Thursday Aug 3, 2023

The San Juan Star

Zoe Saldaña Plays It Strong & Silent in ‘Special Ops: Lioness’

Trump’s Latest Case Has Broad Implications for American Democracy

Vegetation Is Main Cause of Outages and Will Take 3 Years to Rectify, LUMA Chief Says P3

An International Force

May Be Headed to Troubled Haiti, Again

‘The Number One Problem’

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.

Vegetation is main cause of outages, LUMA chief says

By THE STAR STAFF

LUMA Energy President Juan Saca said Wednesday at a public hearing before the Senate Committee on Strategic Projects and Energy that vegetation near power lines is the main cause of power outages.

“The number one problem with disruptions is vegetation, and this will take three years [to fix],” Saca said at the hearing chaired by Sen. Javier Aponte Dalmau.

In his deposition, Saca also identified failures in old and inadequate equipment and a lack of optimization of the system with new technologies as additional reasons for interruptions in electrical service.

Aponte Dalmau asked about the maintenance contracts, and Saca said they are obtained through bids. If the contract for pruning exceeds $10 million, it must be approved by the Financial Management and Oversight Board, he said.

Aponte Dalmau also asked about the realization of a new energy model with a $10 million federal allocation. Saca responded that it will not be enough and that over $3 billion in projects and over $10 billion in total will be required.

Saca also stressed the need to think of the Puerto Rico system as one and the need for constant collaboration with other components such as AES and Ecoeléctrica. He spoke of increasing communication with citizens, including text messages about interruptions and other data.

Saca also asked citizens not to plant trees near power lines and announced future projects to reduce service interruptions.

Prior to concluding the hearing, collaboration with the mayors on the issue of lighting and the acceleration of projects was discussed with the help of the energy secretary.

LUMA Energy has 4,000 employees, of which 1,435 work in field operations, including 973 guards, of which 657 are trained to work with energized lines.

LUMA Energy President Juan Saca

Senate Committee on Strategic Projects and Energy Chairman Javier Aponte Dalmau

Defending retirement

Central gov’t union members present nominees for Pension Benefits Council

By RICHARD GUTIÉRREZ richardsanjuanstar@gmail.com

In the most modern economies, money isn’t a gift, you have to earn it; a lot of people work hard for the money they currently have.

That is why the Puerto Rican Workers Central (CPT by its Spanish initials) on Wednesday called upon retired and active workers who are closing in on retirement from the central government to vote in the upcoming election of members to the Pension Benefits Council and announced today the nomination of pensioners María Teresa Rodríguez, better known as “Mariatere,” and Pablo Crespo, the executive Director of the ELA Employees Association, as candidates for four-year terms on the council.

“These two candidates are going to represent pensioned workers,” CPT President Emilio Nieves told the STAR. “Considering the great majority of pensioned people are from the central government, when we are talking about the central government we are talking about many different government offices: the Treasury Department, the Transportation [and Public Works] Department, and even municipal agencies are part of the overall central government.”

In order to understand how the Pension Trust came to be, a small history lesson is required. Back in 2017, the Financial Oversight and Management Board, in the name of the government of Puerto Rico,

declared bankruptcy under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act to restructure $72 billion in public debt and more than $55 billion in pension obligations with retirees. The Union Office of the United States nominated a Committee of Official Retirees (COR) by the petition of 17 organizations of retirees to represent the collective interests of the 167,000 retired workers from the central government and the judiciary in the bankruptcy process.

In 2019, the COR proposed the creation of a reserve fund, a “novel mechanism” to help pay pensions when the island government exited bankruptcy. The oversight board, the Puerto Rico government and the Association of Federal, State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)/ Public Servants United (SPU) supported the proposal with the COR and proceeded to negotiate their terms.

In January 2022, The federal Title III bankruptcy court confirmed the Adjustment Plan for Puerto Rico where the “guidelines for governorship and administration of the Reserved Pension Trust” were included.

“In other words, the independent retirement systems don’t exist anymore,” Nieves said. “All three retirement systems were combined into one, judiciary, teachers and central government. Each one of these divisions has two candidates and today we are presenting our two candidates for the retirees of the central government. We want to pass on this information so that all retirees are aware of this candidacy.”

The conference went on to give the candidates a thorough introduction.

“Mariatere has fought for decades in defense of our labor rights as president of the Independent Bank Union and was the first female vice president of the CPT,” Nieves said. “She was also heavily active in the fight for our right to a worthy retirement, and against the reforms of Bill 3 and pension cuts proposed by [oversight board]. In 2020, the first National Assembly for a worthy retirement took place with the attendance of more than 1,000 pensioned retirees who fought and were able to prevent a pension cut of 8.5% in the adjustment proposals for the central government debt.”

Crespo, the other candidate, laid out the candidates’ mission for the STAR.

“The fundamental mission of the people who are selected is to protect the pension money, which is so important for the Puerto Rican family, protect it tooth and nail, because we need to be very aware of the use of all funds,” he said. “This money passes on through a trust and we are going to be

responsible for guarding that trust.”

Crespo added that “I represent public service employees and retirees in a great way because I work in the Association of Employees ELA as an executive director.”

“ELA is truly an example of overcoming challenges; this entity has been used as an inspiration for the creation of this trust. Members of the council must take charge of this trust for the benefit of all retirees. It is our responsibility to protect this [trust] until the end.” Rodríguez added: “My commitment to the council is to make sure that what is done is done right to manage the funds.”

“I am a firm believer in utopias. I believe in a better future. If we don’t believe in utopias we will simply stay in the status quo and we won’t be able to achieve what we have to achieve,” she said. “I encourage retirees from Bill 447 and Bill 1 to vote. You will have different ways to vote, [and] it is important that you vote because that is how we proclaim our democratic right.”

Employees in 3 agencies seek over $82.4 million in payments

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico is in talks with Transportation, Corrections and Family department employees seeking over $82.4 million in administrative expense payments. The information is contained in two July 31 motions filed under the commonwealth bankruptcy, which is still active.

Meanwhile, the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) missed interest payments on its Series 2003 bonds, totaling $345,231 in funds that were due Aug. 1, according to a communication to the markets. The payments were for general purpose revenue bonds.

Regarding the employees’ claims, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who is overseeing Puerto Rico’ bankruptcies, granted the Transportation and Family department employees’ motions on Aug. 1. The government has until Aug. 21 to answer the motions. She has not ruled on the corrections officers’ motion. Puerto Rico’s Department of Transportation and Public Works employees are seeking some $48 million for underpayment of wages.

In another motion, some 20 Family Department workers from the Children’s Administration want $34.2 million in back wages, which constitute administrative claims in bankruptcy.

“The parties have shared divergent positions as to the appropriateness of the relief requested in the motions, but, upon the continued exchange of information and documentation, at this juncture, deem that a consensual settlement of the matters set forth therein is possible, and continue devoted to pursuing such goal,” the deadline extension motion said.

A second deadline extension motion sought an unspecified amount in salaries for 44 Department of Correction and Rehabilitation officials.The parties reached an agreement in principle, but it hasn’t been signed because the officers want the agreement to contain any amounts owed up to

the commonwealth’s effective date, another motion reads.

María Teresa Rodríguez, one of the two Puerto Rican Workers Central nominees to the Pension Benefits Council, speaks at a press conference on Wednesday. (Richard Gutiérrez/ The San Juan Daily Star)

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain

Regulator approves LUMA request to spend $180 million on underground transmission line resiliency

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) has approved LUMA Energy’s request to spend $180 million on enhancing resiliency of underground transmission lines.

On March 26, 2021, the PREB ordered the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to provide certain information related to the different projects under the categories of Transmission Line Projects, Transmission Substation Projects and Distribution Substation Projects in the PREPA 10-Year Infrastructure Plan. It also sought a list of projects to be funded with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds or any other federal funds.

On June 28, LUMA filed a document titled “Informative Motion,” which included another document titled “Funding Opportunities,” which contains a brief description of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

and a LUMA proposal with the description of the project titled “Underground Transmission Hardening for Enhanced Resilience.” Fol-

lowing certain requests, LUMA filed another motion in July.

LUMA stated that the proposed project

aims to repair and harden key elements of the underground transmission system whose potential failures would endanger the reliability and resiliency of the system. The project seeks to replace broken equipment, the deployment of advance sensors, control capabilities, and communications systems to allow for improved performance, to give support to effective black-start processes and to increase the capacity of the system to integrate renewable generation.

The project’s proposed approach will be in four phases and the project timeline is to be completed by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2028.

The first phase would be an assessment of the underground transmission lines and training of the project team (9-12 months). The second is the rebuilding of the two key transmission lines (2-3 years). The third is the installation of sensors and monitoring equipment, and the fourth is the evaluation of data.

Arecibo mayor welcomes US energy chief during visit to announce solar energy & storage funds

By THE STAR STAFF

Arecibo Mayor Carlos “Tito” Ramírez Irizarry received U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm at the Francisco “Paco” Abreu Center in the northern coastal municipality to follow up on the Biden administration’s project to allocate $453.5 million for solar energy and energy storage in Puerto Rico as part of its commitment to rebuild a stronger and more resilient electrical grid.

“We thank Secretary Granholm for her keen interest in the well-being of Puerto Rico. Never before in the history of Puerto Rico have we had an opportunity to boost energy

production for families and for economic development like this project in which we are participating,” the mayor said. “In the mission to generate clean, renewable and more resilient energy, the Municipality of Arecibo is in the front row.”

The federal Energy secretary has been on the island since Monday, when she announced the allocation of the $453.5 million for solar energy and energy storage systems.

In early October 2022, following devastating Hurricane Fiona, President Biden visited Puerto Rico and delegated Granholm to establish and lead the Puerto Rico Grid Recovery and Modernization Team to channel federal resources and technical assistance to Puerto Rico. On March 31, after her previous visit, Granholm highlighted the progress made regarding the number of projects approved and under construction for the modernization and recovery of the island’s vulnerable power grid.

Ramírez Irizarry invited citizens to learn about the project through this internet address: https://www.energy. gov/gdo/fondo-de-resiliencia-energetica-de-puerto-rico

“In this link the most common questions about the initiative are answered,” the mayor said.

Granholm thanked those present for their attendance, and thanked the Municipality of Arecibo for its availability to cooperate on the project.

Ramírez Irizarry has an ongoing project to help Areciboños with serious health conditions that require electricity for their treatments.

The project aims to provide each citizen with solar

batteries and a cart to transport them at the convenience of the patient, as well as solar panels to power the batteries.

“The purpose is that these teams can contribute to the quality of life of these citizens,” the mayor said. “Particularly now that the hurricane season has been underway since June 1, for these families it is a relief to have this equipment.”

The solar battery equipment, with a capacity of 2,000 watts, is known for its ease of use. It has a two-year warranty and the estimated market value of a single unit is $3,000.

LUMA Energy stated that the proposed project aims to repair and harden key elements of the underground transmission system whose potential failures would endanger the reliability and resiliency of the system.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Arecibo Mayor Carlos Ramírez Irizarry

By THE STAR STAFF

Public Buildings Authority (AEP by its Spanish initials) Executive Director

Yamil Ayala Cruz announced on Wednesday that he has signed a collaborative agreement with the Department of Recreation and Sports (DRD) to paint the basketball/volleyball courts at about 100 public schools under the purview of the AEP.

“The Department of Recreation and Sports has the staff to paint the courts with the specifications for the practice of basketball and volleyball in schools,” Ayala Cruz said in a written statement. “The employees of the Department of Recreation and Sports have done an extraordinary job in collaboration with some municipalities for the return to school and we want to replicate that work in our schools.”

Recreation and Sports Secretary Ray Quiñones Vázquez added that “with this Agreement we ensure that our courts will be ready for games at the beginning of classes.”

“Our regional directors will be in charge of the labor to paint 100 courts around Puerto Rico,” he said. “Once again we

demonstrate the importance of working alliances like this that are of great benefit for the development of our students.”

The agreement between the two agencies states that the AEP will be providing the DRD with all the paint and materials necessary to paint the courts, as well as for cleaning and preparation for the paint job. Meanwhile, the DRD will be responsible for the workforce, as provided in the agreement, which is valid until June 30, 2024.

Ayala Cruz noted that AEP workers will continue to carry out general repairs that include electrical and plumbing work, repair of bathrooms and air conditioners, and installation of lights, among other tasks, within the work plan that was established with extended work days, including holidays and weekends.

“I recognize the work of our fellow workers of the Public Buildings Authority and the effort they have put into completing the work to have schools fit for the return to classes,” Ayala Cruz said. “I appreciate the commitment and effort they have shown in completing the assigned tasks in the time we have set for ourselves.”

Recreation & Sports staff to paint courts at schools managed by AEP Liberty to hold job fair at convention center next week

By THE STAR STAFF

Liberty Communications will hold a job fair and hiring event next Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 208 A at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, the company announced Wednesday.

Liberty is looking to fill more than 300 regular and temporary positions in different areas such as business, customer experience, finance, sales, marketing, call centers, product and technical support, among others.

“Our company continues to grow, which means we need highly skilled and motivated individuals who also have the desire to grow professionally,” said Jazmin Castro, vice president of human resources at Liberty Communications. “In addition to good career opportunities, our employees receive an attractive package of benefits, training, continuing education and innovative human resources policies that will help them achieve a better balance between their professional and personal lives.”

Castro added that Liberty is focusing on recruiting new talent in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, something that she said shows the company’s trajectory of growth and commitment to the islands. Liberty has

hired more than 128 new employees in the Caribbean region so far this year, she said.

For technical positions, applicants must have at least one year of experience in technical work and/or installations. All candidates should bring an up-to-date resume and be ready for a short face-to-face interview.

Several of Liberty’s hiring managers will be present

to interview, answer questions and provide links for applicants to fill out their applications. Applicants can show up without an appointment.

Liberty offers very competitive salaries and benefits packages, including access to a 401(k) savings plan and a health plan that includes dental, pharmacy and vision coverage, according to a press release.

The agreement between the two agencies states that the Public Buildings Authority will be providing the Recreation and Sports Department with all the paint and materials necessary to paint the basketball/volleyball courts, as well as for cleaning and preparation for the paint job.

Liberty Communications is looking to fill more than 300 regular and temporary positions in various areas such as business, customer experience, finance, sales, marketing, call centers, product and technical support, among others.

Trump’s case has broad implications for American democracy

By PETER BAKER

In the long annals of the republic, the White House has seen its share of perfidy and scandal, presidents who cheated on their wives and cheated the taxpayers, who abused their power and abused the public trust.

But not since the framers emerged from Independence Hall on that clear, cool day in Philadelphia 236 years ago has any president who was voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress.

What makes the indictment against Donald Trump on Tuesday so breathtaking is not that it is the first time a president has been charged with a crime or even the second. Trump already holds those records. But as serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to the heart of the matter, the issue that will define the future of American democracy.

At the core of the United States of America v. Donald J. Trump is no less than the viability of the system constructed during that summer in Philadelphia. Can a sitting president spread lies about an election and try to employ the authority of the government to overturn the will of the voters without consequence? The question would have been unimaginable just a few years ago, but the Trump case raises the kind of specter more familiar in countries with histories of coups and juntas and dictators.

In effect, Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought the case, charged Trump with one of the most sensational frauds in the history of the United States, one “fueled by lies” and animated by the basest of motives, the thirst for power. In a 45-page, four-count indictment, Smith dispensed with the notion that Trump believed his claims of election fraud. “The defendant knew that they were false,” it said, and made them anyway to “create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”

The elements of the alleged conspiracy laid out in the indictment were for the most part well known since the congressional inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol wrapped up seven months ago — and many of them long before that. In that sense, the unsealing of the document had a bizarrely anticlimactic feel to it, given the stakes.

But if long delayed, the indictment wove together all the intrigue between the Nov. 3, 2020, election and the Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration into a damning tale of a president who pushed in seemingly every possible way stop the handover of the White House to the challenger who beat him.

For all of the many, many allegations made against

him on all sorts of subjects during his time on the public stage, everything else feels small by comparison. Unlike the indictment by New York state for allegedly covering up a payment to a porn actress and Smith’s previous indictment for allegedly jeopardizing national secrets after leaving the White House, the new charges are the first to deal with actions taken by a president while in office.

