Thursday Aug 27, 2020

Thursday, August 27, 2020

San Juan The

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Star

Emmy Nominees Whose Lives Keep Intersecting P21

Excuses and Promises for Days Public Workers Call on Governor to Convene Special Session to Approve Retirement-Related Bills P5

Gubernatorial Candidate Urges Action to Help Low-Income Students P4

Labor Secretary Reacts to Star Story on Possible Legal Action

by Citizens Over Agency’s Negligence Expresses High Hopes for New Web Platforms Meanwhile, Jobless Desperately Wait for Assistance

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

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August 27, 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.

With thousands still waiting for some form of jobless relief, Labor chief acknowledges ‘a lot that needs to be improved’

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ith thousands of islanders still waiting to collect either the unemployment insurance payment or the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Puerto Rico Labor and Human Resources (DTRH by its Spanish initials) Secretary Carlos Rivera Santiago said Wednesday that although he is not satisfied that over 24 percent claimants have yet to receive any financial aid, the agency is moving to use every resource available to speed things up.

Rivera Santiago said his department is developing a new platform to aid PUA claimants, collaborating with more than 20 municipalities and hiring more than 100 temporary employees to make sure citizens receive their unemployment checks. However, when the Star asked the secretary if he was aware that citizens could take legal action against the DTRH over the unemployment insurance payment delays, Rivera Santiago said that although he is aware that the agency has room for improvement, over 76 percent of claimants are already receiving their unemployment benefit payments.

Labor law experts told the Star on Tuesday that a mandamus against the agency could be issued for not fulfilling a ministerial duty as part of a claim for damages.

“More than 530,000 people today are collecting their unemployment benefits, $2.9 billion have been disbursed in five months, and we have received more than 695,000 unemployment forms. In a typical year, we handle more than 48,000 unemployment applications,” Rivera Santiago said.

“In the midst of a never-before-seen historical event, that’s something positive, but obviously, there’s a lot that needs to improve. I won’t get into the legal determination that a person might make, that’s what the courts are for, but, certainly, the department is doing its job, we’re trying to speed things up as fast as we can.”

Meanwhile, when the Star asked if it was fair for claimants who haven’t received any compensation since the pandemic began in March, Rivera Santiago said “it was definitely not fair;” nonetheless, every case had to be investigated as all cases are not the same. He said further that people have requested both unemployment and PUA thinking that the latter was a stimulus check, causing them to have to return the checks.

“For example, if we have a case that was a dismissal, the citizen might establish that they were fired without fair cause for any reason, and their employer said they were fired due to a disciplinary measure. That’s a case that we have to investigate,” he said. “We must verify each case. We must get into every detail as one case is not the same as the other.”

The Star also asked if unemployment claimants who are still waiting to receive any compensation from the commonwealth will have to wait until the end of the year, given that Rivera Santiago said in an interview on Radio Isla that he promised that every claimant would receive their checks before the year ended. The Labor chief clarified that he wanted to stabilize the system as the department receives new claims every two weeks.

“When I said that I want to stabilize [the department] in some way, it’s because we keep receiving unemployment claims due to citizens having to do so every two weeks, and biweekly, they have to claim if they worked or not during the two weeks prior to the claim, and so on; that’s how unemployment works,” he said. “Another case is that the citizen might be eligible, they claimed the first two weeks, got a check and think that they didn’t have to make any other arrangements, that the checks will keep coming.”

Meanwhile, when the Star asked if the DTRH has planned how to disburse the weekly $400 from the executive order that President Donald Trump signed on Aug. 8, Rivera Santiago said the department has held conversations with the federal government, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other entities. One of the alternatives discussed was that unemployed workers could receive $300 a week from federal funds and $100 a week from commonwealth funds, in addition to the compensation from the Unemployment Insurance benefits.

“According to information provided [by the federal government], a second option is that if a person receives $100 or more from the state’s unemployment trust fund, the [Labor] Department can count those $100 as state funds and receive the additional $300,” Rivera Santiago said. “At the moment, we’re still finishing the application process with the federal government. I must mention that we expect that the benefits will be up to $300.”

As for the citizens who still haven’t received retroactive payments from the PUA, which paid $600 a week to workers who did not qualify for the state’s unemployment insurance until July 31, Rivera Santiago said they must submit their case to a new online platform that is under development by software company Fast Enterprises, which is the same company that developed the Treasury Department’s SURI website. The official told the Star that netizens will provide their information, including routing number and banking account, and the payments will be made via direct deposit within 24-72 hours after the application is submitted.

“We won’t go live or open the platform until we make sure that platform works as it should,” Rivera Santiago said.

“The idea is for the platform to validate the information with DTRH. It will be much faster; citizens don’t have to provide as much information as they can validate it within the system and, from the department’s perspective, move human resources from [the] PUA [section] to redirect them to Unemployment to reinforce this area as the PUA section should run faster.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Candidate Delgado urges action to connect low-income students

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

P

opular Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for governor Carlos “Charlie” Delgado Altieri urged the island Education Department on Wednesday to draw up a work plan to serve low-income families and students who do not have internet service so they are not left out of the virtual curriculum.

“Education is a shared responsibility that goes from the student, the parents, to the teachers and the Department of Education,” Delgado said. “However, I believe that, at the beginning of this virtual semester, educational inequality is more exposed because not all families have the resources to have internet service at home. Above all, outside the metropolitan area. I hereby make a public call to the Secretary of Education to draw up a plan to address these cases, keeping in mind that the municipalities can help in this task.”

The Isabela mayor added that the problem of lack of internet access is not only limited to students, but also some teachers lack the financial resources to have the service in their residences.

“We cannot start from the premise that all students and all teachers have internet,” said Delgado, adding that the situation is worse for special education students. “That may be the reality in some parts of the metropolitan area, but it is not the case throughout the rest of the island.”

Last June, Delgado proposed converting the public school system into a community and democratic axis, where children find an environment that agrees with them, a second home where they feel protected and fed, and that allows them to access the tools to get out of poverty. The school, by itself, would be a community project, he said.

Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Delgado Altieri Among the proposals presented by Delgado to transform the public system into an educational community project are: * Restructure the budget so that the funds necessary for the administration of the schools directly reach and benefit the 294,535 students, 28,000 teachers and 836 schools. The investment in services will be to meet the needs of students, improve the working conditions of teachers and strengthen and improve the public school. * Expand extended school hours programs to offer tutoring and curricular activities, tackling school dropout rates and delinquency problems that arise from the lack of supervision of young people from 3 to 6 p.m. In addition, integrate training and study programs for the benefit of the entire community. * Propose legislation that establishes the necessary principles

for the public policy of decentralization of powers to the municipalities, with the corresponding budget in an orderly and effective manner. It would bring services to schools that mayors, who have direct immediate contact with the communities, can provide more efficiently, such as school maintenance, school transportation, security, and programs such as tutoring, arts and sports. * Work aggressively to lower school dropout rates by offering educational services that will be identified individually for each girl or boy, by teachers and the school community. * Support educational models that work, such as Montessori education, teaching using the neuro-learning model, and residential schools for gifted students. * Implement strategies so that the use of technology is no longer an additional element of discrimination for students. Having or not having access to the internet cannot be an additional factor that hinders students’ academic achievement. * Establish a system of total transparency where the transactions of the Education Department are in the public domain and do not allow corruption or economic exploitation of some sectors of the population. * Rescue, strengthen and expand vocational and technical education programs so that Puerto Rico has leaders in industry, commerce and public service capable of critical thinking and supporting economic development. * Ensure the fiscal and economic stability of the University of Puerto Rico by returning the resources and funds that have been taken from the institution in the past four years. Assign annually to the UPR a budget based on the gross national product (GNP), which will begin with an allocation of 1.05 percent of GNP for fiscal year 2021-2022 (the first budget of the next administration) and reach 1.38 percent in four years.

Velázquez, Ocasio-Córtez file bill to resolve Puerto Rico’s debate over status

By THE STAR STAFF

U

.S. Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Córtez (D-N.Y.) announced in an op-ed piece earlier this week that they have introduced legislation that seeks to resolve Puerto Rico’s debate over its status.

In a piece published by NBC on Tuesday, the lawmakers said the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act, if approved, would instruct Puerto Rico’s Legislature to establish a so-called

status convention that would explore and develop a long-term solution for the status of the U.S. territory, be that statehood, independence, free association or any option other than the current territorial arrangement.

They noted that Puerto Rico’s problems and others stem from its unique, longstanding colonial status, which has resulted in the island’s residents being treated as second-class citizens.

“The time to remedy this situation has come, but it must be done correctly. Puerto Rico needs to be afforded the freedom to design its own future,” they wrote. “That’s why the two of us, both members of Congress of Puerto Rican descent, have introduced the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act.” The members of the convention would be elected by commonwealth voters, they noted.

Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón said in a statement that she does not support Velázquez and Ocasio-Córtez’s bill. She said the bill by the two representatives from New York demonstrates a lack of respect for the people of Puerto Rico and the democratic process in the territory.

“This proposal rejects the equality of Puerto Ricans and

our desire to become a state,” González Colón said. “What my colleagues are proposing is to live as a colony permanently.”

“The bill would delay resolving the fundamental issue of the territory — and the economic benefits that equality would bring — for years,” she added.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

5

Public workers, retirees urge governor to convene a special session to approve retirement system bills

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

T

he Pensions Defense Front and other public worker unions on Wednesday called on Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced to summon a new special session so the Legislative Assembly can take up both House Bill (HB) 2434 and HB 2572, the Dignified Retirement Law and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Retirement System Law, respectively.

Different organizations from the public sector gathered at Calle Fortaleza to hand over a letter demanding that Vázquez and legislators address the aforementioned bills, which remain unaddressed and would guarantee protections for pensions. Eulalia Centeno Ramos, a member of the Retirees Chapter of the Puerto Rico Teachers Federation (FMPR by its Spanish initials), told the Star that the governor still has the opportunity to open up another session as the bills were approved unanimously by the House of Representatives, yet the Senate put a stop to them and, instead, a measure that would have elevated pensions to a constitutional rank equal to that of general obligations was submitted.

“We understand that the bills have attained all the requirements that the Financial Oversight and Management Board

requested. They are defensible bills, they are bills where there is money to fulfill them. At this moment, the decision is in her hands, so she could walk out of La Fortaleza in glory and in defense of this country’s pensioners,” Ramos Centeno said. “We want to see these bills prioritized as laws that comply with the PROMESA [Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act] Law.” The retired teacher and FMPR member also demanded that legislators from the majority make “a serious commitment” to approving the bills that could bring justice for the island’s retirees.

“Both bills defend the interest of both retirees and active government workers. That is why hundreds of thousands [of citizens] will be waiting to see how legislators will act,” she said. “The elected officials must respond and represent our citizens and their needs. If they turn their backs on our rights, they should not continue occupying their positions.”

Meanwhile, Pensions Defense Front Director Pedro Pastrana Ortiz said HB 2434 is part of the pensioners’ and public workers’ agenda because it establishes a public policy of “zero budget cuts.” “[The bill] creates a Unified Retirement System for central government employees, the educational system and the judicial branch,” Pastrana Ortiz said. “It establishes a mechanism to capitalize the system and

Different organizations from the public sector gathered at Calle Fortaleza to hand over a letter demanding that Vázquez and legislators address the aforementioned bills, which remain unaddressed and would guarantee protections for pensions. return the benefits that have been taken away from retirees.”

The Puerto Rican University Professors Association President Ángel Rodríguez said meanwhile that HB 2572 “provides for the current defined benefit retirement plan to be maintained, stops the increases in the retirement age and halts any intention to

freeze employee contributions to the UPR Retirement Trust.”

Members of the Pensions Defense Front called on the government to act swiftly and demanded justice for active public workers and retirees who, they said, “want what belongs to them and what they worked for all their lives.”

Health Dept. lacks personnel to inspect restaurants

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he island Department of Health does not have enough staff to inspect restaurants, House Health Committee Chairman Juan Oscar Morales charged on Wednesday.

“The information I have is that there are very, very few [inspectors]. For all of Puerto Rico there are very few,” Morales said in a radio interview. “We are talking about 78 municipalities and I can tell you that there are not 78 inspectors. There are not half [that many].”

“I am going to wait for the secretary [Lorenzo González Feliciano] to answer the request we made yesterday because I want to be responsible and have them tell us themselves how many personnel the Health Department has for fulfilling its duties and responsibilities,” the legislator added.

González Feliciano, meanwhile, acknowledged to the same radio station that the existing Health Department staff are not enough to carry out the rigorous inspections.

“There are not enough staff,” the Health chief said.

“The governor was asked to give the matter consideration and a message was sent to the Financial Oversight and Management Board to find out what information they need from the Department of Health or what explana-

tion they need so that they recognize the need to recruit personnel for that division.”

González Feliciano said that for the moment, the Health Department has “made everything available to handle the COVID issue.”

The statements were made days after the Health Department intervened at the Latin Star restaurant in Condado for alleged violations of the COVID-19 executive order, and the inspection team observed serious public health irregularities -- some unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic protocols -- in the kitchen area.

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Thursday, August 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Study provides snapshot of workplace fraud’s heavy cost

By THE STAR STAFF

P

uerto Rico has lost the equivalent of 3.5 percent of its 2018 gross national product (GNP), which was $68 billion, and the government lost the equivalent of 5.3 percent of its $8.6 billion contribution to the 2018 GNP because of occupational fraud, according to a study presented Wednesday by the Certified Public Accountants Association (CCPA by its Spanish initials).

The results of the study, titled “Portrait of Occupational Fraud in Puerto Rico 2020,” were presented in an online discussion that also included representatives of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Puerto Rico Bar Association, which also contributed to the study.

“In percentage points, the study shows the government was the biggest victim,” noted CCPA President David González Montalvo. “What happens is that the government’s contribution to the GNP is smaller.”

The term occupational fraud can be defined as acts committed by employees with the aim of obtaining economic benefits through the misuse or illegal appropriation of organizational resources and the manipulation of financial statements. The 87page study had the fundamental purpose of collecting information on the incidence of occupational fraud in the government and in private enterprise, the cost related to fraudulent acts and measures that could prevent such unfortunate incidents, González Montalvo said.

The study involved a sample of 44 individuals who had experienced and participated in the investigation of occupational fraud incidents in Puerto Rico in the past two years (from January 2018 to December 2019). In each incident the investigation has concluded and the perpetrator has been identified.

In addition, the CCPA interviewed 22 fraud or forensic experts and conducted a third study in which 167 to 192 participants answered various surveys.

“Fraud is a problem that affects both small and midsize, and large companies. The study carried out by the Association provides a portrait or photograph of this criminal activity on the island,” said Eduardo González-Green, chairman of the CCPA’s 2020 Portrait of Fraud Committee. “Occupational fraud schemes can be as simple as appropriation of notebooks,

printer ink [cartridges], and other office supplies, to complex schemes to improve operational outcomes, or hide obligations in financial statements and others.”

The study concluded that the cost of fraud is at least 3.5 percent of gross revenue, representing over $2.38 billion for the island economy. The government lost an estimated $459.4 million.

“Based on high cost, companies/entities should evaluate their policies, procedures, internal controls and audit activities,” the CCPA president said. “It is important to continue the educational process for entrepreneurs, because any industry can be a victim. For seven out of 10 study participants, poor internal controls are the main factor that allows occupational fraud to occur.”

González-Green added that “the most appropriate asset is effectiveness.”

“The creation of fraudulent physical documents and the alteration of documents proved to be the main schemes used in occupational fraud; therefore, we recommend strengthening the intervention processes [which includes three-way matching], among other measures,” he said.

The study also found that in 62 percent of the cases fraud was detected through tips, and in 33 percent of the cases through internal audits. An notable finding was that only 65 percent of the companies/entities surveyed have a formal system for receiving complaints. Also, in a change from previous studies, the number of female perpetrators has increased.

As part of the study, the CCPA presented nine recommendations to combat government corruption. Of those, three stand out, the first being “increasing resources for the auditing authorities.”

“With the necessary resources, capabilities and tools, the auditing institutions will have a better chance of implementing preventive and corrective solutions to ensure compliance, and protecting funds and public functions,” the study said.

The second focuses on promoting an open government whose operations are transparently recorded in digital formats.

“This is because, even if there has been an increase in the number of government websites, the information is not being disclosed in a clear, accessible, complete and integrated way, thus making it difficult to access and analyze reliable data,” said Issel Masses, executive director of Sembrando Sentido and

member of the Portrait of Fraud Committee.

The third main recommendation is to promote participation, monitoring and social control in public management.

