With continued mammography, within five years three such older women in 1,000 will die of breast cancer, as against four women who do not have mammograms, Schonberg reported. She also noted that among women ages 75-84 who die in the next five years, 12 times more will succumb to heart disease than to breast cancer.

To help women decide about whether continuing to get regular mammograms after age 75 is in their best interests, Schonberg and colleagues devised a decision aid, available in English and Spanish.

It asks 10 questions about age and health status, including weight, physical ability, smoking and preexisting conditions like diabetes. The lower a woman’s health risks, the lower her score, and the more likely that a mammogram may help her live longer.

Schonberg said she hopes that before handing their older patients prescriptions for a mammogram, doctors would first have them complete the decision aid.

24 para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO los 30 días de haber sido diliDE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL genciado este emplazamiento, GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRI- excluyéndose el día del diligenBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTAN- ciamiento. Usted deberá preCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN. sentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado ORIENTAL BANK de Manejo y Administración de Demandante v.

Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede JOHN DOE & acceder utilizando la siguiente RICHARD ROE dirección electrónica: https:// Demandados unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo CIVIL NÚM. BY2020CV02346. que se represente por derecho SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE propio, en cuyo caso deberá PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMpresentar su alegación responPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICsiva en la secretaría del tribuTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE nal. Si usted deja AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE de presentar su alegación DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO responsiva dentro del referido LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS. término, el tribunal podrá dicA: JOHN DOE Y tar sentencia en rebeldía en su RICHARD ROE, personas contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o desconocidas que se cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en designan con estos el ejercicio de su sana discrenombres ficticios, que ción, lo entiende procedente. puedan ser tenedor o LCDO. JAVIER MONTAL YO CINTRÓN tenedores, o puedan tener RUA NÚM. 17682 algún interés en el pagaré DELGADO & FERNÁNDEZ, LLC PO Box 11750, hipotecario a que se hace Femández Juncos Station referencia más adelante San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750, en el presente edicto, que Tel. (787) 274-1414 / Fax (787) 764-8241 se publicará una sola vez.

E-mail: jmontalvo@ Se les notifica que en la Dedelgadofemandez.com manda radicada en el caso de Expedido bajo mi firma y sello epígrafe se alega que un padel Tribunal, hoy 13 de agosto garé hipotecario fue otorgado de 2020. Lcda. Laura I Santa el 31 de marzo del 2003, se Sanchez, Secretaria Regional. otorgó un pagaré a favor de Sandra I Cruz Vazquez, Sec Banco Bilbao Vizcaya ArgenServ a Sala. taria Puerto Rico (hoy Oriental Bank), o a su orden, por la LEGAL NOTICE suma de $147,000.00 de prinESTADO UBRE ASOCIADO cipal, con intereses al 5-3/4% DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUanual, y vencedero el 1 de abril NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA del 2033, ante la Notario Raúl TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA BAJ. Vilá Sellés, mediante afidávit YAMON. 3260. La hipoteca fue consENRIQUE tituida mediante la escritura RIVERA CAMACHO número 145 del 31 de marzo Parte Demandante vs. del 2003, ante la Notario Raúl

LEGAL NOTICE

J. Vilá Sellés, inscrita al folio 153vto. del tomo 1911 de Bayamón Sur, finca No: 79528, inscripción 4a, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección l.

El inmueble gravado mediante la hipoteca antes descrita es la ‘ finca número 79528 inscrita al folio 90 del tomo 174 de Santurce Sur, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección l. La obligación evidenciada por el pagaré antes descrito fue saldada en su totalidad.

Dicho gravamen no ha podido ser cancelado por haberse extraviado el original del pagaré.

El original del pagaré antes descrito no ha podido ser localizado, a pesar de las gestiones realizadas. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico, hoy Oriental Bank, es el acreedor que consta en el Registro de la Propiedad. El último tenedor conocido del pagaré antes descrito fue Oriental Bank. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza

@

Administración de casos (SUMAC) el cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: HTTPS://unired. ramaiudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar se 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, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

VAZQUEZ& ASSOCIATES LAW OFFICES LCDA. ROSA L. VAZQUEZ LOPEZ RUA 17843/ COL: 18853 379 CALLE CESAR GONZALEZ HATO REY, PR 00918 TEL: (787) 766-0949 / FAX: (787) 771-2425 CORREO ELECTRÓNICO: VAZQUEZYASOCIADOSPR@ GMAIL.COM EXPEDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, hoy dia 14 de agosto de 2020. Lcda. Laura I Santa Sanchez, Sec Regional.

Mariela Santana Cintron, Sec Auxiliar.

interpelación judicial de la parte demandante a los herederos del codemandado conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec.