While he failed to keep his grip on power, Trump has undermined the credibility of elections in the United States by persuading 3 in 10 Americans that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from him, even though it was not and many of his own advisers and family members know it was not.

Bringing the case to court, of course, may not restore that public faith in the system. Millions of Trump’s supporters and many Republican leaders have embraced his narrative of victimization, dismissing the prosecution without waiting to read the indictment as merely part of a far-reaching, multi-jurisdictional and sometimes even bipartisan “witch hunt” against him.

Trump has been laying the ground for the eventual indictment for months, making clear to his backers that they should not trust anything prosecutors tell them. “Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago?” Trump wrote on his social media site Tuesday afternoon. “Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!”

A statement issued by his campaign went further, equating prosecutors with fascists and communists. “The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and

his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” it said. “President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys.”

Name-calling is a political defense, not a legal one, but one that so far has succeeded in preserving his electoral standing in his comeback campaign for the White House. Despite prognostications to the contrary, the last two indictments succeeded only in enhancing his appeal among Republicans in the contest for the party nomination to challenge President Joe Biden next year.

Trump’s defenders argue that he had good-faith reasons for contesting the election results in multiple states and that he did nothing more than pursue his legitimate, legal options, a view shared by 74% of Republicans in a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College. What Smith is doing, they maintain, is criminalizing a political dispute in what amounts to victor’s justice — Biden’s administration punishing his vanquished foe.

But as the indictment methodically documented, Trump was told over and over again by his own advisers, allies and administration officials that the allegations he was making were not true, and yet he publicly continued to make them, sometimes just hours later.

He was told they were not true by not one but two attorneys general, multiple other Justice Department officials and the government’s election security chief — all his appointees. He was told by his own vice president, campaign officials and the investigators they hired. He was told by Republican governors and secretaries of state and legislators. As one senior campaign adviser put it at the time, it was “all just conspiracy” garbage “beamed down from the mother ship.”

Despite all that, Trump has never backed down in the 2 1/2 years since, even as assertion after assertion has been debunked. Not a single independent authority who was not allied with or paid by Trump — no judge, no prosecutor, no election agency, no governor — has ever validated any substantial election fraud that would have come close to reversing the results in any of the battleground states, much less the three or four that would have been necessary to change the winner.

The one who tried to defraud the United States, Smith charged, was Trump, with bogus claims that he knew or had every reason to know were bogus, all in a bid for power. The former president will argue that this is all politics and that he should be returned to office in next year’s election, and so far millions of Americans have taken his side.

Now the justice system and the electoral system will engage in a 15-month race to see which will decide his fate first — and the country’s. The real verdict on the Trump presidency is still to come.

Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks about an indictment of former President Donald Trump during a news conference at a Department of Justice office in Washington, Aug. 1, 2023.

DeSantis suggests Trump can’t get a fair trial in DC ‘swamp’

By ANJALI HUYNH

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida raced to respond to news that former President Donald Trump had been indicted a third time not by opining one way or the other on the new federal charges, but by leveling an unusual attack at residents of the District of Columbia, where the case is being prosecuted.

Suggesting that Trump could not get a fair trial if the jurors were residents of the nation’s capital, an overwhelmingly Democratic city, DeSantis called for enacting reforms to let Americans have the right to remove cases from Washington to their home districts.

“Washington, D.C. is a ‘swamp’ and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “One of the reasons our country is in decline is the politicization of the rule of law. No more excuses — I will end the weaponization of the federal government.”

The judge assigned to Trump, who was indicted on charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is Tanya Chutkan, a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia who has routinely issued harsh penalties in Jan. 6-related cases against people who stormed the Capitol.

Republican candidates, who have sought to overtake the former president’s substantial

lead in early polls with little success, have campaigned amid a backdrop of Trump’s legal battles that have sucked up valuable airtime and dominated media coverage. Here’s what the others said Tuesday:

— Former Vice President Mike Pence, who was present at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack and was the target of some rioters — and whom the indictment describes as a key target of Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the 2020 election — said the indictment “serves as an important reminder: Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.”

— Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur and one of Trump’s most vocal defenders in the 2024 field, called the indictment “unAmerican.” He sought to absolve Trump of any responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and reiterated his promise that, if elected, he would pardon Trump. “The corrupt federal police just won’t stop until they’ve achieved their mission: eliminate Trump,” he said, and added: “Trump isn’t responsible for what happened on Jan 6. The real cause was systematic and pervasive censorship of citizens in the year leading up to it.”

— Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, who has refused to pledge his support to Trump if he is the eventual nominee, was the first candidate to respond to the new indictment.

“Let me be crystal clear: Trump’s presidential bid is driven by an attempt to stay out of prison and scam his supporters into footing his legal bills,” Hurd wrote.

“His denial of the 2020 election results and actions on Jan. 6 show he’s unfit for office.”

— Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who is running an explicitly anti-Trump campaign, reiterated his calls for Trump to quit his campaign, calling him “morally responsible for the attack on our democracy.”

Hutchinson said that if Trump does not drop out of the race, “voters must choose a different path.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks about his economic plan at the Prep Partners Group in Rochester, N.H., July 31, 2023.

A senator’s new wife and her old friends draw prosecutors’ attention

By TRACEY TULLY

In early 2019, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his new girlfriend, Nadine Arslanian, were riding high.

He had avoided a federal bribery conviction after his trial ended with a hung jury, and the couple had begun traveling the world.

Menendez proposed to Arslanian that October in India with a grand gesture, singing “Never Enough” from “The Greatest Showman” outside the Taj Mahal. They married a year later in a small ceremony in the Queens borough of New York City and were showered with gifts from a dozen influential friends, including the head of one of New Jersey’s largest health care systems and a lawyer who would later become the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

The senator moved into his wife’s modest split-level house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and they have since attended two state dinners at the White House, dining with the president of France and the prime minister of India.

But their whirlwind romance has taken a sudden dark turn.

Menendez, the 69-year-old Democratic chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, is under investigation by the Justice Department for the second time in less than a decade. And this time, his wife is also in prosecutors’ crosshairs.

The new inquiry, led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, appears to be focused at least in part on the possibility that either the senator or his wife received undisclosed gifts from a company run by a friend of Nadine Menendez, and that those gifts might have been given in exchange for political favors, according to two people with knowledge of the matter and subpoenas issued in the case.

Unlike her husband, who took a seat on a New Jersey school board as a 20-year-old and rose to prominence in Hudson County’s famously sharp-elbowed political scrum, Nadine Menendez, 56, has lived a mainly private life.

She holds a master’s degree in French language and civilization from New York University, but did not work outside the home while raising her two children in Bergen County, New Jersey, according to court records and longtime friends. She is described by friends, acquaintances and two former lawyers in much the same way: social, smart and highly fashion-conscious.

She struggled financially after a 2005 divorce and even faced foreclosure. But by 2020, the year she and Bob Menendez were married, she had formed an international consulting company, and her assets included bars of gold bullion then valued at as much as $250,000.

Nadine Menendez, who is represented by a Washington-based lawyer, now finds herself

at the center of an investigation that carries the risk of steep criminal penalties and could alter the political playing field in New Jersey and in Washington as her husband prepares to run for a fourth term next year.

The senator’s campaign finance reports underscore the gravity of the new federal inquiry. He has spent roughly $290,000 since January in connection with the investigation, federal election records show, and last month he created a new defense fund to avoid further draining his political accounts.

The senator has said that he expected the inquiry would be “successfully closed.” His office did not respond to requests for additional comment.

A Halal monopoly

The full scope of the federal inquiry, including Nadine Menendez’s role, remains unknown. But the investigation appears to focus at least in part on the couple’s connection to a 40-year-old New Jersey businessperson, Wael Hana, who has known Nadine Menendez since before she started dating the senator.

She and Hana were part of a group of friends who frequently socialized at restaurants in northern New Jersey; some of them shared an affinity for Cuban cigars. Several members of the network have received subpoenas, according to a friend who was interviewed by prosecutors and lawyers representing other people in the case.

Hana began operating a startup company, IS EG Halal, in New Jersey in 2019, and it soon became the sole entity authorized to certify that any halal food product imported into Egypt from anywhere in the world had been prepared according to Islamic law.

It was an unlikely development, given that Hana, a U.S. citizen born in Egypt, has said in court papers that he had no prior experience in the halal industry.

Before 2019, four companies in the United States had divvied up the work of ensuring that meat exported to Egypt was free from ingredients prohibited by Islamic law and met strict processing standards, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The decision to give authorization solely to one company did not require U.S. approval. But it was an abrupt pivot by the government of Egypt, and news stories at the time chronicled how the steep new fees for certification were expected to lead to higher meat prices in a country that is home to 90 million Muslims.

In November 2019, the FBI searched Hana’s home and offices. Investigators seized computers, cellphones, Hana’s passport and “every single piece of paper” in the company’s headquarters, Hana’s lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said in a court filing. Hana was not charged, and Lustberg, in

the filing, said that his client was told he was not a target of the investigation.

Federal prosecutors and the FBI are now investigating whether the senator or his wife received a luxury car or an apartment in Washington from Hana’s company. It is, however, unclear which, if any, of Menendez’s official acts as a senator is under scrutiny by prosecutors.

Hana’s spokesperson, Ellen Davis, has said that he got the halal business without assistance from any U.S. public official. “Allegations about cars, apartments, cash and jewelry being provided by anyone associated with IS EG Halal to Sen. Menendez or his wife at all — let alone in exchange for any kind of favorable treatment — are totally without basis,” she said in May. She declined additional comment.

A shared cause, and pancakes

Bob and Nadine Menendez first met years ago at one of his well-known haunts — an IHOP in Union City, New Jersey, where he was once mayor. They began dating in late 2018.

They quickly found common cause: a desire for the U.S. government to formally recognize the Armenian genocide, a brutal campaign by the former Ottoman Empire that killed 1.5 million people, including several of Nadine Menendez’s relatives.

In 2019, after a decadelong effort, Bob Menendez succeeded in getting the Senate to approve a resolution acknowledging the deaths as genocide, a step that paved the way for President Joe Biden’s formal recognition of the massacre two years later.

“When he passed it, I had tears of joy,” Nadine Menendez said in a 2020 interview with “The Armenian Report,” an English-language podcast.

“People ask me, ‘What’s the next thing? What are you pushing him to do, backing him up to do? What would you like to see?’ ” she added. “For me, the one and only thing I wanted was the recognition of the Armenian genocide.”

Nadine Menendez did not respond to requests for comment. But on the podcast she explained that she was born in Lebanon to Armenian parents, who fled during the Lebanese civil war. They emigrated to the United States when she was a child, eventually settling in New York.

Court records and interviews with her former lawyers, acquaintances and longtime friends show that the years after her divorce were a time of legal tumult and financial uncertainty.

She relied mainly on alimony and child support, and at one point picked up part-time work as a host at a New Jersey restaurant, said Douglas Anton, a lawyer who represented her in several past legal matters, including a dispute over her ex-husband’s monthly payments and a lawsuit against an insurance company.

In 2014, after having trouble paying the

$1,897 monthly mortgage on the home she now shares with the senator, she enrolled in a federal program that lowered her payments, court records show. By June 2019 she had failed to make even the lower payments for six months, and Freddie Mac had begun foreclosure proceedings.

Just as the foreclosure began, she founded a consulting business with the help of one of her soon-to-be-husband’s close friends. It was the start of a dramatic improvement in her finances.

State records show that Nadine Menendez’s business, Strategic International Business Consultants, was incorporated on the night the mortgage company began foreclosure proceedings. The simple, one-page form creating the limited liability company was faxed to New Jersey’s Department of Treasury by a law firm run by Donald Scarinci, who testified during the senator’s bribery trial in Newark, New Jersey.

The company is run solely by Nadine Menendez from her home, according to state records, and does not have an online footprint or phone number. It appears on her husband’s required financial disclosure reports because they are married, but little else about the nature of the firm is known.

Scarinci declined to comment.

The foreclosure was dismissed two months later after part of the debt was repaid and the mortgage was reinstated, according to a representative at the law firm that handled the foreclosure proceeding.

Then, a year and a half after their marriage, Bob Menendez amended a 2020 financial disclosure form to include a new asset belonging to his wife: bars of gold bullion worth as much as $250,000.

It is unclear how she came into possession of the gold, and in late June, he filed yet another amended report, noting that his wife had sold between $200,000 and $400,000 of the bullion.

David Schertler, Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, declined to comment.

Sen. Bob Menendez, (D-N.J.) speaking during a press briefing follow a weekly policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, in Washington on March 15, 2023.

Hollywood writers and studios to restart talks after 3-month standoff

By JOHN KOBLIN

The major entertainment studios and thousands of striking writers have agreed to meet to restart talks after a three-month standoff, according to the writers guild.

The union, the Writers Guild of America, told screenwriters in an email Tuesday night that Carol Lombardini, the studio negotiator, asked for “a meeting this Friday to discuss negotiations.”

The guild said it would not comment further. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the organization that bargains on behalf of the studios, also declined to comment.

The meeting represents the first sign of movement in a stalemate that began in early May after negotiations between the writers and studios fell apart.

Tens of thousands of actors also took to picket lines July 14, bringing Hollywood its first simultaneous actors-and-writers walkout since 1960.

The stalemate has resulted in a near-complete production shutdown of scripted entertainment in the United States.

Many people in the entertainment business had assumed the studios would attempt to restart negotiations first with SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union. That guild has historically been more willing to negotiate with the studios, while the writers have taken a much harder line. Members of the writers guild have walked out several times through the decades, most recently in

2008 for 100 days. The actors last went on strike in 1980.

But that calculus appears to have changed. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, the former star of “The Nanny,” has made broadsides at studio executives, including Disney CEO Bob Iger. Her fiery criticism led some studios executives to believe that the writers might be more hospitable to bargaining.

The writers and actors went on strike after they raised concerns about their compensation levels and working conditions, as streaming content has had an effect on all corners of entertainment. The writers union has called their grievances “existential,” and said they are “fighting for survival,” Chris Keyser, a chair of the guild negotiating committee, said in a video address to members last week.

But in those same remarks, Keyser offered a self-described “olive branch” to the studios.

“If you are visionaries, envision a solution, not a stalemate,” he said, addressing the studio chiefs. “Because this isn’t a war we’re in — it’s a negotiation. It’s just a negotiation. And when you come to remember that again, we will be here as we have been here all along.”

Keyser also said that the writers remain unified.

“You cannot outlast us — you cannot,” he said. “And not just because we have the will. Because we have power. Nothing in this business happens until we start to write, and we will not start to write until we are paid.”

Sharp criticism of studio executives by Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, led the studios to see the writers as more likely to return to negotiations.

Wall Street ends down, investors step back after Fitch US rating cut

Wall Street tumbled to its worst drop in months on Wednesday as its torrid rally that critics called overdone lost more momentum.

The S&P 500 sank 1.4% for its sharpest tumble since April. It was the second straight loss for the index after it hit a 16-month high last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 348 points, or 1%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 2.2%.

Prices were mixed in the bond market after Fitch Ratings cut the credit rating of the U.S. government. The repeated standoffs in Congress about whether to allow a default on the U.S. debt were just some of the reasons for Fitch’s cut. The downgrade strikes at the core of the global financial system because U.S. Treasurys are considered some of the safest possible investments.

Fitch’s move follows a similar one by Standard & Poor’s in 2011, one that coincided with a European debt crisis to help cause stocks and bonds around the world to swing violently. So far, this most recent downgrade has caused less drama across markets.

While the downgrade highlights how much debt the U.S. government has and the big challenges it faces in how to pay for Social Security, Medicare and other expenses, none of that is news for investors.

“Fitch’s downgrade is much ado about nothing,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

“Yes, it’s good to call out the fiscal situation, but when a country only issues debt in its own currency, the credit rating is irrelevant. Every investment fund I’ve looked at specifies that US Treasury securities are allowed investments, regardless of what a credit rating agency might think.”

The big issues for Wall Street remain whether the economy can avoid a long-predicted recession, as hoped, and what’s happening with corporate profits. And reports on both those questions came in mixed on Wednesday.

That offered fodder for critics who say investors were too quick to buy the belief that a soft landing is surely ahead for the economy. They’ve been saying Wall Street rallied too much, too quickly this year. Analysts said some of Wednesday’s selling could be investors locking in profits made during the S&P 500’s 19.5% run for the year through July.