“The government must join the Open Government Alliance and implement its principles, assigning a transparency committee led by an independent entity and in collaboration with civil society, to develop an open government policy, defining the mechanisms and requirements of social participation and inclusion,” Masses said.

The Open Government Alliance is an international organization that since 2011 has been supporting and promoting transparent governments, accountable and collaborating with civil society in the design, development and implementation of public management. It has more than 78 national members and multiple subnational members committed to the development of open, inclusive, comprehensive and efficient governments.

“The first step in preventing fraud is to recognize that there is a risk and that it is necessary to commit to combating it,” González Montalvo said. “To address this, it is necessary to strengthen the recruitment process, attend training, read [extensively] on the subject and use the resources available to prevent it.”

PDP mayoral candidate alleges electoral fraud in Aguadilla prison

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he Popular Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for mayor of Aguadilla, Julio Roldán, delivered a letter Wednesday to the federal prosecutor in Puerto Rico, W. Stephen Muldrow, urging an exhaustive investigation into what Roldán said are serious allegations of vote manipulation in the Guerrero de Aguadilla correctional institution during the recent party primaries.

“Democracy is in danger. After disastrous primaries, in Puerto Rico and Aguadilla, our people have lost faith in our democratic system,” Roldán said. “During the early voting in that correctional institution, several inmates complained to Popular Democratic Party officials that they had been blackmailed into voting in the NPP [New Progressive Party] primary in exchange for special deals such as high-definition televisions and virtual visitation time, something that violates the Electoral Code of Puerto Rico.”

“Federal law prohibits the intimidation of voters in any election. The Guerrero institution receives federal funds, which would give federal authorities jurisdiction to conduct an investigation,” he added. “This, added to the violations of articles 12.13 and 12.23 of the Electoral Code of Puerto Rico, undoubtedly stains the reputation of the State Elections Commission and the confidence of citizens in the electoral process.”

Roldán said information held by the Popular Democratic Party, and which appears to be official documents from the Aguadilla primary polling station, establish that the inmates said they would vote for Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced, for Mayor Yanitsia Irizarry and for Sen. Héctor Martínez, all NPP candidates, as they were offered benefits and bonuses in exchange for those votes.

“The votes of the prisoners were fundamental in the triumph of the mayor and to avoiding a recount. On the night of the event, the mayor was victorious in the NPP primary by the narrow margin of 115 votes, avoiding a recount by 15 votes,” the

PDP mayoral candidate said. “This undoubtedly leaves a cloak of darkness over the integrity of the process and creates questions of manipulation and illegal acts on the part of the mayor in the voting process for the inmates of the Aguadilla prison.”

Roldán, a former correctional officer, also said the complaint reveals the true intentions of the mayor and what she is capable of doing in order to remain in control of the municipal administration of Aguadilla.

“We request the intervention of the federal prosecutor in Puerto Rico so that, in view of the general elections in November, it can be guaranteed that the voting franchise of the inmates is genuine, clean and not coerced by pressure, gifts or bonuses from any official,” he said.

The candidate said a copy of the letter to the federal prosecutor was sent to PDP Electoral Commissioner Nicolás Gautier, State Elections Commission Chairman Juan Dávila, and acting Justice Secretary Inés Carrau.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

7

The impeachment battle rematch that wasn’t

By PETER BAKER

I

n all the hours and hours of speeches at last week’s Democratic National Convention and the first two nights of the Republican National Convention, one word was almost entirely missing: impeachment.

Just six months after President Donald Trump’s trial on charges of high crimes and misdemeanors, what was seen as the titanic battle of a generation has essentially vanished from the political landscape as if it had never happened.

Although both sides had once anticipated taking the dispute to the voters, they have instead quietly dropped the matter and moved on.

The case of the disappearing impeachment testifies to how drastically American politics have shifted in such a short time. Instead of focusing on whether Trump abused his power by seeking foreign help to win an election or Democrats abused their power by impeaching him for it, the national conversation is dominated by issues that were barely on the radar screen when the trial ended in February — a pandemic that has killed more than 175,000 Americans, the resulting economic collapse and questions of racial injustice and law and order.

“Voters literally didn’t care about and forgot about impeachment the day after the vote,” said Anna Greenberg, President Donald Trump with Rev. Andrew Brunson, who was released after two years of imprisonment by the Turkish a Democratic pollster. “Democrats favored it but didn’t think government, in the Oval Office in Washington, Oct. 13, 2018. it would accomplish anything” because Senate Republicans would never vote to convict him. Less partisan Americans, she added, “didn’t really understand why he was being imBut when Democrats assembled their lineup of speakers Democrats, the press and the Never Trumpers,” Jordan peached, and Republicans thought it was a ‘witch hunt.’ ” for last week’s convention, none of their top impeachment said in his speech. “And when you take on the swamp, the Pollsters generally do not even ask voters about impeawarriors made the list — not even Rep. Adam B. Schiff of swamp fights back. They tried the Russia hoax, the Mueller chment anymore and candidates report little if any interest California, the lead manager, or prosecutor, whose powerful investigation and the fake impeachment. But in spite of this in relitigating the clash. The electorate’s views of the episode speeches condemning Trump stirred liberals. A search of 40 unbelievable opposition, this president has done what he have long since cemented into place, and neither party sees formal speeches delivered last week found not one mention said he would do.” much of an advantage in dwelling on a moment of history In an interview on Tuesday, Jordan said it was undersof the words impeach, impeachment or Ukraine. that has possible downsides for each side.

Other than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the only major tandable that impeachment was not highlighted more given “I’m sure both campaigns have recognized this — that’s player from the drama who appeared during the convention the virus and the set-in-concrete views about the affair. not how Americans are likely to decide who they’re going was Marie L. Yovanovitch, the ambassador to Ukraine who “There’s been some other big issues that have come to vote for,” said David H. Winston, a Republican pollster. was removed from her post on Trump’s orders because she along in the last year that are obviously critically important, “They’re looking for solutions here, not charge-countercharge. was painted as an obstacle to the president’s efforts to get so that’s just a practical issue,” he said. “But I also think How are we going to defeat the virus and how are we going what he wanted from the Kyiv government. so many Americans saw it for what it was, particularly to get America working?”

Even then, Yovanovitch, who has retired from the career independent-leaning Americans and Republicans. They saw What a difference six months makes. Not long ago, Washington, if not the rest of the nation, was consumed Foreign Service and was making something of a political debut it as the sham that it was.”

On Tuesday night, Pam Bondi, a former attorney gewith the fight over whether to remove Trump from office. It last week, said nothing about the Ukraine matter but instead was simply shown in a video praising former Vice President neral of Florida who served on the president’s defense team was only the third time in American history that a president Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee.

“He is experienced,” during the Senate trial, made no mention of impeachment. has been impeached by the House and put on trial in the she said.

“He has made the tough calls.”

A casual viewer But she did advance the distorted version of Biden’s actions Senate. Democrats argued that Trump violated his duty by would have no idea who she was and what role she had in in Ukraine that were at the heart of the Trump team’s effort withholding military aid to Ukraine and pressuring its leaders the events that led to the impeachment. to tarnish him, accusing the former vice president of being to denigrate his Democratic rivals, but with the exception of Likewise, the Republican roster of speakers this week the real corrupt candidate.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah could not convince Republicans includes few of the impeachment figures. The only Repu“Democrats have been lecturing America about inin the Senate to convict him. blican who mentioned the word impeachment on Monday tegrity for four years while their nominee has been writing When the trial ended in February, many in both parnight was Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of the president’s the textbook on abuse of power for 40 years,” Bondi said ties expected to retry the case in the fall with voters as the most stalwart defenders during the House proceedings, and in her speech.

“If they want to make this election a choice jury. Democrats were expected to focus on Trump’s alleged he cited it only in passing to hail Trump’s tenacity. between who’s saving America and who’s swindling Amecrimes and Republicans on the assertion that he was being “He’s taken on the swamp, all of the swamp, the rica, bring it on.” persecuted for partisan reasons.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Did Trump overvalue his properties? Here’s what we know about the inquiry

By DANNY HAKIM and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

O

ver the years, Donald Trump and his company have placed widely different values on the Seven Springs estate.

The sprawling property north of New York City was purchased for $7.5 million in 1995.

But by 2014, the Trump Organization said it was worth $291 million, in financial documents its officers prepared when they were seeking a bank loan. Four years later, on Trump’s ethics disclosure form, it was listed as being worth no more than $50 million.

That property and three others have become a focus of an investigation by the New York state attorney general’s office into whether the president and the Trump Organization improperly inflated the value of his holdings, making false representations to banks or on tax forms.

This week, the investigation drew new attention after the attorney general, Letitia James, went to court to force Eric Trump, the president’s son and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, to answer questions under oath.

James is also seeking to compel the Trump Organization to turn over thousands of documents to her office, which is examining potential violations of civil, rather than criminal, law.

Here’s what we know so far about the attorney general’s investigation.

It began with Trump’s lawyer The investigation started after Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, testified to Congress in February of last year that Trump and his employees manipulated his net worth to suit his interests.

Cohen, who had broken with his old boss and had pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and bank fraud, also provided the House Oversight Committee with documents he said backed up his claims.

“It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes,” Cohen said in his testimony.

The next month, the attorney general’s office issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank. Court documents made public this week said the office was investigating whether the president and the Trump Organization “improperly inflated the value of Trump’s assets on annual financial statements in order to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits.”

Four properties are being examined At least four of the president’s properties are under scrutiny, according to new court papers.

The exterior of the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street in New York on Dec. 5, 2019. The New York State attorney general is investigating whether the president and the Trump Organization improperly inflated the value of his holdings.

They include the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, where one of the lenders, Fortress Credit Corp., forgave more than $100 million worth of debt in 2012. The Trump Organization has refused to turn over records establishing whether it reported the forgiven debt as income, as is typically required.

Investigators are also looking at the 212acre Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, New York, on which Trump originally said he hoped to develop a golf course or luxury homes.

He valued the estate at $291 million on his 2012 balance sheet, and in financial records presented to Deutsche Bank, when he was seeking to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014.

But locals blocked his development plans, and Trump eventually claimed a $21 million tax break after agreeing to conserve much of the land. In a 2018 federal ethics filing, he said it was worth no more than $50 million.

The Trump Organization used a similar tax strategy at another property being scrutinized, the Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles, where it also claimed a large tax break after agreeing to conserve some land.

Some of the court documents released this week remain redacted or sealed, and many details of the investigation remain secret. But financial records related to a skyscraper at 40 Wall St. in Lower Manhattan are also being reviewed, the papers said.

In 2012, Trump valued the building at $527 million. That year, The Wall Street Journal

reported the property was worth about $400 million, based on sales of comparable properties.

Pushing up valuations After abandoning plans to turn Seven Springs into a golf club, The Trump Organization turned to its longtime lawyer, Sheri Dillon of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, to “quarterback” a tax maneuver, the attorney general’s office said in court papers.

She oversaw an effort to get the highest possible valuation on the land, so the company could increase the size of the tax break it sought in exchange for agreeing to conserve a large part of the property.

Dillon retained Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate services firm, to do an assessment of the estate, but the Trump Organization was not happy with the result.

Dillon told Cushman that “the client blew up at her,” according to the filings. She began pressuring the appraisers to take steps that would push the value up, asking them, for instance, to restore earlier valuations made on a series of lots.

Cushman pushed back, writing: “We’ve been over these issues and there is no point in dredging them up again. It’s time to agree to disagree and move on.”

Dillon also told another lawyer at her firm to ask Cushman’s experts to backdate their appraisal, which one Cushman employee balked at, “citing her obligations under appraisers’ professional standards.”

The Trump Organization says it’s all politics

The Trump Organization has dismissed the attorney general’s investigation as baseless and politically motivated. James, a Democrat, has made no secret of her fierce opposition to Trump’s presidency and has sued his administration repeatedly.

Eric Trump released a statement on Twitter that said James “has pledged to take my father down from the moment she ran for office.”

“This is the highest level of prosecutorial misconduct,” he added.

But James has defended her actions, saying in a statement on Monday that the “Trump Organization has stalled, withheld documents, and instructed witnesses, including Eric Trump, to refuse to answer questions under oath.”

Is this a criminal investigation?

No, but it could become one.

The current inquiry is examining whether civil laws that prohibit deceptive business practices were violated, or if there were other fraudulent or illegal acts.

The attorney general’s office has broad power to conduct such investigations, including compelling people to answer questions under oath and to provide documents and other evidence.

In the filing made public on Monday, lawyers for the attorney general’s office said they have not yet determined if any laws have been violated.

If they do find evidence, they can file a lawsuit against The Trump Organization, Trump, his son Eric, or other entities they control, seeking fines or restitution. They can also ask a judge to bar Trump and his company from continuing to violate laws.

But if the attorney general’s office finds evidence of possible criminal conduct, it can turn that evidence over to another law enforcement agency for investigation. And in certain circumstances, the governor can authorize the office to open its own criminal investigation.

Is the Manhattan district attorney also investigating this?

No, but the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, is conducting a separate criminal investigation and has suggested in court filings that he is examining possible financial crimes and insurance fraud by the president and his company.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two rulings that cleared the way for Vance’s office to seek the president’s tax returns, though the president continues to fight the subpoena for his financial records in the lower courts on new grounds.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

9

Trump administration orders hospitals to report data or risk losing funding

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

T

he Trump administration threatened hospitals Tuesday with revoking their Medicare and Medicaid funding if they did not report coronavirus patient data and test results to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The threat was included in new emergency rules, announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, that make mandatory what has until now been a voluntary reporting program. Seema Verma, the centers’ administrator, said the changes “represent a dramatic acceleration of our efforts to track and control the spread of COVID-19.”

The new rules generated an immediate backlash from the American Hospital Association, which said the penalties, if enforced, would put hospitals out of business by effectively expelling them from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

“It’s beyond perplexing why CMS would use a regulatory sledgehammer — threatening Medicare participation — to the very organizations that are on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19,” Richard J. Pollack, the association’s president, said in a statement, adding that the rules were issued without any opportunity for feedback and should be “reversed immediately.”

In an interview, Pollack said it was not typical for the government to tie Medicare and Medicaid dollars to the reporting of public health information. Ordinarily, that kind of stick is used to ensure quality of care, he said.

But Tuesday’s announcement from the administration was clear. “Hospitals will face possible termination of Medicare and Medicaid payment if unable to correct reporting

Emergency medical workers taking a patient experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 to a hospital in Houston this month.

deficiencies,” it said.

The issuance of the new rules come amid growing controversy over the voluntary data collection system. Hospitals have been working for months with administration officials — including Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator — to improve their COVID-19 reporting. But the administration’s shifting requirements have met resistance from hospitals and scrutiny from Democrats in Congress.

In July, the administration abruptly ordered hospitals to stop reporting coronavirus patient information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send results instead to a private vendor, the Pittsburgh-based TeleTracking Technologies, which provides the data to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Administration officials say the switch was necessary to improve hospital reporting.

But the use of a private vendor and the sidelining of the CDC has raised concerns among public health experts and Democrats, who worry about scientific integrity and data transparency.

Pollack and another association official, Nancy Foster, echoed that concern. “They’ve made commitments that the data would be transparent — not unlike the way CDC used to do it,” Foster said, “and thus far the transparency is lacking.”

The new rule mandating hospital reporting is part of what the centers described as “sweeping regulatory changes” intended to better track and combat the coronavirus pandemic. The new rules also require nursing homes to test staff and offer testing for the virus to residents.

The agency said it would soon announce guidance for the frequency of nursing home staff testing, which will be based on the degree of coronavirus spread in individual communities.

Nursing homes are already required to offer tests to residents when there is an outbreak or when other residents show symptoms. Like hospitals, nursing homes will face penalties for not complying. They will be inspected, and those cited “may face enforcement sanctions” such as “civil money penalties in excess of $400 per day, or over $8,000 for an instance of noncompliance,” the announcement said.

“Reporting of test results and other data are vitally important tools for controlling the spread of the virus,” Verma said in the statement, “and give providers on the front lines what they need to fight it.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Justice Department is set to execute Native American prisoner T

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he Justice Department intends on Wednesday to execute the only Native American man on federal death row, despite urgent pleas from more than a dozen tribes to respect Navajo culture and spare his life.

The inmate, Lezmond Mitchell, 38, faces the death penalty for his part in the 2001 murder of a Navajo woman, Alyce Slim, and her 9-yearold granddaughter, Tiffany Lee. Barring any lastminute stays, his execution would be the first time a Native American man has been put to death by the federal government for a crime committed against another Native American on a reservation.