2787. Se Ordena a los herederos del causante a saber, Helga Magali Seda Rivera, t/c/c Helga M. Seda Rivera, t/c/c Helga Magaly Seda Rivera y a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, herederos de nombres desconocidos a que dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante Saturnino Viterbo Sánchez Bobadilla, t/c/c Saturnino V. Sánchez, t/c/c Saturnino V. Sánchez. Se le Apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados: (a) Que de no expresarse dentro del término de 30 días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia la misma se tendrá por aceptada; (b) Que luego del transcurso del termino de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante y por consiguiente, responden por la cargas de LEGAL NOTICE dicha herencia conforme dispoESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO ne el Artículo 957 del Código DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUCivil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2785. Se NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Ordena a la parte demandante SALA DE CAROLINA. a que, en vista de que la suReverse Mortgage cesión del causante Saturnino Funding, LLC Viterbo Sánchez Bobadilla, DEMANDANTE VS. t/c/c Saturnino V. Sánchez, t/c/c Sucesión de Saturnino Saturnino V. Sánchez incluyen como herederos a Helga MaViterbo Sánchez gali Seda Rivera, t/c/c Helga M. Bobadilla, t/c/c Saturnino Seda Rivera, t/c/c Helga MaV. Sánchez, t/c/c galy Seda Rivera y a Fulano de Saturnino V. Sánchez Tal y Sutano de Tal, como pocompuesta por Helga sibles herederos desconocidos, Magali Seda Rivera, t/c/c proceda a notificar la presente Orden mediante un edicto a Helga M. Seda Rivera, esos efectos una sola vez en t/c/c Helga Magaly Seda un periódico de circulación diaERICA NICOLE ria general de la Isla de Puerto Rivera, Fulano de Tal OSORIO SCHURRER Rico. REGÍSTRESE Y NOTIy Sutano de Tal como Parte Demandada FÍQUESE. DADA en Carolina, CIVIL NÚM BY2020RF01079. posibles herederos Puerto Rico, hoy 13 de agosto SALÓN : SOBRE: DIVORCIO desconocidos; Helga de 2020. f/ Hon. Ignacio E. Mo(RUPTURA IRREPARABLE).

Magali Seda Rivera, t/c/c rales Gómez, Juez Superior.

EMPLAZAMIENTPOO RE DICHelga M. Seda Rivera, TO DEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOLEGAL NOTICE t/c/c Helga Magaly CIADO DE PUERTO RICO. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO Seda Rivera; Centro 1. A: ERICA NICOLE DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUde Recaudación de OSORIO SCHURRER: NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Ingresos Municipales; y SALA SUPERIOR DE CARODireccion: 70 Chesnut St, Apt 201, Holyoke, MA a los Estados Unidos de LINA.

01040

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y se le notifica que una demanda ha sido presentada en su contra, la cual obra en el expediente del Honorable Tribunal, en el caso de epígrafe, y se le requiere para que conteste la demandad entro 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

América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: CA2019CV03905 (406). SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. Orden. Examinada la demanda radicada por la parte demandante, la solicitud de interpelación contenida en la misma y examinados los autos del caso, el Tribunal le imparte su aprobación y en su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así como la

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

por la Vía Ordinaria).

A: CAROL YN APONTE SALGADO, por sí y como ca-administradora de la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales que constituye con su esposo Alex González Almeyda

POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se le notifica que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría por la parte demandante, Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria en la que se alega adeuda la suma principal de $102,894.16 intereses al 4 1/2% anual, desde el día 1ro de agosto de 2018, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $13,157.70, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La propiedad hipotecada a ser vendida en pública subasta es: URBANA: Solar con el número Treinta (30) de la Manzana número Ciento Noventa y Uno (191) de la URBANIZACIÓN VILLA CAROLINA, Quinta Sección, radicado en el Barrio Hoyo Mulas del término municipal de Carolina, Puerto Rico, de TRESCIENTOS VEINTICUATRO PUNTO CERO CERO (324.00) METROS CUADRADOS. En lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número Veintinueve (29), distancia de veinticuatro punto cero cero (24.00) metros; por el SUR, con el solar número Treinta y Uno (31), distancia de veinticuatro punto cero cero (24.00) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar número Ocho (8), distancia de trece punto quinientos (13.500) metros; y por el OESTE, con la Calle número Veintidós (22), distancia de trece punto quinientos (13.500) metros.

Contiene una casa de concreto para una familia La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 100 del tomo 1379 de Carolina, Sección Segunda, finca número 33,864, inscripción novena. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) dí as de haber sido publicado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día de la publicación. Usted deberá preORIENTAL BANK sentar su alegación responsiva Demandante vs. a través del Sistema Unificado ALEX GONZALEZ de Manejo y Administración de ALMEYDA y su esposa Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente CAROLYN APONTE dirección: https://unired.ramaSALGADO y la Sociedad judicial.pr/sumac/ salvo que se Legal de Bienes represente por derecho propio, Gananciales compuesta en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la por ambos secretaría del tribunal y enviar Demandados CIVIL NÚM. CA2020CV00712 copia a la representación legal (404). SOBRE: COBRO DE DI- de la parte demandante cuya NERO (Ejecución de Hipoteca dirección más adelante se in-

(787) 743-3346

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020 dica. 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.

Lic. Baldomero A. Collazo Torres Bufete Collazo, Connelly & Surillo, LLC P.O. Box 70212 San Juan, P.R. 00936-8212 Tel. (787) 625-9999 Fax (787) 705-7387 E-mail: bcollazo@lawpr.com Se le notifica también por la presente que la parte demandante habrá de presentar para su anotación al Registrador de la Propiedad del Distrito en que está situada la propiedad objeto de este pleito, un aviso de estar pendiente esta acción.

Para publicarse conforme a la Orden dictada por el Tribunal en un periódico de circulación general. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto que firmo y sello en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 12 de agosto de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Sec Regional Myriam I Figueroa Pastrana, Sec Auxiliar.

marzo de 2020, 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 lUdías 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 18 de agosto de 2020. En AGUADILLA, Puerto Rico, el 18 de agosto de 2020. SARAHI REYES PEREZ, Secretaria Regional. ZUHEILY GONZALEZ AVILES, Secretaria Auxiliar.

PR RECOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC

AS SERVICER OF WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, AS CERTIFICATE TRUSTEE ON BEHALF OF BOSCO CREDIT II TRUST SERIES 2017-1,

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISLEGAL NOTICE TRICT COURT FOR THE DISEstado Libre Asociado de Puer- TRICT OF PUERTO RICO. to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL FRANKLIN CREDIT DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de PriMANAGEMENT mera Instancia Sala Superior CORPORATION, de AGUADILLA.