One report suggested hiring in the private sector remains much stronger than economists expected, even if it slowed slowed from the prior month.

A job market that remains solid could keep a lid on worries about a possible recession. But investors also fear a too-strong reading, which could persuade the Federal Reserve too much upward pressure still exists on inflation.

The Fed has already yanked its federal funds rate higher at tremendous speed in hopes of undercutting inflation. High rates do that by slowing the economy bluntly, but that risks causing a recession and hurts prices of investments along the way.

Inflation has been cooling since last summer’s peak, and the rising hope on Wall Street had been that the Fed won’t hike rates anymore and could even begin cutting them next year.

Wednesday’s stronger-than-expected jobs report from ADP could be a signal of what Friday’s more comprehensive report

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

from the U.S. government will say. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has highlighted Friday’s numbers as a big influence on the central bank’s next move in September.

Ukrainian troops trained by the West stumble in battle

By ERIC SCHMITT and HELENE COOPER

The first several weeks of Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive have not been kind to the Ukrainian troops who were trained and armed by the United States and its allies.

Equipped with advanced American weapons and heralded as the vanguard of a major assault, the troops became bogged down in dense Russian minefields under constant fire from artillery and helicopter gunships. Units got lost. One unit delayed a nighttime attack until dawn, losing its advantage. Another fared so badly that commanders yanked it off the battlefield altogether.

Now the Western-trained Ukrainian brigades are trying to turn things around, U.S. officials and independent analysts say. Ukrainian military commanders have changed tactics, focusing on wearing down the Russian forces with artillery and long-range missiles instead of plunging into minefields under fire. A troop surge is underway in the country’s south, with a second wave of Western-trained forces launching mostly small-scale attacks to punch through Russian lines.

But early results have been mixed. While Ukrainian troops have retaken a few villages, they have yet to make the kinds of sweeping gains that characterized their successes in the strategically important cities of Kherson and Kharkiv last fall. The complicated training in Western maneuvers has given the Ukrainians scant solace in the face of barrage after barrage of Russian artillery.

Ukraine’s decision to change tactics is a clear signal that NATO’s hopes for large advances made by Ukrainian formations armed with new weapons, new training and an injection of artillery ammunition

have failed to materialize, at least for now.

It raises questions about the quality of the training the Ukrainians received from the West and about whether tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including nearly $44 billion worth from the Biden administration, have been successful in transforming the Ukrainian military into a NATO-standard fighting force.

“The counteroffensive itself hasn’t failed; it will drag on for several months into the fall,” said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who recently visited the front lines. “Arguably, the problem was in the assumption that with a few months of training, Ukrainian units could be converted into fighting more the way American forces might fight, leading the assault against a well-prepared Russian defense, rather than helping Ukrainians fight more the

best way they know how.”

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has increasingly signaled that his strategy is to wait out Ukraine and its allies and win the war by exhausting them. American officials are worried that Ukraine’s return to its old tactics risks that it will race through precious ammunition supplies, which could play into Putin’s hands and put Ukraine at a disadvantage in a war of attrition.

Biden administration officials had hoped the nine Western-trained brigades, some 36,000 troops, would show that the American way of warfare was superior to the Russian approach. While the Russians have a rigidly centralized command structure, the Americans taught the Ukrainians to empower senior enlisted soldiers to make quick decisions on the battlefield and to deploy combined arms tactics — synchronized attacks by infantry, armor and artillery forces.

Western officials championed that approach as more efficient than the costly strategy of wearing Russian forces down by attrition, which threatens to de -

plete Ukraine’s ammunition stocks.

Much of the training involved teaching Ukrainian troops how to go on the offensive rather than stay on defense. For years, Ukrainian troops had worked on defensive tactics as Russian-backed separatists launched attacks in eastern Ukraine. When Moscow began its fullscale invasion last year, Ukrainian troops put their defensive operations into play, denying Russia the swift victory it had anticipated.

The effort to take back their own territory “is requiring them to fight in different ways,” Colin H. Kahl, who recently stepped down as the Pentagon’s top policy official, said last month.

But the Western-trained brigades received only four to six weeks of combined arms training, and units made several mistakes at the start of the counteroffensive in early June that set them back, according to U.S. officials and analysts who recently visited the front lines and spoke to Ukrainian troops and commanders.

Some units failed to follow cleared paths and ran into mines. When a unit delayed a nighttime attack, an accompanying artillery bombardment to cover its advance went ahead as scheduled, tipping off the Russians.

In the first two weeks of the counteroffensive, as much as 20% of the weaponry Ukraine sent to the battlefield was damaged or destroyed, according to U.S. and European officials. The toll included some of the formidable Western fighting machines — tanks and armored personnel carriers — that the Ukrainians were counting on to beat back the Russians.

Military experts said that using newly learned tactics for the first time was always going to be hard, especially given that the Russian response was to assume a defensive crouch and fire massive barrages of artillery.

“They were given a tall order,” said Rob Lee, a Russian military specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia and a former U.S. Marine officer, who has also traveled to the front lines. “They had a short amount of time to train on new equipment and to develop unit cohesion, and then they were thrown into one of the most difficult combat situations. They were put in an incredibly tough position.”

Members of a mortar team from the 24th Mechanized Brigade fire on a Russian position in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, on July 23, 2023.

Iran orders nationwide shutdown because of ‘unprecedented’ heat

By FARNAZ FASSIHI

Iran earlier this week announced a two-day public holiday in response to “unprecedented” heat, ordering all government agencies, banks and schools to shut down, an unusual move prompted by soaring temperatures that threatened public health and strained the country’s power grid.

The nationwide shutdown was to run from Wednesday to today, as temperatures exceeded 123 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) in some southwestern cities. And the Iranian Health Ministry advised older people, children and those with underlying health conditions to stay indoors because of the risk of heat strokes. Iran’s soccer league also canceled all games in the next few days because of the heat.

“Given the unprecedented heat in the coming days and to protect public health, the cabinet has agreed with the Health Ministry’s recommendation for a nationwide shutdown on Wednesday and Thursday,” Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the government spokesperson, said in a post on Twitter.

Temperatures were well above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday in more than a dozen Iranian cities, and in the capital, Tehran, they were expected to reach 102 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 39 degrees Celsius) in the coming days, according to Iran’s metrological organization.

Iran, a geographically diverse country with mountains and high-altitude terrain that can experience cooler weather, has not been known to shut down the country because of heat. Hot summers are typical in Tehran and the country’s southern cities.

Neighboring Iraq extended public holidays last year to protect employees from

In Iran’s capital, Tehran, the temperature was expected to reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) in the coming days, the country’s metrological organization said.

125-degree weather. And in Egypt, officials have been cutting the power at least once a day during the recent heat wave because they do not have enough energy to power the grid. The Cairo government advised buildings and sports stadiums to cut back on air conditioning and lights, and most government employees were told to work from home on Sundays to save electricity.

Iran’s shutdown comes as a heat wave has gripped the Asian, European and North American continents this summer, with July becoming the hottest month ever recorded. Scientists have concluded that human-induced climate change is fueling the high temperatures.

The Middle East, with its shrinking water sources and long stretches of desert, has been hit particularly hard, as its population experiences water shortages and sporadic power cuts. In June, Iran changed government employees’ summer office hours so that they could start and end earlier to save energy.

But drought and the systematic mismanagement of water resources have exacerbated the heat crisis for many Iranians. Poverty and the lack of infrastructure in rural areas such as Sistan and Baluchestan province have prevented residents from being able to afford air conditioners and from getting access to clean drinking water.

Electricity usage was expected to hit a record high across Iran as people turn to air conditioners, according to the Ministry of Energy. As of Tuesday, at least two power plants had gone off the grid, and power cuts have been reported in some cities, raising concern that the closures were meant to prevent more problems with the grid, according to local news reports.

Many Iranians took to social media to dispute the government’s reasoning for the shutdown, saying it could not meet the expected demand for electricity.

Trust in the government has eroded significantly in the aftermath of an uprising that began in September demanding the end of the Islamic Republic’s rule. Protests erupted across the country because of the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police after she was accused of violating the mandatory hijab law, and as security forces unleashed a violent crackdown.

“The reason for the closures tomorrow and the day after is not the heat,” tweeted Marziye Mahmoodi, an editor of Tejarat News, a financial daily newspaper. “The super power of the region doesn’t have electricity!”

Ataollah Hafezi, a political scientist, also tweeted that the closings “could be for any other reason except for unprecedented heat.”

Experts have said that Iran’s electricity infrastructure is old and needs foreign investments for upgrades. But that is nearly impossible because of U.S. sanctions.

A spokesperson for the Energy Ministry, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, told local news outlets that the ministry was considering requesting more shutdowns in the coming weeks because of the strain on the electrical grid.

An international force may be headed to troubled Haiti, again

By FRANCES ROBLES

After nearly a year of calls from the prime minister of Haiti for armed intervention from abroad, the troubled country may soon get such a deployment from an African nation.

Just days after announcing the withdrawal of nonemergency personnel from its embassy in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and urging other Americans to leave, the United States said Monday that it would introduce a resolution to the United Nations Security Council authorizing a multinational force to Haiti.

On Saturday, Kenya said in a statement that it would “positively consider” leading such a force by sending 1,000 police officers to the Caribbean nation, which has become a cauldron of violence and political instability.

The prime minister of Haiti is largely viewed as incompetent, gangs have taken over vast areas of Port-au-Prince, and police have done little to quell the violence, leading to the rise of vigilante groups that have targeted and killed suspected gang members in public.

After months of rampant gang-related homicides, kidnappings and vigilante killings, dozens of people have in recent weeks sought refuge on the steps of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.

Last week, an American nurse and her

child were kidnapped. Haiti’s previous president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his home two years ago, but the country has been too mired in political upheaval and violence to elect a successor.

Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has for months asked for an international force to step in, but the United States and other nations that might take the lead had shown little interest.

Kenya’s foreign minister, Alfred Mutua, said Kenyan police would help train and assist Haitian police, restore normalcy and protect “strategic installations.” Kenya “stands with persons of African descent

across the world,” Mutua said.

The West African nation has had experience in peacekeeping missions in other parts of the world, including Somalia and Congo. It recently tried, unsuccessfully, to broker an end to a more than 100-day war in Sudan.

Details of the Haiti mission will “crystallize” once the Security Council issues a mandate, the foreign minister said, adding that an assessment mission was expected in the coming weeks.

“Once they have conducted that assessment mission, they, as the lead of this multinational force, will talk with other partners about what additional type of assistance they need, what other countries might participate,” said Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department.

The United States is “committed to finding the resources to support this multinational force,” but it is too early to know what those resources might be, he added.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Tuesday: “Our support for the people of Haiti remains unwavering.”

The United Nations said it welcomed the move, but stressed that the force would be a “non-U.N. multinational force.”

“They are not asking for a peacekeeping operation” in Haiti, said Stephanie Tremblay, a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “They are asking for non-U.N., but still international, assistance to help out with security.”

Among the questions about outside intervention is whether help from other countries, if needed, would come.

Haiti has a fraught history of occupa-

tions by foreign powers, and even in cases where international forces arrived to try to help the country after political unrest or natural disasters, they have often done little to improve the situation.

During a recent visit to Port-au-Prince, Guterres criticized the international community’s efforts to improve Haiti’s situation, saying it was, “once again, falling short of expectations.”

A U.N. humanitarian aid plan for Haiti, which requires $720 million, has received only 23% of necessary funding, he told reporters.

The world body has a complicated history in Haiti. From 2005 to 2017, it deployed thousands of soldiers after periods of political turbulence and natural disasters. But the soldiers brought cholera to Haiti, which killed at least 10,000 people, and the United Nations was slow to take responsibility. Human rights organizations also accused troops of sexual abuse and impregnating and abandoning hundreds of local women.

Despite that checkered U.N. history, experts say that outside assistance is necessary in Haiti.

Jean Jonassaint, a Syracuse University professor and expert on Haiti, said international leaders seemed to believe that it was best to send troops from Black or African nations, when it would have been more important to send people who spoke French.

“I don’t think 1,000 soldiers can solve the problem in Haiti, especially coming from Kenya, because they don’t speak French, don’t speak Haitian Creole and cannot communicate directly to the population,” he said. “And I don’t think they have the training to deal with gangs.”

Pierre Espérance, a leading human rights activist in Haiti, said he was not against an international mission, but was surprised to see that Kenyan police, who have a checkered human rights record, might lead it.

While an outside force is key to helping restore order in Haiti, any international mission will have a hard time establishing a lasting peace as long as gangs can infiltrate the police and political power structure in Haiti, he said.

“We should care about what happened in peacekeeping missions in the past,” Espérance said. “We need to be careful. I don’t know why they chose Kenya.”

Tires were set on fire by the police during a protest in January in Port-au-Prince after a gang attack on a police station that left six officers dead.

The trial America needs

By DAVID FRENCH

At last. The federal criminal justice system is going to legal war against one of the most dishonest, malicious and damaging conspiracies in the history of the United States. Tuesday’s indictment of Donald Trump, brought by special counsel Jack Smith’s office, is the culmination of a comprehensive effort to bring justice to those who attempted to overthrow the results of an American presidential election. In the weeks after the 2020 election, the legal system was in a defensive crouch, repelling an onslaught of patently frivolous claims designed to reverse the election results. In the months and years since the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, the legal system has switched from defense to offense. With all deliberate speed, prosecutors first brought charges against Trump’s foot soldiers, the men and women who breached the Capitol. Next, prosecutors pursued the organizers of Trumpist right-wing militias, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who had engaged in a seditious conspiracy to keep Trump in the White House.

And now, Smith is pursuing Trump himself — along with six yet unnamed co-conspirators — alleging criminal schemes that reached the highest level of American government. This is the case that, if successful, can once and for all strip Trump of any pretense of good faith or good will. But make no mistake, the outcome of this case is uncertain for exactly the reason it’s so important: So very much of the case depends on Trump’s state of mind.

At the risk of oversimplifying an indictment that contains

four distinct counts — conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights — it can be broken down into two indispensable components. First, it will be necessary to prove what Trump knew. Second, it will be necessary to prove what he did. Let’s take, for example, the first count of the indictment: 18 U.S.C. Section 371, conspiracy to defraud the United States. The statute is designed to criminalize any interference or obstruction of a “lawful governmental function” by “deceit, craft or trickery.”

There’s little doubt that Trump conspired to interfere with or obstruct the transfer of power after the 2020 election. But to prevail in the case, the government has to prove that he possessed an intent to defraud or to make false statements. In other words, if you were to urge a government official to overturn election results based on a good faith belief that serious fraud had altered the results, you would not be violating the law. Instead, you’d be exercising your First Amendment rights.

The indictment itself recognizes the constitutional issues in play. In Paragraph 3, the prosecutors correctly state that Trump “had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won.”

Thus, it becomes all-important for the prosecution to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Trump knew he lost. Arguably the most important allegations in the indictment detail the many times that senior administration officials — from the vice president to the director of national intelligence to senior members of the Justice Department to senior White House lawyers — told him that there was no fraud or foreign interference sufficient to change the results of the election. That’s why it’s vitally important for the prosecution to cite, for example, the moment when Trump himself purportedly described one of his accused co-conspirators’ election fraud claims as “crazy.”

The strong constitutional protection for efforts to influence or persuade the government makes the intent element inescapable, no matter the count in the indictment. While there are certainly nuances in the other counts regarding the precise form of proof necessary to establish criminal intent, the fact remains that the prosecution will have to utterly demolish the idea that Trump possessed a good-faith belief that he had won the election.

But that’s precisely why this case is so important — more important than any previous Trump indictment. If the prosecution prevails, it will only be because it presented proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the election fraud claims that a substantial percentage of Americans still believe to be true were not only false but were also known to be false when they were made.

I am not naive. I know that not even a guilty verdict will change the perceptions of many of Trump’s most loyal supporters. As my Times colleague Nate Cohn wrote Monday, “The MAGA base doesn’t support Mr. Trump in spite of his flaws. It supports him because it doesn’t seem to believe he has flaws.” The perceptions of these supporters may never change.

They may remain loyal to Trump as long as they live.