Tribal activists have argued that Mitchell’s case exemplifies the fraught relationship between tribes and federal law enforcement, which often disregards protections for tribal sovereignty.

Members of the Navajo Nation say that their teachings condemn murder as a means for vengeance and emphasize the sanctity of human life, and that the family of Mitchell’s victims initially opposed the death penalty before changing their position to support executing him. The Justice Department secured Mitchell’s conviction through a loophole that allowed it to ignore Navajo preferences.

The Justice Department has carried out three executions this summer, after a nearly two decade-long informal moratorium on federal capital punishment. The move echoed one of President Donald Trump’s early campaign promises, to be “tough on crime,” language he has deployed again in his reelection bid.

Hundreds of Native American citizens have called for the administration to spare Mitchell. Jonathan Nez, the president of the Navajo Nation, pleaded with the Office of the Pardon Attorney in a closed oral presentation this month to commute Mitchell’s sentence. In a letter to the president, Nez and Myron Lizer, the vice president of the Navajo Nation, called on the White House to convert Mitchell’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole and to respect the tribe’s traditional beliefs.

Marlene Slim, the mother and daughter of the victims, initially testified against the death penalty. However, she has since walked back that position. Lawyers for the family said in a statement, “Mr. Mitchell’s attorneys or advocates and the Navajo Nation do not speak for these victims.”

The effort to impose the federal criminal justice system on reservations dates to at least the 1880s, when a man named Crow Dog was convicted in both tribal and federal courts of killing a fellow member of his tribe. The two systems clashed: In tribal court, Crow Dog was sentenced to

Auska Mitchell holding a photograph of his nephew, Lezmond Mitchell, who is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. pay restitution; in federal court, he was sentenced to death.

The Supreme Court ruled that the tribe had jurisdiction over the case, voiding the capital punishment. In a move intended to override that authority, Congress passed the Major Crimes Act in 1885 to extend federal jurisdiction to certain crimes committed by Native Americans on their land.

Congress passed the Federal Death Penalty Act in 1994 to extend the death sentence to new crimes. The law allowed tribes to decide whether to apply capital punishment to some crimes, and nearly all, including the Navajo Nation, elected to opt out.

However, the Justice Department sought capital punishment in Mitchell’s case for “carjacking resulting in death,” a crime that was not covered by the tribal exception. Mitchell’s 16-yearold accomplice, who was ineligible for the death penalty because of his age, was sentenced to life in prison.

“It’s not illegal, and it’s not unconstitutional,” Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said of Mitchell’s sentence. However, he added, “it clearly disregards and disrespects native sovereignty.”

Mitchell’s lawyers have raised concerns that his jury included only one member of the Navajo Nation.

They also argue that, in effect, his race determined his sentence. When he was apprehended for the crimes at age 20, he was held for 25 days without a lawyer while FBI agents interrogated him. Only after he admitted to the crimes was he brought before a federal judge — a civil rights violation, his lawyers argue, possible only under legal precedent that does not extend the right to counsel to defendants in tribal custody.

“Had he not been Native American, not one of those statements would have counted against him,” said his lawyer, Jonathan Aminoff. “Not one.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

¿POR QUÉ LA ESTADIDAD ES LA MEJOR OPCIÓN?

R O M P E L A S C A D E N A S C O N T U VOTO

¡BASTA YA! • Somos una colonia que es territorio no autónomo • Nuestras decisiones importantes las toman personas ajenas • Nuestra Isla no nos pertenece • No podemos tomar decisiones sobre nuestro futuro y el de nuestros hijos

PIDE IGUALDAD ES NUESTRO DERECHO AUSPICIADO POR:

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12

Thursday, August 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Airline job cuts could pressure Congress and Trump on stimulus

A masked passenger checks in with an American Airlines employee who is masked, and also behind a screen, at Miami International Airport in Miami on June 7, 2020.

By NIRAJ CHOKSHI and BEN CASSELMAN

A

merican Airlines warned employees on Tuesday that it would cut up to 19,000 workers on Oct. 1, saying that there was little sign that the pandemic-induced reluctance to travel was diminishing.

The airline is looking to cut thousands of flight attendants, pilots, technicians, gate agents and other staff, it said. Including buyouts, retirements and leaves of absence, the company expects to have about 40,000 fewer employees on Oct. 1 than it did before the pandemic, a 30% decline in its workforce.

American is just the latest airline to predict bad news. Earlier this summer, United Airlines said that it could furlough as many as 36,000 employees in the fall. And, on Monday, Delta Air Lines warned that it might have to furlough as many as 1,941 pilots in October, even after nearly as many had accepted buyouts.

While weak demand is spurring these announcements,

the airlines are also seeking to put pressure on Congress and the Trump administration to strike a deal on another coronavirus stimulus package. Passenger airlines received $25 billion to help pay workers under a March legislative package, with American alone receiving $5.8 billion.

Evidence is mounting that the once-strong economic recovery is losing steam. Hiring slowed in July, and various indicators suggest it has slumped further in August. Weekly claims for unemployment benefits have jumped back above 1 million, reversing a gradual decline. And new data on Tuesday showed that consumer confidence fell in August to its lowest level since the pandemic took hold.

Economists attribute the slowdown, at least in part, to the waning federal support for families and businesses. The $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits that Congress approved in March expired at the end of July. The Paycheck Protection Program, which provided grants and low-interest loans to small businesses, ended this month. And the $1,200 tax rebates that appeared in bank accounts and mailboxes starting in mid-April have not been repeated.

House Democrats passed a bill months ago that would extend or replace many of those programs, while Senate Republicans have struggled to coalesce around generally smaller measures. Efforts to find a compromise between Democrats and the administration collapsed, and Congress left town for its summer recess without reaching a deal. President Donald Trump this month announced a series of executive actions to help unemployed workers and others, but those programs have been slow to roll out and diverted existing funds instead of doling out new

aid. Only Congress can allocate new funds.

Airlines are preparing for a long slog. They and their employees were hopeful this month about the prospects for a unionled effort to renew the $25 billion program included in the CARES Act in March. A bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives, more than a dozen Senate Republicans and Trump expressed support for the extension. But the failure of the stimulus talks has forced airlines like American to prepare deep job cuts.

The furloughs there will disproportionately affect flight attendants, who are expected to account for more than 40% of the cuts. In addition to the 19,000 workers it is cutting, American said thousands of other employees had agreed to take buyouts, early retirement or temporary leaves of absence.

“We must prepare for the possibility that our nation’s leadership will not be able to find a way to further support aviation professionals and the service we provide, especially to smaller communities,” American’s chief executive, Doug Parker, and president, Robert Isom, said in a letter to workers announcing the cuts. They encouraged employees to contact lawmakers to ask for stimulus funding for the industry.

Some airline workers have been able to mitigate or avoid cuts by agreeing to concessions. On Tuesday, for example, the pilots’ union for Spirit Airlines said that nearly half of its members had agreed to work fewer hours to prevent 600 cuts. Still, nationally, more than 11,000 airline pilots have received furlough warnings, according to the Air Line Pilots Association.

Based on current demand, American expects to fly less than half as many flights in the final three months of 2020 as it did a year earlier. The airline had taken an aggressive approach to restoring flights early in the summer, but pulled back as the recovery stalled in July when virus cases surged.

Last month, United said it expected travel would remain below 50% of previous levels until a vaccine is widely distributed, which it doesn’t expect until late 2021. Southwest Airlines, which has said it has no plans for substantial job cuts this year, said last week that it expected October capacity to be down about 40% to 50%.

Overall, domestic travel is down 44% while international flights are down 75%, according to Airlines for America, an industry association. The flights that are running are just over half as full as they were last year and most industry executives and analysts expect it will be three to four years before travel recovers to 2019 levels.

Even good news is relative for airlines. Sunday was the second-best travel day of the pandemic, with more than 840,000 people screened by the Transportation Security Administration at airport checkpoints. That amounted to about 34% of the people screened a year earlier.

Airlines may also cut back on flights in October. The CARES Act had allowed the Transportation Department to require companies that receive aid to continue to serve destinations they had before the pandemic. But those requirements expire on Sept.

30 after the department declined to extend them this month.

As a result, many small airports could lose service. Already, American has said it will stop flying to cities like New Haven, Connecticut; Dubuque, Iowa; Joplin, Missouri; and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

13 Stocks

Momentum stocks put S&P 500, Nasdaq on course for new highs

W

all Street advanced on Wednesday as upbeat earnings kept investors focused on momentum stocks that have outperformed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The gains set the S&P and the Nasdaq on track for their latest in a string of all-time closing highs, while the Dow, which has yet to reclaim its pre-COVID record, was only modestly higher.

The MSCI world equity index surged past its February high to reach a record peak.

Salesforce.com, the cloud computing company and soon-to-be Dow component, gave the S&P its biggest boost, its shares soaring 24.8% following its beat-and-raise earnings report.

Cyclical stocks, which tend to perform well in times of economic recovery, were mostly lower.

“Markets are singing the same tune,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. “The market continues to move higher on momentum buying, and of course it’s the same Nasdaq group all the time.”

“There’s no indication of any real shift in leadership,” Cardillo added.

Energy was the biggest percentage loser among S&P 500 sectors, dropping 1.6% as Hurricane Laura bore down on the Texas-Louisiana coastline, posing the largest threat to U.S. energy assets since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The coming storm, now expected to strengthen to category 4, prompted crude producers and refiners to shut down their facilities.

Commercial air carrier stocks lost altitude, with the S&P 1500 Airline index dipping 1.5% even after the White House announced President Trump was weighing an executive action to avoid massive layoffs in the sector.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to unveil a new framework intended to soften the central bank’s inflation stance, which Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to address during his remarks on Thursday as part of the Kansas City Fed’s virtual Jackson Hole symposium.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 23.67 points, or 0.08%, to 28,272.11, the S&P 500 gained 29.02 points, or 0.84%, to 3,472.64 and the Nasdaq Composite added 183.82 points, or 1.6%, to 11,650.29.

Communications services led the 11 major sectors in the S&P in percentage gains.

Second-quarter earnings season has wound down, with 483 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 82.2% have beaten consensus, according to Refinitiv data.

In aggregate, analysts now see earnings for the April to June quarter having dropped by 29.9% year-on-year, according to Refinitiv.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co rose 4.1% after its fullyear profit outlook beat expectations, while tax software firm Intuit Inc advanced 2.5% on a 17% rise in quarterly revenue.

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14

Thursday, August 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Gaza under lockdown after first local cases of virus

The discovery of the first four cases of community transmission of the virus in Gaza prompted Hamas, the militant group that rules the territory, to impose a 48-hour curfew.

By ADAM RASGON and IYAD ABUHEWEILA

J

ust as a graduation for 400 students was breaking up Monday night in the blockaded Gaza Strip, a university official rushed to the stage of the brightly lit soccer stadium and took the microphone to address the crowd of Palestinian families, few wearing masks.

The authorities had just reported four new cases of COVID-19 in the territory, a place that had yet to report a single case of community spread. Every known patient had contracted the virus while traveling elsewhere — but these four had not.

“We ask you not to spend additional time here,” pleaded the official, Said al-Namrouti, urging people who gathered for the Islamic University’s education college graduation to go home immediately. “There’s an exceptional situation outside the stadium related to the coronavirus.”

The discovery of the first four cases of community transmission of the virus deep inside Gaza set off an epidemiological investigation into the outbreak’s source, and prompted Hamas, the militant group that governs the territory, to impose a 48hour curfew, a first step in the effort to control the outbreak.

But it has also raised fears that the pandemic could spread quickly in the densely populated enclave, exacerbating the already dire economic situation confronting its nearly 2 million residents. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported two new cases of local transmission, which it said were not linked to the first four.

Experts warned that Gaza’s health sector, already devastated by years of war and conflict, lacked the resources to deal with a widespread outbreak.

Gerald Rockenschaub, the head of the World Health Organization’s mission, said Gaza’s medical institutions have only about 100 adult ventilators, most of which were already in use, and noted that authorities were in need of more test kits.

“For years, the situation has been going from bad to worse,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University in Gaza City. “If we need to shut down for several weeks, I’m worried we could be heading for a disaster.”

Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza have contributed to the devastation of its economy, with poverty widespread and unemployment around 45%. Israel says the restrictions are intended to prevent Hamas and other militant groups from gaining access to weapons or the means to build them.

On Tuesday, the effects of the new curfew were visible: Mosques, restaurants, cafes, wedding halls and other places were shut. Beaches were practically empty.

Feras al-Hamami, a vendor who usually earns less than $9 daily, said authorities prevented him from selling long skinny rolls of bread from his portable cart.

“I live on what I make every day,” said Hamami, 21, the sole provider for his wife and himself. “If I don’t work, I don’t have money for food.”

Sobhi al-Khazendar, a legal adviser at a gas company in

Gaza City, said the virus worried him even more than violent conflicts between Israel and militant groups in the territory.

“When there’s a war, I usually know where it’s safe to go,” said Khazendar, 27. “The virus is different. It can be anywhere and everywhere. I have no idea how I can avoid it.”

While security forces limited movement throughout the territory by setting up checkpoints, they permitted residents outside the Maghazi refugee camp, where the first four infected people live, to leave their homes only for “absolutely necessary matters” like purchasing medication and food, said Salama Maroof, the head of the Hamas-run government media office.

The four infected people are members of the same family, Maroof said.

The restrictions on movement, however, were not universally observed. In Shejaiya, a neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City, hundreds marched through the streets in a funeral procession for four Islamic Jihad fighters who died in an explosion Monday. On side streets, encouraged by Gaza’s frequent power outages, people relaxed near their homes and went for short walks.

Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Hamas-operated Health Ministry, said at a news conference that authorities had tested the four people from the Maghazi camp after learning they had been in contact with a relative who tested positive at a hospital in East Jerusalem.

He didn’t offer an explanation as to how the virus entered the territory, but said contact tracing continued. Until Monday, authorities had found infections only at quarantine facilities, where all returning travelers were required to isolate for three weeks and pass two tests before being permitted to leave.

The discovery of the local cases Monday came as tensions between Israel and Hamas have sharply risen. Palestinians in Gaza have launched flaming and explosive-laden balloons as well as a number of rockets into Israeli territory.

Israel has responded by blocking the entry of all goods into Gaza except for “essential and humanitarian equipment.” The new restrictions apply to fuel, worsening power outages.

Abusada, the political scientist, said he thought the sudden emergence of the pandemic in central Gaza would at least postpone a military confrontation between Israel and Hamas.

“The focus right now is on containing the virus,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean an escalation won’t take place later.”

Rockenschaub, of the World Health Organization, said that it was possible to contain the virus in Gaza, but it would require intensive contact tracing. “This is far from being over, but I think there’s still a chance to avoid a wide-scale outbreak,” he said.

Khazendar said he found out about cases at the Maghazi camp while he was enjoying a coffee with friends at a coffee shop on the beach.

“Up until yesterday, we felt like we were living in another world, without the virus. We were acting like it didn’t exist,” he said. “We shouldn’t have been so complacent, but all I can hope for now is that God protects us.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

15

German town fears ruin by U.S. effort to stop russian pipeline

By MELISSA EDDY and STEVEN ERLANGER

S

itting on the Baltic Sea, the small eastern German town of Sassnitz has been working for years to revive its enormous port, including taking on a role supporting a Russian pipeline being laid offshore to deliver natural gas to Germany.

But the port, one of the last great infrastructure projects undertaken by the former East Germany, now finds itself caught up in a geopolitical competition between the United States and Russia, a clash that local officials and residents say is threatening the town and region with economic ruin.

At issue are so-called secondary sanctions being proposed by powerful U.S. senators to target companies doing business with Russia and the Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom to finish the pipeline, Nord Stream 2, which is 94% complete.

The port would fall under the sanctions because of the role it plays supplying provisions to a Russian pipe-laying ship involved in the project. That sort of supporting work is specifically targeted by the proposed new sanctions.

The penalty, if the sanctions are imposed, would mean being cut off from the United States “commercially and financially” and effectively excluded from the global financial system. The port would essentially be turned into an international pariah, with all its business drying up — not just its work supplying the Russian ship.

To German officials and residents in Sassnitz, the sanctions against the port and the company that owns it, Fährhafen Sassnitz, are puzzling and infuriating. They threaten to turn Sassnitz into collateral damage as the town struggles to create enough jobs to keep young people from leaving.

“They are firing their cannons at sparrows,” said Edgar Taraba, as he unloaded a morning’s catch of flounder and sole from his dinghy. “There is nothing left here to take.”