Parte Demandante VS.

ERIC N SUAREZ PEREZ, LAURA SANABRIA VALENTIN & LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL Plaintiff, v.

DE GANANCIALES MARIELY NIEVES RIVERA COMPUESTA POR Defendant AMBOS CIVIL NO. 18-01841 (PG). IN

Parte Demandada CIVIL NUM: AG2019CV01510.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO REGLA 60. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

REM - FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. DEFAULT JUDGMENT. Upon plaintiff’s application for judgment, and it appearing from the records of the A: ERIC N SUAREZ above entitled cause that dePEREZ, LAURA fault was entered by the Clerk SANABRIA VALENTIN & of this Court against the LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL defendant(s) for their failure to plead or file an answer to the DE GANANCIALES complaint, or otherwise appear COMPUESTA POR in the above cause, against AMBOS which defendant(s) plaintiff is DIRECCION: URB SAN entitled to a judgment by deCARLOS 128 CALLE SAN fault, and the Court being fully advised of the facts, IT IS HEFRANCISCO AGUADILLA REBY ORDERED, ADJUDPR 00603-5836 GED AND DECREED that: 1.

P/C LIC JOSE F AGUILAR On August 8, 2008, the Defendant received a mortgage loan VELEZ from The Money House, Inc., PO BOX 71418 which repayment obligation is 00936-8518 evidenced with a mortgage (Nombre de las partes a las que se note in the amount of le notifican la sentencia por edicto) $218,500.00, repayable with LA SECRETARIA que suscribe an annual interest rate of le notifica a usted que el 6 de

7.375%, due on September 1st, 2038, pursuant to mortgage deed number 461 executed on the same date, and before notary public Teresa González Ferrer recorded at page 19 of volume 1728 of Caguas, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, First Section of Caguas.

2. As guarantee of the repayment obligation, Defendants also executed a mortgage deed encumbering the property described herein below in Spanish language, in the amount of $218,500.00: ---Propiedad Horizontal: Apartamento residencial identificado con el número Ciento Uno del Edificio “Cuatro” (4-101), localizado en la primera planta del Edificio Cuatro del Condominio Armonía, sito en el Barrio Cañabón del término municipal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, el cual tiene una cabida superficial de área de construcción de mil quinientos cuarenta y uno pies cuadrados con setenta y seis centésimas de un pie cuadrado (1,541.76 p.c.) equivalentes a ciento cuarenta y tres metros cuadrados con veinticuatro centésimas de un metro cuadrado (143.24 m.c.). En lindes por el Norte con un elemento común general, que es un área verde, que está adyacente al área de estacionamiento y la calle Sur Interior en una distancia de cuarenta y un pies con una pulgada (41’-1”), equivalentes a doce metros con cincuenta y dos centímetros (12.52 m.) y con el área de escalera y acceso al Edificio en una distancia de tres pie con ocho pulgadas (3’-8”), equivalentes a un metro con doce centímetros (1.12 m.); por el Sur con un elemento común limitado, que es un área verde, para uso exclusivo de este apartamento Ciento Uno (101) del Edificio Número Cuatro (4101) en una distancia de cuarenta y cuatro pies con nueve pulgadas (44’-9”), equivalentes a trece metros con sesenta y cuatro centímetros (13.46 m.); por el Este con un espacio común general, que es un área verde, en una distancia de treinta y seis pies con dos pulgadas (36’-2”), equivalentes a oncee metros con dos centímetros (11.02 m.); y por el Oeste con el Apartamento Ciento Dos del Edificio Número Cuatro (4-102) en una distancia de treinta y un pies con cuatro (31’-4”), equivalentes a nueve metros con cincuenta y cinco centímetros (9.55 m.), y con la escalera y acceso al Edificio en una distancia de un pie con ocho pulgadas (1’-8”), equivalentes a cincuenta y un centímetros (0.51 m.). La puerta principal de entrada y salida de este apartamento se en-

The San Juan Daily Star cuentra localizada en la colindancia Norte, y da acceso a elementos comunes a saber: pasillos, escalera y a su vez a través de las calles interiores tiene acceso a la vía pública Gran Boulevard de Los Prados. Este apartamento consta de un nivel, donde se ubican los elementos de vestíbulo, sala, comedor, sala familiar, cocina, tres (3) cuartos dormitorios, varios roperos (closets), dos cuartos de servicios sanitarios, área con facilidades para destinar a lavandería y una terraza al fondo, adyacente al Patio de Fondo. Además tiene y le corresponde el uso y disfrute del Patio al Fondo, área verde abierta sin techar, demarcada por verja arquitectónica con un área superficial de noventa y un metros cuadrados con cincuenta y cuatro centésimas de un metro cuadrado (91.54 m.c.), equivalentes a novecientos ochenta y cinco pies cuadrados con treinta centésimas de un pie cuadrado (985.30 p.c.), como elementos común limitado destinado de forma y manera exclusiva, única, permanente e inseparable del apartamento.

Además tiene y le corresponde el uso y disfrute de un patio al frente, área de verde abierta sin techar, demarcada por verja arquitectónica con un área superficial de ochenta y seis pies cuadrados con sesenta centésimas de un pie cuadrados (86.60 p.c.), equivalentes a ocho metros cuadrados con cinco centésimas de un metros cuadrado (8.05 m.c.), como elemento común limitados destinado de forma y manera exclusiva, única, permanente e inseparable del apartamento.