At the same time, however, a successful federal trial would strip Trump’s defenders of key talking points — that his voter fraud and vote manipulation claims have never been fully tested, that the House Jan. 6 committee was nothing but a one-sided show trial and that a proper cross-examination would expose the weakness of the government’s claims. Trump will have his opportunity to challenge the government’s case. His lawyers will have the ability to cross-examine opposing witnesses. We will see his best defense, and a jury will decide whether the prosecution prevails.

The case is no slam dunk. I agree with Politico Magazine columnist and former prosecutor Renato Mariotti, who stated that it is “not as strong” as the federal documents case against Trump. But that’s because the Mar-a-Lago documents case is exceptionally strong and clear. A former Trump administration attorney, Ty Cobb, has described the evidence as “overwhelming.” The facts appear to be uncomplicated. By contrast, the facts underlying this new indictment are anything but simple. And Trump possesses legal defenses — such as challenging the scope and applicability of the relevant statutes — that he won’t have in his federal trial for withholding documents.

Yet if a prosecutor believes — as Smith appears to — that he can prove Trump knew his claims were false and then engineered a series of schemes to cajole, coerce, deceive and defraud in order to preserve his place in the White House, it would be a travesty of justice not to file charges.

Consider some of the claims in the case. Paragraph 66 of the indictment says that Trump directed “fraudulent electors” to convene “sham proceedings” to cast “fraudulent electoral ballots” in his favor. Paragraph 31, quoting audio recordings, claims that Trump told the Georgia secretary of state that he needed to “find” 11,780 votes and said that the secretary of state and his counsel faced a “big risk” of criminal prosecution if they (as the special counsel describes it) “failed to find election fraud as he demanded.”

This is but the tip of the iceberg of the wrongdoing Trump is accused of. But those two claims alone — even leaving aside the events of Jan. 6 and the host of other Trump efforts to overturn the election — merit bringing charges.

Millions of Americans believe today that Joe Biden stole the presidency. They believe a series of demonstrable, provable lies, and their belief in those lies is shaking their faith in our republic and, by extension, risking the very existence of our democracy. There is no sure way to shake their convictions, especially if they are convinced that Trump is the innocent victim of a dark and malign deep state. But the judicial system can expose his claims to exacting scrutiny, and that scrutiny has the potential to change those minds that are open to the truth.

Smith has brought a difficult case. But it’s a necessary case. Foot soldiers of the Trump movement are in prison. Its allied militia leaders are facing justice. And now the architect of our national chaos will face his day in court. This is the trial America needs.

Feria de Empleo 2023

Elpróximo jueves, 10 de agosto de 2023, desde las 8:30 a.m. hasta la 1:00 p.m. Huertas College estará celebrando su Vigésima Sexta Feria de Empleo en el Salón de Actos Rubén López Huertas, en Caguas, Puerto Rico. Para esta actividad contaremos con la participación de sobre 30 patronos de diferentes industrias. El objetivo principal de la Feria es crear un espacio para los estudiantes, egresados y la comunidad en general en la cual puedan conocer las diferentes oportunidades de empleo, así como familiarizarse con los procesos actuales de reclutamiento, entre otras cosas.

Por más de 78 años, Huertas College, se ha destacado por ofrecer una amplia gama de carreras cortas convirtiéndolos en los líderes en el mercado. Entre sus ofrecimientos académicos con duración de 2 años o menos se encuentran los siguientes:

Grado Asociado Técnico de Farmacia: Este programa capacitará al estudiante para asistir al farmacéutico licenciado. El estudiante demostrará dominio sobre el funcionamiento de la Farmacia en Puerto Rico, sus reglamentaciones, los procedimientos al comprar y marcar mercancía. Conocerá la reglamentación y uso de productos sin receta (OTC) y de leyenda.

Grado Asociado Asistente Dental: El egresado de este programa tendrá los conocimientos y destrezas para asistir efectivamente al dentista. Bajo la supervisión de un dentista, manejará pacientes y tareas delegadas a un asistente dental tales como: pase de instrumentos, manipulación de materiales, toma y revelado de radiografías, así como el mantenimiento correcto del equipo dental.

Grado Asociado en Terapia Física: El Grado Asociado en Terapia Física prepara al estudiante para desempeñarse como Asistente del Terapista Físico. El Asistente del Terapista Físico es el profesional de la salud que trabaja bajo la dirección y supervisión del Terapista Físico. Este programa académico es diurno de 5 semestres el cual se completa en 1 año y 8 meses.

Grado Asociado en Terapia Ocupacional: Este programa prepara a los estudiantes para servir como Asistentes de Terapia Ocupacional. Este programa aspira a egresar profesionales de la salud con la más alta calidad siguiendo los estándares de la profesión en las diferentes áreas de competencia para que puedan ejercer con éxito los diferentes escenarios laborales.

Grado Asociado en Tecnología en Manejo de Información de la Salud: El egresado estará capacitado para realizar las funciones técnicas que incluyen: recopilación de estadísticas de facilidades de servicios de salud, codificación de diagnósticos y procedimientos de acuerdo al sistema de clasificación de ICD, sistema de terminología médica de CPT, HCPCS – (“Healthcare Procedural Coding System”), divulgación de información médica de acuerdo a leyes locales, estatales y federales, etc.

Grado Asociado como Asistente Administrativo:

El estudiante podrá desempeñar tareas relacionadas con la Gerencia de Oficina. Los cursos que componen este programa desarrollan destrezas técnicas tales como: uso y manejo de equipos a tono con la tecnología moderna, producción y administración efectiva de documentos, uso efectivo de las redes sociales en el mundo laboral, entre otros.

Certificado en Tecnología en Electricidad: Este programa está diseñado para proveer al estudiante los fundamentos tanto en teoría como en la práctica, para que pueda aprobar el examen que ofrece la Junta Examinadora de Peritos Electricistas de Puerto Rico a tono con la Ley 86 de 1992. Aprenderán sobre sistemas para que puedan llevar a cabo sus tareas sin dificultad y con los conocimientos de los códigos de seguridad que aplican a un electricista.

Certificado como Entrenador Personal: Este programa prepara a los estudiantes para proveer entrenamiento personal dirigido a lograr la eficiencia física de sus clientes. El currículo se fundamenta en las guías establecidas por el American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) y por la National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). Los cursos ofrecen conceptos teóricos y de aplicación.

Certificado en Masaje Terapéutico: Los estudiantes aprenderán acerca de la anatomía, fisiología, patología y kinesiología, así como técnicas de masajes orientales y occidentales. Además de las técnicas de masaje, se ofrecerán cursos en trabajo corporal “body work” y aromaterapia y otras técnicas, las cuales se podrán incorporar a la terapia de masaje.

Certificado en Artes Culinarias: El programa de Certificado en Artes Culinarias le proveerá al estudiante el conocimiento, las destrezas y experiencias necesarias para poder confeccionar cualquier tipo de alimento. Se capacitará al estudiante en cocina local e internacional y la administración y supervisión de su área de trabajo.

Certificado en Estética: Este programa adiestra a los estudiantes para que integren procedimientos de prevención del envejecimiento, promoción de la salud y técnicas que mejoran el aspecto físico y emocional del cliente. Incorpora destrezas para desarrollar conocimientos empresariales de manera que luego, puedan crear su propia empresa.

¡Estudia una carrera de alta demanda laboral en Huertas College y rápidamente la Oficina de Colocaciones te apoyará en la búsqueda del empleo de tus sueños! Para más información, participa de la Feria de Empleo el jueves, 10 de agosto de 2023 desde las 8:30 a.m. hasta la 1:00 p.m. o visita su campus de lunes a jueves de 8:00 a.m. a 7:00 p.m., viernes de 8:00 a.m. a 3:30 p.m. y sábados de 9:00 a.m. a 1:00 p.m. o llama al 787- 7461400 extensión 3. Síguelos en sus redes sociales, visita su página web: www.huertascollege.com o contáctalos vía correo electrónico: admisiones@ huertas.edu. En Huertas, “el futuro eres tú”. ¡Te esperamos!

‘Special Ops: Lioness’ review: Zoe Saldaña does strong and silent

By MIKE HALE

The “politics” of writer and producer Taylor Sheridan’s television catalog — “Yellowstone,” “1883,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” “1923” and “Tulsa King” — are the subject of exhaustive discussion that isn’t always that pertinent to the series themselves. For something of more immediate artistic interest, how about the shows’ fascination with the violent deaths of women?

The number of men who die in Sheridan’s Westerns, neo-Westerns, Midwestern noirs and — with the July 23 premiere of “Special Ops: Lioness” on Paramount+ — terrorism dramas is much greater, but they tend to die in the usual anonymous, bullet-spraying manner. Women’s deaths are more baroque, and more elaborately presented. A tourist has her throat ripped out by a leopard and is dropped from a tree like an overripe piece of fruit; a nun is suffocated in her bed, her mouth stuffed with tissue and her face branded (both “1923”). A stoolie girlfriend is brutally strangled (“Tulsa King”). The entire season of “1883” is in effect a flashback framed by the gruesome death of its heroine, run through by an arrow.

This emphasis on female death doesn’t feel particularly lurid or sexualized; its importance is as a motif. It’s in the fabric of the shows, where dead mothers are as much of an accessory for the characters as cowboy hats and the woman at the center of “1883” narrates “1923” from beyond the grave. Its function is to reinforce a central theme of Sheridan’s oeuvre: the classic onus of male duty, an essential part of which is the protection of women, even though Sheridan, who likes to hedge his cultural bets, presents the women as fierce and capable in their own right.

And it’s a primary reason for the shows’ distinctiveness. Overheated melodrama and sentimentality and a canny, plausibly deniable appeal to conservative and libertarian values are the obvious parts of the package, but they get their particular flavor from an oddly literary, morbidly romantic strain of neo-Victorian kitsch.

(The literary and other allegiances in Sheridan’s writing — to Ernest Hemingway and John Ford in the Westerns, to Greek tragedy in “Mayor of Kingstown” — are inescapable. The most enjoyable of his shows is the least pretentious one, and the only dramedy: the Sylvester Stallone vehicle “Tulsa King,” which benefits from the involvement of the “Sopranos” veteran Terence Winter as Sheridan’s showrunner.)

“Special Ops: Lioness” differs from Sheridan’s other shows in several significant ways. It is a battlefield show, set among CIA agents and Marines carrying out counterterrorism operations in the Middle East. And it is entirely focused on women: Its major action figures are a CIA operative played by Zoe Saldana; a Marine, recruited for an undercover assignment, played by Laysla De Oliveira; and a gung-ho Marine team leader played by Jill Wagner.

Paramount+ provided only one episode for review, so judgments at this point are tentative if not superfluous. But the Sheridanness of the show is evident. It is noticeable, for instance, that the three central women embodying the values of endurance and violent capability that Sheridan fetishizes go by the unisex names of Joe, Cruz and Bobby.

More noticeable is the show’s premise, at least as it appears in the first episode, written by Sheridan and directed by John Hillcoat. The women, while presented as fully qualified for combat (in some cases in punishing detail), are not tasked with taking on terrorists directly. Their mission is to gain access by befriending women in the terrorists’ lives — to run a modified honey trap. You can see how this will provide plenty of opportunities for them to engage in brutal action, and perhaps the whole thing is a satirical starting point that eventually will be knocked down. But in the first episode the retrograde setup is presented entirely at face value.

(The operation Saldana’s character runs takes its name from Team Lioness, a more utilitarian real-life program in which female soldiers were added to combat teams in part because of religious prohibitions against the touching or

searching of women by men.)

What can be said about “Special Ops” from its first 42 minutes is that it looks like an awful lot of other counterterrorism thrillers, with a visceral punch to its action and a tickytacky, backlot feel whenever it moves in close

on its Middle Eastern settings. Saldana registers stoic magnetism, as usual, as the overseer of the operation, who shuttles between the field and meetings in Washington with her bosses, one of whom is played by Nicole Kidman. (Morgan Freeman will show up later as the secretary of state.) Other performers have trouble adding much to their characters’ stock, neo-“Dirty Dozen” personas. One of the few things we learn about De Oliveira’s Cruz: Her mother died.

There is one moment in the “Special Ops” premiere — just a fleeting reaction shot — that taps directly into the mythos Sheridan’s shows share. When a mission goes bad, Saldana’s Joe calls in a missile strike that kills her own undercover operative. Debriefed later, she explains that she did it for “the sanctity of our operation.” But having seen the look on Joe’s face as she listened to the woman screaming while being set upon by a group of angry Arab men, we know that she had a different sanctity in mind. Sometimes, the first imperative when it comes to women’s safety is preventing the fate worse than death.

Zoe Saldaña leads a counterterrorism team in “Special Ops: Lioness,” the latest series from Taylor Sheridan.

Five international movies to stream now

By DEVIKA GIRISH

This month’s picks include a bittersweet French comedy, a gutting Serbian social-realist drama, a Mexican true-crime doc and more.

‘Everybody Loves Jeanne’

Anyone with an overactive inner critic will feel seen and heard by this bittersweet debut feature from illustrator and filmmaker Céline Devaux, which charts a middleaged Frenchwoman’s coming to terms with grief and professional failure. As Jeanne (Blanche Gardin) deals with the aftermath of her mother’s suicide and the televised collapse of her own invention to rid the ocean of microplastics, Devaux imagines her protagonist’s anxiety as an animated figure that nags her constantly, voicing Jeanne’s worst thoughts about herself. This nifty conceit is one of the many inspired quirks that imbue “Everybody Loves Jeanne” with wit and charm, without undercutting its more serious themes.

With brisk editing and bright colors, the film unfolds as a tale of whimsy. Jeanne travels to Lisbon to clear out her mother’s apartment and sell it to save herself from bankruptcy. On the way, she runs into Jean (Laurent Lafitte), a goofy kleptomaniac who claims to know her from her school days. As Jeanne confronts difficult memories (and even ghostly hallucinations) of her mother and exasperating encounters with her ex, her path keeps crossing with that of Jean, whose kooky exterior slowly chips away to reveal his own battles with mental health. Brimming with warmth and hope, “Everybody Loves Jeanne” is a light-asair tale about the heaviest of themes: the grown-up struggle to love oneself. (Stream it on Mubi.)

‘Father’

This drama about the failings of corrupt bureaucracy pulls no punches: In its opening scene, a woman (Nada Sargin) storms into the courtyard of a factory with two children in tow, pours gasoline on herself and sets herself on fire. She is the wife of Nikola (Goran Bogdan), who was laid off from a factory two years ago and is still owed his

pending wages and severance. Poverty and hunger have driven her to madness, and this spectacle of self-inflicted suffering is her last resort.

Yet the film only has more heartbreak in store for her, and for us. She is sent off to a hospital to recover, and her children are taken away by social services. When Nikola, who spends his days working seasonal construction jobs, tries to get his children back, he is told that his lack of a full-time job makes him unfit to care for them. Faced with a Kafkaesque, no-win conundrum, Nikola sets off on foot to Belgrade — 300 miles away — to file an appeal in person with the ministry.

Nikola encounters both misfortunes and small kindnesses along the way, so that his journey becomes a showcase of Serbian society — of the powers that exploit, and the people that persevere. As he undertakes this Sisyphean quest, the director, Srdan Golubovic maintains an austere, realistic tone that matches Bogdan’s heroically stoic performance — a razor-sharp evocation of the stubbornness that only the very desperate can summon. (Stream it on Ovid.)

‘The Harvesters’

Set in the Free State province of South Africa, where white, Christian families tend to vast, golden-yellow fields of maize, Etienne Kallos’ feature weaves threads of comingof-age, queerness, colonial reckoning and pastoral horror into a combustible domestic thriller. The film is arresting in its vivid evocation of the insular world of Free State farmers. Alternating between shots of wind-swept farmland and claustrophobic close-ups of faces, Kallos conjures the sheltered and overwhelmingly macho environment in which the sensitive Janno (Brent Vermeulen) grows up, trying dutifully to please his religious mother and gruff father. When his mother brings another adolescent boy into the family — Pieter (Alex van Dyk), an orphan and addict rescued from the streets — the familiar routines of Janno’s life are ruptured, and secrets and repressed feelings come pouring out. Kallos is careful never to overstate any of the film’s themes. Instead, he allows calibrated atmospherics

and the fantastic performances of the two leads to suggest bigger ideas — about the saviorism that can underlie adoption, the racialized fear that causes white South African communities to insulate themselves and the toxic masculinity that is so inherent in imperialism. (Stream it on Tubi.)