The port, called Mukran, is a shadow of its former self, run by a company that is 90% owned by the Sassnitz government and the rest by the northeastern state of MecklenburgWestern Pomerania.

The Trump administration, supported by Poland and the Baltic nations, has long opposed the pipeline, seeing it as an instrument for Russian leverage over Germany, Ukraine and Central Europe. One U.S. fear is that Russia, which has a history of using gas supplies as a political tool, could cut off energy supplies at will.

But defenders of the project say that Russia is more dependent on the income from the gas than Germany is on its supply and that Washington is angling to sell Europe its more expensive liquefied natural gas.

Officials in Berlin and Brussels are furious that the Trump administration is using the same type of sanctions employed against companies doing business with North Korea or Iran against an ally and a European project in which American companies play no part.

Even those German officials who are critical of Nord Stream 2 say the U.S. is being a counterproductive bully by threatening such secondary sanctions against a close ally’s state-owned company, and that the European Union, through existing regulations and diversification, could handle an unexpected Russian cutoff.

Fishermen Peter Klemer, left, and Edgar Taraba unload their boat in Sassnitz, Germany, Aug. 17, 2020.

Secondary sanctions are a way of turning up the pressure on sanctioned countries and projects by going after those who do business with them. The goal is to isolate the target of the sanctions, but the economic pain inflicted on third parties, like the port at Sassnitz, can be severe.

The senators threatened the port’s “board members, corporate officers, shareholders, and employees, to crushing legal and economic sanctions, which our government will be mandated to impose.”

In Sassnitz, which Taraba remembers as a once-thriving fishing community with discos and bars crowded with nowvanished Swedish tourists, attention is focused on the fate of its ailing port and what that means for the town.

Many of the best jobs in the region, like casing pipes for Nord Stream 2 or installing and servicing turbines for offshore wind farms, are linked to the port and would be affected by the sanctions against it.

The Republican senators proposing the sanctions — Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — sent a letter to the port’s owners Aug. 5 warning of “crushing legal and economic sanctions” if the facility continued to provide “significant goods, services, and support” for the pipeline. Earlier sanctions caused a Swiss-Dutch company to stop laying the last 50 miles of pipes off Denmark.

A senior Republican congressional aide said the new sanctions are narrowly focused to try to stop the completion of the pipeline. They are attached to the National Defense Authorization Act and have bipartisan support. That means they are almost certain to become law whenever Congress

votes on it, the aide said, requesting anonymity to talk about proceedings that are still in the legislative process.

The aide said the target of the sanctions was Russia, not Germany, but that allies sometimes had to make choices to gain access to the U.S. market, noting that months of diplomacy with Germany and the European Union had failed to come up with a solution.

“The U.S. administration is disrespecting Europe’s right and sovereignty to decide itself where and how we source our energy,” said Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister.

Germany’s Energy Ministry said in an email that it considered secondary sanctions a violation of international law.

Christian Pegel, energy minister for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, called the senators’ threat “like something out of the Wild West.” The letter “is very abrasive in tone and manner, and it is not clear about where I face a risk today and where risks could arise in the future.”

Combined with other measures perceived to be antiGerman, like President Donald Trump’s recent decision to withdraw troops from regions that depend heavily on U.S. military installations, the reaction to the sanctions in Germany has been one of shock and outrage, said Kirsten Westphal, an analyst with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

“It is another step up in escalation, because it exerts massive pressure on German infrastructure and administrations,” she said. There is a sense that as with Iran, Washington is substituting sanctions for foreign policy and “weaponizing interdependence,” she said.

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Thursday, August 27, 2020

Turkey considers leaving domestic violence treaty even as abuse surges

A protest in Istanbul this month to urge the Turkish government not to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.

By MARC SANTORA

P

inar Gultekin, a 27-year-old university student, was strangled before her body was crammed into a barrel and set ablaze.

“It was a barrel that we use to burn garbage,” the accused killer, Cemal Metin Avci, a 32-year-old nightclub owner, would later tell prosecutors, according to local media reports. He said he had filled the barrel with cement before dumping it in the woods.

He told the police that he had flown into a “jealous frenzy” because Gultekin did not want to be with him.

In Turkey, where at least 400 women were killed in cases of domestic violence last year, the crime this July stirred renewed outrage over failure to combat the abuse of women. Four in 10 women in Turkey are subjected to sexual or physical violence at least once in their lives, according to government data analyzed by an Istanbul-based advocacy group, Women for Women’s Human Rights — New Ways.

It has been nearly a decade since European leaders gathered in Istanbul to sign a treaty aimed at combating domestic violence, an agreement that at the time was seen as a remarkable advance for women’s rights.

The number of women killed in Turkey has been rising year after year and broader abuse has also soared, exacerbated recently by coronavirus lockdowns. Nonetheless, the Turkish government is considering withdrawing from the agreement, which was brokered

by the Council of Europe, a human rights and rule of law organization with 47 member states, including many European Union countries, as well as Russia and Turkey.

While Turkey’s government has by most accounts failed to live up to its promises to tackle domestic violence, the idea that the country would abandon the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention, has fueled widespread anger.

Protesters across the country, led by women, have taken to the streets to demonstrate, and a decision on the issue has been delayed as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan navigates competing interests.

The fight over the treaty — which is raging not only in Turkey but also across other parts of East and Central Europe — has become about much more than the document itself, which does not carry the force of law and is, in any case, modest in its proposals.

Although their criticisms are rarely grounded in anything written in the treaty or anything it directly advocates, right-wing groups — joined by promoters of conspiracy theories and staunch nationalists — have attacked the pact as a threat to national sovereignty.

They have also maligned it as promoting “gender politics” and pushing “LGBT ideology,” with populist leaders seizing on the treaty as a totem for the ills of Western-style liberal democracy.

Ratification of the convention has stalled in several European countries including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia. Russia has not even signed it.

Recently, the Polish government suggested that it was considering withdrawing, too.

While many defenders of the treaty acknowledge the limits of the convention’s effectiveness, it holds deep symbolic resonance.

To be a party to the accord, they say, is effectively to acknowledge being part of a society striving for equality and human rights.

Many women’s rights advocates in Turkey say that rather than leaving the treaty, the government should be using it to overhaul a system that often allows domestic abuse to go unpunished.

The Turkish news media has been filled with cases of women asking for help from the police and the courts, only to be ignored — sometimes with deadly consequences.

A report by the Turkish Gendarmerie, a national law enforcement agency, found that from 2008 to 2017, some 2,487 women were killed, with a significant increase in the number of killings after 2013. A majority — 62% — were killed by their husbands, former husbands or boyfriends; and 28% by other relatives. A much

smaller proportion — 10% — were killed by stalkers, neighbors or others.

Despite the dire picture of the domestic abuse painted by the numbers, faith in receiving any support from the legal system seems scant. According to Women for Women’s Human Rights — New Ways, only 7 in 100 women who are subject to violence report it to the police. Prosecutors get involved in only about 4% of cases. Of the cases that make it to court, 21% result in conviction.

And even then, the penalties are often lenient.

Feride Acar, a professor at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, who played a central role in drafting the agreement, said, “I am very upset and disappointed seeing the change in the attitude of the Turkish government.” She said that when Erdogan first came to national power in 2003, his party had a much wider base of support and its policy was oriented toward the West.

“Now the party relies on a smaller electorate, which includes groups that often have more religious agendas,” she said.

Erdogan has seemed torn by the competing voices on the issue, including in his own family.

He had planned to gather his governing Justice and Development Party to announce a decision on the treaty on Aug. 5. But the meeting was postponed amid the widespread protests.

And one of Erdogan’s daughters, Sumeyye Erdogan Bayraktar, serves on the board of a rights group, the Woman and Democracy Association, which has defended the convention.

The association has said in a statement that, “In a relationship where there is no love and respect and one party is tormented with violence, we cannot talk about ‘family’ anymore,” directly confronting one line of attack from detractors.

The rift inside governing circles escalated when the women’s branch of the Justice and Development Party made a criminal complaint against an Islamist columnist who used a sexual slur to refer to female members who supported the agreement.

Erdogan condemned the insult, and called for unity in his party. He has signaled that Turkey might prepare its own convention to prevent violence against women.

That is little comfort for women’s groups.

Berfu Seker of Women for Women’s Human Rights — New Ways said, “The fact that the treaty is still under debate shows that they don’t believe in equality.”

“And,” she added, “it means they won’t show any will to establish equality.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

17

With new arrests, Hong Kong’s police try to change the narrative

By TIFFANY MAY and AUSTIN RAMZY

T

he images shocked Hong Kong and put the city’s authorities under a global spotlight. In shaky smartphone videos, a group of unidentified men wearing white T-shirts and wielding sticks and clubs set upon an unarmed group of residents at a subway station, some of them returning from a pro-democracy protest. The police were nowhere in sight.

On Wednesday, more than a year later, Hong Kong’s police moved decisively to address the assault — in part, by arresting a lawmaker who recorded it.

Lam Cheuk-ting, a former anti-corruption investigator, was one of two lawmakers arrested in a continuing crackdown on dissent as the Chinese Communist Party tightens its grip on the territory. As part of that effort, Hong Kong authorities are increasingly trying to change the narrative, portraying the clampdown as a necessary law-and-order remedy for a city they say is increasingly ungovernable.

Hong Kong police have faced widespread criticism after protesters accused them of ignoring calls for help on July 21, 2019, at the Yuen Long subway station, where at least 45 people were injured when men carrying sticks and metal bars attacked commuters and protesters.

At a news conference Wednesday after the arrests, Chan Tinchu, a senior police official, described the Yuen Long incident as a “clash” and said that news reports, including footage livestreamed by a reporter as well as Lam, had wrongly given the impression that it was a one-sided assault. The footage was widely seen and used by The New York Times in a video analysis of the attack.

“Unfortunately, the camera only captured the actions of one side most of the time, and some commentary has led people to misinterpret that this is a so-called indiscriminate attack,” he said.

Beijing’s efforts to tighten its grip on Hong Kong, a semiautonomous former British colony handed back to China more than 20 years ago, set off huge and sometimes violent protests last year. Frustrated by the inability of local officials to stop the unrest, Chinese officials in June imposed a broad national security law that empowers Hong Kong authorities to take a stronger hand in quelling dissent and punishing those who espouse ideas loathed

by Beijing, such as Hong Kong independence from the mainland.

Lam, a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council who has said he showed up at Yuen Long to protect local residents, was among a number of people arrested on Wednesday who were accused of taking part in the attack. He was also arrested along with another lawmaker, Ted Hui, because of their presence at an anti-government protest in the Tuen Mun district on July 6, 2019, the Democratic Party of Hong Kong said in a Facebook post.

The police on Wednesday sought to counter accusations by protesters that they had been too slow to respond to the Yuen Long attack. While police had initially said that officers arrived on the scene 39 minutes after receiving reports, Chan said Wednesday that they had actually responded within 18 minutes. The previous time was quoted before officers had a chance to comprehensively analyze surveillance footage, he said.

Protesters also accused the police of being friendly with the men in white T-shirts, which Chan disputed. He said that an officer shown on video placing his hand on the shoulder of one of the men in white was actually giving him a commanding push,

Chan Tin-chu, a senior Hong Kong police official, argues in Hong Kong, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, that the police had responded quickly and appropriately to a violent attack at a subway station last year that tarnished the force’s reputation in the eyes of many residents. not a friendly pat, as the gesture was widely perceived at the time.

“We have to restore the truth,” Chan said, adding that accusations of police inaction and collusion were slanderous and made to further political agendas. He said that the force was firmly against any act of violence and that those who committed crimes would have to bear the consequences.

“As long as there is evidence proving you have broken the law, the police will enforce the law diligently and impartially,” he said.

Before Wednesday, police had already arrested 44 people believed to be part of the white T-shirt gang, and prosecutors had charged eight of them with rioting.

Thirteen of the 16 people detained on Wednesday are also accused of taking part in the Yuen Long attack, police said. They said the group included a bank vice president, a chef, a driver, a technical worker and others. Some of those arrested have ties to organized crime groups known as triads, Chan said.

The three others, as well as Lam, were arrested in connection with an encounter in July 2019 outside the Tuen Mun police station, when a group of people surrounded a man who was taking photos of protesters, snatched the phone away and deleted the images, according to a police statement. Police said they were detained on suspicion of “unlawful assembly,” “criminal damage,” “obstruction of justice” and “accessing electronic devices with dishonest intent.”

A Democratic Party representative said Lam and Hui had been serving as mediators when the Tuen Mun protests, which began peacefully, took a violent turn.

Hong Kong’s crackdown on dissent has been broad and sweeping. More than a dozen leading pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers were arrested in April in connection with the protests that raged in the city last year.

Protests have been muted since the national security law came into effect, but some, like Lam, continue to speak out against the city’s new limits.

In video footage of what looked like police officers at his door on Wednesday morning, Lam asked why he was being arrested in connection to the Yuen Long attack.

“The crime of rioting,” an officer said in a video shared by a Democratic Party staff member.

“Me, taking part in a riot? The July 21 riot?” Lam said in apparent disbelief. “It’s now utter absurdity in Hong Kong.”

A representative of the Democratic Party also shared a letter the police commissioner sent to Lam this month commending him for his response to the attacks.

“You’ve fulfilled your civic responsibility by reporting this serious crime to the police,” said the letter, which was postmarked Aug. 3.

Wu Chi-wai, chairman of the Democratic Party, said in a phone interview that Lam had been transformed from victim to defendant. “This is a completely unreasonable situation,” he said.

During the attack, a group of men in white shirts entered the train station and struck unarmed commuters with wooden bats.

Lam, 43, was filmed warning commuters in the station about the dangerous surroundings, but was later among those beaten and injured inside a stationary train carriage.

Hui, 38, frequently served as a mediator in the protests last year, issuing warnings to the police over a loudspeaker and encouraging protesters to go home safely. He filed a lawsuit against a police officer in June over the 2019 shooting of a protester, but the case was blocked last week by Hong Kong’s secretary of justice.

A few days after filing the suit, Hui was detained on suspicion of unlawful assembly, an accusation he described as retaliatory.

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Thursday, August 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Virus, heat, fire, blackouts

By FARHAD MANJOO

A

cross much of California in the last two weeks, many of my friends and neighbors have faced a dead-end choice: Is it safer to conduct your life outdoors and avoid the coronavirus, or should you rush inside, the better to escape the choking heat, toxic smoke and raining ash?

Such has been the gagging unwinnability of life in the nation’s most populous state in the sweltering summer of 2020, in what I have been assured is the greatest country ever to have existed. The virus begs you to open a window; the inferno forces you to keep it shut.

When the coronavirus first landed in America, California’s lawmakers responded quickly and effectively, becoming a model for the rest of the nation. But as the early wins faded and the cases spiked, each day this summer has felt like another slide down an inevitable spiral of failure. The virus keeps crashing into California’s many other longstanding dysfunctions, from housing to energy to climate change to disaster planning, and the compounding ruin is piling up like BMWs on the 405.

Consider: To keep the pestilence at bay, many of California’s children began attending school online last week. But to satisfy surging energy demand linked to recordshattering heat (and a host of other mysterious reasons), state utilities had to impose rolling blackouts, forcing schools to

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Climate change has ushered in a new era of “megafires” in California. come up with energy contingency plans to add to their virus contingency plans, now that millions of students face the threat of intermittent electricity.

For decades, California has relied on conscripted prisoners as a cheap way to fight its raging fires. But to stave off coronavirus outbreaks in our long-overcrowded prisons, authorities released thousands of inmates earlier this year.

Now, as climate change has ushered in a new era of “megafires” that includes some of the largest blazes the state has ever faced, the early release of inmates has left the state dangerously short of prisoners to exploit in battling the flames.

As California’s problems grow, we risk becoming a national piñata. At the Democratic National Convention last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom phoned in from Watsonville, Calif., near the scene of a wildfire, to castigate Donald Trump and the Republican Party for ignoring climate change and fighting California’s efforts to reduce emissions. At the Republican convention, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a fundraising official for the Trump reelection campaign who is also Newsom’s ex-wife, shouted the opposite claim — that “socialism” had turned the state into a disaster of “discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets, and blackouts in homes.”

I found Guilfoyle’s speech hilariously unhinged and off base, and Newsom certainly has a point — California’s efforts to solve its many problems, including the virus outbreak, have often been frustrated or undone by Trump’s shortcomings.

Still, it’s worth remembering that Trump has been president only since 2017, and the seeds of California’s undoing were planted long before. By reducing the cause of California’s many issues to cartoon villains, both Guilfoyle and Newsom obscured the bigger picture.