– Tiene y le corresponde como elementos común limitado destinado de forma y manera exclusiva, permanente e inseparable, dos (2) espacios para estacionamientos que se identifican con los números treinta y cuatro (34) y cuarenta y tres (43). Este apartamento tiene una participación en los elementos generales del Condominio de cero punto tres, siete, ocho, cuatro por ciento (0.3784 %). The property is recorded at page 19 of volume 1728 of Caguas, property number 59,642, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section I of Caguas. 3. Bosco Credit II Trust Series 2017-1 is the holder, by endorsement, of the Promissory Note subscribed by the defendants. 4. On September 30, 2016, the mortgage for the amount of $218,500.00 was modified as follows: The principal amount was increased $651.51 for a new principal amount of $219,115.51, with an annual interest rate of 6.375% and new maturity date of October 1st, 2046, according to deed number 150, executed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before notary public Artu-

ro I. Corretjer Maldonado. 5.

The Defendant is the owner of the Property given as collateral, according to the Registry of Property and Plaintiff’s best knowledge and belief. 6. e Defendants has breached her obligations under the Mortgage Deed towards Plaintiff by, among other things, failing to make the agreed upon payments. 7. As of November 8, 2019, Defendant owed Plaintiff the principal balance of $172,711.80, accrued interests from October 1st, 2017 until full payment at the interest rate of 6.375%; which will continue to accrue interest at the contractual rates, and expressly agreed-upon attorneys’ fees and legal costs in the amount of $21,911.55. 8. In default of the payment of the sums hereinbefore specified or of any part thereof, within ten (10) days from the date of entry of this judgment, the mortgaged property described in paragraph one (l) hereof, shall be sold at public auction to the highest bidder therefor, without an appraisal or right of redemption for the payment and satisfaction of plaintiff’s mortgage within the limits secured thereby. 9. Victor M. Encarnación Pichardo, is hereby designated and appointed as Special Master to make the sale hereinbefore mentioned but said Special Master shall not proceed to carry out the said sale, nor do anything in connection therewith, until further order of this Court and under the form and conditions to be directed by this Court. 10. The sale to be made by the Special Master appointed herein shall be subject to the confirmation of this Court, and the purchaser or purchasers thereof shall be entitled to receive possession of the property sold. The minimum bid to be accepted at the first public sale in accordance with the mortgage deed referred to in this auction is the amount equal to the original principal amount of the note, $220,000.00. 11. Any funds derived from the sale to be made in accordance with the terms of this judgment and such further orders of this Court shall be applied as follows: a) To the payment of all proper expenses attendant upon said sale, including the expenses, outlays and compensation of the Special Master appointed herein, after the said compensation and expenses shall have been fixed and approved by the Court, all said expenses to be deducted from the sum provided in the deed of mortgage for costs, charges and disbursements, expenses and attorneys’ fees. b) To the payment of that part of the indebtedness owed to plaintiff up to the amount of $172,711.80 and accrued interests in the amount of $24,066.94, which continue

Monday, August 24, 2020 to accrue, plus fees, costs and any other amount expressly agreed-upon in the mortgage deed plus 10% for agreed attorneys’ fees in the amount of $21,911.55, after deduction of the expenses mentioned in the preceding subparagraph (a). c) If after making all the above payments there shall be a surplus, said surplus shall be delivered to the Clerk of this Court, subject to further orders of the Court. 12. Plaintiff in these proceedings may apply to this Court for such further orders as it may deem advisable to its interests, in accordance with the terms of this judgment. SO ORDERED. San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 13th day of January, 2020. S/JUAN M. PEREZ GIMENEZ,SENIOR U.S. DISTRIC JUDGE.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Y SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC. COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIO DEMANDANTE VS.

SUCESIÓN DE GRACIELA RAMÍREZ VÉLEZ COMPUESTA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NÚM.: MZ2019CV01995.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. ss.

A: FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE GRACIELA RAMIREZ VELEZ URB. VALLE HERMOSO 35-SD CALLE VIOLETA HORMIGUEROS PR 00660

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 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. Representa a la parte demandante, la abogada cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RÚA NÚM: 11416 FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. PO BOX 9300 SANTURCE, PR 00908 TEL: 787- 751-5290/ FAX: 787-751-6155 E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com Se le apercibe que, si no compareciere usted a contestar dicha demanda dentro del término de 30 días a partir de la publicación de este edicto, radicando el original de la contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente, con copia a la parte demandante, se le anotaría la rebeldía y se le dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle.

Se le apercibe que conforme al Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. § 2787, usted tiene 30 días para aceptar o repudiar la herencia desde la publicación de este edicto. A esos efectos, de no rechazarla, se tendrá la herencia por aceptada. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico a 17 de AGOSTO de 2020. LCDO. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, Sec Regional. F/Betsy Santaigo Gonzalez, Sec Auxiliar.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante VS.

MARY LUZ FORT MONTALVO

Parte Demandada CIVIL NUM: BY2019CV03074.

SALA (701). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MARY LUZ FORT MONTALVO

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de AGOSTO de 2020, 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 lUdías siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 14 de agosto de 2020. En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico, el 14 de agosto de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional. F/MARIA E. COLLAZO, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

25

autos de este caso, con fecha de 18 de agosto de 2020. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 18 de agosto de 2020. MARILYN APONTE RODRIGUEZ, Secretaria Regional. JANNETTE RAMIREZ BERNARD, Secretaria Auxiliar.

SALA (201). SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

LEGAL NOTICE

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 de AGOSTO de 2020, 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 lUdías siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 20 de agosto de 2020. En GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico, el 20 de agosto de 2020.

LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional. F/ MAIRENI TRINTA MALDONADO, Secretaria Auxiliar.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante VS.