‘Zoo Lock Down’

In 2020, during the pandemic-induced lockdown, Austrian filmmaker Andreas Horvath took his camera into an eerily vacated world: the Salzburg Zoo. With no visitors around, he was free to observe the lives and routines of the animals and their handlers: the feeding of bears, the cleaning of fish tanks, the grooming of elephants. In “Zoo Lock Down,” he combines these stark visual tableaus with bursts of dramatic music that evoke action movies or thrillers. These incongruities emphasize the strange, artificial, even tacky world of the zoo, where leopards prowl in front of painted backgrounds, and lemurs titter in glass cages illuminated by fluorescent lights. Parallels with our own experiences of confinement during the pandemic come to mind, but the film also gets, wordlessly, at something about the nature of spectacle — about the hubris of ecosystems created and cultivated by humans solely for the purpose of voyeuristic viewing. (Stream it or rent it on Fandor.)

‘The

Lady of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders’

Between 1998 and 2005, a string of women older than 60 were strangled to death in Mexico City by a killer who posed as a social worker. The perpetrator was nicknamed La Mataviejitas, or The Little Old Lady Killer. Elaborate searches, arrests of suspects, and sensationalist media coverage yielded no answers — until, in 2006, a man saw the killer leaving his neighbor’s home and beckoned police. María José Cuevas’ documentary traces the yearslong hunt for the murderer, Juana Barraza, who became known as Mexico’s first female serial killer.

There’s plenty in “The Lady of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders” to whet the appetites of true-crime nuts — Cuevas combines interviews, reenactments, and snazzy visuals to recreate the macabre mystery. But the film also takes a keen look at the failures of the justice system and the ways in which gender stereotypes influenced the case. Although witnesses claimed the killer was a woman, investigators believed that only a man would have been strong enough to strangle the victims to death, and they began persecuting gay and trans sex workers. Activists interviewed by Cuevas in the film also noted the staggering number of unsolved femicides in Mexico, which, in contrast to the “little old lady” rhetoric of the police and the media in the Mataviejitas murders, attract victim-blaming comments about young women’s life choices.

With her careful attention to everyone who bore the brunt of the killings — from the victims and their family members to innocent people who were illegally detained and arrested — Cuevas paints a portrait not just of a crime, but also of the projections and fears that often cloud pursuits of justice. (Stream it on Netflix.)

Laurent Lafitte, center left, with Blanche Gardin, in “Everybody Loves Jeanne.”

How fake science sells wellness

By RINA RAPHAEL

You can’t browse a grocery store or pharmacy without being subject to labels that promote health benefits. In the beverage aisle you might find “prebiotic” sodas that supposedly support “gut health.” In the beauty department, you’ll see “medical-grade” serums, “probiotic” facial creams and “skin detoxing” treatments. Go to the supplements section for promises of “immunity support,” “hormone balance” and “energy enhancement.”

Marketers have been using scientific-sounding buzzwords to sell products for centuries. But it’s becoming more common, said Timothy Caulfield, a research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta. Caulfield coined the term “scienceploitation” to describe how brands borrow language from emerging areas of science to market unproven products.

Scienceploitation crops up in far more places today than ever before, including in search results, on social media platforms and from influencers, Caulfield said.

Consumers are often inundated with confusing options as more companies position themselves as healthy. Buyers are prioritizing scientific evidence, said Sienna Piccioni, an analyst and head of beauty at WSGN, a trend forecasting company. But they can’t always separate fact from fiction: A 2021 study suggested that people who trust science were more likely to share false claims that contained scientific references than claims that didn’t.

In December, the Federal Trade Commission revised its guidelines for health-related products, emphasizing that companies should support health claims “with high quality, randomized, controlled human clinical trials.”

But experts said it was unlikely that the commission could closely monitor how companies marketed their products, at least not without a huge increase in funding.

“There are just too many brands,” said Kevin Klatt, an assistant research scientist in the department of nutrition sci -

Marketers have been using scientific-sounding buzzwords to sell products for centuries, what Timothy Caulfield, a research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, calls “scienceploitation.”

ences and toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley.

So, for now, we’re on our own. But you can still arm yourself. Here are some marketing tactics to be aware of.

Jam-packed ingredient lists

Companies often try to cash in on fads such as adaptogens and activated charcoal, which you can find listed on items including cookie packaging and toothpaste tubes. Even ingredients that are known to be effective can be manipulated: Beauty and skin-care brands, for instance, might use 0.2% of vitamin C in a moisturizer even though evidence shows the amount would need to be higher to have any effect, said Michelle Wong, a cosmetic chemist who runs the blog Lab Muffin Beauty Science and helped popularize the term “science washing” in beauty circles.

This is why it isn’t necessarily helpful to scour a scientific-looking list of ingredients, she said. Most don’t say much about the quality or quantity of each ingredient, nor how it interacts with other ingredients or its stability — all of which affects efficacy.

Vague terms such as ‘boosts’

Manufacturers use words without

clear and specific definitions, such as “aids,” “promotes,” “supports,” “stimulates,” “boosts” and “optimizes” to suggest positive health outcomes. There’s no quantifiable way to measure an ambiguous word such as “support,” said Jonathan Jarry, a scientist and science communicator with McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.

Supplement companies, which do not have to prove effectiveness to the Food and Drug Administration, frequently rely on the terms used above. But there’s often a small disclaimer on the bottle that says the product “is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

“They’re implying the product works, and then on the same label, much less visible, is the fact that there’s no evidence that it works,” said Josh Bloom, director of chemical and pharmaceutical science at the American Council on Science and Health. Still, he said, people see a word such as “supports” and might assume the product will treat their symptoms.

Other phrases — including “clinically tested,” “research backed,” “doctor recommended” and “evidence based” —

show up in the beauty or personal-care aisle and often lack the context they’d need to be verified, Wong said. With such terms, you should ask: What were the results of the tests? What was the quality of the research? Who conducted it? Was the researcher or endorser a legitimate authority in that field?

Questionable studies

Wellness brands might pad their websites with links to studies. But some are simply summaries of the emerging data without any mention of the product in question. Many companies include research unrelated to the claim. Evidence cited by a company “could be one poorly designed study,” said Nick Tiller, a senior researcher in exercise physiology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. “It could be cherry-picked.”

“What you want to see are the results of actual rigorous studies of the product itself, showing that it works,” Jarry said. “But that’s almost never the case.”

Assessing claims

If you’re trying to get a feel for the legitimacy of a product, the FTC recommends doing a search for the name of the product online, plus the words “review,” “complaint” or “scam.”

You can also check to see what respected professional associations and public health organizations such as the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about a specific product, protocol or ingredient, experts advise.

If an herbal supplement claims to address high blood pressure, for instance, you might search the sites of the American Heart Association or the American College of Cardiology, as these organizations often have articles, position statements and meta-analyses on them, said Dr. Danielle Belardo, a cardiologist who hosts the podcast “Wellness: Fact vs. Fiction.”

And keep in mind no single ingredient can change your health overnight. If a product was indeed a cure-all, every medical organization would be rushing to endorse it, Klatt said. “Anything that sounds too good to be true is probably too good to be true,” he added.

NASA’s Voyager 2 is out of contact but not lost in space

By KATRINA MILLER

Voyager 2, the aging explorer of our solar system, appears to be alive and well, NASA officials said earlier this week. But they may not be able to communicate with the spacecraft for at least the next two months.

On Friday, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that they had lost contact with Voyager 2, which is over 12 billion miles from Earth. Engineers on the ground sent an incorrect command to the spacecraft July 21 that knocked its antenna 2 degrees away from the Earth. That made it impossible for the mission team to send or receive signals.

But on Tuesday morning, officials from the Deep Space Network, a global system used to operate numerous active space missions, detected a carrier signal

from Voyager 2. That means the spacecraft is still broadcasting, although the signal is too weak for transmitting data.

Background: A long, strange trip through the solar system

Voyager 2 launched to space Aug. 20, 1977, to take a tour of our solar system’s outer planets. It’s the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune, and the second mission to cross the boundary that separates our solar system from the rest of the Milky Way, an area commonly referred to as interstellar space.

This isn’t the first time NASA has lost the ability to talk to the spacecraft. In 2020, scientists managing the Deep Space Network shut down the sole radio dish capable of talking to Voyager 2 for repairs and upgrades. When it came back online in March 2021, the Voyager 2 was still functioning.

A few weeks after Voyager 2 began its journey, NASA launched its twin, Voyager 1, which followed a different trajectory and reached interstellar space first. Mission specialists are still in contact with that spacecraft.

Why it matters: A mission that just keeps going

While the spacecraft is nearly 46 years into its journey, it continues to produce useful scientific data about how the environment changes outside our solar system, and how the heliosphere — a bubble of radiation from our sun — interacts with interstellar space.

But if something goes wrong before scientists recover communications with the spacecraft, they have no way of fixing it. That’s a bigger concern than what scientific data might be lost in the near term, a spokesperson for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

Earlier this year, Voyager 2 switched to running its five instruments on backup power to prolong the life of the mission. Scientists anticipate that one of these in-

struments will need to be shut down completely in 2026, and others in successive years, to keep the mission functioning for as long as possible.

What’s next: The people of Earth can wait

The mission’s managers will attempt to use the Deep Space Network on Wednesday to send Voyager 2 a command to reorient the direction of its antenna back toward Earth, according to the laboratory spokesperson. It will take about 18 hours for the signal to arrive at the spacecraft, and another 18 before scientists on Earth will know if it worked.

If the command fails, scientists will have to wait until Oct. 15. On that day, the mission’s computer is programmed to automatically point the antenna back toward Earth, which they hope will restore communications.

“It’s a 46-year-old spacecraft — we don’t like being out of contact with it,” the spokesperson said. “On the other hand, it’s 46. It’s done well so far. So we have a lot of confidence that it’ll be OK.”

In an undated image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, the Voyager 2 spacecraft being worked on by NASA engineers in 1977. Voyager 2, the aging explorer of our solar system, appears to be alive and well, NASA officials said on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 — but they may not be able to communicate with the spacecraft for at least the next two months.

The San Juan Daily Star Thursday,

Up in smoke: Canada’s outdoor summer season

By VJOSA ISAI

Fishing trips to Canada are a tradition for Jeffrey Hardy and his three friends from Vermont. They have, since 2001, been anglers loyal to Quebec’s northern wilderness, where the walleye are plentiful and the cellphone service is not.

This summer, the crisp forest air coveted by recreationists visiting Canada was instead polluted with smoke as wildfires have torn through millions of acres, blocking roads, destroying campgrounds and forcing tourism operators to scramble during peak season. The men’s mid-June fishing trip was canceled.

“It was a big letdown,” said Hardy, who is from St. Albans, Vermont, but has been living and working remotely from Bermuda since the pandemic began. “Everybody was excited to go because Canada had been shut down for all of COVID.”

The country’s worst wildfire season on record is straining the outdoor segments of Canada’s tourism industry at a crucial time in its rebound from years of pandemic travel restrictions. Of the 28.6 million acres that have burned across the country so far, more than 11.6 million acres were in Quebec, the most of any province, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

Fire season typically runs from April to September in Canada, and had an intense start this year with mass evacuations in Alberta and Nova Scotia in May, followed by Quebec, and parts of northern Ontario. In central British Columbia, where the wildfires are picking up intensity, the coroner’s office is investigating the death of a 9-year-old from an asthma attack that it said was “aggravated by wildfire smoke.” Three firefighters have died in separate provinces.

Other than some days of reduced air quality, major Canadian cities remain largely unaffected by wildfires. The fires are in the country’s northern and more remote regions — regions that, in years past, have drawn travelers who are interested in outdoor experiences.

Federal data compiled by the Tourism Industry Association Canada shows that tourism represented, in 2019, a 2% share of Canada’s gross domestic product, or 44 billion Canadian dollars. Because of rigid international border restrictions, that figure was halved by the pandemic, but has since rebounded to C$37.8 billion.

Last year, close to 9.5 million Americans traveled to Canada, and another 3.3 million came mainly from Britain, Mexico, India, France and China. American travelers are the most important demographic for Canada’s tourism industry, with international visitation rates forecast to recover by 2026, and tourism spending by 2024, according to Destination Canada, a government-owned marketing organization.

In a recent report, the organization said visitors spent C$1.9 billion from 2018 to 2019 — half of the total spent by international visitors — in the cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

But other Canadian destinations attractive to visitors, like hiking trails in British Columbia or campgrounds in eastern Ontario and Quebec, have been affected by the wildfires. Earlier this month, rains brought some relief to Quebec, perhaps too late.

“For some, the most profitable portion of this season is behind them,” said Dominic Dugré, president of the Quebec Outfitters, an industry group. About 330 wilderness outfitters — like the fishing lodge Hardy planned to use — were temporarily closed because of the wildfires, putting revenue losses at more than C$10 million, Dugré estimates. Thirty or so camps and cabins, he added, have burned or were damaged.

The Quebec government is offering businesses hurt by the wildfires financial support through guaranteed loan programs, totaling C$50 million.

Repayment for debt accumulated over the pandemic is among the top concerns for Canadian tourism operators, especially smaller businesses, said Beth Potter, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. The group is urging the government to extend repayment time frames.

In anticipation of increasing visitor volumes, and ongoing wildfires, some businesses are rethinking how to adapt their operations.

“That’s going to be the new thing that we do as travel agents who are promoting an outdoor-type recreation as a tourism opportunity,” said Renée Charbonneau, executive director of the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association, based in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

The association’s nonprofit travel agency is considering creating a questionnaire for customers to indicate at which level of the air quality index they would postpone or

cancel a booking, Charbonneau said, adding that a recent motorcycle tour was postponed because of road closures from the wildfires, reduced air quality and a lack of visibility.

About 30,000 Albertans were evacuated from their homes in May, early in the fire season, which has continued to rage on and is now picking up in British Columbia, where there is currently the greatest number of wildfires burning. This comes two years after a devastating heat wave that the province’s coroner said caused 619 deaths, followed by widespread fires, including one that destroyed the rural town of Lytton, killing two people.

Tourism in British Columbia is a greater contributor to the province’s gross domestic product — C$5 billion per the latest government figures from 2021 — than the province’s next largest industry, oil, at C$4.5 billion. The province has a diverse array of recreational offerings, from the major ski destination of Whistler to wineries in the Okanagan Valley and kayaking or hiking along the Pacific coast.

Blackcomb Helicopters, a helicopter tour and utilities company based in Whistler, has canceled or rescheduled its sightseeing excursions and other offerings, including flights that bring picnickers to remote alpine lakes, or mountain bikers to summits. The company is using most of its fleet on the fire-

fighting effort until at least early August.

“It comes down to the question of flying our customers around on sightseeing tours or putting out fires within 5, 10 kilometers of our bases of operations and the communities that we live in,” said Jordy Norris, the company’s tourism director and a former wildland firefighter. “We made it pretty clear to both our staff and our customers that we have a duty to protect the backyard.”

Some parts of the backyard have gone up in flames.

Darrin Rigo, a videographer and photographer, was recently filming a waterfall at a recreational site, Greer Creek Falls, for a local tourism board in the northern part of the province. A boardwalk runs through the lush forest, taking visitors to the falls, where the crystal water and perfect sky captured what Rigo said makes British Columbia’s nature a gem. “We were so excited to send it off to our clients and invite people to come see it,” he said.

Two weeks later, on a community Facebook page, he saw a photo someone had shared of the entrance to the park engulfed in 30-foot flames.

“What happened with Greer Creek was my first time losing a landmark that was really beautiful, that was close to home,” Rigo said. “I’m looking at this map of all these fires around us, and I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be the only one.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, August 3, 2023 21

Wildfires in Canada have torn through millions of acres so far this year, with fires now increasing in number in British Columbia.

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO CIELO VIVIENDA LLC

Plaintiff Vs. IVAN MUJICA DE LEON

IN HIS PERSONAL CAPACITY AND AS MEMBER OF THE ESTATE OF EVA MARGARITA CORTES VAZQUEZ

A/K/A EVA CORTES

VAZQUEZ COMPOSED BY IVAN EMIL MUJICA CORTES AND I.I.M.C.; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA AND CENTRO DE RECUADACIONES DE IMPUESTOS MUNICIPALES

Defendants

Civil No.: 16-2367. (JAG). Re: COLLECTION OF MONIES, FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO, SS.