What is California’s fundamental trouble? Neither socialism nor Trumpian neglect and incompetence, but something more elemental to life in the Golden State: A refusal by many Californians to live sustainably and inclusively, to give up a

little bit of their own convenience for the collective good.

This is a hobbyhorse of mine, but I’m committed to riding it until people in my home state begin to change their ways. Californian suburbia, the ideal of much of American suburbia, was built and sold on the promise of endless excess — everyone gets a car, a job, a single-family home and enough water and gasoline and electricity to light up the party.

But it is long past obvious that infinitude was a false promise. Traffic, sprawl, homelessness and ballooning housing costs are all consequences of our profligacy with the land and our other resources. In addition to a hotter, drier climate, the fires, too, are fanned by an unsustainable way of life. Many blazes were worsened by Californians moving into areas near forests known as the “urban-wildland interface.” Once people move near forested land, fires tend to follow — either because they deliberately or inadvertently ignite them, or because they need electricity, delivered by electrical wires that can cause sparks that turn into conflagrations.

As the fires blazed around us this time last year, I warned of the “end of California as we know it” — that if we didn’t begin to radically alter how we live, the climate and the high cost of living would make the state uninhabitable for large numbers of people.

Of course, California hasn’t yet ended. Through virus and flame, the state has kept lurching along in the same haphazard way it always has, and here we are again to face another burning season.

It is my hope, though, that with each year we burn, each new wildfire year that we live through, Californians start to recognize the mistakes that are central to our way of life.

And perhaps, this year, the disturbing national political conversation might finally force my fellow Californians to reckon with how they live. In many ways the 2020 election is shaping up to be a fight over the soul of the suburbs — their role in America’s future, and who they are for. At the Republican convention this week, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who brandished guns at protesters in St. Louis, asserted that liberals want to “abolish the suburbs” by ending single-family home zoning. The liberals who live in California’s suburbs may not identify with the McCloskeys, but their ugly spectacle has helped unmask NIMBYism, one of California’s most reckless ideologies, for the racist vision it has long been.

It just isn’t true that Joe Biden and the Democrats want to abolish the suburbs, or even improve them, which is a shame. Neither Biden nor his party nor just about anyone else in national or state politics has been willing to honestly discuss the incalculable damage that California-style suburban life has wreaked on our world. In California, if anything is going to ruin the suburbs, it is more likely to be a wildfire than a new president.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

19

Comedores escolares comenzarán a servir almuerzos para llevar desde el 31 de agosto Por THE STAR

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os estudiantes matriculados en las escuelas del sistema público de enseñanza comenzarán a recibir, desde el lunes 31 de agosto, los servicios de almuerzo que serán preparados en las escuelas del Departamento de Educación (DE) y deberán ser recogidos, en la modalidad de servi-carro, por las madres, padres o encargados, informó el miércoles el secretario Eligio Hernández Pérez.

“Ya se han hecho los ajustes y hemos ido adquiriendo los equipos y materiales para que el personal de los comedores escolares se inserte en el proceso de la confección y la distribución de los almuerzos para aquellos estudiantes que así lo requieran. Sé que estos empleados continuarán trabajando con el mismo compromiso que siempre han tenido para llevar alimentos a los miles de estudiantes de nuestras escuelas”, expresó Hernández Pérez en comunicación escrita.

Para que los alumnos puedan recibir los almuerzos, el secretario divulgó hoy un memorando oficial con las directrices a madres, padres y encargados, así como las instrucciones para los directores de escuela y el personal adscrito a la Autoridad Escolar de Alimentos. Ese documento establece que los almuerzos to go, o para llevar, serán preparados en el comedor de cada plantel y distribuidos por las empleadas con apoyo del personal escolar. El director, agrega la comunicación oficial del secretario, determinará la logística de distribución y recogido y deberá asegurarse que cada estudiante que solicite el almuerzo tenga el formulario completado

por el encargado.

Ese documento, dirigido únicamente a los padres, deberá ser enviado a los directores, o podrá llevarlo a la escuela, para que el alumno reciba el servicio. En aquellos casos que los padres no tengan manera de tener el documento electrónico, el secretario instruyó a los directores de escuela a tener disponibles formularios impresos. En esa hoja, el encargado debe escribir nombre completo del

estudiante, nombre de la escuela, la región educativa, teléfono de contacto, si el alumno tiene una dieta especial y si se compromete, como responsable del menor, a pasar a recoger los almuerzos en el horario establecido por la escuela. El formulario debe estar firmado.

Aquellas familias que tengan estudiantes matriculados en diferentes escuelas, podrán seleccionar solo un plantel para el recogido

de almuerzos. Para esto, la madre, padre o encargado deberá comunicarse con el director de la escuela seleccionada.

Por otro lado, el servicio será centralizado en algunos municipios del área sur donde, a causa de los temblores, no hay escuelas con comedores disponibles, con excepción de Ponce y Yauco. Los almuerzos se prepararán y serán distribuidos de forma satélite en puestos de despacho que las escuelas y las regiones educativas seleccionarán y coordinarán con los padres y directores.

El equipo del DE y la Autoridad Escolar de Alimentos trabajaron todos los aspectos para que el servicio de almuerzos a los estudiantes cumpla con todas las normas y estándares federales y estatales. Los menús de almuerzos son nutritivos, balanceados y preparados por nutricionistas licenciados.

Como resultado de esos trabajos, el jefe de Educación solicitó a los directores, maestros y personal de apoyo a que estén atentos a las necesidades de alimentación de los estudiantes y que puedan asistir a las familias en el proceso de completar los formularios.

“Esta situación de la pandemia a causa del COVID-19 debe acercarnos más a las familias de nuestros estudiantes para que reciban nuestro apoyo. Confío en que todo nuestro personal hará el mayor de los esfuerzos por identificar y tramitar todas las ayudas que nuestros estudiantes necesiten.

La buena alimentación es vital para que los estudiantes tengan un mejor desempeño académico. Así que todos en el DE estamos llamados a colaborar al máximo en este momento”, puntualizó.

100 mil personas quedan descalificadas de recibir los $1,200 del CARES Act Por THE STAR

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l secretario del Departamento de Hacienda (DH), Francisco Parés Alicea informó el miércoles, que alrededor de 100 mil solicitantes no cualificaron para la entrega de los $1,200 como parte del paquete de ayudas económicas contenidas en el CARES Act. “Hay aproximadamente 100 mil personas que quedaron descalificadas del programa de la Ley CARES”, dijo Parés Alicea en entrevista radial, en WKAQ 580 AM.

“Los señalaron que no eran residentes de Puerto Rico. Por otra parte, el número de Seguro Social y el nombre, no a todos por los récords del IRS, hay unos 16 mil casos de esa naturaleza. Y, unos 70 mil aproximadamente de contribuyentes que fueron reclamados como dependientes en planillas”, añadió.

Explicó que a esas personas se les notificó vía correo electrónico sobre la descalificación.

Mencionó que entre $2.8 a $2.9 mil millones han sido desembolsados como parte del paquete de ayudas.

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Thursday, August 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

‘Soul!’ brought black culture to TV in 1968. A new doc tells its story.

Ellis Haizlip, center, surrounded by members of the J.C. White Singers after a performance on the pioneering culture program “Soul!”

By JIM FARBER

A

nyone analyzing the image of African Americans on the narrow range of TV stations available in the United States 50 years ago could expect to see one of just two stark portrayals.

“We were either victims or villains,” said Chester Higgins, a veteran photographer whose portraits of Black America helped widen that perspective. “The media focused on poverty, riots and crime. They chose not to give any presence to the full character of our people.”

That’s the dehumanizing image the show emphatically titled “Soul!” aimed to obliterate. Debuting on New York City Public Television station WNET (then WNDT) on Sept. 12, 1968, with Higgins as its chief photographer, “Soul!” presented “the vitality and creativity of Black America in a way no other program ever had,” said Felipe Luciano, a poet, activist and broadcaster who worked on its production team. “‘Soul!’ gave viewers the first genuine sense of the expansiveness of Black culture.”

Nona Hendryx, who shared an ecstatic performance with Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles on the show’s inaugural episode, said, “For me, ‘Soul!’ was must-see TV.” She added: “Being on the show gave you credibility.”

The show was largely shaped by its co-producer and host, Ellis Haizlip, a Black gay man operating with power and confidence at a homophobic time. Haizlip used his refined taste, eccentric character and outsider’s perspective both to guide the show’s aesthetic and to define its goals. Now, half

a century after its debut, a new documentary named “Mr. Soul!” is arriving, with a focus on the inexorable link between the program and its host.

“It was Ellis’ revolutionary idea to combine politics, poetry, music and fiction into one forum,” said Melissa Haizlip, the host’s cousin, who directed the film, which arrives Friday via movie theaters’ video-on-demand services.

“Soul!” wasn’t the only attempt to more fairly represent the Black experience in 1968. Two other shows debuted that year: “Say Brother” and the local New York program “Like It Is.” But neither so richly showcased the range of Black creativity: Author James Baldwin, poet Sonia Sanchez, dancer Judith Jamison and activist Kwame Ture all appeared. The show gave particular exposure to musicians: popular stars like Stevie Wonder; Wilson Pickett; and Earth, Wind & Fire; and underground artists, including McCoy Tyner and saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, whose unhinged performance culminated with him smashing a chair to pieces.

When Luciano asked Haizlip why he invited the famously unpredictable Kirk on the show, he recalled his deadpan response: “Because he’s totally crazy.”

Haizlip, who died in 1991 at 61 from cancer, had a long history of involvement in the progressive arts. Growing up in a middle-class household in segregated Washington, D.C., he began producing plays in college at Howard University. Upon graduating in 1954, he headed to New York, where he produced plays with Vinnette Carroll at the Harlem YMCA, including one starring Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones. He also produced concerts in Europe starring Marlene

Dietrich and dramas overseas penned by Baldwin and Langston Hughes.

Haizlip’s father didn’t approve of his homosexuality, though some family members accepted him, including his cousin, Harold Haizlip, the father of the film’s director and an empathic speaker in the documentary. Though Haizlip guided the show from the start, he wasn’t its first host. Initially, scholarAlvin Poussaint and actress and educator Loretta Long split that role, but by the fifth episode the role fell to a somewhat reluctant, and awkward, Haizlip.

His first appearance displayed his daring as well as a nonjudgmental nature, a quality that allowed him to make the audience comfortable with even the more controversial guests. One episode featured the political, proto-rap group the Last Poets, who purposely used racial slurs in their lyrics to counter degrading images of Black people and scotch the scourge of internalized racism. Haizlip, whose tone never wavered from calm, introduced the piece by saying, “I hope you’ll accept it in the spirit with which it is intended.”

Perhaps the show’s edgiest episode featured Louis Farrakhan. While the minister’s condemnation of homosexuality was well known, the host dared to ask his guest about his feelings on the issue. Farrakhan, who knew about Haizlip’s sexuality, answered with a long “love the sinner/hate the sinner” speech, throwing in a charge that Black gay people were made that way by whites, a view Haizlip did not challenge. While Melissa Haizlip said the minister’s statements “are awful, we wanted to focus on Ellis’ bravery in asking the question.”

As holistic as the show’s approach to Black politics and culture was, it played a particularly historic role in its presentation of music. “Soul!” helped pave the way for the pivotal Black music program “Soul Train,” a far slicker production that made its national debut three years later, in 1971. It also served as a precursor to the many musical offshoots of the BET network, including BET Jazz, BET Hip-Hop and BET Gospel. “Soul!” still stood out, with its thoughtful camera angles, mindful close-ups and entirely live performances, which, together, banished glitz to hold the focus on the performers’ art.

The film also deals with the quirkier elements of Haizlip’s character. Associates said he was given to fabulist tales, like telling one friend that he had had sex with Princess Margaret, Lyndon Johnson and the Dalai Lama. “He sometimes had a unique relationship with the truth,” Melissa Haizlip said with a laugh.

“Soul!” was canceled in 1973, despite a vigorous letter writing campaign from its viewers and strong ratings across PBS stations nationally. According to a 1969 Harris Poll, more than half the Black families who owned a television set in New York watched “Soul!” Still, pressure came from within PBS to “integrate” the show, which would have diluted its purpose.

Haizlip went on to produce arts events, and he remained on the NET staff until his death. In the final episode of “Soul!” its curator offered the ultimate legacy. “Although it’s over, it’s not the end,” Haizlip said. “Black seeds keep on growing.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

21

Emmy Nominees whose lives keep intersecting

By CANDICE FREDERICK

Y

ears before they were both nominated for 2020 Emmy Awards,Sterling K. Brown sat in the audience at NYU, where he was an MFA student hanging on to every word of a talk by Andre Braugher — best known then for playing Frank Pembleton on the influential crime drama “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

For Brown, who had been following Braugher’s professional journey closely, it was a privilege to hear the wisdom of an accomplished Black actor in an industry filled with white gatekeepers. A few moments stuck with him.

“Somebody was asking how you cry on screen,” Brown, 44, reminded Braugher, 58, in a recent threeway Zoom interview. Brown smiled. “And you’re like, ‘Well, first of all, you have to hydrate.’ ” Brown remembered something else Braugher had said: words of insight for a young Black actor who had Hollywood aspirations but was wary of the challenges he might face as a person of color.

“He was also asked a question about, ‘How do you feel, by virtue of the fact that you are Black, about possibly being excluded from opportunities that you see your white counterparts getting?’ ” Brown recalled.

“He said, ‘I don’t have a white Andre Braugher to put out into the world to prove the efficacy of that hypothesis. I have these cards I’ve been dealt, and I’m going to make the best out of these cards.’ ” Braugher remembered. “My feeling always during that period was, you have to do what you can in the moment, with what you have,” he said. “I always felt like, if I was able to look at myself in the mirror then I had done the right thing.”

Two decades later, and with two Emmys apiece, Brown and Braugher are poised to share the Emmys spotlight, and not for the first time. (Both were nominated in 2016.) They’re also each other’s competition.

The two have been nominated for supporting roles in a comedy: Brown for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Braugher for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” (Brown was also nominated for his lead role in the NBC drama “This Is Us.”) The two exchanged advice and admiration this month from their respective home quarantines: Braugher from New Jersey and Brown from Los Angeles, where he wore a black T-shirt bearing the words “Everybody vs. Injustice.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Q: Andre, you were nominated for your first two Emmys in 1996. Do you still get excited about awards season?

BRAUGHER: As time moved forward and my family has become more important — bigger kids, bigger problems — I’m not as anxious for attention as I used to be. My focus is on my family, our health and on our coexisting peacefully. I don’t think I’m ever going to be rushing to the head of the line or exhibit the kind of

ambition that Sterling does. I was a little bit surprised when I heard that Sterling had invited me to be a part of this because ideas like this never cross my mind.

BROWN: Andre, you have been such a part of my life without knowing it for such a long time.

Q: How do you contend with the expected responsibility of representation — to portray your characters in some specific way because of who they represent?

BRAUGHER: When I first took the role (of Raymond Holt in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), one of my sons said to me, “You’re playing a gay police captain?” I said, “No, I’m playing a police captain who’s gay.”

There you go. I’ve always been interested in the humanity behind my characters because when I grew up, the range of acceptable feelings for Black men was so limited.

This is a conversation that runs back to “Homicide”: I’m very proud of the character and very proud of the work that I’ve done. But now, looking back, I’m saying to myself: “Cop shows are in service to what?

And how do I deal with my mixed feelings about that?”

My aim was to discover the heart of this brilliant detective who considered himself to be first among equals and follow that journey until he finally became humbled. That was the journey that was important to me because Black exceptional characters are … I won’t say a cliché, but you see a lot of them.

Q: Do you think that speaks to a higher threshold for success placed on Black people — the idea that you have to be exceptional to be valued?

BROWN: Reggie (the character Brown plays in “Maisel”) is reflective of this conversation that a lot of Black folks have with their parents about having to be twice as good, or 10 times as good, to get just as far. You’re talking to two Stanford graduates, one who was on an engineering track, another on an econom-

ics track, before something compelled them to make the less reasonable choice. I think I stayed off acting. I did acting in high school and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t practical. You don’t go to Stanford to become a drama major ...

BRAUGHER: Right.

BROWN: ... until it selects you. You fall in love with illuminating the human condition. And you’re like, “I don’t think I can keep this at arm’s length even if I tried.”

Q: Has celebrity added to those expectations?