MILAGROS VAZQUEZ PEREZ

Parte Demandada CIVIL NUM: GB2019CV01290.

SALA (201). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MILAGROS VAZQUEZ PEREZ

Estado Libre Asociado de Puer- (Nombre de las partes a las que se to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL le notifican la sentencia por edicto) DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Pri- LA SECRETARIA que suscrimera Instancia Sala Superior be le notifica a usted que el 18 de AGOSTO de 2020, este de CAROLINA. Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, PR RECOVERY AND Parcial o Resolución DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC Sentencia en este caso, que ha sido debiParte Demandante VS. damente registrada y archivada ANGEL L PEREZ RIVERA en autos donde podrá usted enY OTROS terarse detalladamente de los Parte Demandada términos de la misma. Esta noCIVIL NUM: CE2019CV00124 tificación se publicará una sola (406). SOBRE: COBRO DE vez en un periódico de circulaDINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE ción general en la Isla de PuerSENTENCIA POR EDICTO. to Rico, dentro de los lUdías siguientes a su notificación. Y, A: ÁNGEL L. PÉREZ RIVERA, POR SÍ Y EN siendo o representando usted parte en el procedimiento REPRESENTACIÓN DE una sujeta a los términos de la SenLA SOCIEDAD LEGAL tencia, Sentencia Parcial o ReDE GANANCIALES solución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o E ISABEL ALLENDE MITCHELL, POR SÍ Y EN apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la REPRESENTACIÓN DE publicación por edicto de esta LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE notificación, dirijo a usted esta GANANCIALES notificación que se considerará (Nombre de las partes a las que se hecha en la fecha de la publile notifican la sentencia por edicto) cación de este edicto. Copia de LA SECRETARIA que suscribe esta notificación ha sido archile notifica a usted que el 27 de vada en los autos de este caso, JULIO de 2020, este Tribunal con fecha de 20 de agosto de ha dictado Sentencia, Senten- 2020. En GUAYNABO, Puerto cia Parcial o Resolución en este Rico, el 20 de agosto de 2020. caso, que ha sido debidamente LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANregistrada y archivada en autos CHEZ, Secretaria Regional. F/ donde podrá usted enterarse MAIRENI TRINTA MALDONAdetalladamente de los términos DO, Secretaria Auxiliar. de la misma. Esta notificación LEGAL NOTICE se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general Estado Libre Asociado de Pueren la Isla de Puerto Rico, den- to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL tro de los lUdías siguientes a su DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Prinotificación. Y, siendo o repre- mera Instancia Sala Superior sentando usted una parte en el de GUAYNABO. procedimiento sujeta a los térNOEL EDGARDO minos de la Sentencia, SentenRODRIGUEZ RODRIGUEZ cia Parcial o Resolución, de la T/C/C NOEL E. cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación den- RODRIGUEZ RODRIGUEZ tro del término de 30 días conParte Demandante VS. tados a partir de la publicación JOHN DOE Y RICHARD por edicto de esta notificación, ROE COMO POSIBLES dirijo a usted esta notificación TENEDORES que se considerará hecha en la DESCONOCIDOS fecha de la publicación de este Parte Demandada edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los CIVIL NUM: GB2020CV00314.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

LEGAL NOT ICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de CAROLINA.

LIME RESIDENTIAL, LTD Parte Demandante VS.

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Y OTROS

Parte Demandada CIVIL NUM: CA2020CV00644.

SALA (409). SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 de AGOSTO de 2020, 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 lUdías siguientes a su notificación. Y,

siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 20 de agosto de 2020. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 20 de agosto de 2020.

LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRIGUEZ, Secretaria Regional. MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, Secretaria Auxiliar.

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

PR RECOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC Parte Demandante VS.

MILDRED VARGAS RODRIGUEZ

Parte Demandada CIVIL NUM: BY2019CV04999.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MILDRED VARGAS RODRIGUEZ

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 7 de AGOSTO de 2020, 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 lUdías 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 20 de agosto de 2020. En TOA ALTA, Puerto Rico, el 20 de agosto de 2020.

CC: LCDO. JOSE FRANCISCO AGUILAR VELEZ - PO Box 71418, SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO 00936-8518 LCDA LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional.

LIRIAM M. HERNANDEZ OTERO, Secretaria Auxiliar.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

NBA playoff teams feel the pain of bubble injuries

By MARC STEIN

J

oel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers was in one of his playful and provocative moods when we crossed paths for the first time at the NBA bubble.

As he walked to the team bus after a narrow Sixers win over the San Antonio Spurs, Embiid responded to a question about the legitimacy of winning a championship in such unusual circumstances — no fans, no travel and 22 teams at a single site — with a typical Embiid line.

“If we win it, it might be the toughest based on the conditions, and we intend to do our best to do so,” Embiid said. “If we don’t win it, then to me this would be a glorified summer league.”

That was Aug. 3. Two days later, Ben Simmons abruptly limped off the floor in a game against Washington with a partial dislocation of his left kneecap. Simmons underwent surgery the following week, and the vibe around the 76ers has since declined to downright dour.

Losing Simmons weakened the Sixers significantly before a first-round playoff matchup with Boston in which the Celtics jumped out to a 2-0 lead — and Philadelphia is hardly suffering alone. Injuries at the NBA bubble, if not all as severe as what happened to Embiid’s fellow AllStar, have been frequent enough to put a wider damper on the playoffs.