To: IVAN MUJICA DE LEON IN HIS PERSONAL CAPACITY AND AS MEMBER OF THE ESTATE OF EVA MARGARITA CORTES VAZQUEZ

A/K/A EVA CORTES VAZQUEZ COMPOSED BY IVAN EMIL MUJICA CORTES AND I.I.M.C.; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA AND CENTRO DE RECUADACIONES DE IMPUESTOS MUNICIPALES, AND THE PUBLIC IN GENERAL:

Judgment in favor of plaintiff was entered for the sum of $396,127.51 in principal, which continue to accrue until full payment of debt at the rate of 3% per annum, accrued late charges and any other additional advance, charge, fee, or disbursements made by plaintiff, on behalf of defendants in accordance with the mortgage deed, plus costs, and ten (10) percent attorneys’ fees; Pursuant to the judgment, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for United States currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Federico Degetau Federal Building, Chardón Street, Hato

Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico or any other place designated by said Clerk, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property:

Physical address: SB-22 Paseo

De Las Orquideas Primavera, Trujillo Alto. RUSTICA: Parcela de terreno identificada como solar veintidós (22) del bloque SB de la Urbanización Primavera, radicada en el barrio Dos bocas del termino municipal de Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico con una cabida de cuatrocientos dos punto veintiséis (402.26) metros cuadrados en lindes por el NORTE, en dieciséis punto cero cero (16.00) metros con la calle, numero tres (#3); por el SUR, en cuatro punto cincuenta y cuatro (4.54) metros doce punto noventa y tres (12.93) metros, con el solar numero veinte (20); por el ESTE, en veintiocho punto noventa y ocho (28.98) metros con el solar numero veintiuno (21); y por el OESTE, en veintitrés punto cero cero (23.00) metros, con el solar número veintitrés (23). Enclava una casa de concreto diseñada para una familia. Consta inscrita al folio 280 del tomo 527 de Trujillo Alto, finca número 26,675, Registro de la Propiedad, Sección Cuarta de San Juan. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior or preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax liens (express, tacit, implied or legal), or homeowner associations dues, to the extent specified under the applicable Condominium Law, shall continue in effect. It being understood that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. The present property will be acquired free and clear of all junior liens. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the AUGUST 18TH, 2023, AT 10:30 A.M., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $404,706.83.

In the event said first public auction does not produce a bidder and the properties is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the AUGUST 25TH, 2023, AT THE 10:30 A.M. and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $269,804.55 2/3 parts of the minimum bid for the 1st public sale. If said second auction does not result

in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD AUCTION will be held on the SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2023, AT THE 10:30 A.M. and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $202,353.42, ½ of the minimum bid for the 1st public sale. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued canceling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Federal Building, Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 7, 2023. AGUEDO DE LA TORRE, SPECIAL MASTER.

LEGAL NOTICE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2015-PR1 TRUST, MORTGAGE BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2015-PR1 Plaintiff Vs. EDWARD SANTOS MALDONADO A/K/A EDUARD SANTOS MALDONADO; LUZ SELENIA TORRES SANTOS A/K/A LUZ

S. TORRES SANTOS AND THEIR CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP

Defendants Civil Núm.: 19-cv-1747. (ADC). Re: FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE - IN REM. NOTICE OF SALE.

TO: EDWARD SANTOS

MALDONADO A/K/A

EDUARD SANTOS MALDONADO; LUZ SELENIA TORRES

SANTOS A/K/A LUZ

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

WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the sum of $99,302.18 in principal plus interest at rate of 3.8750 % per annum since May 1, 2018. Such interest will continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full. In addition, to pay the Plain-

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

Thursday, August 3, 2023 22

tiff the late charges amounting to 5.000% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment was due and all of the advances made pursuant to the provisions and/or dispositions of the Mortgage Note and the Mortgage Deed. An amount equivalent to 10% of the original principal balance, or $9,600.00 as liquidated amount is due to cover costs, expenses and attorney’s fees. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property (as described in the Property Registry in Spanish language):

URBANA: Solar radicado en el barrio Pájaros del municipio de Puerto Rico, marcado en el plano de inscripción con el número 2 del bloque “3CC” de la Urbanización Colinas de Bayoan, con una cabida de 377.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes, por el Norte, con la calle #41, en distancia de 13.00 metros; al Sur, con los lotes #6 y 8, en distancia de 13.00 metros; al Este, con el lote #3 en distancia de 29.00 metros y al Oeste, con el lote #1 en distancia de 29.00 metros. En este solar enclava una casa. Afecta a servidumbre de 5 pies de ancho a lo largo de su colindancia Norte a favor de Puerto Rico Telephone Company. Inscrita al folio 211 del tomo 1526 de Bayamón Sur, Finca #67,129, Registro de Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección I. The property is recorded at page 211 of Bayamon South, volume 1526, property number 67129 on Puerto Rico Property Registry at Bayamon, Section I. The mortgage is recorded at page 117 of volume 1755 of Bayamon South, 3rd inscription, property #67129 of the Property Registry of Property of Bayamon. Section I. The modification is recorded of Bayamon

South volume Karibe, property #67129, fourth inscription in the Property Registry of Bayamon, Section I. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: None. Junior Liens: None. Other Liens: None. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 12TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER OF 2023, AT: 9:30 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $96,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on 19TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER OF 2023, AT: 9:30 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $64,000.00, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 26TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER OF 2023, AT: 9:30 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $48,000.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation

by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 27th day of June of 2023. Pedro A. Vélez-Baerga, Special Master, specialmasterpr@gmail.com, 787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. LA SUCESIÓN DE EDWIN J. FENDENTZ

T/C/C EDWIN JULIUS

FENDENTZ T/C/C EDWIN

FENDENTZ T/C/C EDWIN

J. FENDENTE T/C/C

EDWIN FENDENTE COMPUESTA POR:

JEFF FENDENTZ T/C/C

JEFFREY FRANK

FENDENTZ, BRADLEY

FENDENTZ T/C/C BRAD

FENDENTZ T/C/C

BRADLEY GLENN

FENDENTZ, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; LA

SUCESIÓN DE MAGNE

NUN GONZÁLEZ T/C/C

MAGNE ZEDHMARA NUN GONZÁLEZ

T/C/C MAGNE Z. NUN

GONZÁLEZ COMPUESTA

POR: YUSEF A. NUN

GONZÁLEZ, NIJME B.

RINALDI NUN, PEDRO P.

RINALDI NUN, SUTANO

Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA POR

CONDUCTO DE LA

DIVISIÓN DE CAUDALES

RELICTOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: FA2022CV00232. (303). Sobre: COBRO DE DI-

The San Juan Daily Star

NERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia Sumaria dictada el 18 de mayo de 2023 y notificada el 22 de mayo de 2023, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 30 de junio de 2023 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución de 5 de julio de 2023 en el caso de epígrafe, procederé a vender el día 3 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Fajardo, Sala Superior, Ave. Marcelito Gotay, Edificio 461, Esquina Barriada Jerusalén, Fajardo, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América, cheque de gerente o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal; todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad: RÚSTICA: Sita en el Barrio Mameyes del Municipal de Luquillo, cuya área consiste en 13,331.3 metros cuadrados.

Colindancias: por el NORTE: con el Lote Número uno (1), en 33.40 metros y con el Lote Número dos (2) en 39.93 metros con el camino dedicado a uso público en 60.42 metros; por el SUR: con Norman Halvarsen, en 110.39 metros; por el ESTE: con Arthur D. Shieverdle, en 107.11 metros; y por el OESTE: en 113.74 metros con Carl B. Aster. Enclava una casa de concreto y madera. Remanente de la finca. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 23 del tomo 45 de Luquillo, Finca 1721. Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 91 del tomo 257 de Luquillo, Finca 1721. Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo. Inscripción novena (9na). Dirección Física: 6 Km, 968 Carr. Sector Palmer, Luquillo, PR 00773-0481 (968 Rd Km 1.6 Sector Palmer, Luquillo, PR 00773). Número de Catastro: 22-091-000-009-11-000. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $111,765.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 10 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera su-

basta, o sea, $74,510.00. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 17 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $55,882.50. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $76,784.07 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 6.375% anual desde el 1 de abril de 2020 hasta su completo pago, más $362.32 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $11,176.50 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo, incluyendo pero sin limitarse a gastos de mantenimiento, inspecciones y otros adelantos “corporate advances”. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesa el siguiente gravamen posterior a la hipoteca que por la presente ejecutar: a. Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico vs La Sucesión de Edwin J. Fendentz t/c/c Edwin Julius Fendentz t/c/c Edwin Fendentz t/c/c Edwin J. Fendente t/c/c Edwin Fendente compuesta por: Jeff Fendentz t/c/c Jeffrey Frank Fendentz, Bradley Fendentz t/c/c Brad Fendentz t/c/c Bradley Glenn Fendentz, Fulano y Mengano de Tal, posibles herederos desconocidos; La Sucesión de Magne Nun González t/c/c Magne Zedhmara Nun González t/c/c Magne Z. Nun González compuesta por: Yusef A. Nun González, Nijme B. Rinaldi Nun, Pedro P. Rinaldi Nun, Sutano y Perencejo de Tal, posibles herederos desconocidos; Departamento de Hacienda por conducto de la División de Caudales Relictos y el Centro de Recaudación e Ingresos Municipales (CRIM), ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Fajardo, en el Caso Civil Número FA2022CV00232, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un

celebrará la SUBASTA en la fecha, hora y sitio anteriormente señalado, y se les invita a que concurra a dicha subasta, si les conviniere, o se les invita a satisfacer, antes del remate, el importe del crédito, sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del Acreedor ejecutante, siempre y cuando reúnan los requisitos y cualificaciones de Ley para que se pueda efectuar tal subrogación. Y PARA SU PUBLICACIÓN en el tablón de edictos de este Tribunal y en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio donde se celebrará la subasta señalada. Además, en un periódico de circulación general en dos (2) ocasiones y mediante correo certificado a la última dirección conocida de la parte demandada. EXPEDIDO el presente EDICTO DE SUBASTA en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 18 de julio de 2023. EDWIN E.

LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

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

SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC.

DEMANDANTE VS.

SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN

RITA PUJOLS T/C/C

CARMEN RITA PUJOLS

MACHIN Y SUCESIÓN DE JUAN RAMÓN CRUZ MEDINA COMPUESTAS

POR SUS HEREDEROS

CONOCIDOS ANA R. CRUZ PUJOLS, JUAN R. CRUZ GOUGLAS, GLORIA ESTHER CRUZ GOUGLAS, JUAN R. CRUZ, JOSE RAMON CRUZ PUJOLS, GERARDO A. CRUZ

PUJOLS Y RAFAEL CRUZ

PUJOLS; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS Y/O

PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES

DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NÚM.: CG2023CV00044.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.

EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDIC-

TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE

DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO

LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. ss.

A: JUAN R. CRUZ Y GERARDO A. CRUZ PUJOLS COMO HEREDEROS

CONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN RITA PUJOLS T/C/C

CARMEN RITA PUJOLS MACHIN Y LA SUCESIÓN DE JUAN RAMÓN CRUZ MEDINA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE AMBAS SUCESIONES

Barrio Florida PR-928 Km

4.1 San Lorenzo, PR 00754

Dirección postal: Apartado 548 San Lorenzo, PR 00754; Juan R. Cruz: 3945 Park Ave. Fairfield, CT 06825-1257 y Gerardo A. Cruz Pujols: 821 NE 182 Terrace North Miami Beach, FL 33162

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días a partir de 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, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe que conforme al artículo 1578 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §11021, usted tiene 30 días para aceptar o repudiar la herencia desde la publicación de este edicto. A esos efectos, de no rechazarla, se tendrá la herencia por aceptada. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato:

BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P.

LCDO. JUNA C FORTUÑO FAS

RUA NUM: 11418

PO BOX 3908 GUAYNABO PR 00970

TEL 787-751-5290;

FAX 787-751-6155

E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com

En Caguas, Puerto Rico a 1 de agosto de 2023. Lisilda Martinez Agosto, Secretaria. Janette Espinoza Castillo, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO

TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE AGUADILLA.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

DEMANDANTE VS. SUCESIÓN DE JOSE

ANTONIO PACHECO

FUENTES COMPUESTA

POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS COMO STEVEN PACHECO Y RUBÉN PACHECO; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN; DESARROLLOS MOSA, INCORPORATED DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NÚM.: AG2023CV00794.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.

EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDIC-

TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

A: STEVEN PACHECO Y RUBÉN PACHECO COMO HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE JOSÉ ANTONIO PACHECO FUENTES; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS O TERCEROS CON INTERÉS DE DICHA SUCESIÓN

Urb. Praderas de Isabela 315 Calle Tierras del Sol Isabela, PR 00662

Dirección postal: Carr. 111 Km 1.9 Bo. Palmar Solar #2 Aguadilla, PR 00603 y 1306 Rockland Ave. Apto. 28 Staten lsland, NY 10314-4939

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días a partir de 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, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe que conforme al

artículo 1578 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §11021, usted tiene 30 días para aceptar o repudiar la herencia desde la publicación de este edicto. A esos efectos, de no rechazarla, se tendrá la herencia por aceptada. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P.

LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RÚA NÚM.: 11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970 TEL: 787- 751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155

E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com En Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, a 1 de agosto de 2023. SARAHI REYES PEREZM, Secretaria Regional. NATHALlE ACEVEDO QUIÑONES, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

SUNWEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC. DEMANDANTE VS. SUCESIÓN DE LIZZETTE MARIE

MARTINEZ RODRIGUEZ

COMPUESTA POR SU HEREDERO CONOCIDO

GERARDO W. ROSAL

Y MARTINEZ T/C/C

GERARDO WILLIAM

ROSAL Y MARTINEZ

Y GELIZA M. ROSALY

MARTINEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN; MARIA LUISA

RODRIGUEZ RIERA

DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NÚM.: PO2023CV00950.

SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (IN REM). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.

UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. A: GELIZA M. ROSAL Y MARTÍNEZ COMO HEREDERA CONOCIDA DE LA SUCESIÓN DE LIZZETTE MARIE MARTÍNEZ RODRÍGUEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE DICHA SUCESIÓN; MARÍA LUISA RODRÍGUEZ RIERA

Urb. Las Delicias #3042 (BE-103)

Calle Herminia Torres

Ponce, PR 00728-3911

Dirección postal: 28 Elinor Place Yonkers, NY 10705

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días a partir de 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, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe que conforme al artículo 1578 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §11021, usted tiene 30 días para aceptar o repudiar la herencia desde la publicación de este edicto. A esos efectos, de no rechazarla, se tendrá la herencia por aceptada. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RÚA NÚM.: 11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970

TEL: 787- 751-5290,

FAX: 787-751-6155

E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com

En Ponce, Puerto Rico a 1 de agosto de 2023. Carmen G Tiru Quiñones, Sec Regional Mariely Felix Rivera, SubSecretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Demandante Vs. DAVID CORA ACEVEDO

Demandado

Civil Núm.: AU2022CV00120. Salón: 0001. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: DAVID CORA ACEVEDOCARR 411 KM. 3.10,

AGUADA, PR 006029629 / HC 59 BOX 5642, AGUADA, PR 00602.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@orf-law. com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Aguada, Puerto Rico, hoy día 27 de junio de 2023. En Aguada, Puerto Rico, el 27 de junio de 2023. SARAHÍ REYES PÉREZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. ERIKA I. CRUZ PÉREZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Demandante Vs. MARIO A. CORREA ROLÓN

Demandado Civil Núm.: CA2023CV00195. Salón: 406. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: MARIO A. CORREA ROLÓNURB. METROPOLIS B27 CALLE 11, CAROLINA, PR 00987. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de

los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchezorf-law.com, y a la dirección notiflcaciones@ orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 29 de junio de 2023. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 29 de junio de 2023. LCDA. KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE VEGA BAJA. SAN CARLOS MORTGAGE, LLC

Demandante v. MARY CATHERINE

FERRELL t/c/c MARY

CATHERINE SPENCER como miembro conocido de la Sucesión de George Russell Ferrell; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD

ROE como miembros desconocidos de la Sucesión de George Russell Ferrell

Demandados

CIVIL NÚM.: VB2021CV00509.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R.

SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Vega Baja, hago saber a la parte demandada MARY CATHERINE FERRELL t/c/c MARY CATHERINE SPENCER como miembro conocido de la Sucesión de George Russell Ferrell, JOHN

DOE Y RICHARD ROE como miembros desconocidos de la Sucesión de George Russell Ferrell y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 30 de mayo de 2023, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $174,072.00 y al mejor postor, pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del alguacil del tribunal, la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URB. LAS TERRENAS, 116 CALLE LUNERA, VEGA BAJA, PR 00693, y que se describe de la siguiente manera: El inmueble gravado mediante la hipoteca antes descrita es: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización

Las Terrenas, localizada en el Barrio Pugnado Afuera del término municipal de Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, que se describe en el plano de inscripción, con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: Número del solar: Ciento Dieciséis (116). Area del solar: quinientos cincuenta y cuatro punto cero nueve metros cuadrados (554.09 m.c.). En lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia de treinta y ocho trescientos setenta y dos (38.372) metros lineales, con el solar número Ciento Diecisiete (117) de la urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de treinta y ocho punto cincuenta y cinco (38.055) metros lineales, con el solar número Ciento Quince (115) de la urbanización; por el ESTE, en una distancia de catorce punto quinientos tres (14.503) metros lineales, con franja de área verde que lo separa de terrenos pertenecientes a ‘Las Granjas Neighborhood; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de catorce punto quinientos (14.500) metros lineales, con la Calle número Tres (3) de la urbanización. Enclava una casa en concreto para fines residenciales. Discurre a lo largo de su colindancia Oeste, servidumbre telefónica a favor de la Junta Reglamentadora de Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico de una franja de terreno de cinco (5) pies de ancho. Finca 32337 inscrita al folio 21 del tomo 446 de Vega Baja, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) Hipoteca constituida en garantía de un pagaré, aff#. 7267, a favor de Scotiabank de PR, o a su orden, por $174,072.00 al 4%, vencedero el 1 de diciembre del 2041, según Esc. #294 en San Juan a 18 de noviembre del 2011 ante Ileana Corral Lizardi, inscrita al folio 21 del tomo 446 de Vega Baja, finca #32337 inscripción 1ra. (ii) DEMANADA: Del 5 de diciembre del 2018, radicada

The San Juan Daily Star

en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Vega Baja, en el Caso Civil #VB2018cv00689, sobre Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Scotiabank de PR vs George Russell Ferrell, por $152,524.13 y otros gastos, inscrito al Sistema Karibe de Vega Baja, anotación A el 4 de enero del 2023. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dicta el 5 de abril de 2023, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la suma de $152,524.13 de principal, más $4,536.71 de interés al 4.00% acumulados hasta el 1 de diciembre de 2018 que continuarán acumulándose a razón de $16.6201 diario hasta el saldo total, $179.12 de otros gastos, $17,407.20 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario, incluyendo primas de seguro de hipoteca, prima de seguro de siniestro y cargos por demora.

La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 5 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023 A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $174,072.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBAS-

TA el día 12 DE SEPTIEMBRE

DE 2023 A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $116,048.00. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 19 DE SEPTIEMBRE

DE 2023 A LAS 9:00 DE LA

MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $87,036.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados

Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier

carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En Vega Baja a, Puerto Rico, hoy 18 de julio de 2023. LUIS F ORTIZ ROSA, ALGUACIL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE VEGA BAJA.

Parte Demandante Vs. JOSÉ IGNACIO

RAMOS RENTAS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: B2CI2015-01250. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: JOSÉ IGNACIO

RAMOS RENTAS:

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO: Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:

El Alguacil que suscribe, certifica y hace constar que en cumplimiento de Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Coamo, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América. Todo pago recibido por el (la) Alguacil por concepto de subastas será en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del (de la) Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Todo derecho, título, participación e interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Predio de terreno localizado en el Barrio

San Ildefonso del Municipio de Coamo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 449.37 metros cuadrados, marcado con el número 37 en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización

Las Fuentes de Coamo. Colinda por el NORTE, con área verde, en una distancia de 15.47 metros; por el SUR, con la calle Santa Lucía, en una distancia de 15.47 metros; por el ESTE, con el solar número 36, en una distancia de 29.10 metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar número 38, en una distancia de 29.01 metros. Contiene esta propiedad una estructura de dos plantas en hormigón con cocina, sala-comedor, recibidor, salón familiar, dos closets para almacenaje, cuatro habitaciones, dos baños y medio, lavandería y marquesina doble. Esta afectado este solar por servidumbre de teléfono en su patio delantero. Consta inscrito al folio 71 del tomo 306 de Coamo, finca #17,942 del Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Barranquitas. La propiedad objeto de ejecución está localizada en la siguiente dirección: Urbanización Las Fuentes de Coamo, #37 Calle Santa Lucia, Coamo, P.R. 00769. Según figura en el Estudio de título, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada al siguiente Gravamen posterior a la inscripción

del crédito ejecutante: a. Aviso de Demanda el día 7 de diciembre de 2011, emitida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Coamo, Sala Superior, en el Caso Civil número B2C1 201101412, sobre ejecución de hipoteca, Vía Ordinaria, seguido por Firstbank Puerto Rico, contra José Ignacio Ramos Rentas, por la suma de $214,977.03, anotado el día 20 de junio de 2012 al folio 198 del tomo 314 de Coamo, finca número 17,942, Anotación A. Se le notifica a los acreedores posteriores anteriormente identificados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Se informa que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravamen posterior, una vez sea otorgada la escritura de venta judicial y obtenida la Orden y Mandamiento de cancelación de gravamen posterior. (Art. 51, Ley 210-2015). En relación a la finca a subastarse, se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $229,437.57, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca # 169, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 21 de mayo de 2014, ante el notario Antonio R. Escriba Oliver, e inscrita al folio 198 del tomo 314 de Coamo, finca número 17,942 inscripción 6ta. La PRIMERA SUBASTA, se llevará a cabo el día 5 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en mis oficinas sitas en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Coamo, el tipo mínimo para la primera subasta es la suma de $229,437.57. Si la primera subasta del inmueble no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una SEGUNDA

SUBASTA el día 12 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023 A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE, en el mismo sitio y servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes del precio pactada para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $152,958.38. Si la segunda subasta no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA

SUBASTA el día 19 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023 A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE, en el mismo lugar y regirá como tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta la mitad del precio pactado para la primera, o sea, la suma de $114,718.78. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: Suma Principal de $218,159.90, con intereses a 4.50% anual, desde el 1ro de abril de 2017, hasta el

Thursday, August 3, 2023

presente y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago, más una suma equivalente al 10% de la obligación principal $21,700.00, para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, todo según pactado, más cualquier otra suma que resulte por cualesquiera otros adelantos que se hayan hecho la demandante, en virtud de las disposiciones de la escritura de hipoteca y del Pagaré hipotecario. Para más información, a las personas interesadas se les notifica que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal, durante las horas laborables. Este EDICTO DE SUBASTA, se publicará en los lugares públicos correspondientes y en un periódico de circulación general en la jurisdicción de Puerto Rico. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los referentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente Escritura de Venta Judicial y el Alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Expedido en Coamo, Puerto Rico, a 14 de julio de 2023. RODOLFO LARA MARTÍNEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #321.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Demandante Vs. MARÍA NEGRÓN MARRERO

Demandado

Civil Núm.: CA2023CV00206. Salón: 406. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: MARIA

NEGRÓN MARRERO -

VALLE ARRIBA HTS DA22 CALLE 201, CAROLINA, PR 00983.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUIvIAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 29 de junio de 2023. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 29 de junio de 2023. LCDA. KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO

PALMAS DEL MAR HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC.

Demandante Vs LUIS F. OLMEDO

MORALES Y JULIA

FONSECA RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS

Demandado(a)

Núm. Civil: HU2022CV01745. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LUIS F. OLMEDO

MORALES Y JULIA

FONSECA RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS. P/C LCDO. JOSE RAFAEL GONZALEZ RIVERA.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 de julio de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 31 de julio de 2023. En Humacao, Puerto Rico, el 31 de julio de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. IVELISSE M. MONCLOVA CRUZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

LIME HOMES, LTD.

Plaintiff, vs. DAVID RAMOS PAGAN

Defendants

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

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

WHEREAS: On May 21, 2015, Default Judgment in Collection of Monies was entered and granted in favor of Plaintiff to recover from defendants the following sums: The principal sum of $270,853.04, bearing an annual interest rate of 2.50% on payments 1-60, and at 3.50% per annum on payments 61-72; 4.5% per annum on payments 73-84, and 4.75% per annum on payments 85-480, from October 1, 2013 until the present and until fully paid, plus 10% of the original principal amount equivalent to $27,500.00, to cover costs, expenses and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. That on June 27th, 2023, the Court entered order granting execution of the attachment affecting the property, with writ of execution of attachment issued on same day. The order

of attachment shall cover the amount of the Default Judgment above cited and awarded to Plaintiff. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties. at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150 Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150— Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chard6n Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property described in Spanish: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: URBANA: Apartamento de forma irregular identificado con el Número A Doscientos Tres (A-203), localizado en el segundo piso del Edificio A del Condominio Haudimar Beach Apartments, ubicado en el Barrio Bajuras del término municipal de Isabela, Puerto Rico. EI apartamento consta de un nivel y son sus colindancias las siguientes: Por el Norte: Con elemento exterior en una distancia de veintidós pies con diez pulgadas (22’ 10”); Por el Sur: Con elemento exterior y área común en una distancia de veintidós pies con diez pulgadas (22’ -10” ); Por el ESTE: Con apartamento A Doscientos Cuatro (A-204) en una distancia de treinta y seis pies con seis pulgadas (36’ -6” ) y área común en una distancia de quince pies diez pulgadas (15’ -10’’) para un total de cincuenta y dos pies con cuatro pulgadas (52’ -4”); Por el OESTE: con el apartamento A Doscientos Dos (A-202) en una distancia de cincuenta y dos pies con cuatro pulgadas (52’ -4’’) Consta el mismo de dos (2) habitaciones con sus respectivos guardarropas, una sala comedor, cocina, dos (2) baños, lavandería y balcón. Los baños están equipados con bañeras, lavamanos Y servicio sanitario. EI área total del apartamento es de mil seis punto mil trescientos cinco pies cuadrados (1, 006.1305 p. c.), equivalentes a noventa y tres punto cuatro mil setecientos veinticinco metros cuadrados (93.4725 m.c.). EI apartamento tiene una puerta de entrada, por su lado Sur que comunica al área común donde se encuentra la escalera. Le corresponde como elemento de uso común limitado dos (2 ) espacios de estacionamiento identificados ambos con el número y letra A guión Doscientos

Tres (A-203). Le corresponde a este apartamento en los elementos communes generales del inmueble una participación del punto cero cero cinco uno uno cero por çiento ( .005110 % ). The property # 29,478 is recorded at Page KARIBE volume of Isabela, Property Registry of Puerto Rico, lot number 12,712 Section of Aguadilla. Property address: Cond. Haudimar, Apartment A-203, Isabela, P.R. 00662. WHEREAS:

This property is subject to the following liens described in Spanish: Senior Liens: • NONE

• Junior Liens: • NONE. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed/sold upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. Because this is a case of money collection, it does not have a minimum rate or bid. The sale will take place to satisfy the amounts owed per the Default Judgment entered on May 21, 2015. The AUCTION will take place on the 11th day of September of 2023, at: 9:15 am, at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150— Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chard6n Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, whose sale at public auction was ordered by the Order of Execution of June 25, 2023, Judgment dated May 21, 2015. The undersigned Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency (cash), or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS:

Said sale to be made by the undersigned Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of

the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, 22nd day of July of 2023. By: Pedro A. Vélez Baerga, Special Master 787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAROLINA SAN CARLOS MORTGAGE LLC

Parte Demandante V. SUCESION DE ISAMIYR BOSQUES TORRENS COMPUESTA POR ISADORA SOFIA BOSQUES MORTEROLA (MENOR), REPRESENTADA POR SU MADRE CHARLENE MORTEROLA, JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE

COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: FCD2017-0675.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, hago saber a la parte demandada SUCESION DE ISAMIYR BOSQUES TORRENS

COMPUESTA POR ISADORA

SOFIA BOSQUES MORTE-

ROLA (menor), representada por su madre Charlene Morterola, JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE

COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS

MUNICIPALES (CRIM) y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 14 de junio de 2023, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $170,000.00 y al mejor postor, pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del alguacil del tribunal, la propiedad que se describe a continuación:

URB COUNTRY CLUB, GD17

CALLE 201, CAROLINA, PR 00982, y que se describe de la siguiente manera: El inmueble gravado mediante la hipoteca antes descrita es:

URBANA: solar marcado con el número

DIECISIETE (17) del bloque

GD del plano de inscripción de la tercera extensión de la Urbanización Country Club, Tercera Etapa, situada en el Barrio Sabana Abajo de la Mu-

nicipalidad de Carolina, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de TRESCIENTOS SETENTA Y NUEVE PONTO CERO SIETE METROS CUADRADOS (379.07 m.c.) y colinda por el Norte, en quince punto treinta y cuatro metros (15.34 m.), con terrenos propiedad de Don Nicolas Iturregui; por el sur, en catorce punto noventa y nueve metros (14.99 m.), con la calle doscientos uno (201) de dicha Urbanización; por el Este, en veinticinco metros (25.00 m.), con el solar dieciocho (18); por el Oeste, en veinticinco metros (25.00 m.) con el solar dieciséis (16). En este solar enclava una estructura de concrete para fines residenciales. Finca 3338 inscrita al folio 197 del tomo 90 de Carolina, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) Hipoteca constituida par Isamyr Bosques Torrens, soltera, en garantía de un pagare a favor de Scotiabank of PR, o a su orden par $170,000.00 al 3 ½%, vencedero el 1 de Julio del 2046, según Esc. #65 en Carolina a 24 de Junio del 2016 ante Sonia E. Franceschi Portalatin, inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Carolina, finca #3338 inscripción 17ma, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I. (ii) DEMANDA: Radicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, el 10 de agosto del 2017, en el Caso Civil #FCD-2017-0675, sobre Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido par Scotiabank of PR vs Isamyr Bosques Torrens par $168,110.71, anotado el 31 de mayo del 2018 en el Sistema Karibe de Carolina, finca #3338, Anotación A y última, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dicta el 16 de marzo de 2023, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la suma de $168,110.71 de principal con interés al 3.5% anual desde el 1 de febrero de 2017, más cargos por demora mensuales, más las cantidades debidas de contribuciones e impuestos, primas de seguro contra riesgo y seguro de hipoteca hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $17,000.00 estipulados para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados en caso de reclamación judicial, cantidades todas garantizadas por la hipoteca.

La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 7 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2023 A LAS 9:00

DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, Puerto Rico. Servirá

de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $170,000.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 14 DE SEPTIEMBRE

DE 2023 A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $113,333.33. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA

el día 21 DE SEPTIEMBRE

DE 2023 A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $85,000.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en

representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 18 de julio de 2023. HÉCTOR L. PEÑA RODRÍGUEZ, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAROLINA.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Demandante V. ZYLKIA CRISTINA MONT PEREZ; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

Demandados

Civil Núm.: GB2023CV00586. Sobre: SUSTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. EDICTO.

A: ZYLKIA CRISTINA MONT PEREZ. APT. 1403 COND. QUINTA VALLE, GUAYNABO, PR 00969; 23539 SW 113TH PASS, HOMESTEAD, FL 330327151; 545 WHITE BUD LN, FORT WORTH, TX 76131; 417 ROYAL EMPRESS DR, RUSKIN, FL 33570-4562; PO BOX 21803, TAMPA, FL 33622-1803.

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

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar

su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Representa a la parte demandante el Lcdo. Javier Montalvo Cintrón, Delgado Fernández, LLC, PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico 009 10-1750.