BROWN: I don’t know exactly how to use it, but the benefit of celebrity is that people want to hear what you have to say, and you can turn your attention toward things that you think deserve the spotlight. So, the idea that ’92 and Rodney King were isolated incidents is something that in this particular moment — after Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd — folks are like, “Oh, no, something’s (expletive) up.” I can bring attention to that because it is of importance to me and my community.

Q: What inspires you today?

BRAUGHER: The search for the next compelling role. I haven’t found the next one yet. I typically only work on one project at a time. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” is winding down. Now is the time. All these years of experience as a father, a husband, a peer, a citizen and a man are going to be very helpful to telling this next story. I’m really looking toward to it.

BROWN: The theater. I get a little itchy when I’m away from it for too long. It’s been four years. I’m trying to find the right time, but I have other people who are like: “You can’t do a play right now. There’s an opportunity to be a part of this franchise.” I try to find that balance in terms of my ambition and my sense of artistic fulfillment, and whether I can have those two things peacefully coexist.

22

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

‘Nomad’ review: Werner Herzog pays tribute to a ‘kindred spirit’

Werner Herzog, as seen in his documentary “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin.”

By GLENN KENNY

“T

here are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” Hamlet says to his friend in the Shakespeare tragedy. Remove the air of derision from the character’s remark, and you have a possible summation of the perspective held by filmmaker Werner Herzog and writer and explorer Bruce Chatwin, who were friends and sometimes collaborators.

Both artists shared a dogged interest in the people, sights and objects that can be found only in the farthest

corners of the world — and in what those people, sights and objects have to show us about what all members of the human race have in common.

They generously delighted in presenting to their audiences earthly wonders that most of us never dreamed of.

“Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin” is Herzog’s long-gestating interrogation into the work of Chatwin, who died in 1989. It’s also a tribute to a clearly much-missed friend. The movie begins with an item that fascinated Chatwin as a child — something its owners, his grandparents, said was “the skin of a Bronto-

saurus.” It spurred a trip to Patagonia that resulted in Chatwin’s first book, the groundbreaking 1977 bestseller “In Patagonia.”

Herzog travels there for the film and finds, startlingly, a shipwreck photographed for the book more than 40 years ago; it’s almost unchanged. He also goes to the cave where the skin — actually that of a giant sloth — was first found. Chatwin’s book made the cave a tourist attraction.

Other sites that Herzog visits, all meaningful to Chatwin, seem poised, eerily and enticingly, between the known and unknown worlds. Silbury Hill — a mound that is perhaps mystically (or just magnetically) charged — near Stonehenge is believed to be the world’s largest Neolithic structure.

Tierra del Fuego, the archipelago off the southernmost tip of South America, leads to Antarctica. Herzog shoots these sites with the will and skill of a spell caster. No filmmaker uses drone camerawork so lyrically; his flying eye dips and swoops with a piercing curiosity.

Touching down in Australia, where Chatwin set his magnum opus, 1987’s “The Songlines,” Herzog finds another shipwreck: a rusted prop fighter from one of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels. Herzog (who worked as an actor in the “Star Wars” television series “The Mandalorian”) presents this not with sarcasm but with equanimity: We, as a species, are always adding to the world.

This section, “Songs and Songlines,” is the knottiest of the movie, as contemporary aboriginal elders

discuss the centrality of dreams to their culture. Herzog also touches on how aboriginal thought became intertwined with colonial Lutheran piety.

With these observations, the movie becomes more than peripatetic cinematic comfort food. Herzog doesn’t sidestep the idea of cultural appropriation, although he never introduces it as such. Rather, he implicitly argues that Chatwin was in the business of making connections of which we ought to always be mindful — a business Herzog himself is in.

A section of the film titled “The Nomadic Alternative” suggests a way of living in which walking is the cure for all ills. An unrooted life is a hedge, at the very least, against bourgeois complacency. As the movie’s reach extends, Herzog limns an arc that stretches from Antarctica to Siberia and beyond, implying that, in a sense, we all came from the same unfixed place.

Intertwined with this is a personal and loving portrait of Chatwin, who died of an HIV-related illness before he was 50. Herzog is a stalwart defender; addressing observations from critics that the writer’s work was often not strict in its adherence to facts, Herzog insists that what Chatwin gave the reader was “truth and a half.” To elaborate as Chatwin did, Herzog implies, is a legitimate response to places that can’t help but exert a strong pull on the imagination.

And of course, the truth-and-ahalf principle figures heavily in Herzog’s own art — of which this film is a particularly outstanding example.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

23

Cartilage is grown in the arthritic joints of mice

By GINA KOLATA

T

he painful knees and hips experienced by so many people with osteoarthritis result from a loss of cartilage, which serves as a sort of cushioning in the joints. It had long been thought that cartilage, once gone, cannot grow back.

Now researchers at Stanford University have grown new cartilage in the joints of arthritic mice. Primitive cells that can be transformed into new cartilage lie dormant at the ends of bones, the researchers reported in Nature Medicine. The cells just have to be awakened and stimulated to grow.

The researchers say the next step is to try to grow cartilage in larger animals, like dogs or pigs. They are optimistic that the finding could eventually lead to treatments to prevent the often debilitating pain that arises when cartilage erodes away.

“It is really a major advance in field of osteoarthritis,” said Dr. Gerard Karsenty, a bone specialist at Columbia University who was not involved in the research.

Although scientists often question whether findings in mice may apply to humans, diseases of the skeleton often do, he added.

“When you demonstrate something in the mouse, I don’t know of any example where it has not applied to humans,” Karsenty said.

But Dr. Robert Marx, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, cautions that the path to a treatment that helps patients may be long and unpredictable.

Scientists will need to determine not only whether the method is safe and effective but also to learn which patients are likely to be helped — those early or later in the course of arthritis — and how long the treatment will last.

An estimated 50 million Americans have osteoarthritis; the lifetime risk of getting the diagnosis is 40%. Once the degeneration of the cartilage lining a joint begins, there is no treatment available to restore it.

The new research was conducted with mice with knee arthritis and with human bone transplanted into mice. Normal cartilage was grown in both settings.

The mice had knee arthritis so severe they had trouble walking. After they grew new cartilage, they stopped limping and grimacing (mice are known to have facial expressions indicating pain).

The study began with a discovery in 2018 by Charles Kwok Fai Chan, then a postdoctoral student at Stanford and now an assistant professor in the surgery department. He found primitive cells — stem cells — at the ends of bones that can give rise to cartilage, bone marrow or bone, depending on how they are stimulated.

But those stem cells were not dividing or growing. Their dormancy, Chan realized, was why bone experts had assumed cartilage, once lost, could not return. The challenge was to find a way to awaken those stem cells and direct them to form

An X-ray of a healthy mouse. In an experiment, mice with arthritis so bad they had trouble walking showed improvement after receiving stimulation of the stem cells in their knees. cartilage.

He; Dr. Michael T. Longaker, who directs the program in regenerative medicine at Stanford; and their colleagues discovered how to do so in three steps.

First, the scientists slightly damaged the ends of bone by drilling tiny holes in it. This technique — microfracture — is sometimes used by orthopedic surgeons to relieve pain in arthritic joints. The drilling is done through a scope, and the holes are minuscule.

The procedure resulted in the growth of tough scar tissue, which the researchers realized had occurred because the bone’s stem cells had awakened and had turned into this tough tissue. The tissue does not cushion the joint and does not last long, Longaker said. But it can help with pain, so may serve as a stopgap measure.

The researchers wanted to turn those awakened stem cells into cartilage. The recipe that worked was to treat the stem cells with bone morphogenetic protein, which is used to help fuse bones.

The scientists also used a drug called Avastin, which prevents the stem cells from getting a blood supply. Unlike bone and bone marrow, cartilage has no blood supply, and the drug helped stimulate the stem cells to turn into cartilage.

The investigators provided the drugs directly to the ends

of bones, putting them in a gel.

The cartilage that grew in the mice not only looked like normal but lasted for four months, a quarter of the animals’ lifetimes. Chan and Longaker envision a time when doctors will be able to “resurface” arthritic joints or, even better, to treat people who are just beginning to develop arthritis, perhaps staving off the sort of damage that even joint replacements cannot fix.

If the strategy works in humans, then early treatment may be the best approach, Marx said.

“Arthritis deforms joints and changes bones,” he said.

By the time people have hips or knees replaced, irreversible damage may be done. Legs may be bowed, bones damaged.

“You cannot totally turn back the clock,” Marx said. At that point, he said, “adding cartilage will not fix it.”

He worries, though, that orthopedists may not wait for rigorous studies — the method of awakening the dormant cells is relatively simple, and the drugs required are already on the market.

Faced with a patient with aching knees, orthopedists may be tempted to say, “Let’s try this. You don’t have much to lose,” Marx noted.

“That’s the problem with a lot of things in orthopedics,” he added. “There is typically widespread adoption before there is evidence.”

24 LEGAL NOTICE aESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN.

CARLOS IVÁN BETANCOURT BENÍTEZ, ILANOVA BETANCOURT BENÍTEZ, RANDY BETANCOURT. BENiTEZ YYADIRA BETANCOURT DEL VALLE PETICIONARIOS

EX-PARTE

CIVIL NÚM: SJ2019CV11728.

SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO ENMENDADO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PR.

A: Wilfredo Betancourt y Francisco Betancourt Figueroa, miembros de la Sucesión de José Betancourt De Jesús, anterior inmediato dueño, ambos con dirección postal en 61 Yale St. Waterbury CT 06704, Ana Celia Rodríguez, viuda de Pastor López, 442 Glandon Ct., Fort Mills, SC 29708, Ana María López Rodríguez t/c/c Ana Lara, 3432 Pickney Bluff Fort Milis, SC 29715, Georgina López Rodríguez t/c/c Georgina Jarquin, 3575 Tybee Dr. Fort Milis, SC 29715, miembros de la Sucesión de Pastor López Betancourt, Glorimar González López, miembro de la Sucesión de Isabel López y a su vez de la de Lázaro López Betancourt, con dirección desconocida, Estela López Bigio, 866 Hearth Stone Ct., Aurora IL 60506 y Mirka López Bigio, 90 Postmouth lsland Dr., Garner NC 27529-6162: miembros de la Sucesión de Enrique López, Rosaura López González y Wilfredo López González, ambos con dirección en 516 Oak Branch Circle, Kissimmee, FL 32458, miembros de la Sucesión de Silvestre López Betancourt, John Doe, Richard Doe y Jane Doe, miembros de la Sucesión de Carmen María López Betancourt, cuya última dirección conocida era en Yabucoa, PR cuyos nombres verdaderos y paraderos se desconocen, James Toe, con nombre y paradero desconocidos, miembro de la Sucesión de Elvin Reyes López y Efraín Reyes López, con última dirección conocida en Ponce, PR, ambos miembros de la Sucesión de Justa López Betancourt , todos tos anteriores miembros a su vez de la Sucesión de Carmen Betancourt De Jesús, desconocidos, miembros de la Sucesión de José Luis Betancourt Figueroa, a su vez, de la de Jorge Betancourt De Jesús, inmediato anterior dueño; Josean Manuel Febres Betancourt, Joselyn Marie Febres Betancourt, Miosotis Febres Betancourt, Nicole Marie Febres Betancourt, miembros de @

la Sucesión de Evelyn Betancourt Meléndez y, a su vez, de la de Vicente Betancourt De Jesús, inmediato anterior dueño, con dirección todos en 1515 36th, Milwaukee, WI 53215; Zoraida Betancourt Vázquez, con última dirección conocida en Toa Baja, PR, María Betancourt Vázquez, con última dirección conocida en San Juan, PR y Florentina Betancourt Vázquez, con última dirección conocida en Sector Villa isleña en Guaynabo, PR, todas miembros de la Sucesión de Esteban Betancourt De Jesús, anterior inmediato dueño; Carmen Laura Betancourt Viera, cuya dirección en Orlando Florida se desconoce, miembro de la Sucesión de Arsenio Betancourt De Jesús, anterior inmediato dueño; Ricardo Betancourt Viera y Jaime Betancourt Viera, con últimos paraderos conocidos en Orlando, Florida y Boston, Massachussetts, respectivamente, ambos miembros de la Sucesión de Víctor Betancourt De Jesús, anterior inmediato dueño; Anastacia Betancourt Díaz, con última dirección conocida en Bo. Pugnado, Manatí, PR y Lydia Betancourt Díaz, con última dirección conocida en Bo. Ensenada, Gurabo, PR, ambas miembros de la Sucesión de Cándido Betancourt De Jesús, anterior inmediato duéño; Carmen Damaris Betancourt Clemente, con última dirección conocida en Bo. Consejo, San Juan, PR, codueña; Perensejo, Mengano, Fulano y FulaDa, con última dirección conocida en Urb. Borinquen Gardens, Calle Poppy AB-7, San Juan, PR 00926, miembros de la Sucesión de Oscar Bonelly, colindante, y Highland Realty, Inc., con paradero desconocido, también colindante del predio objeto del caso de epígrafe.

POR LA PRESENTE: se les notifica que la peticionaria de epígrafe ha presentado una Petición para que se declare a favor de ella, el dominio que tiene sobre la siguiente propiedad: “RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno marcada cun el número uno (1) en la plano de inscripción, radicada en el Barrio Caimito del término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de seiscientos veinte metros cuadrados con quinientos setenta y dos diezmilésimas de otro metro cuadrado (620.0572 M.C.), en lindes por el Norte, en una alineación de diecinueve metros lineales con setenta y dos centésimas de otro metro lineal (19.72 Mts.), con terrenos de Arcadia Betancourt, ahora su Sucesión, y · en otra alineación de veinticinco metros lineales con dos décimas de otro metro lineal (25.2 Mts.), con terrenos de Oscar Hernández Bonnelly, ahora su sucesión; por el Este, en siete metros lineales

con treinta y seis centésimas de otro metro lineal (7.36 Mts.), con terrenos de Highland Realty; por el Sur, en cinco alineaciones que suman cuarenta y cinco metros lineales con noventa y ocho centésimas de otro metro lineal (45.98 Mts.), con acera que la separa de la Calle Poppy y, por el Oeste, en dieciocho metros lineales con ocho centésimas de otro metro lineal (18.08 Mts.), con terrenos de la Autoridad de Carreteras.” Sobre el terreno antes descrito enclava una estructura residencial en concreto.

Este Tribunal ordenó que se publique la pretensión por tres (3) veces durante el término de veinte (20) días en un periódico de circulación general diaria, para que todas las personas arriba mencionadas y todas aquellas desconocidas a quienes pueda perjudicar la inscripción o deseen oponerse, puedan así .hacerlo dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la última publicación del presente edicto . Por tanto firmo expido la presente en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 13 de julio de 2020. Griselda Rodriguez Collado, Secretaria. Marlyn Ann Espinosa Rivera, Sec Serv a Sala. ***

JOSE HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ, YOSUE OMAR HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ Y JUAN MIGUEL HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Demandados CIVIL NUN. A12020CV00187.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: ANA AUREA FIGUEROA RODRIGUEZ T/C/C ANA AURIA FIGUEROA RODRIGUEZ T/C/C ANA AUREA FIGUEROA T/C/C ANA FIGUEROA RODRIGUEZ T/C/C ANA A. FIGUEROA RODRIGUEZ POR SI Y LEGAL NOTICE EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE USUFRUCTARIA; PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE DENISSE HERNÁNDEZ PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO MARTÍNEZ, JOSÉ LUIS JUDICIAL DE AIBONITO SALA HERNÁNDEZ MARTÍNEZ, SUPERIOR DE COMERIO. EDGARDO LUIS REVERSE MORTGAGE HERNÁNDEZ MARTÍNEZ, FUNDING LLC. CHRISTOPHER Demandante vs.