There have been at least five season-ending injuries during the restart at Walt Disney World over the past six weeks, in addition to the likely end of Simmons’ season: Portland’s Zach Collins (ankle), Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac (knee), Sacramento’s Marvin Bagley (foot) and the Memphis duo of Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee) and Justise Winslow (hip). That unfortunate club will grow if Domantas Sabonis, the Indiana Pacers’ All-Star forward, is unable to return from a case of plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

Then last Thursday, Portland’s Damian Lillard dislocated the index finger on his left (non-shooting) hand by swiping at the ball from behind the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis, though Lillard played -- and scored 34 points -with a taped up finger in the Trail Blazers’ Game 3 loss to the Lakers on Saturday night. The episode added the freakish sort of contact injury inevitable in countless sports to the slew of softtissue injuries many teams feared as they embarked on the resumption of the 2019-20 season.

Numerous NBA medical experts warned — after a shutdown of more than four months —

Injuries have some N.B.A. playoff teams’ key players — like Houston’s Russell Westbrook, center — cheering from the sidelines instead of playing in games. that players were more vulnerable to soft-tissue injuries with only three weeks of full-speed practices and scrimmages to get ready for Opening Night 2.0 on July 30. Although many experts also expressed hope that eliminating the rigors of travel would be a significant boost for players’ between-games recovery, their injury fears are proving prophetic.

Toronto’s first-round series with the Brooklyn Nets, in fact, is the only one of eight firstround series in which neither team has lost a key player who got hurt in the bubble.

Russell Westbrook, Houston’s All-Star guard, is out indefinitely with a worrisome quadriceps strain in his right leg. The swarming Rockets are leading the series 2-1 over Oklahoma City without him, but that is perhaps partly because the Thunder’s Chris Paul has been playing with an injured thumb that required a tape job in Thursday’s Game 2.

Despite finishing the season with a better record than Miami, Indiana has fallen into a 3-0 series hole against the Heat without Sabonis, who left the team less than three weeks into the Pacers’ Disney stay.

The Los Angeles Clippers dropped to 1111 this season without Patrick Beverley in the lineup when Beverley (calf strain) was scratched from the Clippers’ Game 2 loss to the Dallas Mavericks last Wednesday.

The Denver Nuggets have badly missed swingman Gary Harris (hip muscle strain) against

the Utah Jazz, who were short-handed when they arrived in Florida minus Bojan Bogdanovic (wrist surgery in May) and have since lost key reserve Ed Davis (knee) indefinitely. Utah leads the series, 2-1.

Portland announced Friday that there will be no comeback for Collins, who needs seasonending surgery on his left ankle. CJ McCollum also continues to play through a lower-back fracture he suffered in the Blazers’ first game of the restart in late July.

Nor can Boston feel as comfortable about its long-term prospects as a series lead over the Simmons-less 76ers would normally suggest because Gordon Hayward severely sprained his right ankle in Game 1. Hayward is expected to be sidelined for at least one month.

And maybe no team has felt the injury pain more acutely than the Magic, who were without both Aaron Gordon (hamstring) and Michael Carter-Williams (foot) — on top of Isaac’s absence — for the first two games of their firstround series against top-seeded Milwaukee in the East. After springing a Game 1 upset, Orlando was routed in Game 2 and has fallen behind in the series 2-1 after the Bucks’ 121-107 victory on Saturday.

“None of these guys have ever, since they were kids, gone that long without playing,” Orlando coach Steve Clifford said of the March-toJuly break because of the pandemic. “You knew it was going to happen — pulls and strains and

this and that. We did a Zoom meeting as soon as we got here, when everybody was still in quarantine, and that was a big part of it, telling our players that you’ve got to be talking to the performance staff if you’re feeling sore.”

Injuries like Lillard’s and Hayward’s are indeed sometimes random, bad-luck events that just as easily could have taken place had the playoffs gone on as scheduled this season without the intervention of the coronavirus.

Yet there is also a cumulative fatigue factor that all elite athletes face. Playing games every other day, after such a long layoff, can make that matter more.

“Especially now in the playoffs,” Clifford said, “when the intensity is so amped up.”

Dr. Harlan Selesnick, the Heat’s team physician since the inception of the franchise in 1988-89, said in a recent interview on WRLN radio in Miami that “no one knows how much” this season’s dramatic stop/start has increased injury risk.

“But it’s certainly a concern,” Selesnick said.

Jeff Stotts of the Sports Medicine Analytics Research Team, which consults sports franchises on injury analysis and performance, said “the spike in injuries hasn’t been as pronounced” as he initially feared, but he added that the bubble variables were “always going to present issues” for teams.

Stotts, who also operates the injury-tracking website In Street Clothes, cited “the extended layoff, a condensed schedule, and the forced separation of players and team medical personnel during the hiatus.”

The foremost medical priority for teams remains trying to keep the coronavirus from infiltrating the NBA’s campus. The league announced last Wednesday that, for the fifth week in a row, its considerable measures to combat the virus are working: 341 players tested daily returned zero confirmed positive tests.

Yet the science of injury prevention and the pursuit of reduced injury risk are complex and elusive in their own ways, rife with challenges and mysteries that were never going to be solved in the NBA’s 113-page guidebook that governs campus life. For all the things at Disney World that are so different from the playoff norm, from the largely empty gyms to the shared hotels, how teams cope with injury losses persists as an unavoidable feature of the NBA postseason.

“It’s frustrating,” Clifford said. “I would say it’s that way for the whole league, though.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

27

The players are doing it for themselves, not us

By RORY SMITH

K

ylian Mbappé’s smile was real. His Paris St.-Germain teammates had gathered in a circle around him, bouncing and dancing and celebrating their progression to the club’s first Champions League final.