Tel. [787] 274-1414. DADA en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, 21 de julio de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II. SARA ROSA VILLEGAS, SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL CONFIDENCIAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs MAGDALY HERNÁNDEZ MALDONADO

Demandado(a)

Núm. Civil: HU2019CV01104. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MAGDALY HERNÁNDEZ MALDONADO: A SU

DIRECCION CONOCIDA: URB. SANTO TOMAS, 125 CALLE SAN LUCAS, NAGUABO, PR 00718. P/C LIC. GUILLERMO A. SOMOZA COLOMBANI. EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 de febrero 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 31 de julio de 2023. En HUMACAO, Puerto Rico, el 31 de julio de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. IVELISSE M. MONCLOVA CRUZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA ALBERTO RODRÍGUEZ COTTO

Demandante V. MUNICIPIO AUTONOMO DE TRUJILLO ALTO Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Civil: Núm.: TJ2023CV00124. 402. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES Y CUALESQUIERA

PERSONA DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 31 de julio de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 1 de agosto de 2023. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. KEILA GARCÍA SOLÍS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC

Demandante V. SUCESION LUZ VIRGINA CASTROS COLON T/C/C LUZ VIRGINIA

CASTRO COLON T/C/C LUZ CASTRO COLÓN

T/C/C LUZ VIRGINA CASTRO COMPUESTA POR ANDRES

MALDONADO CASTRO, ANGEL MALDONADO CASTRO, JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandado(a)

Civil: RG2022CV00486. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION LUZ VIRGINIA

CASTROS COLON T/C/C

LUZ VIRGINIA CASTRO COLON T/C/C LUZ CASTRO COLON T/C/C

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

LUZ VIRGINIA CASTRO. (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 27 de julio de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 31 de julio de 2023. En FAJARDO, Puerto Rico, el 31 de julio de 2023. WANDA SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LINDA I. MEDINA MEDINA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

Back from the edge, US tries to focus on what comes next

By JULIET MACUR

From where she stood, the ball looked to be headed straight into the goal, and Megan Rapinoe cursed loudly in her head.

“My whole international career is over,” she said she thought as a shot by Portugal whistled toward the United States’ net in the final minutes on Tuesday, threatening to end Rapinoe’s final Women’s World Cup.

Neither team had scored yet. The tie that loomed would mean the United States would advance to the next round. A loss would send the Americans packing their bags in what would have been the biggest upset in Women’s World Cup history.

And so Rapinoe swore as the shot delivered by Portugal forward Ana Capeta headed toward the goal, watching wide-eyed with players on both sides as it veered just a smidgen too far to the right. The ball hit the right post and then, to the relief of Rapinoe and her team, caromed off it and away from the goal.

“Girl,” Rapinoe said with a nervous laugh, “that was stressful.”

A few minutes later the game ended, still stuck in a 0-0 tie that meant the United States had finished second to the Netherlands in Group E. Now it’s off to the round of 16 in Melbourne, Australia, where on Sunday the U.S. team will play Sweden (5 a.m. ET, FOX). It is trying to forget just how close it came to the exit. It is ready to move on.

Forget this long, frustrating night, Rapinoe and her teammates said. Forget that the United States has had trouble scoring at this tournament, they said, and that it just cannot figure out how to convert its passes and its possession into goals.

That was the message delivered by Kelley O’Hara, a defender at her fourth World Cup, to the team as it huddled together near midfield after Tuesday’s great escape. O’Hara leaned in and looked around at the faces of her teammates — some sad, some blank, some determined. It doesn’t matter what happened here, she told them.

“I just told them, ‘Listen, guys, we did what we had to do,’” O’Hara said. “‘This game’s done.’”

Defender Crystal Dunn got the message. “We know we can be better,” she said. “It’s not like everyone’s sitting there like, ‘Wow, that was the most amazing performance we put together.’ But that’s where you have to dig deep.

“That’s what it takes to win a World Cup. It’s not easy to do this. Right now we are very fortunate to have another opportunity to put on a great performance.”

Later, the team’s coach, Vlatko Andonovski, took time to reflect on the result against Portugal, a team that was expected to be a challenge, but perhaps not quite that much of one.

He said that he has seen bright spots in the way the U.S. team has played over its three group stage games, although Tuesday was a low point.

“It’s not like we played well, by any means,” he said. “We all know it’s not good enough.”

The United States, he knows, has work to do. But none of that is anything to panic about, striker Alex Morgan said. She had finished second in the group at past World Cups. Now the team has all the pieces it needs “to

make it all the way” to the final. It just needs to put them together.

It’s Andonovski’s job to do that. Against Portugal, he finally made some changes to his lineup. Now he will need to make a few more.

On Tuesday, Rose Lavelle, the star midfielder restored to the starting lineup, used her creativity and energy to drive her teammates forward, to create chances for them to score. But after knocking down a Portuguese player, she received her second yellow card in two games, meaning she will be suspended from the round of 16 game.

O’Hara said it was disappointing that Lavelle wouldn’t be able to play on Sunday, especially after she came back from an injury

and was building back her minutes. She had been restored to the lineup to maximize her “energy, her fight and her aggressiveness and just her flair,” O’Hara said, though she had no details about how the team would regain its confidence now that Lavelle will be out. She frowned when asked how the team will regroup mentally.

“We’re just going to do a couple of Kumbayas and we’ll be good,” she said before quickly turning and walking off.

Rapinoe was not sure, either, of how, exactly, the team would rebuild its confidence. But, she said, it can easily be done. Earlier this week, she recalled a moment in the quarterfinal game versus Brazil at the 2011 World Cup, when the U.S. team was in extra time and was just seconds from elimination before she fired in a cross to Abby Wambach that was headed in for a tying goal.

“I thought about that in the moment,” she said, a sensation she repeated on Tuesday. Facing an early exit back then, she added, left her talking to herself. “Actually, I’m like: ‘We’re going to be the worst team ever in the history of the national team. It’s going to be terrible.’

“And then, obviously, you know, that play happens.”

With one brilliant pass, Rapinoe had altered her team’s fate.

Those kinds of small miracles, she knows, can happen again.

FIFA Women’s World Cup Group Stage

Wednesday’s Results

Sweden 2, Argentina 0

South Africa 3, Italy 2

France 6, Panama 3

Jamaica 0, Brazil 0

Tuesday’s Results

Netherlands 7, Vietnam 0

Portugal 0, United States 0

England 6, China 1

Denmark 2, Haiti 0

Today’s Games (all times Eastern Standard Time)

Morocco vs. Colombia (6 a.m., FS1)

South Korea vs. Germany (6 a.m., FOX)

Round of 16

Saturday’s Games

Switzerland vs. Spain (1 a.m., FS1)

Japan vs. Norway (4 a.m., FS1)

Netherlands vs. South Africa (10 p.m., FOX)

Sunday’s Game

Sweden vs. United States (5 a.m., FOX)

Ana Capeta’s shot hit the post in the final minutes, a scare that could have sent the United States out of the World Cup.

Megan Rapinoe’s World Cup is not over yet. But for a moment, she thought it might be.

By EVAN EASTERLING

Framber Valdez of the Houston Astros threw the second solo no-hitter of the season on Tuesday night, shutting down the Cleveland Guardians in a 2-0 win.

Valdez needed only 93 pitches to carve through the Cleveland lineup, striking out seven. He faced the minimum 27 batters because the Astros turned a double play after the lone base runner he allowed, a walk to Oscar González to lead off the top of the fifth inning. According to Baseball Reference, it was only the 34th time in Major League Baseball’s modern era in which a pitcher faced the minimum number of hitters in a nine-inning no-hitter.

Valdez’s outing follows the June perfect game by the New York Yankees’ Domingo Germán as the second no-hitter thrown by only one pitcher. There have been three no-hitters overall in 2023, including the Detroit Tigers’ combined effort against Toronto in July.

In a Houston franchise with a storied

pitching history — Nolan Ryan, J.R. Richard, Gerrit Cole and the Cy Young Award winners Mike Scott, Roger Clemens and Justin Verlander — Valdez threw the 16th Astros no-hitter. He stands alone, however, as the only left-hander within that group. He completed the performance by inducing a soft lineout from Guardians catcher Cam Gallagher to shortstop Jer-

emy Peña.

Valdez primarily relies on his sinker and his curveball, which has one of the highest spin rates in the league. On Tuesday, Cleveland’s batters missed nearly half the time they swung at it. The Guardians fell to 53-55 but are only two games behind first-place Minnesota in the lackluster American League Central.

Valdez’s no-hitter came just hours after the passage of MLB’s trading deadline, with several teams, including the Astros, making moves to better position themselves for the stretch run. Houston on Tuesday reacquired Verlander, who had signed with the New York Mets in the offseason after winning the 2022 AL Cy Young Award with the Astros. Last week, Houston traded with the Chicago White Sox to land right-handed reliever Kendall Graveman, who helped the team reach the 2021 World Series. And late last month the slugging outfielder Yordan Alvarez and the star second baseman José Altuve returned from the injured list.

The Astros have become regulars in the AL Championship Series and are hop -

ing to make a third consecutive World Series appearance, but first they have to chase down the Texas Rangers in the AL West. Houston trails by only a half game, but Texas bolstered its roster before the deadline, too, making a deal with the Mets for the right-handed starter Max Scherzer and shoring up its catching depth by adding Austin Hedges.

Valdez, a 29-year-old Dominican, has factored heavily into Houston’s success over the last three seasons. Entering Tuesday, he had the 10th-best ERA among qualified starters from 2021-23 and the 14th-most wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs. He earned his second career All-Star selection last month.

After struggling in the 2021 World Series, which Houston lost to Atlanta, he dominated in the 2022 postseason. He pitched to a 1.44 ERA, and the Astros won all four of his starts, including their World Series-clinching victory in Game 6 over the Phillies.

Four Astros pitchers combined to nohit Philadelphia in Game 4 of that series. Now, Valdez has one of his own.

Astros pitcher faces the minimum in no-hitter against Cleveland Mets continue to deal, sending Justin Verlander back to Astros

By TYLER KEPNER

When the New York Mets paired Justin Verlander with Max Scherzer last offseason, it seemed almost too perfect. In Scherzer, they had one right-hander with three Cy Young Awards and a $43.3 million annual salary. In Verlander — who had just won his second World Series title with the Houston Astros — they had another.

But the vision of two aces destined for the Hall of Fame leading the Mets deep into October never materialized. With the Mets an afterthought in the pennant race, both pitchers have been tossed overboard from the luxury cruise liner that is sinking in Flushing Bay.

Ahead of the Major League Baseball trading deadline on Tuesday, the Mets dealt Verlander to his former team, the Astros, for outfield prospects Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford. The move followed Saturday’s trade of Scherzer to the Texas Rangers for shortstop prospect Luisangel Acuña.

In between those seismic transactions, Verlander earned his 250th career victory, just six of which came with the Mets. He was 6-5 with a 3.15 ERA for the Mets, who signed him in December for two years and $86.6 million, plus a $35 million vesting option for 2025.

That is an enormous commitment for a pitcher who turned 40 in February, but Steven A. Cohen, the Mets’ aggressive owner, was eager to spend whatever it took in pursuit of the franchise’s first championship since 1986. With the Mets distant in the wild-card race — they reached August with a 50-55 record — Cohen has treated the Scherzer and Verlander deals mostly as sunken costs, including significant cash in the trades to secure better prospects.

The Mets sent $35.5 million to the Rangers to help cover Scherzer’s contract, which will run through next season after he exercised his player option as a condition of the trade. The Mets also included another $35 million to the Astros in the

Verlander move, and if Verlander secures the 2025 option — which triggers if he pitches 140 innings in 2024 and finishes the season healthy — the Mets will pay for half of that, too, according to the New York Post.

In effect, then, the Mets are paying more than $70 million to swap two aces who could help them in 2024 for three prospects who could help for many more seasons.

Acuña, 21, is the younger brother of Ronald Acuña Jr., the Atlanta Braves’ superstar right fielder. He is hitting .315 with 42 stolen bases in Class AA this season and is still growing into his power, with seven home runs in 84 games.

Gilbert, 22, was the Astros’ firstround pick in 2022 from the University of Tennessee. He is hitting .274 with an .821 on-base plus slugging percentage between high Class A and Class AA this season. Clifford, 20, has hit .291 with a .919 OPS at two Class A levels.

Before the deals, the Mets had three

players on MLB.com’s list of the sport’s top 100 prospects. Now they have five, with Acuña ranked 44th and Gilbert 68th. The others are catcher Kevin Parada (No. 39), shortstop Ronny Mauricio (No. 56) and shortstop Jett Williams (No. 79).

The Mets — who also traded closer David Robertson to the Miami Marlins, outfielder Mark Canha to the Milwaukee Brewers, outfielder Tommy Pham to the Arizona Diamondbacks and reliever Dominic Leone to the Los Angeles Angels — now face the question of who, exactly, will fill out their rotation.

Scherzer and Verlander were not especially dominant, but they were generally very good, combining to go 15-9 with a 3.61 ERA in 35 starts this season. Kodai Senga has been excellent in his first MLB season after coming over from Japan. But José Quintana was injured for the first half of the season and had made only two starts through Monday, and none of the team’s other starters have been close to league average.

Framber Valdez of the Houston Astros needed only 93 pitches to throw a nohitter against the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday.

Sudoku

How to Play:

Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

Emotionally speaking, things might get tense for you today as others demonstrate a rather selfish attitude, Aries. Remember that selfishness isn’t always considered negative. Sometimes it’s healthy and necessary to take on a self-centered role. Remember that you need to take care of number one at all times. Don’t try to pick a fight when other people also demonstrate this behavior.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

You might be quite stirred by the general energy today, Taurus. “Stirred” may be too light a word. Put on your armor and get ready to do battle. Others may cower when they see what’s going on outside, but you will want to jump into the fray. Strong emotions are the weapons of the day. Everyone knows that you have a strong arsenal in this department.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

You might be quite stirred by the general energy today, Taurus. “Stirred” may be too light a word. Put on your armor and get ready to do battle. Others may cower when they see what’s going on outside, but you will want to jump into the fray. Strong emotions are the weapons of the day. Everyone knows that you have a strong arsenal in this department.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Now is the perfect time to say something you’ve been meaning to say for quite a while, Cancer. Get it out in the open. Keeping it inside is only eating away at your internal mechanisms. Stop worrying about the consequences and make the move. Today is a day to be bold and aggressive. Other people might respond similarly, so if you dish it out, be sure you can take it.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Your opinions might be the focus of conversation all day, Leo. You have a very strong will that you aren’t afraid to express. You will get that chance. Enlighten others with your wealth of knowledge. Take control of the conversation and accept the mental challenge of trying to win other people over to your side. Whether you’re successful or not, you will have a good time trying.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

Your sensitive heart may be touched by anger today, Virgo. Don’t be afraid of hurting other people’s feelings as you express this emotion. You’d be doing yourself and other people a disservice by not revealing the true scope of your emotions. The other parties involved may not have all the facts necessary to make the most educated decision. Aid this process by revealing your perspective.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

Your sensitive heart may be touched by anger today, Virgo. Don’t be afraid of hurting other people’s feelings as you express this emotion. You’d be doing yourself and other people a disservice by not revealing the true scope of your emotions. The other parties involved may not have all the facts necessary to make the most educated decision. Aid this process by revealing your perspective.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

Your sensitive heart may be touched by anger today, Virgo. Don’t be afraid of hurting other people’s feelings as you express this emotion. You’d be doing yourself and other people a disservice by not revealing the true scope of your emotions. The other parties involved may not have all the facts necessary to make the most educated decision. Aid this process by revealing your perspective.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

Jump into action with energy today, Sagittarius. Order others around and delegate tasks for a change. An aggressive approach is what’s needed, and you have the ability to deliver the goods. Trying to do everything yourself may seem like a great idea at first, but you’re better off enlisting help so others can feel more involved and you can concentrate on doing a better job on fewer tasks.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Guard your heart well today, Capricorn. It’s a prime target for the abrasive words being tossed around. Your sensitivity leaves you feeling alone and naked in the harsh atmosphere. You might be better off staying in bed. If you decide to go out, be prepared. Know your weaknesses so you can use your energy resources most efficiently.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

A position involving power and authority is opening up, and you’re the perfect one for the job, Aquarius. Today’s astrological aspect is helping you find the necessary confidence and physical strength. You have the emotional and physical boost you need to feel good about your leadership abilities. This is a time to take control of the situation.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will never hurt you, Pisces. The problem with today’s energy is that there just may be some sticks and stones tossed in your direction. Be on the lookout for such airborne adversity. Powerful forces are operating with emotional aggression. War can break out if you aren’t careful. Try to maintain the peace. You may need to seek shelter.

Speed Bump