JOSÉ HERNÁNDEZ SUCESION IGNACIO MARTÍNEZ, YOSUE HERNANDEZ REYES OMAR HERNÁNDEZ T/C/C IGNACIO MARTÍNEZ Y JUAN HERNANDEZ MIGUEL HERNÁNDEZ COMPUESTA POR MARTÍNEZ como EL FENECIDO JOSE presuntos miembros LUIS HERNANDEZ de la SUCESION DE REYES; JOHN DOE JOSE LUIS HERNANDEZ Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS REYES y de la SUCESIÓN IGNACIO HERNPaNDEZ DESCONOCIDOS; ANA REYES T/C/C IGNACIO AUREA FIGUEROA HERNANDEZ; JOHN RODRIGUEZ T/C/C ANA AURIA FIGUEROA ROE Y JANE ROE como posibles miembros RODRIGUEZ T/C/C ANA desconocidos de la AUREA FIGUEROA SUCESION JOSE LUIS T/C/C ANA FIGUEROA HERNÁNDEZ REYES RODRIGUEZ T/C/C ANA A. FIGUEROA RODRIGUEZ POR LA PRESENTE se le empara que presente al TriPOR SI Y EN LA CUOTA plaza bunal su alegación responsiva a VIUDAL USUFRUCTARIA; la demanda dentro de los treinta SUCESION JOSE LUIS (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá HERNANDEZ REYES presentar su alegación responsiCOMPUESTA POR va a través del Sistema Unificado DENISSE HERNANDEZ de Manejo y Administración de MARTINEZ, JOSE LUIS Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ, acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://uniEDGARDO LUIS salvo que se HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ, red.ramajudicial.p, represente por derecho propio, CHRISTOPHER en cuyo caso deberé presentar

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

(787) 743-3346

Thursday, August 27, 2020 su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Greenspoon Marder, LLP Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido R.U.A. 15,622 TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 loo WEST CYPRESS CREEK RO1D FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309 Telephone: (954) 343 6273 Frances .Asencio@grnlaw. corn Expedido bajo mi firma, y ello del Tribunal, en Comerío, Puerto Rico, hoy 11 de agosto de 2020.

ELIZABETH GONZALEZ RIVERA, SubSecretaria. CARMEN A. TORRES TORRES, Sec del Tribunal Conf II.

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

PUERTO RICO TITLE & CLOSING SERVICES PAM, INC. Demandante V.

POPULAR MORTGAGE, INC; JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO cualesquier persona desconocida con posible interés en la obligación cuya cancelación por decreto judicial se solicita.

Demandados CIVIL NÚM. GB2020CV00406.

SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE AsOcIADO DE PUERTO RICO.SS.

A: JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES Y CUALESQUIER PERSONA DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA.

Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra en el pleito de epígrafe. 1. ¯En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado una Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de un (1) pagaré hipotecario a favor de POPULAR MORTGAGE, INC o a su orden, por la suma principal de $317,769.00, con intereses al 6% anual, en

garantía de un pagaré a favor de Popular Mortgage, Inc., o a su orden, que vence el 1ro de noviembre de 2035. Dicho pagaré fue suscrito el día el 11 de octubre de 2005, ante el Notario Luis Nelson Parada Caeiro, garantizado por hipoteca constituida mediante la Escritura número 41, inscrita al folio 107 del tomo 1306 de Guaynabo, inscripción 2da. y última, sobre las propiedades que se describen a continuación: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento residencia de forma irregular, localizado en la primera planta del Edificio 9 del Condominio Murano Luxury Apartments, localizado en el barrio Santa Rosa III del término municipal de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el cual se describe en la Escritura Matriz de Dedicación al Régimen de Propiedad Horizontal del Condominio Murano Luxury Apartments, con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: Apartamento #9-A-1; Area del apartamento: 1,835 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 170.53 metros cuadrados.

En lindes: Por el NORTE, en 40’ con muro que lo separa de camino peatonal; por el SUR, en 40’ con vestíbulo del edificio y área abierta; por el ESTE, en 62’11” con su pared medianera con el apartamento 9-B-i, con caja de los elevadores y con el vestíbulo del edificio y por el OESTE, en 62’11” con su pared medianera con el apartamento 8 -B-i. Tiene su puerta de entrada y salida por su lado Este, que da al área de pasillo que conduce a las escaleras y elevadores que le brindan acceso al edificio. Consta de balcón, sala-comedor, cocina, “family room”, dos dormitorios con closet cada uno, área de lavandería, área de instalación de aires acondicionados, un baño completo de uso general, un medio baño, closet en el pasillo y una tercera habitación, que es el dormitorio principal (“master bedroom”), en la cual también se encuentra un área de “walk-in closet” y un baño completo. También consta de un patio delimitado por las verjas que figuran en los planos del condominio.

AREA DE PATIO: 451.45 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 41.96 metros cuadrados. AREA DE ESTACIONAMIENTO: 324.00 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 30.10 metros cuadrados. ESTACIONAMIENTO: Le corresponden a este apartamento, 2 espacios de estacionamiento, ambos identificados con el número del apartamento, ubicados en las áreas de estacionamiento del condominio. PORCENTA] E: Elementos Comunes: .54%.

FINCA: #45548, inscrita al folio 106 del tomo 1306 de Guaynabo (Sección de Guaynabo). - La parte demandante alega que dicho pagaré ha sido saldado según más detalladamente consta en

The San Juan Daily Star la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico y se le requiere para que radique en este Tribunal su contestación y notifique con copia de ella al abogado de la parte demandante la LCDA. LIZBET AVILES VEGA, RUA: 12536, Urb. Los Sauces, Calle Pomarrosa #222, Humacao, PR 00791, Tel: 787-354-0061, Email: lizbet_aviles@yahoo.com y Lcdatizbetaviles@gmail.com; dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https: //unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su rebeldía y dictar sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle.

EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 21 de julio de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Sec Regional. Diamar T. Gonzalez Barreto, Sec del Tribunal Conf II.

LEGAL NOTICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala ( Superior de) SAN JUAN.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante v.

DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION T/C/C DORAL MORTGAGE, LLC., POR CONDUCTO DE SU AGENTE RESIDENTE CT CORPORATION SYSTEM; FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) COMO SÍNDICO DE DORAL BANK; ORIENTAL BANK AND TRUST; RAFAEL EMILIO PACHECO ROSA; ROBERTO RAMOS BAEZ, JULIA I. MARTINEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; LA SUCESIÓN DE JORGE ANTONIO

TORRES SANTIAGO COMPUESTA POR SUTANO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; EDELMIRA MARTINEZ GUADALUPE POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; SUTANO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE JORGE ANTONIO TORRES; FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. SJ2019CV12760 (802). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: RAFAEL EMILIO PACHECO ROSA; ROBERTO RAMOS BAEZ, JULIA I. MARTINEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; EDELMIRA MARTINEZ GUADALUPE POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; SUTANO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE JORGE ANTONIO TORRES; FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 17 de 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 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso

The San Juan Daily Star 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 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, el 20 de agosto de 2020.

GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria Regional. f/ DENISE M. AMARO MACHUCA, Sec Auxiliar.

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

IVETTE MARIA RIVERA CARRASQUILLO, Y PABLO ORTIZ KUILAN Demandante v.

ORIENTAL BANK; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

Demandado Civil: Núm. BY2020CV01835.

SALA 505. Sobre: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 3 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 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 24 de agosto de 2020.

En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico , el 24 de agosto de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria. IVETTE M MARRERO BRACERO, Sec Auxiliar.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante v.

RICARDO CINTRON

Thursday, August 27, 2020 ESTADES Y OTROS

Demandado Civil: Núm. CA2019CV04252.

SALA 409. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (ORDINARIO). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: RICARDO CINTRON ESTADES, SUCESION DE CARLOS L. BURGOS LOPEZ COMPUESTA POR X, Y, Z, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, PARTE DEMANDADA EN CASO

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 de julio 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 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 25 de agosto de 2020.

En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico , el 25 de agosto de 2020. LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRIGUEZ, Secretaria. F/MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

riódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 25 de agosto de 2020.

En GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico , el 25 de agosto de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional II. F/DIAMAR GONZALEZ BARRETO, Sec Auxiliar.

a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramaiudicial.pr . Se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a: Ferraiuoli LLC Looking Forward Lcda. Ansélica S. Vázquez Lazada PO Box 195168 San Juan, PR 00919-5168 Tel.: 787-766-7000 / Fax: 787-766-7001 avazquez@ferraiuoli.com Abogada de la parte demandante, con copia de respuesta a la Demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto y radicar el original de dicha contestación en este Tribunal en donde podrá enterarse de su contenido. Si dejare de hacerlo, podrá anotársele la rebeldía y se le dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio LEGAL NOTICE solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle.

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Se le apercibe a la parte que, PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE conforme al Art. 959 del CódiPRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SU- go Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. § 2787, los PERIOR DE SAN JUAN. codemandados antes mencionados, miembros de la Sucesión de BAUTISTA CAYMAN Héctor Luis Nieves Cuevas, que ASSET COMPANY, tienen un término de treinta (30) Demandante v. días para informarle al Tribunal si SUCESIÓN DE HÉCTOR acepta o repudia la herencia de LUIS NIEVES CUEVAS los causantes. En caso de que compuesta por SONIA usted no manifieste su declaración sobre la aceptación de la NIEVES ÁLAMO y la dentro del plazo corresSUCESIÓN DE HÉCTOR herencia pondiente, se tendrá la herencia LUIS NIEVES ÁLAMO por aceptada. EXPEDIDO bajo compuesta por ADRIANA mi firma y con el sello del TriMARIE NIEVES SUÁREZ y bunal. DADO hoy en San Juan, ALBERTO JOSÉ NIEVES Puerto Rico, 18 de agosto de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ SUÁREZ, representado COLLADO, SECRETARIO(A). por su madre, JEANNINE Marlyn Ann Espinosa Rivera, SeSUÁREZ QUIÑONES; cretaria Servicios a Sala.

FULANO DE TAL y MENGANO DE TAL como posibles herederos de HÉCTOR LUIS NIEVES CUEVAS; y JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE como posibles herederos de HÉCTOR LUIS NIEVES ÁLAMO

Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de Demandados GUAYNABO. CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2020CV02058.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO ORIENTAL BANK Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. Demandante v.

EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICCITIBANK, N.A., TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE JOHN DOE & AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE RICHARD ROE LOS EE.UU. ESTADO LIBRE Demandado ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. Civil: Núm. GB2020CV00377. ss.

SALA 201. Sobre: CANCELAA: John Doe y Jane Doe CION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SEN- como posibles Herederos de Héctor Luis Nieves TENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 25 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 pe-

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE HUMACAO SALA SUPERIOR.

ORIENTAL BANK COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIOS DE THE MONEY HOUSE, INC DEMANDANTE VS.

JORGE GÓMEZ LABOY, KAREN TORRES RODRIGUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS (DEUDORES HIPOTECARIOS) MADELINE ORTIZ Alamo.

GARCIA Y ARMANDO Dirección: 1216 Ave. DE LEON ACEVEDO Américo Miranda, Reparto (TITULARES Metropolitano, San Juan, REGISTRALES Puerto Rico 00921; DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: HU2020CV00338.

Urb. Reparto Metropolitano, Solar Núm. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO DE HIPOTECA 1684, Bloque M-35, San Y(VIAEJECUCION ORDINARIA). EMPLAZAJuan, Puerto Rico 00921. MIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTA-

Por la presentó se le notifica4 que se ha radicado en su contra una Demanda de Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca

DOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, El Presidente de los Estados Unidos El Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico.

(A) A LA PARTE CODEMANDADA: JORGE GÓMEZ LABOY, KAREN TORRES RODRIGUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS (DEUDORES HIPOTECARIOS) (A) PR 914 KM 0.8 SECTOR ASTURIANOS BARRIO TEJAS HUMACAO, PR 00791; (B) 2IO1HARVEY MITCHELL PKWY 5, COLLEGE STATION, TX 77840; (C) HC-I2 BOX 5665 HUMACAO, PR 00791; (D) HC-15 BOX 16264 HUMACAO, PR 00791; (E) PMB 436 PO BOX 2017 LAS PIEDRAS, PR 00771.

(B) A LA PARTE CODEMANDADA: MADELINE ORTIZ GARCÍA Y ARMANDO DE LEÓN ACEVEDO (TITULARES REGISTRALES) FISICA: PR 914 KM 0.8 SECTOR ASTURIANOS BARRIO TEJAS HUMACAO, PR 00791; Y POSTAL: HC-12 BOX 5665 HUMACAO, PR 00791; HC-15 BOX 16264 HUMACAO, PR 00791.

Por la presente se le(s) notifica que se ha radicado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal una Demanda en Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra, en la cual se alega entre otras cosas que la parte codemandada Jorge Gómez Laboy, Karen Torres Rodriguez y La Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos adeuda a la parte demandante por concepto de hipoteca la suma de $97,226.84 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de octubre de 2019, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.25% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además la parte co-demandada Jorge Gómez Laboy, Karen Torres Rodriguez y La Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos adeuda ala parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $10,101.00. Además la parte co-demandada Jorge Gómez Laboy, Karen Torres Rodriguez y La Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $10,101.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $10,101.00 para

25

cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y cualquiera otros adelantos que se hagan en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca número 1, otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el día 14 de junio de 2017, ante el notario Reinaldo Segurola Pérez, de la finca número 7410, Ia cual consta inscrita al Folio 155 del Tomo 217 de Humacao, Registro de la Propiedad de Humacao. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. Este Tribunal ha ordenado que se le(s) cite a usted(es) por edicto que se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectando por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: httts://unired.ramaiudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal y notifique copia de la Contestación de la Demanda a las oficinas de CARDONA & MALDONADO LAW OFFICES, P.S.C. ATENCION al Lcdo. Duncan Maldonado Ejarque, P.O. Box 366221, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-6221; Tel (787) 6227000, Fax (787) 625-7001, Abogado de la Parte Demandante.

Dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su Rebeldía y dictar Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado sin más citarle(s) ni oirle(s). EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y con el Sello del Tribunal. DADA hoy 24 de AGOSTO de 2020, en Humacao, Puerto Rico. Dominga Gómez Fuster, Secretaria Regional. Dalias Reyes de Leon, Sec Auxiliar.

PARTE CON INTERES EN DICHA SUCESION, ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. CA2019CV03841.

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

A: SUCESION DE ROBERTO HENRIQUEZ OLMEDA COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDA BELEN COLON MARTINEZ T/C/C BELEN HENRIQUEZ POR SI; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES EN DICHA POSESION

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 17 de JULIO 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 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 20 de AGOSTO de 2020. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 20 de AGOSTO de 2020.

Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Secretaria. Keila Garcia Solis, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE LEGAL NOTICE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SURico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE PERIOR DE ARECIBO. JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera DLJ MORTGAGE Instancia Sala Superior de CACAPITAL INC. ROLINA. Parte Demandante Vs.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Y OTROS

ASSOCIATES INTERNACIONAL Demandante v.

HOLDING SUCESION DE ROBERTO CORPORATION; John HENRIQUEZ OLMEDA Doe y Richard Doe Como COMPUESTA POR SU posibles tenedores VIUDA BELEN COLON desconocidos MARTINEZ T/C/C Parte Demandada BELEN HENRIQUEZ CIVIL NUM: AR2020CV00791.

SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAPOR SI FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL GARE EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESCOMO HEREDEROS TADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA DESCONOCIDOS Y/O EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.

UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: JOHN OOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO posibles tenedores desconocidos

POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) df as siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC) 1 al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/ 1 salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcda. Marjaliisa Colón Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732; Teléfono: 787-843-4168. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cancelación de pagare extraviado. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que se extravió un pagaré hipotecario suscrito Dimas Ramirez Rivera y su esposa Carmen A, Zeno Rosado suscribieron un pagare hipotecario a favor de Associates lnternational Holdings Corporation. o a su orden, por la suma de $54,589.99 con un interés anual de 12.43%, vencedero el 4 de junio de 2019, según consta de la escritura número 52 otorgada en Arecibo, Puerto Rico el 29 de mayo de 2004, ante la notario Katarina Stipec Rubio.

Inscrito folio ciento sesenta y cinco (165) del tomo mil doscientos sesenta y ocho (1268) de Arecibo. finca número diecisiete mil cuatrocientos treinta (17,430).

Inscripción 8va. Que grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela de terreno radicada en El Barrio Factor del termino municipal de Arecibo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de quinientos punto cero cero (500.00) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en veintidós punto cuarenta (22,40) metros, con Luis Rivera; por el SUR, en veintidós punto veinte (22.20) metros con Pedro Santos Gonzalez; por el ESTE, en veintidós punto veinte (22.20) metros con Pedro santos Gonzalez; y por el OESTE, en veintidós punto veinte (22.20) metros con camino municipal. Inscrita al folio sesenta y uno ciento ochenta (61) del tomo cuatrocientos treinta y seis (436) de Arecibo, finca numero diecisiete mil cuatrocientos (17.430) del Registro de la Propiedad de Arecibo Seccion I. SE LES APERCIBE que, de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oirle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Arecibo, Puerto Rico. A 18 de agosto de 2020. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZALEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.

26

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

The Yankees’ unexpected break is over. Now comes the cramming.

By JAMES WAGNER

T

he New York Yankees were scheduled to take the field Wednesday afternoon, against the Braves in Atlanta, for the first time in six days. Breaks in baseball, a sport meant to be played almost every day of the season, are not supposed to last this long. The 2020 season, though, is anything but normal.