Their numbers kept swelling as stragglers and latecomers, those who had been sidetracked by media commitments or had to make their way down from the stands, arrived. Abdou Diallo has been in Lisbon as a spectator thus far; he had not played a minute of either of PSG’s games. But when he reached the circle, he sprang off a teammate’s back and launched himself into the middle of the throng.

His joy was real, just as Lyon’s was, when its remarkable victory against Manchester City was confirmed. Just as Bayern Munich’s was, as each and every goal went in against Barcelona. Just as Neymar’s was, when Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting sealed PSG’s place in the semifinals.

The converse has been no less true: the despair of Atalanta, as its dreams were snatched away in injury time; the glassy-eyed shock of Barcelona, as its time came to an end in agonizing slow motion; the anguish of Raheem Sterling, rocking on the turf as he tried to compute quite how he had missed. All of that pain was real.

It should not need to be said that soccer loses something without fans. Of course it does: Their absence strips it of a sense of occasion, spectacle, urgency. The noise of a crowd functions, essentially, as a Greek chorus, an emotional barometer, a form of voiceless narration of events as they unfold. It tells us — fans, distant, and players, present — how, what and when to feel.

These last three months, of games played out in stadiums, still and quiet, are not anyone’s idea of how sports should be. Though a strange alternative narrative has taken hold — in which elite soccer has chosen to do away with fans, rather than elite soccer doing the only thing it could to survive in something resembling its current form — there is nobody, anywhere, who wants to rely on computer-generated atmosphere longer than necessary.

But that is not to say that the worst fears that pre-

Yes, Raheem Sterling missed that chance. Yes, it hurt.

The corner flag doesn’t know the stadium is empty. It still welcomes your celebrations. ceded soccer’s restart in the age of coronavirus have been realized. The worry, before those first Bundesliga games were played in May, was that — deprived of fans — the sport itself would suffer and the “show,” as Arsène Wenger called it, might not survive.

Games played in empty stadiums, without all of that noise and color and frenzy, would seem bland, lifeless, artificial. Soccer, as has been written before, does not have any inherent meaning; it is fans who imbue it with significance. Those fans in the stadium represent all of us; in their absence, the bond is broken. Not just between us and the team, but between action and importance. They are our ambassadors and interpreters, telling us what it all means.

It went unsaid, of course, but at the root of that concern was something that, as fans, we know but choose to ignore: Without the spectacle, soccer becomes just a game. By removing meaning, we draw back the curtain and see this global phenomenon, this multibillion-dollar industry that consumes so much of our time and our energy and our love, for what it is: 22 people we don’t know, kicking a ball around.

And yet that meaninglessness has not materialized.

By the time Bayern Munich’s eighth goal went in against Barcelona, the strangeness of the circumstances in which the game was being played — barren stands, substitutes in face masks — no longer even seemed relevant. What

mattered was what was being played out on the field, the final demise of what was once the greatest team in the world.

That PSG broke Atalanta’s hearts with nobody there to watch did not diminish the drama of it; the cruelty of its two late goals was not offset, even to neutral observers, by the fact that there were not 40,000 people rubbing salt in the wounds. In the seconds after Sterling’s miss, the eye was not drawn to the rows of empty seats; it was too busy trying to get a handle on the physics of what had just happened.

After a while, in other words, it is the game that draws us in, not the backdrop. How much you enjoy a play or a film is not dependent on how many people are there watching it with you. Perhaps that does not apply to the mundane games, the humdrum games; you may find it hard to be captivated by the drama of a draw between Crystal Palace and Burnley, but that may well be true in a full stadium, too. When the stakes are high, though, when the games really matter, you do not need to imbue a game with meaning, you simply need to infer it.

That is because, deep down, there is a lie that we tell ourselves, one that players and managers and executives are complicit in. It is a harmless lie, a comforting lie, a kind lie, one that we tell ourselves to excuse and to explain our passion, to transform our powerlessness into agency, to make us feel as if our love is reciprocated. It

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The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

may be a lie that contains a form of truth. It is almost certainly a lie that those who perpetuate it do not know it to be a lie.

It is that they play for the fans, for us — that we are not merely observers of the events that play out on the field, but the purpose and inspiration for them.

And yet if these last few months have shown anything, it is that is not true. Mbappé’s smile and Diallo’s joy and Atalanta’s pain and Sterling’s despair have all been real, and it has all been real because, deep down, the players and the coaches we adore are not doing it for us. They are doing it for themselves.

They are doing it because this is what they have dedicated their lives to achieving, because this is what they are trained for, because this is what they dreamed of, because this is what they spend every waking hour (in some cases) thinking about. They are doing it for pride and for status and for ambition and, sometimes — though not as often as people say — for money.

That has been clear not just from the Champions League, but from countless scenes in countless countries. It has been striking to see how many players have celebrated goals in empty stadiums as if the stands were full to bursting. At first, it was tempting to see it as a force of habit — what else are you going to do? — but after a while, it became clear that it was not. It was a genuine expression of joy. They wanted to run to the corner. They wanted to raise their arms. Their happiness was not dependent on our presence.

The celebrations by Liverpool and Real Madrid and Bayern Munich when they won their leagues were not artificial. Nor were Chelsea’s or Manchester Unit-

ed’s when they qualified for the Champions League, or Aston Villa’s when it avoided relegation. Soccer means something to the players whether fans are there or not.

They do not need to be told what to feel.

That has always been true, of course. To some extent, it is perhaps not especially revelatory. But only now, in these weeks of quiet and still in the stadiums, has it been brought into sharp focus. That is what has been most striking about soccer’s summer behind closed doors, what the new normal has allowed us to see: that the game does mean something, whether we are there to interpret it or not.