For the second time this season, the Yankees, who entered Wednesday with a 16-9 record, had to pause their schedule for multiple days because of the coronavirus. After the Miami Marlins’ outbreak late last month, the Yankees spent two days in a Philadelphia hotel unable to play the Phillies, who were sidelined for a week because of their exposure to the Marlins.

Over the past weekend, the Yankees hosted workouts for their players at Yankee Stadium while New York Mets players and staff members were tested and quarantined.

A Mets player and a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus last Thursday, which postponed the first installment of their annual subway series, a three-game set at Citi Field.

“I’ve actually been surprised we haven’t had more, honestly,” Yankees reliever Zack Britton said Tuesday of the interruptions to the team’s schedule.

As it turned out, they got another later that day, as their game against the Braves at Truist Park was postponed because of rain.

A doubleheader was scheduled for Wednesday.

Completing an abbreviated 60-game season across 30 different cities during a pandemic was always going to be a challenge.

The Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Marlins and the Mets are the four teams in Major League Baseball that have dealt with positive cases since the season began July 23.

But now, because of the postponements, the Yankees — a team dealing with myriad injuries that they believe have arisen partly because of the condensed calendar — have even more cramming to do. Entering Wednesday’s twin bill, they were facing 22 games in 19 days, including four doubleheaders. Even with expanded rosters, that is a lot of innings.

This weekend at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees and Mets will make up two of last

weekend’s postponed games, with a doubleheader Friday and another Sunday. Doubleheaders this season will mercifully feature seven-inning games.

“If you’re swinging the bat well, doubleheaders are the best thing to a ballplayer,” outfielder Aaron Judge said over the weekend.

Before he landed on the 10-day injured list on Aug. 14, Judge was indeed swinging the bat like one of the best hitters in baseball.

But a right calf injury arose as Judge played both games of a doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays on the artificial turf at Tropicana Field. The doubleheader was one of the ripple effects from the Marlins’ outbreak.

Judge, who did not consider the injury serious, was expected to be back in the lineup for the Yankees in at least one of Wednesday’s games. Even though he told manager Aaron Boone he felt ready to be in right field in all of the team’s remaining 35 games, he said the Yankees might be judicious with his playing time in one of the coming doubleheaders.

Boone has tried to be conscientious about players’ workloads, but injuries are piling up again. In their 103-win regular season last year, the Yankees set a major league record by sending 30 different players to the injured list. Less than halfway through this season, they have outpaced themselves: 13 different players have landed on the IL, with 10, including Judge, absent before Wednesday’s action. Because of that, and the Aug. 31 trade deadline, the Yankees’ front office has been considering additions to the pitching staff.

James Paxton, who strained a muscle in his left forearm while on the mound last week, and shortstop Gleyber Torres, who strained left quadriceps and hamstring muscles while running to first base last week, were the latest to join the Yankees’ wounded. Both will be out for at least a few weeks.

One possible factor behind the rash of injuries, according to Paxton and Britton, who landed on the IL last week with a left hamstring strain: the short ramp-up period of three weeks leading into the truncated season.

“We didn’t get enough time at a lower speed to build up,” Paxton said. “And now

Aaron Judge, back from a right calf injury, was supposed to be in the Yankees’ lineup on Tuesday night in Atlanta. The rainout there set up a doubleheader on Wednesday. you’re seeing, a few weeks into the season, guys are not fresh anymore and the tiredness is building up. We don’t have that base we normally have.”

Britton, who is the team’s union representative, said he had spoken with his counterparts on almost every other MLB team, and they too have noticed the higher rate of injuries. He believed the smaller, soft-tissue injuries might have been avoided during the gradual buildup of a normal six-week spring training leading into a traditional 162-game season.

(Several baseball and medical experts have expressed fears that the starts and stops of the year — a traditional offseason; spring training suspended on March 12 because of the pandemic; a three-month hiatus in which players were training mostly on their own; and a short period for summer workouts — increased the likelihood of injury.)

Torres felt otherwise. He said: “Players prepared really well during the quarantine.

Myself, I prepared really well. I think it’s injuries that just happened. Right now, it’s time to prepare myself a little bit better and get a little bit stronger in my lower half.”

For the Yankees, though, the answer to their persistent injury question is made more complicated because they overhauled their

health and performance staff, including hiring a noted high-performance trainer, Eric Cressey, in an effort to avoid a repeat of 2019. Britton spoke highly of the retooled staff and their new strategies, such as training players to be better athletes rather than training them specifically for their position.

“For them to implement these programs, it’s hard to do that with the season that we’ve had,” Britton said.

Under Cressey’s guidance, the brawny outfielder Giancarlo Stanton lost 20 pounds since last season and was performing well — until he landed on the IL with a left hamstring strain on Aug. 9.

Over the weekend, Boone noted that the overhaul of the Yankees’ health and performance staff was done in January, so there hadn’t even been a full offseason to work with players. Despite the current backlog of injuries, Boone said he remained confident in the people entrusted with the players’ health and training.

“When we look up in a few years, we’ll really start to see the dividends being paid,” he said.

For now, though, the Yankees must contend with returning safely from another stretch without games and a jampacked schedule, and remain watchful of their constantly moving target of health.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

27

Messi tells Barcelona he wants to leave

By RORY SMITH

L

ionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in soccer history, has informed Barcelona that he intends to leave the club with immediate effect, and to do so by activating a clause in his contract that would mean the team where he has spent his entire career would not receive a cent in compensation.

Messi, 33, has spent the days since Barcelona’s humiliation by Bayern Munich, in the Champions League quarterfinals just over a week ago, watching his club descend into yet another bout of internal turmoil. Quique Setién, the manager, and the sporting director, Eric Abidal, both departed, and Ronald Koeman, a former Barcelona player, was appointed as coach.

Among his first acts was to tell several senior players — Samuel Umtiti, Arturo Vidal, Ivan Rakitic and Messi’s neighbor and close friend, Luis Suárez — that their services were no longer required. Suárez was reportedly told in a brief telephone conversation that he was free to find a new club.

Koeman also spoke with Messi, who at that point had stopped short of committing his future to the club. News reports in Spain on Tuesday night suggested that Koeman had warned Messi that he would no longer receive special treatment — a threat, it was suggested, that made up the Argentine’s mind.

Regardless of the trigger, Messi put his decision in writing on Tuesday. He and his representatives sent a burofax, a signed and legally recognized communication, informing Barcelona that the player intends to cancel his contract. A club spokeswoman confirmed the club had received the document.

Messi’s representatives believe he can make that decision unilaterally, thanks to a clause in his contract that enables him to leave free as long as he announces his intention to do so before the end of the season.

Barcelona is expected to contest quite when the end of the season is. The club probably will argue that the clause expired at the end of June, when the Spanish and European campaigns were scheduled to finish. Messi’s side is reportedly convinced that the exceptional circumstances of a pandemic-delayed season rendered that timing irrelevant. It is his, and his representatives’, belief that he is able to ac-

Lionel Messi reacts after Bayern Munich’s third goal against his Barcelona during the UEFA Champions tivate the clause until the end of August.

Sending the burofax, in this interpretation, was Messi triggering that clause, ending a spell at the club that has lasted for 20 years. Messi joined Barcelona at 13, recruited when an emissary from Barcelona, sent out to watch him play in his hometown, Rosario, Argentina, drew up a contract on a napkin.

His rise, in that time, has mirrored that of his club. Messi’s list of honors extends to 10 Spanish championships, four Champions League trophies and six world player of the year awards. His tally of individual records, if anything, is more remarkable.

He has scored more goals than anyone in La Liga history, and holds the assist record, too. He has won more Ballons d’Or — the famed trophy awarded annually to the world’s best player — than anyone else, played in more victories than any other Barcelona player, scored more hat-tricks and doubles than anyone else.

As Messi developed first into the best player of his generation and then, possibly, into the best in history, so Barcelona was transformed into arguably the most popular sports team in the world. For al-

most a decade, the club represented soccer’s gold standard.

Messi has previously insisted that he wanted to finish his career at Camp Nou — despite earlier suggestions that he would, eventually, return for a season at Newell’s Old Boys, his hometown team — but the chaos of the past few seasons, in which Barcelona has suffered a succession of haunting defeats in the Champions League and run through three managers in the past eight months, appears to have been too much to bear.

Should Barcelona not be able, or willing, to challenge his decision legally, Messi will not be short of suitors. More complex is which of the myriad clubs who would love to call on Messi would be able to afford his salary, which in some estimations runs at around $90 million a year, including image rights and bonuses.

Manchester City — managed by Messi’s old mentor, Pep Guardiola — and Paris St.-Germain, home to his close friend Neymar, would be the likeliest candidates, ahead of Chelsea, Manchester United and even Real Madrid. Inter Milan, though less successful in recent years, has maintained a yearslong dialogue with

Messi’s family, and has long attempted to position itself as his first alternative.

On Tuesday night, fans gathered outside Camp Nou, where Barcelona’s executives were holding an emergency meeting, to demand the resignation of the club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and his board. Their hope was that a change of leadership might be enough to prompt Messi into a change of heart, and keep the finest player in Barcelona’s history at the only club he has ever known.

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28

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Tim Stuetzle leads German hockey’s next NHL influx

By CAROL SCHRAM

W

ith his strong skating and sharp stickhandling skills, Tim Stuetzle, an 18-year-old German forward, has drawn comparisons to Patrick Kane.

“Tim has this incredible imagination when he’s on the ice,” said Craig Button, director of scouting for Canadian sports network TSN. “Great creativity, and he combines it with this, kind of, boldness.

“He doesn’t just play with a great determination and great skill level, he plays with this panache. It says, ‘Stop me, I dare you.’ Not a lot of players have that.”

Stuetzle earned rookie of the year honors in the top German men’s league last season, playing on the top line for Adler Mannheim. One of his linemates and mentors was former NHL player Ben Smith, who won a Stanley Cup alongside Kane with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013.

“So many guys from my team always said Patrick Kane to me, so that’s been a lot of fun for me,” Stuetzle said.

“For me, it’s always tough to compare because I think others should make an opinion on that. But for sure, it’s a big honor for me.

“I still think I’m very far away from him, and there’s a lot of things that I need to improve to get on his level. I still have a lot of time because I’m very young.”

Stuetzle has been ranked as the top European skater by NHL Central Scouting. And he could surpass Leon Draisaitl, whom the Edmonton Oilers selected third overall in 2014, as the highest-drafted German-developed player in league history.

“I think it would be unreal for German hockey if you have that kind of first rounder,” Stuetzle said. “But in the end, what’s most important for me is to play a long career and win something. I’m there to win, and I hope to have a long career and a healthy career. That’s the most important for me, but, for sure, right now I’m hoping to get drafted as high as possible and, yeah, maybe higher, or the same, as Leon.”

Before Draisaitl’s selection, only two other German players had ever been drafted in the first round. Marco Sturm, now an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings, went 21st overall in 1996. Forward Marcel Goc was selected 20th in 2001. Dany Heatley, a forward selected second overall in 2000, was born in Germany but grew up in Canada and represented it in international competition. All told, only six German-born skaters and two goalies suited up in the NHL last season. But those numbers are expected to grow quickly, with Stuetzle at the fore.

Alexis Lafreniere is the consensus top prospect for the 2020 NHL draft, which is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 9 and 10. But Stuetzle has been placed second on a number of expert rankings, including Button’s.

“I really do believe that he is one of the very few players in his draft that’s capable of coming into the NHL, if there’s a 2020-21 season, coming in and being a contributor,” Button said. “Not a player that dons a uniform, but a contributor to the team that drafts him. I think he’s that good.”

Stuetzle should be an easy fit on most NHL rosters, as he can play all three forward positions.

Tim Stuetzle, left, has been ranked as the top European skater by N.H.L. Central Scouting.

“I have no problem with each position, but I think I can be a very, very good centerman if I get stronger in a couple of years, because I love having the puck in the middle and making plays,” he said. “I plan, long term, on the center position. But last season went very good on the wing as well.”

Germany’s hockey program has been on the rise in recent years. Most notably: With no active NHL players permitted to participate at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Sturm coached the German team to an unexpected silver medal. And Draisaitl followed his first 50-goal season in 2018-19 by capturing the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading points scorer in the pandemicshortened 2019-20 regular season. With 110 points in 71 games, he finished 13 points ahead of his closest challenger, his teammate Connor McDavid.

In the last two years, two more Germans have been drafted in the first round. Forward Dominik Bokk was chosen 25th by the St. Louis Blues in 2018, and the Detroit Red Wings took defenseman Moritz Seider at No. 6 in 2019.

This year, more than one German could be selected in the first round for the first time. Wingers John-Jason Peterka and Lukas Reichel are ranked seventh and 11th on NHL Central Scouting’s European skater list. Button ranks Reichel

as the 33rd-best overall prospect and Peterka 42nd.

Germany’s rise in hockey has come partly with the help of a program called Powerplay 26.

After a lifetime in hockey, including winning a bronze medal as a player at the 1976 Winter Olympics, Franz Reindl took over as the German Ice Hockey Federation’s president in 2014 and helped create the program. Powerplay 26 is a comprehensive plan for improvement at all levels, bringing more youth players to the game and supporting them more effectively, with a goal of consistently competing for medals at all levels by 2026.

Since Powerplay 26 began in 2014, the German senior men’s team has climbed from 13th to seventh in the world rankings. The under-20 team earned promotion to the top level in December 2018, and the under-18 squad followed suit four months later. Over the same time, the women’s program slipped slightly, from seventh to eighth.

“Our level is Switzerland, Slovakia,” Reindl said. “The big nations, they are ahead of us. Canada, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Czechs and USA are the top six. But to be seven — it’s amazing in these last years, going from 13 to seven in the international world. But now it’s even harder to stay there and to maybe make the next step.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 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

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

Boredom will quickly set in if a task you take on proves too easy. If you spend too long in the same place or situation you will get fed up with your surroundings. Something is urging you to step back from a friendship or romantic situation. Listen to your intuition.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Secrets are causing problems between you and a partner. You will sense the need to be more open in your communications. This won’t be easy when you have been keeping a few things to yourself lately. Confide in an older friend if there’s something on your mind that’s stopping you from being your usual cheerful self.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

You have a number of choices ahead and you aren’t sure which way to go. Draw up a list of pros and cons and take it from there.

Be ready to end old commitments and arrangements to make room in your life for new beginnings. Serenity can be found through meditation or walking in the countryside.

Embarking on a new relationship should be fun. Someone you meet will have a huge heart. You will be inspired by their kindness and will know they’re going to be a big part of your future. Something you have been trying to keep secret will come up in conversation.

You will be surprised by how many people also know about it.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Be bold and experiment with new ideas. Say yes to the chance of enjoying a variety of pastimes. Be daring and join your more adventurous friends in living life to the full. The results of a test will give you something to celebrate.

Travel has a strong appeal. Even if you can’t go far, it’s hard to ignore your itchy feet.

You will shy away from the limelight but sometimes this makes you feel unappreciated.

You are making tremendous progress but this is going unnoticed by people in power.

A competitor is trying to take the credit for your hard work. Learn how to showcase your abilities.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

You want to learn more about something you hear. You won’t be sure whether or not you are being told the truth until you look further into it. A spontaneous decision will be made on behalf of your family. If you’re worried about what other people might say, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that this is right for you.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

Don’t feel as if nothing ever happens in your life and other people get all the luck. Create your own opportunities. You might want something different but a partner isn’t feeling so restless. If the effort you’re making to improve your relationship isn’t working, it might be time to go your separate ways.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

A senior colleague will help you move forward with career plans that seemed just out of reach. Your skills will be an asset in a group situation. Working with a mentor will help you advance your professional agenda. A friendship will be rekindled as you re-connect with each other via a social networking site.

You have too much on your plate. Your list of things to do is increasing rather than decreasing. You feel overwhelmed by responsibility and you know you cannot keep this up. You need to delegate tasks. Don’t put this off any longer. Share your duties with others. Start planning ahead and this will help you feel more organised.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

A long-term friendship does not have to be dull. If you need more excitement, find fun things to do together. It might feel as if you are drifting apart but it is more likely you have fallen into a rut. Instead of breaking up, change direction and add spice to your relationship.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

A sudden offer or opportunity will give you a chance to improve your situation. This is the proof you have been watching for that some clouds do have a silver lining. A relationship can survive if you both pull together and work on it. Exercise will be a good outlet for your emotions.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Thursday, August 27, 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

32

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 27, 2020

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