The Transfer of the Summer In Rose Lavelle’s eyes, signing for Manchester City was a chance to “challenge” herself. It meant moving abroad for the first time, discovering a new city, expanding her horizons, experiencing the Champions League, becoming part of the inexorable shift of power in women’s soccer to the grand old clubs of western Europe.

Lavelle is, though, being a little modest. The Women’s Super League has plenty of stars. She will be able to call Sam Mewis and Ellen White her teammates at Manchester City. She will encounter Vivianne Miedema, Danielle van de Donk and Sam Kerr as opponents this season. Lavelle, though, has the talent to be the brightest of them all.

She is likely to make more of an impact on the league than the league will on her. Should she settle in to her new surroundings, her arrival may yet come to be regarded as something of a transformational moment for WSL Manchester City, certainly, should now

Rose Lavelle’s move to Manchester City strengthens a powerful squad.

Josep Maria Bartomeu is facing an uncomfortable offseason. have the firepower to compete at a European level with Lyon and Paris St.-Germain.

More important, Lavelle is a bums-on-seats sort of a player, the kind who is worth the admission money by herself. Before the pandemic, women’s soccer was growing exponentially in Britain. The presence of Lavelle may be just the tonic it needs to ensure that momentum is not lost.

Rebuilding Barcelona: Easier Said Than Done If Josep Maria Bartomeu, the Barcelona president, was trying to project an image of dynamism, and decisiveness, and power, then he succeeded. Within 72 hours of his team’s humiliating defeat to Bayern Munich last week, Bartomeu had: told his sporting director to fire his coach; fired his sporting director; announced a list of players he considered the integral cornerstones of the club’s future; and, by omission, effectively revealed that everyone else was available for sale.

If all of that was designed to project an image of control, though, it fell short. Barcelona’s new coach, Ronald Koeman, has a wealth of experience, but there is little in his managerial career to suggest he would have been given this chance if he were not a former Barcelona player. His appointment smacked of panic.

So, too, did the very public revelation that Barcelona would listen to offers for at least half of its current squad, the likes of Gerard Piqué, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba included. That Barcelona needs an overhaul is no great revelation. That the central problem with carrying it out will be freeing up space in the team — and on the wage bill — is blindingly obvious.

The problem is there are only a handful of teams that can afford the salaries that the likes of Piqué and Suárez and the others command. Only a small portion of that handful would be likely to commit to those salaries when most of these players are approaching the twilight of their careers.

So all Bartomeu’s announcement did was irritate several players he may not be able to offload, and guarantee that potential buyers feel empowered to take advantage of Barcelona’s desperation. It felt like the act of a man who needed to be seen to do something. Quite how, exactly, he plans to do it seems to remain open to question.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

29

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

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

(Mar 21-April 20)

A new relationship is making you uncomfortable. You need to know your partner shares your interest in activities you enjoy. Put out some feelers and see how they react. Show them how much you enjoy their company.

Romance and friendship activities are a great source of pleasure providing you have found someone who shares similar likes and dislikes.

Taurus

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, August 24, 2020

(April 21-May 21)

A friend or your family’s opinions won’t help you when you’re trying to make an important decision. They have their views but, in this instance, you need to make your own choice. A partner’s response is making you question your compatibility. You wonder whether you can ever please them. Difficulties you encounter strengthen your determination to improve your relationships.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

You’ve been yearning for more affection and romance. Someone will know exactly how to fulfil your needs. A loving relationship is starting to deepen into something special and lasting. You have found the person you want to be with forever and this feels like a dream come true.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Finding the right balance between work and play will have many benefits. You’ve been missing out on other areas because of the time taken up by work and outside commitments.

Reduce your responsibilities so you can enjoy some leisure and pleasure. Someone you love is feeling neglected; remember to make time for them, too.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

If your domestic world is causing problems, this could knock other aspects of your life out of balance. Issues that are arising in a relationship need to be sorted. Instead of dwelling on how you would like your life to be, take steps to turn dreams into reality. You can take the initiative to improve your world.

Whether you are arranging a modest social event, a romantic holiday or an anniversary celebration, you will make certain all goes according to plan. Your leadership qualities come to the fore and others are happy to let you take charge. You’ve been eagerly counting the days to this special event and you won’t be disappointed.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Admiring someone’s confidence and imagining them to be better than you may be a big mistake. The impression they give could be far from what they are really like. Don’t feel inadequate when working with a colleague who brags about their accomplishments.

You’re probably more skilled and knowledgeable. Modesty is also an admirable quality.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

Tension and arguments with a partner isn’t helping your relationship. You want more fun and excitement and they aren’t feeling this.

Don’t give up on your relationship. Channel your frustration into physical activity and give your other half more time to get used to new ideas. Your best guide is to follow your heart.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

The arrival of a newcomer to your workplace is causing some tension. People aren’t sure how they feel about new methods and procedures and they will look to you for advice.

This puts you at the centre of the stage and although this makes you uncomfortable you know what you must do.

A workaholic friend is trying to get you interested in a project they are starting. You just want to have fun. They will try to goad you into joining them but you aren’t listening. You don’t want to use all your time and energy on work and competitive endeavours. You just aren’t in the mood for hard work.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

A partner is wanting more of a challenge and although they are bored, you know that it isn’t your relationship they want to change. Together you can enjoy new adventures and experiences. Travel will add some spice to your life. Now is a good time to start something new especially if it excites your imagination.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You and a new partner are getting on like a house on fire. You have high expectations for this relationship and you intuitively sense you will be good for each other. Tempting offers make for a delightful atmosphere of romance and fun. If you’re single, let someone you really like know you want to be more than just good friends.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Monday, August 24, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

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Monday, August 24, 2020

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